To Thomas Jefferson from David Meade Randolph, 7 February 1804
From David Meade Randolph
Richmond 7 February 1804
Sir,
I am thankful for your ready attention to my last letter—I should not again intrude on your patience but to counteract an effect so unjustly produced in your mind, by a charge of Mr. Duvall’s, who asserts that I had “persisted in a refusal to exhibit the necessary vouchers” by which alone my purpose cou’d be answered. Assured of your liberality, and determined to refute unmeritted censure, I beg your perusal of the enclosed correspondence as the only possible means to which from the singularity of circumstances, I can have recourse.
The object in view can never be relinquished—I shall therefore, shortly make personal application to the proper department, where you will be so good as to deposit the enclosed—and in any result, I shall be mindful of the honor bestow’d on your respectful & Obedt. Servant
D M Randolph
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Thos. Jefferson Esqr.”; endorsed by TJ as received 11 Feb. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosures: (1) Randolph to William Marshall, “Clerk of the Courts of the United States in the district of Virginia,” Richmond, 29 Jan. 1804, explaining that his accounts with the U.S. Treasury remain unsettled because Gabriel Duvall accuses him of refusing to provide the necessary vouchers; “I pray you to furnish me everything within your power towards an explanation,” Randolph pleads, “and as much in the form of a voucher as possible”; the former U.S. marshal notes that all he has is “a fair record of abstracts”; he cannot provide any other evidence than that which Marshall furnishes (Tr in same; in Randolph’s hand; at head of text: “Copy”; on same sheet as next enclosure). (2) Marshall to Randolph, 5 Feb., noting that he does not have it in his power to give Randolph what the Treasury Department considers “a Voucher”; he observes that most of the unsettled items were sums paid to witnesses summoned by the United States; as clerk he always kept a record and certified those who attended; examining Randolph’s abstracts, Marshall finds “that they are all certified by me and passed by the Judge”; he recalls that he never “certified any acct. without Knowing that the witnesses did attend and that you did pay for their attendance, but tis impossible for me to give at present a more particular detail of it”; Marshall notes that in February 1801, John Steele expressed satisfaction with the explanation that he gave him regarding “monies paid to witnesses on the part of the United States” and that those accounts were settled; “I know you have no other Voucher in your possession and I know the officers of the Treasury are satisfied that is the case,” Marshall states, “and that the certificate of the Judge ought to be by them conclusive evidence that the money was paid and that the witnesses were summoned,” but still the Treasury obstinately persists and he cannot see that Randolph has any redress; Marshall laments that Randolph “did not have the transaction closed” when it was in his power “& when the then Comptroller seemed disposed to an equitable adjustment” (Tr in same; in Randolph’s hand; at head of text: “answer”; begins on same sheet as Enclosure No. 1).
my last letter: Randolph to TJ, 10 Jan. TJ replied on 23 Jan.
For the Treasury secretary’s negative response to Randolph’s request that the president deposit the enclosed at the Treasury Department, see Gallatin to TJ, 13 Feb.