31Thomas Boylston Adams to Joseph Dennie Jr., 16 March 1799 (Adams Papers)
Since I invited you to a correspondence, and you have not declined it, I should think repentance in the very threshold of the undertaking an unfair desertion from a cause in which I embarked as a volunteer. The offer to contribute by some occasional communications to the supply of the farmers Museum was rather an evidence of my zeal for its success, than of any ability to afford the...
32Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 18 April 1799 (Adams Papers)
I arrived here safely yesterday forenoon, after an agreeable, though rather tardy passage from New-Port, which place we left on Sunday noon. During my stay at Newport, I visited fort Wolcott, being acquainted with Lieut t Ross of Pennsylvania who is stationed there. Major Toussard had the politeness to accompany me, and I was much pleased with the appearance of discipline & military decorum...
33Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 17 May 1799 (Adams Papers)
I left Philadelphia the 9 th: inst t: and after passing a few days very pleasantly at Baltimore in the society of M r: Johnsons family & that of Mrs: John Smith, came to this place where I had the satisfaction to meet M r: Cranch in tolerable health & spirits. I have been received & treated with uncommon hospitality and politeness in both these places, from the first characters, and as no...
34Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 21 May 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your friendly & excellent letters of the 1 st: & 10 inst t: have reached me at this place, where I arrived the night before last, having passed a few days at Baltimore & Annapolis on my way. My tour has hitherto been highly pleasing to me, and should it conclude as it began, I shall not regret having made it; indeed a more favorable moment could not have occurred, since had I remained in...
35Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 3 June 1799 (Adams Papers)
On my journey through this place, about a fortnight since, I wrote you a few lines by a vessel bound to Bremen; on returning here I find another ready to sail for the same place, and I have found a moment to give you a little sketch of my journey, which though not long has been a very pleasant one. After passing a few days here, I went to Annapolis, where the Supreme Court of the State was...
36Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 9 June 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your kind favor of the 2 d: inst t: found me as you conjectured at Philadelphia, fixed in my lodgings & in possession of my Office, which however is too far removed from the Court house & the seat of business. I was unwilling to give up the advantage of living in the family where I am, because in case of the fever appearing in the City, the same lady has a place of her own at Germantown to...
37Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 21 June 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have your favor of the 15 th: inst t: and thank you for your kind solicitude respecting my health, which is just passable and no more— The extremes of heat & cold have a sensible effect upon my Constitution, and though I am tolerably free from rheumatics and faintness, yet I have the old complexion, with a tinge of yellow less perhaps than when I left you. My feverish habit still hangs about...
38Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 29 June 1799 (Adams Papers)
I am favored with your’s of the 23 d: inst t: and the enclosures—one of which is herewith returned. The Lieutenant Governor’s address is quite equal to my expectations, and there is little doubt with me, that he will rise a peg higher, merely, or chiefly because the people would not be united in any man of more capacity and talents. If any considerable interval take place prior to a new...
39Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 6 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have your favor of the 30 th: ult o before me, and thank you for your tender solicitude on account of my health, for which however I think you need not be particularly solicitous, since I am, excepting a few sensations peculiar to the climate of this City at this season, as well as usual; in addition to which I am on the point of leaving town for some weeks to reside at Germantown in the...
40Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 8 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your’s of the 2 d: is in hand, with the enclosures, which receive thanks. I am sorry you dislike short letters, because I shall make a excuse therefrom for writing more seldom & only when I have matter enough to fill my paper on all sides. Against this I am sure you will protest & on second reflection, will prefer frequent brevity, to scarce prolixity. Among my brothers books you will find...
41Thomas Boylston Adams to Joseph Pitcairn, 13 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
I address you again after a short interval from the date of my last, having little more to say than that hitherto we are all in health, which I doubt not you will be glad to learn. We have had several attempts to conjure up the yellow fever among us, and I have no doubt that cases of it have already occurred, for towards the close of the last & beginning of the current month the weather was...
42Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 14 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
If it be only to thank you for your favor of the 7 th: I will devote an minute previous to the meeting of Court; I thank you also for the Walpole paper, which entertains and delights me more than any of the literary productions of the Country. If there were an Editor here of the same taste as the Walpole Bard, I should sometimes indulge an itching which besets me for scribling— I know not...
43Thomas Boylston Adams to William Cranch, 15 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have scarcely heard of you since my return excepting once through M r: Johnson, and as I had nothing interesting to communicate, I have deferred it till now, when an occasion seems to authorise it. On the removal of the Seat of Government to the City, the Office of Clerk of the Sup: Court of U. S. will most probably become vacant, as the present incumbent, M r: Sam: Bayard, has since his...
44Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 21 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favor of the 15 th: inst t: which reached me yesterday at this place, where I have been since the 15 th: and where notwithstanding your kind invitation & advice, I expect to continue until it shall be clearly ascertained whether the pestilential fever is to prevail or not in the City this season. I am out of the way of danger, if any should exist; and before the expiration...
45Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 29 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
I am in possession of your favor of the 21 st: inst t: with the letter of my brother enclosed; they were both very acceptable and I return the enclosure with thanks for the perusal— I hope shortly to receive the letter, which he mentions having written me on the subject of his affairs; though I think they are in as good & safe a train as any disposition I could make of them— I have written an...
46Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 29 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
The 26 th: inst t: brought me yours of the 18 th: & the 28 th: that of the 21 st: with accompanyments— Accipe gratias et incepto permanete. You anticipated my request to be informed of how the rituals were this year performed at Alma mater. I am, among other pursuits, attempting to renew my acquaintance with school & College books, for which I own I had little relish while they occupied me as...
47Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 8 August 1799 (Adams Papers)
As I am in the City for a few days, you may wish me to write rather oftener than usual, to convince you that I am not ill. The weather since the month of June has been generally more than commonly favorable for this climate— it still continues so, and we begin to flatter ourselves that the City may escape the afflicting scourge it has heretofore experienced. The mortality which lately...
48Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 August 1799 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your kind letter of the 4 th: inst t: which came to hand last evening, accompanied by one from D r: Tufts, enclosed by William. My letters are left usually at M r: Wistar’s and Sarah when she gave me those of last evening—say’s “Thomas, I expect I have got a rich treat for thee; from the number of packets addressed to thee, I should judge thee a favorite among thy friends”— I...
49Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 23 August 1799 (Adams Papers)
I received your agreeable birth day tribute the day following the date of my last; since then the deadly pestilence has burst forth again with ten fold violence & every part of the City is more or less infected. The inhabitants are flying in every direction & not a room is left unoccupied at Germantown. I go there but seldom. The Banks & other public Offices are soon expected. New York, we...
50Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 26 August 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have no letter from you later than the 4 th: which I mention only because the interval is a little longer than usual between your communications and lest any you might have written may have miscarried. From William I got a packet on Saturday, after my letter of that day was sent to town, otherwise, I should have acknowledged its receipt. In J Russells paper of the 15 th: which he enclosed...
51Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 30 August 1799 (Adams Papers)
I enclose, as directed, under cover to you, the Summary statement of services rendered at an important & critical period of our Country’s affairs, by an intelligent, brave, & deserving Officer. I think it an hardship that such merit & such services are so soon obliterated from the recollection or so much out of the knowledge of Gentlemen now in Office, that a statement under the hand of the...
52Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 8 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have your favor of the 31 st: ult o: with an enclosure for R. Peters Jun r: which shall be delivered as soon as an opportunity of sending it, presents— I have not yet found means to forward the last enclosure you made me—which is rather the effect of misfortune than neglect, though you doubtless will think I have no excuse for being nine weeks within 3 miles of the Bishops, without having...
53Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
On the 11 th: inst t: I received your favor of the 4 th: and last evening, on my return from Mr: Breck’s Country seat, where I passed Friday & Saturday night’s, your’s of the 8 th: had come to hand. Same time, rec d: from William the poem you sent me for Miss Wister & his letter of the 6 th: I am obliged by all these things & newspapers to boot. Coopers address, valedictory, I now remember to...
54Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 22 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
I received your obliging & copious communication of the 13 th: and render thanks for the trouble you have taken to explain a subject, which had excited my curiosity & interested my feelings, but which, without your aid, I should have been unable to comprehend to my satisfaction. I think it necessary only to observe in reply, that I fully concur in the opinion of the rectitude, propriety &...
55Thomas Boylston Adams to William Cranch, 24 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your favor of the 19 th: inst t: is before me, with the enclosure for Judge Cushing, which I shall forward with my next letters to Quincy, with request to have it sent on. The terms & expressions of your application, strike me as perfectly apt & proper. Judge Cushing, was taken ill on his journey to Philadelphia, and returned home, but the Court met & dispatched business as usual. I waited on...
56Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 26 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your very kind favor of the 14 th: inst t: has a claim upon my gratitude, not only for the obliging wish it conveys, that I should become one of your family, on your return to Philadelphia, but also for the flattering opinion, you are pleased to express, on the subject of my letters & classical taste. I shall make no scruple to accept the invitation to dwell under the same roof with my...
57Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 13 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
I must beg you to congratulate the President & yourself from me, on your safe arrival in our neighborhood. Your journey was, I apprehend, more favorable in point of weather than my mother’s is likely to be, for we have had very heavy rains & dull skies all the last week more or less— Even on Tuesday, the all important 8 th: , of October, big with the fate of Pennsylvania, we had in the morning...
58Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 15 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your favors of the 5 th: & 7 th: curr t came in course, and I am much indebted to you for the disposition you made of the letters, which arrived, after my father’s departure. I have lately rec d: several European letters & pamphlets & ought to have received another with the letter you enclosed me from M r: Pitcairn, in which he desires particular respects to you. He acknowledges the receipt of...
59Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 15 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your favor of the 12 th: instant came to hand this morning, and I am greatly obliged by the kind invitation it contains to join you & my cousin at Trenton, which it would give me great pleasure to do immediately, but for the desire I feel of procuring an office in to which I may enter immediately on my return to the City. The inhabitants are daily flocking to town, but I have not thought it...
60Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 22 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favors of the 17 th: & 19 th: instants and take the first moment of leisure, that has occurred, since their receipt, to acknowledge gratefully these fresh instances of parental solicitude respecting my personal concerns. I shall reply without reserve to your last letter, which relates more immediately to my professional prospects. I have always been persuaded of the...