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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson"), to Patrick Gibson, Monticello, 10 August 1813. 1 page, 4to, one small hole from acidic ink, inlaid. Jefferson's retained copy, docketed by Jefferson at top edge of verso (partly obscured), some tracing over in Jefferson's hand to improve clarity.
Details
JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson"), to Patrick Gibson, Monticello, 10 August 1813. 1 page, 4to, one small hole from acidic ink, inlaid. Jefferson's retained copy, docketed by Jefferson at top edge of verso (partly obscured), some tracing over in Jefferson's hand to improve clarity.
"SEND ME...ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS IN BILLS FROM 20 TO 5"
DESPERATE FOR READY CASH, former president Jefferson asks his Richmond factor, Patrick Gibson, "to send me by the return of post one hundred Dollars in bills from 20 to 5 D." And he is going to renew a $1,500 loan to fend off other creditors. "I find it will be indispensable to reinstate 1500.D of my late note in the bank: for within a fortnight from this time I shall be obliged to draw on you from Bedford for 600.D. in favor of Brown & Robertson of Lynchburg, and in the ensuing month for about the same sum from this place, and after that a further sum of about 300 D to close my present calls..."
This particular example of Jefferson's chronic debt problems is especially ironic in light of his fears about the expansion of the nation's debt during the War of 1812. "Our government has not, as yet, begun to act on the rule of loans and taxation going hand in hand," he wrote in June 1813 (quoted in Malone, Sage of Monticello, 137). Biographer Dumas Malone thinks that Jefferson's "obsession regarding debt" in national politics, flowed directly from his own humiliating problems with creditors. "To owe what I cannot pay," Jefferson wrote to a friend in 1819, "is a constant torment" (quoted in Malone, 309). He remained buried in debt until the day he died.
"SEND ME...ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS IN BILLS FROM 20 TO 5"
DESPERATE FOR READY CASH, former president Jefferson asks his Richmond factor, Patrick Gibson, "to send me by the return of post one hundred Dollars in bills from 20 to 5 D." And he is going to renew a $1,500 loan to fend off other creditors. "I find it will be indispensable to reinstate 1500.D of my late note in the bank: for within a fortnight from this time I shall be obliged to draw on you from Bedford for 600.D. in favor of Brown & Robertson of Lynchburg, and in the ensuing month for about the same sum from this place, and after that a further sum of about 300 D to close my present calls..."
This particular example of Jefferson's chronic debt problems is especially ironic in light of his fears about the expansion of the nation's debt during the War of 1812. "Our government has not, as yet, begun to act on the rule of loans and taxation going hand in hand," he wrote in June 1813 (quoted in Malone, Sage of Monticello, 137). Biographer Dumas Malone thinks that Jefferson's "obsession regarding debt" in national politics, flowed directly from his own humiliating problems with creditors. "To owe what I cannot pay," Jefferson wrote to a friend in 1819, "is a constant torment" (quoted in Malone, 309). He remained buried in debt until the day he died.