1From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 16 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your Mama, and I, consent that you shall ask Doctor Nicholes’s permission to come home for the Holidays, on Tuesday; upon Condition that you will return to School after the Holidays, as cheerfully, as you now come from it. Your affectionate Father. MHi : Adams Papers.
2To John Adams from John M. Carter, 28 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
The Hon. Mr. Adams will herewith receive a volume of Col. Taylor’s Enquiry &c. on the Government of the United States—a Bill of which will be forwarded to you when a copy of the 2d Edition of Arator is sent on. — which will not be out for some weeks — The firm of J. M. & J. B. Carter, being dissolved, the business of the concern is left for settlement in the hands of Sir, / Most respectfully /...
3To John Adams from John Lathrop, 19 March 1813 (Adams Papers)
As I know you had an acquaintance with the late Dr Eliot, and I believe an affection for him, I take the liberty to Send you a discourse occasioned by his death. May we indulge any hope of peace, through a reported mediation, or an offered mediation of Russia? I should leave the world with more Satisfaction, were peace restored to my Country on honourable terms, such as those obtained in...
4To John Adams from John Pintard, 22 December 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have the honour to inform you, that at a Meeting of the New–York Historical Society, held on the twelfth day of October last you were elected an HONORARY MEMBER of that Institution. MHi : Adams Papers.
5To John Adams from John Adams Harper, 14 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
The inclosed letter was written last March, but by some accident it was mislaid, which I discovered this morning in looking over some papers.—Pray excuse my negligence— With respect & esteem / Your Obedt. Servt. MHi : Adams Papers.
6From John Adams to John Adams, 10 August 1816 (Adams Papers)
I culled a Few Flowers for George from The Andrian. I have done the Same for you here from the Step Mother, and will do the Like Soon for Charles. I Sent Georges by Mr Thatcher. A. John! Your Father and your Grandfather can attest upon Oath to a Similar Voyage in 1778. John! The Case of the Step Mother here is the Case of your Grandfather! Meditate a little upon it. MHi : Adams Papers.
7To John Adams from John Marston, 6 July 1815 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to Congratulate you on the glorious victory obtained by our little sloop of war Hornet over the Britsh Ship Penguin, which was superiour to the Hornet in size —number of m & number of guns .— With sentiments of respect & Compliments to the Ladies, Am Dear Sir Your most humble Sert MHi : Adams Papers.
8To John Adams from John M. Carter, 1 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
We take the liberty to send you by mail a copy of Arator, written by Col. John Taylor of Caroline Va.—We do this from having been lately favored by him with an extract from a letter of yours to him concerning this treatise on Agriculture, in which you express a desire to purchase the book but know not where to apply for it—This is the only copy we have unsold from a large edition as you will...
9To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 24 February 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have for many Months made it a rule, to enclose to you a Newspaper, every week, and I have intended that it never should be without at least one Letter, from myself or some one of the family, to you or my Mother—I believe this intention has never entirely failed; but it has not always been possible for me to write, myself—The reasons of this are so well known to you, that I hope they will...
10From John Adams to John Adams, 31 July 1816 (Adams Papers)
I find upon my table this morning your favour of the 7. March; and I know not whether I have ever answered it. I approve of your “eating and Sleeping and living together; of your playing Football, Crickett; running, climbinge, leaping Swimming, Skateing; and have no great Objection to your play at Marbles. These are good for your Health: but what do you do for your Mind? The Mind is of more...
11To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 29 May 1816 (Adams Papers)
It was only three days since, that Mr Prescott called out here, and left your kind favour, of 2. and 11. September last, enclosing one, from Mr Richard Sears of Chatham, concerning the subject of the fisheries—I happened at the time when Mr Prescott came, to be in London, and have not yet had the pleasure of seeing him. The question relating to the fisheries has been largely discussed between...
12To John Adams from John Marston, 29 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed is the pamphlet you were so kind as to lend me, for which I beg you to receive my thanks. I hope you will not think me reprehensible for lending it to our worthy friend Mr G. When I perceived there were marginal memoranda written by yourself, I instantly determined not to permit the pamphlet to go out of my hands, or to be seen by any person whatever. But having met Mr Gerry, and the...
13To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 12 October 1816 (Adams Papers)
I am still not only to answer, but to acknowledge the receipt of your kind Letters of 3. 10. 18. 24. and 26. July; and 4. August—all of which I had the pleasure of receiving at once by Messrs Thacher and Bigelow, who came fellow Passengers in the same vessel Mr Bigelow has been out here and dined with us—His father, the Speaker, was one year before me, at the University, where I had a...
