11James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 13 June 1780 (Adams Papers)
I will not omit to acknowledge by this Post the Receipt of your Letter of the 24th. Ulto. because I can in some measure afford you Satisfaction in Regard to what Mr. A dams mentioned to both of us. On the 31st. of May Doctr. F ranklin was directed to pay the Draughts of Mr. A and Mr. D ana to the Amount of their respective Salaries. I will on Friday send you an authentic Resolve which you can...
12James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 1 March 1781 (Adams Papers)
In my last I told you that the Case which was brought to my Lodgings for your Benefit did not appear full according to the common Mode of Packing for a Voyage. I ought to have endeavored to give you a Kind of Invoice of its Contents. I had not Time. It will now perhaps enable you to decide whether there have been Filchings if I give you only the following Sketch. 18 Ells of Diaper at 10 some...
13James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 3 September 1780 (Adams Papers)
I have at length an Opportunity by Mr. Brown to forward Bills of Exchange; and I only add the News Paper of Yesterday. Bell so long expected from France is arrived. He sailed with the Alliance. You know much more of your Mr. Adams than we, as only a Letter of April 10th. is come to hand from him. I assure you we feel very angry with Somebody , as neither Congress or the Minister have yet...
14James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 29 May 1781 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday’s Post brought me your Letters of the 10th and 14 with a Copy of March 17. on the Subject of which I shall be particular when I have a proper Opportunity. I have a Friend to whom I communicate most unreservedly all the Ocurrences which tend to govern my Pleasures and my Pains; your Letters will of Course be submitted in that mixt View: I have already hinted their Influence in the...
15James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 17 April 1781 (Adams Papers)
By your Letter of the 3d. received this day I find that I have lost the Pleasure of having what you and Mr. Cranch wrote some Time ago respecting your little Invoices. Tho’ I make little Progress in forwarding your Property yet my past Notifications will show that I am constantly attentive to the Business. I suspect that Mr. Cranch may have mentioned some Waggons which came to this City with...
16James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 21 March 1778 (Adams Papers)
I am to thank you, in my own name, and on the public account, for that exercise of laudable patriotic prudence, which you have modestly termed the “Freedom” of inclosing to me Mr. McCreary’s letter to your worthy Husband. I read it in Congress, and I think it will be useful to the commercial Committee. The same Gentleman wrote to Mr. Adams in Sepr. some interesting history, of which he gave me...
17James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 23 April 1781 (Adams Papers)
Not receiving any Line from you by this day’s post, I recur to your favor of April 3d. already answered in part. I wrote to Col. Hughes to endeavor to forward the two Packages left by Doctor Winship, if he could find where they were deposited. I hope he will have found them and had them cased in Boards. Capt. J. P. Jones is without Letter or Invoice and supposes they must have been sent by the...
18James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 15 September 1781 (Adams Papers)
Under a Date of Aug. 24 I did myself the Pleasure to endeavour to convey to you later Information respecting your dear Connection in Holland than you had before received, but my Letter was with others carried to New York. Mr. Adams and Family were well May 28th; and he had a few Days before taken upon himself much more of public Character than at any prior Time. Instead of Lodgings he took an...
19James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 13 January 1780 (Adams Papers)
I send you a Continuance of the Journals. The Printer having lately made a Mistake in the Course of sending me the Sheets of 1778, I was led to think he had done so before, as to that which I have written to you about already, called by him H; I therefore now put up one, as well as M.N. which I am certain were not before inclosed to you. I would have you send all forward to our Friend, unless...
20James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 6 January 1780 (Adams Papers)
You will see, lovely Woman, by the Papers which I have sent that we shall have more post Advantages of Communication than we have had for some time back; but I fear this Remark will tend to my Disadvantage, and if it was not for Oeconomy I would throw by the present Sheet and take up another in which I would only tell you that I regard, esteem and respect you and will certainly write to you as...
