Thomas Jefferson Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Dearborn, Henry"
sorted by: date (ascending)
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-37-02-0157

To Thomas Jefferson from Henry Dearborn, 6 April 1802

From Henry Dearborn

War Department 6th. April 1802.

Sir,

Lieut: Jesse Lull having been rejected by the Senate, I take the liberty of proposing Peter Talman Capt: in the 1st. Regiment of Artillerists & Engineers, to be the first Lieut: in the Regiment of Artillery. I also take the liberty of proposing Henry Irwin of Pennsylvania, to be an Ensign in the 1st. Regt. of Infantry.

Accept, Sir, the assurances of my high respect

H. Dearborn

RC (DLC); in a clerk’s hand, signed by Dearborn; at foot of text: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received from the War Department on 6 Apr. and “Nominations” and so recorded in SJL. FC (Lb in DNA: RG 107, LSP).

On 7 Apr., TJ sent the following message to the Senate: “I nominate Peter Talman to be a first Lieutenant in the regiment of artillery. he was first lieutenant in the 1st regiment of Artillerists and Engineers, not long since promoted to be a captain in the same regiment, and now willing to return to his former station. I also nominate Henry Irwin of Pensylvania to be an ensign in the first regiment of infantry” (RC in DNA: RG 46, EPEN, 7th Cong., 1st sess.; PrC in DLC). Peter Tallman (TALMAN) received his first commission in the army as a lieutenant of artillerists and engineers in 1795, and became a captain in December 1800. The Senate approved Tallman’s appointment immediately after receiving the nomination but took no action regarding irwin. Dearborn recommended Irwin (or Irvine), who was presumed to be a Republican, again in October 1802. TJ appointed Irwin an ensign of infantry along with four others pending Senate approval, but Irwin apparently declined the appointment and never became an officer in the army (Heitman, Dictionary description begins Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, Washington, D.C., 1903, 2 vols. description ends , 1:944; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States … to the Termination of the Nineteenth Congress, Washington, D.C., 1828, 3 vols. description ends , 1:418; Dearborn to Peyton Gay and others, 12 Oct. 1802, Dearborn to Thomas H. Cushing, 12 Oct., in DNA: RG 107, LSMA; Dearborn to TJ, 8 Oct. 1802).

Index Entries