Louisa Catherine Adams to John Quincy Adams, 5 August 1804
Louisa Catherine Adams to John Quincy Adams
Washington August 5th. 1804
My best & dearest friend
Your kind favour of the 23d arrived in due time and afforded me sincere pleasure as it contained the pleasing intelligence of the health of yourself & friends and I unite with you in prayers for its long continuance—1
Our dear children I hope & trust are recovering from the effects
of the Season although we have had little or no hot weather it has been unusually sickly & the Summer complaint has proved very fatal— George has entirely recover’d & John is much better though there appears to be two more teeth in a state of forwardness which still occasion a degree of irritability that prevents him from gaining either health flesh or strength—
The Alert has been here & sailed again but I have not yet got the things owing to the Captain having left them at Alexandria I believe they are safe but begin to be a little anxious about them as it is more than a week since the Alert arrived here I intended to have sent my mangle & Table home but the Vessel was so full Captain Smith could not take them—2
Mr. J. T. Mason has resigned his place of Attorney general of the District he is coming into Congress in the room of Mr. Heister who died here last Winter—3
I do not doubt Otis’s having acquitted himself with applause on such a subject one would think it was impossible to fail Governeur Morris falls very far short of what I expected4 I wonder you were not there whatever a mans faults may have been we should not carry resentment beyond the Grave remember my beloved friend that as we forgive so shall we be forgiven5 & the opinion of the World must be favorable when we act up to the true principles of our religion—
Adieu my best friend you must have understood my last letter I therefore need not repeat my cautions present my best respects to all I fear your Mother is offended indeed it was not my intention to offend and I hope you will try to make my appology and ever believe me your most sincere and affectionate Wife
L. C. Adams
I will thank you to send me some money
It is here said Col. B. is expected in Baltimore to fight General S. for some insult offer’d last Winter
RC (Adams Papers).
1. No letter from JQA to LCA of 23 July has been found; LCA was probably referring to JQA’s letter of 19 July, above, which concluded on the 22d and which she had received by 30 July (LCA to JQA, 31 July, Adams Papers).
2. JQA placed a small parcel of goods for LCA in the care of Capt. Azariah Smith of the schooner Alert, which cleared Boston on 12 July and arrived in Alexandria, Va., on 1 Aug. (JQA to LCA, 13 July, Adams Papers; Boston Commercial Gazette, 7 May; Boston Democrat, 14 July; Alexandria Expositor for the Country, 1 Aug.).
3. Maryland representative Daniel Hiester (b. 1747) died on 7 March. Roger Nelson filled his seat in Congress, serving from 6 Nov. until his resignation on 14 May 1810. John Thomson Mason resigned his position as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia on 5 Aug. 1804 owing to his recent move to Maryland (; , 44:189).
4. On 14 July Gouverneur Morris delivered “an extemporary Oration” at the funeral of Alexander Hamilton at Trinity Church in New York City. “I fear that instead of the language of a public speaker, you will hear only the lamentations of a bewailing friend,” Morris said. “But I will struggle with my bursting heart, to pourtray that Heroic Spirit, which has flown to the mansion of bliss.” The oration and an account of the funeral were published in the Washington, D.C., National Intelligencer, 25 July (, 26:324–25).
5. Matthew, 6:14.