Thomas Jefferson to John Bradbury, 29 February 1816
To John Bradbury
Monticello Feb. 29. 16.
Dear Sir
Your letter has laid by me a month unacknoleged and unacted on; which should not have happened, had not an engagement in a business of peculiar pressure obliged me to suspend all correspondence till I got thro’ it. I have now written to the Secretary at war, expressing to him your wish and your fitness for the appointment of a Commissioner on the Arkansa road. I should be very glad indeed if either in a public or private capacity you should be able to give us an account of the natural history of the Arkansa & Red river country. should your friends have sent you spare copies of the publication of your Western discoveries, I should be gratified by a sight of one of them. Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect
Th: Jefferson
RC (DLC); addressed: “Mr John Bradbury New York”; franked; postmarked Charlottesville, 2 Mar.; with penciled notation in an unidentified hand (mutilated at seal): “Charles Bra[. . .] Esqr Boston”; endorsed by TJ, with his notation: “retd from N.Y. because not found.” PoC (DLC); on verso of a reused address cover from Dabney Carr to TJ; endorsed by TJ. Enclosed in Theodorus Bailey to TJ, 27 July 1816.
The secretary at war was William H. Crawford.