1To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 6 May 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
It has given me infinite pleasure to hear from you by the letter which you were so good as to send by M r Randolph, dated March 24. He gave it to me a few days ago only, on his return from Boston; having passed through this City without stopping on his way thither. I was indeed very anxious to hear of you & of your health, though unwilling to trouble you with a letter & impose on you the tax...
2To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 4 March 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
I never felt myself under the same degree of restraint in taking up my pen to write to you—for there seems a propriety in abstaining from bringing into view a subject which is painful, & at the same time I cannot be ignorant of what is a subject of public discussion. I have followed the debates of the assembly with impatience & anxiety, as I had seen a letter from a gentleman in Virginia, whom...
3To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 11 January 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 3 d inst. was received here the day before yesterday. It was not until today that I was able to find Mr Boyé—Here is what I learned from him. Being desirous to return the instruments to you in person he deposited them in a place of perfect safety when he left Richmond for the North, to await his return—He feels great regret at having thus detained them from you after they...
4To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 14 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I had this pleasure on the 2 d ul to & trust that letter got safe to hand. I inclosed in it a song composed & sung at a public dinner by a man of your own age, & who to me has always professed the longest & most invariable friendship for you. I sent at the same time the discourse of a Russian on public education. I thought it might perchance amuse you to see the ideas in those climates on this...
5To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 2 November 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I cannot too much thank you for your kind letter of the 14 th It gave me great relief from the anxiety I was under on account of reports as to your health & the affairs of the University—To the last, as mere reports, I should have paid no attention, after those which prevailed on the same subject, & without even the shadow of a foundation, some time ago. But the Richmond Enquirer which I see...
6To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 4 October 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
It is always a great gratification to me to recieve one of your letters. That of Aug: 9. I found here on my return from my summer’s excursion—It gratified me first by informing me that your long confinement had not affected your general health, of which I was very apprehensive, & secondly by the account you give me of the state of the University—That account came here most opportunely—for a...
7To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 27 June 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Your kind letter which I last recieved from you (that of April 4) gave me much & real gratification by the details you were so good as to enter into on the subject of the University—they are indeed the most encouraging. And I beg you to believe that my absence from the State has not had the effect of diminishing in the smallest degree my earnest desire to learn all that is favorable to this...
8To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 27 April 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Your kind & most acceptable remembrance of the 4 th inst. calls for all my thanks. It gave me the most sincere pleasure to recieve from your hand, the details respecting the University—The first steps are always the most difficult, & these being now made with so much success, I look forward with the most sanguine hope to its future progress. I beg you to be assured that you cannot confer on me...
9To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 27 February 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I have already had the pleasure of acknowleging & thanking you for your gratifying favor of the 8 th ult o a most clear & instructive exhibition of a subject with which I was of course little acquainted. My letter was of the 19 th of Jan y the last I have written except one of the 8 th inst.— I allow myself to give you the present trouble only on account of the occasion, which induces me to...
10To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 19 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
The vol s of Hall arrived safe. I am much pleased that they gave the pleasure which I hoped, to the several readers at Monticello, & only regret that you did not keep this little work. I have learned since my return here that he is the son of the Sir James Hall who was in Paris with a son of Lord Lettish, Lord D. They were both the friends of Dugald Stewart & both inclined to republicanism—If...
11To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 23 December 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you the three letters inclosed merely because they are the complement of those I sent in my letter of the 18 th inst. They are much too prolix to insist on your reading them—Burn them therefore by way of despatching if it should best suit you. The idea of sending them to you occurred to me merely because they offered some views on what has now become a mere historical subject; which...
12To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 18 December 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I have abstained from acknowleging your favor of the 9 th ult o that I might not add to your already too heavy load of correspondence. Your letter however came most opportunely; for it was on the heels of a report which had just reached us the very night before, of your being very ill—Your information as to the imposthume explained the ground of this report, & your relief from it was a great...
13To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 2 November 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I had this pleasure on the 3 d ult o I do not write this in order to add to the burthen of correspondence with which I know you are already overloaded, but merely to ask you to send me one line by the ministry of one of the young Ladies, that I may know how your health is, what news you have from M r Gilmer, & whether M de d’Epinay arrived safe. I sent her in three divisions by three different...
