# William Dickson to Thomas Jefferson, 20 February 1810 CITATION: “William Dickson to Thomas Jefferson, 20 February 1810,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-02-02-0199. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Retirement Series, vol. 2, 16 November 1809 to 11 August 1810 , ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp. 241–242.] URL (original): https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-02-02-0199 URL (fetched, Wayback Machine capture): https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-02-02-0199 DATE FETCHED: 2026-09-14 TRANSCRIPTION: scholarly edition text (Princeton, Papers of Thomas Jefferson / Madison Papers, as published on Founders Online); text below is verbatim from the fetched page, including the editors' source note and footnotes. Superscripts are flattened by the HTML-to-text conversion (e.g. 'Oct r' = Oct^r, '11 th' = 11^th). ---- VERBATIM TEXT (Founders Online page) ---- William Dickson to Thomas Jefferson, 20 February 1810 From William Dickson Nashville Feb y 20 th 1810 Dear Sir I herewith enclose the Miniature 1 & c of the late Gov r Lewis, which has been put into my hands by Maj r Anderson for that purpose. It seems when an inventory was taken at this place of the property of the deceased this article being wrapped up with a small parcel of medecines, was overlooked, and not discovered until some time after the Inventory had been sent on. It was matter of doubt with me whether to enclose it to his mother or to you, as the safest mode of conveyance. I have prefered the latter.— Please to accept assurances of respect and regard from Dear Sir Your most Ob t servant W m Dickson RC ( DLC ); at foot of text: “M r Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 18 Mar. 1810 and so recorded in SJL . William Dickson (1770–1816), a native of Duplin County, North Carolina, moved to Tennessee in 1795. After studying medicine and setting up a medical practice in Nashville, he served as speaker of the state house of representatives, 1799–1801, and held a seat as a Republican in the United States House of Representatives, 1801–07. Allegations that Dickson harbored aristocratic tendencies surfaced during his 1801 congressional campaign, prompting Andrew Jackson to obtain and have printed a letter in which Dickson emphasized his steadfast republicanism ( Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989 , 1989 description ends ; Jackson, Papers description begins Sam B. Smith, Harold D. Moser, Daniel Feller, and others, eds., The Papers of Andrew Jackson , 1980– , 6 vols. description ends , 1:256–9; Nashville Whig , 20 Feb. 1816). Personal effects belonging to Meriwether Lewis had been left for a time near Nashville in the care of William C. anderson . For the inventory of these items compiled ca. 23 Nov. 1809, see Jackson, Letters of Lewis and Clark description begins Donald Jackson, ed., Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, 1783–1854 , 2d ed., 1978, 2 vols. description ends , 2:470–4. 1 . Manuscript: “Minature.” Index Entries Anderson, William C. search Dickson, William; and M. Lewis’s effects search Dickson, William; identified search Dickson, William; letters from search Lewis, Lucy Meriwether search Lewis, Meriwether; personal belongings of search Permanent Link What’s this? https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-02-02-0199 Note: The annotations to this document, and any other modern editorial content, are copyright © Princeton University Press. All rights reserved. Back to top You Are Looking At Source Project Jefferson Papers Title William Dickson to Thomas Jefferson, 20 February 1810 Author Dickson, William Recipient Jefferson, Thomas Date 20 February 1810 Reference Cite as “William Dickson to Thomas Jefferson, 20 February 1810,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-02-02-0199. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Retirement Series, vol. 2, 16 November 1809 to 11 August 1810 , ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp. 241–242.] More between these correspondents Preceding From Jefferson to Dickson [3 January 1807] Next From Jefferson to Dickson [20 April 1810] All All correspondence between Jefferson and Dickson