41Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 31 March 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my letter of yesterday I have recieved yours of the 27 th & 28 th and in the former the 500.D. for mrs Trist . the bronze time piece mentioned will run a fortnight, but I found it better to wind it up once a week, as during the 2 d week the greater expansion of the spring occasioned her to lose time. with respect to newspapers , none can now come to Washington for me. of those which,...
42Thomas Jefferson to John Taggart, 31 March 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved by our last post your favor of the 15 th informing me you had sent on the oil & paint requested, and stating the amount 72.D. I accordingly now inclose you US. bank bills for 70.D. and for want of smaller, I have desired my grandson Th:J. Randolph to call on you and pay the additional 2.D. on his arrival in Philadelphia , and I pray you to accept my thanks with my respectful...
43Thomas Jefferson to the Republicans of Washington County, Maryland, 31 March 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
The affectionate sentiments you express on my retirement from the high office conferred on me by my country, are gratefully recieved, & acknoleged with thankfulness. your approbation of the various measures which have been pursued, cannot but be highly consolatory to myself, & encouraging to future functionaries, who will see that their honest endeavors for the public good will recieve due...
44Thomas Jefferson to the Democratic Republican Delegates of Washington County, Pennsylvania, 31 March 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
The satisfaction you express, fellow citizens, that my endeavors have been unremitting to preserve the peace & independance of our country, & that a faithful neutrality has been observed towards all the contending powers, is highly grateful to me, and there can be no doubt that in any common times they would have saved us from the present embarrasments, thrown in the way of our national...
45Thomas Jefferson to Caspar Wistar, 31 March 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
My grandson being on his return to attend the botanical lectures gives me a safe opportunity of forwarding a livraison of a botanical work of M. Tussac for the Philosophical society
46Thomas Jefferson to James Hochie, 2 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your favor of Mar. 17. covering resolutions of the antient Plymouth society of New London , approving my conduct, as well during the period of my late administration, as the preceding portion of my public services. our lot has been cast in times which called for the best exertions of all our citizens to recover and preserve the rights which nature had given them; and we...
47Thomas Jefferson to the Inhabitants of Albemarle County, 3 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Returning to the scenes of my birth & early life, to the society of those with whom I was raised, & who have been ever dear to me, I recieve, fellow citizens & neighbors, with inexpressible pleasure, the cordial welcome you are so good as to give me. long absent on duties which the history of a wonderful aera made incumbent on those called to them, the pomp, the turmoil, the bustle & splendour...
48Thomas Jefferson to Robert Wright, 3 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your friendly note of Mar. 3. was delivered to me on that day. you know the pressure of the last moments of a session of Congress , and can judge of that of my own departure from Washington , & of my first attentions here. this must excuse my late acknolegement of your note.—the assurances of your approbation of the course I have observed are highly flattering, & the more so, as you have been...
49Thomas Jefferson to John B. Colvin, 4 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to mr. Colvin and having recieved but two of his Monitors since left Washington on the 11 th of Mar. he ascribes it to his having failed to give mr Colvin his address which is at Monticello near Milton . the post for Milton leaves Washington on
50Thomas Jefferson to Jonathan Shoemaker, 6 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
It is with great regret that I write you a letter which I am sure must give you pain, but your interest as well as my own makes it my duty, & yours is still more urgent than mine. I have little doubt that your sons write you flattering accounts of their proceedings & prospects at the Shadwell mills , & it is possible they may flatter themselves with retrieving their affairs, but however I...
51Thomas Jefferson to James Jay, 7 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Feb. 27. came to hand on the 3 d of March . the occupations of the moment & of those which have followed must be my apology for this late acknolegement. the plan of civilising the Indians is undoubtedly a great improvement on the antient & totally ineffectual one of beginning with religious missionaries. our experience has shewn that this must be the last step of the process. the...
52Thomas Jefferson to the New York State Legislature, 12 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve with respect & gratitude, from the legislature of New York , on my retirement from the office of Chief magistrate of the United States , the assurances of their esteem, & of their satisfaction with the services I have endeavored to render. the welfare of my fellow citizens, & the perpetuation of our republican institutions having been the governing principles of my public life, the...
53Thomas Jefferson to the Albemarle Buckmountain Baptist Church, 13 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you, my friends & neighbors, for your kind congratulations on my return to my native home, & on the opportunities it will give me of enjoying, amidst your affections the comforts of retirement & rest. your approbation of my conduct is the more valued as you have best known me, & is an ample reward for any services I may have rendered. we have acted together from the origin to the end...
