1From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 6 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
I return you Cs Letter, I think she will not be here untill the last of this month. I fear W’s situation an unpleasant one, it cannot be otherways, with a family and without means of supporting them—whether John will obtain the place he wants, I know not, nor am I very solicitious for it. I have written two letters for him. at his request, but knew not, if I was not essentially injuring his...
2From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 24 April 1815 (Adams Papers)
you always collect some comfort or consolation for your Friends—your information respecting the packet was particularly so that, which respected the Boys. I have been distrest for them this terrible North East wind and Storm—I never knew a more voilent one at this season—it must have been worse for those comeing in, than those going out; provided they had sea moon—but I will not distrust the...
3From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 25 February 1816 (Adams Papers)
I was very sick yesterday, and obliged to take an Emetic, to clear of a quantity of Bile, which the dr said was the occasion of my sleepless Nights. I hope he may be right; for they weaken me much. I was very much worried with it. I took it at half past three, pure delicious Indian Root and it never closed its opperation, until eleven at night. It is slow you know in its opperation. I did not...
4From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 15 March 1815 (Adams Papers)
you and your Mother have been So frequently in the pratcise of fitting out your Brothers for voyages that you know better than I do, what will be necessary for the Boys; will you recollect, and tell me. I have been thinking, one Suit of cloaths, beside those which they will wear at Sea, will be enough. George must have a new great Coat, and John can take his. how many Shirts a peice will be...
5From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 27 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
I am much dispirited by the weather which prevented the intended visit of you and your Friends, I promised myself much pleasure in it and wished for a conversation with mr Lyman upon the News. I recollected his account of the Bourbons and the temper of the French Nation as it respected Napoleon, they found themselves humbled mortified deprest and saw no disposition in the Monarch raise them to...
6From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 16 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
Mr Adams call’d yesterday morning before six oclock, I rose before light in order to write to you, and waited only for the sun to give me light to do so; but the man came before, and I had only time while he waited to scratch of the hasty line I sent, or I should have told you, that the paper came safe the by mr d Greenleaf. Caroline’s Letter informs me that she was well the 7th. that John had...
7From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 16 November 1814 (Adams Papers)
Feeling a little in the dumps, the why, or the wherefore I cannot tell, excepting a crick in my neck, & pain in my head, to cure all I take my pen to write you a few lines and inclose the , which Susan finished but has not had a conveyance for; so I send them by post and to make you laugh send you O an abominable wagish Letter I had almost said wicked, but then it made me laugh so, that I was...
8From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 10 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
Thank you thank you dear Harriet for the Letter from mr Adams you sent me last Evening. tho only a few lines, it informd me that after a passage of 50 days from Cowes they had arrived all well—and should remain no longer in N york than to get out their baggage & necessary arrangements, that in a week or ten days they would be here—I presume by the close of the week or sooner—It will indeed be...
9From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 8 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
I send you a Letter by mr Crufts this day received from Caroline. I had a few lines from her saying she was well, and longing to hear from us at Quincy. she had not then received my second Letter or Susans. I thank you for the papers & for the Nutmegs; I send by mrs Cruft the money for them. I hope for Letters by the J Adams and certainly shall have some, we must wait with patience for the...
10From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 12 June 1818 (Adams Papers)
But once Since You left us, have I received a line from you. Twice I have written, and twenty hundred times twenty; thought of you, and Sometimes with an exclamation, what can be the reason that H. does not write? now you who have Eyes, fingers at command, and the pen of a ready writer, ought to employ them, when they are So much Sought after. I presume they are so: and that you have Some...
11From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 8 March 1816 (Adams Papers)
I must write you a few lines to day from a Night of Rest, I derive Strength, all lost again by a night of wakefullness—If I do not get to Sleep as soon as I go to Bed, and that is early; it is all lost for the night yet I suffer no pain, except some times in my head. no fever, no cough, yet I was loose my flesh. my complaint seems to be an universal relaxation of the Solids. If I had lived in...
12From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 9 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
keep yourself quiet. caroline will come Shortly, and then be sure you shall have a carrier after you, but I do not look for her, untill I learn that She is come to Nyork—I return your Letter and request that you would come up Say thursday or fryday and bring mr Hinkly with you to eat some Strawberries fresh from the vines. my best Love to Your good Mother and pray her to take a kind...
13From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 2 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
mr Clark will deliver you this Susan has a Letter from her Mother urgeing her to come to See her, and consenting to her.… which I cannot under present circumstances—so they say no more to me—I think with you that it will be best for them to go Silently and if a female travelling companion can be found at the Same time it will be more agreable—fine weather for your Father & Sister Mr C will...
14From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 5 May 1816 (Adams Papers)
A ; I opend my Letters this morning and found a Number—dated last Novbr and December, the first which John Smith wrote on Board Ship, which in his second he refered to, one from mr A. which I inclose for you only. I am much obliged by the paper you sent containing an account of the Lord Mayor feast. I approve the Toast given by the American Minister. it was liberal patriotic, and concilitary...
15From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 24 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
The President has a letter from Vanderkemp, in which he proposes to have him send a collection of my letters to publish! A pretty figure I should make. No. No. I have not any ambition to appear in print. Heedless and inaccurate as I am, I have too much vanity to risk my reputation before the public. Printed Source--Letters of Mrs. Adams. Edited by Charles Francis Adams (Boston: 1840)..
