Charles Jouett to Thomas Jefferson, 12 June 1815
From Charles Jouett
Washington City 12th June 1815
D Sir
I have this momant laid my letters before the president, and am sorry to say that my prospects of success are doubtful, I was anxious to see Colo Monroe but was disappointed, excuse me if I solicit you once more to interest him in my favour, no man can serve me as effectually as you can, and few indeed are better acquainted with my character,
I could say much to you but delicacy imposes silence, I have been devoted to your political principles, and have always been ready to offer up my life in their defence, If I had been dealt by justly I should be now sleeping in an honorable grave, or be crowned by the honours and approbation of my country. I pray you to excuse me I am extremely agitated, If I go back to Kentucky without employment I shall be ruined
C. Jouett
RC (MoSHi: TJC-BC); endorsed by TJ as received 14 June 1815 and so recorded in SJL. RC (DLC); address cover only; with PoC of TJ to Henry Jackson, 5 July 1815, on verso; addressed: “Thomas Jefferson Esquire Late President of U States Monticello”; franked; postmarked Washington City, 12 June.
Charles Jouett (ca. 1772–1834) was a native of Virginia who practiced law in Charlottesville before becoming a federal Indian agent at Detroit, 1802–05, and Chicago, 1805–11. He was one of the United States commissioners at a treaty signed at Fort Industry (later Toledo, Ohio) on 4 July 1805 with the Wyandot, Ottawa, and other northwestern Indian nations. Jouett moved in 1811 to Mercer County, Kentucky. He received an appointment on 20 June 1815 as Indian agent for the new post at Green Bay, Michigan Territory (now Wisconsin). When it proved impossible to maintain, Jouett returned to his former position at Chicago, 1816–19. In the latter year President James Monroe named him one of three judges of the new Arkansas Territory, but Jouett resigned the post in 1820 and lived thereafter in Trigg County, Kentucky (Henry Higgins Hurlbut, Chicago Antiquities [1881], 102–8; Alfred Theodore Andreas, History of Chicago [1884–86; repr. 1975], 1:86–7, 89–90; ASP, Indian Affairs, 1:695–6, 702–3, 757; , 7:75, 472, 10:94, 575, 16:65–6, 17:190–1, 206–7, 318, 418, 557, 19:37–9, 53–4, 172; TJ to James Madison, 15 June 1815; JEP, 3:139, 184, 235 [18 Apr. 1818, 3 Mar. 1819, 23 Jan. 1821]; Josiah H. Shinn, Pioneers and Makers of Arkansas [1908], 195–7; DNA: RG 29, CS, Ky., Trigg Co., 1830; Robert Fergus, Directory of the City of Chicago Illinois, for 1843 [1896], 113).
On 17 Mar. 1815 Jouett wrote President Madison asking for a federal appointment (DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1809–17). No other pertinent letters of this year have been found.