301From John Quincy Adams to William Cranch, 26 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
I cannot forbear to offer you my thanks for your kind and affectionate Letter of the day before yesterday, and to assure you how much I feel myself affected by the expression in it of that Sentiment of which as you remark, even friendship is inadequate to convey the idea. Next to brothers as we are by the ties of blood; brothers as we were by the habits and intimacies of childhood and of...
302To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 14 May 1819 (Madison Papers)
A Roman Sculptor, named Cardelli, an artist of distinguished talent, reduced by political vicissitudes, and hard necessity to make eggs and leaves on the Cornices and Friezes of the Capitol at this place, but panting for posthumous glory as if he were a Roman of the age of Fabius or of Scipio, has conceived the project of making his way to immortality by taking from the life, the Busts of the...
Whereas the said John Adams has this day, by his deed duly executed and acknowledged, conveyed all the Estate in belonging to him Quincy, known by the name of the Mount Wollaston Farm, to the said John Quincy Adams, his Heirs, and Assigns, in fee simple; now the Condition of this Obligation is such that if the said John Quincy Adams, his Executors or Administrators, shall from and after the...
304From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 17 January 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have mentioned to the Secretary of War, your wish that your Son Thomas may be admitted at the Military Academy at West–Point—His name will accordingly be placed upon the list of Candidates, and his admission may be expected in March 1824—But Mr Calhoun advises that he may be placed in the meantime at some School or Academy, where he may be kept to the most assiduous application of...
305From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 17 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have received a Letter from my eldest Son, which informs me that in consequence of a difficulty which had taken place at College, the President at the request of my dear and honoured father had consented that he should retire to Quincy, till the fermentation, was over, where he should study something or other, till the class is re-organized. As my Son in the same Letter desires me to assure...
306From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 14 January 1825 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 1st. instt. (dated by mistake 1824) with the quarterly account enclosed, which I suppose is correct, and all the particulars of which I approve—It should have been signed with your name at bottom, with the addition of the words “Errors excepted” and dated—You will remember this, in the rendition to me of your next account, and remember it also, in all your...
307From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 12 June 1824 (Adams Papers)
The day after your departure, Johnson Hellen came down from Rockville, and has been a pleasant companion to me till now. I rejoiced to learn from him that you had not suffered by the heavy rain that came on before you reached Rockville; and that you had proceeded to next Morning in health and good Spirits towards Frederick. But nine days have since passed away, and I have not a line either...
308From John Quincy Adams to William Cranch, 28 August 1826 (Adams Papers)
The most important facts in the History of my fathers Life will be found in one or another of the enclosed discourses, of which I forward to you those of Mr Knapp and Mr Webster, at your desire, and those of Mr Everett, Mr Cushing and Mr Sprague, for such use as Mr Wirt may be disposed to make of them—There are perhaps in all of them some errors of detail, but none of material importance—I...
309From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 22 December 1825 (Adams Papers)
I enclose herewith the Policy of Insurance upon the house in Court Street and also that upon the House in Hancock Street—Both of which you will safely keep: and remember to have them renewed at the proper time. I am greatly concerned to learn, that you were suffering with the toothache, and inflamation of the face; but hope that it has before this subsided. I propose to seize upon the first...
310From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 4 October 1826 (Adams Papers)
Know all men by these Presents that We John Quincy Adams of Boston in the County of Suffolk and Commonwealth of Massachusetts Esquire and Josiah Quincy also of said Boston Esquire Executors of the last Will and Testament of John Adams late of Quincy in the County of Norfolk Doctor of Laws, deceased have constituted and by these Presents do, constitute George Washington Adams of Boston...
The day before yesterday after an anxious interval of two days without a line from you, brought me your Letter announcing your confinement to your chamber by the visit of that Saint far famed for the success of his Sermons to the fishes. I hope he has not taken offence at my partiality for the fisherman , and resolved to avenge my attachment to them upon you—If Dr Physick can give a final...
312From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 31 October 1823 (Adams Papers)
I wish you to keep the enclosed Letter for my father, till the next time that you shall after receiving it, go out to Quincy to spend the Sunday with him—You will then after breakfast deliver it to himself in his Chamber, no other person being present; and tell him that I have requested you to read its contents to him, and afterwards, with his approbation, to burn the copy of Verses on his...
313From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 9 July 1826 (Adams Papers)
It was as I had apprehended—On our arrival this morning at Merrill’s, we were informed by him that my father expired at 5 in the afternoon of the 4th. instt. and on reaching this place the New–York Evening Post of Friday was put into my hands, containing the proceedings of the Governor and council of Massachusetts, and of the board of Aldermen, of Boston upon the Event—You are no doubt ere...
