511To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 27 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
The situation in which I am placed often brings to my mind, that in which you were situated in the year 1782. and I will not describe the feelings with which the comparison, or I might rather say the contrast, affects me—I am called to support the same interests, and in many respects the same identical points and questions—The causes in which the present war originated, and for which it was on...
512From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 26 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
The enclosed promissary Note for two hundred dollars is signed by Mr. Jesse Nichols of Providence Rhode Island. I have lent him the money to Enable him to return to America and he promises me it shall be repaid immediately after his arrival He goes as passenger in the Chauncey, and this Letter will go by the same opportunity—I request you to obtain the payment as soon as you can with...
513From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
This is the day of jubile! the fiftieth year since your marriage is completed! By the blessing of Heaven, my dear father can look back to all the succession of years since that time, with the conscious recollection that it was a happy day—The same pleasing remembrance I flatter myself is yours; and may that gracious being who has hitherto conducted you together through all the vicissitudes of...
Your Letter of 30. September, not numbered, was brought to me yesterday, after I had given up the hope of hearing from you for several weeks. That which you had previously addressed to Dresden, conformably to my request, I presume is there, waiting for me, and may possibly still wait for Months.—On Saturday last we received from the British Commissioners a Note more distinctly marked than any...
515From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
A dutch Vessel, called the Prince of Orange, which had taken out to America the Minister, Mr. Changuion, arrived on the first of this month at the Texel, from Boston, after a passage of thirty days. She brought Boston newspapers to the first of September, but very few private letters, and to my great disappointment, none for me—Mr Boyd had arrived here, a day or two sooner, with dispatches...
Nothing from you since your Letter of 13. September, from which I conclude that you ceased writing, after receiving mine of 23. August. I cannot expect that you wrote again, until you received mine of 23. September, so that I have the prospect of being a full month without hearing from you—I have a Letter of 21. September from Mr Harris, and it reached me the twenty-second day from its...
First for the news from America. I had not closed my last Friday’s Letter to you, when the Times , of the 10th. and 11th. were brought to me. They had been sent to us by the British Plenipotentiaries, who receive the Newspapers by their special messengers, twice a week, sooner than they can come by the Post, and who very obligingly communicate them to us. The papers of which I now speak were...
Mr Boyd returned last Evening from Amsterdam, and is to proceed in the course of two or three days to Paris—As you are acquainted with his character and disposition you will not be surprized to learn that he found nothing congenial to them in Holland—He says he would not live at Amsterdam for all the money in the Country, and he complains of having been cheated and imposed upon from the hour...
No letter from you, since that of 10. September, which I received, this day week—The next Post-day was Saturday, when there came one from Mr Harris of 14 September; but none from you. I have some apprehension, that on receiving mine of 19. August, and the newspaper accounts from England which must have reached you about the same time, you ceased writing to me, on the persuasion that I should...
520From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 7 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
Captain Bates arrived here yesterday morning, from Amsterdam, and has lent me a number of American Newspapers, of the month of August, and to the first of September inclusive—They were brought by the Dutch vessel, the Prince of Orange, arrived at the Texel—The same that had touched at Havre de Grace—The Dutch Minister, Mr Changuion had gone in her to America, conveyed by the Ajax, a Dutch...
521From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 4 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
As news like those of the Catastrophe at Washington, seldom linger on the way, instead of a fortnight, which I anticipated in my last Letter as the term—in the course of which the account of that event would reach us, it came within twenty-four hours after I had given you my expectation of it—It was on Saturday Evening the first of this Month that we received the first accounts, and they came...
Who of all the world should bolt into my bed-chamber yesterday-morning before 8 O’Clock, but George Boyd!—He comes as bearer of Dispatches to us, and to Mr Crawford, from the Department of State—Left Washington the 12th: and New-York the 16th: of August. in one of the swift-sailing Baltimore Schooners, arrived at Bordeaux, the 17th: of this Month, at Paris the 23d: and here about 6 O’Clock...
If you keep the file of my Letters, and will look back to that of 5. August. you will find it contains an incartade against the Post-Office, for treating you and me so ungraciously, by its caprices and delays in the transmission of our Letters to each other.—It is very agreeable to me to find that my next Letter after that, to you, was delivered at the proper day the Wednesday, for the first...
