1959/04/01 by Julian P. Boyd · 7 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Colonialism, slavery, and trade #History #Psychology #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.2307/1916821
published in The William and Mary Quarterly 16(2), 165 (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture)
openalex publication_date 1959/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
O N July 4, I788, one Foulloy, a Frenchman who had just come from London, presented himself to the American minister in Paris and complained that Silas Deane had taken him in for a sum of I20 guineas. Failing to obtain any other satisfaction, he had laid hands on his account book, and letter book and now offered to sell them for the amount of the alleged debt.' These were public records that were being privately offered for sale, and Thomas Jefferson, whose zeal in protecting such documents was unsurpassed in that or later days, was immediately interested. The Virginia planter, who was about to triumph in negotiations over the whale fisheries against a tough combination of bureaucrats in the French ministry of marine and Quaker whalemen from Nantucket, was obliged to levy upon his skill in diplomacy as well as his long experience in collecting rare books and manuscripts in order to detach the two volumes from Foulloy.2 His principal object was to restore them to their rightful owner, the public. His next was to keep them from falling into unfriendly hands. But, ironically, he also wished to shield Edward Bancroft as a presumed American citizen