151From John Adams to James Madison, 25 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to present you, what I think a Curiosity. Dr Mayhews Thirtieth of January Sermon, preached and printed almost Seventy Years ago. It made a great Sensation in New England: and not a little Noise in old England where Several Editions of it were reprinted and one especially which was inserted in a Collection of Tracts in four Volumes under the Title of “The Pillars of Priestcraft and...
152To James Madison from John Adams, 25 July 1818 (Madison Papers)
Permit me to present you, what I think a Curiosity Dr Mayhews Thirtieth of January Sermon, preached and printed almost seventy years ago. It made a great sensation in New England: and not a little Noise in Old England where several Editions of it were reprinted and one especial[l]y which was inserted in a Collection of Tracts in four Volumes under the Title of “The Pillars of Priestcraft and...
153From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 26 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Another Auther produced by Mr Otis was “The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered by Joshua Gee. A new Edition with many interesting Notes and Additions by a Merchant” printed in 1767. This new Edition which was printed no doubt to justify the Ministry in the System which was they were then pursuing, could not be the Edition that Mr Otis produced in February 1761. The Advertisement...
154From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 27 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Another Author produced by Mr Otis was “The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered” by Joshua Gee. “A new Edition, with many interesting Notes and Additions by a Merchant” printed in 1767. This new Edition which was printed no doubt to justify the Ministry in the System they were then pursuing, could not be the Edition that Mr Otis produced in Feb.1761. The Advertisement of the...
155From John Adams to Rufus King, 29 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your kind letter of th 12th has greatly obliged me. I had read the Speech before in the public papers and now again more than once, and always with great Satisfaction. It is a Master Piece of a Master Spirit. As far as my information goes and Memory recollets, I have not Seen So accurate and judicious So comprehensive and concise a View of the important Subject. I admire the Wisdom which...
156From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 30 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Another Passage, which Mr Otis read from Ashley gave Occasion, as I suppose, to another memorable and very curious Event, which your esteemed Pupil and my beloved Friend Judge Minot has recorded. The Passage is in the 42 page. “In fine, I would humbly propose that the duties, on foreign Sugar and Rum imposed by the before mentioned Act, of the 6th of King George the Second, remain as they are,...
157From John Adams to Mordecai M. Noah, 31 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Accept my best thanks for, your polite and obliging favour of the 24th. and especially for the discourse inclosed. I know not when I have read a more liberal or a more elegant Composition. You have not extended your Ideas of the Right of private Judgement and the Liberty of Conscience both in Religion and Phylosophy farther than I do. Men are limited only by Morals and Property. I have had...
158From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 6 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
“Mid the low murmurs of submissive fear and mingled rage my Hambden raised his Voice, & and to the Laws appealed.” Mr. Otis had reasoned like a Philosopher upon the Navigation Acts and upon all the tyranical Acts of Charles the Second but when he came to the Revenue Laws, the Orator blazed out Poor King William! If thy Spirit whether in Heaven of elswhere heard James Otis, it must have...
159From John Adams to James Lloyd, 8 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
The most pleasing Present I ever received in the whole course of my life was your favour of the 5th: and the half barrell of Kennebec Flour. I ordered it to be instantly made into Bread for my Breakfast the next morning and found it so sweet and so pure that it reminded me of the most perfect bread I ever tasted made of Wheat grown ground & bolted into Flour on the Farm of Judge Colonel...
160From John Adams to Seventy-Six Association, 8 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favour of 24th: July & the oration enclosed. The respected name of the orator excited high expectations which upon repeated perusals have not been disappointed To point out the beauties of this composition would be to transcribe it but the animated Eulogium on the Heroes of the last war by sea & by land made the deepest impression on my head and heart. Allow me to present...
161From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 11 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
The “Defence of the New England Charters” by Jer. “Dummer” is, both for Style and matter, one of our most classical American Productions. “The feelings, the manners and Principles which produced the Revolution,” appear in as vast Abundance in this Work, as in any, that I have read. This beautiful Composition, ought to be reprinted and read by every American who has learned to read. In pages 30...
162From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 16 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
We cannot yet dismiss this precious statute of the 6th of George the second. Chapter 13. The second section I must abridge, for I cannot transcribe much more. It enacts that all the Duties imposed by the first section, shall be paid down in ready Money by the Importer, before landing. The third section must be transcribed by me or some other Person because it is the most arbitrary among...
