2201From Thomas Jefferson to Stephen Cathalan, Jr., 28 February 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I take the liberty of putting under cover to you the inclosed letter to Mr. Russell-Graves, hoping that if he should be gone from Marseilles you may know how to address it so as that he may receive it. With compliments to your father and the ladies I have the honor to be with great esteem & attachment Dr. Sir your most obedt. & most humble servt., PrC ( MHi ). Enclosure: TJ to Thomas...
2202From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Russell-Greaves, 28 February 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have now the honour to inclose you two introductory letters from the Chargé des affaires of Naples at this court (Mr. Pio) to his friends at Naples.—We have news from America as late as the middle of January. The elections for the new Congress were going on well and were generally in favor of federalists. Genl. Washington will unquestionably be president, and it is thought Mr. John Adams...
2203From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 28 February 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you last on the 9th. instant. Yours of the 11th. came to hand yesterday evening. Some of it’s enquiries will have been already answered to you. We have now information from America down to the middle of January. Things were going on so well that our letters afford nothing interesting scarcely. The opposition to the new constitution grows feebler. Every where the elections are federal....
2204From Thomas Jefferson to Edward Bancroft, 1 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Feb. 20. came to hand by the last post and I have this day had a consultation with Mr. Paradise on the articles which concern him. With respect to the naming three trustees, all among his friends, and also the omitting to convey the money in the funds to the trustees, we both agree in sentiment with you, if the creditors will consent to it. It was the fear of their dissent which...
2205From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
My last letters have been of the 11th. 14th. and 21st. of January. The present conveyance being thro’ the post to Havre from whence a vessel is to sail for New York, I avail myself of it principally to send you the newspapers. That of Leyden of the 24th. contains a note of the Chargé des affaires of France at Warsaw which is interesting. It shews a concert between France and Russia; it is a...
2206From Thomas Jefferson to Fulwar Skipwith, 1 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I am able at length to snatch a moment to answer your favor of the 1st. ult. I am in hopes of being able to sail from Havre about the latter part of April. This however depends on the arrival of my congé which I have not yet received. I am very anxious to get out so early as to enable me to return between the autumnal equinox and commencement of cold weather. I shall hope to have the pleasure...
2207From Thomas Jefferson to Edward Bancroft, 2 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just received a letter of Jan. 31. from Admiral Paul Jones at Petersburgh, which charging me with the execution of some commissions, and these requiring money, he tells me you will answer my draughts to the amount of 4. or 5000 livres on his account. Be so good as to inform me whether you will pay such draughts. A Monsr. Foulloy, who has been connected with Deane, lately offered me for...
2208From Thomas Jefferson to Nicolas van Staphorst, 3 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
When I had the pleasure of seeing you at Amsterdam, you informed me that Admiral Paul-Jones had drawn on you for a sum of money (I think it was about one hundred guineas) to enable him to proceed in the business confided to him at Copenhagen, which I advised you to accept, and undertook, if he should not replace it, to have it credited to you in your accounts with the United states. I must now...
2209From Thomas Jefferson to William Carmichael, 4 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
My last to you was of the 25th. of December. Tho’ the establishment of packet boats with you, and suppression of them with us, puts it in your power perhaps to give me better details of American affairs than I can you, I shall nevertheless continue to communicate to you what I know, persuaded it is better you should hear a thing twice than not hear it at all. I mentioned to you in my last that...
2210From Thomas Jefferson to Quesnay de Beaurepaire, 4 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Where an enterprize, to ensure it’s effect, requires a given Capital in money, and in order to raise that capital it is divided into actions, it is not understood that the enterprize is to be commenced till all the actions are disposed of. To begin with a little sum what requires a great one, is to throw that little sum away. Again when the actions are all disposed of and a partial sum is...
2211From Thomas Jefferson to John Bondfield, 8 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I am now to acknolege the receipt of your several favors of Jan. 14. Feb. 14. and 21. Immediately on the receipt of the first I lodged an order with Mr. Grand to pay the 340₶. 16 to Mr. Vernon, because I did not know where he was to be found, and I supposed Mr. Grand to know it. Vernon called on me however for the first time in his life, and then went and received his money at Mr. Grand’s....
2212From Thomas Jefferson to C. W. F. Dumas, 8 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of Dec. 11. Jan. 23. and Mar. 3. have been duly received. Your despatches for Mr. Jay always go by the first safe conveyance after they come. I have been long acknowleging the receipt of your former letters because during the winter a very sick family prevented my attending to any but the most indispensable business, and because I saw by your zealous and judicious publications in...
