Notes on the State of Virginia ... A reprint of the original edition of 1784; with the additions, corrections, and illustrations added by the author in all subsequent editions; together with notes from other sources, and an introduction. Edited by P. L. Ford

Introduction

. EDITED BY PAUL LEICESTER FORD. BROOKLYN, N. Y.: HISTORICAL PRINTING CLUB. 1894. NOTES ON VIRGINIA. 1782, The wide reputation and high value that have been accorded to the ATotes on Virginia for over one hundred years make any attempt to praise it at this day little less than a work of supererogation. Its frequent republication is alone testimony sufficient to prove its unusual merit. Aside from its intrinsic value, it is of interest, as Jefferson's most serious piece of book-making, and the one on which the larger part of his philosophical reputation was based during his lifetime. It was, also at the time of its production, a notable contribution to American scientific writing, and has been, perhaps, the most frequently reprinted book ever written in the United States south of Mason and Dixon's line.

In 1781 the French ministry directed their American agent to gather certain information concerning the several States then forming the American union, for the use of the home government. The secretary of the French legation, Marbois, in pursuance of this instruction, drew up a series of questions, which were sent to leading men in the different States, who were presumed to be best competent to supply the needed answers. These questions produced from several of the States replies more or less adequate, a number of which have been since printed. On the recommendation of Joseph Jones, then a member of the continental congress, a set of queries was sent to Jefferson, then still governor of Virginia, who wrote to M. Barbe de Marbois, the secretary of the legation : RICHMOND Mar. 4th, 1781. " Sir, — I have been honoured with your letter of Feb. 5.

Mr. Jones did put into my hands a paper containing sundry inquiries into the present state of Virginia which he informed me was from yourself, some of which I meant to do myself the honour of answering. Hitherto it has been in my power to col lect a few materials only, which my present occupations disable me from com pleting. I mean however shortly to be in a condition which will leave me quite at leisure to take them up, when it shall be one of my first undertakings to give you as full information as I shall be able to do on such of the subjects as are within the sphere of my acquaintance. On some of them however I trust Mr. Jones will engage abler hands. Those in particular which relate to the commerce of the state — a subject with which I am totally unacquainted, and which is probably the most important in your plan."

I In the leisure that ensued after his resignation of office, and a physical injury received from a fall from his horse, he undertook this work. Instead of treating the questions in the superficial way that most of the other respondents deemed sufficient, he prepared an elaborate and careful reply. In his Autobiography (i, 85), he states : " I had always made it a practice whenever an opportunity occurred of obtaining any information of our country, which might be of use to me in any station public or private, to commit it to writing. These memoranda were on loose papers, bundled up without order, and difficult of recurrence when I had occasion for a particular one. I thought this a good occasion to embody their substance, which I did in the order of Mr. Marbois' queries, so as to answer his wish and to arrange them for my own use."

Jefferson retained a copy of these Notes, and submitted them to several friends for correction and suggestion. In the following winter (1782-3) he " somewhat corrected and enlarged" them. He was asked for copies by his friends, and seems to have yielded in some cases, for he wrote Chastellux : Ampthill, Nov. 26, 1782. * * * " This will give me full leisure to communicate to you my answers to the queries of Monsr de Marbois." * * * As these demands multiplied, however, they grew beyond his power to gratify, and he decided to print an edition for private distribution. When he went to attend the continental congress in the winter of 1783-4, he made inquiries preparatory to this, but failed to carry out his purpose, for reasons recorded in a letter to Charles Thomson : PhiLsVDEL, May 21, 1784. * * * " My matter in the printing way is dropped.

Aitken had formerly told me that he would print it for £4 a sheet. He now asks ,-£5 10s, which raises the price from to £t(> ; but what was a more effectual and insupara ble bar was that he could not complete it under three weeks, a time I could not wait for it. Dunlap happened to be out of town, so I relinquished the plan. Perhaps I may have a few copies struck off in Paris if there be an English Printer. If I do you shall assuredly have one. I shall take the liberty of adding some of your notes — those which were mendatory merely will have their effect on the body of the work." Jefferson carried the MS therefore with him to France when he was sent as commissioner. Its condition at that time is described in a letter to Hogendorp, written some months after : Paris, Oct. 13 1785. * * * " xhe condition in which you first saw them [the Notes] would prove to you how hastily they had been originally written ; as you may remember the numerous insertions I had made in them from time to time, when I could find a moment for turning to them from other occupations."

