101To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 19 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
Your Subscription for the National Intelligencer is stopped, and the enclosed receipt is in full to this day $29..12.1/2 I wrote to Mr Cruft on the 24th. of last month requesting him to pay you on my account 250 dollars the first of this Month and quarterly afterwards. I wrote also at the same time to you, to give you notice of that arrangement. Not having heard from him or you on the subject,...
102From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 31 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
If the twenty-five Volumes of the projected compilation of English Poetry, which were published at Philadelphia, for which I subscribed, and which I promised to give you, should be sent on to Boston, you shall still have them; but it is not worth while to purchase them there, if the remaining volumes are not to be published—You shall not lose however an equivalent for the donation, and you may...
103From John Quincy Adams to Josiah, III Quincy, 7 August 1820 (Adams Papers)
I accept with pleasure the proposal in your Letter of 27th ulto. respecting my library now deposited at the Athenæum; which is agreeable to me in every particular. I have only to add a few suggestions. There has never been at the Athenæum a complete Catalogue that of my Books.— When they were removed there in 1809 I gave Mr. Shaw the only Catalogue that I had of them, which was nearly perfect,...
104From John Quincy Adams to Ward Nicholas Boylston, 14 August 1820 (Adams Papers)
I received with much concern your kind favour of the 8th instt. particularly as it mentions your being in a feeble state of health—I hope it is only a consequence of the great heat of the Season with which we are also suffering here— While I had flattered myself with the hope of being able to visit my father this Season, I had the fixed determination of paying you that visit which with my Wife...
105From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 21 August 1820 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 13th: instt. is received and gave me pleasure—It would have been still more acceptable if it had contained your opinion of Prodicus’s Fable of the Choice of Hercules; your account of which is correct as far as it goes—Its first appearance is in the Memorabilia Socratis, of Xenophon, and is I think there represented not as written, but spoken in a dialogue. You will recollect...
106From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Baker Johnson, 26 August 1820 (Adams Papers)
I am engaged in preparing by order of both Houses of Congress a Report upon the subject of Weights and Measures, embracing a Statement of the Regulations of the several States of this Union concerning them—I wrote a circular Letter to the Governors of the several States requesting information, and from the Governor of Louisiana, received a Copy of the Law of the State, adopting the Weights and...
107From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 12 September 1820 (Adams Papers)
I have to reply to at least three Letters to you, the reason of which I will tell you hereafter, if it please God—At present I only write to give you full power to do with my Penn’s Hill farm and both the Houses as you think best.—The same with that at Mount Wollaston—except that you must not strip the latter of any good wood—And beware of running me too much in debt for repairs. I was much...
108From John Quincy Adams to Josiah, III Quincy, 16 October 1820 (Adams Papers)
In answer to your obliging Letter of the 8th. instt I have only to renew the request that you would procure the necessary shelves for my books though the cost should be to the extent of your estimate observing only the caution mentioned in my former Letter that the shelves be made adoptable to removal to any other place I am as ever &c &c &c. MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
109From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 6 February 1821 (Adams Papers)
With this Letter I commit to you a power of Attorney to receive for me any dividends, due or which may hereafter become due to me on Stock belonging to me in the State Bank at Boston There is now standing in my name of the Stock of that Bank 227 Shares at 60 Dollars a Share $13620. And the dividends due to me there, as appears on my books are Octr. 1819—on five Shares at 3 per Cent $9 April...
110From John Quincy Adams to John Adams Smith, 20 March 1821 (Adams Papers)
The Bearer Dr Charles Caldwell visits Europe for purposes connected with the promotion of Literature and Science in the Western Regions of our Country. The cause claims the helping hand of every patriotic American, and the well known and distinguished merit of the person, will be his most effectual introduction, wherever he may be named. I recommend him and the objects upon which he will visit...
111To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 22 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
I have been highly gratified in recieving your kind Letter of the 10th. instant.—I hope you will not attribute the infrequency of my Letters to you, to any other than its true cause. The Revd. Mr. Little will deliver you this Letter. He is the Pastor of a small flock of Unitarian Christians, who are gathering in this City, and who need some assistance to enable them to erect a place of Worship...
112From John Quincy Adams to John Adams Smith, 28 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
The Bearer of this letter, a Mr W. E. Horner Professor of Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania visits Europe with views having reference to his profession. Recommended by the respectability of his own character and by the friendship of his relative, Mr Moore, a Member of Congress from the state of Virginia, of which Mr Horner is a Native, I take pleasure in the opportunity of introducing...
