3rd: December. My whole morning was occupied with visits and writing cards of invitation—we have had 40 or more Members of Congress already here and all who call I invite to my Evengs. if I can help it I will invite only those who call lest it should be said I am courting them to further any particular purpose—We dined alone and Mary being sick I denied myself to company—Mr Petry called and...
You will be quite worn out my dear George with my would be poetic effusions; but as I told you in my last I know that the événemens de tout les jours are so well and so constantly sent to you by your brother, I have nothing left but to send you the singular scraps of my folly elicited occasionally by unlooked for circumstances On the departure of General Lafayette from our own house I felt...
I have at length received your Letter, after having unpatiently waited untill your more important avocations were so far terminated, as to permit you to think of so trifling a personage as your Mother—As however the period is arrived at which you have some little time to spare, I avail myself with pleasure of the opportunity thus offerered, of renewing a correspondence so warmly urged during...
N. 9 has reached me and I hasten to answer it although I must complain a little at your neglecting to do so to the Letters I send you— Some time since my Dear George I wrote to inquire if any goods had arrived at Washington for your Uncle and begged you to write me word. I have looked in vain hitherto for the answer to my question but do not find it any where—As he is rather of an anxious...
I am at length about to attempt to answer your Letter but am not quite sure whether I shall be successfull as it is late and impossible to guard against interruptions— In the first place the Missouri question is decided—How I leave you to judge as you will read the account in the publick papers—The juggling between the Clerks of the House and the Speaker places our National Councils in so...
I was much gratified by the receipt of your Letter my dear George yesterday at noon and am somewhat surprized to find that you have not read my translation of Plato which was sent on some weeks since to your Grandfather by Mr. A. and which I supposed you had already read soon after its arrival—The two first Dialogues were sent together and the copying of them was very laborious to me—I wish...
It is some time my dear George since I wrote but much sickness and trouble have kept my mind in a state of anxiety which has prevented my answering your last which was most kind and affectionate—Our pore coachman John Cook was found dead in his bed last week and left us a prey to surmizes and conjectures as to the causes of his decease which can never be satisfied— I had got thus far when your...
My absence from the City must plead My excuse for not sooner congratulating you on your success in obtaining the prize and still more on the probability of your obtaining a reputation as an Orator one of the most essential requisites for a Publick man in our Country—It is a talent which may be considered as leading most directly and immediately to promotion and frequently to the highest...
I yesterday received your Letter dated Quincy and was delighted to find your very formidable journey without accident. I admire very much your kindness in having lengthened your ride, and separated from your Brothers for the purpose of delivering the Letter of your new acquaintance who I think must be exquisitely delighted by this exalted mark of friendship and devotion— I am sorry you could...
I send you a sheet of journal my Dear George which you can read to your Grandfather if you please or such parts of it as you think fit—I shall address it to you thro’ the winter which I think will be more prudent and I wish that you could coax y. Grandfather to give you all that I have written as I think it would be safer in your possession in case of accidents— Journal 30 Novbr. 1823 In a...
I was very happy to hear from you my dear George as I felt anxious on account of the great heat knowing you would be exposed to all the ferver of an intense Sun and am very glad to find that you have not suffered from it— You say so little concerning the brilliant display of which we are told so much in the papers, that I suppose you were in too enthusiastic admir a state of admiration to find...
Accept my congratulations my Dear George on your success in the performance of a task become unpleasant from its constant repetition and the almost impossibility of striking out something novel either to amuse or instruct—The line you adopted was very correct and gave more scope than the beaten topic’s usually appropriated to the day and avoided one of the evils into which fourth of July...
Last Eveng Mr. Ingersol called and sat with us sometime and we had a good and pleasant chat after which Messieurs Walsh and Hopkinson came and remained with us till ten o’clock—Mr Walsh told me he had received a Letter from your father in which he speaks of his (Mr W’s) neutrality concerning the Russell business. He told me that this was a misunderstanding and that he had made no comments on...
In the course of my ride from New Brunswick yesterday my Dear George the wish you expressed for something like a translation or imitation of the Lines I wrote in french and I dictated to Elizabeth while she wrote the very indifferent lines which follow—One verse is added and I beg you to alter or correct as you please—I know they are not good but they in a great degree convey the ideas...
I mentioned to you that I had been amusing myself in translating the Dialogue of Plato. I now send you the first sheet and shall continue to send one every week until I have completed the first—You will find it miserably done but your father says the sense is preserved and that is all that is necessary as I do not pique myself upon my translating powers—You I know can study them to more...
