Extract from Thomas Jefferson to James Bowdoin, 10 July 1806 [Quote]
I think it the finest invention of the present age, and so much superior to the copying machine that the latter will never be continued a day by any one who tries the Polygraph.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Bernard McMahon, 15 July 1806 [Quote]
I shall go in a week to Monticello ... my situation there & taste, will lead me to ask for curious & hardy trees, than flowers. of the latter a few of those remarkeable either for beauty or fragrance will be the limits of my wishes.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, July 1806 [Quote]
[England’s] sun-less climate has permitted them to adopt what is certainly a beauty of the very first order in landscape. their canvas is of open ground, variegated with tufts clumps of trees tastily distributed with taste. they need no more of wood than will serve to embrace a lawn or a glade....
Extract from Thomas Jefferson’s Sixth Annual Message to Congress, 2 Dec. 1806 [Quote]
The expedition of Messrs Lewis & Clarke, for exploring the river Missouri, and the best communication from that to the Pacific ocean, has had all the success which could have been expected. they have traced the Missouri nearly to...
Extract from Thomas Jefferson’s Sixth Annual Message to Congress, 2 Dec. 1806 [Quote]
I congratulate you, fellow citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of the United states from all further participation in those violations of human rights, which have been so long continued on the unoffending...
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 13 Jan. 1807 [Quote]
The appointment of a woman to office is an innovation for which the public is not prepared, nor am I.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 24 Jan. 1807 [Quote]
The laws of humanity make it a duty for nations, as well as individuals, to succour those whom accident & distress have thrown upon them.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 22 Apr. 1807 [Quote]
It is with real pain I oppose myself to your passion for the lanthern, and that in a matter of taste, I differ from a professor in his own art. but the object of the artist is lost if he fails to please the general eye. you know my reverence for the Graecian & Roman style of architecture. ...
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Jean de la Coste, 24 May 1807 [Quote]
no body can desire more ardently than myself to concur in whatever may promote useful science, and I view no science with more partiality than Natural history.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 11 June 1807 [Quote]
Smith’s wealth of nations is the best book to be read, unless Say’s Political economy can be had which treats the same subjects on the same principles, but in a shorter compass & more lucid manner.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 11 June 1807 [Quote]
History in general only informs us what bad government is.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 11 June 1807 [Quote]
To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted so as to be most useful, I should answer ‘by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.’ yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers ... nothing can now be believed which is seen in a...
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Henry Dearborn, 22 June 1807 [Quote]
the field of knolege is the common property of all mankind
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 12 July 1807 [Quote]
my happiness at Monticello (if I am able to go there) will be lessened by not having yourself & Francis there ... he will ever be to me one of the dearest objects in life.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Smith Barton, 24 Sept. 1807 [Quote]
we defer therefore till this time twelve month to avail ourselves of the instruction of that place, and particularly of your kindness in the two branches of Botany and Natural history to which we wish him particularly to apply.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Caesar Rodney, 8 Oct. 1807 [Quote]
I sincerely congratulate you on the addition to your family announced in the last. the good old book speaking of children says ‘happy is the man who hath his quiver full of them.’
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 Nov. 1807 [Quote]
further trial of the Stylograph convinces me it can never take the place of the Polygraph but with travellers, as it is so much more portable. the fetid smell of the copying paper would render a room pestiferous, if filled with presses of such papers.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Robert R. Livingston, 3 Jan. 1808 [Quote]
it is now among my most fervent longings to be on my farm, which, with a garden & fruitery, will constitute my principal occupation on retirement.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Dorsey, 21 Jan. 1808 [Quote]
I have to acknolege the reciept of your favor of Dec. 20. and am much pleased to find our progress in manufactures to be so great. that of cotton is peculiarly interesting, because we raise the raw material in such abundance, and because it may to a great degree supply our deficiencies both in...
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Armstrong, 2 May 1808 [Quote]
this measure, attempted at a former session, was pressed at the last, and might I think have been carried by a small majority. but considering that great innovations should not be forced on a slender majority, and seeing that the general opinion is sensibly rallying to it, it was thought better...
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to James Pemberton, 21 June 1808 [Quote]
letters are not the first, but the last step in the progression from barbarism to civilisation.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Charles P. De Lasteyrie, 15 July 1808 [Quote]
we could, in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe: not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good. yet I have ever observed to my countrymen who think it’s introduction important, that a labourer cultivating wheat, rice, tobacco or cotton here, will be...
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Smith Barton, 12 Oct. 1808 [Quote]
in the spring he will attend your botanical course. his natural turn is very strongly to the objects of your two courses of lectures, and I hope you will have reason to be contended with his capacity & character.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson to the Baltimore Baptist Association, 17 Oct. 1808 [Quote]
a recollection of our former vassalage in religion & civil government, will unite the zeal of every heart, & the energy of every hand, to preserve that independance in both.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson’s Draft of His Eighth Annual Message to Congress, 8 Nov. 1808 [Quote]
while we regret the sufferings of individuals employed in agriculture & commerce, the nation at large will derive sensible advantage from the conversion of the situation into which we have thus been forced has impelled us to apply a portion of our industry & capital to internal...