331John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 3 September 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
D r James Freeman , is a learned, ingenious, honest and benevolent Man, who wishes to See President Jefferson , and requests 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 Pythagorian a Platonick or a Philonick Christian. You will ken him and he will ken You: but you may depend, he will...
332To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 24 October 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Preston arrived here, two days ago, but had lost his Letters. I hope he had none of Consequence. He dont remember he had any for me. He tells me from you, that the Doctor is arrived at Philadelphia which I am glad to hear, and those oracles of Truth the English Newspapers tell us, he had an honourable Reception, which I should not however have doubted, if I had not any such respectable...
333John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 26 January 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for your rich present of Dec. 28 th . 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...
334From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 25 January 1787 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letters of December 20. and Jan. 11. by Coll Franks.— The whole of the Business shall be dispatched, and Coll Franks Sent to Congress as you propose, as soon as possible. I have prepared a Draught of a joint Letter to M r Barclay, and Signed it, concerning M r Lamb, and shall inclose it to you with this. As to the Treaty with Portugal, the Chevalier De Pinto’s Courier whom...
335To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 26 May 1777 (Jefferson Papers)
I had this Morning, the Pleasure of your Favour of the Sixteenth inst, by the Post; and rejoice to learn that your Battallions, were so far fill’d, as to render a Draught from the Militia, unnecessary. It is a dangerous Measure, and only to be adopted in great extremities, even by popular Governments. Perhaps, in Such Governments Draughts will never be made, but in Cases, when the People...
336From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 31 July 1786 (Adams Papers)
I have rec d , the Ratification of the Prussian Treaty, and next Thursday Shall Sett off for the Hague in order to exchange it with the Baron De Thulemeyer. Your favour of the 11 th. instant I have rec d. There are great and weighty Considerations urged in it in favour of arming against the Algerines, and I confess, if our States could be brought to agree, in the Measure, I Should be very...
337John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 18 May 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Lyman was mortified that he could not visit Monticello . He is gone to Europe a Second time. I regret that he did not See you, He would have executed any commision for you in the litterary line, at any pain or any expence. I have many apprehensions for his health, which is very delicate and precarious. But he is Seized with the Mania of all our young etherial Spirits, for foreign travel. I...
338From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 25 June 1786 (Adams Papers)
last night I received yours of the 16.— M r Lamb has not written to me. M r Randal I have expected every day, for a long time. but have nothing from him, but what you transmitted me. my opinion of what is best to be done, which you desire to know is, that M r Lamb be desired to embark immediately for New York, and make his Report to Congress and render his Account, and that M r Randal be...
339John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 September 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
Οὐδὲ γυνὴ κακοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀναίνεται εἶναι ἄκοιτις πλουσίου· ἀλλ’ ἀφνεὸν βούλεται ἀντ’ ἀγαθοῦ. Χρήματὰ γὰρ τιμῶσι, καὶ ἐκ κακοῦ ἐσθλὸς ἔγημε, καὶ κακὸς ἐξ ἀγαθοῦ. πλοῦτος ἔμιξε γένος. Grotius renders this into latin, thus. Nec dedignatur ditemque malumque maritum femina: divitiæ præ probitate placent. In pretio pretium est: genus et prænobile, vili, obscurum claro, miscet avaritia. I Should render...
340To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 1 March 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I am much obliged to you for your favours of Feb. 20. and 23 by Mr. Carnes, and the curious Pamphlets. Opening a direct Communication between Paris and America will facilitate the Trade of the two Countries, very much, and the new Treaty between France and England, will promote it still more. John Bull dont see it, and if he dont see a Thing at first, you know it is a rule with him ever after...
341From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 16 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I recd, this morning your favour of the 5th. and as I can never let a Sheet of your’s rest I Sit down immediately to acknowledge it. Whenever Mr Rives, of whom I have heard nothing, Shall arrive he shall receive all the cordial Civilities in my power. I am sometimes afraid that my “Machine” will not “Surcease motion” Soon enough; for I dread nothing So much as “dying at top” and expiring like...
342From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 17 February 1786 (Adams Papers)
I was Sometime in doubt, whether any Notice Should be taken of the Tripoline Ambassador, but receiving Information that he made Enquiries about me, and expressed a Surprize that when the other foreign Ministers had visited him, the American had not; and finding that He was a universal and perpetual Ambassador, it was thought best to call upon him. last Evening, in making a Tour of other...
343From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 3 December 1813 (Adams Papers)
The Proverbs of the old greek Poets, are as Short and pithy as any of Solomon or Franklin. Hesiod has several. His Αθανατους μεν πρωτα θεους νομω, ως δiακεitai Τiμα . Honour the Gods established by Law. I know not how We can escape Martyrdom, without a discreet Attention to this præcept. You have Suffered, and I have Suffered more than you, for want of a strict if not a due observance of this...
