I have sometimes thought ...

Your letter of the 2nd my dearest mother, was joyfully received and relieved me from a portion of those vague apprehensions which always attend me for some time after parting with those I love. I always feel as if there were some ill-defined danger hovering over my absent friends, & am ready...

Sarah stays at home this sunday afternoon, dearest Virginia, & I, of course, have it in my power to write to you. I heard a most admirable sermon this morning upon the misemployment of the sabbath, but I cannot think it an abuse of the privileges of th...

Mr Jefferson inherited a large estate, and his wife brought him a handsome fortune, but encumbered by British debts, of her father’s, to a great amount: to affect the payment of these Mr Jefferson sold a part of his property, & received the proceeds in depreciated paper money, which were of...

Joseph intended to have written to you himself, my dear brother, but as he is too unwell he commissions me to do it in his place, and to give you both our thanks for the use of your carriage and the comfort it procured us. Titus drove, as he always does, admirably, & the horses performed the...

I should fear, my beloved Virginia, that my failing to congratulate you at an earlier period on the birth of your daughter, might pass as a proof of indifference, if I were not too well persuaded of your confidence in my affection, to suppose that you could doubt it for an instant. believe me,...

I will begin a letter to you, my dear Virginia, but whether my jewel will allow me to finish it or not, is more than I can tell. the nurse is gone out and I must supply her place until she returns. in the mean time the baby is lying in a sort of precarious sleep which threatens every moment to...

It is past ten nearly eleven, & the mail closes at half past 12, my dearest mother, & the fear of interruption will make me hurry still more than the shortness of the time in which I must write at least a few lines lest you should be uneasy at not hearing from me. on...

Ellen has enclosed for you Ticknor’s kind reply to my inquiries respecting the school mentioned in yr. last: no doubt is entertained by any one here of the great superiority of this over every institution of the kind in the United States. I am myself personally acquainted with both the gentlemen,...

I have, for the last week, thought of you so incessantly, my beloved mother, that scarce any other idea could find a place in my mind. I have not written to you—alas, what could I say? had I been at your side to watch over you, & to suggest thoughts of comfort...