Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow to gabriel jones 1 - The Works, vol. 2 (1771-1779)

Return to Title Page for The Works, vol. 2 (1771-1779)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution
Collection: Classics of Liberty

to gabriel jones 1 - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 2 (1771-1779) [1905]

Edition used:

The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 2.

Part of: The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 12 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


to gabriel jones1

Dear Sir,

—By Mrs. Harvey I inclose to you the principle and interest of the money you were so kind as to lend me some years ago. It furnishes me also with an occasion of acknowledging, with this, the many other obligations under which you have laid me, of which I shall always be proud to shew a due sense, whenever opportunities shall offer. I am, dear sir, with much esteem, your friend and servant.

[1 ]From The Balance, ii., p. 194, 1803. On this matter was founded a very bitter attack on Jefferson. This loan was made in 1773. On Jones pressing for payment in 1779, Jefferson tendered him Continental currency, depreciated to an extent which made this tender less than one quarter of the amount originally received. Jones preferred to refuse it entirely (though under the law the tender constituted payment) on the ground that in a personal debt such pretended payment was dishonorable and fictitious. Jefferson never replied to Jones’s protest, but when in France, several years later, his agent made payment in full. The affair was first made public by J. T. Callender, in The Recorder of Dec. 8, 1802. This led to considerable controversy, and finally induced Jones to write a narrative of the transaction, which is in The Recorder of June 4, 1803. In the National Intelligencer of July 1, 1803 is a piece signed “Timoleon,” in defence of Jefferson which was undoubtedly inspired, if not written, by Jefferson. A broadside, signed “Veritas,” was written and circulated by Philip Grymes, entitled Letter to Gabriel Jones, a copy of which is in the Library of Congress among the Jefferson pamphlets; and this produced a pamphlet entitled: A Refutation of the Charges Made by a Writer under the Signature ofVeritas,against the Character of Gabriel Jones—the Lately Acknowledged Author being the Honorable Philip Grymes, Member of the Council of State,—in Which Every Charge or Insinuation against Him in that Libel is Fully and Clearly Refuted. Winchester: Printed by Richard Bowen, [1803].