I did succeed in filling my four pages for you last Tuesday in time to dispatch them by that Evenings Post, under cover to Amsterdam. Before the British Plenipotiaries came, I bespoke your indulgence in case I should after their arrival remit in the frequency, or abridge the length of my subsequent Letters to you. Since they have been here, we have at different times had a great pressure of...
As I was closing my last Friday’s Letter to you, I received yours of 23d: August, and acknowledged its receipt upon the margin.—By way of variety to the humours of the Post-Office, they brought me last Evening your’s of 19. August, and this morning that of the 25th. I know not how it happens that there is still so much irregularity in the transmission of your Letters to me, as it appears that...
526From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 17 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
With the copy of my last Letter, which was entrusted by me to Mr Dallas, I now transmit also one of a preceding Letter, written last January—We have reason to hope they will all arrive safe as they go by Cartels, and this appears to be the only good effect that will result from the Negotiation at Ghent. I have nothing now to add to what I wrote you in my two last Letters, concerning my affairs...
The uneasiness I had felt at the general hints in some of your former Letters of your having done things that I should disapprove was perhaps a natural effect of their generality—The particulars into which you have now entered have removed it in a great measure. There are two principles, indispensible to all domestic economy; the first is to limit the expenditures within the extent of the...
528From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 13 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
It was so long since I had received a Letter from you that I began to be quite impatient; and then your Mama, who loves you so dearly that she is always very anxious when you are not in perfect good health had written me that you was not well; so that I was quite distressed on your Account, when your Letter of 15 August came, last Saturday, and gave me great joy. So you have had the...
Your Letters of 13 and 15 August, which I received both together on Saturday last have fully ascertained that the Post directly between this place and St: Petersburg, passes from somewhere only once a week—By the manner also in which you receive my Letters, two at a time, though I have sent them regularly to the Post-Office here, every Tuesday and Friday, it is proved that those of the latter...
530From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
When I wrote you my last Letter, a press copy of which, is enclosed, I had little or no expectation that I should at this day still be here. The John Adams sailed from the Texel, with Mr Dallas on board, the 28th: of August, and has, I hope, by this time half-performed her passage—It is one of those singular incidents, which occur occasionally in real life, and which would be thought too...
Mr Smith and his family have arrived at Amsterdam; I have received a Letter from him dated on the 5th: instt: and have written to him, requesting him to come with them, immediately here. They got into the Texel on the very day that the John Adams sailed, and by the account which he writes me, were entering at one passage, while she was going out at the other—He did not however go on shore at...
532From John Quincy Adams to William Steuben Smith, 7 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
I am rejoiced at learning, at last, your safe arrival with your family at Amsterdam—I have twice written to you—once, by Mr. Dallas, a Letter which he left with Mr Hoogland the American Consular Agent at the Helder; and last week, a Letter addressed to you at Hull in England, for which place, Mrs. Adams wrote me you had embarked at Cronstadt.—I regret very much that you lost the opportunity of...
There are two very sufficient reasons to restrain me from laughing at the difference of complexion in the political intelligence communicated by your letter of 5. August, which I received on Saturday, from that which your preceding favour, of 2. Augt: had contained. One was that I had already seen both faces of the news, in Letters received on the same day, from the Chargé d’Affairs, one...
Do not impute it to me, if from one Post-day to another I tell you different stories about the time of my expected departure to return to you. When I last wrote you, we had been promised a reply from our adverse parties without delay —They had then been in possession of our Note, five days, as much time as we had taken to prepare and send it in to them—We had been amply warned that we should...
535From John Quincy Adams to William Steuben Smith, 1 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
A Letter from Mrs: Adams, informs me that you sailed from Cronstadt, in an English vessel for Hull, on the 28th: of July—I hope therefore that this Letter will find you in England, if you should not be already on your way from thence to Holland—The John Adams in which I had obtained a passage for you and your family, sailed from the Texel Roads last Sunday, so that the chance of your going in...
