1John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 6 June 1797 (Adams Papers)
“Our difficulties ended”!— Be it so.— But Faith is not one of the articles of which I possess a remarkable store.— I wish you may never have reason to consider as the commencement of difficulties, what you now regard as their termination. We shall have the means of conveyance to Lisbon.— Such as will perfectly well suit me; and such as you are willing to take up with.— But I do not like [to...
2John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 31 May 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have received my kind friend’s letters of 3 d , 16 th: and 19 th: of May, and am impatiently waiting to hear from you and your father again. I am going this day on a tour to Amsterdam, where I shall make the arrangements for my immediate departure; so that I shall probably not remain here long enough to receive your reply to this Letter. There are many difficulties in the way of any...
3John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 12 May 1797 (Adams Papers)
And is it possible that my charming friend should feel an uneasy sentiment a sentiment of fear in sitting down to write to me: to me, the friend of her Heart, who would rather suffer a thousand torments than give her a moment of pain?— I am really ashamed of myself for having by morose expressions chilled the feelings of a breast which was formed for the reception of none but warm and kind,...
4John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 6 May 1797 (Adams Papers)
Upon receiving this morning your Letter of the 21 st: of last month, I recurred to mine of the 7 th: in answer to which it was written. I was not conscious of being displeased at your reading Chesterfield’s Letters, or at your having mentioned it to me.— But in reading over my own letter again, I am not surprized at your having taken it in that light.— No, my ever dear, and valued friend, I am...
5John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 13 April 1797 (Adams Papers)
The day after I sent off my last Letter, I received that of my good friend, dated the 27 th: of last month; and at the same time, a Packet from America, containing my orders to quit my station here, and proceed upon that to which I am now destined. Since then I have been occupied in taking measures preparatory to my departure, which I shall however probably not effect before the latter part of...
6John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 7 April 1797 (Adams Papers)
Just after writing my last Letter I received your kind one of March 20; by which I find your departure is postponed until July. As it continues to us the opportunity of hearing frequently and regularly from each other it is an agreeable circumstance; it would be still more so, if it could secure to us the means of meeting again in Europe, which will however I apprehend be impossible. You...
7John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 31 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
I received at once, and with the utmost pleasure your two Letters of the 7 th: and 14 th: of this month. The tenderness and affection with which you assure me that you participate in my anxieties, sheds among them a gleam of the purest consolation The American Election is decided, and has been declared in the manner which I have mentioned to you in former Letters. All my friends here...
8John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 20 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have successively received your Letters of the 28 th: and 24 th: of last month, which I mention thus in inverted order because they so came to me, and the latest of date was the first here.— It must indeed be an implacable breast which such a Letter as this would not disarm of all resentment.— I have hailed and welcomed it as the pledge of uninterrupted future harmony between us. You have...
9John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 14 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
It is nearly a fortnight since I received your letter of the 17 th: of last month. The two last Posts from Bremen have brought no English Letters, and while the wind remains in the quarter to which it has been fixed these ten days I can have no hopes of being more fortunate in hearing from you. These Easterly winds bring a clear sky and a brisk air with them.— Yet they are to me more dull and...
10John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 6 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
Since writing my last Letter I have received yours of the 17 th: of February. It is kind: it is amiable: it is worthy of yourself. I recognize again the temper that I love, the heart that I admire, and the mind that I esteem.— Yes—this Letter I am sure was written by my own Louisa; and its strain is too congenial with her character, and too full of delight to me, for me to believe that she...
11John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 20 February 1797 (Adams Papers)
I hope we shall never get into a habit of writing to one another angry and kind Letters alternately, for it would be far from promoting the happiness of either. Your obliging favour of the 7 th: inst t: came to me yesterday. It gave me great pleasure which I will not mingle, with other sentiments by dwelling upon a topic necessarily disagreeable.— I wish it were in my power to write you always...
12John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 12 February 1797 (Adams Papers)
I was reflecting this morning, with what peculiar force and propriety, I could make the application of these tender and affectionate lines of Hammond, and how much more truly they were suited to the object of my constant love than to the person for whom they were originally destined, when your Letter of the 31 st: of last month was brought me. … It put an end at once to the delicious...
13John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 7 February 1797 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 20 th: of last month, which I received a few days ago has taken from my bosom one of its heaviest weights. The imputation of unkindness to you, was one of those which it was least able to bear with fortitude, and to be relieved from which would alone have been equivalent to the most delicious gratification. Besides which it is full of the tenderness which I love and the...
14John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 31 January 1797 (Adams Papers)
The day after I wrote you my last Letter, which was on the 28 th: I received your Letter of the 17 th: — It has given me as much pain as you expected, and more than I hope you intended. It has never been my intention to speak in an “authoritative,” a “commanding,” an “unkind” a “harsh” or a “peremptory” stile to you, and it distresses me to find that you think my letter of Dec r: 20. deserving...
