31From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 January 1811 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you on the last day of the old year, Old-Style, and sent my letter under cover to Mr: Russell our Chargé des Affairs at Paris—It went by a Courier of the French Ambassador, and I requested Mr: Russell to forward it by the earliest opportunity to America—I shall send the present by a Gentleman who is going to Copenhagen; and shall desire to have it forwarded from that place, or from any...
32From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 February 1811 (Adams Papers)
We assisted last week, at the public examination of the Institute of the order of St: Catherine, a boarding school, or College for the Education of young Ladies of noble families; under the Patronage of the Empress-Mother The young Ladies are divided into four Classes, and are two years in each class—They enter from six to ten years of age, and when their education is finished, they pass this...
33From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
In proportion as the time lengthens since the receipt of your last Letter, which is also the last that I have received from any of my friends at Quincy, I find not only my anxiety to hear directly from you increasing with it, but also my desire and determination if possible to relieve you and my other friends with you from a similar anxiety respecting us, which you would feel in the case of so...
34From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
I dined yesterday at the French Ambassadors, at a diplomatic dinner of about sixty persons in the highest and most formal style.—I give you a description of this entertainment, which may amuse you as a specimen of the usages of the time and place, and give you an idea of what is understood to be the suitable style of entertainment by an Ambassador—The invitation was by printed Card, sent five...
35From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 April 1811 (Adams Papers)
The Russian People pass their lives in a continual and alternate succession of feasting and fasting. Every individual whether of high or low degree celebrates two days in every year; one for his birth and the other for his baptism, which is called his name day, and is kept on the day marked in the Calendar, as devoted to the Saint of the same name; for it is a religious principle that every...
36From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 2 May 1811 (Adams Papers)
The religious ceremony of which in my last Letter I gave you an account, began at Midnight and terminated between three and four in the morning.—It was accompanied by a Salute of 21. Guns fired from the Fortress, two or three times, at particular stages of the performance—This was conformable to the customary practice; which always ushers in Easter day at St: Petersburg with an expence of...
37From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 May 1811 (Adams Papers)
The late french Ambassador at this Court, the Duke de Vicence, has taken leave, and his succesor Count Lauriston has been received—He takes his departure this Evening or to-morrow for Paris, and I avail myself of the opportunity to enclose a line for you, under cover to Mr Russell our Chargé d’Affaires at that place—I have already sent several letters for you and for my brother to him to be...
38From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of 15. Feby: which was brought by Captain Brown, of the Washington, and which I received on the 23d: of last Month, gave me the first intelligence of those afflicting Events the Death of Mrs: Hellen and Mrs: Norton—I received it early in the morning, and was thereby enabled to communicate it to my wife and her Sister, with as much preparation as the nature of the case would...
39From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have now to acknowledge the receipt of your number 6. dated 22. February, brought by the Henry Captain Harris; a vessel of which we had heard nearly a Month since, and which has at length arrived after a passage from Boston of 100 days.—The arrivals from America now crowd upon one another in multitudes which I am afraid will prove not very profitable to many of the adventurers.—From Quincy...
40From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 29 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
My last letter, of which a press-copy is enclosed, was sent by the Palafox, Captain William Welsh, since which I have received four letters from you, N. 9—dated 8. April—one of 24. April not numbered—one of 15. May, and one of 28 May—both numbered 11.—So that I have now nine of your letters since you began to number them The numbers missing are 3 and 4. between 26 Jany. and 15. Feby. and N. 8....
41From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
On the 10th: of August 1811. we received your favour of 22. September 1810 to my wife; not quite eleven months after it was written; and the next day we received that of 8 June 1811. which has performed its voyage in a little more than two. Whether the Passage has been short or long the letter always gives pleasure, and always contains some intelligence that is new. You have repeatedly...
42From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
The first page of the enclosed Press-Copy of my last Letter is so faint that unless you should have received the original, before it comes to hand, I know not whether you will be able to read it—The second however is more plain, and contains the material information of the whole; the birth of my daughter—This information has since been repeated in letters to my father and my brother,...
