To Thomas Jefferson from John Crawford, 18 August 1807

Sir!	Baltimore 18th. Augt. 1807

I take the liberty to solicit your attention to some remarks I have given to the public, on Quarantines, in the accompanying weekly paper. It is a great national object. I have been assiduously studying the subject with which it is intimately connected, the cause of death, and consequently of disease in every animal for more than seventeen years.

I have conceived that whilst the view I have taken of it has escaped every other Observer, that it approaches the truth more nearly than any system hitherto offered. If dispassionate Judges should coincide with me in opinion, it is my wish to comprise the whole of what I have to adduce in a connected work, and, if it is deemed worthy of so much notice, to have it translated into the different languages of, especially the maritime Nations. If, in accomplishing this, it could be transmitted to the different foreign Courts by the authority of Government, it would command much more immediate attention, and ensure to it a much more speedy effect. If the candid mind of so able and so enlightened a Judge as the President should be favourably impressed with what I have suggested, my success will be unquestionable.

I have the honor to be Sir! with veneration and the most profound respect, Your most faithful Servant

John Crawford

The Pages of the several numbers which contain my remarks are, in the begining of each, folded down, for the greater facility of finding them.

DLC: Papers of Thomas Jefferson.

This early access document derives from raw transcriptions, prior to editing and publication in Rotunda's American History Collection. If this document is cited in formal research, it should be noted that it is not a final version, and that the URL you used to access it is not permanent.
Please report any errors or problems you notice in documents.