351Thomas Jefferson to Isaac A. Coles, 29 November 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 12 th I found here on my return from Bedford . the box of books ( Turgot’s works) as also mr Livingston’s treatise on sheep are safely recieved. Gen l Armstrong & M. de la Fayette
352Thomas Jefferson to Richard Barry, 30 November 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday from mr Leitch a letter informing me he had your order on me for 243.35 D of which he asked paiment in 30. days. I told the bearer that I was indebted to you, but could not as yet pay it. you know enough of this part of the country to have observed that money cannot be commanded here suddenly even by property. on winding up my affairs at Washington , I fell considerably in...
353Thomas Jefferson to Mary Daingerfield, 30 November 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
As the year is now drawing to a close & it will not be convenient for me to continue to hire all the negroes which I have heretofore hired from yourself & miss Dangerfield , I think it my duty to inform you of it. I should be willing to hire Tom & Edmund again. the rest, or the whole, if it is your pleasure, shall be delivered to your order at the end of their term; shall be discharged with...
354Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 30 November 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night yours of the 27 th & rode this morning to Col o Monroe’s . I found him preparing to set out tomorrow morning for Loudon , from whence he will not return till Christmas. I had an hour or two’s frank conversation with him. the catastrophe of poor Lewis served to lead us to the point intended. I reminded him that in the letter I wrote to him while in Europe proposing the...
355James Monroe’s Account of a Conversation with Thomas Jefferson, [30 November 1809] (Jefferson Papers)
I do not know what particular fact or circumstance can have given rise to the apprehension lately intimated to you by our friend, which you have been so good as to notice in yours. I will state, the what has occurr’d, between the respectable character alluded to, & me, since you were here, to enable you to judge how far there is just foundation for it. The day before I had intended to set out...
356Thomas Jefferson to John Breck Treat, 30 November 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved in due time your favor covering your meteorological Diary of the post of the Arkansas , and being satisfied I could not use it to a better purpose or more to your gratification or honor, I communicated it to the Philosophical society at Philadelphia , & now have the pleasure to inclose their letter of thanks. desirous of making better known to the world, than it has hitherto been,...
357Thomas Jefferson to William W. Hening, 1 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
After my return from Richm od ond I took a journey to Bedford from which I have been returned but about a week. that time has been occupied by an accumulation of letters during my absence which required answers, & have left me time to cast but a cursory eye over the volume of laws you were so kind as to send me. this prevents my being more particular in the inclosed letter , which however is...
358Thomas Jefferson to William W. Hening, 1 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved the 1 st vol. of your collection of our statutes at large, & return you my thanks for it. the opinion I entertain of the importance of the work may be justly inferred from the trouble & expence I incurred during the earlier part of my life, to save such remains of our antient laws as were then still in existence. the compilation appears to be correctly & judiciously done...
359Thomas Jefferson to Charles F. Welles, 3 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved within a few days past your favor of Feb. 29 . (for September I presume) in either case it has been long on the way. it covered the two peices of poetry it referred to. of all the charges brought against me by my political adversaries, that of possessing some science has probably done them the least credit. our countrymen are too enlightened themselves to believe that ignorance is...
360Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 7 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed letter is from Father Richard , the Director of a school at Detroit ; & being on a subject in which the departments both of the Treasury & War are concerned, I take the liberty of inclosing it to yourself as the center which may unite these two agencies. the transactions which it alludes to took place in the months of Dec. & Jan. preceding my retirement from office, & as I think...
361Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 8 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I should sooner have informed you of Francis’s safe arrival here but that the trip you meditated to N. Carolina rendered it entirely uncertain where a letter would find you. nor had I any expectation you could have been at the first meeting of Congress till I saw your name in the papers brought by our last post. disappointed in sending this by the return of the post, I avail myself of General...
362Thomas Jefferson to Randolph Jefferson, 8 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I send by Squire the Gigg harness, and shall be very happy if after your return, instead of sending it you would avail yourself of it to pay us a visit here with my sister . she promised me a visit in the spring but the distance is too short to be require it to be put off to so remote a period. perhaps too you might find an absence from home during winter less inconvenient than after the...
363Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Chapman, 11 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Nov. 10. did not come to hand till the 29 th of that month . the subject you have chosen for the next Anniversary discourse of the Linnean society , is certainly a very interesting, & also a difficult one. the change which has taken place in our climate is one of those facts which all men of years are sensible of, & yet none can prove by regular evidence. they can only appeal to...
