251To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 25 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
The Bearer of this Letter Mr. Thomas Boylston, is one of the clearest and most solid Capitalists, that ever raised himself by private Commerce in North America. He seems to be desirous of assisting us, in introducing the knowledge and use of our white Sperma Cœti Oil, into France. His Judgment and Abilities to carry through whatever he undertakes may be depended on. Let me beg your Attention...
252From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 9 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
I believe I told you in my last, that I had given you all in Lindseys Memoirs, that interested you. But I was mistaken. In Priestleys Letter to Lindsey Decr. 19. 1803, I find this Paragraph “With the Work I am now composing I go on much faster and better than I expected; so that in two or three months, if my health continue as it now is, I hope to have it ready for the Press; though I Shall...
253John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 3 February 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
Sitting at My Fireside, with my Daughter Smith , on the first of February My Servant brought me a Bundle of Letters and Newspapers from the Post office in this Town: one of the first Letters that Struck my Eye, had the Post Mark of Milton 23. Jan y 1812 . Milton is the next Town to Quincy and the Post office in it is but three Miles from my House. How could the Letter be So long in coming...
254John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 16 July 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
your Letters to Priestley , have encreased my Grief if that were possible, for the loss of Rush . Had he lived, I would have Stimulated him to insist on your promise to him to write him on the Subject of Religion. your Plan, I admire. In your Letter to Priestley of March 21. 1801 , dated at Washington you call “The Christian Philosophy, the most Sublime and benevolent, but the most perverted...
255From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 5 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Correspondences! The Letters of Bernard and Hutchinson, and Oliver and Paxton &c were detected and exposed before The Revolution. There are I doubt not, thousands of Letters now in being, but Still concealed, (from their Party to their Friends, which will, one day See the light. I have wondered for more than thirty Years that So few have appeared: and have constantly expected that a Tory...
256From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 April 1819 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of March 21st. I will Communicate to Mr Bowditch, and Pickering— You may put my Letters upon the Subject of Tracy’s Book into any hands you please, with or without any Verbal alterations, as you may think fitt—“what you would have them, make them.” Or as James Otis used to say to Samuel Adams—here take it. and “Quicu Wuicu” it— I am obliged to borrow the hand of a friend to write...
257From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 22 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
Considering all things, I admire Dr Priestleys last Effort for which I am entirely indebted to you. But as I think it is extremely imperfect, I beg of you to pursue the investigation according to your promise to Dr Rush, and according to your Syllabus. It may be presumptuous in me to denominate any Thing of Dr Priestley imperfect: but I must avow, that among all the vast Exertions of his...
258John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 4 November 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Letter of Oct. 14 has greatly obliged me. Tracy s A a n alysis, I have read once; and wish to read it a Second time. It Shall be returned to you. But I wish to be informed whether this Gentleman is of that Family of Tracy s with which the Marquis La Fayette is connected by intermariages.? I have read, not only the Analysis, but Eight Volumes out of 12 of The origine de tous les Cultes,...
259From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 February 1788 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 6 th. and had before received the Same Information from Amsterdam. I know not how to express to you, the Sense I have of the disingenuity of this Plott.— The Difficulty of Selling the Obligations I believe to be mere Pretence. and indeed the whole appears to me to be a concerted Fiction, in consequence of some Contrivance or suggestion of M r Parker, the...
260John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, [ca. 14] August 1813, with Postscript, 16 August 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Κριοùς μὲν καὶ ὄνοuς διζήμεθα, Κúρνε, καὶ ἵππους εὐγενέας· καί τις βούλεται ἐξ ἀγαθῶν κτήσασθαι. γῆμαι δὲ κακὴν κακοũ οὐ μελεδαίνει ἐςθλὸς ἀνὴρ, ἤν οἱ χρήματα πολλὰ διδῶ. Behold my translation “My Friend Curnis , When We want to purchace, Horses, Asses or Rams, We inquire for the Wellborn. And every one wishes to procure, from the good Breeds. A good Man, does not care to marry a Shrew, the...
261From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 6 April 1796 (Adams Papers)
Since my Receipt of your favour of the 28 of February I have call’d on the Auditor and had some Conversation with him and with The Secretary of The Treasury and with The Secretary of State upon the Subject of Accounts and they think that some Regulation may be made by Congress which will reach the Cases without any formal Memorial on our Part and indeed without mentioning Names. The Secretary...
262To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 15 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received your Letter of the fourth instant by Colonel Franks, with a Project of a Letter to the Emperor of Morocco, and several other Papers. I have had this Letter, fairly copied, with very few and very inconsiderable Alterations and have signed it. I have left room enough, at the Beginning, for you to insert, or leave Mr. Barclay to insert, the Emperors Titles and Address, which may...
