I write you again a few lines to beg that you will contrive to send the red Morocco belonging to the Carriage in your Uncles Trunk if they can be laid at the bottom, without taking too much room and to have Georges Umbrella tied outside of it as he forgot to bring it. Do not make a mistake I mean the leathers that fasten into the sides of the Carriage to keep out the air— We have come this far...
I left my famous case and bottle containing the teeth in the Mahogany desk in my bed room—I will thank you to roll it up in paper and get your brother to seal it at each end to give to dr Huntt who will leave it for me at the City Hotel in New Your in the care of Mr Willerd the Bar Keeper— We are all here as stupid as possible wishing for you and already wanting to be at home—Give my love to...
33From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Mary Catherine Hellen Adams, 18 October 1823 (Adams Papers)
We have arrived safely after a most unpleasant journey which however I richly meritted for my wilfulness in travelling in such weather—I lost all my opportunities of procuring the Milinery that I wanted and you must get the Bonnet and Cap for your Aunt which she wants and have it sent on—If you should a pretty hat or Bonnet not too high you may get one for me at the same time— You will...
34From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Mary Catherine Hellen Adams, 26 October 1823 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you a few lines to tell you that I have no particular choice in point of colour for a bonnet but want something stylish and fashionable—Your Aunt Caroline says she has no choice but hers must be such an one as she can wear at Church— We are all well and expect to see you very soon—Abigail is on her way and will be here soon—I send the Engraving to Mr. Hopkinson with this Letter—As I...
35From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Mary Catherine Hellen Adams, 8 September 1824 (Adams Papers)
I enclose a Letter from Abby and can only say that we arrived at one o’clock on Monday morning after a most boisterous and fatiguing passage which almost shook me to pieces and made me often wish that I had remained with our good friends at borden Town.—I am however very glad that I came here as we find the old Gentleman much altered and evidently gradually declining although many persons...
36From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Mary Catherine Hellen Adams, 12 September 1826 (Adams Papers)
Your Note and packet came safely to me a few days since and I write a few lines merely to say that Mr. Adams has fixed the 4 of October to leave this place for home and that I do not think he will travel very rapidly—I hope Charles took the Letter out of the Post Office at Philadelphia and returned you the fifty Dollars I shall be uneasy until I hear I wish you would see and ask to write down...
We have arrived without accident after a pleasant journey in this City my Dear Mary and safely deposited Robert who behaved like a Hero and required no counsel as Mr. Frye seems to have stamped his Lessons very powerfully on his mind as well as on his affection— I write to tell you that Anthony is to let Mr. Frye have your Uncle’s Tea Table and that he is to pay Elizabeth her full Month and I...
I am ordered to write to you immediately by the family here to tell you that you must come on by the first favorable opportunity and that they will be mortally offended by your refusal—I advise you by all means should you hear of any body coming to join their party and come immediately to Mrs. St—— at Philadelphia when Elizabeth and one of the young men will meet you and escort you out you...
39From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Mary Catherine Hellen Adams, 9 September 1823 (Adams Papers)
I write you a very few lines to tell you that I have seen your Brother that he is delighted with his situation and is more improved than I can express. He is now at Quincy with my boys and as much at home as either of them—Mr Lee offered to take your Shawl and Veil which I hope you will like as well as the handkerchief—I will answer the questions of Miss Mease when I arrive at Borden Town...
40From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Mary Catherine Hellen Adams, 19 October 1823 (Adams Papers)
The Miss Cottringers have just called on me and inform me that their Mother went to Philadelphia yesterday Morning from whence she is to return in a week—As this will be an excellent opportunity for your return I shall wish you to come home with her at the time mentioned as I find that the accounts of the sickness are very much exaggerated—You will find her at Mr. J. Dugan’s between Spruce and...
41From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Mary Catherine Hellen Adams, 3 September 1819 (Adams Papers)
Surrounded by my chattering Boys I can scarcely write you a word to tell you that we arrived safely after a most fatiguing journey and are all well at Quincy and very comfortable—The journey was unpleasant and I think we were more jolted and jostled even than last year. I beg you will tell Mrs. Smith that during the time of my absence she can be supplied with milk from my Cow and if Mr. Smith...
