401Thomas Jefferson’s Statement of Albemarle County Property Subject to Federal Tax, 14 May 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
A list of the property of the subscriber in the county of Albemarle liable to the taxes imposed by Congress at their session of 1814–15. 5640. acres of land, including 400. a s on Hardware belonging to himself, Hudson & others. 2. slaves above 60. years of age 9. d o between 50. & 60. 9.
402Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 28 May 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return from a long journey, and considerable absence from home, I found here the copy of your ‘Enquiry into the principles of our government’ which you had been so kind as to send me, and for which I pray you to accept my thanks. the difficulties of getting new works in our situation, inland and without a single book store, are such as had prevented my obtaining a copy before; and...
403Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Thweatt, 23 May 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 18 th was recieved on the 21 st . I am happy to learn that our settlement goes on so harmoniously. but it could not well be otherwise; as I suppose the Commissioner can never have been presented with fairer papers, or fuller in a case of so long standing. there can be no objection to the transfer of debets from Fleming’s to Skelton’s account, where the article is properly...
404Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 24 November 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve your favor of Nov. 1. here, as I am about setting out on my return to Monticello for the winter. the specimen of flax from S r John Sinclair is exquisite. we have learned from the newspapers that a new method of preparing flax has been discovered in England . I presume this is an example. about 25. years ago S r John Sinclair sent me a specimen of
405Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 6 June 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I have for some time been sensible I should be detained here longer than I had expected, but could not till now judge how long. Chisolm will finish his work in about 10. days, and it is very essential that I should see the walls covered with their plates, that they may be in a state of preservation. this will keep me 3. or 4. days longer, so that I expect to be here still about a fortnight...
406Thomas Jefferson to Patrick Gibson, 23 December 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Since mine of Nov. 21. I have recieved yours of Nov. 23. Dec. 7. & 14. in that of the 7 th Nov. 23. came the 45.D. small bills, and in the last a notice of mr Harvie ’s payment. I regret much my tobacco is not at market, and am pressing my manager
407Thomas Jefferson to Littleton W. Tazewell, 12 April 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Livingston’s suit having gone off on the plea to the jurisdiction, it’s foundation remains of course unexplained to the public. I therefore concluded to make it public thro’ the ordinary channel of the press. an earlier expectation of recieving the pamphlets, & the desire of sending you one, has delayed, from post to post, my sooner acknoleging the reciept of your letter informing me of...
408Thomas Jefferson to Robert Morrell, 5 February 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
The book which you were so kind as to take charge of at Paris for me is safely recieved, and I thank you for your care of it, & more particularly for the indulgent sentiments you are so kind as to express towards myself. I am happy at all times to hear of the welfare of my literary friends in that country. they have had a hard time of it since I left them. I know nothing which can so severely...
409To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 2 May 1812 (Madison Papers)
It is a grievous thing to be pressed, as I am, into the service of those who want to get into service themselves. The great mass of those sollicitations I decline: but some come forward on such grounds as controul compliance. Mr. Archibald C. Randolph, an applicant for command in the new army, is my near relation, which in his own eye and that of our common friends gives him a claim to my good...
410Thomas Jefferson to Littleton W. Tazewell, George Hay, and William Wirt, 9 April 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
In a former letter I promised a list of the books quoted & possessed by me, & of those quoted but not possessed, that these last might be sought for in time, as far as necessary.that list is now inclosed with explanatory notes. such of them as it will be necessary for me to send, shall be sent to Richmond whenever desired. the communications by water between Richmond & Norfolk are so frequent,...
411Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 11 September 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I turn with great reluctance from the functions of a private citizen to matters of state. the swaggering on deck, as a passenger, is so much more pleasant than clambering the ropes as a seaman, & my confidence in the skill and activity of those employed to work the vessel is so entire, that I notice nothing, en passant, but how smoothly she moves. yet I avail myself of the leisure which a...
412Thomas Jefferson to James Barbour, 5 March 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
If I knew what you possessed, or what you particularly wished my attention more especially applied to the latter might better have fulfilled them. sending at random I fear I may add little to your actual possessions. but I do the best I can by sending those things which are not absolutely possessed by every body. for the garden. Sprout Kale. which no body in the US . has but those to whom I...
413Thomas Jefferson to Patrick Gibson, 15 August 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Johnson going down with his boat gives me an opportunity of getting a bale of cotton brought up, which I will ask the favor of you to procure for me, say of 3. or 400. weight. your favor of Aug. 4. is recieved, and lightens my anxieties. I now return the note for the bank, signed, but left blank to be filled by yourself according to circumstances. 1500.D. additional is about the sum which...
