1From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 11 July 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I accept with pleasure, and with pleasure reciprocate your congratulations on the acquisition of Louisiana: for it is a subject of mutual congratulation as it interests every man of the nation. the territory acquired, as it includes all the waters of the Missouri & Missisipi, has more than doubled the area of the US. and the new part is not inferior to the old in soil, climate, productions, &...
2From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 27 January 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Nothing is so pleasing as to find that what we have done is so exactly what is approved by the friends whose judgment we esteem. not a tittle of what you recommend has been omitted; and it has been in train from June last. one article only varies. the situation of fort Rosalie, now the Natchez, being less favorable for a fort, one of the best on the Missisipi, which happened to be very near...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 20 December 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your favor of the 7th. inclosing the work of your mathematical friend mr Garnet. I should once have been better able to estimate it’s merit and accuracy than I am now. many years of constant application to matters of a very different kind have lessened my familiarity with mathematical operations. the paper however sufficiently proves that your friend is an adept in this...
4From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 8 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege your friendly letter of Feb. 9. as well as a former one . before that came to hand an arrangement had been settled; and in our country you know, talents alone are not to be the determining circumstance, but a geographical equilibrium is to a certain degree expected. the different parts in the union expect to share the public appointments. the character you pointed out was...
5From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 21 February 1798 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved duly your welcome favor of the 15th. and had an opportunity of immediately delivering the one it inclosed to General Kosciusko. I see him often, and with great pleasure mixed with commiseration. he is as pure a son of liberty, as I have ever known, and of that liberty which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. we are here under great anxiety to hear from our...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 30 May 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for the pamphlet of Erskine inclosed in your favor of the 9th. inst. and still more for the evidence which your letter afforded me of the health of your mind and I hope of body also. Erskine has been reprinted here and has done good. It has refreshed the memory of those who had been willing to forget how the war between France and England has been produced; and who ape-ing St....
7From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 3 February 1794 (Jefferson Papers)
I left Philadelphia on the very day of the friendly letter you wrote me , and consequently it came to me at this place. The letter book with which you were so kind as to entrust me, came to my hands some little time before the infectious fever broke out at Philadelphia. I was just about putting it into confidential hands to extract the letters to or from myself, when that disorder obliged us...
8From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 21 March 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
I received yesterday your friendly letter of the 17th. and thank you sincerely, as well as Mrs. Gates, for the kind invitation to Rose-hill. Nothing would be more pleasing to me than such a visit: but circumstances will not admit so long an absence from hence. Mr. Madison had set out for the Southward before the receipt of your letter. I am much indebted for the readiness with which you are so...
9From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 12 March 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
During the invasion of Virginia in 1780. and 1781. nearly the whole of the public records of that state were destroyed by the British. The least valuable part of these happens to be the most interesting to me, I mean the letters I had occasion to write to the characters with whom my office in the Executive brought me into correspondence. I am endeavoring to recover copies of my letters from...
10From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 13 December 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
I duly received the letter you were so good as to write me from New York. We have here under our contemplation the future miseries of human nature, like to be occasioned by the ambition of a young man, who has been taught to view his subjects as his cattle. The pretensions he sets up to the navigation of the Scheld would have been good if natural right had been left uncontrouled. But it is...