The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 18 – 4 November 1790 to 24 January 1791 (The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 18)

Jefferson, Thomas; Boyd, Julian P.

ISBN 10: 0691045828 / ISBN 13: 9780691045825

Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1971, 1971

About this Item

VOLUME EIGHTEEN (which seems to have the same ISBN as volume 19). Good Plus, internally clean, solid hard cover First Printing. No dust jacket. Some minor fading to the covers and some light foxing to the edges and endpapers.

Seller Inventory # 023494

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 18 ? 4 November 1790 to 24 January 1791 (The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 18)
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1971
• Publication Date: 1971
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691045828
• ISBN 13: 9780691045825
• Binding: Cloth
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Good Plus
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Virginia and Virginia Authors
  • Americana, American History
  • Politics,Law, Diplomacy

About this title

Synopsis

Volume 18, covering part of the final session of the First Congress, shows Jefferson as Secretary of State continuing his effective collaboration with James Madison in seeking commercial reciprocity with Great Britain by threatening--and almost achieving--a retaliatory navigation bill. During these few weeks Jefferson produced a remarkable series of official reports on Gouverneur Morris' abortive mission to England, on the first case of British impressment of American seamen to be noticed officially, on the interrelated problems of Mediterranean trade and the American captives in Algiers, and on the French protest against the tonnage acts. All of these state papers reflected the consistency of Jefferson's aim to bolster the independence of the United States, to promote national unity, and even, as his report on the Algerine captives indicates, to lay the foundations for American maritime power.


This volume reveals Jefferson's continuing interest in a unified system of weights and measures, his effort to create a mint, and his concern over executive proceedings in the Northwest Territory. It contains also his suggestions for the President's annual message and his first encounter, at the hands of Noah Webster, with Federalist ridicule of his interest in science. Despite his heavy official duties and the confusion into which his household was thrown when 78 crates of books, wines, and furniture arrived from France, Jefferson never failed to write his promised weekly letter to his daughters and son-in-law under the alternating plan which obligated each of them to write only once every three weeks. The record of this time of extraordinary pressure shows that Jefferson retained his usual equanimity except when, after a full two months, he failed to receive any scrap of writing from the little family at Monticello.

From the Back Cover

The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson Volume 18, covers part of the final session of the First Congress, shows Jefferson as Secretary of State continuing his effective collaboration with James Madison in seeking commercial reciprocity with Great Britain by threatening --and almost achieving--a retaliatory navigation bill.