Jefferson reached Paris August 6, 1784, and seems to have at once placed the MS of his Notes in the hands of a printer, for he records on Sept. 13, in his note book : " Pd. M. La Marche in part for sheets 1176 f." and under Oct. 15 enters in the same : " Pd. M. La Marche balance for sheets 69 f." This edition of the Notes was anonymous. Two hundred copies were printed. Jefferson wrote to Carmichael, of this edition : Paris Dec 26, 1786 •*e * •* " My Notes on Virginia having been hastily written, need abun dance of corrections. Two or three of these are so material that I am reprint ing a few leaves to substitute for the old. As soon as these shall be ready, I will beg your acceptance of a copy. I shall be proud to be permitted to send a copy also to the Count de Campomanes, as a tribute to his science & his virtues."

As here indicated, the author distributed a few copies, as presents to friends, each one bearing a presentation note in Jefferson's writing, requesting that it should be considered as a private communication. Two of these inscriptions, are here reproduced as types, in facsimile. Another was as follows : " Th. Jefferson begs the Marquis de LaFayette's acceptance of a copy of these Notes. The circumstances under which they were written, and the talents of the writer, will account for their errors and defects. The original was sent to Mr de Marbois in December 1781. The desire of a friend to possess some of the details they contained occa sioned him to revise them in the subsequent winter. The vices however of their original composition were such as to forbid material amendment. He now has a few copies printed with a design of offering them to some of his friends, and to some estimable characters beyond that line.

A copy is presented to the Marquis de LaFayette whose services to the American Union in general, and to that member of it particularly which is the subject of these Notes and in that precise point of time too to which they relate, entitle him to this offering. To these considerations the writer hopes he may be permitted to add his own personal friendship and esteem for the Marquis. Unwilling to expose these sheets to the public eye the writer begs the favor of the Marquis to put them into the hands of no person on whose care and fidelity he cannot rely to guard them against publication." Jefferson's reasons for not publishing the work, and for taking such pains to guard it from being printed, are given in a letter to Chastellux : Paris June 7. 1785. " Dear Sir, — I have been honoured with the receipt of your letter of the 2d instant, and am to thank you, as I do sincerely for the partiality with which you receive the copy of the Notes on my country.

As I can answer for the facts therein reported on my own observation and have admitted none on the report of others which were not supported by evidence sufficient to command my own assent, I am not afraid that you should make any extracts you please for the Journal de Physique which come within their plan of publication. The strictures on slavery and on the constitution of Virginia are not of that kind, and they are the parts which I do not wish to have made public, at least till I know whether their publication would do most harm or good. It is possible that in my own country these strictures might produce an irritation which would indispose the people towards the two great objects I have in view, that is the emancipation of their slaves & the settlement of their constitution on a firmer & more per manent basis.

If I learn from thence, that they will not produce that effect, I have printed & reserved just copies enough to be able to give one to every young man at the College. It is to them I look, to the rising generation, and not to the one now in power, for these great reformations. The other copy delivered at your hotel was for Mons de Buffon. I meant to ask the favour of you to have it sent to him, as I was ignorant how to do it. I have one also for Mons Daubenton ; but being utterly unknown to him I cannot take the liberty of presenting it till I can do it through some common acquaintance." He also wrote to Charles Thomson : Paris June 21, 1785. * * * " In literature nothing new : For I do not consider as having added anything to that field by my own Notes of which I have had a few copies printed.

I will send you a copy by the first safe conveyance. Having troubled Mr. Otto with one for Colo Monroe, I could not charge him with one for you. Pray ask the favor of Colo Monroe in page 5, line 17, to strike out the words 'above the mouth of the Appamattox,' which makes nonsense of the passage, and I forgot to correct it before I had enclosed & sent off the copy to him. I am de sirous of preventing the reprinting this, should any book merchant think it worth it, till I hear from my friends whether the terms in which I have spoken of slavery and of the constitution of our State will not, by producing an irrita tion, retard that reformation which I wish instead of promoting it." He further wrote to Francis Hopkinson : Paris July 6, 1786 * * * " Having slipped the opportunity of sending copies of my Notes for yourself, & Mr. Rittenhouse when Dr. Franklin's baggage went, I am doubtful whether he can take them with him.

If he can you shall receive them by him. if not, then by the first good opportunity. I am obliged to pray that they may not be permitted to get into the hands of the public till I know whether they will promote or retard certain reformations in my own country. I have written to Mr. Madison to inform me on that head." As soon as this publication was known, Jefferson was besieged for copies of the book. A type of these requests is shown in a letter of his old law teacher, George Wythe, who wrote him : Jan 10, 1786 " Before i opened the pacquet, observing it to contain books, i hoped to see the copy of one, with a cursory reading of which i had then lately been de lighted. You will know the book i mean when i tell you that he who indulged me with the reading of it informed me, that the author had not yet resolved to publish it."

