1From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 May 1818 (Adams Papers)
I am ashamed to find upon my file of Letters to be answered , one from you of 29. January; besides two or three from my father of as old standing—you know however the only cause, which has occasioned so long a postponement of my reply—There has been I believe no change in the office of Collector at Plymouth; and it was with much pain that I learnt it was probable there would be. Should it...
2From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 2 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your kind Letter of 15th. October was received by me on the 20th. from which time, the only possible choice that has been left me with regard to my employments has been what necessary act of duty I should postpone for the sake of attending others still more urgent. On that day (the 20th.) the President returned to the City.—There is a routine of the ordinary department business of the...
3From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
An alternation of six Stages, and six Steam-Boats finally landed us here yesterday afternoon, being the very day upon which I had promised to be here. The President had arrived here on Wednesday, and occupies the official mansion, where I had an interview with him last Evening—But the walls are fresh plaistered, and the wainscoting is new painted; and they render it so insalubrious for present...
4From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 6 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
After a passage of fifty days from Cowes, we have this day landed from the Ship Washington; all well—We shall stay here only so long as may be indispensable for landing our baggage, and making other necessary arrangements. In the course of a week or ten days, I hope to enjoy the happiness of seeing once more, my dear father and you—Remaining in the meantime, ever affectionately your’s. MHi :...
5From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your kind Letters of 12 and 17. March, the latter enclosing one (copy) from Mr H. G. Otis to my father reached me on the same day with a Letter from the New President of the United States, informing me that with the concurrence of the Senate, he had appointed me to the Office just vacated by himself—I had never received from him any previous intimation that it was his intention to make this...
6From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
We have been many weeks without receiving a line from you, or from any of our friends at Quincy—Your last was of 8. January, and then remarked on the mildness of the Season on that side of the Atlantic; corresponding with that which had been experienced here—But here it continued through the Winter, and to this day we have scarcely been visited with frost or snow, while we hear that in your...
7From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
There have been a multitude of American Vessels, wind–bound at Liverpool near two months, several of which have Letters for you, and for my father, and which I suppose will nearly all arrive about the same time—In the interval there will be a wide chasm during which you will be without advices from us, as we have now been long without any from you—The present will go by Mr A. H. Everett, who...
8From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Scarce a day now passes without the arrival of vessels laden with flour from the United States. I am informed from Liverpool that upwards of twenty-five thousand Barrels have already been received there since the opening of the Ports. We have had several days ago accounts from New-York, down to the 18th. of last Month; and on Saturday I received your kind Letter of 8. Jany.—There is an old...
9From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 6 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Nothing further received from you, since I wrote you last week—My boys have returned to School; and to close their holidays I went with them to Drury–Lane Theatre, and saw the Tragedy of Richard the third—The part of this amiable hero, was performed by Mr Kean, who is now the reigning favourite of the Public—They have mutilated this Play so much in their manner of getting it up, that it is...
10From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Mr J. Sergeant, arrived in London last week, and delivered to me Letters from you, my father and my brother. Your’s is of 5. December—At that time, you observe, the Season with you, had become very cold—Most fortunately for this Country, there has been no cold weather this Winter, and scarcely any Snow. The verdure of the fields in this neighborhood, is like that of May—There are several...
11From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Scarcely a day now passes, without the arrival of vessels from the United States; but they are principally from New York or more Southern Ports—The failure of the Harvests in this Country has much contributed to their frequency. Two years ago the British Parliament made a Law, to raise the price of Bread; having discovered that if that first necessary of life should be cheap, the Country would...
12From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of 26. November, is yet the latest that I have received from you—But since my last to you, and since mine of the 3d. instant to my father, I have received one from him, more earnestly calling upon me, to ask my recall from this Mission, and return home—I have in my last Letters both to him and you, expressed my sentiments and intentions on this subject, and have alledged such...
13From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
General Boyd, Mr Stores, Mr Forbes, and Mr and Mrs. Everett, have all arrived in London within the week past; and by them, with many other Letters and despatches I have received your favours of 5. and of 26. November—There must be I think a Letter in arrear between the 30th. of September and the 5th. of Novr—You acknowledge the receipt of my Numbers 92 and 93—and 97 and 98. I hope the...
14From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
I mentioned to you in a former Letter, the visit that I had received from Mr Frend, and Mr Aspland, the Minister of the Unitarian Congregation at Hackney—Since then I have dined with Mr Frend, who is a Unitarian, and Astronomer, and Actuary , of an Insurance Company. There I met again Mr Aspland, who afterwards made me a present of several of his own publications, and from Dr Disney a copy of...
15From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
Last week I enclosed several numbers of Cobbett’s Register, as they are republished in open Sheets—Here are two additional numbers, with, an Observer where you will find an account of the late Riots in London, and an extract from a recent publication containing some interesting particulars about Napoleon at St Helena. The Ministerial daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly publications, the...
16From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 26 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
Last week I sent you a number of the Monthly Theological Repository, containing some Speculations of Mr Van der Kemp and Mr Jefferson—With this Letter I enclose to my Father the numbers just published of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews—Presuming that you know the History and Character of those Publications from Cobbett, you will sufficiently understand them to be in the Nature of Lawyer’s...
