1From Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 23 November 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Oct. 26. was 3. weeks on it’s passage to me, which, with indisposition, must apologise for the delay of this answer. I had the happiness of an intimate and friendly acquaintance with the late mr Gerry your father. we served together in the Old Congress; again in that of Annapolis, & lastly, altho’ in different functions, in the present government. the harmony of our political...
2From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 17 September 1814 (Madison Papers)
The destruction of the Capitol by the Enemy having made it necessary that other accomodations should be provided for the meeting of Congress, chambers for the Senate and for the House of Representatives, with other requisite apartments, have been fitted up, under the direction of the Superintendent of the City, in the Public Building heretofore allotted for the Post and other Public offices....
3From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 5 July 1814 (Madison Papers)
I am in your debt for 3 letters of the 10. 11. & 25 June. General Boyd goes to N.Y. instead of N. Orleans. Weston was never even seen by me. The command of the Revenue Cutter is to be given to Trewitt who is strongly & extensively recommended. The last intelligence from Europe was as you will have inferred, no wise decisive with respect to our affairs with G.B: nor can it well be so, untill...
4From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 4 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have received your kind letter of the 30th. of June, with emotions which it would be in vain for me to attempt to describe. My attendance at Lexington is out of all question; the state of my health renders it both morally and physically impossible. I dare not express even to you, in a confidential private letter, my recollections, my reflections my feelings, or opinions, on this day, and...
5From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 21 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
I find with some Surprise, in looking over unanswered Letters, One from yourself of 26 August. We gave Letters to Mr Wiger; but I must own I was not much fel fascinated with his conversation; and if his principles of honour and integrity are pure, I have since heard so little in favour of his discretion, that I think Govt ought to be cautious of the Trusts they commit to him. The sympathy of...
6Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 19 June 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 11 th is just recieved, and I repeat the sincere pleasure it has given me to see you once more come forward on the stage of the nation. I have ever thought the post you now occupy the most agreeable one the nation can give, & very far preferable to that which it’s highest favor confers. and I have hoped that, within three days journey of one another, it would afford some occasion...
7From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 2 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your address to the Senate. I wish the Presidents Message, your address, and Governor Strongs speech might be printed together in every News-paper. There are pretty stories universally circulating here of your fortuitous journey in the Stage with Colonel Pickering. I have heard them with pleasure, for they really do honour to both. They are really good natured. The Millenium...
8From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 26 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
Although Governor Gages Prediction to General Jo. Warren has not yet, been fully accomplished in this Country; yet as His Observation was Suggested by History, it will be found too just, Some time or other. Selfishness has dissappointed The Hopes of Patriotism and Philanthropy in all Ages, not only in England at the Period of her Commonwealth. Edes’s Watertown Gazette Shall be carefully...
9From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 20 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
In former Letters, I have made a few hasty Remarks upon Mrs Warren and Mr Marshall: permit me now to add one or two upon Dr Gordon. In the Second Volume of his History, page 144, he Says, “The Massachusetts Assembly resolved, October the ninth, to fit out armed Vessells; ” But how is this? This Resolution is four days later, than the Resolution of Congress, Octr. 5. which asserts that...
10From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 19 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
A very fortunate day to write to you, My dear Sir, and especialy on a Subject, without which my Letters of 1775 would have been no Blessing. In my last Letter I intimated a design of looking into other American Historians, after that of Mrs Warren, on the Subject of a Navy. C.J. Marshal, in the 2nd. Vol. of his Life of Washington p 255 in the month of October September, Says “The importance of...
11From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 17 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
Since I have read again your Line “for encouraging the fitting out armed Vessels,” printed in Ecles’s Watertown Gazette of the 13th November 1775. I have had the curiosity to look into several of our historians in order to see what notice they have taken of this transaction which had such important consequences. It was natural to begin with Mrs Warren as she was a native of this province a...
12From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 14 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favours of the 8th. and 10th and the volume of Benjamin Edes’s gazettes printed at Watertown between the 5th of June 1775 and the 9th. of December 1776. I am much obliged to you and to Mr Austin, for the Loan of this prescious collection of Memorials I read last Fall and Winter, The Scottish Chiefs, Thadeus of Warsaw and The Exiles of Siberia; and Scotts Lay, Marmion and...
