ONE OF ONLY TWO KNOWN COPIES ANNOTATED BY JEFFERSON: EXTRAORDINARILY RARE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY OF JEFFERSON’S 1801 MANUAL OF PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE, WITH HIS HANDWRITTEN ANNOTATIONS AND SIGNED AUTOGRAPH NOTE PRESENTING THE BOOK TO HIS FRIEND FRANCIS T. BROOKE: “TH. JEFFERSON PRESENTS HIS SALUTATIONS TO MR. BROOKE SPEAKER OF THE SENATE OF VIRGINIA… AS TESTIMONY OF THE GIVER”

JEFFERSON, Thomas. A Manual of Parliamentary Practice. WITH: Autograph note signed. Washington City: Samuel Harrison Smith, 1801. 12mo, contemporary full brown calf gilt, red morocco spine label; pp. [199]. WITH: Autograph note signed, dated December 20, 1802, tipped to rear pastedown (measures 4-3/4 by 7-1/4 inches). Housed in an early custom full morocco solander case, and modern custom clamshell box..

A truly extraordinary Jefferson rarity: one of only two known copies annotated by Jefferson of the first edition of his 1801 Manual of Parliamentary Practice, and one of the few presentation copies of the work. This remarkable presentation/association copy has Jefferson’s handwritten annotations and corrections to two leaves of text and a signed autograph note presenting the book to his friend and fellow Virginian, Francis Taliaferro Brooke: “Th. Jefferson presents his salutations to Mr. Brooke Speaker of the Senate of Virginia, and availing himself of the moment when the confidence of his country has placed him where the little volume accompanying this may be a convenience, he asks his acceptance of it as a testimony of the respect of the giver. Washington Dec. 20, 1802.” Brooke later wrote about receiving this book from Jefferson: “When I was elected Speaker of the State of Virginia, he sent me his parliamentary manual, with a very flattering note wafered in it.”

This exceptional copy of the first edition of Jefferson’s Manual is of the utmost rarity and importance, as it is not only one of the few known presentation copies, but it is also one of only two known copies that are annotated and corrected by Jefferson. Jefferson’s personal copy, with many annotations and corrections in his hand (as well as his customary ownership marks) is at the Library of Congress and is “one of two known copies of the first edition annotated by the author; a second annotated copy was provided to The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Project by a private collector” (Wendell Ford, U.S. Senate Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Administration, in the 1993 GPO edition of Jefferson’s Manual, xii). Wilbur Samuel Howell, the editor of Jefferson’s Parliamentary Writings, identified the owner of that private copy as Dr. Alfred J. Liebmann and noted that Liebmann supplied Julian Boyd (the editor of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson) with a photocopy of Jefferson’s annotations “for use in the present edition,” and he describes Jefferson’s annotations to two leaves (Howell, Jefferson’s Parliamentary Writings, 339). This copy being offered is the Liebmann copy; it was part of his collection of signed and inscribed presidential books in the mid-1950s and has been privately held since Liebmann’s death in 1957.

Jefferson’s first annotation is in Section XXII (Bills, K2 recto) where he has faintly underlined three lines, drawn a bracket in the margin and noted: “these words should have been in Italics.” (Jefferson’s personal copy at the Library of Congress has a slightly different version of the annotation, reading: “these words should be in Italics.”) Jefferson’s second annotation is in Section LII (Treaties, Z1 verso), where he has added a long footnote. At the end of line seven, Jefferson has neatly inked “+” and in five lines on the lower margin, he has written: “+ The treaty of the Pardo between Spain & G. B. in 1739, being disapproved by parliament, was not ratified. In consequence whereof the war it was intended to prevent took place. Observns. of France on Memorial of England, pa 107.” (Jefferson’s personal copy at the Library of Congress does not contain this annotation.) Howell notes that Jefferson’s “reference in the footnote is to Gerard de Rayneval’s Observations on the Justificative Memorial of the Court of London (Paris and Philadelphia, 1781)” (339).

