To Thomas Jefferson from William Cocke, 17 August 1796
From William Cocke
Tennessee, Mulberry-grove August 17.
1796.
Sir
By your friend, Doctor Rose, I have
the pleasure to inform you, that the people of this State, of every
description, express a wish that you should be the next President of the United
States, and Mr. Burr, Vice President.
I believe it is upwards of twenty
years since I had the pleasure of seeing you; during which time, I have
entertained a high respect as well for your person, as political sentiments,
and shall be glad to receive a line from you, in return for which, I shall
certainly give you the politics of this State, with such other information, as
you may wish to have from this quarter. With respect, I am, Sir, Your real
friend,
William Cocke
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received
15 Sep. 1796 and so recorded in SJL.
William Cocke (1748–1828), a
legislator and Indian agent who was born in Amelia County, Virginia, had served
with TJ in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1777–78. A man of the frontier,
Cocke lived in Kentucky, where he became active in the politics of the
short-lived colony of Transylvania. In the mid 1780s in the western counties of
North Carolina he became a leader of the unsuccessful movement to establish the
state of Franklin. After the reorganization of these counties into the
Southwest Territory, Cocke served in the territorial legislature and the
constitutional convention of 1796, which brought Tennessee into the Union in
time to cast three electoral votes for TJ and Aaron Burr during the
presidential election of that year. Cocke represented Tennessee in the Senate
in 1796–97 and again from 1799 to 1805. Commended by General Andrew Jackson for
his bravery in the Battle of Enitachopko during the Creek War in 1814, Cocke
was subsequently appointed as United States agent to the Chickasaws (DAB; Leonard, General
Assembly, 127; Jackson, Papers, i, 60–1n, iii, 408–9, 473; Samuel C. Williams,
“The Admission of Tennessee into the Union” Tennessee Historical Quarterly,
iv, [1945], 301–17).
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