51From John Adams to John Churchman, 3 September 1801 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour from Rhode Island, and in Answer to it, take this opportunity to Say, that I was early made Acquainted with the Theory of your Universal Variation Chart and have always wished you Success in the Pursuit of it: that I have been acquainted with you many years, that I never knew or heard of any Thing to the disadvantage of your Character: and that I have always...
52From John Adams to Columbian Centinel, 22 October 1804 (Adams Papers)
“J. Adams presents his compliments to the Committee of arrangements—Friendship for Mr. King and respect for the Company would have been more than sufficient to have induced him to have accepted with pleasure the obliging invitation to the dinner in honor of a gentleman whose wisdom, independence and integrity have done so much honor and real service to his Country ; but the present ill state...
53From John Adams to Amos J. Cook, 30 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
I have received the favour of your letter of the 21st. day of this month, and have complied with your request so far as to inclose with this letter, a Copy in my hand writing, of some Latin Verses, which I copied into my Pencil Book, in December 1779 from an inscription over the Door of the Cell of a Monk in Corunna in Spain.—The moral is so good, that they are worth the attention of the young...
54From John Adams to Richard Cranch, 29 March 1802 (Adams Papers)
For Value received I promise to pay Richard Cranch Esq, o n order, Two thousand two hundred and fifty one Dollars in twelve months from this date, with Interest untill paid Testis Cotton Tufts 1806. October. 13th. Received Sixty Seven Dollars and Fifty Three Cents for one half years Interest on the above Note also the further Sum of fifty one Dollars in part of principal recd. by the hand of...
55From John Adams to William Cunningham, 22 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed you will find a phillipic of our angry, pevish, fretful Prophet Jonah. His anger is his talent. When he gives a loose to that passion which he always does in every thing he produces something smart, pert, and malignant, which pleases the malignaty of the vulgar. But Phillipics are not the highest style of politicks. I cannot think Demosthenes and Cicero in the highest grade of...
56From John Adams to William Cunningham, 28 November 1803 (Adams Papers)
I received on Saturday your favor of the 25—had before received the copy of your oration, which you mention in it and since that have received the other that you sent first—for all these favors I thank you. The brochure which contains much valuable matter I have read with a lively interest and high pleasure—I wish I had patience and leisure however to make a few friendly remarks—But as I have...
57From John Adams to William Cunningham, 24 February 1804 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of the 15th: with its inclosures. I thank you for the outline as well as the eulogy. I am sorry you had the trouble of transcribing the former, which I see was written as the Italians speak con amore . Speaking of the classification of Scholars in our Colledge, before the Revolution, you consider rank & wealth as anti-republican principles of precedence; Is this...
58From John Adams to William Cunningham, 27 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
The papers to No. 6, which you mention in your kind letter of the 19th I have never seen nor heard. In what paper or pamphlet were they published? The federalists, I think, might suffer my old lamp to go out without administering their nauseous oil, merely to excite a momentary flash before it expires. Do you think the federalists believe themselves when they say that I am on the side of the...
59From John Adams to William Cunningham, 14 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
The complaint in your favour of the 11th, of the refusal to publish your Chathams, is no suprise to me. I have seen nothing in the four federal papers of Boston, for the last year, but such another prostitution, of genius, learning, and eloquence, as We read in Madam Drapers, Fleets, and mien, and Flemmings Papers in 1773 and 1774. A blind devotion to England and a disposition to sacrifice to...
60From John Adams to William Cunningham, 15 October 1808 (Adams Papers)
The information in your last letter, to look in the Palladium for certain speculations, is very agreeable. As I have never subscribed for that paper, I have never read them. Indeed I seldom see it. Your friendship for J. Q. Adams, encourages me to say, that Washington was indeed under obligations to him, for turning the tide of sentiment against Genet, and he was sensible of it and grateful...
61From John Adams to William Cunningham, 25 November 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have your favour’s of the 12th and 16th: of the month. The letter of President Washington concerning J Q A. is at your discretion to make what use of it you please. All the communications concerning the other Gentleman made or to be made I confide to your sacred confidence. The great regard I had for your Grandfather and for your Grandmother, who was a beloved Sister of my Mother, and for...
62From John Adams to William Cunningham, 13 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
I laughed when I read your Expectation, that what you had written on J. Q. A. would be printed. I found that you was not acquainted with the World, as it exists in Boston. The four federal Papers are under the Imprimatur of an Oligarchy of Purse, proud Speculators as despotic as the thirty Tyrants of Athens. Tryals enough have been made, as I have been informed to insert many Things on the...
63From John Adams to William Cunningham, 16 January 1804 (Adams Papers)
I ought to acknowledge my fault in having two of your kind letters to answer at once. I return you with thanks, Mr: Thomas’s Spy in which my poor "Thoughts on government," are wickedly and libellously imputed to "the greatest man in America." This was received in your letter of Dec 2d: I thank you for the trouble you have taken to ascertain that Mr: Zabdiel Adams’s Sermon on the validity of...
