31From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 14 January 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I return you Chancey’s letter. I am sorry to see the seamen working for rations only, & that we cannot allow even them, and further indeed that we shall be under the necessity of discharging a number of those we have. this is so serious a question that I propose to call a consultation on it a day or two hence. our 64. gunboats & ketches may certainly be reduced to 10. seamen each; at least I...
32From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 3 May 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a petition from a woman (Mary Barnett) who complains that her son of 13. years of age, is detained against her will in the Naval military service. having never before received an application of the kind in that department, I know not what are the rules there. but in the land service we have had many cases of enlistment of infants, and there the law is considered to be, and our...
33From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 6 September 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
We have now authentic information from mr Simpson that the Governor of Tangiers has by letter informed him of the Emperor of Marocco’s permission to him to return for six months. this is a clear enough expression of his object, which is presents, and peace. on these we have time to consider. but this change in the state of things renders it proper that we should change our purpose of sending...
34From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 30 August 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
If your honor can make any use of his honor mr Hunt writer of the inclosed, I dare say he will have the honor of thanking you very sincerely. I desired mr Madison to send you the papers relating to our negociation with Spain. I have asked the favor of the other gentlemen, as I do of you, to write me your first thoughts on the measures most proper to be pursued. when I shall have recieved all...
35From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 19 October 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a petition of the widow Bennet for the liberation of her son at Boston, a Minor, or for a moiety of 3. months pay to enable her to go to another son. I think when her case was formerly before us, she was said to be a woman of ill fame, & that her son did not wish to return to her. still however the mother, if there be no father, is the natural guardian, & is legally entitled to...
36From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 11 June 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
You will receive from Capt Tingey information of the capture of our late store ship by a Spanish privateer, which seems too probable to be neglected. I presume it will be necessary for you immediately to order a duplicate supply for the Mediterranean. but will it not be worth while to send a swift sailing pilot-boat with an officer on board in pursuit of the captor & captured vessel? I presume...
37From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 22 August 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just returned from Mr. Madison’s, where I have had conferences with him on the subject of our Barbary affairs & on consideration of the opinions of yourself & the Secretaries of the Treasury & War. there is an entire concurrence of opinion among us in every material point. the amount of these opinions is, and consequently the decision on them as follows. The hundred guncarriages, and...
38From James Madison to Robert Smith, 29 July 1802 (Madison Papers)
It being thought proper that $30,000 should be transmitted to the Consul at algiers, by the ship General Greene, I request that you will please to give the proper instructions to Lt. Chauncy to receive that sum from the orders of the secretary of the Treasury, and deliver it at algiers to the American Consul there, with a further instruction to receive the money back from the Consul, if not...
39From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 18 September 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return yesterday I found yours of the 10th. and now re-inclose you Com. Rogers’s letter. you remember that the orders to Decatur were to leave the British ships unmolested so long as they laid quiet in the bay: but if they should attempt to enter Eliz. river to attack them with all his force. the spirit of these orders should, I think, be applied to New York. so long as the British...
40From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 19 May 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
We have two posts a week, leaving Washington on the evenings of Monday & Wednesday, arriving at Milton Thursday & Saturday, and both leaving it on Saturday. so that tho you may send me dispatches twice a week, I can answer but once. your letter of the 14th. arrived on Saturday and both posts were returned before my messenger could bring it here. you could not have got the answer by post till...
41From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 14 October 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter from one Baldwin respecting things at the Wallabough. the proper use of such information is to put one on enquiry as it comes often from good men with patriotic views. with respect to himself, I presume from Blackley’s letter he has been heretofore in employ, & is now out. you will judge whether his situation does not merit such notice, useful to him, as circumstances...
42From James Madison to Robert Smith, 28 June 1806 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
§ To Robert Smith. 28 June 1806, Department of State. “I have the honor to enclose a letter, directing the Collector of Norfolk to deliver to Capt. Wederstrandt of the Brig Franklin a small quantity of Rice intended for the Bey of Tunis. This, with the goods purchased by the Ambassador of Tunis, and stored at Baltimore will be all that is necessary to be taken on board before the Vessel...
43From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 30 August 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you by this post the Warrants from your office signed but in a very damaged situation from having got wet. I inclose also an application for a midshipman’s place, with respectable recommendations. yet it is for your consideration whether a place pressed for by so many native citizens should be given to a foreigner & especially to one who is claimed by his native country, & if taken in...
44From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 22 October 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Francis Mitchill of Richmond in Virginia has been recommended for a midshipman’s place by Colo. John Harvie of that place and mr George Divers, gentlemen worthy of all confidence . I saw him myself, & found from his own statement that he had proceeded in geometry as far as the 6. first books of Euclid. William G. Stewart of Philadelphia applies for a place of midshipman. I am personally...
45From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 19 August 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 13th. has been recieved, and mr Goldsboro has forwarded to me the state of the gunboats in building, & the stations of those in commission. the discretionary power given to mr Gallatin as to those at New York was I think the best step to be taken. under the appearances of present peace no great number need be in the harbour of New York. presuming that the inclosed application...
