101From John Adams to Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, 3 June 1785 (Adams Papers)
I have now the honour to inform you that having shewn my Commission to the Right Honourable the Marquis of Carmarthen, and left an Authenticated Copy together with a Copy of my Letter of Credence to the King according to the usage. I had the Honour on the first of this month to be introduced by his Lordship to His Majesty, in his Closet with all the Ceremonies, and formalities, practised on...
102From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 10 November 1787 (Adams Papers)
M r Boylston is going to Paris, with a Cargo of Sperma Cæti oil, and will be obliged to you for any Assistance or Advice you can give him. I forwarded a few days ago, from M r Gerry, a Copy as I suppose of the Result of Convention.— It Seems to be admirably calculated to preserve the Union, to increase Affection, and to bring Us all to the Same Mode of thinking. They have adopted the Idea of...
103From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 25 February 1825 (Adams Papers)
Every line from you exhilarates my spirits and gives me a glow of pleasure—but your kind congratulations are a solid comfort to my heart. The good-natured and good-humoured acquiescence of the friends of all the candidates gives me a comfortable hope that your prediction may be fulfilled, that the ensuing administration will not be so difficult as in a former letter I had apprehended. Here we...
104To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 23 January 1825 (Jefferson 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 crises 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...
105From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 15 November 1824 (Adams 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 one say more— Is the present calm in the Political World to continue long or not? Our controversy will all be settled in a short...
106From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 20 August 1821 (Adams Papers)
There are on the Journals of Congress some early resolutions for establishing a Nursery for the Education of young men in military Science discipline and tactics; but paper money was so scarce that they never could afford to carry them into execution. When the idea was revived I do not remember; but it has been cherished under Jefferson Madison and Monroe and is now brought to a considerable...
107To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 7 June 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received yours of 25. May, and thank you for the News of my Son, and for the News of Paris. I wished to have seen the Queens Entrance into Paris, but I saw the Queen of England on Saturday, the Kings Birth day, in all her Glory. It is paying very dear to be a King or Queen to pass One such a day in a year. To be obliged to enter into Conversation with four or five hundred, or four or...
108From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 17 April 1826 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of March 25th. has been a cordial to me, and the more consoling as it was brought by your Grandsons Mr. Randolph and Mr. Coolidge, every body 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 Mr. Randolph; I was very...
109To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 18 April 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Mortimer the Bearer of this Letter, is a Gentleman of Letters, and although little known to me, is recommended by some of my Friends as a worthy, though unfortunate Man. He is represented to be a Friend to Liberty, and Humanity, and as such I beg leave to introduce him to you, and to ask for him any friendly Advice or Aid you may be able to afford him in his Views, of litterary Employment...
110From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have great pleasure in giving this Letter to the Gentleman who requests it. The Revd David Edward Everett, the Successor of Mr Buckminster and Thatcher and Cooper in the politest Congregation in Boston, and probably the first litterary Character of his Age and State, is very desirous of Seeing Mr Jefferson. I hope he will arrive before your Library is translated to Washington. By the Way I...
111From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 23 August 1785 (Adams Papers)
last night, I received your Favour of the 17.— if both Governments are possessed of the Contents of my letter of the 7 th. by opening it in the Post Office, much good may those Contents do them. They both know they have deserved it. I hope it will convince them of their Error, and induce them to adopt more liberal Principles towards Us. I am for answering their Utmost Generosity with equal and...
112To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 19 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
Messieurs Wilhem and Jan Willink, Nicholas and Jacob Vanstaphorst and De la Lande and Fynje of Amsterdam, have lodged in the Hands of Messrs. Van den Yvers Bankers in Paris one Thousand Pounds Sterling for the Purpose of paying for certain Medals and Swords which Coll. Humphreys has orders to cause to be made for the United States. This is therefore to authorize and to request you to draw upon...