In spite of these solicitations, Jefferson was chary of giving out copies till he should have the opinions of his Virginia friends concerning the parts likely to cause irritation. Madison wrote him : Richmond Nov. 15th, 1785. * * * " On my return to Orange, I found the copy of your notes brought along ... by Mr. Doradour. I have looked them over carefully myself, and consulted several judicious friends in confidence. We are all sensible that the freedom of your strictures on some particular measures and opinions will dis please their respective abettors. But we equally concur in thinking that this consideration ought not to be weighed against the utility of your plan. We think both the facts and remarks which you have assembled too valuable not to be made known, at least to those for whom you destine them, and speak of them to one another in terms which I must not repeat to you.

Mr. Wythe suggested that it might be better to put the number you may allot to the Univer sity into the library, rather than to distribute them among the students. In the latter case, the stock will be immediately exhausted. In the former, the dis cretion of the professors will make it serve the students as they successively come in. Perhaps too, an indiscriminate gift might offend some narrow minded parents." On the strength of this opinion, Jefferson began a more general distribution. He replied to Madison : Paris Feb. 8, 1786. * * * " I thank you for your information as to my Notes. The copies I have remaining shall be sent over to be given to some of my friends and to select subjects in the college. I have been unfortunate here with this trifle. I gave out a few copies only, & to confidential persons writing in every copy a restraint against it's publication.

Among others I gave a copy to a Mr. Williamos, he died. I immediately took every precaution I could to recover this copy. But by some means or other, a bookseller got hold of it. He employed a hireling translator and was about publishing it in the most injurious form possible. An Abbe Morellet a man of letters here to whom I had given a copy, got notice of this. He had translated some passages for a particular purpose : and he com pounded with the bookseller to translate & give him the whole, on his declining the first publication. I found it necessary to confirm this, and it will be published in French, still mutillated however in it's freest parts. I am now at a loss what to do as to England. Everything good or bad, is thought worth publishing there and I apprehend a translation back from the French, and a publication there.

I rather believe it will be most eligible to let the original come out in that country : but am not yet decided." To Hopkinson he wrote : Paris, Sept 25, 1785 * * * "I have sometimes thought of sending a copy of my Notes to the Philosophical Society, as a tribute due to them ; but this would seem as if I considered them as worth something, which I am conscious they are not. I will not ask you for your advice on this occasion, because it is one of those on which no man is authorized to ask a sincere opinion. I shall therefore refer it to further thoughts." He also wrote to Wythe : Paris, August 13, 1786. * * * "I availed myself of the first opportunity which occurred, by a gentle man going to England, of sending to Mr. Joddrel a copy of the Notes on our country, with a line informing him that it was you who had emboldened me to take that liberty.

Madison, no doubt, informed you of the reason why I had sent only a single copy to Virginia. Being assured by him that they will not do the harm I had apprehended, but on the contrary may do some good, I pro pose to send thither the copies remaining on hand, which were fewer than I had intended. But of the numerous corrections they need, there are one or two so essential that I must have them made, by printing a few new leaves, & sub stituting them for the old. This will be done while they are engraving a map which I have constructed of the country from Albemarle sound to Lake Erie, & which will be inserted in the book. A bad French translation which is getting out here, will probably oblige me to publish the original more freely which it neither deserved nor was ever intended. Your wishes which are law to me, will justify my destining a copy for you, otherwise I should as soon have thought of sending you a horn-book ; for there is no truth there that is not familiar to you, and its errors I should hardly have proposed to treat you with."

The threatened translation touched upon in the above letters to Madison and Wythe was treated more at large in a letter to C. W. F. Dumas : Paris, February 2, 1786 * * * " I thank you for what you say of the notes on Virginia. It is much more than they deserve. Though the various matters they touch on would have been beyond the information of any one person whatever to have treated fully and infinitely beyond mine, yet had I at the time of writing them, had anything more in view than the satisfying a single individual, they should have been more attended to both in form and matter. Poor as they are, they have been thought worthy of a surreptitious translation here, with the appearance of which very soon I have been threatened. This has induced me to yield to a friendly proposition from the Abbe Morellet, to translate and publish them himself, submitting the sheets previously to my inspection.

