To Thomas Jefferson from Charles P. Sumner, 11 January 1804
From Charles P. Sumner
Boston 11 January 1804.
Sir,
The approbation, with which the inclosed have been received by a number of my friends, has emboldened me to request the favor of your accepting them.
I offer them with great diffidence; and value them chiefly for the opportunity they afford me of making a profession of those sentiments of admiration for your character, with which—in all the sincerity of my heart—I have ever felt myself your respectful & obedient servant.
Charles P. Sumner.
RC (MHi); at foot of text: “The President of The United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 20 Jan. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: probably Charles P. Sumner, Eulogy on the Illustrious George Washington, Pronounced at Milton, Twenty-Second February, 1800 (Dedham, Mass., 1800), inscribed by the author to TJ; see No. 3276. Other enclosures not identified (see TJ to Sumner, 26 Jan.).
An attorney and Harvard graduate, Charles P. Sumner (1776-1839) was the father of future U.S. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. An early and passionate believer in the abolition of slavery and other liberal ideals, he campaigned actively for TJ’s reelection in 1804. He subsequently served several years as clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and as sheriff of Suffolk County from 1825 until shortly before his death (Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, 4 vols. [Boston, 1877-93], 1:11-30; Anne-Marie Taylor, Young Charles Sumner and the Legacy of the American Enlightenment, 1811-1851 [Amherst, Mass., 2001], 12-26, 29, 122).