From Thomas Jefferson to the House of Representatives, 15 November 1804

To the House of Representatives

To the House of Representatives
of the United States.

Agreeably to your resolution of the 9th. instant I now lay before you a statement of the circumstances attending the destruction of the frigate Philadelphia, with the names of the officers and the number of men employed on the occasion: to which I have to add that Lieutenant Decatur was thereupon advanced to be a Captain in the Navy of the US.

Th: Jefferson

Nov. 15. 1804

RC (DNA: RG 233, PM, 8th Cong., 2d sess.). PoC (DLC). Notation in SJL: “message. officers of Philada.” Enclosures: Robert Smith to TJ, 13 Nov., and enclosure (see ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832-61, 38 vols. description ends , Naval Affairs, 1:127-8).

lay before you: William A. Burwell delivered TJ’s letter to the House on 15 Nov. Four days later, a congressional resolution awarded a sword to Stephen Decatur and two months’ additional pay to each of the officers and crewmen of the Intrepid (JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends , 5:14-15, 17-18).

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Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: From Thomas Jefferson to the House of Representatives, 15 November 1804
Author: Jefferson, Thomas
Recipient: House of Representatives
Date: 15 November 1804

Reference

Cite as: “From Thomas Jefferson to the House of Representatives, 15 November 1804,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-45-02-0021. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 45, 11 November 1804 to 8 March 1805, ed. James P. McClure et al. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021, p. 22.]

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