2213From Thomas Jefferson to André Limozin, 8 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I am now to acknowlege the receipt of your favors of Dec.—Jan. 18. and Feb. 28. On the subject of the latter I have to inform you that I am an utter stranger to Mr. Silas Talbot father of the two young Americans at Brest, and never heard even his name till a few days before your letter came to hand. I received one from him, dated John’stown N. York Nov. 20. 1788. wherein he informs me he has...
2214From Thomas Jefferson to Madame d’Anterroches, 9 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
J’ai l’honneur de vous annoncer qu’on vient d’etablir des paquetbotes qui doivent partir de Bourdeaux pour la Nouvelle York tous les deux mois, c’est à dire le 15. de Janvier, Mars, Mai, Juillet, Septembre et Novembre, et que ces paquets-botes vous offriront toujours des occasions tres sures d’envoyer des lettres ou des effets à Elizabeth town qui est dans la voisinage de la Nouvelle York. Il...
2215From Thomas Jefferson to Ladevese, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
La lettre que vous avez bien voulu m’envoyer pour Monsieur Laurence lui a eté expedié de ma part dans le tems, et j’aurai l’honneur de lui faire tenir encore toutes celles que vous aurez occasion de lui addresser. Il y a un jeune Americain, Monsieur Rutledge, qui est de la Caroline meridionale, et qui doit passer par Avignon et Nismes dans le courant des mois de Mars et Avril. Il fera un...
2216From Thomas Jefferson to Malesherbes, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your zeal to promote the general good of mankind by an interchange of useful things, and particularly in the line of agriculture, and the weight which your rank and station would give to your interposition, induce me to ask it for the purpose of obtaining one of the species of rice which grows in Cochin-china on high lands, and which needs no other watering than the ordinary rains. The sun and...
2217From Thomas Jefferson to Jonathan Nesbitt, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I did not expect you so soon to-day, or I should have come in in time to have the pleasure of seeing you. The safe-conduct which I asked and obtained of Monsieur de Villedeuil was for you as a Courier, bringing dispatches to me from our Secretary for foreign affairs. The answers to these dispatches being now ready I cannot ask a continuance of that safe conduct. But so far as my consent to...
2218From Thomas Jefferson to Parent, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
J’ai reçu bien conditionnés les quatre paniers de vin de Meursault que vous avez eu la bonté de m’expedier, et je serai pret d’en payer le montant à votre ordre quand vous voulez bien la faire presenter. Je vous prie meme de le faire auplutot parce que je conte de partir le mois prochain pour l’Amerique, d’où je ne serai de retour que l’automne. À cet epoque là j’aurai besoin de m’adresser à...
2219From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Lee Shippen, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I had wished to acknolege the receipt of your favors of Jan. 19. and Feb. 3. by a private conveiance; but none such having occurred nor being likely to occur, I must write you such a letter as may go through the inspection of both post offices. The affairs of this country are still going on well. There are loud contestations indeed in one or two of the provinces, and in Britany these have come...
2220From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Vaughan, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Knowing how ready you are to interest yourself in whatever may promote the happiness of mankind I take the liberty of addressing you on a subject very interesting to a part of the United states. You know that the several species of rice cultivated in Piedmont, Egypt and Carolina require to be laid under water during a certain season of the year, and therefore occasion pestilential fevers which...
2221From Thomas Jefferson to Willink & Van Staphorst, 11 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
In your letter of the 2d. instant you refer me to a resolution of Congress which appropriates the loans of 1787. and 1788. to the paiment of interest to the year 1790 and the residue to the salaries of their ministers and the contingent expences which may arise in Europe, and you suppose that this manner of wording the resolution postpones the articles of salaries and contingencies to that of...
2222To John Jay from Thomas Jefferson, 12 March 1789 (Jay Papers)
I had the honour of addressing you on the 1 st . instant through the post. I write the present incertain whether mr Nesbitt, the bearer of your last, will be the bearer of this, or whether it may not have to wait some other private occasion. they have re-established their packet-boats here indeed; but they are to go from Bordeaux, which being between four & five hundred miles from hence, is...
2223From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 12 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honour of addressing you on the 1st. instant through the post. I write the present, incertain whether Mr. Nesbitt, the bearer of your last, will be the bearer of this, or whether it may not have to wait some other private occasion. They have reestablished their packet-boats here indeed; but they are to go from Bordeaux, which being between four and five hundred miles from hence, is...
2224From Thomas Jefferson to James Lackington, 12 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I received last night your catalogue, and the post being to set out this morning I send you, on the next leaf , a list of those I wish to take. The warning being too short to procure a bill of exchange and send it by this post, it shall follow by the next which leaves this place four days hence. In the mean time be so good as to pack the books in a light box, and after four days from your...
2225From Thomas Jefferson to D’Estaing, 13 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
My friend Mr. Short, who is returning from Italy, expects to pass by Toulon, and wishes permission to see the docks and arsenals of that place. It is understood that this is not permitted without a special order. I therefore take the liberty of asking from you a letter to any person at Toulon who can procure this gratification for Mr. Short and also for Mr. Rutledge who is with him. They have...
