1From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 30 July 1807 (Adams Papers)
Had I really been disgusted and mortified at my Treatment by Congress which in fact I was not, but was Satisfied as Soon as it was explained to me, the mortification would have been more than compensated by the Commissions I received on the fourth of November, 1779 unquestionably the more confidential Commissions that Congress had ever issued. The Commission to General Washington as Commander...
2From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 24 May 1786 (Adams Papers)
I this day received your Favour of April 8 th , and Sincerely condole with you under the Loss of your amiable son. These Afflictions are the Lot of Humanity and so little of the System of which We are a Part is Submitted to our View, that as We never can discover the Reasons of them, they are left only to our Reflections and Submission. My Situation, would be eligible, to the Heighth of my...
3From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 12 December 1785 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged to you for your Letter and refer you to General Warren for what respects your son.— You suppose my present situation to be eligible and I confess it.— I have it in my Power here to enjoy the Society of Persons of great Worth, and if I please of high Rank, and if our publick Affairs here went well, I should not desire a better situation. but they do not. A Lady, who was born...
4From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 8 January 1776 (Adams Papers)
Your Friend insists upon my Writing to you, and altho I am conscious it is my Duty, being deeply in Debt for a number of very agreable Favours in the Epistolary Way, yet I doubt whether a sense of this Duty would have overcome, my Inclination to Indolence and Relaxation, with which my own Fire Side always inspires me, if it had not been Stimulated and quickened by her. I was charmed with three...
5From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 15 August 1807 (Adams Papers)
In order to give you all the Authentic Documents necessary to explain the Remarks I have made upon your History, I have omitted to give you Copies of one or two Commissions which I intended to have transcribed in their Places. One of them is in these Words. The United States of America in Congress assembled To all to whom these Presents Shall come Send Greeting. Whereas these United States,...
6From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 25 November 1775 (Adams Papers)
I had the Pleasure of yours of Novr. 4th several Days ago. You know Madam, that I have no Pleasure or Amusements which has any Charms for me. Balls, Assemblies Concerts Cards, Horses, Dogs, never engaged any Part of my attention or Concern. Nor am I ever happy in large and promiscuous Companies. Business alone, with the intimate unreserved Conversation of a very few Friends, Books, and...
7From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 15 March 1775 (Adams Papers)
I thought myself greatly honoured, by your most polite and agreable Letter of January the thirtieth; and I ought to have answered it, immediately: but a Variety of Cares and Avocations, at this troublesome Time, which I confess are not a justification of my Negligence, as they were the real Cause of it, will with your goodness of Disposition be allowed as an Excuse. In requesting my opinion,...
8From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 19 August 1807 (Adams Papers)
“Pride of Talents and much Ambition were undoubtedly combined in the Character of the President, who immediately Succeeded General Washington” and these are represented as the most prominent features of his Character. Vol. 3. p. 393. Permit me Madam to ask the favour of you, to point out the Act or Word, which appeared to you to evince this Pride of Talents. I know not that I ever felt any...
9From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 6 May 1785 (Adams Papers)
My Son would go home, very improperly without a Letter to M rs Warren, whose Virtues and Accomplishments his Father has so long admired. The Time is at length come in which the United States of America are to have a Minister at the Court of Great Britain. a time foretold by the Prophets and Seers, and Dreamers of Dreams but never, untill very lately Stedfastly believed by any to be so near at...
10From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 31 October 1775 (Adams Papers)
I received, this day with great Pleasure your Favour of the Twelfth and fourteenth Instant —and was the more gratified with it, because it was dated from Watertown, where I wish my excellent Friend very constantly to reside, for the good of the Public and where consequently I wish you to be, because his Happiness will be promoted by it. The Graces and the Muses, will always inhabit with such...
11From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 29 January 1783 (Adams Papers)
Your Favour of the 25 of October never reached me till to day, but it has given me great Pleasure as your Letters always do.— I was disappointed however in finding no Line from M r Warren except the Superscription of yours. I assure you, Madam, what I Said about certain Annals was no Sarcasm. I have the Utmost Veneration for them, although I never was honoured with a Sight of any of them. Let...
12From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 26 December 1790 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday I had the pleasure of receiving your favour of September the 24 th with an elegant copy of your poems dramatic and miscellaneous; for both which I pray you to accept my best thanks It is but a few days since we received three other copies addressed to me but without a letter or any other indication from whom or whence they came. As we were subscribers for the publication these might...
13From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 10 September 1783 (Adams Papers)
It is but a very few days, Since I received your Letter of the 4. of May, which affored me, as your Letters always do, a delicious Entertainment. Your friendly Congratulations, on the Success of my feeble Efforts, are very agreable to me, and very obliging. You Say that I shall never retire, till weary Nature diminishes my Capacity of acting in dignified difficulty.— Give me leave to say, that...