54Thomas Jefferson to Jonathan Law, 13 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved on the 6 th inst. your favor covering the resolutions of the General meeting of the republicans of the state of Connecticut who had been convened at Hartford : and I see with pleasure the spirit they breathe. they express with truth the wrongs we have sustained, the forbearance we have exercised, & the duty of rallying round the constituted authorities, for the protection of our...
55Thomas Jefferson to Republicans of Queen Annes County, Maryland, 13 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved, fellow citizens, your farewell address with those sentiments of respect and satisfaction which it’s very friendly terms are calculated to inspire. with the consciousness of having endeavored to serve my fellow citizens according to their best interests, these testimonies of their good will are the sole & highest remuneration my heart has ever desired. I am sensible of the...
56Thomas Jefferson to Samuel DeButts, 15 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Mar. 24. has been duly recieved, and finds me disposed to render you any service within the line of propriety or right. my connection by blood gives me a certain claim on the affections of mr S. Carr , but none at all over his actions or proceedings with others: and no one, more unwillingly than myself, intermeddles with the affairs of others. mr Carr ’s known integrity will...
57Thomas Jefferson to Larkin Smith, 15 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your very friendly letter of Mar. 28. and am extremely sensible to the kind spirit it breathes. to be praised by those who themselves deserve all praise, is a gratification of high order. their approbation, who, having been high in the office themselves, have information & talents to guide their judgment, is a consolation deeply felt felt . a conscientious devotion to...
58Thomas Jefferson to Eli Alexander, 17 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Being much pressed by mr Higginbotham for a debt I owe him, and towards the discharge of which I promised him my rents, I paid over to him immediately the 200. D. you paid me the other day, & must sollicit the paiment of the balance of rent due since the 1 st day of December last . this I trust the sale of your crop of wheat will have enabled you to do, and that the request will be deemed...
59Thomas Jefferson to Isaac Shoemaker, 17 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
A little before I went to Washington in September last, you promised to accept & pay my order in favor of mr Higginbotham for 500. D. on account of rent of the mill for the year 1807–8. he has lately returned me the order on which he sais nothing has been paid. I must therefore request the paiment of that sum to him or myself without further delay, and to express a hope that the rent for the 2...
60To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1809 (Madison Papers)
I have to acknolege your favor of the 9th. and to thank you for the political information it contained. Reading the newspapers but little & that little but as the romance of the day, a word of truth now & then comes like the drop of water on the tongue of Dives. If the British ministry are changing their policy towards us, it is because their nation, or rather the city of London which is the...
61Thomas Jefferson to George Jefferson, 19 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
The articles sent by mr Randolph’s boats are arrived safe, except a trunk N o 28. your note by the boatmen mentions 4. trunks. they brought only 3. & suppose they recieved no more, which I presume is the fact as the contents could not be useful to them or e easily disposed of. the contents were almost entirely stationary, with a mathematical machine & some odd things intermixed. it has...
62Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 19 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege your favor of the 9 th and to thank you for the political information it contained. reading the newspapers but little & that little but as the romance of the day, a word of truth now & then comes like the drop of water on the tongue of Dives . if the British ministry are changing their policy towards us, it is because their nation, or rather the city of London which is the...
63Enclosure: Deed of John Freeman’s Indenture to James Madison, 19 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I hereby assign & convey to James Madison President of the Uni ted States the within named servant , John , otherwise called John Freeman during the remaining term of his service from the 11 th day of March last past when he was delivered to the said James for the consideration of two hundred and thirty one Dollars 81. cents . Witness m y hand
64Thomas Jefferson to John Graham, 25 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
A gentleman of Dumfries of your name, & I think he was your brother , was so kind as to promise me a pair of wild geese, & to say he would take some occasion of sending them to Washington by water. I would now prefer their remaining where they are, as being so much nearer than Washington , & I will send for them as soon as the roads are good. not knowing the Christian name of mr Graham nor...
65Thomas Jefferson to Étienne Lemaire, 25 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
You were so kind, my good friend, as to offer to execute any little commissions for me in Philadelphia ; and it is certain there will at times be some small articles which I can only get good from there, and so well chosen by nobody as yourself. I trouble you at present to send me a box of good sallad oil, and some Vanilla. the Vanilla may come by post, but the oil must be addressed to Mess rs...
