To Thomas Jefferson from Isaiah Weston, 6 December 1804
From Isaiah Weston
New Bedford 6 Decr 1804
Dear Sir.—
Existing circumstances & the wishes of the merchants of this district apolegise for a letter from a person of whom perhaps you have no knowledge.—
We have information that applications are made or are about to be made for the Collectorship in this Port in the place of Edward Pope the present Collector, which aplications are for persons not liveing in the Town & who would be disagreeable to the merchants of this district of both discriptions—
After haveing assurances that my appointment as Collector would be pleasing to the district, at the request of our Merchants I take the liberty to ask of the President the favour of the office giveing assurances of fidelity therein.—
I am authorised to give assurances that both discriptions of people will amply recommend me to the President for the office in preference to any other person both respecting my caracter abilities & uniform disposition & conduct towards the government & the administration of it.—these assurances are confirmed by letter from Messrs. Wm Rotch & Saml Rodman to Dr Logan—The Hon. Josiah Deane the Elector of President & Vise President for this County will write the President on the subject—
Except Dear Sir the high respect of Your humble Servant,
Isaiah Weston
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); endorsed by TJ as received from Josiah Weston on Dec. 14 and “to be Collector N. Bedford v. Pope” and so recorded in SJL.
Isaiah Weston (1773-1821) was a Congregationalist minister married to the daughter of Josiah Dean, who served as a Republican representative in the Tenth Congress. Weston became collector and inspector at New Bedford in 1808, but after facing allegations of impropriety he was dismissed from the office in 1814. He subsequently moved to Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where he was active in Republican-sponsored events and engaged in manufacturing (William Herbert Hobbs, comp., The American Ancestry and Descendents of Alonzo and Sarah [Weston] Kimball of Green Bay, Wisconsin [Madison, Wis., 1902], 44; History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men, 2 vols. [New York, 1885], 1:669; New Bedford Medley, 22 May 1795; National Intelligencer, 8 Aug. 1808; Pittsfield Sun, 6 July 1815, 27 June 1816; New-Bedford Mercury, 2 Mch. 1821; , Pres. Ser., 6:366-9; Vol. 42:557n; TJ to the Senate, 14 Nov. 1808).
For applications for other candidates, see Vol. 42:556-7; Gallatin to TJ, 2 July (first letter).
An undated note in Gallatin’s hand on “New Bedford recommendations” indicated that Weston stood “on the best ground.” He lived nearby, had the support of most Republicans, and was recommended by Phanuel Bishop, the area’s congressman, and William Rotch and Samuel Rodman, who were friends of George Logan and “the first merchants of the place” (DNA: RG 59, LAR; endorsed by TJ: “Weston Isaiah to be Collectr. New Bedford v. Pope”). This was one of several recommendations for Weston that passed through Gallatin’s and TJ’s hands during the next year. In a letter of 20 Dec., New Bedford merchant Thomas Hazard asked his son-in-law Jacob Barker, a New York merchant who knew Gallatin, to recommend Weston and to enlist the support of “influential persons in New York” (same; endorsed by Gallatin with additional notation “Hazard sd. to be the only republican Quaker at N. Bedford”; endorsed by TJ: “Weston Isaiah to be Collector New Bedford v. Pope”; New Bedford Columbian Courier, 28 Aug. 1801). A letter that TJ recorded in SJL as received from “Clinton, Osgood &c” on 7 Mch. 1805 with the notation “Isaiah Western to be Collectr. N. Bedford” has not been found but probably was sent by DeWitt Clinton and Samuel Osgood, prominent New York Republicans. Hazard wrote to Gallatin directly on 17 Dec. 1805 and again recommended Weston (DNA: RG 59, LAR; endorsed by TJ: “Weston Isaiah to be Collector N. Bedford”). See also Josiah Dean (Deane) to TJ, 12 Dec. 1804; Gallatin to TJ, 12 Sep. 1805 (third letter).