I was so fortunate as to recieve your No 25 on Wednesday which was the day in course but as it was the first time I mention it as something extraordinary I shall certainly be very cautious as you request about your letters— I cannot help smiling at your affected difficulty about filling a sheet of Paper and were it possible that a compliment from your wife could have any value I should almost...
Having recieved your very affectionate letter of the 12 August No. 26 this morning I hasten to answer it although I know the Post will not leave this place untill Wednesday. I am very sorry that a foolish jest in my letter should have made you so serious; the manner in which you have answer’d it, has indeed proved to me that your spirits are but little better than they were, and that I have...
Your No 28 was deliver’d to me yesterday morning. Your fears of bad news from America in the autumn fill me with alarm, and I open all your letters with trembling, lest I should find some horrid circumstance relating to our families, or friends. that Proclamation of Cochran’s is always present to my imagination, and the consequences which may result from it, that I turn from it shuddering. You...
From your last Letter of the 19 I am led to believe that you are not likely to return home so soon as you expected, I shall therefore persevere in writing untill you positively forbid it. Our Old friend Mr. R. B. Forbes has just been to visit me he is come to Petersburg on his way to Ghent and expects to return to America he says Boston is become intolerable to live in, that his family are...
I had entirely left off writing under the idea that you would have been on your way home very shortly after writing your Letter of the 2d which I answer’d and sent to Dresden. You appear to be under great anxiety about my discretion, and I am very uneasy likewise because every thing that you right write me is know before your letters arrive not from your letters but from England and I am...
I had left off writing entirely from the idea that you would have left England Ghent befor a Letter of mine could reach but from all the accounts which we here recieve I find that it is possible you may remain at Ghent half the Winter therefore I have resolved to write again and trust to chance for the return of my Letters in case you should be on your way— I have moved into Town and made...
Some how or other By some mistake I think I misdated my last Letter to you and it is only to day that I discover’d it. Had yours last of the 23d of Septr. not been accompanied by one from Mrs. Smith I should have been extremely uneasy, at the great depression of Spirits under which you appear to labour. The melancholy situation of our Country, warrants almost any degree of apprehension, and we...
No 39 arrived in due time and I have for some time been perpetually satisfied with the Post Office I hope however that we shall not long stand in need of their civilities as I am rather impatient to have you home the rappid approach of winter encreases my impatience and as the event of this negociation appears to be still unfavorable I cannot help feeling fretful and half angry at the delay...
The surprize and sorrow I felt at the receipt of your last letter cannot be expressed and I felt my exile even more than I had ever done before you will I know be displeased at my thus writing but I cannot help it and the bad news which is continually arriving makes me too unhappy to attempt to conceal my feelings. Tell Boyd how very very much I regret not seeing him the disappointment I met...
I received your kind letter of the 30 of September in due time and although it confirmed the bad news which had flown to us here from every quarter it contributed much to console me and the revived hopes which have been created by this very calamity have nearly restored me to health though not to spirits our good friend L. is all of a sudden become so sanguine as to the affairs of America that...
Although Mr. H.—has informed me that the Congress is dissolved, still I persevere in writing, as it is easy to have my letters returned in case you should have left Ghent.What is pretended to be the terms on which great Britain will treat, was yesterday published in the Conservateur, if there is any truth in this, it needs no Comment The Emperor will not return here untill the end of December...
Bad news still keeps pouring on us and your prophecies are too fatally accomplished It is to day announced in the Papers that we have lost Fort Erie that Chauncey is driven back to Sackets Harbour and that Sir James Prevost with a large force was preparing to attack it the great Ship was launched and they had complete command of the Lake another of our Frigates was destroyed the Adams &c &c—...
Your Letters arrive so regularly that it is scarcely necessary to acknowledge the receipt of them. by your last I find you have at last been obliged to sacrifice your opinion to the majority, and I pray to Heaven good consequences may result from it—The news which we are continually recieving makes it of little consequence, but it appears to me, that they there would be less dis-grace in...
My last letter mentioned some good news which I had heard from America I thank God this has been confirm’d and a great deal beside which I had neither thought’s or hopes of I was in expation of your last Letter’s being filled with the particulars but the date from London was precisely the same and you could not recieve it untill two days later your next will however contain all this news and...
You cannot think how much I was disappointed in your last last Letter when I open’d it I was in the full expectation of reading all the good news which we had recieved here at least 4 days before instead of which I found nothing but a melancholy detail of all the suffering and disgrace which had befallen us I hope you had heard the news more in detail when you dined with the Ministers and that...
