Thomas Jefferson Papers
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Thomas Jefferson to Patrick Gibson, 7 March 1813

To Patrick Gibson

Monticello Mar. 7. 13.

Dear Sir

Your favor of the 3d is recieved and the 50.D. it covered. should there be difficulty in remitting the 97.D. to Alrichs & Dixon of Wilmington by a draught a Richmond bank bill of 100.D. I have no doubt would be acceptable to them and the surplus 3.D. will make no odds, as I shall probably have to call for a roving machine from them in addition to that for carding. to the 3000.D. I have added in the inclosed note 1300.D. to cover your advances for me, their amount according to such statement as I am able to make as follows.

1813. Jan. 1. balance (exclusive of 3000 D) 301. 90
13. Sims 15. 95
27. Hamilton 100.
cash 100.
Feb. 10. powder (supposed) 25.
11. Gwathney 726. 25
Mar 3. Alrichs 97.
Cash 50.
carriage Bedfd flour @ 7/6 188. 75:
1604. 85
Jan. 1. due from T. M. Randolph and supposed to have been paid 320.  
1284.

within a fortnight after the date of the inclosed note, there ought to be paid you

by mr John Harvie, on the inclosed note (which I expect Dr Brockenbrough takes up) 176. 90.
by mr T. M. Randolph due Apr. 1. for another quarter’s rent of mills 320.
by mr S. J. Harrison for tobo due Apr. 7. amount not exactly known to me 2000   
2496. 90

I do not count however on mr Randolph’s paiments to a day, desirous of indulging his convenience. to these will be added the proceeds of nearly 450. barrels of flour whenever it can be sold tolerably. however averse to the enlarging my note at the bank, so near the moment when I expected to reduce it, I have thought it preferable to selling my flour at a serious loss. I have no conception that the hostile vessels will continue in our bay after the equinoctial gales are over. it is too contrary to their interests & practice: for shutting the bay, nothing attempts to get out, but letting our vessels out they catch a part and the rest carry supplies to themselves in the peninsul & West Indies. their favor to the Eastern market shews their ignorance as well as wickedness. their minister did not know but that those were wheat states. the prices at N. York shew that their stock is exhausted. of course the British must open the Delaware and Chesapeake or starve their cruisers, their islands, their armies & friends in the peninsuls. and this their proclamations prove they do not mean to do. notwithstanding newspaper paragraphs & factitious letters, it is contrary to nature that the demand at Cadiz & Lisbon should not become enormous: and all we can furnish will not be enough to feed those two cities, the country within their reach & the armies accumulating in & near them. these considerations render it I think unwise to sell just in the moment of a short-lived blockade: but as soon as that is withdrawn, and the price has taken the rise circumstances may reasonably be expected to produce, sale ought to be made. I think we may risk the greater part of the month of April on this expectation, but that we should sell at the current price towards1 the close of that month, if we shall not have sold before. for the present, my advice would be to sell as soon after the withdrawing of the squadron as the confidence of the buyers shall be restored & the purchases become animated, and altho’ I should be pleased to learn from time to time the rise of price, yet my confidence in your judgment induces me to wish you to follow it on the sudden emergencies which may arise & to sell my flour without waiting to consult me. mr Darmsdat’s claim is a just one and ought to have been paid before now. it stands with the foremost on my list when a sale of flour shall have been made, or when the monies abovementioned shall be recieved. by that time perhaps the season of a new supply may call for double the sum. I should never have trespassed so far on your friendly advances, had they not been so increased by the bond to Griffin which never was intended to have been put into the channel it was, or any other which should not have allowed full time for the sale of my crop. he has two smaller ones, which tho’ expressed to be paiable in the midsummers of this & the next year, were not to be expected till the sale of the ensuing crops. they are the result of 10. years accounts with a jesuitical overseer, from whom I was then too distant to scrutinize any thing. Accept the assurance of my friendship & respect.

Th: Jefferson

PoC (DLC); at foot of first page: “Mr Gibson”; endorsed by TJ as a letter to Gibson & Jefferson and so recorded in SJL. Enclosures not found.

On 5 Mar. 1813 TJ noted that Gibson would be remitting $97 to Alrichs & Dixon. Two days later he indicated that he owed Gibson about 1300.d. in advances and that he would add that sum to his note for $3,000 renewable 27 Mar. He further observed that John Harvie’s inclosed note was due on 1 Mar. 1813, one of the annual installments for his purchase of TJ’s claim to a disputed tract of Southwest Mountain land. On 24 Mar. TJ recorded receipt from Samuel J. harrison for tobo of “an order on Gibson & Jefferson for 1000.D. at 10. days sight.” Besides the bond that Burgess griffin had assigned to Temple Gwathmey, TJ was responsible for two smaller debts to Griffin: “one note for 500. paiable 1813. June 20. & int. from Dec. 26. 12” and another for $716.13 payable “1814. July 1. & int. from Dec. 26. 12.” (MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1282, 1287; TJ to Harvie, 28 Dec. 1809, and note; Agreement with Harvie, 17 Feb. 1810).

1Word interlined in place of “at.”

Index Entries

  • Alrichs & Dixon (Wilmington, Del., firm); account with TJ search
  • Belmont tract; sale of search
  • Brockenbrough, John; as J. Harvie’s agent search
  • Chesapeake Bay; British blockade of search
  • Darmsdatt, Joseph; TJ pays search
  • flour; sale of search
  • Gibson, Patrick; letters to search
  • Gibson, Patrick; payments made for TJ search
  • Great Britain; navy of search
  • Griffin, Burgess; and TJ’s bond search
  • Gwathmey, Temple; and TJ’s bond search
  • Hamilton, James; and W. McClure’s debts search
  • Harrison, Samuel Jordan; buys tobacco from TJ search
  • Harvie, John (1783–1838); and sale of Belmont estate search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; sells tobacco search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Opinions on; British navy search
  • Randolph, Thomas Mann (1768–1828) (TJ’s son-in-law; Martha Jefferson Randolph’s husband); and Shadwell mills search
  • Shadwell mills; and T. M. Randolph search
  • Shadwell mills; rent for search
  • Simms, Charles; collector at Alexandria search
  • subscriptions, non-publication; to pay W. McClure’s debts search