1[From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 28 December 1783] (Jefferson Papers)
[ Annapolis, 28 Dec. 1783 . Entry in SJL reads: “Mr. Hawkins. Vocabulary—Buffon’s character of Indians.” Not found.]
2To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 14 June 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
The queres you gave me I have put into the best possible train to be answered considering the class of people from whom that kind of information is to be obtained, and I expect returns will be made to me this summer. The Languages I was particularly attentive to during my residence at the Treaties and among some of the Tribes, and I shall send you a vocabulary of the Cherokee and Choctaw...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 13 August 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of June 14. is come to hand and I am to thank you for your attention to my queries on the subject of the Indians. I have sent many copies to other correspondents, but as yet have heard nothing from them. I shall proceed however in my endeavors particularly with respect to their language and shall take care so to dispose of what I collect thereon as that it shall not be lost. The...
4To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 8 March 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I have had within a few days the pleasure to receive your favor of the 13th august. It was received at the office of Foreign affairs in Novr. and has been traveling since southwardly and Northwardly to meet with me. I have been attentive to your other request, and expect I shall be able to send you a few plants of the Dionaea muscipula some time this Spring. Mr. de la Forest who returns to...
5To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 9 June 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
By the june Packet I have the happiness of complying in a great measure with my promise of the eighth of march. Finding that I had lost most of my plants through the inattention or ignorance of the Captain who had the care of them from North Carolina although I made repeated trials and the last with giving particular directions on the proper method of treating them. And fearing that similar...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 4 August 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknowlege the receipt of your favors of Mar. 8. and June 9. and to give you many thanks for the trouble you have taken with the Dionaea muscipula. I have not yet heard any thing of them, which makes me fear they have perished by the way. I beleive the most effectual means of conveying them hither will be by the seed. I must add my thanks too for the vocabularies. This is an object I...
7To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 6 October 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have never had it in my power, until now, to procure for you the seeds of the Dionaea Muscipula. The gentlemen who had promised to get some for me had been too late both years in their endeavours. This year on my return from Wilmington I discovered it was in bloom on the 6th of June, pointed it out to a farmer who knows it well and at my request he some days past sent the seed which I...
8To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 22 December 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
A committee of the Senate are in want of an act of the general assembly of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations passed in Jany. 1790 intituled “An act to incorporate certain persons by the name of the river machine company, in the town of Providence and for other purposes therein mentioned”;—An act of the general assembly of the State of Maryland, at their session in april...
9To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 18 February 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
I am very desirous of obtaining your opinion on the Constitutionality of the Treaties formed with the Indians at Hopewell on the Keowée. If I recollect right, you informed me you had yours in writing some time last summer.—If the request be not an improper one, and you have reserved a copy, you will oblidge me by a gratification of my desire. I do not mean to ask the liberty of using your name...
10From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 1 April 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
At Mrs. Trist’s desire I forward to you about a dozen beans of three different kinds, having first taken toll of them as she had done before. They are of the scarlet flowering kinds. This is all I know of them. The most beautiful bean in the world is the Caracalla bean, which though in England a green house plant, will grow in the open air in Virginia and Carolina. I never could get one of...
11To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 3 May 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the pleasure to receive the letter you did me the honor to write to me of the 1st. of april enclosing some of the scarlet blosom beans; And the acts of the last Session of Congress under an envelope franked by you, for which I request you to accept my thanks. I wish you and Mrs. Trist may have been as fortunate with your beans as I am with mine, the largest and middle sized are up and...
12To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 3 January 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you herewith the notes I informed you I had taken of the recent debate in the Senate. When you have read them I request that they may be returned; yet, if you judge proper, you may previously show them to the President. I have paid on my part that attention to the subject in question that its importance deserves, without being able to form an opinion perfectly satisfactory to myself....
13To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 26 March 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I have sent the messenger of the Senate to you for 1st. vol. Of Ramsays history of S. Carolina. I shall return it to-morrow. I had a conversation with Genl. Dickinson , on the subject I mentioned to you yesterday. He expects this evening to be in company with Hammond and Bond and he will speak very freely to them, as from himself, and let me know the result to-morrow. On his present standing...
