1To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 1 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I ought not to have neglected so long to write you an account of the delightful visit I received from M r and M rs Cooledge, M rs C— deserves all the high praises I have constantly heard concerning her, She entertained me with accounts of your sentiments of human life, which accorded so perfectly with mine that it gave me great delight—In one point however I could not agree—she said, she had...
2John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 February 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Was you ever acquainted with Dugald Stuart —before I left France I received a letter from Benjamin Vaughn Esq re in London — Introducing , and recommending in strong terms two gentlemen from Scotland , one by the name of Dugald Stuart and the other Lord —— whose name and title I forget—as young gentlemen of great talents and attainments sufficient to diminish our American prejudices against...
3To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 10 March 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
The sight of your well known hand writing in your favour of 25. Feb. last, gave me great pleasure, as it proved your arm to be restored and your pen still manageable—may it continue till you shall become as perfect a calvinist as I am in one particular. Poor Calvins infirmities his rheumatism his gouts and sciatics made him frequently cry out Mon dieu Jusque au quand . Lord how long! Prat once...
4From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I inclose you a National Register, to convince you that the Essex Register is not to blame for printing the Mecklingburg County Resolutions, on the Contrary I think it to be Commended—for if those Resolutions were genuine they ought to be published in every Gazette in the World—If they are one of those tricks which our fashionable Men in England call hoax’es and boares—they ought to be printed...
5From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 14 January 1826 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to introduce to your acquaintance, a young Lawyer by the name of Josiah Quincy, and with the title of Coll. being an Aid to our Governor. The name of Coll. Quincy has never I believe been extinct for two hundred years. He is a Son of our excellent Mayor of the City of Boston and possesses a character unstained and irreproachable. I applaud his ambition to visit Monticello and its...
6From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 29 January 1819 (Adams Papers)
If I am not humble I ought to be, when I find myself under the necessity of borrowing a juvenile hand to acknowledge your kind favour of the 19.th: I have read your university report throughout with great pleasure, and hearty approbation; Of Tracy’s report I have read as much as I could, the translation appears to me an original written with all the purity, accuracy, and elegance, of its...
7To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 15 November 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Your friend Professor Ticknor is bound upon a Tour in Virginia, though he needs no introduction to you he has requested a letter from me, and I cannot deny him,—he carries his Lady with him; who is rich enough, and handsome enough, & amiable enough; And what can we say more— Is the present calm in the Political World to continue long or not? Our controversy will be settled in a short time, and...
8John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 July 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I am greatly obliged to you for your Letter of the 9 th It has entirely convinced me that the Mecklenburg Resolutions are a fiction, when I first read them in the Essex Register, I was struct with astonishment—It appears appeared to me utterly incredible that they should be genuine; but there were so many circumstances calculated to impose on the public; that I thought it my duty to take...
9John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 8 December 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Letter of Nov. 13 gave me great delight not only by the divine Consolation it afforded me under my great Affliction: but as it gave me full Proof of your restoration to Health. While you live, I Seem to have a Bank at Montecello on which I can draw for a Letter of Friendship and entertainment when I please. I know not how to prove physically that We Shall meet and know each other in a...
10John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 20 January 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
When Harris was returned a Member of Parliament a Friend introduced him to Chesterfield whom he had never seen—So Mr Harris said his Lordship you are a Member of the House of Commons — you have written upon Universal and scientifick Grammer! you have written upon Art, upon Musick, Painting and Poetry! and what has the House of Commons to do with Art, or Musick, or Painting, or Poetry, or...
11From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 3 February 1821 (Adams Papers)
I have just read a sketch of the life of Swedenborg, and a larger work in two huge volumes of Memoirs of John Westley by Southey, and your kind letter of January 22d came to hand in the nick of time to furnish me with a very rational exclamation, “What a bedlamite is man!” They are histories of Galvanism and Mesmerism thrown into hotch potch they say that these men were honest and sincere, so...
12From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 10 November 1823 (Adams Papers)
Your last letter was brought to me from the Post office when at breakfast with my family. I bade one of the misses open the budget, she reported a letter from Mr. Jefferson and two or three newspapers. A letter from Mr. Jefferson says I, I know what the substance is before I open it; There is no secrets between Mr. Jefferson and me, And I cannot read it, therefore you may open and read it—When...
