46521Notes on Navy Appropriations for 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
6. frigates & 1. schooner in commission including repairs & contingencies } 476,874.86 7. frigates in ordinary (includ. rep. & conting.) 100,042.34. half pay to officers not in service 14,136. Genl. contingencies ( exclusive of those for vessels) viz. store rent, commissions, freight, travelg. exp. of officers. } 40,000 631,053.20 Stores, military & naval ordnance 15,000. 74. gun ships...
46522Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
Thomas Jefferson had long advocated sending an American-sponsored expedition to explore the region between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean . Although frustrated by the inability of George Rogers Clark in 1783–84, John Ledyard in 1788, and André Michaux in 1793 to fulfill this mission, Jefferson finally saw his dream become a reality with the dispatch in 1804 and safe return two years...
46523Editorial Note: Report on Copper Coinage (Jefferson Papers)
On Wednesday, 7 Apr. 1790, a “member from South Carolina presented to the House a letter addressed to him from John H. Mitchell … reciting certain proposals of Matthew Boulton of the kingdom of Great Britain for supplying the United States with copper coinage to any amount that government shall think fit to contract with him for, upon the terms therein mentioned,” whereupon the letter and...
46524Editorial Note: Cabinet Opinions on the Resolutions Concerning Arrearages in Soldiers’ Pay (Jefferson Papers)
This, as Alexander Hamilton stated, was “a case of inconsiderable magnitude.” In respect to the sum of money involved, this was a correct appraisal. At the close of the previous session of congress, the secretary of the treasury had been called upon to furnish estimates of funds needed for the civil list, for the department of war, and for satisfying unpaid warrants drawn by the board of...
46525List of Appointments, with Notes by Gallatin and Jefferson (Jefferson Papers)
August 2 Commissions 25— George Wentworth Surveyor for the District of Portsmouth and Inspector of the Revenue for the same. { do. Joseph Farley—Collector for the District of Waldoborough and Inspector of the Revenue for the same. do. Joseph Wilson, Collector for the District of Marblehead and Inspector of the Revenue for the same— 28th. do. Abraham Bloodgood, Surveyor for the Port of Albany &...
46526Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
As the 1818–19 legislative session approached, Jefferson and his allies prepared to submit to the Virginia General Assembly the 4 Aug. 1818 Rockfish Gap Report of the University of Virginia Commissioners , which recommended that Central College be the site of the University of Virginia . On 18 Nov. 1818 Joseph C. Cabell wrote to Jefferson
46527IV. Italian Translation of Extract, 24 April 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Dopo che ci lasciaste il nostro aspetto politico ha cambiato sorprendentemente. In luogo di quel nobile amor di libertà e di governo repubblicano, che ci portò in trionfo tutto il tempo della guerra, è insorto un partito anglicano monarchico e aristocratico, il cui manifesto oggetto è di tirarci addosso la sostanza del governo inglese, come ce ne hanno già tirate le formalità. Il grosso però...
46528Editorial Note: The Northwest Territory (Jefferson Papers)
If a poor man … should ask of me, where shall I go in order to live more at my ease, without the aid of oxen and horses? I would say to him, go upon the banks of some rivulet on the Plains of Scioto; there you will obtain permission of the savages of the neighbouring villages to scratch the surface of the earth, and deposit your rye, your corn, your potatoes, your tobacco, &c. leave the rest...
46529Enclosure: List of Books Sent to Jefferson, 5 November 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Note sur la 1re. Caisse des Livres envoyès à Mr. Le President Jefferson. Doll. Histoire nat. des Perroquets &c Tome ler. 120 Traitè des Arbres et Arbustes—16 Livraison 112 Plans des Maisons de Paris—20 40 Acerbi Travel’r In Sweden 12 Hist. nat. des Volcans 2 Harmonie Hydrovegetale 3 ½ Vüe de la Colonie espagnole du Missisippi &c 2 Histoire des Chênes &c p. Michaud
46530Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
On 1 Sept. 1821 Jefferson ’s much younger friend, the Harvard University professor George Ticknor , wrote to enlist the former president’s help in recruiting universities and learned societies to petition the United States Congress to abolish tariffs on books. Jefferson quickly agreed and sought support from acquaintances affiliated with the University of North Carolina , South Carolina...
