After informing you by my last Letter of my arrival in this City, and of the Hotel where I had taken up my abode, I have suspended my Communications to you, under the expectation and the hope that you will have left St: Petersburg, before any further Letters from me could reach you there by the Post—Even that Letter may have to travel back after you as far as Riga, if you take your departure...
92From John Quincy Adams to William Steuben Smith, 13 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
I received only last friday your letter of the 5 Instant and have been since then endeavouring to find lodgings for you I have finally taken chambers in this Hotel for you one week at 80 francs—If you stay longer you will without difficulty procure in other parts of the city apartments at a more moderate price; but as it would have been necessary to engage them immediately had I taken them...
Paris. Hotel du Nord, Rue de Richelieu—Saturday 4. Feby: 1815. I arrived here at one O’Clock this afternoon, having left Bruxelles on Thursday Morning between five and six. It has been a solitary journey, and the roads, which are paved the whole way, as bad as they could be—If it were not for the pavement they would be nearly impassable—There was here and there a remnant of snow, at the sides...
94From John Quincy Adams to William Steuben Smith, 1 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
I send you back, by Mr Bauwens, the first Volume of Madame de Stael’s Book which was brought with me from Ghent by mistake—At the same time I enclose a French Post-Book which you requested me to procure for you. On leaving Ghent, I forgot to make two small payments, besides that which I mentioned to you of a postage-bill to Mr Hughes—One of them was to Mr Cornelissen for six copies of a Latin...
95From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you a few lines on the day that the Treaty of Peace was signed, which I sent by Mr Hughes the Secretary of the American Mission, who was the bearer of one copy of the Treaty. A second copy was dispatched the next day by Mr: Carroll, who had been private Secretary to Mr Clay; and by him I, wrote a long Letter to my father—Mr Hughes embarked at Bordeaux in the Transit, the dispatch...
From all that I have yet seen of Bruxelles, I find it so agreeable that I almost regret not having determined to stay and wait for your arrival here; without going to Paris at-all; or at least not without having your company—But the impulse of motion being given, the power of inertness operates upon me so forcibly that I find myself uneasy almost without knowing why; and have determined to...
Me voici, at length out of Ghent; though I believe it had not been for the shame of fixing so many times a day for departure, and still postponing the act I should have stayed there a fortnight longer—The natural philosophers say that inertness is one of the properties of matter—By which they understand the aptitude of remaining in whatever situation it is, whether in motion or at rest—Thus...
Although I have been since I wrote you last Friday constantly engaged in preparing for my departure, I have not been able to get away this day as I had intended, and it is possible that I may not go before the last of the week; beyond that time I do not see the prospect of being detained, and indeed my present intention is to start the day after to-morrow—If I pass Friday I shall write you...
I received yesterday Morning your’s of 27. December number 54—and readily excuse the omission of a Letter on the Birth-day in the satisfaction of reflecting that you were at that time partaking in the celebration of a day memorable in the annals of Russia, as it will henceforth be memorable in those of our Country, and particularly memorable in the days of my life—It is yet for my Country to...
Since the departure of Mr Gallatin, I am left here the only remnant of what was called the Congress of Ghent—Instead of the continual succession of Americans coming and going, I am now reduced to the Society of the hospitable Inhabitants of this City, and of Mr and Mrs: Smith—Instead of the painful suspense and expectation of irritating Notes, alternating with the anxious labours of replying...
Your two Letters of 15 and 16. December were delivered to me yesterday Morning, and are numbers 51. and 52—The day before, I had received two from Mr Harris of December 14 and 21.—Harris always forwards his Letters by the way of Amsterdam; by which means they sometimes come quicker, though on the other hand they are sometimes delayed longer than yours which are forwarded directly, and which...
On Saturday morning, Mr: Goulburn took, the last of the British Legation, his departure for London, and Mr: Bayard and Mr: Clay, took theirs, together for Paris—Mr Gallatin proposes to go this day, and thenceforth I shall be the only member of either mission left here—When we signed the Treaty, I expected to have been prepared to leave the City by this day—Since then I have postponed my...
103From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 6 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
There is a news boy’s new year’s address, in vulgar doggerel Flemish verse, circulating with many others, but which it seems some of the printers declined publishing. It alludes to the Bon-mot of the Prince de Ligne about the Congress at Vienna—“Le Congrés danse , mais il ne marche pas”—and then recommends to the Sovereigns and great Ministers assembled at the Austrian Capital to turn their...
104From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 3 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
A happy New-Year! and many, many happy years to my dearest wife, and to my beloved Son Charles, and his far distant brothers!—It begins under better and more promising auspices, than we have known for many years; and may it please almighty God, that its progress and termination, may correspond with so propitious a commencement! You perceive that I dwell with delight upon the contemplation of...
Your Letter of 26. November was received by me last Sunday; but in writing to you on Tuesday, the account of the Peace and the arrangements consequent upon it, which I proposed to you for our meeting again, so absorbed my attention that I forgot to acknowledge the receipt of it—Yesterday Morning yours of the 2d: instant reached me, and is on my file, number 48—The inconvenience of the house in...