113To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 25 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
The Bearer of this Letter Mr. Thomas Boylston, is one of the clearest and most solid Capitalists, that ever raised himself by private Commerce in North America. He seems to be desirous of assisting us, in introducing the knowledge and use of our white Sperma Cœti Oil, into France. His Judgment and Abilities to carry through whatever he undertakes may be depended on. Let me beg your Attention...
114From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 9 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
I believe I told you in my last, that I had given you all in Lindseys Memoirs, that interested you. But I was mistaken. In Priestleys Letter to Lindsey Decr. 19. 1803, I find this Paragraph “With the Work I am now composing I go on much faster and better than I expected; so that in two or three months, if my health continue as it now is, I hope to have it ready for the Press; though I Shall...
115From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 5 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Correspondences! The Letters of Bernard and Hutchinson, and Oliver and Paxton &c were detected and exposed before The Revolution. There are I doubt not, thousands of Letters now in being, but Still concealed, (from their Party to their Friends, which will, one day See the light. I have wondered for more than thirty Years that So few have appeared: and have constantly expected that a Tory...
116From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 April 1819 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of March 21st. I will Communicate to Mr Bowditch, and Pickering— You may put my Letters upon the Subject of Tracy’s Book into any hands you please, with or without any Verbal alterations, as you may think fitt—“what you would have them, make them.” Or as James Otis used to say to Samuel Adams—here take it. and “Quicu Wuicu” it— I am obliged to borrow the hand of a friend to write...
117From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 6 April 1796 (Adams Papers)
Since my Receipt of your favour of the 28 of February I have call’d on the Auditor and had some Conversation with him and with The Secretary of The Treasury and with The Secretary of State upon the Subject of Accounts and they think that some Regulation may be made by Congress which will reach the Cases without any formal Memorial on our Part and indeed without mentioning Names. The Secretary...
118To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 15 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received your Letter of the fourth instant by Colonel Franks, with a Project of a Letter to the Emperor of Morocco, and several other Papers. I have had this Letter, fairly copied, with very few and very inconsiderable Alterations and have signed it. I have left room enough, at the Beginning, for you to insert, or leave Mr. Barclay to insert, the Emperors Titles and Address, which may...
119From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to introduce to you Mr Horace Holley, who is on his Way to Kentucky where he has been invited to undertake the Superintendance of a University. This Gentleman was Settled very young at Greenfield as Successor to Dr Dwight; but having a Mind too inquisitive for Connecticut he removed to Boston where he has been Settled nine years and where his fame has erected one of the loftyest...
120To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 22 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
We left Auteuil the 20th. afternoon and have made easy Journeys. Indeed We could not have done otherwise, because the Post-horses were engaged, by the unusual Number of Travellers, in such Numbers that We have been sometimes obliged to wait. The Country is an heap of Ashes. Grass is scarcely to be seen and all sorts of Grain is short, thin, pale and feeble while the Flax is quite dead. You see...
121To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 10 February 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Virginia Ladies have always been represented to me, and I have always believed it, are among the most beautiful, virtuous, and accomplished of their sex. One of them has given me a most luxurious entertainment in a narration of her visit to your Domicil. Her discription of the Mountain, the Palace, the Gardens, the vast Prospect, the lofty Mountains at a distance, The Capacious valley...
122To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 19 April 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
M r 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...
123To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 30 November 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
By Dr. Gibbon a young Gentleman of Philadelphia whom I beg Leave to introduce to you, I have the Honour to send you a few more Copies of the Prussian Treaty; and to inclose in this, a Resolution of Congress of September 26. annulling Mr. Lambs Commission and Instructions. Mr. Jay desires me to transmit it to him, and although I hope Mr. Lamb is on his Passage to New York or already arrived...
124From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
As you know I have often been ambitious of introducing to your acquaintance some of our literary characters, I now send you in the same spirit, some mathematical papers by our Mr. Bowditch who has translated La Place’s mechanique coeliste & has written commentaries upon it as voluminous as the book—; which are thought by our scientific people to be one of the greatest astronomical productions...