46531Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
Between 6 Jan. and 29 July 1821, Jefferson overcame his oft-expressed aversion to writing about himself and produced his longest description of his life. In just over 32,000 words, he covered the period from his birth in 1743 until his arrival in New York in 1790 to take up his duties as secretary of state. Following brief accounts of his parentage, education, and marriage, Jefferson devoted...
46532Drafting the Annual Message to Congress: Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
At the close of the first session of the Seventh Congress in May 1802, the House of Representatives and the Senate adjourned to the first Monday in December, which would fall on the 6th ( Annals Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States…Compiled from Authentic Materials , Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834-56, 42 vols. All...
46533Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
On or about 13 Aug. 1817 Jefferson set out from Poplar Forest to visit Natural Bridge with his granddaughters Ellen W. Randolph (Coolidge) and Cornelia J. Randolph . Jefferson had most recently visited his Rockbridge County possession in 1815 with his friends José Corrêa da Serra and Francis W. Gilmer . On that occasion Jefferson measured the latitude of Natural Bridge
46534Editorial Note: The Article on the United States in the Encyclopédie Méthodique (Jefferson Papers)
On 25 Oct. 1786 William Short wrote to William Nelson: “You speak of the Encyclopedia. It will be a valuable work Sir in as much as all human science will be there brought together and arranged in a methodical manner. The different parts of the work are allotted to different persons to execute, and as it is impossible to find a sufficient number of learned men fit for and willing to engage in...
46535Enclosure: List of Candidates for Attorney General, 2 January 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
A list of such charactors as have occured to me as candidates for the appointment of Attorney Genl.— J Brackinridge— G. Hay— J. H. Nicholson C— Rodney A.er—Dallas Alexr. Wolcut B— Bidwell— RC ( DLC : TJ Papers, 145:25243); undated, in Dearborn’s hand.
46536Editorial Note: Drafting the Annual Message to Congress (Jefferson Papers)
Article 2, Section 3, of the Constitution specifies that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union.” Washington and Adams performed the function by addressing Congress at the opening of the session in the fall. Adams gave his last such address on 22 Nov. 1800, soon after the convening of the second session of the Sixth Congress (Vol....
46537Editorial Note: Jefferson’s Letter to John Adams (Jefferson Papers)
Anticipating an administration headed by John Adams with himself as vice president, Jefferson apparently hoped with this letter to restore a political relationship that had become frayed following the unintended publication in 1791 of his endorsement of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man and his implicit criticism of Adams’s “political heresies” (see Editorial Note and documents at 26 Apr. 1791,...
46538Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
In crafting his response to James Fishback’s letter of 5 June 1809, Jefferson completed a draft that argued passionately and at length against intolerance and forced conformity in religion. Possibly reflecting that his letter was outspoken enough to create controversy and that he knew very little about Fishback or his discretion, Jefferson then substituted a briefer and less revealing version,...
46539Editorial Note: Reply to a Cherokee Delegation, 3 July 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
On Tuesday, 30 June 1801, “a Deputation from the Cherokee Nation of Indians on behalf of the said Nation” met with Henry Dearborn at the War Office. The delegation consisted of five Cherokee chiefs, their interpreter, Charles Hicks, and an assistant interpreter. The chief clerk of the War Department, John Newman, apparently kept the minutes of the conference. A chief called The Glass was the...
46540Notes on a Cabinet Meeting, 8 October 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
1804. Oct. 8. Present the 4. Secretaries. Yrujo’s and C. Pinckney’s communicns submitted. Cevallos’s 1st. condn as to giving time for commencement of Commissn. all agree we may fix a day with Yrujo not exceeding 6. months hence. say nothing which shall weaken our claims under the 6th. article, and repeat the explanation of the 4th. & 11th. article of the act of Congress already given him, and...
