3001From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Claxton, 18 June 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 13th . is recieved. the samples of straw floor cloths are beautiful, especially the finest one; but would not answer for the purpose I have in view which is to lay down on the floor of a dining room when the table is set, & be taken up, when the table is removed, merely to save a very handsome floor from grease & the scouring which that necessitates. the straw would fur up...
3002From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Claxton, 2 March 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. James Ronaldson of Philadelphia has sent me a number of samples of Philadelphia manufactures in wool, cotton & thread. among these I observe a cotton blanket No. 30. 99 I. by 90 I. at 9. dollars the pair. I must ask the favor of you to send to him for 4. pair of them for the President’s house, & to make him the proper remittance. I have not his address, but suppose he may have something to...
3003From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Claxton, 3 April 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed applications from & on behalf of a mr Meer, relating to matters under your superintendence, I inclose them to you to do therein what you find best for the public interest, and add my salutations and assurances of esteem. DLC : Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
3004From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Claxton, 13 June 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I omitted to place in my memorandum 2. wire-screens for the windows of the Setting room, intended to exclude the candle flies and bugs in the evening, which abound here in most uncommon quantities. they should be 4 f. 9. I. square, & the meshes 1/8 or 3/16 of an inch wide & ¼ Inch. high. a single one does for each window. there is a mr Sellers 231. market street who works well in wire. I will...
3005From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Claxton, 26 May 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 22d. was recieved last night. the notes written on the face of the paper now returned will answer several of your enquiries. the shades therein mentioned are what I formerly requested you to get under the name of Cylinders. those I have heretofore seen were made to rest either on the table, or on a kind of mahogany waiter or saucer holding both the candlestick & shade. those...
3006Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 25 April 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I return the 10. first volumes and will be glad of the next 10. I found several sheets of the 7 th missing, but several some of them were stuck into other volumes which I restored to their proper place in the 7 th but I have not examined it since to see if it is now perfect. Asparagus acceptable as usual. shall I not see you again? I shall be returning about the middle of the ensuing week....
3007Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 25 August 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
How do you do? and when will you be able to ride thus far ? these are my first questions. how you like the changes & chances of the European world may be the subject of conversation. but you must come with your ears stuffed full of cotton to fortify them against the noise of hammers, saws, planes E t c which assail us in every direction. affectionate salutations. RC ( ViU: TJP ); dateline at...
3008Joel Yancey‘s Promissory Note to Charles Clay on Behalf of Thomas Jefferson, 3 October 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
for value received I I promise to pay or cause to be paid unto Charles Clay h is executors, administrators or assigns, on or before the first day of Dec. 181 5 the just and full sum of Ninety Seven Doll. Seventy five Cents current money of U. States
3009Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 10 May 1812 [document added in digital edition] (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer comes to beg some Asparagus, and if you have no better project for the day, to come and partake of it, weather permitting. I salute you with friendship & respect. RC ( Heritage Auctions , auction 6054, New York City, 8 Apr. 2011, lot 34160); dateline at foot of text; addressed: “M r Clay”; endorsed by Clay. Not recorded in SJL . This document, located after the pertinent...
3010Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 12 November 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I propose to set out tomorrow if ready, or certainly next day, and therefore send the bearer for the Cape of my coat. I recollect an opportunity I shall have of sending for your spectacles by a gentleman going to Philadelphia . I charge myself therefore with that commission. perhaps by writing myself to M c Alister he may pay more attention to the quality. The wild-rye seed you gave me before...
3011Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 6 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Our spinning machine is in operation, and a piece of cloth is begun with the flying shuttle, neither goes on perfectly as yet, from the want of a little more practice; but they will give Mrs. Clay an idea of what would be their proper operation, if she can do me the favor to come and take a plantation dinner with me tomorrow. You will come of course, according to promise. Friendly salutations...
3012Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 12 July 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
This is the only fair day since you were here, & being to depart tomorrow, I must employ it otherwise than in paying the visit I had intended you. I shall be back however within 3. weeks and have time then to render the double. In the mean while as your Paul is desirous of laying up useful things in the storehouse of his mind, I send him a little bundle of canons of conduct which may merit a...
3013Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 29 January 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Dec. 20. was 4. weeks on it’s way to me. I thank you for it: for altho founded on a misconception, it is evidence of that friendly concern for my peace and welfare which I have ever believed you to feel. of publishing a book on religion, my dear Sir, I never had an idea. I should as soon think of writing for the reformation of Bedlam, as of the world of religious sects. of these...
3014Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 9 August 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I MUST have been misunderstood by those who thought I disapproved of the judgment in the case of the negroes. I thought I said very distinctly it was the fittest procedure which could be adopted, inasmuch as the medicine was not furnished by the Doctor with ill intent, nor proved to have produced ill effect, the only case which could authorize severer punishment. I am under a smart attack of...
3015Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 18 November 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I was five days absent in my trip to the peaks of Otter , and have been five days engaged in calculating the observations made. this brings me down to yesterday evening when I finished them. I am going to-day to see mr Clarke at his new habitation, and tomorrow, weather permitting, will pay you a morning visit. in the mean time I send you a note of the result of my ten days labor and some...
