1Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1 June 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
For want of time to consult you on it, I have taken a measure of great responsibility on my self as to Francis , for your pardon for which I must rely on the motives, and what I hope will be the effect of it. French is become the most indispensable part of modern education. it is the only language in which a man of any country can be understood out of his own; and is now the preeminent...
2Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 9 September 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I am sorry to learn by Francis’s letter that your you are not yet recovered from your rheumatism, and much wonder you do not go and pass a summer at the Warm springs . from the examples I have seen I should entertain no doubt of a radical cure. the transactions at Washington and Alexandria are indeed beyond expectation. the circumjacent country is mostly disaffected, but I should have thought...
3Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 25 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Our letters crossing each other on the road have anticipated the grounds of mutual excuse for their being the first which were written. my occupations are now almost entirely without doors, in the farms the garden, the shops E t c. I shut up my room on going to breakfast & scarcely enter it again but to dress for dinner, after which I read little, & never write. this of course withdraws me...
4Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 3–5 June 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I learnt accidentally a day or two ago that you were proposing to sell Pantops , and had offered it to some persons in this neighborhood. this is done, I have no doubt, after mature consideration, and under the view that it will be most beneficial to Francis , of whose interests no one can be a more faithful depository than yourself. candor obliges me to say that an estate so closely and...
5Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 March 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
Your servant arrived here the day before yesterday, since which the weather has been showery, & is now threatening & uncertain if tomorrow is promising, Francis will set out. we part with him with more regret after every visit. while the cold weather kept him pretty much in the house, I made him do a little in the Latin grammar, merely to begin to exercise his memory. as soon as you think him...
6Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 30 April with 7 May 1816 postscript (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 8 th was recieved here on the 19 th inst. the information you have had as to the schools at Staunton and Lexington is correct. the latter has been at all times under the direction of an infuriated Presbyterian bigot and tory, better fitted to fanaticise than to instruct youth in useful knolege. when I was last here, I heard of their expelling two or three youths for the heinous...
7Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 11 September 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I turn with great reluctance from the functions of a private citizen to matters of state. the swaggering on deck, as a passenger, is so much more pleasant than clambering the ropes as a seaman, & my confidence in the skill and activity of those employed to work the vessel is so entire, that I notice nothing, en passant, but how smoothly she moves. yet I avail myself of the leisure which a...
8Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 8 December 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I should sooner have informed you of Francis’s safe arrival here but that the trip you meditated to N. Carolina rendered it entirely uncertain where a letter would find you. nor had I any expectation you could have been at the first meeting of Congress till I saw your name in the papers brought by our last post. disappointed in sending this by the return of the post, I avail myself of General...
9Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 30 March 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed letter came to my hands a few days before Francis left us, & was reserved to go by him. it was however forgotten. I hope you will be my apologist with mrs Eppes and that she will pardon this omission of a declining memory, and accept the assurance of my respects. my constant affections attend on yourself. PoC ( MHi ); dateline at foot of text; endorsed by TJ. The inclosed letter...
10Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 January 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Francis arrived here in good health the day before Yesterday. I think he cannot do better than to take this occasion of learning Spanish, because it is a language rarely taught in this country, and will be of great importance within his day. it is that too in which all the early history of America is written. I suppose he may acquire so much of it in 2. or 3. months as to pursue it easily...