I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and
respect, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.




LETTER XIV.--TO E. RUTLEDGE, September 18, 1789


TO E. RUTLEDGE.

Paris, September 18, 1789.

Dear Sir,

I have duly received your favor by Mr. Cutting, enclosing the paper
from Doctor Trumbull, for which I am very thankful. The conjecture that
inhabitants may have been carried from the coast of Africa to that of
America, by the trade winds, is possible enough; and its probability
would be greatly strengthened by ascertaining a similarity of language,
which I consider as the strongest of all proofs of consanguinity among
nations. Still a question would remain between the red men of the
eastern and western sides of the Atlantic, which is the stock, and which
the shoot. If a fact be true, which I suspect to be true, that there is
a much greater number of radical languages among those of America than
among those of the other hemisphere, it would be a proof of superior
antiquity, which I can conceive no arguments strong enough to overrule.