31From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 7 March 1808 (Adams Papers)
I will thank you to pay to my father, for me, on or before the 22d: of this month eleven hundred and seventy two dollars and forty-nine cents—being $1081.27. for part principal of a debt due from me to him and $91.22. for a quarter’s interest on the same debt—As you have probably not funds sufficient in your hands to make this payment I enclose you an order to receive the money due to me at...
32From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 10 July 1806 (Adams Papers)
I have received an invitation from Mr: Boylston, to dine with him to-morrow—If you see him in town between this and then, will you be so good as to tell him that I much regret that I cannot come, as to-morrow at 2. O’Clock I commence my course of Lectures—And having already postponed it for two weeks, I cannot put it off again. To-day also I am detained here, on account of the Declamations—But...
33John Quincy Adams to Catherine Nuth Johnson, 4 July 1803 (Adams Papers)
I have the pleasure to inform you, that this morning at about 3. o’clock, my dear M rs: Adams presented me another fine boy, after having a very good time, and both are now as well as we can possibly expect— I was myself out at Quincy, spending Sunday I am, Dear Madam, faithfully your’s RC ( Adams Papers ); addressed: “M rs: C. Johnson / Washington.”; internal address: “M rs: C. Johnson /...
34From John Quincy Adams to Walter Hellen, 2 May 1805 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 22d: ulto: came to hand a few days since—If it suits your convenience to keep the horse at the original cost it will be perfectly agreeable to me; my wish to have him sold was only upon the supposition that he was of no use to you. I received at the same time with your last letter one from Mr: Cranch, in which he declines undertaking the Administration of Mr. Johnson’s...
Last Evening I received your’s of the 14th: which makes me anxious to hear from you again—Your sore throat and George’s cough will keep me upon thorns untill I hear better tidings of you—I am perhaps the more susceptible on this subject from the heavy calamity so recently befallen the family here.—It is vain to lament or to anticipate—and would be vain to attempt expressing what I feel. The...
36John Quincy Adams to William Stephens Smith, 18 January 1802 (Adams Papers)
Two months having elapsed since I made the proposal respecting the note of hand due from your brother Justus to me, and being still without an answer from him, I presume either that the proposal was not agreeable to him, or that some accident has delayed or misdirected his answer, and prevented its coming to hand. I have now settled once more in this town, and resumed the practice of the law—...
37From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 February 1807 (Adams Papers)
I have received your kind letter of January; and shall particularly attend to your directions at Philadelphia, respecting the flour—It is at present my intention to leave this place the 4th: of next month; but the winter and the roads are now breaking up; so that I know not whether the roads will at that time be passable The termination of this Congress will leave our public affairs in a...
38To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 4 September 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have the honour to enclose a letter which I was desired to forward to you from Mr: Bourne at Amsterdam. A few days before I sailed from Hamburg, I sent you by duplicates, copies of a letter which I received there from the Swedish Minister at the Court of Berlin and of my answer to it. As it contained a proposition from the king of Sweden which may be deemed of some importance to the...
39From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 25 March 1808 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 5th: instt: never came to my hands untill yesterday—I have long noticed the characters of the factions which were excited among all the antient nations, in their relations with the Romans—It has been particularly remarked by Montesquieu, and its application to our own Affairs is no new thing in my mind—Modern History is full of the same phenomenon—The English and French...
The latest letter I have from you is dated the 14th: when you were very unwell with a sore throat and George with a very bad cough—I wait every Evening with the hope of a line from you of a more cheering nature —not unmingled with an apprehension of having in its stead, addition of anxiety—My hopes and my fears must be postponed from day to day and the state of Suspense still hangs over me....
I have as little faith in presentiments as yourself—but the anxiety which I have felt for this whole week on your account has been such, that on receiving this morning your two letters of the 19th: and 21st:—I opened them with a trembling hand and heart—I lay this morning an hour before day-light, torturing myself with the fancy that some calamity of fire had befallen you or the children; and...
42From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 30 March 1808 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your kind attention to my affairs, as detailed in your last Letter which I have received within these two days— I confide entirely in your judgment and discretion, and shall approve of any arrangements you shall make for the present disposal of my farm— R. Dexter holds or held a note from me of a little more than three hundred dollars—I left a request with Shaw to pay it as...
43From John Quincy Adams to Justus Bush Smith, 8 January 1805 (Adams Papers)
When I was at New-York in April last, I received from your brother James $500 in part payment of the interest due upon your note. There still remains about $200 of interest due—This, together with the principal, from what he then said to me, and from the assurances in your letters before that time, I suppose you are at this time prepared to discharge—If however it will better suit your...
I received yesterday your letter of the 15th: and this morning that of the 17th: enclosing in the former a letter from to your Mamma, and in the latter, one to Mrs: Boyd—We are now at the last days of the Session, and you know how much we are oppress’d with public business at such times—This will give you my excuse for the shortness of this letter—It is not yet certain whether the members of...
From your letter of the 20th: which I have just received, I am in doubt whether even this letter will not reach New-York, too late to meet you—I wrote you last Thursday a letter directed to Washington enclosing one hundred Dollars for defraying the expences of your Journey—I hope you have left such directions, that the letter will be transmitted safely to you— The house which I expected to...
