1804 Letters

unknown -

Dolly Madison letter to sister Anna...Where will you celebrate the Fourth of July, my dear sister ? We are to have grand doings here.

unknown -

I have always proposed to reappoint General Gibson to his present office, wherein I hear of no complaint against him. Neither his age nor understanding entitles him to anything beyond that, and equal to his ancient military rank.

Washington, MD - 2 January 1804

It may be satisfactory to you to know, 'officially', that James is favourably spoken of, and is in estimation with the government.

Washington, MD - 3 January 1804

This is only to assure you that I am in perfect health. That General Jackson is my good friend; that I have had no duel nor quarrel with anybody, and have not been wounded or hurt.

Washington, MD - 4 January 1804

How could I forget to tell you the very important event of the marriage of Jerome Bonaparte with Miss Patterson.

Washington, MD - 4 January 1804

Make the master teach you arithmetic, so that you may be able to keep the accounts of the family.

Treasury Department, MD - 11 January 1804

Mr. Baring has concluded, notwithstanding Mr. Pichon's entreaties, not to take the stock till we shall have heard from New Orleans.

Washington, MD - 17 January 1804

I want a French translation of the Constitution of the United States, and, for the purpose, send you a copy in English. It will, I fear, be a great labour to you; but I cannot get it done here

Washington, MD - 18 January 1804

I have been greatly flattered by the applauses bestowed on your speech at Columbia. Send me half a dozen copies. Why have you not already done it?

Boston, MA - 18 January 1804

You have been too long a citizen of this world to expect permanency in any of its enjoyments.

Treasury Department, MD - 18 January 1804

Mr. Harvie called on me this evening to inform me of his being selected to carry the stock to France, and wishing that this might be ready to-morrow.

Washington, MD - 20 January 1804

It is seriously my intention to visit you next week, if I can get away, which will depend a little on the state of business in Senate.

Washington, MD - 23 January 1804

When I last wrote you (about Thursday, I think), I felt the approaches of a headache, which I concluded would be, as usual, the torment of twenty-four hours only. On the contrary, it has pursued me without intermission.

Washington, MD - 25 January 1804

Theodosia has given me a detailed account of yourself and your lovely little girl. All as I could wish.

Washington, MD - 25 January 1804

I have been a week confined to my room by a headache, but there are no mortal or alarming symptoms.

Washington, MD - 27 January 1804

You will be proud, as a New-Yorker, to see that the first attempt to create a taste for painting and sculpture has been made in our city. We have about forty busts and groups.

Washington, MD - 29 January 1804

There is no end to the trouble such a baggage gives me. Another thing occurs, which, forsooth, must be sent to her too.

Washington, MD - 29 January 1804

The bill, or project of law, herewith enclosed, is now under debate in the Senate. You will, therefore, consider it as a project merely, not yet a law.

Havre De Grace, MD - 30 January 1804

In a former letter I told you we had eight inches snow at Washington. On Saturday last, 28th, fell six or eight inches more, so that we had a foot depth of snow

Salisbury, NH - 5 February 1804

I went to Concord a few days since, just to see Sophia and get my cheats, &c., &c. ; and so I was really cheated. She had taken the liberty to go home.

Treasury Department, MD - 11 February 1804

It is necessary to know where Eli Vickery lives in order to notify him of his appointment to keep the Old Point Comfort light-house.

Treasury Department, MD - 15 February 1804

Wilson Nicholas called again on me this morning, and seems to prefer an office in New Orleans for his nephew.

New York, NY - 16 February 1804

Goldsmith is the very book I should have recommended. A critical knowledge of historical events may assist a statesman or form a pedant.

Baltimore, MD - 21 February 1804

The roads were so very bad that I sent back Sam, George, and the horses from Trenton, and came on in the mail stage 'sans valet'.

Treasury Department, MD - 21 February 1804

Dr. Stevens's case shall receive a full and candid investigation. But it embraces several important considerations both as to constitution and law and as to facts

Washington, MD - 27 February 1804

Yet great as is my solicitude to see your wife and child, to renew my acquaintance with you, to tender you my friendship and affection, and to claim a return, I would by no means urge a measure inconsistent with your interest.

Washington, MD - 3 March 1804

It cannot yet be settled whether there will be commissioners to run the boundary line with Spain; but I will mention the thing to the Smiths, who still profess friendship for General Wilkinson.