14From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 26 September 1775 (Adams Papers)
Your Favour, by my Friend Collins, never reached me till this Evening. At Newport, concluding to go by Water, he put it into the Post office, least it Should meet with a Fate as unfortunate as Some others. I call them unfortunate after the manner of Men for, altho they went into Hands which were never thought of by the Writer, and notwithstanding all the unmeaning Noise that has been made...
15From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 9 December 1780 (Adams Papers)
It is not long Since I received your Favour of the 24 of July—and a wandering unsettled Life, have prevented me hitherto from answering it. Be assured Madam that my Friends are not so good Correspondents as you think them. You may almost always take it for granted that I am uninformed, and that every Piece of Information from home will be agreable and Usefull to me. I wish Success to the Act...
16From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 2 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
I send you a curiosity. Mr M Kean, is mistaken in a day or two, the final vote of Independence, after the last debate, was passed on the 2nd or third of July, and the declaration prepared, and signed on the 4th: What are we to think of history? when in less than 40 years, such diversities appear in the memories of living persons, who were witnesses. After noting what you please, I pray you to...
17From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 1 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
Permit one to enclose to you a Packet from my old Friend Governor M Kean: and a dialogue of the dead. The latter was the effusion of a musing moment of an evening at Richmond Hill when Congress sat at N York in 1789 immediately after the arrival of the news of Dr Franklins death. Searching last Sunday among a heap of forgotten rubbish for another paper, It struck my eye. After you shall have...
18From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 27 July 1807 (Adams Papers)
In the 131 and 132 page of the first Volume of your History, you are pleased to say that John Adams, one of the Negatived Counsellors a Barrister at Law of rising Abilities, his Appearance on the Theatre of Politicks commenced at this Period, that is in 1774. This is of very little Importance, and would not be worthy of much Attention if it did not dis betray a Malignity of heart and a...
19From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 3 January 1775 (Adams Papers)
I remember, that Bishop Burnet in a Letter he once wrote to Lady Rachell Russell the virtuous Daughter of the great Southampton, and unfortunate Wife of Lord Russell who died a Martyr to English Liberties, Says “Madam I never attempt to write to you but my Pen conscious of its Inferiority falls out of my Hand.” The polite Prelate did not write to that excellent Lady in so bold a figure with...
20From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 3 August 1807 (Adams Papers)
In your third Volume page 169, you say that “on the twenty Second of April 1782, Mr. Adams was admitted at the Hague and with the Usual Ceremonies received as Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America. ” This mistake of a few days in Chronology is Scarcely worth a Remark, but I suppose you would wish to be correct. It was on the Nineteenth day of April, not the twenty Second....
21From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 14 February 1791 (Adams Papers)
By the last post I received your letter of January 17 th , and was as much surprised at the information that my last letter to you arrived unsealed, as you could be at the receipt of it. It was most certainly no intention of mine that it should have gone unsealed; nor can I account for the fact. My conjecture is that the person, one of my sons who copied into my letterbook, either...
22From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 17 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have certified in the book in the Atheneum that to my certain Knowledge, The Group was written by Mrs: Warren. Your polite invitation to Plymouth, is esteemed as an effusion of friendship, ancient and modern: But three score and nineteen years have reduced me to the Situation, the temper and humour of Mr. Selden, who Clarendon Say’s, would not have Slept out of his own bed, for any office...
23John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 13 December 1784 (Adams Papers)
Your Favour of the 1 st. of June, has not, I fear been answered. I have indeed been very happy ever Since I received it. I live here, on a kind of Pens Hill. It is a Village, remarkable for the Residence of Dauguesseau, Boileau, Molliere and Helvetius, and for nothing else. I choose it merely for my Health, as my Constitution is not able to Sustain, the nauseous Air of a great City. Amsterdam...
24From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 8 August 1807 (Adams Papers)
More demonstrations of your Friendship for Mr Adams appear in the 229 page of the third Volume. The Same disposition to wink him out of Sight, to represent him in an odious light, to lessen and degrade him below his Station, which runs through every part of your history in which he appears, is very visible here again. “Mr John Adams had left Holland and joined the Plenipotentiaries of the...
25From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 9 March 1807 (Adams Papers)
My Answer to Mrs Warrens Question Shall be as prompt and frank as hers can be to mine Napoleones Maker alone can tell all that he was made for, And it would take a Sheet of Paper for me to explain all that I think he was made for. But in general Napoleone was made I will not say made but permitted for a Cat with o’ nine tails, to inflict ten thousand Lashes on the back of Europe, as a divine...
26From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 30 August 1803 (Adams Papers)
I received, with much pleasure, late, the last evening your kind Letter of the 28th. of the month, and Should have answered it Sooner if it had come earlier to my hand We have been in great affliction in this Family for more than three months, on account of the dangerous illness of your Friend my Companion, on whose preservation all my hopes of Comfort in this World, Seem to be Suspended. An...
27From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 16 April 1776 (Adams Papers)
Not untill Yesterdays Post, did your agreable Favour of March the Tenth, come to my Hands. It gave me great Pleasure and altho in the distracted Kind of Life, I am obliged to lead, I cannot promise to deserve a Continuance of So excellent a Correspondence yet I am determined by Scribbling Something or other, be it what it may, to provoke it. The Ladies I think are the greatest Politicians,...
