571To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 20 April 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have it now in my power to send you a piece of homespun in return for that I recieved from you. not of the fine texture, or delicate character of yours, or, to drop our metaphor, not filled as that was with that display of imagination which constitutes excellence in Belles lettres, but a mere sober, dry and formal piece of Logic. Ornari res ipsa negat. yet you may have enough left of your...
572To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 11 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Forty three volumes read in one year, and 12. of them quartos! dear Sir, how I envy you! half a dozen 8vos. in that space of time are as much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long hours from my rest; nor would that time be allowed me indulged to me, could I, by that light, see to write from sun-rise to one or two oclock, and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging...
573From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 12 October 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I do not write with the ease which your letter of Sep. 18. supposes. crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious. but, while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things, in the recollection of antient times, when youth and health made happiness out of every thing. I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we can think of nothing but how to keep ourselves warm, &...
574To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 18 December 1825 (Adams Papers)
Your letters are always welcome, the last more than all others, it’s subject being one of the dearest to my heart. to my granddaughter your commendations cannot fail to be an object of high ambition, as a certain passport to the good opinion of the world. if she does not cultivate them with assiduity and affection, she will illy fulfill my parting injunctions. I trust she will merit a...
575From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 17 January 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his respects to the President of the US. and will have the honor of waiting on him to dinner on Thursday next RC (Gary Hendershott, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1992); addressed: “The President of the US.” Not recorded in SJL .
576From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 5 October 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
The Chevalier Dolomieu of the order of Malta, who served in the army of Count Rochambeau in America being to pass into England, I take the liberty of introducing him to you. An acquaintance with him in America enables me to assure you of his merit; his politeness and good understanding will of themselves recommend him to your esteem. I have the honour to be with the highest respect Sir Your...
577To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 21 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I thank you before hand (for they are not yet arrived) for the specimens of homespun you have been so kind as to forward me by post. I doubt not their excellence, knowing how far you are advanced in these things in your quarter. here we do little in the fine way, but in coarse & midling goods a great deal. every family in the country is a manufactory within itself, and is very generally able...
578To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 6 February 1787 (Adams Papers)
Your favors by Col o. Franks have come safely to hand. he will set out from hence the 8 th. inst. the packet being to sail from Havre the 10 th. I inclose you the copy of a letter lately received from mr̃ Barclay, & of the paper it inclosed. in a letter from mr̃ Carmichael is a postscript dated Dec. 25. in the following words “since writing the preceding, the Portuguese Ambassador has pressed...
579Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1 June 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
It is very long, my dear Sir, since I have written to you. my dislocated wrist is now become so stiff that I write slowly and with pain, and therefore write as little as I can. yet it is due to mutual friendship to ask once in a while how we do? the papers tell us that Gen l Starke is off at the age of 93. Charles Thomson still lives at about the same age, chearful, slender as a grasshopper,...
580Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 24 January 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I have great need of the indulgence so kindly extended to me in your favor of Dec. 25. of permitting me to answer your friendly letters at my leisure. my frequent and long absences from home are a first cause of tardiness in my correspondence, and a 2 d the accumulation of business during my absence, some of which imperiously commands first attentions. I am now in arrear to you for your...