121From Abigail Smith Adams to William Stephens Smith, 28 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
your Letter of August 12th I received in the absence of Mrs Smith, who was upon a visit to mrs Guild, and therefore I could not communicate it to her; she past Several days, in Boston at Dr welch’s, and as I had requested Dr warren was consulted in conjunction with Dr Welch upon her complaint, and their opinion was Similar to Dr Holbrook’s who is a Skilfull physician, and practises in our...
122From Abigail Smith Adams to Lucy Cranch Greenleaf, September 1811 (Adams Papers)
in replie to your inquiries I answer mrs Adams had a very bad night. at 2 oclock Nancy came to my Room to request that I would send for the doctor. he got here before day light and bled her, since which she has had some rest, altho much opprest & at times almost exhausted. discharges continue black, but the Soarness abated, and the dr says the pulse better—Mrs Smith by the use of the Mayweed...
123From Abigail Smith Adams to William Smith, 12 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
Altho I cannot personally be with you, oweing to the Sickness in my own Family, to pay the last tribute of respect to the remains of your Dear Departed Son, be assured my dear afflicted Friends, that my Heart, my Thoughts, and my affections are with you, and that I do most tenderly Sympathize with you in this day of your visitation May that all Mercifull Being, whose ways are not as our ways,...
124From Abigail Smith Adams to Catherine Nuth Johnson, 22 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
At last it is decided—it is as I conjectured in my last Letter to you, the Situation of Mrs Adams prevents their return to America this Season, and obliges mr Adams to decline his Appointment as Judge. I have received from him Several Letters of an old date Since I last wrote to you, but it was not untill yesterday that I received a Letter from my Grandson William Smith, of June 25th in which...
125From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 24 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
your Brother returnd this Evening from Boston and gave me notice that a vessel would Sail for Sweeden tomorrow the notice is So Short, that I can only write you a Short Letter. I Shall in future follow your advice, have a Letter ready for the occasion and not wait for the opportunity. it was not however, untill last Saturday that I received a Letter from William Smith, that I was informed of...
126From Abigail Smith Adams to William Stephens Smith, 27 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
I yesterday received your Letter, and at the Same time, the President received the one inclosed from dr Rush which I think it my duty, altho a distressing and painfull one, to me, to communicate the contents to you by the earliest opportnty you will See by the Letter, that Mrs Smith wrote her case to dr Rush, which her Father inclosed with a request that he would give his candid opinion. Mrs...
127From Abigail Smith Adams to Lucy Cranch Greenleaf, October 1811 (Adams Papers)
I heard last Evening of the melancholy event, and sincerely sympathize with the afflicted family I send you some peices of crape they are rusty, but the best we have. if you attend the funeral, and want a Bonnet, if mine will answer and my crape cloak they are at your service—I intended to have asked You here to day to have past it, with mrs Cushing and Caroline, but a melancholy duty calls...
128From Abigail Smith Adams to Lucy Cranch Greenleaf, October 1811 (Adams Papers)
will you get mr Norten to inform by Letters mr & mrs James Foster of the death of your dear Mother and our request to them to attend the funeral on Saturday—Louissa did write to them the morng that your Father died, but some exception was taken that they were not notified by the Family. mr George Palmer Should be written to, he had not heard of his uncle death till Louissa informd him. mr...
129From Abigail Smith Adams to William Cranch, 17 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your dear Father has joind the Spirits of the Blessed made perfect, on saturday last he was taken sick, appeared as he frequently has upon former days was wandering in his mind,—but a general prostration of strength took place. He was sensible only for a few moments at a time; exhausted Nature sunk to rest, without pain or struggle, and heaven has been pleased to save him the anguish of...
130From Abigail Smith Adams to William Smith Shaw, 18 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your good uncle Cranch is gone. heaven has Saved him the greatest anguish he could experience in this Life. the following her to the Tomb, She is still living, which is all we can say. The family requested me to notify you that the funeral will be on Saturday at 2 oclock—the Corpse to be carried to the meeting House. I will thank you to lend me if you can without inconvenience to yourself 30...
I wrote to you upon fryday, but I do not now recollect what I have written. I know that my heart was full and my mind wrought up, to a pitch, beyond what it would bear. The Solemn Scene which presented to me, two Dear Relatives Sleeping in Death at the same moment, can never be effaced from my mind. upon Saturday I followed their remains to our own Tombs and Saw them dposited Side by Side,...
132From Abigail Smith Adams to William Cranch, 25 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
The solemn and impressive scenes through which I have passed the last week, were too affecting to me to commit to paper. I thank God for that support and consolation which now enables me to address the only son of my dear departed brother and sister, endeared to me by every tie of affection and consanguinity, whose lives were a worthy example to all their posterity, and whose deaths were a...
133From Abigail Smith Adams to Hannah Phillips Cushing, 3 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
I owe to your Friendship, a Letter of thanks for the interest you take in whatever concerns me or mine. I know your Sympathizing Heart will hasten to pour the balm of consolation into the afflicted Bosom of your Friend, when you learn that my dear and beloved Sister is numberd with the dead. this is an event which my mind was in a measure prepard for, from her long Sickness, but I had not...
I recieved your Letter by the last Mail inclosing one for your daughter, who left me last week, to our great regreet. I expostulate with her for making her visit So short She Said She had been five weeks with us. I could Scarcly credit it, untill I looked back, and then So many events had during that period rapidly Succeeded each other, that I had not calculated how the time had passed It was...
