To Thomas Jefferson from Albert Gallatin, 21 November 1804
From Albert Gallatin
[21 Nov. 1804]
The first instalment of 40,000 dollars shall be paid at any time, in the year 1804, when demanded by Maryland: the second instalment at any time, in 1805, when demanded. The interest on any instalment of course to cease from after the day when payment shall be made—I think that the first instalmt. ought to have been paid on 1 Jany. 1804 & that the second should be paid on 1 Jany. 1805. We are ready to pay both at that time, that is to say the first on or before 31 Decer 1804 and the second on 1st Jany. 1805.
To authorize the Treasury to pay nothing more is necessary than an account stated as in the case of dividends & accompanied by a similar certificate of the President that lots cannot be sold without a sacrifice &c—
A. G.
RC (DLC: TJ Papers, 146:25382); undated. Recorded in SJL as received from the Treasury Department on 21 Nov. 1804 with notation “Maryld. debt.”
For the letter of Maryland commissioner of loans Benjamin Harwood to Thomas Munroe, see TJ to Munroe, 22 Nov.
For recent interest payments on the $200,000 loan by the state of Maryland to the District of Columbia commissioners, see Vol. 41:476, 478-9; Vol. 43:177-8, 199. Under the terms of the 1796 act of Congress authorizing the loan, the principal was reimbursable anytime after 1803, “by instalments, not exceeding one fifth of the whole sum borrowed, in any one year” (, 1:461).