Thomas Jefferson Papers
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From Thomas Jefferson to John Beckley, 16 April 1798

To John Beckley

April 16. 98.

Dear Sir

It is with sincere concern that I learn your situation and find myself so unable to relieve it. I have not at this moment more than 50. dollars in the world at my command, and these are my only resource for a considerable time to come. I have been in the habit of keeping myself in a situation just to meet ordinary occurrences, & have been thrown behind by the necessities of two persons whom I could not avoid helping. having had very little to do with banks, I do not know whether my name would be taken at any of them for any thing. but if it would, and you can make it answer your purpose, I will endorse any paper which may enable you to relieve yourself. I am deeply afflicted at having nothing better to offer being sincerely Dear Sir

Your friend & servt

Th: Jefferson

PrC (MHi); at foot of text: “Mr. Beckley.”

For Beckley’s financial situation at this time, see Berkeley, Beckley description begins Edmund Berkeley and Dorothy Smith Berkeley, John Beckley: Zealous Partisan in a Nation Divided, Philadelphia, 1973 description ends , 173–7. necessities of two persons: TJ may be referring to his aid to James T. Callender and to his nephew Charles L. Lewis, who was in Philadelphia seeking employment (TJ to George Jefferson, 14 Mch.; Callender to TJ 21 Mch.; MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, Princeton, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2: 980, 981).

A letter from Beckley to TJ of 16 Apr., which according to SJL TJ received the same day, has not been found.

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    Source Project
    Jefferson Papers
    Title
    From Thomas Jefferson to John Beckley, 16 April 1798
    Author
    Jefferson, Thomas
    Recipient
    Beckley, John
    Date
    16 April 1798

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From Thomas Jefferson to John Beckley, 16 April 1798,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-30-02-0190. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 30, 1 January 1798 – 31 January 1799, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003, pp. 277–278.]

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