451To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 2 January 1818 (Madison Papers)
Expecting daily an answer from the President authorising me to sign the within for him I had rather not take on myself a 3d. and therefore send it to you. I have adopted your amendments and made some other small ones. To economise writing I make one letter do for the other gentlemen, joining you with them, altho’ it contains no more than I had before written to you. After signing yourself be...
452To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 6 February 1818 (Madison Papers)
I inclose you a letter from Dr. Cooper, considerably important to the first successes of our college. I will request you to return it to me. I inclose also the answer which I think should be given. If you think so likewise be so good as to seal & forward it. If not, return it, as I should be unwilling to take on myself alone so important a relinquishment. Yet I think it right that we should...
453To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 11 April 1818 (Madison Papers)
Yours of Mar. 29. came duly to hand, but I put off answering it because I expected to have written sooner by the bearer of the present mr. Coffee. Nothing presses as to the payment of the instalment which is the subject of your letter. It may either be paid to the Richmd bank of Virginia, or sent to mr. Garrett or mr. Barksdale by any body happening to be coming, or brought when you come to...
454To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 28 June 1818 (Madison Papers)
Being to set out in a few days for Bedford from whence I shall not return till about a week before our Rockfish meeting, I have been preparing such a report as I can, to be offered there to our colleagues. It is not such an one as I should propose to them to make to an assembly of philosophers, who would require nothing but the table of professorships, but I have endeavored to adapt it to our...
455To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 19 February 1819 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 12th. has been duly recieved, and the pamphlet it covered has been sent to mr. Minor. The late day to which the Governor has fixed the 1st. meeting of the Visitors of the University (the last Monday in March) renders a meeting of the College visitors immediately necessary, some measures of high importance to the institution not admitting that delay; & the Law having authorised us...
456To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 3 March 1819 (Madison Papers)
I promised your gardener some seeds which I put under a separate cover and address to you by mail. I also inclose you a letter from mr. Cabell which will shew you that the “sour grapes” of Wm. & Mary are spreading; but certainly not to the “enlightened part of society” as the letter supposes. I have sent him a transcript from our journals that he may see how far we are under engagements to Dr....
457To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 8 March 1819 (Madison Papers)
I now return you the letter from mr. Watson whom I met with on the road as mentioned in mine of the 3d. In consequence of the doubts discovered on the subject of Cooper, I wrote to mr. Cabell, to Correa, and to Cooper himself, and inclose you copies of my letters for perusal that you may see on what ground I place the matter with each. To Cooper I barely hold up the possibility of new views...
458To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 11 March 1819 (Madison Papers)
I inclose you a letter received last night from mr. Cabell containing interesting information as to our University as well as something further with respect to Dr. Cooper. Be so good as to return it with those formerly sent you. I recieved by the same mail a commission as visitor, and an authentic appointment of the last Monday of this month for our first meeting at the University. I have...
459To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 29 June 1819 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 29 June 1819, Monticello. Described as a one-page autograph letter, signed, offered for sale 17–21 Mar. 1891 in the Catalogue of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents, Collected by the Late Prof. E. H. Leffingwell , (2 vols. in 1; Boston, 1891), 2:32, item 3633.
460To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 7 July 1819 (Madison Papers)
Preparing within 4. or 5. days to set out for Bedford, where I shall continue two months, I have thought it would be acceptable to you to learn the present state of things at the University, and the prospect for the year. You may remember that almost in the moment of our separation at the last meeting, one of our Colleagues proposed a change of a part of the plan so as to place the gardens of...
461To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 23 September 1819 (Madison Papers)
The law establishing the University requires the Visitors to make a report annually embracing a full account of the disbursements, the funds on hand, and a general statement of the condition of the sd. University. The account of disbursements and funds belongs to the Bursar & Proctor, who are accordingly instructed to have them made up to the last day of this month. The condition of the...
462To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 18 October 1819 (Madison Papers)
By this day’s mail I forward you ⅓ of a parcel of seeds of the Sea-Kale sent here by Genl. Cock for you, mr. Divers & myself. I feared to await a private conveyance because they lose their vegetative power if not planted soon. The day after you left us I was taken with a cholic which attended with a stricture on the upper bowels brought me into great pain & immediate danger. The obstacle was...
