To Thomas Jefferson from James Ash, 7 February 1803
From James Ash
Baltimore 7th. February 1803
Sir,
I send you, inclosed, proposals for a work, which shall be published, when money is received to pay the expence of printing.
The encouragment which you are disposed to contribute, be pleased to return by next post.
I have the honor to be, Sir, your mo. ob: Hble: Servt.
James Ash
RC (MHi); at foot of text: “Thomas Jefferson President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 9 Feb. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure not found, but see below.
James Ash moved from Winchester, Virginia, in 1795, and settled in Baltimore, where he became a clerk of the superior court of Maryland. In 1798, he applied to be one of George Washington’s aides and also submitted a proposal for printing a digest of the laws of the state. The following year he petitioned the Maryland General Assembly as an insolvent debtor and initiated legal proceedings (Laws of Maryland, Made and Passed at a Session of Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Annapolis on Monday the Fourth of November, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Nine [Annapolis, 1800], chap. 88; Washington, Papers, Ret. Ser., 2:121, 464–5; Ash to TJ, 12 Jan. 1807 and enclosure).
proposals for a work: Ash planned to publish “The American Law of Merchants,” but failed to gain sufficient subscriptions.