Our Collection

At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826) to William S. Cardell

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03785 Author/Creator: Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826) Place Written: Monticello, Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 27 January 1821 Pagination: 1 p. : address : docket : free frank ; 24.4 x 20.9 cm. Order a Copy

Jefferson asks Cardell to thank the American Academy of Language & Belles Lettres for giving him an honorary membership. Comments on the role of language in the advancement of science, making references to England and France, and contends that language should not be static.

William Samuel Cardell of New York wrote schoolbooks for young children as well as philosophical treatises on language. He served as corresponding secretary of the American Academy of Languages and Belles Lettres, an apparently short-lived organization.

Monticello Jan. 27. 21.
Sir
I have to make my acknolegements for the honor done me by the American academy of language & belles lettres, in appointing me an honorary member of their society, and I pray [inserted: you] to be the organ of rendering them my thanks. At my age and distance I can be but a very unprofitable associate but I sincerely wish them all the success which the object of the institution merits. The improvement & enlargement of the scope of our language is of first importance. Science must be stationary unless language advances pari passu. There are so many differences between us & England of soil, climate, culture[,] productions, laws, religion & goverment, that we must be left far behind the march of circumstances were we to hold ourselves vigorously to their standard. If, like the French academicians it were proposed to fix our language, it would be fortunate that the step was not taken in the days of our Saxon ancestors whose vocabulary would illy express the science of this day. Judicious neology can alone give strength & copiousness to language and enable it to be the vehicle of new ideas.
I pray you to accept the assurance of my great respect.
Th: Jefferson
Mr. Cardell
[address leaf:]
free
Th: Jefferson Free
Mr. William S. Cardell
New York.

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826
Cardell, William Samuel, 1780-1828

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