17571From Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Pendleton, 2 April 1798 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege the reciept of your favor of Jan. 29. and as the rising of Congress seems now to be contemplated for about the last of this month, and it is necessary that I settle mr Short’s matter with the treasury before my departure, I take the liberty of saying a word on that subject. the sum you are to pay is to go to the credit of a demand which mr Short has on the treasury of the...
17572Thomas Jefferson to Randolph Jefferson, 25 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Supposing the shad season not to be quite over, and that in hauling for them they catch some carp, I send the bearer with a cart and cask to procure for me as many living carp as he can to stock my fishpond. I should not regard his staying a day or two extra, if it would give a reasonable hope of furnishing a supply. he is furnished with money to pay for the carp, for which I have always given...
17573From Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Coolidge, 15 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I owe you many thanks for the two last books you have been so kind as to send me. I have derived a great deal of information from Russel for the use of our University. I had only a borrowed copy, and had been disappointed in getting one from England: Bosworth is a treasure of Anglo-Saxon learning. there is much in him valuable, and new to me. he treads indeed in the footsteps of D r Hickes and...
17574Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 4 November 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
We arrived here on the third day of our journey, without any accident; but I suffered very much both mornings by cold. I must therefore pray you to send my wolf-skin pelisse and fur-boots by Moses ’s Billy , when he comes to bring the two mules to move the Carpenters back. he is to be here on the 27 th by my directions to mr Bacon .
17575Thomas Jefferson to José Corrêa da Serra, 11 April 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Since I had the pleasure of seeing you, I have learnt that you are about to leave us. considering myself only, this would fill me with regret; but my affection for you obliges me to suppress that selfish feeling, and to console myself with the assurance that you are appointed by your government to a high and important station, wherein you can do more good to your country, and more to our twin...
17576Thomas Jefferson to William J. Coffee, 10 July 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of June 25. is just recieved. on consideration of mr Maverick ’s proposals for the engraving of the University I conclude that it be done in what he calls the line manner , which he says will cost 112.D. and continue good for 6. or 8000 impressions. I will therefore ask the favor of you to engage him to do it in that way and when done to have 250. copies struck and forwarded to me...
17577From Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 11 November 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
Your journey to the Westward having prevented my writing to you till now that a letter may probably find you at Congress, I shall resume the correspondence discontinued since I left Boston. My passage was remarkeably short, being only 19 days from land to land, and I suffered little by sickness. Having very thick weather when we approached the coast of Europe, we fell in with no vessel which...
17578Thomas Jefferson to Caesar A. Rodney, 16 March 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Feb. 19 . has been recieved with very sincere pleasure. it recalls to memory the sociability, the friendship, and harmony of action which united personal happiness with public duties, during the portion of our lives in which we acted together. indeed the affectionate harmony of our Cabinet is among the sweetest of my recollections. I have just recieved a letter of friendship...
17579From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Thomson, 11 November 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
I am to acknowlege the receipt of your favour of June 18. You will learn by the letters &c. which go in this packet that this world is all going to war. Thank god our’s is out of their vortex. Holland and the emperor are the only powers which appear as yet: but I have no doubt that the spring will lead France, Prussia and the Porte into the feild on one side and Russia on the other. England...
17580To John Jay from John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, 28 March 1786 (Jay Papers)
Soon after the arrival of M r . J. in London, we had a conference with the Ambassador of Tripoli, at his House The amount of all the information we can obtain from him was that a perpetual peace was in all respects the most advisable, because a temporary treaty would leave room for increasing demands, upon every renewal of it, and a stipulation for annual payments would be liable to failures...
17581Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Milligan, 17 October 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Your two letters of Sep. 24. & Oct. 12. have been duly recieved. the packet of books will probably come on by the next stage. by the present one I send to the care of mr Gray of Fredericksbg a packet of 6. vols, which though made up of 4. different works, I wish to have bound as one work in 6. vols, to be labelled on the back ‘the Book of Kings.’ the 1 st & 2 d vols will be the composed of the...
17582Thomas Jefferson’s Statement of Bedford and Campbell County Property Subject to Federal Tax, 11 February 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Property in Bedford and Campbell taxed by the general government. ages. ages ages 71. Jame Hubbard . 17. Amy . Will ’s 3. Moses . Sal
17583From Thomas Jefferson to George Hammond, 14 November 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 7th. instant, on the subject of the British ship Roehampton, taken and sent into Baltimore by the French privateer the Industry, an armed Schooner of St. Domingo, which is suggested to have augmented her force at Baltimore before the capture. On this circumstance a demand is grounded that the prize she has made shall be restored. Before I...
