1From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 9 July 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
When it became necessary for me to name a successor to Mr. Stoddart, as Secretary of the Navy, my attention was naturally first called to those gentlemen whose line of life led them to an intimacy with ship-building & navigation. the place was therefore proposed to your brother, to mr Langdon & to Capt Jones. they have all declined it. it becomes now necessary to find one in some other line....
2From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 14 August 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday mr Thomas’s favor covering the list of warrants for the week, and your’s of the 7th. inst. I am very glad to learn your opinion on the question of admitting French & English prizes into our ports, & that it coincides with my own. indeed it is the opinion of every member of the administration. I consider that we are free to recieve, or to refuse the prizes of both nations,...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 29 August 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Congress appropriated 20,000 D. to effecting the Marine hospital . the Site purchased of the Commissioners cost between 8. & 9000 Dollars. but it was thought that 4000 D. only of that in cash would be requisite for their purposes & that the balance might be applied to their credit in account of the sum guaranteed by Congress: consequently that there remained 16,000. D. of the appropriation...
4From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 5 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of Aug. 27. 31. 31. are received. the last one requires only to be acknoleged. the commissions , which are the subject of the first, are signed & forwarded herewith. with respect to the Boston she may get ready for departure as soon as possible. we do not consider it as proper to delay either the vessel or mr Livingston. the delay under which the treaty is may possibly be...
5From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 11 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just recieved from Govr. Drayton a letter [on] the subject of the French prisoners there, with copies of those which had passed between him and the French agent, which I inclose you. in his letter to me is this passage. ‘I should be glad to know in what manner the expences of the said prisoners are to be defrayed: whether by the US. or the French republic. for as they were brought in...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 19 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
The letters of the 7th. 8th. 11th. & [14]th. inst. from yourself and your chief clerk came to hand the day before yesterday. consequently that of the 7th. must have slept a week by the way somewhere. I now return the warrants for the midshipmen signed. I rejoice at the event of your election. it gives solidity to the Union by gaining a legislative & ensuring an Executive ascendancy to...
7From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 9 October 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Capt Truxton’s idea of a [gradual] relief of our frigates [presents] advantages. in addition to what he [mentions], the frigate going out [might] always carry supplies; the frigate relieved may always be any particular one which may have got damaged & need repairs. it puts it in our power to shift the officers at our will & without offence. [it] might, on the arrival of the one & before the...
8From Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, Henry Dearborn, and Robert Smith, 5 May 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson asks the favor of the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary at War & Secretary of the Navy to carry into execution the inclosed resolution of the H. of representatives of May 3. 1802. desiring a statement of expenditures from Jan. 1. 1797. by the Quarter Master Genl. the Navy agents, for the Contingencies of the Naval & Military establishments and the Navy contracts for timber &...
9From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 14 May 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his friendly salutations to the Secretary of the navy and incloses him a letter from mr Page asking a furlough for a son of Genl. Spotswood . if it be within rule it is worth while to oblige the Genl. (tho’ a true federalist) as well as mr Page PrC ( DLC ). Recorded in SJL with notation “furlough for Spotswood.” Enclosure: probably Mann Page to TJ, 9 May 1802, recorded...
10From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 9 August 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday the inclosed copies of letters from Simpson & Commodore Morris forwarded from your office. the demand of the emperor of Marocco is so palpably against reason and the usage of nations, that it bespeaks either a determination to go to war with us at all events, or that he will always make common cause with any of the Barbary powers who may be at war with us. his having...
11From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 17 August 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter from a mr Isaac Mansfield as attorney for the representative of James Mugford , who was killed in an action on board a vessel which he commanded whereby, under the then existing regulations, his widow became entitled to a bounty . I inclose it to you because, if entitled by the existing laws, the [inquiries] first come to your office for it’s sanction before it could be...
12From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 20 August 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of the 16th & 17th were recieved last night; but neither the commissions or Warrants mentioned in the last to be forwarded have come. I suppose they have been put into the post office after the hour and will [be on] by the next post. I recieve by this your opinion & those of the Secretaries of the Treasury & War on our Barbary affairs. I had before asked & received that of mr...