21James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 10 November 1777 (Adams Papers)
As the delivery of this Billet cannot be attended with the disagreable allarm which the amiable Mrs. Adams some time ago suffered from a well meant but indiscretely-managed little Compliment of one of her Admirers, I improve this fair opportunity to congratulate her, thus, upon the late happy events at Saratoga, greatly important to the Public and, consequently, interesting to her patriotic...
22James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 5 July 1784 (Adams Papers)
Suppose every proper Epithet to occupy these two upper Lines. Under them all I most cordially salute you. Once upon the Arrival of a Ship from France “you was too happy to find Time for answering Letters.” I do not now want any Answer. All I wish is that you may steal from yourself and one other a Minute for reading this short Scrawl. Your Benevolence and your Curiosity secure my Wish; and,...
23James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 2 July 1781 (Adams Papers)
The Gentleman by whom I meant to send the inclosed was obliged unexpectedly to return to Baltimore. I do not find, upon breaking the Seal that it can give Mr. Rivington much Amusement. I am sorry to find by this day’s Receipt of yours of June 10th. that you had not more Satisfaction from the Arrival of the Alliance. You will know, by what Genl. Ward had to convey to you, that an Expression in...
24James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 1 September 1778 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday the Letters of Portia of June 24th. and Augst. 19th. came to my hand together, by Post. The wishes expressed in the latter have made all the Impressions of the most pleasing Commands, and shall be strictly attended to upon the first possible Occasion of fulfilling them; which must, I think, be soon, tho the Embargo is not yet taken off. As to the former , I will not now make it the...
25James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 17 July 1781 (Adams Papers)
The Dates of my Letters connected with the Time of the Receipt of yours are become somewhat essential towards a right Judgement of my Character, so much called in Question lately by the Censorious. Though John Paul Jones may not even yet have left the City you will sometime or other find what I wrote to go by a Mr. Anderson and afterward delivered to the said Chevalier Jones. You will also...
26James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 21 May 1781 (Adams Papers)
I hope you are not still without later Dates from Mr. A’s Hand than what we have—Oct. 24. I conclude he was well about the last of Febry., because Mr. Carmichael under Date of March 11th sends us Mr. A’s Plan of a Loan to be opened at the House of Nieufville & Son March 1st. We have no Vessels from Holland. Accept of my Conjecture as a Proof of my uniform Wish to contribute to your Ease of...
27James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 23 November 1779 (Adams Papers)
Instead of sending the inclosed to the Navy Board I shall from Time to Time direct them as now, that after you have had the Amusement (such as it is) of reading them you may forward them to the Friend for whom they are designed, through the Care of the Navy Board at Boston. If you are quite indifferent as to this method, I will lodge them in future where those for Mr. Dana are lodged by my...
28James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 29 August 1777 (Adams Papers)
It is probable that Genl. Howe will waste the fall of this year between Chesapeak Bay and Delaware River. I send you a copied sketch of part of the country to which the Gazettes will frequently refer; as I know You give singular attention to the interesting concerns of America in the present struggle. This knowledge is only part of the foundation of my affectionate esteem of you. Nor will I...
29James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 26 November 1781 (Adams Papers)
I shall have an excellent Opportunity to send those Articles of yours, which have been long under my Care, by a Waggon of Genl. Lincoln going in a few days to Boston and perhaps also to Hingham. I feel a Sort of Mortification, at the Air of Negligence which seems to be thrown over my past Endeavors to serve you, by this early Execution of the Promises which our good Friend Lincoln made to you...
30James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 23 August 1781 (Adams Papers)
I feared moths—have opened your Goods—aired and shook the Wollens—added good Tobacco leaves and again secured them for Transportation. I shall put Clamps to the Chest and send it to the Store of the Deputy Commissary General where Mr. Jno. Checkley will secure the first good public or private Carriage to Mr. Hughes or to Boston. I mentioned Gauze for Mr. Tufts. You say he misses some gauze...
