1From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 29 July 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your kind favor of the 14th of this month, was very gratifying to me. Nothing can be more interesting then the account which it gives of the Presidents visit to Boston and the vicinity. The letter from Mr Adams which you were so good as to enclose, I have to apologize for not returning sooner. I desire to thank you for the opportunity afforded me of perusing it. There is an impressive wisdom...
2From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 2 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am to thank you for the kind wishes contained in your favor of the 24. of last month. You have often, indeed, gratified and flattered me by similar ones, and I feel how much I owe to your over partiality. The appointment of Mr Adams gives, as far as I can ascertain, the highest satisfaction. If ever a citizen of our country owed his elevation to the solid merits of his own character, your...
3From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 4 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
Some time in the early part of last month, I had the pleasure to write you a letter in answer to your favor of the 24th of March. The mail is so true that it never occurs to us to doubt the safe arrival of a letter when we know that it has been safely lodged in the post office; nor did that which I wrote leave any thing suspended leading me to look for an answer. My only reason for thus...
4From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
The President yesterday received a letter from Mr Adams, in which he mentions his acceptance of his late appointment, and that he expected to embark in the course of the present month. The letter is dated on the 19th of April. In the possible event of this information not having reached you by the same vessel, I hasten to communicate it, offering my renewed congratulations to yourself and Mr...
5From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am very happy that you have favored me with a letter respecting Mr Smith. It increases the interest that I before took in his situation. I will not permit myself to believe that any recollections are cherished to his disadvantage, on account of that portion of his conduct as a youth to which you have alluded. It would not be simply unkind, but unjust. It would be cruel. I took great pleasure...
6To John Adams from Richard Rush, 26 February 1822 (Adams Papers)
I must insist upon it, notwithstanding the authority of your veto, that the subject is truly a noble one for the painter. A great patriarch, one of the chief founders of his country’s liberties, the steady advocate of her rights at the courts of foreign potentates as well as in all departments at home, is permitted by a kind Providence to live as it were into posterity, beholding the vast...
7To John Adams from Richard Rush, 4 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
Out of the circle of your own family, there are none who can feel more sorrow at the heavy affliction that has fallen upon you than we do here. We heard the melancholy news two days ago. “What exalted and long-tried excellence, exclaimed my wife, has gone to the tomb.” “As soon as my confinement was over,” she continued, “I had intended that my first letter, after one to my own mother, should...
8To John Adams from Richard Rush, 2 May 1818 (Adams Papers)
An old Scotch woman, in North-Shields, signing herself Ann Hewison, has sent me a manuscript Quarto of what she calls extracts from the diary of William Langborn, an American officer, kept during his travels through several parts of Europe. I copy, word for word, the following passages. London July 18. 1786. “Saturday—Did myself the pleasure, agreeably to yesterdays invitation, of dining with...
9To John Adams from Richard Rush, 9 February 1821 (Adams Papers)
Since I read in the newspapers the address which you delivered in November to the convention of Massachusetts, as President of that body, the scene has been so often before my eyes, that I can no longer remain silent. As a political incident, its character is memorable. If I could forget the scene of general Washington surrendering up his sword at Annapolis, I should say that it was the finest...
10To John Adams from Richard Rush, 30 September 1821 (Adams Papers)
Your life will never cease to be useful to your country. In spite of yourself, in spite of your years, you will always belong to it. The incident, from alluding to which I could not refrain in my letter of February, has been followed up by another scarcely of less interest, and which perhaps may one day produce effects still more worthy to be noted. I mean, Sir, the address to the cadets,...