1John Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 April 1789 (Adams Papers)
This is the first Moment I have been able to Seize, in order to acquaint you of my Arrival and Situation. Governor Clinton The Mayor of New York, all the old officers of the Continental Government, and the Clergy, Magistrates and People, have Seemed to emulate the two houses of Congress, in shewing every respect to me and to my office.— For Particulars I must refer you to the public Papers....
2John Adams’ Address to the Senate, 21 April 1789 (Adams Papers)
Invited to this respectable situation by the suffrages of our fellow citizens, according to the Constitution, I have thought it my duty cheerfully and readily to accept it. Unaccustomed to refuse any public service, however dangerous to my reputation, or disproportioned to my talents, it would have been inconsistent to have adopted an other maxim of conduct, at this time, when the prosperity...
3John Adams to Abigail Adams, 19 April 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have been so diligent on the Road and so much interrupted by Company at the Taverns that this is the first time I have been able to get an opportunity to write to you. We arrived at this house last night (Saturday) Shall rest here to day and go into N. York tomorrow.— at Hartford, the Manufacturers presented me with a Piece of Broadcloth, for a Suit of Cloaths. at N. Haven the Corporation...
4From John Adams to William Cushing, 7 March 1789 (Adams Papers)
I am greatly obliged, by the Letter you did me the Honour to write me on the 18 th. of February; and regret very much the Want of Leisure to examine the Subject of it, with that Attention which its great Importance requires. That the Truth may be pleaded in Bar of a civil Action for Damages, for actionable Words, Spoken or written, I remembered very well: but it lay in my mind that Some just...
5From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 2 March 1789 (Adams Papers)
Your friendly Letter of the third and twentieth of February, I did not receive till Saturday last. To your Friend, who has now been returned from N. York these five Weeks, I have delivered your inclosed Letter as desired.— She will acknowledge the Receipt of it, and transmit you the Compliments of her fellow Travellers.— our Correspondence has had a short Interruption, it is true, as all...
6From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 1 March 1789 (Adams Papers)
The inclosed Letter from The Hon. Stephen Higginson Esq r , is upon a Subject of so much Importance, and contains so much Information that I cannot withold it from you. The little Jealousy, Envy or Caprice, that shall deprive our Merchants of the Benefit of Trading to the Isles of France & Bourbon, will only compell them to seek the Ultimate Marketts upon the Continent, directly. In four days,...
7To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 1 March 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed Letter from The Hon. Stephen Higginson Esqr. is upon a Subject of so much Importance, and contains so much Information that I cannot withold it from you. The little Jealousy, Envy or Caprice, that shall deprive our Merchants of the Benefit of Trading to the Isles of France and Bourbon, will only compell them to seek the Ultimate Markets upon the Continent, directly. In four days,...
8From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 8 February 1789 (Adams Papers)
Your obliging favor of the 22 d Ult I rec d. last night.— I remember so much of the transactions, at the formation of the Pensilvania Constitution, that I wish you could save time enough from almost any other pursuit, to arrange your materials for an History of the Revolution in Pensilvania, to be published hereafter; at present perhaps it might not be prudent. The four respectable characters,...
9From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 January 1789 (Adams Papers)
Give me leave to introduce to you John Coffin Jones Esq r , an eminent Merchant of Boston and a late Member of the Legislature from that Town. His Character both in public and private Life is much respected, and his Intelligence will enable him to give you a much better Account of the general and particular Politicks of this Country than I can. our Fellow Citizens are in the midst of their...
10To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 2 January 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
Give me leave to introduce to you John Coffin Jones Esqr, an eminent Merchant of Boston and a late Member of the Legislature from that Town. His Character both in public and private Life is much respected, and his Intelligence will enable him to give you a much better account of the general and particular Politicks of this Country than I can. Our Fellow Citizens are in the midst of their...
