151To John Adams from Joseph Milligan, 10 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
At the request of Mr Jacob Gideon Jr: printer of Washington I have Sent you a copy of a new Edition of The Federalist which he has just printed & published; I have bound it and we beg that you will accept the book as a mark of the esteem we have for your public & private character MHi : Adams Papers.
152To John Adams from Joseph Delaplaine, 11 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I am prepared, whenever I may have the consent of yourself & family, to commence writing your life for my National Biographical work “the Repository of the Lives & Portraits of Distinguished Americans”, the first volume of which, containing Twelve lives & portraits, is already published.— Pray inform me, from what sources I may derive the materials from which I shall be enabled to complete...
153To John Adams from John Thornton Kirkland, 12 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Boylston in his institution of prizes for elocution at our University has appointed as follows viz “The Corporation shall in each & every year select five gentlemen, who have been themselves distinguished for their elocution particularly, either at the bar, in the pulpit or in the Senate, who, together with the Corporation or a major part of them shall be the judges of the elocution of the...
154To John Adams from John T. Watson, 12 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I felt myself too much gratified with the receipt of your letter, not to have been Very thankful for the polite manner of your reply. I had not thought to have trespassed more upon your attention, although I felt a wish to express a few sentiments in reply return: but reflecting now , that a few moments may be sufficient for you to run over these lines, & there being no occasion in them for...
155From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 17 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
In the course of a week or two we propose to visit Boston and I expect to find your mind as much improved as your growth has improved your person. It has often occurred to me when writing to you on the subject of books to caution you as to the nature of the Books which you should read and to guard you against such as are licencious for such I am sorry to say and (to the disgrace of mankind...
156To John Adams from Charles G. Haines, 18 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I take the liberty of sending you my pamphlet concerning the Great Western Canal, written at the request of the New York Corresponding Association for the Promotion of Internal Improvements. I cannot but congratulate a Statesman, so distinguished as your yourself, among the Fathers, of our Republic, that you have lived to see the day when your toils, your anxieties, and your sacrifices are...
157To John Adams from John Marston, 1 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
Parental solicitude for the welfare of a beloved son, I hope will excuse the liberty I take of inclosing you, a letter from Mr Bailey at Washington, who has kindly interested himself in behalf of my son, who you know is a Cadet at West point. My Son has been at the Academy four years, & in consequence, of not passing his last examination in mathematicks, was not included in the list of...
158To John Adams from James Savage, 3 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
without having the honour of acquaintance with you, I feel bold enough to prefer a request, which it may be a benefit to our common country for you to grant, and will refer to my excellent friends, Josiah Quincy or William S. Shaw, Esquires to justify my appeal to your kindness. My friend, George Ticknor, Esquire, now in Spain, will next month visit England, and there desires to enjoy the...
159To John Adams from Caesar Augustus Rodney, 6 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
The perusal of your letter to Judge Tudor, published in a late number, of that valuable work, Nile’s Register, has given me great pleasure & satisfaction. You have done justice to departed worth, by rescuing form oblivion, the conduct & character of one of the earliest & ablest defenders of American rights & liberties. The memory of the illustrious James Otis, too long neglected, will be thus...
160To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 9 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
I write to return my thanks for your kind answer to my letter respecting the biography of James Otis—which I did not receive in course being absent from town, but it was forwarded to me by my Father. I am here with Mr Baldwin making some surveys of the ground for the Canal; and shall not lose the opportunity of inquiring among the gentlemen of this County for anecdotes of the great Patriots...
161To John Adams from George G. Barrell, 16 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
The liberty I now possess of addressing you, without going thro’ the medium of a second person, originates in a great degree from the noble, bold and enlightened stand you took in the defence of our common country forty three years since; and if, in offering to one of the most exalted characters mine or any other country has ever produced, the tribute of my respect in soliciting your...
162To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 18 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
Unexpectedly I was favoured with your kind Letter of Aug. 22—and, what was more gratifying, it Sheweth, that you enjoy’d health and chearfulness—be these continued to you—till the last moments. I too gradually Seem to recover mÿ Strenght: ere long the necessity of working in the garden Shall cease—and then I must return to the Records—which nevertheless—during the first weeks—Shall not amuse...
