451From John Adams to Joseph Milligan, 5 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
In exchange for the Gold and Silver which you have repeatedly sent me as presents I have nothing to return but the inclosed Copper Coin I am your obliged humble Servant MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
452To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 6 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I will not delay to Send you a few lines—in answer to your favour of June 24th—with which I was gratified—at my return from a Short excursion to the Oneyda Lake—when I went to bid a last farewell to a friend, decaying in mind and body—He can not be long here, neither is it desirable either for him or his Children—It is mr J. Bernhard—who followed my Steps from Europe; and whose worthy Son...
453From John Adams to Sylvester T. Goss, 7 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favor of the 3d. and for Seven Copies of the Volum you have lately published—they will enable me—to present one to as many friends who may have Canodour enough to receive them with kindness—to me they never were, nor ever will be of any use— As you are to me an entire Stranger, I should be glad to become acquainted with you, if you can take the trouble to Visit me at...
454To John Adams from J. H. Tiffany, 7 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
This morning’s mail brought me the new & valuable vol. of Novanglus & Massachutensis, for which I pray you to accept my profoundest thanks. The topics & the times to which these essays belong, are interesting beyond all others historical or political, unless we except the revolution itself, to which they furnish the prologue. It is a cruel alternative to oppose one’s bosom friend, or country;...
455To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 9 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I am in debt to you for your letters of May 21. 27. & June 22. the first delivered me by mr Greenwood gave me the gratification of his acquaintance; and a gratification it always is to be made acquainted with gentlemen of candor, worth and information, as I found mr Greenwood to be. that on the subject of mr Samuel Adams Wells shall not be forgotten in time and place, when it can be used to...
456To John Adams from Samuel Adams Wells, 10 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I intended, before this, to have done myself the honor of visiting you, personally to make my acknowledgments for the letter which you were so obliging as to furnish me to the President of the United States: but having been so much occupied since I received it, that I have not been able to do myself that pleasure. Permit me now, dear Sir, to return you my most grateful thanks for the kind and...
457From John Adams to Franklin Dexter, 11 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
accept my thanks for an Oration, of dignified Candour and Moderation, as remarkable for its elegance and taste as for its profound Wisdom, at the Composition of which, party Spirit had was not present and had no share, it is worthy of the Son of my Great and Excellent friend; whose loss I have reason to deplore not only from the purest principles of disinterested friendship, but from selfish...
458To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 11 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
You will have been informed before this letter reaches you of the bereavement that has happened to my family. My Father had only complained of indisposition, for two or three days, and had been out every day previous to his death. This took place last Thursday morning at 7 o’clock—it was sudden & without pain as he had always desired. He was buried on Friday evening. Cheif Justice Parker...
459To John Adams from William Bentley, 12 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
Your letters on the day of our nation’s birth are in consent with the wonderful character you have supported in the best services to your country. Our young orator, Mr Andrew Dunlap, has expressed our gratitude & hopes. He is a son of Harvard, on his mother’s side from our primitive families, a gentleman of the bar, a man of talents & of the best prospects. Permit me to accompany his oration...
460To John Adams from Peter Stephen Duponceau, 12 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I am honoured with your letter of the 5th. inst. If you have felt pleasure in recognizing in me the friend & pupil of a Man whom you knew & esteemed; you may judge of my Satisfaction, in discovering that his modest mind had not escaped your just discernment. He was all that you describe; to all Mankind he was an enlightened instructor; to me he was almost a father, for he loved me with filial...
461To John Adams from Ann Frances Bulkeley Humphreys, 12 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
Deign to forgive the liberty which I take, in compliance to the earnest request of Mr: Coffin’s friends, in asking you, if you should judge it proper, to sign your name to the enclosed paper in recommendation of Mr Francis Coffin, a brother of my friend Mrs: Derby.—we shall consider the honour of your name as of the highest importance to him: he is a very excellent young man & would be worthy...
462From John Adams to Ann Frances Bulkeley Humphreys, 14 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
your reccommendation alone would have been surficient apology for me Authority for me to sign my name to the recommendation of Mr Frances Coffin a Brother of our friend Mrs Derby to be Consul at Lima—tho the other names already signed to that reccommendation we being among the most respectable in the state, would have been amply surficient without mine—when the extreme heat of the weather is...
463From John Adams to William Bentley, 15 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your kind favour of the 12th. Mr Dunlaps Oration is well written and discovers talents, dispositions and views, which will secure him success at the Bar, in publick and private Society; it is conformable to the general sense and public opinion of the World. Thank him for it, for me, and wish him all possible prosperity A few weeks ago I received an Essex Register Containing...
