From Thomas Jefferson to Adam Lindsay, 27 December 1801
To Adam Lindsay
Washington Dec. 27. 1801.
Sir
I was in hopes to have recieved from you before this some white backs. I should have sent for them, but understood you would chuse to deliver them here. I am ready to take all you kill at the price paid by Gadsden in Alexandria; or if you will twice a week bring or send me half a dozen pair at the same price, I will pay you two dollars additional each time for bringing or sending them; or if that is not convenient, I will send for them twice a week, on fixed days, half a dozen pair at a time. if you have any on hand the bearer will bring them. Accept my best wishes.
Th: Jefferson
PrC (DLC); at foot of text: “Mr. Lindsay”; endorsed by TJ in ink on verso.
In the 1790s, Adam Lindsay, an acquaintance based in Norfolk, had provided TJ with an annual supply of myrtle wax candles and an occasional procurement of Hughes crab cider. He later resided in the easternmost section of Washington where he started a mulberry grove and became interested in domestic silkworm cultivation. Lindsay was a member of the Board of Common Council of Washington, an elected director of the Commercial Company of Washington in 1808, and was active in the building of the Anacostia or Eastern Branch Bridge in 1819 (, 2:816, 867, 873, 896; , 4 [1901], 215–6; 28 [1926], 24; 33–34 [1932], 278; Vol. 22:148, 376, 425).
White Backs: a local name for canvasback ducks (; , 2:1088).