46541Petition of Thomas Jefferson and Others to the Virginia General Assembly, [before 13 December 1810] (Jefferson Papers)
To The General Assembly of Virginia , the Petition of the Subscribers, Inhabitants of the Counties of Albemarle , Louisa & Fluvanna , Sheweth: that the navigation of The Rivanna river from the Point of Fork to Milton , free from the obstacles, which at present impede it, is an object of great and general public utility, and would be particularly beneficial to all that tract of country...
46542Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
James Madison was on poor terms with James Monroe after the latter’s abortive bid for the presidency in 1808 and accompanying flirtation with the Richmond Junto and the Tertium Quids led by John Randolph of Roanoke . Ever since his final departure from Washington , Jefferson had been anxious to see an end to this rift. He assured Madison on 30 March that Monroe had severed most of his ties to...
46543Editorial Note: Jefferson’s Opinion on the Treaties with France (Jefferson Papers)
Thomas Jefferson’s carefully qualified opinion in favor of the continued validity of the 1778 treaties of alliance and commerce with France was designed to resolve a neutrality question of fundamental importance raised by Alexander Hamilton in response to the arrival in Philadelphia early in April 1793 of reliable intelligence of the French Republic’s declaration of war on Great Britain and...
46544Editorial Note: The Case of Mace Freeland (Jefferson Papers)
This case, along with others that came to him during 1782, reveals Jefferson as turning seriously to the practice of the law. Perhaps the fact that the case of Mace Freeland seemed to offer an opportunity to reinforce those “principles of moderation and justice which principally endear a republican government to it’s citizens” may have induced him to accept it. At any rate on 12 Feb. 1782,...
46545Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
By the latter part of the 1790s Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had become bitter political opponents. The friendship they had forged as congressional and diplomatic colleagues, fellow revolutionaries, and members of George Washington’s administration did not survive the strain of Jefferson’s victory in the 1800 presidential election. Adams left the nation’s capital just before Jefferson’s...
46546Jefferson’s Translation of Extracts from Destutt de Tracy’s Reflections on Montesqueiu’s First Twelve Books, [ca. 12 … (Jefferson Papers)
Extracts from the author’s r R eflections on Montesquieu’s 12. first books. ‘I have divided governments into two classes, to wit, those founded on the general rights of man, and those pretending to be founded on the rights of particular individuals. Montesquieu classes governments from the accidental circumstance of the number of men who are the depositories of the public authority: and he...
46547Madison on “The Earth Belongs to the Living” (Jefferson Papers)
I. TEXT AS RECEIVED BY JEFFERSON, 1790 II. TEXT AS REVISED BY MADISON LATE IN LIFE EDITORIAL NOTE In the well-known exchange between Jefferson and Madison on the concept that one generation cannot bind another in perpetuity, both men adhered in substance to the views as first expressed and then later revised the form of this expression (see Vol. 15: 384–99). Madison’s rephrasing, however, took...
46548Sentence in the Court-Martial of John Spence: Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
I. HENRY DEARBORN’S PRELIMINARY DRAFT [10 MCH. 1802] II. HENRY DEARBORN’S SECOND DRAFT, WITH JEFFERSON’S REVISIONS [20 APR. 1802] Among the myriad duties that devolved on Jefferson as president of the United States was the periodic review of general courts-martial proceedings. According to federal law, such proceedings were to be forwarded to the president in times of peace if the...
46549Editorial Note: Documents Relating to the 1796 Campaign for Electors in Virginia (Jefferson Papers)
While Jefferson’s correspondence makes no mention of the Virginia campaign for presidential electors in 1796, a group of documents pertaining to the election, including three letters, five depositions or certificates (two of which are printed below, the first dealing with Jefferson’s indebtedness and the second with his relations with Aaron Burr), and a handbill are in his papers at the...
46550Editorial Note: Notes on Resolution of American Debts to British Creditors, 13 June 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Article 6 of the Jay Treaty provided for a bilateral commission to settle Americans’ pre-Revolutionary War debts to British creditors, but disagreements between the two sides brought the panel’s work to a halt in 1799. John Adams hoped that procedural changes might allow the commission to continue its work. However, when Rufus King suggested that the British might accept a lump-sum settlement...