113From John Quincy Adams to John Adams Smith, 5 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
Mr. William Beach Lawrence of New York, the Bearer of this letter may already be personally known to you, in which case, it will be superfluous for me to add, that he is a Gentleman of highly respectable character. His Lady who accompanies him on his visit to Europe is a daughter of Mr. Gracie with whose character and person you are well acquainted—I recommend them to any kindness of attention...
114From John Quincy Adams to John Adams Smith, 9 July 1821 (Adams Papers)
I take pleasure in introducing to your acquaintance, and recommending specially to your kind attentions, the bearer, Mr. Waldburg, a Gentleman of highly respectable character and connections, who visits Europe with views of instruction and amusement. I understand it would be agreeable to him to be attached to one of the legations of the United States in Europe, as other young Men have...
115From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 16 July 1821 (Adams Papers)
I received this morning your Letter from Wilmington, delighted to learn that you had got well on thus far—I send this to catch you at New-York—We are all as comfortably well as we can be without you—Antoine seems pretty well recovered. I got a Letter from W. S. Smith off Cape Henry, dated the 8th. Catherine had had a spice of Sea Sickness and got over it—W. D. Robinson by missing time had...
116From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 19 July 1821 (Adams Papers)
Your Letters from Philadelphia of the 15th and 16th. have come to hand—From the last of them I hope you are by this hour. (6 in the Evening) at New–York. I answered your Letter from Wilmington, by a short one which I hope will overtake you at New–York— Major Grahame from Frederick has been here these three days with Coll. M Pherson a friend of his who wishes to obtain a warrant of Midshipman...
117From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 29 July 1821 (Adams Papers)
Your two Letters of Journal from New-York were duly received and afforded me much amusement—The illness of the Coachman came so mal àpropos, that I believe you determined upon the best thing that could be done, including to go in a Packet to Providence—I hope you have long before this safely arrived at Quincy, and that the health of all has been recruited by the Journey. Among the Strangers...
118From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 2 August 1821 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday I received your Journal to the 27th. and landing you at Quincy—It would have put me quite in Spirits, but for the concluding paragraph which is alarming—My intention is to leave this City the 20th. or 21st.—If my calculations are correct you may send the Carriage to take me up at Dedham about or a little before Sunset on Saturday the 25th.—If it does not find me there it may wait for...
119From John Quincy Adams to Mary Catherine Hellen Adams, 8 August 1821 (Adams Papers)
I was much gratified in receiving your Letter of the first of this Month, which I trust will be followed up by others; at least as often as once a week—Of all the accomplishments that a young Lady can acquire there is none more reputable, or which can be more useful to her through life, than the talent of writing Letters—None that so indispensably requires the exercise of the faculties of the...
120From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 11 August 1821 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 3d. instt. only reached me yesterday—You reason exceedingly well both upon my real character, and upon that of which I have unfortunately got the reputation—I always receive with deference your counsel which I know to be generally judicious, and invariably intended in kindness to me—On the present occasion however, I have many special reasons for the request in my former...
121From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 19 August 1821 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letters of the 9th and 10th. and am able now only to ask you not to be disappointed if I should not reach Dedham next Saturday as I have proposed. The day before yesterday I was obliged to send an Express to the President, who is at Shannondale Springs—His answer might have obliged me to put off my visit to the North entirely—The Express has just returned—I cannot start...
122From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 3 October 1821 (Adams Papers)
List of Keys, left at Quincy by J. Q. Adams—with T. B. A. 1. Padlock large French trunk— marked J. Q. A. 2. Chest—not painted do 3. Chest do do 4. Mahogany box— 5. Small black trunk 6. Trunk de la Volaille 7. Large Hair Trunk. MHi : Adams Papers.
On arriving here yesterday, I had the pleasure of receiving your Letter of last Sunday from New-York by which I learnt the prospect of recovering the missing baggage— I found all well at home, but there is yet considerable disease in the City; and the yellow fever is said to be at Alexandria. Antoine says you sent him an order to get a grate for the chamber over head; but he cannot find one...
124From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 16 December 1821 (Adams Papers)
I have received with much pleasure your Letter of the 9th: instt. and hasten to answer it, that I may assign to you the reasons which deprive me of the satisfaction of complying with your request to come and pass the approaching winter vacation with us— When on taking leave of you at Cambridge at the Commencement of the term, I directed you to pass the Winder vacation at Quincy, for which I...
