5901Thomas Jefferson to Allen Bernard, 30 July [1818] (Jefferson Papers)
The Commissioners for the University of Virginia being to meet at your tavern the day after tomorrow (Saturday) I propose to be with you tomorrow evening (Friday) the bearer, with my baggage will be with you some hours before. as I supposed you might find it difficult to provide beds for so many, I and it was convenient to me to send a mattrass & trussels for myself, I have done so, preferring...
5902Thomas Jefferson to James Ronaldson, 3 December 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
I now return you the paper you were so kind as to inclose to me. the hint to the two belligerents of disarming each other of their auxiliaries, by opening asylums to them and giving them passages to this country, is certainly a good one. Bonaparte has mind enough to adopt it, but not the means. England again has the means but not mind enough. she would prefer losing an advantage over her enemy...
5903From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 22 November 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
The person who hands you this letter is an interesting subject of curiosity. he was taken prisoner by the Kickapoos when he supposes he must have been about 3. or 4. years of age, knows not whence taken, nor who were his parents. he escaped from the Indians at about 19. as he supposes, & about 7. years ago. he has applied himself to education, is a student of Medecine, & has assumed the name...
5904From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 1 July 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
A bill has past two readings in the Senate for removing the seat of government immediately to Philadelphia, there to remain ten years, and then to be established permanently in Georgetown. It is to receive it’s third reading to-day, and tho’ it depends on a single vote, yet I believe we may count surely that it will pass that house. As it originated there, it will then have to pass the lower...
5905From Thomas Jefferson to John Paul Jones, 8 October 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I think the method you propose for applying to the court of Denmark for the compensation due for the prizes taken by the squadron you commanded in Europe, is a proper one: therefore I will undertake to write to Mr. Adams on the subject, and have no doubt he will support Doctr. Bancroft in his sollicitations to the Danish minister at London for this purpose. I have the honour to be with the...
5906From Thomas Jefferson to James Currie, 15 May 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
I deferred making another application to Potter till Doctr. Griffin had so long overrun the time of his arrival that I thought it desperate and then went to Potter and shewed him Dr. G.’s letters. He expressed his astonishment and assured me in the most pointed terms that he had no property of his in his hands but the wine mentioned before, and that he did not know in whose hands his...
5907Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, 30 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 23 d is recieved, in which you enquire whether there is an approved portrait of myself, by whom painted, & in whose possession? mr Stuart has drawn two portraits of me, at different sittings, of which he prefers the last. both are in his possession. he also drew a third in water colours, a profile in the medallion stile , which is in my possession. mr Rembrandt Peale also...
5908From Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, 15 July 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I dropped you a line on the 11th. inst. and last night recieved yours of the 8th. last night also we recieved the treaty from Paris ceding Louisiana according to the bounds to which France had a right. price 11¼ millions of Dollars besides paying certain debts of France to our citizens which will be from 1. to 4. millions. I recieved also from Mr. La Cepede at Paris, to whom I had mentioned...
5909To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 15 November 1823 (Madison Papers)
I return your letter to the President, and that of mr. Rush to you, with thanks for the communication. The matters which mr. Rush states as under consideration with the British government are very interesting. But that about the navigation of the St. Laurence and the Missisipi, I would rather they would let alone. The navigation of the former, since the N.Y. canal, is of too little interest to...
5910Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 20 November 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I very much lament the cause which has deprived us of the pleasure of seeing mrs Cabell and yourself at Monticello on your way to Richmond . I now commit to your care a letter to be delivered to the Speaker of the Senate , which contains the Report of the Commissioners who met at Rockfish gap . having been written in great haste, and by several hands, dividing the work in order to expedite...
5911From Thomas Jefferson to Gustavus B. Horner, 15 May 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I found here a small remnant of the Benni seed I had sent on to be sown, which enables me to fulfill my promise to you. open light furrows with a plough, 3 ½ or 4 f. apart, drop a very few seed every 12. inches along the furrow. when up, thin them to a single plant at each 12. inches, and when advanced in growth draw a little earth to the roots. they need little culture. when the leaves fall...
5912From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 2 March 1781 (Jefferson Papers)
I was two days ago honoured with your Letter and that of General Washington on the same Subject. I immediately transmitted by Express the one accompanying it to the Commanding Officer of the Naval Force of his Most Christian Majesty in our Bay, and took measures for providing pilots. Baron Steuben will communicate to you the Arrangements he proposes, which I shall have the pleasure of...