13From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 22 August 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just returned from Mr. Madison’s, where I have had conferences with him on the subject of our Barbary affairs & on consideration of the opinions of yourself & the Secretaries of the Treasury & War. there is an entire concurrence of opinion among us in every material point. the amount of these opinions is, and consequently the decision on them as follows. The hundred guncarriages, and...
14From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 23 August 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I had yesterday written & committed to the post office a letter in answer to yours of the 16th. on the measures to be pursued with respect to our Barbary affairs. this was grounded on the supposition that we might still be at peace with Marocco. your’s of the 20th. was recieved yesterday evening, and informs me of the declaration of War by the Emperor of Marocco. it was not very unexpected....
15From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 30 August 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of the 27th. was recieved yesterday. the host of commissions had come to hand and been signed & sent back by the last post. those now recieved are therefore returned: as are also the instructions to Commodore Morris with the suggestion of a small alteration or two. I doubt too whether it might not be proper to say something on the conditions of peace with Tripoli & Marocco; to wit that...
16From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 3 September 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Your two favors of Aug. 31. are recieved. the printed instructions are signed & accompany this. I presume the instruction as to the procuring gunboats is right, tho’ I can judge here from reason only and not information. we ought to rely also in the discretion of our officers so far as that they will not commit our men in these small vessels to an unequal or even equal fight. we ought above...
17From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 6 September 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
We have now authentic information from mr Simpson that the Governor of Tangiers has by letter informed him of the Emperor of Marocco’s permission to him to return for six months. this is a clear enough expression of his object, which is presents, and peace. on these we have time to consider. but this change in the state of things renders it proper that we should change our purpose of sending...
18From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 17 September 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
The object of the present is merely to acknolege the reciept of yours of the 14th. and to mention that I have recieved a letter from mr Gallatin disapproving of the first order for the sailing of the John Adams, on general grounds & also on the special ground that the appropriations for that object were exhausted: further that mr Madison will be with me tomorrow, and that I will then take the...
19From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 20 September 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I have had an opportunity of consulting with mr Madison and of considering with his assistance the question whether the John Adams should proceed. I had before been favored with a letter from mr Gallatin which with yours furnished material considerations on the subject. the defect of specific appropriation presented the greatest difficulty: but that seems already incurred by the advance of the...
20From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 16 October 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
We have this morning recieved authentic information from mr Simpson that a state of peace is happily restored between us & the emperor of Marocco. information habitually recieved shews there has never been any danger of rupture between us & Tunis or Algiers. in this state of things, and considering the approach of winter, it becomes necessary we should have a general consultation of the heads...
21From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 22 October 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Francis Mitchill of Richmond in Virginia has been recommended for a midshipman’s place by Colo. John Harvie of that place and mr George Divers, gentlemen worthy of all confidence . I saw him myself, & found from his own statement that he had proceeded in geometry as far as the 6. first books of Euclid. William G. Stewart of Philadelphia applies for a place of midshipman. I am personally...
22From Thomas Jefferson to Heads of Departments (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson asks a consultation with the heads of departments tomorrow at 11. aclock, on the subject of N. Orleans & the Floridas. should we meet later, we may be prevented by the visits usual on the day. will mr Smith be so good as to send the inclosed over the way to mr Lincoln? RC ( MHi : Levi Lincoln Papers); undated or date clipped; endorsed by Levi Lincoln as 31 Dec. 1802; with...
23From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 17 March 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved a letter from the Secy. of state informing me that the Dey of Algiers refuses to [accept?] the money offered him in commutation for the naval stores [due] him and consequently it becomes necessary to send the stores immediately. as it is [certainly?] better for the public that the purchase of naval stores should [be in?] the hands of one set of agents, not only to avoid...
24From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 19 March 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you on the 17th. on the subject of the stores for Algiers, since which your’s of the 12th. is recieved. I thought I had spoken to mr Madison on the day of my departure on the subject of the gun carriages for the emperor of Marocco. I now write to him respecting them. I presume the date of the enlistment of the crews of our frigates in the Mediterranean should decide which of them shall...
25From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 29 March 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday your’s of the 17th. suggesting the sending into the Mediterranean the Constitution or the Philadelphia to overawe the Barbary powers. our plan of keeping one or two frigates there with 4. schooners was concluded on great & general consideration, on the supposition that war with Tripoli alone would go on. your letter suggests no new fact changing the state of things. I...