364Thomas Jefferson to C. & A. Conrad & Company, 11 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you on the 23 d of Nov. in answer to yours of the 13 th of that month . I soon after concluded to write to the President suggesting to him the expediency of his ordering Gov r Lewis’s two trunks from Nashville by the stage to Washington
365Thomas Jefferson to John Monroe, 11 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Aug. 1. did not get to my hands till the 7 th of Sep. two long absences from home have prevented my sooner answering it. I took nevertheless an early opportunity of placing your name under the eye of the President in the event of a new appointment of Governor of Indiana taking place. I should suppose however from what I have lately seen in the papers that that is not likely soon...
366Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 15 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
This will be handed you by my son in law, mr Randolph with the integrity & honor of whose character you are already acquainted. an urgent occasion to raise a considerable sum of money in the course of a year, and a part of it (2000.D.) within the month of January, has induced me to propose to him the curtailing the outskirts of my Poplar Forest lands, as the most probable means of effecting...
367Thomas Jefferson to James Martin, 15 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your letter of the 2 d inst. of the two offers there made for my lands on Ivy creek , I do not hesitate to prefer that which proposes to pay the whole £1200. at three paiments of £400. each beginning on the 1 st day of April next . even this does not come up to my terms fully, as it offers the 1 st paiment on the 1 st of April , instead of in hand
368Authorization to Thomas Mann Randolph to Sell Land, 15 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof, Thomas Mann Randolph is authorized by me to make sale of any portion of my Poplar Forest lands, and I oblige myself to confirm the same and to convey a title accordingly. Given under my hand at Monticello this 15 th day of December 1809 . PoC ( MHi ); endorsed by TJ: “Randolph. TM. Dec. 15. 09.” Not recorded in SJL . Randolph faced a financial crisis caused by his own debts,...
369Thomas Jefferson to James Steptoe, 15 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
A matter of business calling my son in law, mr Randolph to Bedford , I take the occasion of introducing him to your acquaintance. the excellence of his character being known to you by reputation, I shall, in confirmation of that only assure you that the integrity & honor of his character are entirely equal to the good sense & information which will at once shew themselves to you in his...
370Thomas Jefferson to Richard Barry, 16 December 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
According to the request in your letter of the 5 th I returned to m r Leitch his reciept, and now inclose you the paper of our settlement recieved from him. I am very sensible of the kind dispositions expressed in your letter, & can assure you of corresponding ones on my part, & that I shall ever be ready to render you any service in my power, from motives of real esteem. as soon as I can get...
371Thomas Jefferson to Wilson Cary Nicholas, 16 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I now inclose you the Agricultural catalogue . I do not know whether I have made it more or less comprehensive than you wished. but in either case you can make it what it should be by reduction or addition. there are probably other good books with which I am unacquainted. I do not possess the Geoponica, nor Rozier’s dictionary. all the others I have & set them down on my own knolege, except...
372Enclosure: Thomas Jefferson’s Catalogue of Books on Agriculture, [ca. 16 December 1809] (Jefferson Papers)
Catalogue of books on Agriculture. Geoponica Cassiani Bassi . Gr. & Lat. there have never been but 2. editions published, one by Needham at Cambridge in 1704. 8 vo the other by Niclas , at Leipsick in 1781. 2. v. 8 vo
373Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Thweatt, 18 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
According to promise I wrote to the clerk of Goochland for a copy of Reuben Skelton’s will. his answer is that there is no such will recorded there, that no administration was granted there, & therefore it is presumed that he was not a resident of that county. I know however that he was a resident of the county at the time of his death. his mansion house was at Elkhill on the Goochland side of...
374Thomas Jefferson to Eli Alexander, 22 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
When I met with you on Lego the other day I had not been on the lands before for 9. years, and was not from recollection of the ground perfectly possessed of the questions between us. I have since rode over them again & again with care. it will appear to any person on view of the ground, 1. that you have not cleared an acre; the distinction between clearing & belting being too familiar to...
375Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 25 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Our letters crossing each other on the road have anticipated the grounds of mutual excuse for their being the first which were written. my occupations are now almost entirely without doors, in the farms the garden, the shops E t c. I shut up my room on going to breakfast & scarcely enter it again but to dress for dinner, after which I read little, & never write. this of course withdraws me...
376Thomas Jefferson to Nicholas Biddle, 26 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your letter of Dec. 12. and should willingly have given any information on the subject of it within my power, but I have not the smallest recollection of mr Lefevre , nor of the transaction to which your letter refers. the any deposit of money made into the treasury of Virginia , will doubtless appear in the treasury books at Richmond , and on what account it was paid. at...
