801From Thomas Jefferson to De Langeac, 15 February 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Je n’ai aucune difficulté, Monsieur le comte, à vous confier la copie de la sentence qui m’a eté remise parce que c’est une acte publique. Je doute seulement si je dois faire de la lettre du Commissaire une usage que peutetre il n’a pas attendu. Je vous la remets donc pour en prendre copie si vous voulez, en vous priant de n’en faire rien qui pourroit me compromettre avec Monsieur Coulon. Vous...
802From Thomas Jefferson to Philip Mazzei, 16 February 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
Anacreon. Antoninus. Sophocles. Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. Aeschylus. ——’s Hellenics. Euripides. ——’s Anabasis. Aristophanes. Herodotus. Seneca’s tragedies. Thucydides. Terence. Quintus Curtius. Plautus. Justin. Lucian. Diodorus Siculus. Horace. Dyonisius Halicarnassus.
803From Thomas Jefferson to Langlade, 7 August 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
Le nom de Mr. Jaques Tourny m’est tout à fait inconnu. Je crois pouvoir vous assurer qu’aucune personne de ce nom n’a pas commandé une fregate des etats unis d’Amerique, qu’il n’y a point de ville de Petersburgh dans le comté d’Essex en Virginie, que jamais l’etat de Virginie n’a pas fait des expeditions à Livourne ni eu aucunes affaires avec aucun negotiant de cette ville, que consequement...
804From Thomas Jefferson to Nicholas Lewis, 16 December 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Mine of July 11. acknoleged the receipt of yours of April 15. The necessity that my daughters should now return to their own country, and an unwillingness to trust them to such a voiage without being with them, has induced me to ask of Congress a leave of absence for 5. or 6. months of the next year. If I obtain it in time, I propose to embark in the month of April, and to pass two months at...
805From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson, 17 April 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
I have not received a letter from you since early in February . This is far short of my injunctions to write once a week by post. I wish this for my own gratification as well as for your improvement. I received yesterday letters from Eppington by which I learn that the families there and at Hors du monde are well, and that your cousin Cary has a son. Lucy has been unwell during the winter but...
806From Thomas Jefferson to Francis dal Verme, 15 September 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honour of addressing letters to you lately by two of my countrymen, Mr. Shippen and Mr. Rutledge who meant to pass through Milan in a visit to Italy. The bearer hereof Mr. Short, tho leaving Paris later with the same view, will meet with those gentlemen at Geneva, and will have the honour of presenting himself to you at the same time. He is from the same state with myself, connected...
807From Thomas Jefferson to Adam Walker, 17 July 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
A servant of mine who was lately in London, informing me that he had seen my Harpsichord in your shop, finished, and ready to be delivered on my sending an order for it, I write the present to desire you to deliver it to Mr. John Trumbull or order. I do not know what arrangements Colo. Smith took for the having it packed. He is now absent. Probably it should be packed by Mr. Kirkman the maker....
808From Thomas Jefferson to Isaac Zane, 8 November 1783 (Jefferson Papers)
By Colo. Bland who is returning to Virginia in a carriage I send you a thermometer, the only one to be had in Philadelphia. It appears to be a good one. You must do me the favour to accept of it from me. The following are the observations which I would trouble you to make and transmit to me. The temperature of the cave at different distances from the mouth. The temperature of your ice house....
809From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Thomson, 1 May 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof is Mr. Warville who is already probably known to you by his writings, and particularly that on France and the United states. He is moreover a person of great worth, politically and morally speaking, and his acquaintance will give you great satisfaction. Permit me therefore to introduce him to the honour of your acquaintance, and to ask for him those attentions and civilities...
810From Thomas Jefferson to James Carmichael, 21 August 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I think myself very unfortunate in having been absent when you did me the honor of calling on me in Paris. Particular occupation prevented my waiting on you immediately but I sent to your lodgings a note to ask yourself and Mr. Collow to do me the honor of dining with me; the messenger was informed however that you had just left Paris. I was the more mortified at this, as, besides the many...
811From Thomas Jefferson to Van Damme, 23 March 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Vol: 1. pa. 7. Admiranda narratio &c. Virginiae. a Thomâ Harriot. fol. 9. Aesopi Phaedri, Aviani, Abstemii fabulae. Gr. Lat. Francofurti. 1610. 8vo. 52. Bentivoglio della guerra di Fiandra. Cologna. Elzevir. 1635. 3.v. 12mo. 56. Biblia Tremellii et Junii et Testam. novum Bezae. Amstel. 1628. 12mo. 150. Dictionarium Latino-Graeco-Gallicum Morelli 8vo. (c’est le meme qui est mis sur l’autre...