14To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 3 October 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Knowing as I do, how every letter adds to the burthen which every mail you I have postponed perhaps longer than I should otherwise have done to have informed you of my arrival here, & to have enquired as to the health & present situation of yourself & your interesting family around you. Owing to the wet season & the state of the roads in consequence thereof, I had a most tedious & disagreeable...
15To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 7 August 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I have the pleasure of informing you of my arrival here, & thus having now approached so near to Monticello as to shew my fixed determination of attaining the point I have so long been aiming at, that it might suggest reasonable doubts of my determination. I here encounter a circumstance which will cause a few days delay however. Last year when Gen l Cocke was in Phila da , I was induced to...
16To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 19 July 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
The date of this letter will shew that I have been detained here much longer than I had expected—Whilst the extent of this delay remained undefined I was unwilling to give you the trouble of a letter, & therefore have abstained even from acknowleging & thanking you for yours of the 17 th of May— I now think I may fix with sufficient certainty the time of my departure, to venture to mention...
17To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 10 May 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I did not intend to have troubled you again so soon when last I had the pleasure of writing to you on the 17 th of April in acknowlegement of your kind favor of the 10 th of that month—I send this letter at a venture & merely to take the chance of finding you before you set out on your journey south—Here is the cause of it. I learned last evening from a son of Judge Peters, that his father has...
18To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 17 April 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Your most agreeable favor of the 10 th was recieved here two days ago. You say nothing of your health & therefore I have the gratification of believing it good—I met at the Society last evening your old friend M r Patterson of the Mint, & several other of your friends, all of whom partook with me in this pleasure, more especially Mr Patterson who is about your age, & who never fails when we...
19To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 29 March 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
The last letter which I have had the pleasure of writing to you, was of the date of Octob: 9. in acknowlegement of your kind favor of the 8 th of Sept r . You are well assured that my long silence has not proceeded from indifference to the gratification of hearing from you, but from an unwillingness to add to your burthen, already too great, of correspondence with your friends. In the mean...
20To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 9 October 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your kind favor of the 8 th ult o was waiting for me here, & I received & read it with those feelings which I always experience in what comes from you. I am under real obligation for the manner in which you have allowed me to substitute the next summer for this fall. For independently of the full sufficiency I have had of locomotion for the present, another obstacle would have presented itself...
21To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 28 July 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I am thus far on my way to the land which I mentioned to you in a former letter; & having stopped here at an early hour to repose myself I make use of a part of the after noon to have the pleasure of writing to you. Hitherto I have travelled on what are called good roads, & yet I find myself much more fatigued than I had expected to be. It is true that the carriage which I hired at Utica, in...
22To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 12 May 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
If I could be induced by any means to attaching any value to any prophecy of mine, it would be the having led you to give me your foresight into futurity. Although I am willing to to take it with the prudent proviso which you annex to it, yet I value it most highly, as I have ever done what I have received from your for now near half a century. The ultramad ministers of France seem disposed to...
23To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 17 March 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Contrary to all precedent I have by me a letter from you which has remained for two months unanswered. I have been silent only because I feared to give you trouble. I know how laborious it is for you now to write—& I have always known how unwilling you were to employ an amanuesis. Yet I am not the less anxious to hear that you are perfectly restored to the use of your arm, & have retained your...
24To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 17 December 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Very soon after the departure of my last letter, I learned through the newspapers, the accident which had befallen you. I felt much anxiety on account of it notwithstanding these papers gave a favorable account of the turn which the disorder had taken. I wished much for more detail & for a more recent account, & was prevented from troubling you with a letter to that end, only from my...
25To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 12 November 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my return from my Canada expedition I have had the very sincere & great Pleasure of recieving your kind & friendly letter of the 19 th ul to I cannot express to you all the gratification it afforded me to learn from you that your health was perfectly re-established. I still bear a grudge against those waters & that noble bath to which I was before so partial. They made the first serious...
