27851From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 24 October 1778 (Washington Papers)
The coincidence between Your Excellencys sentiments respecting the Marquis de la fayettes cartel, communicated in the letter with which you honored me the 20th and those which I expressed to him on the same subject; is peculiarly flattering to me—I am happy to find that my disapprobation of this measure, was founded on the same arguments which in Your Excellencys hands acquire new force and...
27852From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 5 October 1778 (Washington Papers)
Two American Seamen who made their escape from a Prison-Ship at New York—report that the british fleet sailed ten days ago in quest of the French Squadron. This is an event of such importance and which from the nature of it admits so little of concealment—that I could not have been uninformed of it till now—supposing that it really happened; without the most unpardonable neglect in the Officer...
27853From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 11–12 September 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have had the honor of receiving Your Excellencys Letter of the 5th inst: accompanied by a copy of two letters to Congress and General Sullivan—The confidence which you have been pleased to shew me in communicating these papers, engage my sincere thanks—if the deepest regret, that the best concerted enterprises and bravest exertions should have been rendered fruitless by a disaster which...
27854From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 18 October 1778 (Washington Papers)
I had the honor of receiving this day Your Excellency’s favours of the 6th and 9th instant. I have this moment received advices, which are too interesting to permit me to lose any time in communicating them. They are contained in the inclosed extracts —I shall not detain the express longer, than to assure you of the infinite respect and attachment with which, I have the honor to be Sir Your...
27855From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 22 October 1778 (Washington Papers)
Since I had the honor of writing to Your Excellency yesterday—I have received some further accounts, which you will be pleased to find inclosed. They confirm the sailing of the British fleet, which lay at the Hook. I confide most in the account from Lord Stirling, with respect to their number. You will observe it is said they sailed Eastward; but Your Excellency will be sensible, that nothing...
27856From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 16 October 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have just received intelligence that on the nights of the 10th and 11th inst: a considerable body of troops embarked at New York —the most accurate accounts that we have been able to obtain of their numbers make them consist of ten Regiments with their flank companies completed by drafts to the full establishment—which will make them amount to between five and six thousand men—some however...
27857From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 5 November 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to transmit your Excellency an Extract of a letter from Major General Lord Stirling of the 3d by which you will perceive, that a fleet of One hundread and eight sail, left Sandy Hook the morning of that day. This probably contains a division of the troops, the departure of which we have so long expected. The Marquis De La Fayette arrived three days since at Fish Kill two and...
27858From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 29 September 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have had the honor of receiving Your Excellencys letter of the 17th. the sentiments expressed in it flow from a great mind, and prove the wisdom of His most Christian Majesty’s choice in appointing you his military Representative in America—I flatter myself with Your Excellency that what only in a moment of chagrin assumed the air of a misunderstanding, is buried in total oblivion—and that...
27859From George Washington to d’Estaing, 7 September 1791 (Washington Papers)
I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 30th of May by the hands of Monsieur de Ternant. and I beg you will be assured that I have a proper sense of the very polite and obliging manner in which you are pleased to express your personal regard for me. The manner in which you speak of M. de Ternant is highly honorable to him—and, from his talents, discretion, and proper views, united...
27860From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 17 July 1778 (Washington Papers)
I had the honor of receiving the night of the 14th Instant, your very obliging and interesting letter of the 13th dated off Sandy Hook, with a duplicate of another, dated the 8th at Sea. The arrival of a fleet, belonging to his most Christian majesty on our coast, is an event that makes me truly happy; and permit me to observe, that the pleasure I feel on the occasion is greatly increased, by...
27861From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 13 September 1779 (Washington Papers)
Having received intelligence which made it probable that a Squadron of his Most Christian Majesty was approaching our coast, I thought it my duty to meet you with the earliest advice of the situation of the Enemy in this quarter. Admiral Arbuthnot arrived at New York the 25th of last month with a reinforcement under his convoy, consisting from the best accounts I have been able to obtain of...
27862From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 25 October 1778 (Washington Papers)
The certain intelligence of a large number of troops having embarked at New York—the sailing of a considerable fleet, at the moment their departure was expected—and the general purport of the accounts received at the same time—left me no room to doubt, that the fleet, which went out of the Hook the 19th and 20th instant, contained the detachment, of the embarkation of which, I had been...
27863From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 12 August 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have just received a second letter dated the 10th from General Maxwell, confirming the intelligence of the departure of the British fleet from the Hook, with some further particulars, which it may not be useless or unsatisfactory to you to know—an extract from which I do myself the honor to inclose. The state of the winds for two or three days past makes me hope this communication may not...
