31Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 16 January 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I had been considering for some days whether it was not time, by a letter, to bring myself to your recollection, when I recieved your welcome favor of the 2 d inst. I had before heard of the heart-rending calamity you mention, & had sincerely sympathised with your afflictions. but I had not made it the subject of a letter, because I knew that condolances were but renewals of grief. yet I...
32From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 17 January 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 10th, is just come from the Post Office. I thank you for reading the Pamphlet, which considering the more interesting Studies and Labours of your Profession, I consider as a favour. With your Letter I received a Packet of Letters from my Son and Daughter at Petersbourg, dates as late as 25: October. I wish I could print these Letters: but I dare not. A Fathers Partiality...
33From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 18 January 1811 (Adams Papers)
As I am never weary of Writing to you, because I write always without thinking, I am not sorry to be obliged to begin another Letter and another Sheet. J. Q. A in a Letter to his Brother T. B. A. dated St. Petersburg 27. October 1810 has these Words, vizt “I wish you to procure and Send to me a specimen of every one of the Coins of the United States Mint of the United States, of...
34From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 4 February 1811 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 4 February 1811. Offered for sale in Parke-Bernet Catalogue No. 499, “The Alexander Biddle Papers” (1943), pt. 2, item 169, which notes that the one-page letter of about seventy-five words reads in part: “I have just recd. your favor of the 7th inst. [not found] as I had before that communicating the death of my nephew [ Rush to JM, 30 Jan. 1811 ]. In thanking you for your...
35From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 13 February 1811 (Adams Papers)
In your Favour of the 4th., according to my Judgment you have given up the whole Controversy. You have no Objection, you say to teaching the youth in our Schools to read the dead Languages. By reading them, no doubt you, meant that they should so read them as to understand them. and they can be read to be understood, in no Way so well as by Writing and Speaking them. I therefore regret very...
36From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 2 April 1811 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the Trouble you have kindly taken in procuring the Samples of Coins for my Son J. Q. A; which Mr Quincy was so good as to deliver with his own hand: and am glad to learn from your Letter that Mr Erving in behalf of my Son T. B. A, has paid you the Amount of them. I thank you for your Letter of the 4th of March and your Congratulations on the Appointment of my Son to a Seat on...
37From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 21 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
As Charité commens par soi même, or as We more elegantly express it, as Charity begins at home, I shall first resent the domestic part of your dramatic Dialogue, of the 13th. The prosperous and promising Circumstances of every Branch of your Family gives me unfeigned Pleasure. The only exception is to be deplored, but not in despair. Richard is my Friend by a Sort of Inheritance. He cannot...
38From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 31 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have several sweet letters from you the last of which is the 20th of this month. The table of Cider and health and Rum and death I have given to Dr Tufts who will propagate it. It is a concise but very comprehensive result of long experiences, Attentive observation, and deep and close thought. I was too wise to go to the great celebration. the heat would have killed me. It was here as with...
39From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 14 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
Upon honor, now, Rush! You cannot be serious in calling me, mad, to my Face! I learned a proper Answer to you, in Bedlam in England. In one of the Visits I made to that Hospital, I took a few Turns in the Area, where Some of the most harmless of the patients are permitted to walk. One of them a decent looking Man joined me, and conversed very Sensibly but with much animation for Some time: but...
40Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 17 August 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I write to you from a place, 90. miles from Monticello , near the New London of this state, which I visit three or four times a year, & stay from a fortnight to a month at a time. I have fixed myself comfortably, keep some books here, bring others occasionally, am in the solitude of a hermit, and quite at leisure to attend to my absent friends. I note this to shew that I am not in a situation...
41From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 25 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
If I could be considered as a Friend to the Family I should Advise the Grand Children of Dr Franklin to divide the Real Estate among them in their several proportions rather than to sell it in order to divide the Money. Not a Liver or a Stiver was ever committed to Dr Franklin or any other Minister of The United States in Europe, “to be employed, in Secret Services to his Country.” The Million...
42From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 28 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 20th., My dear Friend, has filled my Eyes with Tears,—and, indurated Stoick as I am, my heart with Sensations unutterable by my Tongue or Pen. Not the Feelings of Vanity, but the overwhelming Sense of my own Unworthiness of Such a Panegyrick from Such a Friend. Like Louis the 16 I Said to myself Qu’est ce, que J’ay fait pour le meriter. Have I not been employed in Mischief...
43From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 12 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
Suum cuique decus Posteritas rependit, has some Truth in it and you have addressed several Examples of it: But it is by no means an universal Aphorism; nor do I believe it to be generally true. You seam to think that Integrity is less envied than Talents. This Question deserves consideration. Under the Roman Emperors nothing was envied so much as Integrity or even the Appearance or suspicion...
44From Abigail Amelia Adams Smith to Benjamin Rush, 12 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
you will I hope pardon the Liberty I have taken to address myself to you Sir upon a Subject which has become very interesting to myself. since I have been on a visit to my Parents, I have met with a volume of your Medical inquiries, in which are containd some observations upon the use of Arsenic in the cure of Cancers and schirrous complaints— about May 1810 I first perceived a hardness in my...
45From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 20 September 1811 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your favor of the 6th. inclosing the Pamphlet from the Earl of Buchan. Could a portion only of his liberality & philanthropy, be substituted for the narrow Councils and national prejudices, which direct the course of his Government, towards the U. States, the clouds which have so long hung over the relations of two Countries, mutually interested in cultivating friendship, would...
