Ever since the middle of the last month we have been in such a succession of events and interruptions that the time has slipped away with out a moments reflection on the interval between this letter and my last. On the 15th. of June General La Fayette came and his arrival was the signal for dinners parties and shows. You ask for a description of the 17th. of June. It has not been attempted...
12From George Washington Adams to William Smith Shaw, 18 October 1821 (Adams Papers)
My Father has desired me to request you to send on with his law books a large Ainsworths Latin Dictionary and a copy of Adam’s Roman Antiquities both which are somewhere among his books at the Atheneum I am my dear sir / respectfully yours. P.S. This is written in a hurry I shall soon write you a letter. I will trouble you to hand the enclosed paper to Mr Benjamin Joy and to tell him that I...
13From George Washington Adams to William Smith Shaw, 27 October 1821 (Adams Papers)
I am directed by my Father to inform you that he has received your letter with the Bill of lading of the books embarked on board the Ocean for Alexandria but is prevented by multiplied avocations from answering it himself. He desires me to express to you his thanks and I pray you to accept mine for your kindness in transmitting the resolution of the Suffolk Bar on the subject of his...
Just this moment opening my shutters I find the ground covered with snow and it lays apparently somewhat deep. We have had a number of little drizzles as the parson called them but this is the first real snow storm of the season. Yesterday was very disagreeable: a very light snow was falling all day but not enough to accumulate much, and the air was exceedingly sharp and piercing. The...
15From George Washington Adams to John Quincy Adams, 5 July 1826 (Adams Papers)
By the letters which I yesterday forwarded from Boston you were informed of the very low condition in which my Grandfather lay: The moment I heard of it I came out of town and arrived in time to see him but not to hear him speak. After two days of suffering occasioned by an accumulation of phlegm in the throat which he was too weak to throw off. he yesterday forenoon became easier; spoke of...
I have received your journal for the two first days of this month and shall as you permit read parts of it to my Grandfather. He has consented to give me all your preceding journals which are to be delivered to me next week. He thinks this the most proper disposition which could be made of them as he does not wish them liable to any view but those which you may voluntarily grant. I shall...
This extraordinary season has prevented all ideas of regular correspondence for few employments are so irksome as writing when the thermometer stands at 100, but it is so agreeable to receive letters from home that one endeavours to seize every opportunity to obtain them. Grandfather has been favoured lately with a visit from his highness the Duke of Saxe Weimar, a gentleman who intends soon...
The heated and violent temper of the public upon the question of politics renders it necessary to keep individual feelings cautiously in check but this is not always possible. The low spirits indicated by your last letter to me and subsequently by the one to Mr Cruft have affected me more than any thing which is going on without. The atrocious application of the story of Mrs Moulton to the...
By Marys last letter I am told that you are still suffering from illness and Harriet Welsh understood from Mr Smith in New York that St Anthony had tormented you more than usually for some time. This disorder seems to have become very prevalent in this country and Mrs Welsh suffers so much from it that she is compelled to remain constantly at home. Grandfather had it pretty severely last...
It was painful to hear that you had been so ill after arriving at Washington and astonishing that people tell you you have changed for the worse. This is not a thing to mortify you as you have been always superior to dependence upon mere looks but it has always struck me as a disagreeable and not infrequently an ill natured remark to tell people that they have changed for the worse. It is...