TO THOMAS LEIPER - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 10 (Correspondence and Papers 1803-1807) [1905]
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The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 10.
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TO THOMAS LEIPER
j. mss.
Monticello Aug. 21, 07.
Dear Sir,
—I pray you to consider this letter so confidential as not to be hinted even to your most intimate friends. You propose General Steele as the successor to the present collector. The following circumstances are to be considered. It is indispensable that the head of the Indian department reside at the seat of government. General Shee was apprised of this at the time of his appointment. It was soon perceived that this was so ineligible to him as to countervail the benefits of the appointment & place him in doubt whether he would not rather relinquish it. We gave him time for his removal accommodated to his own views; and this has gone over without being noticed, because I had reason to expect a vacancy in the collectorship and had made up my mind to give him that, & the Indian agency to a person residing in Washington. As I suppose Genl. Shee the person whom it is most material to take care of, I wish your candid opinion whether the arrangement I propose is not more desirable than that which would oblige Shee to remove or resign.
I never expected to be under the necessity of wishing success to Buonaparte. But the English being equally tyrannical at sea as he is on land, & that tyranny bearing on us in every point of either honor or interest, I say, “down with England” and as for what Buonaparte is then to do to us, let us trust to the chapter of accidents, I cannot, with the Anglomen, prefer a certain present evil to a future hypothetical one. I salute with friendship & respect.
Washington Oct. 21, 07.
Sir,
—Your favor of the 17th has been duly received. I have long seen, and with very great regret, the schisms which have taken place among the republicans, & principally those of Pensylvania & New York. As far as I have been able to judge they have not been produced by any difference of political principle, at least any important difference, but by a difference of opinion as to persons. I determined from the first moment to take no part in them, & that the government should know nothing of any such differences. Accordingly it has never been attended to in any appointment or refusal of appointment. Genl. Shee’s personal merit universally acknoleged, was the cause of his appointment as Indian Superintendent, and a subsequent discovery that his removal to this place (the indispensable residence of that officer) would be peculiarly unpleasant to him, suggested his translation to another office, to solve the double difficulty. Rarely reading the controversial pieces between the different sections of Republicans, I have not seen the piece in the Aurora, to which you allude; but I may with truth assure you that no fact has come to my knolege which has ever induced any doubt of your continued attachment to the true principles of republican government. I am thankful for the favorable sentiments you are so kind as to express towards me personally, and trust that an uniform pursuit of the principles & conduct which have procured, will continue to me an approbation which I highly value. I salute you with great esteem & respect.
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