Claudius Crozet to Thomas Jefferson, [ca. 24 March 1821]
From Claudius Crozet
[ca. 24 Mar. 1821]
Monsieur,
Si Je m’adressois à tout autre que Monsieur Jefferson, Je regarderois probablement comme indispensables ces recommandations, au moyen desquelles on S’empare de l’opinion et détermine Souvent le Jugement des personnes à qui elles Sont présentées: auprès de lui de pareils titres Seroient de peu de poids. Je n’éprouve donc point, quoiqu’inconnu, cette timidité que le manque de lettres d’introduction donne ordinairement; mais pénétré du profond respect qu’inspire un nom aussi illustre; Je Sens toute l’étendue de la liberté que je prends et ne fonde l’esperance d’en être Excusé que Sur cette extrême bienveillance dont votre nom, monsieur, est presque le Synonime.
Ancien Elevé de l’école Polytechnique, J’ai Servi dix ans en France dans le corps de l’artillerie, Jusqu’à l’époque où les malheurs de ma patrie me déterminerent à me retirer du Service et à venir habiter la terre hospitaliere des états-unis. J’y ai été Non Seulement accueilli, mais J’y ai obtenu et occupé pendant 5 ans l’emploi de professeur du Genie (Engineering) ici—Sensible à Cette marque de Confiance, J’ai, depuis, employé tout mon Zèle à y répondre et Je crois avoir été assez heureux pour rendre quelques Services à L’académie, à la prosperité de laquelle j’étois attaché tant par reconnoissance pour le gouvernement des états-Unis que par les progrès rapides que je lui voyois faire tous les Jours.
Cependant la dernière Séance du Congrès en nous menaçant de changements destructeurs des intérêts de l’institution, a rendu Notre Situation ici très-précaire et m’a fait Sentir la nécessité de me précautionner contre un évènement devenu possible, Je dirai presque probable qui nuiroit, S’il venoit à me Surprendre, aux intérêts de ma famille. A ces raisons Se joint encore l’effet de la Situation de l’académie Sur ma Santé qui en a beaucoup Souffert.
Dans ces circonstances, le plan du Collège Central et le nom de Ses directeurs qui promet une Si belle institution à toute la nation, m’on fait naître le desir ou plutôt l’ambition d’y appartenir: Voilà, Monsieur, les raisons qui m’ont enhardi à distraire en ma faveur quelques uns de vos précieux moments
Le goût et l’habitude du professorât me font desirer de poursuivre la même Carrière. Je puis me charger des branches Suivantes d’instruction; les Mathematiques, la Philosophie l’art militaire dans toutes Ses parties et l’architecture civile et Militaire.
Ces deux dernières branches Sont celles que je professe ici.
Oserois-je en Conséquence, monsieur, vous prier, Si mes Services pouvoient être agréables, de me faire Savoir les Conditions requises pour l’admission d’un professeur et pour l’execution de Ses devoirs; et en général les différentes attributions de [. . .] Je m’empresserai (toujours dans la même Supposition) de fournir [les] informations que votre Sagesse vous fera desirer et positives et Satisfaisantes: C’est Surtout à vous, Monsieur, que je desire qu’elles puisse paroître telles, autant pour atténuer ma presomption à vos yeux, que dans l’espérance flatteuse de recevoir une approbation aussi distinguée que la vôtre. être honoré de votre bonne opinion, Monsieur, est un avantage que je ressentirois d’autant plus que c’est avec le respect le plus profond que je la Sollicite et que j’ai l’honneur d’être,
| Cl. Crozet, |
| professor of Engineering U.S. M. Acm |
J’ose me flatter que vous voudrez bien me pardonner d’avoir emprunté ma langue natale pour vous écrire. l’impossibilité d’atteindre à aucune perfection dans l’anglois m’a donné la timidité naturelle à quelqu’un qui convaincu de Son immense inferiorité desire cependant Se présenter avec le moins de désavantage possible: J’ai dû pour cela eviter une langue qui m’est familière, mais que je ne gouvernerai probablement jamais.
Editors’ Translation
[ca. 24 Mar. 1821]
Sir,
Were I addressing anyone other than Mr. Jefferson, I would probably consider as indispensable the recommendations with which one captures the benevolent attention and which often determine the judgment of those to whom they are presented. To Mr. Jefferson, such testimonials would carry little weight. Although I am unknown to you, I do not, therefore, feel the timidity normally caused by the lack of a letter of introduction. But, being filled with the profound respect that such an illustrious name inspires, I am aware of the extent of the liberty I take, and I base my hope of being forgiven only on the extreme benevolence with which your name, Sir, is almost synonymous.
I am formerly a student of the École Polytechnique and served for ten years in France in the artillery corps until my country’s misfortunes induced me to retire from the service and settle in the hospitable land of the United States. Not only was I welcomed here, but I obtained and occupied for five years the position of professor of Engineering. Conscious of this mark of trust, I have used all my zeal ever since to deserve it, and I believe I have been successful enough to be of some service to the United States Military Academy, in the prosperity of which I was interested because I was grateful to the government of the United States, and because I have observed the rapid progress it made every day.
The last session of Congress, however, by threatening us with changes destructive to the interests of the institution, made our situation here very precarious. This made me feel the need to take precautions against an outcome that had become possible, I would say almost probable, and which, if it took me by surprise, would harm the interests of my family. To these reasons is added the effect that the situation at the Academy is having on my health, which has suffered much because of it.
Under these circumstances, the plan of the Central College and the names of its directors, which promise to give the nation such a fine institution, inspired in me the desire or rather the ambition of belonging to it. Here, Sir, are the reasons that emboldened me to divert a few precious moments of your attention in my favor.
