27151From James Madison to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 23 January 1826 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your favor of the 17th. instant & thank you for the Extract you took the trouble of making from the Speech of Mr. Dupin. It is as beautiful in itself, as it is flattering to the U. States. The free system of Government we have established is so congenial with reason, with Common sense, and with a universal feeling, that it must produce approbation and a desire of imitation, as...
27152Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 7 July 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I have lately had an opportunity of procuring a copy of a Vocabulary of the Nottoway tribe of Indians . these with the Pamunkies and Mattaponies were component parts of the great Powhatan confederacy which covered all the lower part of this state , and probably spoke the general language of the Powhatans. this vocabulary was taken by mr John Wood formerly professor of mathematics in W m & Mary...
27153James Madison to Peter S. Duponceau, 7 February 1835 (Madison Papers)
I have received the Copy of Mr. Tyson’s "Discourse before the Young Men’s Colonization Society in Pensylvania, forwarded by you at his request; and I take the liberty of returning through the same Channel, my thanks, for a publication, so valuable and appropriate. It gives me great pleasure to find that the parent society has gained such an auxiliary as that in question, which has commenced...
27154Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 31 March 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 23 d is recieved. the acquaintance I had the pleasure of forming with mr Vanuxem while he favored me with a visit gave me a very high sense of his merit and qualifications. in addition to this your recommendations and those of D r Cooper place him on very high ground but I fear we are as yet far from the time at which we may turn our attention to the choice of Professors. our...
27155Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 14 March [1819] (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you, dear Sir, for the valuable volume of your historical transactions which you have been so kind as to send me, and I rejoice to see that the history of our aborigines is so ably commenced before their final extinction, or their amalgamation with us. wishing it may continue to engage the exertion of talents so competent to it I salute you with friendship & respect. RC ( PPAmP :...
27156Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 6 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
The long delay of the MS. of Col o Byrd which you were so kind as to send me , needs apology. on the 26 th of June I wrote to mr Benjamin Harrison of Berkley from whom the other had been borrowed, to ask permission to send it to the Philosophical society with a view to it’s publication. the following is an extract from his answer of July 11.
27157Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 7 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
A part of the information of which the expedition of Lewis and Clarke was the object has been communicated to the world by the publication of their journal; but much & valuable matter remains yet uncommunicated. the correction of the longitudes of their map is essential to it’s value; to which purpose their observations of the Lunar distances are to be calculated & applied. the new subjects...
27158Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 30 December 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
An absence of 6. weeks has occasioned your letters of the 5 th & 11 th inst to lie thus long unacknoleged. after I had sent off the two other Westover MSS. I recieved a 3 d of the same journal. on perusing it, I am not sensible, by memory, of any thing not contained in the former, except 8. pages of a preliminary account of the abridgment of our limits by successive charters to other colonies....
27159From James Madison to Peter Stephen DuPonceau, 8 December 1810 (Madison Papers)
I recd. in due time your favor of the 15th. instant ⟨and⟩ with it a Copy of your translation of Bynkershoek. I am glad to find that in the midst of your professional occupations, you have compleated a work which was so much wanted, and which required that accurate knowledge of both languages which you possess. The addition of your notes will contribute to recommend both the subject & the...
27160Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 26 January 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I promised you in my letter of Jan. 22. 16. to make enquiry on the subject of the MS. journal of the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina , run in 1728. of which you have a defective transcript. I have since been able to obtain the original for perusal, and now have it in my possession. I call it original , because it is that which has been preserved in the Westover family, having...
27161From Thomas Jefferson to Peter Stephen Duponceau, 16 November 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson returns his thanks to the Board of Directors of the society for the Commemoration of the landing of W m Penn on the American shore. he learns with sincere pleasure that a day will at length be annually set apart for rendering the honors so justly due to the greatest lawgiver the world has produced, the first in either antient or modern times who has laid the foundation of govmt...
27162James Madison to Peter S. Duponceau, 30 October 1828 (Madison Papers)
I have received yours of the 25th. and have the pleasure of inclosing a Copy of the paper which is the subject of it. Permit me to accompany it with renewed assurances of my great & cordial esteem, and the sincere return from Mrs. Madison of your kind remembrances. RC ( OClWHi ); draft (DLC) ; letterbook copy (PHi: Peter S. Duponceau Letterbook, 1777-1839) .
27163James Madison to Peter Stephen Duponceau, 30 November 1832 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison, with his respects & regards to Mr. DuPonceau thanks him for the Copy of his Historical Discourse commemorating the 150th. anniversary of the Landing of Wm. Penn. J M has read with much pleasure, a performance which must afford pleasure to all readers, by the appositeness of its plan, and by the interesting and impressive manner which characterize the execution of it FC (DLC) .
