To James Madison from Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 25 February 1815
From Benjamin Henry Latrobe
Pittsburg. Feby. 25th. 1815.
Sir,
I beg leave respectfully to offer you my services in the restoration of the public buildings in the city of Washington.1 Having devoted the best Years of my life to the public, I need not trespass upon your time, by stating the qualifications which I should bring into the Office. That I have shared the charge of extravagance with every Architect, to whom the expenditure of money on public Works has been committed, from the most ancient times, and in every nation, I am very sensible. I am conscious that I do not deserve it, and still more, that my error has produced no advantage to me, if I have committed it. For independently of the excuseable ambition which prompts me to wish that I may be permitted to restore the works which I have erected, and avoid the implied censure of another appointment, considerations for my family would render the Office I solicit very desireable to me. I am with high respect Yrs. &c
B H Latrobe
RC, two copies (DNA: RG 42, Letters Received and Drafts of Letters Sent by the Superintendent of the City of Washington). Second RC dated 24 Feb. 1815.
1. This was not the only letter to JM requesting that Latrobe, the former surveyor of the public buildings in Washington, be reinstated in government service. His wife, Mary Elizabeth Latrobe, recalled that soon after the War of 1812 ended, she wrote the president and other federal officials to that effect. She and her husband sought employment for him in Washington because the Latrobe family’s financial situation was dire, worsened by an ill-fated association with Robert Fulton’s steamboat project, and educational opportunities for the children in Pittsburgh were inadequate. Furthermore, Mary Elizabeth Latrobe wanted to live closer to her father and brothers. Her letter to JM has not been found, but it was evidently effective: two of the commissioners of the public buildings, John P. Van Ness and Tench Ringgold, wrote Latrobe on 14 Mar. 1815 conveying an invitation, which Latrobe believed was made at JM’s behest, to interview for the position. He received his commission and held it until resigning in November 1817 (, 3:626–30, 634, 635 n. 3).