31From Thomas Jefferson to MacCarthy Brothers, 23 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have the honor to acknolege your favor without date as also that [enclosed from Mr. Alexander Cain of] Bordeaux [who has desired] me to apply to the government so the bounty [….] which bounty [….] because [….] has mislaid or lost his clearance, and can only supply it by his own oath and that of others of his crew. I cannot ask of the government in any one case what I would not ask in every...
32From Thomas Jefferson to François Soulés, 23 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have had the honor of notifying to you before that the manuscript which I put into your hands contained notes which I had made, in the course of my reading for my own use as the member of a legislature in America. As such it was necessary for me to know not only the law of the moment but what it had been at other times. The qualifications of a knight of a shire have been different at...
33From Thomas Jefferson to James Swan, 23 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Jefferson has the honor to present his compliments to Mr. Swan and to express his regret that his absence today prevented him the pleasure of seeing him. He now returns him his letters in which he finds a great deal of good matter, and many useful views. In the course of perusing them, Mr. Jefferson noted on a bit of paper the following doubts, the importance and justice of which are...
34From Thomas Jefferson to Jean Baptiste de Gouvion, 19 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have had the honor heretofore of apprising you of the measures taken for paiment of the arrearages of interest due to the foreign officers, and that it rested on two points. 1. The success of a loan opened in Holland. 2. Orders from America to apply to that object so much of the money to be borrowed when so much shall be in hand. The last object is fulfilled by the resolution of Congress...
35From Thomas Jefferson to William Gordon, 18 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I received in due time your favor of Dec. 9. and also the six copies of your history. I put off acknoleging the receipt in hopes I might find time previously to read them. But that time is not yet come, and I am unwilling longer to delay my thanks for your attention in sending them. I have had occasion to consult your history in various parts, and have always done it with satisfaction. In...
36From Thomas Jefferson to David Humphreys, 18 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Nov. 29. 1788. came to hand the last month. How it happened that mine of Aug. 1787. was fourteen months on it’s way is inconceivable. I do not recollect by what conveyance I sent it. I had concluded however either that it had miscarried or that you had become indolent as most of our countrymen are in matters of correspondence. The change in this country, since you left it, is...
37From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Paine, 17 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
My last letter to you extended from Dec. 23. to Jan. 11. A confidential opportunity now arising I can acknolege the receipt of yours of Jan. 15. at the date of which you could not have received mine. You know long ago that the meeting of the States is to be at Versailles on the 27th. of April. This country is entirely occupied in it’s elections which go on quietly and well. The Duke d’Orleans...
38From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 16 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
That you may see whether any of my letters to you or of yours to me have miscarried, I will here state them. Mine have been Sep. 20. 24. Nov. 21. Dec. 8. Jan. 22. Feb. 9. 28. Yours which have been received are Sep. 24. Oct. 2. 3. 11. 18. 28. Nov. 19. 29. Dec. 23. 31. Jan. 14. Feb. 11. 17. 25. We have no news from America since my last. This country is entirely occupied in electioneering, which...
39From Thomas Jefferson to John Trumbull, 16 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you by yesterday’s post. The present is merely to avail myself of a private conveiance which occurs to London to send you my American dispatches and pray you to forward them by the first safe conveiance to New York preferably to any other port. Vessels going to Philadelphia have to go up the river, a navigation of many days. Those going to Boston expose us to as long an intermediate...
40To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 15 March 1789 (Madison Papers)
I wrote you last on the 12th. of Jan. since which I have received your’s of Octob. 17. Dec. 8. & 12. That of Oct. 17. came to hand only Feb. 23. How it happened to be four months on the way, I cannot tell, as I never knew by what hand it came. Looking over my letter of Jan. 12th. I remark an error of the word ‘probable’ instead of ‘improbable,’ which doubtless however you had been able to...
41From Thomas Jefferson to Edward Bancroft, 15 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 10th. is just now received, and as the refusal of one of Mr. Paradise’s creditors to accede to the deed of trust, will occasion some change in Mr. Paradise’s plan this again will require that the whole be dispatched. As the post goes out in the morning, and his lodgings are very distant from me I cannot consult him expressly on the occasion, but many conversations have put me...
42From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 15 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Since closing my letters which accompany this I have received an answer from London on the subject of the other volumes of Deane’s letters and accounts suggested to be still in his possession. This information renders it certain that none such are in his possession, and probable that no others exist but the two which I have purchased. I am in hopes therefore we may conclude that the recovery...
43From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 15 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you last on the 12th. of Jan. since which I have received yours of Octob. 17. Dec. 8. and 12. That of Oct. 17. came to hand only Feb. 23. How it happened to be four months on the way, I cannot tell, as I never knew by what hand it came. Looking over my letter of Jan. 12th. I remark an error of the word ‘probable’ instead of ‘improbable,’ which doubtless however you had been able to...
44From Thomas Jefferson to John Trumbull, 15 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 10th. is come to hand to-day. I inclose you a bill of exchange of £25. from Grand & co. on Thelusson fils & co. in order to face my affairs with which I give you so much trouble. I expect Lackington will call on you as soon as you receive this for a sum of about £5. Be so good as to tell him to add to my catalogue No. 5894. Baretti 3/. (He will understand this.) Besides this...
45From Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Bréhan, 14 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honour of writing to you on the 15th. of February, soon after which I had that of receiving your favor of Dec. 29. I have a thousand questions to ask you about your journey to the Indian treaty, how you like their persons, their manners, their costume, cuisine &c. But this I must refer till I can do it personally in New York, where I hope to see you for a moment in the summer, and to...
