Thomas Jefferson to Oliver Parsons and James Cooley, 14 February 1823
To Oliver Parsons and James Cooley
Monticello Feb. 14. 23.
Messrs Parsons & Cooley
I have duly recieved your favor of Jan. 29. in which you are pleased to request a copy of my works to be deposited in your library. I have never published any work but the Notes on Virginia, of which I have but a single copy, and they are now very rarely to be found. all other writings of mine have been of an official character, and are only to be found among the public documents of the times in which I have lived. to shew however my respect for the request you have been pleased to make,1 I select one of these, the subject of which is not altogether foreign2 to institutions like yours, and which was so little altered by the body for whom it was prepared, that I may truly call it a work of mine. this is a Report on the plan of an University in Virginia, which is now nearly compleated, and in the course of a year or two will commence it’s operations. with this, be pleased to accept the assurance of my high respect & consideration
Th: Jefferson
RC (TxDaHCL). Dft (MHi); on verso of reused address cover of Littell & Henry to TJ, 24 Sept. 1821; endorsed by TJ. Enclosure: Proceedings and Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia. Presented December 8, 1818 (Richmond, 1818; , 6 [no. 233]).
1. Preceding four words interlined in Dft, where TJ canceled “and my sense of the honor done me.”
2. Preceding four words interlined in Dft (with order of last two words reversed) in place of “has relation.”
Index Entries
- Cooley, James; and Dickinson Library Company search
- Cooley, James; letter to search
- Dickinson Library Company (Granville, Mass.) search
- Granville, Mass.; Dickinson Library Company search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; as record of his life search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Opinions on; circulating libraries search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Writings; Notes on the State of Virginia search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Writings; Proceedings and Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia search
- libraries; Dickinson Library Company search
- Notes on the State of Virginia (Thomas Jefferson); TJ as author of search
- Parsons, Oliver; and Dickinson Library Company search
- Parsons, Oliver; letter to search
- Proceedings and Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia (Thomas Jefferson); distributed by TJ search
- Virginia, University of; Establishment; commissioners’ report search
- Virginia, University of; Establishment; opening of search
- Virginia, University of; Establishment; TJ as founder of search