1From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 9 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I enclose you sketches of Naval history and a letter from the Author Make what use of them you think probono publico. MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
2From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 6 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
Other parts of your letter of yesterday may be remembered hereafter; but “ Brimborion ” must not be delayed nor trifled with. I shall produce an authority or two. Deletanville’s Dictionary. Brimborion SM. A trifle, A thing of little value. Lallemonts Dictionary. Brimborions. S.M.PL. Bagatelles choses de peu de valeur. Apinæ arum. Crepundia orum Children’s Playthings. Baubles as Bells Rattles....
3From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 30 May 1815 (Adams Papers)
You made that Westphalian Couplet yourself, Sleeping or waking, nobody but you could have dreamed or thought of Hogs of Westphalia are a saving brood What one lets drop, the other takes for food. It so perfectly and summarily comprehends the whole Genius and history of Party and Faction from the Ipso dixit of Pythagoras to the disciples of the Scottish Creolian of Nevis. And does “Jonathan”...
4From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
I will not envy you but congratulate you on the pleasure you have had in your excursion to Washington But I covet the like pleasure so much that if I could do it with out stirring up an uproar, & hurly burly through the Contenent—Old as I am I would get into my Gig, & bend my course thitherward to morrow morning—. I regret most grievously that you did not Visit Cedar Grove—at Fishkill...
5From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
It was not friendly in you to involve me in your domestic & family Controversies Major Pierce Butler told me that he made a voyage to England from S Carolina to ask his fathers consent to marry a Lady, whom he was determined to marry, whether his father consented, or not. And I believe you ask my advice with the same resolution I have seen Fanaticism in all its forms. the fanaticism of honour,...
6From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Are the works of Apuileus in Harvard College Library or in any other collection in America Have you read his Metamorphosis which he calls his Ass of Gold, his Assinus Aureus, or Asinus Runi.” Among these novels, fables, tales or whatever you please to call them, is his Amours of Cupid and Psyche. Have you read Molier’s Psyche? Have read La Fontaines Psyche? Have you seen a splendid translation...
7From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 31 March 1813 (Adams Papers)
“The History” is of no value, except on account of its date. It was written and printed in Edes and Gills Boston Gazette, in the Interval between the first Congress in 1774 and the Second Congress in 1775 under the Signature of Novanglus. In this View it is a Document; an historical Memoir. To me personally, it is of Some importance as it is a record of the Principles on which I engaged in the...
8From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 13th. has touched my feelings. Deeply infected with a dangerous distemper you ask my advice as a Physician. The Faculty sometimes cure their Patients by relating facetious Anecdotes. I could give you a hundred within my own Experience and little reading but your Malady is two inveterate to be cured by Jocularity. It must be treated Seriously. I know not the Facts. Has the...
9From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 14 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
I fear I have not answered your letter of 20th of June. That of the 8th: of August, I certainly have not. I have been justly accused of Imbecility & Dotage for twenty years past. Yet I seem to be a Man of more consequence now, than I ever was before in my whole life. What a cloud of Reminiscences, has your last letter, exhailed in my old brain! Several of with whom I gazed through a telescope...
10From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 29 June 1806 (Adams Papers)
I rejoice to find by your Letter of the 26. and by my Sons Conversation, that his commencement of a residence at Cambridge has been agreable to you and to him. He could not in his present Circumstances have been So hapily situated as he is. Two such Men as Dr Waterhouse and J. Q. Adams will find in the society of each other, and in the sciences and Litterature an inexhaustible fund of...