To Thomas Jefferson from John Keemle, 16 March 1805
From John Keemle
Philada. March 16th. 1805.
Sir,
Having read Your communication to Congress, in which you Noticed the lead Mines in Louisianna, I was induced to make a trial of calcining raw into red lead. Having succeeded in the experiment, I shewed a sample of it, to Tench Cox Esqr. who informed me, that he would forward it to you, with information, that if Congress should think it proper and advantagious to the interest of the United States to give Employment to some persons, to manufacture the raw lead from the mine into red and white on the spot that I would furnish you with a draught of the proper construction of the furnaces Necessary for the purpose; or that I would go myself and superintend their construction.
Should you be authorized, to select and appoint any persons for the above work, may I beg the favour of being remembered by you. If my Revolutionary services, and afterwards the confidence of my fellow Citizens, in electing me a member of the Legislature of this State, can carry any recommendation, let me notice them to you without vanity & presumption
In common with your republican fellow Citizens, I sincerely congratulate you on your re-election to the Presidential Seat of Your Country.
With considerations of high Esteem, I remain your friend and Humble Servt.—
John Keehmle
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Thos. Jefferson Esqr.”; endorsed by TJ as received 8 Apr. and so recorded in SJL.
John Keemle (ca. 1753-1830), also spelled Keehmle in several of his signatures, was a veteran of the American Revolution and a Philadelphia doctor who sold medicines, surgical tools, paints, and glass. Allied with William Duane’s faction of the Republican Party, Keemle received support from the city’s general ward committee for a seat in the state’s General Assembly, where he served in the 1803-1804 term. Over the course of his life, Keemle remained active in the Philadelphia community and chaired veterans’ committees. During the remainder of TJ’s administration, Keemle continued to write to the president seeking a federal job (Aurora, 13 Aug. 1803; Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 5 June 1805; Philadelphia National Gazette and Literary Register, 24 Sep. 1824; Philadelphia Pennsylvania Inquirer, 16 Feb. 1830; Journal of the Fourteenth House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Commenced at Lancaster, on Tuesday, the Sixth Day of December, in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Three, and of the Commonwealth the Twenty-Eighth [Lancaster, Pa., 1804], 3; , 2:172-4, 187-8; Keemle to TJ, 1 Oct. 1807 and 4 Aug. 1808).
lead Mines in Louisianna: see Annual Message to Congress, 8 Nov. 1804.
Keemle’s interest in red lead likely stemmed from its use as an ingredient in paint dye, the manufacture of glass, and certain medical treatments (John Hunter, A Treatise on the Venereal Disease [Philadelphia, 1791], 125-6; William Spotswood, The Golden Cabinet: Being the Laboratory, or Handmaid to the Arts; Containing Such Branches of Useful Knowledge, As Nearly Concerns All Kinds of People; From the Squire to the Peasant: And Will Afford Both Profit and Delight [Philadelphia, 1793], 10, 95, 166, 185).