3031From Thomas Jefferson to Matthew Clay, 19 September 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday your favor of the 1st. proposing to take a command in the corps of militia or of volunteers which may be called into service. no body sees with more satisfaction than myself the readiness with which our fellow citizens, and yourself particularly, offer their services on an occasion so interesting to our country, and it is possible that the promptitude of the offers may...
3032Thomas Jefferson to Paul A. Clay, [ca. 12 July 1817] (Jefferson Papers)
1. never spend your money before you have it. 2. never buy what you don’t want, because it is cheap: it will be dear to you. 3. take care of your pence . the pounds will take care of themselves. 4 3. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold. 5 4. never put off to tomorrow what you can do to-day. 6 5. never trouble another for what you can do yourself. 7. never do a good thing by...
3033From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 14 October 1799 (Jefferson Papers)
In compliance with your request I send you on the next page a copy of the passage from my journal which I must have read to you on the subject of the Parmesan cheese, without changing a word. I wish you success in the manufacture; for tho’ it has been tried without success in other parts of Europe, it may answer here. there must be some part of America correspondent to Lombardy where this...
3034From Thomas Jefferson to the Rev. Charles Clay, 21 May 1773 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Carr is to be buried at this place, and I am to beg the favor of you to officiate at his funeral and to give a sermon. I have fixed on no day because I knew not what day would suit you. You will therefore be pleased to appoint one and to inform me of it by the bearer. Any day after Monday would suit me, and the sooner the better, because I left Mr. Warples in so low a situation that his...
3035From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 11 September 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Aug. 8. came duly to hand, and I should with pleasure have done what you therein desired, as I ever should what would serve or oblige you: but from a very early period of my life I determined never to intermeddle with elections of the people, and have invariably adhered to this determination. In my own county, where there have been so many elections in which my inclinations were...
3036From Thomas Jefferson to the Rev. Charles Clay, 27 January 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
I had hoped that during my stay here I could have had the pleasure of seeing you in Bedford, but I find it will be too short for that. Besides views of business in that county I had wished again to visit that greatest of our curiosities the Natural bridge, and did not know but you might have the same desire.—I do not know yet how I am to be disposed of, whether kept at New York or sent back to...
3037Thomas Jefferson to Major Clayton, 15 August 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
By a letter of July 8. from D r Wallace , lately recieved, I am informed that a servant of his coming on to this place with a bun packet addressed to me, was taken sick at Culpeper court house & returned home, and that you had been so kind as to recieve the packet. on this ground I send the bearer for it, and ask the favor of it’s being delivered to him, tendering at the same time my thanks...
3038From Thomas Jefferson to Gaudenzio Clerici, 2 August 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter came to hand too late to allow time for doing what was necessary to be done, and to go by yesterday’s post. The present therefore cannot leave this place till the post of the day after tomorrow. Having no means of procuring you a credit on Chalons sur Saone, I have taken a letter from Mr. Grand, banker here to Messrs. Vve. Rameau & fils à Dijon for eight louis, which you will find...
3039From Thomas Jefferson to Gaudenzio Clerici, 31 August 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter finds me with only three Louis and six livres in the world, nor any means of commanding more for several days to come. My situation here exposes me to expences and advances which keep me constantly distressed for money, so that I assure you there is not a poorer person than myself. I send you all I have, being seventy eight livres and wish it was ten times as much, since no use I...
3040From Thomas Jefferson to Gaudenzio Clerici, 15 August 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I cannot express to you how great was my concern on returning here to find a letter of your’s dated Novara, March 5. I had passed thro’ Novara the 20th. of April, and surely if I had had the least suspicion of your being there I should have found you out. Since that I have also received your favor of July 14. by which I presume you are fixed in the neighborhood of Ticino in the Milanese. I...
3041From Thomas Jefferson to Clérisseau, 2 June 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
Monsieur Jefferson a l’honneur de souhaiter [le bonjour] à Monsieur Clerissaut, et de lui envoyer trois cents [livres] pour ses deboursements indiqués dans la note qu’il a [eu] la bonté de lui remettre. [Il] reste à dedomm[ager M. Cle]rissault pour s’avoir preté avec tant de bonté [aux désirs] de Monsieur Jefferson. Monsr. Jefferson s’y […] pour qu’il ose apprecier le tems et les [travaux? de...
3042From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Louis Clérisseau, 7 June 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
En visitant le cabinet de Segur à Nismes, mon cher Monsieur, j’y observais un vase antique qu’on avoit fouillé dans les ruines de cette ville, qui me frappoit beaucoup par sa singularité et sa beauté. A qui peut on penser à Nismes qu’à lui qui nous a donné ses beaux restes? Et à qui aurois-je dû penser, moi, qu’a lui qui m’a aidé à transplanter le plus beau de ces restes en ma patrie? Je me...
3043From Thomas Jefferson to the Clerk of Henrico County, 9 August 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
The Executive having thought it expedient to erect a magazine and Laboratory on certain Lands within your county of the property of Thomas Booth and Jno. Ballendine, lying near to the foundery, and having for that purpose had laid off and described by certain metes and bounds by the surveyor of the said county two acres and three quarters of the said lands of Thomas Booth, and three acres and...
