311From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 11 April 1823 (Adams Papers)
The wishes expressed, in your last favor, that I may continue in life and health until I become a Calvinist, at least in his exclamation of “ mon Dieu ! jusque à quand”! would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin in addressing his god . he was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Dæmonism. if ever man worshipped a false god, he did. the being described in...
312From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 15 August 1823 (Adams Papers)
Watchman! what of the night!? Is darkness that may be felt to prevail over the whole world? Or can you perceive any rays of a returning dawn? Is the devil to be the “Lords anointed” over the whole globe? Or do you forsee the fulfilment of the prophecies according to Dr. Priestly’s interpretation of them? I know not but I have in some of my familiar and frivolous letters to you told the story...
313To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 4 September 1823 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of Aug. 15. was recieved in due time, and with the welcome of every thing which comes from you. with it’s opinions on the difficulties of revolutions, from despotism to freedom, I very much concur. the generation which commences a revolution can rarely compleat it. habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body and mind to their kings and priests, they are not...
314From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 18 September 1823 (Adams Papers)
With much pleasure I have heard read the sure words of prophecy in your letter of Sep— 4th. It is melancholy to contemplate the cruel wars, dessolations of Countries, and ocians of blood which must occure, before rational principles, and rational systems of Government can prevail and be established—but as these are inevitable we must content ourselves with the consolations which you from sound...
315To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 12 October 1823 (Adams Papers)
I do not write with the ease which your letter of Sep. 18. supposes. crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious. but, while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things, in the recollection of antient times, when youth and health made happiness out of every thing. I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we can when we can think of nothing but how to keep...
316From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 10 November 1823 (Adams Papers)
Your last letter was brought to me from the Post office when at breakfast with my family. I bade one of the misses open the budget, she reported a letter from Mr. Jefferson and two or three newspapers. A letter from Mr. Jefferson says I, I know what the substance is before I open it; There is no secrets between Mr. Jefferson and me, And I cannot read it, therefore you may open and read it—When...
317From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 29 December 1823 (Adams Papers)
I return your letter at your request signified by Gen. Dearborn though it has been such a cordial to my heart—I feel much reluctance to release it. Since it has appeared in print it has been received with applause—great & universal. Our fellow citizens are determined to elect a President avec connaisance de cause—for the question has in discussion in every nook in the United States for seven...
318To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 11 July 1824 (Adams Papers)
My friend and correspondent of Richmond, Colo. Bernard Peyton will have the honor of delivering you this letter. he was a worthy officer of the late war, and now an equally worthy member of the mercantile body. proposing to visit Boston, he has the natural ambition of being presented to the first of the revolutionary characters now living. I ask, of your friendship to give him a few moments of...
319From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 July 1824 (Adams Papers)
Mr Benjamin Parker Richardson, a Grandson of a neighbour of mine, who has lived in harmony with me for almost eighty nine years, is very desirous of seeing the venerable Author of the Declaration of Independence, and as this is a virtuous curiosity which I always applaud and encourage in our young men, I have ventured to give him a line of introduction to you. A freedom which I have taken too...
320From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 15 November 1824 (Adams Papers)
Your friend Professor Ticknor is bound upon a Tour in Virginia, though he needs no introduction to you he has requested a letter from me, and I cannot deny him, he carries his Lady with him; who is rich enough, and handsome enough, & amiable enough, And what can one say more— Is the present calm in the Political World to continue long or not? Our controversy will all be settled in a short...
321To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 8 January 1825 (Adams Papers)
It is long since I have written to you. this proceeds from the difficulty of writing with my crippled wrists, and from an unwillingness to add to your inconveniences of either reading by the eyes, or writing by the hands of others. the account I recieve of your physical situation afflicts me sincerely. but if body or mind was one of them to give way, it is a great comfort that it is the mind...
322From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 22 January 1825 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 8th. has revived me—It is true, that my hearing has been very good, but the last year it has decayed so much, that I am in a worse situation than you are, I cannot hear any of the common conversation of my family, without calling upon them to repeat in a louder tone. The presidential election has given me less anxiety than I, myself could have imagined, The next...
323From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 23 January 1825 (Adams Papers)
We think ourselves possessed or at least we boast that we are so of Liberty of Conscience on all subjects and of the right of free inquiry and private judgment, in all cases and yet how far are we from these exalted privileges in fact. There exists I believe throughout the whole Christian world a law which makes it blasphemy to deny or to doubt the divine inspiration of all the books of the...
