1From John Adams to Robert R. Livingston, 21 February 1782 (Adams Papers)
I know very well the Name of the Family where I spent the Evening with my worthy Friend Mr. — before We set off, and have made my Alphabet accordingly: but I am on this occasion as on all others hitherto utterly unable to comprehend the sense of the Passages in Cypher. The Cypher is certainly not taken regularly under the two first Letters of that Name. I have been able sometimes to decypher...
2To John Adams from Francis Dana, 21 February 1782 (Adams Papers)
Although I have been much disappointed in not receiving your promised letter in answer to mine by Mr: Sayer, yet I have not on that account omitted to write you ever since my last (by the post) viz of Jany: 14/25th. I have lately been wholly confined to my rooms by a cold and a fever which though not dangerous has been very troublesome and unfitted me for any sort of business. In short I have...