263From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 3 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
Sitting at My Fireside, with my Daughter Smith, on the first of February My Servant brought me a Bundle of Letters and Newspapers from the Post office in this Town: one of the first Letters that Struck my Eye, had the Post Mark of Milton 23. Jany. 1812. Milton is the next Town to Quincy and the Post office in it is but three Miles from my House. How could the Letter be so long in coming three...
264From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 22 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
Can you give me any Information, concerning A. G. Camus? Is he a Chateaubriand? Or a Marquis D’Argens? Does he mean to abolish Christianity? Or to restore the Inquisition, the Jesuits, the Pope and the Devil? Within a few days, I have received a thing as unexpected to me as an Appartition from the dead; “Rapport a L’Institut National, Par A. G. Camus, imprime par ordre de L’Institut, Pluviose...
265From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to introduce to you Mr Horace Holley, who is on his Way to Kentucky where he has been invited to undertake the Superintendance of a University. This Gentleman was Settled very young at Greenfield as Successor to Dr Dwight; but having a Mind too inquisitive for Connecticut he removed to Boston where he has been Settled nine years and where his fame has erected one of the loftyest...
266John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 16 December 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Letter dear Sir of Nov. 15 from Poplar Forrest was Sent to me from the Post Office the next day after I had Sent “ The Analysis ” with my Thanks to you. “3. Vol s of Idiology!” Pray explain to me this Neological Title! What does it mean? When Bonaparte used it, I was delig h ted with it, upon the Common Principle of delight in every Thing We cannot understand. Does it mean Idiotism? The...
267To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 22 May 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
We left Auteuil the 20th. afternoon and have made easy Journeys. Indeed We could not have done otherwise, because the Post-horses were engaged, by the unusual Number of Travellers, in such Numbers that We have been sometimes obliged to wait. The Country is an heap of Ashes. Grass is scarcely to be seen and all sorts of Grain is short, thin, pale and feeble while the Flax is quite dead. You see...
268From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 15 November 1813 (Adams Papers)
I cannot appease my melancholly commiseration for our Armies in this furious Snow Storm, in any way So well as by Studying your Letter of Oct. 28. We are now explicitly agreed, in one important point, vizt That “there is a natural Aristocracy among men; the grounds of which are Virtue and Talents.” You very justly indulge a little merriment upon this Solemn Subject of Aristocracy. I often...
269From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 7 June 1785 (Adams Papers)
I have rec d yours of 25. May. and thank you for the News of my son, and for the News of Paris. I wished to have Seen the Queens Entrance into Paris. but I Saw the Queen of England on Saturday, the Kings Birth day, in all her Glory. it is paying very dear to be a King or Queen to pass One Such a day in a Year. To be obliged to enter into Conversation with four or five hundred, or four or five...
270John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 15 July 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I am impatient to See your Plan of a University and new System of Education. To assist you in your contemplations, I Send you, a Pamp h let, “The Politicks of Connecticut.” By a federal Republican in the name of Hamilton. Was there ever Such a combination? Two Copies were Sent me from the Post on Saturday last: I know not from whence nor by whom. Now Sir! please to hear a modest Proposal. Let...
271To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 10 February 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Virginia Ladies have always been represented to me, and I have always believed it, are among the most beautiful, virtuous, and accomplished of their sex. One of them has given me a most luxurious entertainment in a narration of her visit to your Domicil. Her discription of the Mountain, the Palace, the Gardens, the vast Prospect, the lofty Mountains at a distance, The Capacious valley...
272To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 25 August 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return from an Excursion to Devonshire with my Family, where we have been to fly from the Putrefaction of a Great City in the Summer heat, I had the Pleasure to find your favours of 17. and 23. of July. A Million of Guilders are borrowed on a new Loan in Holland, and I went over lately to Subscribe the obligations, a Punctillio which the Brokers were pleased to think indispensible, to...
273To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 19 April 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Charles Sigourney & Lady, a respectable pair in Hartford, Connecticut, the Husband a Son of my old friend in Amsterdam, and the Wife, a very conspicuous literary Lady, have requested a line to you, as they are bound on a journey to the seat of your University and wish I suppose an apology for visiting Monticello—I have lost your last letter to me, the most consolatory letter I ever...
274[To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 23 June 1783] (Jefferson Papers)
[ Paris, 23 June 1783 . There is recorded in SJL , under date of 16 Apr. 1784, the receipt of a letter from “J. Adams. Paris. June 23. by Mazzei.” Mazzei landed at Hampton, Virginia, in Nov. 1783, but he did not forward Adams’ letter for some months; see Mazzei to TJ, 4 Apr. 1784 , and Mazzei, Memoirs , p. 274. Adams’ letter to TJ has not been found.]
