46511Editorial Note: To the Senate: Interim Appointments, 6 January 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Jefferson wrote his son-in-law, John Wayles Eppes, on 1 Jan. 1802 that although Republicans held an 18 to 14 majority in the Senate, through absences “hitherto we have been so nearly equal there, that I have not ventured to send in my nominations, lest they should be able to dismast the administration.” Meanwhile, the president was giving thought to the arrangement of the list of more than 120...
46512Editorial Note: Conference with Little Turtle (Jefferson Papers)
In the spring of 1801, the Miami Indian leader Little Turtle expressed an intention to travel from his home on the Wabash River to see the new president of the United States in Washington. Little Turtle’s interpreter and son-in-law, William Wells, apparently knew Meriwether Lewis, who had served with the army on the frontier, and Wells informed Lewis of the intended visit. “Our friend the...
46513Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
While drafting his 10 Jan. 1816 response to Horatio G. Spafford’s letter of 25 Dec. 1815 , Jefferson digressed from comments on Spafford ’s enclosed manuscript to what he here describes to Thomas Ritchie as a “tirade” on a religious publication sent to him by Benjamin Waterhouse on 14 Dec. 1815 . The work in question, Lyman Beecher ’s pamphlet On the Importance of Assisting Young Men of Piety...
46514Editorial Note: The Judicial Appointment of Joseph Anderson (Jefferson Papers)
Joseph Inslee Anderson’s first appointment to civil office initiated a long career on the bench, in the Senate, and in the federal administration. But it brought anxiety and embarrassment to the candidate, disturbed his political sponsors, and, for the first time, obliged the President to confront the question whether he should withhold a commission even after the Senate had confirmed his...
46515Editorial Note: Jefferson’s Questions and Observations on the Application of France (Jefferson Papers)
The four documents printed below illuminate an obscure episode in the Secretary of State’s continuing political contest with his great antagonist in the Treasury Department. As Republican critics in the National Gazette and the House of Representatives mounted their assault on Alexander Hamilton’s management of public finances, this chapter in Jefferson’s conflict with the Treasury Secretary...
46516Jefferson’s Letters to David Williams: Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
Joel Barlow introduced David Williams to James Monroe “as an old friend of Dr. Franklin.” On 20 Sep., Monroe informed the president that he was forwarding Williams’s 1802 London publication, Claims of Literature: The Origin, Motives, Objects, and Transactions of the Society for the Establishment of A Literary Fund . Monroe agreed to present any response Jefferson wished to make to the author....
46517II. Extract and Commentary Printed in the Paris Moniteur, [25 January 1797] (Jefferson Papers)
Notre état politique a prodigieusement changé depuis que vous nous avez quitté. Au lieu de ce noble amour de la liberté et de ce gouvernement républicain, qui nous ont fait passer triomphans à travers les dangers de la guerre, un parti anglicain-monarchico-aristocratique s’est élevé. Son objet avoué est de nous imposer la substance, comme il nous a déjà donné les formes du gouvernement...
46518Petition from Henry Roberts, 22 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
The Petition of Henry Roberts Humbly Sheweth. that your Petitioner was formerly a Soldier in the Virginia, line, in the third regment of Dragoons Commanded by Colonels George Baylor and William Washington, which the muster roles of the fourth troop of said Regment will testify. your Petitioner further Sheweth that at the Close of the late war he went to the City of Philadelphia where he...
46519Enclosure: Army Appointments, 9 November 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
List of Appointments in the Army of the United States during the last recess of Congress. Hannibal M Allen of Vermont 2d Lieut. of Artillery to take rank from the 27th June 1804. James S Smith of New Jersey 2d Lieut. of Artillery to take rank from the 27th June 1804. Joseph Kimball of New Hampshire 2d Lieut of Artillery to take rank from the 27th June 1804. John Brownson of Vermont Ensign 1st...
46520Memorandum from Tench Coxe, 3 February 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Regulations of Navigation by the Government of the United States. It has been suggested, that the United States would form a more principled, stable and safe commercial system, by taking measures for a perfect freedom and equality of commerce between them and any considerable foreign nation, which would be willing to reciprocate the same— This reciprocity to extend to all the dominions of the...