1041From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 January 1811 (Adams Papers)
The year eighteen hundred and ten according to Russian reckoning still exists—But as its last hours are upon the wing; and as the New-Year has already made the progress of almost half a month with you, I can no longer delay the opportunity of wishing you, and my dear father, and my George and John, and all the family around you, not the compliments of the Season, but a truly joyful year to be...
1042From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 September 1812 (Adams Papers)
During the last two years, the unwelcome task has too often been allotted to you, to communicate to my dear wife and me tidings of affliction by the death and sorrows of those whom we loved—The turn has now come to me to ask your sympathy for our own peculiar distress—We have lost our dear and only daughter...as lovely and promising a child, as ever was taken from the hopes of the fondest...
1043From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 14 March 1806 (Adams Papers)
It is so long since I have had one hour of leisure that I could appropriate to correspondence with my friends at Quincy and Boston, that I am fearful you will impute to some other cause the length of the interval between my letters—My health however has been gradually improving ever since I left you, and on the whole has been better through the Winter, than for two years before.—A variety of...
1044John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, 25 May 1804 (Adams Papers)
I should have answered your kind letter of the 13 th. a day or two sooner, but for company which has fallen in, and call’d me away just at the time I devoted to the purpose of writing— M r: & M rs: Greenleaf of Cambridge, Charlotte Welsh, and her brother William, who has just returned from India, and M r: Isaac Smith, and his Sister, who are here at this time— And yesterday, a tea-party of...
1045John Quincy Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 11 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I received a few days since from my father , the enclosed pamphlet, with directions, after availing myself of the opportunity of perusing it, to return it to you, to whose kindness he was indebted for the loan of it. I have found in it no material fact, with which I had not been before acquainted, unless it be the authentication by his own narrative of the author’s treachery to his Master; and...
1046John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 April 1796 (Adams Papers)
You will find by the papers that I send with this letter, what you will perhaps know before the receipt of it; that is that the negotiations for Peace have stumbled at the threshold, and that a trial of one more year of War is to be endured by the contending Nations. The Notes of M r: Wickham & M r: Barthelemi are considered as decisive upon this point.— The scarcity of provisions has suddenly...
1047John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 29 August 1790 (Adams Papers)
I received by M rs: Atkinson your favour of the 20 th: inst t: which has added not a little to the weight of anxiety which, before hung heavy upon my mind. The Suspense in which I must continue, I know not how long with respect to my own prospects, has at present a constant operation to depress Spirits not naturally very lively; but when my solicitude for the welfare and happiness of my Sister...
1048From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 2 May 1811 (Adams Papers)
The religious ceremony of which in my last Letter I gave you an account, began at Midnight and terminated between three and four in the morning.—It was accompanied by a Salute of 21. Guns fired from the Fortress, two or three times, at particular stages of the performance—This was conformable to the customary practice; which always ushers in Easter day at St: Petersburg with an expence of...
1049John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 December 1803 (Adams Papers)
I received two days ago your kind favour of the 3 d: inst t: and it was very precious as containing information of your health, and that of my father, and friends at Quincy.— I have been and am sensible of the inconvenience there would be in any free interchange of political sentiments upon the passing events, by a correspondence which must pass through the channel of the Post-Office— I...
1050From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 1 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
On leaving Boston I had formed the Resolution of travelling only in the day-time, but at the close of the second day, arriving at Hartford, I found I should be four days more in getting to New York, unless I proceeded that same Evening, about forty miles to New-Haven—The roads were excellent for sleighing; I was alone in the Stage, and there was a moon bright almost as the morning—I therefore...