301From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Quincy Adams, 18 August 1821 (Adams Papers)
The style in which my Letter of the 3d was written, pretty clearly evinced by its apologetic nature, the fear I felt of giving offence; and your answer has proved those fears were not unfounded: Surely I have never doubted the or disputed the all distinguished attentions you have received from your Countrymen, and still less ever suggested the idea that you courted them—You must permit me to...
Accept my congratulations my Dear George on your success in the performance of a task become unpleasant from its constant repetition and the almost impossibility of striking out something novel either to amuse or instruct—The line you adopted was very correct and gave more scope than the beaten topic’s usually appropriated to the day and avoided one of the evils into which fourth of July...
Last Eveng Mr. Ingersol called and sat with us sometime and we had a good and pleasant chat after which Messieurs Walsh and Hopkinson came and remained with us till ten o’clock—Mr Walsh told me he had received a Letter from your father in which he speaks of his (Mr W’s) neutrality concerning the Russell business. He told me that this was a misunderstanding and that he had made no comments on...
Well, Charles, how comes on the file? is yours as big as John’s? are your walks so delightful you cannot get one moment of time to write me? or are you so busy in giving your french Lessons to your friend Dawes that you are obliged to decline my correspondence?—I am so perfectly sure that you have some very good reason for your silence I by no means wish to reproach you—But as it is long time...
In the course of my ride from New Brunswick yesterday my Dear George the wish you expressed for something like a translation or imitation of the Lines I wrote in french and I dictated to Elizabeth while she wrote the very indifferent lines which follow—One verse is added and I beg you to alter or correct as you please—I know they are not good but they in a great degree convey the ideas...
I mentioned to you that I had been amusing myself in translating the Dialogue of Plato. I now send you the first sheet and shall continue to send one every week until I have completed the first—You will find it miserably done but your father says the sense is preserved and that is all that is necessary as I do not pique myself upon my translating powers—You I know can study them to more...
307From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 2 December 1821 (Adams Papers)
I should have answer’d your Letter earlier could I write with my accustomed care but it fatigues me so much I feel too much inclined to neglect my usually pleasant occupations— I received a Letter yesterday from your brother which indicates a very seriously discontented mind and makes me very apprehensive that his disposition is acquiring a habit of complaining and uneasiness calculated to...
308From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 3 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter pleased both your father and myself as your reasoning is very good and shows reflection and forethought I beg as a favour that you will take pains to intimate as delicately as you can that I have no thought of bringing either of the Girls home with me as your father will not hear of it on the very ground which you have represented—The perpetual round of company in which I live in...
My health is so bad that I am obliged to relinquish my correspondence almost in spite of myself for if the inclination to write seizes me my Letters can give no pleasure to those who receive them as they are tinged with the languor and weakness which pervades both my mind and my frame.—My friends here tell me that the great struggle which is now making in the political world is in great part...
310From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 6 May 1822 (Adams Papers)
Why will you give way to despondence? the time you have been at College has been too short in any way to decide upon your Scholarship and you should not dwell too much upon your standing as long as you exert yourself to improve it—I am told that it is not customary to let young men know any thing about it for fear of exciting jealousy therefore you cannot ascertain what is perfectly immaterial...
Abby left us this morning my Dear George on her way to Boston under the protection of Mr Fuller who intends going on without stopping on the road. She is in fine health and has enjoyed her visit apparently very much— I am really sorry for the loss Mr. Welsh has sustained in the death of his amiable Wife whose poor babes are at an age to want all her care and tenderness— I have read your lines...
312From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 24 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
Your two last Letters would have been answered much sooner if they I had not been constantly engaged and prevented either by visitors at home or visiting abroad from writing or in fact doing anything—I think still you were mistaken about your having a Letter on my file which I had not attended to but you have assigned so excellent a reason for your silence which I ought to have recollected...
313From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 19 June 1820 (Adams Papers)
Have you forgotten your Mother my dear John? or do you never mean to write again? I have been long impatiently waiting for Letters now a long time and still meet with disappointment every post—What is the reason you do not write? Edward Taylor can be very punctual. Your father has had a Letter from your Uncle in which he says that in consequence of abusing the privilege of boarding out you are...
314From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, January 1818 (Adams Papers)
I am very happy to find by your Letter of the 7th that you are kind enough to be satisfied with my efforts to amuse you I am generally obliged to write in so great a hurry that I cannot attend to elegance of style and I believe I cannot always boast of writing sense—I am only guided by the current of my thoughts which frequently flow too rappidly to be perfectly rational—If however they enable...
315From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 3 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
My intention was to write you tomorrow morning it being the anniversary of your birth and to offer you my congratulations not only to wish you joy upon this occasion but rather to rejoice at the improvement you have made during the last year and to express my hopes that your acquirements during the next may be such both in learning and discretion as will merit my most partial approbation—You...
