1From John Adams to Oliver Whipple, 3 March 1809 (Adams Papers)
I have recieved your favour of February 23rd and thank you for the friendly as well as the complimentary sentiments expressed in it It has been now and then my fortune in the course of a long life, though not frequently to receive a compliment. yours is a pleasant one; and as an instance of adversity seldom comes alone, so I have observed that an instance of prosperity is seldom quite...
2To John Adams from Daniel Wright, 3 March 1809 (Adams Papers)
BORN and educated in the same state which has given birth to you, and to which our hearts are tied by the dearest and most sacred ties; we address you in the name of this our common country, at a time, in our opinion most ominous, and threatening the destruction of our rights, liberty and happiness. We look up to you in the name and in behalf of many in the interior of Massachusetts, for...
3To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 2 March 1809 (Adams Papers)
Your favor of the 19th. of February was alike acceptable with all your former letters. The papers will inform you that our government is about to yeild to the Clamors of your part of the United States against the Embargo laws. Had our Legislators been better historians they would have promptly saved their honor, and preserved the peace of our Country. Augustus repealed a law to compel...
Mr Gurney having called on me yesterday, to give notice that he should quit your house next quarter day, and that he wished to settle with you as soon as possible, I have thought it best to write you my beloved friend, he having expressed a desire to leave it immediately, which I did not think you would approved; he mention’d not having it in his power to pay you at present, but will give you...
5From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, February 1809 (Adams Papers)
The Saturday after you left Boston, I went to Town, and brought up George. he went the next week to his uncle Cranch’s, and goes daily to school to mr Whitney. he appears well pleased, and learns to the Satisfaction of mr Whitney as I hear, who has put him into Lattin, which George Says is not so hard as French, in his French Bible his Aunt hears him daily. he is a Good Boy, save now and then,...
I intended to have written to you when at your own house or Office in Boston, but was prevented by the intense severity of the weather , added to the general ill health of both your & my family, during the whole time we sojourned under your Roof, which, by the assiduity of your wife & Catharine and the faithful attendance of their domesticks was made, in every respect, our own house . My...
Your letter of the 16th: brought me consolation and hope in the information that you were all getting well—My anxiety on account of my mother has been extreme; having heard through Mr: Cranch & Mr: Quincy, that she had been very dangerously ill—I learn also that George is at Mr. Cranch’s I am still waiting for my Cause to be called in Court—It was called again the day before yesterday; but Mr:...
Percieving from your last letter my beloved friend that you suffer great anxiety concerning Charles; I can with pleasure assure you, that he is very fat, very handsome, and apparently very well; though he still has the Cough which is sometimes very troublesome. Your Mother is recovering slowly and all the rest of our family are in good health— Your father was in Town yesterday and brought...
9To John Adams from William Cunningham, 23 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
I wrote to you under the date of the 20th. inst. and sent it to the post office, but arriving there a few minutes too late to be forwarded by the mail it was returned. I now forward it under cover with this. There is a sentence in your favour of the 11th. demanding my particular attention:—“When you told me,” you observe, “that my Letter had been a topick at Boston, and given rise to free...
10To John Adams from Oliver Whipple, 23 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
When I consider, I was once a Pupil at Braintree in the mansion House of your venerable Father, I claim a Sort of Right to Indugence to address you, which your wontted Benevolence will not deny me; Time, I dare say, has not yet effaced the Remembrance of the little Phamphlet , intitled, “ Tears of the Serv’edors ” and another intitled The Progress of civil & rational Liberty . Through those...
11From John Adams to William Cunningham, 22 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed you will find a phillipic of our angry, pevish, fretful Prophet Jonah. His anger is his talent. When he gives a loose to that passion which he always does in every thing he produces something smart, pert, and malignant, which pleases the malignaty of the vulgar. But Phillipics are not the highest style of politicks. I cannot think Demosthenes and Cicero in the highest grade of...
It is sometimes said that suspense is worse than the certainty of evil—But it is a hard relief from suspense to be informed of evils worse than were apprehended. From the length of time which had pass’d without bringing me a letter from you, I felt great anxiety; but it was principally for the dear child, whom I had left so unwell—Your letter when it came, announced to me not only the child...
