1From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 5 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
I would not come to Town to day because I knew I should only add to yours, and my own agony, my Heart is with you, my prayers and blessing attend you, the dear Children you have left, will be dearer to me for the absence of their parents, and my care whilst, Providence continues to me my faculties, and my Life. If your Father and I Should be removed, they cannot fail of finding Friends and...
I congratulate you upon your safe arrival in the cold Regions of the North: to which I hope your constitution will get enured: you must borrow the ermin from the inhabitants of the forests, and wrap yourself in the furs which Nature has amply provided in those cold climates. How does my dear Boy Charles? I have learnt by way of young Mr Grey, that he was quite an amusement to them upon the...
I this day received a Letter from my son dated october 21 from constradt—we had heard three weeks before of your arrival there by a vessel which came in to Salem, I rejoice that you are once more released from old ocean, and that you were so near the place of your destination. your voyage has been long and tedious. I hope you will experience Friendship and hospitality altho in so frozen a...
your Letter from St petersburgh of october 28th I received the last week, four Months after the date; it was quite as soon as I expected to hear considering the season of the year. I rejoiced to learn that you were safe from the dangers of the Sea, and had reached the City of your residence in health, after the fatigues, and dangers of so long a voyage. difficulties you will no doubt encounter...
When I closed my Letter; last week to my son by captain Smith, I fully intended to have written to you, but my health has been very miserable for the last three Months, so that for many weeks I have not been able to touch a pen, a universal debility and weakness daily reminds me of my decay. it is then that the distance, and seperation from my dear Children most Sensibly wounds me, yet it...
I am ready to join in the exclamation of Eloissa when she said “Heaven first taught Letters, for some wretches aid” For how very wretched should I be, but for the intercourse which Letters afford, to soften the pains of absence, and mitigate the pangs of seperation from near and dear Friend’s? how large a portion of these joys and sorrows have fallen to my lot, through Life, are known only to...
It is a long time since I addresed a Letter to You, and a much longer since I received a Letter from you. altho there are so many natural impediments, and artificial obstruction in the way of a free communication, I will not wholy relinquish the hope I have: that some of the many Letters I have written may find there way to you. vessels arrive from the North, but do not bring any tydings of...
The season was so far advanced, and several vessels had arrived from the North without Letters, that I had given up the Idea of hearing again from you, untill Spring—your Letter was therefore doubly acceptable to me. I wrote to you a few days previous to the receipt of your Letter of 23d of october, and Sent it on, to Newyork to go by our Special Minister to Denmark— Altho I regret that you...
I hope the afflicting intelligence which you must receive from your Friends at Washington, will not be too suddenly burst upon you, but that your best Friend may have been intrusted with it, that he may prepare your mind for the heavey tydings. I know that mrs Hellen was a dear and favorite sister to you all, and well deserving of your attachment. The circumstances which deprived you of her,...
your Letter of Novbr 16th was an unexpected pleasure, for after yours of october the 13th, I had given up the Idea of receiving a line from you untill june, or july. you may easily imagine that your Letter was not only an unexpected, but a welcome guest, and the more so as it came drest in smiles of more content, than some of your Letters. I do not however wonder at your dislike of a climate...
When I wrote last to you, I was at a loss What to say to you, to console, and reconcile you to your situation. the thought struck me to say, that some light might spring up, where we did not foresee it, and extricate you from your difficulties. Such a light appears to me to have arrisen in the midst of surrounding darkness, by the appointment of mr Adams an associate judge of the Supreem...
Scarcly a week has past, for these two Months in which I have not written either to my Son, or to you, but our Letters are not only committed to the Chance, of winds and waves, which may Scatter them like the leaves of the Sibyls, but they have many other hazards to run, through the Dens of Cyclopes, and the fangs of the Harpies. I write this to Send you by the Ship Hugh Johnston, Captain...
I Sit down to write to my dear daughter, almost without a hope, or wish that She Should receive it at St. Petersburgh. for as Letters are usually, more than three Months reaching the place of their destination—I hope you will have Embarked for America, before that period. it admits however of a possibility, that you may not, and in that case, a Letter will be welcome which communicates to you,...
do not think that I have not participated in your Joy, upon the Birth of your daughter, because I have not sooner congratulated you upon the event. Let it be to you cause of gratitude and thankfulness that you have reason to sing of Mercies, as you have abundent occasion to do, for The lives and Health of your two sons whom you left under the care and patronage of two of the best of Friends....
I beleive I have written you only one Letter since the commencment of the present Year, and I have received only one from you, dated last June, now Eight months. if you do not write more frequently to your Friends in washington, which I hope you do: have we not all reason to complain of you? Little miss Louisa, allowd by all to be a very fine child, has no right to exclude her unknown Friends...
