41To John Adams from Richard Rush, 9 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
I think I must have been the debtor. But be that as it may, I seized, with equal avidity and delight the letter that had upon it the well-known and always welcome Quincy post mark and the commencement of which flattered me so much. Time and knowledge are powerful agents in working upon the judgment. I never knew Mr Dexter until the last supreme court. I had, indeed, seen him before, conversed...
42To John Adams from Richard Rush, 7 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
Mr Hay is the son in law of Mr Munroe, and the day after I received your last favor I took the liberty to read a passage from it to the latter. This morning he requested of me an extract of it to send to Mr Hay, saying that he knew how highly it would gratify him. I ha ve cheerfully consented. Thus, Sir, while your kind correspondence is a source of pleasure and of pride to me, I make it also...
43To John Adams from Richard Rush, 16 August 1815 (Adams Papers)
Grattan said of Burke lately, “that he had read more than all mankind, and that his command of history gave him the powers of prophecy.” I do not say it idly, sir,—I say it because I believe it,—the book of history lies more open to you than to any individual, at least, on this side of the water. Pray what is to be the end of the great scenes that are passing? What is to become of poor France?...
44To James Madison from Richard Rush, 15 February 1815 (Madison Papers)
I cannot refrain from the expression of my most hearty congratulations to you on the auspicious news of peace. It comes, indeed, at a most happy point of time for our interests and our fame. I must be allowed to say, how largely I participate in the just and grateful joy it must bring to all your publick feelings. Your anxious moments, sir, will now be fewer; your labors abridged; your...
45To John Adams from Richard Rush, 11 May 1815 (Adams Papers)
The enclosed papers have just been sent on to R. Rush by this days southern mail, and he loses not a moment in forwarding them to Mr Adams, with renewed apologies, with renewed thanks, with cordial respects and compliments, with a hope that they will find him in his usual health. His mother also, under whose roof he now has the happiness to be a guest for a few days, desires that he will make...
46To John Adams from Richard Rush, 8 April 1811 (Adams Papers)
A day or two before I had the pleasure to receive your last valued favor of the 3rd of February, the governor of this state was pleased to honor me with the commission of Attorney general. It so happened that, at that moment our criminal courts here were upon the eve of sitting, which suddenly threw upon me a good deal of publick business. This is the chief cause to which I owe the loss, until...
47To James Madison from Richard Rush, 21 September 1815 (Madison Papers)
I have complied with the requests contained in your letter of the 17th. instant. To Mr Dick I wrote yesterday. As regards the French letter from Rhode Island, the former one, to which it refers, does not appear to be in either of the departments mentioned. I have, however, enclosed the one you transmitted, to Mr Dallas, with some further though slight explanation of the transaction derived...
48From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
I am here on a visit of a few days to my remaining parent, enjoying as much happiness as a son can, under her kind roof. I am sure it will afford you pleasure, madam, to hear that her health is perfectly good, and her situation in all things comfortable and happy. Hearing me say I intended to write to you, she requested that I would present to you her affectionate and cordial remembrance....
49To James Madison from Richard Rush, 17 July 1812 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
17 July 1812. Requests that JM “accept a copy of the discourse the delivery of which, on the 4th of July, he was so obliging as to witness.” RC ( PHi ). 1 p. Enclosure not found, but see n. 1. On 8 July 1812 the National Intelligencer reported that JM, along with his family and the heads of departments, had been escorted to the Capitol on 4 July to hear Rush’s address. Afterward, JM’s party...
50To James Madison from Richard Rush, 6 July 1814 (Madison Papers)
Respectfully enclosed for the eye of the President by R. Rush; who ventures to believe that, in times like these, the contributions of every patriotic and intelligent mind, will, when prudently obtained, be acceptable. RC and enclosure ( PHi : Richard Rush Papers). Docketed by JM . For enclosure, see n. 1. Rush enclosed an extract of a 3 July 1814 letter to him from Alexander J. Dallas (7...
51To John Adams from Richard Rush, 20 August 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your opportunities of obtaining correct information from St Petersburgh, were long superior to those of any one else. In the loss of your accustomed fountain of supply, I send you a few extracts that I have copied from a couple of letters lately received from Mr Harris. I think they will afford you pleasure. Mr Russel writes from Stockholm under date of May 27th, that, the crown Prince was so...
52To James Madison from Richard Rush, 2 September 1815 (Madison Papers)
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 28th of last month enclosing the one from Mr James Miller, at New Iberia, to the secretary of state. In reply to the several points embraced in the one which preceded it a few days, I now beg leave to state. First, as regards the letter from Commodore Patterson. I have furnished Mr Homans with some directions, which, in connexion with...
