1To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 5 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
Absences and avocations had prevented my acknoleging your favor of Feb. 2. when that of Apr. 19. arrived. I had not the pleasure of recieving the former by the hands of mr Lyman. his business probably carried him in another direction; for I am far inland, & distant from the great line of communication between the trading cities. your recommendations are always welcome, for indeed the subjects...
2To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 8 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
A month’s absence from Monticello has added to the delay of acknoleging your last letters; and indeed for a month before I left it our projected College gave me constant employment; for being the only Visitor in it’s immediate neighborhood, all it’s administrative business falls on me, and that, where building is going on, is not a little. in yours of July 15, you express a wish to see our...
3To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 17 May 1818 (Adams Papers)
I was so unfortunate as not to recieve from mr Holly’s own hand your favor of Jan. 28. being then at my other home. he dined only with my family, & left them with an impression which has filled me with regret that I did not partake of the pleasure his visit gave them. I am glad he is gone to Kentucky. rational Christianity will thrive more rapidly there than here. they are freer from...
4To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 7 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
It is very long, my dear friend, since I have written to you. the fact is that I have was scarcely at home at all from May to September, and from that time I have been severely indisposed and not yet recovered so far as to sit up to write, but in pain. having been subject to troublesome attacks of rheumatism for some winters past, and being called by other business into the neighborhood of our...
5To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 13 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of which your letter of Oct. 20. had given me ominous foreboding. tried myself, in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of connection which can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to endure. the same trials have taught me that, for ills so...
6To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 19 January 1819 (Adams Papers)
About a week before I recieved your favor of Dec. 30. the 22d. No. of the North American review had come to hand, without my knowing from what quarter. the letter of mr Channing to mr Shaw, which you have been so good as to inclose, founds a presumption that it was from mr Channing, and that he is the editor. I had never before seen the work; but have read this No. with attention and great...
7To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 21 March 1819 (Adams Papers)
I am indebted to you for mr Bowditch’s very learned mathematical papers, the calculations of which are not for every reader, altho’ their results are readily enough understood. one of these impairs the confidence I had reposed in La Place’s demonstration that the excentricities of the planets of our system could oscillate only within narrow limits, and therefore could authorise no inference...
8To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 15 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
your letter of Apr. 2. was recieved in due time, and I have used the permission it gave me of sending a copy of that of Mar. 2. to the editor of Tracy’s Political economy. Mr. S. A. Wells of Boston, grandson of our old friend Saml. Adams, and who proposes to write the life of his grandfather, has made some enquiries of me relative to revolutionary antiquities which are within your knolege as...
9To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 9 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I am in debt to you for your letters of May 21. 27. & June 22. the first delivered me by mr Greenwood gave me the gratification of his acquaintance; and a gratification it always is to be made acquainted with gentlemen of candor, worth and information, as I found mr Greenwood to be. that on the subject of mr Samuel Adams Wells shall not be forgotten in time and place, when it can be used to...
10To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 7 November 1819 (Adams Papers)
Three long and dangerous illnesses within the last 12. months must apologise for my long silence towards you. The paper bubble is then burst. this is what you & I, and every reasoning man, seduced by no obliquity of mind, or interest, have long foreseen. yet it’s disastrous effects are not the less for having been foreseen. we were laboring under a dropsical fulness of circulating medium....
11To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 10 December 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have to acknolege the reciept of your favor of Nov. 23. the banks, bankrupt law, manufactures, Spanish Treaty are nothing. these are occurrences which like waves in a storm will pass under the ship. but the Missouri question is a breaker on which we lose the Missouri country by revolt, & what more, God only knows. from the battle of Bunker’s hill to the treaty of Paris we never had so...
12To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 14 March 1820 (Adams Papers)
A continuation of poor health makes me an irregular correspondent. I am therefore your debtor for the two letters of Jan. 20. & Feb. 21. it was after you left Europe that Dugald Stuart, concerning whom you enquire, and Ld. Dare, second son of the Marquis of Lansdowne came to Paris. they brought me a letter from Ld. Wycombe whom you knew. I became immediately intimate with Stuart, calling...
13To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 15 August 1820 (Adams Papers)
I am a great defaulter, my dear Sir, in our correspondence, but prostrate health rarely permits me to write; and, when it does, matters of business imperiously press their claims. I am getting better however, slowly, swelled legs being now the only serious symptom, and these, I believe, proceed from extreme debility. I can walk but little; but I ride 6. or 8. miles a day without fatigue; &...