14Memorandum of Conversation between Philemon Dickinson and George Hammond, 26 March 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
D[ickinson] arrived late laste evening but immediately on his entering the room H[ammond] accosted him, and began in the strain of the festive night? D. What progress have you made with J[efferson]? H. Not much D. I will tell you what, H, it is conjectured here that there is some defect in your powers, and that in consequence the result of your visit here will not be productive of any good. H....
15To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 12 April 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
Crawford McLintock & Co. of Glasgow had a store in Warren County, before the revolution, near the place of my residence, and there was some money due them for merchandize sold there. Mr. Robert Turnbull of Petersburg has collected, or secured to be collected, a considerable part, if not the whole, of the debts. I know that he collected, or secured to be collected, more than one hundred pounds...
16To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 28 December 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
Hops are planted in checks of six feet square; a foot square at the check spaded a foot deep and manured, seven cuttings are planted in each check. The following is a minute of the expence and produce of hops at stowmarket in Suffolk . Stock £25 for poles, the interest of which £1. 5.0 Rent £2. Tythe £1. rates 14/ 3.14.0 Three load of poles at 22/ annually 3. 6.0 manure four loads a year 16.0...
17To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 1 February 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you your share of the white bent grass, so much valued by Mr. Bassett. I have sent the half of the remainder to the President. Mr. B. being a farmer, we may count with certainty on its being a valuable acquisition from the experience he has had. If you have formd any thing interesting from the name I sent you, you can communicate it to the President with a translation of the botanical...
18To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 14 February 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Strong Mr. Rutherford Mr. Hawkins The committee on the enclosed bill reported verbally in substance as follows. That the line to be run would be exparte, as the President of the United States was authorized to appoint the officers to be employed in running the line, although such line would have affected the jurisdiction of the States of Virginia and Kentuckey, and perhaps, would have...
19To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 28 October 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
For the first time my dear sir, I have an opportunity direct for your house. Micajah Childs called on me this evening on his return to Charlottsville. I avail myself of it by his permission to send you some grape vines. No. 1 Burgundy, called Millers Burgundy, the berries oval and black, the leaves covered with a hoary down. 2 Auvorna second Burgundy or black Morillon esteemed the best of the...
20From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 22 March 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
I am going to put you on a wild goose chace to find out the person to whom the inclosed letter is addressed. He moved to N. Carolina in 1782. and is settled somewhere up towards the mountains and not a great way from the Virginia line. This is all which his family here can tell me of him. A son of his here claims under him 100. acres of land which are in my possession, but he has no deed for...
21To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 23 January 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
My nephew Mr. William Hawkins will have the pleasure to deliver this to you. He has been an assistant in the Indian department for some time past, possesses accurate information of our affairs in this quarter and will communicate freely to you all that he knows. Invited him to spend some months with me in this climate for the restoration of his health; and fortunately for him with success. He...
22From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 14 March 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I had twice before attempted to open a correspondence by writing to you, but recieving no answer, I took for granted my letters did not reach you & consequently that no communication could be found. yesterday however your nephew put into my hands your favor of Jan. 23. and informs me that a letter sent by post by way of fort Wilkinson will be certain of getting safely to you. still I expect...
23To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 12 July 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I have had the pleasure to receive your favour of the 14 of march, to which I could have replied a few days sooner; but I have been in the expectation of seeing some chiefs of the neighbouring nations, from whom I could obtain the words, to compleat your vocabulary: that expectation will not soon be realized; and I now send you what I have obtained, with assurances that when I am able I will...
24To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 6 November 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you some time past and sent on the Creek and Chickasaw, I now add the Choctaw words required by you. The Cherokee is at best doubtful. The seperate communication requested by you will be made as soon as I can obtain a book or paper to transcribe it on. My residence has been lately changed and is two hundred miles from the frontiers of Georgia and that frontier a great distance from...
25To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 1 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I now send you My dear Sir, the seperate communication promised you; It would have been sent somewhat sooner, but I have moved from the Lower to the upper creeks, to be more in the center of the nation, and to have a more commanding influence among them; and of course to be in a situation where my exertions will have the best effect in carrying the benevolent views of our government into...
