11From John Adams to William Cunningham, 3 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
I have your favours of December 17, and 21st. I hope you will not insinuate a comparison between John Q. Adams and Coriolanus. Whatever injustice or ingratitude may be done him, he has none of the Roman’s revenge, much less his treachery. Of Mrs. Warren’s History I have nothing to say. The Count De Vergennes was an accomplished gentleman and scholar, and a statesman of great experience in...
12From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 31 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
In answer to your kind Inquiries concerning my health, in your favour of the 14th, I can inform you that I enjoy as good health as a Man in his fifteenth Lustre, can reasonably expect, except a little paralytic trembling in the hands, which does not much incommode me however in Writing. I have been engaged this Summer as you have in reading History. Voltaires Moeurs et Esprit des Nations and...
13From John Adams to Joseph Bradley Varnum, 26 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
I receive very kindly your obliging letter of the 15th. of this month. Ever since my return from Europe, where I had resided ten years and could not be fully informed of the state of affairs in my own Country, I have been constantly anxious and alarmed at the intemperance of party spirit and the unbounded license of our presses. In the same view I could not but lament some things, which have...
14From John Adams to Josiah, III Quincy, 23 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for all the fine Speeches you send me and especially for that of Mr Loyd and the letter of the 14th. inclosed with it. The Speech is a chaste, neat composition, very Sensible, candid, frank and manly. I conclude with him “remove the Embargo, authorize the Merchants to arm their Vessels, put the Nation in a State of defence and assert your well established and indisputable Rights or...
15From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 22 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
I know not whether I shall make you smile or weep, excite your ridicule or pity or contempt when I reveal to you the mistery of my long delay to answer your last Letters. But before I unriddle that unusual negligence, I must say a few words concerning our Friend Whartons Attachment to Prophecies and his habit of applying them to passing events. I have no objection to the Study, but I am aware...
16From John Adams to John Adams Smith, 14 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
It is a long time since I had a Letter from you. In the last I think you prophesied “Wonders in November.” I understood you to mean, a wonderful revolution in the sentiments of the people, and a restoration of the Federalists to the Government of the Nation. But the month of November is past, and there appears, notwithstanding all the terrors and horrors of the Embargo a wonderfull adherence...
17From John Adams to William Cunningham, 13 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
I laughed when I read your Expectation, that what you had written on J. Q. A. would be printed. I found that you was not acquainted with the World, as it exists in Boston. The four federal Papers are under the Imprimatur of an Oligarchy of Purse, proud Speculators as despotic as the thirty Tyrants of Athens. Tryals enough have been made, as I have been informed to insert many Things on the...
18From John Adams to Isaiah L. Green, 9 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
I received, yesterday, from the Post Office, under your franc, the nervous Reply of Nine of our Representatives to the certain resolutions. Having read it with pleasure I thank you for your politeness in Sending it to me. while it treats our Legislature with all the respect it deserves, it is written with as much candor and moderation as perspicuity and Energy. The Facts are fairly stated, and...
19From John Adams to William Cunningham, 25 November 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have your favour’s of the 12th and 16th: of the month. The letter of President Washington concerning J Q A. is at your discretion to make what use of it you please. All the communications concerning the other Gentleman made or to be made I confide to your sacred confidence. The great regard I had for your Grandfather and for your Grandmother, who was a beloved Sister of my Mother, and for...
20From John Adams to Josiah, III Quincy, 25 November 1808 (Adams Papers)
I owe you a thousand thanks, to speak in the good old English form of civility, for the Speech and the documents. You are greatly to be pitied, I mean all of you, of all parties, for I see you must labour very hard and with much anxiety, without the smallest hope, that I can discern of preserving yourselves and us the people from very dull times. If you continue the Embargo the times will be...