2601Thomas Jefferson to Henry Dearborn, 14 June 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
So entirely are my habits changed from constant labour at my writing table, to constant & active occupation without doors, that it is with difficulty I can resolve to take up my pen. I must do it however as a matter of duty to thank you for the dumb fish you have been so kind as to have forwarded, & which are recieved safely & are found to be excellent. but I do it with pleasure also as it...
2602Thomas Jefferson to Wilson Cary Nicholas, 13 June 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I did not know, till mr Patterson called on us, a few days ago, that you had passed on to Washington . I had recently observed in the debates of Congress , a matter introduced, on which I wished to give explanations more fully in conversation which I will now do by abridgment in writing. mr Randolph has proposed an enquiry into certain prosecutions at Common law in Connecticut , for libels on...
2603Thomas Jefferson to George Jefferson, 12 June 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
It becomes necessary for me to establish a correspondence somewhere for the supply of my groceries, that is to say, of sugar, coffee & tea and salted fish and I believe Richmond will be more convenient than Baltimore , Philadelphia , & New York , if to be had there on nearly equal terms. but as I know nobody there I must ask the favor of you to select the most eligible correspondent there for...
2604Thomas Jefferson to George Jefferson, 8 June 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of May 30. was duly recieved informing me you had sent by mr Randolph ’s boat 2 boxes lately recieved. these have since come to hand. the one was from Lemaire at Philadelphia , containing oil & syrops. the other was from mr Gelston of N. York and contained 3. doz. bottles of Burgundy wine. I inclose you his letter stating that he had recieved & should forward for me to you two
2605Thomas Jefferson to Philip Tabb, 1 June 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Apr. 7. has been duly recieved, with the copy of that of January. on reading the first paragraph of it respecting the nuts, I was confident I had recieved it, as I had forwarded the nuts on to a friend in Philadelphia . on searching my letter bundles, I accordingly found that of January recieved on the 27 th of that month . yet when Cap t Decatur sent me the Mould board, the part...
2606Thomas Jefferson to Elijah Griffiths, 28 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Nov. 14 . came to me in due time, but much oppressed with business then & to the end of my political term, I put it by as I did the civilities of my other friends till the leisure I expected here should permit me to acknolege them without the neglect of any public duty. I am very sensible of the kindness of the sentiments expressed in your letter, & of the general indulgence with...
2607Thomas Jefferson to William Lambert, 28 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of March 14. was recieved in due time. the apology for so late an acknolegement of it must be the multiplied occupations of my new situation after so long an absence from it. truth requires me to add also that after being so long chained to the writing table, I go to it with reluctance, and listen with partiality to every call from any other quarter. I have not however been the less...
2608Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Dougherty, 27 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of the 15 th I have recieved, and am thankful to you for the information as to the broadtailed ram, & shall be particularly so to D r Thornton if he can spare me one, as I have no chance of getting one in this state. mr Howard was mistaken in supposing I was sending for one. there is no such animal nearer than Washington . will you be so good as to inform me whether the one D r Thornton...
2609Thomas Jefferson to Augustus B. Woodward, 27 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved very thankfully the two copies of your pamphlet on the constitution of the US. and shall certainly read them with pleasure. I had formerly looked with great interest to the experiment which was going on in France of an executive Directory, while that of a single elective executive was under trial here. I thought the issue of them might fairly decide the question between the two...
2610Thomas Jefferson to the Baltimore Tammany Society, 25 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your free & cordial salutations in my retirement, are recieved fellow citizens, with great pleasure, & the happiness of that retirement is much heightened by assurances of satisfaction with the course I have pursued in the transaction of the public affairs, & that the confidence my fellow citizens were pleased to repose in me has not been disappointed. Great sacrifices of interest have...
2611Thomas Jefferson to Wilson Cary Nicholas, 25 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I am sorry to hear of your attack of rheumatism both on your own account & that of the public, & as I think you will have to go on as soon as you are able. I believe that immediately on the pacification with England , a vessel was dispatched to France for the Ultimatum of that government as I presume. Turreau was earnest in giving assurances that Napoleon would revoke his decrees, considering...
2612Thomas Jefferson to John Barnes, 24 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
On reciept of your favor of the 8 th I determined to take the first hour of leisure to make a more scrupulous search through Genl. Kosciuzko ’s papers, for his 8. p r cent certificates ; the belief that you had them, had rendered the first search less particular, which belief your last letter put an end to. entering on it a day or two ago, and unfolding every paper in his bundle, I had at...
