1From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 21 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
The Bearer, Mr. N. Pope Delegate in Congress from the Territory of Illinois, and Brother of Mr. John Pope of Kentucky who is well known to you in making a visit to Boston, and I am happy to have the opportunity of introducing him to your acquaintance and of recommending him to your attentions—for which I pray you to be assured of the gratitude of your friend and faithful Servt. MHi : Adams...
2From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 27 December 1805 (Adams Papers)
I have to thank you for the receipt of your letter of the 14th: instt: and for the last number of the Anthology, which came at the same time—I am much pleased with the Spirit of this publication which appears to improve as it advances, and which I hope you will not suffer to flag—I am much flattered by the partiality of the opinion entertained by the Gentlemen that a regular contribution from...
3From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 17 October 1807 (Adams Papers)
We arrived safe at Providence on the Evening of the day when we took leave of you in Boston; and the next morning embarked in a Packet which was ready to sail. We were however detained at anchor just below Providence the whole of that day, and the next Night—On Monday we effected with much difficulty our passage to Newport, and sailed from thence on Tuesday Morning—We had every possible...
4From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 7 March 1808 (Adams Papers)
I will thank you to pay to my father, for me, on or before the 22d: of this month eleven hundred and seventy two dollars and forty-nine cents—being $1081.27. for part principal of a debt due from me to him and $91.22. for a quarter’s interest on the same debt—As you have probably not funds sufficient in your hands to make this payment I enclose you an order to receive the money due to me at...
5From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 10 July 1806 (Adams Papers)
I have received an invitation from Mr: Boylston, to dine with him to-morrow—If you see him in town between this and then, will you be so good as to tell him that I much regret that I cannot come, as to-morrow at 2. O’Clock I commence my course of Lectures—And having already postponed it for two weeks, I cannot put it off again. To-day also I am detained here, on account of the Declamations—But...
6From William Smith Shaw to John Quincy Adams, 5 November 1804 (Adams Papers)
I hope by this time, you have safely arrived at Washington and found Mrs. Adams family and friends in good health—I send by the same mail with this three of Parks of papers containing four numbers with the signature of Publius Valerius and will send the others as they appear. You will see in these papers that Dr Eustace’s brother has made an assault on Park for in consequence of a publication...
7From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 25 March 1808 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 5th: instt: never came to my hands untill yesterday—I have long noticed the characters of the factions which were excited among all the antient nations, in their relations with the Romans—It has been particularly remarked by Montesquieu, and its application to our own Affairs is no new thing in my mind—Modern History is full of the same phenomenon—The English and French...
8From William Smith Shaw to John Quincy Adams, 9 April 1808 (Adams Papers)
I had the honour to receive your letter to Mr Otis on Thursday evening last, and have attended to its publication, with as much expedition as possible—The printers have published an edition of a thousand copies and the sale of them commenced this morning and the whole are now disposed of. Oliver & Munroe are now printing a second edition of a thousand more on their own account and have...
9From William Smith Shaw to John Quincy Adams, 28 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
In consequence of a Letter from my Agent at L”pool I declined going to that place for a passage to South Carolina—I will Sail from the port of London, in the course of a few days, but will wait upon your Excellency personally to take leave, & to be the Carrier of any Dispatches your Excellency may confide to my care prior to my Sailing—Lord Viscount Lowther Arrived at his House 25 Pall Mall...
10From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 19 February 1806 (Adams Papers)
I have received from you the Anthology for January, for which I thank you—In a letter yesterday to my brother I have made some remarks upon it with which I hope you will not be displeased—Perhaps my own zeal upon a subject of importance, made me more sollicitous concerning one Article in it than was necessary—I should be glad to review the several pamphlets on this subject lately published in...
11From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 23 April 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have received your two letters of last Week, with a dozen copies of my letter to Mr: Otis—And Mr: Gardiner’s fast Sermon—But the copies which you mention as forwarding with your’s of the 15th: instt: have not come to hand. I thank you most cordially for the promptitude with which you executed the charge of publication—I find the federal newspapers in Boston, which began with a system of...
12From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 3 February 1805 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter enclosing Mr: Bradford’s Sermon which I have read with much pleasure; and informing me of the cruel misfortune which has befallen Mr: Smith, for whom, and his excellent lady and family, I feel very much distress’d—If there was any one merchant in Boston on whose safety and stability I should have confided more than any other, he was the man; and to find him thus...
13From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 3 September 1806 (Adams Papers)
I now enclose you the auctioneer’s Bill and will thank you to make out the list of the Books, by their titles , with the prices fixed against them, and get the receipt of the auctioneer upon it, as received of me , which will be necessary for me as a voucher—There are only two volumes (Mason on Elocution, and Carey’s Pocket Atlas, which I purchased for myself, and are not to be included in the...
14William Smith Shaw to John Quincy Adams, 7 January 1804 (Adams Papers)
On my return last evening from Atkinson where I have passed the last eight days in company with your brother Thomas I had the pleasure to receive your letters of the 23 & 24 ul t: with Mr. Tracy’s speech for which I am much obliged to you At present I have only time to say that Mr Stedman was the writer of the letter alluded to in mine of the 13 th — Russel when he shew me the letter did not...
15From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 18 February 1808 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you some time since and enclosed an order on the Branch Bank at Boston, to be placed to my credit; since which I have not heard from you. I have now only time to request you to pay to my father two hundred and ninety dollars, on my account—being $250. Divd: on ten Shares in N. E. Mc Insurance Company & $40. for do: on ten Shares in Boston Bank.—I expect in a few days to give you an...