14To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 22 January 1821 (Adams Papers)
I was quite rejoiced, dear Sir, to see that you had health & spirits enough to take part in the late convention of your state for revising it’s constitution, and to bear your share in it’s debates and labors. the amendments of which we have as yet heard prove the advance of liberalism in the intervening period; and encourage a hope that the human mind will some day get back to the freedom it...
15To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 12 September 1821 (Adams Papers)
I am just returned from my other home, and shall within a week go back to it for the rest of the autumn. I find here your favor of Aug. 20. and was before in arrear for that of May 19. I cannot answer, but join in, your question, of May 19. are we to surrender the pleasing hopes of seeing improvement in the moral and intellectual condition of Man? the events of Naples & Piedmont cast a gloomy...
16To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 1 June 1822 (Adams Papers)
It is very long, my dear Sir, since I have written to you. my dislocated wrist is now become so stiff that I write slowly and with pain, and therefore write as little as I can. yet it is due to mutual friendship to ask once in a while how we do? the papers tell us that Genl. Starke is off at the age of 93. Charles Thomson still lives at about the same age, chearful, slender as a grasshopper,...
17To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 27 June 1822 (Adams Papers)
Your kind letter of the 11th. has given me great satisfaction for altho’ I could not doubt but that the hand of age was pressing heavily on you, as on myself, yet we like to know the particulars and the degree of that pressure. much reflection too has been produced by your suggestion of lending my letter of the 1st. to a printer. I have generally great aversion to the insertion of my letters...
18To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 1 November 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have racked my memory, and ransacked my papers to enable myself to answer the enquiries of your favor of Oct. 15. but to little purpose. my papers furnish me nothing, my memory generalities only. I know that while I was in Europe, & anxious about the fate of our seafaring men, for some of whom, then in captivity in Algiers we were then treating, and all were in like danger, I formed...
19To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 25 February 1823 (Adams Papers)
I recieved in due time your two favors of Dec. 2. & Feb. 10. and have to acknolege for the ladies of my native state their obligations to you for the encomiums which you are so kind as to bestow on them. they certainly claim no advantages over those of their sister states, and are sensible of more favorable circumstances existing with many of them, & happily availed of, which our situation...
20From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 11 April 1823 (Adams Papers)
The wishes expressed, in your last favor, that I may continue in life and health until I become a Calvinist, at least in his exclamation of “ mon Dieu ! jusque à quand”! would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin in addressing his god . he was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Dæmonism. if ever man worshipped a false god, he did. the being described in...
21To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 4 September 1823 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of Aug. 15. was recieved in due time, and with the welcome of every thing which comes from you. with it’s opinions on the difficulties of revolutions, from despotism to freedom, I very much concur. the generation which commences a revolution can rarely compleat it. habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body and mind to their kings and priests, they are not...
22To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 12 October 1823 (Adams Papers)
I do not write with the ease which your letter of Sep. 18. supposes. crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious. but, while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things, in the recollection of antient times, when youth and health made happiness out of every thing. I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we can when we can think of nothing but how to keep...
23To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 11 July 1824 (Adams Papers)
My friend and correspondent of Richmond, Colo. Bernard Peyton will have the honor of delivering you this letter. he was a worthy officer of the late war, and now an equally worthy member of the mercantile body. proposing to visit Boston, he has the natural ambition of being presented to the first of the revolutionary characters now living. I ask, of your friendship to give him a few moments of...
24To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 8 January 1825 (Adams Papers)
It is long since I have written to you. this proceeds from the difficulty of writing with my crippled wrists, and from an unwillingness to add to your inconveniences of either reading by the eyes, or writing by the hands of others. the account I recieve of your physical situation afflicts me sincerely. but if body or mind was one of them to give way, it is a great comfort that it is the mind...
25To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 15 February 1825 (Adams Papers)
The people of Europe seem still to think that America is a mere garden plat, and that whatever is sent to one place is close for at home as to every other. the volume I now forward to you by this mail was found on Majr. Cartwright’s death, was found to have in his own handwriting an address for you altho’ mistaking your Christian name. his friends having occn to write to me on another subject,...
26To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 18 December 1825 (Adams Papers)
Your letters are always welcome, the last more than all others, it’s subject being one of the dearest to my heart. to my granddaughter your commendations cannot fail to be an object of high ambition, as a certain passport to the good opinion of the world. if she does not cultivate them with assiduity and affection, she will illy fulfill my parting injunctions. I trust she will merit a...
