1Thomas Jefferson to Edward Parker and Joseph Delaplaine, 7 [May] 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to Mess rs Edward Parker & Joseph Delaplaine, and his thanks for the communication of their prospectus for reprinting the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. possessing already every Encyclopedia which has been published in France , Great Britain & America , & a library moreover vastly beyond his present wants, he has for some time ceased to make additions to it, &...
2Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 30 April 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you my subscription , and shall recieve your Emporium with pleasure, and with still greater if the price can be paid to any one in this state. the difficulty of remitting to a distance small & fractional sums has induced me to new withdraw from newspapers and other things published out of the state. a regular knolege of the advance of the arts and sciences in Europe which D r Coxe is so...
3From James Madison to Joseph Delaplaine, 19 May 1812 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the 15th. with a prospectus of the “Emporium of the Arts & Sciences,” and a letter from Mr. Jefferson, now returned to you. Considering the plan as formed for solid usefulness, and the execution of it in able hands, I regret that I can not patronize it in the mode, of which so high an example is before me. The numerous applications, incident to the Station I am in,...
4Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine and to Murray, Draper, Fairman & Company, 4 March 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Feb. 25. is just recieved, and I am duly sensible of the obliging motives you express for desiring my subscription to the very magnifi c ent edition you propose to publish of Maclin’s bible. but age and infirmity warn me from engaging in new undertakings which will require for their completion more years than I have to live. the prospectus supposes the work will be compleated in...
5Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 30 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 23 d is recieved, in which you enquire whether there is an approved portrait of myself, by whom painted, & in whose possession? mr Stuart has drawn two portraits of me, at different sittings, of which he prefers the last. both are in his possession. he also drew a third in water colours, a profile in the medallion stile , which is in my possession. mr Rembrandt Peale also...
6From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 8 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
There are several things abroad which are reported to have been intended as pictures of me; some of them drawn by persons who never saw me. others by persons who never saw me to whom I never sat and others and others by painters who requested me to sit. I pretend not to be a judge of the merit of any of them. But there is not an approved likness among them. The least approved of all is one...
7Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 3 May 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of Apr. 16. and 19. on the subject of the portraits of Columbus and Americus Vespucius were recieved on the 30 th . while I resided at Paris , knowing that these portraits, & those of some other of the early American worthies were in the gallery of Medicis at Florence , I took measures for engaging a good artist to take and send me copies of them. I considered it as even of some...
8From James Madison to Joseph Delaplaine, 7 May 1814 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison presents his respects to Mr. Delaplaine. He is restrained by an established rule, from subscribing to works from the Press, but he will thank Mr. D. to reserve for him a copy of that he is about to publish. RC ( LNT : George H. and Katherine M. Davis Collection). JM had probably been asked to subscribe to Delaplaine’s Repository of the Lives and Portraits of Distinguished American...
9Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 29 June 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his respects to M r Delaplaine & willingly becomes a subscriber to the publication stated in the Prospectus sent him. he presumes there will be some agent within this state who can recieve the subscription money, the difficulty of making remittances of small & fractional sums to a distance & in a paper recievable there being a principal obstruction to these...
10Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 9 August 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of July 28. is just recieved, and I now inclose you the print of Vespucius , which I have cut out of the book, & which is taken from the same original in the gallery of Florence from which my painting was taken. With respect to the portrait in the hands of mr Stewart , I have thought it best to write to him, and to inclose the letter to you for perusal. if you think the object worth...
11Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 28 August 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 17 th is recieved. I have not the book of Muñoz containing the print of Columbus . that work came out after I left Europe , and we have not the same facility of acquiring new continental publications here as there. I have no doubt that entire credit is to be given to the account of the print rendered by him in the extract from his work, which you have sent me: and as you say...
12Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 18 October 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 3 d is at hand. I have little doubt that I shall recieve an answer from mr Stewart , either yielding to my request , or stating the reasons why he may wish to retain the portrait longer in his possession. whatever these may be, I should not refuse him, nor indeed in any case press a compliance beyond the request I have made. I will inform you of his answer whenever it shall...
13Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 24 April 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Occupations from which it was impossible to withdraw have occasioned the delay of acknoleging the receipt of your letter of Mar. 29. on the subject of my portrait in the han hands of mr Stewart . I considered the delay as less important inasmuch as I could not avail my self of the opportunity you proposed of obtaining the portrait. I am unwilling to press mr Stewart unkindly to the delivery of...