536From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 30 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 2d. instt. addressed directly to me at the Hotel des Pays-Bas, came safely to hand on Saturday the 27th: It had therefore been 25 days on the road, and further confirmed the opinion that the Post is somewhere transmitted only once a week; and that the Post that starts on Saturdays is the one that goes through without being stopp’d—I should therefore from the commencement of...
537From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 26 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
It is vain to attempt accounting for the irregularities of the Post-Office—Yesterday I received your N. 18 (which should have been numbered 19) of 28. July; and a Letter from Mr Harris, dated the day before—These Letters have been four entire weeks on the way—But Messrs: Gallatin, Bayard and Hughes, all received at the same time, Letters from Harris, dated 2. August—six days later than his...
538From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 23 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
We had last Friday, after my letter of that day to you was closed, a conference with the British Commissioners at their request, which will probably be the last—Lord Castlereagh himself had arrived here the Night before, and left this place on his way to Bruxelles the day after—We did not see him; but at the Conference it is scarcely a figure of speech to say that we felt him—Our opponents...
539To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 20 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
Mr Dallas goes off with our Dispatches at three O’Clock to-morrow morning; and the John Adams is to sail from the Texel; if possible on the 25th.—I take the last moments before his departure to enclose you a press-copy of my last, which I sent by the way of England, with some other Letters for my Mother, my brother and my Children—I expect shortly to return to St: Petersburg—Peace is to be...
540From John Quincy Adams to William Steuben Smith, 20 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
I received on the 19th: of July, your favour of 10 June, which has hitherto remained unanswered because I concluded you would have left St. Petersburg before the answer could reach you On the 8th: instt: I received a Letter from the Secretary of State, dated 22 June 1814 of which the following is an extract. “On the Subject of your Secretary’s Salary, instructions would long since have been...
541From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 19 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
At last, I have the satisfaction of knowing that there is no positive obstacle to the passage of Letters directly by the Post, between this place, and St: Petersburg, and that you have received the first and second Letters that I wrote you after my arrival here—But as you received them both together, I am further confirmed in the suspicion I had already formed in consequence of having myself...
542From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 19 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have now barely time to enclose you a Press-Copy of my last Letter; the original of which I sent to England, to be forwarded by the earliest opportunity from thence. It is of no inconsiderable importance to me, and I must request your particular attention to the enquiry, how you have disposed of the balance of $2528..26 due to me on your account ending 31. December 1810; and why you have...
543From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
The John Adams is to sail from the Texel on the 25th: of this Month, and Mr Dallas, who is to be the bearer of our Dispatches to the Government is to leave this City on the 21st. I employ the last moments that will be left me previous to his departure, to perform they duty of writing to you, and of acknowledging the receipt of your favour of 1. May. It came by the return of the French ship...
544From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 16 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
American News presses upon us with an interest still increasing, and which will soon be but too powerful. It is impossible that the Summer should pass over without bringing intelligence which will make our hearts ache; though I hope and trust that nothing will or can happen, that will break the Spirit of our Nation—We are but just now receiving the accounts of the arrival of the Reinforcements...
545From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 12 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of 15 July, gives me much pleasure, as it always does to receive a Letter from you; and it would have given me still more, if it had been better written—Comparing it with your former Letters which I have on file, I find it not so well written as either of the others, although the first of them is dated nearly three months before. Your brother George learnt with much difficulty to...
546From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 12 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you some weeks ago that after the arrival of the British Commissioners, I should probably find it impracticable to write you either so frequently, or with so much prolixity as I had done and should continue to do untill that Event.—They are now here and the occasion has come on which I must plead for your Indulgence—For although I am well aware that the length of my Letters must often...
547From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 9 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
The Saloon, which we visited in company with the Mayor of the City, the day after the Ceremonies at the distribution of the prizes, is an exhibition of Pictures, Sculpture, and Designs of Architecture, much like that which takes place about this time every year at the Academy of Arts at St: Petersburg. But it shews a much higher state of perfection in the Cultivation of the Arts—The Paintings...
548From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 5 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
Oh! for the Patience of Job, to bear the tricks played upon us by or at the Post-Offices!—The day before yesterday they brought me together your numbers 14 and 15, dated 6 and 12 July—the second of which has I believe come in proper time—22 days. but the other should have been here last week, and why did it not come?—Again—why were you on the 12th: of July still expecting my letter from...