812From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 23 June 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I hear of a conveyance which allows me but a moment to write to you. I inclose a copy of a letter from Mr. Lamb. I have written both to him and Mr. Randall agreeable to what we had jointly thought best. The Courier de l’Europe gives us strange news of armies marching from the U.S. to take the posts from the English. I have received no public letters and not above one or two private ones from...
813To George Washington from Thomas Jefferson, 31 March 1784 (Washington Papers)
Your servant delivered me your favor this morning; Capt. Barney is gone to Philadelphia and his vessel to Baltimore, having left with me one of your packages only. the persons who brought this could give me no certain account of the other package which you suppose to have been brought. this your servant now receives. Being obliged to seize a moment in Congress of writing you these few lines, I...
814From Thomas Jefferson to the Commissioners of the Treasury, 18 September 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
Congress having thought proper by their vote of July 18. to instruct me to take measures for the redemption of our captives at Algiers, and to desire you to furnish the money necessary, it is proper to state to you some data whereby you may judge what sum is necessary. The French prisoners, last redeemed by the order of Mathurins, cost somewhat less than 400 dollars; but the General of the...
815From Thomas Jefferson to C. W. F. Dumas, 6 May 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
Having been absent in England for some time past, your favors of Feb. 27. Mar. 28. and Apr. 11. have not been acknowleged so soon as they should have been. I am obliged to you for assisting to make me known to the Rhingrave de Salm and the Marquis de la Coste, whose reputations render an acquaintance with them desireable. I have not yet seen either; but expect that honour from the Rhingrave...
816From Thomas Jefferson to Ezra Stiles, 10 June 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
After I had the pleasure of seeing you in New Haven I received information that you were in possession of several facts relative to the huge bones of the Animal incognitum found in America, or of the Mammoth as the Russians call the same animal whose bones they also find in the Northern parts of their empire. Monsr. de Buffon the celebrated Physiologist of the present age, who has advanced a...
817From Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 7 May 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
My last to you was of the 11th. of October. Soon after that, your favor of the 12th. of Sep. came to hand. My acknolegement of this is made later than it should have been by my trip to England. Your long silence I ascribe to a more pleasing cause, that of devoting your spare time to one more capable of filling it with happiness, and to whom as well as to yourself I wish all those precious...
818From Thomas Jefferson to Champagni, [19 January 1787] (Jefferson Papers)
Vous me faites l’honneur, Monsieur, de demander mes conseils sur le projet que vous avez conçu, de vendre vos biens ici, et d’aller vous etablir en Amerique. Je vous repeterai ce que j’ai eu l’honneur de conseiller à d’autres, qui en ont eté dans la suite tres contents. C’est de ne vendre ici, qu’après que vous vous auriez rendu en Amerique, que vous auriez bien parcouru les etats dont le...
819From Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Bernard, 12 August 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Je vous rends mille graces, Monsieur, pour les observations meteorologiques que vous avez eu la bonté de me faire copier et de m’envoyer, et j’accepte avec empressement l’honneur que vous me proposez de me donner une place dans la liste des souscripteurs pour votre ouvrage sur l’histoire naturelle de votre païs. Il me paroit que vous m’avez fait l’honneur de me dire, quand j’avois celui de...
820From Thomas Jefferson to Moustier, 2[8] October 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
The wind, which has so long detained you at Brest, continuing obstinately in the same point, admits a possibility that the present letter, may yet find you at Brest. It covers one to Mr. Jay announcing the signature of declarations at Versailles last night for the disarming, on the part of France and England: so that we may consider the peace as re-established for the present moment. These...
821From 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...
822From Thomas Jefferson to André Limozin, 25 July 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
In answer to your favor of the 20th. I can assure you that your applications for the Consular appointment at Havre will be perfectly agreeable to me, and that I shall do the justice which is due to your attentions to the affairs of the United states in that port in the report which I shall send with the Consular convention as soon as that shall be finished. I will thank you to keep me informed...
823From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Thomson, 14 July 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
By Mr. Houdon I send you a copy of my notes. I also send 100 copies of the paper I left with you on our coinage. Printing is so cheap here (they cost me but a guinea) that I thought it worth while to print as many copies as would enable you to put one into the hands of every member of Congress when they should enter on the subject, and to do the same at any succeeding session when they should...
824From 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...
825From Thomas Jefferson to Marbois, 13 August 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Derby , a citizen of Massachusets, thinking he has just grounds to complain of the condemnation of a vessel in your island, proposes to institute a suit against the persons by whose fraud he supposes the cause for that condemnation was contrived. Knowing the embarrassments of a stranger when entering the lists of law in any country against a native, I take the liberty of recommending him...