163From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 20 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
Mr: Otis quoted another Author “The political & commercial Works of Charles D’Avenant LLD Vol 2 Discourse 3 on the plantation trade” I cannot transcribe 76 pages but wish that americans of all classes would read them; they are in the same strain with Downing Childs Gee Ashley Charles 2 James 2 William and Mary William the 3rd: Ann, George’s 2nd: & 3rd: All conspiring to make The people of...
164From John Adams to Moses Lloyd Hill, 21 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your first Ancestor in America lies buried in Quincy under a rough North Common Granite. I lament the hard Case of General Sinclair a Gentleman of Letters Taste and Sense, a Soldier and Scientific Officer, but unfortunate; and you know Success secures Fame and Fortune Sometimes when Merit, without it, cannot. “Careat Successibus Opto Quisquis ab eventu, Factu notandu putat” was written in...
165From John Adams to Joseph Milligan, 21 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I beg you will accept my thanks for your obliging letter of the 10th & that you will present the name to Mr Jacob Gideon Junr for the present you have sent me of the Federalist which I gratefully accept, as a mark of his, and your esteem; I have not yet recieved the book but presume it is on its way, and will arrive in due time. But should it miscarry your, and Mr Gideons kind intentions will...
166From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 21 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
Mr Otis quoted another Author “The political and Commercial Works of Charles D’Avenant, L.L.D. Vol 2. Discourse 3. On the Plantation Trade.” I cannot transcribe Seventy Six Pages, but wish that Americans of all Classes would read them: They are in the Same Strain with Downing; Childs, Gee, Ashley, Charles 2. James 2, William and Mary William The Third Ann, George The Second and George The...
167From John Adams to John F. Watson, 21 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
In your favour of the 12th. you Say that you had believed, “that during the War of the Revolution, many Acts of the British had been exaggerated.” This may have happened; but I know not in what instances, on the contrary I know that one half their Cruelties and brutalities had not been told, or if told has not been believed. If you Suppose, that the British were influenced, by “any Motives of...
168From John Adams to Isaac H. Jackson, 21 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have no Remembrance of the “Address to a Provincial Bashans” I should conjecture that Governor Bernard was meant by the Bashans. The Author I know not. It is possible it might be Doctor Benjamin Church. It might be from One of Several Other Poets of that Age. But it never Attracted the Attention / of your humble Servant OClWHi .
169From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 22 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favour of the 16th. My Health is that of the quivering Flame over the dying Lamp. I am very much interested in your Records. I wish you would inform me, whether the Dutch in New York hanged or banished any Quakers? hanged or pressed to death by the Paine forte et dure, any Wiches as our New England Ancestors did? I wish you would enquire, Whether Virginia did not persecute...
170From John Adams to Joseph Milligan, 23 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I must repeat my thanks to you for the Volume of the Federalist. The paper the type the execution the elegance of the binding as well as its solidity are proofs of the improvement of the Arts at the seat of Government. This great & excellent national work will be esteemed in America as a Classical productional as long as our National Constitution & the language in which it is written shall...
171From John Adams to Charles G. Haines, 23 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honour to write me on the 18th. I have not yet received your pamphlet but doubt not it is on its way. The great western Canal does honour to the state of N. York and her govenor I sincerely wish & fully believe that the success will equal the grandeur of the conception. Accept my thanks for the Pamphlet though not yet / received & for the politeness of...
172From John Adams to John Thornton Kirkland, 28 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have had no Opportunity, till this hour to acknowledge your kind Letter of the 12th I had private and Selfish Motives enough, as well as of a more public generous and honourable Nature, to have accepted your obliging Invitation: but a diffidence in my own Strength of Mind and Body at my Age constrained me much against my Inclination to absent myself. I had entertained hopes that my Son would...
173From John Adams to William Tudor, Jr., 28 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
your kind Letter of July 4th. ought to have been answered sooner. my apology would be long and tedious.— I highly applaud your design of Writing the Life of Mr Otis, a man whom none who ever knew him, can ever forget.— In what I have written of Mr Otis, I have not written to Sagadahock and the Provence of Maine; to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucked; to Hampshire and Birkshire; to Barnstable...
174From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 31 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have not been able, till this moment to acknowlege your Letter of the 11th. You have my full consent to publish whatever you please concerning my Character. My Life can never be written, not even by myself; for it would take me as much time to write it, as it has to live it. You enquire for “Sources:” I know of none better than American Journals Newspapers and Pamphlets; next to them the...
