From Thomas Jefferson to Henry Remsen, Jr., 7 September 1790
To Henry Remsen, Jr.
Philadelphia Sep. 7. 1790.
Dear Sir
I find some difficulty in getting an office, and therefore leave it in charge with my landlord, Mr. Lieper to procure me one, convenient. When the papers are brought on therefore, you will only have to apply to him, and he will have provided one. He lives in Water street between Arch and Market streets.
There are at Berry & Rogers’s in New York some small pocket inkpots of silver, with a silver pen to them, the whole not more than 4. or 5. inches long, and half or three quarters of an inch diameter in the thickest part. I saw one of them in possession of Mr. Nelson, who tells me he bough[t] it there and that there are others remaining. I will thank you to get me one of the smallest of them, and keep it till I see you. I am with great esteem Dr. Sir Your most obedt. servt.,
Th: Jefferson
P.S. Your favor, written a day or two after I left N. York is recieved. I am now setting out on my journey.
PrC (DLC).
The letter written a day or two after TJ left New York was one containing a false rumor that TJ did not bother to comment on; it was dated 2 Sep. 1790 and read in part: “The English packet has just arrived, and brought advice of a meeting and engagement between the English and Spanish fleets, wherein the latter lost four Ships, two being taken and two sunk.—I cannot be more particular, as the letters will not be delivered until tomorrow morning on account of her arrival so late in the evening. The post master says there are none for you” (RC in DLC, endorsed by TJ as received 6 Sep. 1790 and so recorded in SJL).