As a translation by so able a hand will lessen the faults of the original, instead of their being multiplied by a hireling translator, I shall add to it a map and such other advantages as may prevent the mortification of my seeing it appear in the injurious form threatened. I shall with great pleasure send a copy of the original to you by the first opportunity, praying your acceptance of it." To Dr. Edward Bancroft he also wrote : Paris Feb 26. 1786. * * * " By the death of Mr. Williamos a copy of my Notes on Virginia got into the hands of a bookseller, who was about publishing a very abominable translation of them when the Abbe Morellet heard of it, & diverted him from it by undertaking to translate it for him. They will thus appear in French in spite of my precautions. The Abbe engaged me to make a map, which I wish to have engraved in London.

It is on a single sheet 23 inches square, and very closely written. It comprehends from Albemarle sound to L. Erie, and from Philadelphia to the mouth of the great Kanhaway, containing Virginia & Penn sylvania, a great part of Maryland & a part of North Carolina. It is taken from Mitchell, Hutchins, & Fry, & Jefferson. I wish the favor of you to make two propositions for me & to inform me of the result. 1. To know from one of the best engravers how much he will ask for the plate & engraving, and in how short a time after he receives the original can he furnish the plate done in the best manner, for the time is material as the work is in the press. 2. To know of Faden or any other map merchant for how much he will undertake to furnish me 1800 copies, on my sending the map to him, & in what time can he furnish them.

On this alternative I am to have nothing to do with the engraver or any person but the undertaker. I am of opinion he may furnish them to me for nothing ; and fully indemnify himself by the sale of the maps. Tho' it is on a scale of only an inch to 20 miles it is as particular as the four sheet maps from which it is taken, and I answer for the exactness of the reduction. I have supplied some new places. Tho' the first object which induced me to undertake it was to make a map for my book, I soon extended my view to the making as good a map of those countries as my materials would admit ; and I have no doubt but that in the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland & Virginia 600 copies can be sold for a dollar apiece. I shall finish it in about a fortnight, except the divisions in the counties of Virginia, which I cannot do at all till I can get Henry's map of Virginia.

This I must trouble you to procure for me si send immediately by the Diligence, and also give me information on the premises as soon as possible. You will perceive that time will press. I hope the circumstances of this affair will plead my pardon for the trouble I am giving you. The expense of procuring & sending the map shall be replaced, and an infini tude of thanks attend you Sir your most obedt humble servt. P. S. I do not propose that my name shall appear on the map, because it will belong to it's original authors, & because I do not wish to place myself at the bar of the public." Morellet's preface to this edition states : " AVERTISSEMENT. L'Ouvrage qu'on donne ici au Public a ete imprime en 1782, sous le titre de Notes on Virginia, & n'est en effet qu'un recueil de Notes, ou Observations detachees, servant de reponse aux Questions d'un ami de l'Auteur, Europeen qui cherchoit a connoitre cette partie des Etats-Unis ; mais on ne craint pas d'annoncer que sous un titre si modeste ; le Lecteur trouvera des connoissances approfondies & des idees etendues.

L'Ouvrage n'ayant d'autre plan que celui qu'a donne l'ordre des Questions, qui n'est pas toujours le plus naturel qu'on put suivre, le Traducteur a pris la liberte, avec l'agrement de l'Auteur, de transposer quelques morceaux. Voici les principales de ces transpositions, qui sont en petit nombre. 1°. On a fait de la septieme Section, de l'original, qui traite du Climat, la deuxieme de la traduction. 2°. La neuvieme & la dixieme Section de l'original, qui traitent des forces militaires de terre & de mer, ont ete renvoyees a la fin de l'Ouvrage, a la suite du paragraphe oil Ton traite du Revenu public & de la Depense nationale. 3°. On a rapporte au paragraphe ou l'Auteur avoit traite des Esclaves noirs, l'Exposition du projet plein d'humanite qu'il propose pour leur affranchisse ment <S: qui etoit place au paragraphe intitule : Projet de Revision de notre Legislation.

Les autres changemens sont trop peu considerables pour qu'il soit necessaire d'en faire ici mention. On doit dire seulement qu'il n'y a rien d'omis de l'original. L'Auteur ayant fait une addition a quelques idees qu'il expose sur la Theorie de la terre, dans les pages 72, 73, &c. & cette addition etant parvenue trop tard au Traducteur, on l'a placee a la fin de l'Ouvrage, <S: le Lecteur est prie d'y recourir. Les observations de M. Charles Thomson, Secretaire de Congres, qui se trouvent a la fin de l'original anglois, sous le titre d'Appendix, depuis la page 367, jusqu'a etant toutes relatives a. celles de M. J. dont elles sont commune ment des developpemens ou des preuves, nous avons cru devoir les placer dans le corps meme de l'Ouvrage, aux endroits auxquels elles appartiennent. Nous les avons distinguees, en les enfermant entre les deux marques.