53To John Adams from Richard Rush, 25 December 1813 (Adams Papers)
Christmas Day I sit down to offer you the compliments of the season, in the most respectful, cordial, and friendly way in which they can be tendered. May you live to see many Christmases more, and may each find you in possession of health to enjoy the blessings and fame that surround you; of the faculties of a mind more full of wisdom as age continues to come over it; and of a heart still, as...
54To John Adams from Richard Rush, 31 December 1813 (Adams Papers)
Since writing the enclosed, which I wrote at home, I have come to the Treasury building where mr Nourse has stepped into my office to ask if I have heard any thing of the report of the morning. It seems it is, that a flag of truce arrived at Annapolis yesterday after a short passage from England with dispatches from Lord Castlereagh to our government, which came on by express from Annapolis to...
55To John Adams from Richard Rush, 27 January 1811 (Adams Papers)
I was more gratified sir, than I can express at the letter which you did me the honor to write to me. The very evening before it came to hand I had finished reading, in course, the last of the lectures upon rhetoric and oratory, which for several weeks had occasionally yielded me great delight during the intervals of a busy profession. The just and often original reflections which they...
56To John Adams from Richard Rush, 29 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
Your kind letter of the 13th has gratified me very much. When I spoke of New York having joined in with Pennsylvania and Virginia, I alluded to the issue of the late election for governor there. From a variety of local causes existing in that state, this last election seems to have been the only one they have had since the war began which fairly brought to a test the relative numbers of the...
57From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 November 1814 (Adams Papers)
R. Rush has the honor to present his most respectful compliments to Mrs Adams, and to thank her for the favor she was pleased to grant him of reading the enclosed letter from Mr J. Q. Adams, as well as for the kind postscript which conveyed the permission. To himself and Mrs Rush it has afforded equal pleasure, and such as the productions of Mr A’s pen, on whatever subjects, never fail to...
58To James Madison from Richard Rush, 13 September 1815 (Madison Papers)
Since my letter dated at 8. in the morning, it occurred to me that there might be an advantage in meeting the travellers at Baltimore if possible, in which Mr Graham and Mr Cutts both concurred. We therefore selected Mr Edward Duvall, of the navy office, who went off an hour ago in a hack with a letter from me to commodore Lewis of which the enclosed is a copy. We imagined that we might in all...
59To James Madison from Richard Rush, 23 July 1816 (Madison Papers)
I have sent on to Philadelphia the papers which accompanied your favor of the 20th instant. I had not been unmindful of the request intimated in your previous favor of the 12th, upon the same subject, and was upon the point of drawing up a few remarks in relation to it when that of the 20th arrived. In any other event I should have had great pleasure in rendering any little assistance in my...
60To John Adams from Richard Rush, 24 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
As soon as I received your acceptable and instructing letter of the 8th of this month, I wrote to a friend in Philadelphia, who is much in the literary and political way, to beg he would inform me, if he knew, who had been writing or preparing to write a commentary upon the “Defence of the American Constitutions,” for that I had understood there was such a work on hand, if not published. As to...
61To John Adams from Richard Rush, 7 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
The winter is always the busy season here. With me, it is especially so from the fortnight that precedes the session of the supreme court, until its close. Therefore, before the arrival of that time, I must, while I can, have the pleasure of writing to you. It is chiefly that I may thank you for one or two of your late favors. That from “Montezillo”, written on Christmas day, I have...
62To John Adams from Richard Rush, 27 March 1815 (Adams Papers)
Since writing to you this morning, I have determined upon doing a bold thing. I do not often write for the newspapers, as other duties and studies give me for the most part, as I would hope, better employment. But, a week or ten days ago, as the first small effort of industry after my recovery, I threw together some loose reflections upon our late war, which are here enclosed in three half...
63To James Madison from Richard Rush, 16 January 1815 (Madison Papers)
Having been favoured with the perusal of a letter of this date, address’d to you by the Secretary of the Treasury, recommending James Martin Esqr as one of the commissioners for settling the Yazoo claims, should an act of Congress pass vesting such an appointment in the hands of the executive, I take the liberty most cordially to unite my voice to that of Mr Dallas, in favor of Mr Martins...
64From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 March 1816 (Adams Papers)
Daily and incessant engagements for the last five weeks at the supreme court of the United-states, the term not being yet ended; together with the necessity for some time before it came on of getting ready for the important business which it was to devolve upon me, have long cut me off from the gratification and advantage which I never fail to derive from the correspondence of your venerable...
65Memorandum from Richard Rush, [31 May 1816] (Madison Papers)
I am of opinion the seventh additional article of the constitution, which provides that “no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or publick danger,” does not exclude the jurisdiction of courts...