414To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 8 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have to acknolege your two favors of Feb. 16. & Mar. 2. and to join sincerely in the sentiment of mrs Adams, and regret that distance separates us so widely. an hour of conversation would be worth a volume of letters. but we must take things as they come. You ask if I would agree to live my 70. or rather 73. years over again? to which I say Yea. I think with you that it is a good world on...
415Thomas Jefferson to John Jordan, 5 August 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Ogilvie , to whom the inclosed letter is addressed, was about the latter end of May at Columbia S.C. on his way to Lexington in Kentuckey Kentucky . presuming him to be still there I have so addressed the Letter. should he not be there, will you be so good as to superscribe the proper address, & forward it by post. if in that country, I presume his position known to you, because being...
416Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Milligan, 7 July 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
By a note in the 5 th vol. of Joyce ’s Scientific dialogues I see that the 7 th & 8 th vol s were published in Mar. 1807. I presume therefore they must have come to the US. and will pray you to get them for me to compleat the set you procured me, which consisted of the first 6. vols only. the two volumes wanting are on the subject of chemistry. it is a book of inestimable value, & renders all...
417Enclosure: Power of Attorney from Thomas Jefferson to John Barnes for Transfer of Assets, 31 December 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Know all men by these presents that I Thomas Jefferson of Monticello in the county of Albemarle Virginia do hereby constitute and appoint John Barnes of George town Columbia my true and lawful Attorney for me and in my name to transfer into the name of Thaddeus Kosciuzko , heretofore a General in the service of the United States , and at present of Switzerland , all the stock of the United...
418Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Thweatt, 1 January 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter dated Oct. 26. but I presume for Nov. 26. came here during my absence in Bedford in December, and this is the first moment I have been able to reply to it. I am sorry it is not in my power to give you any information of the account of Farrel & Jones against mr Eppes . I do not know that I ever saw it, nor had I any information ever from him respecting it. I remember only to have...
419Thomas Jefferson to George Fleming, 29 December 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
At the date of your favor of Oct. 30. I had just left home on a journey to a distant possession of mine , from which I am but recently returned: and I wish that the matter of my answer could compensate for it’s delay. but, Sir, it happens that of all the machines which have been employed to aid human labor, I have made my self the least acquainted with (that which is certainly the most...
420Thomas Jefferson to Alrichs & Dixon, 22 September 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
My letter of Aug. 30. informed you of my departure on a journey before I could consult the person who has charge of my small spinning establishment as to the kind of roll which a hand carding machine should make to suit us. I am but just returned from that journey, and on consulting him he sais the perpetual roll would not suit us, that it should be the short roll, such as is given off by...
421Thomas Jefferson to Lancelot Minor, 26 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Apr. 23. came here just as I had set out for Bedford , so that I recieved it only on my return from that place, which must apologise for the delay of the answer. that of Jan. 20. had been recieved in due time, and your order in favor of Capt Tomkins for the survey was paid. in mine of Oct. 29. I had promised, as soon as my wheat should be groun d and disposed of, that I would...
422Thomas Jefferson to John Melish, 13 January 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved duly your favor of Dec. 15. and with it the copies of your map and travels, for which be pleased to accept my thanks. the book I have read with extreme satisfaction and information. as to the Western states particularly, it has greatly edified me; for of the actual condition of that interesting portion of our country I had not an adequate idea. I feel myself now as familiar with it...
423Thomas Jefferson to John Hopkins, 11 August 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I subscribe with pleasure to the work of mr Allen’s which you propose to print: but as to assisting with materials, it is really not in my power. my life has been too busy a one to collect materials, or even to retain notes of what has been passing. those who act are generally too much occupied to write what is doing: lookers on, alone, have leisure for that. were I to resort to my memory, it...
424Thomas Jefferson to Ann C. Bankhead, 26 May 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just recieved a copy of the Modern Griselda which Ellen tells me will not be unacceptable to you. I therefore inclose it. the heroine presents herself certainly as a perfect model of ingenious perverseness, & of the art of making herself and others unhappy. if it can be made of use in inculcating the virtues and felicities of life, it must be by the rule of contraries. nothing new has...
