1From Thomas Jefferson to George Washington Adams, 9 August 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson returns his thanks to mr George Washington Adams for the eloquent oration on the late 4 th of July which he has been so kind as to send him. he deems it a subject of worthy congratulations to his fellow citizens that a young character of so much promise, and descended thro’ a lineage so meritorious, is now entering on the stage of life, with so much personal, as well as...
2From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 25 February 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved in due time your two favors of Dec. 2. & Feb. 10. and have to acknolege for the ladies of my native state their obligations to you for the encomiums which you are so kind as to bestow on them. they certainly claim no advantages over those of their sister states, and are sensible of more favorable circumstances existing with many of them, & happily availed of, which our situation...
3From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 18 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letters are always welcome, the last more than all others, it’s subject being one of the dearest to my heart. to my granddaughter your commendations cannot fail to be an object of high ambition, as a certain passport to the good opinion of the world. if she does not cultivate them with assiduity and affection she will illy fulfill my parting injunctions. I trust she will merit a...
4From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 15 February 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
The people of Europe seem still to think that America is a mere garden plat, and that whatever is sent to one place is at home as to every other. the volume I forward you by this mail was found on Maj r Cartwright’s death, to have in his own handwriting an address for you altho’ mistaking your Christian name. his friends having occn to write to me on another subject, and supposing we were but...
5From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 25 March 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
My grandson Th: Jefferson Randolph, being on a visit to Boston, would think he had seen nothing were he to leave it without having seen you. altho’ I truly sympathise with you in the trouble these interruptions give, yet I must ask for him permission to pay to you his personal respects. like other young people, he wishes to be able, in the winter nights of old age, to recount to those around...
6From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 11 April 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
The wishes expressed, in your last favor, that I may continue in life and health until I become a Calvinist, at least in his exclamation of ‘ mon Dieu ! jusque à quand’! would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin in addressing his god . he was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Dæmonism. if ever man worshipped a false god, he did. the being described in...
7From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 4 September 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Aug. 15. was recieved in due time, and with the welcome of every thing which comes from you. with it’s opinions on the difficulties of revolutions, from despotism to freedom, I very much concur. the generation which commences a revolution rarely compleats it. habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body and mind to their kings and priests, they are not qualified,...
8From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 12 October 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I do not write with the ease which your letter of Sep. 18. supposes. crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious. but, while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things, in the recollection of antient times, when youth and health made happiness out of every thing. I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we can think of nothing but how to keep ourselves warm, &...
9From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1 November 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I have racked my memory, and ransacked my papers to enable myself to answer the enquiries of your favor of Oct. 15. but to little purpose. my papers furnish me nothing, my memory generalities only. I know that while I was in Europe, & anxious about the fate of our seafaring men, for some of whom, then in captivity in Algiers we were treating, and all were in like danger, I formed undoubtingly...
10From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 8 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
It is long since I have written to you. this proceeds from the difficulty of writing with my crippled wrists, and from an unwillingness to add to your inconveniences of either reading by the eyes, or writing by the hands of others. the account I recieve of your physical situation afflicts me sincerely. but if body or mind was one of them to give way, it is a great comfort that it is the mind...
11From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 18 October 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved the favor of your invitation of the 12 th inst. to join you on the interesting occasion of the reception of Maj r Gen l La Fayette. in testifying the veneration of the citizens of Richm d for his character, their sense of his services, and their affection for his person. no one would harmonise in all these sentiments more cordially than myself, no one perhaps having had so...
12From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 11 July 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
My friend and correspondent of Richmond, Col o Bernard Peyton will have the honor of delivering you this letter. he was a worthy officer of the late war, and now an equally worthy member of the mercantile body. proposing to visit Boston, he has the natural ambition of being presented to the first of the revolutionary characters now living. I ask, of your friendship to give him a few moments of...
13From Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 8 February 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
I know nothing of the facts in this petition, nor of the person on whose behalf they are stated, but I know most of those who subscribe it, and can certify that they are persons of the first degree of respectability in the county in which I reside and of unquestionable credit as to any thing which they affirm. Given under my hand this 8 th of February 1826. To the President of the United...
14From Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 23 October 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson returns his thanks to mr Adams for the copy of the Ghent Documents which he has been so kind as to send him. so far as concerns mr Adams personally, the respect and esteem of the public for him was too firmly and justly fixed, to need this appeal to them. but the volume is a valuable gift to his fellow citizens generally, and especially to the future historian whom it will enable...
15From Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 30 March 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
I am thankful for the very interesting message and documents of which you have been so kind as to send me a copy, and will state my recollections as to the particular passage of the message to which you ask my attention. on the conclusion of peace, Congress, sensible of their right to assume independance, would not condescend to ask it’s acknolegement from other nations, yet were willing, by...
16From Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 3 November 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
A mr Runnels of S t Bartholemew’s, having a son George Runnels now in N. York, has requested me to be the channel of communicating to the government his wish that his son might be appointed Agent of the US. at Trinidad, S t Vincent’s, S t Lucia or S t Kitts. being a stranger to me he referred me to the Baron de Stackleberg for his character, who answers me in these words. ‘ j’ai l’avantage de...
