11From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 6 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
We were considering the Bible in its historical character, and as the history of a Family—From the moment when the universal History finishes, that of Abraham begins, and thenceforward it is the history of a family of which Abraham is the first and Jesus Christ the last person. And from the first appearance of Abraham, the whole history appears to have been ordered from age to age expressly to...
12From Abigail Smith Adams to George Washington Adams, 25 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
I thank you my dear George for your Letter. I was glad to learn that you had such an agreable Ride to Atkinson, and that the objects of Nature presented themselves in Such pleasing coulours to you The contemplation of nature, and its history fills the mind with the greatest variety of Ideas, and never brings weariness or disgust, and as an Elegant writer expresses it “The Study of Nature like...
I write you my dear George, with a hope that this letter will not reach you. however as we have reports here of an Embargo, being to take place in America, early in the Season, I will not omit the opportunity which now offers, of assuring you of my tenderest affection, & solicitude, for your present and future welfare. Your Father, and myself, were very anxious to have both you, and your...
14From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 18 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
In the course of the last Autumn and Winter, I wrote you five Letters on a particular, but most interesting subject; one of which I perceive by yours of 18. December you had then received—Soon after writing the last of them I became engaged in occupations which stopp’d me in the progress of my plan to continue that Series of Letters, and afterwards during the remainder of the Winter, my own...
15From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 27 September 1812 (Adams Papers)
I wrote a few days ago to your Grandmama, and desired her to inform you, and your brother John, of the heavy misfortune that had just befallen us, in the loss of your Sister, who after a very severe illness of four weeks, left this world, I trust for a better, on the morning of the 15th. of this Month.—I need not tell you how much distressed your Parents are at this afflicting dispensation of...
16From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 17 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have not had the pleasure of hearing from you since I wrote you last; but having an opportunity, which now seldom happens, of sending letters to America, I will not let it pass, without writing you to inform you that your Mamma, and brother Charles, with myself are in as good health as the excessive cold weather of this Country and Season will admit—But I shall not have time at present to...
17From Abigail Smith Adams to George Washington Adams, 9 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
I was much pleased with the improvement of in your hand writing. I have had to regret all my Life time the want of that accomplishment. when I was young, I was brought up in a Town where it was at that time, customary for Girls to attend Schools for writing, and female Education was much less attended to than at the present day; indeed it was almost wholy neglected—when you get a little...
18From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 9 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
Had I been told, my dear George, on the 28th. of December, that I Should take no notice of your letter for eleven or twelve days, I Should have been affronted. But so it is. The plain proof you have given me, of your improvement in Writing, Since you have been in Hingham is a great pleasure. I am a little out of humour with your Brother, because, tho’ I See by his Letter to his Grandmother...
19From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 10 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
In the promise with which my last Letter to you, upon the Bible, was concluded, that I would next consider the Scriptures in their ethical character, as containing a system of morals, I undertook a task from the performance of which I have been hitherto deterred, by its very magnitude and importance. The more I reflected upon the subject, the more sensibly did I feel my own incompetency to do...
20From Abigail Smith Adams to George Washington Adams, 25 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
I received this day a Letter from your father dated 21 Sep’br. it was a Letter different from any which I have before received from him.—it communicated to me, and to you the sorrowfull intelligence of the Death of your dear and only Sister. She was taken Sick in August, and died the 15th of Seb’br with a nervous fever which brought on convulsions your parents are in great affliction as you...