1Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 8 July 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 26 th of June I have read again & again, with renewed satisfaction ; and believe with you that “there is not a young man now living in the U. S. who will not die an Unitarian.” Yet must the young be enlightened, and the Platonizing christians counteracted; and I have seen nothing so likely to do so much good in the process as your letter, if you will allow me to give it...
2To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 13 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
I received your letter with pleasure, and read it with high satisfaction. You have paid the highest compliment on the President’s Message or rather, Elogium, that I have yet seen, or have ever heard of—Our proud federalists however are displeased & mortified that he did not tell the whole world, how grand, how rich, how powerful, how gifted & how virtuous they in Boston are above all other...
3Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 1 September 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I cannot allow to pass this fair opportunity, by General & M rs Dearborn , without sending, you some memorial of my gratitude & respect— I have enclosed you two 4 th of July Orations; one delivered in the District of Maine , to a people ripe for a seperation; and the other at Lexington , by a son in law of the late Vice President . They will shew you the sentiments and doctrines that are now...
4To Benjamin Franklin from Benjamin Waterhouse, 16 December 1780 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society The enclosed letters I brought with me from London—several circumstances concurred to detain me in England longer than I wished or expected, or there would not have been so long a space between the date of these letters and their delivery— Dr. Fothergill would have written to you long before, but deferred it, for obvious reasons, untill some safe...
5To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 29 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Habituated as I have long been to consider your judgement as infallible, I have not found it exactly so on the subject of our two last letters. When I wrote to you on that subject of the heart, I had come to a fixed resolution of following the advice of my family & friends. I have penetrated their thoughts, & have discovered their opinion which taken collectively amounts to this— we censure...
6To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 29 January 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 14th. inst, enclosing one of the 25th. ulto. came duly to hand. I was struck with the expediency of establishing a popular criterion as to the precise time of taking the matter, and I entirely coincide with you in opinion that it should be fixed on Eight times twenty four hours , this being the result of my own observation during the last season. I know that it differs...
7To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 3 July 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
In reflecting on my late journey south, I found one omission to regret, and especially as I remember you seemed to urge it—I mean my declining the invitation of M r Monroe—and I have accordingly explained it in a letter to him thus— It was spoken of at the Presidential house, in Washington (at my intimation) that I should go to the examination at West Point; on the high probability that M r...
8To James Madison from Benjamin Waterhouse, 12 December 1822 (Madison Papers)
I have just read in one of the Boston News-papers, a paragraph to this effect—that through the agency of the late President Madison, a Professorship of Agriculture was about to be established in the University in Virginia. It directly occurred to me to send you some publications of mine on that highly important subject. By the “Heads of Lectures,” and by the “ Botanist ,” you can see how far...
9Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 1 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
If you will excuse my breaking in again upon your philosophical retirement, I think I may venture to promise that it shall be the last time. I little thought, when I wrote to you last , that I should have so soon to lament the loss of my revered friend & brother D r Rush ! By his death I feel as if one strand of the thread of my life was cut. It is a heavy, very heavy stroke to his old friend...
10Benjamin Waterhouse to James Madison, 14 February 1829 (Madison Papers)
Here send for your acceptance a production of early life, being my inaugural oration, when inducted into the office of Profr. of the Theory & Practice of Physic in this University, nearly half a century since. On recollecting the labour & study it cost me, at that time, I have spared it from the flames with a few other papers. I have no hesitation in saying, that if it be not classical, it has...
11To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 15 August 1799 (Adams Papers)
In consequence of some conversation the other day at Quincy respecting Dr Priestley, I here send you the paper of to-day which contains what was intended as a vindication of Dr. Priestley from the aspersions of Willm: Cobbett.—Untill last Tuesday, I did believe that Dr. P. had excited the venom of the Porcupine more from his being a distinguished Dissenter from the church to which Corbbett is...
12Benjamin Waterhouse to John Adams, 21 May 1781 (Adams Papers)
Almost every body here is preparing for the fair which opens next Thursday, and as this is Leyden- ’Lection I was saying to my companion that it was a pity Master Charles was not here that he might see that a Dutchman can be merry when he is resolved upon it. And John seems to wish it so much, that I thought I would write to you and if you had no objection we should have the little Gentlemans...
13To James Madison from Benjamin Waterhouse, 30 June 1825 (Madison Papers)
Having reached home but a few days since, I seize the first day of leisure to express to you, and your good Lady my grateful acknowledgements for your polite attention, while sojourning in your hospitable mansion, where I experienced what I had often heard from the voice of fame. After passing about a week at Washington, principally with my greatly esteemed, & highly venerated friend, I left...
