Francisco Solano Constancio to Thomas Jefferson, 14 December 1822
From Francisco Solano Constancio
Philadelphia Decr 14th 1822
Sir,
It was my intention on coming to the United States, to have been myself the bearer of the two enclosed letters, but having by unavoidable business been prevented from going this Season to Virginia, I am forced, although with great reluctance, to postpone till the ensuing year my journey to Monticello, and the Satisfaction of becoming personally acquainted with one of the most respectable and worthy founders of the Liberty of his country, and who has So powerfully and effectually contributed to consolidate and to perfect its institutions.
By the letter of our illustrious friend, the Marquis de la Fayette, you will See that I had many years ago formed the project of coming to Settle as a physician in Some part of the Union. I now come in the quality of Chargé d’Affaires from regenerated Portugal, my native country, for whose liberty I have constantly and Strenuously pleaded in my writings. It was highly gratifying for me to have been chosen to represent my nation, at a moment when it had So nobly, So courageously and So calmly reassumed its rights, near the government of the only people that has Since its independence, enjoyed in its full extent, civil and political liberty. I am only Sorry that the distance between Monticello and my actual place of residence, deprives me of the advantage of conversing with you on politics, and of learning much from So able and experienced a Statesman
I read Some time ago in the Newspapers, and with great concern, that you had been Severely hurt by a fall, but I am happy to learn that you are in a fair way of recovering,1 and hope to hear Soon that you are perfectly restored to health.
I remain, with the Sentiments of the highest consïderation and of the greatest respect,
Francisco Solano Constancio
RC (DLC); at head of text: “Thomas Jefferson Esq.”; endorsed by TJ as received 23 Dec. 1822 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: John F. Oliveira Fernandes to TJ, 28 May 1822. Other enclosure printed below.
Francisco Solano Constancio (d. 1846), physician, author, and diplomat, was born in Lisbon. He began studying medicine in Great Britain in 1791, first in London and later at the University of Edinburgh. Writing as “Felix Phantom” in 1796, Constancio published a periodical entitled The Ghost to critique the medical education offered in Edinburgh. After failing his final examination there, he received a medical degree from the University of Saint Andrews. Constancio returned to Portugal by 1800 but left again by 1808 to settle in Paris. Appointed the Portuguese chargé d’affaires to the United States in 1822, he held the position for about one year but remained in America until his return to Paris late in 1826. Constancio was a prolific author and the translator into French of writings on political economy by David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, and William Godwin. His own works included the journal Annaes das Sciencias, das Artes, e das Letras, published in Paris, 1818–22, and a Novo Diccionario critico e etymologico da Lingua Portugueza (1836). Constancio died in Paris (Diccionario Bibliographico Portuguez [1859], 65–7; John S. G. Blair, History of Medicine in the University of St. Andrews [1987], 29; London Courier and Evening Gazette, 23 Sept. 1797; Maria Leonor Machado de Sousa, ed., The Ghost. Edição Crítica [1976]; Moses Bensabat Amzalak, Francisco Solano Constâncio e os seus estudos de Economia Política [1923]; José Luís Cardoso, “F. Solano Constâncio on political economy: A ‘science of proportions,’” History of European Ideas 35 [2009]: 227–35; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 14 Nov. 1822; Savannah Daily Georgian, 12 Oct. 1826; Paris Constitutionnel, 26 Dec. 1846).
1. Manuscript: “recoving.”
Index Entries
- Constancio, Francisco Solano; and TJ’s health search
- Constancio, Francisco Solano; as Portuguese chargé d’affaires search
- Constancio, Francisco Solano; forwards letters search
- Constancio, Francisco Solano; identified search
- Constancio, Francisco Solano; introduced to TJ search
- Constancio, Francisco Solano; letter from search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Health; broken arm search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Health; injured in fall search
- Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, marquis de; introduces F. S. Constancio search
- Portugal; and U.S. search