1To James Madison from Joel Barlow, April 1809 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
April 1809. Sends on letter “from Mr. Lee” recommending William Bass for the consulate at Antwerp and mentions that Walter Livingston, Jr., may deserve consideration for the secretary’s post at the Paris legation, if a vacancy occurs. “I dont know but I ought to make an apology once for all for consenting sometimes to be the organ of such applications. It is a business I very much dislike but...
2To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 9 June 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Captain OBrien has desired me to enclose to you this letter, think that perhaps it may be useful to the public service in giving you information. I have no personal knowledge of Mr. Davis. That little I have heard of him has not inspired me with confidence in him. With great respect yr. obt. Sevt. DLC : Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
3To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 14 July 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
As Capn. Haley told me he was sending to your house to day for some heavy baggage, I take the liberty of sending two small boxes of books to be sent on board his vessel with your things. I beg you to excuse this freedom, as I have no other way of getting them on board.— Yr. obt. Sert DLC : Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
4To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 5 July 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
It has not hitherto been in my power to come to Washington as I intended this summer, to recieve such papers as you intend to put into my hands relative to the history in question.—If you can let me known by the return of post that I shall find you there, & that I can have a little time to confer with you previous to your summer retreat, I will then take a run there immediately. Yr. obet. &...
5To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 18 March 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
If you can find time to read over the enclosed letter from Mr. Erving you will see expressed in a more striking manner than I could do it his reasons for desiring some military brevet rank. I can of course say nothing on the propriety or impropriety of your granting his request. With great respect your obet. sert. DLC : Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
6To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 25 August 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
I should not take the liberty of commending to your notice and protection my excellent friends Mr. and Mrs. St. John were it not that their merit entitles them to more than I can otherwise do for them. Mr. St. John transfers a considerable property to our country with an intention to devote that and himself wholly to Agriculture, of which his accurate intelligence in every part of rural...
7To James Madison from Joel Barlow, 5 March 1812 (Madison Papers)
I believe I forgot in my hasty letter of the 3d. to mention that I had recd. yours of the —— by the Hornet, & have endeavoured to make as much impression as possible with observations it contains relative to the conduct of France since the repeal of the decrees. I particularly notice what you say of the affair of E. Florida. The hint will be sufficient to induce me to reject any proposition...
8To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 1 October 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved your favour of the 20th. June by Mr. Pinckney, who appears to deserve all that you say of him as a true republican. I wish as much could be said in this respect of our minister at Paris. It is really unfortunate for our interest as well as for the cause of liberty in general, that he does not accord better with the principles which do and ought to govern the people of France. That...
9To James Madison from Joel Barlow, 6 July 1809 (Madison Papers)
Col. Swan has desired me to hand you the enclosed letter. It seems as if it should have been addrest to the Secy. of the Treasury. But he asks only for a suspension of a decision, and as that cannot be final without you, it may not be improper. With great respect— RC ( DLC ). Enclosure not found. James Swan emigrated from Scotland to Boston in 1765, served in the Revolution, and engaged in...
10To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 4 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you the Institute’s examination of Gall’s famous theory of the Brain. The inquiries on this very obscure subject may not lead to any immediate result but to humble the pride of Science, yet the labors of that Society in general impress my mind so deeply with their importance as to make me regret that we have not the means in this country of attaching a higher estimation than we have...
11To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 2 February 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I take the liberty to present you with a short treatise of mine on the present circumstances of Europe, which by a kind of moral reaction may stand a chance to be of some use in America; as a habit of reflecting on the subjects here treated may induce us to prize such of our own institutions as are good, and to improve those that are defective. I hope to sail for America in a short time;...
12To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 6 September 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
The state of Mrs. Barlow’s health obliged her & myself to go the Philadelphia soon after the date of my last letter, from whence we returned only last evening. So that till then I did not recieve yours of the 5th. Aug.—I propose now to set off on my visit to you in 3 or 4 days. But I shall be obliged to come alone. My wife regrets very much that she cannot accompany me on a tour in which she...
13To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 18 April 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Your constant occupation for some time past, has prevented my calling on you, to say some things which lie with weight upon my mind. I must go soon to Philadelphia to get forward the publication of my work,—and as I understood that you intended a visit to Monticello soon after the rising of Congress, when you will be able to bring back with you the interesting documents you possess relating to...
14To James Madison from Joel Barlow, 25 April 1810 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Carey who is probably well known to you desires an interview with you on the subject of Mr. Tench Cox whose present office will probably be vacated by the passing of the Bill respecting a quartermaster’s department. Mr. Cox’s political character, his official talents & his mode of conducting the office he now holds are doubtless much better known to you than to me. But his domestic affairs...
15Joel Barlow to Thomas Jefferson, [received 21 July 1811] (Jefferson Papers)
Mammoth Rye . I recieved it last year from France . it is lately from Asia . I sowed 70 grains in my garden. it produced 7483 grains. but they are not so plump as those I sowed. It is heavier than wheat & gives a flour as white. The stalk being more solid than that of common rye it will probably resist the fly. Sow in Sep r — Caspian wheat . recieved with the rye. was extremely plump & heavy,...
