1From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 28 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
In mine of the 1 st I mentioned that I would send my other Polygraph by mr Millar of Germantown a Student of ours who would return after vacation. I did so and he promised to call on you with it on his arrival in Philadelphia, which would be about the 20 th since that I have had full trial of my gold pen points which I recieved safely in yours of the 9 th they answer so perfectly and so much...
2From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 1 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Heiskill delivered my Polygraph safe and in good condition, and when I consider how much time and labor it has saved me since his return I look back with regret to that which I have lost by the want of it a year or two. the gold pens write charmingly as free pens, and I use them for my common writing in preference to the quill. but when applied to the polygraph I find that they make the...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 September 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday, and with great pleasure, your favor of the 10 th informing me of your good health, which I hope may long continue. for 7. years past mine has been sensibly declining, and latterly is quite broken down. I have now been confined to the house, and chiefly to my couch, for 4 months, by a derangement of the urinary system, which as yet exhibits no prospect of a definite...
4From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 18 July 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I do not wonder that visitors to your Museum come from afar if not equal to some in Europe it possessed much which they have not. of the advantage of Mr. Waterton’s mode of preserving animal subjects with sublimate instead of arsenic you are the best judge. I greatly wish success to Rembrandt in his new enterprise of the equestrian portrait of General Washington. he is no doubt however aware...
5From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 February 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Altho’ writing is a difficulty with me, yet once in awhile I must ask my old friends How they do? your welcome letter of Jan. 25. now furnishes an occasion. the most acceptable part of it is that which assures me of your continuance in health, and in the enjoyment of your faculties, insomuch that you can still exercise your art with satisfaction. as long as the eyes retain their acumen, and...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 26 February 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 8 th has been recieved with the Polygraph wire you were so kind as to send me. your friendly attention to my little wants kindle the most lively sentiments of thankfulness in me. the breaking of an ink-glass, the derangement of a wire, which cannot be supplied in a country situation like ours, would render an instrument of cost and of incalculable value entirely useless; as...
7From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 23 October 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I could never be a day without thinking of you, were it only for my daily labors at the Polygraph for which I am indebted to you. it is indeed an excellent one, and after 12. or 14. years of hard service it has failed in nothing except the spiral springs of silver wire which suspend the pen-frame. these are all but disabled, and my fingers are too clumsy to venture to rectify them, were they...
8Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 28 December 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
‘ Nothing is troublesome which we do willingly ’ is an excellent apophthegm, and which can be applied to no mind more truly than yours. on this ground I am sure you will be so good as to exchange the pair of inkglasses you sent me, & which the furnisher will doubtless exchange. they are a little too large to enter the sockits of my the polygraph I keep in Bedford , as I found on a late visit...
9Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 26 August 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I ought sooner to have thanked you for your sketch of the Court of death, which we have all contemplated with great approbation of the composition and design. it presents to the eye more morality than many written volumes, and with impressions much more durable and indelible. I have been sensible that the scriptural paintings in the Catholic churches produce deeper impressions on the people...
10Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 22 April 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you, dear Sir, for the razor strap you have been so kind as to send me , which is the more acceptable as I am but a poor barber. I shall immediately avail myself of it’s abridgment of labor in razor-strapping. With respect to the plough, your observations are entirely just, as I know by my own experience. the first ploughs I made were 9.I. longer, and so effectual in their...
11Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 7 August 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Passing considerable portions of my time at this place, I keep for use here the portable Polygraph which mr Hawkins was so kind as to send me. but I have had the misfortune to break one of it’s ink glasses , which suspends it’s use, as no such thing can be got here. and to whom can I apply to replace it but to a friend in small things as well as great. without apology therefore I inclose you...
12Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 18 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Jan. 15. is recieved, and I am indebted to you for others; but the torpitude of increasing years, added to a stiffening wrist making writing a slow & painful operation, makes me also a slow correspondent. I promised you a plough so long ago that I dare say you have forgot it: but I have this day sent it to Richmond to be forwarded to you. I claim nothing in it but the mould board...
13Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 16 March 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Feb. 28. came to hand yesterday evening only. mr M c Ilhenny is right in saying he left a letter for me; but I did not get it till a month after he went away. however all is well. we have had the good fortune to get a Swiss from Neufchatel , inferior, I think, to no watchmaker I have ever known. sober, industrious, and moderate. he brought me recommendations from Doct r Patterson...
14Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 24 December 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved in October a letter from mr M c Ilhenny whom you were so kind as to recommend as a watchmaker, informing me he would come on to establish himself at Charlottesville as soon as he could hear from me. I was just about setting out on a journey to Bedford , and answered him therefore by advising him to postpone his coming till my return. he did so, and arrived in Charlottesville by the...
15Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 17 August 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
In your’s of July 7. you informed me you had found a young watchmaker of good character disposed to come here, who had taken time to consider of it. hearing nothing further of him, & being now within a fortnight of departure to Bedford where I shall be 6. weeks I am anxious to know of a certainty; because were he to come during my absence he might not find the same facilities for first...
16Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 8 May 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I am indebted to you for two letters yet unacknolegged unacknoledged , to wit of June 18. and Dec. 23. 15. I pay three or four visits a year to a very distant possession I have in Bedford , where, being comfortably fixed, I pass a month or two at a time, so that it is almost a second home. it is in the finest part of our state for soil & climate, and near to Lynchburg ; now the 2
17Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 13 June 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
In your favor of May 2. you ask my advice on the best mode of selling your Museum, on which however I really am not qualified to advise. this depends entirely on the genius and habits of those among whom you live, with which you are so much better acquainted. I wish first it may be disposed of the most to your advantage, and 2 dly that it may not be separated. if profit be regarded, the...
18Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 21 March 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been long your debtor in our epistolary account. a farmer being privileged to write only on rainy Sundays, his pen-work is apt to accumulate and get into arrears. in so hard a winter too as we have had, one was could not but yield to the pleasure of hovering over a fire with a book, rather than go to the writing table. we have indeed had a hard winter. our average of snow in a common...
19Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 17 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I had long owed you a letter for your favor of Aug. 19. when I recieved, eight days ago that of Mar. 2. 18 12 . a slip of the pen, I suppose for 18 13 . and the pamphlet accompanying it strengthens the supposition. I thank you for the pamphlet. it is full of good sense & wholsome advice, and I am making all my grandchildren read it, married & unmarried: and the story of farmer Jenkins will I...
20Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 20 August 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
It is long, my dear Sir, since we have exchanged a letter. our former correspondence had always some little matter of business interspersed; but this being at an end, I shall still be anxious to hear from you sometimes, and to know that you are well & happy. I know indeed that your system is that of contentment under any situation. I have heard that you have retired from the city to a farm, &...
21Thomas Jefferson to Charles Wilson Peale, 22 August 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been for some time endeavoring to procure bills of some bank in Philadelphia to enable me to remit you the balance of 49. D 5½ C due you on account of my grandson . finding there is little hope of this, I have this day inclosed to my friend mr Barnes of Georgetown , bills of that place, & prayed him to exchange them for a draught of the Washington bank on that of the US. at Philadelphia...
22Thomas 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...
23Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 10 March 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Being just on the eve of my departure for Monticello I must write you a short letter returning you a thousand thanks for the portrait of my grandson , which is indeed inimitably done. I do not know whether age impairs the faculties of your art, but I am sure it would do honor to any period of life. it will be a treasure to his parents & not less so to me. as he wished to see them & had a month...
24From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 6 February 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose, for the use of my grandson a draught of the bank of the US. here on that at Philadelphia for 56. D. having added to the usual sum 6. Dollars, which I pray him to call & pay to mr Dobson for me, for books lately recieved from him. I begin already to be much occupied in preparing for my departure to those scenes of rural retirement after which my soul is panting. I salute you...
25From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 January 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I take up my pen to inform you that the box with the vase & bridle bit arrived safely last night, & to save the trouble of the search you propose to make in your’s of the 10th. you therein say that ‘when my Polygraph is done you shall leave it to my choice to take either one or the other.’ this, my dear Sir, will be putting my delicacy to severe trial. I find the one I am now writing with, in...
