1802 Letters

Washington, MD - 12 January 1802

Your letters which greet me here are of the 2d and 20th of December only; only two.

Washington, MD - 16 January 1802

Good venison is not to be had at this season, and to send indifferent any thing (except a wife) from New-York, would be treason.

unknown - 19 January 1802

The objects of inquiry for your committee are ; 1st. How are moneys drawn out of the Treasury ? 2d. How are they expended ? 3d. How are they accounted for ?

Washington, MD - 22 January 1802

Five weeks without hearing from you! Intolerable. Now I think to repose myself in sullen silence for five weeks from this date.

Washington, MD - 1 February 1802

The newspapers will have shown the position of the bill now before the Senate for the repeal of the act of last session establishing a new judiciary system

Washington, MD - 2 February 1802

The repeal of the judicial system of 1801 engrosses the attention of both houses of Congress. The bill is yet before the Senate.

Washington, MD - 2 February 1802

she talks a great deal about you; the substance of it is, that you are an ugly, little, lazy, stupid, good-for-nothing knurle, and that she is very sorry she ever wrote you a line.

Treasury Department, MD - 13 February 1802

The more I have reflected on the subject, the more forcibly have I been impressed with the importance of making some actual provision which may secure to the United States the proceeds of the sales of the Western lands

Washington, MD - 21 February 1802

A few lines from Mr. Alston, received some days before, advised me of your journey to Clifton, and of the distressing occasion.

Washington, MD - 22 February 1802

You women: it is so with you all. If one wishes to exhibit the best side, one must provoke you. Gratify your wishes and expectations, or, still worse, anticipate them, and it produces a lethargy.

Washington, MD - 23 February 1802

I project, as you may have understood, a journey southward at some time, yet nameless, during the current year (or century).

Fryeburg, ME - 25 February 1802

I came here six weeks ago, and took charge of the Academy. My engagements are for two quarters, and the probability is I shall then leave here.

Washington, MD - 26 February 1802

Your newspapers of the same date, and also of the 15th, contain particulars of the races; but so technically expressed that I comprehend nothing of it.

Fryeburg, ME - 26 February 1802

You will possibly wish to ask how many Misses there are here. I do not precisely know. I forgot to bring a stick, to cut a notch, like the Indian, for every one I see

Washington, MD - 27 February 1802

Last evening Eustis happened in my room while I was at Smith's (opposite); he saw the cover of your letter, and the few lines which it contains.

Washington, MD - 4 March 1802

You have supposed it to be from malice that I have not written you of the adjournment and of my intentions.

Washington, MD - 8 March 1802

I discover that you write on Sunday only; that if, by accident or mental indisposition, to which people in warm climates are liable, the business should be put off for that day, it lays over to the next Sunday

Washington, MD - 8 March 1802

At the moment of closing your letter, this scrap of a newspaper caught my eye, and is sent for your amusement.

Washington, MD - 8 March 1802

I learn, with a good deal of regret, that the mountain plan is abandoned; at least, that no measures are taken or meditated for its execution.

Washington, MD - 14 March 1802

It is probable that the box went with the ship which took your first cargo; but, as no one paid the least attention to the landing of the articles, nor to compare the delivery with the invoice, it may have been left on board.

Clifton, SC - 17 March 1802

Ever since the date of my last letter, for it was not forwarded till some days after, I have been quite ill; till within these two or three days totally unable to write.

Washington, MD - 19 March 1802

By the "attack on Sullivan's Island" was intended an attack on the plan of residence.

Washington, MD - 5 April 1802

and thus happens what, I believe, has never before occurred, that I have two of your letters unanswered, those of the 19th and 22d, both affecting and interesting.

Washington, MD - 12 April 1802

The instability of all human concerns has been a theme of remark for the last 4000 years.

Clifton, SC - 3 May 1802

Unfortunately, the stage was full--not even a seat vacant for the vice-president. I am, therefore, doomed to remain here one day longer

Salisbury, NH - 3 May 1802

Hanoverians, you perceive, ever searching for novelty, have started the project of a Literary Tablet. How do you think it will succeed? My own expectations are not, I confess, very sanguine.

