1John Adams to Richard Cranch, 24 March 1786 (Adams Papers)
In yours of the 10th. of Novr. you desire me to give you the Connection between the Premises and conclusion, when I said that the Navigation act would compell all the other states to imitate it. If they do not the Massachusetts will soon get so much of their carrying Trade as will richly compensate her for any present Inconvenience. I take it for granted that the United States will make peace...
2John Adams to Richard Cranch, 21 February 1787 (Adams Papers)
I believe there is not another Man in the World whose Life has been such a series of Remorses as mine. It seems as if there was a Destiny that I should never be paid. The time is drawing near, for eleven or twelve months will soon be round, when we embark for Home. This is an irksome undertaking—to break up a settled habitation and remove a family across the Seas, at any time of life is no...
3From John Adams to Richard Cranch, 26 May 1786 (Adams Papers)
During Such great Changes as We have seen When the whole World is put out of its Course and all Men are called to Act in scænes that are new to them, great Irregularities must be expected. But can any Nation ever hope to have Commerce and a Circulation of Property and Industry where the Courts of Justice are not opened. where every Man is not conscious that he can compell others to do him...
4John Adams to Richard Cranch, 22 August 1785 (Adams Papers)
I have received your kind Letter of June 3. and rejoice to hear of the Health and Welfare of our Friends. The County did themselves Justice, when they put you into the Senate, and the State did itself Honour when it placed Mr. Bowdoin in the Chair. I think you must be happy and prosper under his Administration. The Massachusetts, wise as it often has been, never Struck a more masterly Stroke,...
5John Adams to Richard Cranch, 14 May 1784 (Adams Papers)
I am here in anxious Expectation of the Arrival of my Family, which I hope are coming in Calahan. When I Shall have the Happiness to see you I know not, but I think it probable I Shall remain here untill I return to America, as We learn nothing of any determinations of Congress. M rs & Miss Adams will not be Sorry to have made a Trip to the Hague provided they are not obliged to Stay long, and...
6John Adams to Richard Cranch, 15 April 1786 (Adams Papers)
Can you give me any Information concerning the Persons named in the inclosed Paper? Mr Jenkinson, I presume, has, by his late Motions in Parliament, all of which are carried without opposition, convinced the People of America, that they have nothing but a ruinous Commerce to expect with England. Our Crisis is at hand, and if the states do not hang together, they might as well have been “hanged...
7From John Adams to Richard Cranch, 12 December 1785 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged to you for your judicious Letter of Oct r. 15. you have described the Causes of the present Evil with Accuracy, and the Cure is equally obvious. I mean a partial Cure— as far as the difficulty arises from Property having been thrown by the Course of the War into Hands, unable to hold it, there is no remedy but time & the Course of Law, in this respect, the present times...
8John Adams to Richard Cranch, 27 April 1785 (Adams Papers)
Last Evening, Mr. Jefferson, my worthy Friend called upon me to shew me a Letter from Mr. Gerry which came by the March Packet, in which it is said that Mr. Adams is appointed to London, so that I suppose you will have no more occasion to write to me, but in that way. It will be pleasanter in some respects to me and my Family to be in England, than in France, or Holland, but it will be more...
9John Adams to Richard Cranch, 4 July 1786 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your Favour of 20 May. The Southern States will be forced to co operate with the Middle and northern ones, in measures for encouraging Navigation, because otherwise they will not be able to obtain ships for the Exportation of their Produce. The English have not and cannot obtain Ships, at a rate cheap enough for the purpose. The Ships taken from the Dutch, French Spaniards and...
10John Adams to Richard Cranch, 10 September 1783 (Adams Papers)
I have received with very great Pleasure, your favours of June 26 and July 18. If my Townsmen of Marblehead, Salem, Cape Anne, Plymouth &c. are pleased with the Peace, I am very glad: But We have yet to Secure, if We can, the Right to carry Some of their Fish to market. This and other Things is like to detain me longer here than I expected. I do not regret this, on Account of what you Say is...
11John Adams to Richard Cranch, 3 April 1784 (Adams Papers)
Your kind Letter of 20 Jany. I received Yesterday. Mr. Tylers Letter inclosed is here answered. Your Opinion has great Weight with me. I hope to See Mrs. and Miss Adams before this reaches you. I have as yet received no Letters from them by this Vessell. They may be on the Way. By a quiet Life, riding on Horse back and constant Care I am somewhat better, but I shall never be a Strong Man. Yet...
12John Adams to Richard Cranch, 20 March 1786 (Adams Papers)
In a Letter to R. R. Livingston, Secretary of state for foreign Affairs, dated The Hague July 23. 1783, I gave him an account of Conversations with Mr. Van Berckel and others, in which I learn’d that there were in holland a great Number of Refineries of Sugar; “that all their own Sugars were not half enough to employ their Sugar Houses, and that at least one half of the sugars refined in...
13John Adams to Richard Cranch, 20 July 1787 (Adams Papers)
I have only the time to inform you, that this morning I am to Sett out, with My Wife and Daughter, with her little Son, to See your Country of Devonshire.— The air of London like that of Paris and Amsterdam, is in Summer, tainted to Such a degree, that all who can possibly get out of it; fly it, like a Pestilence. M rs Adams, has for the last nine months been affected by this Climate, with...
14From John Adams to Richard Cranch, 15 January 1787 (Adams Papers)
D r Tufts will give you a Strange Book. I know not whether, the Sentiments of it, will be approved, by the Men of Sense and Letters in America.— if they are, they will make themselves popular in time. if they are not, our Countrymen have many Miseries yet to go through. if the System attempted to be defended in those Letters, is not the System of the Wisest Men among Us, I shall tremble for...
15John Adams to Richard Cranch, 11 March 1786 (Adams Papers)
I am very much obliged to you, for your Friend Ship to my Brother Adams, and hope that his Conduct in his new office, will do no dishonour to his Appointment but he will stand in need sometimes of your Advice. Inclosed with this is a Book of my Friend Jefferson, which, you will entrust to none but faith full Friends. It is not yet to be published. We are at War with Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and...