Bunker Hill Association to Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1810

From the Bunker Hill Association

Boston 12th July 1810.

Sir

We have the honour to address you in conformity to a vote of the general Committee of the ‘Bunker Hill Association,’ and request you to accept a Copy of the Oration delivered on the 4th of July last.—

In commemorating the feelings and principles which led to the glorious event of our revolution, it is peculiarly congenial to our grateful sensibility on this occasion, to render homage to the virtues of those Patriots who contributed thereto; and to express individually our personal respect for your character and our thanks for your continued support of the republican institutions of our Country.

May the evening of your valuable life be attended with that calm serenity and sublime enjoyment which the good man only knows, and which approximates this state of existence to immortal felicity.

Benjamin Homans
J. E. Smith		Committee
William Blagrove

RC (DLC); in Homan’s hand except for Smith’s and Blagrove’s signatures; at foot of text: “His Excellency Thomas Jefferson Monticello”; endorsed by TJ as a letter from “Homans Benj. et al.” received 23 July 1810 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Daniel Waldo Lincoln, An Oration, Pronounced at Boston, on the Fourth Day of July, 1810, before the “Bunker-Hill Association” (Boston, 1810; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 4688).

Benjamin Homans (ca. 1765–1823) was secretary of state of Massachusetts, 1810–12, declined the consulship for Tunis in 1812, and served as chief clerk of the Navy Department from 1813 until he accepted an appointment just before his death as naval storekeeper at Portsmouth (The Boston Directory [1810], 105; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 2:281, 288 [1, 6 July 1812]; Madison, Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, John C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, 1962– , 29 vols.: Congress. Ser., 17 vols.; Pres. Ser., 5 vols.; Sec. of State Ser., 7 vols description ends , Pres. Ser., 4:486, 5:187–8; Homans to James Monroe, 25 July 1812 [DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1809–17]; William Dudley et al., The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History [1985– ], 2:54; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 11 Dec. 1823; Boston Columbian Centinel, 17 Dec. 1823). William Blagrove ran a circulating library at 3 School Street in Boston, and J. E. Smith was probably Joseph Emerson Smith (ca. 1784–1837), an attorney at 12 Tudor’s Buildings in that city who received an A.B. from Harvard University in 1804 (The Boston Directory [1810], 30, 178; Harvard Catalogue description begins Harvard University Quinquennial Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates, 1636–1925, 1925 description ends , 184; Boston Daily Centinel and Gazette, 16 Mar. 1837).

Index Entries

American Revolution; and Bunker Hill Association search
An Oration, Pronounced at Boston, on the Fourth Day of July, 1810, before the “Bunker-Hill Association” (Lincoln) search
Blagrove, William; and Bunker Hill Association search
Blagrove, William; identified search
Blagrove, William; letters from search
Bunker Hill Association; letters from search
Bunker Hill Association; sends oration to TJ search
Fourth of July; orations search
Homans, Benjamin; and Bunker Hill Association search
Homans, Benjamin; identified search
Homans, Benjamin; letters from search
Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
Lincoln, Daniel Waldo; An Oration, Pronounced at Boston, on the Fourth Day of July, 1810, before the “Bunker-Hill Association,” search
Smith, Joseph Emerson; and Bunker Hill Association search
Smith, Joseph Emerson; identified search
Smith, Joseph Emerson; letters from search

You Are Looking At

Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: Bunker Hill Association to Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1810
Authors: Bunker Hill Association
Blagrove, William
Smith, Joseph E.
Homans, Benjamin
Recipient: Jefferson, Thomas
Date: 12 July 1810

Reference

Cite as: “Bunker Hill Association to Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1810,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-02-02-0441. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 2, 16 November 1809 to 11 August 1810, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp. 504–505.]