1From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 6 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
Other parts of your letter of yesterday may be remembered hereafter; but “ Brimborion ” must not be delayed nor trifled with. I shall produce an authority or two. Deletanville’s Dictionary. Brimborion SM. A trifle, A thing of little value. Lallemonts Dictionary. Brimborions. S.M.PL. Bagatelles choses de peu de valeur. Apinæ arum. Crepundia orum Children’s Playthings. Baubles as Bells Rattles....
2From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 30 May 1815 (Adams Papers)
You made that Westphalian Couplet yourself, Sleeping or waking, nobody but you could have dreamed or thought of Hogs of Westphalia are a saving brood What one lets drop, the other takes for food. It so perfectly and summarily comprehends the whole Genius and history of Party and Faction from the Ipso dixit of Pythagoras to the disciples of the Scottish Creolian of Nevis. And does “Jonathan”...
3From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
I will not envy you but congratulate you on the pleasure you have had in your excursion to Washington But I covet the like pleasure so much that if I could do it with out stirring up an uproar, & hurly burly through the Contenent—Old as I am I would get into my Gig, & bend my course thitherward to morrow morning—. I regret most grievously that you did not Visit Cedar Grove—at Fishkill...
4From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
It was not friendly in you to involve me in your domestic & family Controversies Major Pierce Butler told me that he made a voyage to England from S Carolina to ask his fathers consent to marry a Lady, whom he was determined to marry, whether his father consented, or not. And I believe you ask my advice with the same resolution I have seen Fanaticism in all its forms. the fanaticism of honour,...
5From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 2 April 1806 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of March 30th I received last Evening. The Subject of it is of great importance I have been absent from my Country and my home for So great a part of the last two and thirty Years, that I have never had an opportunity to be intimately Acquainted with the Affairs of the University or the Characters of the Gentlemen who have the immediate or mediate Government of it. This I have seen...
6From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Are the works of Apuileus in Harvard College Library or in any other collection in America Have you read his Metamorphosis which he calls his Ass of Gold, his Assinus Aureus, or Asinus Runi.” Among these novels, fables, tales or whatever you please to call them, is his Amours of Cupid and Psyche. Have you read Molier’s Psyche? Have read La Fontaines Psyche? Have you seen a splendid translation...
7From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 31 March 1813 (Adams Papers)
“The History” is of no value, except on account of its date. It was written and printed in Edes and Gills Boston Gazette, in the Interval between the first Congress in 1774 and the Second Congress in 1775 under the Signature of Novanglus. In this View it is a Document; an historical Memoir. To me personally, it is of Some importance as it is a record of the Principles on which I engaged in the...
8From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 13th. has touched my feelings. Deeply infected with a dangerous distemper you ask my advice as a Physician. The Faculty sometimes cure their Patients by relating facetious Anecdotes. I could give you a hundred within my own Experience and little reading but your Malady is two inveterate to be cured by Jocularity. It must be treated Seriously. I know not the Facts. Has the...
9From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 4 September 1805 (Adams Papers)
De la Marre, tells us, that in the North of Holland they make use of Fucus to support their Dikes. In other places, they employ these plants to fertilize their lands. on Several of the french Coasts of the ocean, they call "Cluys" those of these plants which the Sea casts upon the Shore; and Vraicq, those which they go and pull off from the rocks, in the months of January and February, an...
10From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 14 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
I fear I have not answered your letter of 20th of June. That of the 8th: of August, I certainly have not. I have been justly accused of Imbecility & Dotage for twenty years past. Yet I seem to be a Man of more consequence now, than I ever was before in my whole life. What a cloud of Reminiscences, has your last letter, exhailed in my old brain! Several of with whom I gazed through a telescope...
11From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 13 September 1805 (Adams Papers)
(To be added to those on Sea Weeds) If the gentleman from the Isle of Fromme mentioned in your Letter of the Eighth give you a Portugese Man of War, I beg you to keep it and not present it to me as you generously propose. I have no use for it and no incentive to preserve it. I only want to know whether it has a distinguishable animal in it. If you part with it at all I hope you will give it to...
12From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 16 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
You are So waggish and roguish with your Woofs and your Warps and your Webs, that I am almost afraid to write or Speak to you. Yet I wish We were nearer together. I was a little alarmed at the Story of the pacific Commission. Some body was pleased to call the Sarcasms in the Repertory, “Severe.” They ought to have been called the Snarlings of Park the Puppy, and the Squealings of Park the...
