To James Madison from John Brannan, 4 July 1823
From John Brannan
Washington, July 4. 1823
Sir
I herewith send you a copy of my late publication of the Official Letters of our Military & Naval Officers during the late war with Great Britain &c. in extra binding.1
The object of the compilation, you will perceive by the preface is, to hand down to posterity, the names and deeds of our gallant fellow citizens who so nobly sustained what is called our second war for independence. It embodies a fund of important information, which, I presume, future historians and patriots will highly appreciate—and forms an authentic documentary record of events, which by the rising generation, and by ages yet unborn, must be contemplated with interest & veneration, and which are unattainable from any other source.
It has cost me great labor and expence, as the whole was copied over and printed from manuscript. I had several more letters and documents prepared, but the Book swelled to a size beyond my expectations, and I was compelled to Omit them as of minor importance as regarded the main object of the work, though valuable as documentary history—and several letters which I wanted were not to be found in the War department. As it is published, the Book contains 60. pages more than was originally promised in my prospectus.
In this City—at West Point, and some Country towns my subscription was very respectable, but in the Cities and throughout the Country, was by no means such as I had reason to expect, and falls several hundred Dollars short of the costs of publication. Many gentlemen declined subscribing, thinking it would be a mere catch penny work; but all my subscribers who have received their Copies, appear highly pleased with it. Several Editors from this City to the northward have spoken of it in very handsome terms as a national compilation, but the sale in Baltimore Philadelphia & New York has been very trifling—in Boston it has, unexpectedly to me, sold better than in either of the other Cities.
After you have made a cursory examination of the volume, you would do me a great favor by giving me your opinion of the work; and informing me whether or not, you think its national character is such as to be worthy of a place in the Libraries of our contemporaries and their posterity. If you should think proper to pay2 for the Volume to aid me in discharging the claims of my printers and binders, it will be very thankfully received. The price in this style of binding is Five Dollars—in calf gilt $4. in neat plain sheep $3. and in boards $2.50. Should any of your neighboring friends see the volume sent, and desire a copy for the use of their families, I shall be happy to receive their orders.
Wishing you many years of health and happiness, enjoying the love and gratitude of your republican brethren, the sweet solace of the venerable patriot, is the sincere wish of Your Obedt. Hble. Servant
John Brannan3
P.S. I am the son of a soldier of the Revolution, toward the close of which I was born—my father is a yeoman of Pennsylvania, now 83. years old4—he was an Officer in the Pennsylvania Militia during the Revolution—a lieutenant at its commencement, & a colonel at its close—his children have imbibed those principles of liberty & independence for which their sire and the heroes and sages of those days so nobly contended with success.
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. John Brannan, Official Letters of the Military and Naval Officers of the United States, during the War with Great Britain in the Years 1812, 13, 14, & 15: With Some Additional Letters and Documents Elucidating the History of That Period (Washington, 1823; 11979).
2. JM placed an asterisk here and at the bottom of the page wrote: “*$5. sent.”
3. John Brannan (ca. 1778–1829) and his wife, Sarah Salome Myer, ran a boardinghouse in Washington, D.C. He was also a partner in the firm Bartow and Brannan, printers, booksellers, and stationers in the city. In 1815 Brannon was secretary to the Board of Commissioners charged with rebuilding the public edifices in Washington. His son, John M. Brannan, was a career soldier who rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Civil War (Washington Daily National Journal, 10 Feb. 1829; Wesley E. Pippenger, comp., District of Columbia Probate Records [Westminster, Md., 1996], 153; Hopkins et al., Papers of Henry Clay, 6:855 n.; New York Evening Post, 6 Sept. 1815).
4. Benjamin Brannan (1739–1825) was an early supporter of the American Revolution in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and served as lieutenant colonel in the Third Battalion, Pennsylvania militia during the war. He was a member of the state assembly in 1782, appointed brigadier general of militia in 1793, and major general in 1800; he was associate judge of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, until he was removed in 1799 (Decennial Register of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, 1888–1898 [Philadelphia, 1898], 260; Thomas Lynch Montgomery, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, 6th ser., [15 vols.; Harrisburg, Pa., 1906–7], 4:198, 753; Philadelphia Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser, 7 Feb. 1799).