To Thomas Jefferson from John Page, 3 November 1804
From John Page
In Council November 3d. 1804.
Sir,
In consequence of the information given in a letter from Mr. Moore of which an extract was inclosed to you in my letter respecting Samuel Brooks of this date, I have been advised by the Council to trouble you again on the subject of the Accomplices of Logwood in North Carolina.
You will find sir, by that Extract that it is supposed not improbable that if the inclosed affidavit were sent on by me, it might meet with the fate of the papers mentioned by Moore. David Greenlaw has lately escaped conviction of murder, and during his long imprisonment he formed a resolution if acquitted to abandon his former courses and companions, and to endeavour to make all the amends in his power for his past crimes, and therefore come forward and Voluntarily gave in the information on Oath which by the advice of Council is now transmitted to you, and has promised to remain at his father’s in Northumberland County, until the 3d. of December next and to be ready to assist in bringing to justice the persons named in his affidavit.
I am Sir with great respect & esteem, Your obedient Servant.
John Page
RC (DLC); in a clerk’s hand, signed by Page; endorsed by TJ as received 8 Nov. and “coiners of money, counterfietrs. of bank bills” and so recorded in SJL. FC (Vi: Executive Letterbook). Enclosure not found, but see below.
On this day, the Council of State advised Page to forward duplicates of the affidavit of David Greenlaw to the governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and New York, and to the president, who it was hoped would take “such steps thereon as he may deem proper for bringing the Said Counterfeiters to justice” (Vi: Journals of the Council of State).
Greenlaw was arrested in June for the brutal murder of a French merchant in Norfolk. In a letter of 19 Oct. to Page, Thomas Newton enclosed Greenlaw’s account (not found), which implicated others in the murder and related details of the counterfeiting network active in Virginia, North Carolina, and elsewhere. Newton vouched for the “repentant” Greenlaw and advised that “much circumspection will be required in detecting the Counterfeiters in N Carolina.” They were “desperate & numerous” and “in the habit of murdering those they suspect of betraying them.” If the murderers could be captured and “a public example made,” Newton continued, “it might stop a while the excessive gaming, which is the Cause of the whole.” He also advised Page to bring Greenlaw to Richmond and offer him a reward for his testimony against the counterfeiters (Vi: Executive Papers; Relfs Philadelphia Gazette, 18 June; Richmond Enquirer, 27 June).