1451[September 1796] (Adams Papers)
The Summer is ended and the first day of Autumn commenced. The Morning is cold tho the Wind is West. To Work again on the high Ways. Billings out upon his Wall a little after Sunrise. Captn. Hall Surveyor of High Ways finished the Road between my Garden and new Wall. To work again on the high Ways. They have taxed me this Year between forty nine and fifty days Works on the Roads besides the...
1452September 1. 1796. Thursday. (Adams Papers)
The Summer is ended and the first day of Autumn commenced. The Morning is cold tho the Wind is West. To Work again on the high Ways. Billings out upon his Wall a little after Sunrise. Captn. Hall Surveyor of High Ways finished the Road between my Garden and new Wall.
1453September 2. 1796. Fryday. (Adams Papers)
To work again on the high Ways. They have taxed me this Year between forty nine and fifty days Works on the Roads besides the other Farm in Quincy and the farm in Braintree. This is unjust, more than my Proportion, more than Mr. Black or Mr. Beale. Stumbled over a Wheelbarrow in the dark and hurt my Shin. Moses Black , an Irishman who had acquired the house and farm formerly owned by Col....
1454September 3. 1796. Saturday. (Adams Papers)
Pursuing the Wall. Tirrell is here and We expect French with his Team. Some soft warm Showers in the night and this morning. French came not, because it rained. Anniversary of Peace, which has lasted 13 Years.
1455September 4. 1796. Sunday. (Adams Papers)
Fair. No Clergyman to day.
1456September 5. 1796. Monday. (Adams Papers)
The Anniversary of The Congress in 1774. Sullivan brought a good Load of green Seaweed, with six Cattle, which We spread and limed upon the heap of Compost in the Meadow. Carted Earth from the Wall to the same heap. Tirrell here. Stetson opening the Brook three feet wider, Two feet on one Side and three feet on the other, at 9d. Pr. rod. Billings has never laid up more than a Rod and a half a...
1457Sept. 6. 1796. Tuesday. (Adams Papers)
Walked up to Trask mowing Bushes.
1458Sept. 7. 1796. Wednesday. (Adams Papers)
Belcher, Bass and Sullivan gone to mow the Marsh and get out the Thatch at Penny ferry. Billings laying Wall. Thomas, carting Earth. Stetson, widening the Brook to seven feet at 9d. Pr. Rod and a dinner. Brisler and James preparing, Yesterday and to day, the Cyder Mill, Press, and Casks. Yesterday Jackson Field came to offer me Mount Arrarat at Three hundred Dollars. I could not agree. He fell...
1459Septr. 8. 1796. Thursday. (Adams Papers)
Sullivan gone for Seaweed. Bass and Thomas carting Manure from the Hill of Compost in the Yard. Billings and Prince laying Wall. Brisler and James picking Apples and making Cyder. Stetson widening the Brook. I think to christen my Place by the Name of Peace field, in commemoration of the Peace which I assisted in making in 1783, of the thirteen Years Peace and Neutrality which I have...
1460Septr. 9. 1796. Fryday. (Adams Papers)
Appearances of Rain.
1461September 10. 1796. Saturday. (Adams Papers)
Walked, with my Brother to Mount Arrarat, and find upon Inquiry that Jo. Arnold’s Fence against the New Lane begins at the Road by the Nine mile Stone. My half is towards Neddy Curtis’s Land lately Wm. Fields. The Western Half of the Fence against Josiah Bass, or in other Words that Part nearest to Neddy Curtis’s is mine. Against Dr. Greenleaf my half is nearest to Josiah Bass’s Land. The...
1462[January 1804] (Adams Papers)
July 2d. Mowed, over vs. Yard and Garden 3 One Load, from the road to the ditch and from the cart path to the pasture Lane 1 4 Four Loads, over the Way and between the ditch and orchard 4 5 One Load from Chris Webbs House Lott 1 6 One from the 10 Acre Lot on the hill 1 7 Two in Cranchs Barn and two from the 10 Acre Lott 4 Sunday 8
1463[July–August] 1804. (Adams Papers)
July 2d. Mowed, over vs. Yard and Garden 3 One Load, from the road to the ditch and from the cart path to the pasture Lane 1 4 Four Loads, over the Way and between the ditch and orchard 4 5 One Load from Chris Webbs House Lott 1 6 One from the 10 Acre Lot on the hill 1 7 Two in Cranchs Barn and two from the 10 Acre Lott 4 Sunday 8
14641784 [i.e. 1804]. Aug. (Adams Papers)
The last Week in August We ploughed a ditch and brought the Earth into the Yard and 32 loads of Mud from the Cove.