826From Thomas Jefferson to Edward Bancroft, 1 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Feb. 20. came to hand by the last post and I have this day had a consultation with Mr. Paradise on the articles which concern him. With respect to the naming three trustees, all among his friends, and also the omitting to convey the money in the funds to the trustees, we both agree in sentiment with you, if the creditors will consent to it. It was the fear of their dissent which...
827From Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 28 July 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
The letter which you were so kind as to write to me the 22d. of May 1786. was not delivered to me till the 3d. of May 1787. when it found me in the neighborhood of Marseilles. Before that time you must have taken your degree as mentioned in your letter. Those public testimonies which are earned by merit and not by sollicitation may always be accepted without the imputation of vanity. Of this...
828From Thomas Jefferson to David S. Franks, 8 February 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I discover that by mistake you have among the papers some that are not destined for America. I recollect PrC ( MHi ); MS faded, some words being supplied by the editors with reference to the first of the two letters written to Franks on this date. Franks’s acknowledgment of a letter of the 8th indicates that only one was received (Franks to TJ, 11 Feb. 1787), and only one is recorded in SJL ....
829From Thomas Jefferson to John Paradise, 16 July 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Will any of your occasions for money, my dear Sir, admit of being put off a few days? Mr. Grand will indeed furnish the 50 Louis you desire, on my order; but it will be on the condition, always understood between him and me, that I repay it punctually the 1st. day of the next month. The 100 Louis he has before furnished you, I repaid him the 1st. day of this month. Since that I have been...
830From Thomas Jefferson to William Drayton, 17 July 178[8] (Jefferson Papers)
My letters of Jan. 13. and Feb. 6. informed you that I had sent to your address 1. a couffe of Egyptian rough rice by Capt. Shewell bound from Marseilles to Charleston. 2. another do. by the Juno capt. Jenkins bound from Havre to N. York. 3. a box with cork acorns and Sulla seed by the Packet from Havre to N. York. A letter from the delegates of S. Carolina dated New York Apr. 25. announced to...
831From Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 20 December 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
‘Not having any letters on my file unanswered, I shall not trouble you further.’—Is this you?— Did you count 10 . distinctly between the origin of that thought, and the committing it to paper? How could you, my dear Sir, add reproach to misfortune with a poor cripple who but now begins to use his pen, a little, and that with so much pain that it is real martyrdom? However I believe I am even...
832From Thomas Jefferson to Jean Baptiste Huron, 20 November 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I will endeavor to give you the best information I can on the subject of your enquiries about the 200,000 acres of land in the counties of Fayette, Montgomery and Ohio which Mr. Pentecost and his partner oblige themselves to have conveyed to you by patents or otherwise as a security for 8000£ Pennsylvania money, and which you are desired to sell. By the term ‘patent’ I presume they had not in...
833From Thomas Jefferson to C. W. F. Dumas, 2 February 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I was honoured some time ago with a letter from you of Dec. 6. inclosing two for America which I forwarded by the first occasion. On the 18th. of this month I received a letter from his Excellency the Count de Vergennes expressing the interest which he takes in your welfare and recommending you to Congress. This I had an opportunity of forwarding from hence on the 27th. of Jan. under cover to...
834From Thomas Jefferson to Paul Bentalou, 25 August 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I am honoured with your favour of the 9th. inst. and am to thank you for your care of the packet from Mr. McHenry, and congratulate yourself and Mrs. Bentalou on your safe arrival in France. I have made enquiries on the subject of the negro boy you have brought, and find that the laws of France give him freedom if he claims it, and that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to interrupt the...
835To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 23 June 1786 (Adams Papers)
I hear of a conveyance which allows me but a moment to write to you. I inclose a copy of a letter from mr̃ Lamb. I have written both to him & mr̃ Randall agreeable to what we had jointly thought best. the Courier de l’Europe gives us strange news of armies marching from the U.S. to take the posts from the English. I have received no public letters & not above one or two private ones from...
836From Thomas Jefferson to William H. Sargeant, 8 July 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been honoured with your favor of June 15. inclosing a letter to young Mr. Bannister, which I have forwarded to him at Bourdeaux where he is at present. My last letter from him is dated June 5. He said his health was then incertain, sometimes tolerably well, at others less so. I wrote his father on the 6th. of May last, and shall take care to inform him as often as I can of the state of...
837From Thomas Jefferson to —— Cabot, 24 July 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
I deliver to Mr. Tracy to be returned to you the copy of Don Quixot which you were so obliging as to lend me: for which I return you many thanks. The winds have been so propitious as to let me get through one volume only: yet this has so far done away the difficulties of the language as that I shall be able to pursue it on shore with pleasure. I have found it a very advantageous disposal of...