13From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 9 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
I return the correspondence in ten Numbers with Thanks for the perusal of them. They are indeed curious. I cannot reconcile myself to the opinion of one Law for a Judge and another for a Governor. Nor can I believe that Judges have So much Legislative Authority as to make Laws by Implications, Inferences, Constructions So remote and So Strained. If Judges undertake to make gag Laws they Should...
14From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 14 February 1813 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 14 February 1813. Acknowledged in Gerry to JM, 20 Feb. 1813 , as enclosing a certificate of Gerry’s election as vice president. A copy of the certificate, which reproduced the Senate resolution of 11 Feb. 1813 that had specified its wording and required that it be “laid before the President,” survives (2 pp.; NHi; printed in Annals of Congress Debates and Proceedings in the...
15From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 11 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged by your favour of the 9th. just received. Though I called the Subject of my former letter, a Bagatelle, it is perhaps of Some Importance; for as a Navy is now an Object, I think a circumstantial History of Naval Operations in this Country ought to be written, even as far back as the Province Ship under Capt. Hollowell &c and perhaps earlier Still. Looking into the Journal of...
16From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 28 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
Vive la bagatelle. How shall we cure that distemper of the Mind State Vanity? You know to what a degree the ancient dominion was infected with it, and how many Sacrifices We have been obliged to make to it. You remember, how Pensilvania had it. “Pensilvania was first in Arts and Arms,”! “Philadelphia was the heart of the Union.” So said George Ross. Dr Lyman Hall of Georgia, readily...
17From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, [5 January] 1813 (Madison Papers)
Your two favors of have been some time on hand. I believe it may be assumed, that no meeting of Congress will take place immediately after the 4th. of March. The Senate has usually been detained a few days, for the sake of appointments growing out of the laws of session. It is always possible, and must be so considered at present, that other business requiring their decision, may prolong their...
18From Abigail Smith Adams to William Eustis, 5 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
I address you upon a subject of much delicacy and which from circumstances which must be well known to you makes me diffident in presenting to your view the oldest Revolutiary Feild officer now Living. I presume I need not name to you his former Services, nor the loss of property which his Family sustaind by the Enemy, nor the wounds he received in the Service, or those qualification, which so...
19Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 11 June 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
It has given me great pleasure to recieve a letter from you . it seems as if, our antient friends dying off, the whole mass of the affections of the heart survives undiminished to the few who remain. I think our acquaintance commenced in 1764. both then just of age. we happened to take lodgings in the same house in New York . our next meeting was in the Congress of 1775 . and at various times...
20From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 3 June 1812 (Madison Papers)
I have been so intensely occupied since I was favored with your two letters of the 19th. & 20th. May, that I could not snatch an earlier moment to acknowledge them. It gives me much pleasure to learn that you retain so much confidence in the soundness & firmness of the great body of the friends to republican principles, with respect to an assertion of the national rights, in the only mode now...
21From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 9 May 1812 (Madison Papers)
I duly recd. your favor of the 25th. inclosing the Report of the Adjutant Genl. The latter I have put into the hands of the Secy. of War; whose local knowledge will aid him in appreciating the difficulties pointed out by that officer. I hope they will be in a great measure overcome, by the judicious course you have taken in consequence of the Call made on your portion of the Natnl. Militia....
22From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 6 March 1812 (Madison Papers)
I have duly received your letter of the 25. Feby. inclosing a resolve of the Legislature of Massachusetts relating to a supply of Blankets, and other requisite articles. The information conveyed by it, is the more agreeable, as it shews at once, the progress of some of the most useful branches of Manufacture, and the patriotic spirit of the State comprizing them. The proper enquiries &...
23From John Quincy Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 30 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
“The Massachusetts election appears to agitate the Americans in Europe almost exclusively; of all the elections going on at the same time in many parts of the union, I see paragraphs in the newspapers, but hear not a syllable from any other quarter. But American federalists in this city, have received letters from their friends in London and in Gothenburg, in high exultation announcing the...
24From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 21 June 1811 (Madison Papers)
I thank you for your polite communication of the Speech to your Legislature. The solid & seasonable truths so emphatically inculcated in it, can not fail to do much good. The noise & anger which it is exciting, prove that the faction is deeply stung by the exposure of its guilt, and will increase the public indignation, by rousing a more diffusive attention to the subject. The delay of Mr....
25From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 14 March 1809 (Madison Papers)
I have been obliged as you will note to avail myself of your indulgence in answering your favor the 20th. Ult. I have looked over attentively your observations at the Cambridge Meeting, and tho’ I do not enter into the aptitude of all your observations, I perceive in them a very interesting view of our public affairs. On the question whether a publication of them would be useful, I am...