Fryeburg, ME - 18 May 1802

I spent a few days at Salisbury, and thence took my departure again for this place. Had a pleasant journey, save the inconvenience which arose from bad roads and bad taverns.

Fryeburg, ME - 4 June 1802

HEALTH to my friends ! began my earliest song, Health to my friends ! my latest shall prolong, Nor health alone be four more blessings thine, Cash and the Fair one, Friendship and the Nine.

Fryeburg, ME - 7 June 1802

You must therefore console yourself with reflecting that correspondence is a kind of commerce, where the greatest gain per cent, uniformly attaches to the greatest capital, and that there is as much to be learned in writing a good letter, as in readi

Fryeburg, ME - 11 June 1802

I hope you will not be vexed at me, when I tell you that I was a little vexed at you for not transmitting a word by Mr. Hall. I could not invent for you the least excuse, and was resolved to be silent in my turn.

Treasury Department, MD - 18 June 1802

The Bank of Pennsylvania applies for relief; they fall regularly one hundred thousand dollars per week in debt to the Bank of the United States, on account, as they say, of the deposits on account of government made in the last.

New York, NY - 24 June 1802

We arrived yesterday morning, exactly the eighth day since I left you. Our passage was pleasant, inasmuch as we had no storms, and the most obliging, attentive captain.

New York, NY - 26 June 1802

When, when will the month of October come? It appears to recede instead of approaching; and time, which extinguishes all other sorrows, serves but to increase mine

New York, NY - 28 June 1802

And do you, indeed, miss your Theo.? Do you really find happiness indissolubly blended with her presence?

New York, NY - 3 July 1802

I desired your father to bring or send a barrel of rough rice (rice unpounded).

New York, NY - 5 July 1802

Your letter of the 22d of February, announcing your intended marriage, is this minute received.

New York, NY - 19 July 1802

You will herewith receive the second book. The malice and the motives are in this so obvious, that it will tend to discredit the whole.

Fryeburg, ME - 22 July 1802

When one has nothing to say you would think he might as well be silent. But you know there are folks whose words are in inverse proportion to the ideas they convey.

New York, NY - 2 August 1802

The enclosed paper will give you the particulars of the affair of Swartwout and Clinton. You will perceive that the latter indirectly acknowledges that he is an agent in the calumnies against me.

Monticello, VA - 3 August 1802

What are the subjects on which the next session of Congress is to be employed ?

New York, NY - 8 August 1802

By Tuesday the 9th inst. I shall be settled at Richmond Hill, ready to receive you and your incumbrances.

Washington, MD - 9 August 1802

A second report has come to hand in relation to the Delaware piers, recommending Reedy Island in lieu of Marcus Hook.

Monticello, VA - 9 August 1802

We have received information that the Emperor of Morocco, having asked, and been refused, passports for two vessels loaded with wheat to go to Tripoli while blockaded by us, has ordered away our consul.

New York, NY - 10 August 1802

Positively and unequivocally I declare, that no such nor similar order, nor any intimation nor hint resembling it, was ever by me received, or understood to have been given.

Monticello, VA - 14 August 1802

I have duly considered the regulations concerning the Mississippi trade enclosed in your letter of the 7th, and should have signed them but that a single fact

Monticello, VA - 14 August 1802

I have been taught to have great confidence in him, yet we all know how frequent it is for the best persons to be warped as to personal character by views peculiar to themselves, and not agreeing with the general opinion.

Treasury Department, MD - 16 August 1802

I received this morning your letter of the 9th instant on the subject of Morocco and the Barbary powers.

Washington, MD - 20 August 1802

Since my last you will have heard that Morocco has declared war. By the letters which Robert Smith has shown me, it appears that their force consists, first and principally, of row-boats

Monticello, VA - 20 August 1802

Your favors of the 16th and 17th were received the last night ; the contents of the latter shall now be distinctly noted.