13From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
Must We, before We take our departure from this grand and beautiful World, Surrender all our pleasing hopes of the progres of Society? Of improvement of the intellectual and moral condition of the World? Of the reformation of mankind? The Piemontese Revolution Scarcely assumed a form; and the Neapolitan bubble is burst. And what Should hinder the Spanish and Portuguese Constitutions from...
14To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 12 October 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
By a resolution of the Citizens of Richmond we are authorised to make arrangement s for the reception of General La Fayette “in such manner, as may best comport with his convenience and testify the veneration of the Citizens for his character, their sense of his services and their affection for his person.” It will certainly be highly gartifying as well to the General as to our fellow Citizens...
15To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 10 November 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your last letter was brought to me from the Post office when at breakfast with my family. I bade one of the misses open the budget, she reported a letter from M r Jefferson and two or three newspapers. A letter from M r Jefferson says I. I know what the substance is before I open it; There is no secrets between M r Jefferson and me, and I cannot read it, therefore you may open and read it—when...
16From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
All the Literary Gentlemen of this part of the Country have an Ambitious Curiosity to see the Philosopher and Statesmen of Monticello—and they all apply to me for Introductions— and if I had ever received one introduction from you, I should have less scruple of Conscience in granting their requests—in the Stile of our New-England—the Reverend Mr Greenwood the Successor of Mr Thatcher and Dr...
17From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 11 June 1822 (Adams Papers)
Half an hour ago I received, and this moment have heard read, for the 3d. or 4th. time, the best letter that ever was written by an Octogenarian, dated June the first. It is so excellent that I am under an almost invincible temptation to commit a breach of trust by lending it to a printer. My Son Thomas Boylston—says it would be worth $500—to any Newspaper in Boston—But I dare not betray your...
18To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 17 April 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of March 25 th has been a cordial to me, and the more consoling as it was brought by your Grandsons M r Randolph and M r Coolidge. every lady connected with you is snatched up, so that I cannot get any of them to dine with me, they are always engaged—how happens it that you Virginians are all sons of Anak, we New Englanders, are but Pygmies by the side of M r Randolph; I was very...
19From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 May 1820 (Adams Papers)
I have received with great pleasure your favour of March 14th. Mr Ticknor informes me that Dugald Stuart was not reduced to a state of Idiocy as I had been informed—but that he was in bad Health—and by the advice of his friends and Physicians to remove to Devenshire in England in hopes by the change of air tranquil repose and retirement from the irritation of society he might recover his...
20From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 27 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have transmitted you a letter to Samuel Adams Welles Esqr. in Boston as you desire This gentleman is a singular character he is I believe the only surviving male of his Grandfather the late govenor of Massachusetts Samuel Adams who never had but two children a son and a daughter; his son who bore his name died early a surgeon in the army of the Revolution—without issue; his daughter married...
21John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 February 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I am dill diligently & laboriously occupied, in reading & hearing your “political economy”—I call it yours because I do not believe that Tracy s is more of an original in point of purity , perspicuity or precission—I have read as yet only to the 90 th page—it is a connected chain of ideas and propositions, of which I know nothing not which link to strike out. His philosophy appears to me to roll
22John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 27 th June is received with pleasure, for the free air of it delights me. Your number of 1267. letters in a year, does not surprise me; I have no list of mine, and I could not make one without a weeks research, And I do not believe I ever received one quarter part of your number. And I very much doubt whether I received in the same year one twelfth part; There are reasons enough...
23From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 February 1820 (Adams Papers)
Was you ever acquainted with Dugald Stuart—before I left France I received a letter from Benjamin Vaughn Esqre. in London—Introducing, and recommending in strong terms two Gentlemen from Scotland, one by the name of Dugald Stuart and the other Lord———whose name and title I forget—as young Gentlemen of great talents and attainments sufficient to diminish our American prejudices against...
24From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 December 1819 (Adams Papers)
I must answer your great question of the 10th in the Words of Dalembert to his Correspondent, who asked him what is Matter- “Je vous avoue que je n’en scais rien.” In some part of my Life I read a great Work of a Scotchmen on the Court of Augustus, in which with much learning, hard study, and fatiguing labour, he undertook to prove that had Brutus and Cassius been conqueror, they would have...
25From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 10 March 1823 (Adams Papers)
The sight of your well known hand writing in your favour of 25. Feb. last, gave me great pleasure, as it proved your arm to be restored and your pen still manageable—may it continue till you shall become as perfect a calvinist as I am in one particular. Poor Calvins infirmities his rheumatism his gouts and sciatics made him frequently cry out Mon dieu Jusque au quand Lord how long! Prat once...
