11John Adams to Abigail Adams, 30 May 1783 (Adams Papers)
Here I am, out of all Patience. Not a Word from America. The British Ministry, lingering on. Mr. Hartley uncertain what to do. No Regulation of Commerce agreed on. No definitive Treaty of Peace, Signed, nor likely to be Signed very Soon. My Spring Passage home lost. To embark in July or August, would be the worst Season of the whole Year—on Account of Heat and Calms. I dont See a Possibility...
12John Adams to Abigail Adams, 20 May 1783 (Adams Papers)
No News yet from America! We Yesterday, exchanged Full Powers with Mr. Hartley, and have agreed to meet at my House, every Evening at Six o Clock, untill We Shall have finished. This looks as if We were under Weigh, and I hope We shall reach Port. But cannot guess, how Soon. My Residence in Holland has given me many faithfull Remembrancers, and among the Rest the Scurvy. I walk every day,...
13John Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 April 1783 (Adams Papers)
It Seems as if Providence had ordered many Things for the last Months, in Such a manner as to put my Patience and Resignation to the Tryal. I dont know whether Jobs Tryals were more Severe. 1. Mr. John who was to have been at the Hague by Christmas has been detained at Stockholm, Copenhagen and Hamborough at which last Place he was on the 4. of this month, you may imagine my Anxiety about him....
14John Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 April 1783 (Adams Papers)
If Congress when they revoked my Commission had appointed another to make a Treaty of Commerce with Great Britain, We should have had the Business all done on the 30 of Nov. Shelburnes Ministry would not have been condemned in the H. of Commons, and the definitive Treaty would have been signed before now and I Should be ready to embark for the Blue Hills, where I must go to recover my health,...
15John Adams to Abigail Adams, 11 April 1783 (Adams Papers)
There is at length a Ministry in England composed of Kings Friends and Peoples Men, which will effervesce, and throw out a great deal of fixed Air like Potash and Lime Juice. Mr. Laurens and Mr. Hartley are to be here in a few days to enter upon the definitive Treaty, but it is now probable there will be a Congress under the Mediation of the two imperial Courts at least respecting the Terms...
16John Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 April 1783 (Adams Papers)
It is now compleatly five Years, Since I first arrived in Europe, and in all that time I was never more impatient to hear from you and from America in General, than I am now and have been for some months. Not a Word, Since the Beginning of January, except a Line from your Unckle, and Scarcely any Thing Since the 26 of Oct. when I arrived in Paris. I have no intimation of the Arrival of my...
17John Adams to Abigail Adams, 28 March 1783 (Adams Papers)
On the 30 Nov. our Peace was Signed. On the 28. March We dont know that you have Yet heard of it. A Packet Should have been Sent off. I have not yet received the Ratification of the my Dutch Treaty. I know not when I Shall be able to embark for home. If I receive the Acceptance of my Resignation, I Shall embark in the first ship, the first good ship I mean, for I love you too well, to venture...
18John Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 February 1783 (Adams Papers)
Dryden, whom I have always loved to read now and then, because I learn something from him, informs me, if I did not know it before, that “it hath been observed in former times that none have been so greedy of Employments, and of managing the Publick, as they who have least deserved their Stations. But such only merit to be called Patriots, under whom We see their Country flourish. I have...
19John Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 February 1783 (Adams Papers)
L’Ambition dans l’oisiveté, la Bassesse dans l’orgueil, Le Desir de s’enrichir Sans travail, l’Aversion pour la vérité; la flatterie, la Trahison, la Perfidie, l’Abandon de tous Ses Engagemens, le mépris des devoirs du Citoyen, la Crainte de la Vertu du Prince, l’espérance de Ses foiblesses, et plus que tout cela le ridicule perpétuel jetté sur la vertu, forment, je crois, le caractère du plus...
20John Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 February 1783 (Adams Papers)
I read in a great Writer, Montesquieu that “l’honneur, en imposant la loi de servir, veut en être l’arbitre; et, s’il se trouve choqué, il exige ou permet qu’on se retire chez Soi.” C’est une des Règles suprêmes de l’honneur, Que lorsque nous avons été une fois placés dans un rang, nous ne devons rien faire ni souffrir qui fasse voir que nous nous tenons inferieurs à ce rang même.” These being...