1Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
You will recollect that I formerly troubled you on the subject of a proper course to be established in a College of general science . such an establishment in my neighborhood (near Charlottesville ), then in contemplation only, has lately advanced so favorably as to get into a course of execution. the single county in which it is located has contributed 30,000.D. and we expect the rest of the...
2Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 16 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have not written to you for a long time, because I am aware of the burthen of your extensive correspondence, from my own experience in a much less degree. At present I have to write on my own affairs, but as they are connected in some measure with your own state, this may furnish an excuse for the trouble I give you. When I quitted Carlisle I came here with a view of being elected Chemical...
3Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 17 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
my letter to you respecting Williamsburgh was put in the post before I rec d yours . The Professorship which you do me the honour to propose is yet in the distance. I long to be settled somewhere, almost any where, provided I move to pecuniary advantage; for having the common motive of a family to provide for, I must act on that motive. I have written to Varro at Frankfort . When I am prepared...
4Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 19 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have seen two persons as teachers of the Classics neither of whom will suit. I have twice written to the person at Frankford according to his advertisement as Varro, and as F.G. but I have not seen or heard from him. shall I advertise? With reference for information to myself? I have seen Col: Basset of Williamsburgh to day, and have declined that situation finally. Mr Hare I believe wishes...
5Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 23 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday evening your’s of the 15 16 th inst. by which I percieve mine of the 1 st had not then reached you. but you would certainly recieve it very soon after that date, and the two have such bearings on one another, that it strengthens the hope you will find it expedient to come on here as I proposed to you. on a view of all circumstances you will be enabled here to make up your...
6Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 30 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I regret that it is not in my power to visit you this Season. I am not only busy preparing for my lectures ( a course of mineralogy and another of Chemistry) but I have undertaken to correct the press for M r Wirt ’s life of Patr. Henry of which about 100 pages are printed. M r Sanders of Williamsburgh called on a friend of mine here, wishing to see me on the Subject of the Coll e ge
7Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 10 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Our letters have been very unfortunate in the length of their passage. mine of Sep. 1. appears to have been 17. days getting to you. your’s of the 17 th & 19 th were 20. days coming to me; the ordinary time of the mail from Philadelphia being 5. or 6. days only. your’s of the 30 th came to hand the 9 th inst. the two former ( 17 th &
8Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 24 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I feel myself much flattered by the kind offer of the Visitors of the College near Charlotte’s ville ; and have waited a very few days only to determine what course I ought to pursue. I have also been in pursuit of a M r Slack who was for a short time a classical tutor at Carlisle , and who I find has since been in the same capacity at Lynchburgh . I thought well of him. He was in town a few...
9Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 10 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been in daily expectation of a letter from you, but I presume the necessity of previously sending to Lynchburgh has occasioned the delay. About a week ago, I received a letter from M r Brown of Williamsburgh stating that the Trustees there, w d be Willing to renew their offer of a Professorship, if I w d engage to go either the beginning of the ensuing spring, or at next November. I...
10Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 20 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I suspect my letters have been strangely delayed. I wrote at least three weeks ago about M r Slack of Lynchburgh . I wrote about ten days ago , saying that the Visitors at Williamsburgh wished me to go there either next spring; or next fall, at my Option: this I heard from Mr Brown of that place, in a letter stating it: he requests an early reply, I shall leave this
11To James Madison from Thomas Cooper, 24 November 1817 (Madison Papers)
On receipt of the inclosed letter I wrote to Mr Jefferson saying that I did not wish to go to Williamsburgh—that if I could be so placed as to earn a moderate Income for the next year at Charlottesville I should prefer it: but that I meant to leave Philadelphia, & could not afford to subsist a twelve month on my present funds & unemployed. I wrote to the same purpose requesting an immediate...
12Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 25 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
My long and frequent visits to this place make me a very inexact correspondent. your letter of Oct. 24. was 11. days on it’s passage, instead of 5. or 6. the ordinary time, and it found me on the eve of my departure from Monticello . It is impossible for me to regret the prospects you have of being satisfactorily fixed at Philadelphia , because I sincerely wish you whatever you think best...
13Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 6 December 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 25 Nov. arrived here to day. Your letter mentioning that the apartments and pavilion would be ready so as to enable me to go to Charlottesville by Midsummer, I do not recollect to have received. I understood the apartments for a classical tutor would be ready in the Spring of 1818; but that my services would not be required till the Spring of 1819. My great objection to...
14Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 7 December 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have written to you to Poplar Grove , stating my acceptance of the Chairs of Chemistry & its attendant branches, & of Law, at Central College ; and my readiness to remove thither about Midsummer next, 1818. I wish I had known before, that the Institution w d accept of my services so early as that period; y r letter stating this , has not been received. I write this lest there should be delay...
15Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 7 January 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote to you on the 25 th of Nov. from Poplar Forest from whence I returned but a few days ago, & found here yours of Nov. 10. 20. Dec. 6. & 7. I have taken time to communicate to my colleagues (who all live at distances of 20. or 30. miles around) your acceptance of our Physiological professorship, which they lear
16Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 23 January 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Last night at 8 o’Clock died our friend D r Caspar Wistar aged 56. The vacancy occasioned by his death, may make a vacancy in the chemical Chair here: for I suspect either D r Physick or D r Dorsey the one professor of Surgery, the other a surgeon and professor of materia medica already, will succeed. Ine
17Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 6 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Jan. 23. is recieved with real affliction. I sincerely lament the loss of D r Wistar , whose health, altho not the best, had yet promised, as I hoped, a longer life. in his line he leaves no superior, and his science was among our principal ornaments. distant as is our position from the immediate scene of this calamity I percieve that, in effect, it may reach us heavily. the...
18Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 20 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I feel myself greatly obliged and much gratified by the kind and liberal conduct of the Governors of your Institution in my case. In truth, having from the age of twenty to fifty laboured almost exclusively for the public, I find it absolutely necessary to labour now for my family, which forms if not the only the strongest motive to exertion with me now; and I must for their sake, use the few...
19Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 10 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Our legislature has appropriated 15,000 D. a year for an University, & taken measures for fixing it’s site, which I am confident will result in adopting that of the Central College . our Visitors meet here on the 11 th of May , and I therefore press M r Correa to make his visit a few days before that, because in yours of Feb. 20.
20Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 11 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote to you yesterday , since which it has occurred to me that you can render us a great service. among the duties required by the legislature from the Comm rs for the location of their University , one is to state to them the sciences proper for such an institution, and the number of Professors necessary. to determine this so as not to endanger overburthening any Professor, it is essential...
21Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I received your letter yesterday. For the present I am bound here. The friends who exert themselves in endeavouring to promote my interest, require of me that the pains they have taken shall not be rendered nugatory. If D r Dorsey be elected in the room of D r Wistar , which is likely: if D r Coxe be elected in the room of D r Dorsey , which also is likely but by no means void of doubt, it...
22Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 24 June 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
D r Coxe ’s election comes on the first Tuesday of next month. They talk of deferring the election for chemical professor to the first Tuesday in September. I am not sufficiently instructed to know the causes of this inconvenient determination. I send you, ad interim , a Syllabus of lectures of which I have delivered two courses. They have produced very complimentary letters of approbation...
23Enclosure: Thomas Cooper’s Geology Syllabus [ca. 24 June 1818] (Jefferson Papers)
SYLLABUS Of the Lectures of Thomas Cooper , Esq. M. D. as Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Pennsylvania . Of the characters of mineral substances, as distinguished by the sight, the touch, the taste, the smell, the hearing. Of the means of distinguishing mineral substances artificially; by the file, the knife, the blow-pipe, the mineral acids: by their crystallization...
24Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 7 August 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
A meeting of Comm rs to agree on & recommend to the legislature a site for their University was held at Rockfish gap on the 1 st inst. where we agreed, 16. to 5. that it should be at our Central College ; and from thence I came here to remove some Rheumatic complaints affections
25Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 21 August 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Our election for the chemical chair comes on the first day of September . The issue is uncertain. I think the family influence of M r Rob. Hare is likely to prevail. I have received an invitation from De Witt Clinton , D r Hosack and D r M c Neven
26Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 26 August 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I write now in reply to yours from the warm Springs, of the 7 th Instant . D r Patterson is not chosen Chemical Professor, nor do I think he will be. The election does not take place till the first day of September . The event you shall be informed of, without delay. If I should not succeed (a very possible case) M. Correa , M rs Cooper and myself, set out forthwith for Charlotteville . She is...
27Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 1 September 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Hare was elected to the chemical Chair of this University to day: Hare 10. Cooper 7. Patterson 3. On a second vote the three for D r Patterson came over to Hare . I have therefore lost no reputation, it being generally understood that the family influence of M
28Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 2 September 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
W d it not be well to get some thing like the inclosed inserted in the papers of Virginia , Kentucky , & Carolina , with a set of queries whe r this is not the time to ascertain if students cannot be taught medecine in Virginia by Virginians, as well as in Phila a by Virginians? Whe r the morals as well as the studies, and the expences also, of the sons of virginia planters, could not be as...
29Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 3 September 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
M. Correa and I will set out about the 16 th . He will have to stay 2 or 3 days in Washington : we then set off for your Place. In mean time, I think the present opportunity afforded us by Hare ’s election ought not to be lost; but the moment should be taken to appeal to the Parents in Virginia , on the strange infatuation of sending their children to be educated here, when they could have...
30Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 12 September 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letters of Aug. 26. Sep. 1. 2. 3. were recieved yesterday evening. I returned from the warm springs a few days ago , in prostrated health, from the use of the waters. their effect, and the journey back reduced me to the last stage of exhaustion; but I am recovering. we shall all be happy to recieve here mrs Cooper , yourself & M. Correa , and expect that according to former request you...