To Thomas Jefferson from John Wayles Eppes, 14 April 1803
From John Wayles Eppes
Bermuda Hundred Apl. 14th.
Dear Sir,
I arrived at Monticello the day after you set out for Washington. Had I supposed you would have delayed your journey I should certainly have returned earlier—
Mr. Hancocke promised to forward your shrub & if you have not already heard from him you may calculate on hearing in a few days—
I attended the Albemarle election the result of which you have1 heard—Cabbell is extremely irritated at the opposition & said while in Albemarle “that he thought it but a midling thing in the old President (after his lying two nights on his blanket to make him President) to set up his son in law in opposition to him”—
You were kind enough to say that the 400 dollars should be paid whenever my wants required—I have engaged to pay some money early in May & if you can between this time & the 4th. of May remit it to me in bank notes to this place it will be acceptable—
I left Maria at Monticello in good health on Saturday last—Francis has passed well through the measles—The election in Chesterfield the first county in my district is over—I lost but 9 votes & near 600 polld—
accept for your health & happiness my warmest wishes. Yours sincerely
Jno: W: Eppes
RC (ViU: Edgehill-Randolph Papers); closing quotation mark supplied; endorsed by TJ as received 23 Apr. and so recorded in SJL.
Mr. Hancocke of Petersburg supplied TJ with shrub and syrup of punch (TJ to George Jefferson, 12 May).
In 1803, Samuel Jordan Cabell ran in the albemarle election for his fifth term representing Virginia’s fourteenth district in Congress. He was unexpectedly opposed by Thomas Mann Randolph. Cabell pledged to challenge the results, but never offered sufficient proof of any irregularity at the polls. In February 1801, during the deadlocked presidential contest in the House of Representatives, he was said to have spent two nights sleeping on a cot there throughout the voting (, 2:494–5; Thomas Mann Randolph to TJ, 29 Apr.).
kind enough to say: see TJ to Eppes, 24 Apr.
Eppes won election in chesterfield and assumed the seat vacated by William Branch Giles. Eppes represented Virginia’s Sixteenth District for the Eighth through Eleventh and Thirteenth Congresses ().
1. Eppes here canceled “doubtless.”