To Thomas Jefferson from Alexander Wilson, 18 March 1805
From Alexander Wilson
Kingsess March 18th 1805
Sir
I beg your acceptance of a small trifle in Natural History which though imperfectly executed is offered with all the sincerity of affection to the best Friend and brightest ornament of this happy Country. If It afford You a moments amusement I shall think myself amply rewarded.
On my return from a visit to the Falls of Niagara in October last I killed two Birds on the shores of the Mohawk river and conceiving them to be little known, particularly the Jay, I have taken the liberty of transmitting under favour of Mr. Bartram as faithfull a sketch of them as I was capabable of taking The Jay approaches nearly to the Corvus Canadensis of Linnaeus and Le Geay brun of Buffon differing however in the colour and article of crest so much as to seem to be a distinct species. From several other Birds found while on the same Tour I am inclined to believe that many subjects still remain to be added to our Nomenclature in the Ornithology of the middle and northern states.
Permit me now to ask your Excellency’s forgiveness for this intrusion. Rejoicing with a gratefull Country in the prospects of Reaping the fruits of your Pre-eminent services for many years I implore Heaven to bless and preserve a live so honourable to Science and so invaluable to the Republican institutions of a great and rapidly increasing Empire and beg leave to Subscribe myself
With the deepest veneration Your Excellencys sincere Friend and humble Servt
Alex Wilson
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “His Excelleny The President”; endorsed by TJ as received 6 Apr. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosed in William Bartram to TJ, 18 Mch. Enclosure not identified, but see below.
Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) wrote and illustrated the nine-volume American Ornithology: or, The Natural History of the Birds of the United States, which was published between 1808 and 1814 and provided the first comprehensive description of American birds ( No. 1022). TJ was a subscriber of the work. Born into a weaver’s family in Paisley, Scotland, Wilson initially made a name for himself by writing poems extolling pastoral values and critiquing the working conditions in textile mills. He immigrated to the United States in 1794 and after a time settled in the Philadelphia area, where he became friends with William Bartram, who inspired him to pursue his studies of American fowl. On the day of TJ’s first inauguration, Wilson delivered a public oration extolling the new president’s commitment to liberty (; Clark Hunter, ed., The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson [Philadelphia, 1983]; Port Folio, new ser., 7 [1812], 34-47; Alexander Wilson, Oration, On the Power and Value of National Liberty. Delivered to a Large Assembly of Citizens, at Milestown, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, March 4, 1801 [Philadelphia, 1801]; TJ to Wilson, 9 Oct. 1807).
small trifle in Natural History: in a letter of 26 Mch., Wilson described the drawing he sent to TJ. “The two nondescript birds which I killed on the Mohawk, attracted the notice of several naturalists about Philadelphia,” he wrote. “On the 4th of March, I set to work upon a large sheet of fine drawing paper, and in ten days I finished two faithful drawings of them, far superior to any that I had before. In the background, I represented a view of the Falls of Niagara, with the woods wrought in as finely as I possibly could do” (Hunter, ed., Alexander Wilson, 235).