3044Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 15 March 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to mr Clinton , and his thanks for the copy he has been so kind as to send him of his Introductory discourse to the Literary and Philosophical society of New York . the field which he has therein spread before the lovers of science offers ample room for their cultivation. and he is happy to observe that New York is so fast advancing to the work. she is...
3045From Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 30 April 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly received your favor of the 11 th with the description it covered of the Otsego Basse. born and bred among mountains, I have had less opportunity of becoming acquainted with the fishy tribe, however interesting, than with any other the objects of natural history. I should expect that the great inland seas of our country, insulated as they are, would furnish many examples of...
3046From Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 2 December 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 26th. ult. has been recieved. mr Van Wyck’s appointment as Commr. of bankruptcy only awaits mr Sandford’s resignation. the papers in the case of Lt. Wolstencroft shall be recommended to the enquiries & attentions of the Secretary at War. I should think it indeed a serious misfortune should a change in the administration of your government be hazarded before it’s present...
3047From Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 3 April 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson requests the favor of Mr. Clinton’s company to dinner and chess on Tuesday next at half after three, or at whatever later hour the house may rise. Saturday Apl. 3. 1802. The favor of an answer is asked. RC (Philip D. Sang, Chicago, 1960); in Meriwether Lewis’s hand.
3048From Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 12 December 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you, Dear Sir, for the little volume sent me on the Natural history and resources of N. York. it an instructive, interesting and agreeably written account of the riches of a country to which your great canal gives value and issue, and of the wealth which it creates from what without it would have had no value. Altho’ I do not recollect the conversation with Judge Firman referred to in...
3049From Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 24 May 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to mr Clinton & his thanks for the pamphlet sent him. he recollects the having read it at the time with a due sense of his obligation to the author whose name was surmised tho’ not absolutely known, and a conviction that he had made the most of his matter. the ground of defence might have been solidly aided by the assurance (which is the absolute fact)...
3050From Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 12 June 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
On reading the inclosed letters, the bouncing airs the writer gives himself induced me to suspect he was not what he called himself. I sent my Secretary to Genl. Turreau with the letter to enquire who the writer was. they knew nothing of him, & their suspicions were not very different from mine. I should have taken no farther notice of the case but that the writer says the Attorney Genl. of N....
3051Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 14 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege the receipt of your favor of Mar. 27. of the very valuable Treatise on Inland navigation, and of the several reports on the junction of the waters of lakes Erie and Champlain with those of the Hudson . the conception is bold and great, and the accomplishment will be equally useful. the works of Europe in that line shrink into insignificance in comparison with these. having...
3052From Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 29 January 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 18th. has been duly recieved and considered. it proposes that 4. forts, estimated at two millions of Dollars shall be erected for defence of the harbour of N. York. no body suffers more anxiety than I do on account of the present defenceless situation of our harbours. but there exists no law under which fortifications can be erected but that of 1798 . this permits the debtor...
3053Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 2 May 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Apr. 6. has been duly recieved, with the circular letter it inclosed from the Literary & Philosophical society of New York . the association you propose to me with that respectable body cannot but be honorable to me, altho’ it must excite the regret of consciousness that I should be an unprofitable member. the hand of age has more than begun to press upon me, and with the...
3054Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 6 April 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Th Jefferson returns his thanks to Governor Clinton for the Canal Report he has been so kind as to send him and congratulates him on the prospect of a succesful accomplishment of this most splendid undertaking. it will be an example & lesson to mankind how much better it is to spend their spare money on canals, roads & other such works ameliorating the condition of man, than in wars which bow...
3055Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 19 March 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you, Dear Sir, for the elegant pens you have been so kind as to send me; they perform their office admirably. I had formerly got such from Baltimore , but they were of steel, and their points rusted off immediately. I rejoice sincerely in the progress of your Canal, and envy your location in a state wise enough to see that the common interest is individual interest, and rich enough to...
3056Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 8 October 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to Gov r Clinton and his thanks for his memoir on the antiquities of our country. if all those which are spread over the face of the Continent were described with the care which distinguishes this memoir, and brought together, they might elicit some general hypothesis on the nations which preceded us here. if among their remains, any of the hard metals...
3057Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 24 November 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for the copy of your discourse which you have been so kind as to send me, and have read with pleasure the luminous view you have presented of the value of the Fine arts in human society. the example of Athens which you adduce, is certainly a weighty one, shewing the splendor to which they raised so small a territory & within so short a period of time. I rejoice to see the spirit of...
3058From Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 22 April 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of the 12th. was recieved in due time, and I had immediately a consultation with mr G . on the subject. he explained to me the circumstances, with which I had only been partially acquainted before, and as he shewed every disposition for indulgence which his position would admit, I engaged him to write to you, as he could better explain his views of the case than I could. to that then I...
3059From Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 6 October 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Sep. 21. was recieved on my return to this place. certainly the distribution of so atrocious a libel as the pamphlet Aristides, and still more the affirming it’s contents to be true as holy writ presents a shade in the morality of mr Swartwout of which his character had not before been understood to be susceptible. such a rejection of all regard to truth, would have been...
3060From Thomas Jefferson to DeWitt Clinton, 13 July 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 6th. has been duly recieved. the treaty with France stipulates what is suggested in your letter. French decrees also insert the cause of condemnation.—with respect to Gr. Britain, it is some time since we gave instructions to propose a Convention for the same purpose. the considerations you urge will furnish proper grounds for further pressing the subject. Accept my friendly...