|
''Notes on the State of Virginia'' (1785) is a book written by Thomas Jefferson. He completed the first version in 1781, and updated and enlarged the book in 1782 and 1783. ''Notes on the State of Virginia'' originated in Jefferson's responding to questions about Virginia, posed to him in 1780 by François Barbé-Marbois, then Secretary of the French delegation in Philadelphia, the temporary capital of the united colonies. Often dubbed the most important American book published before 1800, ''Notes on the State of Virginia'' is both a compilation of data by Jefferson about the state's natural resources and economy, and his vigorous and often eloquent argument about the nature of the good society, which he believed was incarnated by Virginia. He expressed his beliefs in the separation of church and state, constitutional government, checks and balances, and individual liberty. He wrote extensively about slavery, the problems of miscegenation, and his belief that whites and blacks could not live together in a free society. It was the only full-length book which Jefferson published during his lifetime. He first published it anonymously in Paris in 1785, where he was serving the US government as trade representative. John Stockdale published the book in its first English edition in 1787 in London. ==Publication and contents== ''Notes'' was anonymously published in Paris in a limited, private edition of two hundred copies in 1785. A French translation (by the Abbé Morellet) appeared in 1786. Its first public English-language edition, issued by John Stockdale in London, appeared in 1787. It was the only full-length book by Jefferson published during his lifetime, though he did issue a ''Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States'', generally known as ''Jefferson's Manual'', in 1801.〔Bernstein, 2004, p. 78〕 ''Notes'' includes some of Jefferson's most memorable statements of belief in such political, legal, and constitutional principles as the separation of church and state, constitutional government, checks and balances, and individual liberty. He celebrated the resources of Virginia. Overall, Jefferson was arguing with the proposition of the French naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, who in his authoritative ''Histoire Naturelle'' said that nature, plant life, animal life, and human life degenerate in the New World by contrast with their state in the Old World. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Notes on the State of Virginia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|