Beschreibung:

JEFFERSON, THOMAS, President . Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson," in third person), to Mr. [Charles] Vest, Poplar Forest, [Virginia], 29 November 1820. One page, oblong 12mo, 124 x 201 mm. (4 7/8 x 7 in.), browned at extreme edges, apparently written on the blank lower half of a letter to Jefferson from Vest, as verso bears part of address panel and Jefferson's docket. JEFFERSON ARRANGES FOR MAIL AND HIS FAVORITE NEWSPAPERS TO BE FORWARDED TO HIS COUNTRY RETREAT "Thomas Jefferson salutes Mr. Vest with friendship and respect and there being no person now at Monticello to see to the weekly transmission of his mails to this place, he asks the favor of Mr. Winn to do him that kind office, sending weekly by the Lynchburg mail all letters the Enquirer , and Niles' Registers directed to him, and to retain all other newspapers, pamphlets, books or other packets of size, till he hears from him again...." The papers to which Jefferson refers are of interest. The Richmond Enquirer was edited by Thomas Ritchie (1778-1854), an influential journalist friendly with Jefferson and Madison who also served as state printer; he edited the paper for 41 years after taking it over at Jefferson's urging in 1804. Ritchie was also secretary of the Republican (Democratic) Central Committee, and his paper became a principal organ of that party in Virginia, the "Democratic Bible." The other paper, Niles' Weekly Register, was published in Baltimore by Hezekiah Niles (1777-1839). Between 1820 and 1830 it became "the strongest and most consistent advocate of union, internal improvements, and protection to industry, in the country." Niles was "probably as influential as any in the nationalist economic school...after the War of 1812...a principal mover in the protectionist conventions at Harrisburg in 1827" (DAB). Niles was until 1816 or 1817 a Jeffersonian Democrat, but came to oppose slavery, and had become, as he put it, a "no-party man" by the date of the present letter. Poplar Grove, Jefferson's plantation near Lynchburg, bacame a frequent retreat of the former President in his retirement. For a detailed description of the octagonal house and Jefferson's relaxed lifestyle there, see Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time: The Sage of Monticello , 1981, pp.290-298