Thomas Jefferson | An appointment for Franklin’s grandson

Thomas Jefferson

Printed broadside document signed (“Th: Jefferson”) as third President, on a full sheet of wove paper (258 x 404 mm; unwatermarked), accomplished in a clerical hand, Washington, 22 November 1804, being the appointment of William Bache as Surveyor of the Port of Philadelphia, countersigned by the Secretary of State (“James Madison”), embossed paper seal of the United States; some light, scattered fox spots, some fold separations with tiny losses at intersecting folds. [Accompanied by:] Catherine Wistar Bache, autograph letter signed (“your Sister C. Bache”) to Caspar Wistar (“My Dear Brother”), 2 pages (245 x 168 mm) on a bifolium of laid paper (watermarked JLG), integral leaf with autograph address panel (“Caspar Wistar M. D. | Philadelphia”) and reception docket; some soiling to address panel, seal tear and repair. [And by:] Contemporary clerical copy of a circular letter from Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin to William Bache, 1½ pages (251 x 198) on a bifolium of laid paper (watermarked dove and olive branch | Aimes & Co), “Treasury Department” [Washington,] 12 June 1804, docketed on verso of integral leaf “Copy Letter from the Secy of State to the Collector June 12. 1804.”; faintly browned, upper corners crumpled. The three items housed in a fitted blue cloth portfolio, front cover gilt-lettered.

An intriguing small archive related to Dr. William Franklin Bache’s efforts to secure a government sinecure. Although Dr. Bache had a practice, he was experiencing poor health and some financial difficulties at the beginning of the new century. His wife, Catherine Wistar Bache, here writes to her brother, a prominent Philadelphia physician—and successor to Thomas Jefferson as president of the American Philosophical Society—to ask him to intercede with President Jefferson, mentioning, in passing, the pending Louisiana Purchase: “Two days ago I received letters from Doct. Bache … In which Doct. B. wishes me to have an application made to the President for him. He thought of my applying to Mrs. Randolph but Congress being now engaged on the Louisiana business I think the more Immediately an application is made the greater the probability of success, and I also believe that an application from a Philadela. friend particularly from Doct. Wistar will have more weight. William wishes to obtain the Land Office or Surveyor Generalship; the business of the hospital is extremely laborious without an adequate compensation from excessive fatigue. Doct. B. has again been attack'd with a bilious fever which confined him to his bed for a week. He has been in the habit of seeing from 30 to 40 patients daily and without any assistance even to put up medicine which renders it too fatiguing for any person to continue It long without a more liberal establishment. His exertions have been attended with great success, having lost but 7 out of 400 patients and 6 of those were drunkards. … If it is not disagreeable to you to write to the President on the subject it will be conferring on us a very weighty obligation. If you think this request improper don't hesitate to decline it. … From a conversation Dr. Bache had with Mr. Gallatin last winter there is great reason to believe the appointment may be obtained if applied for before the vacancy is filled.”

Caspar Wistar honored his sister’s request, writing apologetically to President Jefferson scarcely two weeks later, 16 November 1803, “It has happened to me more than once, to feel great pain & regret while I was writing to you, on account of the trouble I occasioned you, & the liberty I was taking, in soliciting promotion &ca., for the persons in question. I assure you those sensations occur with unusual force on the present occasion, which is this—Dr. Bache has nearly concluded his tour [of] attendance on the Missisippi Boat[-men], for this year, & I should suppose with great success, as he has lost but [7] out of 400 Patients he has however been sick twice, & is so much discouraged, by the smallness of the Compensation, & the severity of the duty, that he has requested my Sister to solicit for him the place of Land-Officer, which he supposes to be vacant” (Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. McClure, 42:12–13).

Jefferson endorsed Wistar’s letter “Bache Wm to be land officer N.O.,” and while that office did not come to him, another even more suitable did, as evidenced by the present presidential appointment: “To All Who Shall See These Presents, Greeting: Know Ye, That reposing special Trust and Confidence in the Integrity, Diligence and Discretion of William Bache, of Pennsylvania I have nominated, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, Do Appoint him Surveyor for the Port of Philadelphia and do authorize and empower him to execute and fulfil the Duties of that Office according to law; And to have and to hold the said Office, with all the Rights and Emoluments thereunto legally appertaining, unto him the said William Bache during the Pleasure of the President of the United States for the time being. In Testimony whereof, I have caused these Letters to be made Patent, and the Seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed.” Dr. Bache held this position until his death in 1820.

The final component of this pocket archive is a clerical circular letter from Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin regarding the necessity of bonds for “Vessels being bound for Hispaniola.”