John in his last Letter to me tells me that you make a secret of my Letters to you and will not let him see them—I did not think you were so boyish more especially since you have become a Sophomore—Do not then embitter by such nonsense the hours you have to spend together and be assured that the affection of your Mother is so equally divided between her Sons that each is the equal object of...
Shall I first congratulate you on the honours which you have just received or will they be attended with labour and be both tiresome and unprofitable? Having however a deep interest in the Bank it is a very good thing that you can overlook the management of your property —I have written a long Letter to Johnson which I fear may offend him a little but he will get over it and as young people...
We have arrived safely at this place after a fatiguing journey owing to the dust and extreme heat of the weather which nearly overcame me and produced so much fever by the time we reach’d New London we were apprehensive I should be incapable of proceeding as I found myself considerably better we took our passage in the Steam Boat at New London yesterday morning at 7. o-clock and reached New...
319From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 27 March 1823 (Adams Papers)
Surely my dear John you were not in your usual state when you wrote and enclosed George’s Letter to me or you could not have put such a construction upon it—Remember that when we undertake to correct the faults of others we should have attained to years of experience and have acquired by this means the capacity of advizing or else have conquered and eradicated all those failings in ourselves...
320From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Adams’s business accumulates so rappidly and Genl. Jackson has cut out so much new and difficult work for the Government I despair of seeing you this year—Contrary to your idea Mr. Adams enjoys his health hitherto perfectly but I have totally lost the little share I possessed on my arrival in this Country as I now scarcely know what it is to be well two days together—my lungs are very much...
You will probably have received the translations I sent you my dear Son of Plato as I understand you have made a visit to Quincy to your Grandfather— In a conversation held at our house in the course of last winter I heard Socrates compared to our Saviour Jesus and it was this comparison which induced me to read the life of Socrates, and the dialogues of Plato; with attention; that I might...
Your father was amused by your last Letter and glad to learn that you were pleased with any part of your studies and thinks that your distate of Mathematics may decrease as you advance in your course—George is gone to Rockville to visit Johnson whose health is very indifferent in consequence he says of severe study and probably some other nameless causes—He has not been up since you saw him...
I have been so sick my Dear Charles since my arrival at home it has been altogether out of my power to write to you or to George and I now sieze the earliest opportunity that you may be convinced I can never neglect you or forget my promise of writing frequently—Washington looks very dull although it is full of strangers but it is said we are to have a very gay and crowded Winter unless...
As I know you will be very anxious to hear from me my Dear George I hasten to write merely to inform you that my health though still very weak is much better and I am able to ride out— No change has yet taken place in our establishment and we have all the trouble of our removal still in anticipation but my chief concern is the disposal of our house which I fear will be attended with much...
What! a letter from George I cried when your father put your last epistle in my hand yesterday afternoon? I was surprized for I thought that you ceased to wish to keep up any thing like friendly intercourse with your family and to feel that I was not altogether forgotten in the solitude of my chamber did occasion my heart to spring with joy. I am delighted to observe by the tone of your Letter...
Your Letter from Cambridge arrived yesterday my dear Charles and I was sorry to find you still suffered from your old nervous timidity—Do not however despair I struggled many years of my life from against the same difficulty but fortunately conquered it and now can almost generally command myself—Habit and constant practice will soon get the better of this very unpleasant sensation and reading...
327From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 12 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter reached me last Eveng. and I am very sorry to learn that your Grandfather is so feeble as it is a symtom which I am apprehensive which indicates a decay of constitution which may lead us to dread a close of his career much earlier than we any of us anticipate—Mrs. Clark’s accounts from Quincy differ very much according to her and Mrs. French and I think she would be wiser if she...
328From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 22 March 1821 (Adams Papers)
I feel a little uneasy about you and therefore write you again to give you a timely caution as there are whispers concerning the restlessness of your Class which lead me to dread an explosion Your own sense my dear Boy will teach you how foolish and imprudent it is to run any risk of expulsion or even rustication as the loss of a year to you who are so desirous of obtaining your liberty would...
329From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 17 October 1822 (Adams Papers)
I sent you from Philadelphia an odd volume of A Sketch of Old England which I wrote your name in and addressed to Quincy—The second was stolen from me but as their some good matter in the first and as it is a book in which there is no history to break it would be worth reading though it cannot rank as a perfect work in your collection—I shall soon send you the favorite of Nature which is said...
God Bless you my Dear Son and send you many many happy years to enjoy life and do honour to your Parents and Society is the fervent wish offered by your Mother whose prayers for your welfare are so pure they will be received and granted at the throne of mercy as long as you continue to merit them— We have entered on probably the most stormy year of our lives on which hang great and momentous...