27864From George Washington to Vice Admiral d’Estaing, 27 October 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have read Your Excellency’s two favours of the 18th and 21st, with all the pleasure, which the perusal of your letters never fails to inspire, and which naturally attends the communications of those in whom we are warmly interested. I rejoice with you in the prospect of your being so soon in a state to resume the sea—I cannot but ardently desire, that an opportunity may speedily be offered...
27865From Thomas Jefferson to D’Estaing, 13 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
My friend Mr. Short, who is returning from Italy, expects to pass by Toulon, and wishes permission to see the docks and arsenals of that place. It is understood that this is not permitted without a special order. I therefore take the liberty of asking from you a letter to any person at Toulon who can procure this gratification for Mr. Short and also for Mr. Rutledge who is with him. They have...
27866Orders for Defense of the Western Frontier, 23 July 1779 (Jefferson Papers)
The Act of General Assembly intituled an act for raising a Body of Troops for the defence of the Commonwealth, having directed that two battalions shall be raised for the Western and two for the Eastern Service, the Board advise the Governor to Order that the men to be raised according to the said act in the Counties of Yohogania, Monongalia, Ohio, Kentucky, Hampshire, Berkley, Frederick,...
27867From Thomas Jefferson to Richard Harison and other District Attorneys, 12 August 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
It is desirable that Government should be informed what proceedings have taken place in the several States since the Treaty with Great Britain, which may be considered by that Nation as infractions of the Treaty, and consequently that we should be furnished with copies of all acts, orders, proclamations, and decisions, legislative, executive, or judiciary, which may have affected the debts or...
27868From Thomas Jefferson to the Treasurer, Register of the Land Office, Auditors, Commissioner of the Navy, and Clerks of … (Jefferson Papers)
We have received advice this morning that the enemy were in motion up James river in eleven vessels most of them square rigged, the foremost of which was in the afternoon of yesterday within sight from Burwells ferry. Their destination being unknown to us and possibly for this Place we thought it our duty to give you notice of the above, as you may think it adviseable to prepare the papers and...
27869From Thomas Jefferson to André Limozin and Others, 28 October 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I have the honor to inform you that declarations on the part of France and England for the continuance of peace were signed last night at Versailles, of which be so good as to notify the citizens of the U.S. concerned in commerce at your port, for their future government. I have the honor to be sir your most obedt. & most hble. Servt., PrC ( DLC ); in the hand of William Short, signed by TJ;...
27870From Thomas Jefferson to Christian Frederick Michaelis and Others, 4 February 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
The American Philosophical Society having heretofore done themselves the honour of naming you one of their members, the President has been pleased to transmit to me the Diploma made out in the forms used by the society, and authenticated by their seal. I do myself the honour of forwarding it to you and at the same time of assuring you of the sentiments of esteem & respect with which I have the...
27871From Thomas Jefferson to Daniel Morgan and Other Late Commanding Officers of the Virginia Line, 28 July 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
It has become necessary on the Settlement of our Account of Arms furnished the Continent to produce Vouchers for the Numbers. When our Regiments went first into Continental Service Most of them were full Armed, no Receipts or Certificates however were taken at the time. It remains that we supply this Omission in the best Manner we can, which is by application to the feild Officers who had...
27872George Muter to J. P. G. Muhlenberg and Others, 28 December [1780] (Jefferson Papers)
The General Assembly having Authorized the Supreme Executive, in case of an Invasion of this State, to embody and Officer as they think most adviseable a force for opposing the Enemy, the Executive think it will be essentially necessary for them, to be beforehand provided with a roll of all the resigned and supernumerary Officers in the State, wherein shall be noted their Names, places of...
27873Henry Remsen, Jr. to Benjamin Russell and Others, 23 November 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
I am directed by the Secretary of State to request that you will furnish him with an estimate of the expense that will attend the publication of the Laws of the United States in your paper. It should mention the lowest price for which you will perform this work, and on account of the meeting of Congress early in next month, be transmitted to him without delay. I am Sir &c. FC ( DNA : RG 59,...
27874From Thomas Jefferson to André Limozin and Others, 3 March 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Being called to Holland at a very few hours warning I have only time to notify you that I shall be absent from this place three or four weeks to come. In the mean time should any thing pressing occur, Mr. Short, my secretary will attend to it. I have the honour to be with great esteem Sir Your most obedt. humble servt., PrC ( DLC ); at foot of text: “M. Limozin M. Carnes M. Bondfeild.”
27875From Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Corny, 30 June 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return to Paris, it was among my first attentions to go to the rue Chaussée d’Antin No. 17. and enquire after my friends whom I had left there. I was told they were in England. And how do you like England, madam? I know your taste for the works of art gives you a little disposition to Anglomany. Their mechanics certainly excel all others in some lines. But be just to your own nation....