17584To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 21 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I thank you before hand (for they are not yet arrived) for the specimens of homespun you have been so kind as to forward me by post. I doubt not their excellence, knowing how far you are advanced in these things in your quarter. here we do little in the fine way, but in coarse & midling goods a great deal. every family in the country is a manufactory within itself, and is very generally able...
17585Thomas Jefferson to George Flower, 12 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Aug. 12. finds me was yesterday recieved at this place; and I learn from it with pleasure that you have found a tract of country which will suit you for settlement. to us, your first purchase would have been more gratifying, by adding yourself and your friends to our society; but the over r uling consideration, with us as with you, is your own advantage: and as it would doubtless...
17586From Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 8 May 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I am now to acknolege the receipt of your favor of Dec. 14. and to apologize for a delay that has happened in the sending the vinegar you desired. I gave a memorandum to one of my servants to enquire of the Chevalr. de la Luzerne’s maitre d’Hôtel what kind of vinegar it was. He was out of town, the thing was forgotten for some time, at length recollected and the enquiry made. It was what they...
17587Thomas Jefferson to Bernard Peyton, 23 October 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
My draughts on you have been as follows D Sep. 30. in favor of Joel Wolfe 100 . Oct. 13. Taxes Albemarle . 197 .21 d o Bedford .
17588Thomas Jefferson to John Vaughan, 28 May 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
The season for procuring from Europe my annual supplies of books & wines being now come round, I desired my friend , mr Gibson of Richmond , to place in your hands 800.D. to be remitted to Paris . he replied to me that to get in Richmond a bill on Philadelphia was impossible, and that he had written on to you to request that you would draw on him for that sum. in some way I hope therefore the...
17589From Thomas Jefferson to Edward Bancroft, 24 August 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Paradise having been rendered, by the loss of his daughter, incapable of arranging his affairs while in Virginia, he has stopped at this place in order to do this. He will inform you by the present post of the arrangements he has taken. In the first place he has put the Virginia estate under the care of Colo. Nathaniel Burwell, one of the most skilful managers in that country, and of...
17590From Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 3 May 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I duly received your favor of the 24 th ult, but I am rendered a slow correspondent by the loss of the use, totally of the one, and almost totally of the other wrist, which renders writing scarcely and painfully practicable. I learn with great satisfaction that wholesome economies have been found, sufficient to relieve us from the ruinous necessity of adding annually to our debt by new loans....
17591From Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 28 May 1781 (Jefferson Papers)
I make no doubt you will have heard, before this shall have the honour of being presented to Your Excellency, of the junction of Lord Cornwallis with the force at Petersburg under Arnold who had succeeded to the command on the death of Major General Philips. I am now advised that they have evacuated Petersburg, joined at Westover a Reinforcement of 2000 Men just arrived from New York, crossed...
17592From Thomas Jefferson to Philip Mazzei, 4 April 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
The Fier Rodrique being to sail within about three weeks, I think it a safe opportunity of writing to you, and of sending you according to your desire the two bundles of papers indorsed ‘fogli da estrarne principj di governo libero’ &c. and ‘pamphlets, newspapers, fogli stampati,’ which with this letter will be addressed to the care of Penet & co. of Nantz. I have heard nothing certain of you...
17593Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 12 July 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
Of all the faculties of the human mind that of Memory is the first which suffers decay from Age. of the commencement of this decay, I was fully sensible while I lived in Washington , & it was my earliest Monitor to retire from public business. it has often since been the source of great regret, when applied to by others to attest transactions in which I had been an agent, to find that they had...
17594From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 30 August 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honour of writing to you on the 14th. inst. by a Mr. Cannon of Connecticut who was to sail in the packet. Since that date yours of July 13. is come to hand. The times for the sailing of the packets being somewhat deranged, I avail myself of a conveiance of the present by the Mr. Fitzhughs of Virginia who expect to land at Philadelphia. I inclose you a correspondence which has taken...
17595From Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Carrington Cabell, 28 December 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 19 th was recieved some days ago, those of the 23 d the day before yesterday. at the same time with the former I recieved one of the same date from mr Rives, proposing a question to me, which, as he is absent, I will answer to you. it was, If the remission of the principal debt, and an accomodation of the cost of the library cannot both be obtained, what would be most desirable?...