314From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 17 June 1824 (Adams Papers)
Since Johnson Hellen departed, last Sunday, I have been moping in Solitude; but the day after he went away, I was made light-hearted by the receipt of your two Letters of the 9th. and 11th. instt. which came together—I suppose Johnson is by this time with you; but I dont know whether that will stimulate or dispel John’s home sickness—The week from the time when you left me, was one of the...
315From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 10 November 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 2d. instt and trusting entirely to the faithfulness of the account which you give in it, of your own conduct, am prepared as I have before promised you to make every allowance for the interruption of your studies occasioned by your infirm state of health—Hoping that it is now permanently recovered, I flatter myself you will make henceforth the proper use of...
316From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 28 March 1822 (Adams Papers)
It has given me great satisfaction to learn that a part has be assigned to you to perform at the exhibition, fixed for the 30th. of April—and should be well pleased if it if it were in my power to be present at the performance—But as that will not be practicable, I wish you to let me know what dialogue it is that you are to speak—I feel also some anxiety for your performance, and quite...
By the Will of my deceased Father, all that part of his Real Estate, lying on both sides of the antient County road, from Boston to Plymouth, containing by Estimation one hundred and three Acres more or less together with the Mansion house, gardens and buildings thereon situated, were given to me in fee-simple, upon Condition that I pay or secure to be paid with interest within three years...
318To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 14 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have received you kind Letter of the 3d: instant, full of good counsel, of which I hope at the proper time to make a suitable improvement. It is a great satisfaction to me, that my Son George has mentioned your approbation, and made himself in any manner useful to you during the vacation at the University. My affection for him induces me to hope that his time has been spent most...
Salt-Marsh— Acres— Qurs Rods Adams—Elihu to John Adams. 30. March 1772 3. Crosby—Joseph to John Adams 3. Augt. 1772 6. Crosby—Joseph to John Adams 27. Octr. 1779 5. 2. Bass—Samuel to John Adams 13. Jany 1789. 7. 2 French—Moses to John Adams 17. Novr 1792
320From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 6 May 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received your two Letters of 5 and 22. April—with much pleasure; and it would have been with more, had not the hopes which I had formed from your success at the last term, been somewhat damped by certain accounts which have reached me, of a less favourable character—It has given me great pain to learn that you have in the course of the present term exposed yourself to the censure of the...
( not executed—) [Deed of Homestead Exors. to J. Q. A.] Whereas John Adams, late of Quincy in the County of Norfolk, Doctor of Laws, did by his Last Will and Testament, give and devise to his son John Quincy Adams, and to his Heirs, all that part of his Real Estate, lying on both sides of the Antient County Road from Boston to Plymouth, containing by Estimation one hundred and three Acres, be...
322To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 24 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have to answer two Letters from you—one of 28 October, and the other of 13. November—Tant va la Cruche à l’eau qu’à la fin elle se casse, was an old french proverb, long before Washington’s Mother was born. Tant va la Cruche a l’eau qu’à la fin elle s’emplit is the variation of Beaumarchais’s Basila in the Marriage of Figaro—But whether the pitcher is filled or whether it is broken it was...
323John Quincy Adams, Copies of Advertisements of sales of items from John Adams’s Estate, August 1826 to September 1826 (Adams Papers)
Copies of Advertisements of Stocks, Real Estate & Furniture Public Sale On Monday 18th. instt. at 12 Block at Merchants Hall, by order of the Executors of the last will and Testament, of John Adams late of Quincy deceased. 13 Shares Middlesex Canal 5 do West Boston Bridge 54 do, Fire & Marine Insurance 10 do New England do 10 do Boston Bank 20 do Boylston Market 9 do Massachusetts Bank 12 do...
324To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 14 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have been delighted in receiving your Letter of the 7th: instant, and am glad that you have seen Trumbull’s picture of Independence—I rejoice that the Picture has been painted—As a collection of likenesses taken from the life, of the founders of the greatest Nation, this Ball of Earth has seen or will see, which ours will certainly be, it has merit—As the Representation of the sublimest...
325To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 21 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your Letters of 21 and 26 Novr. and of the 8th: instant have been received—Of Mr Mason the bearer of the first, I have seen much less than I could have wished; and of Mr Barrell who brought the second a little more; for coming not only with your Recommendation, but with a volume of others all highly respectable, he pushed his importunity to such an excess, that I lost my temper with him, for...