Washington, MD - 6 March 1804

It affords me great pleasure to learn that you are engaged in a literary pursuit so congenial with your taste and your talents.

Washington, MD - 7 March 1804

Friday last was the day assigned for the appearance of Judge Pickering on his impeachment. He did not appear

Washington, MD - 10 March 1804

The plan of summer operations is to go from Philadelphia, to Fort Pitt (Pittsburg,), thence through the states on each side of the Ohio.

Treasury Department, MD - 15 March 1804

Conversing with Mr. Madison on the subject of Mobile, and of our regulations respecting the Mississippi, he seemed to apprehend some difficulty in justifying our conduct, or rather instructions, to impartial men.

Salisbury, NH - 16 March 1804

GOOD OLD COMPANION, I have a thousand things which are secrets, and as many which are no secrets, to say to you in this letter. I hardly know where to begin

Salisbury, NH - 16 March 1804

Yet, Merrill, you and I have some ambition ; so has, or so ought to have, every one. So much ambition as shall prompt to laudable exertion and industry ; so much as is well consistent with the duties and the honest pleasures of life

New York, NY - 28 March 1804

They are very busy here about an election between Morgan Lewis and A. Burr. The former supported by the Livingstons and Clintons, the latter 'per se'.

Treasury Department, MD - 28 March 1804

Under the law providing for the sale of lands in the Indiana Territory, three new land offices are to be established

unknown - 0 April 1804

Dolly Madison letter to Mrs. Issac.

New York, NY - 3 April 1804

The History of Frederic II. will amuse you. You will read Montesquieu with interest and instruction.

Salisbury, NH - 3 April 1804

The great object of a lawyer is business ; but this is not, or ought not to be, his sole object. Pleasant society, an agreeable acquaintance, and a degree of respectability, not merely as a lawyer, but as a man, are other objects of importance.

Boston, MA - 4 April 1804

The map of human life is checkered with misfortunes and disappointments. A continual sunshine of prosperity does not accompany man in his transit from the cradle to the grave.

Washington, MD - 5 April 1804

I enclose some very lengthy, though crude and ill-arranged, observations on Dr. Stevens's claim.

Treasury Department, MD - 12 April 1804

Mr. Claiborne's conduct respecting the establishment of a bank appears inexplicable, for you will find by the enclosed paragraph of a New York paper that, without waiting for an answer, he has already authorized the institution.

Monticello, VA - 15 April 1804

According to the letter of Mr. Wagner enclosed in yours of the 7th inst., on the subject of the misnomer of the inspector for Indiantown, a commission should have been enclosed ; but none came.

Treasury Department, MD - 16 April 1804

The subject of the Louisiana intruders is very delicate.

New York, NY - 18 April 1804

Your vanity, if in any degree concerned, will be fully satisfied by the assurance that my heart, my wishes, and my thoughts will be with you.

New York, NY - 25 April 1804

I, too, write in a storm; an election storm, of the like you have once been a witness. The thing began yesterday, and will terminate to-morrow.

unknown - 26 April 1804

Dolly Madison letter to sister Anna.

Monticello, VA - 27 April 1804

The case of the Louisiana squatters is a serious one from its magnitude, yet to be touched with a hand as careful as firm. A proclamation must doubtless precede any act of force.

New York, NY - 1 May 1804

The election is lost by a great majority: 'tant mieux'. It does not appear possible that I should make you a visit; even if La G. should not prevent it, which ought to be hoped, some other thing of like kind will.

Salisbury, NH - 1 May 1804

O, Thomas, Thomas ! I wish I could see you. Since I last pressed your hand, my life has abounded in some incidents which I could magnify into matters of mighty little consequence. Poh! poh! What trumpery ! How microscopical is self-love!

Treasury Department, MD - 3 May 1804

Finding your return somewhat retarded, my anxiety to take Mrs. Gallatin to her father and to place my children at school induces me to go now, as I presume I could not have left this city for some weeks after your return.

Salisbury, NH - 5 May 1804

Salisbury, you perceive, as yet heads my letters ; and how much longer it may, I can hardly tell. I know it is much better for me to be absent, and I am zealously laboring to put myself into a new situation.

