61John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 25 May 1800 (Adams Papers)
The latest letters I have had the pleasure of receiving from you are of January 5. and Feb y: 8. But M r: Paleske has arrived at London on his way hither, and I expect to see him here in the course of a few days— He informs me that he has letters for me from you. A longer time has elapsed since I wrote you last than I can apologize for with propriety; it is possible that at some future day I...
62John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 28 May 1800 (Adams Papers)
I humble myself in dust and ashes to confess that I must at one and the same time acknowledge the receipt of seven letters from you—viz—of 26 and 30. October and 29. December 1799—of 31. Jany: original and duplicate of 1. and 25. Feby: of the current year— But as if you had meant to make my responsibility less burthensome to me the numbers are not regularly noted— For N. 12 is repeated; and...
63John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 June 1800 (Adams Papers)
M r: Paleske arrived here a few days after I wrote you last, and delivered me your letter and the pamphlets together with the dispatches from the Secretary of State, and the letters to my wife; which were extremely acceptable to her, as she had been so long without hearing from her parents. I was much gratified by your anecdotes respecting the proceedings in the Senate upon the Treaty— The...
64John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 19 June 1800 (Adams Papers)
Your letter by M r: Paleske of 28 Feb y: though short gave me great pleasure as it was so long since I had enjoyed that of seeing your hand-writing— I have indeed no right to expect that you should have leisure to write me at large upon any subject, and know that a free communication of your sentiments cannot be indulged, upon public topics.— With regard to private concerns it more properly...
65John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 10 July 1800 (Adams Papers)
I received two days ago your N: 16. dated the 11 th: of May. which you gave to M r: Treat, with injunctions to take special care of it— Now, mark how specially this recommendation was observed— In order to secure your letter from all accident, which might happen to the bag, M r: Treat put it into his own trunk.— But being boarded by the officer of a french privateer, he was obliged to submit...
66John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 16 July 1800 (Adams Papers)
I cannot send you a duplicate without adding a line to it; for there is a pleasure in knowing that our distant friends are well, though but one day later than we have already heard from them We have been spending several days at Charlottenburg with D r Brown’s family, and Louisa’s health which never fails to droop at Berlin in the summer, has derived benefit from it— To morrow morning we set...
67John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 20 July 1800 (Adams Papers)
As I have bespoke your company, upon our journey into Silesia, I begin this letter at our first resting station from Berlin— Hitherto we have indeed seen little more than the usual Brandenburg sands, & perhaps you will find our tour as tiresome as we have found it ourselves— I cannot promise you an amusing journey, though I hope it will prove so to us; & if at the sight of this my first letter...
68John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 26 July 1800 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday morning early we took our departure from Freystadt, & came to this place; a distance of eight german miles; five of which are in single stage from Sprotau here— The face of the country has visibly & greatly improved as we came along; & although we still had to wade through miles of sands more, or less deep, we were frequently relieved by patches of good roads, & by beautiful fields...
69John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 3 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
At the close of my last letter I left you, in a cool refreshing shade, in the view of the Kockelfall, from which we proceeded the same evening to this inn— It was, as you may suppose a fatiguing day; though not so much so, as one or two we have gone through since, & several, which still await us— This village in one respect resembles an American country, more than any other spot I have seen in...
70John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 7 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
The reason, which induces travellers, who purpose a visit to the Riesenkoppe, to pass the night before at the Hempel’s baude is, that they may ascend the mountain in the morning early enough to see the sun rise, from its summit— Such was our own intention; but when we rose at two o’clock in the morning, Louisa, found herself suffering so severe a headache, that she was obliged to give up the...
71John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 9 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
Since our return to this place we have indulged ourselves with a few days of rest. The morning after we came back, I went over the lutheran church, which is the handsomest building in the town, & makes a conspicuous figure in all the views from the neighbouring hills. It is built in the shape of a cross, painted white, & roofed with red tile. These colours shew to great advantage here, as they...
72John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 16 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
From the cloister at Grussau (the day before yesterday) we returned to dine with M r Ruck at Landeshut— It was a formal dinner of thirty persons according to the fashion of the country; we sat down soon after one, & rose from table just before six. The whole of this time is employed in eating; for the ladies & gentlemen rose together, & there was little wine drunk. But as only one dish is...
73John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 20 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
The shortness of my paper, & of my time yesterday abridged my discription of the natural ruins at Adersback, one of the most curious objects we have yet viewed upon this journey. As I was closing my letter, the king & queen passed under our windows, on their way to Furstenstein. There, a double entertainment combining the fashionable amusements of antient & modern times, a carousel & a...
74John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 24 September 1800 (Adams Papers)
I continue to number my letters, although the series containing our Silesian tour is closed, so that untill our return to Berlin, you may know whether you receive all those I write— At Dresden from which my last to you was dated, we spent six days, in the course of which I renewed my acquaintance with the picture gallery, made an excursion one afternoon to Tharandt, through the valley of...
75John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 25 November 1800 (Adams Papers)
Many months have pass’d since I received a line from you, or from my dear mother. From my brother Thomas I have no letter of a later date than July, and from the department of State I have but one dated since last February.— Perhaps I am to impute the greater part of this seeming oblivion of my american correspondents to my own remissness during the last winter— For six months however I have...
76John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 3 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
I had been almost three months without receiving a line from you, or from any other of my correspondents in America; and although upon coolly considering circumstances I was sensible that this was the natural fruit of my own neglect of writing during the last Winter, yet as one’s feelings never make the allowances which sober reason requires, I began to think it strange to be so long without...
77John Quincy Adams to Joshua Johnson, 10 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
It is so long since I did myself the pleasure of writing to you, that I scarcely know how to apologize for the omission; and unfortunately for me, my remissness has appeared to you greater and more culpable than it really was, as the letters which I have repeatedly written to you, have failed to reach you, from what cause I am altogether ignorant.— Being so distant even from every sea-port...
78John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 20 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
I suppose you flatter yourself, that having more than three months ago got safely out of Silesia, you are to hear nothing further about it; but indeed I shall not let you off so cheap. There still remains a very short geographical, statistical, & historical account of this interesting province, which I feel it my duty to write— Whether you will conceive it your’s to read it, I need not...
79John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 7 February 1801 (Adams Papers)
I received only three days ago your N: 22. dated the 6 th: of December, and containing the melancholy tidings of the death of our unhappy brother at New-York. I had been informed of it two days earlier by a letter from my excellent friend M r: Murray at the Hague, who had seen an account of it in a New-York Gazette.— Of the situation in which he has left his wife and children you say nothing,...
80John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 14 February 1801 (Adams Papers)
I last week informed you that I had withdrawn from Amsterdam all the stocks I held there, and had remitted to M r: King, in London fourteen hundred pounds sterling, for which I authorised you to draw, and requested you to place the proceeds in the most advantageous manner; but not in any institution or fund depending upon our national Union; for the generality of our Countrymen are so far from...