The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 6 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 6 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
_summum bonum_ in Massachusetts was to be worth £10,000 sterling, ride
in a chariot, be Colonel of a regiment of militia, and hold a seat in his
Majesty's council. No man's imagination aspired to anything higher beneath
the skies. But these plumbs, chariots, colonelships, and counsellorships,
are recorded and will never be forgotten. No great accumulations of
land were made by our early settlers. Mr. Baudoin, a French refugee,
made the first great purchases, and your General Dearborne, born under
a fortunate star, is now enjoying a large portion of the aristocratical
sweets of them. As I have no amanuenses but females, and there is so
much about generation in this letter that I dare not ask any of them to
copy it, and I cannot copy it myself, I must beg of you to return it to
me. Your old friend.
TO ----.
November 28, 1813.
I will not fatigue you, my dear Sir, with long and labored excuses for
having been so tardy in writing to you; but I will briefly mention that
the thousand hostile ships which cover the ocean render attempts to pass
it now very unfrequent, and these concealing their intentions from all
that they may not be known to the enemy, are gone before heard of in
such inland situations as mine. To this, truth must add the torpidity
of age as one of the obstacles to punctual correspondence.
Your letters of October 21 and November 15, 1811, and August 29, 1813,
were duly received, and with that of November 15 came the MS. copy of your
work on Economy. The extraordinary merit of the former volume had led
me to anticipate great satisfaction and edification from the perusal of
this, and I can say with truth and sincerity that these expectations were
completely fulfilled, new principles developed, former ones corrected, or
rendered more perspicuous, present us an interesting science, heretofore
voluminous and embarrassed, now happily simplified and brought within a
very moderate compass. After an attentive perusal, which enabled me to
bear testimony to its worth, I took measures for getting it translated
and printed in Philadelphia; the distance from which place prepared me
to expect great and unavoidable delays. But notwithstanding my continual
urgencies these have gone far beyond my calculations. In a letter of
September 26th from the editor, in answer to one of mine, after urging
in excuse the causes of the delay, he expresses his confidence that it
would be ready by the last of October, and that period being now past,
I am in daily expectation of hearing from him. As I write the present
letter without knowing by what conveyance it may go, I am not without
a hope of receiving a copy of the work in time to accompany this. I
shall then be anxious to learn that better health and more encouraging
circumstances enable you to pursue your plan through the two remaining
branches of morals and legislation, which executed in the same lucid,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account