2226From Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 13 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my last, which was of Dec. 21. yours of Dec. 9. and 21. are received. Accept my thanks for the papers and pamphlets which accompanied them, and mine and my daughter’s for the book of songs. I will not tell you how much they have pleased us nor how well the last of them merits praise for it’s pathos, but relate a fact only, which is that while my elder daughter was playing it on the...
2227From Thomas Jefferson to Moustier, 13 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have now to acknolege the honor of your several letters of Aug. 12. Oct. 17. and Nov. 27. and your postscript to Madame de Brehan’s of Dec. 29. I have been discouraged from writing to you by the idea that your friends here must give you infinitely more exact information of what is passing, than I could do, who see things imperfectly only, as a stranger. But your complaints of the...
2228From Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Bréhan, 14 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honour of writing to you on the 15th. of February, soon after which I had that of receiving your favor of Dec. 29. I have a thousand questions to ask you about your journey to the Indian treaty, how you like their persons, their manners, their costume, cuisine &c. But this I must refer till I can do it personally in New York, where I hope to see you for a moment in the summer, and to...
2229From Thomas Jefferson to the Commissioners of the Treasury, 14 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
No opportunity having occurred to send my letter of Feb. 27. I have had time to receive an answer from our bankers, and to write them again. In their answer they quote some resolution of Congress appropriating the monies borrowed in 1787. and 1788. to the paiment of interest to the end of the year 1790. on the Dutch loans, and the residue to salaries and contingent expences arising in Europe....
2230To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 15 March 1789 (Madison Papers)
I wrote you last on the 12th. of Jan. since which I have received your’s of Octob. 17. Dec. 8. & 12. That of Oct. 17. came to hand only Feb. 23. How it happened to be four months on the way, I cannot tell, as I never knew by what hand it came. Looking over my letter of Jan. 12th. I remark an error of the word ‘probable’ instead of ‘improbable,’ which doubtless however you had been able to...
2231From Thomas Jefferson to Edward Bancroft, 15 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 10th. is just now received, and as the refusal of one of Mr. Paradise’s creditors to accede to the deed of trust, will occasion some change in Mr. Paradise’s plan this again will require that the whole be dispatched. As the post goes out in the morning, and his lodgings are very distant from me I cannot consult him expressly on the occasion, but many conversations have put me...
2232From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 15 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Since closing my letters which accompany this I have received an answer from London on the subject of the other volumes of Deane’s letters and accounts suggested to be still in his possession. This information renders it certain that none such are in his possession, and probable that no others exist but the two which I have purchased. I am in hopes therefore we may conclude that the recovery...
2233From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 15 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you last on the 12th. of Jan. since which I have received yours of Octob. 17. Dec. 8. and 12. That of Oct. 17. came to hand only Feb. 23. How it happened to be four months on the way, I cannot tell, as I never knew by what hand it came. Looking over my letter of Jan. 12th. I remark an error of the word ‘probable’ instead of ‘improbable,’ which doubtless however you had been able to...
2234From Thomas Jefferson to John Trumbull, 15 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 10th. is come to hand to-day. I inclose you a bill of exchange of £25. from Grand & co. on Thelusson fils & co. in order to face my affairs with which I give you so much trouble. I expect Lackington will call on you as soon as you receive this for a sum of about £5. Be so good as to tell him to add to my catalogue No. 5894. Baretti 3/. (He will understand this.) Besides this...
2235From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 16 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
That you may see whether any of my letters to you or of yours to me have miscarried, I will here state them. Mine have been Sep. 20. 24. Nov. 21. Dec. 8. Jan. 22. Feb. 9. 28. Yours which have been received are Sep. 24. Oct. 2. 3. 11. 18. 28. Nov. 19. 29. Dec. 23. 31. Jan. 14. Feb. 11. 17. 25. We have no news from America since my last. This country is entirely occupied in electioneering, which...
2236From Thomas Jefferson to John Trumbull, 16 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you by yesterday’s post. The present is merely to avail myself of a private conveiance which occurs to London to send you my American dispatches and pray you to forward them by the first safe conveiance to New York preferably to any other port. Vessels going to Philadelphia have to go up the river, a navigation of many days. Those going to Boston expose us to as long an intermediate...
2237From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Paine, 17 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
My last letter to you extended from Dec. 23. to Jan. 11. A confidential opportunity now arising I can acknolege the receipt of yours of Jan. 15. at the date of which you could not have received mine. You know long ago that the meeting of the States is to be at Versailles on the 27th. of April. This country is entirely occupied in it’s elections which go on quietly and well. The Duke d’Orleans...