26From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 16 June 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I learn from Capt Tingey that the Philadelphia will probably not sail till August, and the frigate at Boston is expected to be still later. the Nautilus we are told is on the point of sailing. on consultation with the heads of department here, I am of opinion, and suggest it for your consideration, that an order of recall to Capt Morris should go by the Nautilus. from his inactivity hitherto,...
27From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 18 June 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I this moment recieve from mr Madison a communication of your letter of the 17th. proposing that Capt Morris shall come home in the Adams whose crew have served their time instead of the New York which has still some time to serve. the reasons are entirely good and I concur with you in the change. Affectionate salutations. PrC ( DLC ); partially dated. Recorded in SJL with notation “Morris.”...
28From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 8 August 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
It is suggested to me (indirectly from the person himself) that Jerome Bonaparte is at Baltimore, under the name of Monsr. Dalbarton, with a son of Rewbell, [&] that they mean to ask a passage to France in one of our frigates. if this be the fact, he will have satisfied thereof the minister of his nation, thro’ whom we shall be apprised of it, & relieved from all trouble in deciding on it....
29From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 16 August 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson salutes mr Smith and incloses him a letter from a mr Nichols of Massachusets desiring to be a midshipman, of whom he knows nothing but what is contained in the letter. health & happiness. PrC ( DLC ). Enclosure: John H. Nichols to TJ, 8 Aug. 1803 (recorded in SJL as received from Charlestown on 15 Aug. with notation “to be Midshipman,” but not found).
30From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 23 August 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter from mr Simpson to mr Madison shewing very clearly that our plan of having the gun carriages for the Emperor of Marocco made in Europe, cannot take place. to cut short all further delay on this subject, I think we must furnish them from hence. you observe they must be of the very best & fitted for land service. if we have such, really good, tho’ wanting for our own...
31From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 5 September 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 28th. came to hand on the 2d. inst. expecting mr Madison daily , I deferred writing till I should confer with him. this is the first post after his arrival, & I write to Genl. Dearborne to contribute his agency with you in such way as may be convenient for both towards carrying into execution the engagement of our predecessors to furnish the hundred gun carriages to the...
32From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 30 September 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Having understood that you have been unwell, & that your family is still so, I have not asked your attendance here, lest these circumstances should stand in the way. Mr. Madison, Dearborne & Gallatin are here & mr Lincoln expected tomorrow. we have not only to decide on the matters to be communicated to Congress, but as early a decision of the administration as possible is requisite on one of...
33From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 5 October 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of yesterday is this moment recieved. mine of Sep. 30. [was] written without any accurate information of the state of your family. the question hinted in that was decided on Tuesday & is gone into action. there is therefore now no cause for separating you from your family, and I shall be sorry if it should take place before you recieve this. I am sure you will approve what we have...
34From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 10 October 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I have heard of your misfortune and lament it, but will say nothing, ha[ving] learnt from experience that time, silence, & occupation are the only medicines such case. I should have regretted the necessity of writing to you on a subject of business, did I not believe it useful to withdraw the mind from what it is too apt to brood over, to other objects. You know the importance of our being...
35From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 27 April 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I now return you the sentence of the court of enquiry in Morris’s case. what is the next step? I am not military jurist enough to say. but if it be a court marshal to try and pass the proper sentence on him, pray let it be done without delay, while our captains are here. this opportunity of having a court should not be lost. I have never been so mortified as at the conduct of our foreign...
36From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 15 June 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
The calls for our gunboats at Charleston, Savanna, Mobille & N. Orleans are very imperious. the late insult to our peace officers at Savannah should never be permitted to be repeated a second time. Capt Casson tells me mr Fox is engaged in making the drawings for the lighter gun boat. but while the drawings are preparing to be sent to the several places of construction, could not your orders...
37From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 4 July 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I have no doubt that we ought to do here every thing which time will permit us to do; and consequently approve of building a brig and two gunboats here. There are weighty reasons requiring a gun boat in Lake Pontchartrain immediately. it is thought too that No. 1. tho not suited to the current of the Missisipi, may be well adapted to the lake, and being a stouter sea-boat than any we may build...