66To John Adams from Richard Rush, 18 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
You have seen so much, read so much, and thought so much, of publick affairs under all aspects; you know so well what is becoming in national dignity and spirit, and what is due also to policy and seemliness, that I declare, according as your ripe judgment may disapprove or sanction the enclosed paper, will I either put it by, or lay it before those who have the power, if they think fit, to...
67Richard Rush to Thomas Jefferson, 27 June 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Immediately after the receipt of your favor of the 17th instant I wrote to Philadelphia , and have received from my mother an answer which I beg leave to lay before you, in her own words, as far as relates to the subject of our correspondence. “Both James and I have made search for the letters for Mr Jefferson ; the first he names (that of April 21. 1803 ) is not to be found; those I enclose...
68To James Madison from Richard Rush, 17 September 1816 (Madison Papers)
Mr Dallas, Mr Crawford and myself met yesterday upon the business relative to the capitol. It struck us, that, under the act of congress of the 29th of April last, the executive possesses authority to sanction the encroachment upon the centre building, to give room for the stair-way contemplated by Mr. Latrobe. Touching the expediency of such a measure, we found a resolution of the senate of...
69To John Adams from Richard Rush, 8 November 1813 (Adams Papers)
According to the intimation contained in one of the letters I have had the pleasure to write to you, I took the liberty of enclosing to Mr St George Tucker, though entirely unknown to him; not the copy, but the original, of your favor to me of the 13th of August. It was the one in which you acknowledged the receipt of his beautiful little poem, and I was sure the original, in your own hand...
70To James Madison from Richard Rush, 16 April 1815 (Madison Papers)
I do myself the pleasure to enclose you two letters from Mr Adams, which I venture to persuade myself you will look over with interest, as well from the writer as the subject. Having adopted the opinion that we had lost none of our former rights or liberties in the fisheries, I felt some desire to know his, and he has been kind enough to gratify me. The venerable patriot writes with an...
71To John Adams from Richard Rush, 17 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
Since you first allowed me the honor and gratification of corresponding with you, I have observed, that important events in the political world have trodden so closely upon each other that they interpose themselves between the successive favors I receive from you, and to such a degree as often to bear out of the view the subject of the last by drawing the eye towards some new occurrence, or...
72To John Adams from Richard Rush, 21 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
At the very beginning of the last month my new appointment was bestowed upon me, and I was suddenly thrown into the midst of the supreme court the very day after, without the least previous acquaintance with any of its business. There I have been, day in and day out, ever since until last thursday blundering on in an agony of embarrassment and ignorance, doing the business of the court and not...
73Richard Rush to Thomas Jefferson, 12 August 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Since I had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 11th of last month , the two written to my father , mentioned in your favor to me of the 31. of May , have come to light. As was thought possible, they had been put away even with more care than the rest, and on that account were not found as soon as the rest. I lose no time in enclosing them to you, happy in accompanying them with the...
74To James Madison from Richard Rush, 15 September 1815 (Madison Papers)
Owing to the weather Mr Duvall did not reach Baltimore until a very late hour on wednesday night. He found that the party had all gone out in hacks to Ellicotts-mills early in the evening, with a view to join the stage yesterday morning and come on here. He followed and fell in with them there. He delivered my letter, no doubt, to Commodore Lewis, who perceiving that the ulterior purpose in...
75To James Madison from Richard Rush, 3 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
R. Rush has the honor to enclose to the President, 1. A letter from the governor of Louisiana recommending, in relation to the pirates of Barataria, that a few of the more hardened offenders only should be prosecuted, and the conduct of the rest overlooked. 2. Another letter from the same, recommending Mr Duplessis as collector of New Orleans, in the room of Mr Dubourg, whose resignation is...
76To John Adams from Richard Rush, 6 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
It was only the day before yesterday that Mr Andrew Eliot handed me your letter dated the 5th of May. Although you do not speak of him as being particularly known to you yet the mere circumstance of his bringing a letter to me from your hand was gratifying, and constitutes the highest claim to my attention to him. As yet I have seen him but once when he delivered it to me; but in whatever way...
77To John Adams from Richard Rush, 24 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
I do not know that I have ever yet made my acknowledgments to you for the favor you were kind enough to do me in sending me a letter by the Revd. Mr Everett. That I was not fortunate enough to make his acquaintance I consider a real loss. I knew of his being here only the day before he went away, and was unlucky enough, (a thing that very rarely happens with me,) to have an engagement that...