46From Thomas Jefferson to the Commissioners of the Treasury, 14 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
No opportunity having occurred to send my letter of Feb. 27. I have had time to receive an answer from our bankers, and to write them again. In their answer they quote some resolution of Congress appropriating the monies borrowed in 1787. and 1788. to the paiment of interest to the end of the year 1790. on the Dutch loans, and the residue to salaries and contingent expences arising in Europe....
47From Thomas Jefferson to D’Estaing, 13 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
My friend Mr. Short, who is returning from Italy, expects to pass by Toulon, and wishes permission to see the docks and arsenals of that place. It is understood that this is not permitted without a special order. I therefore take the liberty of asking from you a letter to any person at Toulon who can procure this gratification for Mr. Short and also for Mr. Rutledge who is with him. They have...
48From Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 13 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my last, which was of Dec. 21. yours of Dec. 9. and 21. are received. Accept my thanks for the papers and pamphlets which accompanied them, and mine and my daughter’s for the book of songs. I will not tell you how much they have pleased us nor how well the last of them merits praise for it’s pathos, but relate a fact only, which is that while my elder daughter was playing it on the...
49From Thomas Jefferson to Moustier, 13 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have now to acknolege the honor of your several letters of Aug. 12. Oct. 17. and Nov. 27. and your postscript to Madame de Brehan’s of Dec. 29. I have been discouraged from writing to you by the idea that your friends here must give you infinitely more exact information of what is passing, than I could do, who see things imperfectly only, as a stranger. But your complaints of the...
50To John Jay from Thomas Jefferson, 12 March 1789 (Jay Papers)
I had the honour of addressing you on the 1 st . instant through the post. I write the present incertain whether mr Nesbitt, the bearer of your last, will be the bearer of this, or whether it may not have to wait some other private occasion. they have re-established their packet-boats here indeed; but they are to go from Bordeaux, which being between four & five hundred miles from hence, is...
51From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 12 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honour of addressing you on the 1st. instant through the post. I write the present, incertain whether Mr. Nesbitt, the bearer of your last, will be the bearer of this, or whether it may not have to wait some other private occasion. They have reestablished their packet-boats here indeed; but they are to go from Bordeaux, which being between four and five hundred miles from hence, is...
52From Thomas Jefferson to James Lackington, 12 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I received last night your catalogue, and the post being to set out this morning I send you, on the next leaf , a list of those I wish to take. The warning being too short to procure a bill of exchange and send it by this post, it shall follow by the next which leaves this place four days hence. In the mean time be so good as to pack the books in a light box, and after four days from your...
53From Thomas Jefferson to Ladevese, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
La lettre que vous avez bien voulu m’envoyer pour Monsieur Laurence lui a eté expedié de ma part dans le tems, et j’aurai l’honneur de lui faire tenir encore toutes celles que vous aurez occasion de lui addresser. Il y a un jeune Americain, Monsieur Rutledge, qui est de la Caroline meridionale, et qui doit passer par Avignon et Nismes dans le courant des mois de Mars et Avril. Il fera un...
54From Thomas Jefferson to Malesherbes, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your zeal to promote the general good of mankind by an interchange of useful things, and particularly in the line of agriculture, and the weight which your rank and station would give to your interposition, induce me to ask it for the purpose of obtaining one of the species of rice which grows in Cochin-china on high lands, and which needs no other watering than the ordinary rains. The sun and...
55From Thomas Jefferson to Jonathan Nesbitt, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I did not expect you so soon to-day, or I should have come in in time to have the pleasure of seeing you. The safe-conduct which I asked and obtained of Monsieur de Villedeuil was for you as a Courier, bringing dispatches to me from our Secretary for foreign affairs. The answers to these dispatches being now ready I cannot ask a continuance of that safe conduct. But so far as my consent to...
56From Thomas Jefferson to Parent, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
J’ai reçu bien conditionnés les quatre paniers de vin de Meursault que vous avez eu la bonté de m’expedier, et je serai pret d’en payer le montant à votre ordre quand vous voulez bien la faire presenter. Je vous prie meme de le faire auplutot parce que je conte de partir le mois prochain pour l’Amerique, d’où je ne serai de retour que l’automne. À cet epoque là j’aurai besoin de m’adresser à...
57From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Lee Shippen, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I had wished to acknolege the receipt of your favors of Jan. 19. and Feb. 3. by a private conveiance; but none such having occurred nor being likely to occur, I must write you such a letter as may go through the inspection of both post offices. The affairs of this country are still going on well. There are loud contestations indeed in one or two of the provinces, and in Britany these have come...
58From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Vaughan, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Knowing how ready you are to interest yourself in whatever may promote the happiness of mankind I take the liberty of addressing you on a subject very interesting to a part of the United states. You know that the several species of rice cultivated in Piedmont, Egypt and Carolina require to be laid under water during a certain season of the year, and therefore occasion pestilential fevers which...
59From Thomas Jefferson to Willink & Van Staphorst, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
In your letter of the 2d. instant you refer me to a resolution of Congress which appropriates the loans of 1787. and 1788. to the paiment of interest to the year 1790 and the residue to the salaries of their ministers and the contingent expences which may arise in Europe, and you suppose that this manner of wording the resolution postpones the articles of salaries and contingencies to that of...
60From Thomas Jefferson to Madame d’Anterroches, 9 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
J’ai l’honneur de vous annoncer qu’on vient d’etablir des paquetbotes qui doivent partir de Bourdeaux pour la Nouvelle York tous les deux mois, c’est à dire le 15. de Janvier, Mars, Mai, Juillet, Septembre et Novembre, et que ces paquets-botes vous offriront toujours des occasions tres sures d’envoyer des lettres ou des effets à Elizabeth town qui est dans la voisinage de la Nouvelle York. Il...