RC (MHi); endorsed by TJ as received 18 Oct. 1823 and so recorded in SJL. RC (MHi); address cover only; with Dft of TJ to Alexander Garrett, 8 Mar. 1825, on verso; addressed: “Th. Jefferson, Esq. Monticello Albemarle County Virginia”; stamped; postmarked. Enclosure: Crockett’s 4 July 1823 speech, An Address to the Legislature of Kentucky, on the Abolition of Capital Punishments, in the United States, and the Substitution of Exile for Life (Georgetown, Ky., 1823), arguing that capital punishment does little to deter crime; citing historical examples and authorities such as Edward Livingston and Montesquieu in favor of ending the practice; stating that the death penalty is contrary to God’s will and Jesus’s teachings; positing that it “tends to render callous the feelings, and blunt the moral sensibilities of our nature” (p. 4); warning that innocent people will occasionally be executed; suggesting that Congress select a site within American jurisdiction to house the worst malefactors; and recommending Madison Island (later Nuku Hiva) in the South Pacific, which Captain David Porter had claimed for the United States in 1813, as a suitable location for those exiled for life.