1From Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 14 October 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I am here, my dear friend, waiting the arrival of a ship to take my flight from this side of the Atlantic and as we think last of those we love most, I profit of the latest moment to bid you a short but affectionate Adieu. Before this, Trumbull will have left you: but we are more than exchanged by Mrs. Church who will probably be with you in the course of the present month. My daughters are...
2From Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 31 January 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege the reciept of your favor of July 20. 1801. from London, and of Feb. 25. 1802. from Paris. that I am so late in answering them arises from my incessant occupations which deprive me of the happiness of satisfying the affections of my heart by expressions of them on paper to my friends: to none would they be more warmly expressed, my esteemed friend, than to yourself, with...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 29 November 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
My letters which pass thro’ the post office either of this country or of England being all opened, I send thro’ that channel only such as are very indifferent in their nature. This is not the character, my dear madam of those I write to you. The breathings of a pure affection would be profaned by the eye of a Commis of the poste . I am obliged then to wait for private conveiances. I wrote to...
4From Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 23 June 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
I received, my dear friend, your favor of Apr. 6. It gives me a foretaste of the sensations we are to feel in the next world, on the arrival of any new-comer from the circle of friends we have left behind. I am now fixed here, and look back to Europe only on account of that circle. Could it be transferred here, the measure of all I could desire in this world would be filled up, for I have no...
5From Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, [31] January [1788] (Jefferson Papers)
I went to breakfast with you according to promise, and you had gone off at 5. oclock in the morning. This spared me indeed the pain of parting, but it deprives me of the comfort of recollecting that pain. Your departure was the signal of distress to your friends. You know the accident which so long confined the Princess to her room. Madame de Corny too was immediately thrown into great alarm...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 14 January 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Fearing, my dear Madam, that I might not be able to write to you by this occasion, I had charged my friend Trumbull to lay my homage at your feet. But this is an office I would always chuse to perform myself. It is very long since I have heard from you: tho I have no right to complain, as it is long since I wrote to you. A great deal of business, and some tribulation must be my excuse. I have...
7From Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 24 December 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
Yes, my dear Madam, I have received your three letters, and I am sure you must have thought hardly of me, when at the date of the last, you had not yet received one from me. But I had written two. The second, by the post, I hope you got about the beginning of this month: the first has been detained by the gentleman who was to have carried it. I suppose you will receive it with this. I wish...
8From Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 24 April 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I arrived here, my dear friend, the last night, and in a bushel of letters presented me by way of reception, I saw that one was of your handwriting. It is the only one I have yet opened, and I answer it before I open another. I do not think I was in arrears in our epistolary account when I left Paris. In affection I am sure you were greatly my debtor. I often determined during my journey to...
9From Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 21 May 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have not yet, my dear friend, received my leave of absence, but I expect it hourly, and shall depart almost in the hour of receiving it. My absence will be of about six months. I leave here a scene of tumult and contest. All is politics in this capital. Even love has lost it’s part in conversation. This is not well, for love is always a consolatory thing. I am going to a country where it is...
10Thomas 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...