1To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 30 May 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
D r Waterhouse having long had “ a concern of mind “ to visit the shrine of S t James and S t Thomas, is come this far on his pilgrimage; and wishes only to know if this be the proper time to pay his devotions? DLC : Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
2To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 29 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Habituated as I have long been to consider your judgement as infallible, I have not found it exactly so on the subject of our two last letters. When I wrote to you on that subject of the heart, I had come to a fixed resolution of following the advice of my family & friends. I have penetrated their thoughts, & have discovered their opinion which taken collectively amounts to this— we censure...
3To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 3 July 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
In reflecting on my late journey south, I found one omission to regret, and especially as I remember you seemed to urge it—I mean my declining the invitation of M r Monroe—and I have accordingly explained it in a letter to him thus— It was spoken of at the Presidential house, in Washington (at my intimation) that I should go to the examination at West Point; on the high probability that M r...
4To James Madison from Benjamin Waterhouse, 12 December 1822 (Madison Papers)
I have just read in one of the Boston News-papers, a paragraph to this effect—that through the agency of the late President Madison, a Professorship of Agriculture was about to be established in the University in Virginia. It directly occurred to me to send you some publications of mine on that highly important subject. By the “Heads of Lectures,” and by the “ Botanist ,” you can see how far...
5Benjamin Waterhouse to James Madison, 14 February 1829 (Madison Papers)
Here send for your acceptance a production of early life, being my inaugural oration, when inducted into the office of Profr. of the Theory & Practice of Physic in this University, nearly half a century since. On recollecting the labour & study it cost me, at that time, I have spared it from the flames with a few other papers. I have no hesitation in saying, that if it be not classical, it has...
6To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 11 February 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I, in some measure, regret that you have no spare niche for the Rev d M r Bertrum, yet I should be loathe to part with such a learned neighbour. He has since, expressed a wish to enter the service of the Rhode Island College, at Providence, but I do not encourage it, for there he would be “Condemn’d to trudge, “Without an equal, and without a judge.” It would be almost as bad at Dartmouth...
7Benjamin Waterhouse to James Madison, 20 February 1834 (Madison Papers)
I noticed not long since in the Newspapers, that the venerable Mr Madison was elected President of the Temperance Society . I thought that your advanced age & sound mind happily justified their choice. I herewith send you the 5th. edition of a Lecture I gave on that subject nearly thirty years ago. It may amuse you and Mrs Madison. You will see that it is leveled principally against the...
8To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 26 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
Hearing that your rheumatism was no better, I hasten to say that instead of the Volatile Tincture of Guaicum , I would advise you to apply the flesh–brush, or that coarse cloth which the Russians call Krash to the limb that is affected and to the region of the hip & loins, begining at the leg & so rubbing upwards. This should be done by some prudent man, who will be carefull not to rub off the...
9Benjamin Waterhouse to James Madison, 9 May 1831 (Madison Papers)
Considering you the head of the University in your State, I send for its Library a volume I have just published. But before you deposit it, I hope you will find time and inclination to examine this child of my old age, to see if it be fit to enter it. After long gestation it has been brought forth with pains and labour, which Junius says in his celebrated Letter to the King increases maternal...
10To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 13 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
I cannot sufficiently thank you for the fresh instance of your friendship in writting to Prest. Monroe in my behalf. If it may not effect the expressed object, it cannot but have a good operation. My worthy friend Dr John Jebb adopted the favourite motto of the immortal Milton viz—“ No effort is lost .” General Miller Govr. of Arkansaw, called upon me last week, direct from Washington, and...
11Benjamin Waterhouse to James Madison, 17 September 1834 (Madison Papers)
Ever since certain evil minded persons entered the Navy-yard at Charlestown, and beheaded the full-length figure of President Jackson fixed on the stem of the renowned Ship Constitution, riot & midnight misrule had become in a measure epidemic. A Roman Catholic Convent or Nunnery, a spacious establishment, in the neighborhood of Bunker-hill, within cannon-shot of the centre of Boston, was...
12To James Madison from Benjamin Waterhouse, 9 June 1822 (Madison Papers)
I here send for your acceptance a copy from a new edition of my Lecture on the pernicious effects of the too free use of Tobacco & ardent spirits on young persons. How you in the South will approve my zeal in combatting this organ of “Virginia influence,” I know not. I have felt a degree of regret as often as I reflected on the sums annually expended amongst ourselves for that which is neither...
13To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 2 July 1821 (Adams Papers)
I hate the idea of teazing men in high office with letters of individual import, when they are necessarily occupied with generals; but when speaking of my labours in vaccination, and of the point of view in which it was considered by President Jefferson & Madison, it did not occur to me to send you a summary of that business which was extracted from my Treatise on Exterminating the “Smallpox”...
14Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 8 July 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 26 th of June I have read again & again, with renewed satisfaction ; and believe with you that “there is not a young man now living in the U. S. who will not die an Unitarian.” Yet must the young be enlightened, and the Platonizing christians counteracted; and I have seen nothing so likely to do so much good in the process as your letter, if you will allow me to give it...
