Edward Caffarena to Thomas Jefferson, 5 September 1814
From Edward Caffarena
Genoa 5th 7ber 1814. American Consular Office
Sir,
I avail myself of the favorable occasion per Mr Baker now here with family, to have the honor to address you, and to pray you, Sir to receive a few select seeds of choiced flowers and plants produced on this soil, I hope they may prove fruitful in yours, if So, it will afford me the highest gratification to remit you Annual samples.
Praying you Sir to excuse this liberty I have the honor to be with the utmost respect
Sir
Edward Caffarena
Dupl (MHi); dateline beneath signature; at head of text: “Monticello Virginia To the Honorable Thomas Jefferson”; adjacent to salutation: “Duplicate”; endorsed by TJ as received 6 June 1816 and so recorded in SJL. Dupl (MHi); address cover only; with PoC of TJ to William Thornton, 27 July 1816, on verso; addressed: “To the Honorable Thomas Jefferson Monticello Virginia”; stamped “SHIP”; franked; postmarked New York, 30 May.
Edward Caffarena was appointed American vice-consul at Genoa in 1805 by Peter Kuhn, the American consul there. After Kuhn was banished from the city in 1807, Caffarena represented American interests until a replacement as consul was appointed in 1818 (Caffarena to James Madison, 7 Nov. 1807, 27 Jan. 1808, and Caffarena to James Monroe, 24 July 1816, 12 July 1817 [DNA: RG 59, CD, Genoa]; Caffarena to Madison, 27 July 1816, 12 July 1817, Dec. 1820 [DLC: Madison Papers]; , 1:476, 3:138 [11 Dec. 1804, 18 Apr. 1818]).