1465John Adams. (Adams Papers)
Begun Oct. 5. 1802. As the Lives of Phylosophers, Statesmen or Historians written by them selves have generally been suspected of Vanity, and therefore few People have been able to read them without disgust; there is no reason to expect that any Sketches I may leave of my own Times would be received by the Public with any favour, or read by individuals with much interest. The many great...
1466[Parents and Boyhood] (Adams Papers)
My Father married Susanna Boylston in October 1734, and on the 19th of October 1735 I was born. As my Parents were both fond of reading, and my father had destined his first born, long before his birth to a public Education I was very early taught to read at home and at a School of Mrs. Belcher the Mother of Deacon Moses Belcher, who lived in the next house on the opposite side of the Road. I...
1467[Harvard College, 1751–1755] (Adams Papers)
Continued November 30. 1804. In my own class at Collidge, there were several others, for whom I had a strong affection—Wentworth, Brown, Livingston, Sewall and Dalton all of whom have been eminent in Life, excepting Livingston an amiable and ingenious Youth who died within a Year or two after his first degree. In the Class before me I had several Friends, Treadwell the greatest Schollar, of my...
1468[Harvard and Worcester, 1751-1755] (Adams Papers)
The two last years of my Residence at Colledge, produced a Clubb of Students, I never knew the History of the first rise of it, who invited me to become one of them. Their plan was to spend their Evenings together, in reading any new publications, or any Poetry or Dramatic Compositions, that might fall in their Way. I was as often requested to read as any other, especially Tragedies, and it...
1469[1757] (Adams Papers)
At the time when Fort William Henry was besieged, there came down almost every day dispatches from the General to the New England Collonies urging for Troops and Assistance. Col. Chandler the Younger had sent so many Expresses that he found it difficult to get Persons to undertake the Journeys. Complaining of this Embarrassment one Evening, in company, I told him, I had so long led a sedendary...
1470[1758] (Adams Papers)
In 1758 my Period with Mr. Putnam expired. Doolittle and Baldwin visited me in the office, and invited me to settle in Worcester. They said as there were two Sides to a question and two Lawyers were always wanted where there was one, I might depend upon Business in my profession, they were pleased to add that my Character was fair and well esteemed by all Sorts of People in the Town and...
1471[Braintree Lawyer, 1759–1761] (Adams Papers)
The next Year after I was sworn, was the memorable Year 1759 when the Conquest of Canada was compleated by the surrender of Montreal to General Amherst. This Event, which was so joyfull to Us and so important to England if she had seen her true Interest, inspired her with a Jealousy, which ultimately lost her thirteen Colonies and made many of Us at the time regret that Canada had ever been...
1472[Braintree Lawyer, 1761] (Adams Papers)
On the 25 of May in this Year 1761, my venerable Father died in his 71st Year, beloved, esteemed and revered by all who knew him. Nothing that I can say or do, can sufficiently express my Gratitude for his parental Kindness to me, or the exalted Opinion I have of his Wisdom and Virtue. It was a melancholly House. My Father and Mother were seized at the same time with the violent Fever, a kind...
1473[Jonathan Sewall, 1759] (Adams Papers)
Sometime in 1761 or two Mr. Samuel Quincy with whom I sometimes corresponded, shewed to Mr. Jonathan Sewall, a Lawyer somewhat advanced before Us at the Bar, some juvenile Letters of mine of no consequence, which however Sewall thought discovered a Mind awake to the love of Litterature and Law and insisted on being acquainted with me and writing to me. His Acquaintance and Correspondence were...
1474[Town Officer, 1761–1765] (Adams Papers)
Now become a Freeholder I attended the Town Meetings, as a Member, as I had usually attended them before, from a Boy as a Spectator. In March when I had no suspicion, I heard my name pronounced in a Nomination of Surveyors of Highways. I was very wroth, because I knew no better, but said Nothing. My Friend Dr. Savil came to me and told me, that he had nominated me to prevent me from being...
1475[Marriage and Law Practice, 1764-1765] (Adams Papers)
In the Winter of 1764 the Small Pox prevailing in Boston, I went with my Brother into Town and was inocculated under the Direction of Dr. Nathaniel Perkins and Dr. Joseph Warren. This Distemper was very terrible even by Inocculation at that time. My Physicians dreaded it, and prepared me, by a milk Diet and a Course of Mercurial Preparations, till they reduced me very low before they performed...
1476[The Stamp Act, 1765] (Adams Papers)
This Year 1765 was the Epocha of the Stamp Act.... I drew up a Petition to the Select Men of Braintree, and procured it to be signed by a Number of the respectable Inhabitants, to call a Meeting of the Town to instruct their Representatives in Relation to the Stamps. The public Attention of the whole Continent was alarmed, and my Principles and political Connections were well known.... I...