377Thomas Jefferson to Jonathan Shoemaker, 26 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have considered your proposition of yesterday to endorse a bill of 500.D. for you to be put into the bank of Richmond & on mature reflection must decline it. I have never carried my name into that bank, & if any thing could have induced me to it, it would have been my own present difficulties. but for a mere farmer to go into a bank for money destroys his credit at once. but the insuperable...
378Thomas Jefferson to William D. Meriwether, 27 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
By the Enquirer of the 19 th just now recieved here I see that the petition of Ashlin to build a dam across the river adjacent to Ross’s lands, & consequently not far above it’s mouth has been reported reasonable. where a mill dam assists navigation it is well to allow it because it becomes a public good. M c gruder’s I believe stands on this ground. Wood ’s
379Thomas Jefferson to John Harvie, 28 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
When I had the pleasure of seeing you in Charlottesville , I had not for a considerable time looked with attention into the papers concerning my title to the lands on the top of the mountain which were in question between your father & myself. I have now re-examined them and am confirmed in the belief that while justice cannot but pronounce that these lands were my property, the law itself...
380Thomas Jefferson to Ann C. Bankhead, 29 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Mama has given me a letter to inclose to you, but whether it contains any thing contraband; I know not. of that the responsibility must be on her. I therefore inclose it. I suppose she gives you all the small news of the place of such as the race in writing between Virginia & Francis ; that the wild geese are well after a flight of a mile & a half into the river, that the plants in the...
381Thomas Jefferson’s Resurvey of Lego, 29 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Lego . re-survey of Dec. 29 09. scale 40. po. to the Inch the hedge row mentioned in the survey of Nov. 94 . remained entire, & bears magnetically about N.48¾ E. the double bodied walnut, in line 5.6. remains one peach tree on the line 7.8. is remaining. the row of peach trees 7.11. has many remaining. the Western walnut between 1. & 9. is standing, but belted & dead. the fore & aft line tree...
382Thomas Jefferson to Gordon, Trokes & Company, 30 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you below another quarterly list of groceries which I will beg the favor of you to furnish me. Let them be very securely packed & sent by mr Randolph’s boatmen. mr Jefferson will be able to inform you when they are at Richmond . I have mentioned the article of Maccaroni, not knowing if they are to be had in Richmond . I have formerly been supplied from Sartori’s works at Trenton , who...
383Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, 30 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
It may seem odd that while I was involved in so much business at Washington , I could yet find time to write to you sometimes, and that I have not been able to do it in my present situation. but the fact is that letter writing was there my trade. from sunrise to near dinner was to be of course devoted to it, & a letter more or less made little odds. but in our country economy, letter writing...
384Thomas Jefferson to Joel Barlow, 31 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
In removing my effects from Washington I had the misfortune of having a trunk stolen, which, besides papers of irretrievable value, contained other things highly prized, & among them nothing more so than a Dynamometer I had just recieved from France . the Agricultural society of the Seine had sent me one of Guillaume’s ploughs, which, by that instrument was proved to require but half the force...
385Thomas Jefferson’s Memorandum on the Expiration of John H. Craven’s Lease, [ca. 1 January 1810] (Jefferson Papers)
M r Craven by the lease to him is bound at to sow 50. acres of clover the last year of it. 2. fields of 100. a s each in wheat, one of them on fallow the other after corn. the particular fields to be sown result from the rotation stipulated, if that has been faithfully observed. he is to return horses of the value of £91. cattle
386Thomas Jefferson to George Jefferson, 3 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you an order from John H. Craven on mr Richard Anderson for 250.D. founded on a sale of wheat for him, he w at 60. days. he writes to mr Anderson to procure a discount on the note he recieved so as to enable him to pay this immediately. on this fund, and the former balance in my favor I have drawn on you as follows. D Dec. 19. in favor of Joseph Brand 107.17 Jan. 12.
387Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Morgan, 3 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
I have a matter of business of some moment at New Orleans , & not having any mercantile acquaintance there, I venture on the slight correspondence we have had, but still more on the knolege of your character, to ask your aid in the transaction of it. the case is this. a mr John Peyton of this state & neighborhood died last year in New Orleans , intestate, & having considerable sums of money...