14To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 February 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
To read every letter sent to you must be no small task; but to read every book which vanity may transmit would be inflicting an honour upon you, enough, almost, to make a man wish he had never learnt to read. Here, e.g. you have one on the childish subject of whooping-cough ; the title of which is sufficient to make most men, not of the profession, turn from my “ essay ,” as from a dose of...
15To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 7 April 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Ever since I received your short but Ciceronean Epistle, it has seldom been long out of my mind. It made an impression I cannot get rid of; and therefore, in the true spirit of that religious sect among whom I was educated, I cannot hold my peace. It may be deemed impertinent, but you must excuse the impulse. On this head I say, as did the celebrated Edmund Burke to my kinsman Dr. Fothergill...
16Benjamin Waterhouse to James Madison, 30 May 1833 (Madison Papers)
It was a saying of one of the wise men of antiquity that a Great Book was a Great Evil ; thereby implying that a little book might be a good thing. Under this hope I here send for your amusement a little book ; which I made for a youth who sat out with about twenty others, older than himself, to go to the Pacific Ocean by land , by the way of the Rocky mountains; and absolutely proceeded to...
17To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 21 May 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I should hardly have been persuaded to write to the President on the subject of my professional rivals, were I not fully assured that they are again at work in order to discredit my appointment to the marine hospital; and I know of no way so effectually to counteract them as by stating a few facts to you,—By an anonymous letter, and by some other modes of imperfect information, I am made...
18To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 2 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I know not if I acknowledged the receipt of your letter of the 8th. ulto. in the hasty scrawl I lately wrote from Boston. That of the 14th. gave me pleasure inexpressible, as it informed me that you had succeeded in planting the benign remedy against the small pox in the vast region of Virginia. I have written to Dr. Wardlaw on the important subject of preserving the active fluid-virus for...
19To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 11 February 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I, in some measure, regret that you have no spare niche for the Rev d M r Bertrum, yet I should be loathe to part with such a learned neighbour. He has since, expressed a wish to enter the service of the Rhode Island College, at Providence, but I do not encourage it, for there he would be “Condemn’d to trudge, “Without an equal, and without a judge.” It would be almost as bad at Dartmouth...
20Benjamin Waterhouse to James Madison, 20 February 1834 (Madison Papers)
I noticed not long since in the Newspapers, that the venerable Mr Madison was elected President of the Temperance Society . I thought that your advanced age & sound mind happily justified their choice. I herewith send you the 5th. edition of a Lecture I gave on that subject nearly thirty years ago. It may amuse you and Mrs Madison. You will see that it is leveled principally against the...
21Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 21 June 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I ought perhaps to apologize for breaking in upon the tranquility of your retirement with this Letter—I have tried to avoid it, but find that I cannot, because it relates to a Stab at my Character, which, from the poison of the Weapon, would, without some Exertion on my part, have left behind it an “ immedicabile vulnus .”— Among several charges transmitted to me by the Secretary of the...
22To George Washington from Benjamin Waterhouse, 28 August 1790 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: from Benjamin Waterhouse, 28 Aug. 1790. In a letter of 19 Nov. 1790 to Waterhouse , GW mentioned “your letter of the 28th of August.”
23To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 24 October 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
About a year ago, I recieved a long and interesting letter from Dr de Carro of Vienna, on subjects connected with the great interests of humanity. This physician, who is by birth a Swiss, first sent the cowpox-matter from Vienna to Bagdad; and thus laid the foundation of the Oriental vaccination, which has spread far and wide through Asia. Besides his zeal in vaccination, Dr. de Carro has...
24To James Madison from Benjamin Waterhouse, 29 April 1813 (Madison Papers)
I have taken the liberty of transmitting to you the narrative accompanying this, in hopes that you may find fifteen minutes leisure for its perusal. It is the only step I could take in lieu of a journey to Washington. To what I have said there, I will only add here, that when I began to reform that very disorderly Marine-hospital, I was embarrassed at the very threshhold, for want of rules &...
25To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 December 1807 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 28th. instant has just come to hand, and I have stepped into the house of a friend to answer acknowledge it. I cannot sufficiently thank you & the worthy Mitchill for your friendly attention to my wishes. I called to day, for the first time, at the Custom-house, and there learnt that General Lincoln, as superintendent of the Marine-Hospital, had requested Dr Eustis to take...
