101From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 9 August 1805 (Adams Papers)
I told you before, that I had renounced the Study of Natural Philosophy and Mathematicks for fifty Years. When in 1755 I entered on the Study of the Law, I Saw before me Such a field of natural, civil, and common Law, and in Such a Group of Men as Gridley Pratt Otis, Trowbridge Thatcher, Worthington Hawley And Putnam &c among whom I must Act a part upon the Stage not indeed to make my Way to...
102From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 26 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Where the Fine Arts are Studied or practiced there Should be a Trybunal of Criticism always in Session, before which every new production Should be arraigned and tried; by no other laws however than Truth or Nature, and no other penalty than Reputation in the public Opinion. “Are We not in too great a hurry, in our Zeal for the fine Arts”? This is as noble and beautiful a question, as that of...
103From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
Though my letter to you has the air of a Redimentack Eulogium—on friend Lancasters lecture—yet it was down right honest and sincere for I was really delighted and enlightened by that lecture—my letter is your property—and give you may give the Original, or a Copy to Mr Lancaster if you please I hope soon to hear of your Marriage and to see you—and your elect precious, in our obscure town of...
104From Thomas Boylston Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 31 January 1823 (Adams Papers)
By request of My Father I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the Instant and the Essay on the Whooping Cough presented to the “Adams Library of the Town of Quincy.” As this is the first occasion, by donation , to that Library, I may be permitted, as one of the Trustees , to thank you in their behalf, for this valuable Treatise, upon a disorder, which I have always...
105From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Waterhouse, 18 January 1781 (Franklin Papers)
AL (draft) and copy: Library of Congress I received your obliging Letter of the 16th past, enclosing one from my dear Friend Dr Fothergill. I was happy to hear from him, that he was quite free of the Disorder that had like to have remov’d him last Summer: But I had soon after a Letter from another Friend acquainting me that he was again dangerously ill of the same Malady; and the Newspapers...
106From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 14 January 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed letter was written to you on the day of it’s date. I wrote to Dr. Currie of Richmond on the same day. by mistake I put your letter under his address, and probably I put the one for him under cover to you. he has returned the one addressed to you, which discovers to me my mistake. I forward it now to you for the purpose of rectifying it with you. Accept my respects and best wishes...
107From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 15 October 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I am much indebted to the rainy morning at Newport for your acceptable letter of Sep. 14. it gives me information of the state of religion in Boston and Cambridge of which I had not a just idea. I could not have concieved that a Congregationalist, after the pollution of his pulpit by the prayers of an Unitarian, would have again officiated in it, without lustrations, purifications & exorcisms...
108From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 December 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I am indebted to you for several favors unacknoleged . I have waited till I could inform you that some variolous after vaccine inoculations had proved that I had preserved the matter of the cow pox in it’s genuine form. Dr. Coxe of Philadelphia has ascertained this, having recieved his vaccine matter from hence. to this is added your information that the matter I sent you produced the genuine...
109From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 21 March 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson returns his acknolegements to Doctr. Waterhouse for his letter of the lst. inst. & the book accompanying it, which he recieved & will have the pleasure of perusing here, where he is on a visit of a fortnight, engaged in the rural operations of the season. the small pox having got into a neighborhood about 30. miles from this, he was enabled yesterday, with some vaccine matter he...
110From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 20. is recieved. the Professors of our University, 8. in number, are all engaged. those of antient & Modern languages are already on the spot. three more are hourly expected to arrive, and on their arrival the whole will assemble and enter on their duties. there remains therefore no place in which we can avail ourselves of the services of the rev d mr Bertrum as a teacher. I...
111From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 9 March 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Legerat hujus Amor titulum nomenque libelli. Bella mihi, video, bella parantur, ait. So Ovid introduces his book Remediorum amoris, a lecture against tobacco was calculated to excite a similar alarm in a Virginian, & a cultivator of tobacco. however being a friend neither to it’s culture nor consequences, I thank you for the pamphlet, and wish a succesful opposition to this organ of Virginia...
112From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 December 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night, and have read with great satisfaction your pamphlet on the subject of the kine-pox, and pray you to accept [my] thanks for the communication of it. I had before attended to your publications on the subject in the newspapers, and took much interest in the result of the experiments you were making. every friend of humanity must look with pleasure on this discovery, by...
