1Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 8 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
A month’s absence from Monticello has added to the delay of acknoleging your last letters; and indeed for a month before I left it our projected College gave me constant employment; for being the only Visitor in it’s immediate neighborhood, all it’s administrative business falls on me, and that, where building is going on, is not a little. in yours of July 15. you express a wish to see our...
2Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 1 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 4 th of Oct. was not recieved here until the 20 th having been 16. days on it’s passage, since which unavoidable avocations have made this the first moment it has been in my power to acknolege it’s reciept. of the character of M. de Pradt his political writings furnish a tolerable estimate, but not so full as you have favored me with. he is eloquent, and his pamphlet on colonies...
3Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 26 December 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return to this place after an absence of 6 weeks I find here your favor of Nov. 29 . when I proposed to the President the appointment of mr Sasserno to be Consul at Nice , I was not possessed of his Christian name. I therefore took measures immediately to obtain it, and found also, on my return here, the answers to my enquiries. his name is Victor Adolphus Sasserno . I was intimately...
4Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Appleton, 4 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of Dec. 20. was recieved on the 13 th Ult. & covered the acceptable letter of Madame Pini , which gave me infinit e satisfaction, as it rendered legitimate a delay which is of much con v enience to me, and shall not injure her. be so good as to present to her & to M. Pini my acknolegements for this indulgence, & the assurance that their trust shall not be abused, that the interest shall...
5Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Appleton, 29 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Some friends of mine who have been pleased with the Montepulciano I have recieved from you on former occasions have formed together an association, and have engaged Capt Bernard Peyton , a resident of Richmond , and doing business on commission, to apply to you for a supply of that particular wine, and I promised to give him a letter recommending him to your attention and favor. I have not...
6Thomas Jefferson to Peter Jefferson Archer, 10 March 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Feb. 8. was long on the road & found me suffering under an attack of Rheumatism, which has but now left me at sufficient ease to attend to letters which have been recieved. these occasional infirmities, with the lethargising advance of years, render me dayly daily less and less qualified to pursue any continued object; and I have no doubt therefore that you have younger friends,...
7Thomas Jefferson to John Armstrong, 17 January 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 4 th was recieved on the 14 th . Gen l Kosciuzko , on leaving the US. in 1798. left in my hands an autograph will disposing of his property in the US. to a charitable purpose; of which will he made me executor. his residence under one government, his property in another, and his executor in a third induced me to write to the Secretary of the treasury & the Attorney Gen l of...
8Thomas Jefferson to John Armstrong, 20 March 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
A M. Jullien , one of the literati of France proposes to write the history of Gen l Kosciuzko , and requests me to obtain for him the materials for that part of it which he passed in the service of the US. of this I know nothing myself, for I believe I hardly knew Kosciuzko personally during the revolutionary war. our intimacy began on his last visit to America . I imagine you knew more of him...
9Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Austin, 3 March 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Feb. 19. is just now received covering a paper on the subject of crimes and punishments. this is certainly among the most difficult subjects for which government has to provide. capital punishments for every thing, as in England , is revolting to human nature, a violation of human rights, & ineffectual, as is there proved . labor, in their own society is pernicious, as you...
10Thomas Jefferson to Richard Bache, 17 January 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just recieved your favor of the 3 d and not doubting the value of a paper which shall be edited by you, I should willingly subscribe to that you propose to edit. but there is a time for every thing, & that for withdrawing from all new engagements is come for me. I have long since excused myself from new papers, & got rid of all the old except one of my own state & one out of it ; & of...
11Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Bacon, [15 November 1817] (Jefferson Papers)
I have made it a point thro’ life never to recieve or pay compound interest nor any thing more than what is legal. nor do I think compound interest just, because had the law intended to permit it, it would have been fixed at 3. per cent or 3 ½ which is as much as men in general make of their money in the ordinary & honest vocations of life. more may be made, by possibility, at the gaming table...
12Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Bacon, 22 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I find I shall be able to get from here from Saturday this day fortnight to Saturday this three weeks. it is necessary therefore that Cretia ’s Johnny should set off with the cart on Thursday morning the 3 d of December
13Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Bacon, 29 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I find that the cart need not leave Monticello till Thursday the 11 th of December, on the morning of which I wish it to be dispatched. I send Bedford Billy down to be put to work with the Coopers under Barnaby , and Thrimston to leave Barnaby and work with the carpenters. I hope you will keep them all to their duty. Billy is found too ungovernable for Johnny Hemings
14Thomas Jefferson to James Baker, 24 March 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his respectful compliments to mr Baker , and asks the favor of him to send him a kental of good dumb fish and ½ doz. kegs of tongues and sounds, for which mr Gibson will be so kind as to make payment as before . the bearer mr Gilmore will bring them safely & immediately.
15Thomas Jefferson to John Martin Baker, 14 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
your favor of Aug. 29. is delivered to me here, within 4. or 5 days of my departure for Monticello . by a letter from the President I have reason to expect to find him then at his seat in my neighborhood, and consequently sooner than a letter addressed to him and sent to you, as you have desired, could possibly get to his hands. I reserve myself therefore for a personal application, more early...