464From John Adams to John Manners, 15 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
As every Candid inquirer after truth whether personally known, or unknown to me, is very dear to me; I cannot forbear to acknowledge my obligations to you for your kind favour of June 30th.— The field before you is very intensive; it would be arrogance and presumption in me, to pretend tantas Componere lites, when such names as Ellsworth Washington, Peters, and Cooper, are arrayed on one sid,...
465To John Adams from Franklin Dexter, 16 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
Absence from town has prevented till now my acknowledging the honor you did me by your letter of the 11th. inst. Your approbation of a performance, of which from its subject you are a better judge than any other, is the highest praise I could receive, and I feel a proper pride and pleasure in it. You have given me, Sir, a new reason for lamenting the loss of a father to whom I owe every thing...
466To John Adams from William Bentley, 17 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
Having been requested by J Marston Esqr to send to him through your hand, a copy of the Mecklenburg N C. resolutions as printed in the Essex Register, June 5. I have taken the liberty of adding another copy for your own use, as he assured me you had sent your own copy to a friend. With increased affection, / & with the highest reverence of your personal virtues, / & unrivalled public services...
467From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 18 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have heard friend Lancaster with pleasure, he is an excellent scholastic and accedemical disciplinarian I wish that he had the melodious voice, the graceful attitudes and dignified motions and gestures, of the Revnd George Whitefield of wonderful memory— Lancaster formes his company’s into Battalions into Regiments Battalions into Regiments, his Regiments into Brigades, and teaches them all...
468From John Adams to John Manners, 19 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have requested my Son, to inclose to you a little Volume, and two separate printed papers, one certainly of Mr Du Ponceau and the other I suspect to be of the same hand—this I request you to return to me when you have perused them, by the Mail—because we have no other copies, as the Common Law of England, has no more binding force upon us than the laws of Hindostan—but our Common law which...
469From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have heard Friend Lancaster, with pleasure, he is an excellent scholastic and academical disciplinarian—I wish he had the melodious Voice the graceful attitude’s and dignified Motions and gestures of the Revnd George Whitefield, of wonderful memory.— Lancaster formes his company’s into Battalions, Battalions into Regiments, his Regiments into Brigade’s—and teaches them all his Tactics with...
470To John Adams from William Bentley, 19 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
After I sent my reply to Mr Marston, I received your affectionate Letter of July 15. I am persuaded your indulgent opinion has given my young friend more pleasure, than all the applause of his audience. He has not a friend, who has not seen the extract I gave him. In regard to the North Carolina declaration we have been as much surprised, as any persons who have read it. We searched general &...
471From John Adams to William Bentley, 20 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for myself, and for Mr Marston for the kindness you did us by your Letter of the 17th.—Which I received this morning.—And at the Same time, I received the letter from Mr Jefferson—of which my Son has made the inclosed Copy at my desire for your use.— This letter is to me inestimable for the most material facts in it, I certainly know to be correct and exact, It has convinced me...
472To John Adams from John Farmer, 20 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
The favour of your letter is most gratefully acknowledged. The information respecting the Bracket and Tompson families will add to what I have already received. I think it very probable that Capt. Joseph Tompson, one of the early settlers of this town, was a son of the minister whom you mention, or otherwise connected with the family. I conclude so from several circumstances. He wrote his name...
473From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I am greatly obliged to you for your Letter of the 9th. It has entirely convinced me that the Mecklengburg Resolutions are a fiction, when I first read them in the Essex Register, I was struct with astonishment— It appeared to me utterly incredible that they should be genuine; but there were so many circumstances calculated to impose on the public; that I thought it my duty to take measures...
474From John Adams to Samuel Adams Wells, 22 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have so many irons in the fire,—that every one of them burns—and none more than your favor of the 10th. I thank you for your Oration, I have heard it read, it is a succinct candid and manly compendium of the Revolution if you will furnish me with a Copy for Mr Jefferson, another for Mr Monroe, and another for Mr Madison—I will transmit them to those Gentlemen as from myself—and I pray you to...
475To John Adams from William Bentley, 22 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have received your kind letter, informing me of the doubts respecting the M ecklenburg . Resolutions. I am persuaded you hold me innocent. I saw the document as represented. I made no use of it, because I know nothing of its authority. At the bottom it was announced to be of known as well as high authority. I have requested my Printer to write to NC on the subject & whatever we hear we will...
