51From John Adams to James Madison, 25 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to present you, what I think a Curiosity. Dr Mayhews Thirtieth of January Sermon, preached and printed almost Seventy Years ago. It made a great Sensation in New England: and not a little Noise in old England where Several Editions of it were reprinted and one especially which was inserted in a Collection of Tracts in four Volumes under the Title of “The Pillars of Priestcraft and...
52From John Adams to James Madison, 23 March 1815 (Adams Papers)
The enclosed letter supposes more importance, in my judgement, than it deserves. Whatever it is worth however, it is all in favour of the request in it. Waterhouse is another Rush; and for no other reason that I can conjecture, than his respect & able services, to the national Government, for the last 14 years, has been cruelly treated by the worst faction against it. I submit the subject, to...
53To James Madison from John Adams, 22 February 1816 (Madison Papers)
I am informed, that General Dearborne, Mr. Morton & other gentlemen have recommended Mr. Winthrop for a Consulate abroad, and I am requested to add my testimony to theirs, in his favour. My acquaintance with him, has been only general, but his father and Grand Father, his name, and family, have been esteemed & venerated, all my days; his education was publick, he has travelled in Europe, & his...
54From John Adams to James Madison, 25 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday Morning expecting a Letter from Dr Rush I Sent early to the Post Office: but my Messenger brought me a Letter from Dr Waterhouse, which I inclose, having no words of my own to express my Feelings. The Shock was Sudden and unexpected. I had a Letter from Rush dated the 10th., apparently written in full health and fine Spirits. An unchangeable Friendship of thirty Eight Years had...
55To James Madison from John Adams, 25 July 1818 (Madison Papers)
Permit me to present you, what I think a Curiosity Dr Mayhews Thirtieth of January Sermon, preached and printed almost seventy years ago. It made a great sensation in New England: and not a little Noise in Old England where several Editions of it were reprinted and one especial[l]y which was inserted in a Collection of Tracts in four Volumes under the Title of “The Pillars of Priestcraft and...
56To James Madison from John Adams, 21 December 1814 (Madison Papers)
Knowing the immense weight of your cares, it gives me pain to interrupt you a moment. But when a young Scholar, Lawyer and amiable character asks an introduction from me I cannot refuse it. Such is George Ticknor Esqr on his travels in his own Country first, and in foreign Countries afterward. He is ranked here, with our Everett & Buckminster, choice spirits, as we think them. With great...
57To James Madison from John Adams, 23 March 1813 (Madison Papers)
I have been informed that a Number of very respectable Gentleman are desirous of having The Honourable Richard Cutts Esquire of Biddeford in this State appointed to an Office under the Government of The United States, and wish to recommend him accordingly: but are very apprehensive that your delicacy, and nice Sense of honour, or regard to your reputation, will be an insuperable Obstacle to...
58From John Adams to James Madison, 17 June 1817 (Adams Papers)
Accept my thanks for your favour of last month. The safe Arrival of your books has quieted my conscience. There is nothing within the narrow Compass of human knowledge more interesting, than the Subject of your Letter. If “the Idea of a Government in one Center Seems to be every where exploded” perhaps Something remains undefined, as dangerous, as plausible and pernicious as that Idea. Half a...
59From John Adams to James Madison, 29 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
I hope you will not think me a Fanatic, because I introduce Clergyman to you. The Truth is that none but Clergymen here have much Litterature or Science, I cannot say that reading and writing is the exclusive Priviledge of Clergy, as it once was in the World; but we bare too near a resemblance to that dark Age—The gentlemen who will have the honour to present this Letter—has given proofs to...
60To James Madison from John Adams, 2 February 1813 (Madison Papers)
I am very apprehensive that the liberties I So frequently take of writing to you, will appear importunate, if not impertinent. But I beg it may be fully understood that none of my letters are to be answered; and that I shall perfectly acquiesce, in your decisions well knowing the multiplicity of Candidates, the difficulty of making the Selections and that The President is the only Ultimate and...
61To James Madison from John Adams, 17 December 1815 (Madison Papers)
Benjamin Wells Esqr and his Lady are very ambitious of paying their respects to President Madison and his Lady. The Gentleman’s Grandfathers were two as respectable Characters as any in Boston. One of them, Chief Justice Pratt of New York was one of my Patrons at the Barr in 1758; and his Memory will forever be held in Veneration by me. The Lady is a Daughter of our late Governor Sumner and a...