Monticello, VA - 23 August 1802

I had written yesterday to Mr. Smith, after a conference with Mr. Madison on the measures to be pursued with respect to the Barbary powers

unknown - 29 August 1802

Was soon obliged to sell my horse and live on the proceeds. Still straitened for cash I sold my watch, and made a shift to get home, where my friends supplied me with another horse and another watch.

Monticello, VA - 30 August 1802

The commission for Bloodgood for Albany is approved, the application for it left to yourself, as you are on the spot.

New York, NY - 3 September 1802

What a pity minds could not be made sensible of each other's approach! Why were we not so formed, that when your thoughts, your soul were with your Theo., hers could be enabled, by the finest sensation of sympathy, to meet it.

New York, NY - 8 September 1802

The debility and loss of appetite which your wife has experienced alarmed me; yet I was totally ignorant of the cause.

Monticello, VA - 8 September 1802

I have received from Delaware another application on the subject of the piers, &c., to be erected in their river. It is on behalf of Wilmington

New York, NY - 9 September 1802

On the 20th instant I intend leaving this place with my family, and expect to be at the seat of government before the end of the month.

Monticello, VA - 13 September 1802

I have always forgotten to ask of you a general idea of the effect of the peace on our revenues so far as we have gone.

Monticello, VA - 17 September 1802

Mine of the 8th will have informed you that I had countermanded the sailing of the John Adams on an invitation of the Emperor of Morocco to Simpson to remain.

Monticello, VA - 20 September 1802

In my last I informed you I should have an opportunity of getting Mr. Madison's opinion on the expediency of the sailing of the John Adams. I have done so

New York, NY - 21 September 1802

Your letter informing of the favorable aspect in the Mediterranean gave me true satisfaction ; it will enable us to diminish our naval expenditures

New York, NY - 30 September 1802

You have been imprudent, and all my fears are fulfilled. Without any one near you to feel for you, to attend to you, to watch every change and share every pain. Your wife only could do that.

unknown - 7 October 1802

The application of the Bank of Baltimore is of great importance. The consideration is very weighty that it is held by citizens, while the stock of the United States Bank is held in so great a proportion by foreigners.

New York, NY - 15 October 1802

To the execution of any project, however, health is a sine qua non. Whether you can ever enjoy it in Charleston, or on Sullivan's Island has become a problem in my mind.

Treasury Department, MD - 26 October 1802

We do not pay in Europe any part of the interest on our domestic debt, which is that alluded to by him as partly held by French stockholders.

New York, NY - 30 October 1802

You already know the result of my confinement in bed. It certainly relieved me for some time, which proves how easily that cure would have succeeded at first.

Salisbury, NH - 4 November 1802

Now, Zeke, you will not read half a sentence, no, not one syllable, before you have thoroughly searched this sheet for scrip ; but, my word for it, you will find no scrip here.

New York, NY - 5 November 1802

Would Charles Lee accept the place of secretary of the Senate? It is worth twenty-three hundred dollars per annum, and not laborious.

Hanover, NH - 6 November 1802

A WRITER of no inconsiderable note, and one whom you hold in very high esteem, has remarked in some of his lucubrations, that a student's reading and conversation ought to be intimately connected with the subject of his studies.

unknown - 0 December 1802

I hope that your Administration will afford but few materials to historians; and we have already a favorable symptom, in the difficulty under which we are to collect materials for a message.

New York, NY - 4 December 1802

So you arrived on the 24th, after a passage of ten days; you and the Charleston, packet on the same day.

New York, NY - 16 December 1802

This is not by way of reproach, for it is an unpleasant truth that, for the last six or eight weeks, the Charleston, mail has been twenty days on the way.

Salisbury, NH - 21 December 1802

It is not long since I was at Concord ; we had fine times, singing and dancing, and skipping. There were a thousand inquiries about you.

Salisbury, NH - 21 December 1802

But what would be imputed to love, if you were a lady, may now very fairly be ascribed to the measles. This ugly disorder attacked me about a fortnight since, and has formed a great syncope in my health and happiness.