From Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Randolph, 13 March 1793
To Edmund Randolph
Philadelphia Mar. 13. 1793.
Dear Sir
I received yesterday the inclosed letter from Mr. Hammond Minister Plenipotentiary of Great Britain on the case of Hooper and Pagan whereon you have been before consulted. I take the liberty of resorting again to you for the information which your presence in the supreme court will have enabled you to give, or which you may have otherwise obtained, and for your opinion on the case in it’s present stage, so far as it concerns our nation in it’s relation with others. And as illustrative of this whether the party complaining has duly pursued the ordinary remedies provided by the laws, as was incumbent on him before he would be entitled to appeal to the nation, and, if he has, whether that degree of gross and palpable injustice has been done him by the national tribunals, which would render the nation itself responsible for their conduct. I have the honor to be with great esteem & respect, Dear Sir your most obedt. & most humble servt
Th: Jefferson
PrC (DLC); at foot of text: “The Attorney general of the US.” FC (Lb in DNA: RG 59, DL). The enclosed letter from George Hammond to TJ, dated 12 Mch. 1793 and recorded in SJL as received the same day, has not been found.
For a discussion of the Supreme Court’s refusal on 16 Feb. 1793 to grant a writ of error to Thomas Pagan, a British subject imprisoned in Massachusetts for his role in the capture in 1783 of a merchant ship owned by Stephen Hooper of Newburyport, see note to George Hammond to TJ, 26 Nov. 1791.