Thomas Jefferson Papers
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Henry Dearborn to Thomas Jefferson, 27 February 1815

From Henry Dearborn

Troy February 27th 1815

Dear Sir

It is with peculier satisfaction that I can congratulate you on the happy and honorable termination of a war, that was forced upon our Country, by the impolitic and unjust measures of the British Government. but while I rejoice at the close of the war & at the glorious events which terminated our Military conflicts, I feel the most severe mortification & depression, as a Citizan of Massachusetts. our State has been most retchedly humbled & degraded, by an unprinciple’d and Treacherous faction. I cannot but hope that their shamefull race is nearly run, and that on cool reflection, the great body of the Citizans will spurn such men from power & influence.—the extraordinery & unparelleld victory at New Orlians, when concidered with all its bearings, on the Enimy and on that Country, including the whole western States & Territories, is really a most wonderfull event. A formidable veteran Army, defeated and almost destroy’d by a body of Militia assembled principly from near one thousand miles distance, and on very short notice. we may search history in vain for a parellel case. especially when the disproportion of killed and wounded in the two Armies, is taken into the account.—I shall now retire from the service of my Country, and spend1 the remainder of my life in the character of a private Citizan, and I anticipate the pleasure of once more seing you at Monticello. be assured Sir, there is no other man on earth that I so much desire to see. in the mean time, that you may be as happy as the lot of humanity permits, is the sincere wish of your

unshaken friend.

H. Dearborn

P.S. Mrs Dearborn desires me to presint to you her most respectfull compliments.


The present Mrs D. was Mrs Bowdoin.

RC (DLC); above postscript: “Honbl Thomas Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 11 Mar. 1815 and so recorded in SJL.

The disproportion of killed and wounded at the Battle of New Orleans of 8 Jan. 1815 was, indeed, great. The British army suffered 2,037 casualties, while General Andrew Jackson reported his losses as around twenty, with an additional fifteen to thirty servicemen captured (Malcomson, Historical Dictionary description begins Robert Malcomson, Historical Dictionary of the War of 1812, 2006 description ends , 369; Jackson, Papers description begins Sam B. Smith, Harold D. Moser, Daniel Feller, and others, eds., The Papers of Andrew Jackson, 1980– , 7 vols. description ends , 3:239–41).

1Manuscript: “spnd.”

Index Entries

  • Dearborn, Henry; and War of1812 search
  • Dearborn, Henry; letters from search
  • Dearborn, Henry; on New England politics search
  • Dearborn, Henry; plans to visit TJ search
  • Dearborn, Sarah Bowdoin (James Bowdoin’s widow; Henry Dearborn’s third wife); sends greetings to TJ search
  • Federalist party; in Mass. search
  • Great Britain; peace with search
  • Jackson, Andrew; War of1812service of search
  • Massachusetts; Federalists in search
  • New England; Federalists in search
  • New Orleans, Battle of (1815); British casualties at search
  • New Orleans, Battle of (1815); H. Dearborn on search
  • politics; in New England search