13From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 29 June 1806 (Adams Papers)
I rejoice to find by your Letter of the 26. and by my Sons Conversation, that his commencement of a residence at Cambridge has been agreable to you and to him. He could not in his present Circumstances have been So hapily situated as he is. Two such Men as Dr Waterhouse and J. Q. Adams will find in the society of each other, and in the sciences and Litterature an inexhaustible fund of...
14John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 September 1784 (Adams Papers)
I received your friendly Letter of the 19. June, by my dear M rs Adams, with great Pleasure and Shall ever be obliged to you for a Line when you have Leisure.— I am very glad our University has so able a Professor of Physick, and I doubt not you will soon Silence all Opposition. I should be obliged to you for your two orations. All Paris, and indeed all Europe, is at present amused with a Kind...
15From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
The great question was “Whether Writs of Assistants, were legal, or illegal; constitutional or unconstitutional”? “Writs of Assistants”! You will indignantly say. “What are Writs of Assistants”? “I understand no more about Writs of Assistants, than about ‘ The great question ’.” I believe you; and will endeavour to give you Some hints. When the British Ministry received from general Amherst...
16From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 6 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
The Talents and qualities of the Tumble Bugg, are Strength Industry, Patience, Foresight of Futurity, care to provide for Posterity and for individual Wants, at a future day. Now, which of these mental Faculties or bodily qualities, has this “the most enlightened, the best informed, the most Sagacious, and the most virtuous Nation on the Globe” discovered during the last 13 Years? A tumble...
17From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 1 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
The report that John Quincy Adams has written to his father, or any one else that “the war which the United States has declared, and is waging against England is in his opinion unjust and unnecessary;” whether fabricated in Halifax or Boston is altogether groundless. Mr Quincy’s resolve is slacking. Louis 14th Fistula drained his brain of vapours. Vide Talk of a tub. You have not acknowledged...
18From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 3 October 1805 (Adams Papers)
I duly recd your favour of the 21. Sept.—I Sent you two pretty large Packetts the first of Six sheets of Paper, another of five or Six more, and have written two or three Short Letters, besides. You have acknowledged the receipt of the first Packet, but the Second large one you have not mentioned. It related to the Kali and the Medusa &c. &c. I only wish to know that you have it. I return with...
19From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
The History of Queen Ann’s reign and of the Treaty of Utrecht is So instructive, that it is worth while to look into the Life of Mesnager, and into that of the Abby Gautria. Mesnager was a Merchant of Rouen; in great Commerce but preferring Politicks of to trade Louis 14th. informed of his Talents, Sent him twice into Spain, to regulate the commerce of the Indias; and after wards into Holland...
20From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 4 June 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your pathetic Letter of the 2d. has filled my heart with Sympathy and Grief. Your Son, by all that I know, or have heard of him, would have been an ornament to Society. Your Sorrow at his loss must be exquisite. I can give you no better Advice for your Consolation, than to read your favourite Dr Barrow. It is the Lot of humanity! You are not alone! If I look back for Sixty years, what a long...
21From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 February 1805 (Adams Papers)
When I wrote you a line of Acknowledgment for your Lecture upon Tobacco, I kept no Copy of it, not expecting to ever hear any thing more of it, and I really remember very little that was in it. Tobacco, I have found by a long experience, having learned the use of it upon Ponds of Ice, when Skating with Boys at Eight years of Age, to be a very dangerous Vegetable, extremely apt to Steal upon a...
22From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 28 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 10th is too delicious, to be disgraced by Ceremonies and Apologies in my Answer. You might as rationally ascribe the Events of this Annus mirablis, or any Annee la plus chetive et meprisable to the Power of Animalcules in Cayan Pepper Water, as to the Power or Policy of Men. I see nothing in the History of Napoleon more wonderfull or inexplicable, than in that of Zingis, of...
23From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 12 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
In your Letter of the 21st. of October you Say that Mrs Knox said to you that “her husband was the parent of the American Navy.” It is interesting to enquire what Idea that Lady could have had in her Mind. Have you Seen Mathew Careys History of the Rise and Progress of the American Navy? If you have read it you have Seen that the American Navy was begotten and born and a System of Naval...
24From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 18 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to sympathize with you and your Children on the loss of your amiable and excellent Consort. As my reflections on this mournfull Event can be no other than your own I shall spare you the pain of reading them. I thank you for your Letter of the 14th and the Pamphlet inclosed. Do you know the Meaning of the Words “ Awakenings ”? and “ Revivals ”? I am old enough to have attended the...
25From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 16 June 1820 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for Dr Ware’s letter to Dr Mc Load which I have read with pleasure, they are worthy of his Father, & his Father in Law—Mc Load’s choice of a Text is in the true Character of a Jesuitical Priest-hood whose maxim is, that it is lawful to lie for pious purposes You must at least have had a pleasant Eevening, on your return from Montezillo—And I rejoice to hear that none of your days...
