1To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 5 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am, indeed, gratified by the receipt of your letter of the 27th ulto. The approbation of those we ourselves reverence for their virtues, is, perhaps, the sweetest reward for our efforts to be useful. Only eleven volumes of the Weekly Register are yet finished. These may be forwarded, if you please, immediately to Boston, & can be easily sent to you, through Mr. Dawes; or by my agent there,...
2To John Adams from Harrison Gray Otis, 5 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have the satisfaction to inform you that John Quincy Adams Esq. was this morning nominated Secretary of State, and forthwith agreed to, in Senate, with only one dissenting vote—Mr Crawford continues in the Treasury and Gov Shelby is appointed Secy of War;—Mrs: Otis unites with me in respects to Mrs. Adams and yourself, and hope you have experienced no material inconvenience from the rigour...
3From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 8 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
“Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity!” The French have a distinction, between Eulogy and Apology. I know not under which of these heads to class, the following anecdote. Governor Hutchinson, in the plenitude of his Vanity and self sufficiency, thought he could convince all America and all Europe, that the Parliament of Great Britain had an authority supreme, sovereign, absolute and...
4To John Adams from Charles Cushing, 10 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
To my very great surprise and mortification, I saw in the daily Advertizer a week or ten days since, letters written by you in early life to my Father, and how they ever got abroad or published is wholly a mystery to me, and to our Family; I recollect to have seen them some twelve or fifteen years since, & then they were in a trunk of my father’s, with other private papers, that trunk was in...
5From John Adams to Charles Cushing, 13 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
Though the publication of my juvenile Letters to your Father, especially in a Nantucket Gazette is a riddle, a mystery beyon d all comprehension; yet as it was impossible for me to Suspect any unkindness in your Family, the friendly Apology in your Letter of the eleventh of this month was unnecessary, though highly gratifying to m e The Letters, while they have afforded some amusement to my...
6From John Adams to Hezekiah Niles, 14 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am obliged to you for your favour of the 5th. the eleven volumes of your Register, shall be paid to your order in Boston or Baltimore as you please, as soon as I receive, or know where they are in Boston. The 12th & 13th shall be paid for in the same manner Of the destination of my Son I know nothing but by rumour, Whatever may be the determination of government I shall acquire. it is the...
7From John Adams to Harrison Gray Otis, 16 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
The information you gave me in your favour of the fifth of this month; for which I kindly thank you, has given me great pleasure, as it affords me a hope of once more embracing my Son. I feel a curiosity to know, the “dissenting Voice”; because a Singular Vote, against a multitude, I am always inclined to consider as a violent presumption; both of Integrity, and Fortitude. As I never had the...
8From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 17 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
Have you read certain Strictures upon Painters and Paintings in the Newspapers? What do you think of them? I am pleased with his gratitude to Copeley, but I believe he was not perfect Master of Copeleys Merit. There is a Portrait of Justice Dana in his Robebands and Tie Wigg of a Barrister at Law, now no doubt in possesion of his Descendants. There is a full Length Portrait of Governor Adams,...
9From John Adams to John Trumbull, 18 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favour of the 3d. and congratulate you on your success; which I hope and believe will be an honourable and a noble Establishment, though it may not be so lucrative as I wish it, for Life There is a coincidence of circumstances which affects me very sensibly. A son of Governor Trumbull so meritorious and so conspicuous a character in the Revolution; an Officer of Rank and...
10From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
Can you prescribe rules for painting, a perception? A reminiscens,? a judgment? a ratiocination? Do you think there will ever arise an original Genius who will invent an Art of painting a debate in a Boston Town Meeting, or an Argument at the Bar? It would not be a Wonder, equal to your Jennerian Inoculation! If Such a Phenominon Should appear, I have a Subject to propose to him. The local...
11From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
The great question was “Whether Writs of Assistants, were legal, or illegal; constitutional or unconstitutional”? “Writs of Assistants”! You will indignantly say. “What are Writs of Assistants”? “I understand no more about Writs of Assistants, than about ‘ The great question ’.” I believe you; and will endeavour to give you Some hints. When the British Ministry received from general Amherst...
12To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 25 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I set out the first of next week on the journey to the South in execution of a State commission to examine the various penitentiaries. I have a desire to visit Washington if time will permit, and will certainly attempt to get there if my brother in law Captain Stewart will accompany me from Philadelphia as he has proposed—I knew Mr Monroe in England, and I may perhaps say he honored me with a...
13To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 26 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am, indeed, gratified by the receipt of your letter of the 27th ulto. The approbation of those we ourselves reverence for their virtues, is, perhaps, the sweetest reward for our efforts to be useful. Only eleven volumes of the Weekly Register are yet finished. These may be forwarded, if you please, immediately to Boston, & can be easily sent to you, through Mr. Dawes, or by my agent there,...
14From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 29 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
Is your daughter, Mrs Stewart, who I am credibly informed is one of the most accomplished Ladies, a Painter? Are you acquainted with Miss Lydia Smith, who I am also credibly informed is one of he most accomplished Ladies and a Painter? Do you know Mr. Sargent? Do you correspond with your old companion in Arms Colo. John Trumbull? Do you think Fisher will be an historical Painter? Whenever you...
15To John Adams from Joseph Delaplaine, 3 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have received, within a few days, your portrait, painted by Mr. Morse for me.— I have already informed you that I received an anonymous letter from a lady without date or place of residence, but bearing the Boston postmark, requesting me in urgent terms not to use the portrait for an engraving. Before the portrait arrived, I heard, through various channels, from persons of Boston, that the...
