181Abigail Adams to Isaac Smith Jr., 30 October 1777 (Adams Papers)
A favourable opportunity offering by Mr. Austin of writing to you, I embrace it, in compliance to your pappa’s request as well as my own inclination. The uncertainty of a conveyance to you has prevented many of your Friends from writing to you, and when an opportunity has offerd the fear of a miscarrage has obliged them to say little else than what regards the State of their Health and the...
182Abigail Adams to John Adams, 16 November 1777 (Adams Papers)
In a Letter which came to me to Night you chide yourself for neglecting writing so frequently as you had done. Tis true a very long space of near a fortnight past, without my hearing one word from you. I cannot help feeling anxious when such a space elapses without receiving a line, but I have no reason to complain. You have considering your avocations been more attentive than I had reason to...
183Abigail Adams to James Lovell, 15 December 1777 (Adams Papers)
Your Letters arrived in the absence of Mr. Adams who is gone as far as Portsmouth, little thinking of your plot against him. O Sir you who are possessd of Sensibility, and a tender Heart, how could you contrive to rob me of all my happiness? I can forgive Mr. Geary because he is a Stranger to domestick felicity and knows no tenderer attachment than that which he feel s for his Country, tho I...
184Abigail Adams to Daniel Roberdeau, 15 December 1777 (Adams Papers)
Your obliging favour came to hand yesterday in the absence of my dearest Friend, and as he will not I fear reach home before tis too late to write by the post, or this conveyance, I have venturd to take up the pen least you should accuse him of neglect or inattention. I have been the more readily induced to write as it gives me an opportunity of acknowledging with gratitude the many civilities...
185Abigail Adams to John Thaxter, 15 February 1778 (Adams Papers)
I little thought when you left me, that so much time would have Elapsed before I had taken my pen to write to you, but indeed Sir my Hands and my Heart have both been full. My whole Time has been taken up in prepareing my dearest Friend, and Master John for their Voyage, and yesterday they Embarked from this Town, the place you well know, Hofs Neck. I think the wind has been fair for them to...
186Abigail Adams to James Lovell, 1 March 1778 (Adams Papers)
I am greatly allarmed and distressd at the intelligence from Bordeaux, with regard to Dr. Franklin, which if true must be attended with very serious consequences. I had just acquired fortitude sufficent to withstand the dangers of the Sea and open and avowed Enemies, but was not prepaird for the assassinateing knife of a Ravellick. —Is there no method that congress can take to chain these...
187Abigail Adams to Hannah Quincy Lincoln Storer, 1 March 1778 (Adams Papers)
My dear Mrs. Storers obliging favour was handed me to day. It found me with an additional Weight of anxiety upon my mind. I had been just able by the force of philosophy and I would fain hope by nobler Motives, to acquire a sufficent Stock of fortitude to support me under the most painfull Seperation I have yet been call’d to endure, when last Mondays paper gave me a Shock that I was not armd...
188Abigail Adams to John Adams, 8 March 1778 (Adams Papers)
Tis a little more than 3 week s since the dearest of Friends and tenderest of Husbands left his solitary partner, and quitted all the fond endearments of domestick felicity for the dangers of the Sea, exposed perhaps to the attack of a Hostile foe, and o good Heaven can I add to the dark assassin, to the secret Murderer and the Bloody Emissary of as cruel a Tyrant as God in his Riteous...
189Abigail Adams to Elizabeth Smith Shaw, March 1778 (Adams Papers)
I was meditating a Letter to my dear Sister when her agreable favour reachd my Hands. Tho my own felicity is over cast, I can rejoice in that of my Friends and tis with pleasure I hear of your Health and happiness which are very dear to me. The Scene which I have had to pass through, and in which you so kindly sympathize has put to the full proof all my fortitude and patriotism, and required...
190Abigail Adams to John Thaxter, 9 April 1778 (Adams Papers)
Your repeated kind favours demand my acknowledgment. I own I have been rather remiss in not sooner noticeing them. I must plead many avocations in excuse, with which you know I am cumberd; and the real Dearth of any thing worth communicating. Some part of the time my mind has sufferd a distress which cannot be discribed, upon account of intelligance which you very cautiously conceald from me,...