476To John Adams from William Mumford, 22 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
Impell’d by imperious necessity I hope you will pardon the freedom I take in once more addressing you:—your Letter of the 9th. October, 1818. in Answer to mine of July 7th. has been duly received; you observe (inter alia) “that you have no intercourse with Government, and little do with this World, or you might have transmitted my Letter to the President”.—the Event I then contemplated has...
477To John Adams from William Bentley, 23 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I inclose for you a copy of the National Register printed at Washington City, from which we copied the Document to which you have referred. The dignity of your mind will require that I satisfy you that the document has been displayed in the most public manner without reprehension, & it may serve as a proof that I reverence the judgement of the Father of my Country. With the utmost reverence /...
478To John Adams from J. H. Tiffany, 23 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
By this mail I return the 1st. vol of the “Defence” which I have read twice, with as much attention as I have been enabled to bestow. The distribution & balance of powers which it contends for, & the proofs, inferences & reasonings displayed, must have had great influence in the formation of the federal constitution, which immediately followed the publication of this volume. And would not a...
479To John Adams from Samuel Adams Wells, 23 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
The approbation of the wise and virtuous I highly value: it was therefore with great satisfaction that I received your favor of the 22d instant. It is not difficult to excite the applause of the multitude; but this is ephemeral and oftentimes is bestowed without discrimination, and where there is no real merit. I need not cite examples to you for the truth of this position.— By accident the...
480From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
Though my letter to you has the air of a Redimentack Eulogium—on friend Lancasters lecture—yet it was down right honest and sincere for I was really delighted and enlightened by that lecture—my letter is your property—and give you may give the Original, or a Copy to Mr Lancaster if you please I hope soon to hear of your Marriage and to see you—and your elect precious, in our obscure town of...
481From John Adams to William Bentley, 28 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
The Essex Register, its Editors, and Printers are not only Innocent but meritorious for Publishing the pretended Meclengburg Resolutions—I have transmitted to Mr Jefferson the National Register, for his Satisfaction.—Such impostures, which our Polished English friends call Hoaxes, and boares—I am unpolite enough to think; ought to be called forgery’s, and Villany’s, and the Authers of them...
482From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I inclose you a National Register, to convince you that the Essex Register is not to blame for printing the Mecklingburg County Resolutions, on the Contrary I think it to be Commended—for if those Resolutions were genuine they ought to be published in every Gazette in the World—If they are one of those tricks which our fashionable Men in England call hoax’es and boares—they ought to be printed...
483From John Adams to James Brackett, 29 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed are two letters from a Mr Farmer of Billerica; a Gentlemen whom I never saw, or heard of—also a plan of a Farm in Chelmsford with some notes; by which it appear, that the Brackets and Adams’s emigrated from Mount Waliston very early to Billerica, and Chelmsford—As every Civility requires a return I could do no less than acknowledge the receipt of his letter— I have written him that...
484To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 29 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have found since I had the honour of writing to you last, a book among my Fathers papers belonging to you.—There is also a note from the printer and a corrected copy of your inaugural speech which I in close— My mother & Mrs. Stewart went a few days since to Kennebec to pass a few weeks with my eldest sister, and where I have heard of their safe arrival—The Historical Society have deputed me...
485From John Adams to James Monroe, 31 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
Had I not been poisoned by the mephytic effluvia of blossoms and roses to Such a degree as to deprive me of the Sight of letters and the feeling of a pen: I Should have long Since acknowledged the honour of your obliging letter of the thirteenth of the month. It is perfectly Satisfactory to me, and it ought to be So and I presume will be So to Dr Waterhouse. I am hapy to hear that your heal t...
486To John Adams from James Brackett, 2 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 29 ulto I duly received, And in answer to Mr Farmer’s enquirey Honour’d through your medium. I beg leave to observe,—As to any account of the family of Tompson’s I can say no more than—they were once respectable in the town of Braintree but for many years they have disappear’d. And as respect’s the family of Brackett’s in this place, by the best information I can obtain,...
487To John Adams from Richard Bland Lee, 2 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
I take the liberty of sending to you herewith the copy of an Oration which I was unexpectedly called upon to deliver on the 5h. July last commemorative of the declaration of our Independence, in all the initiative measures leading to it, and in all the subsequent to maintain it, you acted so honorable and conspicuous a part It must be a great satisfaction to you to have lived to behold the...
488To John Adams from Warwick Palfray, Jr., 2 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
In sending you the Essex Register, we intended to do ourselves pleasure, and to assist the daily recollection of the Man, the Father of his Country, whom we delight to honour. If the paper should afford the smallest gratification, we shall consider ourselves abundantly repaid for the trifling expense and trouble of sending it. With profound respect, In behalf of the Editor Proprietor / &...