27876From Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Corny, 18 October 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I have now the honor, Madam, to send you the Memoire of M. de Calonne . Do not injure yourself by hurrying it’s perusal. Only, when you shall have read it at your ease, be so good as to send it back, that it may be returned to the Duke of Dorset. You will read it with pleasure. It has carried comfort to my heart, because it must do the same to the king and the nation. Tho’ it does not prove M....
27877From Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Corny, 14 October 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Adieus are painful; therefore I left Paris without sending one to you. After being detained in Havre ten days by contrary wind, we took advantage of a slight change of wind to get over to this place; tho it was blowing almost a tempest. 26. hours of boisterous navigation and mortal sickness landed us at this little village, where we have now been five days waiting for our ship, which has been...
27878From Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Corny, 2 April 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the happiness, my dear friend, to arrive in Virginia after a voiage of 26. days only, of the finest autumn weather it was possible to have the wind having never blown harder than we would have desired it. On my arrival I found my name in the newspapers announced as Secretary of state. I made light of it, supposing I had only to say “no” and there would be an end of it. It turned out...
27879From Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Corny, 26 October 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you, my dear Madam, for the charming glass you have sent me. The beauty of the form had struck me at your house, where all is beautiful, and I meant to trouble your maitre d’hotel only, with the commission you have been so friendly as to take on yourself. Coming however from you, it is doubly precious. It shall stand by my own plate every day, and suggest the health I am to drink, and...
27880From Thomas Jefferson to De Corny, 20 October 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
By the first conveyance which shall offer I propose to report to the Governor of Virginia the manner in which the wish of the state relative to the bust of the Marquis de La Fayette has been carried into execution, and of the friendly and flattering attentions paid by Messieurs le Prevot des Marchands et Echevins de Paris to them and to the character to which they desired to shew their...
27881From Thomas Jefferson to De Corny, 18 February 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed letter to the Prevot des Marchands et echevins de Paris is to acknolege the receipt of the report which you were so kind as to put into my hands, and which I immediately forwarded to the Governor of Virginia. As the letter is written in English, and will therefore need your explanation, I take the liberty of passing it thro’ your hands, and even of praying you to put the address...
27882From Thomas Jefferson to De Corny, 17 December 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
It is time to give you an account of your copying machine, which, after repeated trial, I find very inadequate to it’s offices. Instead of having two rollers only, thus placed, where the pressure of the upper roller is resisted in the same points by the lower one, and so forces the copy extremely, it is made with one roller above and two below, thus so that at the point where the upper roller...
27883From George Washington to John Ettwein, 28 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 25th instant by Mr Hasse; setting forth the injury that will be done to the Inhabitants of Letiz by establishing a General Hospital there—it is needless to explain how essential an establishment of this kind is to the welfare of the Army, and you must be sensible that it cannot be made any where, without occasioning inconvenience to some set of people or...
27884From George Washington to Hancock Eustace, 18 September 1755 (Washington Papers)
You are, until further Orders, appointed to act as Lieutenant in Captain Joshua Lewis’s Company, and are to observe such Orders as you shall receive from him, unless contradicted by your Recruiting Instructions, or any Orders which you shall receive from me hereafter. You are to proceed to any Place where your Captain shall send you; and are to use your utmost Endeavours in recruiting Men for...
27885From James Madison to William Eustis, 10 September 1812 (Madison Papers)
I have but a moment to inclose you the letters from Govr: Scott & others. You will communicate to Mr. Monroe what has been done in that quarter. His presence will be useful in getting every thing into system & subordination. A failure in the mail does not allow me time to examine the Volunteer Act, with reference to a Majr. Genl’s Comission to Mr. Monroe. But I see no evil from risking the...
27886Thomas Jefferson to William Eustis, 2 May 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
Among the candidates for commission in the army now to be raised, M r Archibald C. Randolph proposes to offer himself. he had a commission of Captain in that which was to have been raised in 1799. and I have no doubt that the testimonies of his merit on which that was granted are still to be found in the War office. to these he will be able to add others equally respectable of the present day....
27887From John Adams to William Eustis, 27 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to introduce to you Mr. Richard Cranch Norton, a young Gentleman of liberal Education at our old Alma Mater. His name will inform you of his genuine puritanical blood. He is a nephew of your neighbor Chief Justice Cranch. He has a brother whose name is Edward Norton and both of them Sons of a Learned Divine of Weymouth, whose Orthodoxy can be surely no impeachment of his Patriotism....