28From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 17 August 1807 (Adams Papers)
In the 306 page of your first Volume there are certain Traits that I had overlooked. “Richard Henry Lee Esq. was the first who dared explicitly to propose a Declaration of Independence. The Proposal Spread a Sudden dismay. A Silent Astonishment, Seemed to prevade the Assembly” &c. These Expressions, Madam, could only have arisen from Misinformation, or perhaps I shall express myself more...
29From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 3 August 1779 (Adams Papers)
A few days ago, I was favoured with your obliging Letter of 29 July, and am much obliged to the Gentleman who perswaded you to write, as well as to you, for complying with his Desire. I shall never have So many Correspondents as to make me neglect the Letters of a Lady, whose Character I revere so much and whose Correspondence I prize so highly. I have had the Pleasure of two Let ters, at...
30From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 26 August 1775 (Adams Papers)
I have been, the happiest Man, these two Days past, that I know of, in the World. I have compared myself, in my own Mind, with all my Friends, and I cannot believe any of them So blest as myself. In the first Place, Rest, you know, is Rapture, to a weary Man; and I was quite weary enough to enjoy a state of Rest for a Day or two in all its Perfection; accordingly, I have Slept, by the best...
31From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 24 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
If weak Eyes and weaker fingers had not requird more time to write a Line than was once necessary for a page, I should sooner have aprissed my Sincere Sympathy with you and your whole Family on the loss of your amiable Grand Child. We who have lost all our Ancestors and Collaterals and Several of our Children and Grandchildren well know the pungency of Grief in younger Life under Such tender...
32From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 24 November 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have been much to blame for neglecting to acknowledge your obliging favour of Sept 12th. I am very much obliged for your civilities to my wife; my Son, Colonel Smith and my Grandaughters. My Girls have long expressed an earnest desire to see Madam Warren, and have been highly gratified by their visit and very grateful for the kind hospitality; the social enjoyments, and instructive...
33From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 29 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
A little before my departure from Braintree I received your favour inclosing a letter from M rs Walker. last night I received that of the 7 th May There was no necessity of any apology for writing to me after so long a correspondence there has never been on my part any failure of friendship to M r Warren or yourself— you are very much mistaken in your opinion of my situation. I have neither...
34From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 11 July 1807 (Adams Papers)
As it is neither consistent with my Principles, Disposition or habits, upon any misunderstanding with an ancient Friend, to conceive Resentment and hostility to be changed into an Enemy, I shall still continue my old Style of address to Mrs. Warren. I have read much if not all your history of the Rise Progress and termination of the American Revolution. I am not about to write a review of it....
35From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 18 December 1778 (Adams Papers)
A few days ago I had the Pleasure of your obliging letter of the 15 of October. It came by the Post, and single, not a line from any other Person, so that I know not by what means it reach’d L’orient. It was not, however the less welcome to me, its intrinsic Excellence, would have recommended it, whoever had written it. The Merit of the writer would have made it dear to me if the Letter itself...
36From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 2 March 1789 (Adams Papers)
Your friendly Letter of the third and twentieth of February, I did not receive till Saturday last. To your Friend, who has now been returned from N. York these five Weeks, I have delivered your inclosed Letter as desired.— She will acknowledge the Receipt of it, and transmit you the Compliments of her fellow Travellers.— our Correspondence has had a short Interruption, it is true, as all...
37From John Adams to Mercy Warren, 25 December 1787 (Adams Papers)
The Sack of Rome, has So much Merit in itself that for the honour of America, I Should wish to See it acted on the Stage in London before crouded Audiences. The Dedication of it does so much honour to me, that I should be proud to see it in print even if it could not be acted. I have shown it, in discreet confidence to Several good Judges, but least their opinion might not be Satisfactory I...
38From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 20 July 1807 (Adams Papers)
In the 392 Page of the third Volume of your History you say that “After Mr Adams’s return from England, he was implicated, by a large portion of his Countrymen, as having relinquished the Republican System, And forgotten the Principles of the American Revolution, which he had advocated for near twenty years.” I am somewhat at a loss for the meaning of the Word implicated in this place. If it...
39From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 15 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I thank you Madam for your obliging Letter of the 10th whether my life shall be Spared to se the restoration of peace, is a question which I cheerfully submit to him whose right it is to decide it. The severe threats of “our old inveterate enemy” have been habitually so familiar to you and me, from the year 1760, ie. for 54 years at least: that they excite less terror in us, than in the puny...
40From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 28 July 1807 (Adams Papers)
In the 135th. Page of your Second Volume, you State that in 1778 Mr John Adams of the State of Massachusetts was chosen to Succeed Mr Deane as Commissioner in behalf of the United States at the Court of France: an inaccuracy however of so little importance that it was Scarcely worth a Correction. In the 139th. page you say that within a few Months after Congress made a new Arrangement of...