Thomas Jefferson Papers
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From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 7 June 1804

To Gideon Granger

June 7. 04.

Th:J. to mr Granger.

On consideration I think it better not to write to mr Tabor myself, but to ask the favor of you to do it, as you have before had occasion to write on it. he should understand that the whole difficulty which has arisen was as to the place only, and not the person, & that if he can surmount that by a removal we have no hesitation about preferring him to any other person for the office. let him know the proposition is confidential, and a prompt answer asked.

PoC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as a letter of 8 June and so recorded in SJL.

TJ was considering Constant Taber (tabor) of Newport to replace Jabez Bowen as commissioner of loans for Rhode Island. He also contemplated moving the loan office from Providence to Newport (see TJ to Gallatin, 30 May; David Leonard Barnes to TJ, 29 June; TJ to Christopher Ellery, 29 June; Jonathan Russell to TJ, 29 June). Republicans in Newport and southern Rhode Island complained that too many federal offices in the state had gone to Providence. They also believed Governor Arthur Fenner wielded too much influence over appointments and was too closely allied with the state’s Federalists (Joseph Michael Norton, “The Rhode Island Federalist Party: 1785-1815” [Ph.D. diss., St. John’s University, 1975], 145-50; Vol. 40:644).

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