JEFFERSON, Thomas.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Autograph letter signed, to François-Jean de Chastellux, praising his published accounts of his travels in the United States, and suggesting revisions. An outstanding letter from Jefferson to Chastellux, praising him for "The most flattering account of America that had ever been written", offering to translate and publish the work, and advising him to revise his statements on American ladies.At the time Jefferson was living in Paris, having succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France, where his principal responsibility was negotiating trade agreements on behalf of the Congress of the Confederation. Chastellux (1734-1788), who had served as a major general under the Comte de Rochambeau, had travelled extensively in America from 1780 to 1783. After the war he remained in close contact with major figures of the Revolution and the early Republic, including Jefferson and George Washington. When Jefferson sent this letter, Chastellux was once more in Paris, residing at the Hôtel Quai d'Orsay.Jefferson's letter addresses, with great tact, the difficulty posed by certain passages in Chastellux's privately printed Voyage de Newport à Philadelphie, Albany (1781). He recounts how "When I was in Philadelphia in the winter of 1782-1783 a gentleman [probably James Madison]... told me with much concern that you had written a book of journals & had a few copies printed, which had not only given great offence, but had very much lessened the public opinion of your talents." Jefferson des

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