27164From John Adams to Peter Stephen Duponceau, 5 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of 28th. June has given me more pleasure than you can imagin; I am delighted to find a Gentleman in America who ever knew Court my friend Court, he was introduced to me in 1778 and I continued to enjoy his friendship till his death, he has mentioned me more than once in his Works, he was a kind of Walking Alexandrian Library And as modest amiable and unassuming as he was learned—if...
27165Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 28 December 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
This letter is strictly confidential. some time ago a mr John Sanderson , of Philada , addressed a letter to me , informing me he was engaged in a biographical work which embraced the life of our late Chancellor Wythe , of whom however his materials were scanty, & requesting me to supply him. of the Mentor of my youth I felt the duty of bearing witnesses to his virtues, and furnished what I...
27166Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 17 January 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of the 5 th & 6 th are recieved, and I am sorry it is not in my power to interest any of the Indian agents for you & particularly those of the 4. Southern tribes . these are all new men to me. mr Meigs Agent with the Cherokees would be the most likely to be useful to you. I recieved last night a letter from mr Harrison , who had been so kind as to give me the pocket MS. of Westover...
27167Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 7 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to M r Duponceau , & his thanks for his pamphlet on Phonology. he supposes, with him, that all sud d en reformation of our orthography is as desperate as it would be inconvenient. he presumes the slow process of amendment will continue, which has been going on for ages; that this may in time reduce the power of the letters to greater uniformity, as has...
27168James Madison to Peter S. Duponceau, 28 January 1830 (Madison Papers)
J Madison has recd. the copy of "Essays on American Silk," with which Mr. Duponceau has obligingly favored him. Silk and Wine are precious staples to be added to the stock already possessed by our Country; and whoever contributes to the introduction & establishment of either, by such valuable instruction as distinguishes the "Essays" has a just claim on all, for the thanks which an individual...
27169Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 19 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
your favor of Jan. 24. was duly recieved, and I now inclose you the supplements for the three hiatuses in your MS. all your references were found satisfactorily except that of March 9 th to the words ‘bush, which is a beautiful evergreen, & may be cut into any shape.’ I found no such words under that date in the folio MS. and therefore had the whole of that day copied. it is the only instance...
27170Thomas Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, 22 January 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been 4. of the last 5. months absent from home, which must apologise for this very tardy acknolegement of your favor of Nov. 14. I learn with much satisfaction the enlargement by the Philosophical society of the scope of their institution, by the establishment of a standing committee for History, the moral sciences and general literature. I have always thought that we were too much...
27171From John Adams to Peter Stephen Duponceau, 23 June 1819 (Adams Papers)
Moriturus te Salutat! this pathetick Saluation I am sure will engage your humanity to pardon a question which I acknowledge to be impertinent and might be Offensive from any-other than a dying Man— Have you examined Bryants Annalysis of Ancient Mythology Court De Gebelin’s Monde Primitif—in nine ponderous Volum’s—and Dupuis’s Culte Universal—the two former of these appear to be Christian...
27172Admission to Practice Law in the United States Circuit Court for the New York District in the Eastern Circuit, [6 April … (Hamilton Papers)
That Alexander Hamilton, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Brockholst Livingston and Peter Stephen Du Ponceau be and they are hereby respectively admitted to practice as Counsellors of this Court. Whereupon they were respectively qualified as Counsellors and respectively subscribed the oath on the roll of Counsellors. D , RG 21, Minutes, Trial Notes, and Rolls of Attorneys of the United States Circuit...
27173From John Adams to Peter Stephen Duponceau, 24 July 1821 (Adams Papers)
I had I not been poison’d almost to the loss of my sight, by a rare fever or a blossom cold, I should have long since thanked you for, your discourse, and to have acknowledged to have read it with all that delight—which I always receive from the productions of your pen—The History of Pensylvania is an interesting subject not only to her Citizens but to all America and to all the World—The...
27174Thomas Jefferson to Eleuthère I. du Pont de Nemours, 30 April 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
After having expected for some time that you would be so kind as to inform me of the amount of the keg of powder you sent me, that I might remit it to you, I wrote to you on the 4 th of Nov. last , requesting that favor, & that you would add to it the amount of a similar envoy of powder to be forwarded to me, that both parcels might be paid for in one remittance. I had not then learnt the...
27175Thomas Jefferson to Eleuthere I. du Pont de Nemours, 9 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 11 th of Aug. after a long detention at Monticello , is recieved at this place, where I have now been upwards of a month. I had seen in the publick papers the unwelcome event it announced, & also the obituary notice to which your letter refers. it was but a modest sketch of the worth of M. Dupont : for of no man who has lived could more good have been said with more truth. I...
