Constantine S. Rafinesque to Thomas Jefferson, 15 February 1824
From Constantine S. Rafinesque
Lexington Kenty 15th febry 1824.
Respected Sir!—
I perceive by the newspapers, that the University of Virginia is to be put immediatly in operation; and on that occasion I beg leave to renew my former application, to be considered a Candidate for any Professorship that may be established and for which I may be found fitted.—I need not repeat my former offers and explanations, hoping that they are still kept in mind.—I have merely to add that the Sciences which I should prefer to teach above all others would be Botany, Zoology, Mineralogy, Geology, Physics, Sometry, Mental Philosophy, The Ancient history of America, Archeology, Universal Phonology and Philology, &c: being such branches of Knowledge in which I have made the most important discoveries and researches.—
The best proofs and recomendations which I can exhibit, consist in my works on those subjects and other departments of Science. A Catalogue of my latest Works and Manuscripts is accordingly inclosed to which I call your attention and which I hope you will comunicate to the Trustees of the Virginia University for their consideration.
If under the untowards Circumstances in which I have been placed during the last six years, I have been able to labour so far in the field of Science I hope that you will do me the Justice to believe that under better auspices, my zeal and industry would be prompted to achieve much more.
Since two years past, I have been honored with the title of Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Bonn in Germany, and become member of many learned Societies—We have also formed here a Kentucky Institute of which I am Secretary.—
The Legislature of Kentucky has chartered at my sollicitation a Botanical, Agricultural and Medical Garden in Lexington; but as it has received no endowment and depends upon suscriptions for support, it may languish for a long while.
The West is not yet mature for Sciences, and I wish to leave it for a wider field. If I become a Member of the University of Virginia, I pledge myself to labour ardently to render it conspicuous in my Department.—The number of Manuscripts which I have named to you and many others only begun, which have little chance of seeing the light in Kentucky, may then appear at once, or as soon as improved and matured. The Mountains of Virginia will offer me a wide field of researches and invite my zealous attention.—
Let me conclude by stating that whatever may be done for me, will be for the immediate advantage of Science, Instruction and Knowledge: since I have long ago dedicated myself to them, with heart and Soul.—Meantime I remain respectfully and sincerely—Honored Sir!
C. S. Rafinesque
RC (ViU: TJP); at head of text: “Honble Thomas Jefferson Monticello”; endorsed by TJ as received 2 Mar. 1824 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Rafinesque’s Catalogue of Works, [ca. 15 Feb. 1824], consisting of a numbered list of ninety-nine (misnumbered “100”) “of the principal Works, Essays & Manuscripts published or written by C. S. Rafinesque A.M—Doctor of Philosophy—Profr in Transylvania University, member of 15 learned or literary Societies in the United States or in Europe &c in the years 1818. 1819. 1820. 1821. 1822 & 1823”; divided into 10 sections; with sections 1–6, numbers 1–50 (number 47 omitted), enumerating by year publications on natural history printed in places including New York, Lexington, Ky., London, Paris, and Brussels, in the form of monographs and of articles in the American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review, the Western Review and Miscellaneous Magazine, and elsewhere; section 7, numbers 51–57, listing “Manuscripts read to the Kentucky Institute,” among which are essays “On the Three great Aboriginal Nations of North-America the Talegans, Iztakans and Oguzians” and “On a new kind of opium called opicrine, produced by a new Kentucky plant, the Prenanthes opicrina”; section 8, numbers 58–61, “Manuscripts already published,” consisting of lectures on topics ranging from “Public Instruction, the human mind &c,” to botany, zoology, and geology; section 9, numbers 62–69, cataloguing “Manuscripts Sent for publication,” including a “Sinopsis of 50 new Quadrupeds of North-America,” an “Enumeration and description of all the Ancient Monuments of North America about 1800 of which 510 are found in Kentucky,” and the “Itinerary of Poto and Moscoso in the United States between 1539 & 1543, including the discovery of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois &c”; and concluding with section 10, numbers 70–100, detailing “Unpublished Manuscripts,” among which are an “Analysis of the human Mind and will,” a piece on “Sometry or the Geometry of irregular Bodies,” a “Description of several new physical Instruments, such as the Nemeter, Platometer, Phosometer, Stereometer, Sclerometer, Spirometer, Diploscope &c,” “Many poetical trifles in English, french and Italian,” and “Decimals and Vocabularies in about 200 Languages” (MS in ViU: TJP; in Rafinesque’s hand; undated; printed in Edwin M. Betts, “The Correspondence Between Constantine Samuel Rafinesque and Thomas Jefferson,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 87 [1944]: 377–9).
Filed with the RC of this letter and presumably sent to TJ at some point is a newspaper clipping from the Cincinnati Literary Gazette, 21 Feb. 1824, containing two articles signed by Rafinesque. The first, headed “CLIO No. I.” and entitled “ancient history of north america,” claims personal knowledge of 1,830 aboriginal monuments on the continent, traces the population’s origins to three distinct races, and names ten “mother languages” among American Indians, from which twenty-five languages and two thousand dialects have resulted. Printed immediately after it, the second article, headed “NEOPHYTON, No. I.” and entitled “On a new tree of Kentucky forming a new genus Cladrastis Fragrans,” states that Rafinesque discovered the new yellowwood tree in 1822 “on the banks of the river Kentucky,” commends its scent and potential value as a dyewood, and provides a detailed botanical description.
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