11John Adams to Abigail Adams, 28 December 1788 (Adams Papers)
I have rec d your favours of the 3 and 13 th and have opened that to our Son, who has been absent from me these 3 Weeks at Newbury, where I Suppose he is very well.— I am as anxious as you are about your coming home. There are but two Ways. 1. if Coll Smith can bring you and his Family with you, will be the more obliging and agreable. 2. if he cannot, I must send your eldest son, with a Coach...
12From John Adams to Thomas Brand Hollis, 3 December 1788 (Adams Papers)
If I had been told at my first arrival that five months would pass, before I should write a Line to M r: Brand Hollis, I should not have believed it. I found my Estate in Consequence of a total neglect and inattention on my Part for fourteen years, was fallen to decay; and in so much disorder, as to require my whole attention to repair it. I have a great Mind to essay a description of it— It...
13John Adams to Abigail Adams, 2 December 1788 (Adams Papers)
Before this time I hope you have the Happiness to See your Daughter out of all Danger and your Son in Law and your two grand children in perfect health. I have no Letter from you, Since that you wrote at Hartford, and I cannot find fault because this is the first I have written to you. We are all very well, and go on very well. Charles came home and Thomas went to Haverhill, last Week.— We are...
14From John Adams to Jean Luzac, 2 December 1788 (Adams Papers)
It is with great and sincere Pleasure, that I have to acknowledge the receipt of your friendly and obliging Letter of the 26 th of August. Your kind congratulations on my arrival are very agreeable to me. I assure you it was a very pleasing Event. and the few Months that have passed since I have been at home, have been the happiest portion of my Life. The Agriculture, the Manufactures and the...
15From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 2 December 1788 (Adams Papers)
A multiplicity of avocations have prevented me, from answering your friendly Letter of the 2 d of July, till I am almost ashamed to answer it, at all. Your Congratulations on my Arrival and kind Reception are very agreable because I know them to be Sincere. your Compliments upon my poor Volumes are consolatory, because they give me grounds to hope that they may have done Some good. it is an...
16From John Adams to Wilhem & Jan Willink, 2 December 1788 (Adams Papers)
I have received your friendly Letter and am much obliged to you for your kind remembrance and felicitations. I also thank you for the Trouble you have taken in sending my Books to the gentlemen of whom I gave you a List. But I wish to be informed whether you sent the three Volumes or only the first. I directed M r: Dilly, Bookseller in the Poultry, London to send fifty Copies of each of the...
17John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 11 November 1788 (Adams Papers)
Our anxiety for you, in your present circumstances and situation among strangers, (though we doubt not you have many friends,) has prevailed upon me to make a great sacrifice, in consenting to your mother’s journey to Long Island. * * * * * * * I am kindly obliged to Col. Smith and to you, for your many invitations, and I have a great desire to see you, your friends, and even your situation....
18John Adams to William Stephens Smith, 11 November 1788 (Adams Papers)
I was much obliged to you for a letter by Mr. Nesbit of Philadelphia, and am very sorry I could not have more of his company. He was much esteemed, I find, in Boston. I wished for you, when he was here, because you could never have a better opportunity of seeing your old military friends. We had a review of the militia, upon my farm; and a battle that threw down all my fences. I wish, however,...
19From John Adams to Ezra Stiles, 4 November 1788 (Adams Papers)
Last night, I received the Letter you did me the Honour to write me, on the thirteenth of September, informing me of the Honour that has been done me by the University over which you so worthily preside. If this honorary Degree, is as you inform me, to be considered as a token of Affection and Esteem, I shall certainly hold it among the most precious of Things; since nothing can ever be more...
20From John Adams to Theophilus Parsons, 2 November 1788 (Adams Papers)
From the Conversation that pass’d, between you and me, when I had the Pleasure to See you for a few moments at this place, I am apprehensive that you may think of me for a Senator, as I find that Some other Gentlemen have, done and continue to do. You know very well how ungracious and odious the Non Acceptance of an Appointment by Election is, and therefore let me beg of you, not to expose me...
