From Thomas Jefferson to Andrew T. McCormick, 12 December 1804
To Andrew T. McCormick
Washington Dec. 12. 04.
Dear Sir
The liberality which I have seen practised by the gentlemen, chaplains of Congress, in admitting others of their profession who happen here occasionally to perform the Sabbath-day functions in the chamber of the H. of Representatives, induces me to ask that indulgence for the revd. mr Glendye a presbyterian clergyman from Baltimore who will be in this place next Sunday forenoon. being acquainted with mr Glendye, I can assure you that no person to whom that permission could be transferred, will be heard with more satisfaction than he would. if the desk be at your disposal for the next Sunday forenoon I will ask that favor on his behalf if mr Lowry be the person to whom that day belongs, as my acquaintance with him would hardly justify the liberty of a direct application, could I be allowed so far to profit of your friendship as to ask your requesting this favor from mr Lowry. Accept my friendly salutations and assurances of great esteem & respect.
Th: Jefferson
PoC (ViW: Tucker-Coleman Collection); at foot of text: “The revd. mr Mc.Cormick”; endorsed by TJ.
Andrew T. McCormick (ca. 1761-1841), an Irish-born Episcopal minister, was the rector at Christ Church in Washington and, in the second session of the Eighth Congress, chaplain of the Senate. In 1818 he joined the State Department as a clerk, a post he held for almost two decades. McCormick was also a trustee of the city’s public school for the poor, the Eastern Free School, and served as president of its board for 19 years. “A good classical scholar, of great simplicity of heart,” he counted TJ among his congregation (, 3:412; James F. Hopkins and others, eds., The Papers of Henry Clay, 11 vols. [Lexington, Ky., 1959-92], 4:110; District of Columbia, Report of the Board of Education to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, 1904-5 [Washington, D.C., 1906], 94-5; Daily National Intelligencer, 28 Apr., 3 May 1841; Vol. 36:225n).
mr Lowry: Presbyterian minister James Laurie, recently named as chaplain for the House of Representatives (, 5:28-9; Wilhelmus B. Bryan, A History of the National Capital from Its Foundation through the Period of the Adoption of the Organic Act, 2 vols. [New York, 1914-16], 1:559).