Jefferson worked on his Manual of Parliamentary Procedure throughout his vice presidency, while presiding over the Senate. He finished the manuscript in December 1800 and delivered it to publisher Samuel Harrison Smith with this note, dated December 21st: “Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to Mr. Smith, and incloses the little book which he wishes to have printed, without subjecting it to any copy-right. He will ask of Mr. Smith either to print him 100 copies at his own expence, or for Mr Smith to print it on his own account & let Th:J have 75 copies at the selling price. The sooner it is begun, the better” (Papers of TJ, 32:337). In January 1801 Jefferson took the manuscript back so he could add some new Senate rules (the printed work includes rules dated as late as February 3, 1801) and then returned the manuscript to Smith (32:405). Jefferson wrote to Smith on Monday, February 23, 1801, noting: “The bookbinder promised me 40 copies of the Manual on Thursday morning. Yours therefore might be offered for sale on Saturday” (33:54). On February 27, 1801, Smith announced the publication of the book in his newspaper. “On the day before he stepped down from that office [president of the Senate], February 27, 1801, an event of some significance occurred in Washington that crowned Jefferson’s accomplishments in parliamentary scholarship. The National Intelligencer… announced: ‘This day is published by Samuel H. Smith, Near the Capitol, A Manual of Parliamentary Practice. For the use of the Senate of the United States. By Thomas Jefferson, Washington….’ Thus the Senate acquired its first full parliamentary rule book, and the new American democracy a reliable guide to an altogether remarkable English parliamentary tradition” (Howell, 26-7). “Jefferson compiled his Manual for a narrow constituency, and Samuel Harrison Smith printed a limited number of copies” (Ford, xii). On February 28th, Jefferson stepped down as president of the Senate, and on March 4th he was inaugurated President of the United States.

“On a quiet December morning in 1800, a well-dressed gentleman knocked on the door at the Capitol Hill residence of publisher Samuel Smith. When the publisher’s wife, Margaret Bayard Smith, greeted him, she had no idea who he was. But she liked him at once, ‘So kind and conciliating were his looks and manners.’ Then her husband arrived and introduced her to the vice president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had come to deliver a manuscript for publication. Mrs. Smith admiringly noted the vice president’s ‘neat, plain but elegant handwriting.’ Weeks later, on February 27, 1801, Jefferson returned to receive a copy of his newly printed book. It bore the title A Manual of Parliamentary Practice for Use of the Senate of the United States.

“Three years earlier, in 1797, Jefferson had approached his single vice-presidential duty of presiding over the Senate with feelings of inadequacy. John Adams, who had held the job since the Senate’s founding in 1789, knew a great deal about Senate procedure and— of equal importance— about British parliamentary operations. Yet, despite Adams’ knowledge, senators routinely criticized him for his arbitrary and inconsistent parliamentary rulings. In his first days as vice president, Jefferson decided to compile a manual of legislative procedure as a guide for himself and future presiding officers. He believed that such an authority, distilled largely from ancient books of parliamentary procedure used in the British House of Commons, would minimize senators’ criticism of presiding officers’ rulings, which in those days were not subject to reversal by the full Senate.

“Jefferson arranged his manual in 53 topical sections, running alphabetically from ‘Absence’ to ‘Treaties.’ He began the section entitled ‘Order in Debate’ with a warning to members based on his own observation of legislative behavior. Even today, his admonition might suitably appear on the wall of any elementary school classroom: ‘No one is to disturb another [person who is speaking] by hissing, coughing, spitting, speaking or whispering to another.’ Although Jefferson’s original manuscript has long since disappeared, a personal printed copy, with notes in his own handwriting, survives in the Library of Congress. Jefferson’s Manual, with its emphasis on order and decorum, changed the way the Senate of his day operated. Years later, acknowledging Jefferson’s brilliance as a parliamentary scholar, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted his Senate Manual as a partial guide to its own proceedings.

