RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); at foot of text: “Thomas Jefferson President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 24 Apr. and so recorded in SJL with notation “Off.” Enclosure not found.

Jonas Simonds (d. 1816) was an inspector in the Philadelphia Custom House. He achieved the rank of captain in the Continental artillery during the Revolutionary War and later accepted the appointment of major in the Philadelphia militia, which earned him the enmity of his Federalist supervisors in the customhouse. On 8 July 1808, TJ appointed him colonel of infantry, a position he held until honorably discharged in June 1815. He died in St. Louis, on 13 July 1816 (James Robinson, The Philadelphia Directory, City and County Register, for 1802 [Philadelphia, 1801], 221; Heitman, Dictionary description begins Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, Washington, D.C., 1903, 2 vols. description ends , 887; Heitman, Register description begins Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, April, 1775, to December, 1793, new ed., Washington, D.C., 1914 description ends , 497–8; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States… to the Termination of the Nineteenth Congress, Washington, D.C., 1828, 3 vols. description ends , 2:100; Daily National Intelligencer, 6 Aug. 1816; Thomas Leiper to TJ, 26 Jan. 1806).