My dear, the duty that devolved wholly on you in my absence of guiding and expanding the minds of our dear children is a laborious one and a responsible one.

I was glad to hear of that determination as I detest the practice of cousins marrying or any marriage between persons in which there can be traced the most distant relationship. I go for the improvement instead of the deterioration of our race.

I want to go where I can be of the most service to the general enterprise.

The summer of 1830 I... blasted the tunnel through the rock to take water from the dam above the falls for the mill... In 1831 we lowered the tunnel four feet, and built a new dam across the creek.

As for the Pope, I am too old to be frightened by his shadow, and am quite sure his shadow or Substance will do less harm to the liberties of my country than will a party, who seek to acquire political power by exciting religious bigotry in the minds of their duped followers.

I have a fine lot of telescopes. I have one with which I can see the Mountains in the Moon.

I read the book with interest, but when Jackson was a candidate in 1828 for the Presidency, I opposed him and voted for Adams. I favored a protective tariff.