TO NICHOLAS BIDDLE.
MAD. MSS.
Montpr, May 17, 1827
Dr Sir I thank you very sincerely for the copy
of your "Eulogium on Ths. Jefferson." I have
derived from it the peculiar pleasure, which so happy
a portraiture could not fail to afford one, who intimately
knew, & feelingly admired, the genius, the
learning, the devotion to public liberty and the many
private virtues of the distinguished original. Ably
& eloquently as the subject has been handled, all
must see that it had not been exhausted; and you
are, I am sure, alone in regretting that what remained
for some other hand, fell into yours.
Pardon me for remarking that you have been led
into an error, in the notice you take of the Revised
Code provided for, by the first Independent Legislature
of Virga. The Revisors, were in number not
three but five, viz Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Pendleton,
Mr. Wythe, Col. Geo. Mason & Col. Ths. L. Lee.
The last died & Col. Mason resigned; but not before
they had joined in a Consultative meeting. In the
distribution of the work among the others Mr.
W. was charged with the British Statutes, Mr. P.
with the Colonial laws, & Mr. J. with certain parts
of the com̃on Law, and the new laws called for by the
new State of the Country.
The portion executed by Mr. Jefferson was perhaps
the severest of his many intellectual labours. The
entire report, as a Model of technical precision, and
perspicuous brevity and particularly as comprising
samples of the philosophical spirit which ennobled
his Legislative policy, may, in spite of its Beccarian
Illusions, be worthy of a place among the collections
of the Society of which he was once the Presiding
Member; and if a Copy be not already there, it will
be a pleasure to me to furnish one. . . .
