1From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 2 March 1825 (Adams Papers)
I have transmitted your letter to Mr Adams but in total despair of success. The heads of Department are jealous of the interference of the President in the appointment of their clerks. I never could get in one clerk into any office during the whole of my administration. You must apply to the heads of Departments if you have any hopes of success. The Representatives from N. York will probably...
2From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 29 December 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have delivered the Copy of your Gazetteer of New York, intended for the American Accademy of Arts and Sciences, into the hand of The Hon. Josiah Quincy, their corresponding Secretary; and the Volume for The Emperor of Russia and that for J. Q. Adams to Mr Geyer to be taken to St Petersburg by Mr Ingraham who Sails from New York in a Cartel for England and thence to Russia. My Letters and...
3From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 7 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received by the Mail your friendly Letter of 8 Mo. 31. with your Gazetteer of the State of New York. Although I have not the pleasure of a personal Acquaintance; my thanks are not the less but the more due to You for your kind Attention and valuable present. Your Work, as it is a monument of industrious research and indefatigable labour in collecting information concerning the important...
4From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 4 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
My Son is probably in England: but I have no Letter from him later than the 21. March, then at Paris in the Center of the curious Revolution. Charles 12th of Sweden, at Bender had a fracas with the Turks, in which he exerted his personal Strength and desperate Valour. When the Affray was over, an officer complemented him, as he thought, by saying “I am told you Majesty killed a dozen...
5From James Madison to Horatio Gates Spafford, 21 August 1825 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. with your friendly letter of the 29th ult: the little volume now returned to which it refers; and I thank you for the kind feelings with which you recommend the perusal of it. I am too old to enter the wide field which the subject of the work opens for investigation. Mr. Jefferson is still older, and very infirm also. You have time enough before you to re-examine adopted opinions,...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates Spafford, 1 May 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Apr. 8. has been recieved. the gazetteer you are so kind as to propose sending to me may come safely by mail, and I return you, by anticipn, my thanks for this attention. my reading now is for amusement rather than instruction in the wane of body cannot be unattended with that of the mind. extreme debility has obliged me to retire from all other business, and the only serious...
7From James Madison to Horatio Gates Spafford, 23 March 1825 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the 8th. instant. It can not be doubted that such a pocket Companion as you have projected would be acceptable to Travellers & Tourists: and I wish the result of the publication may be in every respect satisfactory to you. I am sorry I cannot aid you wth. the information you desire with respect to the Mineral Springs in this State; being without the requisite...
8From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 26 April 1824 (Adams Papers)
You have always been too good to me & I regret that I have never been able to make you any returns, your last favor to me is the most gratify in g of all because it shows that your kindness to me is not extinct, In answer to your question you may undoubtedly send any volume to me by mail free of expence, I shall be happy to receive it, though I cannot read it, I may have some of it read to me...
9From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 16 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
Your Ambition to Spread information of the growing prosperity of your country is amiable and deserves encouragement. The Safest conveyance of your Work, to the Emperors of France and Russia, would be through their Ambassadors to The President of The U.S. The Correspondence between my Family and my Son which was always interupted under brittish Orders or french Edicts, has been wholly Stopped,...
10From James Madison to Horatio Gates Spafford, 1 May 1824 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of Apl 4. on the subject of your Work just published. I am at a loss what to suggest as to the mode of transmitting it. If you can find a conveyance to Mr. Cutts 2d. Comptroller at Washington, he will be able to forward it thence. I will endeavor to remit thro’ the same channel the price of the volume. It is not easy to obtain a note of so small an amount, nor...
11From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates Spafford, 2 July 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I had recieved the copy of your gazetteer which you were so kind as to send me, and was about returning my thanks when your letter of June 18 came to hand. I have now to add to my own acknolegements those on behalf of the institution to which you wish the volume consigned. it shall accdly have a place in it’s library as soon as we can commence the formation of one. it is the disposition the...
12From James Madison to Horatio Gates Spafford, 5 December 1822 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the 25. Ult: in which you state your discovery of a process which gives a greater purity & cheapness to Steel & Iron than any yet known. Iron is the metal and even the article which has been justly considered as causing more than any other, the civil[iz]ation & increase of the human race. Every improvement therefore in the preparation & uses of it has been deemed a...
13From James Madison to Horatio Gates Spafford, 16 April 1822 (Madison Papers)
I have but just recd. your letter of March 15th. I wish you success in your new Edition of the Geographical Dictionary for N. York; as I do in the other literary tasks you have in hand, and in petto. I am not enough acquainted with our Booksellers and Printers to judge how far a Gazetteer for this State on the plan & terms you suggest would be espoused by them. A survey of the State is now on...
14From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 26 July 1816 (Adams Papers)
I thank thee, for thy kind congratulations on my Health. There is no Man who wishes the return of my Son So much as myself. But whenever he returns it will puzzle him, as much as it did his Father, to know what to do with himself. It may also Somewhat perplex his Country: but She will give herself very little trouble about him. The American Accademy, has done honour to thee and to itself, by...
15From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 2 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I resigned the Office of President of The Academy before your Nomination and have not Since attended a Meeting of that learned and respectable Assembly. When I shall embrace my Son, a felicity for which I devoutly pray I know not. The Presidents and Mr Monroes Wishes are complimentary; but a great Gulph is fixed between him and them. I wish We may not have cause to repent of continuing our...
