Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 to George Washington

Extract of a letter in the hand of Tobias Lear, secretary to George Washington. Explains that he proof-read entries from the "Encyclopedie Methodique" on the "Etats unis" and the "Cincinnati," and gave corrections to the author. Also gave the article on the Cincinnati to Colonel [David] Humphreys and the Marquis de Lafayette to get their corrections, and encloses it for General Washington to read. Discusses the Society of the Cincinnati: "I have never heard a person in Europe, learned, or unlearned, express his thoughts upon this institution, who did not consider it as dishonorable & destructive to our Governments, and that every writing which has come out since my arrival here, in which it is mentioned, considers it, even as now reformed, as the germ whose development is one day to destroy the fabric we have reared." After spending time in France, where the aristocracy is a "scourge" to most people, has come to believe that "tho' the day may be at some distance, beyond the reach of our lives perhaps, yet it will certainly come, when a single fibre left of this institution, will produce an hereditary aristocracy which will change the form of our Governments from the best to the worst in the world." Docketed by Henry Knox.