1477[1765–1767] (Adams Papers)
On the 14 day of July of this Year 1765, Mrs. Adams presented me with a Daughter and in her confinement in her Chamber, I was much alone in the Parlour below my Office of Evenings and Mornings. The Uneasy State of the public Mind, and my own gloomy Apprehensions, turned my Thoughts to writing. Without any particular Subject to write on, my Mind turned I know not how into a Speculation or...
1478[First Residence in Boston, 1768] (Adams Papers)
In the Beginning of the Year 1768 My Friends in Boston, were very urgent with me to remove into Town. I was afraid of my health: but they urged so many Reasons and insisted on it so much that being determined at last to hazard the Experiment, I wrote a Letter to the Town of Braintree declining an Election as one of their Select Men, and removed in a Week or two, with my Family into the White...
1479[1768–1770] (Adams Papers)
This Year 1768 I attended the Superiour Court at Worcester, and the next Week proceeded on to Sprin g field in the County of Hampshire, where I was accidentally engaged in a Cause between a Negro and his Master, which was argued by me, I know not how, but it seems it was in such a manner as engaged the Attention of Major Hawley, and introduced an Acquaintance which was soon after strengthened...
1480[1770] (Adams Papers)
The Year 1770 was memorable enough, in these little Annals of my Pilgrimage. The Evening of the fifth of March, I spent at Mr. Henderson Inches’s House at the South End of Boston, in Company with a Clubb, with whom I had been associated for several Years. About nine O Clock We were allarmed with the ringing of Bells, and supposing it to be the Signal of fire, We snatched our Hats and Cloaks,...
1481[Braintree and Boston, 1771–1773] (Adams Papers)
The complicated Cares of my legal and political Engagements, the slender Diet to which I was obliged to confine myself, the Air of the Town of Boston which was not favourable to me who had been born and passed allmost all my life in the Country; but especially the constant Obligation to speak in public almost every day for many hours, had exhausted my health, brought on a Pain in my Breast and...
1482[Independence of the Judges, 1773–1774] (Adams Papers)
In the Year 1773 arose a Controversy concerning the Independence of the Judges. The King had granted a Salary to the Judges of our Superiour Court and forbidden them to receive their Salaries as usual from the Grants of the House of Representatives, and the Council and Governor, as had been practiced till this time. This as the Judges Commissions were during pleasure made them entirely...
1483[Report on Boundaries, 1773–1774] (Adams Papers)
In the Fall of the Year 1773, The General Court appointed Mr. Bowdoin and me to draw a State of the Claim of this Province to the Lands to the Westward of New York. Mr. Bowdoin left it wholly to me: and I spent all my Leisure time in the Fall, Winter and Spring in Collecting all the Evidence and Documents: I went to Mr. John Moffat, who had made a large Collection of Records, Pamphlets and...
1484[Controversy with Hutchinson, 1773] (Adams Papers)
As I have written hitherto, wholly from my memory, without recurring to any Books or Papers, I am sensible I have made several Anachronisms, and particularly in some things immediately preceeding. It was I believe in 1772 that Governor Hutchinson, in an elaborate Speech to both Houses of Congress endeavoured to convince them, their Constituents and the World that Parliament was our Sovereign...
1485[Seizure of Hancock’s Sloop, 1768–1769] (Adams Papers)
In the fall of the Year 1773, a great Uproar was raised in Boston, on Account of the Unlading in the Night of a Cargo of Wines from the Sloop Liberty from Madeira, belonging to Mr. Hancock, without paying the Customs. Mr. Hancock was prosecuted upon a great Number of Libells for Penalties, upon Acts of Parliament, amounting to Ninety or an hundred thousand Pounds Sterling. He thought fit to...
1486[In Congress, September–October 1774] (Adams Papers)
It is well known that in June 1774 The General Court at Cambridge appointed Members to meet with others from the other States in Congress on the fifth of August. Mr. Bowdoin, Mr. Cushing, Mr. Samuel Adams, Mr. John Adams and Mr. Robert Treat Paine were appointed. After this Election I went for the tenth and last time on the Eastern Circuit: At York at Dinner with the Court, happening to sit at...
1487[Novanglus Papers, 1774–1775] (Adams Papers)
Upon our Return to Massachusetts, I found myself elected by the Town of Braintree into the provincial Congress, and attended that Service as long as it sat. About this time, Drapers Paper in Boston swarmed with Writers, and among an immense quantity of meaner productions appeared a Writer under the Signature of Massachusettensis, suspected but never that I knew ascertained to be written by two...
1488[In Congress, May 1775] (Adams Papers)
Congress assembled and proceeded to Business, and the Members appeared to me to be of one Mind, and that mind after my own heart. I dreaded the danger of disunion and divisions among Us, and much more among the People. It appeared to me, that all Petitions, Remonstrances and Negotiations, for the future would be fruitless and only occasion a Loss of time and give Opportunity to the Ennemy to...
