I had not seen your Brother for three weeks before last Sunday the roads and having sprain’d his ancle dancing at a Party the Boys gave at La Ports. He rode here last sunday, if the weather dont prevent him he intends his next visit to Mounticello I flatter’d my self with the hope of seeing...

I have not written to you lately—It is not however from any want of affectionate remembrance, but has been produced solely by the dangerous situation of Caesar whose life I feel some pleasure in reflecting has been preserved by good nursing. He has had a violent inflamatory bilious attack...

I am sorry you should think it necessary to write even with a severe head ach, to secure a letter from me, rest saticefied my dear Child, that I will give you a faithful, and accurate account of Sarah’s situation twice a week as long as she is Ill. and when I miss a mail you may be assured that...

I think I knew General Washington intimately and thoroughly; and were I called on to delineate his character it should be in terms like these. His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order; his penetration strong, tho’ not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon or Locke;...

Another of our friends of 76. is gone, my dear Sir, another of the Co-signers of the independance of our country. and a better man, than Rush, could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer genius, or more honest. we too must go; and that ere long.

I do not entertain your apprehensions for the happiness of our brother Madison in a state of retirement. such a mind as his, fraught with information, and with matter for reflection, can never know ennui. besides, there will always be work enough cut out for him to continue his active usefulness...

you probably do not know mr Madison personally, or at least intimately as I do. I have known him from 1779. when he first came into the public councils; and from three & thirty years trial, I can say conscientiously that...

mr Henry’s ravenous avarice, the only passion paramount to his love of popularity. the facts I have heard on that subject are not within my own knolege, & ought not to be hazarded but on better testimony than I possess.

my present course of life admits less reading than I wish. from breakfast, or noon at latest, to dinner, I am mostly on horseback, attending to my farms or other concerns, which I find healthful to my body, mind, & affairs: and the few hours I can pass in my cabinet, are devoured by...

I have the same good opinion of mr Adams which I ever had. I know him to be an honest man, an able one with his pen, and he was a powerful advocate on the floor of Congress. he has been alienated from me by belief in the wretched forgeries lying suggestions, contrived for electioneering purposes,...