43From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 2 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of 21. June, without a number, was forwarded to me from Copenhagen by Mr. Erving, who recovered it from the Radius, which on her passage to this place, was taken by a french privateer, and is still detained in Denmark—Like almost all the letters which we have received this year it brought tidings of sickness and affliction among our friends—In the sorrow which they have so often...
44From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
By every vessel that has arrived for several months from America, and which we should have expected to bring letters for us, we receive, instead of letters, apologies for not writing, because we were thought to be on our passage home—You only have foreseen the contingency which has actually happened, that we might be detained over the present Winter, and you only continue to give us some...
45From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
Although since I last wrote to my brother, on the 6th: instt: we have neither received a line from America, nor had an opportunity of transmitting a letter to any place from which it could be dispatched to you; yet remembering my engagement never to suffer a month to pass without writing at least once to you, and once to him, and perceiving that as it applies to you, I am within one day of a...
46From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
After I had written the letter of which I now enclose a copy, intending to have it ready for Mr: Smith, an opportunity was presented me of sending it by another conveyance—and Mr Smith not being ready to go, I dispatched it; so that as he is now upon his departure I shall send by him two letters instead of one, for you—And as the Winter opportunities are so unfrequent, I write by him also to...
47From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I will not suffer the first day of this new year to pass over, without renewing to my dear Mother the expression of my fervent prayers to God, that it may be a year of health enjoyment, and every blessing to her and to my father, as well as to my beloved children who are with you, and to all the family around you—And with the hope of auspicating it to us all, I join that of having once more...
48From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 8 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
A long interval without the receipt of letters from you, I have always found too sure an indication that when they come they would bring sorrows with them—I had been upwards of three months without receiving a line from Quincy when, on the 29th: of last Month I received together with several other letters and dispatches from Washington, but no others from Quincy your afflicting, but most kind...
49From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
As the Couriers between Paris and St: Petersburg have not yet ceased to be dispatched, by the arrival of one of them a few days ago, I had the pleasure of receiving your N. 1. of 5. January. which was not only like all your letters a balsam in itself; but was also precious by its contents, announcing your own health, that of my father, and of my children, brother and sister. I have no other...
50From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 April 1812 (Adams Papers)
The enclosed is a copy of a letter, which was written near a Month, before an opportunity occurred of sending it, on its way to you—I am afraid that the delay will entirely defeat its object, and that it will be found impracticable to send out my two Sons to me the next Summer.—The river Neva is now again open, and I trust that in about six weeks or two Months opportunities for writing to you...
51From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
I find in your letter of 5. Jany: last that you make mention of others which you had written in Septr: Octr: and Novr: preceding—Of those, when the original of the enclosed was written, I had received only the last—that of 17 Novr:—But on the twelfth of this Month I received your’s of September 24. 1811—and last Monday that of 17. Feby: 1812—N:2. Your letter of October is yet to come; unless...
52From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 27 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
Mr Ingraham of Boston left this place a few days since, and I gave him a packet for Quincy, containing letters from me to my father and my brother, and to you from my wife and from Catherine— I had shortly before enclosed a letter for you, to a friend in London, to be forwarded, and I shall dispatch the present probably by the way of Archangel— Notwithstanding the numerous accidents which have...
53From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
The political Condition of the World, not only engrosses all our thoughts, but absorbs all our faculties. A new War is just blazing out in the Country where I reside, and within three days distance of where I am—I have been nearly three years observing its Causes and witnessing its approaches, with the deep concern, that a common feeling of humanity, strengthened by the peculiar interest in...
54From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
I received a very few days ago, your kind favour of 1. March last, which gave me great pleasure as a token of your remembrance, and by assurance of your restoration to health.—It contains like almost every letter from America, that I have received the last eighteen Months, tidings of affliction; but we had before been informed our brother’s misfortune in the loss of his youngest child. Your...
55From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
Just as I was closing my last Letter to you, I received your letter of 12. April, and had barely time to make a minute of it, at the bottom of the one I was sealing up for you—Since then I have not had the pleasure of hearing from you I then flattered myself that the Revocation of the British Orders in Council, of which I had just been informed, would be known in the United States, in Season...
