To James Madison from George Jefferson, 29 October 1805
From George Jefferson
Richmond 29th. Octr. 1805
Dear Sir
The season being so far advanced that we may shortly expect the new crop of Tobacco to be coming in, which may have an unfavorable effect upon our market—and supposing too from the length of time your last crop has been kept on hand, that you were probably getting impatient to have it sold—I to day concluded to make sale of it to Pickett Pollard & Johnston1 at 6.¼ $ for their draft on New York at 60 days.
I should have preferred a note payable here, which could be discounted at the Bank, but could not effect a sale in that way.
I have at times had hopes of being able to do better with your Tobacco, and am sorry that I could not. I am Very respectfully Dear Sir Yr. Mt. Obt. servt.2
Geo. Jefferson
RC and enclosure (DLC). For enclosure, see n. 2.
1. Pickett, Pollard & Johnston was a Richmond merchant firm belonging to partners George Pickett, Robert Pollard (d. 1842), who was a member of the Richmond Committee of Vigilance during the War of 1812, and Charles Johnston, who was later the president of the Farmers’ Bank in Lynchburg. The firm also dealt in Western lands (Samuel Mordecai, Virginia, Especially Richmond, in By-Gone Days; With a Glance at the Present, 2d ed. [Richmond, Va., 1860], 94, 97; “The Vigilance Committee: Richmond during the War of 1812,” 7 [1900]: 225, 229–30, 241).
2. Jefferson enclosed an account (1 p.) for the sale of twelve hogsheads of tobacco totaling 16,201 pounds at $6.25 per pound for a total of $1,012.56, from which he deducted his two-and-one-half-percent commission and $13.33 in tobacco inspection charges paid on 15 May; $182.00 paid for half a ton of coal on Sept. 30; and $3.42 in interest charges, leaving $788.50 due to JM.