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Format: 2024-09
Format: 2024-09

Ellen W. Randolph (Coolidge) to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 1 May [1816]

I am so far on my return home and most sincerely do I wish that it were in my power to go directly on; but alas! I am a woman and must have a protector; if my brother will come for me I am whilling and anxious to be at Monticello before the Season be far advanced. when I arrived here I found my...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 5 May 1816 [Quote]

tranquility is the softest pillow for the head of old age; and the good will of those around us the sweetest soother of our repose. in this state of being, seasoned by occasional communications with my friends, I shall pass willingly to that eternal sleep which, whether with, or without, dreams,...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 5 May 1816 [Quote]

You express a wish and a hope that I may have been writing memoirs of myself. while in public life, my whole time has been absorbed by the duties that laid me under; and now, when the world imagines I have nothing to do, I am in a state of as heavy drudgery as any office of my life ever subjected...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 5 May 1816 [Quote]

you propose a more Quixotic task in the reformation of what may be deemed defective in our constitution. no, my dear friend; nothing could allure me again into the furnace of politics. while engaged in the various functions of the government, duty required me to go straight forward, regardless of...

Ellen W. Randolph (Coolidge) to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 12 May 1816

I wrote to you ten days ago my dearest Mother to tell you how anxious I was to return to you again—this fine month is wearing away in the smoke and dust of the city and in spite of the kind attentions of Mr & Mrs Smith my time passes heavily—I am always counting the months which have elapsed...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 21 May 1816 [Quote]

while you endeavor, by a good store of learning, to prepare yourself to become an useful and distinguished member of your country you must remember that this can never be, without uniting merit with your learning. honesty, disinterestedness, and good nature are indispensable to procure the esteem...

John Spear Smith to Wilson Cary Nicholas, 7 June 1816

Mrs Nicholas arrived here yesterday at two o’clock having suffered no fatigue whatever from her journey. I am sorry that it is not in my power to announce the birth of a grandson yet, but I hope to have that pleasure in the course of a few days. Mr Godefroy will with great pleasure undertake the...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 20 June 1816 [Quote]

as to federal slanders, I never wished them to be answered, but by the tenor of my life, half a century of which has been on a theatre at which the public have been spectators, and competent judges of it’s merit. their approbation has taught a lesson, useful to the world, that the man who fears...

Maria Sabina Ross to Elizabeth Trist, 4 July 1816

I arrived here on 28th of June left N. Oreals 26th of May, after a long and disagreeable passage. Yes my friend in addition to the horrors of A Sea Voyage—My Mind was in a State of hope—and fear. My poor George, wrote for me to come on—but Alas! he had gone to his long and everlasting home three...

Margaret Smith Nicholas to Jane H. Nicholas Randolph, 25 July 1816

Well my dear Jane, here we are all once more; I arrived in Richmond on the 10th Int not very well, and excessively fatiguid, We determin’d as we were all complaining a little, that it wou’d be best, or safest, to set off immediately for Warren, We arriv’d on Saturday, quite happy, and very much...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1 Aug. 1816 [Quote]

there is a ripeness of time for death, regarding others as well as ourselves, when it is reasonable we should drop off, and make room for another growth. when we have lived our generation out, we should not wish to encroach on another. I enjoy good health; I am happy in what is around me. yet I...