271John Adams to Peter Boylston Adams, 15 June 1776 (Adams Papers)
I have an Account of the Politicks of the Town of Braintree; but it is an imperfect one. I wish you would write me, a clear, and distinct one. . . . I am told there was a Tie, between your Hon. Brigadier General and You, and that, in order to get a Decision in his Favour he was obliged to declare that he would leave the Board for the Sake of serving the Town. I should be glad to learn a little...
272From John Adams to Caleb Stark, Jr., 7 November 1823 (Adams Papers)
The very great despatch with which you have answered my last not only proves to me that you are desirous of continuing the correspondence of which that letter was the commencement on my part, but requires immediate thanks & accordingly to show you that I shall not be backward in furthering its continuance I hasten to answer you although your letter was but last night recieved & although this...
273From John Adams to Timothy Pickering, 19 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your private Letter of the 11th. which contains matter of importance, but unnecessary to be considered and answered particularly by me, because I have in another Letter written this morning referred the whole Subject to your final decision. The manual Exercise of Writing has become almost as painfull to me, as a blow upon the Elbow or the Knee, which induces me to Spare almost...
274From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 3 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
You made me a rich present when you allowed your son George to spend his vacation with me. He has been to me a companion and a friend. He has indulged in no dissipation, has been very constant to his studies & his reading. I cannot find it in my heart to say that he has indulged a little too much in his segars and in his flute. I see that you have the honour to be the target of all the sharp...
275From John Adams to Ebenezer Tucker, 27 April 1798 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favor of April 24th inclosing the address of the Inhabitants of little Eggharbour— The zeal and frankness of this unanimous declaration and is remarkable and purely American—my Answer is enclosed which I pray you to present in the manner most convenient and agreeable I am Sir with much Esteem / your most Obt: Servt: MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
276From John Adams to James Lovell, 19 February 1780 (Adams Papers)
You have been so good, in sending me the Journals and above all in sending me very particular Intelligence of what has passed upon several occasions that I depend much upon the Continuance of your Favours. An early receipt of the Journals will be a great Advantage to me, and I shall not fail to make a good Use of them. Since I have been here, I have seen Mr. I. and mentioned to him, his famous...
277Thurdsday [26 October]. (Adams Papers)
Went in the morning to wait on Mr. Prat. He inquired if I had been sworn at Worcester? No. Have you a Letter from Mr. Putnam to the Court? No. It would have been most proper to have done one of them things first. When a young Gentleman goes from me into another County, I always write in his favour to the Court in that County, or if you had been sworn, there, you would have been intitled to be...
278From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 14 November 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have recd with great pleasure your favour of the fifth. Of the Book which my Enemy has written you shall hear more, hereafter. My Character Shall not lie under that load. I will not write in Newspapers nor in Pamphlets, while I am in my present Station, against that Pamphlet. Personal Injuries! I cry you mercy, what personal Injuries? Is making his Nephew a Captain a personal Injury? Is...
2791783 Feb. 24. Monday. (Adams Papers)
Dined in Company with Mr. Malesherbes, the famous first President of the Court of Aids, Uncle of the Chevalier de la Luzerne, and Son of the Chancellor de la Moignon. He is about half Way in Appearance, between Mr. Otis and Mr. A. Oliver. F ranklin this Morning mentioned to me the Voyage de la Fonte, who mentions a Captain Chapley, and a Seymour Gibbons. F. thinks it is translated from the...
280From John Adams to Daniel Greenleaf, 9 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
The President of the United States, & lady requests the Pleasure of Mr & Mrs. D. Greenleafs Company to Dine, on friday next, at two o’clock. An answer is requested. MHi : Homans Collection; Greenleaf Family Deposit.
281From John Adams to James Searle, 20 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I condole with you most affectionately and cordially in your fresh disappointment. It is to be hoped the Tide will turn. I have recd, Letters for You from Govr Reed, with a desire to open them in case of your being gone. You were gone, and I opened them and read them, with infinite Pleasure. They contain the best Account of American affairs that I have seen. The substance of them, is Advising...
282From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 25 January 1811 (Adams Papers)
The Hague, Sept. 6, 1782—Wrote to Mr. Secretary Livingston, “In your letter of the 5th of March, you ask, whether this power has entered into any treaty with France since the war, and whether any such thing is in contemplation? They have made no treaty, but a convention concerning recaptures, which you must have seen in the papers. The East India Company have concerted operations with France...
283From John Adams to James Breckenridge, 17 June 1798 (Adams Papers)
A Copy of your unanimous Resolution of the 31. of May, together with an Address signed by your Chairman by your Order has been presented to me, by your Representative in Congress Mr Evans. The Confidence of the People of Virginia or any such respectable portion of them, is peculiarly agreable to me: and the more So because, I am conscious that more than twenty Years ago, in Circumstances, very...
284[July 7. 1778.] (Adams Papers)
July 7. 1778. Dined at St. Lu, with the Farmer General De Chaillut. The aged Marshall Duke Richelieu, and many others Marquisses, Counts and Abbys were there.
285From John Adams to James McHenry, 16 May 1799 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed are Letters from Colo. Rice, Lt. Soper, and from General Knox and Mr. HG Otis—which I pray you to file with all other applications of Similar natures. Mr. Henry Sargent appears a very respectable Man— MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
286[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...
