Dear Sir,—Mr. Appleton, the writer of the enclosed letter, was well known to me at Paris, but not as a man of business. He was young, handsome, and devoted to pleasant pursuits. He is now probably forty-five, and has since been in business, but with what qualifications or success I know not. He was our consul at Calais, his brother is our consul at Leghorn, and his father is (if living) a respectable merchant at Boston. All this leaves still room for inquiry whether he is fit for your agent. While on the subject, if you should be on the look-out, it may be worth your while to inquire after a Colonel Dowse, (of the same town with Fisher Ames.) He is a scientific navigator, has made voyages to the East Indies, is a sensible and most upright man, a little too much wrapt up in religious reveries. He has been most firm in his republicanism through all the storms and trials which those sentiments have been exposed to in that State. I write all this from my own knowledge of him; but I do not know he would accept the place and quit the retirement in which he has now been several years.
I enclose you the copy of a letter I wrote Mr. Fulton. I wait his answer as to the submarine boat, before I make you the proposition in form. The very name of a corps of submarine engineers would be a defence. Mr. Nicholas and his family left this neighborhood in health the day I arrived in it. We do not give up the hope of seeing Mrs. Smith and yourself here. I salute you with affection and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
Monticello, August 20, 1807.
Dear Sir,—On the death of Imlay, loan officer of Connecticut, Jonathan Bull (Judge Bull) is well recommended as his successor by a number of republicans, and by Mr. Wolcott, in a special letter. A Ralph Pomeroy, of Hartford, solicits it for himself, but sends no recommendations. Those of Bull would leave me with little doubt of the propriety of his nomination; but as you can so conveniently make inquiry respecting him, I will pray you to do it, and to communicate the result to me with as little delay as convenient, in order to preclude other solicitations.
All my information from the Capes of Chesapeake, confirms the opinion that the present quiet train of things there is to be continued till further orders. The interdicted officers are extremely averse to our mode of communication by flag. But being considered as enemies rather than rebels, while here in defiance, no other communication will be allowed. Burr's trial goes on to the astonishment of all, as to the manner of conducting it. I salute you with affection and respect.
TO J. MADISON.
Monticello, August 20, 1807.
Your letter to Dayton I think perfectly right, unless, perhaps, the expression of personal sympathy in the first page might be misconstrued, and, coupled with the circumstance that we had not yet instituted a prosecution against him, although possessed of evidence. Poor Yznardi seems to have been worked up into distraction by the persecutions of Meade. I enclose you a letter I have received from him. Also one from Warden, attested by Armstrong, by which you will see that the feuds there are not subsiding.
By yesterday's, or this day's mails, you will have received the information that Bonaparte has annihilated the allied armies. The result will doubtless be peace on the continent, an army despatched through Persia to India, and the main army brought back to their former position on the channel. This will oblige England to withdraw everything home, and leave us an open field. An account, apparently worthy of credit, in the Albany paper, is, that the British are withdrawing all their cannon and magazines from Upper Canada to Quebec, considering the former not tenable, and the latter their only fast-hold.