1101Mary Smith Cranch to Abigail Adams, 19 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
I was very glad to hear by the Letter you sent me from Brookfield, that you had got Safely so far. the week prov’d so Stormy & disagreable I was affraid I Should hear you were Sick. this week has been in general So pleasant excepting one day very windy that I hope you are Safe at eastchester this evening, & that the President is recover’d from his cold. your children well & the Sweet Caroline...
1102James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 16 July 1779 (Adams Papers)
March 6 1779. “Our friend my late Colleague means to embark soon and from him you will learn the State of our Affairs here. Mr. Izard and myself would have accompanyed him had not our Commissions prevented us.” The above is an Extract from a Letter of Ar. Lee to Mr. S. Adams and tho Mr. Lee writes afterwards on April 6th. yet it was a very short Letter of Information concerning the Enemys Plan...
1103John Adams to Abigail Adams, 4 December 1796 (Adams Papers)
After Spending a Day and a Night at East Chester with our Children there and another at Newyork with our Children there I came to this City on Fryday night after a cold ride of 80 miles from Elizabeth Town. There are great Complaints of Want of Water for grinding, for Cattle and for Families through the whole Country. Yesterday I dined with the President in Company with John Watts the King of...
1104Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 6 November 1785 (Adams Papers)
Your Son, My Dear Sister has been a Member of our Family for these five Weeks, almost three of those I suppose he will tell You, Mr. Shaw and I were absent upon our southern Journey. He came a Friday in Peabody’s Coach, and we began our Rout the next Monday. His Uncle spent Saturday in giving him Directions about his Studies, and what he could wish him to pursue till his Return. Greek seemed...
1105Cotton Tufts to Abigail Adams, 8 June 1797 (Adams Papers)
As you are now in a Sphere of Life that requires the Enjoyment of Health, the Exercise of Wisdom, Patience and every other Virtue, I wish you the Possession of these equal to its Exigences and that as is the Day so may be your Strength. I feel anxious for my Friends, but peculiarly so for the State of my Country, at the same Time can chearfully leave it to the Care of Providence and those on...
1106Sarah Smith Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 October 1801 (Adams Papers)
I do not know why it is thus—but I am dissatisfied with myself untill I acknowledge your tender remembrance— Your sentiments are so consonant with my Ideas of resigned sensibility—so replete with that tenderness which has ever been displayed in all your actions— that I view it as a duty to emulate what I admire and approve— If nature has been partial in the distribution of her favores—and...
1107John Adams to Abigail Adams, 26 February 1783 (Adams Papers)
“A Court,” as John Dryden informed me, before Experience, “is a place of forgetfulness for well deservers. It is infectious even to the best Morals to live always in it. It is a dangerous Commerce where an honest Man is sure at the first of being cheated; and he recovers not his losses, but by learning to cheat others. The undermining Smile becomes at length habitual; and the drift of his...
1108John Cranch to Abigail Adams, [ca. 23 June 1787] (Adams Papers)
Substance of miss Palmer’s account of the University exhibition at Cambridge, the 10 th. of April: To J.C. “—— preceded by a band of Music, consisting of such of the pupils as had a taste for Music—among whom were John and Charles Adams and William Cranch: When the president and governors arrived, the exercises began in the following order: 1 st. Forensic dispute in english:—subject—’whether...
1109John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 10 March 1801 (Adams Papers)
I am almost asham’d to acknowledge how long it has been since I wrote you last, and can only hope you will consider my numerous letters to my brother, most of which I intended as much for you as for him, to be a sufficient apology— I have not received a line from you or from my father since last June, though I think it impossible but that you should have written more than once— My last letter...
1110John Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 December 1793 (Adams Papers)
This Day having been devoted to Thanksgiving by the Governor of Pensilvania, Congress have adjourned to Fryday. We have had a great Snow and afterwards a great Rain but not enough to carry off all the Snow. The Weather therefore is still cool, tho fair and pleasant. All Apprehension of the Fever Seems entirely departed, a Circumstance the more comfortable to me, as, having been among a few of...
1111Mary Smith Cranch to Abigail Adams, 29 June 1798 (Adams Papers)
Nothing but dire necessaty has prevented my writing as often as you could wish I do not always think it necessary to give you a list of the avocations which forbids my taking my Pen. but you know what it is to have ranting Boys to make & mend for & young men to pull about & leave upon tables chairs &C Books papers & clothes: I have no one to feel the propriety to keeping a house unincumber’d...
1112John Adams to Abigail Adams, 15 March 1796 (Adams Papers)
Your delicious Letter of the 5 th. came to my hand Yesterday. Your beautiful and pathetic Reflections on the Match in our Presidential Family are such as I expected. It is to me, one of the most delightful Ideas that is treasured in my Mind, that my Children have no Brothers nor sisters of the half or quarter Blood. one such Consciousness would poison all the Happiness of my Life.— “Remembered...
