The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
NORTH AMERICA / NATURAL STATE
It is sometime since I have understood that there are large herds of
horses in a wild state, in the country west of the Mississippi, and
have been desirous of obtaining details of their history in that
State. Mr. Brown, Senator from Kentucky, informs me it would be in
your power to give interesting information on this subject, and
encourages me to ask it. The circumstances of the old world have,
beyond the records of history, been such as admitted not that animal
to exist in a state of nature. The condition of America is rapidly
advancing to the same. The present then is probably the only moment in
the age of the world, and the herds above mentioned the only subjects,
of which we can avail ourselves to obtain what has never yet been
recorded, and never can be again in all probability. I will add that
your information is the sole reliance, as far as I can at present see,
for obtaining this desideratum. You will render to natural history a
very acceptable service, therefore, if you will enable our
Philosophical Society to add so interesting a chapter to the history
of this animal.
to Philip Nolan, 24 June 1798
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