31James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 13 June 1778 (Adams Papers)
Amiable tho unjust Portia! doubly unjust!—to yourself, and to me. Must I only write to you in the Language of Gazettes, enumerating, on the Part of Britain, Acts of Deceit, Insolence and Cruelty; or, on the part of America, Instances of Patience under repeated Losses, Fortitude under uncommon Hardships, and Humanity under the grossest Provocations to Revenge? Must I suppress Opinion, Sentiment...
32James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 4 September 1781 (Adams Papers)
Supposing Col. Laurens to have arrived at Rh. Island, I was greatly chagrined when he told me he had no Letters for you; and I was searching his papers to pick from them all the Comfort I could, to be transmitted to Braintree, when I found he had landed at Boston and had sent you a Message of what Satisfaction he could furnish relative to your dear Partner and your Children. What I told you...
33James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1778 (Adams Papers)
I have this Afternoon received your Favour of June 12th. and at the same Time a Gazette from Boston, of later Date, in which I find a pleasing Entry in Regard to Mr. Adams’s Arrival in France. It is so likely to be true from the blundering Manner of it that I venture to congratulate you upon it. Mr. Thaxter is not yet arrived here, but is expected hourly. He will heartily participate in the...
34James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 9 July 1778 (Adams Papers)
I heartily congratulate you upon the indubitable Proofs of our Friends Arrival in France. You might imagine that the Congress had received some important Intelligence in the large Packets sent lately from Boston, if I did not acquaint you that they were chiefly for Monsr. Girard who is not yet arrived. A french Fleet having sailed for America, an English One being ready to follow, and a second...
35James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 19 May 1780 (Adams Papers)
Large Packets are here received from Mr. Adams up to March 4th. His Reception was of the most cordial Kind. I shall execute speedily all his confidential Requests, and shall tell you the Nature of them in some Moment of more Leisure than the present. If a depreciating Currency has not ruined our Spirit and Principles of Patriotism, it is not a mad Thing to hope that this Year’s Campaign will...
36James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 19 July 1779 (Adams Papers)
Your Favor of June 18/26 is this Hour come to hand. “Do I love the natural Sentiments of the Heart”? Yes, Amiable Correspondent, I truly love them; and your little Story was far, very far from non -natural. You was betrayed, it seems, by a Combination of Circumstances such as a tender Sensibility and the Dusk of the Evening, to make a Pressure to your lovely palpitating Bosom which soon after...
37James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 5 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I doubt not Madam, you have Letters from Mr. Adams of later Date than what we have received but that Fact will not prevent your Expectations of Something from me in the Way of retailed Politicks: — He has sent as I imagine but few duplicates of what are actually on Board Gillon. He dated May 16 and Augst. 3d. from Amsterdam, July 11. 14. 15 from Paris. He thinks Britain altogether insincere as...
38James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 9 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday’s Post brought me your Favour of Sepr. 26th. Your dear Boy Charles should most certainly have had half of the Bed of one of his Father’s devoted Friends here, if the Winds had so directed the Ship’s Course in which he is a Passenger; but I am told she is arrived at Falmouth in Casco Bay. I wish you an happy Meeting with him. I shall be rejoyced to find that the Voyage has been...
39James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 14 November 1778 (Adams Papers)
Having a good Opportunity, I now forward those Things which were left at York Town by your worthy Husband. I have never yet got the Box of Papers which were carried away by Mr. Sprout’s Family. They consigned the Box to a most careful Man, Mr. Houston who has promised to send it to me. But perhaps it will be a Thing convenient to the Carrier of what is now with me to call at Princeton for the...
40James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 14 May 1781 (Adams Papers)
By a Letter of the 1st., this Moment received, I find that my amiable and respected Friend is under the mistake of supposing the Enemy in Possession of one of her former which has reached me, and that I have neglected to answer some others. She will know better before this reaches her. The Enemy have the one which attended Mr. Cranche’s: So that I have no Knowledge of the Mode He or She...