To James Madison from Thomas Todd, 6 August 1817
From Thomas Todd
Augt. 6th. 1817.
My Dear Sir,
Since my return from Lexington from whence I wrote you,1 Mrs. T. has received two letters from her son Walter, pressing for permission to spend the ensuing winter in Philadelphia & attend the lectures of Dr. Cooper.2 As the request is complied with, I have to solicit the favour of you to advance to him (if convenient) such sum of money as you deem necessary for the outfit & to fix him there til I can make him a remittance. I presume two or three hundred dollars in addition to the hundred before requested will be sufficient. Whatever sums you advance to the boys, deduct from the price of the horses, which I hope will arrive safe & without injury & that both them & their price you will not be dissatisfied with.
The Election for representatives to our State legislature commenced on Monday—in this & the adjacent Counties no doubt exists as to the result in favour of a new election of Governor. I still think it doubtful in the State at large.
Mrs. T. unites with me in affectionate respect & esteem to yourself & our dear Sisters & other friends with sincere esteem & regard I am Yrs.
Thomas Todd
RC (MdHi: Dennis Autograph Collection). Docketed by JM.
2. Thomas Cooper (1759–1839) was a British-born political writer and scientist who came to the United States in 1794 seeking a more congenial atmosphere for his freethinking religious and political views. He was a supporter of Jeffersonian republicanism and held local political office in Pennsylvania, where he settled. From 1811 to 1815 he was professor of chemistry at Carlisle (now Dickinson) College. In 1816 he became professor of applied chemistry and mineralogy at the University of Pennsylvania, where he lectured until 1819. Jefferson sought assiduously to lure Cooper to the nascent University of Virginia, but opposition to Cooper’s religious views prevented his appointment. In 1820, Cooper became professor (later president) of South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) and retired from that situation in 1834.