113From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 21 August 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the pleasure of informing you on the 14th. inst. that I supposed the inoculation of the kine pox to have taken effect in two subjects. these were from the matter you were kind enough to send July 24. that of July 26. succeeded with 2. others. that of Aug. 1. with 4. on the 16th. inst. we inoculated from the 2. first subjects 15. others, 14. of whom very evidently have the infection, so...
114From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 26 June 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 8th. inst. came safely to hand with the several matters accompanying it. as the longer the vaccine matter should be unemployed, I knew the chance of it’s success would be the less, I thought it would be more likely to answer your benevolent views by having it employed here rather than risking it by a further mission to Virginia. I therefore put it immediately into the hands...
115From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 1 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
In answer to the enquiries of the benevolent Dr de Carro on the subject of the Upland, or Mountain rice, Oryza Mutica, I will state to you what I know of it. I first became informed of the existence of a rice which would grow in up-lands without any more water than the common rains, by reading a book of Mr. de Poyvre who had been governor of the Isle of France, who mentions it as growing there...
116Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 9 March 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for the book you have been so kind as to send me. it puts a dry subject into a pleasant dress; and explaining the principles of vegetation as well as of Botany, it will be a better preparation to a student than the elementary books generally are. that it’s sale should have succeeded only South of Connecticut proves two things; one which I have long observed, that the scale of...
117Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 20 July 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you, dear Sir, for the new Robinson Crusoe you have been so good as to send me . the name of it’s hero, like that of the old, merits to be known as should that also of the new Defoe . I have read it with avidity, for a more attaching narrative I have not met with; and it may be truly said of the whole edifice, that the bricks and the mortar are worthy of each other, and promise to be a...
118From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 17 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved by the last post your favor of Aug. 28. and by the same a letter from Doctr. Gantt informing me that the matter I first sent him from hence had taken in three of the subjects into whom it had been inserted, that from these he had inoculated others, so that they are now in full possession of the disease at Washington. I have also sent matter to Richmond , Petersburg , and several...
119Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 31 January 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 15 th was recieved on the 27 th and I am glad to find the name and character of Samuel Adams coming forward, and in so good hands as I suppose them to be. but I have to regret that I can add no facts to the stores possessed. I was the youngest man but one in the old Congress , and he the oldest but one, as I believe. his only senior, I suppose, was Stephen Hopkins , of and by...
120From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 14 August 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you on the 8th. inst. that your favors of July 24. & 26. had come to me here. Doctr. Wardlaw on the 7th. inoculated two persons with the matter of the 24th. & 4. with that of the 26th. the latter has no effect, but the two former shew inflammation & matter. one of them complains of pain under the arm pit, & yesterday was a little feverish. the matter is of this size & form. the...
121Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 26 June 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved and read with thankfulness & pleasure your denunciation of the abuses of tobacco & wine. yet however sound in it’s principles, I expect it will be but a sermon to the wind. you will find it as difficult to inculcate these sanative precepts on the sensualists of the present day, as to convince an Athanasian that there is but one God. I wish success to both attempts, and am happy...
122From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 August 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the pleasure of writing you on the 25th. of July and of acknoleging the receipt of yours of July 17. with the vaccine matter which was immediately delivered to Doctr. Gantt. your favors of the 24th. & 26th. came to me at this place on the 6th. inst. and the matter accompanying them was, by a skilful physician of the neighborhood, Dr. Wardlaw, immediately inserted into six persons of my...
123From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 July 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 17th. arrived last night, together with the new Vaccine matter which was immediately sent to Doctr. Gantt . the 2d. as well as the 1st. supply of matter had failed. we hope the 3d. will be more succesful. how might it answer to put the matter into a phial of the smallest size, well corked, & immersed in a larger one filled with water & well corked. it would be effectually...
124Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 3 March 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just recieved your favor of Feb. 20. in which you observe that mr Wirt , in pa. 47. of his Life of Patrick Henry , quotes me as saying that ‘ mr Henry certainly gave the first impulse to the ball of revolution.’ I well recollect to have used some such expression in a letter to him; and am tolerably certain that, our own state being the subject under contemplation, I must have used it...
125Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 13 October 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I was highly gratified with the receipt of your letter of Sep. 1. by Gen l and mrs Dearborne ; and by the evidence it furnished me of your bearing up with firmness and perseverance against your the persecutions of your enemies, religious, political and professional. these last I suppose have not yet forgiven you the introduction of vaccination, and annihilation of the great variolous field of...
126Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 July 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
An antiently dislocated, and now stiffening wrist makes writing an operation so slow and painful to me that I should not so soon have troubled you with an acknolegement of your favor of the 8 th but for the request it contained of my consent to the publication of my letter of June 26 . No, my dear Sir, not for the world. into what a nest of hornets would it thrust my head! the genus irritabile...
127James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 12 March 1829 (Madison Papers)
I recd in due time, with your favor of the 14th. Ult: a copy of your Inaugural Discourse prepared in early life. I was not at leisure till within a few days, to give it a perusal; and I ought not now to hazard a critique on the merits of its Latinity. If I were ever in any degree qualified for such a task, a recollection of my long separation from classical studies would arrest my pen. I am...
128James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 May 1831 (Madison Papers)
I recd. in due time your letter of the 9th. and with it the Vol. on the authorship of "Junius". Altho’ it found me but little at leisure & in crippled health, I felt too much respect for the writer, not to say curiosity for the subject also, not to give it an entire reading. Whether you have untied the knot at which so many ingenious hands have tugged in vain, I will not make myself a Judge. I...
129From James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 December 1822 (Madison Papers)
I have received your favor of the 12th. instant, and with it the “Botanist,” and the Sheets containing “Heads of a Course of Lectures.” A glance over them has satisfied me that the Volume on Botany very happily opens the door to the subject, and gives enough of an Inside view to attract curiosity, and guide investigation. From the heads selected for the Lectures, they must have embraced a...
130From James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, [ca. 16] March 1817 (Madison Papers)
On a long list of epistolary debts which I could not attend to, during the period of my public duties, is your favor containing explanations relating to “A Journal of a young man &c.” I beg leave now to thank you for that mark of your attention. The reception given by the public to the work is the best evidence of its interesting character; and a perusal of a part of it only, a sufficient one...
131From James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 22 June 1822 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your favor of the 9th. with a copy of your Lecture on Tobacco & ardent spirits. It is a powerful dissuasion from the pernicious use of such stimulants. I had read, formerly, the first Edition of the Lecture; but have read this last also, for the sake of the additions and Notes. Its foreign translations and its reaching a fifth Edition are encouraging evidences of its usefulness;...
132James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 21 June 1833 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of the 30th. Ult was duly recd. with the little volume to which it refers. The facts contained in this, are an acceptable appendix to the stock of information on a subject which has awakened much curiosity. I the less wonder at the relish shewn for such a treat as you have provided, considering the plums & the sauce you have added to the pudding. Altho’ the state of my eyes permit...
133From James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 13 July 1825 (Madison Papers)
I have recd your friendly letter of June 30. and congratulate you on your safe return from so long a journey. The fact you confirm with respect to Genl. Hull furnishes the best apology for the imbecility which occasioned his downfal[l]; and his friends would shew more discretion in availing themselves of it, than in attempts to decorate him with artificial laurels. I am truly sorry for the...
134James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, March 1834 (Madison Papers)
private I have recd. your favor of the 20th. Ult. with a copy of your "Public Lecture". We have read it with pleasure; and Mrs M, I believe with profit , being herself among the Amateurs of the Snuff box. The Lecture is a good medicine for the bad habits, which it paints in such warning colours. The Temperance Societies appear to have had a salutary effect, in diminishing the use of Ardent...
135James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 28 November 1835 (Madison Papers)
Your letter on the subject of Mr. Pemberton has not passed into oblivion; but I am sensible that the lapse of time since it was received exposes it to that appearance. For my silence, I must plead my growing dislike to the pen, and the condition of my fingers, which imposes on me often, as in the present case, the unwelcome task of dictating to borrowed one’s. Though I am aware of your junior...
136From George Washington to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 November 1790 (Washington Papers)
I beg you to excuse the delay, which my avocations in the country have occasioned, in answering your letter of the 28th of August. I am persuaded of the happy influence which the discourse, that accompanied it, must have in promoting the interests of humanity —and I request you to accept my thanks for your polite attention in favoring me with this mark of your regard. I am Sir, Your most...