121John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 3 February 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just read a sketch of the life of Swedenborg , and a larger work in two huge volumes of Memoirs of John Westley by Southey , and your kind letter of January 22 d came to hand in the nick of time to furnish me with a very rational exclamation, “What a bedlamite is man”! They are histories of Galvanism and Mesmerism thrown into hotch potch , they say that these men were honest and...
122From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 25 August 1787 (Adams Papers)
On my return from an Excursion to Devonshire with my Family, where We have been to fly from the Putrefaction of a Great City in the Summer heats, I had the Pleasure to find your favours of 17. & 23. of July. a Million of Guilders are borrowed on a new Loan in Holland, and I went over lately to Subscribe the Obligations, a Punctillio which the Brokers were pleased to think indispensible, to...
123To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 4 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received three Letter[s] of the Tenor and Date of the within. I cannot find in any Gazetteer or geographical Dictionary any Such Place as Roscoff, and I can make nothing of the Story. I hope you have more Skill in Divination. I have no Letters from Congress, nor any Answer from the Ministry. Pray what are the Sentiments in France upon the American Acts of Navigation? And what has been...
124From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 20 January 1820 (Adams Papers)
When Harris was returned a Member of Parliament a Friend introduced him to Chesterfield whom he had never seen—So Mr Harris said his Lordship you are a Member of the House of Commons—you have written upon Universal and scientifick Grammer! you have written upon Art, upon Musick, Painting and Poetry! and what has the House of Commons to do with Art, or Musick, or Painting, or Poetry, or Taste...
125From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
My loving and beloved Friend, Pickering, has been pleased to inform the World that I have “few Friends.” I wanted to whip the rogue, and I had it in my Power, if it had been in my Will to do it, till the blood came. But all my real Friends as I thought them, with Dexter and Gray at their Head insisted “that I Should not Say a Word.” “That nothing that Such a Person could write would do me the...
126From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 30 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
Late last night I received Your Report and your translation of Tracy, for both of which, tho’ I have read neither I thank You. but the full proof of Your returning health has given me more Pleasure than both. I envy your Eyes and hands and Horse. Mine are too dim, too tremulous and my head is too dizzy for the Sovereign Doctor. All is now Still and tranquil. There is nothing to try Mens Souls...
127To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 20 December 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Barretts Arrival at Paris, is a lucky Event, and his appointment by the Merchants in Boston a judicious step; but I am not so clear in the Choice he makes of L’Orient to reside in. Paris, or even Havre, seems to me a better situation, Paris in preference to all others. If Boylstone would Act in concert with him, his Capital would be equal to every Thing which relates to the Business: But...
128To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 31 July 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received the Ratification of the Prussian Treaty, and next Thursday Shall Sett off for the Hague in order to exchange it with the Baron De Thulemeyer. Your favour of the 11th. instant I have received. There are great and weighty Considerations urged in it in favour of arming against the Algerines, and I confess, if our States could be brought to agree in the Measure, I Should be very...
129From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1825 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Charles Sigourney & Lady, a respectable pair in Hartford, Connecticut, the Husband a Son of my old friend in Amsterdam, and the Wife, a very conspicuous literary Lady, have requested a line to you, as they are bound on a journey to the seat of your University—and wish I suppose an apology for visiting Monticello—I have lost your last letter to me, the most consolatory letter I ever...
130From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
I forgot in my last to remark, a very trifling Inaccuracy in yours of June 27th. The Letter intercepted in Hichbournes Trunk which was reported to glance at Mr Dickenson, was not in 1776. It was in the month of June 1775. Had it been June 1776, the English would not have printed it. The Nation had then too maturely reflected, on the necessity of Independence, and was too ripe and too hot for a...