1113John Adams to Abigail Adams, 6 April 1777 (Adams Papers)
You have had many Rumours, propagated among you, which I suppose you know not how to account for. One was, that Congress, the last Summer, had tied the Hands of General Washington, and would not let him fight, particularly on the White Plains. This Report was totally groundless.—Another was, that at last Congress untied the General, and then he instantly fought and conquered at Trenton. This...
1114John Adams to Abigail Adams, 4 September 1783 (Adams Papers)
I have the Satisfaction to inform you that the definitive Treaties were all Signed yesterday, and the Preliminaries with Holland were Signed the day before. Ours is a Simple Repetition of the provisional Treaty. So We have negotiated here, these Six Months for nothing. We could do no better Situated as We were. To day We dined with Mr. Hartley and drank Tea with the Duchess of Manchester. Thus...
1115Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Adams, 10 January 1797 (Adams Papers)
Day after day has slid off into the ocean of time, with the Yesterdays beyond the flood, replete with Intentions of writing to my dear, esteemed, much loved Sister. But Sickness, accumalation of family business, & the extreme coldness of the weather has prevented— The time alloted for visiting my Friends was much too short, for my feeble constitution. I had been very unwell for three weeks,...
1116John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 May 1782 (Adams Papers)
On the Twelfth, I removed into this House which I have purchased for the United States of America. But, it will be my Residence but a little while. I must go to you or you must come to me. I cannot live, in this horrid Solitude, which it is to me, amidst Courts, Camps and Crowds. If you were to come here, such is the Unsteadiness of the Foundation that very probably We should have to return...
1117John Thaxter to Abigail Adams, 20 September 1780 (Adams Papers)
I had the honor yesterday of a most excellent letter under the signature of Portia dated 21st. July; and altho’ I wrote You largely but yesterday, yet it would be unpardonable to omit the earliest opportunity of most gratefully acknowledging the receipt of a letter, which from its Morality, its refined Sentiments and its Patriotism does infinite honour to the Writer. I have read with the...
1118John Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 November 1794 (Adams Papers)
It is a common Observation of Old People, that as they advance in Life time appears to run off faster, and the Years grow shorter. I cannot, I am Sure, Say the Same of the time which has passed of late. I took Possession of this Chamber on the 8 th. of this Month, and the time has seemed at least as long to me as any fifteen days of my whole Life. tedious days! and lonesome nights! I am weary...
1119Hannah Quincy Lincoln Storer to Abigail Adams, 24 April 1797 (Adams Papers)
I feel as if I were My worthy friend, Compel’d to write a few lines to you in this uncommon hour of distressing events that await you. Tho’ what you wished with respect to one of the deceased has happen’d—Yet Not the less affecting I am sure— Your Mind I think Must be freed from a Charge that Seem’d to dewell heavy upon you— when I last had the Satisfaction of Seeing You — at this Moment the...
1120John Thaxter to Abigail Adams, 10 November 1782 (Adams Papers)
We arrived here the 26th. last Month after a tedious Journey in a crazy Carriage, with the additional Circumstances and Douceurs of constant Rains and bad Roads. Nothing however compared to Spain. At Valenciennes, the first City of France in coming from Holland, we stopped half a day. The greatest Curiosity we saw there was in a Church, where we found the Virgin Mary encirling the City with a...
1121John Thaxter to Abigail Adams, 19 November 1782 (Adams Papers)
In my melancholy, unhappy Moments, (for such I sometimes have), I recur to my old Letters for Consolation, and to none with more pleasure than the sentimental ones of Portia. Letters give Wings to the Imagination; and by their Aid I can transport myself in an instant to H ingha m, or B rai n tr ee and there enjoy the Company of my Friends. In reading over again your’s of the 18th. July last, I...
1122John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 30 December 1786 (Adams Papers)
Three months have now elapsed, since, I have received, one line from Europe; and the only information I have had in all that time, were a couple of paragraphs in the newspapers, the one mentioning your departure from London, and the other your return there; I feel very impatient and anxious for letters, a vessel arrived a few days since; but, I do not hear, that she brought any: if I have been...
1123John Adams to Abigail Adams, 6 November 1778 (Adams Papers)
We have received Information that so many of our Letters have been thrown overboard, that I fear you will not have heard so often from me, as both of us wish. I have written often. But my Letters have not been worth so much as other Things which I have sent you. I sent you a small Present by Captain Niles. But he is taken by a Jersey Privateer. I sent you also, some other Things by Captain...
