1From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 19 October 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I have waited for a frost to announce to me your return to winter quarters; and altho’ we have as yet had none here, I presume they must have reached you, in their advance towards us, by this time, and that I may now acknolege your letter written on your departure for Canada. altho’ that trip disappointed us of the expected visit to your native state, yet I hold on to the promise, as a thing...
2From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 29 December 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your favor of the 17 th with it’s kind enquiries as to the state in which my late accident has placed me. the fracture was of the most favorable character, of the smaller bone of the left fore-arm, without, as is still hoped, deranging those of the wrist. it was promptly and well set by a skilful surgeon, has been constantly doing well, without incurring any accident, and...
3From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 28 March 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
From your letter of prophecies I too have caught the spirit of prophecy: for who can withold looking into futurity, on events which are to change the face of the world, and the condition of man throughout it, without indulging himself in the effusions of the holy spirit of Delphos? I may do it the more safely as, to my vaticinations, I always subjoin the Proviso ‘that nothing unexpected happen...
4From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 8 September 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of July 28. from Avon came to hand on the 10 th of August and I have delayed answering it on the presumption of your continued absence. but the approach of the season of frost in that region has probably, before this time, turned you about to the South. I readily concieve that, by the time of your return to Philadelphia, you will have had travelling enough for the present, and...
5From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 10 April 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Mar. 29. is duly recieved, and I learn from it with great gratification that we are at length to have the happiness of meeting once more. I shall visit Bedford in the months of May & June, and if you do not set out on your journey till July, you will assuredly find me here, and happy to recieve you. there are three stages a week from Richmond to Charlottesville, which will give...
6From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 17 May 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday your favor of the 10 th instant. as soon as the vote of invitation to M. de la Fayette had passed one house, and was likely to pass the other, I wrote to the President, and to a member or two of Congress, expressing my confidence that they could not mean merely to invite him to come and dine; suggesting the scantiness of his means of meeting expence, and the necessity of a...
7From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 9 November 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve your letter of the 2 d while La Fayette is with us. our county has recieved him as handsomely as their limited means permitted. among the toasts they drank ‘a gratitude which ends not in words.’ and I think sentiment is taking in other states. the President will also give a hint on which Congress will be led to take up the subject.—M de L’Epinay is safely recieved. Hall’s book is...
8From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 8 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I returned the 1 st vol. of Hall by a mail of a week ago and by this shall return the 2 d we have kept them long; but every member of the family wished to read his book, in which case you know it had a long guantlet to run. It is impossible to read thoroughly such writings as those of Harper and Otis, who take a page to say what requires but a sentence, or rather who give you whole pages of...
9From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 4 April 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Knowing the interest you take in the progress of our University, I will now undertake to give you some account of it; and it is not till now that any thing definitive could have been communicated. The selection of Professors from Europe has been most judiciously made. they are 5. in number, most of them a little under or over 30. years of age, one only being something over 40. of the highest...
10From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 9 August 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I am still a debtor for your letter of June 27. my health is some excuse, but not quite a sufficient one, because I have sometimes written to others not having an equal claim on my affections. my present indisposition, altho’ it began with strangury, as I mentioned to you, had become a more serious one of the general class of Dysury. an affection of the bladder and prostate gland has confined...
11From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 14 October 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Octob.—has been duly recieved. the information which I have given you from time to time has kept you truly informed of the state of our University. it behoves me then also to mention to you a serious incident which has just taken place there; and the rather as, of the thousand versions which will be given, not one will be true. my position enables me to say what is so, but with...
12From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 15 November 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter of Oct. 14. I gave you an account of the riot we had had at the University, and of it’s termination. you will however be anxious to know how it has gone off finally. with the best effects possible. having let it be understood, from the beginning. that we wished to trust very much to the discretion of the Students themselves for their own government, with about four fifths of them...
13From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 3 January 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
I am about to ask a friendly office of you which I hope will give you no other trouble than to change the direction of one of your daily walks. a mr Boyé, a Danish Mathematician was engaged in a survey to make a map of Virginia. I lent him a fine Borda’s Circle of reflection 2. or 3. years ago and my best telescope. he has ceased to have occasion for them a year or two. he is now in Philada...
14From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 18 January 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 11 th is recieved. those of Nov. 2. and Dec. 14. had been so in due time. I suppose I had not acknoleged them specifically from being perhaps too lazy to recur to them while writing mine of the 3 d I thank you for your information from mr Boyé and shall desire the instruments to remain in their present position until I can find a safe and gentle conveyance and give an order for...
15From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 24 March 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
My grandson Th: J. Randolph the bearer of this letter is too well known to you to need a letter of introduction. he is going Northwdly on the business which was the subject of your kind letter of the 4 th . my unskilful stewardship of Agricultural property, and the interception of attention to it by imperious and higher duties have, in a course of 60 years much involved my capital. in our...