From Thomas Jefferson to John Barnes, 8 October 1797
To John Barnes
Monticello Oct 8. 97.
Dear Sir
Colo. James Monroe having immediate occasion for a sum of money in Philadelphia, I have concluded it better to let him have Mr. Short’s quarter’s dividends payable the 1st. instant, than to leave them lying in an unproductive state, on the expectation now beginning to be weak, of Mr. Short’s arrival this autumn. I therefore inclose you a power of attorney to receive them, and as I do not know the exact amount I have not given a draught on you, but by this present, desire you to pay the amount whatever it is to Colo. Monroe’s order. I have informed him it will be a few dollars over 300. He will accordingly authorize some person to call on you for the amount be it what it may, as soon as you shall have received it. I am with esteem Dear Sir Your most obedt. servt
Th: Jefferson
PrC (Thomas Jefferson Foundation, on deposit ViU); endorsed in ink on verso by TJ.
Monroe’s immediate occasion for a sum of money in Philadelphia was a loan of $600 he made to Benjamin Franklin Bache to subsidize the publication of Monroe’s vindication of his actions as minister to France (see Monroe to TJ, [22] Oct. 1797). The book did not sell well, Bache was unable to repay the loan in its entirety, and in June 1798 TJ found means to help cover Monroe’s obligation for the money drawn from William Short’s income from public securities ( 327–8, 361; , ii, 986).