271From John Adams to James Williams, 5 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
I had the honour, this morning to receive your favour from New York of the 30th of November. At the same time I had the pleasure to receive two small pacquets of letters from London; I thank you Sir for your kind care of these letters, and congratulate you on your safe return to this Country. I am Sir respectfully, your obliged & obedient Servant MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
272From John Adams to Jedidiah Morse, 2 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
If I ever comply with your request, I must make haste, & employ the few intervals of light which my eyes afford me. Where is the man to be found, at this day, when we see Methodistical Bishops, Bishops of the Church of England, & Bishops, Archbishops, & Jesuits of the Church of Rome, with indifference; who will beleive, that the apprehension of Episcopacy, contributed 50 years ago, as much as...
273To John Adams from Jedidiah Morse, 2 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
I am confined to my house with the epidemic cold—& much enfeebled by it. I cannot refrain, however, just thanking you for your two last very valuable letters—to me, with my views, peculiarly valuable—The No. of Histories published & in contemplation, of this country, & of our war, is no discouragement to me—as the one whh I contemplate is to be of a different character from either of them—it...
274From John Adams to Jedidiah Morse, 29 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
There are thirty or forty Histories of the American Revolution and consequent War now upon the Stocks and ready to be launched, as soon as the Weather and the tide will permit. The Chevalier Botta, an Italian Knight has already written one, which is Said to be the best that ever had appeared. Mr Mackean and Mr Pollard have written two others. Mr Randolph of Virginia has left one Soon to be...
275From John Adams to James Maury, 28 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
It is a long time, that I have owed you many thanks, for your civil attention in sending me packets of Newspapers. I should have endeavoured, to return your compliments in the same way, if my retired situation in the Country had not made it impossible for me to convey our news to you, so soon as you must receive them from many other parts of America. And indeed after all, our papers, contain...
276From Abigail Smith Adams to John Adams, 28 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of Sep’br th 11 came safe to hand, and I was well pleasd With the account you give me of your pursuits. if you give proper attention to each department of your Studies, You cannot Spend much Idle time.—you have improved in your hand writing, and in your composition. Your Mother writes me that you learn fast. I know that you have a capacity to acquire what ever with dilligence you...
277From John Adams to Thomas McKean, 26 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 20th revives me. A Brother Octogenarian who can write with Such vigour of hand and mind, excites a kind of Emulation even in these old Veins. A History of the first War of The United States, is a very different thing from an History of The American Revolution. I have Seen in France a military History of France during the Reign of Louis the 14th. by the Marquis of Quincy....
278To John Adams from Charles Francis Adams, 26 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
All the things are arrived from Russia among them are a great many of my books Berquin, Lafontaine, & Boisards fables Conte ama fille, French Bible six or 7—English Grammars a German Book and an arithmetic book. The arithmetic book has got a nail driven through it. I am very happy to see the boys play at School and I in the middle of them but I only play in my play hours so I only have 3 ac :...
279To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 25 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
I will not delaÿ to answer your favour of the 10th, with which I was again gratified—I was apprehensive that all was not well in your honoured family—and feared that the disagreable weather of cold and rainÿ days had Some influence on your health—happily it giveth only colds—of these we had a full Share—and—I—as it ought to be, as the chief of the family, the largest—but—if we minded long Such...
280To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 24 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Col. Aspinwall who arrived here a few days since, and delivered to me your two kind favours of October 13th informs me that he had the pleasure of seeing you at that time and that you were then suffering with an inflamation of the eyes. Nearly at the same time my own eyes which have long been very weak were afflicted with so violent an inflamation as to threaten little less than a total...
281From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 22 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the Memoirs of Doctor Price. Though there is little in this Work which was new to me, except the Calvinism of the Doctors Father and Uncle. Yet I love to run over again the Passages of a Life which I esteemed and loved as one of the wisest and most benevolent of the human Race. I Shall not review this Pamphlet, and have nothing to Say in praise or censure of it, except that...
282From John Adams to William Stephens Smith, 21 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your for two Letters from the Valley; one dated October 4th. the other November the first, 1815. The Documents to which you refer are of so much Importance to your Reputation and to mine, that I wish you would depose it, the Sketch you have made of them, somewhere in print. It is at my Age impossible for me to look up the Scattered Volumes in which they are to be found and my...
283From John Adams to Jedidiah Morse, 20 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
The Pamphlet I lent you and the Letters from Governor Mackean you may retain for the time you mention. The Pamphlet I would give you, if I had or could procure another. The rise and progress of that pamphlet is this. On my return form Phyladelphia in November 1774, I found that Mrs Drapers Massachusetts Gazette had been long pouring forth torrents of scurrility against the Whigs, and dreadful...
284To John Adams from Thomas McKean, 20 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
I can now answer the questions in your favor of the 30th. July last, viz. Who shall write the history of the American Revolution &c.? Major General James Wilkinson has written it. He commences with the battle of Bunker’s or Breed’s hill at Boston and concludes with the battle near New-Orleans on the Missisippi, a period of forty years. It will be published in three volumes large octavo, each...
285From John Adams to David Sewall, 19 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged to you for your favour of the 10th. Your political sentiments, so far as you disclose them, are so nearly my own, that I shall have no controversy with you, upon these Topics. Your account of connections between the Quincy’s Sewall’s and Hull’s is very entertaining to me, and agrees very well, with all I have heard, or known of the subject. Mr Hull who made and executed the...
