1From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 8 August 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Rebello of Brazil, who has rendered us an agreeable visit tells me you will be in Washington on the 10 th and that we may hope to have the pleasure of seeing you here very soon after that. this we shall ever do with heart felt welcome. I am not well. but it is a local complaint which confines me to the house indeed, but intolerable health otherwise, and I shall be much the better for your...
2From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 28 June 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter to miss Wright, and another to yourself which came to me some time ago, but after you were embarked on your Western tour. the uncertainty of their meeting you in any particular part of that tour induced me to think it better to keep them until you should have returned to our Atlantic border. that for miss Wright I commit to the protection of your cover with the...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 16 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I have never been more gratified by the reading of a book than by that of Flourens which you were so kind as to send me Cabanis had gone far toward proving from the anatomical structure of and action of the human machine that certain parts of it were probably the organs of thought, and consequently that matter might exercise that faculty Flourens proves that it does exercise it, and that...
4From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 4 November 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
This, my dear friend will be handed you by Tho s Jefferson Randolph who goes with his fellow citizens to welcome you among us. he is my grandson and as such I am sure you will recieve him kindly, and the more so for his moral merit and the high veneration with which from his cradle he has been taught to entertain for you.—I am just recovered from an illness of some weeks, have been able to...
5From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 9 October 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved, my dear friend and General, your letter of the 1 st from Philada, giving us the welcome assurance that you will visit the neighborhood which, during the march of our enemy near it, was covered by your shield from his robberies and ravages. in passing the line of your former march you will experience pleasing recollections of the good you have done. my neighbors too of our...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 3 September 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
The mail, my dear Friend, succeeding that which brought us the welcome news of your arrival on our shores, brought that of your being to proceed immediately to the North. I delayed therefore, till you should turn Southwardly, to meet you with my sincere congratulations on your safe passage, and restoration to those who love you more than any people on earth. indeed, I fear, they will kill you...
7From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 4 November 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Two dislocated wrists and crippled fingers have rendered writing so slow and laborious as to oblige me to withdraw from nearly all correspondence. not however from yours, while I can make a stroke with a pen. we have gone thro’ too many trying scenes together to forget the sympathies and affections they nourished. your trials have indeed been long and severe. when they will end is yet unknown,...
8From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 28 October 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I will, not, my dear friend, undertake to quote by their dates the several letters you have written me. they have been proofs of your continued friendship to me, and my silence is no evidence of any abatement of mine to you. that can never be while I have breath and recollections so dear to me. among the few survivors of our revolutionary struggles, you are as distinguished in my affections,...
9Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 14 May 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Altho’, dear Sir, much retired from the world, and medling little in it’s concerns, yet I think it almost a religious duty to salute, at times, my old friends, were it only to say, and to know that ‘all’s well.’ our hobby has been politics; but all here is so quiet, and with you so desperate, that little matter is furnished us for active attention. with you too it has long been forbidden...
10Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 17 May 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved, my dear friend, yesterday evening only your letter of Jan. 21. and this day I write to a bookseller in Philadelphia to send immediately, for you, two copies of the Anonymous Review of Montesquieu , under cover to mr Gallatin , if he be not gone. in a letter to him lately, I begged of him to say to yourself and mr T. that I had not the courage to write to either of you, until I...
11Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 11 May 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter of Feb. 14. I mentioned to you that a well qualified author was writing, in my neighborhood, that part of the history of Virginia which embraced your campaign of 1781; and that I was so well satisfied with the ability with which he was executing the work, that I had laid open to him all my papers; and regretted that among them was no longer to be found the Memoir you were so kind...
12Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 14 February 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Aug. 14. has been recieved and read again & again with extraordinary pleasure. it is the first glimpse which has been furnished me of the interior workings of the late unexpected, but fortunate revolution of your country. the newspapers told us only that the great beast was fallen; but what part in this the patriots acted, and what the egoists, whether the former slept while the...
13Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 30 November 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
The last letters I have recieved from you were of Apr. 22. May 20. July 4. of the preceding year. they gave me information of your health, always welcome to the feelings of antient and constant friendship. I hope this continues & will continue until you tire of that and life together.— the Sheperd dogs mentioned in yours of May 20. arrived safely, have been carefully multiplied, and are...
14Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 10 July 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
Since writing my letter of the day before yesterday I have recieved by post the inclosed copy of the Review of Montesquieu which I hasten to forward thro’ you to M. Tray Tracy . had I another it should have been devoted to you. it is even doubtful whether this may reach Washington in time to find mr Warden still there. I am not without hopes he will have been able to get a copy & carry it with...
15Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 8 July 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just recieved your letter of Mar. 12. and learning by our yesterday’s post that mr Barlow & mr Warden will sail in the course of the week, I endeavor by this day’s return of the mail to get an answer into their hands before their departure. I feel very sensibly the reproaches of silence pressed in your letter. a few days before my departure from Washington (in Feb. 1809) I wrote you on...
16Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 20 January 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege, my dear friend, the reciept of many of your letters , within the last twelvemonth , and altho’ I have not answered them specifically to yourself, yet I have not been inattentive or inactive as to their contents. on leaving the government, two years ago, I knew I could not serve you so effectually as by committing the whole care of your Orleans affairs to the President ....
17From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 24 February 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
In the hurry of the approaching close of a session of Congress and of the preparations for my own departure from this place, I must drop you a line by a public vessel going to France, altho’ it can be but a short one. on politics I will say nothing; that being safest for you as well as myself. for those of our own country I will refer you to mr Coles, the bearer of this, my Secretary, who is...
18From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 18 July 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
A letter from mr Duplantier has come to hand since writing mine of the 15th. & still in time for the departure of our vessel. you will observe that he confirms the inexpediency of a present sale of the lands at Pointe coupée. I always knew that the greater part of the location near N. Orleans was covered with a thin pellicle of water, which a ditch & dyke of about 3 feet & 1000. D. cost would...
19From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 15 July 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved, by the Osage, your letter of Apr. 8. When that vessel sailed the pressure of Congressional business made it impossible for me to say any thing to you on the subject of your affairs. but by the St. Michael, which sailed early in May, you will have recieved my letter of Apr. 29. which would anticipate in some degree the objects of yours of Apr. 8. nevertheless on the reciept of...
20From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 28 April 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you last on the 14th. of July; since which I have recieved your several favors of July 8. Aug. 11. Sep. 10. Dec. 5. & Jan. 11. this last has been a sincere affliction to me. my knolege of the extraordinary worth of our deceased friend, her amiable & excellent character, her value to yourself, your family & friends, and the void it would make at the house of La Grange, sufficiently...
21From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 14 July 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your letters of Feb. 20. & Apr. 29. and a vessel just sailing from Baltimore enables me hastily to acknolege them, to assure you of the welcome with which I recieve whatever comes from you, & the continuance of my affectionate esteem for yourself & family. I learn with much concern indeed the state of Mde. de la Fayette’s health. I hope I have the pleasure yet to come of...
22From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 26 May 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I am a bad correspondent; but it is not from want of inclination, nor that I do nothing, but that having too much to do, I leave undone that which admits delay with least injury. your letter of Nov. 16. is just now recieved, and it gives me great pleasure that a person so well acquainted with the localities as M. Pitot has been able to give you so favorable an account of your lands. that his...
23From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 14 February 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letters of 1805 which I have to acknolege are of Apr. 20. and June 4. the last delivered by M. De Lessert a week ago. in your preceding ones of 1804. the reason assigned for your not venturing across the ocean was certainly weighty, as a capture by the English would have been a very serious misfortune. your presence at New Orleans would give security to our government there. but in the...
24From Thomas Jefferson to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 10 March 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of July 1. came to hand Oct. 24. and gave me the hope I should soon recieve your instructions as to the location of your lands in the territory of Orleans. nothing however has yet been recieved from you on that head. in the mean time by an act passed this last session of Congress you will be obliged to take it in parcels of not less than 1000 acres each. these are adjacent to the...
25From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 30 March 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I formerly, my dear friend, mentioned to you my wish that we might be able to get the value of your lands here increased by a permission to locate them in some more favorable position. but I feared to represent this to you as any thing more than a wish, that no false hopes might be excited. you understand yourself how little we can answer for the determinations of numerous bodies of men, of...
