From Thomas Jefferson to the House of Representatives, 15 November 1804
To the House of Representatives
To the House of Representatives
of the United States.
Agreeably to your resolution of the 9th. instant I now lay before you a statement of the circumstances attending the destruction of the frigate Philadelphia, with the names of the officers and the number of men employed on the occasion: to which I have to add that Lieutenant Decatur was thereupon advanced to be a Captain in the Navy of the US.
Th: Jefferson
Nov. 15. 1804
RC (DNA: RG 233, PM, 8th Cong., 2d sess.). PoC (DLC). Notation in SJL: “message. officers of Philada.” Enclosures: Robert Smith to TJ, 13 Nov., and enclosure (see , Naval Affairs, 1:127-8).
lay before you: William A. Burwell delivered TJ’s letter to the House on 15 Nov. Four days later, a congressional resolution awarded a sword to Stephen Decatur and two months’ additional pay to each of the officers and crewmen of the Intrepid (, 5:14-15, 17-18).