.jpg?w=1)
Details
JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson") to Dr. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), Monticello, 5 March 1813. 3 full pages, 4to, closely written, slightly discolored along left-hand margins, otherwise fine.
THE RETIRED PRESIDENT NOTES THAT "MR. ADAMS AND I ARE IN HABITUAL CORRESPONDENCE," BUT ARE CAREFUL TO AVOID THE SUBJECT OF POLITICS: "WHEN THERE ARE SO MANY OTHERS ON WHICH WE AGREE, WHY SHOULD WE INTRODUCE THE ONLY ONE ON WHICH WE DIFFER?"
"EVERY MAN'S OWN REASON MUST BE HIS ORACLE." A rich, rambling and congenial letter, describing with pleasure his continuing correspondence with former rival John Adams (a reconciliation largely orchestrated by Rush), lauding the naval triumphs of the U.S.S. Constitution, and discoursing at length on his opinion of veterinary science and medicine. Jefferson notes that he and former President John Adams "are in habitual correspondence. I owe him a letter at this time, and shall pay the debt as soon as I have something to write about." One secret of their continuing correspondence, he explains, is that they have tacitly agreed to banish potentially divisive discussion of politics: "...with the commonplace topic of politics, we do not meddle. When there are so many others on which we agree, why should we introduce the only one on which we differ?"
Jefferson, who had been soundly criticized for neglecting the American naval fleet during his Presidency, alludes to the remarkable recent victories of the U.S.S. Constitution over two British frigates, the H.M.S. Guerrierre (19 August 1812) and H.M.S Java (29 December 1812). "Besides the pleasure which our naval successes have given to every honest patriot his [Adams's] must be peculiar, because a navy has always been his hobby-horse. A little further time will show whether his ideas have been premature, and whether the little we can oppose on that element to the omnipotence of our enemy there, would lessen the losses of the war, or contribute to shorten its duration, the legitimate object of every measure." Otherwise, military affairs have not gone well for the nation: "On the land indeed we have been most unfortunate, so wretched a succession of generals never before destroyed the fairest expectations of a nation, counting on the bravery of its citizen, which has proved itself on all these trials. Our first object must be the vindication of our character in the field, after that, peace, with the liberum mare [freedom of the seas], personal inviolability there, and ouster from this continent of the incendiaries of savages [British agents among the frontier tribes]. God send us these good things...."
Jefferson has received a puzzling solicitation from one James Carver, seeking funds "towards the expense of a voyage to London" in order to study Veterinary sciences "with a view to his returning to America, and practicing the art in Philadelphia. The name, person & character of the writer were equally unknown to me, and unauthenticated....I supposed him an Englishman from the style in which he spoke of 'his majesty' and because an American, without offence to the laws, could not now be going...to England. The scheme did not appear to me to be the shortest or surest way of going to work to accomplish the object...."
Jefferson asks Rush--"you...whom I know, love & revere"--whether Carver is "a zealous son of science, or an adventurer wanting money to carry him to London." He doubts not that the London Veterinary institution "merits the high character he ascribes to it. It is a nation which possesses many learned men. I know well the Veterinary school of Paris...and saw many of its publications during my residence there. They were classically written, announced a want of nothing but certainty to their facts, which granted, their hypotheses were learned & plausible. The coach-horses of the rich of Paris were availed of the institution; but the farmers even in the neighborhood, could not afford to call a veterinary Doctor to their plough horses in the country, or to send them to a livery stable to be attended in the city."
Jefferson explains his rather circumspect attitude towards medicine and explains that he has very little faith in veterinary science: "On the whole I was not a convert to the utility of the Institution. You know that I am so to that of medicine, even in human complaints, but in a limited degree. That there are certain diseases of the human body, so distinctly pronounced by well articulated symptoms, and returning so often, as not to be mistaken, wherein experience has proved that vertain substances applied, will restore order, I cannot doubt. Such are kinkina [chinchona] in intermittants [fevers], Mercury in Syphilis, Castor oil in dysentery, &c, as so far I go with the Physicians. But there are also a great mass of indistinct diseases...to which of course the application of no particular substance can be known to have been made, not its effect on the case experienced. These may be called unknown cases, and they may in time be lessened by the progress of observation & experiment. Observing that there are in the constitution of the animal system some means provided unknown to us which have a tendency to restore order, when disturbed by accident, called by physicians the via medicatrix naturae, I think it safer to trust to this power, in the unknown cases, than to uncertain conjectures, built on the ever-changing hypothetical systems of medicine."
"Now in the Veterinary department, all are unknown cases. Man can tell his physician the seat of his pain, it's nature, history and sometimes it's cause, and can follow his directions for the curative process. But the poor dumb horse cannot signify where his pain is...and resists all process for its cure. If in the case of man then the benefit of medical interference in such cases admits of question, what must it be in that of the horse? And to what narrow limits is the real importance of the veterinary art reduced?" As a boy, he recalls, "I knew a Doctr. Seymour,...who imagined he could cure the diseases of his tobacco plants. He bled some, administered lotions to others, sprinkled powders on a third class, and so on. They only withered and perished the faster."
Jefferson considerately acknowledges his "presumption in hazarding an opinion to you on a subject whereon you are so much better qualified for decision, both by reading and experience, but our opinions are not voluntary. Every man's own reason must be his oracle. And I only express mine to explain why I did not comply with Mr. Carver's request, and to give you a further proof that there are no bounds to my confidence in your indulgence in matters of opinion..."