425Thomas Jefferson to Stephen Cathalan, 3 July 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
It is so long since I have heard from you that this letter seems almost as if written to the dead: and you have the like grounds for recieving it as from the same region. in truth the eternal wars which our age has witnessed prove it to be literally the iron age , and have suspended all the intercourses of friendship and commerce. scarcely was the temple of Janus closed in our hemisphere by...
426Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, 25 November 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 12 th gave me the first information that the lectures of my late master and friend exist in MS. knowing how little sensible he was of the eminence of his own mind, I had apprehended if he had ever committed to writing more than their skeleton, that possibly he might have destroyed them, as I expect he has done a very great number of instructive arguments delivered at the bar,...
427Thomas Jefferson to Louis H. Girardin, 18 March 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Your messenger finds me to the elbows in the dust of my book-shelves. I recieved my Catalalogue Catalogue , last night , and have begun the revisal of the shelves to-day. from this small specimen it seems as if it would take me three weeks very laborious work.— I send you 2 d Toulongeon , and return your Cahier, with approbation of every thing except as to the detention of the Convention...
428Thomas Jefferson to John Barnes, 17 January 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 6 th is duly recieved, and was communicated to mr Randolph , who, as I informed you is sole tenant of my mills , which he holds from year to year, the year beginning the 1 st of July. he has no disposition to recieve a partner, because as he found to be the case in his late partnership his property became liable for all the losses while he had recieved but half the...
429Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Staël Holstein, 3 July 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I considered your letter of Nov. 10. 12. as an evidence of the interest you were so kind as to take in the welfare of the United states, and I was even flattered by your exhortations to avoid taking any part in the war then raging in Europe , because they were a confirmation of the policy I had my self pursued, and which I thought and still think should be the governing canon of our republic....
430Thomas Jefferson to Henry Jackson, 8 February 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I am really ashamed, Sir, to repeat at such short intervals the liberties I take with your cover. but I recieved last night a letter from mr Ticknor from Gottingen , two days after mr Terril had left us, and my anxiety that an answer should overtake him induces me to attempt it. mr Ticknor writes me he will be in Paris in the spring as early as the roads will permit, by which time I am in...
431Thomas Jefferson to John M. Perry, 16 February 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
M r M c Gruder has written to me urgently on the subject of the plank due him: I must therefore press you to execute that contract immediately, that I may at length be done with it. he says he is ready to return the money on recieving the plank, and as I presume, on his recieving the stocks from you, as he is to do the sawing himself. be so good as to let me know what I may say to him. Accept...
432Thomas Jefferson to James Madison , 27 June 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letters of the 8 th 15 th and 22 d are now to be acknoleged. I should consider the debt to mr Hooe as made incumbent on us by the wish of our Donor, and shall chearfully acquiesce in any arrangement you make on that subject. I have accordingly suspended sending for my portion till further information from you. Dougherty’s bill shall be duly attended to. I have recieved a copy of Judge...
433Thomas Jefferson to the Federal Assessor for Rockbridge County, 11 February 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I own a tract of land of 157. acres in the county of Rockbridge including the Natural bridge , which being liable to the tax laid by Congress it is my duty to give you notice of it. it is I have leased to D r William Thornton of Richmond a site on it for a shot manufactory, and nothing being provided in the lease as to taxes, I propose to pay those on the land, as he will of whatever...
434Notes on Benjamin Johnson’s Lands Adjacent to Poplar Forest, [ca. 1 December 1812] (Jefferson Papers)
Mary Bradley Exec of Absalom Bradley } 1808. Jan. 23. to 114½ a s
435To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 7 December 1809 (Madison 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 it...
436Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Smith Barton, 3 April 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
At the request of mr Jason Chamberlayne of Burlington in Vermont , a professor of the college there, I inclose for the American Philosophical society a pamphlet pert presenting a specimen of the language of the Iroquois, among whom he informs me there are many who can read. this however is beginning at the wrong end for the improvement of their faculties and conditions. the care of domestic...
437Thomas Jefferson to Edward Gantt, 19 February 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of Jan. 21. came by our last post, & I have with pleasure forwarded your application to the President . your letter gave me the first information of your removal to the Westward, and I learned from it with real concern the circumstances which had induced it. on my going to live in Washington , my first enquiries were into the mode of practice of the Physicians there, of whom I should of...
438Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 4 August 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 17 th ult came duly to hand; and I have to thank you for the military Manuals you were so kind as to send me. this is the sort of book most needed in our country, where even the elements of tactics are unknown. the young have never seen service; & the old are past it: and of those among them who are not superannuated themselves, their science is become so. I see, as you do,...