17From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
Last week I sent you with a Letter from my wife the Newspaper containing the Account of the Lord Mayor’s day feast at Guildhall, where you will find again some mention made of the American Minister—The singularity of the feast did not however consist in his being there; but in the Circumstance that no other Minister, either home-bred or foreign was present; and in the phenomenon still more...
18From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 4 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
Since I last wrote to you, I have received your kind Letters of 27. August, and of 10. June, which I mention in the order, not of their dates, but of their reception. That of June enclosed a printed Copy of Judge Story’s biographical eulogium of our late excellent friend Dexter, whose loss is a calamity to our Country, and especially to our Native State, which with all her errors and follies I...
19From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 October 1816 (Adams Papers)
The quiet Season has at length arrived. For the last six weeks I have had no occasion to go into London, except upon business, and there is some relaxation of that—Almost all the Cabinet Ministers are absent upon excursions; and Lord Castlereagh is gone to Ireland to see his father . The Morning Chronicle gives a shrewd hint, that it is the sign that Parliament will be dissolved, and that his...
20From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 5 October 1816 (Adams Papers)
As I am not yet enabled to write the threatened long Letter to my father, I must replace it by the weekly short one to you. Last Sunday, Mr E. Brooks, Mr Bigelow, and a few others of our American Visitors, came out and dined with us—Two days afterwards Mr Brooks sent me your Letter of 2d. May enclosed, with Mr Norton’s funeral Sermon upon our venerable friend and kinsman Dr. Tufts; and a...
21From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 September 1816 (Adams Papers)
Our Sons John and Charles are come home from school this morning, to spend the Michaelmas Holidays, and have brought one of their schoolmates with them, to whom John has taken a great liking and who is nearly of his age. He was already here, part of the Summer Holidays, and is a very intelligent and well behaved boy. These Holidays come so often that I am not at all partial to them; but those...
22From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 September 1816 (Adams Papers)
My wife’s brother J. B. Johnson has written from New Orleans, to his sister and me, requesting us to send him our Portraits, and we are accordingly sitting for them to a young American named Locke, who is working hard to make a reputation as a Painter.—This is the second time that according to a melancholy yoke of poor Sheridan’s, I have undergone the operation of sitting for my Picture,...
23From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 August 1816 (Adams Papers)
George says that his writing master has forbidden him to write letters for the present, because it will retard the improvement of his hand writing. I do not understand this theory, and suspect it will not meet the approbation of George’s correspondents at home. The consequence of it is, that I am called to write the weekly letter that is to go with the newspaper almost every week myself. The...
24From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 August 1816 (Adams Papers)
I shall send you by the earliest opportunity the newly published numbers of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews; but unless you read Cobbett’s New-York Register, you will not have the key to the secret History of those works—There are now three very distinct parties in this Country—Tories, or the Ministerial party—Whigs—and Reformers—The Quarterly Review is the Literary instrument of the...
25From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 August 1816 (Adams Papers)
The receipt of all your Letters to that of 30. June has been acknowledged. To answer them, I must have time to think—a privilege which I so seldom enjoy that I cannot even anticipate when I may be indulged with it—Mr Tuckerman brought your last Letter—I saw him and his Lady once. But they were only three or four days in London, and are gone upon a tour into the Country. Mr Tuckerman says his...
26From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 August 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have received Letters from you, of 22. March, 7. April, 9. and 20 May, and 29. and 30 June. every one of which, had it been possible, I would have answered by a long Letter—But even now, I can do little more than express my joy at perceiving the recovery of your health and Spirits, in the cheerfulness and gaiety returning to your Style. I had flattered myself that after the rising of...
27From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 July 1816 (Adams Papers)
As the week comes round, the Sunday Newspaper reminds me of the despatch to be made up for Quincy; but the pressure of business and of dissipation equally indispensable has not for many weeks left me an hour, for writing to you. I have now scarcely a moment to acknowledge the receipt of your favours of 5. and of 20. May. which I have had more than a Month; and to which I hope to be at some...
28From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 July 1816 (Adams Papers)
Mr Tarbell informs me that he and his Lady have determined to return to the United States, and that they expect to sail next Monday for from Liverpool. I have now barely time to tell you that we are all well, and to send you a Newspaper, and the last number of the Quarterly Review—We have received Letters from my father and brother, and from you, to the 27th. of May—If the intervals between my...
29From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 6 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday I went to London, to the anniversary dinner of the Society of Friends of foreigners in distress; of which Society our old friend Mr William Vaughan is Treasurer; and being in Town, I found at my Office, in Craven Street, three Letters Post-marked “Liverpool ship-Letter,” and superscribed to me, in one of the Quincy hand-writings; but on opening them I found myself accosted first as...
30From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 May 1816 (Adams Papers)
Mr: William Cranck Bond, a relation of ours, with whom you are no doubt acquainted has been some months in this Country; and is now upon his return to America—I shall endeavour to send you by him the last number of the Edinburgh Review; and the Newspaper now enclosed will give you a copious account of the Nuptial Drawing Room, which was almost as crowded as the Lord Mayor’s Easter Monday...