From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Patterson, 27 April 1805
To Robert Patterson
Washington Apr. 27. 05.
Dear Sir
I have learnt indirectly that mr Boudinot will shortly resign the office of Director of the mint. in that event I should feel very happy in confiding the public interests in that place to you. will you give me leave to send you the commission in the event of mr B’s resignation? I pray you to consider this as confidential, as what you write me shall be. Accept my friendly salutations.
Th: Jefferson
P.S. I should be sorry to withdraw you from the college; nor do I conceive that this office need do it. it’s duties will easily admit your devoting the ordinary college hours to that institution. indeed it is so possible that the mint may some time or other be discontinued that I could not advise a permanent living to be given up for it.
RC (NjGbS); addressed: “Mr. Robert Patterson College Philadelphia”; franked and postmarked. PoC (DLC).
resign: Elias Boudinot’s tenure as director of the Mint, beginning in 1795, entered a stormy stage after 1801, when some members of Congress criticized the Mint for its expense and sought to close it. Though Boudinot quieted detractors by cutting costs, a new degree of tumult emerged when he and Mint treasurer Benjamin Rush became embroiled in a private disagreement over the will of Boudinot’s son-in-law. Over the course of the dispute Rush accused Boudinot of graft. Though he was ultimately vindicated, by spring 1805 Boudinot had served for over a decade and was anxious to retire (George Adams Boyd, Elias Boudinot: Patriot and Statesman, 1740-1821 [Princeton, 1952], 240-51).
withdraw you from the college: Patterson was professor of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania ().