1To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 10 March 1817 (Madison Papers)
Besey calling on me for some seed allows me just time to write a line, to await your arrival at home, requesting your attendance as a visitor of our proposed college on Tuesday the 8th. of April, being the day after our election. You will of course, I am in hopes come here the day or evening before, that we may have some previous consultation on the subject. I shall also request Genl. Cocke &...
2To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 13 April 1817 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of Feb. 15. having given me the hope you would attend the meeting of the Visitors of the Central college near Charlottesville I lodged one for you at Montpelier notifying that our meeting would be on the day after our April court. A detention at Washington I presume prevented your attendance, and mr. Watson being sick, only Genl. Cocke, mr. Cabell and myself met. Altho’ not a...
3To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 15 April 1817 (Madison Papers)
I sincerely congratulate you on your release from incessant labors, corroding anxieties, active enemies & interested friends, & on your return to your books & farm, to tranquility & independance. A day of these is worth ages of the former, but all this you know. Yours of the 10th. was delivered to me yesterday. Mine of the 13th. had been sent off the moment it was written. We are made happy by...
4Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 5 May 1817 (Madison Papers)
At a meeting of the Visitors of the Central college held at Charlottesville on the 5th. day of May 1817. on a call by three members, to wit, John Hartwell Cocke, Joseph C. Cabell & Th Jefferson, present James Monroe, James Madison, John H. Cocke, and Th: Jefferson. The records of the trustees of the Albemarle academy, in lieu of which the Central college is established, were recieved from...
5To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 22 June 1817 (Madison Papers)
In two packages, distinct from this letter, I return you your father’s meteorological diaries, which you were so kind as to lend me, and a piece on paper money recieved from you some time ago. From the former I have made out tables of rain and snow, and a calendar of animal and vegetable matters announcing the advance of seasons. Having now compleated 7. years of observations since my return...
6To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 23 July 1817 (Madison Papers)
The promptitude & success of our subscription paper, now amounting to upwards of 20,000. D. with a prospect much beyond that renders the decision immediately necessary of some important questions which I had thought might have laid over to our periodical meeting the last of September. Having an opportunity of writing to Genl. Cocke, I invited him to join me in a visit to you on Friday the...
7Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 28 July 1817 (Madison Papers)
At a called meeting of the Visitors of the Central College, held at the House of Mr. Madison in Orange, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Hartwell Cocke, and Joseph C. Cabell, being present: The plan of the first Pavilion to be erected, and the proceedings thereupon, having been stated and agreed to— It is agreed that application be made to Doctor Knox of Baltimore to accept the...
8Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 7 October 1817 (Madison Papers)
At a meeting of the Visitors &c. held at Charlottesville 7. Oct: 1817. On information of the amount of the subscriptions to the Central College, known to be made, and others understood to be so, the board resolves, that the Pavilion now erecting be completed as heretofore directed, with the 20. dormitories attached to it, and that two other pavilions be contracted for and executed the next...
9Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 8 October 1817 (Madison Papers)
At a meeting of the Visitors &c. 8. Oct: 1817. Certain letters from Doctor Thos. Cooper to Th: Jefferson, dated Sep. 17. & 19. received since the meeting of yesterday being communicated to the board of Visitors, and taken into consideration with his former letter of Sep. 16. they are of opinion that it will be for the interest of the College to modify the terms of agreement which might be...
10To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 15 November 1817 (Madison Papers)
We are sadly at a loss here for a Palladio. I had three different editions, but they are at Washington, and nobody in this part of the country has one unless you have. If you have you will greatly aid us by letting us have the use of it for a year to come. It will come safely by the stage, and may be left at the stage office of either Milton or Charlottesville, & either postmaster will pay the...
11To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 December 1817 (Madison Papers)
I returned from Bedford a week ago, after an absence of 6. weeks, and found here the Palladio, with your two favors of Nov. 29. & Dec. 1 & with 3. from Dr. Cooper, written before he had received one from me of Nov. 25. from Poplar Forest. It was agreed, you know, that we should make a report of our proceedings & prospects to the Govr. as our patron to be laid before the legislature. Being...
12To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 2 January 1818 (Madison Papers)
Expecting daily an answer from the President authorising me to sign the within for him I had rather not take on myself a 3d. and therefore send it to you. I have adopted your amendments and made some other small ones. To economise writing I make one letter do for the other gentlemen, joining you with them, altho’ it contains no more than I had before written to you. After signing yourself be...
13To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 6 February 1818 (Madison Papers)
I inclose you a letter from Dr. Cooper, considerably important to the first successes of our college. I will request you to return it to me. I inclose also the answer which I think should be given. If you think so likewise be so good as to seal & forward it. If not, return it, as I should be unwilling to take on myself alone so important a relinquishment. Yet I think it right that we should...
14To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 11 April 1818 (Madison Papers)
Yours of Mar. 29. came duly to hand, but I put off answering it because I expected to have written sooner by the bearer of the present mr. Coffee. Nothing presses as to the payment of the instalment which is the subject of your letter. It may either be paid to the Richmd bank of Virginia, or sent to mr. Garrett or mr. Barksdale by any body happening to be coming, or brought when you come to...
15Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 11 May 1818 (Madison Papers)
At a regular meeting of the Visitors of the Central College on 11th. May 1818, at which Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John H. Cocke, & Joseph C. Cabell, were present, it was agreed, that it being uncertain whether Thomas Cooper would accept the Professorship of Chemistry, in the event of his not doing so, it would be expedient to procure a Professor of Mathematicks. It was also agreed to...
16To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 28 June 1818 (Madison Papers)
Being to set out in a few days for Bedford from whence I shall not return till about a week before our Rockfish meeting, I have been preparing such a report as I can, to be offered there to our colleagues. It is not such an one as I should propose to them to make to an assembly of philosophers, who would require nothing but the table of professorships, but I have endeavored to adapt it to our...
17To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 19 February 1819 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 12th. has been duly recieved, and the pamphlet it covered has been sent to mr. Minor. The late day to which the Governor has fixed the 1st. meeting of the Visitors of the University (the last Monday in March) renders a meeting of the College visitors immediately necessary, some measures of high importance to the institution not admitting that delay; & the Law having authorised us...
18Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 26 February 1819 (Madison Papers)
We The subscribers, Visitors of the Central College, having been specially called to meet on the 26th. day of Feb. 1819, and authorised by the act of the legislature, now in session, for establishing the University of Virginia, to continue the exercise of our former functions, and to fulfill the duties of our successors, Visitors of the sd. University, until their first actual meeting, have...
19To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 3 March 1819 (Madison Papers)
I promised your gardener some seeds which I put under a separate cover and address to you by mail. I also inclose you a letter from mr. Cabell which will shew you that the “sour grapes” of Wm. & Mary are spreading; but certainly not to the “enlightened part of society” as the letter supposes. I have sent him a transcript from our journals that he may see how far we are under engagements to Dr....
20To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 8 March 1819 (Madison Papers)
I now return you the letter from mr. Watson whom I met with on the road as mentioned in mine of the 3d. In consequence of the doubts discovered on the subject of Cooper, I wrote to mr. Cabell, to Correa, and to Cooper himself, and inclose you copies of my letters for perusal that you may see on what ground I place the matter with each. To Cooper I barely hold up the possibility of new views...
21To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 11 March 1819 (Madison Papers)
I inclose you a letter received last night from mr. Cabell containing interesting information as to our University as well as something further with respect to Dr. Cooper. Be so good as to return it with those formerly sent you. I recieved by the same mail a commission as visitor, and an authentic appointment of the last Monday of this month for our first meeting at the University. I have...
At a meeting of the Visitors of the University of Virginia at the said University on Monday the 29th. day of March 1819, being the day prescribed by the Governor for their first meeting, James Madison, Joseph C. Cabell, Chapman Johnson, James Breckenridge Robert Taylor, John H. Cocke and Thomas Jefferson attended. The board proceeding to the duties prescribed to them by the act of the General...
23To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 29 June 1819 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 29 June 1819, Monticello. Described as a one-page autograph letter, signed, offered for sale 17–21 Mar. 1891 in the Catalogue of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents, Collected by the Late Prof. E. H. Leffingwell , (2 vols. in 1; Boston, 1891), 2:32, item 3633.
24To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 7 July 1819 (Madison Papers)
Preparing within 4. or 5. days to set out for Bedford, where I shall continue two months, I have thought it would be acceptable to you to learn the present state of things at the University, and the prospect for the year. You may remember that almost in the moment of our separation at the last meeting, one of our Colleagues proposed a change of a part of the plan so as to place the gardens of...
25To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 23 September 1819 (Madison Papers)
The law establishing the University requires the Visitors to make a report annually embracing a full account of the disbursements, the funds on hand, and a general statement of the condition of the sd. University. The account of disbursements and funds belongs to the Bursar & Proctor, who are accordingly instructed to have them made up to the last day of this month. The condition of the...