125From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
I return the Analysis of Dupuis with my thanks for the loan of it. It is but a feignt Miniature of the original. I have read that original in twelve volumes, besides a 13th. of plates. I have been a Lover and a Reader of Romances all my Life. From Don Quixotte and Gill Blas to the Scottish Chiefs and an hundred others. For the last Year or two I have devoted myself to this kind of Study: and...
126From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 8 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of Nov. 15 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 Monticello 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...
127To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 5 February 1795 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed Pamphlet and Papers I have received this Week from the Author, with his request to transmit them to you. I have before transmitted in the Course of this Winter, another Packet from the same Writer; but have as yet no answer from you: so that I am uncertain whether you have received it. Mr. Jays Treaty with Britain is not yet arrived at the Secretary of States office, though there...
128To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 16 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
At the desire of the Baron De Poellnitz, I do myself the Honour to introduce him to you. This Nobleman you know married a Daughter of the Earl of Bute once the Wife of Earl Piercy. They have lived some time in New York. He goes to France to meet his Lady who arrived there sometime since. Coll. Franks will leave Us tomorrow. There are abroad so many infamous Fictions concerning the Captures...
129From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 10 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
In your Letter to Dr Priestley of March 21. 1801, You ask “What an Effort, of Bigotry in politics and religion have We gone through! The barbarians really flattered themselves, they should be able to bring back the times of Vandalism, when ignorance put everything into the hands of power and priestcraft. All Advances in Science were proscribed as innovations; they pretended to praise and...
130To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 4 April 1794 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed Volume was lately sent in to me by a Servant. I have Since heard that the Author of it is in New York. The Book exhibits a curious Picture of the Government of Berne and is well worth reading. I congratulate you on the charming Opening of the Spring and heartily wish I was enjoying of it as you are upon a Plantation, out of the hearing of the Din of Politicks and the Rumours of...
131John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 20 October 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
one trouble never comes alone! At our ages We may expect more and more of them every day in groups, and every day less fortitude to bear them. When I saw in Print that you was gone to the Springs , I anxiously Suspected that all was not healthy at Monticello . you may be Surprised to hear that your favour of the 7 th has given me hopes. “Imposthume, general Eruptions colliquative Sweats,”...
132To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 14 January 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
Permit me to introduce to your acquaintance, a young Lawyer by the name of Josiah Quincy, and with the title of Col l being an Aid to our Governor. The name of Col l 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...
133To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 18 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
Inclosed, you have in Confidence some Compliments. Give me in confidence your Opinion of them. Is there any thing said by me which I ought not to have said? Is there any expression exceptionable? Have I compromised myself or the public in any thing? more than ought to be— The Custom of making a Speech is so settled, that not only, the Secretary of State and the Master of the Ceremonies, but...
134John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 July 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you a National Register, to convince you that the Essex Register is not to blame for printing the Mecklenburg 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...
135From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 22 January 1825 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 8th. has revived me—It is true, that my hearing has been very good, but the last year it has decayed so much, that I am in a worse situation than you are, I cannot hear any of the common conversation of my family, without calling upon them to repeat in a louder tone. The presidential election has given me less anxiety than I, myself could have imagined, The next...
136To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 28 January 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received yours of the 12, but yesterday, and wish it were in my Power to order the Interest due to the French Officers to be paid; but it is not. They must remain unpaid, be the Consequence what it may untill Congress or the Board of Treasury order it. Indeed, I dont know how your Subsistence and mine is to be paid after next month. Mr. Grand will be likely to advance yours, but from...
137From 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,...
138From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 18 December 1787 (Adams Papers)
Last night I received your Letter of the 12. M r Jarvis and Commodore Jones are arrived here from New york both charged with large Dispatches for you. M r Jarvis sent his Packet on by Col. Trumbul who departed from hence for Paris last Thursday. Com r Jones went off a day or two ago. but both will arrive to you before this Letter. The Papers they carry, with a Renovation of your Commission at...
