William Plumer to Thomas Jefferson, 25 November 1816
From William Plumer
Concord (NH.) Novr 25. 1816
Sir
Permit me to congratulate you on the success of the Republicans in this State in the choice of Electors & Representatives to Congress; and of the prospect of great unanimity in the approaching interesting presidential election.
I avail myself of this opportunity of presenting you with a copy of my speech to the legislature at the opening of their present session.
William Plumer
RC (MHi); at foot of text: “Hon. Thomas Jefferson Monticello Va”; endorsed by TJ as received 11 Dec. 1816 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Plumer’s gubernatorial speech to the New Hampshire legislature, 20 Nov. 1816, congratulating that body “on the peace and security of our country, the improved and flourishing state of our national finances, and the increasing confidence of the people in our general government” (p. 7); requesting additional funding for the construction of the new statehouse in Concord; describing his efforts to obtain money, arms, and equipment owed to the state from the federal government because of its participation in the War of 1812; remarking that he had made his recess judicial appointments on the basis of talent, not party spirit; expressing dismay at and offering ways to overcome resistance to reform by some of the trustees of Dartmouth College; reporting on the precarious condition of the state’s finances; complaining that the fees collected by various state officers are often too high or unequally distributed; positing that taxes “should be appropriated solely to useful, necessary, public purposes” and that “We ought studiously to avoid extreme parsimony on the one hand, and extravagance on the other”; and declaring that restraining the propensity of the few to live at the expense of the many is one of the duties “of a free and enlightened legislature” (p. 22) (Journal of the Honorable Senate, of the State of New-Hampshire, at their session, begun … on the Third Wednesday of November, Anno Domini, 1816 [Concord, 1817], 7–23; also published in Amherst, N.H., Farmers’ Cabinet, 23 Nov. 1816, and elsewhere).
At the recent election in New Hampshire, the republicans had won all of the state’s congressional seats and presidential electoral votes (Concord New-Hampshire Patriot, 12 Nov. 1816).
Index Entries
- Concord, N.H.; new statehouse in search
- Congress, U.S.; elections to search
- Dartmouth College; governance of search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
- New Hampshire; and government finance search
- New Hampshire; and War of1812 search
- New Hampshire; elections in search
- New Hampshire; legislature of search
- New Hampshire; Republicans in search
- Plumer, William; and appointments search
- Plumer, William; gubernatorial addresses of search
- Plumer, William; letters from search
- Republican party; electoral successes search
- Republican party; in N.H. search
- schools and colleges; Dartmouth College search
- War of1812; and military preparations search