27888From James Madison to William Eustis, 15 September 1811 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. yours of the 11th. inclosing a letter from Mr. Jones acting as Judge Advocate at Frederick Town. As the case of Genl. Wilkinson is in possession of the Court Martial, who will judge of the extent of their own jurisdiction, as well as decide on the merits of the questions within it, no instructions seem to be requisite, in the present stage of the proceeding; unless it be in...
27889Thomas Jefferson to William Eustis, 5 November 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson asks permission of the Secretary at war to discharge what he believes to be a duty in making known the proffers of the writer of the inclosed, for which purpose he incloses his letter. of the writer he never before heard, nor knows any thing more than from the letter. he only recollects that there was a family of that name over the mountains when he used formerly to visit that...
27890Thomas Jefferson to William Eustis, 24 August 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I take the liberty of adding a the name of Nicholas B. Pryor of Tenessee to the probably long list of candidates for military appointment, and inclose the documents he has furnished me with as to his character, and a letter from Col o W. P. Anderson whom I suppose to be Col o of the 8 th regiment, in which it is mentioned that there have been some recommen resignations. I believe mr
27891From James Madison to William Eustis, 12 May 1816 (Madison Papers)
I duly recd. your two favors of Aug. 10. & Decr. 9th. 1815. but during so busy a season, that I have been obliged to postpone the acknowlegement of them, to the present date. The picture you give of the Dutch humiliation as exemplified in the tone of the Baron de Nagel, on the violation of the local sovereignty in the case of the seaman impressed, exceeds what I could have inferred from the...
27892From James Madison to William Eustis, 16 August 1810 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 16 August 1810. Acknowledged in Eustis to JM, 26 Aug. 1810 . Inquires about the authorship of a disrespectful note and forwards a letter from George Colbert.
27893From James Madison to William Eustis, 25 January 1819 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of the 27 Ult: from Richmond was duly handed to me by Genl King. His stay with me was very short, having failed to reach this on the day he left Monticello, and being in a hurry to get to Washington by a particular time. I find by Mrs. Eustis’s letter to Mrs. M. that you had taken up your winter quarters in Wmsbg. Why did you not take a Western instead of an Eastern direction from...
27894From James Madison to William Eustis, 14 June 1823 (Madison Papers)
I have duly recd. your letter of the 6th. inst: in which your pen has done justice to the elevated devotion to the public interest which it had to express. I had previously recd. under your blank cover, a printed copy of your Address to the Legislature. The coup de grace which the address gives to the factious ascendency so long forming a cloud over the State of Massachts. could not fail to...
27895From James Madison to William Eustis, 30 August 1809 (Madison Papers)
Several considerations appearing to render it expedient that the Commander in Chief, now with the Army in the Territory of Orleans, should be at the Seat of Government, as soon as the prerequisites to his setting out, will permit, you will please to transmit him instructions to that effect. Should the correspondence between the Navy Dept. and Capt: Porter, not have been otherwise communicated...
27896Thomas Jefferson to William Eustis, 6 October 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Sollicited by a poor man in an adjoining county who states his case in the inclosed letter, & truly, as far as I can learn, I take the liberty of putting it under cover to you, in the hope you will be so good as to put it into the hands of the proper clerk, that whatever is right may be done, &, if nothing can be done, that the clerk may certify the grounds, so as to inform the applicant & put...
27897From John Adams to William Eustis, 18 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
Give me leave to enclose to you a Letter from a Gentleman whom I knew in former Life but have not lately seen. I knew his Grand Father, his Father, his Uncle and his Brothers and himself all of genuine old New England Blood You probably know personally more of him than I do. If it should be consistent with the public good in the Presidents opinion and yours I should hear with pleasure of his...
27898From James Madison to William Eustis, 6 July 1819 (Madison Papers)
I have delayed to thank you for your favors from Williamsburg & N York, till I should learn that a letter would find you at Boston. This I have just done. I am glad that your interview with Dr. Mason has authenticated a circumstance, which tho’ of a minute character, it is well eno’ should not be left in uncertainty. And I am very glad that you sought the conversation with Van Wert. The...
27899Thomas Jefferson to William Eustis, 30 May 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
In the action brought against me by E. Livingston on the subject of the batture , the counsel employed desire me without delay to furnish them with the grounds of defence that they may know what pleas to put in. to do this a communication of the papers in the several public offices, material to the case, is very essential. will you be so kind as to have selected such of those deposited in your...
27900From James Madison to William Eustis, 6 September 1812 (Madison Papers)
I have thought it proper to request the return of the inclosed letters; some of which, though stating facts, & shewing the public sentiment, and on that account worth perusing, contain what ought to consign them to the fire, rather than to the public archives. The more I hear of the alarm produced in the Western Country by Hull’s disaster, and of the incoherent efforts on foot to cure the...