26William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 2 July 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
It has been a long time since I have had this pleasure. It was on the 5 th of Dec r in acknowlegement of your kind & friendly favor of the 24 th Nov r . I there agreeably to your request gave you some account of your old friend Charles Thompson . I have accidentally within a few days spoken with a gentleman who went to pass a day with him, & I availed myself of this to make further enquiry for...
27William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 5 December 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I return you a thousand thanks for your kind & friendly letter of the 24 th ult o . The details as to the state of your health I had been long wishing for—they are now doubly gratifying to me, as they inform me that you have so perfectly recovered from the only inroad I had ever known on your constitution. And this attack I percieve was brought on by an inattention to the sound maxim— il n’y a...
28William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 12 November 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
If I knew any other way less troublesome to you, of hearing of you & the state of your health, I would not intrude this letter on you, knowing, as I do, how much you are oppressed by correspondence. Since my return from a summer excursion of more than three months, I have enquired at different times of such of your friends here as were in the way of hearing from you, but there is not one that...
29William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 25 October 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I could hardly have thought it possible that a letter from you could have remained in my hands unacknowleged so long, as I find your last to be, which I have now before me. It is of the 4 th of August last , but was not recieved by me until the 23 d . I was then on the sea shore, whither I had fled from the heats of Philadelphia , in pursuit of cool air—As this is a retired part of the state...
30William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 29 June 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the pleasure of thanking you in part in my letter of May 2. for your most invaluable favor contained in yours of April . I say in part; for it would take more than one letter to contain the whole of my gratitude for this most acceptable mark of your friendship. I have read it over & over again; always with delight & instruction, & a renewed sense of my obligation to your amiable...
31William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 2 May 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the very sincere pleasure of recieving some days ago your kind favor of the 13 th ul to covering the syllabus. It has been a source to me of much gratification & instruction also. the subject has been always one on which I have postponed to aim at information, because I felt in limine the conviction that it was impossible to attain such a degree of certainty as would be satisfactory to...
32William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 27 March 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
It has been a long time indeed since I have had the pleasure of hearing from you, or of your health. Since my last of Dec: 1. I have remained betwixt the desire of writing to you & the fear of giving you trouble; knowing how much of this, the correspondence of your friends imposes on you. I remember well how independent you formerly kept yourself of an amanuensis. At present an aid of this...
33William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 1 December 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your kind, friendly & most instructive favor of Oct: 31. has been constantly under my eyes, & often read over, although I have until now postponed acknowleging & thanking you for it. I cannot tell you how much you have delighted me by making me so much better acquainted than I was, with the great & virtuous Philosopher of whom I have long considered myself, though unworthy, a disciple. Like...
34William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 21 October 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I had last the pleasure of writing to you on the 14 th of August , from Ballston Spa , my usual summer residence. The cause of my troubling you at present, you will find inclosed— a letter from our old & worthy friend de la Motte , which he sent to me with a request that I would forward it to you. I had remained several years without hearing from him; & I learn now with real pain, that the...
35William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 14 August 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your kind letter of July 1 . was rec d by me at Philadelphia , at the moment I was leaving the City. As you mentioned that you were at the same time setting out for Bedford , I percieved that I could without inconvenience postpone my answer until my arrival here—knowing that your letters are not sent after you to Bedford , but await your return to Monticello . The report which you mention...
36William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 22 June 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the pleasure of writing to you at some length on the 25 th ul to —& I would not give you this trouble now if I were certain that letter had reached your hands. But I have some apprehension that my servant may have been negligent in carrying that letter to the post-office, as I have lately heard that you were at Monticello & not at Bedford , as I had at first supposed, on not hearing from...
37William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 25 May 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I have deprived myself for a very long time of the pleasure of writing to you, as I know how much you are taxed by correspondence & how burthensome that tax is to you. This abstinence on my part has been a real sacrifice, & more especially since we have heard, through the newspapers, of the fire at Monticello . None of your friends here with whom I have spoken, know any thing more of it than...
