31Thomas Jefferson to William Foushee, 10 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
You will be sensible that the inclosed proposition on the establishment of steam boats might as well have been addressed to the man in the moon, as to an inhabitant of the mountains. yet as such a boat between Norfolk & Richmond might be interesting to both places I have thought it a duty to give the proposition a fair chance by handing it on to a place where it will be more interesting. with...
32Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Lehré, 10 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of Mar. 9. and 23. are both safely recieved and I shall with pleasure write to the President on the subject of the last. this I do merely because it is your wish, being satisfied the President can need no excitement in your favor beyond his own knolege & approbation of the uniform line of your conduct. We are here in a state of close blockade, tantalized indeed with propositions of...
33Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 10 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
The writer of the inclosed letter being as well known to yourself as to me, I forward it merely because he has wished me to mention his sollicitation to you. I should in like manner inclose you a letter from D r Barton but that it would take you more time to decypher than you ought to give to it. the object of it is to be appointed to the Medical department of the army. his reputation is as...
34Thomas Jefferson to Patrick Gibson, 16 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
The enemy, contrary to expectations, still continuing in our waters and indicating by no movement an intention of speedy departure, with the rapid advance of the season, begin to fill me with anxiety as to the fate of my crop of flour. and I am becoming more concerned to get some price, than what that price shall be, on the principle that half a loaf is better than no bread. engagements...
35Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Brown, 17 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Octob. 1. came to hand with a note from mr Poindexter , on the 20 th Ult. as also the Guinea grass seed, and Capsicum . they were exactly in time for sowing and were immediately sowed. they had got mixed by the way, and the capsicum seeds were difficult to find. not more than three or four could be discovered, & these rather doubtful. I dibbled them however in a pot to give them...
36Thomas Jefferson to William Cocke, 17 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved, my good old friend, your favor of Feb. 24. and rejoice to find you can still undertake distant military expeditions. it does not want much of 40. years since we were first together in the Virginia legislature. you are approaching therefore, what I have attained, the limits of the Psalmist , who says ‘the days of our years are three score years and ten.’ yet I hope it will be...
37Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 17 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I had long owed you a letter for your favor of Aug. 19. when I recieved, eight days ago that of Mar. 2. 18 12 . a slip of the pen, I suppose for 18 13 . and the pamphlet accompanying it strengthens the supposition. I thank you for the pamphlet. it is full of good sense & wholsome advice, and I am making all my grandchildren read it, married & unmarried: and the story of farmer Jenkins will I...
38Thomas Jefferson to James Walker, 17 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I originally employed you to build my saw mill having confidence in your work & prices. when it was turned over to mr Brown , it was understood between you and myself that he was to be governed by your prices. we are now about coming to a settlement, which renders it necessary for me to ask the favor of your prices. mr Brown handed me a bill of yours, but it related only to gristmills,...
39Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 18 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been in the less haste to answer your last letter , because it appeared from that as if the farther we proceeded in our negociation, the wider we got apart. in the early part of the letter you state justly as the only point of difference, the condition of providing the same quantity of open lands on the Tomahawk tract as there is on Pantops . the practicability of effecting this by...
40Thomas Jefferson to William DuVal, 20 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I have occasion for the agency of a friend in the neighborhood of Shelbyville Kentucky , in a case which gives me considerable trouble and inquietude; and I do not know that I have either a friend or acquaintance in that neighborhood. I have learnt however that you have a son there, a practitioner of law, and I have believed that from our acquaintance and friendship, of now half a century, I...
41Thomas Jefferson to David Michie, 20 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
In the disputed Case between us it was agreed that any depositions which either party wished to make use of hereafter in any arbitration or suit on the subject might be taken on due notice and should be used by Consent wishing to secure the deposition of Judge Carr before he left this neighbourhood, I applied to you by letter the last Autumn for this purpose, but was informed you Could not...
42Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Hornsby, 21 April 1813, with Postscript, 24 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
A case occurring in which your kind interposition may befriend my quiet, I take the liberty of recalling myself to your memory, and our antient acquaintance, now I believe of more than half a century. you feel the value of tranquility at our time of life, and will therefore excuse my present sollicitation. I was induced very innocently to become the purchaser of the lands of the late Bennet...
43Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Brown, 24 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you a few days ago in answer to your favor accompanying the seeds of the Guinea grass and Capsicum. the object of the present is to sollicit the protection of your cover for the inclosed letter to ensure it’s safety as far as Natches , and then your kind aid in committing it to the proper channel of conveyance. I have been told there is a post direct from Natchez to Washita . if not, I...
44Thomas Jefferson to Rodolphus Dickinson, 24 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Be pleased to accept my thanks for your ‘View of Massachusets proper.’ a volume of facts is worth more than whole libraries of speculations and fermentations of the brain; and those respecting Massachusets will continue to be interesting whether she continues an American state, or becomes a British province. a mind which in youth takes the useful direction of facts, promises much to our real...
45Thomas Jefferson to John Vaughan, 24 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 19 th finds me just setting out on a journey which will occasion an absence of three weeks from home. at any time after my return from that I shall be ready to dispatch any certificates or other papers you may be pleased to send me for signature with respect to the volumes of astronomical observations from Pisa , whether intended for myself personally or for the society, I...
