1From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
I will not envy you but congratulate you on the pleasure you have had in your excursion to Washington But I covet the like pleasure so much that if I could do it with out stirring up an uproar, & hurly burly through the Contenent—Old as I am I would get into my Gig, & bend my course thitherward to morrow morning—. I regret most grievously that you did not Visit Cedar Grove—at Fishkill...
2From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
It was not friendly in you to involve me in your domestic & family Controversies Major Pierce Butler told me that he made a voyage to England from S Carolina to ask his fathers consent to marry a Lady, whom he was determined to marry, whether his father consented, or not. And I believe you ask my advice with the same resolution I have seen Fanaticism in all its forms. the fanaticism of honour,...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 15 October 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I am much indebted to the rainy morning at Newport for your acceptable letter of Sep. 14. it gives me information of the state of religion in Boston and Cambridge of which I had not a just idea. I could not have concieved that a Congregationalist, after the pollution of his pulpit by the prayers of an Unitarian, would have again officiated in it, without lustrations, purifications & exorcisms...
By request of My Father I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the Instant and the Essay on the Whooping Cough presented to the “Adams Library of the Town of Quincy.” As this is the first occasion, by donation , to that Library, I may be permitted, as one of the Trustees , to thank you in their behalf, for this valuable Treatise, upon a disorder, which I have always...
5From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 13th. has touched my feelings. Deeply infected with a dangerous distemper you ask my advice as a Physician. The Faculty sometimes cure their Patients by relating facetious Anecdotes. I could give you a hundred within my own Experience and little reading but your Malady is two inveterate to be cured by Jocularity. It must be treated Seriously. I know not the Facts. Has the...
6James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 12 March 1829 (Madison Papers)
I recd in due time, with your favor of the 14th. Ult: a copy of your Inaugural Discourse prepared in early life. I was not at leisure till within a few days, to give it a perusal; and I ought not now to hazard a critique on the merits of its Latinity. If I were ever in any degree qualified for such a task, a recollection of my long separation from classical studies would arrest my pen. I am...
7James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 May 1831 (Madison Papers)
I recd. in due time your letter of the 9th. and with it the Vol. on the authorship of "Junius". Altho’ it found me but little at leisure & in crippled health, I felt too much respect for the writer, not to say curiosity for the subject also, not to give it an entire reading. Whether you have untied the knot at which so many ingenious hands have tugged in vain, I will not make myself a Judge. I...
8From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 14 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
I fear I have not answered your letter of 20th of June. That of the 8th: of August, I certainly have not. I have been justly accused of Imbecility & Dotage for twenty years past. Yet I seem to be a Man of more consequence now, than I ever was before in my whole life. What a cloud of Reminiscences, has your last letter, exhailed in my old brain! Several of with whom I gazed through a telescope...
9From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 4 June 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your pathetic Letter of the 2d. has filled my heart with Sympathy and Grief. Your Son, by all that I know, or have heard of him, would have been an ornament to Society. Your Sorrow at his loss must be exquisite. I can give you no better Advice for your Consolation, than to read your favourite Dr Barrow. It is the Lot of humanity! You are not alone! If I look back for Sixty years, what a long...
10From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 12 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
In your Letter of the 21st. of October you Say that Mrs Knox said to you that “her husband was the parent of the American Navy.” It is interesting to enquire what Idea that Lady could have had in her Mind. Have you Seen Mathew Careys History of the Rise and Progress of the American Navy? If you have read it you have Seen that the American Navy was begotten and born and a System of Naval...
11From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 16 June 1820 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for Dr Ware’s letter to Dr Mc Load which I have read with pleasure, they are worthy of his Father, & his Father in Law—Mc Load’s choice of a Text is in the true Character of a Jesuitical Priest-hood whose maxim is, that it is lawful to lie for pious purposes You must at least have had a pleasant Eevening, on your return from Montezillo—And I rejoice to hear that none of your days...
12From James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 December 1822 (Madison Papers)
I have received your favor of the 12th. instant, and with it the “Botanist,” and the Sheets containing “Heads of a Course of Lectures.” A glance over them has satisfied me that the Volume on Botany very happily opens the door to the subject, and gives enough of an Inside view to attract curiosity, and guide investigation. From the heads selected for the Lectures, they must have embraced a...
13From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 30 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
As “the accurate Jefferson” has made the Revolution a Game of Billiards, I will make it a Game of Shutle Cocks. Henry might give “the first impulse to the Ball” in Virgina but Otis’s Battle Lore had Struck the Shuttle cock up in air in Massachusetts and continued to keep it up for Several Years before Henrys Ball was touched. Jefferson was but a Boy at Colledge of 15, or 16 Years of Age at...
14From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 7 September 1820 (Adams Papers)
Captain Phillips’s letter is a Volume of News to me—That he Sailed without a Commission was never known, heard, or suspected, by me—and not one word of his Conversations with Mr Stoddard, were ever communicated to me—but at this distance of time, what can I do to sooth the feelings of Mr Phillips—Till I received your letter, I have never heard one word about him since his dismission— G. W. A...
15From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 5 February 1818 (Adams Papers)
Clarks History of the Navy is the Same with Mathew Careys. Wilkinsons History I have not Seen. I believe with you that the Battle of Bunkers Hill has never been faithfully recorded. It would require an hundred Volumes in Folio to investigate the “Roost Cock” who produced the Sacred mysterious Egg, to which you allude in your Letter of 17. Jan. The Antiquity of this Egg and its Universality...