26From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 December 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have been deeply afflicted with the account of your accident—At first your Leg was broke—I shuddered, I feared that I should have no more letters from Montecello—Next came the account that it was only a small bone in the Arm—My hopes revived the difference between the leg and the Arm was immense. To illustrate this difference, and for your consolation and amusement; I will give you an...
27From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 29 December 1823 (Adams Papers)
I return your letter at your request signified by Gen. Dearborn though it has been such a cordial to my heart—I feel much reluctance to release it. Since it has appeared in print it has been received with applause—great & universal. Our fellow citizens are determined to elect a President avec connaisance de cause—for the question has in discussion in every nook in the United States for seven...
28From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 13 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
As you was so well acquainted with the philosophers of France I presume the name and character of Mademoiselle De Lespinasse is not unknown to you. I have almost put out my eyes by reading two volumes of her letters which as they were printed in 1809 I presume you have read long ago. I confess I have never read any thing with more ennui, disgust and loathing. The eternal repitition of mon dieu...
29From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 23 January 1825 (Adams Papers)
We think ourselves possessed or at least we boast that we are so of Liberty of Conscience on all subjects and of the right of free inquiry and private judgment, in all cases and yet how far are we from these exalted privileges in fact. There exists I believe throughout the whole Christian world a law which makes it blasphemy to deny or to doubt the divine inspiration of all the books of the...
30To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 18 September 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
With much pleasure I have heard read the sure words of prophecy in your letter of Sep 4 th It is melancholy to contemplate the cruel wars, dessolutions of Countries, and ocians of blood which must occure, before rational principles, and rational systems of Government can prevail and be established—but as these are inevitable we must content ourselves with the consolations which you from sound...
31From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 July 1824 (Adams Papers)
Mr Benjamin Parker Richardson, a Grandson of a neighbour of mine, who has lived in harmony with me for almost eighty nine years, is very desirous of seeing the venerable Author of the Declaration of Independence, and as this is a virtuous curiosity which I always applaud and encourage in our young men, I have ventured to give him a line of introduction to you. A freedom which I have taken too...
32John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 3 February 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just read a sketch of the life of Swedenborg , and a larger work in two huge volumes of Memoirs of John Westley by Southey , and your kind letter of January 22 d came to hand in the nick of time to furnish me with a very rational exclamation, “What a bedlamite is man”! They are histories of Galvanism and Mesmerism thrown into hotch potch , they say that these men were honest and...
33From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 20 January 1820 (Adams Papers)
When Harris was returned a Member of Parliament a Friend introduced him to Chesterfield whom he had never seen—So Mr Harris said his Lordship you are a Member of the House of Commons—you have written upon Universal and scientifick Grammer! you have written upon Art, upon Musick, Painting and Poetry! and what has the House of Commons to do with Art, or Musick, or Painting, or Poetry, or Taste...
34From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
My loving and beloved Friend, Pickering, has been pleased to inform the World that I have “few Friends.” I wanted to whip the rogue, and I had it in my Power, if it had been in my Will to do it, till the blood came. But all my real Friends as I thought them, with Dexter and Gray at their Head insisted “that I Should not Say a Word.” “That nothing that Such a Person could write would do me the...
35From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 30 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
Late last night I received Your Report and your translation of Tracy, for both of which, tho’ I have read neither I thank You. but the full proof of Your returning health has given me more Pleasure than both. I envy your Eyes and hands and Horse. Mine are too dim, too tremulous and my head is too dizzy for the Sovereign Doctor. All is now Still and tranquil. There is nothing to try Mens Souls...
36From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1825 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Charles Sigourney & Lady, a respectable pair in Hartford, Connecticut, the Husband a Son of my old friend in Amsterdam, and the Wife, a very conspicuous literary Lady, have requested a line to you, as they are bound on a journey to the seat of your University—and wish I suppose an apology for visiting Monticello—I have lost your last letter to me, the most consolatory letter I ever...
37John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 September 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for your favour of the 12 inst t . Hope springs eternal . Eight millions of Jews hope for a Messiah more powerful & glorious than Moses , David , or Solomon who is to make them as powerful as he pleases. Some hundreds of millions of Musslemen expect another Prophet more powerful than Mahomet who is to spread Islamism over the whole earth— Hundreds of millions of Christians expect...