5913Thomas Jefferson to Samuel H. Smith, 21 September 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I am imposing a task on your friendship which needs much apology, and will be explained in the letter accompanying this. it is to offer my library to the library committee of Congress . I would not have trespassed on your time so much, but that I hope it will give you little trouble. the delivery of the accompanying letter (which is written separately with that view) and the Catalogue will...
5914Thomas Jefferson to James Dinsmore, 25 June 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
On examining the sites for our college we found not one comparable to Perry ’s, and prices beyond our means; and as Perry persisted positively in refusing a deed but on condition of doing the wooden work of the building now proposed, it was concluded we ought not to lose the permanent advantages to the institution, on a question about the execution of this single building, and especially as he...
5915From Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Charles L’Enfant, 22 February 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
The advance of the season begins to require that the plans for the buildings and other public works at the Federal city should be in readiness, and the persons engaged who are to carry them into execution. The circumstances which have lately happened have produced an uncertainty whether you may be disposed to continue your services there. I am charged by the President to say that your...
5916Thomas 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...
5917Thomas Jefferson to William Champe Carter, 19 January 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed letter will sufficiently explain it’s object. the messenger whom I sent with it to your house was sent back with it from Culpeper C.H. with in by Capt n Shackelford with information that you were in Richmond . I therefore commit it to the post with a request to you, if you should be in Richmond on Monday sennight Feb. 1.
5918From Thomas Jefferson to Victor Marie du Pont, 7 June 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Your kindness on a former occasion has emboldened me to trouble you again for a draught on Paris of the value of 200. Dollars, for which sum I inclose you a check on the New York branch bank. my apology is that it shall be the last time for the present year , and that I am really so helpless in things of this kind that like other helpless beings I throw myself on the charity of the benevolent....
5919From Thomas Jefferson to John Garland Jefferson, 28 May 1794 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday your favor of the 11th. inst. and imagine that soon after it’s date you received mine of Apr. 26. on the subject of your lands. I am happy to learn that it is the opinion of a person learned in the laws of that state, that the lands may be recovered. As to the kind of process to be instituted, the lawyers of the state must be the best judges. Were I in your place, I would...
5920From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 26 November 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
From a letter received from the President Mr. Lear is satisfied he cannot be here to-day and doubts even the possibility of his arrival tomorrow. Of course our expedition of to-day would be certainly fruitless, and is therefore laid aside agreeably to a message I have received from Genl. Knox and the attorney General. Your’s affectionately & respectfully, RC ( MHi : AM ); addressed: “The...
5921Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lange, 24 January 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to M r Lange and his thanks for the two parcels of beans he has been so kind as to send him. they are safely recieved, and are quite sufficient in quantity to put him promptly into stock and with his acknolegements for the favor, he salutes M. Lange with esteem & respect. PoC ( DLC ); on verso of a reused address cover from TJ to Francis Eppes ; dateline...
5922Thomas Jefferson to Henry Jackson, 5 July 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Ticknor , a young gentleman of Massachusets , left this country for Europe in March or April last, destined first for London , and, after some stay there, for Paris . having occasion to write him a letter on a subject very interesting to myself, and uncertain at which place it would find him, I have thought it safest to do it by duplicates for both places. that for Paris I have taken the...
5923From Thomas Jefferson to Henry Fry, 21 May 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
When I had the pleasure of seeing you at your own house you expressed a wish to see Priestly’s corruptions of Christianity. finding them in a bookstore here on my return I was happy in the opportunity of gratifying your wish. I meant on my late journey here to have had the pleasure of asking personally your acceptance of them. but the morning I passed you was so rainy, and the necessity so...
5924From Thomas Jefferson to George Caines, 21 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
The desire you express to prefix my name to the work you are about to publish is gratifying to me as an additional testimonial of that approbation of my fellow citizens which is so consoling to me. the matter of your work possesses too much self importance to need any adventitious aid from external circumstances. it cannot fail to recommend itself to a very general attention. I ask the favor...
5925From Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, 27 April 1795 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 16th. came to hand by the last post. I have to thank you for the trouble you were so kind as to take in my demand on Mr. Bannister’s estate. Mr. Shippen by letter promised me paiment out of the first proceeds of a sale then making at Hatcher’s run on a twelve-month’s credit. I sincerely congratulate you on the great prosperities of our two first allies, the French and Dutch....
5926To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 20 September 1808 (Madison Papers)
I return you all your papers except Irvine’s which I have not yet entirely read. As far as I have gone they abate much of the hopes which Montgomery’s letter might have excited. It is true that Irvine’s Erving’s opinions must be influenced by the French versions at Madrid, & Montgomery’s by the popular rumors always afloat in such scenes. No answer surely shd. be given to Bollman, nor should...
