1Thomas 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....
2Thomas 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...
3Thomas 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...
4Thomas 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...
5Thomas 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...
6Thomas 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...
7Thomas 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...
8Thomas 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...
9Thomas 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...
10Thomas 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...
11Thomas 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...
12Thomas 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...
13Thomas 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,...
14Thomas 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...
15Thomas 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...
16Thomas 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...
17Thomas 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...
18Thomas 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...
19Thomas 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...
20Thomas 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...
21Joel 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
22From 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...