275From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 3 September 1816 (Adams Papers)
Dr James Freeman, is a learned, ingenious, honest and benevolent Man, who wishes to see President Jefferson, and request me to introduce him. If you would introduce Some of your Friends to me, I could with more confidence introduce mine to you. He is a Christian, but not a Pythagorean a Platonick or a Philonick Christian. You will ken him and he will ken you: but you may depend, he will never...
276To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 30 November 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
By Dr. Gibbon a young Gentleman of Philadelphia whom I beg Leave to introduce to you, I have the Honour to send you a few more Copies of the Prussian Treaty; and to inclose in this, a Resolution of Congress of September 26. annulling Mr. Lambs Commission and Instructions. Mr. Jay desires me to transmit it to him, and although I hope Mr. Lamb is on his Passage to New York or already arrived...
277From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 10 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your kind congratulations on the return of my little family from Europe. To receive them all in fine hea l th and good Spirits, after so long an absence, was a greater Blessing, than at my time of Life when they went away I had any right to hope or reason to expect. If the Secretary of State can give Satisfaction to his fellow citizens in his new Office it well be a Source of...
278From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 6 May 1816 (Adams Papers)
Neither Eyes Fingers or Paper held out, to dispatch all the Trifles I wished to write in my last Letter. In your favour of April 8th, You “wonder for what good End the Sensations of Grief could be intended”? You wish the Pathologists would tell Us, what the Use of Grief, in our Œconomy, and of what good it is the Cause proximate or remote.” When I approach Such questions as this, I consider...
279John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 13 February 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
As you was so well acquainted with the philosophers of France I presume the name and character of Mademoiselle De Lespinasse is not unknown to you. I have almost put out my eyes by reading two volumes of her letters which as they were printed in 1809 I presume you have read long ago. I confess I have never read any thing with more ennui, disgust and loathing. The eternal repitition of mon dieu...
280From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
As you know I have often been ambitious of introducing to your acquaintance some of our literary characters, I now send you in the same spirit, some mathematical papers by our Mr. Bowditch who has translated La Place’s mechanique coeliste & has written commentaries upon it as voluminous as the book—; which are thought by our scientific people to be one of the greatest astronomical productions...
281From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
I return the Analysis of Dupuis with my thanks for the loan of it. It is but a feignt Miniature of the original. I have read that original in twelve volumes, besides a 13th. of plates. I have been a Lover and a Reader of Romances all my Life. From Don Quixotte and Gill Blas to the Scottish Chiefs and an hundred others. For the last Year or two I have devoted myself to this kind of Study: and...
282To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 19 January 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
I am favoured with yours of 27. Decr. and am obliged to you for what you said to the Count De Vergennes in the Case of the Chevalier De Mezieres. You may always very safely depend upon it, that I never have given and never shall give any opinion against the Letter or Spirit of the Treaty with France. In this Case I have never given any opinion at all. Indeed I have never been consulted. The...
283From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 8 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of Nov. 15 gave me great delight not only by the divine Consolation it afforded me under my great Affliction: but as it gave me full Proof of your restoration to Health. While you live, I Seem to have a Bank at Monticello on which I can draw for a Letter of Friendship and entertainment when I please. I know not how to prove physically that We Shall meet and know each other in a...
284John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 18 July 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Will you accept a curious Peace Piece of New England Antiquities. It was a tolerable Catechism for The Education of a Boy of 14 Years of age, who was destined in in the future Course of his Life to dabble in so many Revolutions in America , in Holland and in France . This Doctor Mayhew
285From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 16 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
Κριοùς μὲν ὄνοuς διζήμεθα, Κúρνε, καὶ ἵππους εὐγενέας· καί τις βούλεται ἐξ ἀγαθῶν κτήσασθαι. γῆμαι δὲ κακὴν κακοũ οὐ μελεδαίνει ἐςθλὸς ἀνὴρ, ἤν οἱ χρήματα πολλὰ διδῶ. Behold my translation “My Friend Curnis, When We want to purchace, Horses, Asses or Rams, we inquire for the Wellborn. And every one wishes to procure, from the good Breeds. A good Man, does not care to marry a Shrew, the...
286To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 11 September 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
On my Return from Holland on the Sixth instant I found your Favours of the 8. and 13. Aug. On my Arrival at the Hague The Exchange of Ratifications was made on the 8. of August with The Baron De Thulemeier, and I had it Printed. It is only in French. Copies shall be Sent you as soon as I can find an Opportunity. We were present at Utrecht at the August Ceremony of Swearing in their new...
287To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 5 February 1795 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed Pamphlet and Papers I have received this Week from the Author, with his request to transmit them to you. I have before transmitted in the Course of this Winter, another Packet from the same Writer; but have as yet no answer from you: so that I am uncertain whether you have received it. Mr. Jays Treaty with Britain is not yet arrived at the Secretary of States office, though there...
