From Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 11 September 1801
To Albert Gallatin
Monticello Sep. 11. 1801.
Dear Sir
I inclose you a note, which tho’ it came unsigned, as you see it, I know by the handwriting came from Tenche Coxe. you will judge whether it contains any thing calling for attention. it was accompanied by an Aurora of Aug. 22. in which was a piece signed A Pensylvanian with numerous corrections with the pen. it is the way in which he usually made known to me the pieces he wrote. I also inclose a letter in answer to one of mine on the subject of Chisholm.x it is merely to shew that from the state of his affairs, he is one of those who should be held to punctuality. this mail is also come without bringing me any thing relative to the public dispatches which came by the Maryland. Mr. Madison left me on Monday, not very well, & I have no letter from him by the post. possibly he has recieved the dispatches by the Maryland, & will forward them by special conveyance. Accept assurances of my affectionate esteem & high consideration.
Th: Jefferson
Sep. 12. since writing this the French dispatches are recd by express from Mr. Madison who is recovered.
RC (NHi: Gallatin Papers); addressed: “Albert Gallatin Secretary of the Treasury Washington Columbia”; endorsed by Gallatin. PrC (DLC); lacks author’s note and postscript. Enclosure: Samuel Sheild to TJ, 31 Aug. 1801. Other enclosure printed below.
The author of the article signed “A Pennsylvanian” in the Philadelphia aurora of 22 Aug. defended TJ against charges that he had removed several officeholders because of their political opinions. The author observed that the late John Wilkes Kittera was not removed by TJ, because he was never “invested with the office of attorney of the United States.” Henry Miller was not removed on account of his political opinions, but because he did not settle his accounts or pay his balance. In New Hampshire, William Gardner and Joseph Whipple were well educated, “punctual, regular, upright and excellent officers,” who were understood to have been dismissed by Adams “soon after refusing to sign a very strong, and (to them) unsatisfactory address to President Adams, the contents of which were against their judgments.” TJ restored Gardner and Whipple to the offices they had lost, and in the process John Pierce and Thomas Martin, their successors, were dismissed. “A Pennsylvanian” noted that he had unsuccessfully attempted to have his article printed in the Lancaster Journal. When the “essay was refused a place on a plea of want of candor,” he submitted it without changes to William Duane. The piece as sent by Coxe to TJ With numerous corrections with the pen has not been found. For TJ’s assessment of the removals, see Vol. 33:669, 671–6.