1William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 17 August 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
I have had the satisfaction to receive your very kind letter of the 12 instant . It is singular enough that I should have before me at the moment, a history of England in 4to, which I take to be the same which you mention. Several years ago you mentioned the same book to me, and through M r G. Erving then in London I obtained the book before me. Having just completed my Military Dictionary...
2William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 16 July 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
A desire to be preserved in your remembrance has often led me to the verge of writing to you, but knowing with what anxiety you retired from political concerns and the disgust you must naturally have felt at the recollection of the baseness you have seen and the unworthiness which prevails too much in all kinds of affairs, I preferred rather to trust to the ordinary incidents of my situation...
3William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 20 September 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I should not have troubled your retirement upon political subjects had not there been a rumor for some days that you had consented to accept the station of Sec y of State in the present Crisis, and that Mr. Monroe was to assume the War Department ; I must confess I feared it was too good news to be true, but I cannot refrain from expressing a wish that if you could consistently with your...
4William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 17 July 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I should have answered your obliging letter of the 20 th April , had my mind not been kept in agitation by the pressure which I began to feel heavily in consequence of my opposition to the U. S. Bank , and which although I have in effect surmounted, has left me like a man after a severe disease, with an unusual degree of debility. I had read your admirable work on the batture before I was...
5William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 14 February 1813 [postscript, 9 March 1813] (Jefferson Papers)
I could not before this day find an opportunity undisturbed to answer yours of the 22 d ult . Never having been much of a pecuniary calculator, it is absolutely out of my power to say how my account with the Review of Montesquieu stands. When pressed hard last year by the combination of one set of old friends and the desertion of the rest, I found in the sacrifice of a considerable number of...
6William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 25 January 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just received yours of the 18 th and the copy accompanying it —you will be good enough never to attribute my not writing immediately to want of respect or to indifference—my avocations are so many and the pressure of them so constant, that it requires some dexterity to get thro’ them. I shall now explain the hastiness of the last sheets—you will perceive they are all transcribed by...
7William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 26 September 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I have the pleasure of receiving yours of the 18 th this day—the work of Tracy , is going forward but slowly, as I cannot devote from my present engagements the time I should wish to see it pushed forward. I have put it in the hands of one of Neef’s assistants, a sensible and liberal young man ; and Neef is able to render the abstruseness of Tracy’s metaphysis a little more comprehensible than...
8William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 5 July 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
By the Mail of this day, I forward you a single copy of the Review of Montesquieu , I hope you will find it executed in a style of neatness not discreditable to the work nor to the American press. By printing it on a larger type and a smaller page, it might have been made a large volume, but I believe it will be considered as preferable in its present form by those who prefer a book for its...
9William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 15 March 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just received the last packet of the Manuscript—but it appears as if I was doomed to be the sport and the victim of my faithful adherence to those principles which that work so admirably illustrates. I should not invade your merited repose and happiness, with any complaints of mine, were it not necessary to account to you for the suspension of the work even after it had been begun. I...
10William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 29 October 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just received the returned parcel of Manuscript my motive for sending you the translation in the first instance was that you might judge and if you had leisure correct to your mind—my intention is to send you on the Manuscript as fast as translated and I can transcribe it; I am not perfectly satisfied myself y with the manner of the translation; it is very difficult unless to a person...