2613Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Fitz, 23 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof is mr Isham Lewis , son of Col o Charles L. Lewis of Buckisland , whom you must have known while you resided in this part of the country. he is my nephew, & a young man of excellent dispositions, correct conduct, & good understanding, little aided by education. the shipwreck of the fortunes of his family leaves him without resource but in his own industry, & the defects in...
2614Thomas Jefferson to Seth Pease, 23 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I beg leave to present to your notice the bearer hereof mr Isham Lewis , a nephew of mine who proposes to become a resident of the Missisipi or Orleans territory . you will find him to be of excellent dispositions, correct in his conduct, and of a sound understanding, little aided only by a common education. he wishes to find employment in the business of surveying; and it is to request you to...
2615To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 22 May 1809 (Madison Papers)
It is my duty to write to you on the subject of the Note you were so kind as to endorse for me at the bank of the US. and I do it willingly altho’ painfully. Notwithstanding a fixed determination to take care that at the termination of my duties at Washington my pecuniary matters should at least be square, & my confidence that they would be so, I found, by an estimate made in December last,...
2616Thomas Jefferson to William Brown, 22 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
My new situation & the active occupations to which it has given occasion, must be my apology for this late acknolegement of the reciept of your favor of Oct. 10. informing me you had been so kind as to send me some articles by the schooner Sampson Cap t Smith . the answer was deferred long in expectation of her arrival, and that becoming at length desperate, my removal from Washington , & the...
2617Thomas Jefferson to Philip Freneau, 22 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I subscribe with pleasure to the publication of your volumes of poems. I anticipate the same pleasure from them which the perusal of those heretofore published has given me. I have not been able to circulate the paper because I have not been from home above once or twice since my return, and because in a country situation like mine, little can be done in that way. the inhabitants of the...
2618Thomas Jefferson to Cunningham Harris, 22 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of March 23. requesting some Benni seed, was near a month getting to my hands. the last year I had recieved & distributed portions of the seed to many persons, but the September frost had killed the whole. this year I had got a very small supply of fresh seed, which however was all sown before I recieved your letter. Judge Johnson of your state proposes to cultivate it largely this...
2619Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 22 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
It is my duty to write to you on the subject of the Note you were so kind as to endorse for me at the bank of the US. and I do it willingly altho’ painfully. notwithstanding a fixed determination to take care that at the termination of my duties at Washington my pecuniary matters should at least be square, & my confidence that they would be so, I found, by an estimate made in December last,...
2620Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Ritchie, 22 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his friendly salutations & compliments to mr Ritchie, and observes to him that he has not recieved a single Enquirer since he came home the 15 th of March , which makes him apprehend that some circumstance consequent on his change of residence may have occasioned the failure. he has taken for granted that mr Ritchie would call on his correspondent mr G. Jefferson...
2621Thomas Jefferson to John Wyche, 19 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of March 19. came to hand but a few days ago and informs me of the establishment of the Westward mill library society , of it’s general views & progress. I always hear with pleasure of institutions for the promotion of knolege among my countrymen. the people of every country are the only safe guardians of their own rights, and are the only instruments which can be used for their...
2622Thomas Jefferson to George Jefferson, 18 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
On the subject of the trunk N o 28. I am not without a hope that an interview by yourself with the drayman and Harry , the first time he goes down, may yet discover it’s fate. I am anxious, not so much for the value, tho that was considerable and the assortment of paper particular, as for the instrument (Dynamometer) which it contained, the only one in America , & imported for a particular...
2623Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, André Thoüin, and Bartelémy de Faujas-Saint Fond, 16 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof, mr Robert M. Patterson , is son of mr Robert Patterson , professor of Mathematics in the college of Philadelphia , Director of the mint of the US. & a Vicepresident of the Philosophical society . having gone through his course of studies here he goes to Paris to advance his stock of knolege by the superior aids which that place affords. I have not the pleasure of being...
2624Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 14 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your favor of Apr. 3. with the copy of your General Geography, for which I pray you to accept my thanks. my occupations here have not permitted me to read it through, which alone could justify any judgment expressed on the work. indeed as it appears to be an abridgment of several branches of science, the scale of abridgment must enter into that abridgment judgment....
2625Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, 7 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have a grandson, Tho s J. Randolph , now at Philadelphia , attending the Botanical lectures of Doct r Barton , and who will continue there only until the end of the present course. altho’ I know that your goodness has indulged D r Barton with permission to avail himself of your collection of plants for the purpose of instructing his pupils, yet as my grandson has a peculiar fondness for that...