27176Thomas Jefferson to Eleuthère I. du Pont de Nemours, 24 April 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
We are, four of us, sportsmen, in my family, amusing ourselves much with our guns. but the powder sold here is wretched, carrying the index of the French eprouvette (such as you furnished Gen l Dearborne ) to 9. 10. or 11. only, while the cannister of your powder, recieved from you 2. or 3. years ago, carried it to considerably upwards of 20. I have persuaded a merchant in this neighborhood to...
27177From Thomas Jefferson to Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours, 23 November 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
It is with real pleasure I inform you that it is concluded to be for the public interest to apply to your establishment for whatever can be had from that for the use either of the naval or military department. the present is for your private information; you will know it officially by applications from those departments whenever their wants may call for them. Accept my friendly salutations &...
27178Thomas Jefferson to Eleuthere I. du Pont de Nemours, 4 November 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved, some time since, the keg of powder, you forwarded for me, and I have been daily expecting you would be so kind as to send on the note of the cost that I might remit it to you. the object of the present is to pray you to forward me another quarter of a hundred, comprehending half a doz: cannisters of shooting powder as before, & the rest proper for blowing rock, of which I have much...
27179Thomas Jefferson to Eleuthère I. du Pont de Nemours, 25 December 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I learnt the arrival of the powder & cloth you were so kind as to send me at Richmond as early as September last; and in the daily expectation of it’s arrival here I put off making my acknolegements to you until it should be actually recieved. by a mistake of a waterman, never discovered till within a few days past, it has been lying at Milton within three miles of me for three months, unknown...
27180Thomas Jefferson to Eleuthère I. du Pont de Nemours, 8 November 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
It is high time I should make my acknolegements to you for the piece of cloth of your manufacture which you were so kind as to forward to me. but this article as well as the keg of powder forwarded with it have experienced singular delay. tho’ sent from Wilmington early in July, they were near 2. months I believe reaching Richmond ; from which place they were forwarded to me on the 18 th of...
27181Thomas Jefferson to Eleuthère I. du Pont de Nemours, 16 June 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
On the 4 th of Nov. last I wrote to you requesting another quarter cask of powder to be forwarded to me with a note of the cost that I might remit for that & the preceding one together. not having heard from you, I repeated my request in a letter of Apr. 30. and at the same time desired mr John Barnes of Geo. town to remit you 50. Dollars, which he informed me he had done. this was a mere...
27182From Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 1 August 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you on the 26th. of the last month, and on the [31st received] your favor of the 17th. my office relating altogether to the legislative [depart]ment, I am entirely unacquainted with the measures proposed in that of the Executive. I may know that the fortification of certain ports [to some] extent has been authorised by the legislature. but whether the Executive will propose a greater...
27183From Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 2 March 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
my last to you was of May 2. since which I have recieved yours of May 25. June 1. July 23. 24. & Sep. 5. and distributed the two pamplets according to your desire. they are read with the delight which every thing from your pen gives. After using every effort which could prevent or delay our being entangled in the war of Europe, that seems now our only recourse. the edicts of the two...
27184From Benjamin Franklin to Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, 12 August 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum I am concern’d to understand lately that you have never been paid as I expected for the Ephemerides, and therefore I send you three Guineas by our valuable Friend M. Baudeau, requesting you will let me have the Accompt at your Leisure, and I will take care for the future that the Payment shall be more punctual. You are doing a great deal of Good to...
27185From Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 26 July 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I am much indebted to my enemies for proving, by their [little] tale of my death, that I have friends. the sensibility you are so good as to express on this occasion is very precious to me. I have never enjoyed better nor more uninterrupted health. I ought sooner to have acknoleged your favor of June 15. which came to hand in due time as did that of the 6th. instant. [I] thank you for your...
27186Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 6 June 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I am just returned from the journey mentioned in mine of May 15. and find here yours of May 26 . I see that you do not despair of your country . but I confess I foresee no definite term to the despotism now reestablished there, and the less as the nation seems to have voluntarily assumed the yoke, and to have made, of an usurper , a legitimate despot. what can we hope from a mind without moral...
27187Enclosure: Destutt de Tracy to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 30 January 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
je ne vous ai pas ecrit plutôt parceque je croyais toujours que vous alliez nous revenir; mais aujourd’hui quoique j’espere vous revoir bientôt, je Suis obligé de m’adresser à vous et je le fais avec confiance, vous connaissant trop pour ne pas espérer de vous trouver toujours le même pour moi et pour le Sujet de mes etudes Comme vous êtes dans un autre monde il doit etre celui des lumieres et...
