1From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 29 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have long been indebted to you a letter; but it has been because you desired me to write by mr Ervin the bearer of yours who is not yet gone back. but in the mean time I trust that the post is become a safe channel to and from [me]. I have heard indeed of some extraordinary licenses practised in the post offices of your state, & there is nothing I desire so much as information of facts on...
2From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 3 May 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you on the 29th. of March. yours of the 25th of that month with the address it covered had not reached this place on the 1st. of April when I set out on a short visit to my residence in Virginia where some arrangements were necessary previous to my settlement here. in fact your letter came to me at Monticello only the 24th. of April, two days before my departure from thence. this I...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 21 July 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I propose within about ten days to seek, for the months of August & September, a climate more congenial than that of the tide waters. I do myself therefore the previous pleasure of acknoleging [the] reciept of your favor of the 6th. & to thank you for it’s information & to hope you will continue it. my own opinion accords entirely with yours. the first removal in Connecticut will be justified...
4From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 7 October 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
The office either of Auditor or Treasurer of the US. will either the one or the other be vacant after this month. I do not as yet know which. their salaries are equal, 3000. D. each; their rank equal. I shall be happy to have the vacancy supplied by yourself; and shall consider it as fortunate for the public. I therefore take the liberty of proposing to you to accept whichever of the two shall...
5From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 14 October 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my letter of this day sennight , the question as to the public offices has taken a turn different from what was then expected. neither of the two then named is to be vacant, but instead thereof the Postmaster general’s place. this being of equal grade, emolument, and importance, I propose it to your acceptance with the same satisfaction as either of the others. perhaps you will consider...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 31 October 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of the 25th. & 26th. inst. came to hand last night. I feel with great sensibility the domestic obstacles which embarras your mind on the subject of a removal to this place. but nobody knows better, because no one has encountered more steadfastly, the formidable phalanx opposed to the republican features of our constitution. to bear up against this, the talents & virtue of our...
7From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 5 December 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to mr Granger and incloses him a letter from mr Lyon a printer of this city, a young man of bold republicanism in the worst of times, of good character, son of the persecuted Matthew Lyon. tho’ of real genius, he has not succeeded in his newspapers, owing to his making them vehicles of other kinds of information, rather than of news, which is not within...
8From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 20 May 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson asks the favor of the Postmaster general to send no letters for him to this place, after he recieves this, as he will be in Washington in the course of the ensuing week. PrC ( DLC ). Not recorded in SJL . TJ arrived in WASHINGTON on Sunday, 30 May ( MB James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany,...
9From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 15 August 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 8th. was recieved on the 12th. the letter of mr Fenton therein inclosed, relating only to the uncreated office of Surveyor Genl. I retain if you will permit me, because it suggests some necessary insertions when such an office shall be created. mr Nichols, as well as Messrs. Bull & Dodd has declined serving as Commr. under the bankrupt act. [this leaves] but two at Hartford ....
10From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 29 August 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Not knowing whether the postmasters from hence to & at Boston are all true, I inclose the within to you and ask the favor of your cover to the postmaster or any other person you can confide in at Boston to deliver it. Your favors of Aug. 23. & 24. are recieved. pray forward me by post one of mr Bishop’s new pamphlets , & let it stand in account between us till we meet. I see with sincere grief...
11From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 8 May 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I promised to inform you of the result of the Virginia elections. one only has issued differently from what I expected; that is the Eastern shore district. the 2. Eastern shore counties were almost in the entire mass a body of tories during the revolutionary war, among whom we were obliged to station a regiment or two to keep them in order. they have never lost that spirit. they have now given...
12From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 20 May 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night yours of the 13th. and rejoice that in some forms, tho’ not in all, republicanism shows progress in Connecticut. as Clerical bondage is the root of the evil, I have more hopes, from the petition you inclosed me, of seeing that loosened, than from any other agency. the lawyers, the other pillar of federalism, are from the nature of their calling so ready to take either...
13From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 16 April 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 8th. came to hand on the 13th. and will suggest, by the date of your recieving this, a subject of consultation when we meet again. that is to say how to incorporate into your general arrangement such a course between Washington & Charlottesville, as giving 2. posts a week at intervals of 3. & 4. days, shall make the mail pass, viâ Fredericksburg, from the one place to the...
14From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 23 April 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson asks the favor at the General post office at Washington, that all letters & papers recieved there for him after the 26th. inst. may be retained there, till his return to that place. PrC ( DLC ); endorsed by TJ in ink on verso: “Postmaster Genl.”
15From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 7 June 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
On consideration I think it better not to write to mr Tabor myself, but to ask the favor of you to do it, as you have before had occasion to write on it. he should understand that the whole difficulty which has arisen was as to the place only, and not the person, & that if he can surmount that by a removal we have no hesitation about preferring him to any other person for the office. let him...