15To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 13 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
I received your letter with pleasure, and read it with high satisfaction. You have paid the highest compliment on the President’s Message or rather, Elogium, that I have yet seen, or have ever heard of—Our proud federalists however are displeased & mortified that he did not tell the whole world, how grand, how rich, how powerful, how gifted & how virtuous they in Boston are above all other...
16To James Madison from Benjamin Waterhouse, 30 June 1825 (Madison Papers)
Having reached home but a few days since, I seize the first day of leisure to express to you, and your good Lady my grateful acknowledgements for your polite attention, while sojourning in your hospitable mansion, where I experienced what I had often heard from the voice of fame. After passing about a week at Washington, principally with my greatly esteemed, & highly venerated friend, I left...
17To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 February 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
To read every letter sent to you must be no small task; but to read every book which vanity may transmit would be inflicting an honour upon you, enough, almost, to make a man wish he had never learnt to read. Here, e.g. you have one on the childish subject of whooping-cough ; the title of which is sufficient to make most men, not of the profession, turn from my “ essay ,” as from a dose of...
18Benjamin Waterhouse to James Madison, 30 May 1833 (Madison Papers)
It was a saying of one of the wise men of antiquity that a Great Book was a Great Evil ; thereby implying that a little book might be a good thing. Under this hope I here send for your amusement a little book ; which I made for a youth who sat out with about twenty others, older than himself, to go to the Pacific Ocean by land , by the way of the Rocky mountains; and absolutely proceeded to...
19To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 24 December 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
The Rev. Joseph P. Bertrum, an Englishman of the established church, has an inclination to become a Professor in the University which you have taken so much pains to found & rear; and solicits me to communicate his wish to you. He is a son of Oxford, & I conclude a close, and successful student. I believe we have no one in this place equal to him in Greek: I am satisfied there is none in...
20Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 20 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
A man occupying so large a space in the world’s estimation as M r Jefferson , must expect to have his retirement, now & then, broken in upon by the humble & the ignorant, seeking knowledge. I have just finished reading M r Wirt ’s “sketch of the life and character of Patrick Henry ,” and having some doubts relative to an important fact, I cannot resist the inclination of writing to you on the...
21To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 22 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Accept my most cordial thanks for your truly friendly epistle. I loose not a moment in answering your interesting query. The Lady in question is, I conceive legally divorced. Her quondam husband is now in the jail of New York, for the third or fourth time; a mere vagabone. They were divorced in 1810, by the Supreme Court of Vermont. The Lady & her father, with the aid of Judge Dawes were...
22To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 30 November 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Bearing in mind your lame wrist, and that you are a dozen years older than myself, & that you have hundreds, who, in the course of the year, inflict upon you the honor of their correspondence , in expectation of a reply, I here avow, at the begining, that what I now write is rather with a view to your amusement & gratification, than with the expectation of an answer. Not but that I set the...
23To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 4 July 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I seize the first leisure time since my return (for I tarried more than a week in New York with my Daughter) to express to you my thanks for your polite attention when on your pleasant mountain. It enlarged my view of things in more senses than one. It has also gratified an old Pilgrim in the fulfilment of his vow. A thousand questions are asked concerning you, and your noble offspring in your...
24To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 4 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
Your letter justifying & glorifying the character of Junius Brutus is the most masterly apology for that prodigy of patriotism & integrity I ever read. I have read it so often that I have it by heart. I wish all my crude political notions had met with such corrections.— My letters to you of late, have been the productions of an easy &, as you suggested, a happy mind; but this one is not of...
25To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Waterhouse, 22 October 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I rejoice, and so will you, that I am enabled to inform you that our aged friend M r Adams has recovered, remarkably, from that sunken state of debility, which appeared to indicate his dissolution last November, & the following winter. He cannot, besure, walk without help, nor see objects distinctly, neither can he feed himself; but he sleeps well & wakes refreshed, & eats very hearty. From a...
26Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 8 June 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I here send for your acceptance a copy from my last edition of the Lecture on the pernicious effects of Tobacco , and of the other strand in the same cord, ardent spirits , on young subjects . You may notice in the introduction to this American edition, that I have had recourse to great names, in order to magnify my apostleship. D r De Carro in Vienna , informed me that he found some...
27To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 29 April 1821 (Adams Papers)
Putting off writing is like postnoing a visit,—if you let it alone too long you know not how to begin it. As you retired from the convention indisposed, I was not inclined to obtrude a letter on a sick man who had rather enjoy his own thoughts, than read the whimsical, wild, or Stupid notions of another. It is more than probable I had another reason, nay I am sure I had, lest it Should Seem to...
28Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 15 January 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Although answering of letters may have become an irksome task, the reading them may sometimes be an amusement. This idea has induced me to send you this. It has reference to future history, and has had its origin in the following occurrence: M r Trumbull exhibited, a few weeks since, his national painting of “ the Declaration of Independence ” in the Town-hall of Boston . The picture has not...
29Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson, 14 September 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I read your letter of the 19 th July with pleasure, and though at first disappointed, I cannot wonder at your reluctance to its publication seeing, as I find by your letter, that our brethren in the South are yet slumbering from the opiates of past ages. As times change how some sort of men change with them! Less than 20 years ago, those who governed this our University quarrelled with me, &...