16To James Madison from Joel Barlow, 30 October 1808 (Madison Papers)
Should you want a messenger for another dispatch to Europe I am desired to mention to you William Vandeursen Junr. of Middleton Cont. who desires to be sent. He is a young man of good principles, lately addmitted to the Bar, but has bad health & thinks a voyage would be beneficial. He informs me that Alexr. Wolcott has written you in his favor. Wolcott knows him better than I do as they are of...
17To James Madison from Joel Barlow, 10 February 1806 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
§ From Joel Barlow. 10 February 1806. “Permit me to ask you to read the enclosed Prospectus, & if its principle meets your approbation, to encourage it among your friends in the legislature. “I may mistake the true interests of the country. But it appears to me that this subject embraces one of the most essential of them.” RC ( InU-Li : Lafayette Mss). 1 p. Yale graduate, lawyer, and “Hartford...
18To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 18 March 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I know not what apology to offer for troubling you so often with my publications. I sent you last month a pamphlet, called “Advice to the Privileged Orders” &c. I beg you now to accept a little poem entitled, The Conspiracy of Kings. Though one of my Kings died while the Poem was in the press, it was not my fault. If this had been the case with all of them, I should have been willing to have...
19Joel Barlow to Thomas Jefferson, 15 May 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just rec d your letter of the 11 th covering one containing a remittance to Gen. Kosciusko , to which I shall attend very particularly. And I thank you for the hint respecting a mode of remittance to this country. You do not mention having rec d a letter from me in reply to yours of the 16 April . There was nothing in mine that required an answer, & my fear of its miscarriage is...
20To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 4 October 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you some time ago by Mr. Dawson and mentioned my intention of returning to America early in the spring. I still adhere to this intention, and am happy to learn by every letter from that country that the violence of party spirit is abated & that all honest men seem cordially united in support of your administration. I am persuaded that your election was the only means of uniting them...
21To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 12 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
When last in Philaa. I suggested to Dr. Mease the idea of a work on the manufactures of that city, and I thought its utility might be such as to encourage its extention afterwards to those of the U.S. describing the particular branches, the quantity of work done in each, & estimating the comparative amount of imported with that of home manufactured goods. &c.— He has now written me a letter...
22To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 3 October 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I took the liberty to write you a few days ago on a subject of some importance. Finding that Mr. Skipwith who was to be the bearer did not go I sent my packet by an occasion which is probably less safe. This induces me to address you a copy of that letter and likewise to send you by Col. Swift a little pamphlet I published last year, which has probably not yet found its way to America. The...
23To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 12 March 1798 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Wm. Lee of Boston has done me the favor to charge himself with a packet for you this day. He is a man of an excellent character & good connections in commerce. He wishes to obtain the consulate of Bordeaux or Paris, if vacant. Could you yield him assistance in this or any other object you would very much oblige your obet. Servt. RC ( DLC ); at foot of text: “Thos. Jefferson vice President...
24To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 2 September 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved your kind & friendly letter of the 14th. & should have set forward on my journey before recieving it, but learning from Mr. Gallatin that I should not find you nor scarcely any one else at Washington, I had already relinquished that project, or rather postponed the execution of it till October. And finding that my friend Baldwin is now in Connecticut, I am now going on to make up...
25To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 23 January 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I beg your acceptance of a specimen of the typographical art which I think equal to any that Europe has produced. The paper type & ink are made in Philadelphia, and I regret that the engravings had not likewise been committed to American artists. I cannot hope that you will soon find leisure to read the poem with that attention which would be requisite to obtain from you your opinion of its...
26To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 26 May 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
The Bearer Mr. Mansfield is highly recommended to my by Mr. Lee as a man of integrity & intelligence. I know him to be charged with Mr. Lee’s business, & believe the permission he asks for would be essentially necessary to its completion. I was myself charged with asking this permission early in April last, and did then propose it verbally to Mr. Gallatin, but owing to the miscarriage of a...
27To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 8 March 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been extremely anxious lest some of the late transactions in France should be so far misrepresented to the Patriots in America as to lead them to draw conclusions unfavorable to the cause of liberty in this hemisphere. You are sensible that in order to form a proper judgement it is necessary to combine many circumstances that cannot be well understood by men out of the country. The new...
28To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Barlow, 26 October 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Fulton’s letter giving an account of his experiments in submarine navigation is to accompany this. In the present state of the naval system of Europe every project for establishing the liberty of the seas on a permanent basis seems to be attended with so many difficulties that I am sometimes inclined to think the one he proposes may be found the most simple as well as the most effectual...
29To John Adams from Joel Barlow, 14 June 1787 (Adams Papers)
Some months have elapsed since I recieved your very obliging favour of May 1786. I have followed the advice of you & your friend Doct Price in bringing forward a publication of my Poem in America. The Edition is nearly disposed of. I take the liberty of addressing to your care a bundle of the Books, one of which be pleased to accept, & the others I wish to have conveyed to the persons to whom...
30To James Madison from Joel Barlow, 5 December 1811 (Madison Papers)
I take the liberty of recommending to your particular friendship & protection Mr. Corea, a Portuguese of great learning & Science whom I have known for many years a most amiable & honorable man. He is member of most of the learned Societies in Europe, & of that of Philadelphia. He has now chosen the United States for his country, & I feel an interest in his finding friends & other comforts...