Charles Jared Ingersoll (1782–1862), author, attorney, and politician, was the son of TJ’s acquaintance Jared Ingersoll (1749–1822). A native Philadelphian, he attended the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) for about three years beginning in 1796. Ingersoll wrote a play and poetry before his admission to the Philadelphia bar in 1802 and establishment of a legal practice there the following year. In 1808 he began publishing treatises praising the American nation and criticizing British commercial and maritime incursions, and he gave speeches and wrote newspaper articles calling for war in 1812. Ingersoll served in the United States House of Representatives, 1813–15, and after losing a bid for reelection he served as United States district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania from 1815 until his removal by Andrew Jackson in 1829. Ingersoll sat in an 1837 Pennsylvania constitutional convention, served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, 1830–31, and returned to the United States Congress as a Democratic representative, 1841–49, chairing the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, 1843–47, and promoting the annexation of Texas. His appointment as minister to France in 1847 was not confirmed. Ingersoll supported railroads and protective tariffs, opposed mandating the abolition of slavery, defended Andrew Jackson’s bank policies, and invoked TJ’s name to support a subtreasury plan. He corresponded with TJ cordially but only sporadically, typically concerning his publications. In his later years Ingersoll produced a Historical Sketch of the Second War between the United States of America, and Great Britain, 4 vols., with the latter 2 having a slightly variant title (1845–52), followed in 1861 by a memoir entitled Recollections, Historical, Political, Biographical, and Social (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ; William M. Meigs, The Life of Charles Jared Ingersoll, 2d ed. [1900]; Philadelphia Daily Evening Bulletin, 15 May 1862).

With a covering letter dated 26 Nov. 1808 (MHi), Ingersoll had sent TJ a copy of his lengthy pamphlet, A View of the Rights and Wrongs, Power and Policy, of the United States of America (Philadelphia, 1808; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 3463; Poor, Jefferson’s Library description begins Nathaniel P. Poor, Catalogue. President Jefferson’s Library [1829] description ends , 11 [no. 678]).