University of Virginia Library

TO
THE MEMBERS
OF THE
VIRGINIA HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY:

Excuse the liberty I take in asking the protection of
your name, for a work which I am compelled to throw
upon the world under the most inauspicious circumstances.
You seem to constitute the most appropriate body,
to which I can look for aid in perfecting the great work
which I have undertaken, and of which this imperfect essay
constitutes the first fruit. To render a work of this
description a perfect picture of the moral and political
condition of a state, and a faithful record of its progress to
its present condition, the efforts of no single individual
can be adequate; but the united and persevering exertion
of a number of gentlemen associated for the express purpose

of investigating and developing the resources of the
state, and finding and preserving the records of its history,
are absolutely necessary. I now venture to call your
attention to the first work which has ever appeared since
the publication of Mr. Jefferson's notes, which professed
to embrace all which could be ascertained of the present
situation of Virginia, and some investigation of its past
history. That materials for a much more copious detail
of both subjects exists, no one can doubt, but with the
hope that the information here collected may not be altogether
useless, I venture to ask the protection of your
countenance,