26From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 7 January 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 23. was duly recieved, and I am in hopes the Polygraph got safe to hand, & that you found it in good condition except so much as concerned the writing of the upper part of the page. I believe I mentioned to you in a former letter that if the one of yours with which I am now writing was not for your own use, I should be contented to retain it instead of mine, paying whatever...
27From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 28 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 23d. is recieved. it was never till this day that I have been able to know of any person going to Philadelphia in the stage, so as to put the Polygraph under their care. Capt Jones of Philadelphia was so kind as to take charge of it. he left this this morning in the mail stage, & consequently the Polygraph will have arrived there one day before you recieve this. in the same box...
28From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 4 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose a draught for 60. D. to meet the current expences of my grandson, including two or three little debts of 2. & 4. D. of mine which I write to him to pay. I make these remittances for him merely by guess, and ready to enlarge them the moment you inform me that they are deficient. My Polygraph has been packed some time, & waits to find some passenger in the stage who will attend to...
29From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 November 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 12th. is recieved. the circumstance which has guided us in fixing on the subjects of study for my grandson has been the exclusive possession of Philadelphia of your Museum, the Anatomical dissections & mr Hamilton’s garden. add the Surgical operations at the hospital. I thought these would fill up his whole time; but as it is thought they will leave him time to attend the...
30From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 7 November 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his friendly salutations to mr Peale and sends him a recruit for the fund of his grandson of fifty dollars in an order of the US. bank here on that at Philadelphia. he will take care to do the same monthly, and if at any time it shall be necessary to enlarge it, he will do it on the first intimation recieved from mr Peale. DLC : Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
31From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 12 October 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
My grandson Th Jefferson Randolph is now here, and will leave this place so as to be in Philadelphia on Tuesday the 18th. he will immediately repair to the quarters you are so kind as to offer him. I have arranged with his father to supply all his expences, except for clothes & pocket money. these were excepted merely because, altho’ I have entire confidence in his prudence and governableness,...
32From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 24 August 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
It was the wish of mr Randolph & myself the last summer to send his son T. Jefferson Randolph to Philadelphia to attend lectures in those branches of science which cannot be so advantageously taught any where else in America: these are Natural history with the advantage of your Museum, Botany aided by mr Hamilton’s garden, and Anatomy with the benefit of actual dissections. we did not propose...
33From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 13 March 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of Feb. 21. was recieved in due time. a public vessel will be going to France & England once in every month during the embargo, on board of which mr Rembrandt Peale can obtain his passage by application to the Captain as usual. very soon after I came into office I found it not only proper but necessary that I should make it a rule never to write letters of recommendation to persons...
34From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 6 February 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you Capt. Pike’s account of the two bears. I put them together while here in a place 10. f. square. for the first day they worried one another very much with play: but after that they played at times, but were extremely happy together. when separated & put into their small cage again, one became almost furious. indeed one is much crosser than the other. but I do not think they have...
35From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 6 January 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
The bears went from this place in good health about a fortnight ago, and I hope are with you by this time. this is the first moment I have had as much leisure as to notify you of it. they were in a cage which they had outgrown, & suffered a little for it. I had them in larger quarters till their departure. they are perfectly gentle, knowing no other benefactor than man from the time of their...
36From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 November 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved from Capt. Pike two cubs of the Grisly bear taken on the Rio Bravo. they were taken when too young to eat without being fed, have been ever since with the men on their journey, generally at large in their camp & perfectly gentle. they are now in a cage, & appear quite good humored. they are male and female. They would certainly be more in the way of extending information if...
37From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 October 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night yours of the 2d. on my arrival here on the 3d. I found the Stylograph with which I now write. you have rightly conjectured it’s principle. the impression both on the missive & copy retained is from a paper blacked on both sides, perhaps with coal, as they call it Carbonated paper. the method is so new to me that I am as yet awkward with it. it is not pleasant in it’s use,...
38From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 24 September 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I am to return you a thousand & a thousand thanks for your letter of Aug. 30. & particularly your kind offer to recieve my grandson into your family. I consider him as thereby placed in the best school of morality & good habits which could have been found for him, & secured against the only fears we entertained for him in your city. on the subject of his habits & dispositions they are exactly...