15John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 10 January 1797 (Adams Papers)
How painful it is to me, my amiable friend to feel the assurance that my Letters for which you wait with so much anxious expectation, when they arrive, can bring to you none but unacceptable news, and that they can relieve you from suspense only by the confirmation of disappointment. My Letters of November 19. December 5. 13. 20. and 31. are most probably before this time all in your hands....
16John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 31 December 1796 (Adams Papers)
Since my Letter of the 20 th: I have not enjoyed the pleasure of receiving any from my friend, but I do not forget the mutual engagement of writing every week, and I cannot close the year in a better or more agreeable manner than in conversing with her— There are some particulars in your Letters of Nov r: 29. and Dec r: 6. which require a reply from me, which time did not allow me to give in...
17John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 20 December 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have this morning received your two Letters of Nov r: 29. and December 6. The pain which the prospect of an inevitable continuance to our separation has given you I readily believe, and I know too well from my own experience its force. At the same time I rejoyce in finding that you have the fortitude to support it; you have seldom as you say been taught in the school of disappointment: your...
18John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 5 December 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have just now received, my dearest friend, your letter of the 15 th: of last month, since which I hope you have before now received two from me; and would to Heaven, they could have been such as would have been more conformable to our mutual inclinations, or that I could now give you tidings more agreeable for me to communicate or for you to receive.— Instead of which a Letter from America,...
19John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 21 November 1796 (Adams Papers)
The day after I had sent away my last Letter, I received yours of the 1 st: inst t: which relieved me from an anxious apprehension that you were unwell, or indisposed. The picture resumes whatever it can express of that mild and gentle disposition which is one of the greatest ornaments of the original, and which in my eyes is of more worth than graces or beauty, riches or honours. You will...
20John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 12 November 1796 (Adams Papers)
I received by the last Post, two Letters from your Pappa, my amiable friend, and looked in vain for a line from you. Not a syllable even to tell me you were well. I found indeed from your Pappa’s Letters that you had not at their date received my last, and therefore upon the rigour of etiquette, you were not obliged to write. I shall not complain, and attribute your silence rather to your...
21John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 12 October 1796 (Adams Papers)
After reading your letter of the 30 th: of last month which I received this morning, I looked at your picture, and methought it looked unusually cool. — I read the letter a second time, and upon again turning to the picture, it seemed to look severe — Upon a third reading, I dared not again consult the portrait; I feared to find it disdainful — Between us two, my lovely friend let there be...
22John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 12 September 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have received, my amiable friend, your letters of the 19 th: and 28 th: of last month, and am properly grateful for the readiness with which you consent to accompany my rambling destinies. The sacrifice which you will be obliged to make in quitting your paternal roof, is so great, that it gives me not a little anxiety. To give you a substitute for it, I cannot expect. That you should ever...
23John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 13 August 1796 (Adams Papers)
I hope my amiable friend has before this received my letters of the 9 th: of last month, and of the 6 th of the present; and that all her doubts, if doubts she really had, whether she still retained all her Empire over my affections have vanished into thin air. Though there was a letter which must have reached her very shortly after the impatient anxiety which she expresses in her letter of...
24John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 6 August 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have just received my lovely friend, your letters of the 24 th: and 25 th: of last month. I perceive by the former that my long letter of the 9 th: had not reached you. I have hitherto written by vessels going directly from this Country to England, supposing that would be the shortest conveyance; but I believe after all the packet from Hamburg is the safest. I will in future write you by...
25John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 9 July 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have just received your letter of the 28 th: of last month, and though I have not yet read it more than ten or fifteen times, I take the very first moment I have, to reply. I judge of your sentiments from my own, and conclude, that I shall run no risk of writing too often.— Perhaps in this I am mistaken. Perhaps with your aversion to writing , and the ILL-NATURE that the very thought of it...
26John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 17 June 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have just received from my good friend Hall, a Letter of the 8 th: inst t: which is precious to me not only as it comes from him, but because it gives me the information that you were well. He delights in giving pleasure to his friends, and he knows very well how to do it; for his letter speaks of you, as you deserve, and that could not fail of giving the highest gratification to me. The...
27John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson, 2 June 1796 (Adams Papers)
You remember I was ordered peremptorily to be at Gravesend on Saturday morning by ten or eleven o’clock at the latest, though it was impossible for me to procure the necessary order to embark, and of course impossible for me to leave London before twelve. To reconcile the two circumstances was not within my competency, and indeed I think it might be given as no easy task to an abler man. I had...