66To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 27 April 1809 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 24th. came to hand last night. The correspondence between mr. Smith & mr. Erskine had been recieved three days before. I sincerely congratulate you on the change it has produced in our situation. It is the source of very general joy here, & could it have arrived one month sooner would have had important effects not only on the elections of other states, but of this also, from...
67Thomas Jefferson to John Barnes, 27 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letters of the 17 th & 18 th were recieved only the last night, having loitered some where a week, altho’ there are 3. days of departure from Washington of the post for Milton every week. that of the 24 th of March covering your account was recieved in due time, but being occupied constantly out of doors from an early breakfast to a late dinner every day, writing, as with other country...
68Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 27 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 24 th came to hand last night. the correspondence between mr Smith & mr Erskine had been recieved three days before. I sincerely congratulate you on the change it has produced in our situation. it is the source of very general joy here, & could it have arrived one month sooner would have had important effects not only on the elections of other states, but of this also, from which...
69Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Moore, 28 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 20 th was recieved two days ago. I distinctly recollect that on your satisfying me that the law for locating & opening the Western road could not be executed by barely the agents named in it, I authorised you to employ others, particularly a packhorseman, with a packhorse & tent, and one or more assistants in the surveying (I do not recollect the number exactly) and that I...
70Thomas Jefferson to George Jefferson, 1 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 21 st & 24 th are recieved. the amount of my crop of tob o is much less than I expected. Griffin is a good overseer, but has the fault of never writing to me ; so that I never learn the amount of my crop of tob o till it gets to your hands. he had informed me that the frost had been very fatal to his tob o & as I supposed from his expression, had killed about one third. I now find...
71Thomas Jefferson to Isham Lewis, 1 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
It is with real concern that I learn the disagreeable situation in which you are for want of emploiment, & the more so as I do not see any way in which I can propose to you any certain relief. as to offices under the government, they are few, are always full, & twenty applicants for one vacancy when it happens. they are miserable also, giving a bare subsistence without the least chance of...
72Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Apr. 3. came to hand on the 23 d of April . I have no doubt that the marked differences between the elephant & our colossal animal entitle him to a distinct appellation. one of those differences, & a striking one, is in the protuberances on the grinding surface of the teeth, somewhat in the shape of the mamma, mastos, or breast of a woman, which has induced Cuvier to call it the...
73Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, 6 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of the 28 th ult. came to hand by our last post. I have consulted your father on the subject of your attending mr Godon’s lectures in mineralogy, and we consent to it so long as the Botanical lectures continue. we neither of us consider that branch of science as sufficiently useful to protract your stay in Philadelphia beyond the termination of the Botanical lectures. in what you say...
74Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, 7 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have a grandson, Tho s J. Randolph , now at Philadelphia , attending the Botanical lectures of Doct r Barton , and who will continue there only until the end of the present course. altho’ I know that your goodness has indulged D r Barton with permission to avail himself of your collection of plants for the purpose of instructing his pupils, yet as my grandson has a peculiar fondness for that...
75Thomas Jefferson to John M. Perry, 7 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
When I bespoke of you the other day the thousand feet of heart pine plank, cut crosswise in the stock into bars of a full inch or rather inch & eighth, I forgot to desire that the planks might not after sawing, be separated by splitting them asunder at the butt end but that the stock may come entire. perhaps the end should be bound round with a hiccory withe. if the planks are separated, the...
76Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 14 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your favor of Apr. 3. with the copy of your General Geography, for which I pray you to accept my thanks. my occupations here have not permitted me to read it through, which alone could justify any judgment expressed on the work. indeed as it appears to be an abridgment of several branches of science, the scale of abridgment must enter into that abridgment judgment....
77Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, André Thoüin, and Bartelémy de Faujas-Saint Fond, 16 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof, mr Robert M. Patterson , is son of mr Robert Patterson , professor of Mathematics in the college of Philadelphia , Director of the mint of the US. & a Vicepresident of the Philosophical society . having gone through his course of studies here he goes to Paris to advance his stock of knolege by the superior aids which that place affords. I have not the pleasure of being...
78Thomas Jefferson to George Jefferson, 18 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
On the subject of the trunk N o 28. I am not without a hope that an interview by yourself with the drayman and Harry , the first time he goes down, may yet discover it’s fate. I am anxious, not so much for the value, tho that was considerable and the assortment of paper particular, as for the instrument (Dynamometer) which it contained, the only one in America , & imported for a particular...