New York, NY - 8 May 1804

The affair of La G. is becoming serious. After due reflection, this does appear to me to be the most discreet thing--prudence, cheerfulness, and good-temper are ingredients of importance. I will offer homage.

Boston, MA - 10 May 1804

The tuition of those attending the then present quarter was to be given to the Doctor; and, as luck would have it, not his sagacity, I found that almost all the quarters had expired, and were then commencing anew, when I undertook to teach the school

New York, NY - 11 May 1804

I never had thought Mr. Nicholson equal to the office of Commissioner of Loans, and, on hearing of his long sickness, repeatedly urged a resignation.

New York, NY - 20 May 1804

I send you a sample of that species of philosophy which I have thought particularly suited to your cast of mind and the delicacy of your taste. You are to read from the 66th page to the 125th.

Quincy, MA - 20 May 1804

Had you been no other than the private inhabitant of Monticello, I should, ere this time, have addressed you with that sympathy which a recent event has awakened in my bosom ; but reasons of various kinds withheld my pen

unknown - 22 May 1804

Dolly Madison letter to sister Anna...There is so much I could tell you about these new French people...

Salisbury, NH - 28 May 1804

AND if it were a pleasant evening, thought I, as I read yours of the 16th if it were a pleasant moonlight evening, I should be willing to meet Merrill half-way, for sake of an hour's chat

Treasury Department, MD - 30 May 1804

Shall I take measures to procure a cutter for New Orleans ? If so, I would purchase a proper vessel in Baltimore or Norfolk, and at once man and send her from thence.

Washington, DC - 0 June 1804

Dolly Madison letter to sister Anna

Treasury Department, MD - 2 June 1804

I have read with great attention Mr. Lincoln's opinion : it is ingenious, and may be solid, but I am very confident that we will be defeated if we attempt to bring the subject before a court.

Montpelier, VA - 3 June 1804

Dolly Madison letter to sister Anna...I have been very ill since I wrote last, with inflammatory rheumatism ; never had I more extreme pain in sickness.

Treasury Department, MD - 7 June 1804

it appears that vessels bound to Hispaniola are generally armed, and that he has thought it proper to require bonds and security from the owners that they shall not commit any acts of hostility

unknown - 9 June 1804

Will you give to the enclosed observations of Mr. Madison as [careful ?] a perusal as you can ? I have always been in hopes that you and he would by discussion come to a common opinion.

Salisbury, NH - 10 June 1804

Yesterday evening I returned from election, in about as good spirits as you would naturally suppose, after being witness to the triumph of democracy. J. T. Oilman is elected Governor by a majority of one hundred and thirty-two votes

New York, NY - 11 June 1804

I have studied every pothook and trammel of his first literary performance, to see what rays of genius could be discovered.

Treasury Department, MD - 11 June 1804

Although I believe that the receiver Tupper is not the same man to whom Mr. Russell alludes in the enclosed letter, and that swindler Tupper must be the man lately arrived in New Orleans

Washington, MD - 12 June 1804

Mr. Rapp (who has been exploring the country) has pitched on, on Sandy Creek of Muskingum River, where they wish to have 40,000 acres at the usual price, but with longer indulgence as to the time of payment.

New York, NY - 13 June 1804

Another interview yesterday with La G. One more would be fatal and final. I shall seek it to-day; 'after which' I will read Moore's fables, you impudence.

Boston, MA - 17 June 1804

Be faithful to your employer, and do not lay your action so as to be nonsuited; for you must remember that nothing but the death of the party will enable you to bring a new suit.

New York, NY - 18 June 1804

I send for your perusal a letter signed Charles D. Cooper, which, though apparently published some time ago, has but very recently come to my knowledge.

Salisbury, NH - 18 June 1804

You will never have another such an interesting letter as this. Two prodigies come not in one age.

Salisbury, NH - 18 June 1804

Day after to-morrow, if the wind blows from the right point, I start for East Andover ; on this tour I expect to be absent about twelve days ; and soon after my return here, I expect to be in Boston.

New York, NY - 18 June 1804

There will be an advantage in keeping Williams to fill Pinckney's place, which is, that if he was appointed immediately we must have another commissioner on the Natchez land claims.

New York, NY - 28 June 1804

To-morrow, did I say? 'Tis nowhere to be found but in the fool's calendar' and yet I said "to-morrow." The morrow brought me an ague in the face, which I have been nursing from that day to this, in great ill-humour.