Your favour of the 9th my best friend which is the first letter I have recieved from you since you left me found the Family nearly recover’d restored to usual health excepting Charles whose Cough still afflicts him and whose eyes are again very much affected which renders me a little apprehensive of another attack this symptom having generally been a of a threatning nature however I hope for...
14From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 20 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
When you informed me that Mr Cooper in his Life of Dr Priestly had ascribed to that Philosopher, the first hint of the Perfectibility of the human Mind, I answered you that this was the Doctrine of the ancient Stoicks. My Memory did not Serve me with details and I referred to no authorities, not thinking it worth while to Search Books upon Such a Subject. But within a day or two I have...
15To John Adams from William Cunningham, 20 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
Your favours of the 11th. and 14th. inst. came both to hand to-day. I have only time, by this mail, to make this acknowledgment, and to request of you the goodness to send me what you have written on a point controverted between yourself and the person whose pertinacity you have found so unmanageable. The engagements, on my part, which you have proposed as conditional to its reception, I most...
16To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 20 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
Soon after the receipt of your last letter in which you Advise me to shake off my retired habits and prejudices, and to come forward in Support of the petitions of my fellow Citizens for a repeal of the Embargo laws, I went to bed at my usual hour, and dreamed that I had yeilded to your Advice; and in consequence of it, determined to appear at a federal town meeting which was to be held the...
17From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 16 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
I have yours of the 18. Jan. When you receive your Diploma you will have no fees to pay. We have not yet adopted any regulation which requires fees from the Members elected. Perhaps it would be prudent in future to adopt Such a Measure and give a Salary to our Secretary. Our Officers are now Men of So much Business and So dependent on their Business for the Support of their families that they...
I hasten to answer the few lines I recieved from you this Morning to assure you that we are all rappidly recovering from the different indispositions which I mention’d in my last and I am regaining my strength I mention’d that my illness was owing to a kick but I find it is the opinion of the Dr. & Nurse that the injury which was very evident in the Child must have been done by a fall which I...
I have not received a line from you since I wrote you on Monday—Your mother however has had a letter from Catherine, mentioning that you had on the day she wrote, given Charles an Emetic for his cough—I endeavour to controul my anxiety as much as possible. I now write you a line merely to tell you that your sister Hellen’s youngest child is better—They have now great hopes of its recovery—And...
20From John Adams to William Cunningham, 14 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
The complaint in your favour of the 11th, of the refusal to publish your Chathams, is no suprise to me. I have seen nothing in the four federal papers of Boston, for the last year, but such another prostitution, of genius, learning, and eloquence, as We read in Madam Drapers, Fleets, and mien, and Flemmings Papers in 1773 and 1774. A blind devotion to England and a disposition to sacrifice to...
I have received but one letter from you since I left Boston, and that was written only two days after my departure—So long an interval during which I have not heard a word from you, and neither your mother, nor any other of the families here have received a line, begins to make me uneasy; and the state of our Charles when I came away, and of Kitty’s health when you wrote tends to increase that...
Your very Kind letter was sent to me yesterday Morning from Quincy and h as added to the anxiety of my mind from a conviction that the rappidity with which you travel’d has contributed very much Towards encreasing your cold of which I hope you will now take every possible care for my sake if not for your own— Our family are still invalids and Kitty does not recover as fast as I could wish your...
23From John Adams to William Cunningham, 11 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
I have your favour of 14 ult. The Mirror was never read—and if it ever should be it will be willfully misunderstood—Seventeen Wheels within one wheel. Seventeen Empires within one empire Seventeen sovereignties within one sovereignty. Seventeen Imperia in one Emperio will tell in time we have had a Chaise’s disturbance: a Gallatin’s disturbance a Fries’s disturbance; and why may we not have a...
24To John Adams from William Cunningham, 11 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
The last Letter which I had the honour to receive from you, dated Jan. 3d. I have before acknowledged. Permit me to remind you, that, I have in expectation something farther from you concerning the misnamed Aristides. I am perfectly ashamed to speak to you again of my Chathams, but it is unavoidable. The three concluding numbers the printers refuse to publish. In two of them, I embodied the...
I will write you a line the first I have attempted, to tell you I am getting better I hope tho very slowly. I am very weak, and not a little anxious to hear how my dear Abigail is. sick as I have been I regret that she is from home, tho I doubt not you will receive every attention and kindness, but you must das assistance, and have a home, more particularly so in Sickness—as soon as you think...
