Thomas Jefferson Papers

From Thomas Jefferson to Henry Dearborn, 20 August 1802

To Henry Dearborn

Monticello Aug. 20. 1802.

Dear Sir

Your favor of the 15th is recieved and I now return mr Bowdoin’s letter forwarded in it. his doctrine is unquestionably sound. I have enjoyed uninterrupted good health, the story of the five physicians notwithstanding. by this post I recieve the opinions of the Secretaries of the Treasury & navy as well as yours on the subject of our Barbary affairs. I had before asked & recieved that of the Secretary of state: but as his opinion does not go to all the points arising out of the others, and explanations by letter would lose us one if not two posts, I propose immediately on closing my mail by the post of this day, to set out to his house, so that definitive answers will go by the next post which will arrive at Washington on Tuesday the 24th at 8 P.M. the following is the arrangement of our posts.

Friday and Tuesday at 7. P.M. leaves Washington

Sunday & Thursday at noon arrives at Milton.

Monday & Friday at 1. P.M. leaves Milton.

Tuesday & Saturday at 8. P.M. arrives at Washington

Accept assurances of my affectionate attachment & respect.

Th: Jefferson

PrC (DLC); at foot of text: “The Secretary at War.”

SET OUT TO HIS HOUSE: Madison’s letter to TJ of 25 Aug., which refers to TJ having been “here,” confirms that TJ did go to Montpelier to confer with the secretary of state. TJ wrote letters at Monticello on the 20th and the 22d. If he left Monticello after finishing his correspondence on the 20th, he probably stayed that night at Madison’s house and left for home on the 21st. He evidently stopped for the night of 21–22 Aug. at Castle Hill, Francis Walker’s residence about 14 miles northeast of Monticello, where on the 22d he left $1.50 in “vales,” or tips to the household staff (MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, Princeton, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:937, 1079).

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