From Thomas Jefferson to James Currie, 1 May 1791
To James Currie
Philadelphia May 1. 1791.
Dear Sir
This will be delivered you by Mr. Cassinove a gentleman from Holland of distinction, wealth and merit. An acquaintance of a year’s standing enables me to bear particular testimony to his worth as a man, and his talents as a man of business. Desirous that strangers of note should have opportunities of knowing the real character of my countrymen which I know will not suffer on the whole when compared with any others, I take the liberty of asking your attentions to him, and that you will be so good as to make him known to others whose acquaintance may be agreeable to him. I am with great & sincere esteem Dear Sir Your friend & servt,
Th: Jefferson
PrC (DLC).
Mr. Cassinove:Théophile Cazenove (1740–1811), an investment agent for several Amsterdam banking houses, who was about to take a “petit trot” into Virginia and Maryland. He reported to a friend that their little club had scattered, that Count Andriani had given up the project of getting himself scalped and was off for Quebec and Newfoundland, and that all was tranquil in Philadelphia except that the beautiful and amiable Mrs. Bingham was ill, thus afflicting all (Cazenove to Edward Campbell, 25 Apr. 1791, Cazenove Letter Book, City Archives of Amsterdam). The circle in which Cazenove moved included Alexander Hamilton as its most important figure, but it did not include TJ, who for a brief period had also been an admirer of Anne Willing Bingham while in Paris.
On this date TJ wrote letters of introduction to Cazenove addressed to Currie, McClurg, Governor Randolph, Thomas Mann Randolph, and Bushrod Washington. The text of the last exists only in a fragment (PrC in DLC: TJ Papers, 69, f. 11948).