On Saturday last, the 24th: of December, the Emperor Alexander’s birth day a Treaty of Peace and Amity was signed by the British and American Plenipotentiaries in this City—I had written you the day before that there was to be a conference at 12 O’Clock—It lasted three hours, and the result of it was an agreement to meet the next day, at the Chartreux, the house where the British...
107To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 26 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
Mr Hughes, the Secretary to the American Mission for negotiating Peace, was dispatched early this morning with one copy of the Treaty signed by the British and American Plenipotentiaries the Evening before last. It was executed in triplicate to provide against the accidents which might befall any single copy on the passage—Mr Clay’s private Secretary, Mr. Carroll is to go this day with another...
108From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
A Treaty of Peace between the United States and Great Britain has this day been signed by the British and American Plenipotentiaries at this place. It is to be dispatched to-morrow, by Mr Hughes the Secretary of the American Mission, who is to sail in the Transit from Bordeaux—I have not time to write a single private Letter excepting this, but I request you to inform my brother that I have...
If in receiving two of your Letters at a time, I have some times mingled with the pleasure derived from them a thought of regret that one of the two had not reached me three or four days sooner, on Tuesday last it was with a very different Sentiment that I received your numbers 45 and 46 as I have marked them—one dated 22 November, and the other dated only of the Month, November, but which...
Our interval of leisure still continues—The British Messenger who took our last Note to England has not yet returned, but may now be expected from day to day. The policy of protracting, and avoiding a conclusion of any kind cannot be much longer continued—If as we have too much reason to apprehend there has been no sincerity in the late advances from that government towards conciliation we...
111From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 16 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
The last Letter that I wrote you was on the 6th: of this Month, by Mr Shaw—And on Tuesday last I received your Letter of 18 November, but it is not numbered—I have marked it number 8 as it should be; but if you keep copies of all the Letters that you write, I wonder how it comes to pass that you forget to number them. I was quite rejoiced to see this last Letter of your’s so much better...
This appellation reminds me of an occurrence on Monday last, which I may tell you exactly as it happened, and which will shew you the sort of tone which my colleagues observe with me, and I with them.—We had been three hours in Conference with the British Plenipotentiaries; and it had been perhaps the most unpleasant one that we have held with them—We had returned home, and were in Session...
Last Evening I received a letter from Mr William Wyer, (I suppose a brother of the Consul at Riga) dated the 4th: instant, at Bordeaux. He informs me that he embarked at New-York on the 24th: of October, in the Swedish Ship Gustaf Adolph, and arrived at Le Rochelle—This is the vessel by which the rumour at New-York of the capture of Drummond’s army, was brought—Mr: Wyer mentions it in his...
It is no small satisfaction to me to know that the Post-Office has become regular in the delivery of my Letters to you, and I should feel equally grateful for the favour, if they would with the same punctuality deliver yours to me—But I receive them only once a week, and most commonly on Tuesday’s, after my letter to you of the same day is closed, and then two at a time—Thus it was last...
115From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 6 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
A few days ago, I received your Letter with two dates—the first of 4th: September; and the second of the 8th: November—It was marked number 6—But I had received and answered nearly a month since, another number 6 that was dated 8th. October—One of the two Letters should have been marked number 7—But there is another circumstance that I was not pleased to see—The last part of your Letter, dated...
On Saturday last, I wrote you a few lines by Mr. Shaw, a Gentleman of New-York, whom you may perhaps recollect, although I did not, until he reminded me that he had once dined with us, at our house in the Adelphi–Buildings, in company with Mr. Boylston—I remembered perfectly well that dinner, and a circumstance of the ludicrous kind, which occurred between him and Boylston—But he mentions...
Mr: Shaw, an American Gentleman, belonging to New-York has just called upon me, and informs me that he shall proceed in the course of this day for St: Petersburg. He has a Courier’s Passport from Count Lieven, and has obligingly offered to take anything I have to forward—I therefore send the packet for Mrs. Krehmer, which I sometime since received from Miss du Roveray, and two letters from...
Yesterday morning your Letter of 6. November, which I mark number 41 was delivered to me—Why it had been so long on the road I know not—That of the 3d: I had received a full week sooner—It always give me some uneasiness to be more than a week without hearing from you, but as the time for the freezing of the Russian rivers has come I was attributing the delay of your Letters to some such...
My letter of Friday last informed you of the arrival of the Fingal at Havre, and of the dispatches from the Government, brought by her that we had received—I should at the same time have told you that the Ajax, the Dutch vessel in which Mr. Changuion went to America, arrived on the 21st: instt: at the Texel, after a passage of 34 days from Boston. I now add, by way of episode that the Dutch...
The Evening before last Coll: Milligan arrived here from England. He had left London on Saturday Morning the 19th: and came by the way of Margate, Dover and Calais—Before he cross’d the Channel he saw at Margate and Dover, the London Evening Papers of Saturday, announcing the arrival from New-York of the long-expected Fingal—She landed four passengers on Thursday the 17th: at Portsmouth, and...