2238From Thomas Jefferson to William Gordon, 18 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I received in due time your favor of Dec. 9. and also the six copies of your history. I put off acknoleging the receipt in hopes I might find time previously to read them. But that time is not yet come, and I am unwilling longer to delay my thanks for your attention in sending them. I have had occasion to consult your history in various parts, and have always done it with satisfaction. In...
2239From Thomas Jefferson to David Humphreys, 18 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Nov. 29. 1788. came to hand the last month. How it happened that mine of Aug. 1787. was fourteen months on it’s way is inconceivable. I do not recollect by what conveyance I sent it. I had concluded however either that it had miscarried or that you had become indolent as most of our countrymen are in matters of correspondence. The change in this country, since you left it, is...
2240From Thomas Jefferson to Jean Baptiste de Gouvion, 19 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have had the honor heretofore of apprising you of the measures taken for paiment of the arrearages of interest due to the foreign officers, and that it rested on two points. 1. The success of a loan opened in Holland. 2. Orders from America to apply to that object so much of the money to be borrowed when so much shall be in hand. The last object is fulfilled by the resolution of Congress...
2241From Thomas Jefferson to John Paul Jones, 23 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Jan. 20/31 from Petersburg came safe to hand, and is the only proof we have received of your existence since you left Copenhagen. I mention this that, reflecting how and what you have written heretofore, you may know how and what you may write hereafter. I shall put nothing into this letter but what is important to you, and unimportant to any government thro which it may pass. To...
2242From Thomas Jefferson to MacCarthy Brothers, 23 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have the honor to acknolege your favor without date as also that [enclosed from Mr. Alexander Cain of] Bordeaux [who has desired] me to apply to the government so the bounty [….] which bounty [….] because [….] has mislaid or lost his clearance, and can only supply it by his own oath and that of others of his crew. I cannot ask of the government in any one case what I would not ask in every...
2243From Thomas Jefferson to François Soulés, 23 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have had the honor of notifying to you before that the manuscript which I put into your hands contained notes which I had made, in the course of my reading for my own use as the member of a legislature in America. As such it was necessary for me to know not only the law of the moment but what it had been at other times. The qualifications of a knight of a shire have been different at...
2244From Thomas Jefferson to James Swan, 23 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Jefferson has the honor to present his compliments to Mr. Swan and to express his regret that his absence today prevented him the pleasure of seeing him. He now returns him his letters in which he finds a great deal of good matter, and many useful views. In the course of perusing them, Mr. Jefferson noted on a bit of paper the following doubts, the importance and justice of which are...
2245From Thomas Jefferson to Edward Bancroft, 24 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I informed you in my last that I would write you again on the subject of Admiral Paul Jones’s affairs. He had provided another fund for fulfilling his objects, and only desired me to call on you by way of supplement. I have therefore waited till I could know the extent of that fund; and I now find it is more than sufficient to answer the purposes with which I am charged: so that there will be...
2246From Thomas Jefferson to Lucy Ludwell Paradise, 24 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Very much to do must always be my apology for acknoleging so late the receipt of your letters, and it will always be a true one in my present situation. I have been the less uneasy about this as I have from time to time mentioned to Doctor Bancroft what was necessary in the way of business. We wait with anxiety to hear whether the refusing creditor has yet come in. Tho’ Mr. Paradise does not...
2247From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 24 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you last on the 16th. inst. and since that have received yours of the 2d. inst. from Rome. By this I find you would leave Rome the 4th. and I am much afraid you will have left Florence before a letter will get there which I wrote Feb. 28. inclosing my commission for Genoa. I think I sent this letter to Florence under cover to your bankers: yet I am not sure that I did not send it to...
2248From Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Willard, 24 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been lately honoured with your letter of Sep. 24. 1788. accompanied by a diploma for a doctorate of laws which the University of Harvard has been pleased to confer on me. Conscious how little I merit it, I am the more sensible of their goodness and indulgence to a stranger who has had no means of serving or making himself known to them. I beg you to return them my grateful thanks, and...
2249From Thomas Jefferson to D’Aranda, 25 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I shall always be happy to find occasions of expressing the respect and veneration for you with which I was inspired during your residence at Paris. I wish you may think this a sufficient justification of the desire I feel of being sometimes recalled to your memory, as well as of the liberty I take in recommending to your notice the gentleman who will have the honor of presenting you this. He...
2250From Thomas Jefferson to William Carmichael, 25 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Rutledge, the son of Governor Rutledge of South Carolina, will have the honour of delivering you this. I suppose you must have been personally acquainted with his father, but surely so by reputation. It would suffice therefore to announce his son to you, in order to obtain your attentions and friendly offices for him. It is to gratify myself then that I add my sollicitations to the same...