Augustin François Silvestre to Thomas Jefferson, 20 October 1819

From Augustin François Silvestre

Paris le 20 8bre 1819

Monsieur et honorable Confrère,

Vous devez avoir reçu, il n’y a pas longtems, plusieurs1 volumes des mémoires de notre Société royale d’agriculture, qui vous ont été envoyés, en son nom, par les Soins de mr Michaux, l’un de Ses membres. Permettez-moi de profiter de l’occasion que m’offre le départ de Mr Lesseps, consul de france à Philadelphie, pour Vous adresser quelques petits opuscules, publiés par elle, depuis cet envoi, ou qui ont paru sous ses auspices. Mr Lesseps, qui veut bien S’en charger, est un des Correspondans de notre Société; et à ce titre, je prendrais la liberté de le recommander à votre accueil bienveillant, s’il ne se recommandait dejà personnellement par lui-même et par la mission honorable qu’il va remplir auprès de votre Gouvernement.

Les occupations agricoles, auxquelles vous vous étes livré depuis plusieurs années, ont du vous fournir l’occasion de recueillir beaucoup d’observations utiles sur l’art important qui en est l’objet. Vous ne devez pas douter que notre Société ne reçut avec un vif intérêt les communications que vous voudriez bien lui en donner, et qui serait pour elle un nouveau gage de celui que vous avez toujours porté à ses travaux.

Je vous prie, Monsieur, de vouloir bien agréer l’hommage de ma trez-haute considération.

Le Sécrétaire perpétuel de la Société
royale d’agriculture de Paris.

Silvestre

Editors’ Translation

Paris 20 October 1819

Sir and honorable Colleague,

You must recently have received several volumes of the Mémoires of our Société Royale d’Agriculture, which were sent in its name, care of Mr. Michaux, one of its members. Allow me to take advantage of the opportunity afforded me by the departure of Mr. Lesseps, French consul at Philadelphia, to address to you a few pamphlets published since then by the society or under its auspices. Mr. Lesseps, who is willing to take this in charge, is one of the correspondents of our society, and as such I would take the liberty of recommending him to your benevolent welcome, had he not already recommended himself personally and through the honorable mission he is to fulfill with your government.

Farming activities, in which you have been engaged for several years, must have enabled you to gather many useful observations on this important art. You must not doubt that our society will receive with the greatest interest the communications you might be willing to send, and that your doing so would be a renewed token of the interest you have always taken in our projects.

Please, Sir, accept the homage of my very high consideration.

The perpetual secretary of the Société
Royale d’Agriculture de Paris.

Silvestre

RC (DNAL: Thomas Jefferson Correspondence, Bixby Donation); on printed letterhead of the “Société Royale et Centrale d’Agriculture,” with its insignia and partial dateline (Silvestre’s handwritten completion is indicated in italics); printed at head of text: “NOTA. Les lettres et réponses doivent être adressées au Secrétaire perpetuel de la Société, sous le couvert de S. E. le Ministre de l’Intérieur” (“NOTE. Letters and replies must be addressed to the perpetual secretary of the Society, under the authority of His Excellency the Minister of the Interior”); at foot of first page: “à Mr Jefferson, associé étranger de la Société royale d’agriculture de Paris, et de l’Institut de france” (“to Mr. Jefferson, foreign associate of the Société Royale d’Agriculture de Paris, and of the Institut de France”); endorsed by TJ as received 13 Dec. 1819 and so recorded in SJL. Dft (MBPLi); entirely in Silvestre’s hand; lacking closing and signature. Translation by Dr. Genevieve Moene. Enclosures: Silvestre, Notice Biographique sur M. Dupont (Pierre-Samuel) (Paris, 1818) and Notice Biographique sur M. Moreau de Saint-Méry (Paris, 1819) (both Poor, Jefferson’s Library description begins Nathaniel P. Poor, Catalogue. President Jefferson’s Library, 1829 description ends , 5 [no. 165]; TJ’s copies in ViCMRL, on deposit ViU).

Mathieu Maximilien Prosper, comte de Lesseps (1774–1832), French diplomat, was first posted to Morocco as secretary of legation. He filled diplomatic positions in Spain, Egypt, and Italy before being named imperial commissary for the Ionian Islands, 1809–14. During Napoleon’s Hundred Days in 1815, Lesseps became a prefect in Cantal, but the second restoration of Louis XVIII soon led to his departure from office. In 1819 he was named the French consul at Philadelphia, where he was also elected the following year to membership in the American Philosophical Society. In 1821 Lesseps was appointed consul general in Syria, and in 1827 he took the post of consul general and chargé d’affaires in Tunisia, where he died (Biographie universelle description begins Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, new ed., 1843–65, 45 vols. description ends , 11:259; Georges Douin, “Mathieu de Lesseps, Commissaire Général en Egypte [1803–1804],” Revue des Études Napoléoniennes 24 [1925]: 48–80; Abraham P. Nasatir and Gary Elwyn Monell, French Consuls in the United States: A Calendar of Their Correspondence in the Archives Nationales [1967], 554; APS description begins American Philosophical Society description ends , Minutes, 20 Oct. 1820 [MS in PPAmP]).

1. Instead of preceding word, Dft reads “dix” (“ten”).

Index Entries

books; biographical search
Du Pont de Nemours, Pierre Samuel; Notice Biographique sur M. Dupont (Pierre-Samuel) (A. Silvestre) search
French language; letters in, from; A. F. Silvestre search
Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; letters of application and recommendation to search
Lesseps, Mathieu Maximilien Prosper, comte de; identified search
Lesseps, Mathieu Maximilien Prosper, comte de; recommended to TJ search
Mémoires de la Société d’Agriculture du département de la Seine; and A. F. Silvestre search
Michaux, François André; sends works to TJ search
Moreau de Saint Méry, Médéric Louis Elie; Notice Biographique sur M. Moreau de Saint-Méry (A. F. Silvestre) search
Notice Biographique sur M. Dupont (Pierre-Samuel) (A. F. Silvestre) search
Notice Biographique sur M. Moreau de Saint-Méry (A. F. Silvestre) search
patronage; letters of application and recommendation to TJ search
Silvestre, Augustin François; letters from search
Silvestre, Augustin François; Mémoires de la Société d’agriculture search
Silvestre, Augustin François; Notice Biographique sur M. Dupont (Pierre-Samuel) search
Silvestre, Augustin François; Notice Biographique sur M. Moreau de Saint-Méry search
Société d’agriculture du département de la Seine; Mémoires search

You Are Looking At

Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: Augustin François Silvestre to Thomas Jefferson, 20 October 1819
Author: Silvestre, Augustin François
Recipient: Jefferson, Thomas
Date: 20 October 1819

Reference

Cite as: “Augustin François Silvestre to Thomas Jefferson, 20 October 1819,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-15-02-0119. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 15, 1 September 1819 to 31 May 1820, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018, pp. 145–146.]