388Thomas Jefferson to William A. Burwell, 7 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of Dec. 29. was recieved on the 3 d inst . I shall state what I know respecting the medals for the information of the government in the cases generally, & your own in the special one of Gen l Lee . when the old Congress prepared for having their votes of Medals & swords executed, they did it by directing their Financier, Robert Morris , to have it done. Col o Humphreys being appointed...
389Thomas Jefferson to Martha B. Eppes, 7 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his affectionate respects to mrs Eppes and incloses her a letter from his grandson Francis , who having written his first to his father , sends his second to his Mama , & is preparing his third for his Grandmama . he is become very assiduous, passing much of the day in writing, & his evenings mostly in reading. he has enamoured the family here with his good & his...
390Thomas Jefferson to Isaac A. Coles, 8 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 5 th came to hand last night. that of Dec. 29. had been recieved by the preceding post. Gov r Lewis’s papers shall be disposed of as you desire. the prints in my bed chamber of the President’s house belong to the house. Claxton had procured & hung there those of Gen l Washington & myself before I went there, & he afterwards added
391Thomas Jefferson to Honore Julien, 8 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson has recieved with pleasure & thankfulness M r Julien’s letter of the new year’s day , and his kind wishes & compliments of the season, which he reciprocates with much cordiality. he will always be happy to hear of his welfare & prosperity. the occupations of the garden, the workshops, & the farms fill up the whole of Th: Jefferson’s time with attentions equally interesting to his...
392Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Provenchere, 8 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his respectful salutations to Mons r Provenchere , and with pleasure complies with the request of M. Silvestre , with whom he has the advantage of a correspondence by sending him the inclosed letter , lately recieved under cover from M. Silvestre . PoC ( MHi
393Thomas Jefferson to Elizabeth Eppes, 9 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 9 . did not get to hand till the day before yesterday, and then without the article for Francis said to be inclosed. whether forgotten to be inclosed or lost by the way yourself will be able to know. Francis had written his first letter to his papa , his second to his Mama , and had been promising to prepare one for yourself for a day or two before the reciept of yours. it...
394Thomas Jefferson to Craven Peyton, 10 January [1810] (Jefferson Papers)
You proposed to me at court the hiring one of the shoemakers of your late brother , which at that time I declined. I will now however be willing to take him and should prefer having the one which can sew the neatest. I really think the house, garden E t c at Bunker’s hill rents too low. it cannot be worth less than 50.D and I suppose that this is the time for fixing it’s rent at a proper...
395Thomas Jefferson to Peter V. Daniel, 11 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 22. did not get to hand till the 7 th inst t . it would have given me great pleasure to be able to furnish any useful information on the case of John Stadler ; & the more so as it would have been a gratification to the interest you take personally in the welfare of his family. the name does not sound new to me. but I have racked my recollection in vain as to any knolege of...
396Thomas Jefferson to John Wood, 11 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to thank you for the publication you have been pleased to send me, on the Cycloid, & it’s application to the diurnal rotation of the earth, to the winds & tides. it is a work of great Mathematical erudition; and it’s calculations & principles will doubtless excite the attention of Mathematicians of the first order. I propose to send two or three copies to my Mathematical friends beyond...
397Thomas Jefferson to Elias Glover, 13 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Dec. 10 . is safely recieved as had been that of Nov. 1 . I have not examined my papers to see if I have the letter from Matthew Nimmo of Nov. 28. 1806. which you ask for. I have no recollection whether I recieved such a letter. but it is not on that ground I decline looking for & communicating it . besides the general principles of law & reason which render correspondences even...
398Thomas Jefferson to Bernard McMahon, 13 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 24. did not get to hand till the 3 d inst. and I return you my thanks for the garden seeds which came safely. I am curious to select only one or two of the best species of or variety of every garden vegetable, and to reject all others from the garden to avoid the dangers of mixture & degeneracy. some plants of your gooseberry, of the Hudson & Chili strawberries, & some bulbs...
399Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Thweatt, 13 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of Dec. 28 . & Jan. 4. have been duly recieved. I had not recollected the admission of the will in the bill. this however I presume they would be permitted to correct by amendment if it were found they had done it against the fact. but their quotation gives me a hope the will is recorded, as I know not how else they could have a copy. There was a compleat set of accounts current...
400Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 15 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 12. has been duly recieved as was also that of Sep. 28. with the blank subscription paper for the academy of Frederic county , inclosed in your letter of Sep. nothing has been done. I go rarely from home, & therefore have little opportunity of solliciting subscriptions. nor could I do it in the present case in conformity with my own judgment of what is best for institutions...