1To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 6 April 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
I reached this late last evening & fell over one of the banks and got much injured in several parts of my frame, insomuch that I can scarcely write. I have just seen my brother, who has received a reply from M r Wirt, from which it appears conclusively that he would not accept the law chair. M r Lomax therefore is the Professor, & the system will remain as you desired. Privately owned.
2To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 20 February 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
On the next page you will find the vote of the Senate on the passage of your bill. Of the four senators who voted against it, two were carried off by their aversion to Lotteries. The Bill was committed at 12. I asked leave for the committee to sit during the session of the house. We reported at 1— & passed the Bill instanter. If the House of Delegates had not adjourned on account of the death...
3To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 18 February 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
You have no doubt already been informed of the arrival of the three additional Professors at this place. I have had a short interview, and am much pleased with them. M r Gilmer’s selection thus far gives me great satisfaction. M r Johnson, M r Loyall and myself, in conformity to your instructions, have fixed on a day for a meeting of the Board, and for that purpose have selected the fourth of...
4To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 21 December 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Since the date of my last I have been enabled to settle my opinions as to the course which we ought to pursue. My views have undergone a material change. On my first arrival here I was assailed by old & powerful friends of the University, with all the weapons of reason & persuasion: and wishing to avoid the appearance of illiberality I for a short time contemplated a compromise, and proposed...
5To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 26 January 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you sincerely for your three letters of 19 th 22 d & 23 d ins t all of which I have shewn to our friends in the senate. The University Bill is now before the Senate & will be acted on in a day or two. I confess I differ with you as to its importance & character. We do not here care in the least for the Proviso giving to the Gen l Assembly the power of revocation. You know the...
6To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 16 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you sincerely for your favor of 11. inst. I have but little time now to answer you. I am sorry to inform you that the party in favor of the removal of the College have gained ground very much since the date of my last: insomuch that I now have the greatest apprehensions of their success. The combined intrigues of Richmond and the federal party seem too strong for the country. The...
7To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 21 February 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
In adverting in a late letter to M r Gilmer’s determination not to accept the Law–Chair, I requested you to make inquiries relative to Gen l Tucker, of whose Lectures at Winchester I had received so favorable an account as to induce me to think he would be a suitable and popular appointment. It is incumbent on me now to withdraw the suggestion, as Judge Tucker to whom I wrote on the subject,...
8To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 26 February 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
The Legislature being on the eve of adjournment, & all the business of my district, & indeed of the state in general, being compleated, or so nearly so, as to admit of my departure, I left town on the 23 d inst & arrived here on the evening of the same day. During the latter part of the session we provided by law that visitors of the University should not lose their seats by the mere fact of...
9To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 28 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of 22 d covering your bill is received, & I beg you to accept my most heartfelt thanks. I have held a conference on it with some of our friends, and I think it will be a powerful instrument in our hands. Our friends in the other house were committed to the Williamsburg party to vote in the first instance , for the postponement. Then they will be free. If that question should not be...
10To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 29 December 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I reached this on 2 6 th ins t & have got into lodgings, and am entering into communications with our friends on the subject of the University. Col: Randolph has probably shewn you the enclosed documents, but least he may have forgotten them, I send you the enclosed copies. I fear this Bill is all we can get. Hearing that the surplus was ample, I did till to-day eulogize our friends on the...
11To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 19 February 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I received in due time by the mail your favor of the 3 d ins t I have not written in reply, because I have been absorbed in the discharge of my duties at this place. From the first moment I heard of the bill to recharter the Farmer’s Bank, I fixed upon it as furnishing a good opportunity to provide the fifty thousand dollars for our Library & Apparatus. I mentioned my views to M r Garrett when...
12To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 19 August 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of 4 th ins t reached me by the mail of last week. Shortly after it came to hand I was called to Bremo on business, where I authorised Gen l Cocke, if he should reach Monticello before my regular written reply, to inform you that I should vote for the immediate appointment of M r Gilmer, as the Professor of Law. I am confident he would be appointed at the meeting in October, and the...
13To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 8 April 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
This will be delivered to you by my servant Archer, who comes down with the Horse you were so good as to lend me. I took the liberty to keep him longer than I promised, because on getting to Col. John Cole’s, I found both himself & his brother Tucker, together with their families, were setting out to see Lady Skipwith, & all their riding Horses, seemed to be in requisition. I shall remain at...