326From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 16 December 1821 (Adams Papers)
I have received with much pleasure your Letter of the 9th: instt. and hasten to answer it, that I may assign to you the reasons which deprive me of the satisfaction of complying with your request to come and pass the approaching winter vacation with us— When on taking leave of you at Cambridge at the Commencement of the term, I directed you to pass the Winder vacation at Quincy, for which I...
327From John Quincy Adams to John Adams Smith, 7 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
It is not for me to complain that the private correspondence between you and me has ceased—for I find upon my files letters from you from N 27. Novr. 27. 1817 to N 32 May 19th 1818. the receipt of which I have not yet acknowledged—As for your letters, they went on brisk and punctual to N31. Feby 7—from which time commenced a hiatus to the 19th of May—on which day two letters filled with the...
Know all Men by these Presents, that I John Quincy Adams of Boston in the County of Suffolk, Esquire, am held and firmly bound, in my individual capacity, to the said John Quincy Adams, and Josiah Quincy also of said Boston, Esquire, Executors of the Last Will and Testament of John Adams, late of Quincy in the County of Norfolk, Doctor of Laws, deceased, in the sum of forty four two thousand...
329From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 4 February 1822 (Adams Papers)
I hasten to assure you that I have never been displeased with you for not writing to me more frequently than you have done, though your Letters always give me pleasure. It is true you have frequently left open for my perusal your Letters to your mother and brother, and I have always received gratification from the indulgence. Yet I am not desirous of restraining in the slightest degree the...
330To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 31 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
As the Season of business and of gaity in London, advances, we have found from the experience of the last year, a sort of necessity to be for some time nearer its centre than our residence at Little-Boston; and as a mezzo termine between a complete removal, and an inflexible adherence to the country, we have taken Apartments in Town by the week without altogether abandoning our rural...
331John Quincy Adams, Account of Sale of Part of John Adams’s Estate, 27 September 1826 (Adams Papers)
Silver oz. Pwt $ C $ C 1 Large Coffee Pot 36 10 at $1,12 per oz to John Adams 40,88 1 Tea Pot 14 10 = 1,20 = = 17,40 2 Sugar Castors 23 0
332From John Quincy Adams, 7 October 1819 (Adams Papers)
I John Quincy Adams of Boston in the County of Suffolk and Commonwealth of Massachusetts Esquire, do make and declare this to be my last Will and Testament. I give and bequeath to my eldest Son George Washington Adams, all that real Estate in Quincy, in the County of Norfolk, known by the name of the Mount-Wollaston Farm, conveyed to me by my honoured father, by his Deed dated the twenty-third...
333From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 6 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
I received about a fortnight since a few lines from you so ill written that it was with difficulty that I could read them, and to my great surprize dated at Quincy, when I had expected you were assiduously pursuing your studies at Cambridge, after an interruption not less melancholy than indispensable—Your Letter barely hinted at the temporary dissolution of your Class, and by its brevity and...
334John Quincy Adams to James Madison, 18 August 1834 (Madison Papers)
Your favour of the 30th. ulto. with its enclosures would have been received with unmingled pleasure, but for the alloy of its intimations with regard to the state of your health—The partial relief which you have recently enjoyed, I will hope may have been symptomatic of a more general renovation, and reserve for you yet years of comfort and tranquility to witness the continual gigantic growth...
335From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 17 April 1824 (Adams Papers)
I have duly received your Letters N.7, 8 and 9. with their enclosures; accounts and vouchers—When in my last Letter; I observed that the account which you had previously sent me, did not inform me for what , the expenditures which you had charged against me were made, it was not my intention to require of you a full settlement, and a delivery of vouchers, at the close of every quarter—It was a...
336From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 11 August 1821 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 3d. instt. only reached me yesterday—You reason exceedingly well both upon my real character, and upon that of which I have unfortunately got the reputation—I always receive with deference your counsel which I know to be generally judicious, and invariably intended in kindness to me—On the present occasion however, I have many special reasons for the request in my former...
337From John Quincy Adams to Ward Nicholas Boylston, 24 January 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received with great pleasure your Letter of the 14th. with the enclosed extract from that of your friend Mr Nicholls—I am very glad to learn that he proposes to publish a new Edition of his Recollections, and I hope he will withhold none of his opinions upon the great topics of National Law to which he well refers.—His Portraits of Pitt and Fox are more true to the Life than any others...