16From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 31 March 1806 (Adams Papers)
Since I wrote you last I have not heard directly from you although an interval of several weeks has elapsed—I sent you receipts for Gurley’s & Delille’s Rent, which I presume you have received—On this Idea, I have now to desire that you would enquire whether any dividend on the Stock of the Fire and Marine Insurance Company was made on the first of this Month—And if there was I will thank you...
17From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 17 December 1804 (Adams Papers)
Some time since I sent you a check on the Branch Bank, in favour of J. Briesler for $45—to be presented if you had previously received the rent of Mr: Gurley, & Delisle, and deposited the money in Bank—I shall have occasion to send another check or two shortly, but untill I have ascertained whether you have received and paid in those monies, I cannot venture to draw; not being sure of having...
18From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 28 October 1807 (Adams Papers)
I enclosed to you by last Evening’s Mail a Copy of the President’s Message, as first printed by Smith—I now send you a copy together with the documents that accompanied it—You will see that the H.R. have a new Speaker and Clerk—They have this day determined to appoint the standing Committees by ballot instead of leaving their appointment to the Speaker as heretofore—The Washington Races...
19From William Smith Shaw to John Quincy Adams, 19 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
Actions of little import, can demonstrate the Man of Magnanimity. I exult Sir, as an American Citizen, and it is with Pride, pleasure, & honorable Ambition, that I announce, the fact to have been demonstrated, in your Excellencys deportment in a late Transaction. Permit me Sir to make my acknowledgments with Sentiments, and in a manner, far above ordinary respect, and to assure Your Excellency...
20From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 27 January 1806 (Adams Papers)
I have this morning received your favour of the 17th: and thank you for it—I should be glad to thank you more frequently than I have an opportunity to do for such favours. I cannot promise to write you often at much length, but I shall send you as often as I can documents which may be of use to you, and you will attribute to my continual occupations, from which I cannot now at least take upon...
21From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 7 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
I have not yet had the pleasure of receiving a line from you, which I presume is owing to the multiplicity of your occupations—I have had one letter from my Mother containing the information concerning which we were so anxious, of our children’s health. The Good-Intent has not yet arrived though I observe by a Newspaper that she cleared out from Boston about the 24th: of October—We are in...
22From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 17 February 1807 (Adams Papers)
I received in proper time from you, a copy of Selfridge’s trial, and also the Anthology for January, for which you have my best thanks; and in return for which I now send you a blossom for the next month’s basket—I hope your council of Literary botanists will not be of opinion that some of its petals are too rank for the sense; however it is entirely at your and their disposal.—You must shew...
23From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 9 November 1804 (Adams Papers)
I enclosed from New-York, for you, as you requested, a copy of Commodore Morris’s Defence, which I presume you have before this received, and which you will find an interesting and important pamphlet.—As you are fond of preserving public documents I now send you that part of the President’s Message, with the accompanying papers, which is now printed; you shall have the remainder as it issues...
24From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 31 March 1808 (Adams Papers)
I will thank you to give the enclosed manuscript to Oliver and Munro, to be published immediately —If they do not chuse to print it you may get any other printer to do it whom you please—It is not meant for electioneering, but for self-defence; and to give the public my views of public affairs—The printers will give perhaps a few copies, for the manuscript—I want only half a dozen—One of which...
25From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 18 December 1807 (Adams Papers)
I received some days since, your letter of the 18th: of last Month—But it was longer in coming than the time usually taken by the mail—and I have left it longer without reply than I could have wished— I am much obliged to you for your attention to my personal affairs, and much gratified that my obligations at the Bank have all been taken up—You will recollect my wish that you would pay to my...
26From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 8 January 1808 (Adams Papers)
I send you occasionally, the public documents of the most interesting nature, but I have not the opportunity of writing to you so frequently as I could wish—My time is so much engross’d by business equally unpleasant and important that I can very seldom catch a moment for my private affairs, or the more agreeable communications of friendship—I believe I have repeatedly told you as much,...
27From William Smith Shaw to John Quincy Adams, October 1816 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 7 April last, I never had the pleasure to receive untill the 30 June. At that time, I was most severely afflicted by a violent attack of the rheumatism which confined me for nearly three months afterwards and of which I have not even now perfectly recovered. Since my convalescence from the last attack of the session of the District Court for Sept term & that of the Circuit...
28From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 26 November 1804 (Adams Papers)
I have received both your letters, and to supply the demand from Mr: Briesler, now enclose a check on the Branch Bank, for $45. In paying it I wish you to tell Mr: Briesler, that I hope to have no more charges of expence upon the farm, exceeding his estimates by more than double. As to the new assessment on the Middlesex Canal, they must wait for the payment of that, untill I come home—In...
29From William Smith Shaw to John Quincy Adams, 15 April 1808 (Adams Papers)
I do myself the honour to send you with this Parson Gardners sermon—also a few more copies of your letter—There have been five thousand of them published here for circulation and five thousand more ordered from Salem— Mr. Atherton formerly of the house Cram Poor Atherton has requested me to mention his name to you for a n commission in the army if the selection should be left to the Senate as...
30From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 27 January 1805 (Adams Papers)
I have this morning received your favor of the 7th, and thank you for it; I should be glad to thank you more frequently than I have an opportunity to do for such favors. I cannot promise to write you often at much length, but I shall send you, as often as I can, documents which may be of use to you; and you will attribute to my continual occupations, from which I cannot now at least take upon...