26To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 24 December 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
The Rev. Joseph P. Bertrum, an Englishman of the established church, has an inclination to become a Professor in the University which you have taken so much pains to found & rear; and solicits me to communicate his wish to you. He is a son of Oxford, & I conclude a close, and successful student. I believe we have no one in this place equal to him in Greek: I am satisfied there is none in...
27To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 12 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
I here send for your Perusal The Preface to the Botanist. The Publisher has printed off a few Copies dozen by Way of Sample of type, and to give Some general Idea of the Work, as well as a Short History of its origin. I thought there might be another Service in it, viz, if any thing appeared to egotistical, or too assuming in it, my Friends would probably give me the hint. I mean it as an...
28To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 28 August 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have this moment taken your letter of the 14th. inst. from the Post-office, and have step’d into the first house to write a line, and pray you to excuse me untill I return home before I can answer it properly. I congratulate you, Sir, in having produced the true disease, of which I have little or indeed no doubt . I hope Dr. Wardlow will inoculate from the part affected as soon as he finds a...
29Benjamin Waterhouse to John Adams, 26 December 1780 (Adams Papers)
I was glad to find by your letter of the 23d. inst. that what we have hitherto done meets with your approbation, and it is with no small satisfaction that I see all three of my countrymen pleased and contented with their situation. In regard to Mr Charles’s attending the lectures there is no rule or custom that forbids him. As there are none so young who attend the public-lectures, we only...
30To James Madison from Benjamin Waterhouse, 1 May 1813 (Madison Papers)
By the advice of some of my most revered friends, coinciding with my own inclination, I am induced to petition the President of the United-States for the place of Treasurer of the Mint, made vacant by the death of Dr. Benjamin Rush. The attention which I have paid to Mineralogy, and to the Docimastic Art, may be considered as a desirable qualification for such an office; and the wish which I...
31Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 17 February 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I take this opportunity, by my friend M r Gerry of sending a small volume for your acceptance No part of Natural history was ever taught, in this quarter of the Union untill I commenced the subject, about 25 years ago. It being a new study, I was obliged to give it a popular form. The Essex Junto had got such an entire possesion of our University , & had made it a fort, or strong hold, whence...
32To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 26 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
Hearing that your rheumatism was no better, I hasten to say that instead of the Volatile Tincture of Guaicum , I would advise you to apply the flesh–brush, or that coarse cloth which the Russians call Krash to the limb that is affected and to the region of the hip & loins, begining at the leg & so rubbing upwards. This should be done by some prudent man, who will be carefull not to rub off the...
33To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 4 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Since closing the letter I had the honor of writing to you yesterday , yours of the 21st. ult. came to hand. I think it quite unnecessary to send you any more matter, being thoroughly convinced that you have planted the genuine disease in your family. I cannot, however, too emphatically recommend to all concerned in this new inoculation to keep up a succession of cases , from which matter may...
34Benjamin Waterhouse to Abigail Adams, 10 September 1782 (Adams Papers)
When I was at Braintree I mentioned to you that I was pretty certain I had a letter from Mr. Adams to you, among my papers which I left behind at N. York and that when my trunk arrived I would carefully examine it and send it to you. I have done so, but without success. I therefore conclude if there was one, the Goths have taken it. We hear there is a Vessel arrived at Boston from Amsterdam;...
35Benjamin Waterhouse to James Madison, 9 May 1831 (Madison Papers)
Considering you the head of the University in your State, I send for its Library a volume I have just published. But before you deposit it, I hope you will find time and inclination to examine this child of my old age, to see if it be fit to enter it. After long gestation it has been brought forth with pains and labour, which Junius says in his celebrated Letter to the King increases maternal...
36Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 20 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
A man occupying so large a space in the world’s estimation as M r Jefferson , must expect to have his retirement, now & then, broken in upon by the humble & the ignorant, seeking knowledge. I have just finished reading M r Wirt ’s “sketch of the life and character of Patrick Henry ,” and having some doubts relative to an important fact, I cannot resist the inclination of writing to you on the...
37To Benjamin Franklin from Benjamin Waterhouse, 10 January 1781 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I wrote to you a few weeks since enclosing a couple of letters from Dr. Fothergill, but little did I then think I should so soon write to you concerning his death—that good man died the 26th. of last month— By what I have often heard him say I Judged there was a no small friendship subsisting between you, and that therefore some account of his disease &...
38Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 14 September 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I read your letter of the 19 th July with pleasure, and though at first disappointed, I cannot wonder at your reluctance to its publication seeing, as I find by your letter, that our brethren in the South are yet slumbering from the opiates of past ages. As times change how some sort of men change with them! Less than 20 years ago, those who governed this our University quarrelled with me, &...
39To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 24 July 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
The thread enclosed in this Quill was imbued in the vaccine virus on Thursday Evening the 23d of July. At the same time the needle was infected in the same fluid and it is highly probable will communicate the disease if it be thrust under the scarf skin, and drawn slowly & gradually through it. RC ( DLC ); addressed: “The President of the United States Washington”; franked; postmarked Boston;...
40To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 12 December 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
The Collector has just notified me, that the President of the United States had been pleased to appoint me Physician to the Marine hospital at Charlestown; for which I return you my most cordial thanks. Until yesterday I thought, that the appointment included the Navy-yard; as I knew that Dr Jarvis did the duties of both. As they are contiguous , I thought they formed one medical department;...
41To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 2 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
I am desirous of knowing whether you ever received from me a parcel of selected News-papers, and pieces cut out of News-papers, by the sloop of war that brought out the Dutch Minister, commanded by Captn. Baker? I am curious to know, because there were efforts to prevent any but high federal papers being sent, by those Americans in Boston, through whose hands all letters & packets passed...
42Benjamin Waterhouse to John Adams, 30 September 1781 (Adams Papers)
I imagine You heard by the last Post of our being at this Place, and the reasons of our coming here. It is a great disappointment to Us all; yet the danger of our proceeding in the Condition We were in and the hopes of getting out soon, ought to make Us content. You already know I believe that there has been a very unfortunate difference between two of the Passengers and our Commodore, which...
43To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 22 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Accept my most cordial thanks for your truly friendly epistle. I loose not a moment in answering your interesting query. The Lady in question is, I conceive legally divorced. Her quondam husband is now in the jail of New York, for the third or fourth time; a mere vagabone. They were divorced in 1810, by the Supreme Court of Vermont. The Lady & her father, with the aid of Judge Dawes were...
44To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 June 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
There may possibly seem a want of due consideration in sending this letter, and what accompanies it, to draw the attention of the President of the United States from the important concerns of our nation to a subject more nearly allied to medicine, than to the affairs of state. On this account, I should have hesitated still longer, were I not constantly receiving letters from unknown persons,...
45To James Madison from Benjamin Waterhouse, 18 June 1816 (Madison Papers)
Finding that Mesrs Rowe & Hooper are about sending you a copy of “a Journal of a young man of Massachusetts ,” who was captured by the British, and confined during the war at Halifax, at Chatham, and at Dartmoor, I cannot refrain, because I think it is proper, from giving you more information relative to its publication, than what appears on the face of the book. This smart young man put his...
46Benjamin Waterhouse to Abigail Adams, 7 January 1783 (Adams Papers)
For above a fortnight past I have been meditating a visit to Braintree but some unlucky occurrence or other turned up and disappointed me, and now I am certain I shall not be able within a fortnight, owing to some matters in agitation which will not be finished before that time, and are of such a nature that made me wish to see you at this time more particularly. I must explain myself by...
47To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 20 February 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
From an opinion that President Jefferson does not feel indifferent to whatever concerns the welfare of any of the citizens in any of the States, Dr Waterhouse here sends for his acceptance a copy of a Lecture just printed, on the subject of the health of our literary youth; containing cautions respecting the use of Tobacco, & Ardent & vinous spirits; and hopes that the principles & design of...
48Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 26 March 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 9 th ins t opened to my mind such a train of interesting ideas, that I could not resist writing you this, & enclosing you one of our Boston newspapers, containing a peice under the signature of an “ Independent Whig .” It will tend to confirm your opinion of our pretended fautores of science. More than a dozen numbers have preceeded this, some of them calculated to expose...
49To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 1 August 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Vaccine matter on the tooth-pick taken July 31.st. in the evening. The thread taken at the same time.—The two plates of glass, which he have covered with lead is just come to hand from Dr. Jenner being taken May 19th. in London. Two other plates containing some of the virus taken at the same time has been proved to be perfectly active. It adheres to the glass like gum. water, warm steam, or a...
50Benjamin Waterhouse to John Adams, 13 December 1780 (Adams Papers)
It so happened that I could not see the persons of whom I wished to enquire concerning the Schools, mode of education &c. untill yesterday, otherwise I should have written before.—The Gentlemen from whom I have my information have each of them a young person under their care about the age of your eldest, and are well acquainted with every thing appertaining to education in this City, from...