1To James Madison from Richard Peters, 1 September 1826 (Madison Papers)
I send to you our 5th Volume of Memoirs of the “Philadelphia Society for promoting Agriculture”; not so much for the interest of its contents, as for the opportunity it affords of renewing to you assurances of the unremitted regards I have ever felt towards you, not only personally, but as one of the few remaining founders of all the Prosperity, Strength & Respectability our singularly...
2To John Jay from Richard Peters, 21 February 1826 (Jay Papers)
I am recovering from a long spell of our fashionable Influenza which is leaving me debilitated; but not materially injured. Generally, thro’ a long pilgrimage, I have had no ^durable^ ill health or disease, chronic or temporary. So that it would be ingratitude to a kind providence, in me to complain. I often think of the few old friends left behind the multitudes who are gone to that...
3To James Madison from Richard Peters, 4 March 1823 (Madison Papers)
I received with great pleasure your letter of the 22d Feby, not for any polite expressions it contains, so much as the gratification I enjoy when I see the hand writing I have been accustomed to be familiar with, in olden times, & days of tribulation. So few of us remain, of those who bore the burthens, & encountered the dangers of those times & days; & so dispersed in distant sections of our...
4To John Adams from Richard Peters, 25 March 1822 (Adams Papers)
Your kind letter of the 12th. roused all my Sympathies & recollections of the pleasures & pains of “ olden times ”. Little do the present generation know of our anxieties, labours, & vicissitudes. What was then feeling , has now become history ; & that distorted in many instances, & almost fabulous in others. The actors in the scenes which originated & ensured the present prosperity of this...
5To John Jay from Richard Peters, 20 March 1821 (Jay Papers)
It is always to me a most gratifying cordial, & delightful antidote to the “ills that flesh is heir to” when I receive an affectionate remembrance from an old & highly valued friend. There are so few left of those we loved in “olden times”, that it seems as if, like other precious commodities, they become the more estimable, in proportion to their scarcity. When I wrote to you on the subject...
6To John Jay from Richard Peters, 25 November 1820 (Jay Papers)
Every occurrence in which you have shared, or originated, seems by some strange perversion to be misunderstood, or misstated, by the present generation, when some favorite individual, or topic, induces the obliquity. Although I give M r Adams his full share of merit in the affair of the Compte de Vergenne’s maneuvring with the british administration on the subject of our treaty of 1783; yet I...
7To John Jay from Richard Peters, 12 December 1818 (Jay Papers)
Although our correspondence is rare, my most sincere regards for you are uninterrupted. I have outlived, & so have you, so many old friends & contemporaries, that the very few left me are the more valuable for their scarcity. New acquaintances I make the most of; but old & valued friends delight me with solid enjoyments, more easily felt than described. And yet, in what is called society, a...
8To James Madison from Richard Peters, 24 August 1818 (Madison Papers)
Your favour of the 15th. arrived in time to enable me to add a little Note to the Errata of our 4th. Vol: which I copy. ☞ “A highly respectable friend has been so good as to point out to me my careless Mode of expression in my ‘Notices to a young Farmer,’ page XXXVI. I mention Wheat being so injured by stagnant water, ‘as to become abortive; & produce only Cheat .[’] I should have said, and...
9To James Madison from Richard Peters, 30 July 1818 (Madison Papers)
I very thankfully acknowledge the Receipt, yesterday, of your very entertaining & apposite Address to your Agricultural Society. It is well calculated for your Auditory; & would be so for any other. But peculiarly for Virginia Gentlemen Farmers; who must have mental Amusement, mixed with practical Instruction. And you have done great Justice to your Subject in both Respects. I am very much...
10Richard Peters to Thomas Jefferson, 28 June 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I waited for a monthly Meeting of our agricultural Society , before acknowledging the Receipt of your kind & polite Attention to my Request , in sending the Hill-side plough. I had it placed in the Society ’s Ware-room; where it will be viewed by those who will take Advantage of it, as a Pattern. The Society were much pleased with the Present, & very thankful to you for the Donation; which...