16From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 17 November 1824 (Adams Papers)
Common civility would have required that I should have answered your letter of the 6th. month long before this time, but the approach & invasion of my ninetieth year has taken away my faculties to such a degree that I have not been able to observe the common rule of my correspondents. Your Gazette of New York is an excellent work & will be extremely useful to that State for many centuries to...
17From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 22 November 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have recd. the Gazetteer of New York, which you design for the Emperor of all the Russias, and will Send it by Mr. Ingraham, who is Soon to embark for Russia, where he has been before and acquainted in the family of our Minister God omnicient knows whether it is or is not “amiss to inform the European Potentates of the growing Strength and Numbers, and general prosperity of the American...
18From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 31 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your kind Letter of the 21st, and for the three Magazines inclosed, of December January and February. They contain curious and Usefull Matter. You ask my Opinion of the Essays of Franklin. You have Stated your own Opinions frankly fairly and candidly; you have explained your reasons for those Opinions, dispassionately—and your readers, I hope, will judge them, with Candour and...
19From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 2 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
I resigned the office of President of the Academy, before your nomination, and have not since attended a meeting of that learned, and respectable Assembly. When I shall embrace my Son, a felicity for which I devoutly pray, I know not. The President & Mr Munroe’s wishes are complementary, but a great gulph is fixed between him and them. I wish we may not have cause to repent of continuing our...
20From James Madison to Horatio Gates Spafford, 22 July 1825 (Madison Papers)
I delayed answering your[s] of May 10. in the hope of finding a private conveyance; having experienced in several instances a miscarriage of such remittances by the mail. Seeing now little chance of any other opportunity I commit to that hazard a bank note of $10.* which will discharge the debt, and make up for the delay. With friendly respects *of Bank of Virga No. 8428 date June 9. 1821 [...
21From James Madison to Horatio Gates Spafford, [ca. 25 July] 1810 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your favor of July 7. accompanied by your printed circular on the subject of your proposed Gazetteer of the State of N. York. It is certainly a commendable undertaking, and I wish you success in it. An extension of it to all the States would proportionally extend the value of the Work. It is an inconveniency incident to publications of this kind in our Country, that its rapid...
22From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 6 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received by the Mail your Friendly Letter of L.M. 31. with your Gazetteer of the State of New York. Although I have not the pleasure of a personal Acquaintance: my thanks are not the less but the more due to you for your kind Attention and valuable present. Your Work, as it is a moment monument of industrious research and indefatigable labour in Collecting information concerning the...
23From John Jay to Horatio Gates Spafford, 20 October 1813 (Jay Papers)
I have had the pleasure of recieving your Letter of the 22 r . Ult, and also the Copy of your Gazetteer which you was so obliging as to leave with my Son for me; and for which I thank you. On hearing that it was published, I had a copy purchased for my own use— I shall place one in our Town Library, and dispose of some others in the manner most likely to excite attention. As yet I have rather...
24Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 15 March 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of Feb. 15. 18. and 24. have all been recieved, and you could not even at the date of the last have recieved mine of Feb. 21. on the subject of your improvement in wheel carriages. I have now to thank you for the certificate of a right to use employ it in a carriage. it will be some time before I can make use avail myself of it. in travelling myself I have been obliged latterly to...
25Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 26 April 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 7 th inst. is just recieved and finds me within a few days of my departure for a distant possession which I visit 3. or 4. times a year & am absent a month at a time. the suspension of these visits during winter renders indispensable as early a one as practicable in spring, and I expect to be absent all May. I hasten therefore to mention this, lest we should both be...
26Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 28 June 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of May 29. came to hand 2. days ago. age and a stiffening wrist render writing slow and painful, and oblige me to adopt almost a lapidary stile: this is the effect of an antient dislocation of the wrist. I have given up my farms to be managed by my family, and take no concern in them myself. I tried the Ruta baga when first brought from England and found it the best table-turnep I...
27Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 15 August 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 2 d inst. is duly recieved and I thank you for the mark of attention it expresses in proposing to send me a copy of your new Gazetteer. it will come safely to me under cover by the ordinary mail. but I owe abundant additional thanks for the kind expressions of respect which the letter conveys to me. at the end of a career thro’ a long course of public troubles, if my...
28Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 22 December 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Of the last 5. months I have past 4 at a possession 90. or 100 miles S.W. from hence. this must apologise for my answering and acting at this late date on your letters of Nov. 18. & 23. I have written by this mail to the President on the subject of your request, altho more as evidence of my wish to be useful to you than with the hope of it’s effect, as the occasion I fear has past away while...
29Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 19 March 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I duly recieved your favor of Feb. 28 and take a friendly interest in the good and the evil which you, as all our human brethren, have to encounter in the path of life. I hope your literary labors will prove advantageous to yourself and useful to the world. the occupation of the mind is surely that which brings most happiness. but with respect to your Apprentice’s Spelling book, you could not...
30Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 14 May 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of April 4 . was not recieved till the day before yesterday. I subscribe with pleasure to your American magazine, but hope you will have some agent in our state to recieve the annual subscription, nothing being so difficult as remittances to other states for want of some paper of general circulation. with respect to aiding it with materials for publication, I am become so averse to...