New York, NY - 1 July 1804

You may recollect, and, if you do not, your husband will, that he has several times requested me to open a correspondence between him and my bookseller in London.

Quincy, MA - 1 July 1804

But you have been pleased to enter upon some subjects which call for a reply ; and as you observe that you have wished for an opportunity to express your sentiments, I have given them every weight they claim.

New York, NY - 10 July 1804

Having lately written my will, and given my private letters and papers in charge to you, I have no other direction to give you on the subject but to request you to burn all such as, if by accident made public, would injure any person.

New York, NY - 10 July 1804

You will find enclosed a statement of my affairs. Swartwout and Van Ness are joint executors with you and Theodosia.

New York, NY - 13 July 1804

GENERAL HAMILTON died yesterday. The malignant federalists or tories, and the imbittered Clintonians, unite in endeavouring to excite public sympathy in his favour

Washington, DC - 16 July 1804

Dolly Madison letter to sister Anna.

Philadelphia, PA - 18 July 1804

The event of which you have been advised has driven me into a sort of exile, and may terminate in an actual and permanent ostracism.

Philadelphia, PA - 20 July 1804

I shall journey somewhere within a few days, but whither is not yet decided. My heart will travel southward, and repose on the hills of Santee.

Bedford, NY - 25 July 1804

The philosophic topics of consolation are familiar to you, and we all know from experience how little relief is to be derived from them.

Philadelphia, PA - 29 July 1804

Swartwout, Van Ness, and others are secreted. How long this sort of persecution may endure cannot be conjectured.

Philadelphia, PA - 2 August 1804

Don't let me have the idea that you are dissatisfied with me a moment. I can't just now endure it. At another time you may play the Juno if you please.

Philadelphia, PA - 3 August 1804

I am further advised that an application has been made to Governor Lewis, of New-York, requiring him to demand me of the governor of this state, with which Lewis will most probably be obliged to comply.

Philadelphia, PA - 3 August 1804

I absent myself from home merely to give a little time for passions to subside, not from any apprehension of the final effects of proceedings in courts of law.

Boston, MA - 4 August 1804

Boston, this marvellous town, full as you know it is of every thing of every sort, has not altogether enough in it, nevertheless, to fill the whole capacity for happiness.

Philadelphia, PA - 11 August 1804

I shall lay a plan for meeting you somewhere, but whether I may have it in my power to visit the high hills of Santee is doubtful; I fear improbable.

Philadelphia, PA - 11 August 1804

My plan is to visit the Floridas for five or six weeks. I have desired Theodosia to consult you whether there be any healthy point within a hundred miles or so of St. Simons at which we might meet.

Quincy, MA - 18 August 1804

Your statement inspecting Callender, and your motives for liberating him wear a different aspect as explained by you, from the impression which the act had made

New York, NY - 20 August 1804

I received last Saturday your letter of the 8th instant. S. Lewis is well qualified as a draughtsman ; I have written in order to ascertain the nature of the charges against him whilst in the War Department.

Hampton, GA - 28 August 1804

I am at the house of Major Butler, comfortably settled. A very agreeable family within half a mile. My project is to go next week to Florida, which may take up a fortnight or ten days

Hampton, GA - 31 August 1804

I am now quite settled. My establishment consists of a housekeeper, cook, and chambermaid, seamstress, and two footmen.

Monticello, VA - 1 September 1804

I am just returned from a visit to Mr. Madison, whom I went to consult on certain matters.

Hampton, GA - 3 September 1804

Mr. Morse informs you that this island is forty-five miles long, and that it lies north of the mouth Altamaha, commonly spelled Alatamaha.

Treasury Department, MD - 4 September 1804

the subject of the recapture of the ship Eugenia, together with the affidavits of the revenue officers who were successively on board of the ship.

Boston, MA - 14 September 1804

I should be glad if I could think of a great many wise and useful things to say to you now just as you are preparing to clothe yourself in the character of a lawyer.

Frederica, GA - 15 September 1804

Having very unexpectedly procured a boat, I left my house yesterday afternoon, came hither by land, and proceed in a few minutes for St. Mary's.

Washington, MD - 16 September 1804

Your last letter was dated at the Springs, where you were reveling in the enjoyments of ease, mirth, and engaging society.