1124Samuel B. Malcom to Abigail Adams, 16 May 1800 (Adams Papers)
It was my intention immediately after our late Election to have acquainted you with the expectations that might be relied upon from its result, and also to have informed you of the conduct of the principal Agents who projected and supported it; a serious indisposition however frustrated this intention— From the public prints you will have discovered that the Election here is now decided, and...
1125James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 26 June 1781 (Adams Papers)
The Alliance may have brought you Letters: neither that nor the Franklin have given us any from Mr. Adams. Mr. Dana on the 4th of April resolved to go from Paris to Holland on the Sunday following. He mentions nothing of Mr. A but I send you a Scrap from the Hague which proves the Health of him and his, in a good Degree, March 4th. Any Thing to the contrary would have been mentioned by Mr....
1126William Cranch to Abigail Adams, 4 June 1798 (Adams Papers)
I should have answer’d your kind letter of 16 th. ult o. before this time, but I have only this morning return’d from the General Court at Annapolis. I thank you most sincerely for the interest you take in my affairs, and for the parental advice you have given. I have already suffer’d enough by becoming surety for others, to know how to prize that advice, but it requires a kind of hardness of...
1127John Adams to Abigail Adams, 1 February 1795 (Adams Papers)
You have sometime since, I presume, received my Letters inclosing those of our son Thomas of the 19 th. of October: You have also I hope and doubt not been informed by Col smith or Charles of the good Fortune of our Daughter, who on the twenty Eighth of January went to bed in good health as could be expected with an healthy Daughter. I congratulate you on all these prosperous Events, and wish...
1128John Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 February 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your last Letter, which I have rec d was dated the 10 th. — I have one from M r Thomas at Brookfield of the 8 th. — I hope your ill turn was soon over and that your health is reestablished. What the ultimate determination of our son will be I cannot conjecture.— I would not overpersuade him. Phyladelphia is on many Accounts, a good place. My Inclination as well as yours is for Quincy: his for...
1129John Adams to Abigail Adams, 15 March 1794 (Adams Papers)
I know not how to throw off, the Lassitude that hangs upon me.—weary of a daily round, which to me is more confined and more insipid than to any other. I would gladly go home: but at a time So critical as this, it would not be justifiable, to quit my Post if there were no particular Reasons against it. But as the Senate is nearly divided in all great questions, and the President pro tem, has...
1130John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 January 1804 (Adams Papers)
Your kind favour of the 10 th: inst t: came to hand last evening— And I would take this opportunity to request that all letters for me from Quincy, may be put in to the post-office there; without waiting to send them to Boston— I shall thus get them sooner— My own letters too I hope go directly to Quincy.— My brother I imagine will be satisfied with the frequency of my writing or inclosing...
1131John Adams to Abigail Adams, 25 January 1784 (Adams Papers)
I was much disappointed, on the Arrival of Mr. Temple in London, at not finding a Letter from you, but last Week at Amsterdam, I had the Happiness to receive your kind favours of Sept. 20. and Oct. 19. Mr. Trumbull is not arrived. The Loss of my kind Father, has very tenderly affected me, but I hope, with full Confidence to meet him in a better World. My ever honoured Mother I still hope to...
1132Mary Smith Cranch to Abigail Adams, 26 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
we have made every thing as ready for your reception as we can. but alass I fear we Shall not see you. I think it will not be possible under the present State of affairs for the President to leave with prudence the Seat of Goverment for So long a journey but I hope you will leave the city If you do not come you will be Sav’d the melancholy prospect of your ruin’d Barley field & distroy’d...
1133John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 29 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you a few lines yesterday, jointly with my new partner informing you of our marriage, upon which I would once more invoke your maternal blessing.— At present I write in answer to your very kind Letters of 15. March. 15. and 23. June all of which I have received since my arrival here. Before the receipt of the latter, I was in doubt whether you were at Philadelphia, or at Quincy.— I...
1134John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 15 May 1786 (Adams Papers)
Several months have again elapsed, since, I wrote you, but I shall henceforth, be able to spare more Time, than I could since I went to Haverhill before this. There is now neither the Necessity, nor indeed the possibility, for me to keep as close, as I was in the Winter. I was obliged in the Course of 6 months, to go through the studies, which are perform’d here, in 2 years and 9 months. So...
1135Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 May 1802 (Adams Papers)
Since the receipt of your favor of the 18 th: ult: I have been absent from the City, a few days, attending a County Court, and tomorrow I expect to set out for another excursion of a similar nature. There is but little immediate benefit, derived from riding the circuit in order to attend the Courts in this vicinity; for the business is principally engrossed by those who reside in the shire...
1136Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 11–12 December 1792 (Adams Papers)
It is just a week since I had the pleasure of receiving a visit from my Father at 8 oClock in the Evening of a very stormy day, after he had become almost exhausted by the fatigue of his ride from Elizabeth Town. He stoped at my lodgings, & as he was much fatigued he declined going any further that night. The next day I went to the place where I had after much trouble procured lodgings and...
