Thomas Jefferson Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-07-02-0089

Thomas Jefferson to Patrick Gibson, 26 January 1814

To Patrick Gibson

Monticello Jan. 26. 14.

Dear Sir

I have duly recieved your favor of the 19th with the 300.D. inclosed. I was sorry to learn that my letter had not got to you in time to avail me of the momentary demand for flour. I wrote by the first mail after hearing there was such a demand. but these advices reach us too slowly, and therefore I had entertained a hope of your selling without waiting to consult me. I think it impossible but that stories will from time to time reach us as to the Gottenburg negociation which may give momentary spurs to adventurous merchants. I hope you will avail me of them according to your own discretion; for my purchases of corn for the subsistence of my people on the last years failure will go considerably beyond the balance in your hands these will be falling due from the 1st of March to the 10th of May. within that time I hope there may be sales. I have somewhere about 200. barrels now ready for Johnson who came up 2. or 3. days ago only & promises to take in a load to-day. I must ask the favor of you to send me by him a keg of powder of 25.℔. 6. gross of corks, or if very good I would be glad to take double that quantity, for I fear they will become difficult to get hereafter, also 9.1 bundles of nail rod, assorted, to wit, 2. bundles of the size proper for 6d nails, 2 do for 10d 2. do for 16. pennies, 2 do for 20. pennies, & 1. do for spikes or half crown rod. I have written to Richard Randolph for 2. gross of beer-jugs & to mr Staples for one of Evans’s corn-cob screws, and desired them to apply to you for paiment; and I shall within a day or two draw on you for between 30. & 40.D. in favor of D. Higginbotham. Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect.

Th: Jefferson

PoC (facsimile in Profiles in History, Beverly Hills, Calif., catalogue 31 [ca. 2000], lot 102, p. 78); at foot of text: “Mr Gibson.”

While declining Russian mediation, British foreign secretary Lord Castlereagh forwarded to his American counterpart on 4 Nov. 1813 the proposal that direct negotiations for ending the War of 1812 be initiated at either London or gottenburg (Göteborg, Gothenburg), Sweden. In his reply of 5 Jan. 1814 Secretary of State James Monroe informed Castlereagh that “the President accedes to his proposition, and will take the measures depending on him for carrying it into effect at Gottenburg.” Monroe notified the American peace commissioners on 27 June 1814 that they had the authority to transfer the talks to a more convenient site, such as Amsterdam, the Hague, or even a city in England. After receiving their thoughts on the subject, on 11 Aug. 1814 he communicated to them the president’s approval of their decision to move the negotiations to Ghent, in present-day Belgium (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, 1832–61, 38 vols. description ends , Foreign Relations, 3:621–3, 704–5).

1Reworked from “7.”

Index Entries

  • beer; jugs for search
  • Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, Viscount; as foreign secretary search
  • corks; TJ orders search
  • corn; for slaves search
  • corn; TJ buys search
  • Evans, Oliver; sells milling screws search
  • flour; price of search
  • Ghent; peace negotiations at search
  • Gibson, Patrick; and gunpowder for TJ search
  • Gibson, Patrick; and nailrod for TJ search
  • Gibson, Patrick; and payments to TJ search
  • Gibson, Patrick; and TJ’s flour search
  • Gibson, Patrick; letters to search
  • Gibson, Patrick; payments made for TJ search
  • Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden; and peace negotiations search
  • gunpowder; TJ orders search
  • Higginbotham, David; TJ pays search
  • household articles; beer jugs search
  • household articles; corks search
  • Johnson, William (waterman); carries flour to Richmond search
  • Johnson, William (waterman); transports goods from Richmond search
  • mills; screws for search
  • Monroe, James; as secretary of state search
  • naileries; nailrod and iron stock search
  • Randolph, Richard; and earthenware for TJ search
  • Staples, John; as patent agent search
  • War of1812; and peace negotiations search
  • War of1812; and prices search