1To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Priestley, 7 May 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I have now to acknowledge the receipt of two of your valuable letters , one of them directed to me at Philadelphia, and the other to this place. They give me the more pleasure as I perceive by them that you are not so much occupied by public business, but that you are at leisure for speculation of a different and higher nature, and that you do not think unfavourably of my late tract on the...
2To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Priestley, 23 June 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
Having a good opportunity of getting a letter conveyed to you, I make use of it to inform you, that a short time, as I thought, before the rising of Congress, I sent you some thoughts on the subject of the College , which you were so obliging as to request of me, but that I doubt whether my letter came to your hands. I shall be happy if my ideas in any measure meet with your approbation....
3To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Priestley, 30 January 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I am flattered by your thinking so favourably of my pamphlets , which were only calculated to give some satisfaction to my suspicious neighbors. Chancellor Livingston informs me that he has got an edition of them printed at Albany , for the information of the people in the back country, where, he says, it is much wanted. Indeed, it seems extraordinary, that in such a country as this, where...
4To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Priestley, 8 May 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose my Thoughts on the subject you did me the honour to propose to me. Your own better judgment will decide concerning their value, or their fitness for the circumstances of your College. This may require a very different distribution of the business from that which I here recommend. I thank you for your care to transmit a copy of my work to Bp Madison . He, as well as many others,...
5To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Priestley, 29 October 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
As there are some particulars in a letter I have lately received from Mr Stone at Paris which I think it will give you pleasure to know, and Mr Cooper has been so obliging as to transcribe them for me, I take the liberty to send them, along with a copy of my Dedication , with the correction that you suggested, and a Note from the letter with which you favoured me concerning what you did with...
6To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Priestley, 12 June 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I hope you will excuse my request to dedicate to you one of the works of which you will find some account in the printed Prospectus, which I take the liberty to inclose, in order to shew you the extent of my views, and my wishes, in this world. I have never gone beyond the bounds of what I thought the strict truth in any dedication that I have written, and I am confident I have not in this....
7To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Priestley, 12 December 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I take the liberty to send you a second defence of my pamphlet about Socrates , in the 16th page of which you will find, that I have undertaken the task you were pleased to recommend to me. On giving more attention to it, I found, as the fox did with respect to the lion, that my apprehensions entirely vanished. Indeed, I have already accomplished a considerable part of the work, and in about a...
8To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Priestley, 10 April 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Your kind letter , which, considering the numerous engagements incident to your situation, I had no right to expect, was highly gratifying to me, and I take the first opportunity of acknowledging it. For tho I believe I am completely recovered from my late illness, I am advised to write as little as possible. Your invitation to pay you a visit is flattering to me in the highest degree, and I...
9To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Priestley, 25 June 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
As you were pleased to think favourably of my pamphlet intitled Socrates and Jesus compared , I take the liberty to send you a defence of it. My principal object, you will perceive, was to lay hold of the opportunity, given me by Mr. Blair Linn , to excite some attention to doctrines which I consider as of peculiar importance in the christian system, and which I do not find to have been...
10Enclosure: Thoughts on Education, 8 May 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
Hints concerning Public Education. Persons educated at public seminaries are of two classes. One is that of professional men, as physicians and divines, who are to be qualified for entering upon their professions immediately after leaving the college or university. The other is that of gentlemen, and those who are designed for offices of civil and active life. The former must be minutely...
11To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Priestly [on or before 12 June 1802] (Jefferson Papers)
My high respect for your character, as a politician, and a man, makes me desirous of connecting my name in some measure with yours while it is in my power, by means of some publication, to do it. The first part of this work, which brought the history to the fall of the western empire, was dedicated to a zealous friend of civil and religious liberty, but in a private station. What he, or any...