1From Thomas Jefferson to William H. Cabell, 29 June 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor by express was safely recieved on Saturday night, and I am thankful to you for the attention of which it is a proof. considering the general & state governments as co-operators in the same holy concerns, the interest & happiness of our country, the interchange of mutual aid is among the most pleasing of the exercises of our duty. Captn. Gordon, the 2d in command of the Chesapeake...
2From Thomas Jefferson to William H. Cabell, 8 July 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
You will have recieved from the Secretary at War a letter requesting that the quota of the state of Virginia of 100,000. militia be immediately organised and put in readiness for service at the shortest warning; but that they be not actually called out until further requisition. the menacing attitude which the British ships of war have taken in Hampton road, the actual blockade of Norfolk, and...
3From Thomas Jefferson to William H. Cabell, 16 July 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 10th. has been recieved, and I note what is said on the provision which ought to be made by us for the militia in the field. an arrangement by the Secretary at war to meet certain other persons at N. York to concert a plan of defence for that place has occasioned necessarily his temporary absence from this place, and there is no person sufficiently informed to take the...
4From Thomas Jefferson to William H. Cabell, 19 July 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 15th. was recieved yesterday, and the opinion you have given to General Matthews against allowing any intercourse between the British Consul & the ships of his nation remaining in our waters in defiance of our authority, is entirely approved. certainly while they are conducting themselves as enemies defacto, intercourse should be permitted only, as between enemies, by flags...
5From Thomas Jefferson to William H. Cabell, 24 July 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 20th. has been duly recieved. the relation in which we stand with the British naval force within our waters is so new, that differences of opinion are not to be wondered at respecting the captives who are the subject of your letter. are they insurgents against the authority of the laws? are they public enemies acting under the orders of their sovereign? or will it be more correct...
6From Thomas Jefferson to William H. Cabell, 27 July 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
The Secretary at War having returned from New York, we have immediately taken up the question respecting the discharge of the militia which was the subject of your two last letters, and which I had wished might remain undecided a few days. from what we have learnt of the conduct of the British squadron in the Chesapeake since they have retired from Hampton roads, we suppose that until orders...
7From Thomas Jefferson to William H. Cabell, 31 July 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I shall tomorrow set out for Monticello, considering the critical state of things, it has been thought better, during my stay there, to establish a daily conveyance of a mail from Fredericksburg to Monticello. this enables me to hear both from the North & South every day. should you have occasion then to communicate with me, your letters can come to me daily by being put into the...
8From Thomas Jefferson to William H. Cabell, 7 August 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letters of July 31. & Aug. 5. were recieved yesterday. the ground taken, in conformity with the act of Congress, of considering, as public enemies, British armed vessels in, or entering, our waters, gives us the benefit of a system of rules, sanctioned by the practice of nations in a state of war, and consequently enabling us with certainty & satisfaction to solve the different cases...
9From Thomas Jefferson to William H. Cabell, 9 August 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter of the 7th. I informed you that on consultation at Washington it had been concluded best to commit the whole business of flags to Capt Decatur. I now find that I had not recollected our conclusion correctly, and that it had been understood that the commanding officers, by land & water should have equal authority to license the sending & recieving flags: which is not only proper,...
10From Thomas Jefferson to William H. Cabell, 11 August 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 7th. is recieved. it asks my opinion on several points of law arising out of the act of Congress for accepting the service of 30,000 volunteers. altho’ your own opinion, & those of some of your counsellors, more recent in the habits of legal investigation, would be a safer guide for you than mine, unassisted by my ordinary & able associates, yet I shall frankly venture my...