From Thomas Jefferson to John Monroe, 25 April 1801
To John Monroe
Monticello Apr. 25. 1801.
Dear Sir
Having to dispose of the inclosed commission I cannot better do it than by inserting your name. I am told you will not leave your present residence till the fall, or perhaps not at all. if in the fall, we can but then supply it, and indeed I think it highly probable the law will be repealed at the meeting of Congress. I set out tomorrow to take up my abode in Washington. accept assurances of my esteem & respect
Th: Jefferson
PrC (DLC); at foot of text: “John Monroe esq.” Enclosure: Commission, not found, for Monroe as U.S. attorney for the western district of Virginia (see below).
John Monroe (1749–1837) was a Staunton, Virginia, lawyer and a member, in 1800, of the Republican committee for Augusta County. He had kinship ties to James Monroe and was acquainted with John Marshall and Bushrod Washington. In 1800 he sought, unsuccessfully, an appointment as the U.S. attorney for Kentucky. On 25 Apr. 1801, TJ named him the attorney for the western district of Virginia in place of Samuel Blackburn, one of John Adams’s late-term appointments. The Senate confirmed TJ’s appointment of Monroe in January 1802. Later Monroe did relocate to Kentucky, where by 1807 he was presiding judge of the circuit court (Madison, Papers, Pres. Ser., l:326n; , 4:217; , 1:402, 405; Vol. 32:38–9, 41; Appendix I, Lists 3 and 4).
Law: the Judiciary Act of 1801.