27To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 25 March 1826 (Adams Papers)
My grandson Th: Jefferson Randolph, being on a visit to Boston, would think he had seen nothing were he to leave it without having seen you. altho’ I truly sympathise with you in the trouble these interruptions give, yet I must ask for him permission to pay to you his personal respects. like other young people, he wishes to be able, in the winter nights of old age, to recount to those around...
28From Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your letters, dear Madam, are always welcome, and your requests are commands to me. I only regret that I can do so little towards obeying them. but eight and twenty years since I left France would, in the ordinary course of mortality, have swept off seven eighths of my acquaintances, and when to this lapse of time are added the knife of the Guillotine & scythe of constant and sanguinary wars,...
29From Thomas Jefferson to George Washington Adams, 9 August 1824 (Adams Papers)
Th: Jefferson returns his thanks to mr George Washington Adams for the eloquent oration on the late 4th. of July which he has been so kind as to send him. he deems it a subject of worthy congratulations to his fellow citizens that a young character of so much promise, and descended thro’ a lineage so meritorious, is now entering on the stage of life, with so much personal, as well as...
30To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 10 March 1817 (Madison Papers)
Besey calling on me for some seed allows me just time to write a line, to await your arrival at home, requesting your attendance as a visitor of our proposed college on Tuesday the 8th. of April, being the day after our election. You will of course, I am in hopes come here the day or evening before, that we may have some previous consultation on the subject. I shall also request Genl. Cocke &...
31To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 13 April 1817 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of Feb. 15. having given me the hope you would attend the meeting of the Visitors of the Central college near Charlottesville I lodged one for you at Montpelier notifying that our meeting would be on the day after our April court. A detention at Washington I presume prevented your attendance, and mr. Watson being sick, only Genl. Cocke, mr. Cabell and myself met. Altho’ not a...
32To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 15 April 1817 (Madison Papers)
I sincerely congratulate you on your release from incessant labors, corroding anxieties, active enemies & interested friends, & on your return to your books & farm, to tranquility & independance. A day of these is worth ages of the former, but all this you know. Yours of the 10th. was delivered to me yesterday. Mine of the 13th. had been sent off the moment it was written. We are made happy by...
33Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 5 May 1817 (Madison Papers)
At a meeting of the Visitors of the Central college held at Charlottesville on the 5th. day of May 1817. on a call by three members, to wit, John Hartwell Cocke, Joseph C. Cabell & Th Jefferson, present James Monroe, James Madison, John H. Cocke, and Th: Jefferson. The records of the trustees of the Albemarle academy, in lieu of which the Central college is established, were recieved from...
34To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 22 June 1817 (Madison Papers)
In two packages, distinct from this letter, I return you your father’s meteorological diaries, which you were so kind as to lend me, and a piece on paper money recieved from you some time ago. From the former I have made out tables of rain and snow, and a calendar of animal and vegetable matters announcing the advance of seasons. Having now compleated 7. years of observations since my return...
35To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 23 July 1817 (Madison Papers)
The promptitude & success of our subscription paper, now amounting to upwards of 20,000. D. with a prospect much beyond that renders the decision immediately necessary of some important questions which I had thought might have laid over to our periodical meeting the last of September. Having an opportunity of writing to Genl. Cocke, I invited him to join me in a visit to you on Friday the...
36Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 28 July 1817 (Madison Papers)
At a called meeting of the Visitors of the Central College, held at the House of Mr. Madison in Orange, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Hartwell Cocke, and Joseph C. Cabell, being present: The plan of the first Pavilion to be erected, and the proceedings thereupon, having been stated and agreed to— It is agreed that application be made to Doctor Knox of Baltimore to accept the...
37Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 7 October 1817 (Madison Papers)
At a meeting of the Visitors &c. held at Charlottesville 7. Oct: 1817. On information of the amount of the subscriptions to the Central College, known to be made, and others understood to be so, the board resolves, that the Pavilion now erecting be completed as heretofore directed, with the 20. dormitories attached to it, and that two other pavilions be contracted for and executed the next...
38Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 8 October 1817 (Madison Papers)
At a meeting of the Visitors &c. 8. Oct: 1817. Certain letters from Doctor Thos. Cooper to Th: Jefferson, dated Sep. 17. & 19. received since the meeting of yesterday being communicated to the board of Visitors, and taken into consideration with his former letter of Sep. 16. they are of opinion that it will be for the interest of the College to modify the terms of agreement which might be...