26From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 27 June 1807 (Madison Papers)
I inclose as you have requested a letter to Genl. Armstrong presenting Mrs. Blake to his polite attention. I have thought it proper also to inclose a passport in the form usually given to Citizens of known respectability. You will please to substatute the pen for the pencil in filling the blanks, and to add to the name of Mrs. B. not only her daughter but any attendants she may take with her....
27From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 3 March 1806 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. tho’ not till the 1st. instant your favor of the 19 Feby. and beg you to accept my acknowledgments for your kind sympathy on the accident which I lately suffered. It was a very painful one, but did not extend beyond the dislocation of the pan of my knee. This was immediately replaced, and I am beginning to make a hobling use of the limb. I fear however from the slowness of its...
28From Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 3 March 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Altho it is long since I recieved your favor of Oct. 27. yet I have not had leisure sooner to acknolege it. in the middle & Southern states as great an union of sentiment has now taken place as is perhaps desireable. for as there will always be an opposition, I believe it had better be from avowed monarchists than republicans. New York seems to be in danger of republican division. Vermont is...
29From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 17 February 1804 (Madison Papers)
I have recd your favor of the 6th. instant inclosing a letter for Consul Lee which will be forwarded as you desire. The copies of Talleyrands correspondence are returned to you under the same cover with this. As the Department of State is possessed of the originals, I see no objection to your retaining them. It gives me pleasure to find that the proceedings of the administration continue to...
30From Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 28 August 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
You very justly suppose, in your’s of the 9th. inst. that the act of duty which removed your brother from office, was one of the most painful and unwilling which I have had to perform. very soon after our administration was formed, the situation of his accounts was placed under the notice of the Secretary of the treasury, and consequently communicated to me . he was written to. the failure to...
31From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 22 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have duly recd. yours covering a letter for Mr Skipwith, which I have put in company with some despatches just forwarded to Mr. Livingston. I had long before recd. your favor of the 9th. Ult: on the subject of Mr. N. Fellows jr. whose name & pretensions I have laid before the President. The Consulate of the Havanna is not yet vacant, and it is uncertain what the policy of Spain may be with...
32From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, [25 June] 1801 (Madison Papers)
… I am not acquainted with either the person, or the character of Mr. Corran. My respect for his Lady is nevertheless sufficient to give me all the interest in her wishes, which public considerations will permit. I shall consequently not fail to keep the President in mind of Mr. Corran as a candidate for the posts you mention. I must observe at the same time that there are so many applications...
33From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 25 June 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have duly recd. your favor of the 16th. I am not acquainted with either the person, or the character of Mr. Corran. My respect for his Lady, is nevertheless suffic[i]ent to give me all the interest in her wishes, which public considerations will permit. I shall consequently not fail to keep the President in mind of Mr. Corran, as a Candidate for the Posts you mention. I must observe at the...
34From Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 29 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Your two letters of Jan. 15. and Feb. 24. came safely to hand and I thank you for the history of a transaction which will ever be interesting in our affairs. it has been very precisely as I had imagined. I thought, on your return, that if you had come forward boldly and appealed to the public by a full statement, it would have had a great effect in your favor personally, & that of the...
35From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 7 February 1801 (Adams Papers)
I lament with you the arbitrary aplication of party nicknames & unpopular appellations & although with you I heartily wish, yet I cannot say I hope that the wickedness of the wicked will come to an end. On the contrary it appears to me, that unlike the rising light which shineth more & more to the perfect day, the darkness will thicken till it may be felt. In the multitude of applications for...
36From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 30 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favor of the 18th. It has been an invariable usage these twelve years, for the President to answer no letters of solicitation or recommendation to office, but with you in full confidence I will say that it is uncertain whether I shall appoint any consuls to France. Mr. Lee is represented to me as a jacobin, who was very busy in a late election, in the town of Roxbury on...
37From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 13 June 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have this morning received your favor of the fourth & immediately communicated it to the present Sec. of State Gen Marshall who will look into the papers relative to the subject & bring it soon to a conclusion—A business which ought to have been done last fall.—I have taken a view of the federal city & its environs as far as Mount Vernon & am well pleased with the whole. I think Congress...
