“The vicissitudes of fortune which I have experienced, and continual uncertainty of my place of residence, have prevented for several years past my writing to you, or any of my friends in America,” wrote Lewis Littlepage on Jan. 17, 1801.
The letter was to president-elect Thomas Jefferson. Littlepage had written to him from Altona (now a borough of Hamburg, Germany). He had chosen Altona because it appeared, at least until he returned to America, as the safest place for him to reside. He had dodged several attempts on his life, had narrowly foiled a blackmail campaign, and was now imploring Jefferson to insert an advertisement in the Richmond Gazette. He wrote, “You [Jefferson] know me to be alive in the town of Altona in Holstein, and only waiting the approach of Spring to return to my native Country.”