At a meeting of the Visitors of the University of Virginia at the sd. University on Monday the 4th. of October 1819. present Thomas Jefferson, Robert Taylor, James Madison, Chapman Johnson & John Hartwell Cocke. Resolved that instead of the Hotel, which had been directed to be built in this present year by the Visitors of the Central College, at their meeting of Feb. 26. & approved by this...
27To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 18 October 1819 (Madison Papers)
By this day’s mail I forward you ⅓ of a parcel of seeds of the Sea-Kale sent here by Genl. Cock for you, mr. Divers & myself. I feared to await a private conveyance because they lose their vegetative power if not planted soon. The day after you left us I was taken with a cholic which attended with a stricture on the upper bowels brought me into great pain & immediate danger. The obstacle was...
28To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 November 1819 (Madison Papers)
A visit of the ladies of our family to mrs. Madison gives me an opportunity of sending you our correspondence with Dr. Cooper & of recieving it back again safely. It is necessary to observe that our first letter & his first crossed each other on the road, so that each party had expressed their mind before knowing that of the other. On the whole this embarrassed transaction ends well enough,...
29To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 16 February 1820 (Madison Papers)
With this letter I commit for you to the mail a bundle of seeds, one parcel of which was sent by you to mr. Randolph for inspection. The other is seakale seed lodged here for you by Genl. Cocke. Have I returned your Vitruvius to you? I am in great tribulation about it? I keep my borrowed books on a particular shelf that they may neither be forgotten nor confounded with my own. It is not on...
30To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 11 April 1820 (Madison Papers)
Our brewing for the use of the present year has been some time over. About the last of Oct. or beginning of Nov. we begin for the ensuing year, and malt and brew 3. 60 galln casks successively , which will give so many successive lessons to the person you send. On his return he can try his hand with you in order to discover what parts of the processes he will have learnt imperfectly, and come...
31To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 17 May 1820 (Madison Papers)
As the measures which were adopted at the last meeting of our visitors were of a very leading character I have thought it proper to inform our absent colleagues of them; and have delayed the communication only until I could add what has been done under the resolutions of the board. As this latter information has not been received by you, I inclose you my letter to General Taylor for perusal...
32To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 2 June 1820 (letter not found) (Madison Papers)
¶ From Thomas Jefferson. Letter not found. 2 June 1820 . Enclosed in Dolley Madison to Lewis J. Cist, 4 July 1842 ( DLC : Dolley Madison Papers).
33To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 13 August 1820 (Madison Papers)
I recieved yesterday the inclosed Letter proposing to me an interposition which my situation renders impracticable. The gentlemen of my family have manifested at times some opposition to mr. Nelson’s elections: which has produced an intermission of intercourse between the families: and altho’ I never took the smallest part in it, and nothing but what is respectful has ever passed between mr....
34To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 29 November 1820 (Madison Papers)
The inclosed letter from our antient friend Tenche Coxe came unfortunately to Monticello after I had left it and has had a dilatory passage to this place where I recieved it yesterday and obey it’s injunction of immediate transmission to you. We should have recognised the stile even without a signature, and altho so written as to be much of it indecypherable. This is a sample of the effects we...
35To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 13 January 1821 (Madison Papers)
I return you mr. Coxe’s letter without saying I have read it. I made out enough to see that it was about the Missouri question, and the printed paper told me on which side he was. Could I have devoted a day to it, by interlining the words as I could pick them out, I might have got at more. The lost books of Livy or Tacitus might be worth this. Our friend would do well to write less and write...
36To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 28 January 1821 (Madison Papers)
My neighbor, friend and physician, Doctr. Watkins, being called to Philadelphia, is desirous to pay his respects to you en passant, and asks me, by a line to you, to lessen his scruples on doing so. You will find my justification in his character when known to you. His understanding is excellent, well informed, of pleasant conversation and of great worth. As a Physician I should trust myself...
37To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 January 1821 (Madison Papers)
The inclosed letter to mr. Cabell so fully explains it’s object, and the grounds on which your signature to the paper is proposed if approved, that I will spare my stiffening & aching wrist the pain of adding more than the assurance of my constant & affectte. friendship. We the subscribers, visitors of the University of Virginia being of opinion that it will be to the interest of that...
38To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 15 August 1821 (Madison Papers)
In obedience to the resolution of the visitors of the university at their last session, the Proctor has been constantly employed in “ascertaining the state of accounts under contracts already made, and the expence of compleating the buildings begun and contemplated”: and we have consequently suspended, according to instructions, “the entering into any contracts for the Library until we see...
