51Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 30 August 1799 (Adams Papers)
I enclose, as directed, under cover to you, the Summary statement of services rendered at an important & critical period of our Country’s affairs, by an intelligent, brave, & deserving Officer. I think it an hardship that such merit & such services are so soon obliterated from the recollection or so much out of the knowledge of Gentlemen now in Office, that a statement under the hand of the...
52Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 8 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have your favor of the 31 st: ult o: with an enclosure for R. Peters Jun r: which shall be delivered as soon as an opportunity of sending it, presents— I have not yet found means to forward the last enclosure you made me—which is rather the effect of misfortune than neglect, though you doubtless will think I have no excuse for being nine weeks within 3 miles of the Bishops, without having...
53Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
On the 11 th: inst t: I received your favor of the 4 th: and last evening, on my return from Mr: Breck’s Country seat, where I passed Friday & Saturday night’s, your’s of the 8 th: had come to hand. Same time, rec d: from William the poem you sent me for Miss Wister & his letter of the 6 th: I am obliged by all these things & newspapers to boot. Coopers address, valedictory, I now remember to...
54Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 22 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
I received your obliging & copious communication of the 13 th: and render thanks for the trouble you have taken to explain a subject, which had excited my curiosity & interested my feelings, but which, without your aid, I should have been unable to comprehend to my satisfaction. I think it necessary only to observe in reply, that I fully concur in the opinion of the rectitude, propriety &...
55Thomas Boylston Adams to William Cranch, 24 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your favor of the 19 th: inst t: is before me, with the enclosure for Judge Cushing, which I shall forward with my next letters to Quincy, with request to have it sent on. The terms & expressions of your application, strike me as perfectly apt & proper. Judge Cushing, was taken ill on his journey to Philadelphia, and returned home, but the Court met & dispatched business as usual. I waited on...
56Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 26 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your very kind favor of the 14 th: inst t: has a claim upon my gratitude, not only for the obliging wish it conveys, that I should become one of your family, on your return to Philadelphia, but also for the flattering opinion, you are pleased to express, on the subject of my letters & classical taste. I shall make no scruple to accept the invitation to dwell under the same roof with my...
57Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 13 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
I must beg you to congratulate the President & yourself from me, on your safe arrival in our neighborhood. Your journey was, I apprehend, more favorable in point of weather than my mother’s is likely to be, for we have had very heavy rains & dull skies all the last week more or less— Even on Tuesday, the all important 8 th: , of October, big with the fate of Pennsylvania, we had in the morning...
58Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 15 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your favors of the 5 th: & 7 th: curr t came in course, and I am much indebted to you for the disposition you made of the letters, which arrived, after my father’s departure. I have lately rec d: several European letters & pamphlets & ought to have received another with the letter you enclosed me from M r: Pitcairn, in which he desires particular respects to you. He acknowledges the receipt of...
59Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 15 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
Your favor of the 12 th: instant came to hand this morning, and I am greatly obliged by the kind invitation it contains to join you & my cousin at Trenton, which it would give me great pleasure to do immediately, but for the desire I feel of procuring an office in to which I may enter immediately on my return to the City. The inhabitants are daily flocking to town, but I have not thought it...
60Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 22 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favors of the 17 th: & 19 th: instants and take the first moment of leisure, that has occurred, since their receipt, to acknowledge gratefully these fresh instances of parental solicitude respecting my personal concerns. I shall reply without reserve to your last letter, which relates more immediately to my professional prospects. I have always been persuaded of the...
61Thomas Boylston Adams to Joseph Pitcairn, 23 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
Between the 8 th: & 16 th: instants I have been fortunate enough to receive your several agreeable favors of July 6 th: August 10 th: 15 th: 17 th: & 28 th: with sundry pamphlets & ca: & ca: for all which please to accept my thanks. The muskets by the Connecticut are likewise rec d:
62Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 23 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have yet to reply to your favors of the 15 th: & 21 st: inst ts: the latter of which with the letters of M r: Pitcairn, came to hand last evening. I have been anxious for some days on account of reports, which have been circulated with great zeal & industry, of a serious misunderstanding in the Cabinet at Trenton, and though I give credit slowly to the idle rumors of the day, I cannot but...
63Thomas Boylston Adams to William Cranch, 25 November 1799 (Adams Papers)
I received with much pleasure a few days ago, your favor of the 15 th: instant and shall not be inattentive to those parts of its contents which relate to the subject of your application for the clerkship of the Supreme Court of the U.S. and will be careful to give you seasonable notice whether your personal attendance here in February would be likely to conduce to the success of your plan....
64Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 29 December 1799 (Adams Papers)
Since the date of my last letter, I have received none from you, of course I do not feel very culpable in having suffered so long an interval to elapse without writing, though, if a direct opportunity from this place had offered, I should not have neglected it. In my last, I promised to make out my Account at the commencement of the next Century, & this I intend doing, to accompany the present...
65Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 1 February 1800 (Adams Papers)
Your very acceptable favors of the 17 th: September & 22 d: October came to hand within two days of each other about the middle of last month, and it would be difficult to express how much comfort they brought with them by the assurances they contained of the reestablishment of your own & your Louisa’s health. Since the receipt of this intelligence my Mother has got your favor of September 21...
66Thomas Boylston Adams to William Cranch, 15 February 1800 (Adams Papers)
Since the date of my last to you, I have received your favors of the 29 th: ult° : and 4 th: curr t: —the latter enclosing letters for the Judges of the Sup: Court, four of which, I immediately caused to be delivered, to the judges present. My Mother’s suggestion was better than mine, and I am glad you observed it. The same Gentleman who procured, or was at least greatly instrumental in...
67Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 25 February 1800 (Adams Papers)
I received on the 18 th: instant your favor of the 7 th. & 17 th. November, Original & Dup: with sundry enclosures relative to the affair between M r: Engel & Mess rs: Mark of New York. I have forwarded to them the letter to their address, with one from self, acquainting them with my Authority to demand payment of the debt, and desiring them to make speedy arrangements to that effect. If,...
68Thomas Boylston Adams to Richard Cranch, 27 March 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have to acknowledge the receipt of, and to thank you for your kind favor of the 7 th: inst t: which came to hand ten days ago. The extract from Col: T Johnson’s letter, contains information, which is very useful to be known by the distant proprietors of lands in the State of Vermont, and I shall very shortly write upon the subject of ours, to that Gentleman— The Surveyor General M r:...
69Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 1 April 1800 (Adams Papers)
Since the date of my last, I have received none from you, though we are in expectation of arrivals from Hamburg, which we think must bring Some tidings of or from you. I wrote a letter to Mess rs: Marks & C o. very soon after the receipt of the papers of M r: Engel, and in the course of a few days after, got an answer copy of which I now enclose.— I have put the business into the hands of M r:...
70Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 11 May 1800 (Adams Papers)
A long interval has gone by since the date of my last to you, but I have received nothing from you in the course of it. Not a vessel has arrived here from Hamburg for several months and none of your letters later than the beginning of December have reached this Country. We know that in consequence of the severity of the past winter, the navigation of the Elbe was obstructed for many weeks,...
71Thomas Boylston Adams to Joseph Pitcairn, 31 May 1800 (Adams Papers)
On my return last evening from a short journey into the interior of this State, I received your favor of April 7 th: accompanied with No 10 of Le Precis militaire. The two last preceding Numbers have not yet come to hand, nor any letter of a later date than December 3. From my brother I have no accounts so late as from yourself. Just before my departure from the City, I rec d: a letter from M...
72Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 1 June 1800 (Adams Papers)
I returned to the City the night before last on the 18 th: day after my departure. My Father sat off on Tuesday and I found the house turned inside out. My own things were carefully packed up by M r: Briesler and yesterday I had them removed to my lodgings in the same family that I was with last year. M r: Briesler & family will be ready to sett out on Tuesday and will leave the house in good...
73Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 18 June 1800 (Adams Papers)
This morning I had the pleasure to receive your favor of the 12 th: inst t: and am happy to learn your safe arrival at the hospitable mansion, where I fervently hope, you and my Father, may enjoy days & years of tranquil life. For my own sake & for the sake of all my family, it would, I believe, be a happy circumstance, if there should be no further occasion for either of my parents leaving...
74Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 3 July 1800 (Adams Papers)
I enclose you a receipt from Watson for your last p r of Pentaloons, and M r: Lynch’s receipt for the last quarter’s rent of the house; the last you will please to give to my Mother. Frederick, the Hostler, called on me some days ago, to give him a character, as a Coachman, saying that his own , was gone in his chest to Quincy, and praying me to write for it. I promised to do the latter, but...
75Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 19 July 1800 (Adams Papers)
I had the pleasure to receive your favor of the 12 th: , this morning, enclosing a letter from my brother, for the perusal of which I thank you. It is a very long time, since I had any intelligence concerning him, and I feel anxious lest some of his letters or mine should have miscarried on the route. W. Shaw informs me, in his letter of the 11 th: that the State Department has letters dated...
76Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 26 July 1800 (Adams Papers)
Your kind favor of the 14 th: has been some days in hand— I thank you for your tender solicitude for my health & success— As to the first I can say, with thankfulness that it is better than usual at this melting season— To the second, I can reply, that my professional success, is sufficient to keep me above despondency, though far short of my necessities. On Tuesday last I argued a cause of...
77Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 8 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
I received in due course your favor of the 25 th: ult o: together with the volume of Debates, Catalogue & ca: for all which I return you thanks— I have been but a negligent correspondent this Summer, compared with the last, for the plain reason that I have had more pressing claims upon my attention— You shall eventually lose nothing, however, by continuing your regular communications. The...
78Thomas Boylston Adams to William Cranch, 15 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
Your favor of the 11 th: inst t: which has this moment come to hand, found me with pen in hand; on the very threshold of writing to you, for the purpose of offering you my very sincere & hearty congratulations upon the success of your Competitor M r: Caldwell, who has obtained the appointment of Clerk to the Supreme Court of the U. S.— This exordium may appear singular to you, the more so,...
79Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 18 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
I received in course your favor of the 4 th: inst t: a pretty assiduous attendance at Court, during the whole of the last week prevented my making a sooner acknowledgment. Two causes of considerable moment were argued very elaborately, an outline of which may be found in the Gazette of the U.S. of the 16 th: — The question of war or no war, as it respects the relative situations of the United...
80Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 22 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have paid you all I owed in the article of letters, but I receive few communications from home. Please to tell my mother that I like to know, now & then, a little of the Cabinet secrets. The Report that the negociation with France is broken off, creates considerable sensation here & at New York— I think few people actually believe the story, but it serves the turn of newspaper Scriblers to...
81Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 28 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday I received the newspapers which you enclosed with my Mother’s letter of the inst t: —& which by accident was sent on to Washington instead of Philadelphia— Moreover not having had time to read the papers yesterday, they were laid aside and I did not, until this morning, discover my Mothers letter, which was concealed in one of the papers. You will easily believe that the letter was...
82Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 30 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favor of the 23 d: inst t: I hesitated for some days, whether I should enclose the paper containing the Number of Horatius, which was so ridiculously headed as that you refer to, but I finally concluded that the intention of the Author was good, and that an honest though deluded zeal, had transported him, like so many others, whom we have seen, to bolster up a cause,...
83Thomas Boylston Adams to Joseph Pitcairn, 5 September 1800 (Adams Papers)
On the 12 th: of last month I received your favor of the 30 th: May which is the most recent of my European advices— I have not a line from Berlin for a period of more than six months, although I cannot accuse myself of any remissness in writing. These things were not wont, so to be, but I doubt not the Minister has a reasonable excuse— I must scold a little more directly than I have done or I...
84Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 20 September 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favors of the 6 th. & 10 th: inst ts:— The little schism which took place among the federal people at their late meetings, & which was detailed in one of my late letters, has terminated to general satisfaction & from the turn it has taken will probably very much promote a union of interest & exertion. Every measure, which was pursued to modify the proceedings of the...
85Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 23 September 1800 (Adams Papers)
I inclose you the Aurora of this morning which is pretty rich in contents. For some time past it has been too flat & insipid to compensate the trouble of sending it to you. I observe that the pieces under the signature of Decius are ascribed to H. G Otis— I have read but a few of the numbers, but I have no doubt the Author is clearly & rightly designated. The story he tells in his No 15 of the...
86Thomas Boylston Adams to Joseph Pitcairn, 30 September 1800 (Adams Papers)
Since my last to you, I have none of your favors, although I have within a week past received three letters from my Brother with your mark upon them. The last of these came to hand this day & was written while my brother was upon his journey to Silesia. The details of his travels are very interesting. The most remarkable domestic occurrence, since the date of my last, is the discovery of a...
87Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 October 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have your favor of the 26 th: ult o: with an enclosure; with what I paid for the servant’s trunk & the cask of wine, the account is just balanced. I have not been called on for any more charges & imagine none are due— The wine I suppose to be a present from Our Consul M r: Willis. I am extremely grieved at the disaster, which has befallen my Cousin Boylston, & which, according to your...
88Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 5 October 1800 (Adams Papers)
I now enclose you my Brother’s letter of July the 10 th: which I promised to transmit by this day’s Mail; but being anxious to see a considerable portion of it in print, & solicited by M r: Dennie to furnish him a copy for the Gazette of the U.S. of Monday next, I could not complete the copy in time for sending, so that I am apprehensive you will not receive it until after the President’s...
89Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 12 October 1800 (Adams Papers)
Since the date of my last letter, I have received your several favors of the 10 th: June Dup: 15 th: July Dup: 10 th: & 16 th: July, with enclosures for some of your Louisa’s family; the last of which to her brother, was accompanied by a few lines from herself to me; for which I thank her. The enclosures have all been forwarded, but I have not heard directly from her friends for many weeks— I...
90Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 19 October 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favors of the 10 th: & 12 th: inst ts: and am highly gratified by their contents; excepting the bill of health, which is less cheering than I could wish it might have been. I have been so occupied with attendance upon Courts and writing to my correspondents in Europe, during the last ten days, that I have not found time to write you; & the expectation of William’s...
91Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 1 November 1800 (Adams Papers)
The morning after you left this place, the Aurora was filled with five columns & an half, from T. Coxe; wherein he undertakes to detail another private conversation, which passed between him and M r: Dennie, during his last visit to the City, & while he lodged in the same house with Dennie & myself. It is hardly necessary to observe, that this, like all other details from the same source, is...
92Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 6 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
Since the date of my last I have received several numbers in continuation of the series, which you have been kind enough to address me, giving so ample & instructive details of your excursion to Silesia. The last number which came to hand was No 1. and I had a few days before received No 14, which is the highest; but three intermediate numbers, viz: No s 7. 11 & 12 are yet wanting to complete...
93Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 7 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favor of the 3 d: inst t: and the newspapers enclosed. I will endeavor to comply with your request, that I communicate with you more frequently, but I will be free to confess to you, that every year of my life, I grow more selfish & less disposed to write letters, merely of friendship. You will experience the same thing in a few years, & I believe you assigned the true...
94Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 14 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
The letter from Gen l: Pinckney to Gen l: Marshall apprising him of the probable result of the South Carolina election, seems to be considered here as deciding the great political contest, which has excited so much interest, throughout the Continent, for some months past. The issue is like to be different from that which the federalists have, of late allowed themselves to anticipate, and their...
95Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 20 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
Our Supreme Court being in session, has occupied my time so much as to prevent answering your favors of the 10 th: & 13 th: inst ts: I have seen M rs: Kirkham since I got your letter, and given her the fresh order; she will prepare the articles & I shall send them as soon as I can. I have applied to two Coachmakers to ascertain what you desired; neither of them have any ready made coachees on...
96Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 21 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have given an introductory letter for yourself and one for my father, to a young man by the name of Charles D Coxe; he will probably be at the federal City towards the last of this week. From himself I understand he intends making application for the Consulship at the Isle of France, and his reason for applying during the present administration he avers to be, because he is a federalist & a...
97Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 28 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have received your affectionate & confidential favors of the 17 th: & 23 d: inst ts: and have conferred with M r: Ingersoll on the subject of their contents, so far as they concerned himself. He observed, that his communication with me, on the subject of his resignation of the office he now holds under government, was intended merely to afford an opportunity for filling the vacancy, which...
98Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 30 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
Your kind letter of the 25 th: inst t: came by this day’s Mail. I have found a Coachee ready made, at Fielding’s for sale, which, with the alterations that can with ease & despatch be made, will, I think, answer your purpose exactly. The body of the Coachee is somewhat shorter & more in the form of a Coach, than that you have, but it is well put together & the wheels & carriage appear to be...
99Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 9 January 1801 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letters of the 2 d: & 3 d: inst ts: and thank you for them— I shall agree with Fielding for the Coachee and attend to the conveniences you mention. I can suggest no method for your coming to this place, unless by taking a carriage from Washington, which might be sent back by Stage-horses. Barney, of Georgetown, would most probably contract with you for one— I am so...
100Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 9 January 1801 (Adams Papers)
I have searched, in conformity to the request expressed in your favor of the 2 d: inst t: all the writers upon the law of Nature and Nations, which I have in my Office, for authorities to support & justify & explain, the Sixth article of the Convention with France. The extracts from Vattel in your letter are somewhat more explicit on the particular point in question, than his masters,...