38William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 12 December 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
My letter of the 17 th ul to will have informed you of the very great pleasure which yours of the 10 th gave me, & the relief which I recieved from it at the moment, on account of the anxiety under which I was as to your health. I feel now that I have need of a repetition of this anodyne—for since your letter of the 10 th of Nov r now more than a month, I have not heard of the progress of your...
39William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 17 November 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
In the long course of our acquaintance, & of my friendship & veneration for you, I do not recollect ever to have recieved a letter from you which has so much excited my sensibility, & at the same time given me so much pleasure as yours of the 10 th inst. —It is such a mark of your friendly recollection under such painful circumstances, & at the same time relieves me from so much sollicitude on...
40William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 11 May 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Knowing your present aversion to writing, & knowing also how much you are accablé by inevitable correspondence, I have abstained for some time from adding to this load. If I break in upon you at this moment it is because I am in search of information that I know not where to look for otherwise, & indeed which I can have no certainty of finding from you—If you recollect, among the articles...
41William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 12 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 14 th ul to was rec d here on the 24 th . As soon as I found from it that M r H. expected, & had a right to expect, I should execute the deed in question, I began the business. Yet it was not until today, that I have succeeded, after a third visit to the Mayor’s office, to obtain the point. It is a most disagreeable corveé to pass through this office—There is always a croud...
42William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 23 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
At On the 6 th inst: I wrote to you at M al Grouchy s request, to state his intention of being at Monticello about the 20 th — Since then I have seen M r Harris who informed me your intention was to go to
43William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 5 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return from my summer excursion I have found here Grouchy who is preparing to set out on his long intended visit to Monticello —He begs me to mention this to you, & to say with certainty that he will be there from the 18 th to the 20 th of this month. I mentioned to him the uncertainty of finding you as you might be in one of your Bedford excursions— but he says he reproaches himself...
44William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 4 July 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have not hastened to reply to your letter of June 19. because I saw that your departure for Bedford would prevent your recieving it until your return; & the present will reach Monticello at your debotter . I am sorry that M r H. should think any thing further, to be necessary for his safety; not, assuredly, that I am not willing to give him every satisfaction his caution can devise, but...
45William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 16 November 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Your kind letter of Octob: 14. was recieved here the 19 th the very day you fixed as that of your departure for Bedford to remain there until the 1 st of Dec:—I did not therefore attempt to answer it at the moment, as it would have remained at Monticello , until your return—And this I count will get there some time before you & recieve you at your debotter . I write thus early because I am...
46William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 18 July 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of May 5. is the last I have had the pleasure of recieving from you. It crossed on the road one I wrote to you of May 7. This last was to inclose to you, as agreed on with M r Higginbotham , his mortgage & last bond. I hope & take for granted they were recieved by you & that M r H. has disposed of them to his satisfaction. I am the more certain of this, as he would certainly have...
47William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 7 May 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
In consequence of an understanding between M r H : & myself, that I would inclose to you his bond & mortgage, when the payment was completed, I now take the liberty of inclosing his last bond & the mortgage — I have been informed by M r Gibson that he has recieved for me from the agent of M r H. at Richmond
48William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 23 April 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Your two favors of the 7 th & 9 th have come to my hands & I return you many thanks for them. I calculated from your letter that you would be absent until the early part of May, & therefore did not acknowlege its reciept immediately. This will be anterior to your return & will wait for you at Monticello , where I hope you will arrive at the time expected & in good health. You will find there...
49William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 5 January 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
In the course of the last summer I had the pleasure of recieving a letter from you in which you were so good as to mark the progress that the land affair had made towards a final termination. You then thought it was inevitable in the course of the autumn succeeding. And although appearances so far were not favorable to me, yet I wished the point to be settled on several accounts. Having not...
50William Short to Thomas Jefferson, 25 August 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Your kind letter of June 27. was in my absence taken up by my agent at Philadelphia & sent after me. I was then on a visit to the beautiful Lake, called by the French le lac du S t Sacrament & by their successors Lake George . The French showed their good taste in having chosen this to furnish them their holy water. Nothing can be more pure than it is. The fish there are worthy of being...