I have wrought an entire reformation on the rest of my household nothing comes in or goes out without my knowledge and I believe there is as little waste as possible
Je vous en envoye 4 Caisses de 25 Bouteilles chacunne à raison de 50 S. la bouteille, elles sont en verre de france, et une 5e Caisse de 25 Bouteilles de 1786 en verre Englais, à raison de 3 [livre tournois] la bouteille. EDITORS’ TRANSLATION I am sending you 4 cases of 25 bottles each for 50 S...
I hope you are getting well, towards which great care of yourself is necessary: for however adviseable it is for those in health to expose themselves freely, it is not so for the sick. you will be out in time to begin your garden, & that will tempt you to be out a great deal, than which...
Your two last letters are those which have given me the greatest pleasure of any I ever recieved from you. The one announced that you were become a notable housewife, the other a mother. this last is undoubtedly the key-stone of the arch of matrimonial happiness, as the first is it’s daily aliment.
The succession to Dr Franklin at the court of France, was an excellent school of humility. on being presented to any one as the Minister of America, the common-place question, used in such cases, was ‘c’est vous, Monsieur, qui remplace le Docteur Franklin?’ ‘it is you, Sir, who replace Doctor...
I receive with pleasure this recognition & renewal of our former acquaintance, and shall be happy to continue it by an exchange of epistolary communications. your’s to me will be always welcome; your first gives me information in the line of Natural history, & the second (not yet recieved...
I send for your acceptance some sheets of drawing-paper, which being laid off in squares representing feet, or what you please, saves the necessity of using the rule & dividers in all rectangular draughts & those whose angles have their sines & co-sines in the proportion of any...
You cannot imagine my dear Mrs Randolph, how happy I was to hear from you, particularly as it was so long since I had written, that I began to fear you had either you had either never received my letter, or that you had quite forgot me; for though I was very glad to hear you were so happily...
whenever it is proposed to prepare plans for the Capitol, I should prefer the adoption of some one of the models of antiquity which have had the approbation of thousands of years
on the whole I find nothing any where else in point of climate which Virginia need envy to any part of the world. here they are locked up in ice and snow for six months. Spring and autumn, which make a paradise of our country, are rigorous winter with them, and a Tropical summer breaks on them...
Mr. Madison & myself are so far on the tour we had projected ... we were more pleased however with the botanical objects which continually presented themselves. those either unknown or rare in Virginia were the Sugar maple in vast abundance, the Thuya, silver fir, White pine, Pitch pine,...
I am sorry we did not bring with us some leaves of the different plants which struck our attention, as it is the leaf which principally decides specific differences.
call on me, in your turn, whenever you come to town: and if it should be about the hour of three, I shall rejoice the more. You will find a bad dinner, a good glass of wine, and a host thankful for your favor, and desirous of encouraging repetitions of it without number, form or ceremony.
no body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colours of men, & that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa & America....
I am happy to be able to inform you that we have now in the United States a negro, the son of a black man born in Africa, and of a black woman born in the United States, who is a very respectable Mathematician. I procured him to be employed under one of our chief directors in laying out the new...
Bishop Grégoire ... wrote to me also on the doubts I had expressed five or six & twenty years ago, in the Notes on Virginia, as to the grade of understanding of the negroes, & he sent me his book on the literature of the negroes. his credulity has made him gather up every story he could...
these reveries ... leave me always impressed with the desire of being at home once more, and of exchanging labour, envy, and malice, for ease, domestic occupation, & domestic love & society, where I may once more be happy with you, with mr. Randolph, & dear little Anne, with whom even...
Ben Hughes, I suppose, will write to you by this Opportunity, giving an Acct of your Affairs at Varina, which are distressing as to the Crop, and Stock—not Corn enough for the Use of the Farm, 700 bushels of Wheat not Merchantable & refused by Boyd & Ker, but they have, by my Advice...
The skill & activity of Clarkson are sufficiently manifested allready to make us hope that your affairs in Albemarle will be better conducted than they have ever been. I know it will give you real pleasure to hear that he has a valuable art of governing the slaves which sets aside the...
your account of Clarkson’s conduct gives me great pleasure. my first wish is that the labourers may be well treated, the second that they may enable me to have that treatment continued by making as much as will admit it. the man who can effect both objects is rarely to be found. I wish you would...
Mrs Pine set off this morning to England I staid with her till a day or two before she went and am now with papa and hope to be for some time I expect to go then to mrs Brodeau. I have heard that she is a very agreeable woman and that all her scholars are very fond of her Papa intends to go to...
I am not afraid to warrant to you any degree of success and consideration you may desire, if you qualify yourself by perseverance in study, and by an invariable determination to do, under all circumstances what reason & rigorous right shall dictate, keeping under absolute subjection all the...