From Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 14 December 1801
To Albert Gallatin
Dec. 14. 1801.
Th:J. to mr Gallatin
Before your papers of to-day came, I had read the report & inclosed it with a word of answer. I have gone through those last sent, rapidly as the time required. your former explanations had already prepared me for them. they are entirely satisfactory. I believe I should have taken ranker ground, by assuming a higher amount of impost to proceed on. but your’s is safest and answers all our purposes. health & affection.
RC (NHi: Gallatin Papers); addressed: “The Secretary of the Treasury.” Not recorded in SJL.
Papers of to-day: Gallatin sent TJ a list of 19 warrants, Nos. 162 to 180, issued between 7 and 12 Dec., which TJ endorsed as received on this date but did not record in SJL. Warrant No. 162, dated 7 Dec., for $2,000, was issued to John Barnes, an installment on TJ’s salary as president. Warrants were also issued for the payment of Congress (MS in DLC: TJ Papers, 118:20408; in a clerk’s hand; endorsed by Gallatin: “Warrants issued on Treasurer Week end. 14th Decer. 1801”; with notation in Gallatin’s hand: “The President will be pleased to excuse this rough draught as made out by the clerk—I had not time to transcribe & arrange it.—A.G.”; endorsed by TJ as received from the Treasury Department on 14 Dec. and “Warrants”). No other papers sent by the Treasury Department have been identified.
TJ’s word of answer has not been found. Those last sent: TJ apparently refers to the statements that Gallatin sent him on 13 Dec. The Treasury secretary had previously provided TJ with explanations during the preparation of the president’s annual message to Congress (Vol. 35:622–4, 626–36).
A week earlier, the Treasury Department had sent TJ a list of six warrants, Nos. 156 to 161, issued between 30 Nov. and 5 Dec., totaling $77,753.28, and including No. 159, for $70,000, for payment of the Dutch debt (MS in DLC: TJ Papers, 118:20368; in a clerk’s hand, with initials “A.G.” and the total in Gallatin’s hand; endorsed by TJ as received from the Treasury Department on 7 Dec.).