To Thomas Jefferson from John Stokely, 20 December 1804
From John Stokely
Washington City Decr 20th 1804
Sir,
The Oxium each man to his sphere I do humbly conceive is applicable in national affairs pecularly The wellinformed dispasionate penetrating & firm mind are Indubitably best fited to the Cabinet, The nervous & Heriocal to the field & the Backwoods Bred Bachelor to wilderness Imployment who is not partially attached to the Gilded Splendor of the pompous and whose mind has not been deranged by the Sophestry of the designing & who has no endearing Relations or Bosom friend to leave weeping behind him & whose habit in that Sort of Life for upwards of Twenty years has not only attached him to it but versed him in the manners and Customs Suitable thereto & who has been uniformly an Advocate for Civilization & a Supporter of decorum Tho Sir I claim a great Shear in these wilderness requiset acquisitions I must Say that politeness & matrimonial Endearments begin to Invade the Tranquility of my Cotage. And Sir I hope you will not think the abruptness of my address Impertinent or Insolent as I myself like my Country remain in natures green garb decorated with but few ornements of art. I take the Liberty to offer myself for Some Service in which I might be useful to my Country & by which I might with Industry & Ecconimy Support my Self I have Contemplated obtaining a personal Introduction to your Excellency for that purpose but well aware of the Herds of Sycopants that are Swarming about this place I have thought it the most Suitable to forward you my address In order that my Charracter might Proceed Such an Introduction List the uningaging appearance which I possess & which produces many Bachelors might Subject me to too Little respect or Reather too Little attention because as, a woodsman I humbly conceive I am intitled to Some Attention—Some argue that nature in her wisdom has formed nothing in vain, according to this Hypotheses I have been formed for Some useful purpose & I must take the Liberty to Suggest one thing in which I might be useful. your Excellency will undoubtedly admit that a Young & Growing nation Especially when in possession of Such an Extancive Teritory as the united States are; ought Cearfully to Improve & Support its Strenth and reputation, and that by your Excellency’s Confering on me Some wilderness or backwoods appointment Such might be the Effects it might tend to keep Some good Husband at home to administer Comforts to his wife & promote the Strenth of our happy Government while I might be busied in Supporting of that favourite Sistem which I have exerted my powers to Obtain from my Childhood even from the year 1775 now Sir if in your Throng of Important Business you should find a Leasure moment and a pleasure to Condecend to notice the Contents hereof & Should think of any thing, that might be Suitable to my Capacity &c I can in the Shortest notice produc Gentlemen of respectability now in Congress to give my Charracter. I suggest this because I shall leave this City in a few Days & if any thing should be Laying open Suitable to be filled by a person of my Interprise or Capacity I Should Willing Imbrace it in a Short time not because I am out of Imploy but because I am not pleased with my Present Situation. I now Live at Wood County Courthouse in Virginia where I have resided about fourteen years.
I am Sir with Every Sentement of respect and Esteem your obdt Servt
John Stokely
RC (DLC); addressed: “His Excellency Thomas Jefferson President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 21 Dec. and “western employment” and so recorded in SJL.
John Stokely helped establish what would later become Parkersburg, Wood County, Virginia. He was an aggressive land speculator, both in his local region and as far away as Tennessee. He served his county in a variety of public offices and was in the Virginia legislature, 1812-17. Stokely was also an active writer of letters to men of prominence, beginning with George Washington and including Andrew Jackson, whose wife was a distant relation. The letters ranged from monologues on politics to pleas for employment, money, or assistance with his land claims. Most of his later letters to TJ pertained to the Aaron Burr conspiracy, a topic that had come close to home when his neighbors raided the Harman Blennerhassett estate outside of Parkersburg in December 1806. During the War of 1812 and while serving in the Virginia militia, Stokely directed his pen toward the War Department, writing seven detailed letters that offered advice and lodged complaints about the unpatriotic behavior of his neighbors and fellow militiamen (Alvaro F. Gibbens, Wood County Formation: A Century of Progress [Morgantown, W.Va., 1899], 89, 112; Richmond Virginia Argus, 15 Aug. 1804; Earl G. Swem and John W. Williams, A Register of the General Assembly of Virginia 1776-1918 and of the Constitutional Conventions [Richmond, 1918], 432; Edgar B. Sims, Sims Index to Land Grants in West Virginia [Baltimore, 2003], 763-4; , Pres. Ser., 16:654-6; , 2:550; 3:277-8; James E. Lewis, The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis [Princeton, 2017], 148-9; John C. Fredriksen, The War of 1812: U.S. War Department Correspondence, 1812-1815 [Jefferson, N.C., 2016], 373; John Stokely to TJ, 14 Feb. 1807).