191Abigail Adams to John Adams, 18 May 1778 (Adams Papers)
I have waited with great patience, restraining as much as posible every anxious Idea for 3 Months. But now every Vessel which arrives sits my expectation upon the wing, and I pray my Gaurdian Genious to waft me the happy tidings of your Safety and Welfare. Heitherto my wandering Ideas Rove like the Son of Ulissis from Sea to Sea, and from Shore to Shore, not knowing where to find you....
192Abigail Adams to John Thaxter, 21 May 1778 (Adams Papers)
I will not again be so long silent, indeed your repeated kind favours call upon me for acknowled g ment. They have afforded both to me, and my Friends a very agreable entertainment, and I esteem myself much obliged that you not only so kindly endeavour to supply the loss of your company, but to releave the many solitary hours which you well know must fall to my share in the absence of a nearer...
193Abigail Adams to James Warren, 7 June 1778 (Adams Papers)
Your Billit was deliverd to me a Day or two ago. I am much obliged to you for your kind offer but indeed Sir I know not where to find my Friend, my Imagination wanders like the Son of Ulyssus from Sea to Sea and from Shoar to Shoar. Tis now four months since the Boston saild in all which time we have never heard a word from our Friend’s. Our Enemies tell us that She is taken and carried into...
194Abigail Adams to John Adams, 10 June 1778 (Adams Papers)
I should write to you with a much more cherefull Heart if I knew where to find you, but as yet I have no inteligance which can be relied upon. I have already wrote several times, by different ways. It wants but a few days of four months since the Boston saild and in all that time we have received no inteligance with regard to her but what was a week ago printed in a New York paper, viz. that...
195Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 June 1778 (Adams Papers)
Tis almost four Months since you left your Native land and Embarked upon the Mighty waters in quest of a Foreign Country. Altho I have not perticuliarly wrote to you since yet you may be assured you have constantly been upon my Heart and mind. It is a very dificult task my dear son for a tender parent to bring their mind to part with a child of your years into a distant Land, nor could I have...
196Abigail Adams to James Lovell, 12 June 1778 (Adams Papers)
Will you forgive my so often troubling you with my fears and anxieties; Groundless as some of them have been they were real to me for a time, and had all the force of truth upon me. I most sincerely wish my present uneasiness may arise from as fi c ticious a cause as the former proved to be but from many circumstances I fear it will not. Tis near four months since the Boston saild, in all...
197Abigail Adams to John Thaxter, 12 June 1778 (Adams Papers)
My spirits are rather low, I do not feel in any great moode for useing my pen, yet I cannot let this opportunity slip without expressing my concern for your Health. The Humour you complain of, is a sad compound I fear, among the ingredients the Salt Rhume is of the most obstinate and inveterate kind as I can assure you by sad experience. I have tried many things with little or no Effect. Where...
198Abigail Adams to John Adams, 18 June 1778 (Adams Papers)
At length my anxiety is relieved and the happy happy tidings of your arrival and safety in France has reachd my Ears and blessd my Eyes. By an English paper taken in a prize and carried into Salem, under the Paris News there is mention made of my Dearest Friends arrival at the abode of the venerable Dr. Frankling.—What have I not suffered for this month past? The Fear of your being finally...
199Abigail Adams to James Lovell, 24 June 1778 (Adams Papers)
I know not whether I ought to reply to your favour of April the first, for inded Sir I begin to look upon you as a very dangerous Man. It was a Saying of a very corrupt Statesman that every Man had his price, had Sir Robert Walpole impeachd mankind with a universal Love of Flattery I believe his assertion would have been more agreable to Truth, but I suppose he was judgeing others by his own...
200Abigail Adams to John Adams, 30 June 1778 (Adams Papers)
Shall I tell my dearest that tears of joy filld my Eyes this morning at the sight of his well known hand, the first line which has bless ed my Sight since his four months absence during which time I have never been able to learn a word from him, or my dear son till about ten days ago an english paper taken in a prize and brought into Salem containd an account under the Paris News of your...
