1From Abigail Smith Adams to John Adams Smith, 26 November 1809 (Adams Papers)
I received your Letter of the 19th. I had written you a few hasty lines by mr Beals in which I exprest my anxiety at not hearing from your Mother for a long time—the day after I received a Letter from her and found all was well with them. I was about to write to her, when I was Seazd in my Right Eye with a disorder they call an ophtheil ophthalacy, which is thus described, an inflammation in...
2From Abigail Smith Adams to John Adams Smith, 11 February 1810 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your Letter by your Aunt. altho you have not written to me before, I know you have often thought of me, and you are so constant & regular a correspondent with your Grandfather that I readily exculpate You from all neglect. I read your Letters to him with pleasure. they show a mind desirous of information, & solisitious for the truth. it is knowledge which inspires caution, as...
3From John Adams to John Adams Smith, 22 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your kind letter of Nov, might have been sooner acknowledged, if I had been younger, my eyes brighter, my fingers steadier, and if I had less writing to do, and fewer letters to answer. I have the honor to coalesse in the “consolidated” opinion of your neighbourhood, that the Presidents Message and the documents attending it do honor to the Government to the President his Ministers and...
4From John Adams to John Adams Smith, 20 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
My letter to you of 22 Decr was unacknowledged till 24 March. Yours to me of 24 March, is not to be answered, This you see is but retaliation, which in these days seems to be the law of this land & of all lands & all seas. I do not accept the lame hand as an apology—Nor is the insinuation of ambidexterity of Jefferson any ornament or seasoning to the dish to my taste. Jefferson was my friend...
5From John Adams to John Adams Smith, 15 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
I duly received your letter of 22 Ult. as the merchants express it, so frugally, To be sure, every thing in this world, if we consider only one side of it is to be lamented: because everything is imperfect. The laws and governments, the morals and religions, the customs and fashions of this low, dirty Planet, if we look at them in the abstract, view them only with our partial eyes, especially...
6From John Adams to John Adams Smith, 12 November 1812 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 4th has given me much pleasure. I rejoice that you have been admitted a Counsellor in the supreme Court of your state, in the Mayors Court of the City, and Proctor and advocate in the district Court, as well as master in Chancery. I know not the distinction between a Master and a Solicitor in Chancery. . You have the ; But can you move the world? this will depend on your...
7From John Adams to John Adams Smith, 12 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
Your ideas are accurate. The conduct of the faction now styling themselves Federalists, has in 1812 been consistent with their manœuvers in 1800.1. when they voted 37 times for Burr. I never saw Mr Clinton. By all I have heard or read, I suppose him to be a man of the World like Burr. Both, I presume, have thought themselves, all their lives, in pursuit of honour. Ambition and Avarice, as a...
8From John Adams to John Adams Smith, 1 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
Though the Thirteenth year of the nineteenth century has made its Debutt, yet as the sun has not and I am obliged to light a candle, to make you the compliments of the season As the American name is uppermost of all earthly things in my thoughts at present I shall just inform you that last evening I had the exalted pleasure to see the President sail majestic up the Harbour and come to Anchor...
9From John Adams to John Adams Smith, 7 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
I congratulate you on the elections but hesitate on the causes you assign: I know not what is meant by the Policy of the war. Have we just and righteous causes of war against G Britain? Is the war necessary for the defence of our rights? if you answer these questions in the affirmative, it necessarily follows that the war is politick. If you say it was impolitick to declare war with so little...
10From John Adams to John Adams Smith, 1 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter of January and read it over and over again with pleasure, because I think I discern in it, the marks of a good heart and of a mind awake; I should fill a volume, if I should attempt to commit to paper all the new recollections and reflections which your letter has excited in my mind. Your Fathers Election if his health is preserved will be an event of importance. No...