“Common Sense & Co.” to Thomas Jefferson, 12 January 1819

From “Common Sense & Co.”

Arendes (Hell) New London Jany 12th 1819

Infernal Wretch

What can be your thoughts on the distracted Country by your Philosophical arts & intrigues (Embargoes &c) for if the righteous is scarcely saved where will thee &c appear I wish you a warm reception—as also another whom would be duly gratified within the lower regions & as a Ferryman of Charons Ferry Boat built on the model of Gun Boat No 1 I wish that you send me a Commodore worthy of notice & recommendations will be required endors’d on the back of Mazzies (Letter)—we your most truly petitioners1 have reverence for thy latter days & may the hour shortly come when Jefferson, Paine, & Volney shall Furnish all the requistions of the lower Republic

We are your invisble [. . .]

Common Sense & Co

RC (DLC); one word illegible; internal address on verso reading “Th: Jefferson Late President of The U States Monticello Virginia” embedded in ornamental swirl:

endorsed by TJ (trimmed) as an anonymous letter from a “blackguar[d]” received 22 Jan. 1819 and so recorded in . (); address cover only; with of TJ to William Tudor, 31 Jan. 1819, on verso; addressed: “Hone Thomas Jefferson Monticello Virginia”; stamped; postmarked Colchester, Conn., 12 Jan.

gun boat no 1 of the naval fleet that TJ ordered constructed during his presidency was commissioned in 1804. After it was deemed unfit for ocean duty, it became part of the coastal defense force (Spencer C. Tucker, The Jeffersonian Gunboat Navy [1993], 38). mazzies (letter) was TJ to Philip Mazzei, 24 Apr. 1796, which sharply criticized the Federalist party and George Washington and was widely published in Europe and the United States beginning in 1797 (PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 41 vols. description ends , 29:73–88).

1. Manuscript: “petitoners.”

Index Entries

anonymous authors; letters from search
Charon (mythological character) search
Embargo Act (1807); criticism of search
Gunboat Number 1 search
gunboats search
Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; and P. Mazzei letter search
Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; anonymous letters to search
Jefferson, Thomas; Public Service; as president search
Mazzei, Philip; letters to mentioned search
Navy Department, U.S.; gunboats of search
Paine, Thomas; damnation of predicted search
Volney, Constantin François Chasseboeuf, comte de; damnation of predicted search
Washington, George; TJ criticizes search
“Common Sense & Co.”; criticizes TJ search
“Common Sense & Co.”; letter from search

You Are Looking At

Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: “Common Sense & Co.” to Thomas Jefferson, 12 January 1819
Authors: “Common Sense & Co.”
Anonymous
Recipient: Jefferson, Thomas
Date: 12 January 1819

Reference

Cite as: ““Common Sense & Co.” to Thomas Jefferson, 12 January 1819,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-13-02-0509. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 13, 22 April 1818 to 31 January 1819, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016, pp. 568–569.]