1To John Adams from William Gordon, 13 August 1785 (Adams Papers)
Yours by your son was a very agreeable letter. I rec d it last wednesday while at the President’s, where I had the pleasure of viewing your living picture. You have confirmed me in my suspicion, that tho’ there were many pictures abroad there was little likeness. I shall do my best, & it may be well for one who is not a writer of the first talents, nor been employed thirty years in making my...
2To John Adams from William Gordon, 7 January 1784 (Adams Papers)
You have very fairly & fully discharged your epistolary account of the preceeding year; which is an encouragement for me to begin anew. There is both pleasure & profit in corresponding with You; & notwithstanding some desponding expressions, I trust your strength & spirits will not be exhausted, till the business is completed. Finesse & subtilty are ministerial qualifications; & the only...
3To John Adams from William Gordon, 8 April 1785 (Adams Papers)
I hope this will find you at Westminster. I congratulate You upon your late appointment; it was what I wished for, as what I thought would be agreeable to you, & for the good of our country. The treaty of commerce may be too far settled to admit of alteration: but if your correspondents have not urged you in the most pressing manner, to exert every nerve to obtain an importation of our whale...
4To John Adams from William Gordon, 4 October 1785 (Adams Papers)
Your two letters of Ap r 27 th & June 26 th were duly received. The first at the President’s, Rich d Henry Lee Esq r , where I had the pleasure of dining with your son on the 10 th of Aug t , being at New York on my last tour for collecting historical materials. I have not seen him, since he reacht this state; but have heard of his welfare. I am busily employed in the way you mention; & am...
5To Thomas Jefferson from William Gordon, 24 April 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
In a late letter to the Marquis de La Fayette I mentioned my design of writing soon to your Excellency. The reason of my having been so long silent was, that I might be able to acquaint you, that the second volume of the History was printed, which I can at length do. You was pleased generously to offer me your friendly assistance for the procuring a similar consideration for an early copy of...
6To Thomas Jefferson from William Gordon, 6 September 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
When last in town for a few days, I received your very obliging letter ; and, notwithstanding my numerous engagements, should have given an immediate answer, had I not attended to some circumstances which rendered it unnecessary, upon observing that during the summer the readers are in the country, and being in no such forwardness as to admit of my going directly to the press, saw that I might...
7To Thomas Jefferson from William Gordon, 8 July 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I trouble you afresh from an apprehension that either your Excellency did not receive my letter of February , or that your answer has miscarried. I mentioned in my letter my having delayed to write, till I had gotten forward in printing; and informed you that I had finished the two first volumes, and should be obliged to you for your friendly assistance in the way you had proposed, by...
8To Thomas Jefferson from William Gordon, 9 December 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Your obliging favor of Sepr. 2 was duly received. The books not being in sufficient forwardness to send before your leaving Paris, and the prospects of the success your Excellency wished me being so small, I declined sending a copy as soon as finished. One Mr. De Maisoncelles has written to me about translating the work into French. I apprehend he means I should employ him: by line this day I...
9To Thomas Jefferson from William Gordon, 15 August 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
From William Gordon From the generous encouragement you gave me in your answer to my first letter , I informed your Excellency about April, that I should be greatly obliged to you, could you assist me in a similar way to that by which Dr. Ramsay was benefited. I left it with your judgment to settle the terms, and proposed sending over the printed volumes that the translation might be entered...
10To Thomas Jefferson from William Gordon, 20 February 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I promised myself the honour of being introduced to your Excellency by a letter which my friend general Gates gave me, before I had the pleasure of hearing You was appointed ambassador to the court of Versailles. Ere I could reach home in the neighbourhood of Boston You had sailed for France. I have therefore applied to his Excellency John Adams for a few introductory lines, recommending at...