439To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 May 1812 (Madison Papers)
Another communication is inclosed, and the letter of the applicant is the only information I have of his qualifications. I barely remember such a person as the Secretary of mr. Adams & messenger to the Senate while I was of that body. It enlarges the sphere of choice by adding to it a strong federalist. The triangular war must be the idea of the Anglomen, and malcontents, in other words the...
440Thomas Jefferson to William Wirt, 28 June 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter dated the 27 th is recieved, & shall be communicated to mr Carr to remove the impressions of a former one to him. the object of the present is merely to observe that mr Rodney’s letter was not inclosed in it as was intended. I write by this post to mr Tazewell . Affectionate salutations. PoC ( DLC ); dateline at foot of text; endorsed by TJ. A letter from Wirt to TJ of 16 July...
441Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Johnson, 2 December 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I return you the deeds you were so kind as to lend me, respecting the boundaries about which we are in doubt. indeed I never found myself so bewildered as by the conflicting circumstances of this case. yet after the mature consideration which I have now given it (and really never had done before) I think I see grounds sufficiently strong to bear down the smaller circumstances and to authorise...
442Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, 7 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have a grandson, Tho s J. Randolph , now at Philadelphia , attending the Botanical lectures of Doct r Barton , and who will continue there only until the end of the present course. altho’ I know that your goodness has indulged D r Barton with permission to avail himself of your collection of plants for the purpose of instructing his pupils, yet as my grandson has a peculiar fondness for that...
443Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 14 September 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
In a letter to you of Aug. 8. I took the liberty of requesting you to procure for me some timothy seed to the amount of a 10. Dollar bill then inclosed. this being to replace some seed I borrowed in the spring from mr Divers , and the season now approaching for sowing it, I am induced to mention it again merely by the fear that perhaps my letter (which went by post) might not have got safely...
444Thomas Jefferson to Jones & Howell, 10 August 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
It is with real mortification that, instead of a remittance for the last supply of rod & iron , now due, I am obliged to send you this letter. yet my feelings on the failure will not permit me to be merely silent. I have now been for 13. or 14. years a customer of your house & of it’s predecessors, and have never failed beyond a few days over the term of remittance, except on one occasion, I...
445Thomas Jefferson to Shotwell & Kinder, 10 February 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 24. came but by our last mail, and with it the piece of cloth made of wool and hair which you were so kind as to send me. I pray you to accept my thanks for this present, which, while it is an acceptable mark of good will, shews also how important a resource we have in an article hitherto mostly thrown away, towards supplying our stock of wool not yet quite equal to our...
446Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 5 May 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor on your departure from Richmond came to hand in due time. altho’ I may not have been among the first, I am certainly with the sincerest who congratulate you on your reentrance into the public National councils. your value there has never been unduly estimated by those whom personal feelings did not misguide. the late misunderstandings at Washington have been a subject of real...
447To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 26 March 1812 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of the 6th. was duly recieved. The double treachery of Henry will do lasting good both here & in England. It prostrates the party here, and will prove to the people of England, beyond the power of palliation by the ministry, that the war is caused by the wrongs of their own nation. The case of the Batture not having been explained by a trial at bar as had been expected, I have...
448Proposals to Revise the Virginia Constitution: I. Thomas Jefferson to “Henry Tompkinson” (Samuel Kercheval), 12 July … (Jefferson Papers)
I duly recieved your favor of June 13. with a copy of the letters on the calling a Convention, on which you are pleased to ask my opinion. I have not been in the habit of mysterious reserve on any subject, nor of buttoning up my opinions within my own doublet. on the contrary, while in public service especially, I have thought the public entitled to frankness, and intimately to know whom they...
449Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Lomax, 6 November 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your carriage arrived here last night only, having been detained some days at Edgehill by the late rains & consequent rise of the river. all the donations which you have been so kind as to charge on it have arrived in perfect order; and being to set out tomorrow for Bedford , this day will be employed in setting out the plants. by the return of the carriage I shall send you three or four...
450Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Law, 6 November 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Oct. 1. came duly to hand, and in it the Memorial which I now return. I like well your idea of issuing treasury notes bearing interest, because I am persuaded they would soon be withdrawn from the circulation and locked up in vaults & private hoards. it would put it in the power of every man to lend his 100. or 1000.D. tho’ not able to go forward on the great scale and be the...