14From John Adams to John Adams, April 1815 (Adams Papers)
I am much pleased with your Translation. The Character of Anacreon is one of the many Mysteries of Antiquity which the Researches of your whole Life will not be able to unridle. He did well to renounce the Heroes, for he either know nothing of the Sons of Atreus, of Cadmus the Theban King, or of Hercules and his twelve Labours; or if he knew any Thing, he dared not till what he know. It is...
15From John Adams to John Adams, 2 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have received two pretty Letters from you, and know not how to account for my own delay in answering either of them till this Time. That of the 21st of January is now before me, and is dated. Give my Love to your Brother, and tell him, he forgot to give any date to his. For your Comfort and Georges too, I can tell you, that you write as well as your Father did at your Age. But what a Writer...
16From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 15 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter dated the sixth of February last, and was very much delighted to see it so well written; because I know that it was written by yourself.—I have marked it down, number one, and put it upon my file—When your next letter comes, and I hope that will be soon, I shall compare the hand-writing with that of number one, and shall see what progress you make in writing. I...
17To John Adams from John Lathrop, 30 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
As I have heretofore had the honour to request your acceptance of such Discourses as my people requested me to make publick, you will permit me to request your acceptance of the One delivered on the last Thanksgiving. I hope there is nothing in it that can give disquietude to a mind purely American ; and if it shall Serve in any measure to turn the thoughts of such as may read it from party...
18To John Adams from Rev. John Disney, 14 February 1811 (Adams Papers)
I was much flattered by the receipt of your letter by Mr. Harris, which he delivered to me here on his arrival on the 2d, inst: to spend a few days at the Hyde. Your testimony would have made me hesitate question my own judgment, if I had formed any opinion contrary to your’s respecting that gentleman. But the truth is, our interview abundantly confirmed every credential he brought with him,...
19To John Adams from John M. Carter, 24 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
I send you with this letter a copy of the 2d. edition of Arator, neatly bound, together with a Bill for the two other books I sent you & this; and as I shall not have an opportunity very speedily shortly to receive payment thro’ any agent in Boston, you will be pleased to avail your own convenience to make payment—either through any representative in Congress from your State, or otherwise.— I...
20To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 6 May 1816 (Adams Papers)
I keep a constant search on foot for the books which in any of your Letters, you have expressed the desire of procuring; but the excessive prices at which all books are held, deters me sometimes from taking those that I find, and I am not always successful in finding those for which I am on the lookout.—The Translation of the New Testament by Beausobre and L’Enfant is in two Quarto Volumes,...
21To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 16 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
The flames of War, which are again spreading universally over Europe, have at length caught across the Atlantic, and involved our Country in the Conflagration—Numerous as the obstacles to a safe and speedy Communication of Correspondence between us and our friends in the United States have heretofore been they are now greatly aggravated and multiplied—We received on the 5th: of this Month, the...
22From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 11 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
The last Letter that I wrote to you, was dated the 31st: of August 1813. Almost a year ago—and as I know not whether you have received it, I enclose with this one a Copy of it—I have explained to your brother George in a Letter to him the causes which have prevented me from writing to either of you for so long a time—He will shew you his Letter, where you will find them—I now send addressed to...
23To John Adams from John Trumbull, 28 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 1st. of this Month was received by me here on the 6th. I will not attempt to express to you the feelings which were excited in my mind by its kind & approving Language—to have the approbation of the first benefactor & most eminent patriot of my Country gratifies my proudest ambition. You also will be gratified to learn that in this instance Our Country has departed from...
24To John Adams from John Langdon, 8 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 3d inst. with the sketches of the Naval History of the United States, together with Mr. Clarke’s letter; I have received for which you have my sincere thanks. Your tender allusions to my late afflictions with your kind condolence, is as balm to my bleeding heart. Permit me to say my Dear Friend, that, I am, from the heighth of human happiness, (by the afflicting stroke of...
25To John Adams from John Vaughan, 16 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
Accept of my warmest thanks for your kind letter by M. Gilman; the certainty that our old highly respected friends have not forgotten us is always grateful, & you have rendred it the more so, by the channel you have selected to communicate this token of your recollection. I have seen a Copy of your letter to D Morse which is highly satisfactory to the Society of Liberal Christian worshipping...