344John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 1 May 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
Yesterday, I received from the Post Office, under an envellope inscrbed inscribed with your hand, but without any letter, a very learned and ingenious Pamphlet , prepared by you for the Use of your Counsel, in the case of Edward Livingston against you. M r Ingersol of Philadelphia , two or three years ago Sent me two large Pamphlets upon the Same Subject. Neddy
345John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, with Postscript by Abigail Adams, 2 February 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I know not what to Say of your Letter of the 11 th of Jan. but that it is one of the most consolatory, I ever received. To trace the Commence me nt of the Reformation I Suspect We must go farther back than Borgia , or even than Huss or Wickliff , and I want the Acta Sanctorum to assist me in this Research. That Stupendous Monument of human Hypocricy and Fanaticism the Church of St. Peter
346From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 18 July 1785 (Adams Papers)
Your favours of June 22 d. and July 7 and 11 th. are before me. The delay of M r: Lamb’s Arrival is unfortunate, but I think with you that the sooner a project of Treaties is prepared the better, and I will give the earliest attention to it whenever you shall send it— I shall go this morning to Stockdale, to talk with him about sending you the News Papers, and Pamphlets through the Channell of...
347John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 11 June 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Half an hour ago I received, and this moment have heard read for the third or fourth time, the best letter that ever was written by an Octogenarian dated June the 1 st . It is so excellent that I am almost under an invincible temptation to commit a breach of trust by lending it to a printer. my Son Thomas Boylston , says it would be worth five hundred dollars to any newspaper in Boston , but I...
348From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 October 1785 (Adams Papers)
M r Preston arrived here, two days ago, but had lost his Letters, I hope he had none of Consequence. he dont remember he had any for me. He tells me from you, that the D r is arrived at Philadelphia which I am glad to hear, and those Oracles of Truth the English Newspapers tell Us, he had an honourable Reception, which I Should not however have doubted, if I had not any Such respectable...
349From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 26 May 1777 (Adams Papers)
I had this Morning, the Pleasure of your Favour of the Sixteenth instant, by the Post; and rejoice to learn that your Battal lions, were So far fill’d, as to render a Draught from the Militia, unnecessary. It is a dangerous Measure, and only to be adopted in great Extremities, even by popular Governments. Perhaps, in Such Governments Draughts will never be made, but in Cases, when the People...
350From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
Οὐδὲ γυνὴ κακοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀναίνεται εἶναι ἄκοιτις πλουσίου· ἀλλ’ ἀφνεὸν βούλεται ἀντ’ ἀγαθοῦ. Χρήματὰ γὰρ τιμῶσι, καὶ ἐκ κακοῦ ἐσθλὸς ἔγημε, καὶ κακὸς ἐξ ἀγαθοῦ. πλοῦτος ἔμιξε γένος. Grotius renders this into latin, thus. Nec dedignatur ditemque malumque maritum femina: divitiæ præ probitate placent. In pretio pretium est: genus et prænobile, vili, obscurum claro, miscet avaritia. I Should render...
351John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 16 July 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I rec d this morning your favour of the 5 th and as I can never let a Sheet of your’s rest I Sit down imm e diately to acknowledge it. Whenever M r Rives , of whom I have heard nothing, Shall arrive he shall receive all the cordial Civilities in my power. I am sometimes afraid that my “Machine” will not “Surcease motion” Soon enough; for I dread nothing So much as “dying at top” and expiring...
352To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 6 April 1796 (Jefferson 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...
353From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 October 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have a Curiosity to learn Something of the Character Life and death of a Gentleman, whose name was Wollaston, who came from England with a Company of a few dozens of Persons in the Year 1622, took possession of an height on Massachusetts Bay built houses there for his People, and after looking about him and not finding the face of Nature Smiling enough for him, went to Virginia to seek a...
354John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
My loving and beloved Friend, Pickering , has been pleased to inform the World that I have “few Friends.” I wanted to whip the rogue, and I had it in my Power, if it had been in my Will to do it, till the blood come. But all my real Friends as I thought them, with Dexter and Grey at their Head insisted “that I Should not Say a Word.” “That nothing that Such a Person could write would do me the...
355To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 29 June 17[80] (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Mazzei, called on me, last evening, to let me know that he was this morning at three to Sett off, on his Journey, for Italy. He desired me to write you, that he has communicated to me the Nature of his Errand: but that his Papers being lost, he waits for a Commission and Instructions from you. That being limited to five Per Cent, and more than that being given by the Powers of Europe, and...
356John Adams to Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, 20 March 1785 (Adams Papers)
According to your desire, I went early this Morning to Versailles, and finding the Count de Vergennes unembarassed with Company, and only attended by his private Secretaries, I soon obtained the Honour of a Conference, in which I told him that my Colleagues were very sorry, that Indisposition necessarily prevented their paying their respects to him in Person, & obliged them to request me alone...
357From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 16 July 1813 (Adams 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...
358John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 May 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Must We, before We take our departure from this grand and beautiful World, Surrender all our pleasing hopes of the progres of Society? Of improvement of the intellectual and moral condition of the World? of the reformation of mankind? The Piemontese Revolution Scarcely assumed a form; and the Neapolitain bubble is burst. And what Should hinder the Spanish and Portuguese Constitutions from...
359John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 August 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
If I am neither deceived by the little Information I have, or by my Wishes for its truth, I Should Say that France is the most Protestant Country of Europe at this time, though I cannot think it the most reformed . In consequence of these Reveries I have imagined that Camus and the Institute , meant, by the revival and continuance of the Acta Sanctorum, to destroy the Pope and the Catholic...
360John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 22 June 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
May I inclose you one of the greatest curiositys and one of the deepest Mysterys that ever occoured to me—It is in the Essex Register of June the 5 th 1819.— it is entitled from the Raleigh Register Declaration of Independence— How is it possible that this paper should have been concealed from me to this day— had it been communicated to me in the time of it—I know, if you do not know, that it...