14To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 3 February 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I have taken the liberty in my publication under the signature of “ A friend of Science ” in the Constitutional Whig of Tuesday, more correctly printed in the Enquirer of to day, to give to the public your letter to me from Poplar Forest in the year 1817, and in doing so, I hope I have taken no improper liberty. I saw the gathering necessity of setting up the Colleges ag t the Richmond party,...
15To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 15 February 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
The publication of the Extract from your last letter to me was made with the approbation of Judge Carr and I hope will not be disagreeable to you, as I am sure it will produce a very good effect. The Lottery Bill was not taken up to-day. It has gained ground for some days past, & I have no doubt will pass, but not without a large minority. We have a wayward house to deal with, but I hope you...
16To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 3 February 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for your favor of 28 th ult: and feel much gratified that you approve the view which I took of the subject of the primary schools. I am very much pleased at your suggestion of a method by which a meeting of our board may be deferred till the regular period in the month of April. It would be very inconvenient for me to attend an intermediate meeting, and the method you suggest will...
17To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 5 February 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I have now the satisfaction to enclose you a copy of the Act concerning the University, which has this moment passed the Senate, and is now the Law of the Land. The vote on the passage of the Bill in the House of Delegates was 121–to 66. The vote in the Senate was 19 to 3. I hereby give my assent to the Loan authorized by this act. I shall get M r Johnson and M r Loyall to write you to the...
18From Joseph Carrington Cabell to John Hartwell Cocke, 4 July 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
Archer carried my mare down to M r Strange’s to-day, and will get to Bremo to-night on his way home. I have taken the liberty to desire M r Strange whom I saw yesterday to send the mare over to Bremo when he thinks it will be proper to do so , and I will send down for her as soon as you will be good enough to inform me of it, when I hope you will do when she gets to Bremo. I believe M r...
19To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 6 May 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of April 15th reached me on yesterday at this place. It had gone on to Warminster when I last had the pleasure of seeing you at Monticello, and was forwarded thence by the mail to Norfolk. I cannot perceive any good ground of objection to the purchase of M r Perry’s land, in the manner you propose. On the contrary, I give to the measure my most hearty approbation. I am very...
20To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 13 June 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of 16 ult. covering M r Madison’s letter to you of the 20 th was handed to me by Capt Peyton in Richmond in the latter part of the month. I have heretofore declined writing in reply, because I have entertained the hope of visiting you as desired, in which event a written answer would be unnecessary. Nothing, I assure you, could have been more agreeable to M rs Cabell & myself than...
21To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 16 April 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 9 th ins t was delivered to me by my servant on the 11 th I deferred writing till now because I thought my answer would not reach you as soon by the mail from Warminster, as by that from Columbia, which place I shall pass in a few hours from this time on my journey to the lower country. I was very much pleased at the limitation of the foreign professors to a moiety of the...
22To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 18 July 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I return you many thanks for your favor of 4 th ins t covering your plan of a Jail. Reports of your being indisposed had induced me to repent that I had written to you, & to resign the expectation of hearing from you. I wished to fulfil in the best manner practicable the promise I had made to the Court. I therefore wrote to M r Peck with whom I was acquainted, inviting himself & his partner M...
23To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 29 January 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I have now the gratification to enclose you by our friend M r Garrett a copy of the University act of the present session. It passed the Senate unanimously. Attempts were made to amend it: but we were determined to pass the bill as it came to us; because our friends in the other House warned us of the imminent danger of its return. I was ill in bed when the proviso to which you so much object...
24To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 7 February 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I am happy to inform you that our efforts have eventuated in success, and that the College party have been defeated in the House of Delegates by a majority of 24. You need not give yourself any further trouble on this subject. Our friends & myself concur in thinking that it would be improper to bring in the bill for dividing the funds of the College. The public mind is not prepared for so bold...
25To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 3 October 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Gen l Cocke will inform you that the cause of my failure to attend at the University on yesterday, was that I had not sufficiently recovered from the severe & tedious illness by which I have been unhappily visited. My convalescence is much slower than I expected, and is further prolonged by successive relapses. Some days past, I was taken with the ague & fever, which often follows in the rear...