489From John Adams to John Davis, 4 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your Oration, which I have read with pleasure, there has never been any Alination of Esteem or affection between Mr Jefferson and me, we differed in opinion concerning the French Revolution, he was of opinion that it would terminate in the establishment of a free Democratical Republic in France Republican Government in France I could never be convinced of the Probability of...
490From John Adams to Henry Colman, 5 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
I received the first Volume of the Defence in perfect order, several mails before your polite letter which was intended to accompany it arrived—I now send you the fourth Volume of the Defence, under the Title of Discourses on Davila.—as this Volume is out of print, and I have no other Copy—and as in this is are contained in many manuscrips notes in the margin of my own—I pray you to return it...
491To John Adams from James Madison, 5 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
I pay with much pleasure the debt of thanks for the copy of Mr. Wells’s Oration so kindly forwarded by you. It is a concise and well presented view of the great event celebrated, with a judicious selection of circumstances proper to be combined with it. I avail myself of this as of every occasion of renewing to you assurances of my high esteem and best wishes. MHi : Adams-Hull Collection.
492To John Adams from John L. Meredith, 5 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have in contemplation, in concert with Isaac Walker a qr. blood Indian of the Wyandot tribe, to publish a history of the traditions of that once powerful nation. provided a work of this kind would meet the approbation of our most distinguished fellow citizens.— The work will contain the traditional history of that nation from as early a date as near 200 year previous to the discovery of...
493From John Adams to Samuel Adams Wells, 6 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
your letter of July 23d. is as yet unanswered, I thank you for the communications. I now return you, your Grandfathers letter to J. S.—which I long to see in print, it is a masterly sumeary of the reasonings of the Whigs at the time it was written and worthy of the pen of your Grandfather, his hand writing, is as familiar to me as my own I have sent your Oration, to Mr Jefferson Madison and...
494From John Adams to Richard Bland Lee, 10 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your Oration on the red letter day in our national Calendar, which I have read with mingled—emotions, an invisible Spirit seemed to suggest to me in my left ear. Nil admirari, nil Contemni—Another Spirit at my right elbow, seemed to whisper in my ear—Digite compesce labellum.— But I will open my lips, and will say, that your modesty and delicacy have restrained you from doing...
495To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 10 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
In a short memoir of my Father, prepared for the Volume of the Historical Society now in the press, I have made a few extracts from the letters of his distinguished correspondents. And from among your early letters those which I now inclose for you to see and which I hope you will permit me to print in these Transactions. The one to my grandfather is taken on account of the most kind &...
496From John Adams to William Tudor, Jr., 12 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
you have my full consent to publish all my letters. I only wish request that you would print them, verbatim, literatim and punctuation—They were written at a time when I had not yet learned the necessity of keeping Copies of my letters, These have burst upon me, therefore, with real surprise. I had totally forgotten them, but my own hand writing I never can deny. The essence of them is as...
497To John Adams from William Bentley, 14 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
We have received from the Editor of the Raleigh Register an account of the Mecklenburg resolutions. The editor is the Father of the Editor of the National Intelligencer, Joseph Gales. The whole will appear in our next number. I thought it however respectful to you to give you, the most early notice, & to justify the enthusiasm your patriotism had employed on the occasion of such a possible...
498From John Adams to William Bentley, 18 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
Thanks for your favour of the 14th. I expect with patience the History of the Mecklinboug Resolves. But the Testimony must be Strong to convince me that a blazing brand can be thrust into a Magazine of Powder without producing a Leyden explosion. But “Majora Canamus.” La Fayette and Religious and phylosophical liberty have arrested my Attention. Oh! that I lived near You, Modern publications I...
499From John Adams to Thomas D. Condy, 18 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
For your Oration on the 5th: of July, which I have read with pleasure, I pray you to accept my thanks. It is a gratification to me to know the opinions of the present generation concerning men and things, in the past, though they differ from my own, as they very often do. The inquiring mind in future times will find reasons to diminish the glories of some and to increase their esteem of...
500To John Adams from Seth Hunt, 20 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
It is very important to shew the Death of Peter Harrison, the Brother of Joseph Harrison who was Collecter of the Customs at Boston previous to the American Revolution—The said Peter is supposed to have been killed in one of those dreadful Scenes that preceded the Revolution. From your high standing at Boston & your intimate acquaintance with the principal Inhabitants of the Town & with the...