To Thomas Jefferson from David Ramsay, 19 May 1805
From David Ramsay
Charleston May 19th 1805
Dear Sir,
The bearer Mr Calhoun is a near relation of our late Senator of the same name & accompanies his widow on a tour to the Northern States. He has finished his education at Yale College with great reputation & is high in the esteem of his friends for virtue & talents. Unwilling to pass through Washington without being known to the President of the United:States he has requested a letter to you. Any notice you may take of him will be well bestowed & gratefully received. I have the honor to be with great respect & esteem your most obedient humble Servant
David Ramsay
RC (ViW: Tucker-Coleman Collection); at foot of text: “President Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 20 June and so recorded in SJL with notation “by mr Calhoun.”
John C. Calhoun met TJ at Washington in June. According to Calhoun they conversed on the subject of the French Toulon fleet, with TJ expressing his opinion that its destination would be Trinidad rather than Jamaica as commonly asserted (Robert L. Meriwether and others, eds., The Papers of John C. Calhoun, 28 vols. [Columbia, S.C., 1959-2003], 1:14). On 20 May, Ramsay wrote a similar letter to Madison introducing Calhoun. Although Calhoun was currently a “stranger” in Washington, Ramsay was confident that the “promising” young man would “ere long be well known there” (, 9:374).
our late Senator: John Ewing Colhoun, a cousin of Calhoun, died in 1802 (; Vol. 32:281n).