RC (DLC); dateline at foot of text; addressed: “Thomas Jefferson Esqr Monticello Va”; franked; postmarked New York, 19 Dec.; endorsed by TJ as received 31 Dec. 1813 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Robert Fulton (working “from the surveys of John D. DeLacy”), Report of the Practicability of Navigating with Steam Boats, on the Southern Waters of the United States, from the Chesapeak to the River St. Mary’s, forming part of a line of Steam-Boat Communications, now establishing, from the northern extremity of Lake Champlain to East-Florida, a distance of fifteen hundred miles (New York, 1813), in which Fulton stresses the “importance of cheap and rapid communication” to national prosperity (p. 3); argues that improved transportation will “encourage manufactures by a cheap conveyance of raw materials; promote and refine agriculture, increase population, and advance civilization throughout the whole range of our country—by giving to our citizens an easy intercourse, it will assimilate their customs, manners, and opinions, and bind them together as much by their habits as their interests” (pp. 3–4); suggests that American waters are uniquely suited to the use of steamboats; expresses a hope that Congress and the various state legislatures will take an interest in the issue; predicts that it will only cost about $40,000 to clear the shoals and cut all the portages between Norfolk and the Saint Marys River; describes the navigable waterways of North Carolina; provides a detailed summary of DeLacy’s survey; and asks for friendly cooperation from affected states and landowners.