To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 12 February 1802
From James Monroe
Richmond Feby 12. 1802
Dear Sir
I have been requested by Colo. Goodall who is an honest republican character, I presume well known to you, to add his name to the list of candidates for the post office in this city. You will get correct information of every one not known to you from our members in Congress.
In a late letter to Mr. Madison I gave the details of some federal intrigues here during the Session of our assembly. He will I doubt not communicate these to you. Every days experience proves more clearly the difficulty of conciliating the federal party. It is wonderful to see how irreconcileable many of its members are. Altho’ none of these people had cause of complaint agnst me yet it was manifest that many of them wod. have hewn me to pieces had they had it in their power—
yr. friend & servt
Jas. Monroe
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 17 Feb. and so recorded in SJL.
Colo. Goodall: Parke Goodall of Hanover County was a member of the House of Delegates in the 1780s and a delegate to the 1788 Virginia ratifying convention. Early in the Revolutionary War, he commanded a detachment of the Hanover military company under Patrick Henry. A letter from Goodall to TJ, dated 12 Feb. 1802 and received from Richmond on the 17th, is recorded in SJL but has not been found (, 138, 146, 157, 161, 165, 173; Robert Douthat Meade, Patrick Henry: Practical Revolutionary [Philadelphia, 1969], 48, 50–1; Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser., 2:451n).
In a letter to Madison of 10 Feb., Monroe gave a detailed account of the federal intrigues carried out during the meeting of the Virginia assembly (Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser., 2:453–6). For a description of the conflicts, see John Wayles Eppes to TJ, 2 Feb.