From Thomas Jefferson to the Virginia Delegates in Congress, 22 February 1781
To the Virginia Delegates in Congress
In Council Feby 22d. 1781.
Gentlemen
The object of the inclosed Memorial of Messrs. Stodder, Kerr and North being attainable by Congress only and proper to be the subject of a representation from them I take the Liberty of transmitting it to you that Justice may be done to the parties interested.
I have the honor to be with great respect Gentlemen Your mo. ob. Hble Servant,
Th: Jefferson
P.S. We are and have long been without Letters of Marque.
RC (DLC: PCC, No. 71, ii); in a clerk’s hand, signed by TJ; endorsed: “Feby. 22nd. 1781 Letter from Govr. Jefferson of Virginia. Read 26th.” Enclosed Memorial of Stodder, Kerr, and North (complaining, as citizens of Virginia, that a trading vessel owned by them had been captured by the British in the neutral harbor of St. Martin) is in DLC: PCC, No. 41, ix; on motion of Madison and Meriwether Smith, 26 Mch. 1781, the Memorial and related papers were transmitted to John Adams “to represent the case to which they relate to their High Mightinesses the States General of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and to claim such redress for the memorialists as justice and the law of nations require” (, xix, 312). FC (Vi). Tr (DLC); signed and endorsed by TJ.