17596From Thomas Jefferson to David Humphreys, 23 June 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
My last letters to you have been of Apr. 11. and May 13 and I am now to acknowlege the receipt of yours of Mar. 6. No. 13. for 14. Mar. 31. No. 15. Apr. 8. No. 16. Apr. 30. No. 17. May 3. No. 18. As yet no native candidate, such altogether as we would wish, has offered for the Consulate of Lisbon, and as it is a distinguished place in our commerce, we are somewhat more difficult in that than...
17597Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Milligan, 9 December 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I sent yesterday to Milton a box of books to be forwarded to you by mr Gray . it contains 32. volumes to be bound. there is in each a note how it is to be lettered, and some of these notes express that the book is to have a neat plain binding. all the rest are to be bound in your best manner. I wish you could see the books I recieve from Paris . they are equal to the best English work in...
17598From Thomas Jefferson to St. John de Crèvecoeur, 20 May 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I am now to acknolege the receipt of your several favors of Oct. 20. Nov. 20. and Jan. 5. and to thank you for the pamphlets you have been so kind as to send me. A conveiance by the way of London enables me to write the present, for I never think of writing news by the circumnavigation of the Bordeaux packet. You know that your states general are met, and you have seen the speeches of the king...
17599Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 27 December 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
‘Over the length of silence I draw a curtain,’ is an expression, my dear friend, of your cherished letter of Apr. 7. 19. of which, it might seem, I have need to avail myself; but not so really. to 77. heavy years add two of prostrate health during which all correspondence has been suspended of necessity, and you have the true cause of not having heard from me. my wrist too, dislocated in Paris...
17600From Thomas Jefferson to Diodati, 3 August 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Je viens de recevoir, mon chere Monsieur, l’honneur de votre lettre du 24. Juillet. La peine avec laquelle je m’exprime en Francois feroit que ma reponse seroit bien courte s’il ne m’etoit pas permis de repondre que dans cette langue. Mais je sçais qu’avec quelque connoissance de la langue Angloise vous meme, vous aurez une aide tres suffisante dans Madame la comtesse que j’ose prier d’ajouter...
17601To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 6 February 1787 (Adams Papers)
Your favors by Col o. Franks have come safely to hand. he will set out from hence the 8 th. inst. the packet being to sail from Havre the 10 th. I inclose you the copy of a letter lately received from mr̃ Barclay, & of the paper it inclosed. in a letter from mr̃ Carmichael is a postscript dated Dec. 25. in the following words “since writing the preceding, the Portuguese Ambassador has pressed...
17602To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 2 June 1793 (Madison Papers)
I wrote you on the 27th. Ult. You have seen in the papers that some privateers have been fitted out in Charleston by French citizens, with their own money, manned by themselves, & regularly commissioned by their nation. They have taken several prizes & brought them into our ports. Some native citizens had joined them. These are arrested & under prosecution, & orders are sent to all the ports...
17603Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1 June 1822 (Jefferson 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 Gen l Starke is off at the age of 93. Charles Thomson still lives at about the same age, chearful, slender as a grasshopper,...
17604Thomas Jefferson to William W. Hening, 25 April 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 15 th never came to hand till yesterday . you may be assured that the MS. A . is not here. every book in the library has past twice thro’ my own hands, and twice more thro’ the hands of the numberer and packer , and we all are confident this is not among them. it is exactly the one described in the 1 st vol. of your statutes pa. 121. With respect to the MS. D . your...
17605Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 15 November 1817 (Jefferson 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...
17606From Thomas Jefferson to Nathanael Greene, 24 March 1781 (Jefferson Papers)
I do myself the Honour of inclosing to you some resolutions of General Assembly on the Subject of the Horses procured and to be procured for the 1st and 3d Regiments of Cavalry, in the Execution of which I shall need your Assistance. Representations were made of the Conduct of the Persons who were or pretended to be entrusted with the Execution of the Impress Warrants which I had inclosed to...
17607Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 8 April 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of Mar. 27 . has been duly recieved. the effect of what our legislature did for us at their last session is not exactly what you suppose. they authorised us to borrow another 60,000.D. pledging however our own funds for repayment. this loan enables us to finish all our buildings of accomodation this year, and to begin the Library, which will take 3. years to be compleated. without...
