To Thomas Jefferson from Albert Gallatin, 30 May 1804
From Albert Gallatin
30th May 1804
Dear Sir
I had selected Dowlf’s name for the very reason you mentioned; having conjectured that his politics were preferable from Fairley’s recommendation, & that Lowell’s were not from being particularly recommended by Lincoln. Otherwise they are so equal that that consideration might reasonably be allowed to give the preference.
The doctrine as it respects Bowen had, it seems to me better be understood than avowed. So many local & particular considerations which cannot always be explained &, if explained, may be misunderstood, form exceptions to any general rule on that subject, that I think it safer silently to follow your’s so far as practicable, than to make an explicit declaration which will open a new field of attack against us. Whenever a man of that description is removed, let it be understood generally that he continued actively opposed; & that will for ever justify the act with all our friends without any positive declaration. On the other hand, should the declaration be made, either Gen. Lincoln (not to mention several others) must be removed or an explanation given why after his indecent & outrageous conduct he is permitted to remain in office.
The name of Hoffman to whom it is intended to offer the office of register of the land office at Detroit is George.
If a commission issues in favour of Gen. Skinner, he should be written to repair immediately to Boston, & to send his bond, in order that we may remit to him in time the sums wanted to pay the dividends on 1st July. Some inconvenience was experienced when M. Jones was appointed, which, had it taken place in Boston & any delay in paying the dividends been the consequence, would have produced a monstrous clamour. Indeed it would on that account be much more eligible to delay the commission till 1st July. For Perkins may throw great difficulties in his way at the end of the quarter; as all the calculations of dividends are made out the last fortnight. This may be explained to Gen. Skinner as the reason of the delay, and I would recommend that mode.
Shall I take measures to procure a cutter for New Orleans? If so I would purchase a proper vessel in Baltimore or Norfolk & at once man & send her from thence. Those two ports are those where the swift sailing pilot schooners are built.
Your decision respecting the keeper of the light house at Penobscot is also wanted.
I enclose the blank form of an act to fix [. . .] land office at St. Stephens. Another is preparing for the erection of Mobile into a district.
Respectfully Your most obedient Servt.
Albert Gallatin
RC (DLC); torn; addressed: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received from the Treasury Department on 30 May and “lre to Bowen.—Skinner—Dowlf.—cutter N.O.” and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure not found.
dowlf’s name: TJ appointed Ellis Dowlf keeper of the lighthouse on Whitehead Island, Maine, which Congress established in 1803. Dowlf had probably been recommended by Joseph Farley, Jr., the collector at Waldoboro, whom TJ appointed in 1802. On 1 June, Gallatin wrote to Benjamin Lincoln, acknowledging his letter of 11 May regarding the Whitehead appointment and informing him of TJ’s selection of Dowlf. Lincoln’s letter to Gallatin has not been found, but he may have recommended John Lowell, who was appointed keeper of the lighthouse on Franklin Island, Maine, in 1807 (, 2:228, 406; , 9:661; 13:706).
In his 1803 “Fair Play” essay, TJ anonymously criticized the outrageous conduct of Benjamin Lincoln, the collector at Boston and a Federalist (Vol. 40:466). More recently, the Independent Chronicle censured Lincoln for presiding at a 24 Apr. dinner honoring Christopher Gore, at which toasts and comments disparaged TJ and his administration. “This is not the first, second, nor third time that Gen. Lincoln has presided,” the newspaper wrote, “where this Junto have openly vilified the First Men in our country” (Boston Independent Chronicle, 30 Apr. 1804; , 7:432-3). A damaged letter to Madison, the signature and date of which are no longer extant, called on the president to remove Lincoln as well as the supervisor for Massachusetts and the postmaster at Boston. The author, identified by TJ’s endorsement as “Haskell,” stated that Lincoln employed only one Republican in the custom house, as a tidewaiter, and that Federalists in Massachusetts prevented Republicans from obtaining “any Lucrative Post” under the state or federal government (RC in DNA: RG 59, LAR, 7:255-7; endorsed by TJ: “Lincoln Genl. Haskell to mr Madison to remove him”).
For TJ’s recent appointment of Meriwether jones as commissioner of loans for Virginia, see Vol. 42:541.
An influential and active Federalist, Thomas H. perkins had been appointed commissioner of loans for Massachusetts in 1798 (, 152-3).
land office: the 3 Mch. 1803 act regulating the disposal of public lands south of Tennessee authorized the president to designate the location of two land offices in Mississippi Territory (, 2:230). On 1 June, Gallatin sent register Joseph Chambers a copy of the president’s order establishing the land office at St. Stephens for the area east of the Pearl River (DNA: RG 49, Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Miscellaneous Letters Sent by the General Land Office, 1796-1889).