46Thomas Jefferson to John Barnes, 25 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I set out tomorrow for Bedford and shall be absent 3. or 4. weeks. I have between 4. and 500. barrels of flour caught at Richmond by the blockade, not a barrel of it sold. my hope is that the enemy will prefer withdrawing out of the capes and cruising on the coast to catch something rather than lie where they do & catch nothing. the moment any movement of theirs gives a chance for our vessels...
47Thomas Jefferson to John Brown, 25 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
On recieving from you mr Walker’s bill of prices (which I now inclose) I examined your account, which I had not done before, and soon found that mr Walker’s bill related only to grist mills. I therefore sent a messenger to him and asked him to state the prices of saw mill work, which he did. on comparing these with yours I found them very materially different. my original agreement for...
48Thomas Jefferson to Richard Fitzhugh, 25 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I have unluckily got out of the Ravensworth pea , which I value so highly as to wish to recover it. I am in hopes you are able to supply me with a little. a few peas quilted into a peice of cloth, f so as to lie flat, of the size and form of a letter, and inclosed in a paper cover and directed to me as a letter by mail will be sufficient to put me in seed by another year. I inclose you the...
49Thomas 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...
50Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 26 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
We are just now packing your Commode & two presses. strange as it may seem, altho’ it required but 4. or 500 feet of plank to make the packing boxes, yet so difficult is that article here, and that I never have been able to command that quantity bef beyond my own constant & pressing wants till I got a saw mill of my own to work. this has enabled me now to pack them and my boat will be sent off...
51Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Robertson, 30 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
You had a right to expect to hear from me ere this on the su b ject of a paiment. but I am one among the unfortunate who have been caugh t by the blockade before the sale of my flour. I have between 4. & 500. barrels now in Richmond , & not a barrel sold. I have desired mr Gibson to hold up for 7.D. thro’ this month, but then to sell for whatever he can get. the moment I hear from him that he...
52Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 1 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I think that on my recommending Tacitus to master Cyrus , you said you did not possess him, and perhaps that you had never seen him. on my return home I wrote to Philadelphia for a copy, which I now send for master Cyrus’s acceptance & perusal. the solidity of his matter, his brevity, & his fondness for point & antithesis make him difficult. I would advise the use of a translation, that to be...
53Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 6 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Our spinning machine is in operation, and a piece of cloth is begun with the flying shuttle, neither goes on perfectly as yet, from the want of a little more practice; but they will give Mrs. Clay an idea of what would be their proper operation, if she can do me the favor to come and take a plantation dinner with me tomorrow. You will come of course, according to promise. Friendly salutations...
54Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 6 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
We arrived here, my dear Martha , well & without accident, favored on the road by the weather. the caravan also came well, except overpassing their stage the 2 d day, sleeping in the woods all night, without cover, and overwhelmed by a rain, in the center of which they were, while it did not extend 5 miles in any direction from them. the spinning Jenny is at work, well while with washed...
55Thomas Jefferson to Robert Richardson, 10 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter informing me of the delivery of the iron backs at Lynchburg , d was duly recieved, and they are now here. I ought sooner to have made the remittance to mr Ross as the letter desired, & I counted on surely doing. but I am one of the unfortunate whose crop of wheat not having been ground and at market in the early seasoned season , has been blockaded in Richmond , where I have now...
56Thomas Jefferson to Elizabeth Trist, 10 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I brought the inclosed book to this place, the last fall, intending to forward it to you; but having a neighbor here who loves to laugh, I lent it to him to read; he lent it to another, and so it went the rounds of the neighborhood and is returned to me at my Spring visit to this place. I now forward it, and if it diverts you for an hour or two, I shall be gratified by it. I was myself amused...
57Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Randolph, 17 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
The sale of Mazzei’s lots is at length concluded and the purchaser having deemed it necessary for me also to sign the deed as co-attorney with yourself, altho’ by a separate instrument, which being special did not revoke the power given to you, I have not hesitated to do so. I now forward it for your signature, and as that must be certified by some court, I must ask the favor of you to execute...
58Conveyance of Lots in Richmond from Philip Mazzei to Thomas Taylor, 17 May 1813 [document added in digital edition] (Jefferson Papers)
This Indenture this seventeenth day of May in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirteen Between Philip Mazzie a Citizen of Virginia now residing in Pisa in Italy of the one part and Thomas Taylor of the City of Richmond and Commonwealth of Virginia of the other part Witnesseth: that the said Philip Mazzie for and in consideration of the sum of six thousand five hundred dollars to him in...
59Thomas Jefferson to John Vaughan, 17 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return from a journey after an absence of three weeks, I found here the roll of diplomas which you had forwarded: and have made it my first duty to sign them, and return them by our first mail. hoping they will get safe to hand I avail myself of the occasion of assuring you of my friendship & respect. PoC ( MHi ); at foot of text: “John Vaughan esq.”; endorsed by TJ. TJ returned signed...
60Thomas Jefferson to Patrick Gibson, 20 May 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return from Bedford I found here your two letters of Apr. 28. & May 4. I now inclose the note for 4300.D. signed. the deed to mr Taylor I immediately executed and forwarded to mr Randolph : but as the mail is slow between this & his residence, and it is to be acknoleged by him in his court and by me in mine, this will occupy time. but it will be all done & delivered before the 1 st...