26From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 13 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved a letter from you the last year, and it has been several since I wrote one to you. during the earlier part of the period it could never have got to your hands; & during the latter, such has been the state of politics on both sides of the water, that no communications were safe. nevertheless I have never ceased to nourish a sincere friendship for you, & to take a lively interest in...
27From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 16 June 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
Behold you then, my dear friend, at the head of a great army, establishing the liberties of your country against a foreign enemy. May heaven favor your cause, and make you the channel thro’ which it may pour it’s favors. While you are exterminating the monster aristocracy, and pulling out the teeth and fangs of it’s associate monarchy, a contrary tendency is discovered in some here. A sect has...
28From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 21 November 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Trumbull proposing to have his paintings of the principal actions of the American war engraved, by subscription, and supposing that some sets may be subscribed for in France, knows too well the value of your patronage there not to be ambitious of obtaining it. But he knows so little his own value, and your sense of it, as to believe that my recommendations to you may be of service to him....
29From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 24 April 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
Permit me, my dear friend, to present to you the bearer hereof, Mr. Horrÿ, a young gentleman of South Carolina, who is setting out on a tour of travel, which will include Paris. He is a nephew of General Pinckney’s. Of course you know his connections to be of the most distinguished of that country. I am not personally acquainted with him, but am authorised on good information to assure you he...
30From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 2 April 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
Behold me, my dear friend, dubbed Secretary of state, instead of returning to the far more agreeable position which placed me in the daily participation of your friendship. I found the appointment in the newspapers the day of my arrival in Virginia. I had indeed been asked while in France whether I would accept of any appointment at home, and I had answered that without meaning to remain long...
31[From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 30 August 1789] (Jefferson Papers)
[ Paris, 30 Aug. 1789. Recorded in SJL under this date. Not found.]
32XII. Jefferson to Lafayette, 10 July 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
The acknowledgement by Monsieur de Mirabeau to the national assembly that he had been in an error as to the offer he supposed me to have made, and the reading to them my letter, seems to be all that was requisite for any just purpose. As I was unwilling my name should be used to injure the minister, I am also unwilling it should be used to injure Monsieur de Mirabeau. I learn that his enemies...
33XI. Jefferson to Lafayette, 9 July 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Having been curious to form some estimate of the quantity of corn and flour which have been supplied to France this year, I applied to a person in the farms, to know upon what quantities the premium had been paid. He could not give me information but as to the Atlantic ports into which there has been imported from the united states from March to May inclusive 44,116 quintals of corn 12,221...
34IV. Jefferson to Lafayette, 7 July 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter on the subject of what Mr. Mirabeau said which you were so good as to say you would have read in the assembly. I find that there has been imported from the United States into the Atlantic ports of France from March to May inclusive 44,116 quintals of corn 12,221 quintals of flour making 56,337 quintals. Add to this what has been imported since the month of May, suppose...
35V. Jefferson to Lafayette, 7 July 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of yesterday gave me the first information that Monsieur de Mirabeau had supposed to the honorable the assembly of the nation that I had made an offer to Mr. Necker to obtain from America a quantity of corn or flour, which had been refused. I know not how Monsieur de Mirabeau has been led into this error. I never in my life made any proposition to Mr. Necker on the subject: I never...
36II. Jefferson to Lafayette, 6 July 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I never made an offer to any body to have corn or flour brought here, from America: no such idea ever entered my head. Mr. Necker desired me to give information in America that there would be a want of flour. I did so in a letter to Mr. Jay , which he published with my name to it for the encouragement of the merchants. Those here who have named me on this subject, must have mistaken me for Mr....
37From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 12 June 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
As I may not be able to get at you at Versailles I write this to deliver it myself at your door. With respect to the utility or inutility of your minority’s joining the Commons I am unable to form an opinion for myself. I know too little of the subject to see what may be it’s consequences. I never knew an instance of the English parliament’s undertaking to relieve the poor by a distribution of...
