251James Madison: Answer to Bill of Complaint of Charles Edmonston, 31 December 1828 (Madison Papers)
The Answer of James Madison of Orange County Virginia, to the Bill of Complaint of Charles Edmonston against him & others, in the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, for the County of Washington, on the Chancery Side. This Respondent, now and at all times, reserving to himself all & all manner of right, advantage, & benefit of plea, demurrer or exception to the errors, inaccuracies &...
252From Thomas Jefferson to John Henri Isaac Browere, 6 June 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
The subject of your letter of May 20. has attracted more notice certainly than it merited. that the opern to which it refers, was painful to a certain degree I admit, but it was shor-tlived, and there would have ended as to myself. my age and the state of my health at that time gave an alarm to my family which I neither felt nor expressed. what may have been said in newspapers I know not,...
253Mathew Carey & Sons to Thomas Jefferson, 30 June 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
An apology is due for the delay of an answer to your favour of the 19 th inst. (post marked 23 d ) covering ten Dollars, which was rec d on the 26 th — The new American Edition of Sinclair’s code is not yet, we believe, published. At all events, we have not rec d any information of its appearance. As soon as it appears, it shall be forwarded. Baxter ’s history cannot be procured.
254Alexander Keech to Thomas Jefferson, 12 January 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been solicited by several Gentlemen of considerable influence and standing in this section of Maryland , to solicit information relative to “the University of Virginia .” I have therefore, taken the freedom to request of you, information as to the time, when it is probable, the u University will go into operation , the nature of its government , who have or will be selected as...
255From John Adams to Charles G. Haines, 23 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honour to write me on the 18th. I have not yet received your pamphlet but doubt not it is on its way. The great western Canal does honour to the state of N. York and her govenor I sincerely wish & fully believe that the success will equal the grandeur of the conception. Accept my thanks for the Pamphlet though not yet / received & for the politeness of...
256From James Madison to Horace Holley, 20 February 1827 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison presents his respects to Mr. Holley, and encloses a few lines as requested, to Mr. Gallatin. He has no acquaintance in Paris with whom he could take such a liberty, excepting those to whom Mr. Holley is personally known. RC ( KyLxT : Horace Holley Papers); draft ( DLC ). RC addressed and franked by JM to Holley at Lexington, Kentucky, “via City of Washington”; docketed by Holley. JM...
257Arthur S. Brockenbrough to Thomas Jefferson, 5 July 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your two letters p r the last mail is this moment rec d (5 OClock P.M) the one enclosing a Df t on the President of the literary fund for eight hundred and forty dollars shall be attended as soon as possible, I should have been with you ’ere this but for the hope and expectation of the arrival of M r Ware and his hands, at any rate I shall be with you by the 8 th RC
258To James Madison from Jonathan Russell, 18 October 1819 (Madison Papers)
My particular friend, Samuel Eddy Esquire, who has recently been chosen a representative from Rhode Island to Congress, has requested of me a letter of recommendation to you for Mr. Bernon Helme of that state. He informs me that this young gentleman graduated at Brown University the present year & that Doctor Messer, the President of that University, declares “that he possesses an amiable...
259Alexander Duke to James Madison, 9 May 1832 (Madison Papers)
When I shall have enumerated the many, and concurring motives, which have induced me to obtrude myself, thus uncerimoniously on your notice, I hope I shall escape the censure of presumption, and be pardoned the act. I will give you my history, as laconically, as possible; I am the son of an old Revolutionary Soldier, who expended almost the whole of his slender fortune in the education of his...
260To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 16 September 1821 (Madison Papers)
I have no doubt you have occasionally been led to reflect on the character of the duty imposed by Congress on the importation of books. Some few years ago, when the tariff was before Congress, I engaged some of our members of Congress to endeavor to get the duty repealed, and wrote on the subject to some other acquaintances in Congress, and pressingly to the Secretary of the treasury. The...
261William Peck to Thomas Jefferson, 10 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Permit a plain stranger to thank you sincerely for lending your name in countenance of the Massachusetts Peace Society . Those men opposed your election to the presidency, I hope from good motives, tho: I thought they did wrong, especially in representing you as an enemy to the Christian Religion. They are now engaged in a work I ardently approbate, and sincerely rejoice to find “the sage of...
262James Madison to the Visitors of the University of Virginia, 9 July 1829 (Madison Papers)
It is with much concern that I find myself agn. detained by the infirm State of my health from the duty of being in my place at a Meeting of the Visitors. I had not been without hopes, that the obstacle wd. have been removed, but the remains of a bilious indisposition, with the feebleness produced by it, do not permit my wishes on the occasion. I can only therefore assure my Collegues, that no...