How shall I address a Letter to you, how share and participate in your Grief without opening affresh the wound which time may in some measure have healed? distance excluded me from knowing Your distress, or shareing your Sorrows, at the time when you most needed consolation but neither time, or distance has banishd from my Bosom, that Sympathy which alltho, Billows rise; and oceans Roll...
I received yesterday your Letter of the 4th April. I was grieved to find by it, that your spirits are so deprest, and your health so infirm. you have had great calls upon your fortitude, and the trial of your virtues, since your seperation from your Friends— we know upon what terms we hold our existance here. the Christian looks beyond this State of trial for the reward promissed to those who...
I have had Such repeated melancholy tidings to communicate to you, Since your absence, and your own Bosom has been so often wounded, that I have felt loth to take up my pen to address you, upon an event which has plunged me in Greif, in which I know you cannot fail to participate. you knew—you loved, and you valued the dear departed Child whom I mourn. She is gone I trust to reap the Reward of...
I will not let mr Ingraham depart without a few Lines to you. I have written to you Several times since the date of your last Letter to me was in May. it carried with it so many melancholy traits, that I was greived to find how deeply You had been wounded. the Resignation, and fortitude you discoverd, after the first Paroxisms of your Greif had Subsided, made me hope, that it would not prey...
I shall make one effort more; to convey a Letter to you, and that by sending it to Ghent, where I really wish you were. Mr Adams has been detaind there; so much longer than he expeced that I feel very anxious for you; and for Charles, much more so, since I have learnt that mr and mrs Smith have also left you. through mr. Adams, I have heard oftner from you, than when you were both at St...
I address you, altho I know not where to find you, which is, and has been a source of much anxiety to me, four months have elapsed since the signature of the Treaty of Peace; when mr Adams wrote from Ghent, that in ten day’s, he should go to Paris, and from thence, send on to St petersburgh, to request you to join him there, and if he should, (as was expected,) be sent to England, that your...
It was with great pleasure, that I received your Letter from St. Petersburgh, bearing date july the 10th 1814 forwarded by mr Smith and your Sister, who from a combination of circumstances were detaind abroad: untill the 2d of May 1815 when they happily arrived in N york—bringing with them the pleasing, intelligence that you had reach’d Paris—the day after they left it— I cannot describe to...
As I hope you are now in a Situation both to receive Letters, and write them with more Security that they will reach their destination. I flatter myself that I Shall hear oftner from you. By the Amsterdam packet which is to Sail on Sunday, I Shall endeavour to Send this Letter, and as I have lately written by an other vessel to my Son, I Shall address this to you, to congratulate you, as I...
Altho I have not the pleasure to acknowledg any Letter from you of a more recent date, than one by mr Forbes of Sep’ber last, which I only received a few days since, I will thank you for that, and am happy that I can congratulate you, upon a change in the aspect of our National affairs since that date, when they appeard to us in America; in not much less of a gloomy cast than to you in St...
Altho I cannot have the pleasure of acknowledging any Letter from you of a more recent date than one by mr Forbes last Sep’br, I will thank you for that, altho only received a few days Since—I am happy that I can congratulate you upon a change in the aspect of publick affairs respecting our own County. Since that date—the return of peace was haild here by all parties, and the first Spontanious...
Your Letter of July 9th was joyfully received by me, it was not untill your Letter arrived, that I had any certain knowledge where you were, altho I had presumed from mr Adams Letter of 19 March from Paris, that you might have reachd there, the day after your Sister Smith left it. It grieves me to Say to you, that she has, had a Severe trial and affliction since she arrived in America, in the...
I have to acknowledge a very tender and affectionate Letter from you, bearing date 8th Janry 1814, which I received only a few days since.—Sympathy from those we Love, when affliction assail us, is balm to the Bleading Bosom, and assuages the wound it cannot heal, and which is opened affresh. "when Memory with busy art will o’er the heart Strings play wake tender strains, tho full of smart Nor...
I must inclose a Note to you, to Say that this morning the mail from Utica in N york, informd me that I am again a Great Grandmother, Abbe Johnson was deliverd of a son upon the 3rd. of this Month, mr Johnson writes that he has a head of Black hair and black Eyes. a fine Boy you may be sure. and that he has taken the Liberty to call him after his Great Grandfather, Mother and Babe well upon...
It was with great pleasure that I received and read your Letter of August 6th from Ealing, and it communicated to me a double portion of delight, as it appeard to be the emanation of a mind more at ease, than you experienced in that cold dark region of Russia—Altho the climate of G Britain is much more humid than that of America, and you can never as the proverb, says praise a fair day, untill...
I always like to send to every one some token of remembrance by writing to each, altho, I á derth of Subjects at the present day will not afford matter for amusement; a Letter upon Literary subjects, is not wanted in a country which abounds in every work of the kind, but as I do not consider, myself capable of being a reviewer—I shall only speak my private opinion, many of the modern writers...