5927From Thomas Jefferson to William Harris Crawford, 23 August 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer of this is Doct r Watkins an esteemed neighbor of mine, and our family physician. proposing to make a visit to Washington, he is desirous of being presented to you, and altho he has heretofore had that honor, he is apprehensive that in the crowd of those who necessarily wait on you , he may not be recollected, and therefore asks this letter. I give it with the mores satisfaction as...
5928From Thomas Jefferson to David Ross, 29 January 1781 (Jefferson Papers)
As it will be necessary that every Proposition relating to the trading Department should in future be referred to you, I take the Liberty of inclosing the within extract to you. I am to desire with Respect to this as well as every other one to be sent you hereafter that you will not consider our Transmission of them as ever amounting to a Recommendation to enter into Treaty on them. If you...
5929From Thomas Jefferson to Carlos Martínez de Irujo, 9 December 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved, my dear Sir, your note of yesterday, and am sensible of the friendly spirit which dictated it. but you must pardon me for repeating my request to inform me of the price of the wine. this is such a transaction of meum & tuum as must follow the same rules between us as between others. it is sufficient obligation to me to spare me so excellent a supply, and if not done on the usual &...
5930From Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 23 July 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
In your letter of the 19th. you ask my advice as to the measures to be taken to carry into effect the law for the transmission of a mail to New Orleans by the lower route. I do not see that in the present state of our information any correct decision can be formed. whenever we hear from Abrams his report with mr Wheatly’s will inform us of the difficulties thro’ the whole route, & we may then...
5931Thomas Jefferson to Mathew Carey, 28 June 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Soon after the date of my letter of the 21 st I recieved Bridgman ’s Index safely, and had taken for granted M c Mahon was coming with it. but as it did not come, I presume it has either been forgotten or is lodged by the way. in either case I ask your information & attention to it; and further that you will be so kind as to inform me whether a copy of Baron Grimm ’s memoirs (16. vols 8 vo )...
5932From Thomas Jefferson to Schweighauser & Dobrée, 16 February 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly received your favor of Jan. 29 . Having sent a sample of the muskets to the commissioners of the treasury and asked their instructions relative thereto, and having reason to expect these very soon, it would be improper in me to consent to any previous disposal of them. Mr. Carnes wrote me on the 15th. of January that he had sent off, the day before, the papers relative to your...
5933Thomas Jefferson to Dabney Carr, 8 October 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I found here on my late return from Bedford , your favor of Sep. 24. and am very thankful for the information it conveys. I recieved in the summer, a pamphlet and a letter under the name of H. Tompkinson . I knew no such person; but the pamphlet was sensibly & temperately written, on the subject of a convention, and as my sentiments on it were sollicited, and I thought such a writer might make...
5934From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Jared Ingersoll, 16 October 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for the pamphlet you were so kind as to send me by mr Harris, which I have read with great satisfaction. the views of government which it presents are sound, and well worthy the consideration of those who conduct it. but governments never improve otherwise than by revolution. While I acknolege I am far, very far, from being able to write answers of acknowledgement for the many...
5935From Thomas Jefferson to Sir Peyton Skipwith, 24 December 1795 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just recieved your favor of the 9th. and am sorry it is not in my power to do any thing in the business mentioned in it. I have been authorised by Mr. Short only to have a part of his stock sold and invested in Canal-shares and some lands; but not at all to settle, pay or meddle with any debt. I retain your account however and will inclose a copy of it in my first letter and do whatever...
5936From Thomas Jefferson to Steuben, 13 February 1781 (Jefferson Papers)
That the reformation of the troops of the Continent and State now on hand may be complete, I beg leave to inclose you a return of Col. Taylors regiment of guards. They are enlisted most of them to serve only during the continuance of the Saratoga troops in Albemarle. Their numbers being two hundred thirty eight, non-commission’d and private, I suppose they should be reduced to four companies...
5937From Thomas Jefferson to Andrew Ramsay, 2 July 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just recieved, in a letter from Mrs. Adams, the pleasing information of the safe arrival of my daughter in London; and by the same letter and others accompanying it, that it is to you I am indebted for the care of her. Her distress at parting with you is a proof how good you have been to her. I pray you to accept my sincere thanks for your attentions to her, and assurances that I should...
5938From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 22 November 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved your letter of July 2. in due time, & soon after that the apparatus for making the inkpots in mr Hawkins’s polygraph moveable, so as to render the dip easy. but in the mean time I had thought of a contrivance which I had executed at Monticello, and which a three months use has proved to be as perfect as it is simple. each inkpot is set in a square saucer of very thin brass, ¼ I....
