11From John Adams to John Trumbull, 18 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favour of the 3d. and congratulate you on your success; which I hope and believe will be an honourable and a noble Establishment, though it may not be so lucrative as I wish it, for Life There is a coincidence of circumstances which affects me very sensibly. A son of Governor Trumbull so meritorious and so conspicuous a character in the Revolution; an Officer of Rank and...
12From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
Can you prescribe rules for painting, a perception? A reminiscens,? a judgment? a ratiocination? Do you think there will ever arise an original Genius who will invent an Art of painting a debate in a Boston Town Meeting, or an Argument at the Bar? It would not be a Wonder, equal to your Jennerian Inoculation! If Such a Phenominon Should appear, I have a Subject to propose to him. The local...
13From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 20 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I will teise you no more, at present, with Metaphysicks or Books. I expect with Something very like impatience, once more to embrace You and the dear Creatures about you, meaning your Wife and Children. One Star Sitts with brilliancy, and another rises with brilliancy, notwithstanding certain Spots, which you and I have had opportunities to observe. Mr Monroe has certainly had the good Fortune...
14From John Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 21 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I now hope to see you, after 8 years Absence. I cannot write you a formal Letter. You have a kind of fame for a facility of learning Languages. Let me caution you against indulging that Curiosity too much. Languages are a boundless and unfathomable Ocean. Greek and Latin and Arithmatick and Geometry are your most proper Studies at present. French and Italian and German will be easy here after...
15From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 21 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have been pleased with your Journal. I envy, or rather I wish, I could have Shared with you, your Evenings with, your Father. Your Worthy Præceptor might have Said that the whole Christian World is and has been divided, in their Interpretations of Some Texts in the Epistles of St. Paul. But Greek and Latin, and Mathematicks ought to be your Objects at present. Metaphisicks you may leave,...
16From John Adams to John Adams, 21 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
Nothing from your Family gives me more pleasure than to hear as I do, that you are a diligent Student and good Schollar. Do you know the meaning, of the Words, Patience of Application ? Patience of Study ? My little reading, you may well Suppose is not fresh in my head: but I remember to have somewhere read that Sir Isaac Newton used to Say that “all he had done in Science was by patient...
17From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
The great question was “Whether Writs of Assistants, were legal, or illegal; constitutional or unconstitutional”? “Writs of Assistants”! You will indignantly say. “What are Writs of Assistants”? “I understand no more about Writs of Assistants, than about ‘ The great question ’.” I believe you; and will endeavour to give you Some hints. When the British Ministry received from general Amherst...
18To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 25 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I set out the first of next week on the journey to the South in execution of a State commission to examine the various penitentiaries. I have a desire to visit Washington if time will permit, and will certainly attempt to get there if my brother in law Captain Stewart will accompany me from Philadelphia as he has proposed—I knew Mr Monroe in England, and I may perhaps say he honored me with a...
19To John Adams from Ward Nicholas Boylston, 25 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I rejoice in the expectation of seeing you & Mrs Adams; and Miss S A—and as the Day that is most convenient to you wou’d be most agreeble to Mrs B & myself we have settled it with Mr. Vaughan & his family for Friday the 4th. April at 1/2 past two o clock but pray you will come to us an hour or two earlier, and be so kind as to let Judge and Mrs Adams know the day fixd. My Lord tells me you...
20To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 26 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am, indeed, gratified by the receipt of your letter of the 27th ulto. The approbation of those we ourselves reverence for their virtues, is, perhaps, the sweetest reward for our efforts to be useful. Only eleven volumes of the Weekly Register are yet finished. These may be forwarded, if you please, immediately to Boston, & can be easily sent to you, through Mr. Dawes, or by my agent there,...