31From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I had the good fortune of sending a single letter from this place to England, in time to go by the Saratoga, a Cartel which sailed about the middle of this Month for New–York, and that letter was my last go to you. I hope it will reach you safely for it is the only opportunity by which I can expect that you will have heard from me, almost since the beginning of this Year—For the letters which...
I this Day by the Mail received your kind letter, & am happy to hear you got Home, with your little Ones well, though I did not expect, or welcome you home in Idea till Monday afternoon—It was so very warm & dusty, that I thought neither you, nor your Horses would like to travel—I told Lydia, that you thought you felt better for your late excursion—“Do write, & ask her to come again” Said She,...
33From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I was very much gratified to find that it was not the Presidents, your own, or your family’s Sickness which prevented your writing, & that the delay was owing only to much company, & that in the Circle was your excellent worthy Friend Mrs Cushing—I know both the President, & my Sister highly enjoy her society, & rank her among the faithful of the Earth, for she is one with whom you can realize...
34From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
As the Couriers between Paris and St: Petersburg have not yet ceased to be dispatched, by the arrival of one of them a few days ago, I had the pleasure of receiving your N. 1. of 5. January. which was not only like all your letters a balsam in itself; but was also precious by its contents, announcing your own health, that of my father, and of my children, brother and sister. I have no other...
Your long silence (My Dear Sister) made me fear that you, or some of your family were sick—I was at Haverhill, & enquired of Mrs Harrod, but she did not mention it, only told me, that another Grandson was announced, whose name was to be Isaac Hull—Perhaps, the deceased Lawrence, might be as able, & intrepid a Commander, as the victorious Hull—But Laurels seldom spring, from the ashes of the...
Mr. Todd having just called to announce his departure I hasten to write you although I do not think his departure will take place so soon as he expects. You will my joy on arriving in London at finding my Boys ready at our lodgings to receive me although in excellent health the pleasure was too much for me and I was several days before I recover’d my usual composure—We have not yet found a...
Not one ray of information has reached us respecting your Family, or my Dear Mrs Cranch’s ill health, since your letter written the day after leaving here. I cannot but hope that she is convalesent, & that you my Friend with her Family & others, may yet be blessed with her society on earth a while longer. But if it should be otherwise directed by an allwise Providence, I doubt not but that you...
As Mrs: Perkins has kindly offered to take Letters, I hasten to answer your kind Letters of 24th: April & 2d May, which I received the day before yesterday. I fear the Boys will not be able to avail themselves of this opportunity, as they are much occupied previous to the Vacation, which takes place next Week. George has a part to perform in one of Terrences plays, and a French piece, and from...
I hope my dear Sister, & family are well, though I have not heard from her for three last mails—Has Col. Smith, & Sister, arrived Safe?—How is good Dr Tufts, & poor aged Phebe? I hope, she has solacing & comfortable views of the Heavenly world, & humble trust in Him, who has made of one blood all the Nations of the Earth—& has said, he who feareth God, & worketh righteousness shall be...
40From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
If I have detained the enclosed letter longer than was proper, I beg it may be ascribed, not to any insensibility to the favor done me in being allowed its perusal, but to a desire to turn it to the uses that it appeared to me to deserve. After showing it to the President, I took the liberty of reading parts of it to two of the members of his cabinet, that sentiments so important, coming from...
41From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
My last Letter to you was written at Reval, and dated the 12th: of May—It was forwarded from Gothenburg by a Swedish Vessel, bound to Boston; but since Admiral Cochrane’s Blockade, it is more doubtful than ever whether it will come to your hands.—I was detained ten days after it was written, in that City and its harbour, by head winds, and by the ice floating in the gulph of Finland—We were...
42From Mary Smith Gray Otis to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
I presume dear Mrs Adams, you know ‘ere this, that the “Star in the East,” who is to make the Palace tremble, is the Vice P— Why he is thus designated, I dont know. I should think his star was allmost sett & that he would be willing to have it go down in peace; rather than in the turmoil of politics: but I believe, the last spark, that is extinguished in the heart of Man, is ambition. Govenear...
43From Mary Smith Gray Otis to Abigail Smith Adams, 29 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
I was much gratified my dear Mrs Adams the last week; by a line from you: especially as it announced your own health & that of your family with Mrs Smith’s restoration. I have thought of her with much anxiety & sympathised with you both , on the various events, which have call’d forth all the feelings of the human Heart. Whilst you feel the loss of your excellent Brother & Sister, you cannot...
I too my Dear Sister, have to address you from the Bed of Sickness— The wednesday night after I wrote to you last, I was waked with a shaking fit great distress at my vitals, which was succeeded by a regular Lung fever—I have had specimens of this fever twice before in the course of my Life, but nothing so severe as now—But through the goodness of an ever kind Providence, the Crisis formed the...
45From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
I cannot express to my dear Mrs. Adams the ardent desire I feel that we might at least have one more personal interview, before we are either of us called to leave the passing scenes of pleasure and pain, that have so long danced before us and vanished as the vapour of the morn. I long to have you by my side in my retired mansion at Plymouth, where we might indulge the feelings of the heart...
