1Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 January 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Francis arrived here in good health the day before Yesterday. I think he cannot do better than to take this occasion of learning Spanish, because it is a language rarely taught in this country, and will be of great importance within his day. it is that too in which all the early history of America is written. I suppose he may acquire so much of it in 2. or 3. months as to pursue it easily...
2Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 June 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I am this moment arrived here with Ellen & Cornelia , and find Francis who arrived last night. I will take care and attend him to the Academy & see to every thing necessary for him. we will keep him with us as long as we stay (a week or 10. days) and rub him up in his French. I learn with great concern the state of your health, but can prescribe nothing by but patience & the springs with good...
3Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 30 April with 7 May 1816 postscript (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 8 th was recieved here on the 19 th inst. the information you have had as to the schools at Staunton and Lexington is correct. the latter has been at all times under the direction of an infuriated Presbyterian bigot and tory, better fitted to fanaticise than to instruct youth in useful knolege. when I was last here, I heard of their expelling two or three youths for the heinous...
4Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 30 [March] 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Francis returns as much improved, I am in hopes, as you will have expected. he reads French with so much ease as to read it for amusement, has not much occasion for his dictionary, pronounces generally well, the few defects remaining being such as will be easily corrected hereafter. being kept almost entirely at French, he could afford only the time before breakfast for keeping up his Latin....
5Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1 June 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
For want of time to consult you on it, I have taken a measure of great responsibility on my self as to Francis , for your pardon for which I must rely on the motives, and what I hope will be the effect of it. French is become the most indispensable part of modern education. it is the only language in which a man of any country can be understood out of his own; and is now the preeminent...
6Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 9 September 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I am sorry to learn by Francis’s letter that your you are not yet recovered from your rheumatism, and much wonder you do not go and pass a summer at the Warm springs . from the examples I have seen I should entertain no doubt of a radical cure. the transactions at Washington and Alexandria are indeed beyond expectation. the circumjacent country is mostly disaffected, but I should have thought...
7Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 16 July 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Estin Randolph has shewed me a letter from you, proposing to sell him Pantops , o i n order to lay out the money in lands in your neighborhood for Francis . I had hoped that we had concurred in our purposes on that subject, altho’ we did not in the immediate execution of them. my view & wish was when Francis should come of age, or the Pantops lease expire, or whenever else you pleased, to...
8Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 6 November 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I had not expected to have troubled you again on the subject of finance; but since the date of my last I have recieved from mr Law a letter covering a memorial on that subject which from it’s tenor I conjecture must have been before Congress at their two last sessions. this paper contains two propositions, the one for issuing Treasury notes bearing interest, & to be circulated as money; the...
9Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 11 September 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I turn with great reluctance from the functions of a private citizen to matters of state. the swaggering on deck, as a passenger, is so much more pleasant than clambering the ropes as a seaman, & my confidence in the skill and activity of those employed to work the vessel is so entire, that I notice nothing, en passant, but how smoothly she moves. yet I avail myself of the leisure which a...
10Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 June 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
This letter will be of Politics only. for altho’ I do not often permit myself to enter that field think on that subject, it sometimes obtrudes itself and suggests ideas which I am tempted to pursue. some of these relating to the business of finance, I will hazard to you, as being at the head of that committee , but intended for yourself individually, or such as you trust, but certainly not for...