39To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 16 September 1821 (Madison Papers)
I have no doubt you have occasionally been led to reflect on the character of the duty imposed by Congress on the importation of books. Some few years ago, when the tariff was before Congress, I engaged some of our members of Congress to endeavor to get the duty repealed, and wrote on the subject to some other acquaintances in Congress, and pressingly to the Secretary of the treasury. The...
40To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 September 1821 (Madison Papers)
Mr Brockenbrough has been closely engaged, since our last meeting in settling the cost of the buildings finished at the University, that we might obtain a more correct view of the state of our funds, and see whether a competency will remain for the Library. He has settled for 6. pavilions, 1. hotel, and 35. dormitories and will proceed with the rest; so that I hope, by our next meeting, the...
41To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 October 1821 (Madison Papers)
I heard in Bedford that you were attaked with the prevailing fever, and with great joy on my return that you were recovered from it. In the strange state of the health of our country every fever gives alarm. I got home from Bedford on the 27th. and am obliged to return there within 3. or 4. days, having an appointment at the Natural bridge on the 11th. prox. As our proposed petition to...
42To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 25 February 1822 (Madison Papers)
I have no doubt you have recieved, as I have done, a letter from Dr. Morse with a printed pamphlet, proposing to us a place in a self constituted society for the civilisation of the Indians &c. I am anxious to know your thoughts on the subject because they would affect my confidence in my own. I disapprove the proposition altogether. I acknolege the right of voluntary associations for laudable...
43To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 7 April 1822 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of Mar. 29. did not come to hand until the 4th. instant. Only mr. Cabell, Genl. Cocke and myself attended. Messrs. Johnson and Taylor were retained in Richmond on Lithgow’s case, and Genl. Breckenridge hindered by business. It was not material as there was not a single thing requisite to act on. We have to finish the 4. rows and appendages this summer which will be done and then to...
44To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 12 May 1822 (Madison Papers)
I thank you for the communication of mr. Rush’s letter which I now return. Mr. Bentham’s character of Alexander is I believe just and that worse traits might still be added to it equally just. He is now certainly become the watchman of tyranny for Europe, as dear to it’s oppressors as detestable to the oppressed. If however he should engage in war with the Turks, as I expect, his employment...
45To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 22 November 1822 (Madison Papers)
The person who hands you this letter is an interesting subject of curiosity. He was taken prisoner by the Kickapoos when he supposes he must have been about 3. or 4. years of age, knows not whence taken nor who were his parents. He escaped from the Indians at about 19. as he supposes, & about 7. years ago. He has applied himself to education, is a student of Medecine, & has assumed the name of...
46To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 6 January 1823 (Madison Papers)
I send you a mass of reading, and so rapidly does my hand fail me in writing that I can give but very briefly the necessary explanations. You will observe that mr. Cabell, if the loan bill should pass, proposes to come up with mr. Loyall, probably mr. Johnson, and Genl. Cocke to have a special meeting. This is necessary to engage our workmen before they undertake other work for the ensuing...
47To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 16 February 1823 (Madison Papers)
You already know that the legislature has authorised the literary board to lend us another 60.000 D. It is necessary we should act on this immediately so far as to accept the loan, that we may engage our workmen before they enter into other undertakings for the season. But the badness of the roads, the uncertainty of the weather and the personal inconvenience of a journey to the members of our...
48To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 24 February 1823 (Madison Papers)
I have read mr. Cox’s letters and some of his papers, which I now return you. It is impossible for me to write to him. With two crippled hands I abandon writing but from the most urgent necessities; and above all things I should not meddle in a Presidential election, nor even express a sentiment on the subject of the Candidates. As you propose to write to him, will you be so good as to add a...
49To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 12 March 1823 (Madison Papers)
Having received from all our brethren approbations of the loan, I authorised Mr Brockenbrough to engage the work of the Rotunda and have it commenced immediately. We had only two bricklayers and two carpenters capable of executing it with solidity and correctness, these had not capital sufficient for so great an undertaking, nor would they have risked their little all but for a great advance...
50To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 14 March 1823 (Madison Papers)
The inclosed lre. in Gr. Lat. Fr. and Eng. with it’s accompaniments being intended for your inspection as much as mine, is now forwarded for your perusal. You will be so good as to reinclose them that I may return them to the writer. The answer I propose to give is, what I have given on all similar applications, that until the debt of the University is discharged, and it’s funds liberated, the...