42From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Mary Catherine Hellen Adams, 27 October 1823 (Adams Papers)
By desire of Mr Cook I write to inform you that there is some business which requires your presence here previous to the fourteenth of next Month and which cannot be delayed—Mr & Mrs. Thompson are supposed to be on their way and you may perhaps be able to join them but I fear will not have time to get ready—I leave it entirely at your at what time you will return and only mention opportunities...
43From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Johnson Hellen, 19 June 1825 (Adams Papers)
Your Sister informs me my dear Thomas that you are preparing to enter College in the Month of August next and the information give me so much pleasure I write to tell you how much I am gratified as it convinces me that you have been industrious and laudably ambitious to perfect your advantages in the completion of your education. There is but little passing among us that can afford topics of...
Your Letter of 19 July was delivered to me just after I had dispatched my last and I now hasten to answer it—My visit to Frederick was interrupted by the illness of Governor Johnson who is not expected to recover and who has declined seeing any of his relations nearer than his own children—We are therefore once more disappointed and I suspect that the great reason of the failure of the...
I have been prevented from writing to you a long time my dear Tom first in consequence of ill health and since because I thought it would be better to await your return to College than to address to Exeter where I hope you have been happy among your respectable old friends— It gives me great pleasure to learn from Mary that you have become more satisfied with your situation and now I have only...
46Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams and Thomas Baker Johnson, Poem on Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, 4 July 1826 (Adams Papers)
Not a smile was seen—Nor a sound heard of joy Tho’ the day was to Gratitude vow’d The brightness of pleasure that ne’er knew alloy Had been dimm’d like the Sun by a cloud The day that a Nation first gave to the world And millions of Freemen—Now blest In its oft welcom’d Course—Saw no banner unfurl’d Save what proud exultation exprest With hearts high in hopes & with Gratitude fill’d The bright...
I enclose you some lines which were written very hastily yesterday morning immediately after receiving the news of the death of poor Florida Pope after nine months of severe suffering—She was beautiful and a child of the fairest promise and there is some thing remarkable in the serenity and sweetness which closed her dying moments—She was calm collected and happy and distributed her little...
48From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 8 August 1820 (Adams Papers)
Harriet Welsh writes me that George and you intend to visit Mrs. de Wint during the vacation and that if your father grants you permission you intend to go on to Niagara—I had made a partial engagement to accompany Mr. & Mrs. de Wint to Niagara this fall but I do not feel quite sure that I shall be able to accomplish this purpose as your father tho’ he says I may go always appears to have...
I received your Letter of the 7th yesterday Evening and was very happy to learn that you sustained the rigours of the Climate so well as I have involuntarily felt some apprehensions lest you should have suffered in consequence of your residence for so long a time in one so much warmer and milder—Poor Charles left us two days ago and I think with deeper regret even than usual—under an...
50From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 18 July 1823 (Adams Papers)
I cannot imagine my Dear John what can be the reason of your not writing to me. You used to be a very regular correspondent, but I suppose the Ladies have such demands on your time you have none to bestow on your poor Mother. We are very happy to learn from Mr Pomeroy, that your Grandfather is so entirely recovered he tells us the old Gentleman has not looked so well this two years as he does...
It is a long time since I wrote you as I have again been very sick and utterly unable to put pen to paper—You may therefore readily imagine that I have nothing to write about any more than yourself as I have had nothing whatever to do with the great world for some time who are kind enough to believe me sick in consequence of the Presidential question—I will acknowledge that it is of a nature...
Your Letter my caused me a mixture of feelings some pleasing some painful the latter because there is an evidence of a temper little calculated to promote the success of your wishes and evincing a disposition to rebel against your fathers order which must end unhappily to yourself—Be assured my dear Son that industry obedience and application will produce the best effects and that while you...
Regularity and method are so essential to the acquisition of real knowledge that the little annoyance of the Bell is a trifle to the good consequences which its sound produces when it reminds you that certain duties are to be performed at certain times—The human mind requires an incessant spur or stimulus to invigorate its action or more properly speaking to force it into certain channels...
