To Thomas Jefferson from John Conrad & Co., 28 November 1803
From John Conrad & Co.
Philada Novemb 28th 1803
Sir
We beg you will excuse the freedom we have used of transmitting to you by this days mail stage, The first number of an American Magazine Review—We are sensible that from the situation you hold in society & more from the high character you bear as a man of science & a friend to the Litterature of our country, that you must frequently be troubled with parcels & letters of the same kind, we have not therefore in any instance heretofore intruded them upon you and are now only induced to do it from a supposition that an American publication, in the conducting of which every effort will be made to render it a usefull means of conveying information on Politics, Agriculture1 Commerce &c will not be entirely unacceptable to you—
With the highest Respect We are sir Your Obed Humb serts
John Conrad & Co
RC (MHi); at foot of text: “His Excellency Thomas Jefferson President of the Utd States”; endorsed by TJ as received 1 Dec. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: see below.
The first number of the Literary Magazine, and American Register, published by Conrad in Philadelphia, appeared on 1 Oct. Charles Brockden Brown, its editor and primary contributor, had advertised proposals for an octavo periodical to include reviews of American publications as well as “such portions of information of a scientific, commercial and agricultural nature, as shall be deemed most remarkable and most deserving of notice.” The magazine continued under his editorship until 1807 (H. Glenn Brown and Maude O. Brown, A Directory of the Book-Arts and Book Trade in Philadelphia to 1820 Including Painters and Engravers [New York, 1950], 34; Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines: 1741-1850 [Cambridge, Mass., 1957], 218-22; Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 9 Sep. 1803; Vol. 32:93).
1. MS: “Agricuture.”