1From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 19 June 1779 (Jefferson Papers)
Our delegates by the last post informed us that we might now obtain blank letters of marque for want of which our people have long and exceedingly suffered. I have taken the liberty therefore of desiring them to apply for fifty, and transmit them by a safe conveyance. The inclosed order being in it’s nature important and generally interesting, I thought it my duty to lay it before Congress as...