62From John Adams to James Madison, 21 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
Knowing the immense weight of your cares, it gives me pain to interrupt you a moment. But when a young Scholar, Lawyer and amiable character asks an introduction from me I cannot refuse it. Such is George Ticknor Esqr an his travels in his own Country first, and in foreign Countries afterward. He is ranked here, with our Everett & Buckminster, choice spirits, as we think them. With great...
63To James Madison from John Adams, 23 January 1795 (Madison Papers)
Will you be so good as to read the inclosed Letter from Dr Belknap and tell me, from your Recollection of what passed in Congress in 1779. 1780 & 1781, whether there is any Colour for the Imputation cast on our Country by Dr Kippis. I cannot say as Dr Belknap has been informed that Dr Kippis is my Correspondent. I never wrote a Letter to him or received a Letter from him that I recollect. I...
64To James Madison from John Adams, 22 April 1817 (Madison 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...
65From John Adams to James Madison, 1815 (Adams Papers)
Benjamin Wells Esqr and his Lady are very ambitious of paying their respects to President Madison and his Lady. The Gentleman’s Grandfathers were two as respectable Characters as any in Boston. One of them, Chief Justice Pratt of New York was one of my Patrons at the Barr in 1758; and his Memory will forever be held in veneration by me. The Lady is a Daughter of our late Governor Sumner and a...
66To James Madison from John Adams, 4 September 1816 (Madison Papers)
I have so often taken the liberty to introduce Gentlemen to the President of the United States, that tho’ it might be an usurpation at first, it seems now to be a kind of Right by Prescription. Upon no occasion that I recollect, have I assumed this priviledge with more pleasure than in now introducing Dr James Freeman whom I esteem one of our first litterary characters and one of the best of...
67From John Adams to James Madison, 14 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
I was yesterday honoured with the favour of the 5 inclosing Dr Waterhouses letter to me of the 23 of April announcing to me the afflicting news of the death of one of my oldest and most intimate Friends Dr Rush. Though I can scarcely look over an obituary without mourning some ancient friend or acquaintance, none has affected me more sensibly than the sudden departure of Dr Rush. His merit as...
68From John Adams to James Madison, 17 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
I beg leave to introduce to You Col. William Sumner; and to Mrs Madison, his Sister, Miss Elizabeth Sumner, Children of our late Governor Sumner. They have requested an Introduction from me. And as I think it right that the President should know, and that his Family Should know Something of the Characters who appear at Washington; I beg leave to say, that Mr Sumner has the Advantages of...
69From 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...
70To James Madison from John Adams, 14 March 1813 (Madison Papers)
The Revd, Mr Henry Colman of Hingham my Neighbour and Acquaintance, has a Brother, as I am informed, who wishes to be considered as a Candidate for a Commission in the Army. As the Brother is unknown to me, I can Say nothing of his Pretensions. But I can Say of the Minister that in point of Taste and Sense he is fit for a companion of a Jefferson and a Madison; and in point of Learning and...
71From John Adams to James Madison, 23 March 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have been informed that a number of very respectable Gentlemen are desirous of having the Honourable Richard Cutts Esqr of Biddeford in this State appointed to an Office under the Government of the United States, and wish to recommend him accordingly: but are very apprehensive that your delicacy, and nice sense of honour, or regard to your reputation will be an insuperable Obstacle to their...
72From John Adams to James Madison, 28 November 1814 (Adams Papers)
When my Son departed for Russia, I injoined upon him to write nothing to me, which he was not willing should be published in French and English Newspapers. He has very scrupulously observed the rule.— I have been equally reserved in my letters to him: but the Principle on both sides has been to me a cruel privation, for his correspondence when absent, and his Conversation when present has been...
73To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 28 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
I now avail myself of your obliging permission, to transmit through you to Mr: Randolph the request for his certificate that the amount of the outfit allowed me on my mission to Holland, in the year 1794. was paid me in the manner I stated to you, when I had last the honour of seeing you at your office. This request is supported by all the documents I have been able to collect, and you will...
74To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 14 March 1801 (Madison Papers)
The question of peace and War between Great Britain & the North of Europe still appears to depend upon the determination of the british Cabinet, relative to Count Haugwitz’s note of the 12th: ulto. How long this may be delayed it is yet impossible to say. At the date of the last accounts we have, the king’s health, though hoped to be in a recovering state, was not such as to permit the...
75John Quincy Adams to James Madison, 18 August 1834 (Madison Papers)
Your favour of the 30th. ulto. with its enclosures would have been received with unmingled pleasure, but for the alloy of its intimations with regard to the state of your health—The partial relief which you have recently enjoyed, I will hope may have been symptomatic of a more general renovation, and reserve for you yet years of comfort and tranquility to witness the continual gigantic growth...
