Thomas Jefferson Papers

From Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 7 April 1802

To Albert Gallatin

Th:J. to mr Gallatin

Apr. 7. 1802.

The inclosed was communicated to me by DeWitt Clinton. he did not say, tho’ doubtless he meant it in confidence. but unless restrained specially to personal confidence, I always think myself at liberty to communicate things to the head of the department to which the subject belongs. I shall be glad to recieve the letter back to-day to be returned

RC (NHi: Gallatin Papers); written on same side as address, in an unidentified hand, “The President of the United States”; addressed on verso: “The Secretary of the Treasury”; endorsed. Not recorded in SJL. Enclosure: see below.

Clinton may have given TJ a letter, dated 13 Mch., which he had received from Samuel Osgood at New York. Osgood reported on prospects for Gallatin’s proposal that the Manhattan Company take charge of remittances to Holland for the payment of the Dutch debt (RC in NHi: Gallatin Papers). Evidently Clinton allowed Gallatin to keep the letter. For the proposal, which Gallatin had made through Aaron Burr, the bank’s Washington representative, see Kline, Burr description begins Mary-Jo Kline, ed., Political Correspondence and Public Papers of Aaron Burr, Princeton, 1983, 2 vols. description ends , 2:680–1.

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