TO COUNT POTOCKI.
Monticello, May 12, 1811.
Sir,—I have received your letter of August 19th, and with it the volume of chronology you were so kind as to send me, for which be pleased to accept my thanks. It presents a happy combination of sparse and unconnected facts, which, brought together and fitted to each other, forms a whole of symmetry as well as of system. It is as a gleam of light flashed over the dark abyss of times past. Nothing would be more flattering to me than to give aid to your inquiries as to this continent, and to weave its ancient history into the web of the old world; and with this view, to accept the invitation to a correspondence with you on the subject. But time tells me I am nearly done with the history of the world; that I am now far advanced in the last chapter of my own, and that its last verse will be read out ere a few letters could pass between St. Petersburg and Monticello. I shall serve you therefore more permanently, by bequeathing to you another correspondent, more able, more industrious, and more likely to continue in life than myself. Dr. Benjamin S. Barton, one of the Professors of the college of Philadelphia, is learned in the antiquities of this country, has employed much time and attention on researches into them, is active and punctual, and will, I think, better fulfil your wishes than any other person in the United States. If you will have the goodness to address a letter to him on the subject, with the inquiries you wish to make, he will, I am sure, set a just value on the correspondence proposed, for which I shall take care to prepare him, and in committing to better hands an honor which in earlier life I should have taken a pleasure in endeavoring to merit, I make a sacrifice of my own self-love, which is the strongest proof I can give you of the high respect and consideration of which I now tender you the assurance.