163To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 19 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
My time has latterly been so severely occupied that I fear I have been remiss in sending to you the different numbers of the Register enriched by your communications. But the 13th vol. was duly sent to Mr. Ballard, & the 14th, only completed on the 1st inst—after which the index for it was to be done, is now on its way to you by water—together with a Copy of the General Index for the first...
164To John Adams from Caesar Augustus Rodney, 19 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
It was very flattering to my pride, and grateful to my feelings, to receive your friendly & acceptable favor of the 12. inst. with which I was honored, by the mail of yesterday. This mark of distinguished attention, more prized, as it was unexpected, claims my warmest acknowledgments. To speak with frankly, it was with extreme reluctance I obtruded my hasty note, penned under the impulse of...
165To John Adams from Ann Hewison, 26 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have taken the Liberty of writing to inform you that I have by me Manuscripts of the travels for 5 years of A Mr. Wm. Langborn (A Native of Virginia) through France Holland England, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia prussia, Germany Turkey, Italy, &c. they are very voluminous and if published would be particularly interesting to his Country they were sent to England by A Gentmn sealed up Under...
166To John Adams from John Sanderson, 29 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have taken the liberty of sending to your address some pages of a work I have just put to press in Philada.—A copy of which I shall convey to you, entire, as the nos. or half vollumes are competed. The first will be published in a few weeks, & the others at convenient intervals, perhaps of six months.— I wished very much to consult you on the subject of this publication before the present...
167To John Adams from Alden Bradford, 30 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have thot it would be a useful & acceptable service to have published in a volume, the Speeches of the Governors of the Province of Massachusetts from 1765 to 1775; & the answers to those speeches by the House of Representatives, together with other addresses of the Representatives to the people, in the same period, touching the controversy between the Colonies & the the King & Parliament of...
168To John Adams from Rev. Horace Holly, 30 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 28th was handed to me yesterday. That, which you did me the honor to write to me at Lexington, went thither in the mail and returned before I received it. I should have answered it immediately, had I not intended every day to get an early opportunity to make you a visit at Quincy. My wishes on this subject have been controled by the series of preparations which I have been...
169To John Adams from Ann Frances Bulkeley Humphreys, 30 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
The enclosed Letter has been written some time since, but I have had no opportunity of sending it by private conveyance. Having heard from Monsr Artiquendue that he proposed doing himself the honor of paying his homage to you at Quincy, I have charged him with it, & at the same time avail myself of the occasion to present this Gentleman to you. As his estimable qualities must be already known...
170To John Adams from Stephen Miller, 5 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
The Office of Navy Agent of this place having become vacant by the death of the late incumbent I am about to apply for the appointment: my brother who is in the Marine Corps & station’d at Washington will ask it of the President for me, but he has suggested to me that a word in my favor from your Son the Secretary of State would have much influence, would it be asking too much Sir, to request...
171To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 7 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
It is very long, my dear friend, since I have written to you. the fact is that I have was scarcely at home at all from May to September, and from that time I have been severely indisposed and not yet recovered so far as to sit up to write, but in pain. having been subject to troublesome attacks of rheumatism for some winters past, and being called by other business into the neighborhood of our...
172To John Adams from Caesar Augustus Rodney, 7 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your much esteemed favor of the 26th. ulto. was received, a few days since, when I was occupied at court. My stock of letters & papers, left me, by my father & c uncle, is very large; and it constitutes my principal inheritance, which I prize, beyond any estate, preserved from the wreck of the revolution. The patriotism of that period was without alloy. The perusal of the productions of those...
173Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 7 October 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
It is very long, my dear friend, since I have written to you. the fact is that I have was scarcely at home at all from May to September, and from that time I have been severely indisposed and not yet recovered so far as to sit up to write, but in pain. having been subject to troublesome attacks of rheumatism for some winters past, and being called by other business into the neighborhood of our...
174To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 10 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have the pleasure to return to my dear friend Rodney’s letter, with a copy of your interesting correspondence, published in this day’s Register: Permit me to tender you my thanks for the favor conferred in sending it to me. Your 14th vol & the Genl. Index I expect have reached Boston before this time. I thank you for the copies of Dr. Mayhew’s sermons. I Shall publish some extracts from to...
175To John Adams from William John Coffee, 16 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
The Subject of which I write I believ you are Acquainted with by the Honorabl Thos Jefferson & lines he wrote to me relates to my being Employed—to take a Small Bust of you Head—I have being Employed by Mr J. Madison & his Excellence Mr Munro & many others of celebrity—in June last at Monticelo Mr Jefferson Inform’d me he had wrote to you on the Subject and of you willingness to admit me to...