139From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 31 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have received from our old Acquaintance D’Ivernois the inclosed volume for you in the course of the last Week. I consider all Reasoning upon French affairs of little moment. The Fates must determine hereafter as they have done heretofore. Reasoning has been all lost—Passion, Prejudice, Interest, Necessity has governed and will govern; and a Century must roll away before any permanent and...
140From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 September 1821 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favour of the 12 inst. 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 and hope...
141From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 21 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I am greatly obliged to you for your Letter of the 9th. It has entirely convinced me that the Mecklengburg Resolutions are a fiction, when I first read them in the Essex Register, I was struct with astonishment— It 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 measures...
142From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 23 May 1785 (Adams Papers)
We are just arrived, covered with Dust, and have hired, our Boat, to go over tomorrow at ten. no green Peas, no Sallad, no Vegetables to be had upon the Road, and the Sky is Still as clear dry and cold as ever. The Flocks of Sheep and herds of Cattle, through the Country Stalk about the Fields like Droves of Walking Skeletons. The Sheep are pastured chiefly I think in the plowed grounds, upon...
143From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 30 July 1815 (Adams Papers)
Who shall write the History of the American Revoluion? Who can write it? Who will ever be able to write it? The most essential Documents, the debates & deliberations in Congress from 1774 to 1783 were all in secret, and are now lost forever. Mr Dickinson printed a speech which he said he made in Congress against the declaration of Independence; but it appeared to me very different from that...
144From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 10 February 1823 (Adams Papers)
Your Virginia Ladies have always been represented to me, and I have always believed it, are among the most beautiful, virtuous, and accomplished of their Sex, One of them has given me a most luxurious entertainment in a narration of her Visit to your Domicil. Her discription of the Mountain, the Palace, the Gardens, the vast Prospect, The lofty Mountains at a distance. The Capacious Valley...
145To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 27 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I found that either the Duke of Dorsetts Letter to the Premier had produced an order at Dover or that his Graces Letter to the Custom House Office had as good an effect, for I was allowed to pass without Molestation, and indeed received Marks of particular Respect. We arrived yesterday 26. in the afternoon, and as Fortune would have it Coll. Smith arrived the Night before 25. We soon met. I...
146From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 March 1801 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your favour of March 8 with the Letter inclosed, for which I thank you. Inclosed is a Letter to one of your Domesticks Joseph Dougherty. Had you read the Papers inclosed they might have given you a moment of Melancholly or at least of Sympathy with a mourning Father. They relate wholly to the Funeral of a son who was once the delight of my Eyes and a darling of my heart, cutt off...
147To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 25 February 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
Every line from you exhilarates my spirits and gives me a glow of pleasure—but your kind congratulations are a solid comfort to my heart. The good-natured and good-humoured acquiscence of the friends of all the candidates gives me a comfortable hope that your prediction may be fulfilled that the ensuing administration, will not be so difficult as in a former letter I had apprehended. Here we...
148From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 30 September 1816 (Adams Papers)
The Seconds of Life, that remain to me, are So few and So Short; (and they seem to me Shorter and Shorter every minute) that I cannot Stand upon Epistolary Ettiquette: And though I have written two Letters, yet unnoticed I must write a third. Because I am not acquainted with any Man on this Side of Montecello, who can give me any Information upon Subjects that I am now analysing and...
149To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 25 June 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
Last night I received yours of the 16. Mr. Lamb has not written to me. Mr. Randal I have expected every day, for a long time, but have nothing from him, but what you transmitted me. My opinion of what is best to be done, which you desire to know is, that Mr. Lamb be desired to embark immediately for New York, and make his Report to Congress and render his account, and that Mr. Randal be...
150From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 15 July 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am impatient to See your Plan of a University and new System of Education. To assist you in your contemplations, I Send you, a Pamplet, “The Politicks of Connecticut.” By a federal Republican in the name of Hamilton. Was there ever Such a combination? Two Copies were Sent me from the Post on Saturday last: I know not from whence nor by whom. Now Sir! please to hear a modest Proposal. Let me...