Nous avons aussi fait entrer dans le texte les notes de l'Auteur lui-meme, parce qu'elles nous ont paru y tenir assez pour pouvoir former avec l'Ouvrage un dis cours suivi ; ce que devroient toujours etre des notes, si en suivant cette regale, on n'etoit pas dispense d'en faire. La traduction francoise se trouve enrichie d'une carte, redigee par l'Auteur lui-meme avec l'exactitude qu'il fait mettre a tout ce qu'il fait. On ose dire que cette carte, la plus correcte & la plus riche de toutes celles qu'on a eues de la Virginie jusqu'a present, donne settle un grand prix a l'ouvrage que nous presentons au Public. On n'a point reduit dans chaque endroit les mesures angloises aux notres. Ou dira seulement que le pied anglois (foot) est d'environ ii pouces 4 lignes & demie du pied francois. La verge (yard) est de trois pieds anglois, & repond par consequent a environ 34 pouces I ligne & demie.

L'estimation n'a pas besoin ici d'une plus grande precision. Dans la traduction des noms propres des lieux, des villes, des rivieres, &c. dont la plupart sont de la langue des naturels du pays, on a suivi la maniere dont les Anglois les ecrivent, sans egard aux alterations que les Geographes & les Auteurs francois leur font souvent subir. On a cru que les possesseurs de ces contrees avoient seuls le droit d'en fixer la nomenclature. Quant aux noms propres anglois, on s'est bien garde de les supprimer en les traduisant, parce qu'ils deviennent souvent meconnoissables dans la tra duction on les a conserves, en mettant a cote & en parenthese la traduction francoise. Ainsi on a dit, la chaine des montagnes appellees Laurel-Ridge (montagnes du Laurier), & non pas, la chaine de montagnes, appelles montagnes du Laurier."

This publication in French, made the issue of an English edition almost inevitable. Madison told Jefferson : Orange, May 12th, 1786. * * * "Your notes having got into print in France, will inevitably be trans lated back and published in that form, not only in England but in America, unless you give out the original. I think, therefore, that you owe it not only to yourself, but to the place you occupy, and the subjects you have handled, to take this precaution. To say nothing of the injury which will certainly result to the diction from a translation first into French and then back into English, the ideas themselves may possibly be so perverted as to lose their propriety." To protect himself against this possibility, Jefferson entered into negotiations for an edition in English. He wrote to John Stockdale, the great English publisher : Paris, Feb. 1, 1787.

" Sir, — You have two or three times proposed to me the printing my Notes on Virginia. I never did intend to have made them public, because they are little interesting to the rest of the world, but as a translation of them is coming out, I have concluded to let the original appear also. I have therefore corrected a copy & made some additions. I have moreover had a map engraved which is worth more than the book. If you chuse to print the work I will send you the corrected copy, and when it shall be nearly printed I will send the plate of the map. I would not chuse that it should be put under a patent, nor that there should be a tittle altered, added, nor omitted. It would be necessary to have a small half sheet map engraved of the country of Virginia as when first discov ered. This map is only to be found in Smith's history of Virginia, a thin folio, now very rare.

I was not able to find that work here, but surely it can be found in London. An exact copy of the map is all that would be wanting. I leave this place about the nth or 12th. Be so good as to let me know whether you chuse to print the work under the conditions before named. If I receive your answer in the affirmative before I set out, I will send you immediately the copy. It is an octavo of 390 pages. The American Atlas is come safe to hand. P. S. it is not necessary to observe that as I have been to the expense of en graving a large map, I should expect to be paid for those you should have occasion for, a shilling a piece." Paris. Feb. 27. 1787. Sir, — By the Diligence of tomorrow I will send you a corrected copy of my Notes which I will pray you to print precisely as they are, without additions, alterations, preface, or anything else but what is there.

They will require a very accurate corrector of the press, because they are filled with tables, which will become absolutely useless if they are not printed with a perfect accuracy. I beg you therefore to have the most particular attention paid to the correcting of the press. With respect to the plate of the map, it is impossible to send it at the same time. It was engraved in London, and on examination I found a pro digious number of orthographical errors. Being determined that it shall not go out with a single error, an engraver is now closely employed in correcting them. He promises to have it finished the next week, say by the 10th of March : but I suppose you must expect he will not be punctual to a day. the map will be worth more than the book, because it is very particular, made on the best ma terials which exist, and is of a very convenient size, bringing the States of Vir ginia, Maryland, Delaware & Pennsylvania into a single sheet.