26To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 11 February 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter of this morning, I forgot to mention that I had sent you by the mail an extra Copy of the Documents relative to our interest claim transmitted by the Governor to the Assembly at the commencement of the session. M r Loyall strongly recommends that you should send these documents to M r Tazewell with a note of request that he would pay particular attention to the subject. It is now...
27To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 25 May 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I arrived at this place yesterday, on my return from Lancaster and have to-day had an interview with M r Loyall, in the course of which he shewed me the copy which he had received of your circular of the 13th ins t relative to the nomination of Judge Dade as Professor of law in the University. Considering it unnecessary to defer writing till my return home some two or three weeks hence, and...
28To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 30 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been greatly relieved by finding from a Norfolk paper that the Ship Competitor was at Plymouth on the 5 th Dec.—I had given them up as lost in the gale of the last of October, & myself almost to despair. I now hope all is safe.—I think there is a majority for moving the College: but I am confident the plan of splitting up the funds will succeed, if the opposite party should not be able...
29To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 19 December 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I reached this place on the 17 th ins t and write now merely to apprize you of my arrival. I returned to Williamsburg from the Northern Neck on the 6 th ins t and immediately wrote to a friend in this place to ascertain whether the usual recess of the Senate would take place. I counted on a recess as a matter of course, & was willing to avail myself of it, in order that I might enjoy some rest...
30To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 3 December 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
By the aid of my valuable friend Col: Boyd of the county of King & Queen I have been enabled to finish my business in the northern neck, and to return to this place on the 2 d of this month. I took my seat in the Senate to-day. Finding that my private affairs could be so speedily adjusted, I returned hastily over stormy rivers, and frozen roads, to rejoin the band of stedfast patriots engaged...
31To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 7 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
This will be presented to you by our friend Gen l Cocke, whom I am truly sorry not to accompany on his journey to Monticello. My brother in Law, Docter Carter, having departed this life on 30th ult: leaving his affairs in a very embarrassed situation, it becomes necessary for some one of his surviving friends to attend at Lancaster Court on the 3 d monday in this month to qualify as his...
32To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 9 January 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you very sincerely for your letter of 28 Dec: and am mortified at the circumstance of my having been the cause of so much trouble to you. I am happy to inform you that our prospects are now very favourable. Every thing is understood, every thing is arranged. Our bill will be introduced in the Committee of Schools & Colleges in a day a two. We ought to have had a select Committee to get...
33To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 27 October 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I herewith return you M r Coffey’s work on the state Prison of New York, with my best thanks for the use of it. I will take the liberty to retain Roscoe’s work a little longer as I have been so much engaged in my brother’s affairs of late as to have been unable to read it. I am sorry to inform you that I am unable to find the Oxford & Cambridge Guides any where about my House, & that I know...
34To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 3 February 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
Your intended application to the Legislature has excited much discussion in private circles in Richmond. Your Grandson will doubtless give you a full account of passing occurrences. A second conference was held at M r Baker’s last evening, at which were four of the Judges of the Court of Appeals, & several members of the Legislature. Finding considerable opposition in some of your political...
35To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 22 November 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I arrived at this place on yesterday and to-day shall proceed on my journey to the county of Lancaster, but from my detention in Nelson in consequence of my late purchase it will probably be out of my power to get back to the meeting of the Assembly. Indeed, I fear I shall be compelled to be absent nearly all the month of December, as I shall probably have to return to Nelson. As Gen l...
36To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 8 February 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of 4th ins t has arrived, and has been read with the greatest interest by myself & the friends to whom I have shewn it. M r Garland’s scheme of 24 Colleges in my view is pregnant with mischief. The only way to defeat it, is to present to the house a better plan in lieu of it. My mind has been on the wing for some days, and a view of this most important subject has occurred to me,...
37To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 1 April 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
My plan was to leave the City to-day, so as to get to Monticello on saturday. But finding I cannot reach the point I desired in time to do so, I must now defer my departure till saturday or sunday, when I expect to set out on my return, and taking the monday’s stage from Fredericksburg, arrive at Monticello on tuesday. Should I not come myself, you may expect to receive a letter from me. But...