16Thomas Jefferson to John Martin Baker, 9 March 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Feb. 18. found me suffering under an attack of rheumatism which has but just now left me at sufficient ease to attend to letters recieved. this rendered it impossible to have made in time the application you requested to the President, even could it have been made properly. but after the considerations I had urged on him when here, and the dispositions he expressed I could not...
17Thomas Jefferson to John Martin Baker, 12 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
The President arrived at his residence soon after my return to Monticello , and recieving a visit from mr Madison at the same time, we jointly spoke with the President on your subject. he has every possible disposition to befriend you, and if he should find obstacles to your present wish, he will still retain his disposition to do justice to your merit on some other occasion. as the Secretary...
18Thomas Jefferson to Nelson Barksdale, 11 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Harrison of Lynchburg was authorised to make an agreement for us with mr Knight , which I now inclose to you, and pray you to settle with him, when he is done, and give him an order on mr Garrett . I think he arrived here about Oct. the 8 7 th or 8 th RC (
19Thomas Jefferson to John Barnes, 5 January 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I will not trouble you with vain condolances, & expressions of regret on the death of our mutual friend Gen l Kosciuzko , which we see announced in the papers in too credible form & which we both lament. besides the power of Attorney left with me & under which we have acted, he left in my hands a Will , all written in his own hand, making a charitable disposition of his property here, of which...
20Thomas Jefferson to Reuben G. Beasley, 8 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Sep. 29. came safely to hand, as did also the Case of books from Mess rs De Bure which you were so kind as to forward. your position at a seaport town, the threshold, as it were, of Paris , must expose you to much trouble from the numerous correspondents with that place. I am afraid I shall once in every year be obliged to ask your intermediary office between myself and my...
21Enclosure: Thomas Jefferson’s Summary of Weather Observations, 1810–1816, [ca. 11 April 1818] (Jefferson Papers)
1. the greatest & least height of the thermometer every day. 2. the greatest, least, & mean height of the thermom. in every month, with the mean of each year, & the mean of the 7. years, which last was 55 ½ °. 3. the minimum & maximum of the whole term, to wit 5 ½ ° and 94 ½ ° 4. the number of freezing nights in a winter [50.] & of freezing days [10.] 5. how long fires are necessary in our...
22Thomas Jefferson to Jacob Bigelow, 11 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you, Sir, for the comparative statement of the climate s of the several states, as deduced from observations on the flowering of tree s in the same year. it presents a valuable view, and one which it is much to be desired could be extended thro’ a longer period of years & embrace a greater number of those circumstances which indicate climate. I closed, the year before last, a seven...
23Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Bowditch, 11 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for the copy of your Mathematical papers which you have been so kind as to send me. I am not strong enough for all their minute details, but am proud to find we have those among us who are so. I had supposed Delaplace beyond correction. most of all I was fond of believing in the solidity of his demonstrations that the variations in the motions of the planets are secular, & r only...
24Thomas Jefferson to John Brockenbrough, 27 December 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return after a long absence, I found here your favor of Dec. 10 . I never owned but one piece of ground in Richmond which was conveyed to me by Charles Carter as trustee for Col o Byrd , and sold and conveyed again by me to David Higginbotham , to whom I delivered all the papers I had concerning it. a copy of the deed which I retained enables me to quote it’s description, to wit,...
25Thomas Jefferson to Francis Brooke, 7 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
It has been mentioned to the Visitors of the Central College established by act of assembly near Charlottesville that the society of Cincinnati in this state had in contemplation to apply their funds to the foundation of a school for the military arts of Gunnery and fortification, and that some of the members had intimated a disposition to incorporate it with the Central College . a...
26Circular from Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Coleman and Other Road Viewers, 1 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Having petitioned the court of Albemarle to change the public road from Charlottesville to the Chapel branch , a little below the Shadwell mills , so as to run it along the river side instead of it’s crossing the mountain , and there being opposition to this in the neighborhood the court has thought it best to name as viewers persons at a distance feeling no bias or interest but the common and...
27Answer of President and Directors of Rivanna Company to Thomas Jefferson’s Bill of Complaint, 7 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
The Answer of the President & Directors of the Rivanna Company to the Bill of Complaint exhibited in this honble Court against them by Thomas Jefferson These Respondents saving to themselves now & hereafter all manner of exceptions to the various matters & things set forth in the Plaintiff’s Bill of Complaint for Answer thereto, or to so much thereof as they are advised is necessary for them...
28Thomas Jefferson to Matthew Brown, 15 January 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
The Visitors of the Central College living at a distance apart in the counties round about, and one of them being on the assembly at Richmond , it was not till yesterday I could get a letter from him . this enables me to close the contract of brickwork for that college with you on the terms of your letter of Dec. 20. and altho you do not in that bind yourself to finish half the work by the 1...
29Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Burwell, 14 March 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Feb. 17. found me suffering under an attack of rheumatism, which has but now left me at sufficient ease to attend to the letters I have recieved. A plan of female education has never been a subject of systematic contemplation with me. it has occupied my attention so far only as the education of my own daughters occasionally required. considering that they would be placed in a...
30Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 10 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I omitted in my letter of yesterday to return Barrois ’ catalogue with thanks for the use of it. I omitted also to observe that it would be better that the bill for the elementary schools should not be known as coming from me. not knowing the present pulse of the public, should there be any thing unpalatable in it, it may injure our college as coming from one of it’s visitors. I wish it to be...