56From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 September 1812 (Adams Papers)
During the last two years, the unwelcome task has too often been allotted to you, to communicate to my dear wife and me tidings of affliction by the death and sorrows of those whom we loved—The turn has now come to me to ask your sympathy for our own peculiar distress—We have lost our dear and only daughter...as lovely and promising a child, as ever was taken from the hopes of the fondest...
57From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 October 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have not received a line from the United States, public or private since I wrote you last—That letter, dated 21. September I sent by the Mr Kimball—Last week, Mr Jackson of Newbury-Port left this place, and by him I wrote to my father, brother, and both my Sons at Atkinson—The present is to go by Mr Harris, a Nephew of our Counsel here, who has resided some time with his uncle, but is now...
58From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 November 1812 (Adams Papers)
I think it not improbable that on receiving the public accounts of the progress of the War in this Country for the first three months after it commenced, and especially those of the entrance of the French Emperor and his army at Moscow, with the destruction almost total of that Capital, you may have been not altogether unconcerned on our account, and considered us as not altogether secure from...
59From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
As another Year is closing upon time, and joining “the years beyond the flood,” I cannot employ its last moments more satisfactorily to myself, or more consistently with the duties at all times incumbent upon me, than in renewing to my dear and honoured Parents the testimonies of my gratitude, duty and affection—In repeating the assurance of my ardent desire to return to them, to my long...
60From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
Another month is drawing to a close, since I last wrote you, and I remain without a line from you or form any of my friends in America—The last Letters from you that I have received are dated in April of the last year. But as opportunities for writing to you, still occur, and at least as frequently as they did during the Winter Season before the War; and as the Americans who are returning home...
61From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
As I shall probably not have an opportunity of dispatching letters for America, after that of which I now avail myself, at least before the expiration of the present Month, and as I am unwilling to break through the rule which I prescribed to myself of writing to you, at least once every Month, I sit down to repeat to you, what only three days since, I wrote to my father, namely, that I have...
62From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 27 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
At length, after another interval of nearly seven Months since I had been favoured with the sight of a line from any of my friends at Quincy, yours of 29. July has come to hand—It is nearly seven Months old, but is more than three Months later than your last previous letter. As it came under cover to Mr Barlow, I suppose it did not reach Paris, untill after his departure from that City— Thence...
63From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 March 1813 (Adams Papers)
My last letter to you, dated 27. February, acknowledged the receipt of your favour of 29. July the latest letter I have from America, and which you mention in it was to be forwarded by Mr. B. Beale junr. I have now an opportunity to write by Mr. Plummer, a young man who has been here several years, as an Agent of Coll. Thorndike—He himself belongs to Salem, and as he intends returning as...
64From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
I know not whether it was generosity, or any other virtue, or merely a disposition to receive the postage, that induced the transmission of your favour of 30. December to Mr: Williams at London; for by him it was kindly forwarded to me, and on the first day of this Month, to my inexpressible joy came to hand—It was but so short a time before that I had received your letter of 29. July!—and...
65From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
Every day that passes gives me occasion more and more to lament this unfortunate War, with which it has pleased heaven to visit us—If it could have been avoided we should now have had a free commercial intercourse with all the North of Europe, at least to Bremen inclusively, and in a few Months more with Holland—Besides the advantages which our Country would have derived from this, I should...
66From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 5 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
Last week I received your kind and affectionate Letter of 25. 27. February—which had been destined for France, but the vessel on board of which it was, being taken and sent into Plymouth, the Gentleman who was the bearer of your letter, (his name has not come to my knowledge) was released as a Non Combattant , and they were forwarded to me by the Mail. Your letter of previous date—25. January...
67From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Mr: Gallatin and Mr Bayard reached Gothenburg Roads, on the 20th: of June. A Russian Gentlemen who had come as passenger in the same vessel with them, and then proceeded by land to this place, brought me a letter from them dated 21 June, and arrived here, eighteen days since—They wrote me that they intended to proceed as speedily as possible upon their voyage—that they had letters for me from...
68From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard have been here a complete Month. They had arrived at Reval, a Port just at the entrance of the Gulph of Finland, about 250 miles from this place, at the date of my last Letter—The next day I was informed of their arrival; and the day following they reached this City—They are accompanied by a Son of Mr Dallas of Philadelphia, Mr: Milligan of Delaware, Mr. Todd, Mrs:...