549From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 1 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday was the day of our removal, from the Hotel des Pays-Bas, on the Place d’Armes, to our own House in the Rue des Champs—Among the important consequences of this Revolution, it has produced that of a state of Separation between the primary members of the Mission, and the attachés—Those Gentleman found they could accommodate themselves with lodgings more to their taste, and as the...
550From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 29 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
The day before Yesterday, I received the first of your Letters numbered by yourself—The number, 13, was exact, as you will see by my acknowledgments of the receipt of the twelve that preceded it; but in the date, 24 June, I apprehend there is a mistake—for your preceding Letter, number 12, which I received last Week was also dated 24. June; and then you had received neither of mine from...
551From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I had the good fortune of sending a single letter from this place to England, in time to go by the Saratoga, a Cartel which sailed about the middle of this Month for New–York, and that letter was my last go to you. I hope it will reach you safely for it is the only opportunity by which I can expect that you will have heard from me, almost since the beginning of this Year—For the letters which...
552From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 26 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
There was a rose-bud, of your own drawing, enclosed in one of your last Letters—whether you sent it to me purposely, or whether it slipped by inadvertence into the folds of the Paper, as you was closing the Letter I do not know— If an accident, it was a lucky one; for I have it now before me, and take pleasure in looking at it— If you sent it on purpose I suppose it was to hint to me that you...
553From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 22 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
Your third Letter, dated 11. June, came to me the day before yesterday Morning, and gave me so much pleasure that I take care to answer it immediately. I see that you tried very much to write it without making any mistakes, and although you did not entirely succeed, yet there were not many; and if you always take as much care, I dare say, you will before long be able to write a Letter without...
554From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 22 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
As I am reduced to the necessity of copying all my own Letters, and as one of the duties the most indispensable to my heart is that of punctuality in my Correspondence with you, I have made it a principle to have my Letter ready for you in the Morning of the Post-day upon which it is dispatched, although it does not go to the Post-Office, untill 8 in the Evening. Hence it was that I had only...
555From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 19 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
The false alarm, that I gave you in my last Letter, of the arrival of the British Commissioners, came to us from no less a personage than the Mayor of the City—It was occasioned by the real arrival of two British General Officers, who the next Morning proceeded on their way to Ostend—Letters have since been received from England, by which it appears that we may expect the Commissioners in the...
556From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 15 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
The stream of high and mighty travellers from London, through this place has been incessant since the passage of the Emperor Alexander—The two Sons of the king of Prussia, and his brothers the Princes Henry and William; the second Son of the Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands, Count Nesselrode, and lastly Field-Marshal Prince Blucher, have all been successively here—Most of them have stopp’d,...
557From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 12 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
When I told you in my last Letter that the whole American Mission Extraordinary was here, I ought to have excepted Mr Carroll, and Mr Todd who are still lingering at Paris—Mr Carroll is attached to the mission as private Secretary to Mr Clay, and Mr Todd is of this Legation as he was of the former, a Gentilhomme d’Ambassade, quite independent in his movements, and very naturally thinking...
558From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 11 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
The last Letter that I wrote to you, was dated the 31st: of August 1813. Almost a year ago—and as I know not whether you have received it, I enclose with this one a Copy of it—I have explained to your brother George in a Letter to him the causes which have prevented me from writing to either of you for so long a time—He will shew you his Letter, where you will find them—I now send addressed to...
559From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 9 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
Upon looking back on the list of my Letters sent to America, I am surprized to find that the last I wrote you was dated so long ago, as the 13th: of September; but the causes of this long silence have not been from any abatement of my affection for you. During the whole of the last Winter, and untill I left St: Petersburg to come upon my present Journey I did not receive a line from you—There...
560From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 8 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
Your favours of 3 and 7 June, which I number 8 and 9. have been transmitted to me from Gothenburg, by Mr Hall—They were received there on the 17th: and 20th: of June, in 14 days from their respective dates, and were handed to me here, both together on the 6th: instt—The last had been a Month on the way, which is not much longer than they will be in coming, under cover to the Willink’s at...