1John Adams to Abigail Smith, 1762 – 1763 (Adams Papers)
I have taken the best Advice, on the subject of your Billet, and I find you cannot compell me to pay unless I refuse Marriage; which I never did, and never will, but on the Contrary am ready to have you at any Time. I hope Jemima’s Conscience has as good a Memory as mine. RC ( Adams Papers ); addressed: “To Miss —— Weymouth.” There is no clue to the precise date of this note, the “Billet” to...
2John Adams to Abigail Smith, 4 October 1762 (Adams Papers)
By the same Token that the Bearer hereof satt up with you last night I hereby order you to give him, as many Kisses, and as many Hours of your Company after 9 O’Clock as he shall please to Demand and charge them to my Account: This Order, or Requisition call it which you will is in Consideration of a similar order Upon Aurelia for the like favour, and I presume I have good Right to draw upon...
3John Adams to Abigail Smith, 14 February 1763 (Adams Papers)
Accidents are often more Friendly to us, than our own Prudence.—I intended to have been at Weymouth Yesterday, but a storm prevented.—Cruel, Yet perhaps blessed storm!—Cruel for detaining me from so much friendly, social Company, and perhaps blessed to you, or me or both, for keeping me at my Distance. For every experimental Phylosopher knows, that the steel and the Magnet or the Glass and...
4John Adams to Abigail Smith, 20 April 1763 (Adams Papers)
Love sweetens Life, and Life sometimes destroys Love. Beauty is desirable and Deformity detestible; Therefore Beauty is not Deformity nor Deformity, Beauty. Hope springs eternal in the human Breast, I hope to be happyer next Fall than I am at present, and this Hope makes me happyer now than I should be without it.—I am at Braintree but I wish I was at Weymouth! What strange Revolutions take...
5John Adams to Abigail Smith, August 1763 (Adams Papers)
Germantown is at a great Distance from Weymouth Meeting-House, you know; The No. of Yards indeed is not so prodigious, but the Rowing and Walking that lyes between is a great Discouragement to a weary Traveller. Could my Horse have helped me to Weymouth, Braintree would not have held me, last Night.—I lay, in the well known Chamber, and dreamed, I saw a Lady, tripping it over the Hills, on...
6Abigail Smith to John Adams, 11 August 1763 (Adams Papers)
If I was sure your absence to day was occasioned, by what it generally is, either to wait upon Company, or promote some good work, I freely confess my Mind would be much more at ease than at present it is. Yet this uneasiness does not arise from any apprehension of Slight or neglect, but a fear least you are indisposed, for that you said should be your only hindrance. Humanity obliges us to be...
7John Adams to Abigail Smith, 15 August 1763 (Adams Papers)
The Disappointment you mention was not intended, but quite accidental. A Gentleman, for whom I had much Esteem, Mr. Daniel Leonard of Norton, was so good as to offer to keep the sabbath with me at Braintree—a favour that would have been very agreable if it had not detained me from the most agreable of all Company, to me, in this world, and a favour that will I know be sufficient with you to...
8Abigail Smith to John Adams, 12 September 1763 (Adams Papers)
You was pleas’d to say that the receipt of a letter from your Diana always gave you pleasure. Whether this was designed for a complement, (a commodity I acknowledg that you very seldom deal in) or as a real truth, you best know. Yet if I was to judge of a certain persons Heart, by what upon the like occasion passess through a cabinet of my own, I should be apt to suspect it as a truth. And why...
9Abigail Smith to John Adams, 7 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
How do you now? For my part, I feel much easier than I did an hour ago, My Unkle haveing given me a more particuliar, and favorable account of the Small pox, or rather the operation of the preparation, than I have had before. He speaks greatly in favor of Dr. Perkins who has not, as he has heard lost one patient. He has had since he has been in Town frequent opportunities of visiting in the...
10John Adams to Abigail Smith, 7 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
For many Years past, I have not felt more serenely than I do this Evening. My Head is clear, and my Heart is at ease. Business of every Kind, I have banished from my Thoughts. My Room is prepared for a Seven Days’ Retirement, and my Plan is digested for 4 or 5 Weeks. My Brother retreats with me, to our preparatory Hospital, and is determined to keep me Company, through the Small Pox. Your...