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...