463To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 November 1819 (Madison Papers)
A visit of the ladies of our family to mrs. Madison gives me an opportunity of sending you our correspondence with Dr. Cooper & of recieving it back again safely. It is necessary to observe that our first letter & his first crossed each other on the road, so that each party had expressed their mind before knowing that of the other. On the whole this embarrassed transaction ends well enough,...
464To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 16 February 1820 (Madison Papers)
With this letter I commit for you to the mail a bundle of seeds, one parcel of which was sent by you to mr. Randolph for inspection. The other is seakale seed lodged here for you by Genl. Cocke. Have I returned your Vitruvius to you? I am in great tribulation about it? I keep my borrowed books on a particular shelf that they may neither be forgotten nor confounded with my own. It is not on...
465To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 11 April 1820 (Madison Papers)
Our brewing for the use of the present year has been some time over. About the last of Oct. or beginning of Nov. we begin for the ensuing year, and malt and brew 3. 60 galln casks successively , which will give so many successive lessons to the person you send. On his return he can try his hand with you in order to discover what parts of the processes he will have learnt imperfectly, and come...
466To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 17 May 1820 (Madison Papers)
As the measures which were adopted at the last meeting of our visitors were of a very leading character I have thought it proper to inform our absent colleagues of them; and have delayed the communication only until I could add what has been done under the resolutions of the board. As this latter information has not been received by you, I inclose you my letter to General Taylor for perusal...
467To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 2 June 1820 (letter not found) (Madison Papers)
¶ From Thomas Jefferson. Letter not found. 2 June 1820 . Enclosed in Dolley Madison to Lewis J. Cist, 4 July 1842 ( DLC : Dolley Madison Papers).
468To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 13 August 1820 (Madison Papers)
I recieved yesterday the inclosed Letter proposing to me an interposition which my situation renders impracticable. The gentlemen of my family have manifested at times some opposition to mr. Nelson’s elections: which has produced an intermission of intercourse between the families: and altho’ I never took the smallest part in it, and nothing but what is respectful has ever passed between mr....
469To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 29 November 1820 (Madison Papers)
The inclosed letter from our antient friend Tenche Coxe came unfortunately to Monticello after I had left it and has had a dilatory passage to this place where I recieved it yesterday and obey it’s injunction of immediate transmission to you. We should have recognised the stile even without a signature, and altho so written as to be much of it indecypherable. This is a sample of the effects we...
470To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 13 January 1821 (Madison Papers)
I return you mr. Coxe’s letter without saying I have read it. I made out enough to see that it was about the Missouri question, and the printed paper told me on which side he was. Could I have devoted a day to it, by interlining the words as I could pick them out, I might have got at more. The lost books of Livy or Tacitus might be worth this. Our friend would do well to write less and write...
471To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 28 January 1821 (Madison Papers)
My neighbor, friend and physician, Doctr. Watkins, being called to Philadelphia, is desirous to pay his respects to you en passant, and asks me, by a line to you, to lessen his scruples on doing so. You will find my justification in his character when known to you. His understanding is excellent, well informed, of pleasant conversation and of great worth. As a Physician I should trust myself...
472To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 January 1821 (Madison Papers)
The inclosed letter to mr. Cabell so fully explains it’s object, and the grounds on which your signature to the paper is proposed if approved, that I will spare my stiffening & aching wrist the pain of adding more than the assurance of my constant & affectte. friendship. We the subscribers, visitors of the University of Virginia being of opinion that it will be to the interest of that...
473To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 15 August 1821 (Madison Papers)
In obedience to the resolution of the visitors of the university at their last session, the Proctor has been constantly employed in “ascertaining the state of accounts under contracts already made, and the expence of compleating the buildings begun and contemplated”: and we have consequently suspended, according to instructions, “the entering into any contracts for the Library until we see...
474To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 16 September 1821 (Madison Papers)
I have no doubt you have occasionally been led to reflect on the character of the duty imposed by Congress on the importation of books. Some few years ago, when the tariff was before Congress, I engaged some of our members of Congress to endeavor to get the duty repealed, and wrote on the subject to some other acquaintances in Congress, and pressingly to the Secretary of the treasury. The...
475To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 September 1821 (Madison Papers)
Mr Brockenbrough has been closely engaged, since our last meeting in settling the cost of the buildings finished at the University, that we might obtain a more correct view of the state of our funds, and see whether a competency will remain for the Library. He has settled for 6. pavilions, 1. hotel, and 35. dormitories and will proceed with the rest; so that I hope, by our next meeting, the...