26To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 20 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
Mr Dallas goes off with our Dispatches at three O’Clock to-morrow morning; and the John Adams is to sail from the Texel; if possible on the 25th.—I take the last moments before his departure to enclose you a press-copy of my last, which I sent by the way of England, with some other Letters for my Mother, my brother and my Children—I expect shortly to return to St: Petersburg—Peace is to be...
27To John Adams from John Langdon, 6 December 1810 (Adams Papers)
I have been much pleased and gratified with the publication of your correspondence while in Europe. I assure you Sr. nothing could give greater satisfaction to your old revolutionary friends then to see one of the pillars of our Nation magnanimously steping forth at this all important moment in support of our happy Country. I regret that it is not in my power to express fully my sentiments, in...
28To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 30 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
“The Massachusetts election appears to agitate the Americans in Europe almost exclusively; of all the other Elections going on at the same time in many parts of the Union. I see paragraphs in the Newspapers, but hear not a syllable from any other Quarter—But American Federalists in this City have received letters from their friends in London, and in Gottenburg in high exaltation, announcing...
29To John Adams from John Langdon, 27 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
I had the honor of receiving, by the last Mail, your letter of the 24th. instant, by which I see your time, is taken up, and your mind continually on the Stretch, for the support and honor of our beloved Country. you request me to call to mind “the circumstances of a particular Transaction in the History of this Country”, to which I answer; That upon reading your correct statement, of the...
30To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 14 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
As you live in terror of my long Letters, and as the very last, I had the pleasure of writing you, was of that description, and not without a smack of orthodoxy, I shall content myself this time with a very few lines, to accompany the Sunday’s Observer and Saturday’s cheap Cobbett; for the Porpuicine to shoot his Quills with more effect has made himself cheap, and although you will know what...
31From John Adams to John Adams, 5 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
“Learn Patience of a Friend”! You think you must go to sea. Well, I have no great Objection; provided you can command yourself; and your Constitution is Strong enough to support itself in all Climates, and through all Risques But let me tell you, that to qualify yourself to be a Seaman such as Halley Rawley, Cook, Columbus &c. you must go through a course of Patient Study. You must make...
32From John Adams to John Adams, 26 May 1816 (Adams Papers)
It gives me much pleasure, to hear that you have a Taste for Numbers, because this quality or faculty, call it which you will, is commonly connected with a curiosity for Quantities, and leads to Algebraical and geometrical Studies You think you have and an Inclination for the Sea: but, my dear Child, you know not, as yet, your own Propensities. You must learn to think before you decide; to...
33To John Adams from John Taylor, 20 May 1814 (Adams Papers)
I return you with regret your pamphlet printed in 1776, in the form of a letter to a friend. The admirable outline for a militia in its 22d. page, is itself a treasure—worthy of perpetual preservation, nor do I know as good a text for a valuable political work, is afforded in that short paragraph. Had it come to my knowledge, it would have been substituted for the North Carolina letter. That,...
34To John Adams from John Taylor, 24 December 1813 (Adams Papers)
Orator, and the printed Sheets you speak of in your letter of the 12th. instant, were, as you conjecture, written by me. Orator, published in the newspapers several years past, received the form of a book for the benefit of an indigent family; and the whole edition, or near it, has been sold. The paper binding and printing were all bad, and the price high. The same people have lately...
35To John Adams from John Trumbull, 3 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
You will forgive my having so long delay’d to reply to your very kind letter of January 1st., when you know that I have waited until I could write with certainty: and I did not feel that I could do this, until I knew the decision of the house of Representatives on the agreement made with me by the President:—the passing of the Appropriation bill by that house, including a Sum on account of...
36From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 23 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
It is several months since your Mama and I have received a letter from you, or since I wrote one to you, but the last that we did receive was so handsomely written that we were much pleased to observe your progress in that part of your studies. We hope that you have been and will be not less attentive to all the others. I suppose that before this time you have begun to learn Latin and...
37To John Adams from John Adams, 4 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
Ego recepi tua epistolam a te scriptam Vigesimo tribus mensis Julii. ubi nuntius te a bombardâ matutinâ expavi actum fuisse dicis quoque tibi propinationês plamusque nullo modo placeve et frateribus mihi qua valda placent. Discipulus sum in Schola Doctoris Nicholas, ad Ealing, ubi docenti Septuaginta quisque condiscipulos habeo—Magister noster Universitatis Oxonii alumnus est, et mihi maxima...
