Significant LS signed “Th: Jefferson,” one page both sides, 7.25 x 9, March 30, 1790. Addressed from New York, a letter to his friend William Short, who had recently served as Jefferson’s private secretary during the latter’s tenure as the U. S. Minister to France, in full: “There being no Vessel here bound to any Port in France, I avail myself of one going to Amsterdam to inform you of my having entered on the Duties of the Department of State, comprehending that of foreign Affairs. Your Letters come to Hand before the 3d. Inst: have been acknowledged by Mr. [John] Jay in one of that Date. Those of the 18th & 30th. November and 15th., 22d. & 26th. of December have been since received. The Channel of Conveyance forbids me to add more than an Assurance, that you shall hear from me more fully by the first safer one which offers: till then also the Gazettes and Journals of Congress for you must be reserved. I will then likewise do myself the Honor of writing to his Excellency the Count de Montmorin.” The top of the front page is annotated by an unknown hand with Jefferson’s surname and what appears to be the missive’s reception date of July 16, 1790. In fine condition.
A historically fascinating letter from Thomas Jefferson a mere eight days into his role as the nation’s original secretary of state. Jefferson letters from New York are not common, given the brevity of his stay in the first Federal capital, which lasted only from his arrival in March 1790 until he departed for Monticello in September. While in New York, he lived in three different locations, complaining to his daughter Martha: ‘I find it difficult to procure a tolerable house here.’ He finally settled at 57 Maiden Lane, where he famously entertained Alexander Hamilton in June. From that dinner emerged the deal that would become the Residence Act of 1790, which was signed into law by President George Washington on July 16, 1790—the same date present at the top of the offered letter—and provided for a national capital and permanent seat of government to be established at a site along the Potomac River.
William Short (1759-1849), whom Thomas Jefferson often referred to as his ‘adoptive son,’ was a Virginia-born diplomat who went to France as Jefferson’s secretary in the mid-1780s. When Jefferson returned to America to assume his post as secretary of state, Short negotiated a commercial treaty with France during the tempestuous phase of the French Revolution between 1789 and 1792. His reputation grew such that the Marquis de Lafayette wrote to George Washington to convey how he depended on the ‘very able, Engaging and Honest’ Short to secure commercial concessions for Americans in France. Under the watchful eye of Alexander Hamilton, Short managed duties as a fiscal agent, borrowing money and refinancing America's foreign debt at a rate lower than that of any other country, a service that helped launch the federal government in the 1790s. Although he never obtained his desired post of Minister to France, Short spent the next 20 years in Europe, moving dutifully from one diplomatic post to another as the government saw fit.
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