Henry Roi to Thomas Jefferson, 15 February 1823
From Henry Roi
Hamburg Berks County Pensilvania
february the 15th 1823.
Right Venerable Sir!
Without any recommendation of Individual, I take the freedom to apply to the friend of Mankind.! with great sorrow I have learned your painfull accident, but with great Joy your recovring from it. Your great Age ought to liberate you of a farther care of the others. But remarking in the public Prints that, notwithstanding your many past & glorious Efforts for the happiness of humanity, you jet tend your usefulness to those in want of your Superior Capacity. May I hope that your Celebrity will condescend & listen to a Wisher of the wellfare of Men?
For nine months & also for four months past I dirrected to my old Countryman Mr Leschot, an Extract of principles for a new Government of men to be submitted to your Censureship, if thought praticable. But as I learned since from his Relations in Jersay that he had removed from your Vicinity, I attribute his silence to having not received my addresses. A Copy of said Extract with additions & retranchment is permitted anew on this paper. No attention is desired to be paid to the tongue I now badly professe, less jet to my great want of Literary informations, its order of matter is ill attended. but to the intended usefulness those principles may possess your Censure is very respectfully sollicited. And if not allowed, no publicity shall be attempted as diriving from your distinguished Source.
Living retreated with Nature, my Ideas must differe immensly from the common acceptions. Convainced that Men do not live in circonstances dictated by Nature; a trial has been made, to follow her, in her Calls & wants. By an abundance of the necessairys of life procured by industry seems to prevent the mischiefs that need creats. By the abstinance of superfluitys, much time is gained for better use, much disturbance & disorder avoided. It is however understood that this Plan can but in few instances be admittable in our comon ruling, although it is thought praticable in a new Country distanced from old habits & it is given only as an Idea to others to do better. Please Sir to pardon my boldness, it is my wants which prescribe me to apply to Superiority for help, may it suit you to grant my prayers.
I beseech you Sir to accept my most perfect Veneration with which I have the honour to souscribe myself. with my most sincere wishes for your health. Your most humble & devoted Servant
Henry Roi
NB. My final object is to make a Book from 3 to 400. pages small 8o for if possible, sparing to my only females issues each a couple of Acres of land for their settlement, on what I am in doubt to succed without other means, for my former occupation is at an end by the banefull revolution of business. [D.]
RC (ViW: TC-JP); written on a sheet folded to form four pages, with letter on p. 1, address on p. 2, and enclosure beginning on pp. 3–4, continuing at foot of p. 2, and concluding at foot of p. 1; dateline adjacent to signature; final word illegible; addressed: “To the right Venerable Thomas Jefferson Esquire Virginia”; stamped; postmarked Reading, 16 Feb.; endorsed by TJ as received 27 Feb. 1823 and so recorded in SJL.
Henry Roi (d. 1826), clock- and watchmaker, was a native of Switzerland who immigrated to the United States in 1796, settling in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. He purchased at least eighteen real-estate lots there and became a naturalized citizen in 1806 (Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania [1813], 10, 32, 510; James W. Gibbs, Pennsylvania Clocks and Watches: Antique Timepieces and Their Makers [1984], 152; DNA: RG 29, CS, Pa., Berks Co., 1800; Roi’s will, proved 2 Oct. 1826, and estate inventory in Berks Co. Probate Estate Files).
Index Entries
- communal societies; H. Roi’s vision for search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Health; broken arm search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Health; injured in fall search
- Leschot, Louis A.; friendship with H. Roi search
- Roi, Henry; family of search
- Roi, Henry; identified search
- Roi, Henry; letter from search
- Roi, Henry; on TJ’s health search
- Roi, Henry; utopian vision of search