21From John Adams to John Jay, 11 October 1788 (Adams Papers)
The multiplied Cares attending the Removal of a Family, from one Country to another; and beginning a new Course of Life or resuming an old one, after an interruption of fourteen years; must be my apology, if any apology is neccessary, for having omitted, till this time, to Solicit the final Settlement of my Accounts, with the United States.— As M r Barclay has, for many years, had the...
22From John Adams to Perez Morton, 15 September 1788 (Adams Papers)
On saturday night, I received your letter of the tenth of this month, and with it a letter inclosed to you from his excellency M r Bowdoin of the same date. The late misfortune in a family for which from my earliest infancy, I have entertained a particular respect, the charges and suspicions against you, for whom I have long had a particular regard, have affected me so very sensibly, that I...
23From John Adams to John Jay, 18 July 1788 (Adams Papers)
I am honoured with your Letter of the 4. of July and thank you for your friendly Congratulations on my Arrival. The Decision of the Convention at Poughkeepsie, is of very great Importance to this Nation, perhaps to Some others.— I am extreamly anxious, that, as the new Constitution has already proceeded to far, it Should be adopted kindly and cordially, by all the three that remain. a little...
24From John Adams to Arthur Lee, 18 July 1788 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged to you, for your kind Congratulations on my Arrival, and M rs Adams returns you her Compliments and Thanks. The Accession of Virginia, to the New Constitution is a great Event.— You and I Should not materially differ, I fancy, if We were to compare Notes of a perfect Commonwealth. But I consider the present Project, as a commencement of a national Government, to be a valuable...
25John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 16 July 1788 (Adams Papers)
Your mamma’s hand has been wholly unable to hold a pen, without exquisite pain, from the time of our arrival; and I am afraid your brothers have not done their duty in writing to you. Indeed, I scarcely know what apology to make for myself. Would you believe this is the first day that I have taken a pen into my hand since I came ashore? I am happy to hear from all quarters a good character of...
26From John Adams to the Massachusetts General Court, 18 June 1788 (Adams Papers)
To the Honourable the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts The kind and condescending Congratulations of So illustrious a Body as the Legislature of the Massachusetts, on my arrival with my Family, in this my native Country, does me great honour and demands my most gratefull Acknowledgments If the Dangers and Fatigues which have fallen to my Share in the Course of a memorable...
27From John Adams to Thomas Brand-Hollis, 9 April 1788 (Adams Papers)
I have, to day, received your kind letter of the 7th and the valuable books that accompanied it. Mariana, Corio, and Ramsay, for which I most heartily thank you. I wish I could write romances. True histories of my wanderings and waitings for ships and winds at Ferrol and Corunna in Spain; at Nantes, Lorient and Brest in France; at Helvoet, the island of Goree, and Over Flackee in Holland; and...
28From John Adams to Thomas Brand-Hollis, 5 April 1788 (Adams Papers)
If ever there was any philosophic solitude, your two friends have found it in this place, where we have been wind bound, a whole week, without a creature to speak to. Our whole business, pleasure and amusement has been reading Necker’s Religious opinions, Hayley’s Old Maids, and Cumberland’s fourth Observer. Our whole stock is now exhausted, and if the ship should not arrive with a fresh...
29From John Adams to the Marquis of Carmarthen, 30 March 1788 (Adams Papers)
The Letter of Recall, herewith enclosed never reached my hand till this Moment when I was ready to Step into the Carriage for Portsmouth where I am to embark. its omission in Season, was wholly owing to the Sickness of M r Jay, our Secretary of State for foreign affairs. With great / Truth and Respect I have the Honour / to be, my Lord, your Lordships / most obedient and most humble / servant...
30From John Adams to George Clinton, 26 March 1788 (Adams Papers)
Give me leave to introduce to you C ol Smith and his Lady, two Persons in whose Welfare I am in an high degree interested. M rs Smith as a young stranger will Stand in need of the Candour and benevolence of the Citizens of New York, and as your Excellencies Example and that of your Family has great Influence, let me recommend her to your Protection and Patronage and to the Friendship of your...