338From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 10 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of 14. October N. 2. but Post-marked on the Superscription, “Cambridge 21 Octr. was received by me on the 25th: of the same month—my engagements as you suppose absorb so much of my time, that I am seldom able to snatch a moment for writing private Letters to my family and friends. Yet I shall always endeavour to be as punctual a correspondent as possible, and shall particularly...
339From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 2 August 1822 (Adams Papers)
I continue to receive your journals—that of the 29th. was the last; and they would continue to be most agreeable, if they all gave cheering accounts of your brother—Count de Manon called on me yesterday and told me he had seen your brother last week; and thought he looked not worse but if any thing he thought rather better than he had a fortnight before. Tuesday Evening we had a party at Dr...
340From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 10 July 1822 to 11 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
Receiving on Sunday your rebuke for the blank covers I had forwarded to you, I should have felt it more severely had I not concluded that about the same hour you would be receiving from me the proof that I had not been altogether so remiss as you had supposed. We have had since the beginning of the month such a succession of roasters, day and night that I have felt myself almost reduced to the...
Your journals down to the 30th of August inclusive are received; and this day the memoirs of Lord Waldegrave for George—It comes quite apropos; for we are now all enjoying the Memoirs of Horace Walpole embracing the same and a longer period, Lord Holland the Editor of this latter work sent a copy of it most magnificently bound as a present to the President who has been kind enough to lend it...
342From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 21 October 1823 (Adams Papers)
I received yesterday your Letter N 1. dated the 15th. instt. with its enclosure, and am much pleased with the attention you are paying to my Affairs and your own—In entering upon a new Scene of life, it is important to begin well; to commence the formation of good habits, and to form a system for the employment of time which will obviate the formation of bad ones. At your Season of life, it is...
343From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 5 August 1822 (Adams Papers)
Your Journal of 31st. July and 1st. instt. is received. I enclose you another Check for 100 Dollars, that you may be payable want of funds, if you should finally conclude to go on to Quincy—But besides the doubts which are mentioned in your Letter, arising from the situation of your brother, I have others since I have this day learnt that the yellow fever is in New-York—my fathers invitation...
344From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 18 May 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have learnt from some of the Letters which you have lately written to your Mother and your Brother, that you express yourself dissatisfied with your situation at the University, and that you have repeatedly intimated the desire of leaving it— My motive in placing you there, was to furnish you with the means of passing through life in the exercise of a liberal profession—By debarring yourself...
345John Quincy Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 11 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I received a few days since from my father , the enclosed pamphlet, with directions, after availing myself of the opportunity of perusing it, to return it to you, to whose kindness he was indebted for the loan of it. I have found in it no material fact, with which I had not been before acquainted, unless it be the authentication by his own narrative of the author’s treachery to his Master; and...
346From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 10 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
It is a great affliction to me to be deprived as I am by constant and indispensable obligipations, of the pleasure of writing to you, at least every week; but so it is, and I am now to acknowledge the receipt since I wrote you last of your Letters of 17. May. N. 8.—of 1. June. N. 9. and of the 2d: of this Month, which is without number but should have been numbered 10. Your observations upon...
Yesterday afternoon at four, we performed the last sad offices of mortality to the remains of Mr. Josiah Meigs—It was but the Sunday week before, that happening accidentally to attend the Morning worship at the second Presbyterian Church I had seen him there ordained a Ruling Elder —He was suddenly seized yesterday was a week, immediately after returning early in the morning from Alexandria,...
348From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 16 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the first instant did not come to hand until last Monday—That of the 9h. enclosing Mr. Whitney’s Sermon upon the decease of our dear and ever to be lamented Mother, for which I beg you to thank him in my name, reached me yesterday, together with a Letter from my Son George—I am yet almost without any account of the particulars of her illness—A line from Harriet Welsh, received...
349From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 31 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
If the twenty-five Volumes of the projected compilation of English Poetry, which were published at Philadelphia, for which I subscribed, and which I promised to give you, should be sent on to Boston, you shall still have them; but it is not worth while to purchase them there, if the remaining volumes are not to be published—You shall not lose however an equivalent for the donation, and you may...
350From John Quincy Adams to Ward Nicholas Boylston, 24 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
Your kind Letter of the 15th. inst. has just come to hand—It was quite a disappointment to me upon my return from Europe the year before last, and again when I visited Boston and my fathers house the last Autumn is, that the distance at which you then were prevented me from having the pleasure of meeting you. I hope to be more fortunate the ensuing Summer; it being my intention and that of...