ALS, one page, 7.75 x 9.75, November 14, 1825. Letter to Dr. Thomas Sewall, who was a founding faculty member of the medical department at Columbian College in 1825. In part: “I have recd. your favor of the 7th with a copy of your Lecture at the opening of the Medical School recently established. You do me but justice in supposing that I feel an interest in the Literary & Scientific Institutions at the Seat of the National Government. Besides the more comprehensive motives, the long experience I had of the kindness of its Inhabitants, will always assure my particular good will & good wishes to whatever may be honorable & beneficial to them. I have read the introductory Lecture, both with pleasure & with information. The scope given to it, and the manner in which its topics are treated, render it not only a valuable contribution to the Medical History of our Country, but a presage which must be very gratifying to the Patrons of the Institution.” Retains the integral address leaf in Madison’s hand, addressed to “Doctor Sewall Professor &c, Washington,” and franked in the upper right, “Free, James Madison.” In very good to fine condition, with slight splitting along folds and paper loss to integral address leaf.
Dr. Sewall gave a lengthy lecture on the progress of medical science in America on the occasion of the opening of the medical department at Columbian College (now George Washington University) on March 30, 1825. The lecture was published as an eighty-page booklet, which Madison clearly read with careful consideration—he was a scholar at heart, having studied a variety of subjects including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, law, geography, mathematics, and political philosophy in his youth. The former president would return to academia the following year when he was appointed as the second rector of the University of Virginia following the death of Thomas Jefferson. A splendid letter with desirable scholarly content. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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