To Thomas Jefferson from James T. Leonard, 8 August 1804
From James T. Leonard
New York Aug 8th. 1804
Sir
I have the honor to inform your excellency that being returned with public dispatches & letters from the Honble: Robt. R. Livingston Minister of the United States at Paris, address,d to your excellency, and to the Honble. the Secretary of state which letters of your Excellency was accompanied by the Tables of the celebrated “Volney” on the Soil & climate of the United states, written in French & bound in calf and gilt, and which could not be safely conveyed by the Public Post, has been by the command of the Honble. Mr. Gallatin, (who is at present in this city) deposited with David Gelston Esq. collector of this Port to be forwarded by Water carriage to your excellency as the safest and least liable to damage which would occur in a stage conveyance.
I have further to inform, that your excellencies letters which I had the honor to be entrusted with, address,d to sundry persons in Paris, have been safely delivered except the one directed to General La Valette, which has been deposited with the Minister Plenipotentiary at Paris at his instance, with the intention of being delivered when the Minister, should become acquainted with the General’s residence.
I have the honor to be with very Great respect your Excellencies most Obedient & most devoted servant
James T Leonard
RC (MoSHi: Jefferson Papers); at head of text: “Thomas Jefferson Esqr.”; endorsed by TJ as received 14 Aug. and so recorded in SJL.
James T. Leonard (ca. 1778-1832), of New York, received a midshipman’s commission in 1799 and served on a number of frigates during the Quasi-War and in the Mediterranean before getting a series of postings in home waters. An acting lieutenant by 1804, when he was chosen to safeguard the stock certificates for the purchase of Louisiana from France, he was formally promoted to that rank in 1807. During the War of 1812, Leonard served as master of the Madison, a ship then based at Sackets Harbor, New York. He was court-martialed in 1813 for not properly attending the ship and for “dissolute and immoral practices,” namely, living openly with a mistress and attempting to pass her off as his wife. Suspended for a year, Leonard soon obtained the rank of captain but was assigned to a non-prestigious post on Lake Champlain, where he remained for the better part of his career (New-York Advertiser, 14 Apr. 1821; New York Evening Post, 9 Nov. 1832; , 2:47, 607, 615; , Naval Affairs, 1:1080; 2:444; , Register, 31; William S. Dudley and Michael J. Crawford, eds., The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, 3 vols. [Washington, D.C., 1985-2002], 2:441-4; Christopher McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794-1815 [Annapolis, 1991], 441-2; Vol. 42:315n).
address,d to your excellency: Leonard likely forwarded letters to TJ from Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours (of 5 May), Louis Pio (of 6 May), and Volney (of 7 May). The three letters were recorded in SJL as received 11 Aug.
For the letters that TJ entrusted to Leonard, see Vol. 42:315-17, 373-8, 380-1.