To Thomas Jefferson from Barthélemy Lafon, 11 April 1805
From Barthélemy Lafon
Nouvelle Orléans le 11. Avril 1805.
Monsieur
Votre surprise sera sans doute grande en recevant une petition dun étranger inconnu. La démarche que je fais, différenté des moyens ordinaires que l’on emploie pour solliciter une place, ma parû néanmoins celle que je devois employer préférablement a toute autre, devenant directe. La protection que vous accordez aux Arts, les faveurs que vous prodiguez aux Artistes, l’encouragement que vous donnez aux talents, sont les motifs principaux qui m’y ont déterminé. Habitant depuis quinze ans la Louisiane, où je n’apportai pour toute fortune que dix ans d’étude, je me suis constamment adonné au génie, et a l’étude du Pays. La premiere partie a été mon occupation dominante, huit ans consécutifs m’ont vu m’occuper de la Géographie locale, et quelques uns de mes travaux sont déjà parvenus jusques dans la chambre des représentants; mon Seul bien-être, ma Seule fortune étant fondés sur ce genre de travail, c’est le motif qui me porte a solliciter au près de vous, la place darpenteur général de la Louisiane. Mes qualités morales et physiques ne vous sont point connues; mais s’il est nécessaire d’informations, je prandrai la liberté de vous citer toutes les personnes honorables de la Nouvelle-Orléans, Messieurs le Gouverneur, les Membres du Conseil Législatif, par ordre desquels je viens de dresser la Carte du Territoire d’orléans, sur une échelle de huit pouces par dégré; Messieurs les officiers Municipaux, pour qui je dresse en ce moment une carte d’un [. . .] au lieue de la Corporation de la [Ville?]; Messieurs le Maire, et Juges du Territoire qui m’honorent de leur société: je vous citerai plusieurs étrangers, et entre autres, Monsieur Dumbard des Natchez, dont la correspondance m’éclaire tous les jours; si enfin, il fallait apporter d’autres titres qui pussent vous déterminer a m’accorder cet Emploi, je connais les langues Espagnolle et Anglaise, la premiere devenant indispensablement nécessaire à un Arpenteur général, la vérification des titres, touts faits en Espagnol depuis quarante ans, en exigent la connaissance.
Ce Sont les Seuls titres que j’ai l’honneur de vous présenter; remettant à votre loyauté, et au désir que vous avez de faire prosperer les connaissances, prouvés par toutes vos actions, la réussite de ma demande
Recevez les vœux les plus sincères de celui qui a l’honneur d’être avec la plus haute estime et considération
Monsieur Votre très humble et très Obéïssant Serviteur
Lafon
Editors’ Translation
New Orleans, 11 Apr. 1805
Sir,
You will undoubtedly be very surprised to receive this petition from an unknown foreigner. My approach is unlike the ordinary means of applying for a position, but it seemed the best one because the most direct. The protection you provide for the arts, the benefits you bestow upon artists, and the encouragement you give to talent are the principal reasons that convinced me to do this. I arrived in Louisiana 15 years ago with no resources except 10 years of education. Since then I have devoted myself entirely to working as an engineer and to studying this country. Engineering has been my primary occupation. I devoted eight consecutive years to local geography and some of my work even reached the House of Representatives. Such work has provided my one livelihood, my only income. This is what prompts me to apply for the position of chief surveyor of Louisiana. You are not familiar with my character and qualifications, but should you need information, I take the liberty of citing all the honorable people of New Orleans; the governor and members of the legislative council for whom I just drew up a map of the Orleans territory on a scale of eight inches per degree; the municipal officers for whom I am currently drawing a map of [. . .] at the site of the municipal government; the mayor of the city and judges of the territory who honor me with their company. I shall name several foreigners, and among others Mr. Dunbar of Natchez, whose correspondence enlightens me daily. If other qualifications could persuade you to award me this position, I know Spanish and English, the former becoming indispensable for a chief surveyor to verify deeds since they have been written in Spanish for the past 40 years.
These are the only attributes I have the honor of presenting you. I entrust the success of my request to your integrity and to the desire you have shown in all your actions to help knowledge flourish.
Accept, Sir, the most sincere wishes of someone who has the honor of being, with the highest esteem and respect, your very humble and obedient servant.
Lafon
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); torn; at head of text: “A Monsieur Thomas Jefferson Président des Etats Unis de L’amérique”; endorsed by TJ as received 17 June and “employment” and so recorded in SJL.
Barthélemy Lafon (1769-1820) was born near Paris and emigrated to New Orleans about 1790. Apparently well-educated as an architect and surveyor, Lafon received numerous commissions for public works projects during the last years of Spanish governance. Staying busy after the United States assumed control, he executed the plan for an expansion below the city and developed an idea for another new neighborhood backing up against the river—the area eventually known as the lower Garden District. He also planned the town of Donaldsonville, across the river from Baton Rouge. In 1806, Isaac Briggs named him deputy surveyor for Orleans County, a position he held for three years. During the War of 1812, he inspected and suggested improvements for New Orleans’s defenses. In addition to his architectural, engineering, and surveying pursuits, he compiled directories of the city for 1807 and 1809. Lafon acknowledged two children he had with a free woman of color. His auctioned estate included a plantation of some 24,000 arpents bordering Lake Pontchartrain and 21 enslaved persons (Glenn R. Conrad, ed., A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, 2 vols. [New Orleans, 1988], 1:476; Mary Louise Christovich, Roulhac Toledano, and Betsy Swanson, eds., New Orleans Architecture, 7 vols. [Gretna, La., 1971-89], 1:8-12, 31; Gilbert C. Din and John E. Harkins, The New Orleans Cabildo: Colonial Louisiana’s First City Government, 1769-1803 [Baton Rouge, 1996], 190, 247-8, 253; Harold D. Moser and others, eds., The Papers of Andrew Jackson, 10 vols. [Knoxville, 1980- ], 3:152n, 471; Orleans Gazette; and Commercial Advertiser, 26 Mch. 1806; New Orleans Courrier de la Louisiane, 1 Jan. 1821; Lafon, Calendrier de commerce de la Nouvelle-Orleans, pour l’année 1807 [New Orleans, 1806]; Lafon, Annuaire Louisianais pour l’année 1809 [New Orleans, 1808]).
Carte du Territoire d’orléans: Lafon’s draft became the basis for Carte générale du territoire d’Orléans comprenant aussi la Floride occidentale et une portion du territoire du Mississippi, which he published in New Orleans in 1806.
The Corporation, or Conseil, de Ville was the new, elected city government created by the territory’s legislative council to replace the municipal body appointed by French prefect Pierre Clément Laussat (Eberhard L. Faber, Building the Land of Dreams: New Orleans and the Transformation of Early America [Princeton, 2016], 209-11).