3016Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 21 February 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your favor of the 8 th and find on examination that I have committed exactly the mistake you conjectured. M c Allister had made me a pair of spectacles in 1804. by a drawing I had sent him, & believing they were of the size you would like best, I directed him to make the new ones like them. when they came I took out mine to compare them, and in packing up yours again, I...
3017Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 8 January 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I informed you on the 28 th Ult. by letter that I had according to your request engaged mr Forber to wait on you with a view to the erection of a carding machine for you. he proposes to set out the day after tomorrow, and will present himself to you with this letter. the success of the machine he has erected near me, persuades me he is fully competent to fulfill your wishes. Accept the...
3018Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 28 April 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
when you chuse to revoke one of the deeds entirely, throw it into the fire. if you wish to alter any of it’s items, write on the same paper ‘I revoke such an item’ and if you chuse to substitute another in it’s place, add ‘and I substitute in it’s place [such another describing it] which I assign and convey to the same trustees for the same person and purposes.’ or copy the deed over with the...
3019Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 28 December 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Learning that mr Forber , one of those who have erected carding machines for us, was in the neighborhood, I asked the favor of him to call on me. he did so yesterday and agrees to go up to you in the 1 st or 2 d week of January. he tells me his price for a wool-carding machine is 500.D. & a Cotton carder 600.D. these prices being higher than I had supposed, and perhaps than I suggested to you,...
3020Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 1 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I think that on my recommending Tacitus to master Cyrus , you said you did not possess him, and perhaps that you had never seen him. on my return home I wrote to Philadelphia for a copy, which I now send for master Cyrus’s acceptance & perusal. the solidity of his matter, his brevity, & his fondness for point & antithesis make him difficult. I would advise the use of a translation, that to be...
3021Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 16 August 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for the contents of your basket and was just about writing to you when your boy came. I find I shall not have strength enough to ride as far as your house: but I should be very glad if you could meet me at the Double branches in the road, the day after tomorrow (Sunday) and that you may not have to wait, I will be sure to be there before 11. aclock. I have had some measures made...
3022Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 14 December 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I go certainly tomorrow, wind & weather permitting, and both have abated considerably. I promised you some sprout Kale seed, which I now send. I do not remember to have seen Salsafia in your garden, & yet it is one of the best roots for the Winter. some call it the oyster plant because fried in batter it can scarcely be distinguished from a fried oyster. I send you some seed. it is to be sowed...
3023Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 15 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
This will be handed you by my son in law, mr Randolph with the integrity & honor of whose character you are already acquainted. an urgent occasion to raise a considerable sum of money in the course of a year, and a part of it (2000.D.) within the month of January, has induced me to propose to him the curtailing the outskirts of my Poplar Forest lands, as the most probable means of effecting...
3024Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 25 May 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
On the subject which has been passing between us I have had an offer from a person who has many proper points in his character, and would see both my plantations every day . altho my inclinations are as they were before, yet there is ground for consultation with you on comparative merits. this suggests that while it is necessary to sound the dispositions of the party first thought of...
3025Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 1 July 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Having never had an entire view of the facts & proceedings in the partition of mr Davis ’s estate , & percieving it has become entangled by some irregularities, I can only give detached opinions on certain parts of them, & these too under the risk that they may be affected by circumstances of which I am not apprised. On the general subject of Hotchpot I may safely say that, as regards the real...
3026Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 23 August 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
While here, & much confined to the house by my rheumatism, I have amused myself with calculating the hour lines of a horisontal dial for the latitude of this place which I find to be 37°–22′–26″. the calculations are for every 5. minutes of time, and are always exact to within less than half a second of a degree. as I do not know that any body here has taken this trouble before, I have...
3027From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 11 January 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of Dec. 19. has been duly recieved, and I thank you for your friendly attention to the offer of lands adjoining me for sale. it is true that I have always wished to purchase a part of what was Murray’s tract which would straiten the lines of the Poplar Forest. but I really am not able to make a purchase. I had hoped to keep the expences of my office within the limits of it’s salary, so...
3028From Thomas Jefferson to Green Clay, 28 May 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 4 th is just now recieved, and I am sorry it is not in my power to give you any information on the subject of your enquiries. such a length of time has elapsed, so much is my memory impaired by age, and so much other matter has since past through it, dislodging what had preceded, that not a trace remains of any treaty with the Cherokees concerning the lands you mention. if...
3029Thomas Jefferson to Henry Clay, 28 August 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
In the general sufferings by the misfortunes of the late Col o Wilson Carey Nicholas , my grandson Tho s Jefferson Randolph & myself are in danger of a heavy participation. we were bound to the bank of the US. in Richm d jointly and severally for him in the sum of twenty thousand Dollars, and my grandson was under some additional obligations. a plank however seems to float within our reach,...
3030From Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Clay, Jr., 1 March 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to mr Clay. he was mistaken in believing he had a packet of seeds from Italy, (he was led into the error by it’s being entered as such at the Custom house) & no letter of explanation came. it turns out to be a packet containing 2. kinds of the Peach-Apricot stones & a kind of plumb stone. the former are distinguishable from all others by a sheath in the...
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....