To Thomas Jefferson from Albert Gallatin, 11 February 1804
From Albert Gallatin
Saturday 11 Feby. 1804
Dear Sir
It is necessary to know where Eli Vickery lives in order to notify him of his appointment to keep the Old Pt. Comfort light house.
The enclosed you have already seen, and I have already communicated my opinion of Davies’s inability which is rather felt than susceptible of positive proof. The emplymt. of clerks of inferior abilities is known already at the Treasury. I might write to Gatewood if, it shall be your opinion that on his testifying the truth of the allegations, Davies shall be removed: it is proper to state that Gatewood was the candidate for the office when Davies was appointed and is of course inimical to him. Your idea to suffer the man to die appears to me dangerous. The last six months that a man, who is not fit for the office, remains in it are always those during which confusion of accounts and delinquency either take place or encrease beyond bounds. Witness Habersham, Holmes, Bird, Lamb, Delany, E. Livingston &a. Gerry is the only instance to my knowledge where a delinquency of several years standing had not encreased for the 4 or 5 last he was in office. Whenever a successor shall be appointed, it is desirable that he may have activity, assiduity & competent talents; for Norfolk may now be ranked amongst the large ports; and the office of collector if well executed will require the constant attention of the officer. The only man who has been mentioned to me is Tazewell, by whom I do not recollect, but, I believe, by Mr. Madison.
I have this year, with much labour, laid the foundation in the report on the sinking fund of the public debt calender by stating with perfect correctness the application during the year 1802 to principal and interest. I had intended to add to it the State of the debt at the commencemt and end of the year; but the Statements prepared for that purpose did not please me and I had not time to correct them before the report must necessarily be made. I have them now on hand in order that they may appear in next year’s report; and I may set any clerk, with very little superintendence, to pursue the subject, on the same plan, from year to year back to any given year.
I am afraid that an account of coastway exports cannot be correctly obtained; and if obtained would not give the true amount of produce of each State. Thus Alexandria exports (to other States) Maryland tobacco & flour and Pennsylvania flour—Baltimore exports much Pennsylva. produce—Petersburg a considerable quantity of N. Carolina do. &a. I will, however take the subject under consideration & see whether any returns may be required from the collectors which will assist in forming an Estimate—.
With respect Your obedt. Servt.
Albert Gallatin
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received from the Treasury Department on 11 Feb. and “Vickery—Davies.—calendar of public debt—exports & imports” and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure not found, but see below.
you have already seen: perhaps Gallatin was returning the letter from Virginia congressman Edwin Gray of 30 Dec., which TJ received on 2 Jan. The letter has not been found, but TJ noted in SJL that it regarded “Bedinger v. Davies Collectr. Norfolk.” Daniel Bedinger, a firm Republican, had served as the first surveyor and inspector at Norfolk. He resigned after local Federalists prevailed and President Adams decided not to appoint him collector at the port in 1797. Instead, Otway Byrd was chosen (, 1:11, 14, 104, 111; Carl E. Prince, The Federalists and the Origins of the U.S. Civil Service, [New York, 1977], 12, 107-11; Vol. 29:386-7). Adams appointed William Davies collector at Norfolk in December 1800, after Byrd’s death. Gallatin expressed misgivings over the collector’s handling of estimates and repairs at the marine hospital. When seeking information for an appointment in 1802, Gallatin requested that TJ recommend other correspondents near Norfolk to relieve him “from the inconvenience of writing” to Davies. The Treasury secretary now considered writing Philemon gatewood, the naval officer at Norfolk (, 1:11, 14, 357; Vol. 38:178, 180n, 482).
John habersham, collector at Savannah, died in office in November 1799 in debt to the Treasury Department. He was succeeded by James Powell, who was removed by TJ in 1801 for having never rendered an account. Appointed collector at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1791, Isaac holmes was removed by John Adams in 1797 for failing to remit to the Treasury hundreds of thousands of dollars in duties collected (Augusta Herald, 27 Nov. 1799; , 1:330; , 22:257; Vol. 29:567n; Vol. 33:220, 677). For the financial difficulties Byrd (bird) experienced as collector at Norfolk, see Vol. 37:285, 287n, 429. Adams dismissed John lamb, collector of customs at New York, in 1797, after the discovery of a shortfall in his accounts. His deputy reportedly embezzled the funds and fled to Europe (Vol. 40:167n). Sharp delany, customs collector at Philadelphia, was forced to resign in 1798, after it was found he owed the Treasury at least $86,000, which he could not repay (Prince, Federalists, 88). For the removal of New York district attorney Edward livingston in the summer of 1803 for his failure to remit about $44,000 to the Treasury, see Vol. 38:122, 123n; Vol. 40:545-6; Vol. 41:63. In the summer of 1802, TJ reluctantly removed Samuel R. gerry as collector at Marblehead after finding he was delinquent in his payments to the Treasury (Vol. 36:195-6, 205; Vol. 38:41, 180-9).
In late December 1803, Littleton W. tazewell informed Madison of Davies’s “fast declining health.” At the same time, Tazewell requested that he be considered as an applicant for the Norfolk collectorship (, Sec. of State Ser., 6:220-1).
Statement D of the 1804 report on the sinking fund consisted of an account for 1802 “of the fund provided for the payment of principal and interest of the public debt” (, Finance, 2:91).