RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); endorsed by TJ as received 12 Mch. and so recorded in SJL.

Colonel Joseph Crockett (1742–1829), a native of Virginia, served on the frontier prior to and during the American Revolution. In 1776 he enlisted in a company of minutemen of the Continental Army, was later a lieutenant colonel of the Illinois regiment, and continued in military service until February 1781. An acquaintance of TJ’s, Crockett surveyed most of the land around Monticello. In May 1782, Crockett wed Elizabeth Moore Woodson, the widow of TJ’s relative Tucker Woodson. They moved to Kentucky in 1784, where they established a farm on 1,900 acres on Hickman Creek in Jessamine County. Crockett was a representative to the Virginia Assembly in 1786 and 1790 and served in the newly formed Kentucky House until 1795. From 1800 to 1804, he was a member of the Kentucky Senate. TJ appointed him on 26 June 1801 as marshal for the district of Kentucky to succeed Samuel McDowell, Jr. When informed of the applicants for the marshalcy and of Crockett’s candidacy, TJ is said to have exclaimed to his secretary, “You need not read any more. I will appoint honest Joe, for I know him personally to be true, and faithful, and honest.” In his capacity as marshal, Crockett was most known for his arrest of Aaron Burr in 1806 (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832–61, 38 vols. description ends , Miscellaneous, 1:303; G. Glenn Clift, Kentucky Obituaries, 1787–1854 [Baltimore, 1977], 59; John E. Kleber, ed., The Kentucky Encyclopedia [Lexington, Ky., 1992], 242; Kline, Burr description begins Mary-Jo Kline, ed., Political Correspondence and Public Papers of Aaron Burr, Princeton, 1983, 2 vols. description ends , 1:571; Samuel W. Price, Biographical Sketch of Colonel Joseph Crockett, [Louisville, Ky., 1909], 4, 7, 9–10, 17–19, 26–29; Vol. 4:303–4; Vol. 5:142–3).

The law establishing federal courts, An Act to Establish the Judicial Courts of the United States, or the Judiciary Act of 1789, stipulated that “a marshal shall be appointed in and for each district for the term of four years, but shall be removable from office at pleasure” (U.S. Statutes at Large description begins Richard Peters, ed., The Public Statutes at Large of the United States … 1789 to March 3, 1845, Boston, 1855–56, 8 vols. description ends , 1:87).