54From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 4 September 1824 (Adams Papers)
I was so much occupied during my stop at Borden Town I could not answer your Letter therefore busy myself here having nothing to do with all the nonsense I can think of for pastime. You can easily conceive, the dreariness of my situation travelling alone with your father who though more of a than I can recollect since the earliest period of our marriage is still too much of a Statesman to be...
55From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 18 September 1824 (Adams Papers)
I write you a few lines my dear John in answer to yours which I received last night merely to say we are all well and your Grandfather better but we are so immerced in dinners and partys that my head is perfectly turned— Give my love to Johnson (Hellen), and tell him not to grieve—for I am glad the connection has failed as there is something in the conduct of all parties not altogether...
56From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 21 February 1822 (Adams Papers)
Being very well I hasten to write you and although you disclaim all merit in a certain transaction still to repeat my approbation of a conduct which does you so much honour and which I hope (although you must not expect) will be rewarded by the improvement and merit of its object—Should this not happen do not suffer the disappointment to mortify or wound your feelings or to damp any future...
I am so much concerned my Dear George to learn from your last letter what a state of suffering you were in that I have been anxiously looking for a second letter to assure us of your recovery—We learn from the newspapers that the cold has been intense and I fear you do not take precautions to guard against its extreme severity— We are here in the midst of the busy bustling scene of a session...
The frequent and violent attacks of sickness which assail me my Dear George render me a wretched correspondent as the few days of comparative health which I enjoy are attended with a degree of debility which incapacitates me from any exertion of thought or rather of sedentary occupation without reproducing disagreeable sensations in my head and eyes.— We perceive with much delight an entire...
Your father wrote you a Letter yesterday in which he desires you to remain with your Grandfather to which I readily consented although with a pang which has absolutely made me sick such delight had I in the anticipation of your visit—My duties as it regards my children have always by some circumstance or other been rendered particularly painful and the sacrifices required have been almost...
We have accomplished our journey thus far as well as I anticipated but my brother was so ill this morning I was fearful we should be obliged to remain at Baltimore for some days. As however he is better this Eveng he has determined to go on in the Stage and reach Philadelphia tomorrow morning—I shall therefore send the Carriage round to join us there— Our Stage party consists of Mr Pratt of P....
As I am much afraid that I shall not accomplish the plan proposed in my last Letter to John you will have an opportunity to take a part at the last exhibition in preference to the one you mention in October as should your father be able to go on he will probably not stay more than a fort night and that might not suit the time fixed— Your Letters to me leave me so little to answer that I can...
62From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 3 August 1823 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter my dear John gave us great uneasiness on your Grandfathers account and we feel very anxious lest the violence of the shock should have injured his health. We hope to hear from you frequently and that your Letters may be welcomed as harbingers of good instead of ill news for the future— I propose to leave this City on the 14 as your father wishes me to travel in the Carriage I shall...
As Mr. & Mrs. Johnson intend leaving us this evening I write you a few lines to assure you of our health and that of the charming family with whom we now are. Caroline and her children are quite well and happy and gave us the cheering welcome of an old and affectionate friend— The situation of Mrs. de Wirts house is beautiful but you have heard too much of it to need any description from me....
Being better to day my dear Charles I hasten to write to you fearful if I delay that a Chill and another attack of fever should prevent me and deprive you of hearing how George comes on—We are at present very anxious on account of a violent spasmodic affection of the muscles which are very considerably contracted and make it impossible to straighten the arm—he moves the fingers but cannot hold...
65From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 19 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
To say how much I was affected at not seeing you the day I left Boston would indeed be impossible as I supposed it was owing to the Woman’s having said we were at dinner that made you leave the house so suddenly and I could not bear the idea of your being refused admittance—I thank you very much for your very affectionate Letters which gave me the greatest pleasure and arrived so as to make me...
66From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 12 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
It is now I suppose nearly a vacation time with you and you will take your flight to Quincy for a fortnight where you will no doubt enjoy yourself very much in the Society of your indulgent Grandfather and the family— Do tell me are there any hopes of Mrs. Clark’s forming a second connection—Beware of getting entangled in a quarrel with her during the vacation no matter from what cause or...
I was delighted with your Letter and was only sorry you did not mention your health, which I understand has been very indifferent, and which causes me the most serious anxiety: write me I entreat you and beg your good friend Harriet, to write me what your complaint has been, and if you have any cough, I wish you to take the yolk of a new laid egg alone in a spoon every morning when you first...