69From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
This day two Months have elapsed since Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard arrived and delivered to me your favours of 5 and 23 April—Nothing later from you has yet come to hand.—Very shortly after their arrival, the ship Hannibal, belonging to Mr Astor of New-York arrived at Gothenburg—This vessel was furnished with a British licence with a permission even to bring a Cargo, and to carry one back in...
70From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 14 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have just this moment returned from attending the funeral obsequies of the late general Moreau; which have been solemnized with suitable splendour at the Roman Catholic Church of this City. He died at Töplitz on the 2d. of September, of the wounds he had received before Dresden, the 17th. of August.—His Body was sent here by order of the Emperor Alexander, and has been buried with all the...
71From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
If I could have omitted to welcome the return of this day, and to renew my prayers for many happy repetitions of it to my father and you, I should still have been charged with the obligation of acknowledging the receipt of your two letters of 1. and 14. July which I received last week from Gothenburg—They were brought to that City by Mr Story, who writes me that he had a long passage from...
72From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 November 1813 (Adams Papers)
If my last Letter should reach you before this, my ever dear and affectionate mother, you will see by the Postscript, that before it was dispatched we had been informed through an indirect channel of the decease of my beloved Sister—This event, so distressing in itself, but for which your kind letters of 2 and 14 July, had in some measure prepared my Mind, has excited a new and additional...
73From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 December 1813 (Adams Papers)
As the time is approaching for the departure of Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard, and as the Month and year are drawing to a close, I avail myself now of the opportunity of writing to you by them, although it is yet uncertain when they will go, and still more uncertain how long it will be before they reach he United States. The British Government peremptorily refused negotiating for Peace with...
74From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 17 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I expected that Mr: Gallatin or Mr Bayard, would have been the bearer of the last letter, that I wrote you; which was at the close of the last year. But it was taken by Mr Todd, who with Coll: Milligan, Mr Bayard’s private Secretary left this City about ten days since; bound to England by the way of Sweden. Mr: Gallatin’s intention now is to go in a week or ten days; but he takes his direction...
75From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have already written you once, by Mr: Gallatin, who, together with Mr Bayard left this City on the Evening of 25. January, for Amsterdam—But as Mr Harris our Consul, who was also the Secretary of Legation to the Extraordinary Mission is to follow them in a few days, and expects to overtake them at Berlin, I consider it as another opportunity for writing to you, and have prescribed it as a...
76From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
Since I wrote you last, 1. February I have had no opportunity of putting a Letter even on its way, to reach you, when it should please Heaven. The ordinary intercourse between this Country and England by the way of Gothenburg has been suspended from the 24th: of December untill this day, by the freezing of the Harbours, and there are now 22 Mails due, from London—The same Cause has prevented...
77From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 26 April 1814 (Adams Papers)
Mr: Nathl: W. Strong arrived here on the 31st. of March, and brought me an Order from the Secretary of State to go immediately to Gothenburg. I intend leaving this City the day after to–morrow, in compliance with that Instruction, and should have been gone before this, but that the passage of the gulph has been for some time impracticable. Mr Strong besides the despatches with which he was...
78From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 May 1814 (Adams Papers)
I left St: Petersburg on the 28th. of last Month, as in the Letter of which I now enclose a press-Copy, I mentioned to you was my intention, and I arrived here on the morning of the first of May.—The ice had not then broken up in this harbour, and no vessel has yet ventured to sail from it—I have engaged a passage for Stockholm in one of the first which will depart, and I am now flattered with...
79From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
My last Letter to you was written at Reval, and dated the 12th: of May—It was forwarded from Gothenburg by a Swedish Vessel, bound to Boston; but since Admiral Cochrane’s Blockade, it is more doubtful than ever whether it will come to your hands.—I was detained ten days after it was written, in that City and its harbour, by head winds, and by the ice floating in the gulph of Finland—We were...
80From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I had the good fortune of sending a single letter from this place to England, in time to go by the Saratoga, a Cartel which sailed about the middle of this Month for New–York, and that letter was my last go to you. I hope it will reach you safely for it is the only opportunity by which I can expect that you will have heard from me, almost since the beginning of this Year—For the letters which...