Patents. 
453 
I have thus, sir^ at your request given you the facts and ideas 
Which occur to me on the subject. I have done it without reserve, 
although I have not the pleasure of knowing you personally. In 
thus frankly committing myself to you, I trust you will feel it as a 
point of honour and candour to make no use of my letter, which 
might bring disquietude on myself and particularly 1 should be 
unwilling to be brought into any difference with Mr. Evans, whom, 
however, I believe too reasonable to take offence at an honest dif* 
ference of opinion. I esteem him much, and sincerely wish him 
wealth and honour. 1 deem him a valuable citizen of Uncommon 
ingenuity and usefulness ; and had I not esteemed still more 
the establishment of sound principles, I should now have been 
silent. If any of the matter I have offered can promote that ob^ 
ject, I have no objection to its being so used. If it offers nothing 
new, it will of course not be used at all. 
I have gone with some minuteness into the mathematical his- 
tory of the elevator, because it belongs to a branch of science, 
in which, as I have before observed, it is not incumbent on lawyers 
to be learned ; and it is possible, therefore, that some of the 
proofs I have quoted, may have escaped on their former argu- 
ments. 
On the law of the subject 1 should not have touched, because 
more familiar to those who have already discussed it, but I wish* 
ed to state my own view of it merely in justification of myself; 
my name and approbation being subscribed to the act. With these 
explanations accept the assurances of my respect. 
TH: JEFFERSON. 
1 have looked into the Code Napoleon of the year 14, for the 
law of France relating to Brevets d’invention, and into the pub- 
lished speeches of orators on that code, but I cannot find any thing 
»Dn the subject. 
Having now given all the information I am in possession of, 
as to the existing circumstances of patent rights, I shall offer my 
own suggestions on this difficult and interesting subject. 
And First, 1 would premise, that although I do not consider per® 
sons whose time is so exclusively dedicated to legal discussions 
as the gentlemen of the profession in England, and indeed in this 
zountry, as fully competent to decide all the questions that can 
It is proper to observe, that though the author did not at the time writ- 
ing this letter, contemplate its publication, yet his pernii«sion has since been 
obtained. 
VeK il 3 M 
