1Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 15 April 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
M. Leshot found me yet confined to my bed; he gave me 125 Dlrs, and by the time he returns from New York , I shall in all probability be enabled to procure the Stoves. Mr Slack goes tomorrow to Norfolk & thence to Charlottesville . As to the Seal, I must wait till I can get up, and procure a classic drawing of the Peplon. The Peace Minerva, I believe has wings to her helmet. I know of no...
2Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 13 September 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote to you at the Bedford Springs of this State , supposing from what I saw in the newspapers, you might be there. The castings are at last furnished. J. Vaughan has undertaken to forward them according to your directions. The seal is done; & the impression sent to you, which as soon as it receives your approbation I will pay for, as I shall for the castings, when the account is sent to...
3Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 6 December 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 25 Nov. arrived here to day. Your letter mentioning that the apartments and pavilion would be ready so as to enable me to go to Charlottesville by Midsummer, I do not recollect to have received. I understood the apartments for a classical tutor would be ready in the Spring of 1818; but that my services would not be required till the Spring of 1819. My great objection to...
4To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Cooper, 20 November 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I am much obliged to you for your letter. Our town here is crouded with Presbyterian parsons; they are a systematic and persevering sect, and while they have the address to cajole the people out of their money, their power will encrease. he who has any regard for the peace of himself & his family can venture to stem this tide of fanaticism? About 20 Years hence the prevailing sect among the...
5To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Cooper, 18 October 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I spent the three months of vacation at this College, in an excursion to various parts of the State of Pennsylvania, chiefly for the purpose of attending to some land concerns in which I am interested. I write to you now, for the purpose of giving you some idea of the progress of fanatacism, which I could not have figured to myself if I had not had the advantage of extensive personal...
6Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 5 January 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I received a printed copy of your report , for which I thank you. It will serve to furnish more enlarged and more just ideas on the subject of education, than your countrymen have been accustomed to. I rejoice in the prospect of their being put in execution, whether I take any or no part in the Institution to be founded on them. I have been enquiring for workmen as you desired, and I send you...
7Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 18 April 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Ware is absent from Philadelphia I find, in order to take the benefit of the Insolvent Law in Delaware State . A respectable looking Quaker, a M r James has been twice with me, and appears to be a relation much interested in Ware ’s welfare. The result of the conversations is as follows. Ware will thankfully accept the terms you propose as to prices, which he considers as liberal. There...
8Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 24 June 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
D r Coxe ’s election comes on the first Tuesday of next month. They talk of deferring the election for chemical professor to the first Tuesday in September. I am not sufficiently instructed to know the causes of this inconvenient determination. I send you, ad interim , a Syllabus of lectures of which I have delivered two courses. They have produced very complimentary letters of approbation...
9To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Cooper, 18 May 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
I congratulate you, on the proper feeling for your long life of meritorious service that seems to pervade every part of our country, and I anticipate from it, in every way, a result such as your friends would wish, and ought to expect. May the attachment of your fellow citizens render the close of your useful life, equally comfortable and honourable. I should not trouble you now with a letter,...
10To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Cooper, 12 March 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I sent you last winter two printed copies of the report of the legislative committee on the affairs of the College, unanimously adopted by the house. I sent them, because every public testimony in my favour, tends to justify your former kind recommendation of me to the Visitors of your University. I hope that report will serve as sufficient proof that you were not mistaken, the clergy...
11To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Cooper, 15 April 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I was exceeding glad to receive one more letter from without expecting it, and I rejoice to find that you are yet capable of exertion. I send you my Pamphlet on Consolidation in opposition the prevailing heresy of the General Welfare, & also my petition for the restoration of my fine imposed under the Sedition Law. You are not many years distant from the inevitable separation we must all...
12Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 10 February 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
M rs Cooper writes to me that no letter has been received from you since my departure from Philadelphia , and desires to know whether she is to set out with her family to Virginia in the beginning of the Summer or sooner. My first course here, will end in June. my second will occupy four months of the next winter, when I shall quit this situation for Charlotte’sville If I am wanted there....
13To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Cooper, 17 March 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I hope you have received about this time, a copy of my tract on Materialism which I ordered to be sent to you when printed from Philadelphia. I sent you some time ago a third edition of my tract on The Tariff. I see with infinite regret the ignorance or the cowardice of each of the Presidential Candidates on this Question: not one of them dares come out boldly on the one side or on the other...
14Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 17 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
my letter to you respecting Williamsburgh was put in the post before I rec d yours . The Professorship which you do me the honour to propose is yet in the distance. I long to be settled somewhere, almost any where, provided I move to pecuniary advantage; for having the common motive of a family to provide for, I must act on that motive. I have written to Varro at Frankfort . When I am prepared...
15Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 18 September 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I am very sorry to hear of your weak state of health, but I hope to find you better by the comforts of home and rest. M. Correa ’s carriage has undergone repairs, and will not be fit for use till Sunday morning when we propose to set out. I suppose it will require seven days to bring us to Montecello . M rs Cooper declines being of the Party. I defer all further communication, till I have the...
