1From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed is a letter, and an account from Mr. Gales for the National Intelligencer— I am very loth to trouble you—and I must beg the favour of you to pay Mr. Gales his account and take his receipt and his Certificate—My subscription is stoped—for I hereby request, and Order, that it may be stoped—for I never read it—I am overwhelmed with a Cart-load of Newspapers for which I never...
2From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 25 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the promptitude with which you paid my debt to Mr Gales & Seaton—and discontinued my subscription for the national Intelligencer I beg your Pardon for not answering immediately your letter of the 24th of last Month as I ought—Not being pressed by necessity, I did not draw upon Mr Cruft—Till up he comes with his Lady to make us a very pleasant visit—And tendered me the two...
3From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 26 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the promptitude with which you paid my debt to Mrss Gales & Seaton—and discontinued my Subscription for the National Intelligencer— I beg your pardon for not answering immediately your letter fo the 24th. of last Month as I ought—not being pressed by necessity, I did not draw upon Mr Cruft—till up he comes with his Lady to make us a very pleasant family visit—& tendered me two...
4From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 6 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
I have enclosed to the President a letter from Dr Waterhouse. I wish you would ask to see it. Between you and me I suspect that our friend Eustace has been of no service to Waterhouse. Ancient Jealousies of him among professional men in Boston may have left some traces. But as this is mere conjecture I lay no stress upon it. Whether any thing can be done for him consistent with the public...
5From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 12 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
Our dear Shaw, who ransacks his Atheneum and the litterary World to afford me Amusements and Instruction, two evenings and one day in a Week, brought me on Saturday your Welcome letter of the 22d of May. The true cause of the infrequency of letters between You and me is a conscientious principle on my part. I know that you would answer every Scratch of a pen from me; but I k n ow the...
6From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
A new Administration has commenced, Mr Monro’s inaugural Oration you will See in the Newspapers. It Seems to be popular. Even Ben Russel Says there has been nothing like it Since Washingtons Administration. If there is any Faith in the Government or any Sincerity in the People, you are appointed by the former, and are elected by the other Secretary of State. My Advice is to accept it without...
7From 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...
8From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 11 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
Lieutenant John Percival of the Navy of The United States is about to embark for London, and from thence to the other maritime Powers of Europe upon business of importance to Navigation and consequently to Humanity. The Subject is a new Invention of an eliptical Valve Pump, which if I understood it, I must not explain. I earnestly recommend him to your Attention, as much as possible; though I...
9From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday was one of the most uniformly happy days of my whole long life. The Morning brought Us a Letter from our Friend Crafts of your Arrival; in a few hours our Neighbour Beal brought Us a Newspaper confirming it, and the Evening presented Us your Letter to your Mother of the 6th. that you were Landed “All well”. A thousand Circumstances exalted the delight or as West used to Say upon all...
10From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 29 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
I may now congratulate you on your Arrival at the Seat of our national Government: yourself your excellent Lady, all your Friends relations and domesticks, are We hope, in good health. Your Interview with the President; to whom present my affectionate respects, So Soon after his Arrival must have been very agreable to both. As the Endemic dissentary is not yet abated your oldest Son is with Us...
11From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 30 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
Mr Jefferson has been good enough to Send me the enclosed Pamphlet An history of the restoration of Royalty in France 31, March 1814 by De Pradt. As it has Some pretentions to Authority, and as you may not have Seen it, I Send it to you: and as the owner desires me to return it, I pray you after you Shall have read it to transmit it to Monte Chello, with whose Inhabitants I hope you will have...
12From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 28 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have not acknowledged your 5. & 7 Octr. We have had another delightful Family Scene. Madam De Wint her Son your Nice with two of my Great Grand Children and to finish the Picture Mrs Clark all arrived in perfect health. On the 83d 25th Octr. We all drank “All our Friends and Connections of every generation”. “Now lettest thou, thy Servant depart in peace” has been So hackneyed that I will...
13From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
I must, as long as octogenarian infirmities will permit, Send you a line to prove to you my continued Vegatation Peter Heigne’s Mother, when the News arrived of her Sons glorious death arrived , Said “Peter was always running about, and She always expected he would come to a bad End.” Washingtons Mother used to Say that “George would be like the Pitcher which after going So often to the Well,...
14From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 18 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
Captain James Riley politely Sent me his travels in a handsome volume which I read with interest, for, though it abounds in the Marvellous and sometimes aproaches the miraculous; yet excruciating Sufferings and a Strong imaginaleo may apologize for So much of it as to leave enough of it credible to make it an entertaining affecting and instructive Work Inclosed is a letter from him, on a...
15From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 21 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
The disapointment of the Anglomaniacs and the Antigallicans, who are the same persons, on one hand, and of the Gallomaniacs, Antianglicans and Hyperdemocrats who are all the same people, on the other: in the Choice of Mr Mason a Sound untainted American Republican, for the Representative of the Suffolk district, will give that Friend of yours an Opportunity to present you this letter. This...