My health is so bad that I am obliged to relinquish my correspondence almost in spite of myself for if the inclination to write seizes me my Letters can give no pleasure to those who receive them as they are tinged with the languor and weakness which pervades both my mind and my frame.—My friends here tell me that the great struggle which is now making in the political world is in great part...
Abby left us this morning my Dear George on her way to Boston under the protection of Mr Fuller who intends going on without stopping on the road. She is in fine health and has enjoyed her visit apparently very much— I am really sorry for the loss Mr. Welsh has sustained in the death of his amiable Wife whose poor babes are at an age to want all her care and tenderness— I have read your lines...
Thank you my Dear George for your Letter and the Farce which arrived safely the day before yesterday and which I should have answered yesterday had I not been again confined to my chamber by a return of my Fever and many of the inflamatory symtoms which attended my illness in Boston—I was taken ill the day after I wrote to Hariet and went out too soon which occasioned a return of the Fever...
Shall I first congratulate you on the honours which you have just received or will they be attended with labour and be both tiresome and unprofitable? Having however a deep interest in the Bank it is a very good thing that you can overlook the management of your property —I have written a long Letter to Johnson which I fear may offend him a little but he will get over it and as young people...
You will probably have received the translations I sent you my dear Son of Plato as I understand you have made a visit to Quincy to your Grandfather— In a conversation held at our house in the course of last winter I heard Socrates compared to our Saviour Jesus and it was this comparison which induced me to read the life of Socrates, and the dialogues of Plato; with attention; that I might...
As I know you will be very anxious to hear from me my Dear George I hasten to write merely to inform you that my health though still very weak is much better and I am able to ride out— No change has yet taken place in our establishment and we have all the trouble of our removal still in anticipation but my chief concern is the disposal of our house which I fear will be attended with much...
What! a letter from George I cried when your father put your last epistle in my hand yesterday afternoon? I was surprized for I thought that you ceased to wish to keep up any thing like friendly intercourse with your family and to feel that I was not altogether forgotten in the solitude of my chamber did occasion my heart to spring with joy. I am delighted to observe by the tone of your Letter...
God Bless you my Dear Son and send you many many happy years to enjoy life and do honour to your Parents and Society is the fervent wish offered by your Mother whose prayers for your welfare are so pure they will be received and granted at the throne of mercy as long as you continue to merit them— We have entered on probably the most stormy year of our lives on which hang great and momentous...
I am very sorry my Dear George that you should have received so much pain from my Letter as it was only intended to remind you that family intercourse might be punctually and affectionately sustained in the midst of the most active and severe duties more especially if it is actuated by a spontaneous affection of the heart—Your father was sorry as well as myself that so slight a censure should...
Why you should have thought that I was offended my dear George I cannot imagine as I have never had an idea of the kind but I believe that the state of my health and the constant irritation of the nervous system has so soured my temper I am now always crass and unpleasant to myself and to everybody else.—Mr. Quincy has left us after a short visit in which we endeavoured to obtain his company...
I yesterday received your Letter of the 1st Jany. and cannot account for the length of time it appears to have been written, before I received it; more especially as it contained news to me very afflicting concerning your Brother Charles’s health, from whom, or of whom I have not since heard. I am very anxious on his account as well as on yours, and request you to be particularly careful of...
Your Letter is this moment put into my hands my beloved Son, and I hasten to answer it, apologizing at the same time for a neglect which has been caused entirely by the dull sameness of our lives, and the utter impossibility of finding any subject on which to write. I guessed what your silence meant on the subject of my Letter , for I had like yourself cried out, what a falling off is here!...
Your Letter calmed my anxiety concerning your health which had been great and still more so because you are apt to be thoughtless and imprudent and not to pay that attention either to your diet or your exercise which is essential at the present period of your life on which probably your future health and Constitution depend— I shall shortly have the pleasure of seeing you when I hope you will...
I have deferred answering your Letter my Dear George in the hope of obtaining the Reviews you mention but have not been able to procure them—Of Mr. Channings I have not much to say excepting that the stile is like that of a gentle Turtle dove wooing with melay. but eloquently persuasive accent those who differ with him in religious opinions; but without reasoning so as to produce conviction—It...
230From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to George Washington Adams, May 1819 (Adams Papers)
All well; I send you another Sheet keep them all together that they may form a continuation and that you may be better able to understand it. Susan has just returned from Prince Georges County she is very well but her baby has been sick but he is now much better—I sent to ask her to come to me but she prefers going to Mrs. French’s. Your Mother You will see some errors but I believe you can...