Often in this Vale of Tears, My Dear Nephew, & Niece, are we called to sympathize with each other, under the bereaving Dispensations of Heaven—It is the pleasing melancholly Office of Humanity, Friendship, & Affection. Yes! in affliction, I have experienced how grateful is the benign, interested aspect—how soothing to the swoln Heart, is the soft Eye of Pity, & the calm, gentle voice, of kind...
Received Quincy 9th Feby 1810 of T. B Adams Twenty-five Dolls and fifty Cents in full for One quarter’s interest due upon J Q. Adams’s Note due the first instant. $25.50 MHi : Adams Papers.
3From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 4 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
Since the original of my last letter was written, I have received no letters from America, but there are newspaper Accounts and letters to other persons untill late in May—Universal War seems to be blazing out all at once—Here it has already commenced— I had indulged a faint hope that the tragical catastrophe which terminated the days of Spencer Perceval, was intended by Providence in Mercy to...
About 9. O’Clock this Morning we spoke a fishing Schooner from the Grand Bank, belonging and bound to Plymouth—We were in the midst of a thick fog, as we have indeed been most of the time since you left us, and still are. The Schooner was within g speaking distance when we first spied her, and our Captain had barely time to ask them on their arrival to give notice of their having seen us. So I...
5From James Madison to Thomas Boylston Adams, 5 July 1810 (Adams Papers)
I have recd. the two Volumes of Lectures on Rhetoric & Oratory by your brother J. Q. Adams Esqr. Having not had an opportunity of perusing them, I can only return my thanks through you, and anticipate the pleasure promised by the application of his talents & taste to those interesting subjects. Accept my friendly respects MHi : Adams Papers.
6From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 24 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
It is probable that the opportunity by which I now write you, will be the last that I shall have of dispatching letters to America through Sweden before the return of the navigable Season here— It is the seventh occasion of which I have availed myself since the close of the last Season— But the Gentlemen who went from hence in October, November, and even the first part of December, for...
7From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 2 February 1811 (Adams Papers)
By turning to my files I perceive, that the last Letter I have received from you, is dated the 7th: of May last, and that it was answered by me, on the 27th: October—I have since then written several times to my mother, and should have written as frequently to you, had the opportunities of writing occurred, or had a different subject for writing presented itself by the same opportunities.—But...
8From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 23 October 1810 (Adams Papers)
It was a fortunate circumstance for us, that Mr. Jones had so prosperous and so expeditious a voyage and Journey—In sixty days after he went out to Quincy, to take my Mothers and your wifes letters for us, he delivered them into our hands—As they brought us the gratifying intelligence that all our friends were then well, it gave us not only the pleasure which such tidings must always bring...
9From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 27 October 1810 (Adams Papers)
On the principle of returning a separate answer or reply to every letter that I receive from you, I remain yet one in arrears to you, since in my last I acknowledged the receipt of two—dated 27. March and 7. May. With the last dated but first received of these came the number of the Anthology containing the most learned Critique upon my Lectures—It reminded me of a famous Speech of which I...
10From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 17 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
You will recollect that some time in the year 1799—or 1800, while I was at Berlin, a Mr: Charles Engel sent you a power of Attorney, and a large claim upon a house of Mark and Company, which I believe some time before that, had failed at New-York. Very soon after my arrival here, I received from this Mr. Engel two letters, one of which had been written in January 1809, and sent to America,...
11From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 29 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
At length after an interval of five months and seven days, since that when your last preceding letter came to hand, I have this morning enjoyed the pleasure of receiving your’s of 24. September—It is more than six months old; but as it is dated two months later than any letter that I had yet received from Quincy, it was as welcome and almost as grateful as if it had come with the speed of a...
12From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 7 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
By the arrival of Messrs: Gallatin and Bayard, I have had the pleasure of receiving your favour of 25. April last, numbered 28/19— Your last preceding letter, dated 6. Decr: 1812 has the same numbers; and in the interval between the two I have received the duplicate of your Account for the year 1811.—dated 2: March 1813.—The Account for 1812 I am still expecting, and regret that it missed both...
13From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 31 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
My last letter to you was of 14. November since which I have not had a line from you, nor indeed from any of my friends in America— The second year has passed away since I received last best account of my affairs in your hands. The intervals between my own letters to you, insensibly lengthen—It shall not be so if any thing should ever occur, the information of which can give you pleasure. The...
14From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 23 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
Mr. W. Story, arrived at Gothenburg on the 28th: of last Month, and forwarded to me from that place several Letters from Quincy, among which was your N. 25/16 May 7. 1812. and 30/21 May 21. and July 1. 1813.—In this last I read thus “With my present letter I shall forward a copy of our Current account, under a separate cover &c.” I looked anxiously for the separate cover, for reasons which I...
15From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 20 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
Since I wrote you last, I have had no letter from you, or indeed from any person in the United States. The Embargo, and the Declaration of War, have effectually superseded all arrivals here directly from America. To this general fact there is an exception occasioned by the Declaration of War itself.—A Pilot Boat was on the 22d of June dispatched from New York by certain Merchants of that City...
