Thomas Jefferson Papers
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Isaac Cox Barnet to Thomas Jefferson, 21 November 1812

From Isaac Cox Barnet

Paris, November 21st 1812.

Sir

By Mr Skipwith when he quitted the functions he had so many years and so faithfully exercised in this Country—I took the liberty of sending for your acceptance—the two first volumes of Peron’s Voyage to New Holland. I hope they were received and that they were a welcome tribute of my respect. The two last volumes have not yet appeared—but shall be forwarded as soon as they can be had.

My learned friend William Maclure being of opinion that Peron’s life would afford you some interest—I now beg leave to present you a copy—and to join the assurance, that, to my admiration and respect for the great qualities and patriotic principles for which you are distinguished—my “firmness” and Zeal in the service of my country never will abate while I can remember the name of Jefferson.

I. Cox Barnet

RC (MHi); at foot of text: “To Thomas Jefferson of Montecello”; endorsed by TJ as a letter of 21 Nov. 1813 received 28 Jan. 1813 but recorded with correct date in SJL. Probably enclosed in Robert Morrell to TJ, 22 Jan. 1813.

Isaac Cox Barnet (1773–1833), career diplomat, was a native of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, who spent time in France as a child, 1782–83. After a four-month stint in 1789 as a surveyor with Andrew Ellicott’s boundary expedition in Upper Canada, he worked in a New York countinghouse until he was appointed a cargo agent in France for John R. Livingston in 1794. Barnet thereafter held a series of American diplomatic posts, serving as consul at Brest (1797–1800), as commercial agent at Bordeaux (1801), at Antwerp (1802), and at Le Havre (1803–16), and as consul at Paris from 1816 until his death. TJ regarded the selection of Barnet as commercial agent at Bordeaux by John Adams as an invalid midnight appointment and nullified it. Barnet struggled throughout his career to make ends meet and provide for his French wife and children and extended family (“Baptismal Register of St. John’s Church, Elizabeth,” Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey 3 [1928]: 152; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends ; Madison, Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, John C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, 1962– , 31 vols.  Congress. Ser., 17 vols.  Pres. Ser., 6 vols.  Sec. of State Ser., 8 vols description ends , Sec. of State Ser., esp. 2:19n; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 34 vols. description ends , 33:172–3, 618; Barnet file, including Barnet to TJ, 18 Sept. 1801, in DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1801–09; New-York American, 23 Apr. 1833).

Fulwar skipwith gave up his post as United States consul general at Paris and left France in 1808 after he and Barnet became embroiled in a dispute over spoliation claims with John Armstrong, the American minister plenipotentiary there (Skipwith to TJ, 8 Mar. 1808 [DLC]; Madison, Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, John C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, 1962– , 31 vols.  Congress. Ser., 17 vols.  Pres. Ser., 6 vols.  Sec. of State Ser., 8 vols description ends , Pres. Ser., 2:333n). No letter has been found to TJ from Barnet or Skipwith sending for your acceptance a copy of the first two volumes of François Péron, Voyage de découvertes aux terres Australes, 4 vols. (Paris, 1807–16), and the work is not known to have been in TJ’s library. The enclosed copy of peron’s life was Marie Joseph Louis Jean François Antoine Alard, Éloge historique de François Péron, redacteur du Voyage de découvertes aux terres Australes, lu à la Société médicale d’émulation de Paris, séant à la Faculté de médicine dans la séance du 6 Mars 1811 (Paris, 1811; Poor, Jefferson’s Library description begins Nathaniel P. Poor, Catalogue. President Jefferson’s Library [1829] description ends , 4 [no. 94]; TJ’s copy at ViU).

Index Entries

  • Alard, Marie Joseph Louis Jean François Antoine; Éloge historique de François Péron search
  • Barnet, Isaac Cox; identified search
  • Barnet, Isaac Cox; letters from search
  • Barnet, Isaac Cox; sends books to TJ search
  • Éloge historique de François Péron (Alard) search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
  • Maclure, William; on TJ search
  • Péron, François; Voyage de découvertes aux terres Australes search
  • Skipwith, Fulwar; and dispute with I. C. Barnet search
  • Voyage de découvertes aux terres Australes (Péron) search