263To John Adams from Alexander Coffin, 15 May 1824 (Adams Papers)
Will you Oblidge me, so far as to inform me, the Names of the Seventeen Members of the House of representatives of Massachusets, who rescinded their Notes By direction or rather a ‘Mandate, (if I am correct,) of Governer Hutcheson’—and what year that was in, and on what Occasion those resolutions had been Passed, that he the Sd Govener was so anxious Should be rescinded—was it not on account...
264From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 5 March 1822 (Adams Papers)
Did you send me a pritty address of the President of Columbia College, which I received this Morning. Who is this Revnd. Dr William Staughton, is he a native American, or a foreigner, was he Educated in Rhode Island College, Is he a Baptist, or of what denomination; he appears to me an amiable Man and a good scholar.—He says that Man on his enterance on existence, is unconscious of danger and...
265Thomas Eston Randolph to Thomas Jefferson, 26 September 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I take the liberty to enclose your acct: made up to the 22 nd of the present month—it is rather a sketch of an account—as the two charges of N H Lewis —and Alfred Wren for plank, cannot be ascertain’d exactly for want of their accounts—I believe however they are undercharg’d— a large portion of th e midlings had been charg’d in the Mill books to Dan l Colclaser , who had exchang’d with M r Bacon
266From James Madison to Asher Robbins, August 1827 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison presents his respects to Mr. Robbins with many thanks for the copy of his oration delivered on the 4th. of July last. Less can not be said of it, than that it has taken very interesting views of well chosen topics, and given an instructive example of condensed and vigorous eloquence. Draft ( NjP : Jasper E. Crane Collection of James and Dolley Madison). Asher Robbins, Oration,...
267Thomas Jefferson to John H. Cocke, 19 February 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Successive circumstances too long to be detailed in a letter, have prevented me hitherto for p from proposing a meeting of the Visitors of the College . that of the Visitors of the University being postponed to the 29 th of March renders our immediate meeting indispensable. I therefore propose to you to be at mr Madison ’s on in the forenoon of Friday next the 26 th
268James Madison to Bernard Peyton, 11 May 1833 (Madison Papers)
Your letters of {2m#} & of {2m#} were duly recd. The articles referred to in the first were safely delivered & in every respect satisfactory. The sale of the 2 Hhds of Tobo. reported in the second, was as good as could be expected as it did not suit the taste of the Manufacturers; & brought the highest price of exported Tobo. On comparing it with a sample brought us by the Waggoner, of Mr...
269To James Madison from James Monroe, 26 September 1822 (Madison Papers)
My affairs in Albemarle, requiring my attendance there, again, before the meeting of Congress, & the Phisician deeming the exercise useful to Mrs Monroe’s health, we have resolvd to set out thither in a few days, & to call on you & Mrs Madison on the route. If we go by Loudon, which is not decided, it may be the last of the week (next) before we see you; but if we go direct, about the middle....
270James Dinsmore to Thomas Jefferson, 22 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
your favour of the 13 th Ins t was duly received, and I beg leave to return you my most Sincere thanks for your Continued attention to my Interests—the proposition you make is most agreeable to me and I with pleasure accept of it, as I prefer that Neighbourhood to any I have yet lived in—tho in a pecuniary point of view this is the preferable place—we expect to finish our present engagements...
271To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 12 November 1822 (Adams Papers)
I take pleasure in introducing to your acquaintance the Revd. Mr Barber, who has been some years attached to the Catholic Seminary at this place and to the College at Georgetown, and is now going to reside at Claremont in New Hampshire. In passing through Boston he proposes to pay you a visit, from which I am persuaded you will derive equal satisfaction with him. I am, Dear Sir, your faithful...
272From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Carstairs, 13 January 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
When we began our buildings at our University, we adopted it as a rule that we would be governed in all our prices by those established by long experience & due competn in Phila, and you were so bind as to procure & send me the printed book of Carpenter’s prices, in the other branches of work we have been able in different ways to learn your prices, except those of plaisterer ’s work, of these...
273To James Madison from James Monroe, 18 January 1828 (Madison Papers)
I presume you have heard, that both of us, are plac’d on the electoral ticket, by the convention, lately assembled at Richmond. I have receivd a letter from Col: Mercer apprizing me, of it, and also a private letter, from Judge Brooke, to the same effect: In complyance, with your suggestion, I wrote, shortly after the receipt of your letter, to Col: Mercer, & intimated your desire, not to be...
