61From John Adams to Rev. John Disney, 9 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
I was agreably surprised, the last week on receiving a very kind and obliging letter from you, dated at the Hide near Inglestone the 24th. of Augst. a seat where I had formerly passed many agreable hours with a Gentleman whom I esteemed as a man of sense and letters and as a Friend of Liberty and Humanity.—It is true that several Letters have passed between me and Mr. Brand Hollis: I have but...
62From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, September 1807 (Adams Papers)
I want to write an Essay.—Whom Shall I choose for a Model?—Plutarch, old Montaigne, Lord Bacon, Addison, Johnson, or Franklin? The last, if he had devoted his Life to the Study might have equalled Montaine in Essays or La Fontaine in Fables: for he was fitter more fitted for either or both than to conduct a Nation like Prony or Colbert. I am however too round about, to imitate the close,...
63From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 1 September 1807 (Adams Papers)
It is rare, that a Letter of yours remains so long upon my Table unacknowledged as has that of July 9th. Crudens Apophthagm is well worthy of your Remembrance and that of your Posterity for forty times forty years more. It is the only Clue to the Labyrinth of the World, the only key to the Riddle of the Universe. “Some Crimes are punished to prove a Providence; others escape to teach a future...
64From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 19 August 1807 (Adams Papers)
“Pride of Talents and much Ambition were undoubtedly combined in the Character of the President, who immediately Succeeded General Washington” and these are represented as the most prominent features of his Character. Vol. 3. p. 393. Permit me Madam to ask the favour of you, to point out the Act or Word, which appeared to you to evince this Pride of Talents. I know not that I ever felt any...
65From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 17 August 1807 (Adams Papers)
In the 306 page of your first Volume there are certain Traits that I had overlooked. “Richard Henry Lee Esq. was the first who dared explicitly to propose a Declaration of Independence. The Proposal Spread a Sudden dismay. A Silent Astonishment, Seemed to prevade the Assembly” &c. These Expressions, Madam, could only have arisen from Misinformation, or perhaps I shall express myself more...
66From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 15 August 1807 (Adams Papers)
In order to give you all the Authentic Documents necessary to explain the Remarks I have made upon your History, I have omitted to give you Copies of one or two Commissions which I intended to have transcribed in their Places. One of them is in these Words. The United States of America in Congress assembled To all to whom these Presents Shall come Send Greeting. Whereas these United States,...
67From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 8 August 1807 (Adams Papers)
More demonstrations of your Friendship for Mr Adams appear in the 229 page of the third Volume. The Same disposition to wink him out of Sight, to represent him in an odious light, to lessen and degrade him below his Station, which runs through every part of your history in which he appears, is very visible here again. “Mr John Adams had left Holland and joined the Plenipotentiaries of the...
68From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 3 August 1807 (Adams Papers)
In your third Volume page 169, you say that “on the twenty Second of April 1782, Mr. Adams was admitted at the Hague and with the Usual Ceremonies received as Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America. ” This mistake of a few days in Chronology is Scarcely worth a Remark, but I suppose you would wish to be correct. It was on the Nineteenth day of April, not the twenty Second....
69From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 30 July 1807 (Adams Papers)
Had I really been disgusted and mortified at my Treatment by Congress which in fact I was not, but was Satisfied as Soon as it was explained to me, the mortification would have been more than compensated by the Commissions I received on the fourth of November, 1779 unquestionably the more confidential Commissions that Congress had ever issued. The Commission to General Washington as Commander...
70From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 28 July 1807 (Adams Papers)
In the 135th. Page of your Second Volume, you State that in 1778 Mr John Adams of the State of Massachusetts was chosen to Succeed Mr Deane as Commissioner in behalf of the United States at the Court of France: an inaccuracy however of so little importance that it was Scarcely worth a Correction. In the 139th. page you say that within a few Months after Congress made a new Arrangement of...
