1Thomas Jefferson to "Abbe Salemankis," 14 March 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your favor of Feb. 27. and am very thankful for the friendly sentiments therein expressed towards myself, as well as for the pamphlet inclosed. that it contains many serious truths and sound admonitions every reader will be sensible. at the same time it is a comfort that the medal has two sides. I do not myself contemplate human nature in quite so sombre a view. that there...
2Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, 22 August 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
A kind note at the foot of mr Adams’s letter of July 15. reminds me of the duty of saluting you with friendship and respect; a duty long suspended by the unremitting labors of public engagement, and which ought to have been sooner revived, since I am become proprietor of my own time. and yet so it is, that in no course of life have I been ever more closely pressed by business than in the...
3Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, 11 January 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I owe you, dear Madam, a thousand thanks for the letters communicated in your favor of Dec. 15. and now returned. they give me more information than I possessed before of the family of mr Tracy . but what is infinitely interesting is the scene of the exchange of Louis XVIII . for Bonaparte . what lessons of wisdom mr Adams must have read in that short space of time! more than fall to the lot...
4Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 14 October 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter, dear Sir, of May 6. had already well explained the Uses of grief, that of Sep. 3. with equal truth adduces instances of it’s abuse; and when we put into the same scale these abuses, with the afflictions of soul which even the Uses of grief cost us, we may consider it’s value in the economy of the human being, as equivocal at least. those afflictions cloud too great a portion of...
5Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 22 August 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Since my letter of June 27. I am in your debt for many; all of which I have read with infinite delight. they open a wide field for reflection; and offer subjects enough to occupy the mind and the pen indefinitely. I must follow the good example you have set; and when I have not time to take up every subject, take up a single one. Your approbation of my outline to D r Priestly is a great...
6Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 11 January 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Of the last five months I have past four at my other domicil , for such it is in a considerable degree. no letters are forwarded to me there, because the cross post to that place is circuitous and uncertain. during my absence therefore they are accumulating here, & awaiting acknolegements. this has been the fate of your favor of Nov. 13. I agree with you in all it’s eulogies on the 18 th...
7Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 27 June 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Ἴδαν ἐς πολύδενδρον ἀνὴρ ὑλητόμος ἐλθὼν, Παπταίνει, παρέοντος ἄδην, ποθεν ἄρξεται ἔργου· Τί πρᾶτον καταλεξῶ; ἐπεὶ πάρα μυρία ἐιπῆν. and I too, my dear Sir, like the wood-cutter of Ida, should doubt where to begin, were I to enter the forest of opinions, discussions, & contentions which have occurred in our day. I should exclaim with Theocritus Τί πρᾶτον καταλεξῶ; ἐπεὶ πάρα μυρία ειπῆν . but I...
8Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 10 August 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
The simultaneous movements in our correspondence have been really remarkable on several occasions. it would seem as if the state of the air, or state of the times, or some other unknown cause produced a sympathetic effect on our mutual recollections. I had set down to answer your letters of June 19. 20. 22. with pen, ink, and paper before me, when I recieved from our mail that of July 30. you...
9Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 10 June 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
It is long since we have exchanged a letter, and yet what volumes might have been written on the occurrences even of the last three months. in the first place, Peace, God bless it! has returned to put us all again into a course of lawful and laudable pursuits: a new trial of the Bourbons has proved to the world their incompetence to the functions of the station they have occupied: & the recall...
10Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 15 June 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you a letter on the 27 th of May , which probably would reach you about the 3 d inst. and on the 9 th I recieved yours of the 29 th of May . of Lindsay’s Memoirs I had never before heard, & scarcely indeed of himself. it could not therefore but be unexpected that two letters of mine should have any thing to do with his life. the name of his