FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Washington, November 18, 1801.
DEAR SIR,
Your favour of the 10th has been received, as have been those also of September 4th and 23d, in due time. These letters, all relating to office, fall within the general rule which even the very first week of my being engaged in the administration obliged me to establish, to wit, that of not answering letters on office specifically, but leaving the answer to be found in what is done or not done on them. You will readily conceive into what scrapes one would get by saying no, either with or without reasons; by using a softer language, which might excite false hopes, or by saying yes prematurely; and, to take away all offence from this silent answer, it is necessary to adhere to it in every case rigidly, as well with bosom friends as strangers.
Captain Sterret is arrived here from the Mediterranean. Congress will have a question as to all the Barbary powers of some difficulty. We have had under consideration Mr. Pusy's plans of fortification. They are scientifically done and expounded. He seems to prove that no works at either the Narrows or Governor's Island can stop a vessel; but to stop them at the Hook by a fort of eight thousand men, and protecting army of twenty-nine thousand, is beyond our present ideas of the scale of defence which we can adopt for all our seaport towns. His estimate of four millions of dollars, which experience teaches us to double always, in a case where the law allows, but (I believe) half a million ties our hands at once. We refer the case back to Governor Clinton, to select half a dozen persons of judgment, of American ideas, and to present such a plan, within our limits, as these shall agree on. In the mean time, the general subject will be laid before Congress. Accept assurances of my high respect and consideration.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
TO THEODOSIA.
New-York, November 20, 1801.
It is several days since I wrote to you, and many more since I received a letter from you. That from Fayetteville is still the last.
"Gamble's" protegée could not be found. You will probably gain by the exchange. That whom I shall send you is a good, steady-looking animal, agée vingt trois. From appearance, she has been used to count her beads and work hard, and never thought of love or finery. The enclosed recommendation of Madame Dupont, the elder, will tell you more. You are in equal luck with a cook. I have had him on trial a fortnight, and he is the best I ever had in the house; for cakes, pastry, and jimcracks, far superior to Anthony. In short, he is too good for you, and I have a great mind not to send him; you will be for ever giving good dinners. He has something of the manner and phisiognomy of Wood, your teacher. M'lle la femme de chambre and Monsieur le Cuisinier are both pure French (not creole), and speak well the language. He will take with him a quantity of casseroles and other implements of his etat. They will be shipped off next week.