What! a letter from George I cried when your father put your last epistle in my hand yesterday afternoon? I was surprized for I thought that you ceased to wish to keep up any thing like friendly intercourse with your family and to feel that I was not altogether forgotten in the solitude of my chamber did occasion my heart to spring with joy. I am delighted to observe by the tone of your Letter...
According to my promise I write to you again altho’ I do not feel quite sure that you will have time to read my Letters or that they will be more acceptable than the nonsensical scraps of poetry which I used to plague you with last Summer generally by the advice of Charles—but as that mania appears to be over I shall only write you short occasional Letters to let you know how we go on altho’...
Thank you my Dear George for your Letter and the Farce which arrived safely the day before yesterday and which I should have answered yesterday had I not been again confined to my chamber by a return of my Fever and many of the inflamatory symtoms which attended my illness in Boston—I was taken ill the day after I wrote to Hariet and went out too soon which occasioned a return of the Fever...
You I presume have been so deeply plunged in business that the sudden arrival of your father must have caused you even more joy than common as it in a great measure delivers you from a very responsible and delicate situation—It is however singular that none of the family have written a single word since the death of your Grandfather and that we appear to be cut of from all communication— Every...
Your Letter with that of Hariet Welsh was received by me a few hours after your father and John had left the City on their way to Boston—with the vain hope as it has proved of still being in time to receive the last blessing of your truly venerated Grandfather—Heaven has ordained otherwise and we must bow submissively to its all wise but inscrutable decrees and in gratitude raise our hearts in...
I am very glad my Dear George find by your Letter which is just received that you are better and if possible still more pleased to learn that you are likely to become very busy as I believe this is the only means to keep you in health— I regret very much not to see you as any journey to the North appears very doubtful this Summer and I am sorry to see your account of your Grandfathers state—It...
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...
I enclose you some lines I wrote if you like you may publish them but do not say whose they are and sign them L. We are all well but I am to lazy to write Tell Mrs. Adams I think if she could find an opportunity to send Abby on here it would do her good and give me pleasure—I like your lines on Mrs Marston very much The prize excellent— Yours ever MHi : Adams Papers.
I have deferred answering your Letter my Dear George in the hope of obtaining the Reviews you mention but have not been able to procure them—Of Mr. Channings I have not much to say excepting that the stile is like that of a gentle Turtle dove wooing with melay. but eloquently persuasive accent those who differ with him in religious opinions; but without reasoning so as to produce conviction—It...
As I have not received a Letter from you I cannot pretend to answer one but I will write notwithstanding altho’ I have nothing to say no not even nonsence. a great art by the by I believe infinitely more difficult than to write mere prosy common sense.— To tell you how we go on here would be almost impossible. more especially in the great Councils of the Nation Whisper’d rumours however...
Why you should have thought that I was offended my dear George I cannot imagine as I have never had an idea of the kind but I believe that the state of my health and the constant irritation of the nervous system has so soured my temper I am now always crass and unpleasant to myself and to everybody else.—Mr. Quincy has left us after a short visit in which we endeavoured to obtain his company...
It is some time my dear George since I wrote but much sickness and trouble have kept my mind in a state of anxiety which has prevented my answering your last which was most kind and affectionate—Our pore coachman John Cook was found dead in his bed last week and left us a prey to surmizes and conjectures as to the causes of his decease which can never be satisfied— I had got thus far when your...
I cannot suffer the day to pass my dear George without offering you the best wishes of your Mother on the return of the day which generally calls forth the good natured gratulations of our friends. May the ensuing year prove auspicious my beloved Son and ensure to you all the happiness you can desire pure unmixed and if possible without alloy.—As you are now the only one of the family who are...
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...
As you are determined not to write to your Mother or in any way to continue an intercourse always yielding her so much pleasure I shall only send you some very indifferent lines written to accompany the portrait now in the hands of Stewart— We are all well and only want your company to make us quite happy—Charles say’s you are the fortunate one of the family all the rest will be ruined— Accept...
We have arrived safe after a very tedious and on the whole disagreeable journey as the state of my health tho’ much improved still makes me a burthen to all I most love in the world and I fear there is little prospect of a change for the better—There is something in this great unsocial house which depresses my spirits beyond expression and makes it impossible for me to feel at home or to fancy...
In the course of my ride from New Brunswick yesterday my Dear George the wish you expressed for something like a translation or imitation of the Lines I wrote in french and I dictated to Elizabeth while she wrote the very indifferent lines which follow—One verse is added and I beg you to alter or correct as you please—I know they are not good but they in a great degree convey the ideas...
You will be quite worn out my dear George with my would be poetic effusions; but as I told you in my last I know that the événemens de tout les jours are so well and so constantly sent to you by your brother, I have nothing left but to send you the singular scraps of my folly elicited occasionally by unlooked for circumstances On the departure of General Lafayette from our own house I felt...
As you know me to be an Amateur of the horrible incidents of human Tragedy if my Dear George you will not be surprized at receiving some lines written by me on a melancholy event which recently took place in the City—The Actors were in a middling class of society and the circumstance has died away like the poor miserable victims of passion with out eliciting a remark excepting from the levity...
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...
We suffer too much from the heat my Dear George not to make allowance for your purisse but I am very glad to see that at least it does not affect your spirits or that the lovely brides (for brides you know must always be lovely old or young) have not produced a marrying mania and set you to seek too hartily for that which neither time nor care can ensure in its perfection—In the selection you...
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...
Your Letter is this moment put into my hands my beloved Son, and I hasten to answer it, apologizing at the same time for a neglect which has been caused entirely by the dull sameness of our lives, and the utter impossibility of finding any subject on which to write. I guessed what your silence meant on the subject of my Letter , for I had like yourself cried out, what a falling off is here!...
We have been suffering so much from intense heat this Summer my dear George it has been impossible for me to attend to any thing like a regular correspondence and indeed our lives pass in such ar a routine of invariable sameness there is not wherewithal to furnish an anecdote for a Letter or a line to interest a reader— I yesterday received a melancholy Letter from Mr. Pope announcing the...
I was very happy to hear from you my dear George as I felt anxious on account of the great heat knowing you would be exposed to all the ferver of an intense Sun and am very glad to find that you have not suffered from it— You say so little concerning the brilliant display of which we are told so much in the papers, that I suppose you were in too enthusiastic admir a state of admiration to find...
As it is possible my dear George that you may hear a rumour that your father was drowned I hasten to write you a few lines to assure you that he is safe although he did run some risk this morning in one of his swimming expeditions. In crossing the river this morning in a small crazy boat in company with Anthony the boat filled with water and upset when about half over but he fortunately had...
I yesterday received your melancholy Letter my Dear George informing me of the low state of Mrs. Welshs health and the painful anticipation of the family of her speedy demise—I always had a high opinion of Mrs. Welsh since I had the pleasure of first making her acquaintance and have always been very sensible of her kindness to myself and my children—The external polish of life acquired by...
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...
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...
As I know you will be very anxious to hear from me my Dear George I hasten to write merely to inform you that my health though still very weak is much better and I am able to ride out— No change has yet taken place in our establishment and we have all the trouble of our removal still in anticipation but my chief concern is the disposal of our house which I fear will be attended with much...