2626Thomas Jefferson to John M. Perry, 7 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
When I bespoke of you the other day the thousand feet of heart pine plank, cut crosswise in the stock into bars of a full inch or rather inch & eighth, I forgot to desire that the planks might not after sawing, be separated by splitting them asunder at the butt end but that the stock may come entire. perhaps the end should be bound round with a hiccory withe. if the planks are separated, the...
2627Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, 6 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of the 28 th ult. came to hand by our last post. I have consulted your father on the subject of your attending mr Godon’s lectures in mineralogy, and we consent to it so long as the Botanical lectures continue. we neither of us consider that branch of science as sufficiently useful to protract your stay in Philadelphia beyond the termination of the Botanical lectures. in what you say...
2628Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Apr. 3. came to hand on the 23 d of April . I have no doubt that the marked differences between the elephant & our colossal animal entitle him to a distinct appellation. one of those differences, & a striking one, is in the protuberances on the grinding surface of the teeth, somewhat in the shape of the mamma, mastos, or breast of a woman, which has induced Cuvier to call it the...
2629Thomas Jefferson to George Jefferson, 1 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 21 st & 24 th are recieved. the amount of my crop of tob o is much less than I expected. Griffin is a good overseer, but has the fault of never writing to me ; so that I never learn the amount of my crop of tob o till it gets to your hands. he had informed me that the frost had been very fatal to his tob o & as I supposed from his expression, had killed about one third. I now find...
2630Thomas Jefferson to Isham Lewis, 1 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
It is with real concern that I learn the disagreeable situation in which you are for want of emploiment, & the more so as I do not see any way in which I can propose to you any certain relief. as to offices under the government, they are few, are always full, & twenty applicants for one vacancy when it happens. they are miserable also, giving a bare subsistence without the least chance of...
2631Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Moore, 28 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 20 th was recieved two days ago. I distinctly recollect that on your satisfying me that the law for locating & opening the Western road could not be executed by barely the agents named in it, I authorised you to employ others, particularly a packhorseman, with a packhorse & tent, and one or more assistants in the surveying (I do not recollect the number exactly) and that I...
2632To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 27 April 1809 (Madison Papers)
Yours of the 24th. came to hand last night. The correspondence between mr. Smith & mr. Erskine had been recieved three days before. I sincerely congratulate you on the change it has produced in our situation. It is the source of very general joy here, & could it have arrived one month sooner would have had important effects not only on the elections of other states, but of this also, from...
2633Thomas Jefferson to John Barnes, 27 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letters of the 17 th & 18 th were recieved only the last night, having loitered some where a week, altho’ there are 3. days of departure from Washington of the post for Milton every week. that of the 24 th of March covering your account was recieved in due time, but being occupied constantly out of doors from an early breakfast to a late dinner every day, writing, as with other country...
2634Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 27 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 24 th came to hand last night. the correspondence between mr Smith & mr Erskine had been recieved three days before. I sincerely congratulate you on the change it has produced in our situation. it is the source of very general joy here, & could it have arrived one month sooner would have had important effects not only on the elections of other states, but of this also, from which...
2635Thomas Jefferson to John Graham, 25 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
A gentleman of Dumfries of your name, & I think he was your brother , was so kind as to promise me a pair of wild geese, & to say he would take some occasion of sending them to Washington by water. I would now prefer their remaining where they are, as being so much nearer than Washington , & I will send for them as soon as the roads are good. not knowing the Christian name of mr Graham nor...
2636Thomas Jefferson to Étienne Lemaire, 25 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
You were so kind, my good friend, as to offer to execute any little commissions for me in Philadelphia ; and it is certain there will at times be some small articles which I can only get good from there, and so well chosen by nobody as yourself. I trouble you at present to send me a box of good sallad oil, and some Vanilla. the Vanilla may come by post, but the oil must be addressed to Mess rs...
2637To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1809 (Madison Papers)
I have to acknolege your favor of the 9th. and to thank you for the political information it contained. Reading the newspapers but little & that little but as the romance of the day, a word of truth now & then comes like the drop of water on the tongue of Dives. If the British ministry are changing their policy towards us, it is because their nation, or rather the city of London which is the...
2638Thomas Jefferson to George Jefferson, 19 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
The articles sent by mr Randolph’s boats are arrived safe, except a trunk N o 28. your note by the boatmen mentions 4. trunks. they brought only 3. & suppose they recieved no more, which I presume is the fact as the contents could not be useful to them or e easily disposed of. the contents were almost entirely stationary, with a mathematical machine & some odd things intermixed. it has...