125From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 17 January 1822 (Adams Papers)
The proposal contained in your Letter of the 12th. instt. does equal honour to your head and to your heart—It shall be carried into effect; but I shall take upon myself a suitable portion of the expense necessary to that purpose—I shall immediately write to your uncle concerning it. The sum received for the Claim given you by your Grandfather, was three hundred and seventy dollars and forty...
126From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 17 January 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have mentioned to the Secretary of War, your wish that your Son Thomas may be admitted at the Military Academy at West–Point—His name will accordingly be placed upon the list of Candidates, and his admission may be expected in March 1824—But Mr Calhoun advises that he may be placed in the meantime at some School or Academy, where he may be kept to the most assiduous application of...
127From John Quincy Adams to Ward Nicholas Boylston, 24 January 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received with great pleasure your Letter of the 14th. with the enclosed extract from that of your friend Mr Nicholls—I am very glad to learn that he proposes to publish a new Edition of his Recollections, and I hope he will withhold none of his opinions upon the great topics of National Law to which he well refers.—His Portraits of Pitt and Fox are more true to the Life than any others...
128From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 30 January 1822 (Adams Papers)
You are well aware, because you have mentioned it in more than one of your letters to this place, with how much sorrow I have learnt that at the close of the first term of your studies at the University you were found upon the scale of scholarship among the very lowest in your Class. At the same time it is said that nothing exceptionable has been observed in your personal deportment. That you...
129From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 30 January 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received from President Kirkland, his answer to my enquires respecting your standing as a Scholar in your Class, and it confirms the Statement made by yourself—Your number upon the general scale, at the close of the last term was 24—In the course of one half year, you had risen from 45. This result has opened my heart to the cheering hope, that you will yet redeem a standing worthy of...
130From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 4 February 1822 (Adams Papers)
I hasten to assure you that I have never been displeased with you for not writing to me more frequently than you have done, though your Letters always give me pleasure. It is true you have frequently left open for my perusal your Letters to your mother and brother, and I have always received gratification from the indulgence. Yet I am not desirous of restraining in the slightest degree the...
131From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 18 February 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received, and duly reflected upon your Letter of the 10th instt. and approve very cordially of the determination you have taken, of exerting yourself by diligence to acquire a respectable standing in your Class—From this day your term begins, and if you carry your Resolution into effect I shall not only never have any inducement to repeat the proposal which I made you in my last Letter;...
132From John Quincy Adams to Josiah, III Quincy, 18 February 1822 (Adams Papers)
I return herewith the thirty certificates received with your Letter of the 6th instt signed conformably to your desire, and remain / with great respect and esteem your faithful Servt. MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
133From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 28 March 1822 (Adams Papers)
It has given me great satisfaction to learn that a part has be assigned to you to perform at the exhibition, fixed for the 30th. of April—and should be well pleased if it if it were in my power to be present at the performance—But as that will not be practicable, I wish you to let me know what dialogue it is that you are to speak—I feel also some anxiety for your performance, and quite...
134To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 23 April 1822 (Adams Papers)
I send you the enclosed pamphlet, at the request of Mr John Williams, a native of North Carolina, now a member of the Senate of the United States from the State of Tennessee— I am ever faithfully and affectionately, your Son MHi : Adams Papers.
135From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 6 May 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received your two Letters of 5 and 22. April—with much pleasure; and it would have been with more, had not the hopes which I had formed from your success at the last term, been somewhat damped by certain accounts which have reached me, of a less favourable character—It has given me great pain to learn that you have in the course of the present term exposed yourself to the censure of the...
136From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 18 May 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have learnt from some of the Letters which you have lately written to your Mother and your Brother, that you express yourself dissatisfied with your situation at the University, and that you have repeatedly intimated the desire of leaving it— My motive in placing you there, was to furnish you with the means of passing through life in the exercise of a liberal profession—By debarring yourself...
137From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 25 May 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 16th. instt. and have given deliberate attention to its contents—I listen with pleasure to all the circumstances that you allege in indication of yourself; and shall doubly rejoice to learn at midsummer, that your expectations are confirmed, by the standing which you will then have attained—If you should not be lower than 12. it will be apparent that my...