274William Maury to Thomas Jefferson, 8 March 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I have reproached myself much for not having ere this, thanked you for the letters of introduction you were so good as to give me to Kentucky thro my Cousin Tom Maury .— With D r Brown I was highly pleased, as every one must be with a polite Gentleman, & tho not of mine I found him an acquaintance of my Father s as far back as 1795— he took me to the University & other public Institutions in
275Gerard E. Stack to Thomas Jefferson, 12 April 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
The friendship of D r Cooper enables me to take the liberty of informing you that I purpose to set out for Charlotte s ville in the hope of acting as classical teacher, connected with the College now erecting near that place. I expect the Richmond Packet to sail tomorrow. RC ( ViU: TJP ); endorsed by TJ as received 1 May 1819 and so recorded in SJL .
276James Madison to Louis McLane, 6 February 1834 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison presents his respects to Mr. McLane, and asks the favor of him to let the inclosed letter to Mr. Vail go with the first despatches to him from the Department of State. See answr. to Mr. Vails letter of Novr. 18. 1833 FC (DLC) .
277James Madison to Walter Jones, 26 July 1828 (Madison Papers)
I learn from Mr. Cutts, that in a Chancery suit brought agst. him by a Creditor, I am to be made a party. Having been very successful throughout my life in keeping clear of litigated transactions I am very anxious to avoid such an one, as that now threatened; and cannot but hope, when the Creditor perceives the manifest inutility of pressing me into the suit, he will not persist in his...
278To James Madison from Richard Bache, 10 April 1818 (Madison Papers)
I have returned you the pamphlet which you had the goodness to send me, & for which I am much indebted to you; I hope it will arrive safe. The writing on the title page, is either that of my Father or Dr Franklin, they wrote very much alike, and it is rather too much defaced to decide. The piece, I have no doubt, was written by my Grand Father, it has given me much pleasure to reprint it,...
279Horatio G. Spafford to Thomas Jefferson, 30 June 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Although I have not any thing to communicate that might Seem to excuse this Letter, yet, being about to remove from this State , & to abandon, for years, my late pursuits, I feel a desire to apprize thee of my intention & prospects. Weary of literary labors, I am Soon going to my farm, with an intention to devote 10 years to settling & improving my land, & my fortune. I own Some good land, in...
280To Thomas Jefferson from Bernard Peyton, 21 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Sales of Nine Hhds: Tobacco by Bernard Peyton 1825 Rich d for a/c. Thomas Jefferson Esq r 20 Jan y To Sundry persons for cash TJ x 64— 1149 〃〃 65— 1305=2,454. lbs nett, to D. W. & C. Warwick at $3.05 $ 74.84 〃〃 8— 1231 〃〃 11—
281To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 21 May 1822 (Adams Papers)
I took up in a bookstore this morning a work that has just appeared in two volumes entitled “ The History of the American Revolution by Paul Allen .” Mr Allen is a man of talents and I presume has written a valuable history—but I looked over only one or two pages in his first volume where he is speaking of the Congress at New York in 1765—and which he concludes in the following manner:—“The...
282Thomas Jefferson to William C. Rives, 28 January 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I sincerely join in the general joy on the passage of the University bill , and by such majorities as bespeak a friendly patronage hereafter. in a letter of this date to mr Cabell I have requested him to send me a copy of the bill that the visitors may meet and do at once what the law permits them to do, as the season for engagements is rapidly passing off. but we shall fall miserably short in...
283James Madison to Alexander Hamilton, Jr., 9 July 1831 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of June 30 was duly recd. and the death of Mr. Monroe which it anticipated, became, I learn, a sad reality on the 4th. instant; its date associating it with the coincidencies before so remarkable & so memorable. The feelings with which the event was recd. by me may be inferred from the long & uninterrupted friendship which united us, and the intimate knowledge I had of his great...
284From James Madison to Edward Everett, 18 December 1826 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of the 3d. inst: having come to hand whilst I was at our University, whence I have just returned, I had an opportunity of making its contents known at once to Mr. Long Professor of Ancient Languages. It appeared that he had thoughts of employing a Tutor, to assist him in his duty to a Class which had become so numerous as to make one useful; and that but for the youthfulness of...
285From James Madison to Richard Rush, 20 May 1819 (Madison Papers)
Having written to you very lately, I only avail myself of the present opportunity furnished by Mr. Astor, to mention, in case of any delay or miscarriage of the letter, that yours of Decr. 13. was duly received and acknowleged. It was four months on its way, but came at length safely to hand with the books sent with it. Mr. Astor is on a visit to Europe, and will pay his respects to you in...
286Enclosure: Floor Plan of Poplar Forest by John Neilson, [before 2 November 1819] (Jefferson Papers)
MS ( ViU: TJP ; Nichols, Architectural Drawings Frederick Doveton Nichols, Thomas Jefferson’s Architectural Drawings , 1961; 5th ed., 1984 , 41–2 [no. 350]); in Neilson ’s hand; inked, shaded, and tinted; on coordinate paper; undated.
