1From Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 9 September 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been truly uneasy at the delay which has attended the remittances of the sum of interest due to you, but I had calls so pressing in the spring, and at the same time such disappointments in the reciept of monies due me & which would have enabled me to meet all my engagements, as put the remittance out of my power. We a- wait nothing now but a tide in our river to carry down my crop of...
2Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 28 July 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I learn with sincere regret the continuance of your ill health, placing at the same time much reliance on the vis vitae at your time of life, which is quite sufficient to promise a restoration of order to the system. the benefit you recieved from the springs the last year encourages confidence in a repetition of the experiment. I think with you that it has been unlucky that Francis so early...
3Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 10 June 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been so late in getting my tob o to market that I have not been able sooner to remit you the 1 st year’s interest. so dilatory are the means of the farmer & planter. Francis wrote me that you were willing I should import for him (with some books I am importing for myself from London ) Thomas ’s Coke Littleton & Bacon ’s abridgment. these are dear books and with the loss by exchange,
4Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, [by 17] January 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I send a small cart and box for the books, state papers E t c you are so kind as to lend me. I possess the Journals of the old Congress ; and I have no need of the public accounts mentioned in your list. the information I need is generally from 1789. to 1809. and nothing at all after 1809. I will state specify at the end of my letter the particular titles of what I wish to recieve as they are...
5Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 23 October 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I receive here your favor of the 15 th and am gl ad you approve of the course proposed for Francis to confine his pur s uits to the important sciences exclusively. he may in the present year make such progress in them as to be able to pursue them to ad v antage th ereafter by himself. and if he can, for 2. or 3. years avoid the common error of premature marriage, he has s t ill time to make...
6Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper and John Wayles Eppes, 16 September 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
The shortness of the time now left to Francis for the pursuit of Academical studies, calls for extreme parcimony in the employment of the portion of it which still remains to him: and I am rendered more anxious for the economy of this remnant by information recieved from him, of which I was not before apprised. it seems there is a distinction in the College of Columbia between what are called...
7Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 19 January 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 7 th has been recieved & I sincere ly congratulate you on the resolution of all your complaints into a regular & fixed gout. a severe fit now and then with clear intervals of health is certainly preferable to a perpetual half sickness. it will relieve you too from medecine, as we all know there is none for the gout but patience and flannel. I really think your allowance to...
8Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 22 October 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 16 th was safely recieved with the check on the bank of Virginia for 3500.D. inclosed. the expression in the reciept I sent you of 2 checks on the bank E t c for 4000.D. will I think comprehend with sufficient certainty the deposit of 500 D. as well as the check of 3500. I did not know at the time whether the 500.D. had been paid in cash, or by a check, but thought it...
9Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 13 October 1820, with Eppes’s Note (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 7 th came to hand yesterday. my journey to Bedford is pos of necessity postponed indefinitely by the circumstance of 3. of my carriage horses being recently taken with the disease called the sore tongue, which I am told will require 10. days for cure and leave them so emaciated as not to be able to take the road for some time. this will bring on cold weather which will oblige...
10Enclosure: Receipt and Bond from Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 13 October 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I Thomas Jefferson of Albemarle acknolege that I have recieved of John W. Eppes of Buckingham checks on the bank of for the sum of four thousand Dollars in consideration whereof I oblige myself to deliver to him, on or before the twenty fifth day of December eighteen hundred & twenty two such and so many of my slaves now residing on my lands in Bedford as shall be equal in value to the sd...
11Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 27 August 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 19 th was received on the 25 th . what it proposes on the subject of the stock is perfectly agreeable to me; but I shall be glad to recieve the proceeds as soon as they can be had, that I may the sooner relieve myself from the applications of those to whom it is destined, and them from the want of it. Our court is Monday sennight (Sep. 4.) and I see nothing to prevent my setting...
12Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 29 July 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter of June 30. I informed you I would write to D r Cooper for information as to the state and expences of education at Columbia S.C. I will quote his answer in his own words. ‘I am not fully prepared to answer your queries as to the expence of education at the C S. Carolina college . but I have always understood it was very cheap, not exceeding 250.D. for the session of nine months....
13Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 30 June 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I am become quite delinquent in epistolary correspondence; my right wrist, from an antient dislocation, grows now so stiff, as to render writing a slow and painful operation, and has produced an aversion to the pen almost insuperable. I go therefore to the writing table under the spur of necessity alone. The delay in the opening of our seminary in this neighborhood has proceeded entirely...
14Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 9 July 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of June 28 . came duly to hand, as did also the coat-pattern for Francis . he is now closely engaged with mr Stack , whose style of instruction he finds very superior to any he ever met with before. I do not believe so solid & critical a one has ever been before in this state, if in the US. his fatherly demeanor too towards his pupils engages their affections and their obedience....
15Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 3 May 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I set out from this place for Monticello tomorrow morning and shall leave this letter at Flood ’s. I have engaged Francis ’s board with mr Dashiell himself, who takes only three others. Francis will be much pleased with the family, which is a very genteel one, and they live well as I saw by going in upon them at their dinner unexpectedly. he is an excellent teacher as I judged, at his...
16Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 10 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 6 th is rec e ived. I set out the day after tomorrow for Poplar Forest , and shall be there till the 1 st of May . you say you will be at home the 25 th . I really think Francis had better come on diret direct
17Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 13 March 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s & Francis’s of Feb. 14. were recieved in due time. you have seen by the newspapers what our legislature has done on the subject of an University. the centrality & salubrity of Charlottesville excite strong expectations that the site of the Central College will be adopted for that. but this cannot be known until the next session of the legislature. in the mean while we shall go on with...
18Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 6 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved a letter of Dec. 28. from Francis to which I had deferred an answer until I could speak with more certainty of the prospects of our central college . he describes his situation as neither agreeable nor advantageous. Doct r Cooper had engaged with us as professor of the Physiological sciences, and had moreover offered to take charge of our classical school, until we can get for that...
19Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 26 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have procured from Leschot for mrs Eppes a very elegant watc h and of the very best construction being of the kind called à cylindre horizontal ; the only inconvenience of which is that they require being touched with oil a little oftener than the others. he had no watch of the common construction which was proper for a lady. he required 40.D. boot, allowing only 30.D. for the gold of the...
20Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 6 August 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I set out for Bedford tomorrow, and shall leave this at Flood ’s. you will know therefore by it’s receipt that we are passed on, to wit Ellen , Cornelia and myself. very soon after our arrival at Poplar Forest , perhaps a week, we shall go to the Nat l bridge and be a b sent 4. or 5. days: and shall hope to see you & Francis soon after as given us to hope in yours of
21Thomas Jefferson’s Circular to Prospective Donors to Central College, 4 August 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
You have probably seen mentioned in the public papers that it is in contemplation to establish near Charlottesville a seminary of learning which shall embrace all the sciences deemed materially useful in the present age. towards this object the legislature has passed an act giving us a constitution nearly of our own choice, under the name of the Central College , making the Governor patron of...
22Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 6 June 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
By a letter from mr Wood recieved a few days ago, I learned with great regret that he was obliged to suspend his school for four months (till the last of September) in order to compleat the public survey he had undertaken. regret being unavailing, the question is how Francis may best employ those 4. months. I observe he has made no progress in Arithmetic, and think therefore he could not do...
23Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1 May 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved a letter from mr Burton , informing me he had purchased for me a barrel of Scuppernon wine. I had before informed him that I would desire mr Gibson of Richmond to pay his draught for it, and I had accordingly so done, but mr Burton prefers settling it with you. I therefore now inclose you a draught on Gibson , the most convenient channel of remittance to myself, and I am in...
24Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 7 April [1819] (Jefferson Papers)
The adoption of our College as an University much delays the opening our schools here, as needing much greater preparation & the Visitors having concluded that accomodations must be provided before Professors, they have fixed on April next for recieving professors. in the of our D r Cooper was to have brought on a mr Slack , as Usher to our Grammar school & whom he had pressed as our...
25Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 31 March 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Francis will set out tomorrow for Mill-brook . he has his constant health, and has applied himself assiduously & solely to Spanish. he now possesses this so well that reading a little in it every day, he will be in no danger of losing it. in the French he is well established; and the possession of these two languages is well worth the little check he has recieved in his Latin, I think he...
26Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 6 March 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have detained Martin a little longer than you intended because my waggons were to set off this day for Bedford and I concluded to send him with the work he had done by one of them. it was but one day’s journey of their way, and saves your waggon a trip of 5. days to come for them. by Martin ’s count there are 129. knobs. their tops will require to be kept well painted, as they present the...
27Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 January 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Francis arrived here in good health the day before Yesterday. I think he cannot do better than to take this occasion of learning Spanish, because it is a language rarely taught in this country, and will be of great importance within his day. it is that too in which all the early history of America is written. I suppose he may acquire so much of it in 2. or 3. months as to pursue it easily...
28Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 June 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I am this moment arrived here with Ellen & Cornelia , and find Francis who arrived last night. I will take care and attend him to the Academy & see to every thing necessary for him. we will keep him with us as long as we stay (a week or 10. days) and rub him up in his French. I learn with great concern the state of your health, but can prescribe nothing by but patience & the springs with good...
29Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 30 April with 7 May 1816 postscript (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 8 th was recieved here on the 19 th inst. the information you have had as to the schools at Staunton and Lexington is correct. the latter has been at all times under the direction of an infuriated Presbyterian bigot and tory, better fitted to fanaticise than to instruct youth in useful knolege. when I was last here, I heard of their expelling two or three youths for the heinous...
30Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 30 [March] 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Francis returns as much improved, I am in hopes, as you will have expected. he reads French with so much ease as to read it for amusement, has not much occasion for his dictionary, pronounces generally well, the few defects remaining being such as will be easily corrected hereafter. being kept almost entirely at French, he could afford only the time before breakfast for keeping up his Latin....
31Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1 June 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
For want of time to consult you on it, I have taken a measure of great responsibility on my self as to Francis , for your pardon for which I must rely on the motives, and what I hope will be the effect of it. French is become the most indispensable part of modern education. it is the only language in which a man of any country can be understood out of his own; and is now the preeminent...
32Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 9 September 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I am sorry to learn by Francis’s letter that your you are not yet recovered from your rheumatism, and much wonder you do not go and pass a summer at the Warm springs . from the examples I have seen I should entertain no doubt of a radical cure. the transactions at Washington and Alexandria are indeed beyond expectation. the circumjacent country is mostly disaffected, but I should have thought...
33Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 16 July 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Estin Randolph has shewed me a letter from you, proposing to sell him Pantops , o i n order to lay out the money in lands in your neighborhood for Francis . I had hoped that we had concurred in our purposes on that subject, altho’ we did not in the immediate execution of them. my view & wish was when Francis should come of age, or the Pantops lease expire, or whenever else you pleased, to...
34Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 6 November 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I had not expected to have troubled you again on the subject of finance; but since the date of my last I have recieved from mr Law a letter covering a memorial on that subject which from it’s tenor I conjecture must have been before Congress at their two last sessions. this paper contains two propositions, the one for issuing Treasury notes bearing interest, & to be circulated as money; the...
35Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 11 September 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I turn with great reluctance from the functions of a private citizen to matters of state. the swaggering on deck, as a passenger, is so much more pleasant than clambering the ropes as a seaman, & my confidence in the skill and activity of those employed to work the vessel is so entire, that I notice nothing, en passant, but how smoothly she moves. yet I avail myself of the leisure which a...
36Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 June 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
This letter will be of Politics only. for altho’ I do not often permit myself to enter that field think on that subject, it sometimes obtrudes itself and suggests ideas which I am tempted to pursue. some of these relating to the business of finance, I will hazard to you, as being at the head of that committee , but intended for yourself individually, or such as you trust, but certainly not for...
37Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 26 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
We are just now packing your Commode & two presses. strange as it may seem, altho’ it required but 4. or 500 feet of plank to make the packing boxes, yet so difficult is that article here, and that I never have been able to command that quantity bef beyond my own constant & pressing wants till I got a saw mill of my own to work. this has enabled me now to pack them and my boat will be sent off...
38Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 18 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been in the less haste to answer your last letter , because it appeared from that as if the farther we proceeded in our negociation, the wider we got apart. in the early part of the letter you state justly as the only point of difference, the condition of providing the same quantity of open lands on the Tomahawk tract as there is on Pantops . the practicability of effecting this by...
39Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 18 September 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I deferred answering your letter of July 11 because I had learnt there were several points of difference of opinion between mr T. E. Randolph and yourself as to the conditions of the lease of Pantops , & I thought it proper that these should be explained & settled between yourselves before a third party intervened. I wrote to mr Randolph accordingly, to ask his understanding of the lease that...
40Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 25 June 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved a week ago your favor of the 15 th and should sooner have answered it, but that I have been awaiting the issue of a negociation between Jefferson and his uncle T. E. Randolph for a relinquishment of his lease of Pantops . the result of this is too doubtful to detain me longer from notifying my acceptance of your offer of Pantops on the terms of your letter, that is to say, for ten...
41Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 3–5 June 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I learnt accidentally a day or two ago that you were proposing to sell Pantops , and had offered it to some persons in this neighborhood. this is done, I have no doubt, after mature consideration, and under the view that it will be most beneficial to Francis , of whose interests no one can be a more faithful depository than yourself. candor obliges me to say that an estate so closely and...
42Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 29 September 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed letter came under cover to me without any indication from what quarter it came. Our last latest arrival brings information of the death of the king of England . it’s coming from Ireland & not direct from England would make it little worthy of notice, were not the event so probable. on the 26 th of July the English papers say he was expected hourly to expire. this vessel sailed from
43Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 6 September 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I had before learned with great concern your affliction with the rheumatism. your remedy of the cold bath is new to me, except a single instance of the wife of an overseer of mine who uses the cold bath every day of her life, and the day she omits it, has a return of Rheumatic symptoms. I have had an attack of it myself for two months past, confined a part of the time, without fever, and...
44Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 30 March 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed letter came to my hands a few days before Francis left us, & was reserved to go by him. it was however forgotten. I hope you will be my apologist with mrs Eppes and that she will pardon this omission of a declining memory, and accept the assurance of my respects. my constant affections attend on yourself. PoC ( MHi ); dateline at foot of text; endorsed by TJ. The inclosed letter...
45Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 March 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
Your servant arrived here the day before yesterday, since which the weather has been showery, & is now threatening & uncertain if tomorrow is promising, Francis will set out. we part with him with more regret after every visit. while the cold weather kept him pretty much in the house, I made him do a little in the Latin grammar, merely to begin to exercise his memory. as soon as you think him...
46Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 January 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
The Chronological appendix to the paper I sent you on the subject of Louisiana had been retained, as I conjectured, in the Secretary of State’s office, from which I have since recieved it, & now inclose it to you. it is an indispensable companion to the other as referring to the authorities for the several facts stated in that. the subject of your closed doors is perfectly secret here. I...
47Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 10 January 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
By the post succeeding my last letter to you , I recieved one from my counsel in Livingston’s case requesting me to prepare a statement of all the facts which will be to be proved in that case to be forwarded with commissions to N. Orleans to have the depositions regularly taken. this it is not in my power to do without the aid of the statement of the case sent to mr Giles & yourself, of which...
48Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 5 January 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
Your two letters of Dec. 14. reached this place just after I had left it for Bedford . this has occasioned the delay of the answer. I now inclose you the paper you requested on the boundaries of Louisiana . it is a bad Polygraph copy; however it is legible. there is nothing secret in the paper and therefore may be freely used as you please, except that I would not have it printed, but with the...
49Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 7 December 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Nov. 19. desiring me to send to Haden’s for Francis on the 29 th did not get to my hands till the evening of that day Wormeley set off the next morning and I was happy to find he was in time to recieve him. he got here to breakfast the morning after he parted with you. I did not write to you by Wormley because I supposed you would have passed on. on the 12 th of Nov. I had...
50Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes and William B. Giles, 12 November 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
You have heard of the suit brought by E. Livingston against me on the subject of the Batture . this has rendered it necessary for me to make a statement of the facts for the use of my Counsel; and the justification which these offer being derived from certain systems of foreign law in force at N. Orleans , which I have had more time to enquire into than they, I have been led into a full...