1Benjamin 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...
2Benjamin 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...
3Benjamin 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...
4To 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 &...
5To 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...
6To 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...
7Benjamin 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...
8To 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...
9To 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...
10Benjamin 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...
11Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 14 December 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I received your letter of 13 th Oct r with pleasure, and read it with great satisfaction.— I here enclose a curious publication, printed first in Connecticut , & reprinted at Andover , 20 miles from this place, where is a new & well endowed theological college, being a splinter struck off from Cambridge , at the time when we elected an unitarian professor of divinity. Dwight of the...
12Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 18 June 1816 (Jefferson 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, giving you more information relative to its publication than what appears on the face of the book— This smart young man put his...
13To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
I recvd. your letter of the 5th, with pleasure & read it with satisfaction, as I always do, because I understand your politics, and because I see in them one uniform & everlasting principle that does not bend to the fashions & caprices of the day—Foolish people have cried out—“Mr Adams has changed his politics; he is no longer a federalist, but is changed to a republican.” I have as constantly...
14From Benjamin Waterhouse to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
It is with some degree of mortification that I have to inform you, that I have not been able to get that extract of a letter from your son inserted in the Patriot, without submitting it to certain curtailments, & alterations, to suit with the notions of the party; and without omitting entirely that last paragraph which speaks of the disasters of the French army.— I yesterday withdrew the...
15To James Madison from Benjamin Waterhouse, 18 March 1815 (Madison Papers)
Duty, and the consideration of a large family impel me to address the President of the United-States at this period of the reduction of the army. It is pretty well known that from the time of “ the affair of the Chesepeake frigate ,” that I, with my friend J. Q. Adams, (who was then on a visit in my family) abandoned the ranks of the Federalists; and have ever since steadily supported the...
16To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 2 February 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have received several Epistles in prose and verse, written to console me for my heavy loss, but nothing has equalled the three first lines of your last letter.— It is seldom that affliction comes singly & alone. Suppose I should tell you that my professional & political enemies have succeeded in obtaining a decree of banishment against me, and that I am ordered to take my departure tomorrow...