I thank you for your letter, and Kitty for her watch paper— I had like to have had no watch-case to put it in—For at Baltimore I lost my watch for several hours, I need not tell you how—for thereby hangs a tail.—Suffice it to say that having occasion for my seal, on closing my letter to you from that place, I found my watch was missing—I immediately recollected where I had last left it; but it...
27From John Adams to James Lovell, 7 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
If our friend as you say is writhing in a Fox trap those who as you say nibbled when I sent Elsworth to France have woven the meshes with great art. They have composed the snares of the cords of a man and the bands of Love. They have exerted themselves with success equal to thier zeal and activity to get his son Theodore elected, into the senate and his son in Law Bailies into the H——of R——of...
The day after I wrote you from Baltimore, that is to say on Thursday, I came to this place; though in the Night at Baltimore I was taken so ill, that I was afraid I should be obliged to postpone for a day or two the completion of my journey—I am however now as well as usual. The expedition with which I travell’d has given me two days more here than I expected when I left you—But they have been...
29To John Adams from James Lovell, 2 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
Our Lincoln is wreathing in the Fox-trap of pretended-Friends. And the desendants of those Same Mice, who nibbled you when you sent good-Ellsworth to France, have been Striving to make holes in a Small Mole-hill here . I long to have in a proper “Hole,” Some of that “Sweet Converse” with you which the now-cautious Demos extorted into a rascally Public Gazette Chronicle. But, Sir, the Set-time...
I have not written to you this year! and this is the second month of it, and let us ask the rising year, now open to our view yet wrapped in darkness, whither dost thou lead? Let cheerful hope receive the welcome guest, gratefully recollecting the many blessings of the past year, and committing ourselves to the wise and overruling providence, who suffers not a sparrow to fall to the ground...
On leaving Boston I had formed the Resolution of travelling only in the day-time, but at the close of the second day, arriving at Hartford, I found I should be four days more in getting to New York, unless I proceeded that same Evening, about forty miles to New-Haven—The roads were excellent for sleighing; I was alone in the Stage, and there was a moon bright almost as the morning—I therefore...
32From John Adams to Henry Guest, 29 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
I am favoured with your kind Letter of the 20th. At your age and mine, as the Body fails to Supply Such plentifull provisions of animal Spirit, as it commonly does in youth and middle Age. We are usually Subject to more frequent dejections and gloomy Apprehensions. In the present dreary times you are not alone but accompanied by the whole Nation as far as I know it, in your depression. But not...
I write you a line from the Stage–Office: having just this moment arrived, and intending in half an hour to start in the Mail–Stage for Philadelphia—The weather is so fine, and the roads are so good, that I am afraid of losing the advantages they offer, and recollect the admonition to take time by the forelock—I hope to be in Philadelphia, to–morrow morning before day light; and shall pass the...
Assured that a few lines from me will be acceptable to my best beloved friend on his arrival I seize the earliest opportunity of enquiring after his health and giving the pleasing information of the return to health of our darling Children Poor Kitty is suffers severely for her imprudence she has a large Blister on her side and though not absolutely confined to her Bed it almost amounts to it...
35From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 23 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
What Signify Clamours against Commerce Property Kings Nobles Demagogues Democracy, the Clergy Religion? For to each and all of these has the Depravity of Man been imputed by some Philosophers. Rousseau says the first Man who fenced a Cabbage yard ought to have been put to death. Dr but Diderot says the first Man who Suggested the Idea of a god ought to have been treated as an Enemy of the...
36To John Adams from Henry Guest, 20 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
I have not had the pleasure to receive a Line from you in Some time—Did you know what pleasure your letter gave me and how they Chiered my Old heart in these Drary times of Our Country your humanity and friendly disposition Would Often raise My Druping Spirits—for lete Me assure you Sir, they have been Sadly Depressed Since your Son gave up his year in the Senate. Especially this Season when...
37To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 18 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 31 Dec. last delighted me more than usual. It was a new mark of your affectionate esteem—it assured me of your continued health; It was an evident proof that I was not yet left alone. Last year has again bereft me of a worthy friend; and I can not longer fill up the empty place with others, ere long, if mÿ days are to be prol onged, I Shall mourn them in mÿ Solitude where,...
