Newly Discovered Letter Thomas Jefferson, For Sale; Dec. of Indep, 3rd US Pres; D. July 4, 1826, Same Day as John Adams
'A newly discovered letter by Thomas Jefferson shows ‘a regular guy with financial burdens,’ The Guardian, July 4, 2024. Ed. 📝 The note, valued at $40,000, is for sale in honor of 4th of July, also the 198th anniversary of the president’s death.
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He came from one of America’s wealthiest landowning families, and was ranked the 4rth richest US president in a recent study. But Thomas Jefferson, the nation’s 3rd president, harbored a secret during his time in the White House: he was almost constantly in penury, and struggled to pay his food bills, servants and other household expenses.
The revelation comes in a previously unpublished letter that Jefferson, who was president from 1801 to 1809, wrote to a friend who acted as his financial agent in Oct. 1802. The document, valued at $40,000, is for sale by Penn. dealer the Raab Collection to commemorate the Fourth of July holiday, also the 198th anniversary of Jefferson’s death.
That Jefferson, a founder and primary author of the Declaration of Independence, died broke is not new. Like many plantation owners of the period, he struggled to balance the books, and left a debt of $107,000 (more than $1m today) that led heirs to sell his possessions, including slaves and his beloved Monticello estate in Virginia.
The letter shows the degree to which financial problems were constantly on Jefferson’s mind during his time in the Oval Office. The missive to English-born tea merchant John Barnes, Monticello’s accounting manager while Jefferson was in Washington DC, urges him to express frugality with limited resources, intending to stave off making a request for another bank loan secured against his future presidential earnings...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/04/thomas-jefferson-letter-for-sale
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- Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Following the American Revolutionary War and prior to becoming president in 1801, Jefferson was the nation's first U.S. secretary of state under George Washington and then the nation's second vice president under John Adams.
Jefferson was a leading proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, and produced formative documents and decisions at the state, national, and international levels. His writings and advocacy for human rights, including freedom of thought, speech, and religion, served as substantial inspirations to the American Revolution and subsequent Revolutionary War in which the Thirteen Colonies succeeded in breaking from British America and establishing the United States as a sovereign nation...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson
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- John Adams (Oct. 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain. During the latter part of the Revolutionary War and in the early years of the new nation, he served the U.S. government as a senior diplomat in Europe. Adams was the first person to hold the office of vice president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797.
✒ He was a dedicated diarist and regularly corresponded with important contemporaries, including his wife and adviser Abigail Adams and his friend and political rival Thomas Jefferson.
A lawyer and political activist prior to the Revolution, Adams was devoted to the right to counsel and presumption of innocence. He defied anti-British sentiment and successfully defended British soldiers against murder charges arising from the Boston Massacre. Adams was a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress and became a leader of the revolution. He assisted Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and was its primary advocate in Congress. As a diplomat he helped negotiate a peace treaty with Great Britain and secured vital governmental loans. Adams was the primary author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, which influenced the United States Constitution, as did his essay Thoughts on Government. Adams was elected to two terms as vice president under President George Washington and was elected as the United States' second president in 1796...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams