Thomas Jefferson Papers

From Thomas Jefferson to John Barnes, 5 May 1801

To John Barnes

Washington May 5. 1801.

Dear Sir

On examination of our accounts I observe the amount [D]
of your debet [2276.685]
2000. D. for March and 2000. D. for April
supposed receivable yesterday  4000.   
leaves a balance for the use of the present month of [1723.295]

I will therefore ask the favor of you to make arrangemts. for the following sums:

for Colo. Thos. Newton Norfolk by draught on the
Collector if possible 350.125
Colo. John Hoomes 300.   
Mr. Rembrandt Peale to be pd in Philadelphia 30.   
to mr Rapin cash on account 200.   
to myself in bank bills (of 5. & [10.] D.)  30.   
910.125

I did expect Colo. Hoomes would have written to you where & in what form [he] would chuse to recieve his money, & if he has not, I am at a loss what [to advise]. I will inclose Colo. Newton’s draught in a letter of my own. accept assurances of my affectionate esteem & attachment.

Th: Jefferson

PrC (CSmH); faint and blurred, with figures in brackets supplied from MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, Princeton, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1040, where it is noted that the correct figure for the available balance would be $1,723.315; at foot of text: “Mr. John Barnes”; endorsed by TJ in ink on verso.

TJ’s figure for the balance he initially owed Barnes was from a settlement of their accounts as of 25 Apr. 1801. TJ used round numbers for his salary for March and April. The president’s annual compensation, established by a September 1789 act of Congress, was $25,000, payable on a quarterly basis (MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, Princeton, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1040; U.S. Statutes at Large description begins Richard Peters, ed., The Public Statutes at Large of the United States … 1789 to March 3, 1845, Boston, 1855–56, 8 vols. description ends , 1:72).

The payment to Thomas Newton was for a pipe of Madeira; see Newton to TJ, 8, 14 Apr. 1801. That to John Hoomes was for a saddle horse (Vol. 32:400–1; TJ to Hoomes, 17 Apr.). Rembrandt Peale, at TJ’s request, had made a copy of his portrait of TJ (TJ to Charles Willson Peale, 21 Feb. 1801; Rembrandt Peale to TJ, 1, [24] Mch. 1801).

On 5 May, TJ wrote an order on Barnes for the payment to Joseph Rapin, the steward of the President’s House, of $200 (MS in MHi; in TJ’s hand and signed by him; dated by endorsement of Barnes, who also noted that payment was made on 6 May). On the 11th of the month, TJ examined Rapin’s accounts from 20 Mch. to 9 May for provisions ($215.68), wood ($109.08), miscellanies ($48.98), and payments to servants ($192.00), recording the amounts in pounds and shillings converted into dollars and cents. Balancing Rapin’s expenditures against cash payments made to him from 8 Apr. through the $200 ordered on 5 May, TJ found that Rapin was still due £32.3.10½, which TJ reckoned as $85.85. He also made a note in his financial record that “Mr. Barnes accts. moreover contain considble. supplies of provisions, to wit groceries &c.” On 11 May, TJ wrote an order for payment of the $85.85 to Rapin, who received it that day (MS in ViU: Edgehill-Randolph Papers, in TJ’s hand and signed by him, endorsed by Barnes, who wrote the acknowledgment of receipt signed by Rapin; MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, Princeton, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1040–1).

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