My inclinations and teaching experience make me wish to pursue this career further. I can take charge of the following branches of instruction: mathematics, philosophy, the military arts in all parts, and civil and military architecture.
I am teaching these two last branches here.
Dare I, Sir, ask you therefore whether my services could be agreeable, what conditions are requisite for admission as a professor, what is needed in the execution of a professor’s duties; and in general, what are the various prerogatives of [the position?]. I will be eager (still on the same assumption) to furnish you with any information your wisdom will make you desire, and this information will be positive and satisfactory. To you especially, Sir, I wish it to appear so, as much to mitigate my presumption in your eyes, as in the flattering hope of receiving an approval as distinguished as yours. To be honored with your good opinion, Sir, is an advantage that I would feel deeply, and all the more as I solicit it with the most profound respect and have the honor to be,
| Cl. Crozet, |
| professor of Engineering U.S. M. Acm |
I dare flatter myself that you will kindly forgive my writing to you in my native language. The impossibility of reaching perfection in English has given me the timidity natural to one who, convinced of his immense inferiority, wishes however to present himself to the least possible disadvantage. In order to do this, I had to avoid a language familiar to me, but one that I will probably never master.
RC (ViU: TJP); undated; damaged at seal; addressed: “Thomas Jefferson Esqre Monticello Virginia”; franked; postmarked New York, 24 Mar.; endorsed by TJ as an undated letter received 28 Mar. 1821 from West Point and so recorded in SJL. Translation by Dr. Genevieve Moene.
Claudius Crozet (1789–1864), soldier, educator, and engineer, was born Claude Crozet in Villefranche-sur-Saône, France. He graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1807 and continued his military education at the École d’application d’artillerie et du génie in Metz until 1809, when he joined a unit of French military engineers. Promoted to captain of artillery during Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia, Crozet was captured and held as a prisoner of war for two years. At his release he returned to France, but in 1816 he resigned from the military and departed for the United States, where he began calling himself Claudius Crozet. That autumn he was appointed assistant professor of engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and within a year he was promoted to professor. Crozet’s education and experience helped him shape the young institution’s curriculum and gave it an enduring emphasis on applied mathematics. He published A Treatise on Descriptive Geometry, for the use of the Cadets of the United States Military Academy (New York, 1821; , 8 [no. 415]). Crozet left West Point in 1823 to become the principal engineer for the Virginia Board of Public Works, serving until 1832. In this role he worked to advance internal improvements within the state but was frustrated at his inability to obtain support for an ambitious centralized plan that included roads, canals, and railroads. From 1832–34 Crozet was state engineer of Louisiana, again resigning due to failure to attract legislative support. He was the first president of Jefferson College, a state-sponsored preparatory school in Convent, Louisiana, 1834–36, spent a year working on drainage problems in New Orleans, and returned to Virginia in his former capacity with the Board of Public Works in 1837. The General Assembly terminated the position in 1843, but on its orders Crozet published an Outline of the Improvements in the State of Virginia (1848). As the first president of the board of directors of the Virginia Military Institute, 1839–45, he modeled the new school’s curriculum and regulations on those of West Point. Crozet owned five slaves in 1840 and two at the time of his death. He was principal of the Richmond Academy, 1845–49, and chief engineer with the Blue Ridge Railroad, 1849–57. In the latter capacity he ran a line between Charlottesville and Staunton that required drilling four tunnels through solid rock in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1848 Crozet published another mathematical textbook, An Arithmetic for Colleges and Schools. He worked on aqueducts in Washington, D.C., 1857–59, and as chief engineer of the Virginia and Kentucky Railroad from 1860 until the Civil War halted construction. Crozet supported the Confederacy but took no active part in the war. He died in Chesterfield County (; ; ; ViLxV: Crozet Papers; William Couper, Claudius Crozet: Soldier-Scholar-Educator-Engineer (1789–1864) [1936]; Robert F. Hunter and Edwin L. Dooley Jr., Claudius Crozet: French Engineer in America, 1790–1864 [1989]; George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy, at West Point, N. Y. [1868], 1:76; DNA: RG 29, CS, Richmond, 1840; Richmond City Hustings Court Will Book, 22:550–2, 571–2; Richmond Daily Dispatch, 4 Feb. 1864; gravestone at Virginia Military Institute Museum, Lexington, following 1942 reinterment from Shockoe Cemetery, Richmond).
Both sessions of the Sixteenth United States Congress considered changements to the United States Military Academy that extended even to abolishing the institution. A bill “To fix and equalize the pay of the officers in the army of the United States” did not go so far when it passed the House during the latter session on 20 Feb. 1821. The measure, which did not become law, fixed the annual salaries for professors, limited the number of cadets admitted, and outlined their manner of selection (, 13:297, 14:241, 243, 246–7, 251 [10 Mar. 1820, 16, 19, 20 Feb. 1821]).
Index Entries
- Congress, U.S.; and U.S. Military Academy search
- Crozet, Claudius; and U.S. Military Academy search
- Crozet, Claudius; identified search
- Crozet, Claudius; letters from search
- Crozet, Claudius; seeks position at University of Virginia search
- French language; letters in, from; C. Crozet search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; letters of application and recommendation to search
- patronage; letters of application and recommendation to TJ search
- United States Military Academy (West Point, N.Y.); faculty of search
- United States Military Academy (West Point, N.Y.); reorganization of proposed search
- Virginia, University of; Faculty and Curriculum; faculty applicants search