39To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 15 November 1817 (Madison Papers)
We are sadly at a loss here for a Palladio. I had three different editions, but they are at Washington, and nobody in this part of the country has one unless you have. If you have you will greatly aid us by letting us have the use of it for a year to come. It will come safely by the stage, and may be left at the stage office of either Milton or Charlottesville, & either postmaster will pay the...
40To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 December 1817 (Madison Papers)
I returned from Bedford a week ago, after an absence of 6. weeks, and found here the Palladio, with your two favors of Nov. 29. & Dec. 1 & with 3. from Dr. Cooper, written before he had received one from me of Nov. 25. from Poplar Forest. It was agreed, you know, that we should make a report of our proceedings & prospects to the Govr. as our patron to be laid before the legislature. Being...
41To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 2 January 1818 (Madison Papers)
Expecting daily an answer from the President authorising me to sign the within for him I had rather not take on myself a 3d. and therefore send it to you. I have adopted your amendments and made some other small ones. To economise writing I make one letter do for the other gentlemen, joining you with them, altho’ it contains no more than I had before written to you. After signing yourself be...
42To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 6 February 1818 (Madison Papers)
I inclose you a letter from Dr. Cooper, considerably important to the first successes of our college. I will request you to return it to me. I inclose also the answer which I think should be given. If you think so likewise be so good as to seal & forward it. If not, return it, as I should be unwilling to take on myself alone so important a relinquishment. Yet I think it right that we should...
43To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 11 April 1818 (Madison Papers)
Yours of Mar. 29. came duly to hand, but I put off answering it because I expected to have written sooner by the bearer of the present mr. Coffee. Nothing presses as to the payment of the instalment which is the subject of your letter. It may either be paid to the Richmd bank of Virginia, or sent to mr. Garrett or mr. Barksdale by any body happening to be coming, or brought when you come to...
44Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 11 May 1818 (Madison Papers)
At a regular meeting of the Visitors of the Central College on 11th. May 1818, at which Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John H. Cocke, & Joseph C. Cabell, were present, it was agreed, that it being uncertain whether Thomas Cooper would accept the Professorship of Chemistry, in the event of his not doing so, it would be expedient to procure a Professor of Mathematicks. It was also agreed to...
45To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 28 June 1818 (Madison Papers)
Being to set out in a few days for Bedford from whence I shall not return till about a week before our Rockfish meeting, I have been preparing such a report as I can, to be offered there to our colleagues. It is not such an one as I should propose to them to make to an assembly of philosophers, who would require nothing but the table of professorships, but I have endeavored to adapt it to our...
46To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 19 February 1819 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 12th. has been duly recieved, and the pamphlet it covered has been sent to mr. Minor. The late day to which the Governor has fixed the 1st. meeting of the Visitors of the University (the last Monday in March) renders a meeting of the College visitors immediately necessary, some measures of high importance to the institution not admitting that delay; & the Law having authorised us...
47Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 26 February 1819 (Madison Papers)
We The subscribers, Visitors of the Central College, having been specially called to meet on the 26th. day of Feb. 1819, and authorised by the act of the legislature, now in session, for establishing the University of Virginia, to continue the exercise of our former functions, and to fulfill the duties of our successors, Visitors of the sd. University, until their first actual meeting, have...
48To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 3 March 1819 (Madison Papers)
I promised your gardener some seeds which I put under a separate cover and address to you by mail. I also inclose you a letter from mr. Cabell which will shew you that the “sour grapes” of Wm. & Mary are spreading; but certainly not to the “enlightened part of society” as the letter supposes. I have sent him a transcript from our journals that he may see how far we are under engagements to Dr....
49To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 8 March 1819 (Madison Papers)
I now return you the letter from mr. Watson whom I met with on the road as mentioned in mine of the 3d. In consequence of the doubts discovered on the subject of Cooper, I wrote to mr. Cabell, to Correa, and to Cooper himself, and inclose you copies of my letters for perusal that you may see on what ground I place the matter with each. To Cooper I barely hold up the possibility of new views...
50To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 11 March 1819 (Madison Papers)
I inclose you a letter received last night from mr. Cabell containing interesting information as to our University as well as something further with respect to Dr. Cooper. Be so good as to return it with those formerly sent you. I recieved by the same mail a commission as visitor, and an authentic appointment of the last Monday of this month for our first meeting at the University. I have...