27188From Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 12 February 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Skipwith’s return to Paris furnishes me an opportunity of acknoleging the reciept of your letters of Apr. 22. 29. May. 12. Aug. 27. Sep. 8. in that of May 12. you mention in general terms a notice taken by the society of Agriculture of a mouldboard of my construction: and I saw some details on that subject in the newspapers, which I should have paid no attention to but for the credit it...
27189From Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 11 August 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter by the last post I omitted to answer the question proposed in a former & repeated in your letter of July 26. whether your manuscript on education can be forwarded by post? it may; and will come safer through that than any other channel. accept in advance my grateful thanks for it; and my effort will not be wanting to avail my country of your ideas. success rests with the gods.—I...
27190From James Madison to Pierre Samuel DuPont de Nemours, 2 May 1802 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Madison presents his best respects to Mr. Dupont de Nemours, and requests that he will be so obliging as to take charge of some despatches for the American Minister at Paris, which are forwarded by the present mail to the post-master at Philada. They are to be handed by him to Mr. Dupont. Should a failure happen, Mr. M. will take it as a favor, if Mr. Dupont will please, before he embarks,...
27191Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 15 May 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
The newspapers tell us you are arrived in the US. I congratulate my country on this as a manifestation that you consider the it’s civil advantages of our country as more than equivalent to the physical comforts and social delights of a country which possesses both in the highest degree of any one on earth. you despair of your country , and so do I. a military despotism is now fixed upon it...
27192Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 3 January 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
A mail left us this morning which carried my letter of Dec. 31 . the messenger returning from the post office brings me yours of Dec. 20 . requesting the immediate return of your letter to the equinoctial republics. I had just entered on the reading of it, & got to the 10 th page: but on the receipt of your letter, as another mail goes out tomorrow morning, and no other under a week, I now...
27193From Benjamin Franklin to Pierre du Pont de Nemours, 2 October 1770 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Henry Francis DuPont Wintherthur Museum I received with great Pleasure the Assurances of your kind Remembrance of me, and the Continuance of your Goodwill towards me, in your Letter by M. le Comte Chreptowitz. I should have been happy to have rendred him every Civility and Mark of Respect in my Power (as the Friend of those I so much respect and honour) if he had given me the...
27194From Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 1 February 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege the reciept of your favors of Aug. 16. and Oct. 4. and the latter I recieved with peculiar satisfaction; because while it holds up terms which cannot be entirely yielded, it proposes such as a mutual spirit of accomodation and sacrifice of opinion, may bring to some point of union. while we were preparing on this subject such modifications of the propositions of your letter...
27195Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 29 July 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof, mr Smith , is the son of Gen l Smith of Baltimore , whose revolutionary services, as well as his civil station among us, that of a Senator, & a distinguished one of the United States , cannot be unknown to you who have taken so long, & so friendly an interest in whatever regards, or is done in the US . his son , who wishes to qualify himself to be useful to his country...
27196From Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, [17 January 1800] (Jefferson Papers)
I have just heard, my dear friend, of your arrival , and I hasten to welcome you to our shores, where you will at least be free from some of those sources of inquietude which have surrounded you in Europe. I feel much for what you must have suffered in a voyage of 95. days at this inclement season: but I shall hope to hear that these sufferings have passed away without any lasting effects. I...
27197From Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 14 July 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your letter of May 6. and a vessel being just now sailing from Baltimore affords me an opportunity of hastily acknoleging it. your exhortation to make a provision of arms is undoubtedly wise, and we have not been inattentive to it. our internal resources for cannon, are great, and those for small arms considerable, & in full emploiment. we shall not suffer from that want...
27198From James Madison to Pierre Samuel DuPont de Nemours, 3 December 1809 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your favor of July 11. with the several setts of Mr. Turgot’s valuable works. I thank you much for the one which you were so good as to allot for myself; and have with great pleasure distributed the others according to their destinations. The copy for your son was delivered to Mr. Bauduy his partner in the useful establishment near Wilmington which I hope will be as profitable to...
27199From Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 19 January 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr Harvie, a young gentleman who has lived with me since the departure of Captn. Lewis on his expedition up the Missouri, making a short visit to Paris, I have thought I ought not to deny him the advantage of your acquaintance. he has fine talents, great information, is moral & honourable. he is destined by his genius, acquirements and standing in society to run the career of political honour...
27200Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 29 November-14 December 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
In answering the several very kind letters I have recieved from you, I owe to yourself, and to the most able and estimable author of the Commentaries on Montesquieu to begin by assuring you that I am not the author of that work, and of my own consciousness that it is far beyond my qualifications. in truth I consider it as the most profound and logical work which has been presented to the...