91To James Madison from Nicholas P. Trist, 6 May 1827 (Madison Papers)
I owe many apologies for this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of last month. Several causes have contributed to this remissness, but the chief of these is the paradoxical one of that extreme punctuality which you persist in observing towards me, which has been the cause of a compunctious visitation every time that it has been displayed, and which therefore, honestly and sincerely, I do not...
92To James Madison from Nicholas P. Trist, 26 April 1827 (Madison Papers)
Calling by here in haste this morning, I am met by Mr Brockenbrough who calls me into his office, to show me the enclosed. They are on a Subject of such deep interest, that I have asked his permission to send to you the letter addressed to himself. It may turn out a God send. You will judge of the expediency of obtaining the opinions of Bowditch & of Farrar; and of using every effort to close...
93To James Madison from Nicholas P. Trist, 3 April 1827 (Madison Papers)
Intending to answer your favor of the 27th. by that mail, I went up on saturday afternoon, to the University. But Mr Brockenbrough could nowhere be found, to get from him the key of the apartment where the papers were locked up. I was near being equally unfortunate yesterday; for one of the members of the Jefferson society to whom I traced the key, had gone out & did not return till the...
94To James Madison from Nicholas P. Trist, [3 April 1827] (Madison Papers)
Stepping into the post-office to put my letter in, I am pleased to find the enclosed left here for distribution. It so happened that it was my intention to say Something in my letter, on this very subject, in connexion with one of the transactions at the last meeting, and an account I have since heard of Mr Maxwell’s Speech at Hampden Sydney, in which he triumphantly foretold that they (the...
95To James Madison from Nicholas P. Trist, 25 March 1827 (Madison Papers)
I owe you many apologies for so late an acknowledgment of your kind favor of the 2 inst.; but it was postponed some days unavoidably; and then, by the daily expectation of learning Mr Key’s final decision, which to the very last, I entertained some hope would be such as I wished. There is considerable intimacy subsisting between Mrs D. & Mrs K, by means of which I had derived some knowledge of...
96To James Madison from Nicholas P. Trist, 21 February 1827 (Madison Papers)
I now return you the paper containing Mr Hassler’s publication, which, so very slight was my previous knowledge of him, has given me more insight into his character than I before possessed. It breathes, I think, the tone of worth and of true science; but the wide difference must not be lost sight of, between a skilful, and perfectly scientific astronomer , and a good mathematician ; nor that...
97To James Madison from Nicholas P. Trist, 1 February 1827 (Madison Papers)
I have determined to send you also a No of the Westminster, containing another article on gymnastics which tends to convey an idea of the importance which the subject had, at that date, already acquired in England. In my note of yesterday evening, I forgot to mention, as it had been my intention to do, that several circumstances have reduced to an almost certainty in my mind the fixed design...
98To James Madison from Nicholas P. Trist, 31 January 1827 (Madison Papers)
I send, with the request that they be returned when you shall have done with them, a couple of Harmony papers, containing some articles on the subject of gymnastics. The flattering reports brought up by Genl. Cocke on the prospects of further assistance from the legislature, and the consequent probability that it will be in the power of the Bd. to do something on the subject, has revived my...
99To James Madison from Nicholas P. Trist, 25 January 1827 (Madison Papers)
This mail conveys to you two copies of the enactments, which have been delayed so long. You will be surprised to learn that I have taken upon myself to send on the report without them; this went by last Sunday’s mail. On meeting Genl. Cocke early in the week of the sale, he immediately enquired about the report, & expressed great surprise & concern at the answer. “What! Not yet. Bless my...
100To James Madison from Nicholas P. Trist, 9 January 1827 (Madison Papers)
When I came to make a copy of the report, I was stopped at the first step, by the want of a caption. How was this difficulty to be got over? I could not communicate with you on the subject, without a loss of time that might add still more to the delay of the report. I have determined therefore on the following course. To transpose a portion of body upon the shoulders—thus making a head of...