138From John Quincy Adams to Josiah, III Quincy, 5 June 1822 (Adams Papers)
Conformably to the suggestion in your favour of the 24th ultimo, I have written to Mr Cruft, requesting him to have the Books at the Athenæum belonging to me packed up in boxes and deposited with some others now in his custody—I pray you to accept my best acknowledgments for your kind offers of assistance and have desired Mr Cruft should he have occasion for it to avail himself of them. I am...
139From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 25 June 1822 (Adams Papers)
I received your Letters written in the Steam Boat, and that from Philadelphia—The immediate decision of Dr Physick upon the case of your brother, is doubtless the best thing that could have happened, and I hope the operation when effected, will not be so severe as you apprehend—I believe it is usually considered as safe, when skilfully performed, and have known several cases in which it was...
140From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 5 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received since I wrote you last two letters from you but cannot learn directly from either of them whether you had received my number 1. Yesterday the National birth day was kept here in small style. It rained great part of the day and yet the heat was melting—At the Capitol Dr Watkins read the Declaration, and Mr Hawley made a prayer. The dinner at Strothers was thinly attended but the...
141From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 5 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received since I wrote you last, two Letters from you, but cannot learn directly from either of them whether you had received my number 1. Yesterday the national birthday was kept here in small Style. It rained great part of the day; and yet the heat was melting—At the Capitol Dr. Watkins ready the Declaration, and Mr Hawley made a prayer—The dinner at Strother’s was thinly attended,...
142From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 10 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
Receiving on Sunday your rebuke for the blank covers I had forwarded to you, I should have it more severely had I not concluded that about the same hour you would be receiving from me the proof that I had not been altogether so remiss as you had supposed. We have had since the beginning of the month such a succession of roasters, day and night that I have felt myself almost reduced to the...
143From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 10 July 1822 to 11 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
Receiving on Sunday your rebuke for the blank covers I had forwarded to you, I should have felt it more severely had I not concluded that about the same hour you would be receiving from me the proof that I had not been altogether so remiss as you had supposed. We have had since the beginning of the month such a succession of roasters, day and night that I have felt myself almost reduced to the...
144From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 15 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your affectionate remembrance of my birthday—We passed it as pleasantly as circumstances would admit at Mr Frye’s; but I was not very well that day and was more than usually overpowered by the heat—On returning home too we were caught in a thunder–shower and throughly drenched. The Metropolis is daily thinning off—The Secretary of the Navy and family are gone—The President goes...
145From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 18 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
On the back of my last Letter, I acknowledged the receipt of yours of the 14th. and yesterday came your delightful Journal of the next day—I am charmed to find that you meet with so many friends and acquaintance at Philadelphia; and much more so that Dr Physick, has satisfied himself that there is no dropsy in your case. Commodore Rodgers called on me this Morning to say he was going for...
146From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 22 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
We continue to be delighted almost daily with your journalizing Letters—which together with our visits to the theatre, enliven the dulness of our half–solitude—Scarcely a day passes indeed but I have new visitors at my Office; but they all merely candidates for Office, and though of course all persons of extraordinary merit, their conversation has no tendency to make or keep one cool, in these...
147From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 23 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
Your delightful journal of Friday and Saturday has just come to hand—What diverts me most in it, is the regular Saturday Night’s indisposition of the Horses— The heat here on Saturday was almost suffocating—Since then it has been more supportable, but is yet very oppressive—A furlough of six weeks would be delicious to me—but you know some of my reasons for not taking it this year—I am weary...
148From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 25 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
Another number of your journal came to hand this day—I mark your advice, to say nothing more upon the subject of the “diplomatic controversy,” and I am much inclined that way myself—I have no desire to put him down lower than he has put himself; but the opinions upon objects of great interest, avowed and urged in his Letters want putting down, much more than the man—And I have written what...
149From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 29 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
Your journal of the 24th. and 25th. has been received—The complaint of cold, and the want of winter Clothes, almost makes me stare; though even here we have had two or three more moderate days— I give you an extract of a Letter which I have this morning from my father— “If you cannot come on yourself, I wish Mrs Adams would, and bring with her, her Brother Johnson.—The air of Quincy Sea, and...
150From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 2 August 1822 (Adams Papers)
I continue to receive your journals—that of the 29th. was the last; and they would continue to be most agreeable, if they all gave cheering accounts of your brother—Count de Manon called on me yesterday and told me he had seen your brother last week; and thought he looked not worse but if any thing he thought rather better than he had a fortnight before. Tuesday Evening we had a party at Dr...