Thomas Jefferson Letter on Avoiding Wars and Debt at Raab

The Raab Collection has acquired and is offering for sale a letter from Thomas Jefferson to Philadelphia scientist and Founding Father David Rittenhouse warning that the goal of the nation should be keeping out of wars and out of debt.

The letter, in a private collection since 2005, touches on the American West, his fear of growing wars abroad, and his belief that the payment of debts ought to be a foremost concern for the new nation. Over three pages, entirely in his handwriting, Jefferson discusses potential scientific discoveries, new books of interest, and a range of other topics.

Jefferson, then U.S. Minister to France and living in Paris, also sent Rittenhouse a French scientific treatise mentioned in the letter, which he inscribed. The volumes remain with the letter, together valued at $285,000.

"These are the only books given as a gift and inscribed by Jefferson, accompanied by the original letter sending them, that we have ever seen reach the market,” said Nathan Raab, president of The Raab Collection.

While in Paris in the mid-to-late 1780s, he purchased thousands of books. He was particularly interested in political and scientific texts, and he regularly shipped books back to friends in America. As he sent this letter to Rittenhouse, he included a multi-volume copy of Élémens d’histoire naturelle et de chimie (Elements of Natural History and Chemistry) by French chemist Antoine-François de Fourcroy which Jefferson called “the best and most complete publication in that line which we have had for some time past.”

Jefferson inscribed it to “Mr. Rittenhouse” and asked James Madison to deliver the books for him, which Madison did. 

Both the letter and the book were most recently owned by a private collector who had loaned them for exhibit at Texas A&M International University from 2008-2026. In the 19th century, scholar Henry Lowber of Philadelphia gave the letter and the books to collector George M. Elliott.