”I shudder at the approach” - Jefferson on Winter

A collection of quotations from Thomas Jefferson’s writings demonstrate that he and winter were not friends.

View of the Monticello house and wings dusted with snow with a long, cloudless view to the Blue Ridge Mountains to the north and west.
“ It is so cold that the freezing of the ink on the point of my pen renders it difficult to write. We have had the thermometer at 12°.”
Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, November 28, 1796
A bust-length portrait of Thomas Jefferson body angled slight proper left with his head angled toward proper left on a mottled gray and gold background, wearing a high-collared white shirt, a black coat with a portion of a red under waistcoat visible, and a brown overcoat with wide, fur-lined lapels.

when I recollect on one hand all the sufferings I have had from cold, & on the other all my other pains, the former preponderate greatly.
Thomas Jefferson to William Dunbar, January 12, 1801

We arrived here on the third day of our journey, without any accident; but I suffered very much both mornings by cold. I must therefore pray you to send my wolf-skin pelisse and fur-boots by Moses’s Billy
Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, November 4, 1815

no tooth shaking yet, but shivering and shrinking in body from the cold we now experience, my thermometer having been as low as 12.°
Thomas Jefferson to Charles Thomson, January 9, 1816

We have had the most extraordinary year of drought & cold ever known in the history of America
Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, September 8, 1816

We have had a most severe spell of cold, which commenced on the 11th. of Jan. On the 19th. of that month the thermometer was at 6°. that is 26° below freezing.
Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, February 8, 1817

I have often wondered that any one should settle in a cold country while there is room for him in a warm one. and lamented that yourself and Dr Priestly should have been led into the snows of Maine and Northumberland rather than the genial climates of the South.
Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Vaughn, June 23, 1819

I think, with mr Rittenhouse, that it is altogether unaccountable how any man can stay in a cold country who can find room in a warm one, and should certainly prefer to Polar regions of ice and snow, lands as fertile and cheap which may be covered with groves of olives and oranges. 
Thomas Jefferson to William Short, November 24, 1821

During summer I enjoy it’s temperature, but I shudder at the approach of winter, and wish I could sleep through it with the Dormouse, and only wake with him in spring, if ever.
Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, June 1, 1822

I sympathise with you in the horror of a cold climate and preference of a milder one in winter.
Thomas Jefferson to William John Coffee, April 10, 1824

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