1From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 24 March 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
My grandson Th: J. Randolph the bearer of this letter is too well known to you to need a letter of introduction. he is going Northwdly on the business which was the subject of your kind letter of the 4 th . my unskilful stewardship of Agricultural property, and the interception of attention to it by imperious and higher duties have, in a course of 60 years much involved my capital. in our...
2From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 18 January 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 11 th is recieved. those of Nov. 2. and Dec. 14. had been so in due time. I suppose I had not acknoleged them specifically from being perhaps too lazy to recur to them while writing mine of the 3 d I thank you for your information from mr Boyé and shall desire the instruments to remain in their present position until I can find a safe and gentle conveyance and give an order for...
3From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 3 January 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
I am about to ask a friendly office of you which I hope will give you no other trouble than to change the direction of one of your daily walks. a mr Boyé, a Danish Mathematician was engaged in a survey to make a map of Virginia. I lent him a fine Borda’s Circle of reflection 2. or 3. years ago and my best telescope. he has ceased to have occasion for them a year or two. he is now in Philada...
4From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 15 November 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter of Oct. 14. I gave you an account of the riot we had had at the University, and of it’s termination. you will however be anxious to know how it has gone off finally. with the best effects possible. having let it be understood, from the beginning. that we wished to trust very much to the discretion of the Students themselves for their own government, with about four fifths of them...
5From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 14 October 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Octob.—has been duly recieved. the information which I have given you from time to time has kept you truly informed of the state of our University. it behoves me then also to mention to you a serious incident which has just taken place there; and the rather as, of the thousand versions which will be given, not one will be true. my position enables me to say what is so, but with...
6From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 9 August 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I am still a debtor for your letter of June 27. my health is some excuse, but not quite a sufficient one, because I have sometimes written to others not having an equal claim on my affections. my present indisposition, altho’ it began with strangury, as I mentioned to you, had become a more serious one of the general class of Dysury. an affection of the bladder and prostate gland has confined...
7From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 4 April 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Knowing the interest you take in the progress of our University, I will now undertake to give you some account of it; and it is not till now that any thing definitive could have been communicated. The selection of Professors from Europe has been most judiciously made. they are 5. in number, most of them a little under or over 30. years of age, one only being something over 40. of the highest...
8From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 8 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I returned the 1 st vol. of Hall by a mail of a week ago and by this shall return the 2 d we have kept them long; but every member of the family wished to read his book, in which case you know it had a long guantlet to run. It is impossible to read thoroughly such writings as those of Harper and Otis, who take a page to say what requires but a sentence, or rather who give you whole pages of...
9From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 9 November 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve your letter of the 2 d while La Fayette is with us. our county has recieved him as handsomely as their limited means permitted. among the toasts they drank ‘a gratitude which ends not in words.’ and I think sentiment is taking in other states. the President will also give a hint on which Congress will be led to take up the subject.—M de L’Epinay is safely recieved. Hall’s book is...
10From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 17 May 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday your favor of the 10 th instant. as soon as the vote of invitation to M. de la Fayette had passed one house, and was likely to pass the other, I wrote to the President, and to a member or two of Congress, expressing my confidence that they could not mean merely to invite him to come and dine; suggesting the scantiness of his means of meeting expence, and the necessity of a...
11From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 10 April 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Mar. 29. is duly recieved, and I learn from it with great gratification that we are at length to have the happiness of meeting once more. I shall visit Bedford in the months of May & June, and if you do not set out on your journey till July, you will assuredly find me here, and happy to recieve you. there are three stages a week from Richmond to Charlottesville, which will give...
12From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 8 September 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of July 28. from Avon came to hand on the 10 th of August and I have delayed answering it on the presumption of your continued absence. but the approach of the season of frost in that region has probably, before this time, turned you about to the South. I readily concieve that, by the time of your return to Philadelphia, you will have had travelling enough for the present, and...
13From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 28 March 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
From your letter of prophecies I too have caught the spirit of prophecy: for who can withold looking into futurity, on events which are to change the face of the world, and the condition of man throughout it, without indulging himself in the effusions of the holy spirit of Delphos? I may do it the more safely as, to my vaticinations, I always subjoin the Proviso ‘that nothing unexpected happen...