78Richard Rush to Thomas Jefferson, 18 July 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
By the mail of this day, I take the liberty to send you a small pamphlet , which I have to beg you will do me the honor to accept. That you may continue to be blessed with health in your retirement, and that your illustrious life may long be spared, is the wish of one who has the honor to subscribe himself, RC ( MHi ); at foot of text: “Ths: Jefferson, Esquire”; endorsed by TJ as received 23...
79To James Madison from Richard Rush, 13 July 1814 (Madison Papers)
The enclosed letter came under cover to me by this day’s mail, with a request that I would deliver it into your hands. Having been informed of what it relates to, I feel very reluctant at being thus the instrument of obtruding upon your notice a subject of merely local concern at a time when I so well know that your mind is anxiously occupied upon matters of so much more deep and general...
80To John Adams from Richard Rush, 2 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have been obliged within the last year or two to be very much of a law student. The solitude of Washington during the present and past season, has favored the habit; and for three or four months I have been reading and reading until I have found myself alternately a languid book-worm, and a heated enthusiast. The three last volumes of Robinson’s admiralty reports systematically; Pothier on...
81Memorandum from Richard Rush, 26 July 1816 (Madison Papers)
The choice of a site for an observatory in this city, is suspended for the present; but as all the other letters and papers upon the subject are in the hands of the Secretary of the Treasury, I think this, also, will find its proper place there. RC ( DLC ).
82To John Adams from Richard Rush, 17 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
Timeo Danaos, et dona ferentes. Nothing can be more applicable to our situation, and the late offer of Britain. I repeated it in conversation a few days ago in the hearing of Mr Ingersoll, of the house or representatives from Pennsylvania, and I have since heard with pleasure that he took occasion to thunder it out in his place at the capitol, and that it caught the ear of the house to a...
83To John Adams from Richard Rush, 10 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
I beg you will do me the honor to accept a copy of a discourse I delivered on the 4th of July at this place. The present crisis of our country, Sir, is most momentous; but it seems greatly to be feared that the powerful and intelligent state of Massachusetts will not yield her zealous cooperation to the nation in its present struggle. With constant wishes for your health and happiness allow...
84To James Madison from Richard Rush, 5 February 1814 (letter not found) (Madison Papers)
¶ From Richard Rush. Letter not found. 5 February 1814. Described as an eight-page letter, enclosing extracts of a confidential letter from [Alexander James] Dallas suggesting war measures, in the lists probably made by Peter Force ( DLC , series 7, container 2).
85Memoranda from Richard Rush, 24 November 1816 (Madison Papers)
[The following are remarks from Rush to JM touching on modification of the judiciary, the U.S. criminal code, and the revenue system.] If the propriety of some modification of the Judiciary be adverted to in the message an allusion to the following points, might perhaps, advantageously close the same head. If the federal government, in its corporate capacity, draw not to itself the common law,...
86To John Adams from Richard Rush, 25 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
I must be allowed to offer you my heartiest congratulations upon Commodore Perrys great victory on lake Erie. I know of nobody who will take as much pleasure in it as you. I know of nobody, sir, who has so just a title to rejoice at our splendid naval trophies as you. The Navy is yours. Hull must have been your officer. Decatur I know was. Bainbridge, Jones, Lawrence, Burrows, all of...
87To John Adams from Richard Rush, 13 November 1814 (Adams Papers)
Mr Dallas insists upon it that the emperor Alexander is a republican. As one proof of it he tells this anecdote. Conversing with Louis the 18th, he said “Sir, were I so happy as to reign over such a people as the French, it should be my study to make them perfectly free.” This is a noble sentiment even if it does not prove him a republican. Kings and Emperors, by the way, are very apt to be...
88To James Madison from Richard Rush, 4 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
In considering the case submitted to him yesterday by the President, the attorney general has the honor to report; that, in his opinion, the holding a commission and rank as captain in the navy would be incompatible under the laws with holding, at the same time, the office of secretary of the department of the navy. RC ( DLC ). See JM to John Rodgers, 4 Dec. 1814 .
89Richard Rush’s Proposal that Thomas Jefferson become Secretary of State, 24 May 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I enclose you a paper for your perusal and perhaps amusement. I mentioned to you lately that I had a great plan in my head.—a fortnight or three weeks ago it started to my reveries that Mr Jefferson ought to be called out, like an old pater patria , in a crisis like the present, and not suffered to repose upon his mountain. At length I determined he should be secretary of state again, which so...
90From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 March 1816 (Adams Papers)
I trust this letter will find you not in a sick chamber where your kind favor of the 10th instant was written, but out again, restored to your usual health, witnessing the return of spring and awake to its enjoyments. The kind expressions of your letter are not more flattering than endearing. Those little children of whom you so kindly inquire, will, I doubt not, at one day look over it with...