26To Thomas Jefferson from James Wilkinson and Benjamin Hawkins, 1 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Understanding from the public prints, that you are at Monticello, we avail ourselves of the direct conveyance to intrude on you our communications of the 25th ult , and of this day , to the secretary of War; and we hope you may approve of this deviation from the regular course of our correspondence, which we hazard, with the intent to secure time, for the seasonable arrival of any order you...
27From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 16 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Mrs. Trist who is here brought me her letter to inclose after I had [sent off my public ] one to the post office: […] I give it a special cover, which she thinks will render it safer than if committed to the post uncovered. she had neither sealed nor directed: but it [goes as I] […] [prying] into […] between […] & to lie. I forgot to say in my public letter that I shall be with the heads of...
28From Thomas Jefferson to James Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins, and Andrew Pickens, 16 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 1st. inst. covering letters to the Secretary at war, left open for my perusal, came to hand yesterday. General Dearborne being at present at his own house in the province of Maine, were we to await an answer from him, the object of your application would be passed by before you could recieve it. to prevent the public from recieving injury therefore from this circumstance I...
29To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 28 October 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have had the honour to receive your favour of the 16th. of September covering a letter of my much esteemed and valuable friend Mrs. Trist; and availing myself of the permission heretofore given I take the liberty to enclose a letter for her to you. I find that her son has it in contemplation to move to the Mississippi territory to better his resources by the culture of cotton. The Agency...
30To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 11 December 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
We expect to commence our conference with the Choctaws tomorrow, they have met us today and informed us they would be then ready. From present appearances we shall obtain permission to open the road towards Nashville. As soon as our commission terminates here I shall go to Tookaubatche on the Creek agency about 500 miles, General Pickens will accompany me on his way home, and General Wilkinson...
31To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 1 February 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I do myself the pleasure to send you a specimen of my tours through this agency in my journal down the Tennassee with the map of the river. I have made it a rule to travel with a pocket compass and time piece and have in likemanner noted every journey through this country; several of which, are ploted and the whole will be sent to the War office as soon as I have paper and leisure to copy...
32To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 15 January 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer Mr. William Hill is an assistant in this agency as I have known him for five years and believe him to be a very honest and useful man I have thought him worthy of an introduction to you, that you may hear from such a man a detail of occurrences in this quarter. The object of his Visit to the seat of government is to carry the accounts and Vouchers in this department to the War...
33From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 18 February 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Hill’s return to you offers so safe a conveyance for a letter that I feel myself irresistably disposed to write one, tho’ there is little to write about. you have been so long absent from this part of the world, and the state of society so changed in that time, that details respecting those who compose it are no longer interesting or intelligible to you. one source indeed of great change...
34To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 11 July 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the pleasure to receive your favour by Mr. Hill at a time when my mind was greatly agitated with the state of affairs in my agency. The opposition with us joined by the Simanolie seemed determined to usurp the direction of affairs, to place a chief of their own choice over the nation, and to disturb the peace of the agency. In their progress, meeting but little opposition publicly, they...
35From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 4 August 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
This will be handed you by Isaac Briggs, Surveyor general of the territories of the US. South of Tennessee, now on his return to Natchez the place of his residence. being anxious to get the most direct road from Washington to N. Orleans, without crossing the mountains, mr Briggs has consented to go what we deem the most direct & practicable road to ascertain & plat all it’s remarkeable points...
36From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 11 July 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
By the return of mr Wheaton I learn with great satisfaction that we at length have a clear prospect of a good road from Athens to Fort Stoddert, at least. he tells me you are satisfied it is best, & even nearest to go by Coweta. my own opinion is that distance is not to be so much regarded as levelness, firmness and to be clear of obstructions. from Coweta, I think, nature has traced out the...
37To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Hawkins, 13 September 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I was duly honoured with your favour of the 11th July, and having communicated to the postmaster General, the letters of Mr. Bloomfield the asst. for the post office in this neighbourhood, I deemed it unnecessary to report to you, what I had written to him, and therefore delayed writing, until I could give you correct information, after the meeting of the national council, which took place on...
38From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 15 September 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof, mr Chandler has contracted with the post-office for carrying the Orleans mail through your country. he has been personally known to me about a year or two, and is an active, enterprising, intelligent young man. I have great confidence in his fitness for effecting this purpose which we have so much at heart and are determined to go through with. he wishes to be placed under...