176From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 19 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
To say how much I was affected at not seeing you the day I left Boston would indeed be impossible as I supposed it was owing to the Woman’s having said we were at dinner that made you leave the house so suddenly and I could not bear the idea of your being refused admittance—I thank you very much for your very affectionate Letters which gave me the greatest pleasure and arrived so as to make me...
177To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 27 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
I asked my Father the evening before I left town on a visit here, if he had written to you as I had wished him to do on the subject of obtaining from Mr Rodney the papers or a copy of them in his possession relating to James Otis—He told me he had not, because Mr Shaw had done it, and that you had written to Mr Rodney on the subject—I have made a beginning to collect materials and hope to make...
178To John Adams from Henry Warren, 29 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
Permit me on the sad & melancholy annunciation of the papers of this day of the death of Mrs. Adams to address a line to you.—not of condolence—for you are beyond that,—but of sympathy. The irreparable breach in your domestic felicity can never be healed: the friendship of youth can never be restored. The loss of such a woman as Mrs: Adams society must ever deplore; how much more her partner,...
179To John Adams from Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 31 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
The extreeme distress of mind under which Mr Adams labours in consequence of our dear Mother’s distressing illness, totally incapacitates him from writing to you on the subject which excites in us both the most painful anxiety—. Most readily will I set out to Boston if in any shape I can afford assistance, and I should delight in giving every testimony of dutiful affection and respect to our...
180From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 31 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
The state of cruel anxiety in which we remain on account of your Grandmamma’s illness has occasioned my not writing to you as punctually as I otherwise should have done and I now do not feel in spirits to say more than that both your father and myself are greatly pleased at your affectionate attention in writing so frequently. I thank you for your translations which your father says are better...
181To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 1 November 1818 to 2 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
If my delaying to answer ÿour favour of the 2 of oct was a just measure of my valuing your condescending kindnesses then—no doubt—I ought to be deemed not to deserve your So distinguished attention—but I am happy indeed, that you cannot foster Such an idea—and I Should rather be prompted to make an apologÿ for an insignificant Letter, was I not fully persuaded—that—imperfect as it may be, it...
182To John Adams from Henry Colman, 2 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have just learnt by this morning’s mail, with heartfelt grief, the death of Mrs Adams. I have looked with trembling solicitude upon every obituary since I left home, yet this painful intelligence from its delay was at last unexpected. I am deeply afflicted and feel that I have lost one of my best and one of my most revered and valued friends. I esteem it one of the greatest blessings of my...
183To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 2 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
By a Letter from my Son John, I have this day been apprized, of that afflictive dispensation of Providence which has bereft you of the partner of your life; me of the tenderest and most affectionate of Mothers, and our species, of one whose existence was Virtue, and whose life was a perpetual demonstration of the moral excellence of which human nature is susceptible—How shall I offer you...
184From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 2 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 28th. of last Month, has this day brought me the most distressing intelligence that I ever received; yet my dear John, if there was any thing that could soften its bitterness, it was that it should first come from a beloved and affectionate hand—Such it was coming from yours, and I thank you, for the kind and filial attention with which you immediately communicated the...
185To John Adams from Julia Stockton Rush, 4 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
With the deepest regret I have read in our papers an account of the death of Mrs Adams. Will you permit one whom she honored with her friendship to approach you, and to mingle her tears of respect and affection with yours on this occasion. To you Sir who by this stroke have lost the friend and companion of your declining years, it is impossible for me to say any thing that could soothe your...
186To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 4 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
I must then Submit to the painful task of condoling you with the irreparable loss—and yet—my Dear friend! I can find no words—to express my hearts anguish—alas! what must be your feelings—when that partner of your heart and Soul is torn from your Side! oh! was I with you—then I might have Shared in the Comfort from her lips before her departure—then her last blessing might have cheered my...
187From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 8 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your sudden silence after the affectionate and unremitted attention you shewed during your dear Grandmothers illness and the total want of information since on the subject of the family in general has occasioned both your father and myself much uneasiness and we are counting the mails every day to meet fresh disappointment Your Fathers Messenger has just been and I flew down in the hope of...
