1Anonymous to Thomas Jefferson, 18 December 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I rejoice to find you engaged in your latter days, in so laudable an undertaking as that of perfecting a system for the education of our youth: an estabilishement much wanted on your side of the mountains: and which must hereafter prove a great blessing to our posterity. But, what has astonished me more than all the miracles of Moses , is, that the birth state of Washington , Jefferson ,...
2A. & J. W. Picket to Thomas Jefferson, 10 September 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
We address you on a Subject of vital importance; we mean the Subject of Female Education , which in our opinion has not received that attention which its intrinsic value merits.—To benefit, & place it on a more permanent basis, as far as our capabilities will allow, we intend to apply to the Legislature of mary land , at its next session, for means to erect a Female College . The importance of...
3David Abbot to Thomas Jefferson, 10 April 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I write to You on a subject which I think of great importance and because in your life I think you have done a great deal of good because you are in a situation to do much on the subject which I shall mention, and because I think You have been a friend to the people, in stead of favoring a chosen few—You will not Sir, think this a piece of flatery; my situation forbids it— but few Years have...
4Reuben Haines to Thomas Jefferson, 24 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
At a meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia , held on the 27 th ultimo Thomas Jefferson of Monticello was duly elected a Corresponding member. The object of this institution being the promotion of all the various branches of Natural Science, especially the investigation of the natural productions of the United States , we shall be happy to receive, and communicate any...
5From Abigail Smith Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 29 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
What right have I to be one of your tormentors? and amongst the numerous applicants for introductory Letters? Why I will plead, old acquaintance, old Friendship and your well known Benevolence—but to the Subject of my present address. Mr Theodore Lyman, who possesses an ardent thirst for Literature, and whose Father, is one of our most respectable Characters for probity, honour, & wealth, this...
6Abigail Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 29 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
what right have I to be one of your tormentors? and amongst the numerous applicants for introductory Letters? why I will plead, old acquaintance, old Friendship and your well known Benevolence— but to the Subject of my present address. Mr Theodore Lyman , who possesses an ardent thirst for Literature, and whose Father , is one of our most respectable Characters for probity, honour, &...
7From George Washington Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 23 July 1824 (Adams Papers)
Should it be thought presumptuous to address to you a pamphlet little worth your acceptance but for the occasion which gave it birth, it may yet be excused by the remembrance of your personal friendship for my Grandfather and your intimate connection with the glorious event it was attempted to commemorate. With the deepest respect / your most obedient and humble servant DLC : Papers of Thomas...
8To Thomas Jefferson from George Washington Adams, 23 July 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Should it be thought presumptuous to address to you a pamphlet little worth your acceptance but for the occasion which gave it birth, it may yet be excused by the remembrance of your personal friendship for my Grandfather and your intimate connection with the glorious event it was attempted to commemorate. DLC : Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
9To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 1 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I ought not to have neglected so long to write you an account of the delightful visit I received from M r and M rs Cooledge, M rs 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...
10John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 February 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Was you ever acquainted with Dugald Stuart —before I left France I received a letter from Benjamin Vaughn Esq re in London — Introducing , and recommending in strong terms two gentlemen from Scotland , one by the name of Dugald Stuart and the other Lord —— whose name and title I forget—as young gentlemen of great talents and attainments sufficient to diminish our American prejudices against...
11To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 10 March 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
The sight of your well known hand writing in your favour of 25. Feb. last, gave me great pleasure, as it proved your arm to be restored and your pen still manageable—may it continue till you shall become as perfect a calvinist as I am in one particular. Poor Calvins infirmities his rheumatism his gouts and sciatics made him frequently cry out Mon dieu Jusque au quand . Lord how long! Prat once...
12From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I inclose you a National Register, to convince you that the Essex Register is not to blame for printing the Mecklingburg County Resolutions, on the Contrary I think it to be Commended—for if those Resolutions were genuine they ought to be published in every Gazette in the World—If they are one of those tricks which our fashionable Men in England call hoax’es and boares—they ought to be printed...
13From 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...
14From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 29 January 1819 (Adams Papers)
If I am not humble I ought to be, when I find myself under the necessity of borrowing a juvenile hand to acknowledge your kind favour of the 19.th: I have read your university report throughout with great pleasure, and hearty approbation; Of Tracy’s report I have read as much as I could, the translation appears to me an original written with all the purity, accuracy, and elegance, of its...
15To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 15 November 1824 (Jefferson 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 we say more— Is the present calm in the Political World to continue long or not? Our controversy will be settled in a short time, and...
