University of Virginia Library

Stonecutters Sought from Italy

Now that arrangements for the brickwork were taken care of for the moment, Jefferson
turned to another matter that also would consume much of his time, that of recruiting
stonecutters from across the Atlantic. He initially contacted Thomas Appleton, the
American consul in Leghorn, setting out his requirements for a cutter's qualifications, and
specifying that the craftsman must come to Norfolk or Richmond, and to no other place.
Since vessels usually did not often sail from Leghorn directly into either of those ports,
Appleton wrote to Jefferson on 20 December to say that "had you been less explicit, I
Should have Sent an excellent workman to the immediate care of the Collector of Baltimore,
requesting he would not suffer him to remain a Single day in that City; but I have not
thought myself at liberty to deviate in the smallest degree from your positive
instructions."[107] By the time Jefferson received Appleton's letter and could send a reply
three and one-half months had gone by. On 4 April Jefferson apologized for his "ignorance
of the degree of intercourse between Leghorn and Virginia" and for his "unfortunate
instructions" that prevented his wishes to be carried out. He informed Appleton that he now
needed two stonecutters instead of one, "as our college will furnish them abundant
employment. and let both be competent to the cutting an Ionic or Corinthian capitel this is
indispensable." Appleton could consign the artists to merchant John Hollins in Baltimore,
"the best port out of Virginia,"[108] and the following day Jefferson wrote to Hollins to
advise him of the role he was desired to play in managing the stonecutters arrival from
"Leghorn, where I know they can be had of the first degree of skill, and for one third of what
ours ask. . . . forward them on by the stage to Charlottesville. in this case it will be essential
that they be not permitted to stay in Baltimore a single day as they would learn there the
wages of that place, and would not come on, or stay when come."[109] It would be four
months before Jefferson's letter to Appleton arrived in Leghorn, and much longer before the
Italians stonecutters arrived in America.[110]