188To John Adams from William John Coffee, 10 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
I Som three weeks ago took the liberty of writing to you in Concequen ce of the Advice of Mr Jefferson’s but he I fear will no longer have Permission to give Advice he being given Over by his Physicians, but that Sad news you no doubt—Sir are too well aquainted with now Sir as I must Shortly go to Washington and the Cold wether would hinder my proceeding in The Modeling Sir will your goodness...
189To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 13 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of which your letter of Oct. 20. had given me ominous foreboding. tried myself, in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of connection which can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to endure. the same trials have taught me that, for ills so...
190Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 13 November 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of which your letter of Oct. 20. had given me ominous foreboding. tried myself, in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of connection which can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to endure. the same trials have taught me that, for ills so...
191To John Adams from Henry Colman, 14 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
I regret very much that the enclosed is not more worthy of your acceptance by being more worthy of its lamented Subject. I hope you will not be displeased with it; but accept it as a small expression of my sincere veneration for the departed and my unfeigned Sympathy in your deep afflictions— I am, my Dear Sir, / with the highest respect / yr obliged & obed sert P.S. It appeared here with some...
192To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 23 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have duly received your Letter of the 10th. instant, and take great consolation in learning from yourself, as I had already, and have since again heard from others, that your characteristic fortitude has firmly stood the test of that greatest of bereavements, with which it has pleased heaven that you should now be afflicted Mr Colman of Hingham was here a few days, and upon my shewing him...
193To John Adams from LeRay de Chaumont, 28 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
I was travelling in the wilderness of the West part of Pensylvania, where I have some property when your most esteemed favour of the 6th ulto reached LeRaysville, from whence it has been sent to me at Philadelphia, to wait for my arrival—The pleasure I received from it was soon turned into morning when the public voice learnt me the irreparable loss you met with—My sympathetick heart knows too...
194To John Adams from Joseph Milligan, 30 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your esteemed favour of the 20th inst was received this day I am happy to have it in my power to give you the information that you desire respecting the health of Mr: Jefferson you will see by the enclosed letter in his own hand writing (to my esteemed friend John Barnes eqr collector of the port of Georgetown) that his health is improving and by a copy of a book on Political Economy that has...
195To John Adams from Alden Bradford, 1 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
Mr Shaw has suggested to me the propriety of omitting (in the proposed Vol. of Masstts. State papers) the long altercation between Govr. Hutchinson & the House of Rep. respecting the holding of the Genl. Court at Cambridge, or any where out of Boston—I had, before he spoke to me on the subject, thought it would not be necessary to publish that controversy any further, than one communication on...
196To John Adams from Rev. Horace Holly, 4 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have not ventured before now to write to you since I heard of the melancholy event which has afflicted you and your family. I fear that even now I may mistake the impression which I wish might be made upon your mind by a letter expressive of the sympathy that I feel in regard to the loss you and your children have sustained. Although I came late to the acquaintance of Mrs Adams and yourself,...
197To John Adams from Richard Rush, 4 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
Out of the circle of your own family, there are none who can feel more sorrow at the heavy affliction that has fallen upon you than we do here. We heard the melancholy news two days ago. “What exalted and long-tried excellence, exclaimed my wife, has gone to the tomb.” “As soon as my confinement was over,” she continued, “I had intended that my first letter, after one to my own mother, should...
198To John Adams from John Philippart, 7 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
I trust my motive will be received by your Excellency as an excuse for this intrusion. I am desirous of recording authentic accounts of the most distinguished Princes, Statesmen, Public and Literary Characters of every Country in the same manner as I have written those of all the British Generals in my Work the Royal Military Calendar and in other publications which I have Edited. From the...
199To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 7 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
yes, I am thankful—I am Sensible of my high obligations towards you—how few can follow your example! to remember a friend—in the days of prosperity deserves praise, but to do So in the hour of Sorrow—to Set this a Side to Sooth his anguish is not common—I knew—you did So, and if it was possible, that I could doubt it, the few affectionate lines from your own hand would have dispelled it—She is...
200To John Adams from Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 8 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Adams yesterday received a Letter from you in which you are so kind as to send me a permission to write you confidentially as I used to do the last winter—Nothing but the fear of appearing obtrusive could have prevented my writing you sooner, and having obtained the permission to pursue the old form I will continue my journal writing according to the feelings of the moment; soliciting at...