476To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 October 1821 (Madison Papers)
I heard in Bedford that you were attaked with the prevailing fever, and with great joy on my return that you were recovered from it. In the strange state of the health of our country every fever gives alarm. I got home from Bedford on the 27th. and am obliged to return there within 3. or 4. days, having an appointment at the Natural bridge on the 11th. prox. As our proposed petition to...
477To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 25 February 1822 (Madison Papers)
I have no doubt you have recieved, as I have done, a letter from Dr. Morse with a printed pamphlet, proposing to us a place in a self constituted society for the civilisation of the Indians &c. I am anxious to know your thoughts on the subject because they would affect my confidence in my own. I disapprove the proposition altogether. I acknolege the right of voluntary associations for laudable...
478To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 7 April 1822 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of Mar. 29. did not come to hand until the 4th. instant. Only mr. Cabell, Genl. Cocke and myself attended. Messrs. Johnson and Taylor were retained in Richmond on Lithgow’s case, and Genl. Breckenridge hindered by business. It was not material as there was not a single thing requisite to act on. We have to finish the 4. rows and appendages this summer which will be done and then to...
479To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 12 May 1822 (Madison Papers)
I thank you for the communication of mr. Rush’s letter which I now return. Mr. Bentham’s character of Alexander is I believe just and that worse traits might still be added to it equally just. He is now certainly become the watchman of tyranny for Europe, as dear to it’s oppressors as detestable to the oppressed. If however he should engage in war with the Turks, as I expect, his employment...
480To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 22 November 1822 (Madison 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 of...
481To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 6 January 1823 (Madison Papers)
I send you a mass of reading, and so rapidly does my hand fail me in writing that I can give but very briefly the necessary explanations. You will observe that mr. Cabell, if the loan bill should pass, proposes to come up with mr. Loyall, probably mr. Johnson, and Genl. Cocke to have a special meeting. This is necessary to engage our workmen before they undertake other work for the ensuing...
482To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 16 February 1823 (Madison Papers)
You already know that the legislature has authorised the literary board to lend us another 60.000 D. It is necessary we should act on this immediately so far as to accept the loan, that we may engage our workmen before they enter into other undertakings for the season. But the badness of the roads, the uncertainty of the weather and the personal inconvenience of a journey to the members of our...
483To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 24 February 1823 (Madison Papers)
I have read mr. Cox’s letters and some of his papers, which I now return you. It is impossible for me to write to him. With two crippled hands I abandon writing but from the most urgent necessities; and above all things I should not meddle in a Presidential election, nor even express a sentiment on the subject of the Candidates. As you propose to write to him, will you be so good as to add a...
484To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 12 March 1823 (Madison Papers)
Having received from all our brethren approbations of the loan, I authorised Mr Brockenbrough to engage the work of the Rotunda and have it commenced immediately. We had only two bricklayers and two carpenters capable of executing it with solidity and correctness, these had not capital sufficient for so great an undertaking, nor would they have risked their little all but for a great advance...
485To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 14 March 1823 (Madison Papers)
The inclosed lre. in Gr. Lat. Fr. and Eng. with it’s accompaniments being intended for your inspection as much as mine, is now forwarded for your perusal. You will be so good as to reinclose them that I may return them to the writer. The answer I propose to give is, what I have given on all similar applications, that until the debt of the University is discharged, and it’s funds liberated, the...
486To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 24 March 1823 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Dodge, our Consul at Marseilles, wishing to pay his respects to you on his way to Richmd. and apprehending that altho presented to you some half dozen years ago, you may not now recollect him, requests me to give him a line of re-introduction. You will find him a person of very general information and good sense, and particularly familiar with the affairs of Southern Europe. We shall hope...
487To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 April 1823 (Madison Papers)
The anxieties expressed in the inclosed letter are pointed to 3. articles. 1. the size of the lecturing rooms. 2. depositories for the Apparatuses. 3. the arrangement of the seats for the Students. 1. If we could have foretold what number of students would come to our University, and what proportion of them would be in attendance on any one Professor at one time, lecturing rooms might have...