135From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 17 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
The intercourse between us is daily more and more obstructed, it may prolong your tranquility that it is so: I know not how to take up my pen, yet painfull as the Duty is, I must perform it, untill the task may devolve upon some other, to tell you that your Parents are also numberd with the dead. I wrote you in Sep’br, an account of my dear Sister Cranchs Sickness, and of the little prospect I...
do not think that I have not participated in your Joy, upon the Birth of your daughter, because I have not sooner congratulated you upon the event. Let it be to you cause of gratitude and thankfulness that you have reason to sing of Mercies, as you have abundent occasion to do, for The lives and Health of your two sons whom you left under the care and patronage of two of the best of Friends....
I hear that Cousin Abbe is to return tomorrow to Atkinson. I Send by her two pr Socks for George and John. mittins I have not yet got knit, nor Georges waistcoats done; I hope I Shall before he wants them. I know they are where every proper care will be paid to them. they will both want new Hats Soon—I thought they could be purchased in Haverhill as well as here, and that it would be better...
138From Abigail Smith Adams to John Adams, 8 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have not written you a Letter yet, but I promissed you one, and I now have the pleasure of inclosing a Letter from your Brother Charles to you. I had a Letter from your Father dated in Sepbr th 11: the day after your Sister was Baptized. she was call’d Louisa Catharine, the Rev’d Dr Pitt, Chaplain to the English Church in St Petersburgh performed the Service, and mr Harris our Consul there...
139From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have the pleasure to acknowledg Your Letter of the 30th of June, brought by the Pilifix , Captain Welsh, after a passage of 95 days—being No 21—this compleats my list of Regular numbers, and yesterday I received your Letter of the 10 Sep’br by Captain Barker of the Leopard. No 24 there are two Missing originals, a press coppy of 23 came inclosed in No 24, but the Characters of the first page...
140From Abigail Smith Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 14 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your kind inquiries after my Daughter Smith. She is, and has been as well, the Physicians Say, as any one could expect, after Such an Operation, as She has endured—to me it was agonizing—She Sustaind it with firmness, and fortitude The wound has been intirely healed for this month, but the mussels from the Arm, which communicate with the part affected, were necessarily laid So...
A very droll accident happend to the inclosed Letter, as you will See by the address; I wrote two Letters yesterday, one to you, and one to the Select Men of the Town of Quincy in behalf of a poor woman who I thought Stood in need of assistance. the Letters were folded, and being call’d Suddenly down Stairs, I handed the wrong Letter to Susan desiring her to address it, the Letter was Sent...
142From Abigail Smith Adams to Anonymous, 1812 (Adams Papers)
I received your Letter written in some agitation of mind, but I presume not without a due consideration of the Subject, it is a very different and hazardous undertaking to give advice in affairs of this kind particularly where the affection are warmly interested, the adviser genuinely loses the Friendship of one or other of the parties, but my dears charity knows that to the gentleman I am a...
143From Abigail Smith Adams to William Allen, 1812 (Adams Papers)
I take the Liberty of transmitting to you a coppy of a Letter written by my late Brother in Law judge Cranch at the Request of the late dr Eliot. it was received too late for insertion in his Biography—and his death will present a second Edition of that work—in your Biography there is not any mention made of this Family. presuming that any information respecting public Characters might be...
144From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 5 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I rejoice that I can begin the new year without a Repetition of any mournfull, or afflictive Family dispensation, and that I can congratulate you of upon the Life of your Father, and his continued Health, upon that also of your Sons, your Brother, and upon the restoration of your Sister, and last of all that I am still enabled to hold a pen & can write to you, altho frequently assaild by...
145From Abigail Smith Adams to John Adams, 5 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I hope you have received your mittins, and your Brother his, which Mrs. Foster took a fortnight since and promissed to send to you, but I fear she has not found a conveyance. I am the easier because your Aunt wrote me that she had provided for you. I thank you for your Letter which was so much better written than your Brothers, that I could not keep saying you had learnt more good hand writing...
146From Abigail Smith Adams to Mary Smith Gray Otis, 12 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I ought to have thanked you for your kind Letter, which gave me both pleasure and consolation, but I have not been able to write oweing to an inflamation; first in my Eyes; and then upon my Lungs, Which deprived me of my Speach; and this you know, to a person who loves to be sociable, as much as your Friend, was a great privation. this disposition to loquacity with which you know we are...
147From Abigail Smith Adams to John Adams, 9 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
I Suppose you will think that Grandmama might have written you a few lines. well you shall not be dissapointed altho I have much writing to do, as vessels are getting ready to go to Russia—Captain Bainbridge arrived from there, this week, and brought Letters. he saw your Father and Mother in october, and he Says in a Letter to your Grandfather incloseing those from your father “Sir your Little...
148From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 17 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
There are two vessels up, one for St Petersburgh & one for Gottenburgh. by both of which I propose to write. My last Letter was dated in Jan’ry No 1, and the last received, from you then, was of Sepb’r but yesterday Commodore Bainbridge arrived, and forwarded your Letters of October 2d a press coppy of No 25 not yet arrived, and an original of october, 24 & 25—No 26—your Father will write, and...
149From Abigail Smith Adams to Hannah Phillips Cushing, 17 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have been contemplating writing to you for Several weeks past to inquire after your health & that of your Family through the winter but I have delayd it untill the call of Friendship bids me unite my Sympathy with the bereve’d Sisters and Relatives over the brave youth who has fallen in defence of the honour justice and Rights of his Country. How beautifull is death when earned by virtue....
I beleive I have written you only one Letter since the commencment of the present Year, and I have received only one from you, dated last June, now Eight months. if you do not write more frequently to your Friends in washington, which I hope you do: have we not all reason to complain of you? Little miss Louisa, allowd by all to be a very fine child, has no right to exclude her unknown Friends...