16From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 26 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
The Father of Mr George G. Barrel, Still living at 85 his Uncle Joseph and one or two more were once well known to me and esteemed. You will find the Bearer So intelligent and So correct that if you have time to converse with him you will find pleasure and Information. Though I presume not to give any Opinion upon this Application or any other; Yet I will venture to Say, that the Pretensions...
17From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Nature did not make me of a jealous disposition; but a dismal experience has made me Suspicious of myself, not less than of others. I often Suspect myself, and that my Imagination deceives me; that I mistake posibilities for probabilities and Non Entities for probabilities; that I See “ Au dessous des cartes ” many things which in reality may not be there. Masons and Austins are Old South...
18From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 31 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 21 has excited my Sympathies, visible and irascible. I never had the Shadow of a Shade of doubt that you was my legigtimate Son. But if I had been afflicted with Jealousy, the frank confession in your Letter of your impatience with Barrel would have cured me. For never were two Peas parching in the Same fire more alike. This however is no laughing Matter. If there is any...
19From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 2 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 26th. of December 1817 inclosing a Postnote upon the Branch Bank of The United States at Boston for nine hundred and one dollars and Ninety five Cents, being the Amount of the dividend of five per Cent upon the debt proved under the Commission of Bankruptcy of Robert Bird and Co. at New York. I am your affectionate Father MHi : Adams Papers.
20From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
De Pradt, I Suspect is a descendant of that Arcbishop Bishop of Clermont, the Bastard of Cardinal du Pratt, and the Oputent Protector of the infant Society of the Jesuits in 1545. See Duprat in the Dictionaire historique. The Archbishop of Matines I Suspect is of that Breed and worthy of his Race. See also The History of the Jesuits Vol. 1. Our national Sympathy with the Patriots of South...
21From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
Of Mr Wait, I know little, but that he was once introduced to me by General Knox, twice by Judge Thatcher, and Last Week by Mr Shaw, all in this House. He has always been represented And Appeared to be a modest discreet and respectable Citizen. There has been So much Huggermugger, about Secret Journals and Files of Congress and Conventions, which I always detested, that I rejoice they are now...
22From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 29 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
This will be presented to you by Mr Holley whom you know and whom I pray you to receive with Civility; because he is one of the few in whom I delight. I love him because he is, as Dr Holmes calls him “a phylosophical divine.” I do not much affect any unphylosophical Divines though I candidly tolerate them all and esteem Some. I am told there will be complaints against Henry Warren as Collector...
23From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 20 May 1818 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the documents you Send me, which I give to the Athenaeum believing they will do more good there than in my possession. I dare not write to you upon public Affairs, because I do not understand them. All that appears under your Signature is cooly approved as Usual, and will be, till fifty Years after you are dead and then it may possibly be admired by a fine Antequarians. Your...
24From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
Exoterick and Esoterick Doctrine. See the American Encyclopedia Tit. Exoterick: the French, Title Exoterique; the Dictionaire de Trêvoux, the Same Title, Stephens’s Thesaurus Tit. Exotericus, Gesners Dictionary Tit. Exotericus, and Acroaticus, Fabers Thesaurus Tit. Exotericus. See Also Herodotus Diadorus Siculus, Pausanias Strabo, Plutarch, Aetius , Aristotle Cicero and Aulus Gellius. See also...
25From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
The bitterness of Death is past. The grim Specter So terrible to human Nature has no Sting left for me. My consolations are more than I can number. The Separation cannot be So long as twenty Separations heretofore. The Pangs and the Anguish have not been So great as when you and I embarked for France in 1778. The Sympathy and Benevolence of all the World, has been Such as I Shall not live long...
26From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 7 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
I thank you, my dear Son, for your Letters and for the Presidents Speech, which is Consolation for all our Miseries for 60 Years. But I must have done with public affaires. Your Sons who behave well have been with Us last Week. They leave Us this morning for their School. Mr and Mrs Clark, and my little darling Susanna Maria were comfortably lodged last Night at Dedham on their Way to...
27From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 24 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 14th. found me deeply immersed in researches, not astromical or mineralogical or metaphisical; but after old Papers, Trunks Boxes Desks Drawers locked up for thirty Years have been broken open because the Keys are lost. Nothing Stands in my Way. Every Scrap Shall be found and preserved for Your Affliction for your good. I am now employed very anxiously and laboriously,...
28From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 3 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
You made me a rich present when you allowed your son George to spend his vacation with me. He has been to me a companion and a friend. He has indulged in no dissipation, has been very constant to his studies & his reading. I cannot find it in my heart to say that he has indulged a little too much in his segars and in his flute. I see that you have the honour to be the target of all the sharp...
29From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have been employed for a month or six weeks in hard labour to save you trouble. I have ransacked chests, trunks, boxes, bureaus, chests of drawers, escritouirs, or in fewer words, every hole & corner, from the basement story to the cockloft, in search of manuscript books & papers, and in course I have been obliged to break open locks whose key’s were lost and destroy every thing that lay in...
30From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 19 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the noble pacquets of documents you send me, for though I cannot read them it is convenient to have them by me. I may get a friend to consult them for me as occassion may require. I thank your lady for me for her last journal. I am really grieved at her late severe indisposition which appears to me so alarming that she ought to be extremely cautious of exposing herself to any...