46From Charles Francis Adams to John Quincy Adams, 18 November 1814 (Adams Papers)
By some accident my letter was too late for the last Post I therefore only send you this letter of Charles’s with assurances of our mutual affection— Dear Papa St Petersburg Novbr: 18th: 1814 I am quite a Soldier since Mrs: Betancourt made me a present of a Gun, and I exercise every day. Mama has got a new Servant who has been a Solider, and he drills me; it is a real gun, and George Krehmer...
I am charmed to find by your last letter that you pass your time so agreeably at Ghent: it would be almost a pity that the Congress should break up, as by all account you have derived so much benefit from your residence, and this Climate is so injurious, that the idea of your returning to sink again into the state of into inanity into which you had fallen, is so painful I could almost wish for...
Your charming letter only reached me last night the roads being very bad but it came time enough to put me in high spirits and I went immediately after to a little Ball at Miss Focks were I amased myself very much and did not return untill 3 o’clock this Morning Thank God for all the good news you gave me may he still grant us his protection and as you say turn the hearts of our enemies all my...
I did not mean to offend you, in what I wrote you concerning the information you gave. but I was so much watched , every word I utter’d appear’d to be made of so much importance, I was in a continual fever, lest some foolish observation should give rise to doubts of my discretion; added to which our good Friend the Chargé under pretence of receiving the same news, used to pump me very hard,...
Yours of the eighth is come not to fill me with doubts because that was already effected but to make those doubts almost certainties and those of a very disagreeable nature if it must be so there is no remedy but I hope you have been misinformed about our commander and that he may prove better than you expect— What do you think of the English Speech? it is most affectedly peacable, and...
My troubles will never end till you return and I really if it does not soon happen I shall be tempted to decamp from here whether you like it or no you will tell me that I am again in a fit of low spirits it is very true I am suffering bitterly at the baseness of the World who take every possible advantage of my unprotected situation I have just paid Mr Krehmer for the two Months rent and he...
Another Letter was yesterday brought me but it gave me no hopes of your return and I dare not flatter myself yet that you will obtain any answer more decisive to this last effort, than they have hitherto given upon any point. as I wrote you once before notwithstanding I am so anxious to see him you I could almost wish you might be detained untill the coming Spring, so fearful am I that this...
I am just going to dine with the Princess Belloselsky at which I have no doubt you will be much astonished but I thought it but decent to pay my respects to her as she takes such a deep interest in our affairs. in fact the general sentiment is so strong in our favour here that though it may in itself be of little consequence it can do no harm to promote by every means in our power I therefore...
Having heard of the arrival of the Fingal you may suppose how anxious I am for the next Post A letter was brought me from Gottenburg addressed to you as I percieved immediately that it came from Quincy I opend it and found that it was from your and contained the most interesting news I can hear that my Boys were well I was however much grieved to find that George was to enter so soon you know...
I was much disappointed at the receipt of your last letter having flatter’d myself that you would have had some letters from our friends both in Boston and Washington The Conservateur of to day announces that you have at last recieved the answer to your last Note and that it is of so favorable a nature that peace will be the consequence of the truth of this I can form no opinion but the report...
With what pleasure I read your last kind Letter you are capable of judging who are so well acquainted with the warmth of my feelings on most of the subjects which interest me, my hopes are so strongly raised even the news which our old friend Corbeau gave me yesterday could not destroy the flattering Visions which my sanguine imagination had created and I shall still hope that heaven will...
Your letter is this moment brought me and Mr Lewis has called at the same time to inform me that Drumond and all his Army are taken God send this may be true we have whispers of Chauncey having forced Sir James to retreat this however is not confirmed and I am in a state of anxiety to know if the letters of to day will say any thing about it This news will I hope produce a good effect and...
According to your desire I begin again to number my letters but I hope at least that our correspondence will not be prolong’d much longer and that you will soon return to cheer us again by your presence which I assure you, is much wanted Your last appear’d to me to be written under a considerable depression of spirits and I was almost apprehensive that you were sick some disagreeable...
Your last letter afforded me inexpressible pleasure as far as regards self we both likely to be pleased with our Children but to me it would be more agreeable to learn they both resemble you as I have had too many convincing proofs that I even with all the means in my power am not fitted to be or make others happy thank God they bid fair to do you honor and though we have had but little share...
I can scarcely find time to write you into even a few lines having been so interrupted yesterday as to be unable to perform my accustomed task, and it affords another strong proof of how much “procrastination is the thief of Time” a tardy repentance is however of little avail, and you must wait for the next Post. this will only call into exerscion the philosophy upon which you used to pique...