287From John Adams to John Taylor, 12 March 1819 (Adams Papers)
The painful difficulty of holding a pen which has been—growing upon me for many years & now in the middle of the 84th year of my age has become insupportable must be my apology—not only for terminating my Strictures upon your enquiry but for the necessity I am under of borrowing another hand to acknowledge the receipt of your polite & obliging letter of Feb’y 20th. I have never had but one...
288Caesar A. Rodney to Thomas Jefferson, 24 February 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I have lately recovered from a severe attack of fever, which confined me to my bed for ten days; & I propose to visit Philad a , tomorrow, where I shall see my old friend S. Gerard , & procure from him some of the genuine Maldonado Pumpkin seed, for yourself. I prefer his, because he has taken more pains in the cultivation of this fine vegetable, & has kept it far separated from any other of...
289From John Adams to Selleck Osborn, 27 April 1823 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter of the 24 April & have desired my friend Mr Shaw to subscribe my name to your proposals. I am Sir your very hum Sert MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
290James Madison to Nicholas P. Trist, 29 May 1832 (Madison Papers)
Whilst reflecting in my sick bed a few mornings ago, on the dangers hovering over our Constitution and even the Union itself, a few ideas which, tho’ not occurring for the first time, had become particularly impressive at the present. I have noted them by the pen of a friend, on the inclosed paper, and you will take them for what they are worth. If that be anything, and they happen to accord...
291To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Bonnycastle, 27 March 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
Both M r King’s letters mention the apparatus, but as the last is the most specific I have sent that only. DLC : Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
292From John Adams to Rufus King, 7 December 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have received, and read with Avidity and pleasure your Eloquence and Ratiocination, on the great question of Slavery in the Missouri.—I have rarely if ever; meet a Stronger proof of the importance to a Nation of having in her Councils, Men of great Sagacity, and long experience in public affairs—As far as my Memory serves me, the facts you have stated, are perfectly correct—I believe there...
293To Thomas Jefferson from A. McCall, 3 December 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I have the honor to enclose a letter to your address received yesterday under from Cadiz— MHi .
294Thomas Jefferson to Patrick Gibson, 21 February 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 8 th is recieved with my acc t from July 10. to that day. these accounts alone enable me to settle my flour rents with those who owe them, and to know if they have delivered all which should be delivered. in proceeding to this examination for the last year, I am stopped short by a chasm in the acc ts which I possess from the 13 th of April to the 10 th of July. for this...
295From James Madison to Valentine Gill, [ca. 31] May 1817 (Madison Papers)
I recd. lately your letter of Apl. 4. and have made known its contents to the Govr. of this State. I think it probable however that provision has been already made for the engineering aid required in the internal improvements on foot in this State. Should there be occasion for your services, you will probably receive a communication on the subject. In the mean time it would evidently not be...
296Elkanah Watson to Thomas Jefferson, 24 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Knowing You are already Sufficiently oppress’d with numerous correspondence—and probably Some unprofitable Ones, It is Sir with No Small diffidence I presume to intrude myself: I Stand pledg’d however to confine myself to a Specific object, in which I am well convinc’d, we have congenial feelings, and views. You have doubtless been informed of with the Successfull efforts, & progress of the...
297James Madison to Thomas G. Addison, 27 August 1830 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of the 20th. having passed on to Charlottesville instead of stopping here at Orange Ct House, has been but just recd. I doubt not the truth of every thing stated in the communication which pleads for the object you have at heart. But having been constrained to adopt a rule not permitting me to interpose in the manner you request, and having declined to do so in instances of...
298From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Eward J. Coale, 24 November 1820 (Adams Papers)
I enclose bills to the amount of five & forty Dollars in payment of the account of Messrs. Benson & Co. and will be obliged by your taking a receipt and returning it by the Post whenever it may be convenient. This account would long since have been settled had it not been delayed without our knowledge by my husbands Steward for which I beg your excuse— Mr. Adams and myself offer our best...
299James P. Preston to James Madison, 9 May 1828 (Madison Papers)
My friends have presented my pretensions to the President to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of the late Treasurer of the United States—As you are acquainted with many of the incidents of my life, which have been personally eventful; and as you know that I made sacrifices in my efforts to save the Government, during your administration by encountering all the hazards connected with...
300Peter F. Fritez to Thomas Jefferson, 1 September 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
By the request of D r Cooper , I have the honour to enclose to you, two halfsheets of the 2 d American edition of Willich ’s “Domestic Encyclopedia,” edited by him, and now nearly ready for publication by Mr. Ab. Small , of this city . RC ( MHi ); addressed: “