324To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 15 February 1825 (Adams Papers)
The people of Europe seem still to think that America is a mere garden plat, and that whatever is sent to one place is close for at home as to every other. the volume I now forward to you by this mail was found on Majr. Cartwright’s death, was found to have in his own handwriting an address for you altho’ mistaking your Christian name. his friends having occn to write to me on another subject,...
325From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 25 February 1825 (Adams Papers)
Every line from you exhilarates my spirits and gives me a glow of pleasure—but your kind congratulations are a solid comfort to my heart. The good-natured and good-humoured acquiescence of the friends of all the candidates gives me a comfortable hope that your prediction may be fulfilled, that the ensuing administration will not be so difficult as in a former letter I had apprehended. Here we...
326From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1825 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Charles Sigourney & Lady, a respectable pair in Hartford, Connecticut, the Husband a Son of my old friend in Amsterdam, and the Wife, a very conspicuous literary Lady, have requested a line to you, as they are bound on a journey to the seat of your University—and wish I suppose an apology for visiting Monticello—I have lost your last letter to me, the most consolatory letter I ever...
327From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 1 December 1825 (Adams Papers)
I ought not to have neglected so long to write you an account of the delightful visit I received from Mr. and Mrs. Cooledge, Mrs. C—— deserves all the high praises I have constantly heard concerning her, She entertained me with accounts of your sentiments of human life, which accorded so perfectly with mine that it gave me great delight—In one point however I could not agree—She said, she had...
328To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 18 December 1825 (Adams Papers)
Your letters are always welcome, the last more than all others, it’s subject being one of the dearest to my heart. to my granddaughter your commendations cannot fail to be an object of high ambition, as a certain passport to the good opinion of the world. if she does not cultivate them with assiduity and affection, she will illy fulfill my parting injunctions. I trust she will merit a...
329From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 14 January 1826 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to introduce to your acquaintance, a young Lawyer by the name of Josiah Quincy, and with the title of Coll. being an Aid to our Governor. The name of Coll. Quincy has never I believe been extinct for two hundred years. He is a Son of our excellent Mayor of the City of Boston and possesses a character unstained and irreproachable. I applaud his ambition to visit Monticello and its...
330To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 25 March 1826 (Adams Papers)
My grandson Th: Jefferson Randolph, being on a visit to Boston, would think he had seen nothing were he to leave it without having seen you. altho’ I truly sympathise with you in the trouble these interruptions give, yet I must ask for him permission to pay to you his personal respects. like other young people, he wishes to be able, in the winter nights of old age, to recount to those around...
331From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 17 April 1826 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of March 25th. has been a cordial to me, and the more consoling as it was brought by your Grandsons Mr. Randolph and Mr. Coolidge, every body connected with you is snatched up, so that I cannot get any of them to dine with me, they are always engaged—how happens it that you Virginians are all sons of Anak, we New Englanders, are but Pygmies by the side of Mr. Randolph; I was very...
332From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 15 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Never mind it, my dear Sir, if I write four Letters to your one: your one is worth more than my four. It is true that I can Say and have Said nothing new on the Subject of Government. Yet I did Say in my Defence and in my Discourses on Davila, though in an uncouth Style, what was new to Lock, to Harrington, to Milton, to Hume, to Montesquieu to Roauseau, to Turgot, Condorcet, to Rochefaucault,...
333Report of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, 25 February 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
In pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives, bearing date of the 19th of this instant, we lay before them a copy of the journal of our Board, and a statement of the purchases made since our last report to Congress. We have the honor, sir, to be, your most obedient servants, ASP American State Papers, Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States...
334Thomas Jefferson to Franklin and John Adams: Résumé, 17 October 1784 (Franklin Papers)
AL : Massachusetts Historical Society ⟨Cul-de-sac Tetebout, October 17, 1784: Mr. Jefferson sends to Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin drafts of the two letters to be sent to the Duke of Dorset. One is on the separate articles. The other is on the general subject, and written in the form that they had agreed upon during their last meeting. Having reconsidered the latter, he sends a second version...
335Thomas Jefferson to Franklin and John Adams: Two Memoranda, [before 10 November 1784] (Franklin Papers)
(I) AD and AD (draft): Library of Congress; copy: Massachusetts Historical Society; (II) AD and AD (draft): Library of Congress; copy: Massachusetts Historical Society When Congress instructed the commissioners to negotiate twenty treaties in two years, it did not send a draft treaty; it specified nine “points [to] be carefully stipulated” in the accords. Faced with so daunting an assignment...
336Thomas Jefferson to Franklin and John Adams: Résumé, 1 March 1785 (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society ⟨March 1, 1785: Mr. Jefferson sends Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin his notes on the treaty with Prussia. When Mr. Adams has perused them, he should send them to Dr. Franklin. Mr. Jefferson proposes a meeting at Passy on Thursday [ March 3 ] at 12 o’clock. He sends “the Prussian propositions, mr. Adams’s & Dr. Franklin’s notes, & the former project & observations...