39From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 29 March 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 12th. is duly recieved, and I have no doubt the idea you suggest is perfectly sound that the glasses of spectacles should perfectly accord with one another. the surfaces of every lens for a spectacle should be a portion of that of a sphere, and not only should the two convexities correspond in position, but also with the lines of vision from the two eyes. my improvements in...
40From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 13 February 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Nothing would be wanting to fill up the measure of dissatisfaction with my present situation, but to see my friends adopt a stile of formality & distance towards me. be assured that your communications are always welcome, & the more so when the most frank. I shall make a proper use of that in your letter recieved last night. I will thank you to procure for me a pair of the inkholders of ¾...
41From Thomas Jefferson to Jonathan Williams, 12 January 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I am again to return the tribute of my thanks for the continued proofs of favor from the American Philosophical society; and I ever do it with sincere gratitude, sensible it is the effect of their good will, and not of any services I have it in my power to render them. I pray you to convey to them these expressions of my dutiful acknolegements; and to accept yourselves thanks for the favorable...
42From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 21 December 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I have safely recieved my Polygraph, with which I am now writing, and find it to answer well every where except a small place in the N.W. corner, which is of little consequence. in fact none of them probably can be perfect in every point of the whole field which their dimensions can cover. I now inclose you the 10. D. for the silver pens, & am sorry you did not enable me to judge of the cost...
43From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 22 November 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved your letter of July 2. in due time, & soon after that the apparatus for making the inkpots in mr Hawkins’s polygraph moveable, so as to render the dip easy. but in the mean time I had thought of a contrivance which I had executed at Monticello, and which a three months use has proved to be as perfect as it is simple. each inkpot is set in a square saucer of very thin brass, ¼ I....
44From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 27 June 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 22d. is recieved, & at the same time mr Hawkins’s small Polygraph, with which indeed I am charmed on account of it’s small size. the drawing the paper up to the pen is a beautiful contrivance, & I do not see why it might not be used in all the Polygraphs to reduce their size. I shall have the improvement of screw-pencases &c. put to this of mr Hawkins; but I find your idea...
45From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 19 June 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I am persuaded I shall be pleased with mr Hawkins’s portable Polygraph, because of it’s small size, & it’s simplification by omitting one of the horizontal parallelograms, the stays or suspenders, & probably the vertical parallelograms & gallows, for I see no use for the two last if the suspender be omitted. the pencases I shall be able to have arranged to my mind by an excellent workman here....
46From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 18 February 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
One of the polygraphs bespoke being intended for the Bey of Tunis himself, & the other two for his officers, it may be well to distinguish one of them by silver boxes in the way you propose. there will be no occasion for a plate to engrave any thing on. when done, they are to be sent here; and they will be less liable to injury coming by water, if a conveyance occurs. I salute you with...
47From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 24 January 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his friendly salutations to mr Peale, & acknoleging the reciept of his favor of the 21st. on the subject of mr De Peyster, informs him that on the 23d. of December mr John Lyle had been nominated to the Senate, approved & commissioned as Consul for the island of Curaçoa. PPAmP : Sol Feinstone Collection.
48From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 23 January 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I take the first moment in my power of replying to your favor of the 12th. for writing with our 4to. letter paper of 8.I. by 10 I. I should think a length of 18 I. & breadth of 11 I. the most perfect for the polygraph; all size beyond that occupying space on your table uselessly & consequently inconveniently. but I believe the Moors write on a small folio paper: at least all the letters I have...
49From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 1 January 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved your letter of Nov. 28. and the apparatus for carrying mr Hawkins’s pen-case. but I have tried an expedient which I think is better. that is to make the moveable pen case longer, that it may recieve a longer knib & have more spring. they hold the knib as firmly as possible, & they unite the advantages of your adjusting screw, & the being left in the ink holder while the polygraph is...
50From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 17 December 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
I have only a moment to inform you that I send by Majr. Wingate for the Philosophical society a Prickly lizard living, which I recieved from Louisiana, and a box containing the bones and mineral substances described in the inclosed letter from Dr. James Brown of Kentucky. Accept my friendly salutations. PPAmP .