I was much pleased with the flow of good spirits which your last Letter indicated my Dear George more particularly as I considered it a strong evidence of returning health which I hope will now be substantially confirmed— That you will make a good Soldier if you aim at distinction in that line I have no doubt—but the Company into which you have entered is much more famed for dissipation than...
I yesterday wrote to you in answer to your Letter and as I suppose it will be agreeable to you to hear from the family frequently I write again to day— Last night there was a Town meeting called in honour of your fathers memory which was immesely crowded and at which Mr. Rush and Governor Barber distinguished themselves very handsomely—It was the wish of these Gentlemen to combine the events...
I do not recollect whether I answered your last Letter my memory not being remarkably good and keeping no account of dates but I rather think I did not in consequence of your father having undertaken it. I thank you for your attention in sending me the North American Review but your father has it at the Office now, so that it will not be worth your while to take that trouble any longer You...
We arrived here yesterday morning after a rapid tho’ not remarkably pleasant journey from French Town at ten o’clock and by dint of absolute starving my brother accomplished his journey but in a state of complete exhaustion— We immediately sent for Dr. Physick who finds his case a dreadful one, though we trust not hopeless—His decision was prompt as to the necessity of a painful operation; but...
We propose leaving this place tomorrow my dear Madam and expect to arrive at Quincy either Sunday or Monday you must prepare to find us all much altered since we last saw you and I have lost all my good looks and all my flesh on the voyage in consequence of a bad miscarriage at Sea added to the usual inconveniences attending the passage I am however past recovering my health and strength and...
Mrs: Cruft has arrived here and it is with much pleasure I observe she has derived benefit from her journey—Her looks are very promising but in her complaint it is difficult to ascertain her real state through so treacherous as in her a medium; as in her complaints good looks are acknowledged to be false guides and frequently delude us into hope when in reality hope ought to be the least...
74From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 10 April 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have been so unwell the whole of this week my dear John, it has not been in my power to answer your Letter as soon as I wished—I observe all you say, and only answer that when you read Books worthy of remarks I will write you as fully as I do Charles who almost always gives me a subject—The Children of the Abbey, is a pretty thing, excessively romantic, but not calculated by any means to...
75From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 18 August 1820 (Adams Papers)
As I have already said every thing on the subject of your last which was necessary I will only make one observation which is that reputation is always proved by actions and the less we say about generally the better we guard it and preserve it— You are now verging on the Vacation. Are you likely to have a brilliant Commencement? who are the graduates of Note?—Who makes an entertainment?—. We...
I am rejoiced my Dear Charles to learn that your journey was so pleasant and that the little accident you met with was soon repaired so much to your satisfaction— That you must be very busy I am well aware but the division of your time will render all your occupations easy and I hope your health of which you now complain will soon be entirely restored— I am much better than I was and intend if...
77To John Adams from Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 14 April 1819 (Adams Papers)
It is always painful to be the bearer of bad tidings and yet it is a duty from which we cannot fly.—I have occasionally mentioned the dreadful state in which Lieut’ Clark has laid; that you might be prepared for that change, which was to release him from a world of suffering to a state of bliss—He terminated his life at eight o clock this morning after the most dreadful sufferings, but...
I am very sorry to learn from your Letter to Charles my dear George that you had hurt your eye. I have certainly been suffering from sympathy for I never had such an inflamation in my eyes before in my life— We are again expecting the good General to take up his abode with us until his departure for France which I confess I shall hail with joy—I admire the old gentleman but no admiration can...
I am so uneasy about your state of health my dear George that I beg and entreat you to write me very particularly what is the matter with you—Is it the cough that still affects you if it is I entreat you to come on to me immediately here and stay one Month as it would certainly be advantageous to you to quit Boston at this season which is the worst in the year—I am very serious and shall be...
What sort of a Letter was your last and how is it to be answered? to be angry with you is impossible to sympathize with you equally so, and to pity you is showing a degree of contempt for your understanding mortifying to your feelings and wounding to my own. Are you aware that you sent your Letter to the Post without a wafer and that it arrived in that state at your fathers office? do not my...