26From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 11 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
In answer to your Letter of the Eighth I can only say that Societies Since as I have never been of any Use to any of our learned Societies Since their Institution, except perhaps in a present of Books to one of them. I should be extremely unhappy to have reason to suspect that I had done them any harm. My Course of Life and perpetual Avocations have been such that I never could turn my...
27From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 30 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
As “the accurate Jefferson” has made the Revolution a Game of Billiards, I will make it a Game of Shutle Cocks. Henry might give “the first impulse to the Ball” in Virgina but Otis’s Battle Lore had Struck the Shuttle cock up in air in Massachusetts and continued to keep it up for Several Years before Henrys Ball was touched. Jefferson was but a Boy at Colledge of 15, or 16 Years of Age at...
28From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 15 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
I receive no Letters with So much pleasure as yours and Rushes. The Shortest of them always contains Something new and Solid; Some thing witty and a good deal that his humerous. How many more hot Nutts for the Monkeys you will See, I know not. They will lie, and laugh and joke: but they will not make much Noise, because that might provoke Some of their own Party to peep at the Patriot which...
29From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 7 September 1820 (Adams Papers)
Captain Phillips’s letter is a Volume of News to me—That he Sailed without a Commission was never known, heard, or suspected, by me—and not one word of his Conversations with Mr Stoddard, were ever communicated to me—but at this distance of time, what can I do to sooth the feelings of Mr Phillips—Till I received your letter, I have never heard one word about him since his dismission— G. W. A...
30From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 9 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I enclose you sketches of Naval history and a letter from the Author Make what use of them you think probono publico. MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
31From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 5 February 1818 (Adams Papers)
Clarks History of the Navy is the Same with Mathew Careys. Wilkinsons History I have not Seen. I believe with you that the Battle of Bunkers Hill has never been faithfully recorded. It would require an hundred Volumes in Folio to investigate the “Roost Cock” who produced the Sacred mysterious Egg, to which you allude in your Letter of 17. Jan. The Antiquity of this Egg and its Universality...
32From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 12 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
What is common Law in England has been Subject to disputes enough. In Blackstones Commentaries and Fortescue Alands Preface to his Reports you may find the most intelligible Account. In general, Usage from time immemorial practiced and approved, is the Criterion It is denied by many and doubted by more whether The United States have any common Law There may be some Principles and Rules of Law...
33From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 9 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
Our Boston Rulers must be acknowledged to be profound Politicians. They appear to have Studied the Uses of Solomons Temple and its furniture, and the Rites and Ceremonies of the Hebrew Polity. The final Causes of the Temples and Altars of Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus &c and the Festivals in honour of Such Gods among the Greeks and Romans, appear to be well understood. The History of the Rise and...
34From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
I will join with Vice President Gerry and Lt. Governor Gray in any reasonable representation. But higher interests than yours or mine are at stake. What is your family & mine & twenty others to eight Million of people? How much less to mankind? The salvation of both, seems to be staked both by republicans and federalists, upon the opinion of Washington. the Boston junto of republicans appeal...
35From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 16 March 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have just recd your Favour of Yesterday. It has been a Rule of the Government from 1789 to this day to answer no Solicitations or Recommendations for Office. The necessity of this Rule must be obvious to evry enquiring Mind. The Hyperfederalists, or the Ultrafederalists, have a more exalted System, than the Simple Federalists. They dare not, openly and publickly avow or attempt to Support...
36From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 3 January 1806 (Adams Papers)
I have derived as much consolation in Life, from Horace as from Epictetus. I say Buvons, ecrivons, vivons, cher Horace, as well as that all our Happiness depends upon ourselves with the Stoick. I thank you for calling Horace to my Aid in your favour of Decr. 28. Alphius was Such a Philosopher as Seneca, who griped the Britons, or as Brutus who was So angry with Cicero when he was Governor of...
37From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 12 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
The Charge of “Change of Politicks” hinted in your Letter of the 8th, deserves no other answer than this, “ The Hyperfederalists are become Jacobins, and The Hyperrepublicans are become Federalists . ” John Adams remains Semper Idem, both Federalist and Republican in every rational and intelligible Sense of both those Words. What shall I say of Mr Dexter? Rara Avis in Terris nigroque Similima...
38From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 9 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Oh! that I had Eyes and Fingers for a little Badinage! When you cannot keep your Chin above water, I advise you to apply to the Hospital for the Sane.—Vid Dr Rush passim, and a pritty thing in the North American Review, by young Mason—The great Docter Johnson and Rush agree that we are all a little cracked. This only a Few who can be denominted Sane, and those only quad hor—For these Mason has...