A press copy of the letter is in the Jefferson Papers at DLC, as is Rush's response of 15 March.
THE RETIRED PRESIDENT NOTES THAT "MR. ADAMS AND I ARE IN HABITUAL CORRESPONDENCE," BUT ARE CAREFUL TO AVOID THE SUBJECT OF POLITICS: "WHEN THERE ARE SO MANY OTHERS ON WHICH WE AGREE, WHY SHOULD WE INTRODUCE THE ONLY ONE ON WHICH WE DIFFER?"
"EVERY MAN'S OWN REASON MUST BE HIS ORACLE." A rich, rambling and congenial letter, describing with pleasure his continuing correspondence with former rival John Adams (a reconciliation largely orchestrated by Rush), lauding the naval triumphs of the U.S.S. Constitution, and discoursing at length on his opinion of veterinary science and medicine. Jefferson notes that he and former President John Adams "are in habitual correspondence. I owe him a letter at this time, and shall pay the debt as soon as I have something to write about." One secret of their continuing correspondence, he explains, is that they have tacitly agreed to banish potentially divisive discussion of politics: "...with the commonplace topic of politics, we do not meddle. When there are so many others on which we agree, why should we introduce the only one on which we differ?"
Jefferson, who had been soundly criticized for neglecting the American naval fleet during his Presidency, alludes to the remarkable recent victories of the U.S.S. Constitution over two British frigates, the H.M.S. Guerrierre (19 August 1812) and H.M.S Java (29 December 1812). "Besides the pleasure which our naval successes have given to every honest patriot his [Adams's] must be peculiar, because a navy has always been his hobby-horse. A little further time will show whether his ideas have been premature, and whether the little we can oppose on that element to the omnipotence of our enemy there, would lessen the losses of the war, or contribute to shorten its duration, the legitimate object of every measure." Otherwise, military affairs have not gone well for the nation: "On the land indeed we have been most unfortunate, so wretched a succession of generals never before destroyed the fairest expectations of a nation, counting on the bravery of its citizen, which has proved itself on all these trials. Our first object must be the vindication of our character in the field, after that, peace, with the liberum mare [freedom of the seas], personal inviolability there, and ouster from this continent of the incendiaries of savages [British agents among the frontier tribes]. God send us these good things...."
Jefferson has received a puzzling solicitation from one James Carver, seeking funds "towards the expense of a voyage to London" in order to study Veterinary sciences "with a view to his returning to America, and practicing the art in Philadelphia. The name, person & character of the writer were equally unknown to me, and unauthenticated....I supposed him an Englishman from the style in which he spoke of 'his majesty' and because an American, without offence to the laws, could not now be going...to England. The scheme did not appear to me to be the shortest or surest way of going to work to accomplish the object...."
Jefferson asks Rush--"you...whom I know, love & revere"--whether Carver is "a zealous son of science, or an adventurer wanting money to carry him to London." He doubts not that the London Veterinary institution "merits the high character he ascribes to it. It is a nation which possesses many learned men. I know well the Veterinary school of Paris...and saw many of its publications during my residence there. They were classically written, announced a want of nothing but certainty to their facts, which granted, their hypotheses were learned & plausible. The coach-horses of the rich of Paris were availed of the institution; but the farmers even in the neighborhood, could not afford to call a veterinary Doctor to their plough horses in the country, or to send them to a livery stable to be attended in the city."
Jefferson explains his rather circumspect attitude towards medicine and explains that he has very little faith in veterinary science: "On the whole I was not a convert to the utility of the Institution. You know that I am so to that of medicine, even in human complaints, but in a limited degree. That there are certain diseases of the human body, so distinctly pronounced by well articulated symptoms, and returning so often, as not to be mistaken, wherein experience has proved that vertain substances applied, will restore order, I cannot doubt. Such are kinkina [chinchona] in intermittants [fevers], Mercury in Syphilis, Castor oil in dysentery, &c, as so far I go with the Physicians. But there are also a great mass of indistinct diseases...to which of course the application of no particular substance can be known to have been made, not its effect on the case experienced. These may be called unknown cases, and they may in time be lessened by the progress of observation & experiment. Observing that there are in the constitution of the animal system some means provided unknown to us which have a tendency to restore order, when disturbed by accident, called by physicians the via medicatrix naturae, I think it safer to trust to this power, in the unknown cases, than to uncertain conjectures, built on the ever-changing hypothetical systems of medicine."
"Now in the Veterinary department, all are unknown cases. Man can tell his physician the seat of his pain, it's nature, history and sometimes it's cause, and can follow his directions for the curative process. But the poor dumb horse cannot signify where his pain is...and resists all process for its cure. If in the case of man then the benefit of medical interference in such cases admits of question, what must it be in that of the horse? And to what narrow limits is the real importance of the veterinary art reduced?" As a boy, he recalls, "I knew a Doctr. Seymour,...who imagined he could cure the diseases of his tobacco plants. He bled some, administered lotions to others, sprinkled powders on a third class, and so on. They only withered and perished the faster."
Jefferson considerately acknowledges his "presumption in hazarding an opinion to you on a subject whereon you are so much better qualified for decision, both by reading and experience, but our opinions are not voluntary. Every man's own reason must be his oracle. And I only express mine to explain why I did not comply with Mr. Carver's request, and to give you a further proof that there are no bounds to my confidence in your indulgence in matters of opinion..."
A press copy of the letter is in the Jefferson Papers at DLC, as is Rush's response of 15 March.