20151From James Madison to John Rodgers, 4 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
I have duly recd. yours of the 29th. Ult. The wishes conveyed in mine which it answers, are far from being lessened by a diffidence of yourself, in which I can not participate. But I regret to find an insuperable obstacle to them, in your repugnance to exchange your present Commission for the one I had contemplated, & the legal incompatibility between them, according to an official exposition...
20152To James Madison from George W. Erving, 4 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
When I took the liberty of addressing you on the 6th Oct. it was to be expected that the negotiations at Gand woud be soon terminated, & I intended to send my letter by those of the commissioners who might return home; the private letters mentioned in the last paragraph of that letter I yet retain, to be sent either by Mr Clay or Mr Gallatin, not wishing to trust them by an ordinary hand. By...
20153To James Madison from Elbridge Gerry Jr., 4 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
In the hour of distress I am compelled to appeal to you for assistance, & support. The decease of my excellent Parent, has thrown a large & destitute family on their own exertions & the world, for subsistence. As the eldest son of a man, whose life & fortune were spent in the service of his country, I consider it an indispensable duty to seek some employment which will not degrade his...
20154To James Madison from Richard Rush, 4 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
In considering the case submitted to him yesterday by the President, the attorney general has the honor to report; that, in his opinion, the holding a commission and rank as captain in the navy would be incompatible under the laws with holding, at the same time, the office of secretary of the department of the navy. RC ( DLC ). See JM to John Rodgers, 4 Dec. 1814 .
20155Thomas Jefferson to John Wilson, 4 December 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
The subject of your letter of Nov. is entirely unknown to me . I only know in general that the heads of departments had been authorised by law to apportion the sum allowed for salaries to their clerks at their discretion. no duty I presume could be more embarrassing to those gentlemen. but of the particular graduation of the salaries I never heard, nor enquired, the subject having been...
20156To John Adams from William White, 3 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
I rcd yours of Octr 29, by Mr Everit: a young Gentleman with whose Talents I had been previously made acquainted, by a Perusal of his Answer to Mr English. It is certainly an able Performance, & shews an Extent of Reading very disproportionate to his Years. A personal Intercourse with him has raised him in my Estimation. Mr Colman has also been recently in this City: But I saw little of him,...
20157From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 3 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
Mr: Shaw, an American Gentleman, belonging to New-York has just called upon me, and informs me that he shall proceed in the course of this day for St: Petersburg. He has a Courier’s Passport from Count Lieven, and has obligingly offered to take anything I have to forward—I therefore send the packet for Mrs. Krehmer, which I sometime since received from Miss du Roveray, and two letters from...
20158To James Madison from James Monroe, 3 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
My affairs in Loudoun requiring in an urgent manner my presence, I shall go up to day & return on monday or tuesday next. A passport from the British Commander to take dispatches to Ghent being as I presume necessary, I have arrang’d in the dept. a letter to him for the purpose. I know of nothing that will suffer in my short absence. Respectfully your friend RC ( DLC : Rives Collection,...
20159To James Madison from Richard Rush, 3 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
R. Rush has the honor to enclose to the President, 1. A letter from the governor of Louisiana recommending, in relation to the pirates of Barataria, that a few of the more hardened offenders only should be prosecuted, and the conduct of the rest overlooked. 2. Another letter from the same, recommending Mr Duplessis as collector of New Orleans, in the room of Mr Dubourg, whose resignation is...
20160Thomas Jefferson to William Caruthers, 3 December 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Nov. 22. came to hand yesterday afternoon only: and I sincerely regret it had not been a single day earlier. a few days after you called on me on your way to the North D r Thornton came and proposed to lease the Natural bridge for the purpose of establishing a shot manufactory. I told him at once you had applied for it for the same purpose a few days before, & must have a...
20161Thomas Jefferson to Louis H. Girardin, 3 December 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson returns his thanks to mr Gerardin Girardin for the two plants of Cape Jessamine which are very acceptable, and will hold himself accountable for the price. he returns the copy of Tacitus having precisely the same edition in his petit-format library in Bedford , and if mr Girardin thinks it can go safely by post to mr Anderson , he will cover it by his frank. he has the identical...
20162Robert M. Patterson to Thomas Jefferson, 3 December 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honor to receive your letter , of the 24th of last month, in which you decline a reelection as president of the American philosophical Society . This letter was laid before the Society, at their meeting last evening, and excited a general regret among the members: no particular order, however, was taken on it; the Society choosing to adopt, in this particular, the Same course which...
20163Thomas Jefferson to Philip Thornton, 3 December 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
In the evening of the day on which you left me, I recieved a letter of Nov. 22. from mr Caruthers , desiring a conclusion on his proposition to lease the Natural bridge . you know how sincerely I had meant to give him a preference as the first applicant, & the circumstances which induced me to suppose he had declined it, and therefore to execute the lease to you. I have explained these to him...
20164From John Adams to Rufus King, 2 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
I am very much obliged to you for the information, melancholly as it is to me, of the death of Mr Gerry. A Friendship of forty years I have found a rarity, though not a Singularity. I am left alone. While Paine Gerry and Lovell lived, there were Some that I Seemed to know: but now not one of my Contemporaries and Colleagues is left. Can there by any deeper damnation in this Universe, than to...
20165From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 2 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
Gerry! Gerry! Gerry! You was the last of my Colleagues! I am left alone! It cannot be long before I Shall Join you. What Tidings Shall I carry to you? That a total degeneracy has prevail’d ; or that the ancient Virtues are revived? Are there none who rejoice in this Exit? I Shall Soon give them another moment of delight: and much good may it, do them. Ames and Parsons Sett the World in a howl...