175From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 31 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have before mentioned the Instructions of the City of Boston to their Representatives, in May 1764, printed in an Appendix to Mr Otis’s “Rights of the Colonies” In Obedience to those Instructions, or at least in Consequence of them Mr Otis prepared a Memorial to The House of Representatives, which was by them voted to be transmitted to Jasper Mauduit Esqr Agent for the Province, only as a...
176From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., September 1818 (Adams Papers)
The Charters were quoted or alluded to by Mr Otis frequently in the whole course of his Argument: but he made them, also a more distinct and more Solemn head of his discourse. And here, these Charters ought to be copied verbatim. But an immense Verbiage renders it impossible. Bishop Butler, some where complains of this enormous abuse of Words in publick Transactions and John Reed and...
177From John Adams to Hezekiah Niles, 6 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have not Seen one of your register for I know not how many months I have long expected a Volume. I see I must Subscribe by the Week or the year. Please therefor e to put my name down among your Subscribers and tell me to whom shall pay the needfull. I am Sir your humble servant MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
178From John Adams to William Tudor, Jr., 9 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
The Charters were quoted or alluded to by Mr Otis frequently in the whole Course of his Argument: but he made them also a more destinct and more Solemn head of his discourse. And here, these Charters ought to be Copied Verbatim.—But an immense Verbiage renders it impossible. Bishop Butler some where Complains of this enormous Abuse of Words in publick Transactions, and John Reed and Theophilus...
179From John Adams to Caesar Augustus Rodney, 13 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
You cannot imagine how much You have obliged me by your kind Letter of the 6th. I was intimately acquainted with your Uncle Cesar Rodney who under the constant pressure of ill health, preserved a clear Under Staing and a firmness a stediness, and inflexibility of heart, equal to any Statesman I have known. He was pleased to be very Social and familiar with me; and there was no Topick on which...
180From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 13 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
It is some consolation to find in the Paragraph of the Charter, next following the Court of Admiralty, that Nothing in it, “Shall in any manner enure, or be taken to a bridge, bar, or hinder any of our loving Subjects Whatsoever, to Use and exercise the Trade of Fishing upon the Coasts of New England, but that they and every of them Shall have full and free Power and Liberty to continue and...
181From John Adams to Virginia Patiot, 17 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the copy of Decius’s letters &c. And I pray you, accept a Sermon of Dr Mayhew in 1749—50, and to present another to Decius, whoever that Gentleman may be, with the compliments of one who agrees with him in the Aphorism “Omnes deteriores sumus Licentia” and who is his and your well wisher / and humble Servant MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
182From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 18 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
The English doctrine of Allegiance, is so mysterious, fabulous, & enigmatical, that it is difficult to decompose the Elements Of which it is compounded. The Priests under the Hebrew Economy, especially the Sovereign Pontiff were anointed with consecrated Oil, which was poured upon their heads in such profusion, that it ran down their beards, & they were thence called “The Lords Anointed” When...
183From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 23 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
If, in our Search of Principles We have not been able to investigate any moral phylosophical or rational foundation for any Claim of Dominion or Property in America, in the English Nation, their Parliament or even of their King; if the whole appears a mere Usurpation of Fution Fancy and Superstition: What was the Right to dominion or Property in the native Indians? Shall We Say that a few...
184From John Adams to Richard Rush, 24 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
The Procrastination of Old Age must be my only Apology for So long for So long neglecting to acknowledge Several kind obliging and excellent Letters from your friendly Pen. And even now I am arroused to write a Simple Introduction to two Gentlemen Travellers. One is the Bearer, Mr Elliot, a Son of one of our must oppulent and respectable Citizens in Boston, Samuel Elliot Esqr. I believe you...
185From John Adams to Caesar Augustus Rodney, 26 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for Permission to publish your former Letter. In that Letter you allude to original Letters from Mr Otis which you have Seen, and which do him honour. I dare not ask for those Original Letters, because If I possessed them myself, I would not part with them. But if you will favour me with Copies you will greatly oblige me. I would hesitate at no Price for them. I can never recollect...
186From John Adams to John Adams Smith, 27 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
Let me introduce, Mr Elliot, the Bearer, and Mr Ticknor both Natives of Boston, both amiable and respectable. Elliot a Son of Samuel Elliot Esqr one of our first Capitalists. Tickenor one of our first Litterary Characters. Neither will betray you. Ben. Guild the Son of your Mothers earliest and Constantly beloved Friend is married to Elliots Sister. With these you may indulge your yankee...
