To Thomas Jefferson from David Leonard Barnes, 9 February 1804
From David Leonard Barnes
Providence Feby 9th 1804—
Sir—
I take the liberty to inclose an original Letter from the Secratary of the Treasury, intrusted to my care by Capt Leonard, to show the countenance he received from the Government in the prosecutions he commenced—The treatment he received at the [. . .] trial, as he came out of the Court House in the evening, I presume he has stated in his Letters to the Treasury Department in the Spring of 1801—The inclosed letter belonging to Capt Leonard, I should like to have it returned to be delivered to him—
With Sentiments of Great Respect I have the Honour to be your most Obedt Servt
David Leonard Barnes
RC (DLC); torn; at foot of text: “Thomas Jefferson President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 19 Feb. and so recorded in SJL with notation “Leonard’s case.” Enclosure not found.
treatment he received: John West Leonard’s suit against James D’Wolf for slave trading commenced 4 Feb. 1801 in the U.S. district court for Rhode Island at Newport, where a sympathetic jury quickly acquitted D’Wolf the following day. While leaving the courthouse after the first day of the trial, Leonard was “roughly handled” by a group of unidentified persons, but escaped serious injury (Philadelphia Gazette, 14 Feb. 1801; Jay Coughtry, The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade, 1700-1807 [Philadelphia, 1981], 222-4, 226; Barnes to TJ, 8 Feb.).