Treasury Department, MD - 18 September 1804

Would it not be better to send to Governor Claiborne a blank commission by next mail, informing him that in filling it he must tell the gentleman whose name he will put in it that it is only a temporary appointment?

Hampton, GA - 26 September 1804

I returned yesterday from my Florida excursion, about which I wrote you on the 15th inst. The weather prevented me from going farther than the river St. John's, about thirty miles from St. Augustine.

unknown - 0 October 1804

Irregularities in American sea and in our harbors. - As it is wished that Congress would make provision on two points immediately connected with the captures near St. Domingo and with the aggressions at New York

Savannah, GA - 1 October 1804

I have been this morning scouring the town and the docks in quest of ways and means to get on. There is a packet which will sail for Charleston, on Saturday

Treasury Department, MD - 12 October 1804

The enclosed, which you will have the goodness to return, show the enormous balance still due by Kentucky, especially for the indirect taxes, and the almost impossibility of recovering anything, even from delinquent and criminal collectors.

Treasury Department, MD - 15 October 1804

The receipt for Louisiana stock which we have in the Treasury, and is enclosed, is only that of Mr. Livingston

Boston, MA - 17 October 1804

Once or twice I have had the honor of bowing to Miss Paine in the streets. Possibly, it may be well that I am not in a way to cultivate the acquaintance to which you introduced me. She might perhaps write her name upon my heart as fairly as I can wri

Fayetteville, GA - 23 October 1804

No more pauses, not even for weather, till Richmond, distant two hundred miles, and proposed to be travelled in five days.

Quincy, MA - 25 October 1804

It was not until circumstances concurred to place you in the light of a rewarder and encourager of a libeller, whom you could not but detest and despise, that I withdrew the esteem I had long entertained for you.

Warrenton, GA - 27 October 1804

The morning following I started one hour before day, the moon showing us the way, and, at about seven or eight in the evening, was at Raleigh, being full fifty miles.

Treasury Department, MD - 29 October 1804

Balance in Treasury, 30th September, 1803, $5,860,981.54

Petersburgh, GA - 31 October 1804

description

Richmond, VA - 31 October 1804

Virginia is the last state, and Petersburgh the last town in the state of Virginia, in which I should have expected any open marks of hospitality and respect.

Bedford, NY - 2 November 1804

Our Heavenly Father has called this child home, and the very best wish that you or I could have formed for him. was, that after a long and virtuous abode bore, he might be where he now is.

Washington, MD - 5 November 1804

My house and furniture have been sold for about twenty-five thousand dollars. Seven or eight thousand dollars of debts remain unpaid.

Worcester, MA - 5 November 1804

The object of this is to request you to go to him and beg him not to say to anybody in or about Salisbury, that I am gone on this journey.

Washington, MD - 7 November 1804

But when I deliberated about writing, it was with a view to write you sense--grave sense. What a dull thing is sense. How it mars half the pleasure of life, and yet how contemptible is all that has it not.

Springfield, MA - 9 November 1804

Riding from Boston here, is just like riding through New Hampshire and Vermont. The same prospects, the same people, the same modes and manners of life.

Washington, MD - 29 November 1804

The boy, too, has a relapse of the ague, a disease of all others the most fatal to the infant constitution. Great God! what sacrifices do you make, and to what end?

Boston, MA - 30 November 1804

There are many fellows in this town from abroad, who like myself fall under the general class of adventurers. Some for knowledge, some for fame, and some for cash.

Washington, MD - 4 December 1804

You have doubtless heard that there has subsisted for some time a contention of a very singular nature between the states of New-York, and New-Jersey.

Treasury Department, MD - 13 December 1804

The information contained in this letter is certainly important. It explains what I heard that General Hovey or Ovey, of Genesee, was connected with Phelps, and went last summer to the westward with an intention of ascending the Mississippi

Washington, MD - 15 December 1804

The trial of Judge Chace will not come on before the middle of January. He is summoned to appear the 2d January.

Salisbury, NH - 21 December 1804

Before we received your letters by the mail, we heard that you were gone to New York, with a gentleman, at the moderate price of seven dollars a day for your company. It seems, Daniel, that your company is very agreeable in Boston

Washington, MD - 31 December 1804

I propose to move my quarters to-morrow, and the confusion has already commenced, and even pervades this letter.