To Thomas Jefferson from Jeremiah Halstead, 26 May 1805
From Jeremiah Halstead
New York Haspetol May 26 1805
Sur.
Theas fuew Lineas are to in form you that I have bin a prissnor to this Haspetol thirty two months and am Veary much in want of a freand. my Lands in Dutchus County is Valued at thirty thousands pounds I have Several Hundread Dollars Wages Due mea—may the peace of god which passs all understunding Keape you Hart and mind guyded and Governed in the Right way
Sur you most Huble Servant
Jeramiah Halstead
RC (MHi); at head of text: “Thomas Jefferson Cheff Justes of peace in the Cort of Chancrey”; endorsed by TJ as received 28 May and “insane” and so recorded in SJL.
this Haspetol: an important function of New York Hospital, which was chartered late in the eighteenth century, was the housing and cure of mentally ill patients. In 1805, the hospital reported treating 75 patients for insanity, 15 of whom had been confined there since at least the previous year. Out of the 75 patients, 20 remained at the end of the year (William Logie Russell, The New York Hospital: A History of the Psychiatric Service, 1771-1936 [New York, 1945; repr., New York, 1973], 45-53).