17From Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 18 July 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I have safely recieved the two copies of the facsimile of the Decln of Indepdce which you have been so kind as to send me under a resoln of Congress. with a due sense of respect for this mark of attention to myself I contemplate with pleasure the evidence afforded of reverence for that instrument, and view in it a pledge of adhesion to it’s principles, and of a sacred determination to maintain...
18From Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 23 March 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
My grandson, Th: Jefferson Randolph, bearer of this letter being on a journey to the North, I could not permit him to pass thro’ Washington, without enjoining on him the duty of paying his respects to you. I presume he will find you approaching the close of your winter’s campaign, a term as welcome to the civil as military officer. I am glad to avail myself at the same time of the occasion of...
19From Thomas Jefferson to John Adlum, 11 April 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved successively the two bottles of wine you were so kind as to send me. the first, called Tokay, is truly a fine wine, of high flavor, and, as you assure me there was not a drop of brandy or other spirit in it, I may say it is a wine of a good body of it’s own. the 2 d bottle, a red wine, I tried when I had good judges at the table. we agreed it was a wine one might always drink with...
20From Thomas Jefferson to Timothy Alden, 14 February 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I am very sensible of the kind attention of the trustees of Allegany college, in sending me a copy of the catalogue of their library, and congratulate them on the good fortune of having become the objects of donations so liberal. that of D r Bentley is truly valuable for it’s classical riches, but mr Winthrop’s is inappreciable for the variety of the branches of science to which it extends,...
21From Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Anderson, 4 December 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
In your favor of Sep. 27 you were so obliging as to inform me that on communicating to you the port at which the Professors engaged in England for the Univ ty of Virga would arrive, you would give instrns immediately to the Collector to consider the books of the Professors as embraced by the exemption from duty of the act of April 1816. I learnt yesterday for the first time that they would...
22From Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Anderson, 7 December 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
I learnt yesterday, by a letter from mr Gilmer at New York that Doctor Blaetterman one of our Professors had arrived there and informed him that the other four Professors had sailed in the Competitor from London direct for James river where they might be hourly expected. I must therefore trouble you a second time with a request that instructions may be sent to the Collectors of that river to...
23From Thomas Jefferson to Richard Anderson, 23 April 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Having sollicited mr James Barber to expedite as much as he could the reciept of the 50. M .D. of the claim of Virginia on the Gen l government, which was given to the University of Virginia, he informs me by a letter of the 19 th that the President of the US; without waiting for actual settlement, has sanctioned the payment, on account, of the sum given to the University, and that it is...
24From Thomas Jefferson to William Annesley, 20 November 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I duly rec d the copy of your late pamphlet on shipbuilding, and your favor of the 11 th is now at hand requesting ‘my jdmt on it as a means of bringing it into early & gen l practice in the US.’ born & bred among the mountains, and scarcely knowing the head from the stern of a ship it would be great presumption in me to offer to my f.c. a jdmt on a subject on which they know that I must be so...
25From Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Antrim, 25 September 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
The bearer hereof, Joseph Antrim has been employed, as plaisterer, to do the whole plaistering of all the buildings of the University of Virginia, which he has executed with fidelity and a skill of the first order. he is moreover of perfectly correct habits and conduct, sober, industrious, faithful, and worthy of any degree of trust which may be reposed in him. Given under my hand this 25 th...
26From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Appleton, 10 August 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I had been so long without hearing from you ( my last from you being dated Oct. 8. 24.) that I sat down to communicate my anxieties to you which I had accdly done in a long letter when the mail of that day brought me your’s of Apr. 13. and rendered mine of course useless. I learn with regret that you had suffered inconvenience from the want of remittances, your former letters had given me...
27From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Appleton, 8 October 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter of July 10. I informed you that the Capitels you had forwarded were then on their way to Richmond. they came to hand here in August and are now put up. they are well approved on the whole, and particularly as to the quality of the marble. but I am instructed to mention some particulars not fully executed. 1. in the Corinthian capitels there is a want of the Cavetto and listel of...
28From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Appleton, 17 May 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
My last to you was of Nov. 22. since which I have recieved yours of Dec. 24. and Feb. 8. in consequence of the information given in the last that the first quality of marble squares for paving the Portico of our Rotunda, polished and accurately squared ready to be laid down, of one foot square, will cost at Leghorn 221/12D. the hundred’ I am now to desire you to send us 1200 squares of one...
29From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Appleton, 8 October 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
My last letter to you was of May 17, since which I have recieved your’s of Apr. 1. May 1. and June 10. I had desired my correspondent in Richmond, Col o Bernard Peyton to procure a bill of excha. on London which will nett there 500.D. clear of exchange payable to mr Sam l Williams on your account to whom I have written to remit the same to you. I just now recieve his information that is done,...
30From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Appleton, 22 November 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
The original letters of Oct. 8. and 9. of which those inclosed are Duplicates were committed to Michael Raggi, who about that time left this place for New York where he expected to embark for some port of Italy. we soon learnt that at N. York his funds fell short so that he could not get a passage; we therefore did not then make the remittance of 4000 D. as mentioned in my letter of the 8 th...