16John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 July 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I am greatly obliged to you for your Letter of the 9 th It has entirely convinced me that the Mecklenburg Resolutions are a fiction, when I first read them in the Essex Register, I was struct with astonishment—It appears appeared to me utterly incredible that they should be genuine; but there were so many circumstances calculated to impose on the public; that I thought it my duty to take...
17John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 8 December 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Letter of Nov. 13 gave me great delight not only by the divine Consolation it afforded me under my great Affliction: but as it gave me full Proof of your restoration to Health. While you live, I Seem to have a Bank at Montecello on which I can draw for a Letter of Friendship and entertainment when I please. I know not how to prove physically that We Shall meet and know each other in a...
18John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 20 January 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
When Harris was returned a Member of Parliament a Friend introduced him to Chesterfield whom he had never seen—So Mr Harris said his Lordship you are a Member of the House of Commons — you have written upon Universal and scientifick Grammer! you have written upon Art, upon Musick, Painting and Poetry! and what has the House of Commons to do with Art, or Musick, or Painting, or Poetry, or...
19From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 3 February 1821 (Adams Papers)
I have just read a sketch of the life of Swedenborg, and a larger work in two huge volumes of Memoirs of John Westley by Southey, and your kind letter of January 22d came to hand in the nick of time to furnish me with a very rational exclamation, “What a bedlamite is man!” They are histories of Galvanism and Mesmerism thrown into hotch potch they say that these men were honest and sincere, so...
20From 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...
21From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
Must We, before We take our departure from this grand and beautiful World, Surrender all our pleasing hopes of the progres of Society? Of improvement of the intellectual and moral condition of the World? Of the reformation of mankind? The Piemontese Revolution Scarcely assumed a form; and the Neapolitan bubble is burst. And what Should hinder the Spanish and Portuguese Constitutions from...
22To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 10 November 1823 (Jefferson 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 M r Jefferson and two or three newspapers. A letter from M r Jefferson says I. I know what the substance is before I open it; There is no secrets between M r Jefferson and me, and I cannot read it, therefore you may open and read it—when...
23From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
All the Literary Gentlemen of this part of the Country have an Ambitious Curiosity to see the Philosopher and Statesmen of Monticello—and they all apply to me for Introductions— and if I had ever received one introduction from you, I should have less scruple of Conscience in granting their requests—in the Stile of our New-England—the Reverend Mr Greenwood the Successor of Mr Thatcher and Dr...
24From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 11 June 1822 (Adams Papers)
Half an hour ago I received, and this moment have heard read, for the 3d. or 4th. time, the best letter that ever was written by an Octogenarian, dated June the first. It is so excellent that I am under an almost invincible temptation to commit a breach of trust by lending it to a printer. My Son Thomas Boylston—says it would be worth $500—to any Newspaper in Boston—But I dare not betray your...
25To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 17 April 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of March 25 th has been a cordial to me, and the more consoling as it was brought by your Grandsons M r Randolph and M r Coolidge. every lady 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 M r Randolph; I was very...
26From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 May 1820 (Adams Papers)
I have received with great pleasure your favour of March 14th. Mr Ticknor informes me that Dugald Stuart was not reduced to a state of Idiocy as I had been informed—but that he was in bad Health—and by the advice of his friends and Physicians to remove to Devenshire in England in hopes by the change of air tranquil repose and retirement from the irritation of society he might recover his...
27From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 27 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have transmitted you a letter to Samuel Adams Welles Esqr. in Boston as you desire This gentleman is a singular character he is I believe the only surviving male of his Grandfather the late govenor of Massachusetts Samuel Adams who never had but two children a son and a daughter; his son who bore his name died early a surgeon in the army of the Revolution—without issue; his daughter married...
28John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 February 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I am dill diligently & laboriously occupied, in reading & hearing your “political economy”—I call it yours because I do not believe that Tracy s is more of an original in point of purity , perspicuity or precission—I have read as yet only to the 90 th page—it is a connected chain of ideas and propositions, of which I know nothing not which link to strike out. His philosophy appears to me to roll
29John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 27 th June is received with pleasure, for the free air of it delights me. Your number of 1267. letters in a year, does not surprise me; I have no list of mine, and I could not make one without a weeks research, And I do not believe I ever received one quarter part of your number. And I very much doubt whether I received in the same year one twelfth part; There are reasons enough...
30From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 February 1820 (Adams Papers)
Was you ever acquainted with Dugald Stuart—before I left France I received a letter from Benjamin Vaughn Esqre. in London—Introducing, and recommending in strong terms two Gentlemen from Scotland, one by the name of Dugald Stuart and the other Lord———whose name and title I forget—as young Gentlemen of great talents and attainments sufficient to diminish our American prejudices against...