Simon Chaudron to Thomas Jefferson, 7 February 1819
From Simon Chaudron
Philadelphie le 7 fevrier 1819
Monsieur
Le temps et l’infortune ne m’ont point fait oublier la bienveillance dont vous m’avez honoré autrefois.
obligé de quitter une grande cité ou le luxe et les besoins assiègent les familles nombreuses; entouré de neuf enfans, tous nés dans les Etats-Unis; tous élevés dans les principes d’une république dont je leur apprends à vénérer les illustres fondateurs, je voudrais les attacher à Son heureux Sol, et les éloigner du foyer dangéreux des Spéculations commerçiales. Pour cela, je me dispose à me rendre à l’etablissement francais qui Se forme sur les bords du Tombigbee; j’y suis même appelé par le vœu de mes anciens compatriotes; mais, inconnu de mes nouveaux hôtes américains, j’aurais besoin, grand besoin, d’un signe de votre souvenir et de votre approbation, pour y être accueilli favorablement: Car Vous le savez, Monsieur, l’influence d’une grande et juste renommée féconde tout ce quelle protège; et je ne pourrais rien montrer, à mes concitoyens, de plus honorable qu’un Signe avantageux de Votre opinion Sur ma personne.
Pour mêler un peu d’interêt public, à l’interêt particulier de ma famille, je serais, Monsieur, bien reconnaissa[nt] Si je pouvais obtenir de vous assez de graine de Sézame pour en essayer la culture à Aigleville. Cet objet m’est particulièrement demandé par nos colons.
Je me Sers de l’entremise de mon respectable ami, Monsieur Girardin, pour ne vous laisser aucun doute sur la petite portion de droits que je peux avoir à Votre généreuse bonté
Chaudron
Editors’ Translation
Philadelphia 7 February 1819
Sir
Time and misfortune have not made me forget the kindness with which you have honored me in the past.
Obliged to leave a great city where luxury and need assail large families, surrounded by nine children, all born in the United States and all raised on the principles of a republic, whose illustrious founders I teach them to venerate, I would like to attach them to its happy soil and keep them away from the dangerous seat of commercial speculations. To achieve this I am inclined to go to the French settlement taking shape on the banks of the Tombigbee. I am, moreover, called there by the wishes of my old compatriots. Unknown, however, to my new American hosts, in order to be favorably welcomed there I would very much need a mark of your remembrance and approbation. As you know, Sir, the influence of a great and just reputation fertilizes everything it protects, and nothing I could present to my fellow citizens would be more honorable than an indication of your good opinion of me.
In order to combine a little bit of the public interest with the private interests of my family, I would, Sir, be very grateful if I could obtain enough sesame seed from you to try growing it at Aigleville. This has been particularly requested of me by our settlers.
I make use of the intervention of my respectable friend Mr. Girardin to leave you in no doubt about the small claim I may have to your generous kindness
Chaudron
RC (DLC); edge trimmed; endorsed by TJ as received 28 Feb. 1819 and so recorded in SJL. Translation by Dr. Genevieve Moene. Enclosed in Louis H. Girardin to TJ, 20 Feb. 1819.
Jean Simon Chaudron (1758–1846), jeweler, poet, and newspaper editor, was born in Vignory in northeastern France. After studying watchmaking in Switzerland, he relocated in 1784 to Saint Domingue, where he made his living as a jeweler, planter, and merchant. Slave insurrections on the island induced Chaudron to immigrate to the United States by 1797. Establishing himself in Philadelphia, he cleaned and sold watches to TJ on various occasions and became a naturalized citizen in 1805. A Freemason and man of letters, Chaudron composed many poems during his lifetime, including one in commemoration of TJ’s death. In 1815 he became the editor of a weekly French-language newspaper in Philadelphia, L’Abeille Americaine. Four years later Chaudron joined the Vine and Olive Colony of French expatriates in Alabama. Although he was one of the settlement’s largest landowners, by 1825 he moved to Mobile, where he died (, 32:320; David Karel, Dictionnaire des Artistes de Langue Française en Amérique du Nord [1992], 172–3; Rafe Blaufarb, Bonapartists in the Borderlands: French Exiles and Refugees on the Gulf Coast, 1815–1835 [2005], esp. 25, 145, 194; Winston Smith, Days of Exile: The Story of the Vine and Olive Colony in Alabama [1967], esp. 114; , 2:955, 956; Chaudron’s naturalization records, 21 June 1805 [DNA: RG 21, NPEDP]; TJ to Thomas Voigt, 30 July 1813; Port Folio, 3d ser., 5 [1815]: 477; DNA: RG 29, CS, Pa., Philadelphia, 1800, 1810, Ala., Mobile, 1830; Poésies Choises de Jean-Simon Chaudron [1841], ode to TJ on pp. 45–51; gravestone inscription in Church Street Cemetery, Mobile).
Index Entries
- Alabama Territory; French settlement in search
- Chaudron, Jean Simon; and French settlement in Ala. search
- Chaudron, Jean Simon; and testimonial from TJ search
- Chaudron, Jean Simon; family of search
- Chaudron, Jean Simon; identified search
- Chaudron, Jean Simon; letter from search
- French language; letters in, from; J. S. Chaudron search
- Girardin, Louis Hue; and J. S. Chaudron search
- seeds; sesame search
- sesame (benne; benni); seeds of requested from TJ search