To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 23 July 1805
From Thomas Jefferson
Monticello July 23. 05.
Th: Jefferson presents his affectionate salutations to mr. Madison and incloses him the extract of a letter from mr. Granger,1 giving information of constant trespasses committing on a certain species of timber growing on the public lands on lake Erie, of great value, and which he presumes should be the subject of a charge from the Secretary of state to Governor Hull. He presumes the Governor should first warn all persons by proclamation from the commission of such trespass, and be afterwards watchful to have trespassers punished by2 indictment according to law.
P.S. Th:J. sets out on the 26th. for Bedford & will be absent 10 days.
RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 59, ML); FC (DLC: Jefferson Papers). RC docketed by Wagner: “The President 23 July 1805. Recd 30 July”; marked “file,” in a clerk’s hand. For enclosure, see n. 1.
1. The enclosure (1 p.) is an extract of Gideon Granger to Jefferson, 19 July 1805, stating that “a very valuable pinery” belonging to the government and extending from “the North Side of Lake St Claer … up the river and Lake Huron, to a place call’d Whiterock” was being laid waste by both American and Canadian citizens; that its value appeared to him so great that he had asked the U.S. commissioner to extinguish Indian title to it; and that this tract and another, which he owned near Ashtabula, were the only stands of this valuable material that he was aware of in the area.
2. JM placed a cross here and wrote beneath Jefferson’s postscript: “+ Quer. whether it be indictable at Com Law, or a mere civil injury?”