16From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 January 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 20. is recieved. the Professors of our University, 8. in number, are all engaged. those of antient & Modern languages are already on the spot. three more are hourly expected to arrive, and on their arrival the whole will assemble and enter on their duties. there remains therefore no place in which we can avail ourselves of the services of the rev d mr Bertrum as a teacher. I...
17From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 9 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Oh! that I had Eyes and Fingers for a little Badinage! When you cannot keep your Chin above water, I advise you to apply to the Hospital for the Sane.—Vid Dr Rush passim, and a pritty thing in the North American Review, by young Mason—The great Docter Johnson and Rush agree that we are all a little cracked. This only a Few who can be denominted Sane, and those only quad hor—For these Mason has...
18From James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, [ca. 16] March 1817 (Madison Papers)
On a long list of epistolary debts which I could not attend to, during the period of my public duties, is your favor containing explanations relating to “A Journal of a young man &c.” I beg leave now to thank you for that mark of your attention. The reception given by the public to the work is the best evidence of its interesting character; and a perusal of a part of it only, a sufficient one...
19From James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 22 June 1822 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your favor of the 9th. with a copy of your Lecture on Tobacco & ardent spirits. It is a powerful dissuasion from the pernicious use of such stimulants. I had read, formerly, the first Edition of the Lecture; but have read this last also, for the sake of the additions and Notes. Its foreign translations and its reaching a fifth Edition are encouraging evidences of its usefulness;...
20James Madison to Benjamin Waterhouse, 21 June 1833 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of the 30th. Ult was duly recd. with the little volume to which it refers. The facts contained in this, are an acceptable appendix to the stock of information on a subject which has awakened much curiosity. I the less wonder at the relish shewn for such a treat as you have provided, considering the plums & the sauce you have added to the pudding. Altho’ the state of my eyes permit...
21From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
You must have much pleasure in watching the Opining mind of your Grandchild; for, being half Waterhouse and half Ware it must be a choice Spirit. But how Smal is your felicity in comparison with mine, who have Seven Grand Children, Scattered over the World, and Seven more under my own roof, and eight or ten great grandchildren, one of whom is here with her Mother. A great grand daughter, and a...
22From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 18 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
I have made my Cantabridgians read your Letter to all my family at Breakfast. We all recognized the concordance between the Oration upon Industry and Doctor Barrows Sermons which I have caused to be read in my family over and over. Indeed I do not believe it possible for human Ingenuity to write any Thing upon Industry which may not be found Substantially in his five Sermons in favour of that...
23Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 31 January 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 15 th was recieved on the 27 th and I am glad to find the name and character of Samuel Adams coming forward, and in so good hands as I suppose them to be. but I have to regret that I can add no facts to the stores possessed. I was the youngest man but one in the old Congress , and he the oldest but one, as I believe. his only senior, I suppose, was Stephen Hopkins , of and by...
24From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 10 June 1822 (Adams Papers)
Thanks for your letter of 5th. June and smoaking lecture but as I have not read the lecture I shall confine myself in this, the smoaking Theology. I believe you have heard of the Park Street prayers for the conversion of Boston and Cambridge, in which as far as they are good, sincere, honest pure and benevolent, I heartily join them; but which as far as they are hypocritical bigoted and...
25From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 17 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
I fear I have not answered your letter of 20th. of June. That of the 8th. of August I certainly have not. I have been justly accused of Imbecillity and Dotage for Twenty Years past. Yet I Seem to be a Man of more consequence now, than I ever was before, in my whole Life. What a Cloud of Reminiscences, has your last Letter, exhailed in my old brain! Sewal, with whom I gazed through a Telescope...
26From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
Can you prescribe rules for painting, a perception? A reminiscens,? a judgment? a ratiocination? Do you think there will ever arise an original Genius who will invent an Art of painting a debate in a Boston Town Meeting, or an Argument at the Bar? It would not be a Wonder, equal to your Jennerian Inoculation! If Such a Phenominon Should appear, I have a Subject to propose to him. The local...
27From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 7 November 1820 (Adams Papers)
I return you Captain Phillips’s sensible letter, I wish I could converse with you upon the subject; it is most certain that I never knew, heard, or suspected, that he Sailed without a Commission, I have no recollection that I ever gave orders, or consented to his dismission from the Service. Indeed I suspect he never was dismissed; and that he is now a Captain in the Navy, as much as ever he...
28From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 November 1821 (Adams Papers)
I sympathise with Alexipharmacus in his resentment of the indignities offered to Richardson, Lock, Barrow &ca: yet I cannot approve of the principle of Clarissa Harlow’s history, because such virtue ought never to be rendered so unfortunate; for I believe it never is, even in this world; nor was ever so infernal a villain as Love-lace ever able to maintain, for so long a time, the esteem and...
29From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
I received yesterday your favour of the 22nd and will begin at the end of it you must not utter a word or insinuate a hint against the character of Junius Brutus He had eyes as piercing as lightning, views as vast as the globe and benevolence as expansive as the human race. He had an exalted soul and a heart of celestial fire. He was as ready to sacrifice his own life as that of his sons And...
30From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 17 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
Have you read certain Strictures upon Painters and Paintings in the Newspapers? What do you think of them? I am pleased with his gratitude to Copeley, but I believe he was not perfect Master of Copeleys Merit. There is a Portrait of Justice Dana in his Robebands and Tie Wigg of a Barrister at Law, now no doubt in possesion of his Descendants. There is a full Length Portrait of Governor Adams,...