38To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 7 March 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I presume you have already been informed by Col: Randolph of the result of our long continued struggles for the Bonus of the Farmer’s Bank. We have been compelled to relinquish it to the Improvement Fund, and to accept an equivalent out of the Balance of the debt due from the General Government. Never have I known so obstinate a struggle between the two Houses of Assembly. M r Johnson has...
39To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 11 February 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of 3 d ins t has been duly received, and your requests attended to. Both the letter and the enclosed resolutions have been shewn to M r Loyall, and to him alone. He will unite in supporting the resolution relative to the text books on government. It would be very agreeable to us to know the time of our next meeting; but I suppose it is impossible to place it on a footing of greater...
40To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 6 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed letter from M r Tucker in reply to mine of which you have a copy, I send for the purusal of yourself & M r Madison alone. I can see no objection to its communication thus far, altho’ I expect M r Tucker wrote it with an expectation that it would not go beyond me. I expected he would hesitate about accepting a situation which would cut him off from all prospect of future promotion....
41To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 20 March 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
I have got thus far on my way home & to the meeting of the Visitors, with the further view of returning afterwards on business to the lower country, & of coming up again with my family early in May. Events crouded so rapidly in the latter part of the session as to deprive me of the power of writing you an account of our proceedings on the subject of the College Bill. I will now give you a...
42To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 6 August 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
On sunday evening preceding our last Court, I rode up to Lovingston to meet the undertakers from the University, & to select a suitable site for our new Jail. I found there M r Corby from Staunton, & M r Phillips, M r Perry, & M r Crawford from the University. During that evening & the next morning, I marked out the site; with enclosures taking in our old Jail as a suitable House & kitchen for...
43To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 5 May 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
A scheme is in now in agitation at this place the object of which is to remove the college of William and Mary to the city of Richmond. All the Professors of the college, except the Professor of Law, are decidedly in favor of it. Chancellor Brown, & others, of the Board of Visitors, will give it their support. What number of the Visitors will come into it I am not informed; but the friends of...
44To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 23 December 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Gordon & M r Rives left this for Albemarle on yesterday and will not probably return for eight or ten days. The latter went for his family, & the former to visit M rs Gordon in her distress for the loss of a child. I am very sorry that they were obliged to leave town, as we want the aid of all our friends at this time. M r Gordon shewed me on saturday, a letter which he had just received...
45To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 17 December 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I reached this place on the 12 th ins t and have employed the interval in taking lodgings & in occasional conferences on the interests of my district & of the state. My delay in getting to town was owing to the failure of an overseer to come to one of my farms at the time I expected him, & partly to the desire of M rs Tucker to prolong her stay in the mountain air. I wished and intended to...
46To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 31 December 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Your two letters of 22 d ins t one of them covering the Report from Rockfish Gap, have safely arrived, & both of them have received my most attentive consideration. Your private letter has been seen, and will be seen, only by myself. On 29 th ins t I wrote M r George Tucker a letter in conformity to your desire, of which the enclosed is a copy. After the most attentive perusal of the other...
47To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 24 March 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I have had the pleasure of receiving your favor of 12 th ins t I am at all times disposed favorably to every thing which you think best for the University and make no doubt but that on this occasion you have pursued the course best calculated to promote its interests. I certainly intend to leave this on thursday the 27 th ins t and after making a visit to my farm in Nelson, to come to...
48To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 30 December 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I am happy to inform you that M r Gordon & M r Rives arrived in town last evening, & have attended the House to-day. M r Gordon called on me this morning, when I disclosed to him, what I had done in his absence, and my present views & prospects. I have conferred with M r Hunter, M r Carey, M r Bowyer, M r Taylor of Botetourt, M r Baldwin, & c and the almost unanimous opinion of us all, is,...
49To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 23 January 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of 13 th ins t came safely to hand by the mail. I have shewn it to m r Gordon & M r Rives. My own impression is that in touching the subject of the unliquidated debt, we should merely guard against future unfavorable imputations, by stating that it might and probably would exceed the conjectural amount mentioned in your letter, and that when you wrote, the settlement was in a...
50To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Carrington Cabell, 17 March 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
On the 21 st inst I shall take passage in the steam boat for the city of Washington. My stay there will be short, but I will endeavor to collect & bring you all the information I can obtain relative to the claim of the University. You are the best judge of the measures proper to ensure the recovery of this just debt: but I beg leave to urge the importance of letters addressed by yourself & M r...