Thomas Jefferson Papers

From Thomas Jefferson to Henry Dearborn, 14 May 1802

To Henry Dearborn

Monticello May 14. 1802.

Dear Sir

I recieved yesterday your favor of the 7th. and entirely approve your proposition to remove the arms from New London. I suppose it would be generally a good rule to break up all the small deposits and carry them to the great magazines where they may be kept in order, guarded, & always ready. health & affectionate salutations.

Th: Jefferson

PrC (DLC); at foot of text: “Secretary at War.” Recorded in SJL with notation “removal arms from N. London.”

Despite TJ’s approval of the plan to REMOVE THE ARMS FROM NEW LONDON, military stores remained there for many years thereafter. In a 6 June 1812 letter to Secretary of War William Eustis, TJ expressed his surprise that a quantity of stores were still housed near New London “in an old log house,” where their exposed and unguarded state disconcerted both the “timid” and the “grumblers & malcontents” of the neighborhood. TJ suggested moving the supplies to Lynchburg, describing the thriving town as “the most central and convenient place for a deposit of stores” in Virginia (RS description begins J. Jefferson Looney and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Princeton, 2004–, 6 vols. description ends , 5:104–5).

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