287From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 20 April 1812 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed is a Letter which I beg you to return to me, as Soon as you think fit. It is an Answer to one in which I requested him J. Q. to Send me a Manilius if he could find one to be Sold in St. Petersburg. Is not the Ratio of Manilius the Same with the Logos of Plato? and the Progress of the human Mind in Condorcet? Pray have you read Condorcets “Outlines of an historical View of the Progress...
2881778. 14. Feb. Saturday. (Adams Papers)
A very fine Morning, the Wind at Northwest. At Daybreak orders were given for the Ship to unmoor. My Lodging was a Cott, with a double Mattress, a good Bolster, my own Sheets, and Blanketts enough. My little Son, with me—We lay very comfortably, and slept well. A violent Gale of Wind in the Night.
289John Adams to [Franklin and Arthur Lee], 5 May 1778 (Franklin Papers)
AL : Harvard University Library Mr. Adams has recd. from the Count De Vergennes a Letter containing Information that his Majesty will see Mr. A. on Fryday, and an Invitation from the Count to Messrs. Franklin Lee and Adams to dine with him on that Day. The Letter is addressed to Messrs Franklin Lee and Adams. Notation: 5 May 78 Elicited by Vergennes’ note to the commissioners the day before....
Woods. Inst. 675, middle. “The Confession of the Defendant to private Persons, or to a Magistrate, out of Court, is allowed to be given in Evidence against the Party confessing; but this Confession cannot be made use of against any other. But where a Man’s Confession is made use of against him, it ought to be taken alltogether, and with that part which makes for him as well as with that which...
291From John Adams to Thomas Barr, 3 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have received “the Constitution of the Kentucky Society for promoting Agriculture” with your certificate of my Election as an honorary member.—As I have never heard of any measure for the promotion of that great object in this, or in any other country without pleasure; this Institution is so delicious a climate, & in a soil so exuberantly fertile, could not fail to be a peculiar...
292John Adams to Abigail Adams, 28 July 1775 (Adams Papers)
Your two last Letters had very different Effects. The long one gave me vast Satisfaction. It was full of usefull Information, and of excellent Sentiments. The other relating to the ill Usage you have received from Hayden gave me great Pain and the utmost Indignation. Your generous Solicitude for our unfortunate Friends from Boston, is very amiable and commendable, and you may depend upon my...
293From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 11 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged by your favour of the 9th. just received. Though I called the Subject of my former letter, a Bagatelle, it is perhaps of Some Importance; for as a Navy is now an Object, I think a circumstantial History of Naval Operations in this Country ought to be written, even as far back as the Province Ship under Capt. Hollowell &c and perhaps earlier Still. Looking into the Journal of...
294From John Adams to Benjamin Stoddert, 23 September 1800 (Adams Papers)
Enclosed is a Letter from Jesser Lewis which I recommend to your Consideration. General Marshall can probably give you more Information than the Letter contains or is known to your affectionate sert DNA : RG 45--Naval Records Collection.
295From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 15 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
I am afraid you will be offended at my freedom; but you are, in your hand writing, at Such an immense distance behind your two Brothers that I cannot abstain from urging you to force your Attention to that elegant usefull and indispensible Accomplishment. In order to diminish that ardor and abate that hurry which will inevitably force you into a Slovenly habit; accustom yourself to a critical...
296From John Adams to United States Senate, 11 December 1799 (Adams Papers)
I nominate Obadiah Trimmier of South Carolina to be a Commissioner of Valuations in the third Division of that state in the place of Robert Anderson resigned. Julius Nicholls Junior of South Carolina to be Inspector of survey Number three in that state, in the place of Eugene Brenen, whose Commission will expire at the End of the present session of the Senate DNA : RG 46—Records of the U.S....
297From John Adams to United States Senate, 20 February 1799 (Adams Papers)
I nominate the following List of Officers in the Army Cavalry. Lieutenant James V. Ball Captain—vice Van Rensselaer.. appointed Major First Regiment of Artillerists & Engineers Major.. Henry Burbeck,,, Lieut. Col. Commdt. vice Rochefontaine dismissed 7. May 1798 Captain Mahton Ford Major vice Burbeck promoted... 7. Ma..1798 Lieutenant Piercy S. Pope Captain vice McRee resigned... 24 April..—...
298John Adams to Abigail Adams, 5 May 1794 (Adams Papers)
I have this moment rec d your favour of 25. April.— If you want more Money before June borrow it of the General whom I will repay when I return. The freight of the furniture was in Mass. L. M.— The Farm goes on admirably well— I am well Satisfied with all you do. The Weather is terribly hot and dry for the season. Yet the Country looks charmingly. I hope to be at home by the first of June....
299From John Adams to William Macpherson, 18 June 1798 (Adams Papers)
This Dedication of yourselves, in the Presence of God and the World, to defend, against the Attacks of Arrogance, Injustice and lawless ambition, that happy System of Government which you have inherited from your Fathers cemented by the best blood of America and sanctioned by your own approbation, is very Solemn and affecting. It has, I presume been well weighted deliberately considered and...
300John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 14 December 1793 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your kind letter of the tenth of this month. Mr. G. may well be shocked at the Message. It is a thunderbolt. I cannot but feel something like an apology for him, as he was led into some of his enterprises by the imprudence of our fellow-citizens. The extravagant court paid to him by a party, was enough to turn a weak head. The enthusiasm and delirium of that party has involved...