To Thomas Jefferson from Samuel Overton, 15 December 1804
From Samuel Overton
Frankfort 15th Decr. 1804
Sir
I have come to a part of the United States that I intend to get a wife—provided I can have my person & property secured here—this may be doubted by some; but I trust there can remain none as to you & myself as to our wishes for the general good of the Union tho: I am vulgarly call,d an Aristocrat—you will not I hope Sir think that I write to you from any principle of Court favour—
yr. friend in haste
Saml: Overton Jr
NB I have my doubts as to the Louisianians this [. . .] will take such energetick steps as may by them be thought proper—
I am in haste—friend &c as before
S. O Jr
RC (MiU-C); mutilated; above postscript: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 10 Jan. 1805 and “drunk” and so recorded in SJL.
Samuel Overton (d. 1823), originally of Louisa County, Virginia, was the collector of revenue at Fredericksburg during the late 1790s. In 1804 he settled in Nashville on the plantation of his brother, Judge John Overton, a close friend and adviser to Andrew Jackson. Their father’s will, a decade later, gave John Overton control of his brother’s inheritance, for his “benefit and support” (Fredericksburg Virginia Herald, 5 May 1798; Fletch Coke, “Profiles of John Overton: Judge, Friend, Family Man, and Master of Travellers’ Rest,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 37 [1978], 393-409; John Overton to Samuel Overton, 16 May 1803, will of James Overton, 14 Dec. 1814 [ViW: Overton Family Papers]; will of Samuel Overton, recorded 11 Oct. 1823, Davidson County, Tennessee, Will Books [Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County Government Archives, Nashville], 8:260-1).