“Thomas Jefferson’s Manual of Parliamentary Practice is, without question, the distinguishing feature of his vice-presidency. The single greatest contribution to the Senate by any person to serve as a vice president, it is as relevant to the Senate of today as it was to the Senate of the late 18th century…. As has been well said, no other American public man ‘left so enduring a mark on legislative procedure’ [as did Jefferson]. This was by means of the parliamentary manual he compiled during his term [as vice president under Adams] and left to the Senate as a legacy. That it was cherished by his contemporaries and by posterity is amply demonstrated by the fact that more than a century and a half after he left his chair it was still being printed in the current Senate Manual, along with the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution…. Though prepared for the senate and best suited to that body, it came to be highly valued by the House of Representatives” (U.S. Senate).

Jefferson presented this copy to his friend Francis Taliaferro Brooke, the Speaker of the Senate of Virginia. Brooke was also a friend and close neighbor of George Washington, and in 1791 he married Washington’s niece, Mary Randolph Spotswood. Brooke “enlisted at the age of 16 to fight in the American Revolution. As a lieutenant he served under Lafayette and more directly under Harrison, and in his Narrative he described conditions in his state at the time of Cornwallis’ campaign in 1781 and Tarleton’s raid into the interior…. After the peace he studied law… entered political life, and was in the House of Delegates 1794-95, and later in the state Senate. While serving as speaker of the Senate in 1804 he was elected judge of the general court, and henceforth his career was on the bench. In 1811 he was elected judge of the supreme court of appeals, and served with that body for the rest of his life (1824-30) being its president” (ANB). In Brooke’s Narrative, written primarily for his family and privately printed in 1849, he “recorded his acquaintance with Greene, Gates, Jefferson, Monroe and others, and particularly with Washington. The two were neighbors, were quite intimate from Brooke’s boyhood, and the Narrative gives a fairly close view of the President when off— as well as when on—‘dress parade” (ANB). Brooke’s work contains many anecdotes about Jefferson, and he specifically mentions that Jefferson gave him this copy of the Manual “with a very flattering note”: “I knew Mr. Jefferson very well…. I was afterwards often at Monticello, and saw much of him there; and while he was President of the United States. He was a man of easy and ingratiating manners; he was very partial to me, and I have corresponded with him while I was Vice-President of the Society of Cincinnati… Mr. Jefferson never would discuss any proposition if you differed with him, for he said he thought discussion rather rivetted [sic] opinions than changed them. When I was elected Speaker of the State of Virginia, he sent me his parliamentary manual, with a very flattering note wafered in it, which is now in the possession of my son Robert” (365-6).

This is the 1801 first edition of the work, with 199 unnumbered pages. Sabin erroneously listed two earlier editions which never existed, an 1800 edition and an 1801 printing with fewer pages (Sabin 35887). No copies were ever found, but the erroneous information was reprinted in other sources, including Tomkins (83). Howell, the editor of Jefferson’s Parliamentary Writings for the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, firmly states that “there was in fact no edition of the Manual in that year [1800]” and identifies the likely source of Sabin’s error (Howell, 434).With initial blank excised. Shaw & Shoemaker 719. In addition to Jefferson’s annotations on two leaves, this copy also shows a small inked “a” in the margin at line 13 (L1 recto); a small inked “B” in the margin at line 1 (L†1 recto); and a small underlined “C” at lines 16 and 17 (L†2 verso). Early owner signature dated June 10, 1852. Faint penciled bibliographic notations to front pastedown. Two small notes laid in. The first is printed (3-1/2 by 5 inches) with bibliographic information on the recto only, describing this as “a most important historical document. On two pages it contains several lines of comments in Jefferson’s meticulous handwriting.” The second (measures 3 by 5 inches) contains brief biographical information on Brooke, in an unidentified manuscript hand on the recto only, describing him, in part, as a “Neighbor and friend of Washington.”

Text with light scattered foxing, faint occasional marginal dampstaining. Joints and spine ends expertly repaired. An extraordinary presentation copy and a most important American rarity.