64From John Adams to William Cunningham, 3 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
I have your favours of December 17, and 21st. I hope you will not insinuate a comparison between John Q. Adams and Coriolanus. Whatever injustice or ingratitude may be done him, he has none of the Roman’s revenge, much less his treachery. Of Mrs. Warren’s History I have nothing to say. The Count De Vergennes was an accomplished gentleman and scholar, and a statesman of great experience in...
65From John Adams to William Cunningham, 15 March 1804 (Adams Papers)
Your favor of the 9th. is received. I beg you would not say a word about me in relation to the subject, which you say now engages the public attention. I am no match for these times, nor for the Actors, who now tread the Stage. You say this awful spirit of Democracy is in great progress. I believe it and I know something of the nature of it. It is a young rake, who thinks himself handsome and...
66From John Adams to William Cunningham, 11 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
I have your favour of 14 ult. The Mirror was never read—and if it ever should be it will be willfully misunderstood—Seventeen Wheels within one wheel. Seventeen Empires within one empire Seventeen sovereignties within one sovereignty. Seventeen Imperia in one Emperio will tell in time we have had a Chaise’s disturbance: a Gallatin’s disturbance a Fries’s disturbance; and why may we not have a...
67From John Adams to William Cunningham, 7 November 1808 (Adams Papers)
The letter of General Washington would have remained in obscurity forever, as far as I know, as it has been for twelve years past, had not a mean vengeance been hurled on the subject of it, for no other offence than his sterling integrity. You are the first person except one who ever asked me a question concerning the reasons for releasing, a certain Gentleman from the burthen of public...
68From John Adams to Rev. Manasseh Cutler, 10 May 1802 (Adams Papers)
I duly received your favor of the 17 of April. The letter from Dr Mitchell & the project of the society at N York of a national academy shall be laid before the american academy of Arts & sciences at their next meeting. Your other favor, of April 22 has since come to hand. I thank you Sir for your obliging persuit of the census. If the government for the second twelve years by undoing all that...
69From John Adams to John Davis, 11 April 1804 (Adams Papers)
I received Yesterday your favour of the ninth. Of Mr Baron I know neither the Person nor the Character: but it Seems to me that a demonstration will not be the less mathematical for the Nation or the Morals of the Author. The Accademy can not know the Manners of all their correspondents, and if the Cause of Truth and Science is really promoted by a bad Man even whom they know to be Such, I...
70From John Adams to John Davis, 26 February 1806 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed are Mr Spauldings Bill of Mortality for Portsmouth for 1805 and a Letter from Mr Benjamin Henfrey to me a total stranger to his Name as well as Person. Please to communicate both these Papers to the Academy at their next meeting. I hope Something will be done to be communicated to the Public, if nothing Should be decided among the Candidates for Count R Præmium, as Soon as may be...
71From John Adams to John Davis, 14 August 1804 (Adams Papers)
The disposition of every member of the Accademy to Show every respect and do every honor to the Memory of their Reverend and Learned Associate Dr Howard is unquestionable, and nothing but the heat of the Season in my present State of Health should prevent me from having the Honor of attending his Funeral with the other Members. It is my request to you, Sir to give public Notice of the...
72From John Adams to Samuel Dexter, 23 March 1801 (Adams Papers)
I left Washington on the 4th & arrived at Stony field on the 18, having trotted the bogs five hundred miles. I found about an hundred loads of sea weed in my barn yard, & recollecting Horaces “Et genus et virtus nisi cum re vilior alga est” I thought I had made a good exchange, if Ulysses is an orthodox authority in this case, which I dont believe, of honors & virtues, for manure. I have more...
73From John Adams to Rev. John Disney, 9 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
I was agreably surprised, the last week on receiving a very kind and obliging letter from you, dated at the Hide near Inglestone the 24th. of Augst. a seat where I had formerly passed many agreable hours with a Gentleman whom I esteemed as a man of sense and letters and as a Friend of Liberty and Humanity.—It is true that several Letters have passed between me and Mr. Brand Hollis: I have but...
74From John Adams to Gabriel Duvall, 13 October 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have received the Letter you did me the honor to write me on the Seventeenth of September; and in Answer to it I beg leave to inform you, that the account of the fourteen thousand dollars granted on the Second of March 1797 for the further Accommodation of the Household of the President of the United States was Settled before I left Washington, as appears by the enclosed Copy of a Letter to...
75From John Adams to Eliphalet Fitch, 12 May 1801 (Adams Papers)
In writing to you, on the present Occasion, I have to express my Concern that I am disappointed in the Intention of paying my Respects to you and Mrs. Adams at Quincy, during the ensuing Summer.—The Gentleman, Whom I had appointed my Attorney in Jamaica, writes me that he has been very ill, and will be under the Necessity to take a Voyage to Europe for the Recovery of his Health; and thinks my...