1137John Adams to Abigail Adams, 17 December 1795 (Adams Papers)
I went to Senate this morning with Expectations highly raised of receiving my first Letter from you: and happily was not disappointed. I began to entertain fears for your health. I know not how to account for it, but your Short Accounts of the Progress of Business upon the farm Serves as a Substitute for the Pleasure of Seeing it as it goes on: and every Word of it is a cordial drop. The...
1138John Adams to Abigail Smith, 14 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
The Deacon and his Three Children are arrivd and the Operation has been performed, and all well. And now our Hospital is full. There are Ten, of Us, under this Roof, now expecting to be sick. One, of Us, Mr. Wheat, begins to complain of a Pain Under his Arm and in his Knees, and about his Back, so that We expect within a few Hours to see the Course of the Eruption and of the fever that...
1139Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 June 1794 (Adams Papers)
It is a fortnight to day since my return to the City, & I have been waiting the arrival of every Post in hopes of hearing from my friends— I missed seeing my Father by one day only, & I have not yet heared of his safe arrival at home. It is probable you are busy in preparing my Brother for his departure— I hope however he will be called to Philadelphia before that takes place— I know not...
1140James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 9 August 1779 (Adams Papers)
Indeed, my lovely anxious Friend, you lead me to doubt whether Mr. A. is really on the Water: The Report of the Alliance being in Concert with a 40 Gun Ship on a secret Expedition tallies with Something of which I am certain. A Man of War of that Size has been given up to the “Direction” of John Paul Jones, and the Name has been changed to“Poor Richard” that it may not appear to belong to the...
1141John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 July 1794 (Adams Papers)
I am yet uncertain as to the next point of my departure. But as I do not hear of any opportunity to go from hence, it is probable I may be permitted to return to Boston. I am glad that the man who has partly engaged to go with me, has already been to take, the small pox, as he will probably be ready upon my return and I shall be obliged to go by the very first opportunity. I have begun upon my...
1142Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 October 1801 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favors of the 5 th: & 12 th: curr t: ; the first containing the mournful tidings of the death of our venerable Uncle Quincy; and the latter, by my brother, directing me to procure for you a mourning ring. I hope by the time my brother returns from Washington, to have your commission complied with, but as you gave me no particular directions respecting the fashion of the...
1143John 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...
1144Hannah Phillips Cushing to Abigail Adams, 8 October 1798 (Adams Papers)
By letters received from Boston I was grieved to learn that you had been very ill. It would give me great pleasure to hear, that your health is perfectly restored. We have been roving to & from, since we had the pleasure of meeting you. We reached Philadelphia the 5 th. of August & left it the 9 th. ; Court sitting only three days as the alarm of the prevailing fever had in that time become...
1145John 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...
1146Cotton Tufts to Abigail Adams, 15 September 1789 (Adams Papers)
Your Favour of the 1 st. Ins t. I rec d the 11 st. and shall give orders to Pratt relative to the Butter &c Not having received an Answer to Mine respecting the Cart &c and finding no Opportunity to dispose of the Cart to Advantage I got L t. Bates to apprize it which he sat at £7.10.0 and had concluded to take it to my own Use if you approved of it, but as you think it will not be best to...
1147John Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 July 1775 (Adams Papers)
IT is now almost three Months since I left you, in every Part of which my Anxiety about you and the Children, as well as our Country, has been extreme. The Business I have had upon my Mind has been as great and important as can be intrusted to One Man, and the Difficulty and Intricacy of it is prodigious. When 50 or 60 Men have a Constitution to form for a great Empire, at the same Time that...
1148Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Adams, 28 January 1798 (Adams Papers)
I have thought day after day, that another should not pass without writing to my much loved Sister; that tomorrow I should have time , & would devote it, to the effusions of Sisterly affection, but I find each day fraught with its cares, & now more peculiarly so by my dear Betsy Quincy’s being sick with a lung fever, in consequence (I suppose) of a sudden cold. She was voilently seized with a...
1149Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 August 1796 (Adams Papers)
In discharge of my promise to write you a letter , which has been given you in two covers enclosing letters from my brother, I commence before the expiration of a second month since the date of my last, by an acknowledgment of your favor of June 10 th: which came to hand on the 6 th: curr t: together with several other’s for JQA. If to the countless instances of your affection and tenderness,...
1150John Adams to Abigail Adams, 9 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
This is the first Time, I have been able to write you, since my Sickness.—Soon after my Return from Paris, I was seized with a Fever, of which, as the Weather was and had long been uncommonly warm, I took little notice, but it increased very slowly, and regularly, untill it was found to be a nervous Fever, of a dangerous kind, bordering upon putrid. It seized upon my head, in such a manner...