Francis Vacher to Thomas Jefferson, 19 November 1822
From Francis Vacher
19th November 1822. Harsimus N.J.
Sir
An application made to me, to call upon the “U. S.” for a large Sum of Continental money, in the possession of the Applicant, as well as the benefit of others, induces me to address you, that I may receive that proper information, as a guide for its payment; I need not appeal to that sacred Instrument, farther than to recall your memory to it’s resolves.—, its causes, and its effects; And now its consequences. That famous Declaration of Independence, Whereby an appeal was made to the omnipotent and also to earthly beings for the truth, appears to me to be Conclusive that the U. S. are in duty bound to discharge those debts which were made to “try Men’s Souls” Under every policy & sanction, I deem it Sir, Necessary as well as dutiful, for the U.S. to redeem it’s credit and that no limitation under premature & unforeseen occasions could prevent it’s delay. Your opinion Sir directed to me on this effect, will be most gratefully received and will unquestionably add another truth to the many great good and virtuous actions of your Public as well as private life
Francis Vacher
RC (MHi); endorsed by TJ as received 26 Nov. 1822 and so recorded in SJL.
Francis Vacher (b. ca. 1782), attorney and public official, was the son of John Francis Vacher, a native of France who served as a surgeon in the Continental army during the American Revolution and remained in the United States at the conclusion of the war. The younger Vacher was educated in Canada and in the United States, where he ultimately studied law and was admitted to the bar in New Jersey in 1804. With his father’s endorsement, Vacher applied in 1805 for a position on the Orleans Territory board of commissioners. Later that year he was appointed to serve in the territory’s western district. By 1806 complaints regarding Vacher’s conduct and predilection for alcohol began reaching TJ and Albert Gallatin, and he was soon removed (, 16:309–10; James Wilson, Rules of the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey [1844], 55; DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1801–09, esp. John Francis Vacher to TJ, 23 Mar. 1805; , 9:457, 612–3, 629, 680).
The phrase try men’s souls comes from the opening line of Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis. Number I. By the Author of Common Sense (Norwich, Conn., [1776]).