76To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 18 June 1819 (Madison Papers)
I scarcely know how to apologize to you for troubling you again on the subject of the Journals of the federal Convention. I have already been indebted to you for the means of completing the Journal, which had been deposited at this Department; and in which the proceedings of the last two days were wanting. It appears by the Journal that on the 12th. of September a revised draught of the plan...
77To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 4 September 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have the honour to enclose a letter which I was desired to forward to you from Mr: Bourne at Amsterdam. A few days before I sailed from Hamburg, I sent you by duplicates, copies of a letter which I received there from the Swedish Minister at the Court of Berlin and of my answer to it. As it contained a proposition from the king of Sweden which may be deemed of some importance to the...
78John Quincy Adams to James Madison, 21 February 1829 (Madison Papers)
In enclosing to you a copy of a pamphlet relating to subjects not without interest in the history of our Country I avail myself of the occasion to assure you of the deep sympathy with which I have learnt the affliction with which you have recently been visited by the decease of your venerable parent, and of the undeviating respect and attachment with which I remain Your friend and Servt...
79To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 8 February 1811 (Madison Papers)
I had the honour of writing you, on the 7th: of last Month, immediately after I received a letter from the Secretary of State of 15. October, with the letter of leave to His Majesty the Emperor of Russia; and of informing you that I should not deliver that letter, untill the receipt of further Instructions from you. It was not untill last Evening that I had the pleasure of receiving your very...
80To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 7 February 1812 (Madison Papers)
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your favour of 15. Novr. last—and beg you to accept my acknowledgments for your obliging attention to the Circumstances, which though merely of a private nature, to myself had made it my duty to decline the highly honourable office, to which you had called me, and had prevented my return to the United States, on receiving your permission to that...
81To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 4 June 1808 (Madison Papers)
I take the liberty of enclosing to you two certificates, respecting William Parker, a native Citizen of the United States, impress’d into the British Service, about fourteen months since, and whose liberation it has been impossible to obtain. He is the eldest Son of a widow of very respectable character, with a family of ten children, and in circumstances to depend in some measure upon him for...
82To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 29 February 1828 (Madison Papers)
The enclosed small packet, addressed to your lady, has just been received from Mr Hughes, our Charge d’Affaires to the Netherlands. To account for its present appearance, I have to remark that it was by Mr Hughes transmitted to me open, with permission, of which I have availed myself to peruse its contents. To this indulgence of Mr Hughes I am indebted not only for the knowledge of the...
83To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 30 April 1809 (Madison Papers)
The bearer of this letter, Mr. Pickman, is a Gentleman with whom for many years I have had the pleasure of a very intimate acquaintance, and for whose character I have had every reason to entertain the highest esteem. Being elected a member of the House of Representatives of the United States, to the present Congress, he is desirous of a personal introduction to the President, and in taking...
84To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 21 March 1801 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
21 March 1801, Berlin. No. 186. Reports continuing British embargo on Swedish shipping is likely to close Elbe and Weser to British vessels. Relays hearsay that among British seamen detained in Russian ports there are some Americans as well. Has pressed Russian minister to free such persons; recounts minister’s reluctance and his suggestions that U.S. appoint a consul in Russia and recall...
85John Quincy Adams to James Madison, 1 March 1829 (Madison Papers)
Your friendly Letter of the 24th. ulto is received, and the remark which you make in it respecting General Hamilton, as well as your own position, in the affairs of this Union from 1804 to 1814, induce me to request an appeal to your own recollections with regard to some of the facts involved in this controversy. And first let me premise that Mr Plumer’s testimony in the pamphlet which you...
86To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 24 December 1815 (Madison Papers)
The Pamphlet which I do myself the honour of transmitting to you with this Letter was some time since sent me by its author, with the request that I would forward it to you. This Gentleman who resides at Berlin and is Librarian to the King of Prussia is by birth a Spaniard. His Father was formerly in high diplomatic Office as Minister of Spain successively at several European Courts. Nearly...
87To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 17 August 1811 (Madison Papers)
The Event, anticipated in the letters which I had the honour of writing you on the 7. Jany: 8. Feby: and 3d: June, has happened at the time when it was expected. On Monday Evening last the 12th. instt: I had a daughter born, the first example I believe of an American, a native of Russia. As it would have been impossible for me to have accomplished since the Commencement of this year’s...
