I am rejoiced to hear that you, & my niece got home safe. Such little excursions are really advantageous to our Health—We require some relief from the same round of cares, & objects. Though I have often found myself fatigued at the time, yet the Friendship & cordiality of my Friends, has proved the balm of Life, & very beneficial to my health & spirits— To your kind enquiries after my Abbys...
52From Elizabeth Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 14 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
It would be injustice in me not to return an immediate Answer to your letter, and its important Contents.—Your Opinion upon every Subject I have ever highly respected, but pardon me if I say upon this One you have err’d.—The Gentleman mentioned I esteem for his own personal Merit,—and as the chosen friend of my much lov’d Cousin I shall Continue to regard him.—And I fervently wish his future...
53From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I was much instructed by the letters you were so good as to forward me from Russia, I wish the writer of them was nearer to us, our great men, however great they are, want aid, they want vigour and decission, the war has assumed a Character that they appear not to have calculated upon—here are laying 140 peices of heavy artillery and not a carriage to mount them upon—this place is totally void...
Thanks be to kind Providence we are all alive though the cold Tuesday our blood seemed congealing, & it was hard for me to respire—I do not know as I ever felt more thankful, than when the rigor of the weather abated—but we have still severe cold of long continuance—as the quantity of Snow makes the air more pungent; I suppose we feel the cold much more than you at Quincy for the Snow is over...
Yesterdays mail conveyed me your kind Letter, which convinced me you had experienced those solid pleasures in your late visit to your early Friends, which I had anticipated for you. How happy, & how pleasant, when the Lamp of Life, holds out to burn, even to four score years, that the mind retains its Vigor, & is the brightest Luminary!—In such a case, “Old-age is desirable,” & grey Hairs, is...
56From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 26 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
Last week I sent you a number of the Monthly Theological Repository, containing some Speculations of Mr Van der Kemp and Mr Jefferson—With this Letter I enclose to my Father the numbers just published of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews—Presuming that you know the History and Character of those Publications from Cobbett, you will sufficiently understand them to be in the Nature of Lawyer’s...
57From Hannah Phillips Cushing to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 May 1811 (Adams Papers)
Not one word have I heard from you my dear Friend since your kind letter, saying that you was but just leaving the chamber, after a long confinement. I hope & pray that you soon regained your usual health though that at best is delicate. Various circumstances have prevented my being with you ere this. Three weeks since I was called to Plymouth, to sympathize with my beloved Mrs Hammatt for the...
58From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 3 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
I had the honor of your favor of the 14th of last month enclosed to me by Mr Smith, and upon this, as on all other occasions, was gratified at the receipt of it. There was also one for Mrs Madison, which I will take great pleasure in presenting to her, as soon as she returns to Washington. She is now expected in the course of a few days. I most sincerely hope, that the wishes of Mr John Adams...
59From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 September 1816 (Adams Papers)
Our Sons John and Charles are come home from school this morning, to spend the Michaelmas Holidays, and have brought one of their schoolmates with them, to whom John has taken a great liking and who is nearly of his age. He was already here, part of the Summer Holidays, and is a very intelligent and well behaved boy. These Holidays come so often that I am not at all partial to them; but those...
60From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you last week by Captain Bronson, and sent you a Volume of Letters from the Continent, about the Battle of Waterloo and the like, by the Poet Walter Scott—I now send you a Newspaper in which you will find certain effusions of another personage, who is not only a Poet but a Lord—He has been married little more than a year, and is already separated from his wife—Partly, as his verses...