1To Thomas Jefferson from Andrew Ellicott, 11 May 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I ask pardon for not furnishing you sooner with the method I use for calculating the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies. In almost every one of our popular books of navigation, we find the declinations of the principal fixed stars, with that of the sun for every day in the year, and a table of logarithms, which is all that is necessary for calculating the semi-diurnal arcs. The rule is...
2To Thomas Jefferson from Andrew Ellicott, 11 May 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
This will be handed to you by Mr. Dinsmore , who was several years our Agent in the Cherokee nation, the duties of which he performed with singular reputation; and to his exertions in a great measure, is owing the introduction of some of the arts among that people—He has lately been appointed by the Secretary of War agent to the Chocktaws, among whom I have no doubt he will be found extremely...