Details
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, President. Autograph letter signed ("Th:Jefferson") to Francis Adrian Van Der Kemp of Olden Barneveld, N.Y.; Monticello, 19 January 1823. 1 page, 4to, 248 x 198mm. (9 3/4 x 7 13/16 in.), evenly age-toned [with] Autograph free frank ("free Th:Jefferson") on integral address leaf addressed in Jefferson's hand, no postmarks, small seal hole at edge.
THE OCTOGENARIAN JEFFERSON REGRETS "WANE OF MIND" AND "DECLINE OF BODY" AND "THE PHYSICAL NECESSITY OF GIVING UP WRITING"
An affectionate, wistful letter, written only a few months before his 80th birthday, reflecting on the effects of age and an old injury: "Your favor of Dec.19 was long on its passage to me and finds me in a condition but shortly to acknole[d]ge it's receipt. A dislocation of my right wrist while in Paris, and the impracticability of reducing the carpal bones to their order has always been an impediment in my writing, and the effect of age has been gradually increasing the difficulty till now the motion of the wrist is nearly lost, the fingers of the hand become distorted and their joints almost inflexible; and I am under the physical necessity of giving up writing. This disability imposed on me by nature must excuse me to my friends for not doing what it is impossible to do. Perhaps too it may have been a providential favor to prevent my betraying on paper that wane of the mind which is the necessary effect of the decline of body, and of which we are apt to be insensible ourselves when become very obvious to others. I shall still hope however to hear from my friends occasionally altho' I cannot answer them, and from none with more pleasure that from yourself, of the continuance of your health & happiness...."
Jefferson felt obliged to apologize for the relative brevity of the present letter since on at least one occasion he had written an eight-page letter to Van der Kemp, with whom he frequently corresponded on religion, philosophy and scientific subjects. See Calendar of the Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson, Pt.1, pp.466-467 (the present letter not recorded in that calendar, since no draft survives in the Jefferson Papers).
THE OCTOGENARIAN JEFFERSON REGRETS "WANE OF MIND" AND "DECLINE OF BODY" AND "THE PHYSICAL NECESSITY OF GIVING UP WRITING"
An affectionate, wistful letter, written only a few months before his 80th birthday, reflecting on the effects of age and an old injury: "Your favor of Dec.19 was long on its passage to me and finds me in a condition but shortly to acknole[d]ge it's receipt. A dislocation of my right wrist while in Paris, and the impracticability of reducing the carpal bones to their order has always been an impediment in my writing, and the effect of age has been gradually increasing the difficulty till now the motion of the wrist is nearly lost, the fingers of the hand become distorted and their joints almost inflexible; and I am under the physical necessity of giving up writing. This disability imposed on me by nature must excuse me to my friends for not doing what it is impossible to do. Perhaps too it may have been a providential favor to prevent my betraying on paper that wane of the mind which is the necessary effect of the decline of body, and of which we are apt to be insensible ourselves when become very obvious to others. I shall still hope however to hear from my friends occasionally altho' I cannot answer them, and from none with more pleasure that from yourself, of the continuance of your health & happiness...."
Jefferson felt obliged to apologize for the relative brevity of the present letter since on at least one occasion he had written an eight-page letter to Van der Kemp, with whom he frequently corresponded on religion, philosophy and scientific subjects. See Calendar of the Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson, Pt.1, pp.466-467 (the present letter not recorded in that calendar, since no draft survives in the Jefferson Papers).