184361Editorial Note: Reply to the Danbury Baptist Association (Jefferson Papers)
On the first day of the new year, Jefferson prepared the final version of his response to an October address from the Danbury Baptist Association, a group of 26 churches in western Connecticut and eastern New York. He had received the address only two days earlier, almost three months after it was written, on the same day that a wheel of cheese from the citizens of Cheshire, Massachusetts,...
184362Editorial Note: Conference with Little Turtle (Jefferson Papers)
In the spring of 1801, the Miami Indian leader Little Turtle expressed an intention to travel from his home on the Wabash River to see the new president of the United States in Washington. Little Turtle’s interpreter and son-in-law, William Wells, apparently knew Meriwether Lewis, who had served with the army on the frontier, and Wells informed Lewis of the intended visit. “Our friend the...
184363Editorial Note: To the Senate: Interim Appointments, 6 January 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Jefferson wrote his son-in-law, John Wayles Eppes, on 1 Jan. 1802 that although Republicans held an 18 to 14 majority in the Senate, through absences “hitherto we have been so nearly equal there, that I have not ventured to send in my nominations, lest they should be able to dismast the administration.” Meanwhile, the president was giving thought to the arrangement of the list of more than 120...
184364Editorial Note: Charges Against Arthur St. Clair (Jefferson Papers)
A former general in the Continental army and president of the Confederation Congress, Arthur St. Clair had served as governor of the Northwest Territory since its creation by Congress in 1787. With the establishment of a territorial legislature in 1799, St. Clair, a Federalist, found himself repeatedly at odds with the growing Republican presence in the territory, which centered on the town of...
184365Editorial Note: Conference with Black Hoof, 5 February 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Early in January, during the visit to Washington by the delegation of Miami, Potawatomi, and Wea Indians led by Little Turtle, the secretary of war received word from the quartermaster general, John Wilkins, Jr., at Pittsburgh, that another deputation of Native Americans was on its way to Washington. Dearborn asked Wilkins to help the group, which consisted of “Chiefs of the Delaware and...
184366Conference with Handsome Lake, Cornplanter, and Blue Eyes: Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
When Israel Chapin, the U.S. agent to the Iroquois nations, informed the War Department in January 1802 that a delegation of Seneca Indians would be setting off on a visit to Washington, he identified Cornplanter as the head of the group. Similarly, when newspapers, which took little notice of the deputation, mentioned its passage through Pittsburgh, they described the group as consisting of...
184367Sentence in the Court-Martial of John Spence: Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
I. HENRY DEARBORN’S PRELIMINARY DRAFT [10 MCH. 1802] II. HENRY DEARBORN’S SECOND DRAFT, WITH JEFFERSON’S REVISIONS [20 APR. 1802] Among the myriad duties that devolved on Jefferson as president of the United States was the periodic review of general courts-martial proceedings. According to federal law, such proceedings were to be forwarded to the president in times of peace if the...
184368Method of Using Robert Patterson’s Cipher: Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
I. DESCRIPTION OF METHOD , [18 APR. 1802] II. SAMPLE ENCIPHERMENT : THE LORD’S PRAYER, [18 APR. 1802] III. SAMPLE ENCIPHERMENT : “TO THE PEOPLE OF GREAT-BRITAIN,” [N.D.] Jefferson received Robert Patterson’s letter of 19 Dec. 1801, in which Patterson described the cipher that he had invented, six days after it was written. On 22 Mch. 1802, Jefferson acknowledged the letter and informed...
184369Opinions on the Common Law, The Case of William Hardin: Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
I. OBSERVATIONS ON THE COMMON LAW AND HARDIN’S CASE, 11 NOV. 1802 II. ALBERT GALLATIN’S OPINION ON THE COMMON LAW AND HARDIN’S CASE, [CA. 11 NOV. 1802] III. ROBERT SMITH’S OPINION ON THE COMMON LAW AND HARDIN’S CASE, [CA. 11 NOV. 1802] The case of William Hardin evolved as an adjunct to the ongoing efforts by the Jefferson administration to bring accused Indian murderers John Williams, Martin...
184370Drafting the Annual Message to Congress: Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
At the close of the first session of the Seventh Congress in May 1802, the House of Representatives and the Senate adjourned to the first Monday in December, which would fall on the 6th ( Annals Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States…Compiled from Authentic Materials , Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834-56, 42 vols. All...