71From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 27 July 1807 (Adams Papers)
In the 131 and 132 page of the first Volume of your History, you are pleased to say that John Adams, one of the Negatived Counsellors a Barrister at Law of rising Abilities, his Appearance on the Theatre of Politicks commenced at this Period, that is in 1774. This is of very little Importance, and would not be worthy of much Attention if it did not dis betray a Malignity of heart and a...
72From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 20 July 1807 (Adams Papers)
In the 392 Page of the third Volume of your History you say that “After Mr Adams’s return from England, he was implicated, by a large portion of his Countrymen, as having relinquished the Republican System, And forgotten the Principles of the American Revolution, which he had advocated for near twenty years.” I am somewhat at a loss for the meaning of the Word implicated in this place. If it...
73From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 11 July 1807 (Adams Papers)
As it is neither consistent with my Principles, Disposition or habits, upon any misunderstanding with an ancient Friend, to conceive Resentment and hostility to be changed into an Enemy, I shall still continue my old Style of address to Mrs. Warren. I have read much if not all your history of the Rise Progress and termination of the American Revolution. I am not about to write a review of it....
74From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 25 June 1807 (Adams Papers)
John Bunjan, if he had written my last Letter to you would have called it an history of Gods Judgments against Lyars and Libellers. Such indeed it seems to be. A great Number of others might have been added, and two or three at least ought to have been. Phillip Freneau is one of the Number: but I know not in what Light to consider him. A Libeller, he certainly was not only against me but...
75From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 23 June 1807 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of the ninth of this Month, and conveyed to Dr Tufts your Letter to him, who desireses me to express to you the high sense he has of your Benevolence And Humanity to Mr John Loude. The Doctor will write you, as soon as he can find means of conveying to the Parents of that unfortunate youth the money you enclosed. What Shall We Say, my Friend? A pious and virtuous...
76From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 20 June 1807 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed is the Certificate of forty Shares in the Fire and Marine Insurance Company. The third part of the Capital which is to be paid off, you will please to receive in shares of the Boston Bank, if you approve of it, and hold them as you propose. I am your affectionate / Father MHi : Winthrop Family Papers.
77From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 23 May 1807 (Adams Papers)
I received at an Exhibition of Musick in our polite Village of Mount Woollaston, on thursday, your Letter relative to Mr Loude, and sent it immediately to Dr Tufts by his Lady, that the Young Gentlemans Friends might be informed of his Situation. I lament the untimely decline of a Youth, although I never Saw him, who has been represented to me, as one who injured his health by too intense an...
78From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 21 May 1807 (Adams Papers)
I return you, the Letter of Edward Smith. Time may or may not unriddle this whimsical Mystery. It might however in the mean time to put Us on our guard against Intrigues. My not preserving a Copy of my Letter to Dr Nathan Webb (for he was a Physician) is no Wonder: for I never kept a Copy of any Letter, till I became a Member of Congress in 1774. The observation of your Son Richard is very...
79From John Adams to William Heath, 11 May 1807 (Adams Papers)
I read in the Chronicle some time ago, two Speculations with the signature of a military Countryman, and I read them with great pleasure for two very Substantial reasons, one of which is that I cordially approved and coincided with every Sentiment and every expression in them: the other was that I knew at once that General Heath was the Writer of them. How did you know that? you will ask. I...
80From John Adams to Abiel Holmes, 6 May 1807 (Adams Papers)
I am under a great obligation to you for the two volumes of the your American Annals, and am ashamed that I have not acknowledged long ago the Receipt of the first of them They are a work of great Labour, care and Industry, and the Execution of the plan appears to me to be as ingenious as it is judicious The Style is Elegant as well as clear and concise. With great satisfaction I observe that...