38From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 6 July 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I have made some slight alterations with a view to perspicuity in order to confine Article Ist. to those breaches of the peace & of the law of nations which are subjected to the discretion of the Governors acting under standing instructions from this government. IId. to cases of piracy which are left to the discretion of the officer himself who commands the boat. IIId. to those offences...
39From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 13 July 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I should be much better pleased to see a due proportion of candidates for the place of midshipmen from the North. they ought not to expect to reap that whereon they have bestowed no labour, nor where others have laboured that they should reap the fruits. I am sorry they are not disposed to make the sacrifice of time & money necessary by which our young midshipmen qualify themselves for...
40From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 3 August 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
As mr Pinckney may be arrived in the country some time before I hear of it, will you be so good as to take the first decent occasion, after his arrival, of offering him the office of a judge of the Supreme court of the territory of Orleans, and of asking an answer? we can only await a certain time for that: but when that time is out, I will give you notice to avoid a proposition to him after...
41From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 28 August 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter and other papers which I recieved from Captain Truxton by the last post. the malice and falsehood so habitual in Federal zealots had prepared me against surprize at the insinuations of this officer against you and myself. but what was his view in inclosing the letter to me? was it to give greater point to his disrespect? or did he imagine I should make him overtures to...
42From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 6 September 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Can you inform me of the progress made in the gunboats, where they are building, and when they may probably be ready. were they now ready I should certainly make a proposition to send the whole to New York & to clear out that harbour. should they be ready by the meeting of Congress, and the armed vessels still lying in that port, we might consult Congress on the measure. After waiting almost...
43From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 14 October 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter from one Baldwin respecting things at the Wallabough. the proper use of such information is to put one on enquiry as it comes often from good men with patriotic views. with respect to himself, I presume from Blackley’s letter he has been heretofore in employ, & is now out. you will judge whether his situation does not merit such notice, useful to him, as circumstances...
44From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 3 January 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve your letter of yesterday in the kind light in which you intended it, and as it suggests not a loss of you in our administration but only a change of position, I permit myself to consider whether it will lessen our difficulty. it brings the question to this point whether it is easier to find an Attorney general or a Secretary of the Navy? I apprehend it is easiest to find the former....
45From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 23 January 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Reibelt, bookseller, St. Patricks’s row, Baltimore having sent me a box of books to select such as I should chuse, I observe one which I think would be useful for your office or for our young eleves. tho the French are behind the English in the practice of the Nautical art, they are, from the excellence of their institutions, far before them in the theory. The price of the book is 10 D. 8....
46X. To Robert Smith, 14 February 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Will you be so good as to give the inclosed a strict revisal, and to suggest on a separate paper any alterations which occur to you as for the better. the sooner you can return it the more thankfully will the kindness be acknoleged. RC ( CtY , 1944); on verso of an address sheet with canceled “The President of the U. States” in Jacob Wagner’s hand; addressed: “The Secretary of the Navy.” Not...
47From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 23 February 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
The act of the Virginia legislature which is the foundation of the inclosed will become null by it’s own provision that it should be so if not assented to by Congress before Mar. 3. it is too late for Congress to take it up, but as it possibly may be brought forward at the next session it will be well in the mean time to procure necessary information. RC ( LNT : George H. and Katherine M....
48From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 31 March 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 27th. was recieved yesterday proposing to advance Lieutenants Sterett and Hull to be captains, nobody feels more strongly than I do the desire of encouraging by just rewards the enterprize of our officers, and especially should I be gratified by the promotion of Lt. Sterett who first taught our countrymen that they were more than equal to the pirates of the Mediteranean. but...
49From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 23 May 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
I have spoken with Genl. Dearborne on the subject of the Marines at N. Orleans, and he sais there is nothing in his department opposed to their discharge. it occurred however in conversation that as some of the gun-boats building on the Ohio are destined for N. Orleans, and two of them at least for immediate service, you might think it better to retain these marines to man them, as better...
50From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 31 May 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
I return you Commodore Preble’s letter which gives us time enough to consider on his mission. he proposes a longer one than I had supposed necessary. the hogshead of wine was yesterday brought here. it is really a painful & embarrasing thing. to reject may be supposed to imply impure motives in the offer. to recieve leads to horrid abuse. the former however has been my rule, where the thing is...