46John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 15 October 1803 (Adams Papers)
I presume you had not left Bristol two hours before we arrived there— Your advice to us to stop at the Fox-Chace, we could not follow— For we should not have known how to get forward— Neither can we go into the City, because, if we did they would exclude us from Baltimore.— We are now at Dover’s—The Rising Sun—Close by the Bridge— We shall stop here to-morrow, and proceed on Monday— We hope...
I have just received your letter of 24. Decr: and lament that the expression of my anxiety to hear from you should in any respect have been understood by you as implying any idea of complaint as if you had been negligent in writing—I never had such intention, and have always been convinced of your attention in writing regularly. It gives me great pain to find by your letter that your health &...
48From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 19 February 1806 (Adams Papers)
I have received from you the Anthology for January, for which I thank you—In a letter yesterday to my brother I have made some remarks upon it with which I hope you will not be displeased—Perhaps my own zeal upon a subject of importance, made me more sollicitous concerning one Article in it than was necessary—I should be glad to review the several pamphlets on this subject lately published in...
49To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 4 June 1808 (Madison Papers)
I take the liberty of enclosing to you two certificates, respecting William Parker, a native Citizen of the United States, impress’d into the British Service, about fourteen months since, and whose liberation it has been impossible to obtain. He is the eldest Son of a widow of very respectable character, with a family of ten children, and in circumstances to depend in some measure upon him for...
My project of coming from Washington to this place, by the way of Annapolis was disappointed, by the badness of the roads, which prevented the arrival of the Stage from Annapolis in Season for us to take it the 4th:—so I took my passage on the usual way to Baltimore, Thursday and arrived here by the new line of Packets last Evening—To-morrow, I shall pursue my journey to New-York, where I...
51From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 9 August 1806 (Adams Papers)
I left Cambridge yesterday, after having finished my weekly performance, to come here and meet my wife whom I expect hourly here—I received this morning letters from her, dated one at Philadelphia 30. July—and one at New-York 3. August—She was with my Sister, who was well and in good Spirits—She intended to stay over Commencement which was last Wednesday, and then come on as soon as possible—I...
52From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 23 April 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have received your two letters of last Week, with a dozen copies of my letter to Mr: Otis—And Mr: Gardiner’s fast Sermon—But the copies which you mention as forwarding with your’s of the 15th: instt: have not come to hand. I thank you most cordially for the promptitude with which you executed the charge of publication—I find the federal newspapers in Boston, which began with a system of...
53From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 26 November 1804 (Adams Papers)
Yours of the 14th: came to hand Saturday Evening—24th: I suppose you were not inconsolable at the loss of your election, and that your expectations had not been raised very high of a different issue—As to the electoral Ticket, I am certainly not one of those who can say I told you so—Nor am I one of those who can say I am not sorry for it—But I do not think crimination against any body can be...
54John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 March 1802 (Adams Papers)
I am sorry that we are again obliged to postpone our visit to you at Quincy, as George is this day breaking out with the meazles— His symptoms however are favourable, and we hope he will have the disorder lightly.— I send out by William the two turkies and a fish. There is no Cod at market, for which reason I send a haddock— You will also receive a Rochefort cheese enclosed in a leaden cover—...
55John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, 29 September 1801 (Adams Papers)
Last friday Evening, the 25 th. Whitcomb to my great joy arrived and brought the tidings of your safe arrival at Washington; he was detained four days at New-York; so that your letter of the 16 th: reached me at the same time— I enjoyed over again the happiness of your meeting with your parents and family; and as you are apprehensive of too much inconvenience on your journey hither without me,...
56From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 3 February 1805 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter enclosing Mr: Bradford’s Sermon which I have read with much pleasure; and informing me of the cruel misfortune which has befallen Mr: Smith, for whom, and his excellent lady and family, I feel very much distress’d—If there was any one merchant in Boston on whose safety and stability I should have confided more than any other, he was the man; and to find him thus...
57From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 3 September 1806 (Adams Papers)
I now enclose you the auctioneer’s Bill and will thank you to make out the list of the Books, by their titles , with the prices fixed against them, and get the receipt of the auctioneer upon it, as received of me , which will be necessary for me as a voucher—There are only two volumes (Mason on Elocution, and Carey’s Pocket Atlas, which I purchased for myself, and are not to be included in the...
58From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 3 December 1804 (Adams Papers)
I received some days since your kind letter of the 11th: of last month, and was delighted to find you had so far recovered as to be able to write—Since then I have been informed by my brother and Mr: Shaw, that your health continued improving and I sincerely pray to the great disposer of Events that it may be entirely restored and long continued, for your own comfort and the happiness of us...
59To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 21 March 1801 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
21 March 1801, Berlin. No. 186. Reports continuing British embargo on Swedish shipping is likely to close Elbe and Weser to British vessels. Relays hearsay that among British seamen detained in Russian ports there are some Americans as well. Has pressed Russian minister to free such persons; recounts minister’s reluctance and his suggestions that U.S. appoint a consul in Russia and recall...
I have just this morning received your kind favour of the 2d: instt: which at once confirmed my apprehensions, and in some degree relieved my anxiety—From the time that the Saturday pass’d over untill now I have had an aching heart, and although I learn from your letter that you had been very ill, yet to know you were on the recovery, and had pass’d what I had long looked forward to as a very...