76From John Adams to Thomas Foxcroft, 13 February 1807 (Adams Papers)
Benjamin Beale Esq. our representative, brought me last night from the General Court, a packet containing two books and a letter. But the letter was dated from no place, and I could not decypher the signature. He thought the name of the Member who gave it to him was Foxcroft, which suggested to me the suspicion that it was came from you. There is not in my memory the faintest trace of the old...
77From John Adams to Christopher Gadsden, 16 April 1801 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favor of the 11th. of March and, with a pleasure far exceeding all my powers of Expression perceive that your friendly Sentiments for me are as kind and indulgent as they were six and twenty years ago. I read with the Same Satisfaction your publication last fall, and with a tenderness which was almost too much for my Sensibility. While Wythe and Pendleton and McKean and...
78From John Adams to Isaiah L. Green, 9 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
I received, yesterday, from the Post Office, under your franc, the nervous Reply of Nine of our Representatives to the certain resolutions. Having read it with pleasure I thank you for your politeness in Sending it to me. while it treats our Legislature with all the respect it deserves, it is written with as much candor and moderation as perspicuity and Energy. The Facts are fairly stated, and...
79From John Adams to Henry Guest, 26 June 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of the fifteenth of this Month and read it with pleasure; and my Son, who happened to be with me, on a visit, from Boston where he resides read the part of it addressed to him, with apparent Satisfaction. on his return from Washington he presented me, in your name with that fine American Staff which I call “My Guest,” for which I give you a thousand Thanks. It not...
80From John Adams to Henry Guest, 29 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
I am favoured with your kind Letter of the 20th. At your age and mine, as the Body fails to Supply Such plentifull provisions of animal Spirit, as it commonly does in youth and middle Age. We are usually Subject to more frequent dejections and gloomy Apprehensions. In the present dreary times you are not alone but accompanied by the whole Nation as far as I know it, in your depression. But not...
81From John Adams to Henry Guest, 30 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
I agree with you in your obliging letter of the eighth of this month that the new England states ought to have their equitable share in the government of the nation and I think that hitherto they have not, I think too that hitherto they have not I think too, that they ought not to bear more than their just proportion of the public burden; but I know that they have. They are so much outnumbered...
82From John Adams to Benjamin Hall, 28 March 1806 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of March 14th. and have not sent you an answer. It is not from any feelings of resentment or disaffection to the interest of the Canal corporation; but from necessity, that I consent to the advertisement of of and sale of my shares. I may candidly assign the true reason of this consent as well as not. I have not money to pay the assessments, and I know not that I...
83From John Adams to William Heath, 11 May 1807 (Adams Papers)
I read in the Chronicle some time ago, two Speculations with the signature of a military Countryman, and I read them with great pleasure for two very Substantial reasons, one of which is that I cordially approved and coincided with every Sentiment and every expression in them: the other was that I knew at once that General Heath was the Writer of them. How did you know that? you will ask. I...
84From John Adams to William Heath, 14 December 1807 (Adams Papers)
As I did not wish to oppress you with my Letters I have not acknowledged the receipt of your favour of the 18th of May, though I received it in due Season and esteemed it very highly. I have seen lately in the Chronicle, that like the good Steward you bring out of your Treasury Things new and old, and in very good Season. The Military Countryman written five or six and thirty years ago I have...
85From John Adams to Benjamin Henfrey, 22 February 1806 (Adams Papers)
I received, yesterday, your favour of the third of this month. It is not in my power at present to inform you, whether your Communication to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of your discovery of a mode of producing light and heat from inflammable air, and of your invention of an Apparatus for applying the discovery to various usefull purposes, has been received or not. All such...
86From John Adams to Abiel Holmes, 6 May 1807 (Adams Papers)
I am under a great obligation to you for the two volumes of the your American Annals, and am ashamed that I have not acknowledged long ago the Receipt of the first of them They are a work of great Labour, care and Industry, and the Execution of the plan appears to me to be as ingenious as it is judicious The Style is Elegant as well as clear and concise. With great satisfaction I observe that...
87From John Adams to Abiel Holmes, 14 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
I am Sorry it is not in my power to give you much information relative to General Oglethorpe in complyance with your desire in your favour of the Eleventh of this Month. Recovering from a great Sickness in Paris in the Fall of the year after the Signature of the Definitive Treaty of Peace in 1783 I was advised by my Phesicians to take a Passage to Bath in England, for the purpose of Using the...