16From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 19 March 1816 (Adams Papers)
I received this morning your Note of Sunday and Monday, and am the better for hearing of that your Family are Some of them so; I hope mrs Baileys emetic will not prove so trying to her, as mine was to me. tho only Simple Indian Root, I have Scarcly recoverd the Strength I lost. the very cold night of Sunday and yesterday tried my weak frame, and Shut up my pores so that yesterday I was very...
17From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 22 March 1816 (Adams Papers)
I received a few lines from you to night by mrs Adams; and rejoice in the returning health of your family. as you requested I wrote to you by wednesday post, & inclosed you J A Smiths Letter, and Several others, which I thought you would like to read,—but I find you had not got the Letter when you wrote—William wrote to me, that on the 17 March, (St Patricks day a dear pady) mrs Smith got to...
18From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 10 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
As I consider you as a part of my own Family, I Send you the inclosed, which you will return with care tomorrow morning tuesday I mean—we have Letters from Mrs A. from Utica and Susan one from Abbe of 2 June, in neither of which is any mention made of the Cols Sickness, or Caroline could not have reachd there, I think at that time yet I wonder as the distance was not further, that mrs Adams...
19From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 5 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
I inclose to you a paper with the distrest State of an old Batchelor, not Supposing that you will answer the advertizement, but because amongst my acquaintance I know no one who So nearly answers his description—He has left his own qualifications out of the question—a dolt does he think to get Such a wife without Sterling worth on his own part? dr Franklin says “ a Batchelor is not a compleat...
20From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 23 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
The black hair Ribbon is just what was wanted, I thank you for thinking of it. I Should like 8 yds I believe of the Banbest like the pattern inclosed; I like the colour better; tho the Cloth is not quite so fine—they are not any so good, as I had last winter in Black. amongst the , is there not any Colevain Cotton Shirting like what I bought there winters ago, it was yd Wide at 8/9. I do not...
21From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 8 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have lost my dear venerable second Father and ancient Friend, the upright Christian, the noblest work of God, an honest Man—I heard he was unwell on wednesday the P and I went to visit him. he was in his parlour appeard to have a voilent cold, raised freely, but I observed spoke very faintly; and appeard to me at the time, like a Lamp just expiring. I left him, dubious whether I should ever...
22From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, March 1818 (Adams Papers)
I beleive you thought me very imprudent to consent to the Presidents going to Town So cold a day as yesterday—but the cold increased much after the morning and I was quite anxious untill he returnd—much pleased and gratified with his days excursion there is Such a thing as Staying at Home untill it becomes wearisome to us change of place, or dear variety compose part of our happiness I enclose...
23From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 1 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Many happy returns of the Season dear Harriet is wished you by your Friend, who you know would rejoice to see you at Quincy, but the Gay parties in Boston, must have more charms for the young and Beautifull, than the Sombre & dreary view of a dead & brown carpet which covers the Earth at present, & the leafless Trees, so naked and bare. I want to see it put on the white mantle, so emblamatical...
24From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 24 October 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have not had any opportunity of returning the Letter and paper you Sent me on Saturday. mr C. did not call here on Sunday, but went on to Hingham. he did not return on Sunday Evening with Susan as I expected, nor Stop here on Monday, all of which I dissaprove—the poor Mans mind is much perplexd. we had a conversation, which gave rise to a Letter of a Friendly Nature, and a most tender and...
25From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, February 1815 (Adams Papers)
I inclose to you mr Adams’s Letter of Novbr 23. the peace was it seems as unexpected to him a month previous to its taking place, as it has been to us— The passage markd begining “it is mortifying to” &c to the close which is also marked, you may give to the public, as an extract of a Letter from an American gentleman abroad to his Friend in America, and that respecting washington.— you will...
26From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 30 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
I received the articles this morning cloth Nankeen Ribbon Letter covers &c altho the Gospel declares man & wife to be one, the Law of congress will not allow me that priviledge and my name upon a package or Letter Subjects me to postage—in future by post, let my good mans priviledge cover mine—I Send you my last Letter—what would have been Said in my day if Such Etiquette had been establishd?...
27From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 16 August 1816 (Adams Papers)
I yesterday thursday the 15 received your communications of the 9th. you see it was not possible to forward the Letters inclosed by the mail on Wednesday—I have prepared them for the morrow—I thank you for permission to read C Letter. it did as well as if written to me. I inclose you one from C to you—I had not the same licence from her, but I received a Letter from her of the 8th in which she...
28From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 15 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
What a Sad time our good Friends have for their journey. I think they will not travel in such weather, tomorrow I expect to learn something from them, I did not look for any thing on thursday. I feel rather more tranquil than when you left us, the not less solitary, and lonely, for Susan is gone to stay with her Aunt. We have been cheered by the accounts shocking as it is to humanity, at the...
29From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 8 September 1815 (Adams Papers)
By your note last Evening I conclude you had not received my Letter by the post of fryday which I expected to have reachd you the Same day—it containd a Letter from me to mr Adams to go by the vessel which is up for London, and which I then expected would Sail on Sunday, I inclosed a dollar requesting a supply of paper, to be sent me last evening, the P. and I are quite exhausted—I want a...
30From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 7 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
I expected you home. that is the reason I did not write. beside I have melted away and very, very feeble—I rejoice to learn that you have had a fine rain. we had only a little drisel , but miss H Adams Said the Minister thanked the Lord for that; and prayed that he would send a soaking rain. we may put up a Similar petition, for Rain is much wanted— I received this morning your favour of 28...