171From John Adams to Charles G. Haines, 23 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honour to write me on the 18th. I have not yet received your pamphlet but doubt not it is on its way. The great western Canal does honour to the state of N. York and her govenor I sincerely wish & fully believe that the success will equal the grandeur of the conception. Accept my thanks for the Pamphlet though not yet / received & for the politeness of...
172From John Adams to John Thornton Kirkland, 28 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have had no Opportunity, till this hour to acknowledge your kind Letter of the 12th I had private and Selfish Motives enough, as well as of a more public generous and honourable Nature, to have accepted your obliging Invitation: but a diffidence in my own Strength of Mind and Body at my Age constrained me much against my Inclination to absent myself. I had entertained hopes that my Son would...
173From John Adams to William Tudor, Jr., 28 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
your kind Letter of July 4th. ought to have been answered sooner. my apology would be long and tedious.— I highly applaud your design of Writing the Life of Mr Otis, a man whom none who ever knew him, can ever forget.— In what I have written of Mr Otis, I have not written to Sagadahock and the Provence of Maine; to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucked; to Hampshire and Birkshire; to Barnstable...
174From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 31 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have not been able, till this moment to acknowlege your Letter of the 11th. You have my full consent to publish whatever you please concerning my Character. My Life can never be written, not even by myself; for it would take me as much time to write it, as it has to live it. You enquire for “Sources:” I know of none better than American Journals Newspapers and Pamphlets; next to them the...
175From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 31 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have before mentioned the Instructions of the City of Boston to their Representatives, in May 1764, printed in an Appendix to Mr Otis’s “Rights of the Colonies” In Obedience to those Instructions, or at least in Consequence of them Mr Otis prepared a Memorial to The House of Representatives, which was by them voted to be transmitted to Jasper Mauduit Esqr Agent for the Province, only as a...
176From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., September 1818 (Adams Papers)
The Charters were quoted or alluded to by Mr Otis frequently in the whole course of his Argument: but he made them, also a more distinct and more Solemn head of his discourse. And here, these Charters ought to be copied verbatim. But an immense Verbiage renders it impossible. Bishop Butler, some where complains of this enormous abuse of Words in publick Transactions and John Reed and...
177From John Adams to Hezekiah Niles, 6 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have not Seen one of your register for I know not how many months I have long expected a Volume. I see I must Subscribe by the Week or the year. Please therefor e to put my name down among your Subscribers and tell me to whom shall pay the needfull. I am Sir your humble servant MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
178From John Adams to William Tudor, Jr., 9 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
The Charters were quoted or alluded to by Mr Otis frequently in the whole Course of his Argument: but he made them also a more destinct and more Solemn head of his discourse. And here, these Charters ought to be Copied Verbatim.—But an immense Verbiage renders it impossible. Bishop Butler some where Complains of this enormous Abuse of Words in publick Transactions, and John Reed and Theophilus...
179From John Adams to Caesar Augustus Rodney, 13 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
You cannot imagine how much You have obliged me by your kind Letter of the 6th. I was intimately acquainted with your Uncle Cesar Rodney who under the constant pressure of ill health, preserved a clear Under Staing and a firmness a stediness, and inflexibility of heart, equal to any Statesman I have known. He was pleased to be very Social and familiar with me; and there was no Topick on which...
180From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 13 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
It is some consolation to find in the Paragraph of the Charter, next following the Court of Admiralty, that Nothing in it, “Shall in any manner enure, or be taken to a bridge, bar, or hinder any of our loving Subjects Whatsoever, to Use and exercise the Trade of Fishing upon the Coasts of New England, but that they and every of them Shall have full and free Power and Liberty to continue and...