1Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 10 March 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Besey calling on me for some seed allows me just time to write a line, to await your arrival at home, requesting your attendance as a visitor of our proposed college on Tuesday the 8 th of April, being the day after our election. you will of course, I am in hopes come here the day or evening before, that we may have some previous consultation on the subject. I shall also request Gen l Cocke &...
2Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 13 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Feb. 15. having given me the hope you would attend the meeting of the Visitors of the Central college near Charlottesville I lodged one for you at Montpelier notifying that our meeting would be on the day after our April court. a detention at Washington I presume prevented your attendance, and mr Watson being sick, only Gen l Cocke , mr Cabell
3Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 15 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I sincerely congratulate you on your release from incessant labors, corroding anxieties, active enemies & interested friends, & on your return to your books & farm, to tranquility & independance. a day of these is worth ages of the former. but all this you know. yours of the 10 th was delivered to me yesterday. mine of the 13 th had been sent off the moment it was written. we are made happy by...
4Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 22 June 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
In two packages, distinct from this letter, I return you your father ’s meteorological diaries , which you were so kind as to lend me, and a piece on paper money recieved from you some time ago. from the former I have made out tables of rain and snow, and a calendar of animal and vegetable matters announcing the advance of seasons. having now compleated 7. years of observations since my return...
5Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 23 July 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
The promptitude & success of our subscription paper , now amounting to upwards of 20,000.D. with a prospect much beyond that renders the decision immediately necessary of some important questions which I had thought might have laid over to our periodical meeting the last of September. having an opportunity of writing to Gen l Cocke , I invited him to join me in a visit to you on Friday the 25...
6Enclosure: Circular from Hezekiah Niles to Prominent Subscribers, 31 July 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
After revolving upon some suitable apology for intruding myself with the following statement and request, I have thought it most respectful to decline offering any, except to observe that if ought appears to your better judgement improper in either, that you will attribute it to any thing else than a willingness on my part to act so, in any respect towards you. For six years ending with the...
7Hezekiah Niles to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, [ca. 1 November 1817] (Jefferson Papers)
It is not a common occasion, venerable fathers of the republic, that could induce me to prefix your names to a public address. In my estimation, there is something in it that may make me liable to be considered indiscreet, if not impertinent, by some who will not take the trouble to ascertain whether I am influenced by an honest intention , or not. I am unwilling to be suspected of either of...
8Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 15 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
We are sadly at a loss here for a Palladio . I had three different editions, but they are at Washington , and nobody in this part of the country has one unless you have. if you have you will greatly aid us by letting us have the use of it for a year to come. it will come safely by the stage, and may be left at the stage office of either Milton or Charlottesville , & either postmaster will pay...
9Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 30 December 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I returned from Bedford a week ago, after an absence of 6. weeks, and found here the Palladio , with your two favors of Nov. 29. & Dec. 1 & with 3. from D r Cooper , written before he had recieved
10Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 2 January 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Expecting daily an answer from the President authorising me to sign the within for him I had rather not take on myself a 3 d and therefore send it to you. I have adopted your amendments and made some other small ones. to economise writing I make one letter do for the other gentlemen, joining you with them, altho’ it contains no more than I had before written to you . after signing yourself be...
11Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, David Watson, and John H. Cocke, [2 January 1818] (Jefferson Papers)
A report to the Governor having been agreed on at our last meeting, and it’s materials being chiefly in my possession, I have presumed to make a draught, and now send it for your consideration. if approved as it is, be so good as to sign it; if any material alteration be thought necessary, if such as not to deface the paper be so good as to make it & sign, if it deface the paper I must request...
12Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 6 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter from D r Cooper , considerably important to the first successes of our college. I will request you to return it to me. I inclose also the answer which I think should be given. if you think so likewise be so good as to seal & forward it. if not, return it, as I should be unwilling to take on myself alone so important a relinquishment. yet I think it right that we should...
13Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 11 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of Mar. 29. came to duly to hand, but I put off answering it because I expected to have written sooner by the bearer of the present mr Coffee . nothing presses as to the payment of the instalment which is the subject of your letter . it may either be paid to the Richm d bank of Virginia , or sent to mr Garret or
14Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 28 June 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Being to set out in a few days for Bedford from whence I shall not return till about a week before our Rockfish meeting, I have been preparing such a report as I can, to be offered there to our colleagues . it is not such an one as I should propose to them to make to an assembly of philosophers, who would require nothing but the table of professorships, but I have endeavored to adapt it to our...
15Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 19 February 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 12 th has been duly recieved, and the pamphlet it covered has been sent to mr Minor . the late day to which the Governor has fixed the 1 st meeting of the Visitors of the University (the last Monday in March) renders a meeting of the College visitors immediately necessary, some measures of high importance to the institution not admitting that delay; & the law having authorised us...
16Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 3 March 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I promised your gardener some seeds which I put under a separate cover and address to you by mail. I also inclose you a letter from mr Cabell which will shew you that the ‘sour grapes’ of W m & Mary are spreading; but certainly not to the ‘enlightened part of society’ as the letter supposes. I have sent him a transcript from our journals that he may see how far we are under engagements to D r...
17Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 8 March 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I now return you the letter from mr Watson whom I met with on the road as mentioned in mine of the 3 d . in consequence of the doubts discovered on the subject of Cooper , I wrote to mr Cabell , to Correa , and to Cooper himself, and inclose you copies of my letters for perusal that you may see on what ground I place the matter with each. to Cooper I barely hold up the possibi l ity of new...
18Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 11 March 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a letter recieved last night from mr Cabell containing inter e sting information as to our University as well as something further with respect to D r Cooper . be so good as to return it with those formerly sent you. I recieved by the same mai l a commis s
19Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 7 July 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Proposing within 4. or 5. days to set out for Bedford , where I shall continue two months, I have thought it would be acceptable to you to learn the present state of things at the University , and the prospect for the year. you may remember that almost in the moment of our separation at the last meeting, one of our Colleagues proposed a change of a part of the plan so as to place the gardens...
20Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 23 September 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
The law establishing the University requires the Visitors to make a report annually embracing a full account of the disbursements, the funds on hand, and a general statement of the condition of the sd University . the account of disbursements and funds belong s to the Bursar & Proctor, who are accordingly instructed to have them made up to the last day of this month. the condition of the...
21Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 18 October 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
By this day’s mail I forward you ⅓ of a parcel of seeds of the Sea-Kale sent here by Gen l Cock for you, mr Divers & myself. I feared to await a private conveyance because they lose their vegetative power if not planted soon. The day after you left us I was taken with a cholic which attended with a stricture on the upper bowels brought me into great pain & immediate danger. the obstacle was at...
22Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 30 November 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
A visit of the ladies of our family to mrs Madison gives me an opportunity of sending you our correspondence with D r Cooper & of recieving it back again safely. it is neces sar y to observe that our first letter & his first crossed each other on the road, so that each party had expressed their mind before knowing that of the other. on the whole this embarrassed transaction ends well enough,...
23Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 16 February 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
With this letter I commit for you to the mail a bundle of seeds, one parcel of which was sent by you to mr Randolph for inspection. the other is seakale seed lodged here for you by Gen l Cocke . have I returned your Vetruvius to you? I am in great tribulation about it ? . I keep my borrowed books on a particular shelf that they may neither be forgotten nor confounded with my own. it is not on...
24Virginia Council of State’s Appointment of University of Virginia Board of Visitors, 29 February 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
The Governor called the attention of the board to the subject of appointing Visitors for the University of Virginia in Conformity with the provisions of an act of assembly passed the 25 January 1819 —Whereupon, the following persons were duly appointed Visitor—to wit: Thomas Jefferson — James Madison — Chapman Johnson — Jos. C. Cabell
25Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 11 April 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Our brewing for the use of the present year has been some time over. about the last of Oct. or beginning of Nov. we begin for the ensuing year, and brew malt and brew 3. 60 gall n casks successively , which will give so many successive lessons to the person you send. on his return he can try his hand with you in order to discover what parts of the processes he will have learnt imperfectly, and...
26Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 17 May 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
As the measures which were adopted at the last meeting of our visitors were of a very leading character I have thought it proper to inform our absent colleagues of them; and have delayed the communication only until I could add what has been done under the resolutions of the board . as this latter information has not been received by you, I inclose you my letter to General Taylor for perusal...
27Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 13 August 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday the inclosed letter proposing to me an interposition which my situation renders impracticable. the gentlemen of my family have manifested at times some opposition to mr Nelson ’s elections: which has produced an intermission of intercourse between the families: and altho’ I never took the smallest part in it, and nothing but what is respectful has ever passed between mr...
28Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 29 November 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed letter from our antient friend Tenche Coxe came unfortunately to Monticello after I had left it and has had a dilatory passage to this place where I recieved it yesterday and obey it’s injunction of immediate transmission to you. we should have known recognised the stile even without a signature, and altho so written as to be much of it indecypherable. this is a sample of the...
29Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 13 January 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I return you mr Coxe ’s letter without saying I have read it. I made out to enough to see that it was about the Missouri question, and the printed papers told me on which side he was. could I have devoted a day to it, by interlining the words as I could pick them out, I might have got at more. the lost books of Livy or Tacitus might be worth this. our friend would do well to write less and...
30Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 28 January 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
My neighbor, friend and physician, Doct r Watkins , being called to Philadelphia , is desirous to pay his respects to you en passant , and asks me, by a line to you, to lessen his scruples on doing so. you will find my justification in his character when known to you. his understanding is excellent, well informed, of pleasant conversation and of great worth. as a Physician I should trust...