88To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 25 June 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have the honour to enclose copies of a letter from Mr: Engeström, the Swedish Minister at Berlin, which I received since my arrival here; and of my answer to him. You will perceive that his letter contains the renewal of a proposal made by the king of Sweden about eighteen months ago, for an arrangement between the United States, Sweden and Denmark, mutually to protect their commerce in the...
89To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 30 June 1824 (letter not found) (Madison Papers)
¶ From John Quincy Adams. Letter not found. 30 June 1824. Calendared in the list probably kept by Peter Force ( DLC : series 7, box 2). Offered for sale in Stan. V. Henkels Catalogue No. 694 (1892), item 99, as a printed letter, signed, “conveying two copies of fac-similes of the original Declaration of Independence, engraved by Wm. J. Stone; also the resolution of Congress respecting the...
90To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 24 May 1819 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Cardelli the Sculptor, whom at my solicitation you have kindly permitted to visit Montpellier for the purpose of taking your Bust will have the honour of delivering you this Letter. From the knowledge I have of his talent and the success with which he has taken that of President Monroe, I hope he will execute the work to your satisfaction and with my thanks for your indulgence in giving...
91To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 15 December 1817 (Madison Papers)
In the Summer of 1816 I received under a cover from you, a Letter, addressed to Jeremy Bentham, of Queen Square Place, Westminster, a person then known to me only by reputation. I called at his house to deliver the Letter, but he was then absent in the Country, and I left the Letter to be forwarded to him. A few weeks afterwards a friend of his, who resides with him, a Mr Koe, came to my...
92To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 27 February 1825 (Madison Papers)
I take the liberty of introducing to your acquaintance Mr Owen of Lanark, whose plans for the improvement of the condition of man, have certainly not escaped your notice & by the excellency of the ends to which they aspire carry with them a recommendation of the means by which he thinks they may be accomplished. I am, with the highest respect, Dear Sir, your very obedt. Servt. Letterbook copy...
93To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 1 June 1819 (Madison Papers)
In a Letter which I had the honour of receiving from you last November, you observed, in relation to a plan of Government offered by Coll Hamilton, to the federal Convention in 1787, that it was not formally presented as a plan to be debated, but read by him, in the course of a Speech. Could you favour me so far, as to inform me of the day upon which that Speech was delivered, and the question...
94To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 21 June 1820 (Madison Papers)
I have had the pleasure of receiving your Letter of the 13th. instt. The error in the printed Journal of the Convention, by which the motion on the 7th. of September for the establishment of a Council of State, is ascribed to you, is in the original list of yeas and nays, taken at the time by the Secretary, who probably in the hurry of writing made the mistake which you suggest of your name...
95To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 27 September 1815 (Madison Papers)
The bearer of this Letter, has been made the medium of a communication to the Government of the United States, which may be useful to the important purpose of preserving and rendering permanent the Peace, between them and Great Britain. The British navy is at this moment undergoing the process of reduction to a Peace Establishment. At the same time the army is rather increasing than...
96To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 5 May 1824 (Madison Papers)
I take the liberty of introducing to your acquaintance, the bearer, Mr Coolidge, of Boston, a young Gentleman of highly respectable character & connections, who from motives, which I am happy to have it in my power to gratify, is anxious of obtaining an introduction to you. I am with the highest respect, Dear Sir, your very humble & obedt. Servt. Letterbook copy ( MHi : Adams Papers). Joseph...
97To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 29 December 1815 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Frederic Pursh a naturalized citizen of the United States & author of a Flora of North America lately published being upon his return to that Country with the object of contributing further to the improvement of Agriculture & the advancement of science by means which will require the assistance and encouragement of persons of influence in different parts of our country I have taken the...
98To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 28 April 1801 (Madison Papers)
I received the day before yesterday a letter dated 3 Feby. from Mr Marshall, then acting as Secretary of State, containing a permission to me to return to the United States, upon the consideration that the objects of my mission here had been entirely accomplished; and enclosing a letter of recall from this Court. I have already given notice of the circumstance to the government of this...
99To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 11 October 1822 (Madison Papers)
In requesting your acceptance of the copy herewith transmitted of a Collection of Documents recently published by me, I think it necessary to ask of your indulgence to overlook that part of it which is personally controversial. The transactions to which it relates having occurred during your Administration and the discussion involving in some degree sanctioned by you, I have thought they would...
100To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 19 April 1811 (Madison Papers)
Since I had the honor of writing you last on the 8th February I have been informed that a commission has been sent to Count Pahlen for a temporary mission to the court of Brazil and that an optional authority is given him to go there immediately if he thinks proper. He is not however recalled from his mission to the United States and during his absence he is to leave Mr. Politico as chargé des...