81From John Adams to Nathaniel Lord, 6 May 1807 (Adams Papers)
Be pleased to accept of thanks for your favour of the second of this month, and for your Alphabetical Catalogue of the Sons of Harvard inclosed with it, which I think is convenient and usefull and will be a gratification to numbers of the most respectable people in the Country. You ask me whether I can give you the Family connections and genealogy of the several Persons on the Catalogue by the...
82From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 1 May 1807 (Adams Papers)
I thank you, my dear Sir for the promptitude of your Answer to my last Letter, and for inclosing the misterious one to you, which however has every Appearance of honesty about it. My Daughter Started the Idea that it might be our Friend Wm. Smith of Charlestown who married Miss Izzard: but the Date of the Letter is New York. My Daughter, upon my Receipt of your Letter wrote to her Husband on...
83From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 23 April 1807 (Adams Papers)
you have Spent your Winter with delight as well as Industry. My Moments have neither produced pleasure or improvements to be compared to yours. I am obliged to be very œconomical of my sight. Though I can See very well, with Glasses, or without them My Eyes cannot bear fatigue as they did when they were young. you have Sett me a Task that will infallibly make me blind before it will be...
84From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 12 April 1807 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 3d is received; I am willing to allow you Philosophers your opinion of the universal gravitation of matter, if you will allow mine that there is in some souls a principle of absolute levity that buoys them irresistibly into the Clouds. Whether you call it etherial spirit or inflammable air it has an uncontroulable tendency to ascend & has no capacity to ascertain the height...
85From John Adams to James Perkins, 17 March 1807 (Adams Papers)
I received last evening your favour of the 13th of this month, enclosing a letter to me, from Mr. Thomas Theodore Cremere of Rotterdam. This gentleman is altogether a Stranger to me, but as he appears to have been a confidential friend of Mr. John Luzac of Leyden, who, in my opinion has not left his equal in Virtue and Learning united in all Europe, this circumstance alone is sufficient to...
86From John Adams to William Smith Shaw, 17 March 1807 (Adams Papers)
I have advised Messrs. Perkins to print Mr. Cremeres Letter literatim. But it ought to be accompanied with explanatory Notes, E. G. “Narrowly bound” The Writer undoubtedly had in his mind the French phrase “Etroitement lié”—His meaning is “closely or intimately connected”.— “Trespass” Here the French word “Trepas”, which signifies death or decease, was no doubt in the writers mind.— “Carge”...
87From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 9 March 1807 (Adams Papers)
My Answer to Mrs Warrens Question Shall be as prompt and frank as hers can be to mine Napoleones Maker alone can tell all that he was made for, And it would take a Sheet of Paper for me to explain all that I think he was made for. But in general Napoleone was made I will not say made but permitted for a Cat with o’ nine tails, to inflict ten thousand Lashes on the back of Europe, as a divine...
88From John Adams to Thomas Foxcroft, 13 February 1807 (Adams Papers)
Benjamin Beale Esq. our representative, brought me last night from the General Court, a packet containing two books and a letter. But the letter was dated from no place, and I could not decypher the signature. He thought the name of the Member who gave it to him was Foxcroft, which suggested to me the suspicion that it was came from you. There is not in my memory the faintest trace of the old...
89From John Adams to Abel Sawyer, 8 February 1807 (Adams Papers)
Mr: Samuel Adams was called a Maltster because he kept a Malt-house; but he was a Gentleman of liberal Education; a Legislator and a Magistrate. He was the father of the late Governor Adams and the Son of John Adams, a Merchant in Boston, who was brother of my Grandfather. Mrs: Elizabeth Adams, Widow of the late Governor Adams still lives in Boston. The Governor left but one child, a daughter,...
90From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 2 February 1807 (Adams Papers)
You make me very happy when you Say, that you agree with me upon the Subject of the Perfectibility of Man. Let every Man endeavor to amend and improve one and We Shall find ourselves in the right Road to all the Perfection We are capable of: but this rule Should by no means exclude our utmost exertions to amend and improve others, and in every Way and by all means in our Power to ameliorate...