16From John Adams to Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, Baronne [de] Staël-Holstein, 8 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
Like other Sinners about to commit an indiscretion I study excuses to quiet my own conscience. My constant veneration for the characters of your father & mother—The respect I feel for the memory of the Baron de Stael who favoured me, my, consort and daughter—with particular marks of his friendly attention, your obliging politeness to my son in Petersburg and Paris—And above all the delight I...
17To John Adams from Leslie Combs, 8 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have taken the liberty to send you by mail two books—Kentucky Productions, for your perusal and thro you to be presented to the “ Boston Atheneum ”— “The philosophy of the human mind,” is thought by some to possessess merit— “The History of the late war in the North West” contains a correct detail of facts & may give some idea of the true Indian character & manners—The distinction which it...
18To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 8 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I do rejoice that “I have brought out the old gentleman”, & the Public would rejoice with me were they in Possession of all my Letters from Quincy since the 4th. of November last, especially of the two last. There are in the Details of this confidential Correspondence such Traits & Detections of Character, as could not have found their Way into the public Papers of the Day they refer to, &...
19From John Adams to Albert Gallatin, 11 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
Give me leave to introduce to you, Mr Theodore Lyman junior, a young Gentleman of Education and Travel of modest and virtuous Character, ardent in pursuit of Science and Letters. His Father is respectable in fortune and Connections. Mr Lyman I presume wishes to be acquainted with the Litterateurs as well as to See The King and The Court. He can give you all Our American News, much better than...
20From John Adams to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 11 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
Mr Paudlin, transmitted your kind introductory Letter to me from New York, and I presume went to the Southward. Whenever he comes to the Northward I Shall be very glad to receive him. An Architect I am Sure is wanted at Washington. Mr Theodore Lyman junior, Son of a Gentleman of Fortune and Consideration in Boston, will have the Honour to bear this Letter. His Manners are as modest as his...
21From John Adams to Eliv Ripley, 14 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am greatly obliged to you for your kind letter of the 10th. of Feb’y, & you cannot be more sensible deeply impressed, than I am with a sense of the great importance of its contents. New England could never be said to have a commanding influence in the counsels of the Union. In times when she has been constantly obliged to make many concessions beyond the bounds of justice to herself, to the...
22From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 15 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have received your obliging favour of the 8th. but cannot consent to your resolution to ask no more questions. Your questions revive my sluggish memory—. Since our national Legislature have established a national Painter, a wise measure for which I thank them, my imagination runs upon the art & has already painted I know not how many historical pictures. I have sent you one give me leave to...
23From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
My loving and beloved Friend, Pickering, has been pleased to inform the World that I have “few Friends.” I wanted to whip the rogue, and I had it in my Power, if it had been in my Will to do it, till the blood came. But all my real Friends as I thought them, with Dexter and Gray at their Head insisted “that I Should not Say a Word.” “That nothing that Such a Person could write would do me the...
24From John Adams to James Madison, 22 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
As I can make no Apology for so long forgetting to return the volumes inclosed, I must, without qualification beg your pardon. This Work, tho’ it bears the name of Condorcet alone was understood to be written in concert between him and his great Patron, the Duke de la Rochefaucoult, as well as the “New Heaven,” and several other publications in favour of a Government in one center genuine...
25From John Adams to Price Greenleaf, 26 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your kind Letter which is received; and for the delicious present which is arrived, and will soon be received.— As every Specimen of improvement in Agriculture and Manufactures, gives me pleasure, the Cultivation of the Cane, is peculiarly delightfull to me.— You Southern Gentlemen have so many advantages over us, that I fear, our good old Mother, New England will be totally...
26From John Adams to Richard Sharp, 27 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
Mr Theodore Lyman Junr. a Gentleman of a Studious, inquisitive and irreproachable Character, is ardently desirous of seeing Gentlemen of Letters in England. The few, that I had the pleasure to know, excepting One or two, have departed to a World where I hope there are neither Politicks or Wars.— By the information I have received from my Son and Grandson of your remembrance of me, I am...
27From John Adams to Hezekiah Niles, 28 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have received eleven Volumes of your Register, well bound and in good order, for which I have paid 41.D 75C to Mr Ballard, (according to your order,) and I thank you for the promptitude with which you have obliged me. “Vive la bagatelle” The light Sketch inclosed, is at this day of no value: not even an object of Curiosity, except on account of the critical moment in which it was crayoned,...
28To John Adams from Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 28 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I Most affectionately partake in the Gratification You are going to derive from the Arrival of Mr and Mrs Quincy Adams with your grand children to the Satisfaction of a father you will join that of a patriot, the Appointment of Your Son to the place of Secretary of State being a great public Advantage. I Refer Myself to Him for European News, in this Extensive Question in Betwen Rights and...
29From John Adams to Timothy Alden, 29 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
You have been kind enough to send me five Numbers of your Allegany Magazine, for which I can only return you my Thanks. It must be a very useful Publication in your Neighbourhood, and there are curious papers preserved in it. I should willingly become one of your Subscribers, but I am already bound by so many Subscriptions and have so many demands for the Subsistence of my Family, that I can...
30From John Adams to William Temple Franklin, 5 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
The Volume of Dr Franklins Correspondence has Seemed to make me live over again my Life at Passy I rejoice that the Public are to have a compleat Edition of his Works, for there is Scarce a Scratch of his Pen that is not worth preserving. I am pleased to See you, at length appearing on the Stage of human Affairs. I presume, upon the Virtue of old Acquaintance to introduce to you Mr Theodore...