337To John Jay from John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, 28 March 1786 (Jay Papers)
Soon after the arrival of M r . J. in London, we had a conference with the Ambassador of Tripoli, at his House The amount of all the information we can obtain from him was that a perpetual peace was in all respects the most advisable, because a temporary treaty would leave room for increasing demands, upon every renewal of it, and a stipulation for annual payments would be liable to failures...
338Draft of Resolutions on Lord Drummond’s Peace Proposals, [22? August 1776] (Jefferson Papers)
Resolved that the articles inclosed by Ld. Drummond to Ld. Howe whereby it is proposed ‘that it shall be ascertained by calculation what supply towards the general exigency of the state each separate colony shall furnish, to be encreased or lessened in proportion to the growth or decline of such colony, and to be vested in the king by a perpetual grant, in consideration whereof Great Britain...
339From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 16 May 1777 (Jefferson Papers)
Matters in our part of the continent are too much in quiet to send you news from hence. Our battalions for the Continental service were some time ago so far filled as rendered the recommendation of a draught from the militia hardly requisite, and the more so as in this country it ever was the most unpopular and impracticable thing that could be attempted. Our people even under the monarchical...
340To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 26 May 1777 (Jefferson Papers)
I had this Morning, the Pleasure of your Favour of the Sixteenth inst, by the Post; and rejoice to learn that your Battallions, were so far fill’d, as to render a Draught from the Militia, unnecessary. It is a dangerous Measure, and only to be adopted in great extremities, even by popular Governments. Perhaps, in Such Governments Draughts will never be made, but in Cases, when the People...
341From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 21 August 1777 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of May 26. came safely to hand. I wish it were in my power to suggest any remedy for the evil you complain of. Tho’ did any occur, I should propose it to you with great diffidence. after knowing you had thought on the subject yourself. There is indeed a fact which may not have come to your knolege, out of which perhaps some little good may be drawn. The borrowing money in Europe (or...
342From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 17 December 1777 (Jefferson Papers)
Congress will receive by this post our approbation of the Confederation . It passed the house of Delegates on Monday and the Senate on Tuesday last. Tho’ our house of delegates is almost wholly of those who are truly zealous, yet there have ever been a few who have endeavored to throw obstructions in our way. Objections to this important instrument came therefore not unexpectedly. The most...
343To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 29 June 17[80] (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Mazzei, called on me, last evening, to let me know that he was this morning at three to Sett off, on his Journey, for Italy. He desired me to write you, that he has communicated to me the Nature of his Errand: but that his Papers being lost, he waits for a Commission and Instructions from you. That being limited to five Per Cent, and more than that being given by the Powers of Europe, and...
344From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Franklin, to John Adams, and to John Jay, 5 October 1781 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof Colo. James Monroe who served some time as an officer in the American army and as such distinguished himself in the affair of Princetown as well as on other occasions, having resumed his studies, comes to Europe to complete them. Being a citizen of this state, of abilities, merit and fortune, and my particular friend, I take the liberty of making him known to you, that should...
345[To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 23 June 1783] (Jefferson Papers)
[ Paris, 23 June 1783 . There is recorded in SJL , under date of 16 Apr. 1784, the receipt of a letter from “J. Adams. Paris. June 23. by Mazzei.” Mazzei landed at Hampton, Virginia, in Nov. 1783, but he did not forward Adams’ letter for some months; see Mazzei to TJ, 4 Apr. 1784 , and Mazzei, Memoirs , p. 274. Adams’ letter to TJ has not been found.]
346From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 19 June 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
Supposing that you would receive from Congress a direct communication of the powers given to yourself, Doctr. Franklin and myself, I have deferred from day to day writing to you, in hopes that every day would open to me a certainty of the time and place of my departure for the other side of the Atlantic. Paris being my destination I have thought it best to enquire for a passage to France...
347From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 24 July 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
When I did myself the honor of writing you on the 19th. Ult. it was my expectation that I should take my passage in the French packet which was to sail the 15th. of this month, and of course that I should not be in Paris till the middle or last of August. It had not then been suggested to me, and being no seaman it did not occur to myself, that even from a London-bound vessel I might get...
348From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, 17 October 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Jefferson’s compliments to Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin, and incloses to them the letter to the D. of Dorset on the separate articles. He also sends one on the general subject and in the general form as had been agreed when they parted last: but thinking that it might be better, by reciting what had been done with Mr. Hartley to keep the ground we have gained, and not to admit that we...
