From John Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 25 June 1819
Quincy June 25th 1819.
my dear daughter
With no less gratitude than astonishment I have received your Alcibiades,—and your Sons shall have it—but I am really concerned for your Health. How it is possible that a Gay Lady of Washington amidst all the ceremony’s, frivolity’s, and gravities, of a Court, and of a Legislature—Can find time to write so many and so excellent Letters to me; to her Children, and at the same time, translate Plato’s Dialogues—is to me altogether incomprehensible. Two such <honey> industrious honey Bees, as John Quincy Adams and his Wife, were never connected together before—not accepting Monsieur and Madam Dacier.—
But I greatly fear you will both destroy your health and your lives—by your excessive exertions—you must return to Old Quincy, Old Braintree, and still Older Mount Waliston, to preserve your-selves, and to Educate your Children; upon a plan of rigorous or what the diplomatic Gentry call an infamous Economy—human Nature cannot long endure such exertions—as your Husband and your-self are now making—
I am my dear daughter your Affectionate Father.
John Adams
MHi: Adams Papers.