1From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 28 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
In mine of the 1 st I mentioned that I would send my other Polygraph by mr Millar of Germantown a Student of ours who would return after vacation. I did so and he promised to call on you with it on his arrival in Philadelphia, which would be about the 20 th since that I have had full trial of my gold pen points which I recieved safely in yours of the 9 th they answer so perfectly and so much...
2From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 1 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Heiskill delivered my Polygraph safe and in good condition, and when I consider how much time and labor it has saved me since his return I look back with regret to that which I have lost by the want of it a year or two. the gold pens write charmingly as free pens, and I use them for my common writing in preference to the quill. but when applied to the polygraph I find that they make the...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 September 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday, and with great pleasure, your favor of the 10 th informing me of your good health, which I hope may long continue. for 7. years past mine has been sensibly declining, and latterly is quite broken down. I have now been confined to the house, and chiefly to my couch, for 4 months, by a derangement of the urinary system, which as yet exhibits no prospect of a definite...
4From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 18 July 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I do not wonder that visitors to your Museum come from afar if not equal to some in Europe it possessed much which they have not. of the advantage of Mr. Waterton’s mode of preserving animal subjects with sublimate instead of arsenic you are the best judge. I greatly wish success to Rembrandt in his new enterprise of the equestrian portrait of General Washington. he is no doubt however aware...
5From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 February 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Altho’ writing is a difficulty with me, yet once in awhile I must ask my old friends How they do? your welcome letter of Jan. 25. now furnishes an occasion. the most acceptable part of it is that which assures me of your continuance in health, and in the enjoyment of your faculties, insomuch that you can still exercise your art with satisfaction. as long as the eyes retain their acumen, and...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 26 February 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 8 th has been recieved with the Polygraph wire you were so kind as to send me. your friendly attention to my little wants kindle the most lively sentiments of thankfulness in me. the breaking of an ink-glass, the derangement of a wire, which cannot be supplied in a country situation like ours, would render an instrument of cost and of incalculable value entirely useless; as...
7From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 23 October 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I could never be a day without thinking of you, were it only for my daily labors at the Polygraph for which I am indebted to you. it is indeed an excellent one, and after 12. or 14. years of hard service it has failed in nothing except the spiral springs of silver wire which suspend the pen-frame. these are all but disabled, and my fingers are too clumsy to venture to rectify them, were they...
8Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 28 December 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
‘ Nothing is troublesome which we do willingly ’ is an excellent apophthegm, and which can be applied to no mind more truly than yours. on this ground I am sure you will be so good as to exchange the pair of inkglasses you sent me, & which the furnisher will doubtless exchange. they are a little too large to enter the sockits of my the polygraph I keep in Bedford , as I found on a late visit...
9Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 26 August 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I ought sooner to have thanked you for your sketch of the Court of death, which we have all contemplated with great approbation of the composition and design. it presents to the eye more morality than many written volumes, and with impressions much more durable and indelible. I have been sensible that the scriptural paintings in the Catholic churches produce deeper impressions on the people...
10Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 22 April 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you, dear Sir, for the razor strap you have been so kind as to send me , which is the more acceptable as I am but a poor barber. I shall immediately avail myself of it’s abridgment of labor in razor-strapping. With respect to the plough, your observations are entirely just, as I know by my own experience. the first ploughs I made were 9.I. longer, and so effectual in their...
11Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 7 August 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Passing considerable portions of my time at this place, I keep for use here the portable Polygraph which mr Hawkins was so kind as to send me. but I have had the misfortune to break one of it’s ink glasses , which suspends it’s use, as no such thing can be got here. and to whom can I apply to replace it but to a friend in small things as well as great. without apology therefore I inclose you...
12Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 18 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Jan. 15. is recieved, and I am indebted to you for others; but the torpitude of increasing years, added to a stiffening wrist making writing a slow & painful operation, makes me also a slow correspondent. I promised you a plough so long ago that I dare say you have forgot it: but I have this day sent it to Richmond to be forwarded to you. I claim nothing in it but the mould board...
13Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 16 March 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Feb. 28. came to hand yesterday evening only. mr M c Ilhenny is right in saying he left a letter for me; but I did not get it till a month after he went away. however all is well. we have had the good fortune to get a Swiss from Neufchatel , inferior, I think, to no watchmaker I have ever known. sober, industrious, and moderate. he brought me recommendations from Doct r Patterson...
14Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 24 December 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved in October a letter from mr M c Ilhenny whom you were so kind as to recommend as a watchmaker, informing me he would come on to establish himself at Charlottesville as soon as he could hear from me. I was just about setting out on a journey to Bedford , and answered him therefore by advising him to postpone his coming till my return. he did so, and arrived in Charlottesville by the...
15Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 17 August 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
In your’s of July 7. you informed me you had found a young watchmaker of good character disposed to come here, who had taken time to consider of it. hearing nothing further of him, & being now within a fortnight of departure to Bedford where I shall be 6. weeks I am anxious to know of a certainty; because were he to come during my absence he might not find the same facilities for first...
16Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 8 May 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I am indebted to you for two letters yet unacknolegged unacknoledged , to wit of June 18. and Dec. 23. 15. I pay three or four visits a year to a very distant possession I have in Bedford , where, being comfortably fixed, I pass a month or two at a time, so that it is almost a second home. it is in the finest part of our state for soil & climate, and near to Lynchburg ; now the 2
17Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 13 June 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
In your favor of May 2. you ask my advice on the best mode of selling your Museum, on which however I really am not qualified to advise. this depends entirely on the genius and habits of those among whom you live, with which you are so much better acquainted. I wish first it may be disposed of the most to your advantage, and 2 dly that it may not be separated. if profit be regarded, the...
18Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 21 March 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been long your debtor in our epistolary account. a farmer being privileged to write only on rainy Sundays, his pen-work is apt to accumulate and get into arrears. in so hard a winter too as we have had, one was could not but yield to the pleasure of hovering over a fire with a book, rather than go to the writing table. we have indeed had a hard winter. our average of snow in a common...
19Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 17 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I had long owed you a letter for your favor of Aug. 19. when I recieved, eight days ago that of Mar. 2. 18 12 . a slip of the pen, I suppose for 18 13 . and the pamphlet accompanying it strengthens the supposition. I thank you for the pamphlet. it is full of good sense & wholsome advice, and I am making all my grandchildren read it, married & unmarried: and the story of farmer Jenkins will I...
20Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 20 August 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
It is long, my dear Sir, since we have exchanged a letter. our former correspondence had always some little matter of business interspersed; but this being at an end, I shall still be anxious to hear from you sometimes, and to know that you are well & happy. I know indeed that your system is that of contentment under any situation. I have heard that you have retired from the city to a farm, &...
21Thomas Jefferson to Charles Wilson Peale, 22 August 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been for some time endeavoring to procure bills of some bank in Philadelphia to enable me to remit you the balance of 49. D 5½ C due you on account of my grandson . finding there is little hope of this, I have this day inclosed to my friend mr Barnes of Georgetown , bills of that place, & prayed him to exchange them for a draught of the Washington bank on that of the US. at Philadelphia...
22Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Apr. 3. came to hand on the 23 d of April . I have no doubt that the marked differences between the elephant & our colossal animal entitle him to a distinct appellation. one of those differences, & a striking one, is in the protuberances on the grinding surface of the teeth, somewhat in the shape of the mamma, mastos, or breast of a woman, which has induced Cuvier to call it the...
23Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 10 March 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Being just on the eve of my departure for Monticello I must write you a short letter returning you a thousand thanks for the portrait of my grandson , which is indeed inimitably done. I do not know whether age impairs the faculties of your art, but I am sure it would do honor to any period of life. it will be a treasure to his parents & not less so to me. as he wished to see them & had a month...
24From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 6 February 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose, for the use of my grandson a draught of the bank of the US. here on that at Philadelphia for 56. D. having added to the usual sum 6. Dollars, which I pray him to call & pay to mr Dobson for me, for books lately recieved from him. I begin already to be much occupied in preparing for my departure to those scenes of rural retirement after which my soul is panting. I salute you...
25From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 January 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I take up my pen to inform you that the box with the vase & bridle bit arrived safely last night, & to save the trouble of the search you propose to make in your’s of the 10th. you therein say that ‘when my Polygraph is done you shall leave it to my choice to take either one or the other.’ this, my dear Sir, will be putting my delicacy to severe trial. I find the one I am now writing with, in...
26From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 7 January 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 23. was duly recieved, and I am in hopes the Polygraph got safe to hand, & that you found it in good condition except so much as concerned the writing of the upper part of the page. I believe I mentioned to you in a former letter that if the one of yours with which I am now writing was not for your own use, I should be contented to retain it instead of mine, paying whatever...
27From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 28 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 23d. is recieved. it was never till this day that I have been able to know of any person going to Philadelphia in the stage, so as to put the Polygraph under their care. Capt Jones of Philadelphia was so kind as to take charge of it. he left this this morning in the mail stage, & consequently the Polygraph will have arrived there one day before you recieve this. in the same box...
28From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 4 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose a draught for 60. D. to meet the current expences of my grandson, including two or three little debts of 2. & 4. D. of mine which I write to him to pay. I make these remittances for him merely by guess, and ready to enlarge them the moment you inform me that they are deficient. My Polygraph has been packed some time, & waits to find some passenger in the stage who will attend to...
29From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 November 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 12th. is recieved. the circumstance which has guided us in fixing on the subjects of study for my grandson has been the exclusive possession of Philadelphia of your Museum, the Anatomical dissections & mr Hamilton’s garden. add the Surgical operations at the hospital. I thought these would fill up his whole time; but as it is thought they will leave him time to attend the...
30From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 7 November 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his friendly salutations to mr Peale and sends him a recruit for the fund of his grandson of fifty dollars in an order of the US. bank here on that at Philadelphia. he will take care to do the same monthly, and if at any time it shall be necessary to enlarge it, he will do it on the first intimation recieved from mr Peale. DLC : Papers of Thomas Jefferson.