Some how or other By some mistake I think I misdated my last Letter to you and it is only to day that I discover’d it. Had yours last of the 23d of Septr. not been accompanied by one from Mrs. Smith I should have been extremely uneasy, at the great depression of Spirits under which you appear to labour. The melancholy situation of our Country, warrants almost any degree of apprehension, and we...
No 39 arrived in due time and I have for some time been perpetually satisfied with the Post Office I hope however that we shall not long stand in need of their civilities as I am rather impatient to have you home the rappid approach of winter encreases my impatience and as the event of this negociation appears to be still unfavorable I cannot help feeling fretful and half angry at the delay...
The surprize and sorrow I felt at the receipt of your last letter cannot be expressed and I felt my exile even more than I had ever done before you will I know be displeased at my thus writing but I cannot help it and the bad news which is continually arriving makes me too unhappy to attempt to conceal my feelings. Tell Boyd how very very much I regret not seeing him the disappointment I met...
I received your kind letter of the 30 of September in due time and although it confirmed the bad news which had flown to us here from every quarter it contributed much to console me and the revived hopes which have been created by this very calamity have nearly restored me to health though not to spirits our good friend L. is all of a sudden become so sanguine as to the affairs of America that...
Although Mr. H.—has informed me that the Congress is dissolved, still I persevere in writing, as it is easy to have my letters returned in case you should have left Ghent.What is pretended to be the terms on which great Britain will treat, was yesterday published in the Conservateur, if there is any truth in this, it needs no Comment The Emperor will not return here untill the end of December...
Bad news still keeps pouring on us and your prophecies are too fatally accomplished It is to day announced in the Papers that we have lost Fort Erie that Chauncey is driven back to Sackets Harbour and that Sir James Prevost with a large force was preparing to attack it the great Ship was launched and they had complete command of the Lake another of our Frigates was destroyed the Adams &c &c—...
Your Letters arrive so regularly that it is scarcely necessary to acknowledge the receipt of them. by your last I find you have at last been obliged to sacrifice your opinion to the majority, and I pray to Heaven good consequences may result from it—The news which we are continually recieving makes it of little consequence, but it appears to me, that they there would be less dis-grace in...
My last letter mentioned some good news which I had heard from America I thank God this has been confirm’d and a great deal beside which I had neither thought’s or hopes of I was in expation of your last Letter’s being filled with the particulars but the date from London was precisely the same and you could not recieve it untill two days later your next will however contain all this news and...
You cannot think how much I was disappointed in your last last Letter when I open’d it I was in the full expectation of reading all the good news which we had recieved here at least 4 days before instead of which I found nothing but a melancholy detail of all the suffering and disgrace which had befallen us I hope you had heard the news more in detail when you dined with the Ministers and that...
70From Charles Francis Adams to John Quincy Adams, 18 November 1814 (Adams Papers)
By some accident my letter was too late for the last Post I therefore only send you this letter of Charles’s with assurances of our mutual affection— Dear Papa St Petersburg Novbr: 18th: 1814 I am quite a Soldier since Mrs: Betancourt made me a present of a Gun, and I exercise every day. Mama has got a new Servant who has been a Solider, and he drills me; it is a real gun, and George Krehmer...