838From Thomas Jefferson to St. John de Crèvecoeur, 26 August 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly received the honour of your letter of the 20th . inst. Mr. Barclay has been long gone to Marocco, with which power he was by his last letter about signing a treaty of peace. This must apologize for your not having heard from him. If you will inform me to whom (in Paris) the 55₶ –16s can be paid I will order it to be paid.—I have letters and papers from America to July 16. They...
839From Thomas Jefferson to André Limozin, 28 June 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I think I recollect to have written, about a year ago, to Virginia for a small package of tobacco of a particular quality made on my own estate. It was intended for a friend in France who makes his own snuff and was curious to try tobacco of the first quality. This may be the package which you are so kind as to mention in your letter of the 25th. instant. I am in hopes there are in the same...
840From Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 5 February 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
By the Marquis Fayette, who arrived here the 26th of Jan., I received yours of Sept. 16th, informing me of the illness of our children, and at the same time one from Dr. Currie, of Nov. 20th, mentioning its fatal termination. It is in vain to endeavor to describe the situation of my mind; it would pour balm neither into your wounds nor mine; I will therefore pass on from the subject. I wrote...
841From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 10 March 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
After two days of prosperous journey I had a good gleam of hope of reaching this place in the night of the third day. In fact however I got on the third day only to within 8 hours land journeying and the passage of the Moerdyke. Yet this remnant employed me three days and nothing less than the omnipotence of god could have shortened this time of torture. I saw the Saturday passing over, and,...
842From Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 12 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Jefferson’s compliments to Mr. Adams and begs his care of the inclosed letters . Those directed to Messrs. Monroe and Hardy will make him acquainted with two very worthy gentlemen of the Virginia delegation. Should Colo. Monroe not be at New York Mr. Jefferson begs the favor of Mr. Adams to deliver his letter either to Mr. Hardy or Mr. Charles Thomson with a request to keep it till they...
843From Thomas Jefferson to Sir John Sinclair, 2 July 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I avail myself of the earliest moment possible after my return to thank you for the sketch of your last year’s journey which has come duly to hand. I send you through the medium of Count Sarsfeild a late publication on the connections between France and the United states which is said to be well written. I have not yet read it, and indeed I wonder how any body finds time to read any thing in...
844From Thomas Jefferson to Zachariah Loreilhe, 30 January 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
A letter from a friend of mine in S. Carolina informs me that, with that letter, he sends some plants, addressed to the care of Monsr. Otto, Chargé des affaires of France at New York. The letter is come to hand, but no plants. Fearing they may remain on board the Packet boat last arrived at L’Orient, or neglected in some warehouse, I take the liberty of asking your friendly enquiries after...
845From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Montgomery, 10 September 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I am honoured with your letter of August 25, and think that a letter addressed to Mr. Jay on the subject of the consulate at your port will suffice. If you have already written to him, nothing more will be necessary. I really deplore the situation of our prisoners at Algiers. If they could have been redeemed at the prices formerly paid by the nations of Europe, I think it probable they would...
846From Thomas Jefferson to Vergennes, 20 January 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly received the honor of your Excellency’s letter of the 18th. instant, and will avail myself of the first occasion of transmitting it to Congress. The pleasure of meeting your desire, will, I am persuaded, induce them to do for Mr. Dumas whatever the establishment which they think themselves bound to keep up at the Hague, together with the rules to which they have submitted all their...
847From Thomas Jefferson to James Swan, 23 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Jefferson has the honor to present his compliments to Mr. Swan and to express his regret that his absence today prevented him the pleasure of seeing him. He now returns him his letters in which he finds a great deal of good matter, and many useful views. In the course of perusing them, Mr. Jefferson noted on a bit of paper the following doubts, the importance and justice of which are...
848From 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...
849From Thomas Jefferson to André Limozin, 18 June 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
My last to you was of the 17. Ult. since which I have been honored with yours of May 22. and June 5. By a letter I have received from Messieurs Van Staphorsts at Amsterdam, I find they have shipt my two stoves on board the same vessel with the boxes of ‘Meubles &c.’ of which I am glad as it will give you trouble once only instead of twice. I find that you have been so kind as to call on Mrs....
850From Thomas Jefferson to St. John de Crèvecoeur, [ca. February 1787] (Jefferson Papers)
I return you your papers with many thinks. Monsr. de Chalut who has shewn me many civilities, being desirous of sending some packages of pictures to Charles town I advised him to send them by the packet from Havre to New York, and to have them reimbarked thence to Charles town. He asks me for a correspondent at New York to whom he may address them. Knowing that men of the same language and...