Thomas Cadwalader to Thomas Jefferson, 6 October 1809
From Thomas Cadwalader
Philadelphia 6. October 1809.
Sir,
Having been apprized that an Application was made to you in December last, to procure my nomination to a field-Officer’s Commission in the Regiment of U.S. Cavalry, I beg leave to inform you that such application was made without my knowledge, or authority.
Thos Cadwalader
RC (MHi); at foot of text: “Thomas Jefferson Esqre”; endorsed by TJ as received 11 Oct. 1809 and so recorded in SJL.
Thomas Cadwalader (1779–1841) graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1795 and was admitted to the bar in 1801. He had joined the Second Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry by 1799 and was elected captain of the unit in 1810. Cadwalader was a lieutenant colonel in the Pennsylvania militia during the War of 1812, rising to brigadier general in 1814 and major general in 1824. He was a trustee of his alma mater, 1816–36, and became a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1825 (University of Pennsylvania: Biographical Catalogue of the Matriculates of the College, 1749–1893 [1894], 38; W. A. Newman Dorland, “The Second Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 53 [1929]: 283–6; APS, Minutes, 15 Apr. 1825 [MS in PPAmP]).
The application of december last has not been found.