88From John Adams to Bernard Hubley, Jr., 10 May 1801 (Adams Papers)
I duly received your favor of April 9 & am much gratified with that affectionate attachment, which you express for me. The mode you have adopted to mark your regard is very flattering. All that I can say to you upon this occasion is, God bless the brave boy to whom you have given the name of MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
89From John Adams to Bernard Hubley, Jr., 30 November 1802 (Adams Papers)
I have received our favor of 30 October & return the subscription paper for Hubly’s journal with my name to it. The journals of officers who served with reputation in the revolutionary war must be valuable and authentic original documents for history. I rejoice in the prosperity of your family and pray for blessings on your promising and deserving children—As to the dedication you may do as...
90From John Adams to David Humphreys, 1 December 1802 (Adams Papers)
Your favor of Aug. 28 from Boston has remained through a multiplicity of agricultural occupations unacknowledged to this hour and notwithstanding the lively sensibility it excited both in Mrs. Adams & myself, we sincerely regretted that we were not to have the pleasure of receiving you and Mrs Humphreys at Quincy as we had hoped & expected. If in the course of your affairs you should again...
91From John Adams to Joshua Thomas, 20 December 1802 (Adams Papers)
Nothing could afford me, more pleasure than to visit my Friends in Plymouth (where I formerly so much delighted to reside) on the 22d instant, according to your polite and obliging Invitation: but various circumstances will oblige me to denay myself that gratification. I feel a well grounded conviction that the best principles of sure great and glorious Ancestors, are inherited by a large...
92To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 24 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recd your favour of March 8 with the Letter inclosed, for which I thank you. Inclosed is a Letter to one of your Domesticks Joseph Dougherty , Had you read the Papers inclosed they might have given you a moment of Melancholly or at least of Sympathy with a mourning Father. They relate wholly to the Funeral of a Son who was once the delight of my Eyes and a darling of my heart, cutt off...
93From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 March 1801 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your favour of March 8 with the Letter inclosed, for which I thank you. Inclosed is a Letter to one of your Domesticks Joseph Dougherty. Had you read the Papers inclosed they might have given you a moment of Melancholly or at least of Sympathy with a mourning Father. They relate wholly to the Funeral of a son who was once the delight of my Eyes and a darling of my heart, cutt off...
94From John Adams to Rufus King, 10 July 1803 (Adams Papers)
I duly received, his Britannic Majestys Declaration and the List of Papers presented to Parliament with the kind Letter you did me the Honor to write me on the twenty Second of June. With great Sincerity I thank you, Sir for this instance of your polite Attention to me, and for a great number of others of a like kind, during your Embassy in England. I was then So Situated that I could not...
95From John Adams to John Thornton Kirkland, 5 January 1807 (Adams Papers)
Upon the recommendation of General Washington Gen Hamilton and General Pinckney I appointed your brother George an officer in the American army in which he served from its creation to its dissolution in that division of it which was under the general superintendance of Gen Hamilton and the immediate command of Col Smith. When he left the army in 1799 I well remember that several letters or...
96From John Adams to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 6 April 1801 (Adams Papers)
I have received from Mr Pichon, your favour of the 10th. of January, and, while I feel my obligations to you for your kind Remembrance of me, I very heartily rejoice with you, in your return to your native Country. The new Superintendant of the commercial relations between France and the United States, will, I presume be very well received here, and the better by most men for the part he acted...
97From John Adams to Nathaniel Lord, 6 May 1807 (Adams Papers)
Be pleased to accept of thanks for your favour of the second of this month, and for your Alphabetical Catalogue of the Sons of Harvard inclosed with it, which I think is convenient and usefull and will be a gratification to numbers of the most respectable people in the Country. You ask me whether I can give you the Family connections and genealogy of the several Persons on the Catalogue by the...
98From John Adams to James Lovell, 7 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
If our friend as you say is writhing in a Fox trap those who as you say nibbled when I sent Elsworth to France have woven the meshes with great art. They have composed the snares of the cords of a man and the bands of Love. They have exerted themselves with success equal to thier zeal and activity to get his son Theodore elected, into the senate and his son in Law Bailies into the H——of R——of...
99From John Adams to James Lovell, 20 October 1802 (Adams Papers)
I return you "The Messenger" with many Thanks. The Politicks of Europe are written with a Splendid display of ancient and modern Information, and a Studied Elocution: but like almost all other political Writings of those Times betray an Insincerity, a Want of Candor and Integrity, which to me, I own, is extreamly disgusting. In France before the Revolution they had their "Ecrivains des...
100From John Adams to Jean Luzac, 24 May 1805 (Adams Papers)
May 24. 1805 William Dandridge Peck Esqr, a Professor of natural History in our University of Cambridge bound on a voyage to Europe, merely to examine the Institutions and Establishements, relative to that Science will have the Honor to deliver you this Letter. His manners and merit will recommend him to you. I ask the favour of you to give him an opportunity of Seeing the Botanical Garden and...