38From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
I am diligently & laboriously occupied, in reading & hearing your “political economy”—I call it yours because I do not believe that Tracys is more of an original in point of purity, perspicuity or precission—I have read as yet only to the 90th page—it is a connected chain of ideas & propositions, of which I know not which link to strike out. His philosophy appears to me to be precisely that of...
39From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 23 November 1819 (Adams Papers)
I congratulate you and myself on your recovery from the three Illnesses that have distressed you, the means that have been used to preserve you may, and I hope will have laid a foundation for good Health, and many more years of an already long Life. My Health is astonishing to myself, I can say, like Deborah Queen Ann Dutchess of Marlbourgh—who in one of her letters, after innumerating a...
40To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 2 December 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been deeply afflicted with the account of your accident—At first your leg was broke—I shuddered, I feared that I should have no more letters from Monticello—Next came the account that it was only a small bone in the Arm. My hopes revived the difference between the leg and the Arm was immense. To illustrate this difference, and for your consolation and amusement; I will give you an...
41From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
Yours of the 27th. June is received with pleasure, for the free air of it delights me. Your number of 1267. letters in a year, does not surprise me; I have no list of mine, and I could not make one without a weeks research, and I do not believe I ever received one quarter part of your number. And I very much doubt whether I received in the same year one twelfth part; There are reasons enough...
42From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 15 August 1823 (Adams Papers)
Watchman! what of the night!? Is darkness that may be felt to prevail over the whole world? Or can you perceive any rays of a returning dawn? Is the devil to be the “Lords anointed” over the whole globe? Or do you forsee the fulfilment of the prophecies according to Dr. Priestly’s interpretation of them? I know not but I have in some of my familiar and frivolous letters to you told the story...
43John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 March 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I have taxed my eyes with a very heavy imost impost to read the senator Tracy ’s Political Economy & been amply rewarded for the expense. When I first saw the volume I thought it was impossible I should get through it, but when I had once made a begg beginning I found myself led on in so easy a train from proposition to proposition, every one of which appeared to me self evident, that I could...
44To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 29 December 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I return your letter at your request signified by Gen. Dearborn though it has been such a cordial to my heart—I feel much reluctance to release it. Since it has appeared in print it has been received with applause—great & universal. Our fellow citizens are determined to elect a President avec connaisance de cause —for the question has in discussion in every nook in the United States for seven...
45John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 10 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for your kind congratulations on the return of my little family from Europe . To receive them all in fine hea l th and good Spirits, after So long an absence, was a greater Blessing, than at my time of Life when they went away I had any right to hope or reason to expect. If the Secretary of State can give Satisfaction to his fellow citizens in his new Office it will be a Source of...
46From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 March 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have taxed my eyes with a very heavy impost to read the senator Tracy’s Political Economy & been amply rewarded for the expense. When I first saw the volume I thought it was impossible I should get through, it, but when I had once made a beginning I found myself led on in so easy a train from proposition to proposition, every one of which appeared to me self evident, that I could not leave...
47John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 December 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I must answer your great question of the 10 th in the words of Dalembert to his Correspondent, who asked him what is Matter—“ Je vous avoue que Je n’en scais rien .”— In some part of my Life I read a great Work of a Scotchmen on the Court of Augustus , in which with much learning, hard study, and fatiguing labour, he undertook to prove that had Brutus and Cassius been conqueror, they would...
48From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 22 June 1819 (Adams Papers)
May I inclose you one of the greatest curiositys and one of the deepest Mysterys that ever occoured to me—It is in the Essex Register of June the 5th. 1819.—it is entitled from the Raleigh Register Declaration of Independence—How is it possible that this paper should have been concealed from me to this day—had it been communicated to me in the time of it—I know, if you do not know that it...
49From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 18 September 1823 (Adams Papers)
With much pleasure I have heard read the sure words of prophecy in your letter of Sep— 4th. It is melancholy to contemplate the cruel wars, dessolations of Countries, and ocians of blood which must occure, before rational principles, and rational systems of Government can prevail and be established—but as these are inevitable we must content ourselves with the consolations which you from sound...
50To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 24 July 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Benjamin Parker Richardson, a Grandson of a neighbour of mine, who has lived in harmony with me for almost eighty nine years, is very desirous of seeing the venerable Author of the Declaration of Independence, and as this is a virtuous curiosity which I always applaud and encourage in our young men, I have ventured to give him a line of introduction to you. A freedom which I have taken too...