286From John Adams to John Adams, 18 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
I am charmed with the Chirography of your Letter of the Eleventh of September to your Grandmother. If your proficiency in your other Studies is in proportion to your improvement in your hand writing you will soon be a first rate Scholar. Your Account of the Accademy at Ealing is quite Satisfactory. If under Such Masters pursuing Such Studies and Exercises, with Such Companions, you do not lay...
287From John Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 17 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your beautiful letter of Sept 11th has given me great pleasure. You are at a very respectable Academy, and have all the means, & advantages for instruction that I could wish for you. You must have made a rapid progress, in your Nomenclature, if in so short a time, you can distinguish the faces, and call the names of 140 out of 275 of your fellow Students I wish I could have the benefit and...
288From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 17 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have received your pleasing letter of Sept. 12. Your Situation is indeed delightful: But I hope you think more of the Musick of the Swan of Thames, than of the house of Dr Todd or the Miss Porters. Twickenham and Chiswick deserve your respect. Richmond Hill is familiar to me. There I visited Governor Pounall and Mr Richard Penn. M.P. I rambled about the place and Saw its beauties. But I...
289To John Adams from Jedidiah Morse, 15 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
I acknowledge my fault this day. I have two of your valued letters, of Sep. 11th. & Nov. 2d. now before me unanswered. My absence a part of the time, since they were recd. & continual & very pressing engagements the rest of the time, have occasioned the delay. The enclosures in yours of the 11th. of Sept. were to me very interesting & acceptable. I am extracting from them the information...
290From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 13 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
The fundamental Article of my political Creed is, that Despotism, or unlimited Sovereignty, or absolute Power is the same in a Majority of a popular Assembly, and Aristocratical Counsel, an Oligarchical Junto and a Single Emperor. Equally arbitrary cruel bloody and in every respect, diabolical. Accordingly arbitrary Power, wherever it has resided, has never failed to destroy all the records...
291John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 13 November 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
The fundamental Article of my political Creed is, that Despotism, or unlimited Sovereignty, or absolute Power is the Same in a Majority of a popular Assembly, an Aristocratical Counsel, an Oligarchical Junto and a Single Emperor. Equally arbitrary cruel bloody and in every respect, diabolical. Accordingly arbitrary Power, wherever it has resided, has never failed to destroy all the records...
292From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 12 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Every one of your letters has given me great pleasure, and none more than No. 6. Aug. 15 just received. I am much pleased with the progress of your studies especially in the language of the Muses. When you are Master of the Greek all other Tongues Arts and Sciences you may want, will be easily in your power. You ought also to bestow Some of your attention upon Numbers and Figures as well as...
293From John Adams to Richard Rush, 11 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
To your studies in Jurisprudence, I wish all the success, which you can possibly wish for yourself; but you must collect yourself & remember that Intemperance in the pursuit of knowledge, is not less dangerous than in that of pleasure. Your favour of the third has afforded me much amusement, though a dozen years ago & more I was convinced that mr Cooper was a man of talents and Science; yet at...
294From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 10 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
May your anticipations of another Visit to Quincy be reallised! Much good may your Theological Studies do you! I have been reading an Abridgment of Scheffmachers Demonstration of the necessity of a Sovereign Judge of the Faith upon Earth from the Doctrine of the Trinity. He Says the New Testament flatly contradicts itself: affirming with equal perspicuity and Energy that J. C. is, and that he...
295To John Adams from David Sewall, 10 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
I was much gratified with the reception of yours of Novr. 4th. Current And if it were in my power to communicate the Strength of Nerve, Which by the indulgence of Providence I am permitted to enjoy, It would spedily and with great pleasure be afforded.—I now & then peruse the last Chapr. of Ecclesiastes—which is supposed, a description of Persons in advanced periods of life—some of Which, such...
296To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 9 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Musing on Molière, the last precious gift of de Gyzelaer, which I received this summer, I was as usual diverted from him to you, recollecting your kindness. My own health is improved, my old enemy raps only now and then a lady’s knock at the door; though I am not always permitted to say not at home, our pour parler does not last long. I shall go to-night to make a party of Quadrille with my...
297From John Adams to John Peter De Windt, 8 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
your delightful letter of the 31st of October, has made us all happy, and seems to be a sensible gratification to the whole village. I congratulate you and our dear Caroline, your mother & your whole family on this joyful Event. I am not enough of an Astrologer to conjecture by what conjunction of the planets it happened the child was born on your birth day and on mine. When she shall be...
298To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 7 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Musing on Moliere—the last precious gift of de Gyselaer which I received this Summer—and for which mÿ warmest thanks never reached him, I was as usually diverted from Him to you recollecting—how often—and in how various manner you have been pleased to bestow your kindnesses upon me—and then—it was natural, that I looked for the accomplishment of Some of your intentions to oblige me—and the...
299From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 7 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Can you give me any Account of a Translation of the New Testament with notes made by Beausobre and L’Enfant: and Beausobres History of Manicheism of the Adamites of Bohemia, of the Paulicians, of the Waldenses, and Albigenses, of the Brothers of Bohemia &c. in Holland probably they might be purchased cheap; perhaps in London. The Characters of Beausobre and L’Enfant are so eminent in...
300To John Adams from Thomas Marston, 6 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Agreeably to your request, I send you the names of those gentlemen who visited you last saturday. An advertisement has been inserted in our daily paper, expressing a want of certain political essays signed Massachusettensis , and the answer by the Honble John Adams. As I know you do not take the Daily Advertiser, I have mentioned it for your information. They were written in 1774—Very...