79Thomas Jefferson to John Wyche, 19 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of March 19. came to hand but a few days ago and informs me of the establishment of the Westward mill library society , of it’s general views & progress. I always hear with pleasure of institutions for the promotion of knolege among my countrymen. the people of every country are the only safe guardians of their own rights, and are the only instruments which can be used for their...
80To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 22 May 1809 (Madison Papers)
It is my duty to write to you on the subject of the Note you were so kind as to endorse for me at the bank of the US. and I do it willingly altho’ painfully. Notwithstanding a fixed determination to take care that at the termination of my duties at Washington my pecuniary matters should at least be square, & my confidence that they would be so, I found, by an estimate made in December last,...
81Thomas Jefferson to William Brown, 22 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
My new situation & the active occupations to which it has given occasion, must be my apology for this late acknolegement of the reciept of your favor of Oct. 10. informing me you had been so kind as to send me some articles by the schooner Sampson Cap t Smith . the answer was deferred long in expectation of her arrival, and that becoming at length desperate, my removal from Washington , & the...
82Thomas Jefferson to Philip Freneau, 22 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I subscribe with pleasure to the publication of your volumes of poems. I anticipate the same pleasure from them which the perusal of those heretofore published has given me. I have not been able to circulate the paper because I have not been from home above once or twice since my return, and because in a country situation like mine, little can be done in that way. the inhabitants of the...
83Thomas Jefferson to Cunningham Harris, 22 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of March 23. requesting some Benni seed, was near a month getting to my hands. the last year I had recieved & distributed portions of the seed to many persons, but the September frost had killed the whole. this year I had got a very small supply of fresh seed, which however was all sown before I recieved your letter. Judge Johnson of your state proposes to cultivate it largely this...
84Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 22 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
It is my duty to write to you on the subject of the Note you were so kind as to endorse for me at the bank of the US. and I do it willingly altho’ painfully. notwithstanding a fixed determination to take care that at the termination of my duties at Washington my pecuniary matters should at least be square, & my confidence that they would be so, I found, by an estimate made in December last,...
85Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Ritchie, 22 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his friendly salutations & compliments to mr Ritchie, and observes to him that he has not recieved a single Enquirer since he came home the 15 th of March , which makes him apprehend that some circumstance consequent on his change of residence may have occasioned the failure. he has taken for granted that mr Ritchie would call on his correspondent mr G. Jefferson...
86Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Fitz, 23 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof is mr Isham Lewis , son of Col o Charles L. Lewis of Buckisland , whom you must have known while you resided in this part of the country. he is my nephew, & a young man of excellent dispositions, correct conduct, & good understanding, little aided by education. the shipwreck of the fortunes of his family leaves him without resource but in his own industry, & the defects in...
87Thomas Jefferson to Seth Pease, 23 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I beg leave to present to your notice the bearer hereof mr Isham Lewis , a nephew of mine who proposes to become a resident of the Missisipi or Orleans territory . you will find him to be of excellent dispositions, correct in his conduct, and of a sound understanding, little aided only by a common education. he wishes to find employment in the business of surveying; and it is to request you to...
88Thomas Jefferson to John Barnes, 24 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
On reciept of your favor of the 8 th I determined to take the first hour of leisure to make a more scrupulous search through Genl. Kosciuzko ’s papers, for his 8. p r cent certificates ; the belief that you had them, had rendered the first search less particular, which belief your last letter put an end to. entering on it a day or two ago, and unfolding every paper in his bundle, I had at...
89Thomas Jefferson to the Baltimore Tammany Society, 25 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your free & cordial salutations in my retirement, are recieved fellow citizens, with great pleasure, & the happiness of that retirement is much heightened by assurances of satisfaction with the course I have pursued in the transaction of the public affairs, & that the confidence my fellow citizens were pleased to repose in me has not been disappointed. Great sacrifices of interest have...
90Thomas Jefferson to Wilson Cary Nicholas, 25 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I am sorry to hear of your attack of rheumatism both on your own account & that of the public, & as I think you will have to go on as soon as you are able. I believe that immediately on the pacification with England , a vessel was dispatched to France for the Ultimatum of that government as I presume. Turreau was earnest in giving assurances that Napoleon would revoke his decrees, considering...