I have just received your favor of the 20th of Jan. & am sensibly touched with the remembrance of our learned & ingenious friend whom I saw at the red Lyon in Leyden I thank you for his poems. Whether you will find purchasers for the edition of his juvenile poems you meditate I cannot say. My Countrymen I fear do not sufficiently attend to Greek & Latin after they leave College, perhaps not...
I had last night your letter of the 12th. the friendly Sentiments of which have tenderly affected me. The Affliction in my family from the melancholly death of a once beloved Son, has been very great, and has required the Consolations of Religion as well as Phylosophy to enable Us to Support it. The Perspects of that unfortunate youth were once pleasing and promising: but have been cutt off...
I have recd your favour of the 13th and thank you for your Zeal for the honor of my “Defence”. That Work which was begun on the 4 of October 1786 and finished on the 26 of December 1787 was written in haste. It was not the fruit of twenty Years Labour like Montesquieus & Gibbons and as it was written in haste may be supposed to have marks enough of Inaccuracy. I am not yet sensible of any...
I have received your favor of the 13th and thank you for your zeal for the honor of my “defence”. That work, which was begun on the 4th of October 1786 & finished on the 26th of December 1787, was written in haste. It was not the fruit of twenty years labor, like Montesquieu’s & Gibbon’s, and as it was written in haste, may be supposed to have marks enough of inaccuracy. I am not yet sensible...
I last night recd your favour of the 19 Dec, it Should be I presume 19 Jan. The Compliments you make me on this new year, are very flattering to the Vanity of an old Man: but there is one very wicked one among them, I mean when you insinuate that intriguing Individuals, when I am no more, will join in my Eulogies to defame my Successor . When it happens if I know it I shall laugh in my grave,...
6From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 12 March 1800 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favor of 24th Ult. I return the letter with the oration, because they are inseperably connected. I think the latter worth printing, at least as much so, as many others on the same occasion. I return it to you to save you the trouble of again transcribing it. Since you insist upon it, I am willing to think myself young, as long as the admonitions to the contrary are not too...