2639Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 19 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege your favor of the 9 th and to thank you for the political information it contained. reading the newspapers but little & that little but as the romance of the day, a word of truth now & then comes like the drop of water on the tongue of Dives . if the British ministry are changing their policy towards us, it is because their nation, or rather the city of London which is the...
2640Enclosure: Deed of John Freeman’s Indenture to James Madison, 19 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I hereby assign & convey to James Madison President of the Uni ted States the within named servant , John , otherwise called John Freeman during the remaining term of his service from the 11 th day of March last past when he was delivered to the said James for the consideration of two hundred and thirty one Dollars 81. cents . Witness m y hand
2641Thomas Jefferson to Eli Alexander, 17 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Being much pressed by mr Higginbotham for a debt I owe him, and towards the discharge of which I promised him my rents, I paid over to him immediately the 200. D. you paid me the other day, & must sollicit the paiment of the balance of rent due since the 1 st day of December last . this I trust the sale of your crop of wheat will have enabled you to do, and that the request will be deemed...
2642Thomas Jefferson to Isaac Shoemaker, 17 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
A little before I went to Washington in September last, you promised to accept & pay my order in favor of mr Higginbotham for 500. D. on account of rent of the mill for the year 1807–8. he has lately returned me the order on which he sais nothing has been paid. I must therefore request the paiment of that sum to him or myself without further delay, and to express a hope that the rent for the 2...
2643Thomas Jefferson to Samuel DeButts, 15 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Mar. 24. has been duly recieved, and finds me disposed to render you any service within the line of propriety or right. my connection by blood gives me a certain claim on the affections of mr S. Carr , but none at all over his actions or proceedings with others: and no one, more unwillingly than myself, intermeddles with the affairs of others. mr Carr ’s known integrity will...
2644Thomas Jefferson to Larkin Smith, 15 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your very friendly letter of Mar. 28. and am extremely sensible to the kind spirit it breathes. to be praised by those who themselves deserve all praise, is a gratification of high order. their approbation, who, having been high in the office themselves, have information & talents to guide their judgment, is a consolation deeply felt felt . a conscientious devotion to...
2645Thomas Jefferson to the Albemarle Buckmountain Baptist Church, 13 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you, my friends & neighbors, for your kind congratulations on my return to my native home, & on the opportunities it will give me of enjoying, amidst your affections the comforts of retirement & rest. your approbation of my conduct is the more valued as you have best known me, & is an ample reward for any services I may have rendered. we have acted together from the origin to the end...
2646Thomas Jefferson to Jonathan Law, 13 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved on the 6 th inst. your favor covering the resolutions of the General meeting of the republicans of the state of Connecticut who had been convened at Hartford : and I see with pleasure the spirit they breathe. they express with truth the wrongs we have sustained, the forbearance we have exercised, & the duty of rallying round the constituted authorities, for the protection of our...
2647Thomas Jefferson to Republicans of Queen Annes County, Maryland, 13 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved, fellow citizens, your farewell address with those sentiments of respect and satisfaction which it’s very friendly terms are calculated to inspire. with the consciousness of having endeavored to serve my fellow citizens according to their best interests, these testimonies of their good will are the sole & highest remuneration my heart has ever desired. I am sensible of the...
2648Thomas Jefferson to the New York State Legislature, 12 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve with respect & gratitude, from the legislature of New York , on my retirement from the office of Chief magistrate of the United States , the assurances of their esteem, & of their satisfaction with the services I have endeavored to render. the welfare of my fellow citizens, & the perpetuation of our republican institutions having been the governing principles of my public life, the...
2649Thomas Jefferson to James Jay, 7 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Feb. 27. came to hand on the 3 d of March . the occupations of the moment & of those which have followed must be my apology for this late acknolegement. the plan of civilising the Indians is undoubtedly a great improvement on the antient & totally ineffectual one of beginning with religious missionaries. our experience has shewn that this must be the last step of the process. the...
2650Thomas Jefferson to Jonathan Shoemaker, 6 April 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
It is with great regret that I write you a letter which I am sure must give you pain, but your interest as well as my own makes it my duty, & yours is still more urgent than mine. I have little doubt that your sons write you flattering accounts of their proceedings & prospects at the Shadwell mills , & it is possible they may flatter themselves with retrieving their affairs, but however I...