To Thomas Jefferson from Albert Gallatin, 2 July 1804
From Albert Gallatin
2 July 1804
Dear Sir
So far as relates to the business of the office, I might complete & arrange every thing within a week so as to be able to leave the city: if I could otherways be spared, your permission to go would be agreeable, on account of the situation of my family, and because Mrs. Gallatin’s situation will compel me to return pretty early in September. As I will have to encounter that month here, I wish to collect as few early feverish seeds as possible. At the same time I mean not to press in the least, if I am wanted; but if there is any particular thing connected with this department to be done before your departure, I will be much obliged to you if you will have the goodness to communicate it as early as may be convenient.
Respectfully Your obedt. Servt.
Albert Gallatin
RC (DLC); addressed: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received from the Treasury Department on 2 July and “absence” and so recorded in SJL.
Gallatin planned his annual summer vacation to New York to join his family already assembled at the home of his in-laws in Greenwich. In a letter of 24 June, his wife expressed concerns that their children were making noise that “irritates and disturbs their sick Grand-papa.” Her ailing father, Commodore James Nicholson, who remained in precarious health over the summer, died on 2 Sep. (, 9:772, 861, 943, 965; New York American Citizen, 3 Sep.).
Mrs. Gallatin’s situation: Hannah Nicholson Gallatin was expecting another child in October (, 9:943; 10:13).
connected with this department: TJ received a “List of Warrants issued by the Secretary of the Treasury” for the period 2 to 7 July inclusive. The list described 42 warrants totaling $91,554.74. Four warrants listed in a miscellaneous category totaled $11,056.12, of which $10,000 was a payment to Thomas Munroe for expenses relative to public buildings at the capital. Thirty-seven warrants, totaling $59,898.63, were collected under “Civil Depmt.” These were chiefly disbursements for the payment of government salaries for the second quarter of 1804, to include No. 6, for Gallatin and his clerks and messengers ($4,040); No. 8, for Treasurer of the Mint Benjamin Rush and his officers ($2,650); No. 14, for Register of the Treasury Joseph Nourse and his clerks and messengers ($4,319.69); No. 22, for Levi Lincoln ($750); No. 25, for Madison and his clerks and messengers ($2,652); No. 26, for Dearborn and his clerks and messengers ($2,602.50); No. 33, for the justices of the Supreme Court ($4,500); and No. 34, for district court judges ($4,775). Warrant No. 37 was for TJ’s salary of $2,333.33, paid “on account.” The final warrant was listed under the heading “Diplomatic Depmt.” and was a payment of $20,599.99 to Jonathan Burrall for bills of exchange as part of the expenses of the treaty with Algiers (MS in DLC: TJ Papers, 141:24581; in a clerk’s hand).