To Thomas Jefferson from Kentucky Members of the House of Representatives, 28 December 1803
From Kentucky Members
of the House of Representatives
City of Washington
28th december 1803
To The President of
the United States.
Finding on a perusal of the intelligencer1 of this day that Louisiana is Officially delivered to the French Republic, and judging that no Obstacle will prevent the peaceable possession to the United States, and contemplating the necessity that there be for an appointment of a Collector and Naval officer for the Port of New Orleans.—We the undersigned beg leave to recommend a person fitly qualified to fill either of those offices. Mr James Brown of Lexington Kentucky, This Gentleman’s talents at the Bar of the Superior Courts of our State is ranked among the first practioners, as a Man of Integrity, sobriety and independent Republican principles. He is in our estimation inferior to none. We are not unaware of the inconvenience that our infant State will experience by the migration of such characters from it: but as Mr Brown has Signified his intention of moveing to the lower Country and his inclination to fill one of those offices (that of the Collector he would prefer) we cannot with hold from him this Portion of Justice which his merit entitles him to.
Thomas Sandford
John Boyle
John Fowler
Matthew Walton
M Lyon
Geo M Bedinger
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); in Fowler’s hand, signed by all; endorsed by TJ: “Brown James to be Collectr. or Nav. Off. N.O.” and “Kentucky delegates.”
A native of Virginia, Thomas Sandford (1762-1808) resided near Covington and served in the House from 1803 to 1807. Also a Virginia native, John Boyle (1774-1835) of Garrard County served in Congress from 1803 to 1809, then as chief justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals from 1810 to 1826. John Fowler (1755-1840), an officer in the American Revolution, moved from Virginia to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1783. He served in Congress from 1797 to 1807 and as postmaster of Lexington from 1814 to 1822. Matthew Walton (d. 1819) was a member of the Kentucky constitutional convention and state legislature before serving in Congress from 1803 to 1807. Born in Pennsylvania, George M. Bedinger (1756-1843) settled at Boonesborough in 1779 and saw military service during the American Revolution and in the Northwest Territory. A former member of both houses of the Kentucky legislature, Bedinger served in Congress from 1803 to 1807 (; John E. Kleber, ed., The Kentucky Encyclopedia [Lexington, Ky., 1992], 66, 109-10, 350; Vol. 41:358, 359n).
Sandford sent Gallatin a separate recommendation of james brown on 15 Feb. 1804, citing the Kentucky representatives’ earlier recommendation to the president and adding that Brown’s knowledge of French and Spanish “must qualify him in a superior manner” for an appointment as collector or naval officer at New Orleans (RC in DNA: RG 59, LAR; endorsed by TJ: “Brown James. to be Collectr. or Navl. off. N.O.”).
1. MS: “inlligencer.”