Joachim Frederick Eckard to James Madison, 14 January 1807 (Abstract)
From Joachim Frederick Eckard, 14 January 1807 (Abstract)
§ From Joachim Frederick Eckard. 14 January 1807, Philadelphia. “Mr. Thomas Gamble of this place, at present a Merchant at St. Thomas, has acquainted me that, the Office of Consul for the United States at St. Thomas being vacant, he intended to apply for being appointed there;1 and as Mr. Gamble brought me a letter from a very respectable friend at said Island, stating that the community entertained universal regard for him, and he also communicated me a letter in his favour from the Governor of St. Thomas,2 I humbly beg leave to address you these few lines concerning this friend.”
RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1801–9, filed under “Gamble”). RC 1 p. Thomas T. Gamble wrote to JM on 26 January 1807 (misdated 1806) to apply for the position as consul at Saint Croix (, 11:240–41). In that letter, Gamble enclosed correspondence, probably including this letter, recommending him as consul at Saint Thomas. For enclosure, see n. 2.
1. Thomas Jefferson nominated Gamble to be consul at Saint Croix on 23 February 1807; the Senate approved Gamble’s appointment two days later (, 2:49–50, 53).
2. Eckard enclosed a one-page letter from Gov. Casimir Wilhelm von Scholten to Gamble, 21 Oct. 1806, in which von Scholten asked Gamble, in the absence of an existing consul, to post a bond on American seamen whom British frigates had held prisoner and intended to leave on the island.