To Thomas Jefferson from James Jackson, 28 December 1801
From James Jackson
Washington, December 28h, 1801.
Sir,
A circumstance has occurred, which I deem it proper you should be informed of—General Bradley, of Vermont, left this City yesterday Morning, having received the alarming intelligence of the near approach of Mrs Bradleys death, and her last request to see him before the event took place— He has assured me that he will return, the moment propriety will admit of it—and that should he receive the melancholy account of her dissolution prior to his leaving New York on his road home, he will stay there, for a day or two, as well to indulge his grief, as to give directions for his Family, and immedeately after return—I should have given you this information personally yesterday, but found you were gone to Church in the Morning, and supposed you to be engaged with company in the evening—Mr Bradley wishes any consequential nominations withheld—if you think proper so to do—until his return—if I might presume to express my opinion, it would be similar—for we are again nearly tied in the Senate, with certain Members who are in some cases deemed doubtful—but with whom Mr B—s acquaintance and Friendship occasions confidence, and perhaps influence.
I am Sir with due respect and consideration, Your most Obedt Servt
Jas Jackson
I am led to believe that no objection would be made to any nomination on the Georgia business
RC (DLC); above postscript: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 28 Dec. and so recorded in SJL.
Near Approach Of Mrs Bradleys Death: Thankful Taylor Bradley, the second wife of Vermont senator Stephen Row Bradley, died on 10 Jan. 1802 at the age of 34, in Westminster, Vermont (, s.v. “Stephen Row Bradley”; Rutland Herald, 25 Jan. 1802).
You Were Gone to Church: when the federal government moved to Washington, TJ began attending Sunday worship services at Christ Church, an Episcopalian parish founded in Washington in 1795 that met in a converted tobacco house at what is now New Jersey Avenue and D Street. In 1807, the Christ Church congregation moved to G Street to a newly constructed building designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, which had a pew reserved for the president. TJ was an admirer and supporter of its pastor, Reverend Andrew McCormick. He also chose to attend services held in the House of Representatives on occasion (Margaret Bayard Smith, The First Forty Years of Washington Society, ed. Gaillard Hunt [New York, 1906], 13; “James H. Hutson Responds,” , 3d ser., 56 [1999], 823; , 2:1130, 1154, 1214, 1216).