To Thomas Jefferson from Louis Pio, 31 March 1803
From Louis Pio
à Paris … Mars 1803.
Monsieur Le Président
Permettez moi, que pour la quatrième ou cinquième fois je vous présente mes hommages respectueux et fasse Le Ciel au moins, que cette fois-ci ma Lettre Vous parvienne sous les yeux! Malgré quatorze années d’éloignement je conserve, et je conserverai toute ma vie ces mêmes sentimens que Vous même Vous m’avez inspirés. Vous Vous rappellerez1 sans doute, monsieur, les premieres Leçons, que Vous m’avez données, de Liberté; elles n’ont pas été perdues, et Vous n’ignorez peut être pas ce que j’ai fait pour être Libre; mais le suis-je? Je joins ici un petit Extrait baptistaire de mon affranchissement. Aujourdhui reduit presque à La mendicité, car on me refuse tout emploi, je suis obligé de donner des leçons de Langue pour exister. Les années me pésent, et mon ame vieillit, mea duodenum trepidavit aetas claudere Lustrum. Je voudrais Vous voir encore, mais la mer immense m’effraye. Recevez donc, Monsieur, de loin tous mes voeux pour votre prospérité. Ce sont ceux pour la prospérité de la Nation, qui a le bonheur de Vous avoir pour Chef; et faites moi savoir, je Vous en supplie, par quelque moyen, si je puis m’honorer encore du titre de votre Ami. Vale Vir optime.
Votre trés dévoué Serviteur
Pio
Editors’ Translation
Paris, March 1803
Mister President,
Allow me, for the fourth or fifth time, to present my respectful homage. This time, at last, may heaven deign to have my letter reach you. Despite fourteen years of absence, I have, and I will forever have the sentiments you yourself inspired in me. You will undoubtedly remember, Sir, the first lessons you gave me on liberty. They have not been lost. Nor are you unaware, perhaps, of what I did to be free. But am I free? I am enclosing a small parish certificate of my enfranchisement. Today I am virtually reduced to begging, since all employment is refused. I am obliged to give language classes to subsist. The years weigh on me and my soul ages, mea duodenum trepidavit aetas claudere Lustrum. I would like to see you again, but the immense ocean terrifies me. Accept therefore, Sir, from afar, all my wishes for your prosperity. They are wishes for the prosperity of the nation that has the good fortune of having you for a leader. And let me know somehow, I beg you, if I may still honor myself with the title of your friend. Vale Vir optime.
Your very devoted servant,
Pio
RC (DLC); ellipses in original; below dateline: “Rue St. honoré, prés S. Roch., maison du Libraire, no. 144” (Saint Honoré Street near the Church of Saint Roch, at the bookseller’s shop, no. 144); endorsed by TJ as received 17 Aug. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure not found, returned to Pio by TJ (see TJ to Pio, 31 Jan. 1804).
hommages respectueux: a letter from Pio of 18 May 1797, received from Paris on 8 Sep. of that year, is recorded in SJL but has not been found. TJ and Pio became acquainted in 1784, when Pio was chargé d’affaires in Paris of the kingdom of Naples and TJ, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams sought to negotiate treaties between the United States and various countries. TJ subsequently discussed with Pio his project for a multinational union against the Barbary states, and the two were friends the remainder of the time TJ was in France. In 1790, Pio received French citizenship from the commune of Paris and cut his ties with Naples. During the French Revolution he held positions in the ministry of foreign affairs and the bureau of war. He aligned himself with radical revolutionaries, made public accusations against several leaders, and survived being denounced himself. Before the revolution Pio had become a chevalier of a religious order, the Order of Saint Stephen (Albert Mathiez, “Le Chevalier Pio,” Annales révolutionnaires, 11 [1919], 94–104; Albert Mathiez, La Révolution et les Étrangers [Paris, 1918], 105, 118, 126, 176; Vol. 7:424, 612–14; Vol. 8:309; Vol. 10:88, 561; Vol. 11:248, 255, 382; Vol. 16:47, 230–1; Vol. 20:662–3).
In writing mea duodenum trepidavit aetas claudere lustrum, Pio adapted a passage in which Horace lamented that he had turned 40 years of age: “cuius octavum trepidavit aetas claudere lustrum” (Horace, Odes, 2.4.23–4). In Pio’s revision, 60 was the age that caused trepidation.
vale vir optime: “farewell, best man.”
1. MS: “rappeller.”