20166From John Adams to William Stephens Smith, 2 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favour of the 23d.— Gerry is gone to joine his Copatriots in lamentations over the degeneracy of his Country; at least in Sagadahock, Nantucket and Alexandria. I am, left alone, to carry the last and worst tidings to the Skies. What Shall I? What can I say of Mr Gerry’s Family? An amiable Wisdom and nine amiable Children. I can say no more— MHi : Adams Family Papers,...
20167From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 2 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday morning your Letter of 6. November, which I mark number 41 was delivered to me—Why it had been so long on the road I know not—That of the 3d: I had received a full week sooner—It always give me some uneasiness to be more than a week without hearing from you, but as the time for the freezing of the Russian rivers has come I was attributing the delay of your Letters to some such...
20168From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Quincy Adams, 2 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
Yours of the eighth is come not to fill me with doubts because that was already effected but to make those doubts almost certainties and those of a very disagreeable nature if it must be so there is no remedy but I hope you have been misinformed about our commander and that he may prove better than you expect— What do you think of the English Speech? it is most affectedly peacable, and...
20169To James Madison from Peter Early, 2 December 1814 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
§ From Peter Early. 2 December 1814, Milledgeville, Georgia. “In conformity with the directions of the Legislature of this State, I have now the honor of transmitting to you the inclosed copy of certain resolutions passed by that body at their late Session.” RC and enclosure ( DLC ). RC 1 p.; in a clerk’s hand, signed by Early; docketed by JM . The enclosed resolutions (4 pp.), dated 18 Nov....
20170To James Madison from James Ogleby and David Winchester, 2 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
It is with real regret we for a moment withdraw your attention from national to individual interests. Having failed to receive any notice from every other quarter to our applications for the aid of Government in the prosecution of a just claim to restitution, must be our apology for intruding on your valuable time. The circumstances of our case are these: on the raising of the Embargo in the...
20171William Mitchell’s Agreement to Grind Wheat for Thomas Jefferson, 2 December 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I am willing to grind M r Thomas Jefferson ,s Present present Crop of wheat on the following terms VIZ, I will give a Bble of fine flour for every five & half bushells wheat. Or I will give a Bble Superfine flour for every Six bushells wheat or fifty Cents Extra on every Bble Sfine flour which ever M r Jefferson may perfer W m Mitchell ⅌
20172Thomas Jefferson’s Agreement to Lease Natural Bridge to Philip Thornton, 2 December 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
Memorandum of an agreement entered into on the 2 d Day of December 1814. between Thomas Jefferson of Monticello in the county of Albemarle on the one part and Philip Thornton of Richmond in the county of Henrico on the other part. The sd Thomas agrees to lease to the sd
20173From James Madison to Congress, 1 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
I transmit for the information of Congress the communications last received from the Ministers Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States at Ghent, explaining the course and actual state of their negociations with the Plenipotentiarys of Great Britain. RC and enclosures, two copies ( DNA : RG 233, President’s Messages, 13A–E1; and DNA : RG 46, Legislative Proceedings, President’s...
20174To James Madison from Tristram Dalton, 1 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
Having received a Commission of Surveyor of the Port of Boston & Charlestown, and another as Inspector of said Port, I beg leave to offer my sincere thanks for this renewed mark of your favour & confidence. Every attention, within my Power and abilities, shall be paid in the execution of the duties of these Offices, by which I will hope to merit the approbation of Government. With the warmest...
20175To James Madison from Josiah Meigs, 1 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
The Commissioner of the General Land Office respectfully represents to the President of the U States that by letters from the Governor of the Indiana Territory it appears that applications have been made to him for the purpose of obtaining leases of some reserved sections in that territory which exhibit appearances of salt springs—for the purpose of making experiments. By the 2d sect. of the...
20176Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Milligan, 1 December 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
1814. Dec. 1. wrote to mr Millegan to procure me Garnet ’s Naut. Almanac 15. to be forwarded by mail. & his d o for subseq t years. Blount ’s Naut. Alm. for 1815 & subsequent Stewart ’s elements of the Philos. of the human mind. 8 vo FC ( DLC
20177To James Madison from John L. E. W. Shecut, [ca. November 1814] (Madison Papers)
I beg leave to intrude myself to your notice, in the hope, that altho almost incessantly engaged, in the most arduous concerns of the nation, you may at some leisure moment condescend to honour me with your attention. With somewhat more than nineteen years Practice and close observation, I have at length been enabled to digest a new Theory and Practice of medicine, adapted to all parts of the...
20178Memorandum for Alexander J. Dallas, [ca. November 1814] (Madison Papers)
Sketch put into the hands of Mr. Dallas as outline for the Exposition of the causes & character of the war. The rupture at Ghent, with the haughty demands of the Enemy producing it, invite an explanation to the impartial world of the causes & character of the war. This the more necessary as no pains have been spared by the B. Govt. to propagate deceptive views of it. They have represented the...
20179Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Renting Natural Bridge for Manufacture of Shot, [ca. November 1814] [document added in … (Jefferson Papers)
Natural bridge . principles for renting for shot manufact y a shot tower of 160.f. height costs 7000.D. the Natural bridge , & it’s adjacent banks being more than 200 f. high, will require a building of not more than 1000.D. to wit to hold the furnace, kettles or cisterns E t c this is a saving then of 6000.D. in each site, which gives the measure of the value of each site, and belongs fairly...
20180James Ogilvie to Thomas Jefferson, November [1814] (Jefferson Papers)
The young gentleman, M r Colin Clark , who will present this letter was formerly a pupil of mine; his academical proficiency & good conduct, gave him a solid claim to my confidence & affection: of the sincerity of these sentiments I afford him an unequivocal evidence, by making him known to you.— I can scarcely indulge the hope of seeing you again, but assuredly, wherever hereafter, my...