Thomas Jefferson Papers
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From Thomas Jefferson to Richard Henry Lee, [16?] March 1781

To Richard Henry Lee

[16 March 1781]

Sir

I must beg the favor of you to procure for me the advice of assembly on the inclosed matter on the first meeting this morning. Will you be so good also as to intimate to the Speaker of the Senate that immediate dispatch is requisite on any resolution which the delegates may think proper to send them.

I am with much esteem Sir Your obt Sevt.,

Th: Jefferson

P.S. This being intended for a private letter I will mention to you that the information of the arrival of the Marquis was premature. 30 of his Men arrived at York who parted with him off Patuxent.

Tr (ViHi); at foot of text: “True Copy from the original Chas H McBlair.” RC sold at American Art Association, 30 Nov. 1927 (Henry Goldsmith Sale), lot 26. Enclosure: TJ to Speaker, same day, following.

TJ obviously wrote this letter after he had received Richard Claiborne’s letter of 14 Mch., q.v. There is no indication in the proceedings of the House of Delegates that a letter was received from TJ on 15 Mch. This letter must, therefore, have been written as a personal letter to Lee to accompany his public letter of 16 Mch., q.v. TJ’s letter to Muhlenberg, which is clearly dated 16 Mch., also indicates that TJ did not yet know that Lafayette had, after all, arrived on 14 Mch.

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    Source Project
    Jefferson Papers
    Title
    From Thomas Jefferson to Richard Henry Lee, [16?] March 1781
    Author
    Jefferson, Thomas
    Recipient
    Lee, Richard Henry
    Date
    16 March 1781

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From Thomas Jefferson to Richard Henry Lee, [16?] March 1781,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-05-02-0209. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 5, 25 February 1781 – 20 May 1781, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952, pp. 160–161.]

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