From Thomas Jefferson to William Falconer, 17 July 1803
To William Falconer
Washington July 17. 1803.
Sir
An old man of the name of Duncan Brown, who exhibits respectable attestations of character, complains of a robbery committed on him in North Carolina by an inhabitant of S. Carolina. he has been very illy advised, for he says he was advised to come to me to have justice done him. he shews me your opinion, which I immediately informed him was exactly what he ought to have pursued and to have spared himself the terrible journey he has taken. but he insists on being right, and that he will not move unless I will write to you to have justice done him. finding it more practicable to comply with, than to correct his judgment, I do so, only praying that you will ascribe the liberty I take to the sollicitations of the old man, who seems to have interested your feelings as he is calculated to do those of every other. I pray you to accept this apology & my respectful salutations.
Th: Jefferson
PrC (DLC); in ink at foot of text: “Wm Falconer esq. S.C.”
William Falconer (d. 1805), a Scottish-born attorney, settled in Chesterfield, South Carolina, sometime after 1785 and represented the district in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1792 to 1805. He was a Federalist elector in the presidential election of 1800 and a member of the first board of directors for the University of South Carolina (S.C. Biographical Directory, House of Representatives, 4:196-7; John Belton O’Neall, Biographical Sketches of the Bench and Bar of South Carolina, 2 vols. [Charleston, S.C., 1859], 2:343-4; Vol. 32:265).