288To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 28 October 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Daniel Parker will have the Honour to deliver you this. He is an intelligent American, and well informed as any Man you will see from hence. I beg leave to introduce him to you. Let me thank you for your late Letter and the important State Papers inclosed with it. I have ordered to your Address, a dozen Copies of my Boudoir for the Marquis, who desired Mr. Appleton and Mr. Paine to have...
289To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 16 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
At the desire of the Baron De Poellnitz, I do myself the Honour to introduce him to you. This Nobleman you know married a Daughter of the Earl of Bute once the Wife of Earl Piercy. They have lived some time in New York. He goes to France to meet his Lady who arrived there sometime since. Coll. Franks will leave Us tomorrow. There are abroad so many infamous Fictions concerning the Captures...
290John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 October 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I have great pleasure in giving this Letter to the Gentleman who requests it. The Rev d David Edward Everett , the Successor of M r Buckminster and Thatcher and
291From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 10 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
In your Letter to Dr Priestley of March 21. 1801, You ask “What an Effort, of Bigotry in politics and religion have We gone through! The barbarians really flattered themselves, they should be able to bring back the times of Vandalism, when ignorance put everything into the hands of power and priestcraft. All Advances in Science were proscribed as innovations; they pretended to praise and...
292From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 26 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your rich present of Dec. 28th. The Pettifogger of Furnivals Inn, or of Cliffords Inn, scarcely deserves the pains you have taken to enquire into his Biography. My Curiosity is selfish, personal and local. The Character of the Miscreant, however, is not wholly contemptible. It marks the Complextion of the Age in which he lived. How many Such Characters could you, and I...
293From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 14 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
In your Letter to Dr. Priestley of March 21. 1801, you “tender him, the protection of those laws which were made for the wise and good, like him; and disclaim the legitimacy of that Libel on legislation, which, under the form of a Law, was for Sometime placed among them.” This Law, I presume was, the Alien Law, as it was called. As your name is Subscribed to that law, as Vice President, and...
294To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 4 April 1794 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed Volume was lately sent in to me by a Servant. I have Since heard that the Author of it is in New York. The Book exhibits a curious Picture of the Government of Berne and is well worth reading. I congratulate you on the charming Opening of the Spring and heartily wish I was enjoying of it as you are upon a Plantation, out of the hearing of the Din of Politicks and the Rumours of...
295From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 4 August 1785 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday our Friend M r Short arrived. M r Dumas had never any Commission from Congress, and therefore can have no Title under the United States. He never had any other Authorization than a Letter from D r Franklin and another from the Committee of Secret Correspondence, in the year 1775. I wish he had a regular Commission. I direct my Letters to Monsieur C. W. F. Dumas a la Haye, only. I...
296From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 9 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Lord! Lord! What can I do, with so much Greek? When I was of your Age, young Man, i.e. 7 or 8 or 9 years ago I felt, a kind of pang of Affection, for one of the flames of my youth, and again paid my Addresses to Isocrates and Dionissius Hallicarnassensis &c &c &c I collected all my Lexicons and Grammers and Sat down to περι ενθεςεως ονοματων &c. In this Way I amused myself for sometime: but I...
297John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 20 October 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
one trouble never comes alone! At our ages We may expect more and more of them every day in groups, and every day less fortitude to bear them. When I saw in Print that you was gone to the Springs , I anxiously Suspected that all was not healthy at Monticello . you may be Surprised to hear that your favour of the 7 th has given me hopes. “Imposthume, general Eruptions colliquative Sweats,”...
298To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 14 January 1826 (Jefferson Papers)
Permit me to introduce to your acquaintance, a young Lawyer by the name of Josiah Quincy, and with the title of Col l being an Aid to our Governor. The name of Col l Quincy has never I believe been extinct for two hundred years. He is a son of our excellent Mayor of the City of Boston and possesses a character unstained and irreproachable. I applaud his ambition to visit Monticello and its...
299John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 May 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received with great pleasure your favour of March 14 th M r Ticknor informes me that Dugald Stuart was not reduced to a state of Idiocy as I had been informed—but that he was in bad Health—and by the advice of his friends and Physicians to remove to Devonshire in England in hopes by the change of air tranquil repose and retirement from the irritations of society he might recover his...
300John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 30 July 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
Who shall write the history of the American revolution? Who can write it? Who will ever be able to write it? The most essential documents, the debates & deliberations in Congress from 1774 to 1783 were all in secret, and are now lost forever. Mr Dickinson printed a speech, which he said he made in Congress against the Declaration of Independence; but it appeared to me very different from that,...