16From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 31 March 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson asks the favor of the Postmaster genl. to let no papers be sent from his office to him at this place after the post which shall leave Washington on Friday next, the 5th. of April. he presents him his salutations. DLC : Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
17From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 14 July 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Of mr Redick I know nothing, not even the place or state of his residence. dating a letter ‘at Washington’ & ‘in America’ is about equivalent. I inclose you his letter ‘ut saleat quantum valere potest.’ On the subject of the Maysville petition I have no other information than that contains. it is written with some eagerness for their object. to feel passion is lawful for them: not for us. I...
18From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 23 July 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
In your letter of the 19th. you ask my advice as to the measures to be taken to carry into effect the law for the transmission of a mail to New Orleans by the lower route. I do not see that in the present state of our information any correct decision can be formed. whenever we hear from Abrams his report with mr Wheatly’s will inform us of the difficulties thro’ the whole route, & we may then...
19From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 3 August 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return yesterday from a journey to New London, I recieved your favor of July 23. and now return Govr. Claiborne’s letter & map. as far as one can judge from these documents I should conclude the best route to be by land to the river Chef menteur, then by water to Bois-doré & thence Northernly along the Indian path; because this reduces the water transportation to about 20. miles of still...
20From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 25 August 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 19th. is recieved & I now reinclose the Maysville & Washington returns. in sending you the Maysville petition I meant nothing more than to bring the question again under your view, that if any new matter were presented or any old were put into a new light, you might consider it’s effect, and finally do what on reconsideration you judged right. I am perfectly contented with...
21From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 24 April 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
As far as can be judged from the maps, the road from Fort Stoddert ought to bear down South Westwardly, to get into the Spanish road leading from Mobille to Baton Rouge, before it crosses Pascagoule river. then follow that road (which is nearly due West) till it crosses Pearl river. then quit it & go nearly due South to the neck between Lakes Borgne & Pontchartrain opposite to Chef Menteur....
22From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 25 April 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
According to Lafon’s map, which is the most minute & probably the most correct, of the Environs of N. Orleans, it may seem doubtful whether it is best to cross the Pearl river at the Spanish road & come down on the West side to the Rigolet at Stikinoula, or to take off from that road on the East side of the river where it is intersected by one of the Indian paths travd by Lafon, & come down to...
23From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 5 July 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Observations on the reports of mr Wheaton & Judge Toulman On considering these reports with mr Briggs’s map before me I make the following inferences & observations. 1. Athens is our 1st. fixed station; the law making it the point of departure. 2. the 2d. obvious station is the middle of the ridge between the Chatahouchee & Allabama, where mr Brigg’s travelling rout crossed it, as he went from...
24From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 18 July 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
By a law of the last session 6000. D. were appropriated for a road from the Ohio to the Missisipi, & 6000. D. for another from Nashville to Natchez. these are directed as post roads, and the execution of them falls, I think, more properly into your department than any other. the first of these is proposed to lead from Cincinnati by Vincennes to Cahokia & St. Louis; because the post from hence...
25From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 9 August 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 4th. has been recieved & duly considered,o on the subject of the road from Nashville to Natchez, I approve of all your ideas & propositions therein expressed, with the following explanations. between the Grindstone ford & the Chickasaw towns, where from 18. to 25 miles have been lost on mr Gaines’s rout to avoid certain swampy lands, a resurvey should be made, to see whether...
26From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1 September 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I happened to be in the neighborhood of Lynchburg immediately after the death of mr Leak the postmaster, & availed myself of the opportunity I had to enquire, from good persons, into the characters of the competitors for the office. they are as follows. 1 Christopher Lynch. his family formerly owned the site of the town and now hold a part of it & the circumjacent country. they are half...
27From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 22 January 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your favor of the 19th. I certainly wish the prosecutions you allude to should be put an end to, for the reasons explained in my former letters on that subject. and these are strengthened by the verbal declarations you communicated to me from the defendant. I have never considered the political hatreds and slanders pointed at me, as meant against me personally, but rather...
28From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 6 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson begs leave to observe to mr Granger that the proposition to confine the carriage of American produce to American bottoms, can be proved by better evidence than mere conversations: he is almost certain it was expressly recommended in his report on commerce to Congress in 1793. on which mr Madison’s resolutions were founded. not having a copy of the report, he has sent to the Secy....
29From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 7 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I thought I had inserted in the Report of 1793, the idea of confining the exportation of our own produce to our own vessels. but I find my report proposed only such a navigation act as the British; and that it was in private conversations & propositions that the former was advanced. however every man who has had opportunities of knowing my sentiments on this subject knows that from that day to...