38To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 24 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Col. Aspinwall who arrived here a few days since, and delivered to me your two kind favours of October 13th informs me that he had the pleasure of seeing you at that time and that you were then suffering with an inflamation of the eyes. Nearly at the same time my own eyes which have long been very weak were afflicted with so violent an inflamation as to threaten little less than a total...
39To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 3 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
Mr Cobbett whose political opinions, as you know have undergone some changes since he was battling it in favour of the British Government in Philadelphia, has become the great champion of Parliamentary reform; and in order to increase the number of his readers among the labouring classes of the People, he has lately had recourse to the expedient of reprinting particular numbers of his weekly...
40From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 5 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
A few days ago I received letters from your Grandmama, and your Uncle, which rejoyced me very much, for I had not before heard from them nor you for many Months; and now these letters which were dated in December last, informed us that they and you were well, which is the most delightful news we can receive—But I looked among the letters for one from your brother George or you, and was...
41From John Adams to John Adams, 3 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
I know not whether you have read Tristram Shandy, or The Sentimental Journey or the Sermons or Epistles of Stearne. I was never an enthusiastic Admirer of him, though he was amusing enough Sometimes; moral now and then; pathetic once in a while but tedious often and always Odd. I See announced, a Publication of Dr John Ferriar, of Manchester under the Title of “Illustrations of Sterne, with...
42To John Adams from John Fothergill Waterhouse, 22 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Knowing the friendship which existed between you & our Late Illustrious Prof. Rush & the exalted opinion which you mutually entertained of each other’s worth, social political & professional, I take the liberty of presenting you this tribute of respect our respect, as Students & Graduate of Med. to your excellent departed friend. I am sensible of the lively interest you take in his Memory,...
43To John Adams from John Mitchell, 1 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
A few Days since in Converseing With His Exclcy. Sir John C. Sherbrooke, He Mentioned to Me Some Letters received at the Admiralty addressed for you, & enquired of Me if I would forward them on His part: As you May presume Sir, I was happy in Offering do so.—And this Morning the Letter here with Was sent by the Provincial Secty. The Letters With My Name on the back is Transmitted here With....
44To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 19 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
On my arrival here I received from my Sons George and John, several important Letters from you. Others have since been delivered to me, the latest of them dated 1. May. The multiplicity of occupations great and small which still absorb my time make it impossible for me to answer them at present—I shall not forget them hereafter. Mr John Gore and his Lady, are returning to America in the...
45To John Adams from John Taylor, 10 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
I drop you a line to apprise you of an error in numbering your letters. Numbers 23 & 25 have been received, but no number 24.—25 is evidently the successor of 23, and ought to have been numbered 24. These letters give me great pleasure, and if I live, shall be candidly considered. They contain many observations, in which we differ and agree. They are all read under the influence of a wish to...
46To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 27 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
Since my arrival in this City I have received your kind favour of 16. October—I have now been here upwards of three weeks, waiting for the decision of the Government of the United States upon the Treaty of Peace submitted to them—This decision will I trust be known here in the course of the ensuing Month, and I shall be released from the state of suspense in which since the conclusion of the...
47From John Adams to John Adams, 22 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your capacity is as Smart and quick and ready, and retentive as any bodies. I Should not therefore be Surprised if you Should soon take a turn in your thoughts and pursuits, and outstrip both your Brothers, George and Charles in Latin and Greek, as well as in Arithmetick and Geometry. But I want to know what School You attend; where you board; who are the Masters, Proceptors Ushers Schollars;...
48From John Adams to John Adams, 27 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
I know not whether I can ever consent to your being a Sailor Boy. I have already prescribed to you Geometry, Astronomy Algebra Geography &c as one would think enough to discourage but I have still more to Suggest to you. Are you willing to go to calledge take a Degree and After that be admitted to the respectable Rank of a Midshipman? As the Czar Peter did. Are you willing to Study Homer and...
49To John Adams from John Wilson, June 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have taken the liberty of requesting your acceptance of the enclosed volume. When you see me recommending with all the powers I am capable, a new rule to explode one which already has a place in grammar, be not alarmed, Sir, I beg of you; with an apprehension that I come forward to introduce an innovation. No, Sir, the reverse is the case; my efforts are directed to explode an innovation and...
50To John Adams from John Farrar, 27 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
An unfortunate accident preventing the insertion in the Newpapers of last week of the notification for the meeting of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences it appeared only in the papers of Monday & Tuesday of this week. I came into town Monday afternoon for the purpose of sending you a note explaining the omission of seasonable public notice but had the mortification to mistake the hour of...