5939From Thomas Jefferson to William Hilliard, 16 September 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
your’s of the 2 d is recieved, and to the question respecting Barrow’s works and Bruce as to size and price I will give this general answer for this & all such cases that we shall prefer 8 vo editions altho’ considerably dearer, because of the superior symmetry of their arrangement on our shelves, because generally they will be later and improved editions, and are so much more handy for use....
5940From Thomas Jefferson to Hugh Lennox, 13 June 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I must intreat your pardon for troubling you with a small private commission which I do not possess the means of getting otherwise executed. The difficulty of being supplied with fresh fruit at this place, and still more at Monticello where I pass the warm season, has led to the habitual use of it’s best substitute, called Syrop of punch, or sometimes Center, which I believe is merely a...
5941Thomas Jefferson to Mathew Carey, 13 March 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I must ask the favor of you to send me by mail 2. copies of the Nautical Almanacs for the present year, and 2. also of the next year if already to be had. the English editions are best printed, but if none on hand, Blount ’s edition of N. York will do. I formerly wrote to you for S r John Sinclair ’s book of Agriculture; but I observe that mr Skinner of Baltimore is about publishing an...
5942From Thomas Jefferson to United States Congress, 7 December 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Having recently recieved from our late Minister Plenipotentiary at the court of London a duplicate of dispatches, the original of which has been sent by the Revenge schooner not yet arrived, I hasten to lay them before both houses of Congress. they contain the whole of what has passed between the two governments on the subject of the outrage committed by the British ship Leopard on the frigate...
5943From Thomas Jefferson to George Muter, 2 March 1781 (Jefferson Papers)
The Board has considered your request that they should make an Enquiry into your Conduct as Commissioner of the War Office. No Complaint having been lodged with them on the Subject, No Prosecutor offering himself, no Witnesses pointed out, nor even Charges specifyed, they do not know that they can with either propriety or practicability enter on such an enquiry; the more especially as they...
5944From Thomas Jefferson to William Lambert, 22 December 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I return you the inclosed paper with thanks for the communication of it. I have taken the liberty of copying the result, to wit, the longitude of our place. the method of finding the longitude by observing the occultation of a star has the merit of precision in the moments of immersion & emersion in proportion to the sensibility of the eye of the observer. but the calculations are lengthy and...
5945From Thomas Jefferson to Abiel Holmes, 26 December 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 15th. with the book, has been safely recieved. the Memoires de l’Amerique were packed in a box & sent from Monticello in May last: but owing to the extraordinary fall of the river & the drought which continued till Winter the vessel on board which they were was stopped about midway to Richmond, & the books were left there till November when for the first time the navigation...
5946From Thomas Jefferson to Sheldon Clark, 5 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for the pamphlets you have been so kind as to send me; but I cannot comply with your request to give my opinion of them. against this I have been obliged to protest in every case. I should otherwise, for the last 20. years, have been constantly employed in the trade of a Reviewer of books, for which I have neither taste, talent nor time; and instead of reading according to my own...
5947Thomas Jefferson to William W. Hening, 13 June 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of May 14. was a fortnight on it’s passage to me. the volumes of Manuscripts I described to you shall be at your service whenever you enter on your the additional volume you propose. p of State-papers, papers of the proceedings of public bodies and periodical publications, I now possess nothing. I had a tolerably compleat collection of Virginia newspapers from 1741. to 1783. and...
5948From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 8 August 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of the 4th. is recieved. I think the course which has been taken for sending MelliMeni home is the best: & I concur with you in the expediency of giving no answer to Turreau. indeed his letter does not seem to call for one. in the present state of our affairs it will certainly be better not to appoint a Consul at St. Thomas’s. we must not risk great things for small. a Consul merely to...
5949From Thomas Jefferson to William Hawkesworth, 16 May 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
your favor of the 11 th is just recieved. our University will be opened on the 1 st day of February next. the qualifications for reception in the schools of Mathematics & Nat. Philosophy will be a good acquaintance with numerical arithmetic as far as Fractions & extractions of the roots, and in the classical school for Latin to be able to read the higher authors, with facility paying strict...
5950From Thomas Jefferson to Stephen Willis, 3 March 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
I received yesterday yours of Feb. 13. I had ascribed the delay of an answer to a supposed miscarriage of my letter to you, otherwise I should have written again to inform you of what I shall now do. I have been prevailed on, contrary to what I thought possible, to remain here somewhat longer. How long I do not know, but sufficiently long to carry me so late into the season for brickwork that...