1489[In Congress, June and July 1775] (Adams Papers)
This Measure of Imbecility, the second Petition to the King embarrassed every Exertion of Congress: it occasioned Motions and debates without End for appointing Committees to draw up a declaration of the Causes, Motives, and Objects of taking Arms, with a view to obtain decisive declarations against Independence &c. In the Mean time the New England Army investing Boston, the New England...
1490[August 1775] (Adams Papers)
I have always imputed the Loss of Charleston, and of the brave Officers and Men who fell there, and the Loss of an Hero of more Worth than all the Town, I mean General Warren, to Mr. Dickinsons petition to the King, and the Loss of Quebec and Mongomery to his subsequent unceasing though finally unavailing Efforts against Independence. These impeded and parrallized all our Enterprizes. Had our...
1491[In Congress, Fall 1775–Spring 1776] (Adams Papers)
At the appointed time, We returned to Philadelphia and Congress were reassembled. Mr. Richard Penn had sailed for England, and carried the Petition, from which Mr. Dickenson and his party expected Relief. I expected none, and was wholly occupied in measures to support the Army and the Expedition into Canada. Every important Step was opposed, and carried by bare Majorities, which obliged me to...
1492[In Congress, Spring 1776, and Thomas Paine] (Adams Papers)
In the Course of this Winter appeared a Phenomenon in Philadelphia a Star of Disaster (Disastrous Meteor), I mean Thomas Paine. He came from England, and got into such company as would converse with him, and ran about picking up what Information he could, concerning our Affairs, and finding the great Question was concerning Independence, he gleaned from those he saw the common place Arguments...
1493[In Congress, May–July 1776] (Adams Papers)
I was incessantly employed, through the whole Fall, Winter and Spring of 1775 and 1776 in Congress during their Sittings and on Committees on mornings and Evenings, and unquestionably did more business than any other Member of that house. In the Beginning of May I procured the Appointment of a Committee, to prepare a resolution recommending to the People of the States to institute Governments....
1494[In Congress, June–August 1776] (Adams Papers)
The Committee for preparing the Model of a Treaty to be proposed to France consisted of When We met to deliberate on the Subject, I contended for the same Principles, which I had before avowed and defended in Congress, viz. That We should avoid all Alliance, which might embarrass Us in after times and involve Us in future European Wars. That a Treaty of commerce, which would opperate as a...
1495[Committee on the Importantion of Gunpowder, September–November 1775.] (Adams Papers)
I have omitted some things in 1775 which must be inserted. On the 18th of September 1775. It was resolved in Congress, that a Secret Committee be appointed to contract for the Importation and delivery of any quantity of Gunpowder, not exceeding five hundred Tons. That in case such a quantity of Gunpowder cannot be procured to contract for the Importation of so much Saltpetre, with a...
1496[Committees of Correspondence and Commerce, November 1775–January 1776] (Adams Papers)
On Wednesday November 29. 1775. (See Journals of Congress for the Year 1775 page 272. and 273.) It was resolved that a Committee of five be appointed for the sole purpose of corresponding with our Friends in Great Britain, Ireland and other parts of the World, and that they lay their Correspondence before Congress when directed. Resolved that Congress will make provision to defray all such...
1497[Wednesday June 12. 1776] (Adams Papers)
On Wednesday June 12. 1776 Congress resolved, That a Committee of Congress be appointed by the name of a board of War and Ordinance to consist of five members, with a secretary, Clerks &c. and their extensive Powers are stated, Vol. 2. page 209 of the Journals On the 13th. Congress having proceeded to the Election of a Committee to form the board of War and ordinance, the following Members...
1498[Thursday October 5. 1775]. (Adams Papers)
On Thursday October 5. 1775. See the Journals. Sundry Letters from London were laid before Congress and read, and a motion was made, that it be resolved that a Committee of three be appointed to prepare a Plan for intercepting two Vessells which are on their Way to Canada, laden with Arms and Powder, and that the Committee proceed on this Business immediately. The Secretary has omitted to...
1499[Fryday October 6. 1775.] (Adams Papers)
Fryday October 6. 1775. The Committee appointed to prepare a Plan &c. brought in a further report which was read. Ordered to lie on the Table for the Perusal of the Members.
1500[Fryday October 13. 1775.] (Adams Papers)
Fryday October 13. 1775. The Congress taking into Consideration the report of the Committee appointed to prepare a Plan &c. after some debate Resolved That a swift sailing Vessell to carry ten Carriage Guns, and a proportionable Number of Swivells, with Eighty Men, be fitted with all possible dispatch, for a Cruize of three months, and that the Commander be instructed to cruize eastward, for...