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JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed (“Th: Jefferson”), as President, to Captain William Brent, Washington, 20 January 1804. 1 page, 4to, integral address leaf (repaired). Matted and framed.
JEFFERSON SEARCHES FOR A NEW SECRETARY
“The departure of Mr. Harvie for Europe within a day or two, will leave the office of my private secretary again vacant. A continuance of the same sentiments with respect to yourself, induces a repetition of the offer, under the possibility that the reasons on your part for declining it may not continue. I shall willingly admit every accommodation which may reconcile the few duties it will superadd to the prosecution of your present pursuits. An answer in the course of a day or two will oblige me….”
Lewis Harvie was Jefferson’s secretary in 1803-04, but ill health compelled him to ask the President for a foreign appointment, in the hopes that a sea voyage would restore him. Brent turned Jefferson down and two months later the President was still casting about for a replacement. In March he wrote William A. Burwell, the man who ultimately filled the post, that the job “is more in the nature of that of an aide-de-camp, than a mere secretary. The writing is not considerable, because I write my own letters…The salary of 600 D. a year serves for clothes and pocket money.” And the boss spent a third of the year out of the office. “I pass the months of March or April, and August and September at Monticello,” leaving Burwell plenty of free time to tend to his own affairs. Burwell did not agree until September, but like Harvie, left within a year because of poor health.
JEFFERSON SEARCHES FOR A NEW SECRETARY
“The departure of Mr. Harvie for Europe within a day or two, will leave the office of my private secretary again vacant. A continuance of the same sentiments with respect to yourself, induces a repetition of the offer, under the possibility that the reasons on your part for declining it may not continue. I shall willingly admit every accommodation which may reconcile the few duties it will superadd to the prosecution of your present pursuits. An answer in the course of a day or two will oblige me….”
Lewis Harvie was Jefferson’s secretary in 1803-04, but ill health compelled him to ask the President for a foreign appointment, in the hopes that a sea voyage would restore him. Brent turned Jefferson down and two months later the President was still casting about for a replacement. In March he wrote William A. Burwell, the man who ultimately filled the post, that the job “is more in the nature of that of an aide-de-camp, than a mere secretary. The writing is not considerable, because I write my own letters…The salary of 600 D. a year serves for clothes and pocket money.” And the boss spent a third of the year out of the office. “I pass the months of March or April, and August and September at Monticello,” leaving Burwell plenty of free time to tend to his own affairs. Burwell did not agree until September, but like Harvie, left within a year because of poor health.