488To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 13 June 1823 (Madison Papers)
I communicated to you a former part of a correspondence between Judge Johnson of Charleston and myself, chiefly on the practice of caucusing opinions which is that of the supreme court of the US. but on some other matters also, particularly his history of parties. In a late letter he asks me to give him my idea of the precise principles & views of the Republicans in their oppositions to the...
489To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 30 August 1823 (Madison Papers)
I recieved the inclosed letters from the President with a request that after perusal, I would forward them to you, for perusal by yourself also and to be returned then to him. You have doubtless seen Timothy Pickering’s 4th. of July Observations on the Declaration of Independance. If his principles and prejudices personal and political, gave us no reason to doubt whether he had truly quoted...
490To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 18 October 1823 (Madison Papers)
I return you mr. Coxe’s letter which has cost me much time at two or three different attempts to decypher it. Had I such a correspondent I should certainly admonish him that if he would not so far respect my time as to write to me legibly, I should so far respect it myself as not to waste it in decomposing and recomposing his hieroglyphics. The jarrings between the friends of Hamilton and...
491To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 24 October 1823 (Madison Papers)
I forward you two most important letters sent to me by the President and add his letter to me by which you will percieve his primâ facie views. This you will be so good as to return to me, and forward the others to him. I have recieved Trumbull’s print of the Decln. of Independance, & turning to his letter am able to inform you more certainly than I could by memory that the print costs 20. D....
492To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 6 November 1823 (Madison Papers)
The belief is so universal that the ensuing legislature will dispose in some way of the University debt, & liberate our funds, as that we ought to save what time we can by provisional preparations. We have all, I believe, agreed that an Agent to Gr. Britain will be necessary to procure Professors; & I have heretofore mentioned to you that mr. Cabell was disposed to undertake the business. But...
493To 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...
494To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 7 January 1824 (Madison Papers)
I send you two letters of Dr. Cooper for perusal. Altho’ the trustees of that College and the Legislature have supported him most triumphantly against his clerical persecutors, yet it is evident he does not feel himself secure. I think you will see from these letters that he keeps us in his eye. And altho’ I doubt, were he now offered a place here, whether he would think he could accept it...
495To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 9 April 1824 (Madison Papers)
Circular Notwithstanding the reduction which was made in the rents proposed, it appears that that on the salaries will so much enlarge our surplus, that we may very safely engage 8. professors, and still have a surplus this year of 6000. D. and annually after of 5024 D. The opportunity of procuring the anatomical professor is so advantageous, that I propose to make the provisional instruction...
496To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 16 May 1824 (Madison Papers)
You will see by the inclosed letter from mr. Cabell that a project is in agitation respecting Wm. & Mary Coll. which gives him much alarm. I communicate to you the letter as he requests, and with it my answer, as shewing the point in which I view it. I will ask their return when read, that I may be enabled to lodge my answer in Richmd. before his arrival there. On the question of engaging a...
497To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 14 July 1824 (Madison Papers)
I have attentively read your letter to mr. Wheaton on the question whether at the date of the message to Congress, recommending the embargo of 1807 we had knolege of the order of council of Nov. 11. and according to your request I have resorted to my papers, as well as to my memory, for the testimony these might afford, additional to yours. There is no fact in the course of my life which I...
498To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 8 August 1824 (Madison Papers)
I recd yesterday a letter from mr. Gilmer which I now inclose, as also a former one, which had only communicated his arrival at Liverpool. I add also a letter from mr. Rush. So far his trust is going on well. I wish the suggestion of mr. Brougham respecting Ivory may be found groundless. There is no mathematician in Gr. Britain who can rival him but Woodhouse professor of Mathematics at...
499To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 3 September 1824 (Madison Papers)
I am near closing my catalogue, and it is important I should recieve the kindness of your Theological supplement, by the 1st. or 2d. mail, or it’s insertion will be impracticable. Be so good as to expedite it as much as possible. Affectionate salutations. RC ( DLC ).
500To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 24 September 1824 (Madison Papers)
I have got thro’ my catalogue except the Alphabet and send you the result. The inclosed table shews the number, size, and cost of the whole and it’s parts. 6860. vols will cost 24.076 D. or 3½ D. a vol. on an average of all sizes. If we get our 50. M D and also if 10.000 would do for apparatus, there would remain 16.000. to invest in stock. This would give us 1000 D. a year for ever which...