1To John Adams from Abiel Holmes, 11 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Holmes, presenting his respects to President Adams, takes the liberty to ask of him an account of General Oglethorpe , and particularly of what passed between the general and him in the interviews when the President was in London after the Peace of 1783. Mr. Holmes has noticed in Boswell’s Life of Johnson mention made of a MS. Memoir of Oglethorpe, and does not despair of obtaining it. He...
2To John Adams from Abiel Holmes, 27 April 1820 (Adams Papers)
When I asked your acceptance of a copy of American Annals, I requested the favour of any strictures that might occur to you in the perusal. If you have made any remarks with your pen or pencil, may I permitted to see them? if you have not, I should still esteem it a great privilege to have your advice respecting any improvements, of which I may avail myself in a future edition. To solicit what...
3To Thomas Jefferson from Abiel Holmes, 18 October 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Knowing your taste for history, I take the liberty to offer you one or two historical tracts, composed for the Historical Society, and published in their Collections . I have, for several years, been collecting and arranging materials for a Chronological History of America, and have, at length, ventured to offer Proposals for publishing a work, under the title of American Annals . It will be...
4To Thomas Jefferson from Abiel Holmes, 30 January 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
I feel greatly obliged by the attention you were pleased to bestow on the subject, on which I used the freedom to address you. In the republic of Letters mere hints of information or advice are often of inestimable value. All the books, mentioned in your Letter , I have access to, excepting Memoires de l’Amerique, and The American and British Chronicle. For the former of these I have made much...
5To Thomas Jefferson from Abiel Holmes, 17 March 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
By the encouragement and aid you were pleased to give me in preparing the American Annals for publication, I am emboldened to ask your advice in reference to another edition, which I am preparing for the press. One of the English Reviews, while, with other foreign Journals, sufficiently honouring the works with its commendation, suggests, that it had better have begun with the English...
6To Thomas Jefferson from Abiel Holmes, 20 May 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I acknowledge, with grateful respect, your favour of 9 March, and the renewal of your very obliging offer of the loan of books, in aid of the completion of American Annals. In the hope of procuring a copy of the Memoires de l’Amerique without putting you to the trouble of sending your’s to so remote a distance, I have been making diligent search for that work since the receipt of your letter,...
7To Thomas Jefferson from Abiel Holmes, 15 December 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I now return to you by mail the American and British Chronicle, which you were so obliging as to lend me; and beg you to accept my very grateful acknowledgments for the loan of it. The expectation of a different conveyance induced me to detain it somewhat longer than I actually wanted it; and I shall much regret it, if the detention has occasioned you the smallest inconvenience. The Memoires d...
8To Thomas Jefferson from Abiel Holmes, 5 May 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Holmes presents his respects to President Jefferson, and gratefully acknowledges the reception of the Memoires de l’Amerique, which he was so obliging as to forward to him from Washington. Although Mr. Holmes has completed his Annals, he is desirous of examining the Memoires with care, and therefore begs the indulgence of the loan of them for a few months. After the examination of them, he...
9To Thomas Jefferson from Abiel Holmes, 9 November 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I now return to you the Memoires de l’Amerique , which you did me the honour to send me in aid of my compilation of American Annals. Although the books arrived too late for the purpose for which you most obligingly intended them, I could not forbear to examine so important a collection of authentic and official documents, pertaining to the history of our country. On examination, these appeared...