38From Abigail Smith Adams to Cotton Tufts, 17 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
my Son J Q Adams has an opportunity of employing the Sum I have which is payd of Eight pr Cent Stock. will you be so good as to draw Such an order as will enable him to receive it, and inclose it to me I Shall go to Town tomorrow he will leave Boston on monday DNDAR .
39To John Adams from Josiah, III Quincy, 17 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
I am astonished, on recurring to my files, at finding that your favour of the 23d. Ulto. has lain by me, so long, unanswered. I shall not recapitulate reasons, nor invent apologies. I know that your goodness will supply both, and find a cause of delay, any where, rather than in a want of a deep sense of the honour & of the value of your correspondence. Both of which, you know me well enough to...
40To John Adams from William Cunningham, 14 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
I received, on the last day of December, the 2d. and 3d. volumes of the Defence, for which I renew my thanks. You have truly characterized this work in the comparison you have made of it, in your Letter of the 3d. inst. to a Boudoir. Many of the evils which you have described as incident to an unbalanced government, we have found by experience to have been insufficiently guarded against by our...
41To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 13 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
In a situation such as you have seen a Sea Captain in a Gale of Wind, I sit down to acknowledge the receipt of your two last instructing letters. Present events will justify your opinion of the present measures of our rulers. Your Account of the pernicious influence of a belief in the time in Which the prophesies are to be fulfilled is to much opposed to the System of the divine government...
42To John Adams from William Cunningham, 11 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
The last letter, which I had the honour to receive from you, dated January 3d, I have before acknowledged. Permit me to remind you, that I have in expectation something farther from you, concerning the misnamed Aristides. I am perfectly ashamed to speak to you again of my Chathams, but it is unavoidable. The three concluding numbers, the printers refuse to publish. In two of them I had...
43From John Adams to Joseph Bradley Varnum, 9 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
The following comments were written, within a few days after the appearance in public of this Text “The Proclamation of the King of Great Britain requiring the return of his Subjects, the Seamen especially, from foreign Countries, to aid, in this hour of peculiar danger, in defence of their own. But it being an acknowledged Principle that every Nation has a right to the Service of its Subjects...
44To John Adams from Joseph Bradley Varnum, 7 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
Your Excellent Communication of the 26th. Ult. is highly appreciated among our friend here; and I do think, it would Expand it’s beneficial Effects, on the Affairs of our Nation if it’s contents could be published. But as I have no leave from you to do it, I shall feel my self bound not to do it.—Please Sir, to Accept my most cordial thanks for your goodness in making the Communication. I am...
45From 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...
46From Orchard Cook to John Quincy Adams, 1 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
Mr. & Mrs. Cook ask leave to present to Mr. & Mrs. Adams the Compts. of the Season— Your Letters do much good, are treated with very great respect indeed —I think you have now more influence than when here—not mere opinions in which you deal very sparingly but the excellent Arguments & reasons you give for every conclusion— As I flatter myself with the Hope of more of your Favours embracing an...
47From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 1808 (Adams Papers)
Those of the family who could not attend yesterday at Cambridge yesterday as well as those who did, are very desirious of reading the lecture. if you will be so good as to let William take it, to day, I will return it on Monday. I wish a few of the Reviews if you can spair them. I carried to Town yesterday your Shirt overalls & waistcoat & handkerchiefs which you left here. as mrs Adams was...
48From Abigail Smith Adams to John Adams Smith, 1808 (Adams Papers)
I always feel most disposed to write when I have just received a Letter. Yet that is not the case now, but what is very similar to it. I have just read one from you to your Grandfather in which you mention Judge Bensons having commenced a course of Law Lectures and express a wonder at what could be his object as he does not receive any pecuniary reward. From the knowledge I have of Judge...
49From 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...
50To John Adams from William Cunningham, 31 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
Enclosed is a News-paper containing, under the Worcester head, a copy of some remarks made at a Meeting of this Town. The author is so plainly indicated by the style of his address, and by his initial, that it is unnecessary, and might appear ostentatious, to be more particular. With affection and gratitude, / I am, Dear Sir, / Your Friend & Servt. MHi : Adams Papers.