14From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 17 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have recd, with pleasure your obliging Letter of the Sixth. Accept, Sir my cordial Thanks for the Portraits of my Friends Rush and Jay. The latter appears with proper Dignity in his Robes of Chief Justice and the Likeness of the Countenance is correct. What Shall I Say of the former? Dr Rush the last time I Saw him in March 1801, was as upright as a Reed and his Countenance no less animated...
15From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 30 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of Decr 24th. I have Settled the Plan with Mr Morse. You ask a Sketch of my Life. I was born Octr 19. 1735 in Quincy then the North Parish in Braintree, my Father was John Adams, born in the same Parish My Grandfather was Joseph Adams Junior born in the same Parish, My great grandfather was Joseph Adams senior, and my Great Great grandfather was Henry Adams who came...
16From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 17 January 1816 (Adams Papers)
His Excellency Samuel Adams late Governor of Massachusetts was born in Boston in 1722. His first Education was in the celebrated public Latin School in that City where he was prepared for the University at Cambridge to which he was admitted in 1736. He received his degree of Batchellor of Arts in 1740 and his Degree of Master of Arts in 1743. After his first degree, he entered the store of...
17From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 26 January 1816 (Adams Papers)
You request a Service of Some difficulty, and more delicacy. The Number of Revolutionary Patriots in Massachusetts Patriots of the Revolution was not Small; and all have left Posterity and Connections to dispute with me. But if you demand my Opinion upon honour, I will give it, as it lies in my present Recollection. Samuel Adams, James Otis Junior, Major Hawley of North Hampton, Major General...
18Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 9 February 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Before the receipt of your letter of Jan. 27. I had received those of Dec. 20. & Jan. 14. which remained unacknoleged. this I am certain you will pardon when I assure you that I pass from four to six hours of every day of my life at the writing table, answering letters in nine tenths of which neither my interests nor inclinations are engaged. this mass of labor obliges me to marshall marshal...
19From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 5 March 1816 (Adams Papers)
your letter of 27th Feb, has surprised me. Of the writer of the anonymous letter to you I have no knowledge. The portrait taken by mr Stewart is the property of John Quincy Adams my son, taken by his order, often repeated, for six years, from St Petersburg & paid for by his property; I have no right in it, or power over it. Most certainly it will never go from under my roof, with my consent,...
20Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 20 May [1816] (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of the 11 th is just recieved, and with it the head of Columbus for which accept my thanks. it has been evidently taken at an earlier period of his life than that of the Florentine gallery, which I think you will deem worthy of taking additionally. I shall be happy to recieve mr Otis here, and yourself also should you conclude to come as intimated. I wish it may not be later than the 1...
21Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 26 July 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
In compliance with the request of your letter of the 6 th inst. with respect to Peyton Randolph , I have to observe that the difference of age between him and myself admitted my knowing little of his early life; except what I accidentally caught from occasional conversations. I was a student at College , when he was already Attorney General; at the bar, and a man of established years; and I...
22From James Madison to Joseph Delaplaine, 22 October 1816 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the instant. I had previously recd. a copy of the first half volume of the Repository. Of the general object of a work, which is to exhibit the likenesses & lives of selected Individuals, it would be superfluous to express an approbation. In the execution of the work, the essential merit must of course depend on the propriety of the selections, on the...
23Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 11 November 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve here your favor of Oct. 26. the half volume of the Repository is probably recieved at Monticello where it will await my return. the objections to your work appear to be perfectly answered in the pamphlet you have been so kind as to inclose me. you had a right certainly to chuse your own scale of biography more or less extended, and the shorter as merely an Appendix to your main...
24Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 25 December 1816 (first letter) (Jefferson Papers)
My general aversion from the presumption of intruding on the public an opinion of works offered to their notice has yielded in the present instance to the merit of your undertaking, and to your belief, well or ill founded, that my testimony in it’s favor may be of advantage to it. I have written therefore, in a separate letter , which you are free to publish, what I can conscientiously say on...
25Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 25 December 1816 (second letter) (Jefferson Papers)
On my return from Bedford , after an absence of 7. weeks, I found here your favors of Oct. 28. Nov. 13. 20. & 23. with a copy of the 1 st N o of your Repository. but I found also an immense accumulation of letters recieved during my absence, some of which claimed my first attentions. you know my aversion to the drudgery of the writing table. the great affliction of my present life is a too...
26From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 5 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your Letter of 24th. of Decr. with the Pamphlet. I am Sorry to see in our American Reviewes an affectation of imitating European Reviewers. They generally discover an unnatural Appetite for Sour Plums: more Sagacity in discovering little faults than great Merits. I will now for a Moment undertake the Office of a Critic, not for publication: but between you and me. In my Opinion you...