38From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 3 June 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Revolving further in my mind the idea started yesterday evening of the king’s coming forward in a seance royale and offering a charter containing all the good in which all parties agree, I like it more and more. I have ventured to sketch such a charter merely to convey my idea, which I now inclose to you, as I do also to M. de St. Etienne. I write him a letter of apology for my meddling in a...
39From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 6 May 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
As it becomes more and more possible that the Noblesse will go wrong, I become uneasy for you. Your principles are decidedly with the tiers etat, and your instructions against them. A complaisance to the latter on some occasions and an adherence to the former on others, may give an appearance of trimming between the two parties which may lose you both. You will in the end go over wholly to the...
40From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, [26 March?] 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I am plagued to death with the applications of people who knowing the friendship you are so good as to entertain for me, wish to make use of it for their purposes. In general I get rid of them by a positive refusal to add to the thousands of applications and perplexities which you have already. You will see that the inclosed however cannot be parried altogether. I cannot refuse to send it to...
41From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 19 November 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you my dear Sir my Observations on the Whale fishery. The translator and printer have been cruelly long about them. I send copies of them to M. de Montmorin, Luzerne, Neckar, and Lambert. You know there was a blank left at the end of the arret shewn us on Sunday night, as to the manner of proving our oil. I suspect Chardon so much, that I shall not be easy without knowing how it is...
42From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 11 April 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
Your head, my dear friend, is full of Notable things; and being better employed, therefore, I do not expect letters from you. I am constantly roving about, to see what I have never seen before and shall never see again. In the great cities, I go to see what travellers think alone worthy of being seen; but I make a job of it, and generally gulp it all down in a day. On the other hand, I am...
43From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 28 February 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I am just now, my dear Sir, in the moment of my departure. Monsr. de Montmorin having given us audience at Paris yesterday, I missed the opportunity of seeing you once more. I am extremely pleased with his modesty, the simplicity of his manners, and his dispositions towards us. I promise myself a great deal of satisfaction in doing business with him. I hope he will not give ear to any...
44From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 3 November 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved your favor of the second instant . The reason for my importing harness from England is a very obvious one. They are plated, and plated harness is not made at all in France as far as I have learnt. It is not from a love of the English but a love of myself that I sometimes find myself obliged to buy their manufactures. I must make one observation with respect to the use I make of...
45From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 24 August 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
Your other friends here being so much better qualified to give you the transactions of this metropolis during your absence, it would be presumption in me to touch on them. I assume therefore the office of your correspondent for American affairs, in the discharge of which I may stand a chance to communicate to you details which you cannot get in the ordinary course of your correspondence, and...
46From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, with Enclosure, 17 July 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I have now the honour of inclosing to you an estimate of the Exports and Imports of the United states. Calculations of this kind cannot pretend to accuracy, where inattention and fraud combine to suppress their objects. Approximation is all they can aim at. Neither care nor candour have been wanting on my part to bring them as near the truth as my skill and materials would enable me to do. I...
47From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 17 June 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
It seems that a writ of surseance is what Mr. Ridout desires. In what cases this is granted, by what power, and thro whom the applications go, I am ignorant, as I have always declined asking them for any body; my idea having been that where they could be obtained according to fixed rules, they would be granted of course on any application; and that where it was not agreeable to rule to grant...
48From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 15 June 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
Monsr. Famin called on me on the subject of making Honfleur a free port; and wished me to sollicit it. I told him that it was for our interest, as for that also of all the world, that every port of France and of every other country should be free; that therefore we must wish Honfleur to be made so; that if the matter was in agitation the Count de Vergennes would probably speak of it to me in...
49From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 20 February 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I forgot last night a very material circumstance in my calculation. The Farmers general are, by their bail, obliged to keep a certain provision of tobacco and snuff always on hand. I believe it is three years consumption. However for fear of error I will call it two years; because were the bail silent on this head they would certainly have always on hand one year’s stock ready for manufacture,...
50From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 9 February 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
The Mr. John Ledyard, who proposes to undertake the journey through the Northern parts of Asia and America, is a citizen of Connecticut, one of the united states of America. He accompanied Capt. Cook in his last voiage to the North-western parts of America, and rendered himself useful to that officer, on some occasions, by a spirit of enterprize which has distinguished his whole life. He has...