Thomas Jefferson Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-13-02-0496

Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 5 January 1819

From Thomas Cooper

Jan. 5. 1819 Philadelphia

Dear Sir

I received a printed copy of your report, for which I thank you. It will serve to furnish more enlarged and more just ideas on the subject of education, than your countrymen have been accustomed to. I rejoice in the prospect of their being put in execution, whether I take any or no part in the Institution to be founded on them.

I have been enquiring for workmen as you desired, and I send you a man, whose honesty and industry I have entertained a good opinion of from near 20 Years observation. He asks so many questions that I have persuaded him to go to the place & look for himself, and make his own bargain. He is a Carpenter, & can command workmen: he can also induce bricklayers & brickmakers to come, if he determines to go himself: also a Tin man, & probably other trades: upon all this you will make your own enquiries in your own way. I have said nothing to him about prices.

I sent you about a month ago a discourse on the Connection between Medecine & Chemistry: by post.

I observe from your letter to Mr Short, that your health is likely to be established fully, the necessary defalcations of age excepted. I hope your active and most useful life, will yet be protracted to your own satisfaction,1 and the public benefit, many years.

I beg my kind respects to Col. Randolph.

Thomas Cooper

RC (ViU: TJP); endorsed by TJ as received 18 Jan. 1819 and so recorded (mistakenly dated 5 Jan. 1818) in SJL. RC (MHi); address cover only; with PoC of TJ to Patrick Gibson, 22 Feb. 1819, on verso; addressed: “Thomas Jefferson Esq Montecello By Mr Jared Richardson.”

Jared Richardson, the man whose honesty and industry Cooper commended, was active as a carpenter in Philadelphia between 1809 and 1824 (MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1350; James Robinson, The Philadelphia Directory for 1809 [Philadelphia, 1809]; DNA: RG 29, CS, Pa., Philadelphia, 1810, 1820; Robert Desilver, The Philadelphia Directory for 1824 [Philadelphia, 1824]).

The discourse previously sent by Cooper was his work entitled A Discourse on the Connexion between Chemistry and Medicine. delivered in the University of Pennsylvania, Nov. 5, 1818 (Philadelphia, 1818).

1Manuscript: “saitisfaction.”

Index Entries

  • A Discourse on the Connexion between Chemistry and Medicine (T. Cooper) search
  • chemistry; books on search
  • Cooper, Thomas; A Discourse on the Connexion between Chemistry and Medicine search
  • Cooper, Thomas; and builders for University of Virginia search
  • Cooper, Thomas; letters from search
  • Cooper, Thomas; sends greetings to T. M. Randolph search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; letters of introduction to search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; publication of papers search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Health; good health of search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Writings; Proceedings and Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia search
  • medicine; books on search
  • Proceedings and Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia (Thomas Jefferson); distributed by TJ search
  • Randolph, Thomas Mann (1768–1828) (TJ’s son-in-law; Martha Jefferson Randolph’s husband); greetings sent to search
  • Richardson, Jared; as potential builder for University of Virginia search
  • Richardson, Jared; identified search
  • Short, William; publication of correspondence with TJ search
  • Virginia, University of; Construction and Grounds; builders for search
  • Virginia, University of; Establishment; commissioners’ report search