Thomas J. Rogers to Thomas Jefferson, 14 December 1823
From Thomas J. Rogers
House of Representatives US. Dec. 14. 1823
Sir,
I forward you, by this day’s mail, a small volume which I have compiled, intended for the use of schools, and which I am anxious should be placed in the hands of the youth of our country. It is calculated to give them a correct idea of the causes and principles of the Revolution, and a knowledge of those who acted conspicuous parts, either in the Cabinet or the field, during that glorious contest.
I am now engaged in compiling a third edition, to be comprised in an Octavo volume to contain 500 pages, the plan of which you will see by the enclosed prospectus. Any anecdotes connected with the Revolution, which may be in your possession, would be highly acceptable.
Be pleased to accept this work, sir, as a humble testimony of my high opinion of your public and private character.
Thos J: Rogers
RC (MHi); endorsed by TJ as received 18 Dec. 1823 and so recorded in SJL. RC (DLC); address cover only; with Dft of TJ to John Patten Emmet, 16 May 1825, on verso; addressed: “Hon. Thos Jefferson Charlotteville Virga”; franked. Enclosures: (1) Rogers, A New American Biographical Dictionary; or Remembrancer of the Departed Heroes, Sages, and Statesmen of America. Confined Exclusively to those who signalized themselves in either capacity, In the Revolutionary War which obtained the Independence of their country (2d ed., Easton, Pa., 1823; Poor, Jefferson’s Library, 5 [no. 153]; TJ’s Retirement Library Catalogue, p. 17 [MS in DLC: TJ Papers, ser. 7]). (2) Proposals for publishing by subscription, A new American Biographical Dictionary, or a Remembrancer of the Departed Heroes, Sages, and Statesmen of America. to be confined to those who signalized themselves in either capacity in the Revolutionary War with Great Britain, indicating the third edition will include in an appendix a compilation of documents ranging from the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms to the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and George Washington’s farewell address; stating that the work will not be put to press “until early next spring” so as to enable “gentlemen in various parts of the Union” to “prepare Biographical sketches of their relatives and friends”; and reporting that it will contain from 140 to 150 biographies, run between 400 and 500 pages in length, cost three dollars, and “be printed on a good paper, and new small pica type, and neatly bound and lettered” (broadside subscription form dated Easton, Pa., 20 June 1823, in DLC: Rare Book and Special Collections, Madison Collection).
Thomas J. Rogers (ca. 1781–1832), printer and public official, was born in Waterford, Ireland. Around 1784 he immigrated with his family to Pennsylvania. Following an apprenticeship with Samuel H. Smith of the Washington Daily National Intelligencer, Rogers began in 1805 to publish his own newspaper, the Northampton Farmer and Easton Weekly Advertiser, which shortened its name to the Northampton Farmer two years later. An officer in the Pennsylvania militia during the War of 1812, Rogers sold the paper in 1815. He was a member of the Pennsylvania senate from 1815 until 1818, when he resigned to fill a vacant seat in the United States House of Representatives, where he sat as a Republican until 1824. Rogers was also clerk of Northampton County’s orphans’ court, 1809–16, recorder and register of deeds, 1825–30, and a trustee of Lafayette College, 1826–32. He died in New York City (Jeffrey L. Pasley, “From Print Shop to Congress and Back: Easton’s Thomas J. Rogers and the Rise of Newspaper Politics,” in Backcountry Crucibles: The Lehigh Valley from Settlement to Steel, ed. Jean R. Soderlund and Catherine S. Parzynski [2008], 227–54; Brigham, American Newspapers, 2:845; Philadelphia Democratic Press, 27 Jan. 1808; Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 26 [1815]: 3 [5 Dec. 1815]; JHR, 11:378, 17:485 [24 Mar. 1818, 3 May 1824]; Thomas A. L. Hay, comp., Members of the Bar and Officials of Northampton County from its Erection March 11, 1752, to the Present Time, July 1, 1911 [1911], 33–4; David Bishop Skillman, The Biography of a College: Being the History of the First Century of the Life of Lafayette College [1932], 2:296, 317; Washington, Pa., Reporter, 10 May 1824; Reading, Pa., Berks and Schuylkill Journal, 18 Aug. 1821).
On this day Rogers sent similar letters and the enclosures to John Adams and James Madison (MHi: Adams Papers; , 3:179).
Index Entries
- Adams, John; works sent to search
- American Revolution; books on search
- A New American Biographical Dictionary (T. J. Rogers) search
- books; biographical search
- books; on American Revolution search
- Constitution, U.S.; publication of search
- Declaration of Independence; publication of search
- Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms; publication of search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
- Madison, James (1751–1836); works sent to search
- printing; movable type search
- Proposals for publishing by subscription, A new American Biographical Dictionary (T. J. Rogers) search
- Rogers, Thomas J.; A New American Biographical Dictionary search
- Rogers, Thomas J.; identified search
- Rogers, Thomas J.; letter from search
- Rogers, Thomas J.; Proposals for publishing by subscription, A new American Biographical Dictionary search
- subscriptions, for publications; biographies search
- Washington, George; Farewell Address search