16From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 28 October 1809 (Adams Papers)
At length, after eighty days of tedious and dangerous navigation, we are all safely landed at the place of our destination—I have written to you twice upon our passage—first, from the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, and once in the Cattegat, the night before we expected to arrive at Elseneur—From that time, I shall now continue the narrative of our voyage, which though address’d to you, is for all...
17From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 16 November 1809 to 28 November 1809 (Adams Papers)
My last Letter brought our good Ship Horace to anchor safe in the Road of Elseneur—on the 28th: of September.—At that place we were detained a full week, by adverse winds—Having been informed upon my landing there, that the king of Denmark, and his principal Minister, Count Bernstorff, were both absent from Copenhagen, I gave up, in the first instance the intention of going thither—But having...
18From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 28 April 1812 (Adams Papers)
The only notice of existence directly from yourself that I have received since your letter of 2. June 1811. is by a scrap of half a dozen lines dated 5. January last which I received together with a letter of the same date from my Mother, by the way of Paris— This scrap was also enclosed with three or four newspapers, and short as it was gave me great pleasure— The letter which it mentions as...
19From Mercy Otis Warren to Thomas Boylston Adams, 17 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
Your very friendly and very afflictive Letter reach’d me this day just as I was sitting down to take the repast of the dining hour—it was received by me just as might be expected by yourself, your Parents, the children, and the husband of the dear deceased, who are all well acquainted, with my affection for your departed Sister, from her earliest youth.—It is not a moment when I can say much...
20From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 10 April 1811 (Adams Papers)
You observe in your letter of 24 September last, that my Son George was losing much of his french conversation idiom, that is, precisely one of the things upon which I had most earnestly set my heart, in his education. Walter Shandy Esqr was of opinion that there was a great, and mysterious virtue in the name given to a child—He intended to call his son Trismegistus, and the name which above...
21From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 24 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I avail myself of the opportunity by Mr: Gallatin and Mr Bayard, who have concluded upon their departure to offer you my affectionate remembrance on the entrance of the New Year and the assurance of my Prayers to Heaven that it may be propitious to the comfort and happiness of yourself and all your family— and that it may be succeeded by many many others of pleasantness and peace for you all....
22From Abigail Smith Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 7 August 1810 (Adams Papers)
Received Quincy August 7th: 1810 of Thomas B Adams the sum of twenty-five Dollars and fifty Cents in full for one Quarter’s interest in J Q Adams’s Note of hand. $25:50 MHi : Adams Papers.
23From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 26 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
The enclosed promissary Note for two hundred dollars is signed by Mr. Jesse Nichols of Providence Rhode Island. I have lent him the money to Enable him to return to America and he promises me it shall be repaid immediately after his arrival He goes as passenger in the Chauncey, and this Letter will go by the same opportunity—I request you to obtain the payment as soon as you can with...
24From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 17 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
With the copy of my last Letter, which was entrusted by me to Mr Dallas, I now transmit also one of a preceding Letter, written last January—We have reason to hope they will all arrive safe as they go by Cartels, and this appears to be the only good effect that will result from the Negotiation at Ghent. I have nothing now to add to what I wrote you in my two last Letters, concerning my affairs...
25From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 31 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
No more scolding about your accounts—No more petty complaints about trifles instead of hearty thanks for the faithful care, and trouble which you have taken in the management of my affairs—The hints about the state of your health, given in your letter of 7. April No 16/6 which I received the 22. of this month, have not only given me the heart-ache in themselves, but have brought me under my...
26From Abigail Smith Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 13 November 1813 (Adams Papers)
Quincy November 13th: 1813 Recd: of Thomas B Adams the sum of Twenty-five Dollars and fifty Cents in full for One quarter’s Interest due on J Q Adams Esqr Note, the first instant. $25.50 MHi : Adams Papers.
27From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 14 December 1809 (Adams Papers)
The messages from the Governor of the island of Bornholm, which I mentioned in my last were sent and received, in the midst of a brisk gale of wind, while we were stretching to and from the shore of the island, under close reefed top-sails—Close under the high lands of the Coast, the boats were able to come out to the ship, but she could not lay to there without drifting beyond the length of...
28From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 22 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
More than four months have again passed away, since I have received a line from you, and nearly seven since the date of your last Letter—I should feel this less severely, if that and your other most recent letters had not left a source of uneasiness upon my mind, which nothing but more agreeable information can remove—Although the communication direct from this Country to the United States was...
29From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 19 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have now barely time to enclose you a Press-Copy of my last Letter; the original of which I sent to England, to be forwarded by the earliest opportunity from thence. It is of no inconsiderable importance to me, and I must request your particular attention to the enquiry, how you have disposed of the balance of $2528..26 due to me on your account ending 31. December 1810; and why you have...
30From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 29 April 1811 (Adams Papers)
I am informed that a vessel belong to Mr: W. R. Gray, called the Washington, which sailed from Boston the 20th. or 28th: of February last has arrived at Baltic-Port, not more than two hundred miles distant from this place, and is expected at Cronstadt as soon as the Navigation of the gulph will be entirely clear—We had heard a week or ten days since the arrival of this vessel at Elseneur, and...