1From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 23 February 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
The act of the Virginia legislature which is the foundation of the inclosed will become null by it’s own provision that it should be so if not assented to by Congress before Mar. 3. it is too late for Congress to take it up, but as it possibly may be brought forward at the next session it will be well in the mean time to procure necessary information. RC ( LNT : George H. and Katherine M....
2X. To Robert Smith, 14 February 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Will you be so good as to give the inclosed a strict revisal, and to suggest on a separate paper any alterations which occur to you as for the better. the sooner you can return it the more thankfully will the kindness be acknoleged. RC ( CtY , 1944); on verso of an address sheet with canceled “The President of the U. States” in Jacob Wagner’s hand; addressed: “The Secretary of the Navy.” Not...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 23 January 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Reibelt, bookseller, St. Patricks’s row, Baltimore having sent me a box of books to select such as I should chuse, I observe one which I think would be useful for your office or for our young eleves. tho the French are behind the English in the practice of the Nautical art, they are, from the excellence of their institutions, far before them in the theory. The price of the book is 10 D. 8....
4From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 3 January 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve your letter of yesterday in the kind light in which you intended it, and as it suggests not a loss of you in our administration but only a change of position, I permit myself to consider whether it will lessen our difficulty. it brings the question to this point whether it is easier to find an Attorney general or a Secretary of the Navy? I apprehend it is easiest to find the former....
5From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 14 October 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter from one Baldwin respecting things at the Wallabough. the proper use of such information is to put one on enquiry as it comes often from good men with patriotic views. with respect to himself, I presume from Blackley’s letter he has been heretofore in employ, & is now out. you will judge whether his situation does not merit such notice, useful to him, as circumstances...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 6 September 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Can you inform me of the progress made in the gunboats, where they are building, and when they may probably be ready. were they now ready I should certainly make a proposition to send the whole to New York & to clear out that harbour. should they be ready by the meeting of Congress, and the armed vessels still lying in that port, we might consult Congress on the measure. After waiting almost...
7From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 28 August 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter and other papers which I recieved from Captain Truxton by the last post. the malice and falsehood so habitual in Federal zealots had prepared me against surprize at the insinuations of this officer against you and myself. but what was his view in inclosing the letter to me? was it to give greater point to his disrespect? or did he imagine I should make him overtures to...
8From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 3 August 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
As mr Pinckney may be arrived in the country some time before I hear of it, will you be so good as to take the first decent occasion, after his arrival, of offering him the office of a judge of the Supreme court of the territory of Orleans, and of asking an answer? we can only await a certain time for that: but when that time is out, I will give you notice to avoid a proposition to him after...
9From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 13 July 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I should be much better pleased to see a due proportion of candidates for the place of midshipmen from the North. they ought not to expect to reap that whereon they have bestowed no labour, nor where others have laboured that they should reap the fruits. I am sorry they are not disposed to make the sacrifice of time & money necessary by which our young midshipmen qualify themselves for...
10From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Smith, 6 July 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I have made some slight alterations with a view to perspicuity in order to confine Article Ist. to those breaches of the peace & of the law of nations which are subjected to the discretion of the Governors acting under standing instructions from this government. IId. to cases of piracy which are left to the discretion of the officer himself who commands the boat. IIId. to those offences...