201Abigail Adams to James Lovell, 30 June 1778 (Adams Papers)
As I have so often troubled you with my fears tis a debt I owe your patience to communicate to you my happiness. To a Heart so susceptible as the person I address I need not discribe the joy I experienced this day in receiving Letters from my dear absent Friend informing me of his Safety and Health. He arrived at Beaudeaux the begining of April and reachd Paris the 8th, but I know not what...
202Abigail Adams to John Adams, 15 July 1778 (Adams Papers)
By Mr. Tailor, who has promised me to deliver this with his own hand to you, or distroy it if necessary, I take the liberty of writing rather more freely than I should otherways venture to do. I cannot think but with pain of being debared this privilidge, the only one left me for my consolation in the many solitary and I may add melancholy hours which pass. I promissed myself a negative kind...
203Abigail Adams to John Thaxter, 23 July 1778 (Adams Papers)
I have not wrote you so soon as I should have done, if I had known where to have directed to you, but your kind favours of july 6 and 10 which reachd me yesterday leaves me no longer at a loss. I will not leave you any longer in Suspence with regard to your worthy parent who has happily recoverd from the small pox. I omitted writing before not being willing to tell you that he had so...
204Abigail Adams to James Lovell, 19 August 1778 (Adams Papers)
This Moment your favour of August the 6 is come to hand. My Heart reproaches me that I have not before this time told you that according to the Scotch Song “I had banishd all my Grief for I was sure the News was true and I was sure he’s well.”—Indeed Sir I have been so much absorbed in my own happiness and so selfish that I have scarcly thought of communicating it. But a debt of gratitude is...
205Abigail Adams to John Thaxter, 19 August 1778 (Adams Papers)
I really began to feel very uneasy at your long Silence and feared Sickness or some disaster had befallen you. I have been a journey, and absent about a fortnight as far as Haverhill, and upon my return I expected to have found Letters in Town, for so long a Space has not intervened since your absence, but to my no small dissapointment I could not hear any thing from you, but I will not...
206Abigail Adams to John Thaxter, 26 August 1778 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 5th instant is just come to hand. I should like very well to see the Speach you mention and the reply, but would not desire it till you have full Licence to communicate it.—I wish I could give you such intelligence from Rhode Island as I hoped to, but not withstanding we have men of Sence and Letters, many of them there, we do not get Authentick intelligence. Tis a week...
207Abigail Adams to Jonathan Mason?, August 1778 (Adams Papers)
Tho I cannot stile you a plant of my Hand, in some measure I own you as a child of my care, and as such feel anxious for your Glory and welfare. It was with pleasure I found you determined to enter the Feild against our cruel and Barberous foes and should you be calld to action I dout not but you with the rest of your Brethren would Signilize yourselves, and gain immortal Honour to the Arms of...
208Abigail Adams to John Thaxter, 2 September 1778 (Adams Papers)
I was much surprized to Night upon receiving a Letter from you, in which you say you have not heard from Home since june; I have wrote many Letters to you since that time and have sent 4 or 5 from your Friends all under cover to Mr. L ovel l to you. What can have become of them I know not, unless some of them being directed to York Town travelled that way and have been lost. Do not think...
209Abigail Adams to John Adams, 29 September 1778 (Adams Papers)
It is difficult my dearest Friend at the instant in which the Heart finds itself dissapointed of some darling hope, to avoid reflexions that however, our cooler reasons dissaproves. I know not whether the pleasure I had in hearing that you were in Health the 10 of last June, was eaquel to the pain I endured in not receiving one Single line from you by the vessel which arrived last week from...
210Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 29 September 1778 (Adams Papers)
Writing is not A la mode de Paris, I fancy or sure I should have heard from my son; or have you wrote and have I been so unfortunate as to lose all the Letters which have been written to me for this five months. I have sufferd great anxiety in not hearing from your pappa, or you. I hope you have not been so unlucky in those Letters sent to you. I want to know your situation, what proficiency...