17608To George Washington from Thomas Jefferson, 15 February 1791 (Washington Papers)
The bill for establishing a National Bank undertakes, among other things 1. to form the subscribers into a Corporation. 2. to enable them, in their corporate capacities to receive grants of land; and so far is against the laws of Mortmain. though the constitution controuls the laws of Mortmain so far as to permit Congress itself to hold lands for certain purposes, yet not so far as to permit...
17609Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Fisher, 4 May 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Apr. 23. is just recieved, desiring advice as to the part of the Western country, particularly of Kentucky & Ohio , to which it would be most eligible for yourself & friends to emigrate. there is a considerable competition among the Western states & territories to draw to themselves respectively the tide of emigration. wishing equally well to the prosperity of them all, I should...
17610From Thomas Jefferson to Harry Innes, 23 January 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 6. I recieved here on the 30th. of the same month, and have to thank you for the papers it contained. they serve to prove that if Cressap was not of the party of Logan’s murderers, yet no injury was done his character by believing it. I shall while here this winter publish such material testimony on the subject as I have recieved; which by the kindness of my friends will be...
17611From Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Priestley, 29 January 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 12. came duly to hand, as did the 2d. letter to Dr. Linn and the treatise on Phlogiston, for which I pray you to accept my thanks. the copy for mr Livingston has been delivered together with your letter to him, to mr Harvie, my secretary, who departs in a day or two for Paris, & will deliver them himself to mr Livingston, whose attention to your matter cannot be doubted. I...
17612From Thomas Jefferson to Jean François Froullé, 10 October 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
Ayant presque perdu l’habitude de parler et d’ecrire en Francois, il faut que vous ayez la bonté de me permettre de vous ecrire en Anglois, et de vous la faire traduire.—I resume with pleasure my correspondence with you as a bookseller, and from time to time shall probably trouble you. You recollect that you have furnished me with the Encyclopedie Methodique to the 38th. livraison inclusive....
17613From Thomas Jefferson to Manchot, 21 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I am happy to recieve you at the seat of the Government of the United States, to take you and your nation by the hand, and to welcome you to this place. It has long been my desire to see the distinguished men of the Poutewatamies, and to give them the same assurances of friendship and good will which I have given to all my other red Children. I wish to see them living in plenty and prosperity,...
17614From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 19 November 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my letter of Sep. 5. wherein I acknoleged Mr. Remsen’s favor of July 25. I have written those of Sep. 24. and of the 14th. inst. This last will accompany the present; both going by the way of London for want of a direct opportunity. But they go by a private hand . No late event worth notice has taken place between the Turks and Austrians. The former continue in the territories of the...
17615Thomas Jefferson to Joel Barlow, 24 January 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of the 15 th is recieved & I am disconsolate on learning my mistake as to your having a dynamometer. my object being to bring a plough to be made here to the same standard of comparison by which Guillaume’s has been proved, t nothing less would be satisfactory than an instrument made by the same standard. I must import one therefore, but how, in the present state of non-intercourse is...
17616Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 24 January 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I have great need of the indulgence so kindly extended to me in your favor of Dec. 25. of permitting me to answer your friendly letters at my leisure. my frequent and long absences from home are a first cause of tardiness in my correspondence, and a 2 d the accumulation of business during my absence, some of which imperiously commands first attentions. I am now in arrear to you for your...
17617Thomas Jefferson to David Michie, 20 June 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of June 17 h to M r Peyton communicated to me on the 18 h & that of the 18 h to myself delivered the same day conveyed the first notice I have ever had that you claimed a single foot of the lands which had belonged to the late Bennett Henderson . I am a bonafide purchaser of those lands and paid more for them than I thought their clear fee simple value, which I certainly should not...
17618To 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...
17619From Thomas Jefferson to William Carmichael, 11 April 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
A Vessel being about to sail from this port for Cadiz I avail myself of it to inform you that under the appointment of the President of the U.S. I have entered on the duties of Secretary of state comprehending the department of foreign affairs. Mr. Jay’s letter of Oct. 2. acknoleged the receipt of the last of yours which have come to hand. Since that date he wrote you on the 7th. of Dec....
17620Thomas Jefferson to George Ticknor, 28 September 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 1 st instant came to hand on the 13 th and came with cordial welcome, as does every thing from you. it’s subject made it the more so, as one which I had long had in mind. and which, when the tariff was last before Congress , I had made an effort to effect thro’ the delegates of our state , and by letters to the Secretary of the Treasury . I coupled with it an endeavor to...