39From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 15 September 1812 (Adams Papers)
You ask my Opinion, (if I understand you) whether Duane or General Hull, be the fittest Man for Secretary of War. I answer. In my opinion, Wilkinson was fitter than either. But his Vanity and the Collisions of Faction have rendered his Appointment improper and impossible. Again, if you wish my Opinion, you Shall have it. I know that Colonel William Stevens Smith of Lebanon, in Smiths Valley on...
40From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 January 1807 (Adams Papers)
I received your favour of the Second of this month, yesterday. I dont do not understand your reason for calling our Forefathers Brownists. I Should call them rather, Robinsonians. But that our Forefathers resided twelve years at Leyden, and that they Worshipped in the Building, where I attended divine Service for Several months, I have no more doubt than I have of the Existence of a University...
41From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 21 January 1807 (Adams Papers)
Robinson was not only a Man of Sense and learning but Piety and Virtue but of a Catholic tolerant Spirit and remarkable humanity. He resembled the two shepards one of whom was settled at Charleston and the other at Cambridge. Neither of the three were for renouncing Communion with the Church of England Brown was for excommunicating all, who differed from him in his most rigid notions. It is...
42From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 24 July 1805 (Adams Papers)
In the course of your industrious researches, in natural History have you ever given a particular attention to the generation of Shell fish? Will you be so good as to inform me in what Book this subject has been most fully treated? I suspect, but it is only a suspicion, that a great part of them are hatched by the sun, upon the Surface of the ocean; and that the proscess has been carried on,...
43From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 7 August 1805 (Adams Papers)
From early Youth I have heard it lamented among Men of Letters that We had no neither a natural History of this Country, nor any Person possessed of a Taste for such Inquiries. The Science in general was not So much desired as a particular Examination of the Beasts Birds, Fishes Trees Plants Flowers Fossills &c peculiar to North America. Mr. Hutchinson, at the close of the first volume of his...
44From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
In the style of John and Jonathan Bull, I give you a thousand thanks for your letter of the 18th and the Journal of the Surgeon. The great James Otis whose style was hasty, rough and coarse, and who hated and despised correction, often gave some of his compositions to Sam Adams, whose language was soft, harmonious, and oily, as Otis expressed himself “To quieu it” Who “quieu ” this little...
45From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 2 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
Gerry! Gerry! Gerry! You was the last of my Colleagues! I am left alone! It cannot be long before I Shall Join you. What Tidings Shall I carry to you? That a total degeneracy has prevail’d ; or that the ancient Virtues are revived? Are there none who rejoice in this Exit? I Shall Soon give them another moment of delight: and much good may it, do them. Ames and Parsons Sett the World in a howl...
46From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 11 August 1805 (Adams Papers)
Many thanks for your favour of the 9th: and the copy of your Memorial to the Corporation. I really think you have a right to take for your motto, which of Virgil’s lines you please. I was too hasty in the choice of mine. I have not been a Bee. My object has not been luxurious, like honey, but essentials of life, like Corn. I have had no sting, at least have used none. If I had I might have...
47From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
You must have much pleasure in watching the Opining mind of your Grandchild; for, being half Waterhouse and half Ware it must be a choice Spirit. But how Smal is your felicity in comparison with mine, who have Seven Grand Children, Scattered over the World, and Seven more under my own roof, and eight or ten great grandchildren, one of whom is here with her Mother. A great grand daughter, and a...
48From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 31 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
I cannot take leave of the Year, without confession of my fault and begging Pardon, A Letter so kind and obliging as yours of 20th September ought not to have been Unnoticed, till this day. My heart is bound up with the Navy and I love the Officers, as well as my Sons. Their politeness to me, was conspicuous enough. Their Invitations were cordial enough. But I had reasons, which I could...
49From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 28 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
You know not the Feeling I have for you. I wish Mr Cutts and Mr Seaver, may guess right: but you know Men are apt to guess as they wish. You “do not See but Christians destroy each other full as much as Pagans”. To this I answer, Joshua Pizarro Alva, Lorrain, Laud, Bartholomews day, the Powder Plott and the Irish Massacre. I will add that Democrats, Deists and Atheists destroy each other, and...
50From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
Little did I think when I last wrote you, what a monument was erected to me. I have since received an immense volume of 630 pages printed in large Octavo, full page, small type, No name, no place, no printer, no date. I have not a suspicion or a conjecture, who the author is. the whole book is devoted to the chastisement of me and my books. There is no personal scurrility against me; but my...