To Thomas Jefferson from Isaac Hammer, 5 December 1803
From Isaac Hammer
Washington County
State of Tennessee,
12th. Month 5th. Day 1803
Hond. & Much Respd. Friend,
it is from that Respectable Carecture that we hear of thee that Encourages Me to believe that thee wishes well to all the Citesons of the United States, And as there are a few of the Inhabitants of this State who are Called Dunkers who would wish to be at peace with all mankind; and at this time we are thretened to be Drafted to go a Campaign toward the mouth of the Missisippy; and as we Cannot hear that Any of the other States are Drafted; it Causes the Inhabittants of this State to fly to the other States for Shelter and has Caused great Distress alreadry; in many famelies; and as I understand by some that the Coppy of the Express from thee was read in the Court Martial in Jonesborough and that the army was to be raised by Volluntary inlistment; I Desire that thee would write to me and let me know whether it is thy Express orders that the State of Tennessee Should be Drafted or not; and if it is thy orders that this State Should be Drafted let me know why it Should be Drafted more then any of the rest of the States; Seeing that Drafting is Very Distresing on the poor of whome there are many in this State—
So much at present from me thy Friend
Isaac Hammer
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Thomas Jefferson President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 19 Dec. and so recorded in SJL.
Isaac Hammer (1769-1835) was born in Philadelphia and migrated with his family to Tennessee about 1783. Initially a Methodist, he became one of the first preachers for the Church of the Brethren, or Dunkers, in Tennessee. He subsequently joined the Society of Friends around 1808, becoming a respected minister and traveling widely in the United States and Europe (Roger E. Sappington, The Brethren in Tennessee and Alabama [Dandridge, Tenn., 1988], 36-8; Stephen B. Weeks, Southern Quakers and Slavery: A Study in Institutional History [Baltimore, 1896], 136-7).
campaign toward the mouth of the missisippy: for the arrangements to utilize militia from the western states if necessary to assist with the occupation of Louisiana, see Vol. 41:632-5. According to a Tennessee militia law passed on 5 Nov., members of religious denominations that opposed bearing arms would not be fined for refusing to attend musters, but they would nevertheless “be classed, drafted and ordered on duty as other privates in all other cases” and subject to penalty if they failed to comply (Acts Passed at the First Session of the Fifth General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, Begun and Held at Knoxville, on Monday the Nineteenth Day of September, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Three [Knoxville, 1803], 23).