16To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Cooper, 27 December 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I am much obliged by your kind letter, and I would willingly pursue your advice if I could, by publishing the sequel to the tract I sent you, and which I think conclusive of the question. But the publisher of the tract you have refused to put his name to it as printer, and refused to sell it. I dare not give away any copies; the whole impression is in my library. I have sent one copy to...
17Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 26 August 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I write now in reply to yours from the warm Springs, of the 7 th Instant . D r Patterson is not chosen Chemical Professor, nor do I think he will be. The election does not take place till the first day of September . The event you shall be informed of, without delay. If I should not succeed (a very possible case) M. Correa , M rs Cooper and myself, set out forthwith for Charlotteville . She is...
18Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 8 September 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr Vaughan cut the inclosed out of a Carolina Paper that came here yesterday. I suppose it must have been of date about the last of last month. I understand there have been no cases of sickness but among the irish who work on the Canal. I am with great respect RC ( MHi ); endorsed by TJ as received 24 Sept. 1820 and so recorded in SJL . Enclosure: clipping, pasted at foot of text, from the...
19Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 23 June 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you the account of our collegiate Studies, which the Trustees have directed to be published. It does not meet my full concurrence, but under all circumstances, it is very well. I much doubt if there is a better appointed Institution in the United States than this. Our mathematical professor , with great modesty, and great industry in teaching, ranks with Bowditch , Audraine & Nulty ;...
20Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 24 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I feel myself much flattered by the kind offer of the Visitors of the College near Charlotte’s ville ; and have waited a very few days only to determine what course I ought to pursue. I have also been in pursuit of a M r Slack who was for a short time a classical tutor at Carlisle , and who I find has since been in the same capacity at Lynchburgh . I thought well of him. He was in town a few...
21Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 3 October 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I put in writing what I have to observe, respecting the College at Charlottesville , because I think you will prefer having my remarks so stated, to any recollection of them. I am not at Liberty to consult my Inclination alone: duty to my family, requires that I should attend to their Interest; and to those proposals which are most likely to promote it. I presume, nothing can be permanently...
22To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Cooper, 18 June 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Foreseeing an approaching storm, I wrote to you, on the chance of being able to find shelter against its effects; but I have expressed myself in my letter to you not so clearly as I ought. I am fully of your opinion, that those who govern your University neither can or ought to give countenance to any rival establishment public or private in its neighbourhood. My views were these: It is...
23Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 3 September 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
M. Correa and I will set out about the 16 th . He will have to stay 2 or 3 days in Washington : we then set off for your Place. In mean time, I think the present opportunity afforded us by Hare ’s election ought not to be lost; but the moment should be taken to appeal to the Parents in Virginia , on the strange infatuation of sending their children to be educated here, when they could have...
24Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 11 April 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
When you wrote to me concerning the advertisements and the Stoves, I was greatly oppressed with a cold and fever which prevented me from going about to look out for patterns. I put the advertisement three times at a week’s interval in the Democratic Press, and in like manner in Poulson’s daily advertiser. A fortnight ago dating from yesterday, I was attacked with pleurisy which has confined me...
25Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 21 March 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I received yours of the 8 th yesterday. The contents greatly chagrined me, as it is on every account to be regretted that your Institution cannot go into operation till 1822; and even that period is contingent. I was right in the commencement of our correspondence on this subject, in taking into my calculations the chapter of accidents. I shall request M r Vaughan to transmit you a draught not...
26To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Cooper, 21 December 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I understand the inclosed report was adopted by the House of R. this morning. There has been every possible effort made on the part of the Presbyterian and Baptist clergy to put down this College, by denouncing it under my care, as the seat of infidelity and tyranny. The report propagated by them throughout this state, North Carolina, and (as M r Preston tells me) Virginia, were, that this...
27Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 6 October 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I was a little surprized yesterday, when M. Correa congratulated me on having agreed to come to Charlottesville . This is one of the mistakes so often arising from making a contract, matter of conversation, instead of writing. Therefore, I take the opportunity of the first post-town, to set it right. I was tempted to say, that if the permanent salary were 1500 in lieu of 1000 dollars, I would...
28Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 20 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I feel myself greatly obliged and much gratified by the kind and liberal conduct of the Governors of your Institution in my case. In truth, having from the age of twenty to fifty laboured almost exclusively for the public, I find it absolutely necessary to labour now for my family, which forms if not the only the strongest motive to exertion with me now; and I must for their sake, use the few...
29Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 30 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I regret that it is not in my power to visit you this Season. I am not only busy preparing for my lectures ( a course of mineralogy and another of Chemistry) but I have undertaken to correct the press for M r Wirt ’s life of Patr. Henry of which about 100 pages are printed. M r Sanders of Williamsburgh called on a friend of mine here, wishing to see me on the Subject of the Coll e ge
30Thomas Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, 24 April 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I received your letter announcing the prejudices excited among the people by the Clergy, without surprize. I have never published any thing on theological subjects in this country, but the Sentiments you may have read in my review of D r Priestley ’s philosophical & metaphysical writings. In England about 35 Years ago , I published something of the same kind, but neither here or there, any...