46From Mary Smith Gray Otis to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 April 1812 (Adams Papers)
With pleasure & I hope, with Gratitude, I take up my pen, to assure you my dear Mrs A that we are all in perfect health; & could I but know that all the dear friends, I have left behind were so too, I should feel better reconciled to so long a seperation from them; having Husband & children with me, I could endure all other privations, & they are not few with great patience. A principle one...
47From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
It is matter of much consolation to know that frends so dear to My lamented husband as Mr and Mrs Adams intend to continue, or or rather to transfer to me the frendship with which they have so long favord him. I shall cherish it as of inestimable value, tho conscious that I have no other claim to the honor they so kindly have offered, but that I was dear to him who they loved and respected...
How can I express mÿ deep Sense of gratitude for your condescending kindness, in gratifying me So unexpectedly with your affectionate Letter of the 24. last. you art thoroughly acquainted with the art of enhancing the value of a gift. what drooping Spirits would not be revived bÿ Such a powerful tonic? and I owe you the acknowledgment, that theÿ dispelled a while the gloom—But—it has So manÿ...
49From James Monroe to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
I fear that the pressure of much business, and an anxiety to avail myself of a moment of leisuir, to write to Mr Adams in reply to his kind letter, made me delay it longer than I ought to have done. I now return you the letter—which he had the goodness to submit to my perusal, and with many thanks to him for it. The sentiments which it conveys do honor to the head & the heart of the author—....
50From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 8 March 1809 (Adams Papers)
I had heard of your illness with extreme concern, from my wife, and also through Mr: Cranch and Mrs. Quincy—The sight of your hand-writing again, has given me the purest joy, though allayed by the evident weakness in which you wrote—I believe there is in the sentence I have just written there is something which might be called a bull —But my feelings both of pleasure and pain at the idea of...
51From Henry Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
The friendships of early youth never cease but with the dying breath.—“Tell my Dear Mrs: Adams to write me or see me very soon, else we only meet in Heaven”—was one of the last expressions of your departed friend & my ever to be respected mother.—Her constant, ardent, almost sisterly affection imposes it on me as an earliest duty to inform you that death has made another inroad on your...
The peircing cold air of this Month has made me quiver so that I could not quit the fire side scarcely for a moment, & it has gone to the marrow of Mr Peabody’s bones, so that it has made him very lame again, & is obliged to walk with a cane—But otherways he is a well as could be expected, for which I desire to be grateful, to that gracious Being who has brought us to see the return of another...
53From Katherine Dexter to Abigail Smith Adams, 14 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
I lament that indisposition should have obliged me to defer so long acknowledging your kind letter; it was received with a deep sense of gratitude, with a mixture of feeling only to be produced by so generous a sympathy in a loss so severe as I have been called to meet. You have offered me Dear Madam, all that a wounded heart can ask—the sympathy of friendship; and to the departed the best...
54From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
My last Letter to you, was of the 31st: of January, from Bruxelles; and I enclosed it to Mr Beasley at London, requesting him to forward it by the earliest possible opportunity. By his answer he informs me that he dispatched it by the Packet which was to sail on the 15th: instant from Falmouth—Two days after it was written I left Bruxelles and came to this City where I arrived on the 4th:...
How changed My Dear Sister, is the weather now, from the clam clear Sunshine I enjoyed with you in my late very pleasant visit at Quincy! Winter has indeed, trod in rapid succession upon the verdant fields, & striped the trees of their green foliage; but kindly covered the roots, & herbage in mantles of Snow—Still more to vary the Scene & as if to vie with yellow Autumn, & the “wheaten Sheaf,”...
56From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
In proportion as the time lengthens since the receipt of your last Letter, which is also the last that I have received from any of my friends at Quincy, I find not only my anxiety to hear directly from you increasing with it, but also my desire and determination if possible to relieve you and my other friends with you from a similar anxiety respecting us, which you would feel in the case of so...
57From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 October 1809 (Adams Papers)
The seventy-ninth day since our departure from Boston, and not yet in Petersburg—But we are on land, within twenty miles of it, and at the end of our voyage in the ship Horace.—We have indeed had a very long passage, and it has not been without its interesting incidents, had I but the time of narrating them—But to you as well as to us, the most interesting of them is, that we are all, thanks...
58From James Monroe to Abigail Smith Adams, 3 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have had the Honor to receive your Letter of the 28th ult. covering one to your Son the American Minister at St Petersburg. I fear it will be too late for the “Hornet” sloop of war: but I have had it put under cover to Mr Barlow and sent to the Collector of the Customs at Newyork, requesting him to forward it by the first safe conveyance With great Respect / I have the Honor to be / Madam /...
59From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
When I wrote you my last Letter, a press copy of which, is enclosed, I had little or no expectation that I should at this day still be here. The John Adams sailed from the Texel, with Mr Dallas on board, the 28th: of August, and has, I hope, by this time half-performed her passage—It is one of those singular incidents, which occur occasionally in real life, and which would be thought too...
As another opportunity offers my dear Mother which I am told is a very safe one I cannot refrain from writing a few lines to assure you of the health of the family in general and to entreat you will write by every opportunity. we have only heard three times from you since we left you and you who have been placed in the same situation know how much frequent intelligence of your health and would...