14From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 29 December 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your favor of the 17 th with it’s kind enquiries as to the state in which my late accident has placed me. the fracture was of the most favorable character, of the smaller bone of the left fore-arm, without, as is still hoped, deranging those of the wrist. it was promptly and well set by a skilful surgeon, has been constantly doing well, without incurring any accident, and...
15From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 19 October 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I have waited for a frost to announce to me your return to winter quarters; and altho’ we have as yet had none here, I presume they must have reached you, in their advance towards us, by this time, and that I may now acknolege your letter written on your departure for Canada. altho’ that trip disappointed us of the expected visit to your native state, yet I hold on to the promise, as a thing...
16Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 24 November 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Your welcome favor of the 12 th came to hand two days ago. I was just returned from Poplar Forest which I have visited four times this year. I have an excellent house there, inferior only to Monticello , am comfortably fixed and attended, have a few good neighbors, and pass my time there in a tranquility and retirement much adapted to my age and indolence. you so kindly ask an explanation of...
17Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 4 August 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I owe you a letter for your favor of June 29. which was recieved in due time, and there being no subject of the day of particular interest I will make this a supplement to mine of Apr. 13. my aim in that was to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions of his pseudo-followers which have exposed him to the inference of being an imp o stor, for if we could believe that he really...
18Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 13 April 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Mar. 27. is recieved, and my grandaughter Ellen has undertaken to copy the Syllabus, which will therefore be inclosed. it was originally written to D r Rush . on his death, fearing that the inquisition of the public might get hold of it, I asked the return of it from the family, which they kindly complied with . at the request of another friend , I had given him a copy . he lent...
19Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 31 October 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 21 st is recieved. my late illness, in which you are so kind as to feel an interest was produced by a spasmodic stricture of the ilium, which came upon me on the 7 th inst. the crisis was short, passed over favorably on the 4 th day, and I should soon have been well but that a dose of calomel & Jalap, in which were only 8. or 9. grains of the former brought on a salivation....
20Thomas Jefferson to William Short, [29] June 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of June 22. is recieved. that of May 25. had come to hand in due time, and was in my bundle of ‘Letters to be answered’ but as I am obliged to marshal them according to their degree of pressure I had not yet reached it, altho’ I devote to that business daily from sunrise to dinner, saving one hour to ride, and generally from dinner to sun set. on the subject of the Anatomist and...
21Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 21 December 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
The messenger who carried yesterday to the Post-office a copy of our University Report which I put under cover to you, brought in return your favor of the 12 th and it’s kind enquiries after my health. a single Bulletin now suffices on that subject, as I find my health and strength quite restored; for altho some effects of the waters are still sensible, they are wearing off so steadily that I...
22Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 10 November 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Altho’ become averse to the taking up my pen, I cannot suffer myself to be entirely forgotten by my friends, and therefore must occasionally recall myself to their recollection. I am just now recovering from an illness of three months, not yet having left the house, altho I hope within a few days to be able to do so. abandoning all attention to the march of the political machine the only thing...
23Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 29 May 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
On the reciept of your favor of the 11 th (which did not come to hand till the 23 d ) I proceeded to examine my papers as to the information they might give you on the subject of your Green sea lands. the result I now send you, to wit, my original letter to Col o Newton , his answer, and an entry in my pocket Memorandum book which I found under the date of Nov. 21. 99 . I am not able to say...
24Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 14 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved two days ago your favor of the 5 th and shall be very happy to see Marshal Grouchy here. I have never considered him as a personal Bonapartiste; or as an approver of the crimes or of the usurped power of Bonaparte . like many other good men, their country after a long sufferance under the most afflicting calamities having settled down into a certain order, they were unwilling to...
25Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 19 June 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Higginbotham having mortgaged to you the lands he purchased as a security for the paiments stipulated, & those payments being made, he thinks there should be a release of the mortgage on your part, for which purpose I inclose you an instrument with a note of the manner of acknolegement. My letters from France inform me of the death of the Abbé Rochon , and that of his daughter a few hours...
26Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 14 October 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
A circumstance has occurred here which will occasion a drawback of about 30.D. in mr Higgenbotham ’s last payment to you. a law was past here some 2. or 3. years ago subjecting lands to be sold for any payment of taxes uncredited on the sheriffs books without limitation of time, unless the party could produce proof of payment; and 10. p.c. interest required from the date. the ex and no notice...
27Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 10 August 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 18 th ult. after loitering unaccountably on the road, reached my hands on the eve of a visit to the President from whose seat therefore the present is written. I am much gratified by the prospect you hold up to me of a visit from Marshal Grouchy and Gen l Clausel ; and the pleasure will be heightened should the country thro’ which they will pass, and the people whom they will...
28Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 5 May 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return, the day before yesterday, I found here your favor of Apr. 23. and answer without delay the remaining question on your affair with with mr Carter . the last payment I made him for you was by a draught of Aug. 2 3. 1795 . for 524.83 D the exact balance for the lands after the ascertainment of their contents by actual survey. consequently, in this was included the overpayment now to...
29Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 9 April 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Th:J. to W. Short. The inclosed was omitted by accident to be forwarded to you in my last. it is a necessary document for you in your settlement with mr Carter . I salute you ever and affectionately. P. S. I send also mr Carter ’s letter shewing he had agreed to pay what he recieved & interest. RC ( ViW: TJP ); dateline adjacent to postscript; endorsed by Short as received 15 Apr. Enclosure:...
30Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 7 April 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege your favor of Mar. 14. and will answer it’s several enquiries. le mot de l’enigme as to the boundary of the land is that Monroe ’s land lies North of yours. you must recollect on being reminded that your land adjoined Blenheim , Monroe ’s joined Colle and my lands. mr Carter not being considered as a party direct, and having formerly shewn no disposition to attend...
31Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 28 February 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Having procured an appointment for the 21 st inst. the Surveyor , arbitrators, parties (by their agents) and witnesses met. the forenoon was showery but the difficulty & uncertainty of all collecting again from different parts of the county induced all to go thro’ the work. the Surveyor run the lines, and instead of something less than 30. a s as had been conjectured, he found them to contain...
32Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 15 January 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Of the last 5 months, 4 have been past at Poplar Forest where I am engaged in improvements requiring much of my presence. while there no letters are forwarded to me, the cross post being very circuitous. they are accumulating here during my absence, and on my return are pressing for answers. as soon after my last return as my progress in this corvée afforded me the prospect of a day to spare,...
33Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 27 June 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
We are unlucky in our endeavors to procure a settlement of your boundary. immediately on the arrival of Col o Monroe , I proposed to him a settlement. he was as anxious to have it as I was and we appointed the day after the morrow. mr Dawson one of the most probe and respectable men of our neighborhood, and Col o Isaac Coles , who happened to be at Monticello met us as arbitrators, and old mr...
34Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 15 May 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 3 d finds me just on my departure for Bedford , and I return you therefore the paper you inclosed me, without delay. to the fact of the want of time I will further add that no person on earth would more willingly than myself do whatever was within my power to reward with the honors they have merited our naval heroes, for the respect which their heroism has procured for our...
35Enclosure: Order on United States Treasury, 18 April 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
J. B. 4 870 Pay to W m S. or order 10,500 D. in part of the sum of 23,950 D. appropr d by the act of Congr. for the purchase of my library as advised in my lre
36Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 18 April 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
The departure of the post and my distance from the office leave me barely time to acknolege the reciept of your favor of the 4 th inst. and to inclose you an order on the Treasury of the US. for 10,500 D. which, I believe, is a little over the amount of my three bonds with the interest. this however you will ascertain by calculation, and if there be a surplus, be so good as to put it into the...
37Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 25 March 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I was waiting to write to you on the subject of my bonds only until I could recieve an answer to a letter I had written enquiring the footing on which treasury notes could be recieved. here they are eagerly recieved at par and the interest, while no one will recieve a bank note but for the purposes of the moment. I speak of the country people, and not of the banking cabals. your letter...
38Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 28 November 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of Oct. 28. came to hand on the 15 th inst. only. the settlement of your boundary with Col o Monroe is protracted by circumstances which seem foreign to it. one would hardly have expected that the hostile expedition to Washington could have had any connection with an operation 100. miles distant. yet, preventing his attendance, nothing could be done. I am satisfied there is no...
39Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 20 August 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my short letter by mr Rives I have to acknolege the reciept of your two favors of June 9. & July 30 . a few days before the last came to hand I had written to Col o Monroe & prayed him to name a day in the autumn (when the fall of the leaves shall have rendered a survey in the woods practicable) and to procure an engagement from Champe Carter
40Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 17 May 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer mr Rives , the son of one of our wealthiest citizens and of the neighboring county of Amherst , is an eleve of mine in law & politics. before he commences practice he wishes to visit the country North of us. an honester, abler, or better informed man could not be presented to you. make him sensible of my high estimation of him by the kind offices which you as my friend may render...
41Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 26 March 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter of Feb. 23. I desired you to send me mr Higginbotham ’s rent-note, as well as his bond. but the bond happened to be on the way at the time, and expecting that on the reciept of my letter you would send on the rent note also, I kept up the bond to deliver both together. two days ago however I recieved the inclosed not e from mr Higgenbotham , by which it appears the rent is paid. I...
42Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 23 February 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I am first to thank you for the indulgences of yours of Feb. 6. I believe that by the combined effects of blockade embargo and drought, I have suffered more than any other individual. the two former would but have left me where I was, but the last threw me back by forcing me to buy a year’s subsistence for my whole family.— on the reciept of your letter I saw mr Higgenbotham and stated to him...
43Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 28 January 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I scarcely ever sat down to write a more painful letter than the present. when in Oct. 1812. I proposed to become the payer of a part of mr Higginbotham ’s purchase of you, at that time expected to be of 1800. three paiments of 1800. or 2000.D. each, I gave you a particular statement of my resources, than which nothing could be more true. I have since that sowed regularly 800. bushels of wheat...
44Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 9 November 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
You have heretofore been apprised of a claim of Col o Monroe to a corner of your tract of land on the top of the mountain, which he supposes included within the lines of his prior deed. some years ago he mentioned this to me; but as mr Carter had conducted your survey in person, I imagined Col o Monroe had been illy informed, and as he never repeated the thing to me, I presumed he had become...
45Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 18 June 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 2 d is recieved, and a copy of Higgenbotham’s mortgage is now inclosed. the journey to Bedford which I proposed in my last, my engagements here have obliged me to postpone till after harvest which is now approaching; it is the most unpromising one I have seen. we have been some days in expectation of seeing M. Correa. if he is on the road, he has had some days of our very hottest...
46Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 30 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I returned from Bedford on the 15 th inst. and have been in the hope of having the pleasure of seeing M r Correa here; but begin now to fear his visit to Washington might have been too early in the month to be protracted until the time I had noted to you for my return. should this circumstance deprive me ultimately of the pleasure of seeing him it will be a subject of lasting regret. it is so...
47Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 25 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Feb. 16. remains still I believe to be acknoleged. as I did not go to the court succeeding it’s reciept myself, I delivered your deed to mr Higginbotham and his mortgage to you, to himself on his way to court to have both recorded, which cannot fail to have been done; but shall be the subject of more special enquiry, mr Carter’s negligence having taught me to take nothing for...
48Enclosure: Bond from David Higginbotham to William Short, 31 January 1813 [due 1813] (Jefferson Papers)
2226 ⅔ D Know all men by these presents that I, David Higginbotham of the county of Albemarle and state of Virginia , am held and firmly bound unto William Short of the city of Philadelphia and state of Pensylvania in the sum of two thousand two hundred and twenty six Dollars & two thirds of the weight and fineness of those of the present standard of the United States , to be paid to the sd...
49Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 10 February 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your patience has been put to the proof, and yet I have not been one moment in default. in my letter of Dec. 26. soon after my return from Bedford , I promised as soon as I had got thro’ the answering letters E t c accumulated during my absence, your affair should be taken up. the Corvée of letter-writing was finished about the 13 th of Jan. and I immediately set in to the preparation of your...
50Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 26 December 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I am just returned from Bedford and find here your favor of Nov. 29 . as an object which needs no delay I send you the 1 st vol. of the Memoires . the 2 d shall follow by the next post. I use this precaution, not to appear to burthen a single mail unreasonably, and I ask the same attention from you on their return. M r Higginbotham’s matter shall be attended to the moment I get through the...