349From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, 1 March 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Jefferson’s compliments to Mr. Adams and Doctr. Franklin and sends them his notes on the treaty with Prussia. He prays Mr. Adams, when he shall have perused them to send them to Dr. Franklin and proposes to meet them on the subject at Passy on Thursday at 12. o’clock. He sends the Prussian propositions, Mr. Adams’s and Dr. Franklin’s notes, and the former project and observations which...
350John Adams to Franklin and Jefferson, 20 March 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
According to your desire I went early this morning to Versailles and finding the Ct. de Vergennes unembarassed with company, and only attended by his private Secretaries, I soon obtained the honour of a conference, in which I told him that my colleagues were very sorry that indisposition necessarily prevented their paying their respects to him in person, and obliged them to request me alone to...
351To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 19 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
Messieurs Wilhem and Jan Willink, Nicholas and Jacob Vanstaphorst and De la Lande and Fynje of Amsterdam, have lodged in the Hands of Messrs. Van den Yvers Bankers in Paris one Thousand Pounds Sterling for the Purpose of paying for certain Medals and Swords which Coll. Humphreys has orders to cause to be made for the United States. This is therefore to authorize and to request you to draw upon...
352To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 22 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
We left Auteuil the 20th. afternoon and have made easy Journeys. Indeed We could not have done otherwise, because the Post-horses were engaged, by the unusual Number of Travellers, in such Numbers that We have been sometimes obliged to wait. The Country is an heap of Ashes. Grass is scarcely to be seen and all sorts of Grain is short, thin, pale and feeble while the Flax is quite dead. You see...
353To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 23 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
We are just arrived, covered with Dust, and we have hired our Boat, to go over tomorrow at ten. No green Peas, no Sallad, no Vegetables to be had upon the Road, and the Sky is still as clear dry and cold as ever. The Flocks of Sheep and herds of Cattle, through the Country, stalk about the Fields like Droves of Walking Skeletons. The Sheep are pastured chiefly I think in the plowed grounds,...
354From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 25 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 22d. from Montreuil sur mer is put into my hands this moment, and having received information of your son, and two American gentlemen being to set out for London tomorrow morning, I seize a moment to inform you that he had arrived well at l’Orient and was well on the 20th. when the packet was still detained by contrary winds. Mr. Barclay, who is arrived, had also seen him....
355To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 27 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I arrived yesterday and have made my visit to day, and been very politely received by the Marquis, but of this more hereafter. This is devoted to a smaller subject. Upon Enquiry I find that I cannot be exempted from paying duties upon my Wines, because no foreign Minister is, except for a less quantity than I have of the best qualities in my Cellar at the Hague, so that I must stop all that I...
356To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 27 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I found that either the Duke of Dorsetts Letter to the Premier had produced an order at Dover or that his Graces Letter to the Custom House Office had as good an effect, for I was allowed to pass without Molestation, and indeed received Marks of particular Respect. We arrived yesterday 26. in the afternoon, and as Fortune would have it Coll. Smith arrived the Night before 25. We soon met. I...
357John Adams to Franklin and Jefferson, 29 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
Our Secretary of State for foreign affairs, in a Letter of 13. Ap. informs me, that he wrote Us a Letter by Capt. Lamb dated 11. March, inclosing a Variety of Papers respecting the Treaties we are directed to negotiate and conclude with the Barbary Powers. Inclosed is a Copy of a Resolution of Congress of 14. February 1785, inclosed to me, in the Secretary’s Letter. I know nothing of Capt....
358From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 2 June 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favours of May 23. and the two of May 27. came safely to hand, the first being open. That of the 22d. from Montreuil sur mer had been received and answered on the 25th. The day before the receipt of the letters of the 27th. we had had your cases brought to the barrier of Paris in order to get the proper officer to go that far to plumb them. From there they were put on board the boat for...
359To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 3 June 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I have now the Honour to inform you, that having shewn my Commission to the Right Honourable the Marquis of Carmarthen, and left an authenticated Copy together with a Copy of my Letter of Credence to the King according to the usage, I had the Honour on the first of this Month to be introduced by his Lordship to his Majesty, in his Closet with all the Ceremonies and Formalities, practised on...
360To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 7 June 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received yours of 25. May, and thank you for the News of my Son, and for the News of Paris. I wished to have seen the Queens Entrance into Paris, but I saw the Queen of England on Saturday, the Kings Birth day, in all her Glory. It is paying very dear to be a King or Queen to pass One such a day in a year. To be obliged to enter into Conversation with four or five hundred, or four or...