To Thomas Jefferson from James Thomson Callender, 18 December 1799
From James Thomson Callender
Richmond Decr. 18th. 1799
Sir
I understood by Colonel Quarrier that You were on Sunday to set out for Philadelphia.
I therefore venture to inclose the yesterday’s Examiner, lest it Should be sent on to Monticello, as it Contains some articles of mine, that I wish you to see.
On friday I Shall take the freedom of sending to you 50 or 60 additional pages of the Prospect.
Sir I hope that You will pardon this freedom, (I do not edite the Examiner at all, though I sometimes write in it.) from
Sir Your very obliged & humble servt
Jas. T. Callender.
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 30 Dec. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure not found.
Articles of mine: The Richmond Examiner of 17 Dec. included a piece “From a Scots Correspondent,” a title regularly used by Callender, in which he criticized John Stewart, editor of the Richmond Virginia Federalist. Perhaps Callender was also responsible for the warning to the public, dated 16 Dec., against the widely circulated assertion of “No British Debtor” in the Virginia Gazette and General Advertiser that TJ was “insolvent.” The Examiner had called on the Albemarle County accuser to exhibit his evidence, but so far he had remained silent.