Thomas Jefferson Papers

Thomas Jefferson to John E. Hall, 1 January 1814

To John E. Hall

Monticello Jan. 1. 1814.

Sir

Your letter of Nov. 15. came during a long absence of mine from this place, which has occasioned this delay of the answer. the MS. notes in my pamphlet on the Batture, were only corrections of the press, I believe; for I have not a copy of it. these I inserted in most of the copies I sent out, but not in all of them; and I have no others to add. it was printed by mr Serjeant in N. York, who had the plate engraved, and charged me with it. this I presume would give me a property in it, which however I had never thought of exercising because the plate could be of no use to me. I presume also it can be of no further use with his establishment, and therefore very freely welcome you to whatever right I have in it, if it be worth looking after. I have never seen mr Livingston’s answer and shall be glad of a copy of both his and my pieces when you shall have printed them, and will remit the price in bills of the Virginia bank which I presume are exchangeable in Baltimore. we have no other means of making small remittances to other states. Accept the assurance of my esteem and respect.

Th: Jefferson

RC (NjP: Straus Autograph Collection); addressed: “Mr John E. Hall Baltimore”; franked; postmarked Milton, 5 Jan. PoC (DLC); with missing dateline replaced by TJ’s mistaken notation: “(not dated in the original, but believed to have been Dec. 31. 13)”; endorsed by TJ as a letter of 31 Dec. 1813 and so recorded in SJL.

For the publication of the legal pieces by Edward Livingston and TJ in the American Law Journal, vol. 5 (1814), see notes to Hall to TJ, 15 Nov. 1813. TJ did not actually remit the price for this work until 6 Aug. 1817 (MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1337).

Index Entries

  • American Law Journal (J. E. Hall) search
  • An Answer to Mr. Jefferson’s Justification of His Conduct in the Case of the New Orleans Batture (E. Livingston) search
  • Bank of Virginia (Richmond); bills from search
  • Hall, John Elihu; American Law Journal search
  • Hall, John Elihu; letters to search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Writings; The Proceedings of the Government of the United States, in maintaining the Public Right to the Beach of the Missisipi, Adjacent to New-Orleans, against the Intrusion of Edward Livingston search
  • Livingston, Edward; An Answer to Mr. Jefferson’s Justification of His Conduct in the Case of the New Orleans Batture search
  • Sargeant, Ezra; prints batture pamphlet search
  • The Proceedings of the Government of the United States, in maintaining the Public Right to the Beach of the Missisipi, Adjacent to New-Orleans, against the Intrusion of Edward Livingston (Thomas Jefferson); printer’s errors in search
  • The Proceedings of the Government of the United States, in maintaining the Public Right to the Beach of the Missisipi, Adjacent to New-Orleans, against the Intrusion of Edward Livingston (Thomas Jefferson); reprint of search