38From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 26 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your favour of this morning; and in Answer inform you that I have not recd an Answer to my Letter to Mr Pickering. The Engagement of his office, besides the confusion of a removal have been extreamly pressing.—I Shall See him Soon and Something will be determined. I Shall not have the Pleasure of Seeing you again probably till next Summer, Imperious Necessity or absolute Duty...
39From Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 26 January 1799 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Nov. 12. was safely delivered to me by mr ——, but not till Dec. 28. as I arrived here only three days before that date. it was recieved with great satisfaction. our very long intimacy as fellow-labourers in the same cause, the recent expressions of mutual confidence which had preceded your mission, the interesting course which that had taken, & particularly & personally as it...
40From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 15 December 1798 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your favour of the 24 of Novr. I sent your Letter to me of the 20 of October, from Quincy to the Secretary of State and requested him to publish it. He has returned it to me and declines publishing it. I return it to you inclosed, as I think it will be attended with no good Effect if I should publish it. You will judge for yourself whether it is necessary for you to publish it. My...
41From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 17 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have this moment your Letter of the 10th. That Man must have more Skill in Intrigue than any that I have been acquainted with who can Sap the foundation of the Confidence I have in Mr Gerry....No Such Attempt has been made. All have confessed to me your honour and Integrity—Some have expressed doubts of your orthodoxy in the Science of Government—others have expressed fears, of an...
42From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 7 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I know not when I have received So much pleasure from a Letter as from yours this Moment brought in, to to me of the 3d. The Circumstances of your family are Such as to Excite the tenderest feelings & anxieties and Mrs: Gerrys Resolution does her great honor. She never will repent of it, I fully beleive. Mr: Marshall is here and will Sail next week for Amsterdam, It will be adviseable for you...
43From John Adams to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 22 June 1797 (Adams Papers)
Reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your Abilities, Integrity, Prudence, and Patriotism, I have nominated and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate do appoint you the said Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, jointly and severally Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the French Republic, authorizing you...
44From John Adams to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 22 June 1797 (Adams Papers)
Know Ye, That for the purpose of terminating all differences between the United States of America and the French Republic, and of restoring and confirming perfect harmony and good understanding and re–establishing a commercial and friendly intercourse between them; and reposing a special Trust and Confidence in the Integrity, Prudence and Abilities of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Marshall...
45From Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 21 June 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
It was with infinite joy to me that you were yesterday announced to the Senate as envoy extraordinary jointly with Genl. Pinckney and Mr. Marshel to the French republic. It gave me certain assurance that there would be a preponderance in the mission sincerely disposed to be at peace with the French government and nation. Peace is undoubtedly at present the first object of our nation. Interest...
46From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 20 June 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have this moment written a Message to the Senate nominating you to be an Envoy Extraordinary to the French Republic. Knowing as I did Mr Dana’s aversion to the Sea, and his continual dread of his Mother’s fate, I was always apprehensive he would decline and should have nominated you at first, if I had not been overruled by the opinions of many Gentlemen that Mr. Dana’s Experience in this...
47From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 20 June 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have this moment written a Message to the Senate nominating you to be an Envoy Extraordinary to the French Republic; Knowing as I did Mr: Dana’s aversion to the sea, and his continual dread of his Mothers fate, I was always apprehensive he would decline, and Should have nominated you at first, if I had not been over ruled by the opinions of many Gentlemen, that Mr: Dana’s Experience in this...
48From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 30 May 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have just recd your favours of 28. May, No. 6 and No. 7. with a Copy of No. 3. This last I had recd before. I had no share in the Recall of Monroe, and therefore am not responsible for the Reasons of it.—But I have heard such reports of his own Language in France at his own Table, and the Language of those whom he entertained and countenanced, and of his correspondences with Bache Beckley &c...
49From Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 25 May 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
I this moment recieve your [favor] of the 22d. Nine days before that, to wit, May 13. I had [written to you my last] letter acknoleging the [receipt of yours] of May [4.] […] that that of Apr. 4. with the [one for] Monroe […] hand. My letter was directed to yourself ‘to the care of Mr. Osgood New York.’ from which I hoped it would be stopped there as I did not superscribe the place of your...
50From Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 13 May 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 4th. inst. came to hand yesterday. That of the 4th. of Apr. with the one for Monroe has never been recieved. The first of the 27th. of March did not reach me till Apr. 21. when I was within a few days of setting out for this place, and I put off acknoleging it till I should come here. I entirely commend your dispositions towards Mr. Adams, knowing his worth as intimately, and...