RC (NjP: Samuel Miller Papers); addressed: “The Revd. Samuel Millar New York”; franked, stamped, and postmarked. PrC (DLC). Tr (ViU: Edgehill-Randolph Papers); 19th-century copy.

Samuel Miller (1769–1850) had been ordained as a Presbyterian clergyman in New York City earlier this year and officiated in that city until 1813, after which he served on the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary until his death (DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ).

The discourse Miller had sent TJ was his first publication, A Sermon, Preached in New-York, July 4th, 1793. Being the Anniversary of the Independence of America: at the request of the Tammany Society, or Columbian Order (New York, 1793), which among other things criticized slavery and defended the French Revolution. See Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, D.C., 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends Nos. 2815, 4681.