46From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 17 August 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Of the writer of the inclosed I know nothing but from his own letter. if he be a good subject it is not undesirable to extend appointments to that quarter. Indeed I wish some of the native French of N. Orleans could be induced to put their sons into our navy, and I suspect they would readily do it if they knew the door was open. if you should think mr Mc.koy’s propositions are to be listened...
47From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 1 July 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed copy of a letter to mr Lincoln will so fully explain it’s own object, that I need say nothing in that way. I communicate it to particular friends because I wish to stand with them on the ground of truth, neither better nor worse than that makes me. you will percieve that I plead guilty to one of their charges, that when young & single I offered love to a handsome lady. I acknolege...
48From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 30 August 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of the 27th. was recieved yesterday. the host of commissions had come to hand and been signed & sent back by the last post. those now recieved are therefore returned: as are also the instructions to Commodore Morris with the suggestion of a small alteration or two. I doubt too whether it might not be proper to say something on the conditions of peace with Tripoli & Marocco; to wit that...
49From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 14 May 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his friendly salutations to the Secretary of the navy and incloses him a letter from mr Page asking a furlough for a son of Genl. Spotswood . if it be within rule it is worth while to oblige the Genl. (tho’ a true federalist) as well as mr Page PrC ( DLC ). Recorded in SJL with notation “furlough for Spotswood.” Enclosure: probably Mann Page to TJ, 9 May 1802, recorded...
50From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 15 June 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I have considered the letter of the Director of the Mint stating the ease with which the errors of Commodore Truxton’s medal may be corrected on the medal itself, and the impracticability of doing it on the die. in my former letter to you on this subject I observed that to make a new die would be a serious thing, requiring consideration. in fact, the first die having been made by authority of...
51From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 2 February 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night a letter dated Pisa Nov. 17. from a friend a native of that country, in which he says ‘there came to me a letter at Volterra from mr Appleton in which he informs me of a misunderstanding between your Commodore & the Governor of Leghorn which caused him much uneasiness. I hastened my return to see if I could be of any use. I now recieve another in which he said: ‘the...
52From James Madison to Robert Smith, 6 April 1804 (Madison Papers)
Mr. James L. Cathcart, who is now at Leghorn, informs me, by letter of the 15th. of December last that he had given a credit of three thousand dollars or more to the Danish Consul at Tripoli, to enable him to relieve the wants of the Officers and crew of the Frigate Philadelphia. He also informs me that he is preparing two suits of Clothes for each individual of that crew. Mr. Lear, the Consul...
53From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 10 August 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter from James Lownes, a marine or seaman on board one of our gunboats, to his father, a very respectable citizen of Richmond of the society of friends. the young man, in a fit either of dissipation or dissatisfaction enlisted for 3. years, leaving a wife & young children. he has served thro’ the Mediterranean service and has still something more than a year to remain. his...
54From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 9 August 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
The letters of Trenchard, Williamson & Leonard, which I recieved from you the last week, I forwarded to mr Gallatin for his information, & desired him to return them to you. that of a person of Boston whose name I cannot decypher is reserved for a similar purpose. I inclose you a letter to mr Gallatin covering some others, which I will ask the favor of you to read & hand on to him with such...
55From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 20 August 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Appleton the writer of the inclosed letter was well known to me at Paris, but not as a man of business. He was young, handsome and devoted to pleasant pursuits. he is now probably 45. and has since been in business, but with what qualifications or success I know not. he was our Consul at Calais, his brother is our Consul at Leghorn, & his father is (if living) a respectable merchant at...
56From James Madison to Robert Smith, 3 June 1806 (Madison Papers)
It being understood, that the President has directed the Brig Franklin to be prepared as a present to the Bay of Tunis, I have the honor to request that your Agents may be ordered to put her in a complete state for the voyage, by providing her with officers, crew, stores &c. I am &c. Letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, DL , vol. 15). For the discussion preceding this decision, see Thomas Jefferson...
57From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 30 September 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Having understood that you have been unwell, & that your family is still so, I have not asked your attendance here, lest these circumstances should stand in the way. Mr. Madison, Dearborne & Gallatin are here & mr Lincoln expected tomorrow. we have not only to decide on the matters to be communicated to Congress, but as early a decision of the administration as possible is requisite on one of...
58From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 5 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of Aug. 27. 31. 31. are received. the last one requires only to be acknoleged. the commissions , which are the subject of the first, are signed & forwarded herewith. with respect to the Boston she may get ready for departure as soon as possible. we do not consider it as proper to delay either the vessel or mr Livingston. the delay under which the treaty is may possibly be...
59From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 24 January 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed letter, from it’s good intentions, merits a suitable reply from me, but not being a judge of the importance of the drawings, & of course of the expressions of thankfulness, they will justify, I must ask the favor of you to have them considered, & let me know whether they offer any thing new & valuable for our gun boats. the gun carriage on the non-recoil principle is new to me—do...
60From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 16 October 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
We have this morning recieved authentic information from mr Simpson that a state of peace is happily restored between us & the emperor of Marocco. information habitually recieved shews there has never been any danger of rupture between us & Tunis or Algiers. in this state of things, and considering the approach of winter, it becomes necessary we should have a general consultation of the heads...