ALS (polygraph copy), DLC:TJ, 1p, with TJ docket "Carstairs Thos. Nov. 1. 17." TJ made
this copy on a coversheet addressed to "Thomas Jefferson Esqr Monticello near Milton."
TJ's copying machine failed to make the letters in square brackets. Thomas Carstairs was a
"practical contractor" who worked with TJ, William Thornton, Stephen Hallet, and James
Hoban on the Capitol building in Washington in the 1790s (see John Dos Passos, "Builders
for a Golden Age," American Heritage, 76). TJ wrote to Carstairs again on 16 January and
Carstairs replied to TJ on 26 January 1818.
