Thomas Jefferson Papers

Thomas W. Maury to Thomas Jefferson, 24 January 1816

From Thomas W. Maury

Richmond 24th January 1816

Dear Sir

I have been requested by several members of the House of Delegates to ask your attention to the following memorandum & enquiries, and to ask that you will (as soon as convenient,) reply to them, inasmuch as the business before the house depends upon the information they ask.

The House of Delegates has created a committee with leave to bring in a bill “to provide an accurate chart of each County and a general map of the territory of the Commonwealth. The map of the County is intended to be upon a large scale. It will be important to direct the attention of the several Counties to the proper objects to be embraced by such a map. In their enumeration assistance might be derived from an intelligent naturalist. Quere should not a mineralogist be engaged to describe the character of the Country by reference to the substratum of its soil, or the fossils which appear above it? How far may the progress of science be otherwise aided by the proposed labour?

It may be the intention of the committee of finance, to substitute for the commissioner’s returns of a variety of taxable property, on which the taxes may be repealed, the formation & return of statistical tables. Quere. what objects should those tables embrace?—”

A bill proposing the creation of fifteen additional banks was yesterday read in the H. of D. It passed to a second reading with fifty or sixty votes against it. This is considered as prophetic of its fate. It will certainly be lost—

The bill concerning Capt Miller has met with some opposition in the Senate, for want of evidence of the fact of a transfer from his brothers & sisters of the Half blood, of their interest in the property of which Ths. Reed died seized. Documents to this effect ought immediately to be forwarded, if to be procured. I hope you will excuse the trouble I give you, and beleive me

most respectfully yr mo: obt

Thos W. Maury

RC (DLC); addressed: “Thomas Jefferson Esqr Monticello near Charlottesville”; franked; postmarked Richmond, 24 Jan.; endorsed by TJ as received 30 Jan. 1816 and so recorded in SJL; with additional notations by TJ on address leaf:

“Maps

Mineralogy

Statistical

Miller .”

For the bill to provide an accurate chart of each county and a general map of the territory of the commonwealth, see Wilson Cary Nicholas to TJ, 22 Mar. 1816, and note. The bill proposing the creation of additional banks was read in the Virginia House of Delegates on 22 Jan., and after consideration by the Committee of the Whole House, further action on it was postponed until the next legislative session (JHD description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia description ends [1815–16 sess.], 131, 159–60 [22 Jan., 6 Feb. 1816]).

Index Entries

  • An Act to provide an accurate chart of each county and a general map of the territory of this Commonwealth (1816) search
  • An Act vesting in Joseph Miller the Commonwealth’s right to the real and personal estate of which Thomas Reed died seised and possessed (1816) search
  • banks; in Va. search
  • maps; of Virginia search
  • Maury, Thomas Walker; and petition of J. Miller search
  • Maury, Thomas Walker; as Va. legislator search
  • Maury, Thomas Walker; letters from search
  • Miller, Joseph; An Act vesting in Joseph Miller the Commonwealth’s right to the real and personal estate of which Thomas Reed died seised and possessed (1816) search
  • mineralogy; of Va. search
  • Reed, Thomas (brother of Joseph Miller); estate of search
  • surveying; and new map of Va. search
  • Virginia; banks in search
  • Virginia; House of Delegates search
  • Virginia; maps of search
  • Virginia; Senate search
  • Virginia; statistics on population and manufacturing in search