187From John Adams to Horace Holley, 28 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
I presume I Shall not have The pleasure of Seeing You before your departure. My best Wishes will ever attend you. Your powerful Mind and uncommon Talents will mark your Progress, wherever you go. Success is in heaven. And does not always descend according to our Ideas of Justice. I Shall never forget a Motto under a Portrait of the Protector Cromwell “Careat Successibus, Opto Quisquis ab...
188From John Adams to Hezekiah Niles, 29 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
Will you be so good as to print in your Register, the inclosed Original Letter from Mr Rodney and the Copy of my Answer.—As I never saw this Gentleman and know his name only by Newspaper fame, his Letter was as unexpected to me as if it had fallen from the Morning Star. I have his explicit Permission to publish it and am ambitious that my name should descend to Posterity in friendly Company...
189From John Adams to DeWitt Clinton, 1 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
I thank you, Sir, for the very acceptable Present of a Memoir, not less ingenious than curious, on the Antiquities of the Town of Pompey in your State If I were to hazard a Conjecture, it would be, that the French had made a populous and flourishing Settlement there, excited the Jealousies of the Six Nations, who invaded and exterminated them. Those Six Nations Seem to have been the Goths and...
190From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 2 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
As Misery is Said to derive Some consolation from the Misery of others; your Letter of 18. Septr. has given me Some miserable Comfort, to find to find that your Batavian Predecessors in New York were not much more tollerant than my Yankee Ancestors in New England. But I admire your East India Company and their Director, and their Threat, of the Authority of their H. M. the States General. How...
191From John Adams to Ann Frances Bulkeley Humphreys, 3 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
The unexpected Honour of your Obliging Letter of the 30th of September and the rich presents it contained have excited in my Bosom more tenderness of Sentiment, than you could foresee. The Pin which preserves a Sample of General Humphrey’s hair is to me a Pearl of great price and his Portrait, though I think it has not done him justice is yet so much of a resemblance, that it shall be...
192From John Adams to Alden Bradford, 4 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have received with pleasure your favour of the 30th. of September; and can express nothing but the most respectful Approbation of the Proposal to publish in a Volume the Speeches of the Governors of Massachusetts from 1765 to 1775. with the Answers. and if a Pamphlet of the Town of Boston within the Same Period, the last Effort of Mr Otis could be added it would enhance its Value.— These...
193From John Adams to Joseph Wheaton, 7 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have not Sooner answered your Letter of the 11th of July because I really knew not what to say to it.— You and I have grievances: but I have no better Advice to give you or myself, than my Friend Otis gave to Molineux, “to put the List in our Pocketts, least the World should laugh at us”— The History of Your Life written by yourself would be as curious and for what I know, as instructive as...
194From John Adams to William Mumford, 9 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
Though I have no intercourse with government, and very little to do with this world; I might have transmitted your letter of July 7th. to the President, if I had thought that either of the Floridas was ours. But knowing the fact to be otherwise, it would have been trifling to solicit a Secretaryship or Judgeship in such a territory. You might with more propriety apply to the Hyper honourable...
195From 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...
196From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 11 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
I am really grieved at your Misfortune, if it were only on the Principle of Rochefaucault and Swift, that “In all Misfortunes of our Friends We first Consult our private Ends.” I lost a long expected and desired Visit. But when I reflect that your head might have been precipitated into the magnificent Entrance into the Domicil of a Woodchuck, I am Seized with horror. A late Experiment in...
197From John Adams to Peter Paul Francis Degrand, 12 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
I can express my Feelings on the Recipt of your favour of the 5th of this month, only by my Thanks for your Politeness in Sending me from your own Stores a case of your excellent Hermitage Wine. I have long since taken a final Leave of my old and dear Friend Wine— Could I obtain the Common Wine of Burgundy, which I have heretofore purchased for two Louis a Burrique, or the Bino de Pais which I...
198From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 20 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
One trouble never comes alone! At our Ages We may expect more and more of them every day in groups, and every day less fortitude to bear them. When I saw in Print that You was gone to the Springs, I anxiously Suspected that all was not healthy at Monticello. You may be Surprised to hear that your favour of the 7th has given me hopes. “Imposthume, general Eruptions Colliquative Sweats,”...
199John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 20 October 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
one trouble never comes alone! At our ages We may expect more and more of them every day in groups, and every day less fortitude to bear them. When I saw in Print that you was gone to the Springs , I anxiously Suspected that all was not healthy at Monticello . you may be Surprised to hear that your favour of the 7 th has given me hopes. “Imposthume, general Eruptions colliquative Sweats,”...
200From 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...