46From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 13 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
Sobrius esto! Recollect your own Non Nobis! Your Letter of the 20th. of September I communicated to Mrs Adams as you advised. Mrs Adams to her Daughter, After a reasonable Time for Deliberation and Reflections the Heroine determined. The Mother and the Daughter went to Boston and consulted Dr Warren Junior, Dr Welsh, Dr Warren Junior having previously consulted Dr Tufts and Dr Holbrook. The...
47From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 2 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
Be pleased to accept my cordial congratulations on the felicity of your Family in the arrival of your Son and Daughter from Europe. The Doctor will be the Staff of your Age and you will be the Guide of his youth. The Daughter and her Infants will be the delights of her Mother as well as her Father. For myself, clothed as I am in the Sable, I may without repining, acknowledge the Seventy Sixth...
48From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 21 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
On this our Thanksgiving day, among innumerable other Blessings, I have to thank express my Gratitude for your favour of Nov. 11. I do not believe that Boethius’s Consolations of Philosophy, which however I have never read, would do me more good. I hasten to answer your Questions, that your friendly Sympathies may be no longer afflicted or allarmed. Indeed I almost repent of the Simple Tale I...
49From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 4 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
Shall I congratulate or condole with you on the appointment of your Son to be Comptroller of The Treasury? You will know the delightful Comfort of his daily Society and that of his Lady and their prattling Little ones, which I know by Experience to be in old age, among the Sweetest Enjoyment of Life, provided Always that it be not indulged to excess. I Should have thought too that his Office...
50Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 5 December 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
While at Monticello I am so much engrossed by business or society that I can only write on matters of strong urgency. here I have leisure, as I have every where the disposition to think of my friends. I recur therefore to the subject of your kind letters relating to mr Adams and myself, which a late occurrence has again presented to me. I communicated to you the correspondence which had parted...
51From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 19 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
When I was a Boy, not ten years old, I heard Smith Richard Thayer, a great Authority, say “When Duty and Interest go together, they make Staving Work” By your own Shewing it was Richards Duty to be over ruld or ruled over by his Wife: and by my Shewing I shall make it appear to be his Interest. He will Soon be Secretary of the Treasury. Or he may be a Judge of the Supream Court, or an...
52From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 25 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
I never was so much at a loss how to answer a Letter, as yours of the 16th. Shall I assume a Sober Face and write a grave Essay on Religion Philosophy, Laws or government? Shall I laugh like Bacchus among his grapes, Wine fats Vatts and Bottles? or Shall I assume the Man of the World, the Fine Gentleman, the Courtier, and Bow and Scrape with a smooth smiling Face, soft words, many compliments...
53From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 8 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have recd. your favour of the 26th. of Decr. You mention Cobbet. have you read Mr Randolphs Speech? Was there any Thing in Cobbets Writings more envious than that Speech? Now I assure you upon my honour and the Faith of the Friendship between Us; that I never Saw the Face of that Cobbet; that I should not know him if I met him in my Porridge Dish; that I never wrote one Word in his Paper and...
54Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 21 January 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
As it is thro’ your kind interposition that two old friends are brought together, you have a right to know how the first approaches are made. I send you therefore a copy of mr Adams’s letter to me & of my answer . to avoid the subject of his family, on which I could say nothing, I have written him a rambling, gossiping epistle which gave openings for the expression of sincere feelings, & may...
55From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 27 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I agree with you that The Ocean ought to be and must be the Theatre of the War. Our Government will come by Degrees to the right System. I have toasted The Wooden Walls, the Floating Castles the floating Batteries and the floating Citidels of The United States for Six and thirty years: and I now rejoice to find that many Persons now begin to drink my Toast with Huzzas. I am quite of The...
56From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 10 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
your Dream is out, and the Passage you read in the History that Richard was reading is come to pass: notwithstanding you said you believed no History but the Bible. Mr Mediator! You have wrought Wonders! You have made Peace between Powers that never were at War! You have reconciled Friends that never were at Enmity! You have brought again Babylon and Carthage long Since into Existen...
57From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 26 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
I shall expect your long letter; but I ought not to wish it with impatience: for you have such demands upon you for your time that I wonder how you can spare any to write answers to my impertinances, the astonishment of your family at my vivacity—is very just—Rochefaucault says when a mans vivacity increases with years it becomes frenzy at last nothing is indeed more ridiculous than an old man...
58From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 19 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
The greatest part of the History in your last Letter was well known to me, and I could write you Six Sheets for your three, full of Anecdotes, of a Similar complexion. I wanted no Satisfaction. If I had, your Letter would have given it. The great Character, was a Character of Convention . His first Appointment was a magnanimous Sacrifice of the North to the South: to the base Jealousy, Sordid...
59Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 20 April 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I do not know if you may have noticed in the Newspapers of a year or two ago that Edward Livingston had brought a suit against me for a transaction of the Executive while I was in the administration. the dismission of it has been the occasion of publishing the inclosed pamphlet, which is sent to you, not to be read, for there is nothing enticing for you in it, but as a tribute of respect &...
60From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 22 April 1812 (Adams Papers)
Omnicient Jackson Said to me, at his own Table and repeated it at mine in London, that Chatham flattered the Vanity of The Nation and gratified their Passion for War. but that he was a pernicious Minister. David Hartley Said to me often; (it was a favourite Observation with him;) that Chatham was a national Minister, but not a wise Minister. So far, I am out of your debt. I have given you a...