To James Madison from Jared Ingersoll, 7 December 1804 (Abstract)
§ From Jared Ingersoll1
7 December 1804, Philadelphia. Requests a passport for his “second Son Henry, [who] is about to sail from New.York on a Voyage to Venice in Italy.” Asks that it be directed to Henry at New York as he fears Henry will have left there before it could be sent through Ingersoll himself at Philadelphia. “Any Fees of Office that may be due, I will satisfy, on coming to the Supreme Court at Washington, in February, with many thanks, I should have made this application sooner, had I known that the Measure was a necessary precaution.”2
RC (DNA: RG 59, ML). 1 p.; docketed by Wagner.
1. Federalist Jared Ingersoll (1749–1822) was one of Philadelphia’s most distinguished lawyers. He was a member of the Continental Congress and a delegate to the Federal Convention of 1787, served as attorney general for Pennsylvania from 1790 to 1799 and from 1811 to 1817, and was selected as vice president on the slate opposing JM in 1812 (Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., ed., History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–1968 [4 vols.; New York, 1971], 1:258, 296).
2. On 8 Dec. 1804 JM replied: “I have had the honor to receive your letter requesting a passport for your Son, and I have accordingly forwarded it to him at New York. There are no fees of office due upon it” (DNA: RG 59, DL, vol. 14).