581To John Adams from Abiel Holmes, 11 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Holmes, presenting his respects to President Adams, takes the liberty to ask of him an account of General Oglethorpe , and particularly of what passed between the general and him in the interviews when the President was in London after the Peace of 1783. Mr. Holmes has noticed in Boswell’s Life of Johnson mention made of a MS. Memoir of Oglethorpe, and does not despair of obtaining it. He...
582From John Adams to Abiel Holmes, 14 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
I am Sorry it is not in my power to give you much information relative to General Oglethorpe in complyance with your desire in your favour of the Eleventh of this Month. Recovering from a great Sickness in Paris in the Fall of the year after the Signature of the Definitive Treaty of Peace in 1783 I was advised by my Phesicians to take a Passage to Bath in England, for the purpose of Using the...
583To John Adams from Amos J. Cook, 21 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
Having the honor to be Preceptor of the Academy in this place, and feeling interested in the diffusion of science and literature in general, I am respectfully led to request the favor of your sending me by mail, or otherwise, as you may think proper, a specimen of your handwriting, to be preserved in the cabinet of curiosities, collecting in our Institution for the benefit of students.—I need...
584From John Adams to Amos J. Cook, 30 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
I have received the favour of your letter of the 21st. day of this month, and have complied with your request so far as to inclose with this letter, a Copy in my hand writing, of some Latin Verses, which I copied into my Pencil Book, in December 1779 from an inscription over the Door of the Cell of a Monk in Corunna in Spain.—The moral is so good, that they are worth the attention of the young...
585From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 1 December 1807 (Adams Papers)
I sympathize with you in all your Expressions of grief in your favour of Nov. 1st. at the melancholly Catastrophy of so many worthy persons your friends at Leyden and elsewhere. You derive consolation from the only source from which it can be drawn.—If I knew of any other I would joyfully administer it to you, as well as to myself.— Hunc solem et Stellas et decedentia certis Tempora momentis,...
586To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 December 1807 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 28th. instant has just come to hand, and I have stepped into the house of a friend to answer acknowledge it. I cannot sufficiently thank you & the worthy Mitchill for your friendly attention to my wishes. I called to day, for the first time, at the Custom-house, and there learnt that General Lincoln, as superintendent of the Marine-Hospital, had requested Dr Eustis to take...
587From John Adams to William Heath, 14 December 1807 (Adams Papers)
As I did not wish to oppress you with my Letters I have not acknowledged the receipt of your favour of the 18th of May, though I received it in due Season and esteemed it very highly. I have seen lately in the Chronicle, that like the good Steward you bring out of your Treasury Things new and old, and in very good Season. The Military Countryman written five or six and thirty years ago I have...
588To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 15 December 1807 (Adams Papers)
An inflammation in my eyes which for several days has confined me to my house, and rendered writing difficult and painful, must be my Apology for the Shortness of this letter. I admire the Correctness of your history of the ten talents committed to the Subject of your letter. Upon the talent of his taciturnity Mr Liston gave me the following Anecdote, “that he was the only person he had ever...
589To John Adams from Robert Smith, 15 December 1807 (Adams Papers)
I have the honor of herewith transmitting to you, for your acceptance, an impression of the medal, presented, to the late Commodore Edward Preble, in pursuance of the resolution of Congress, of the 3rd March 1805. I have the honor to be, / with great respect, / sir, yr. mo. ob. st. MHi : Adams Papers.
590From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 28 December 1807 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your printed lecture on the humanity Economy and other virtues, which require of us, more attention to our domestick animals, and especially to their diseases. We see our horses, horned cattle, sheep, swine and other species, as well as our cats and dogs, sick or wounded and no body knows what to do with them or for them, so that a broken bone or a fit of sickness is almost...
591From John Adams to Robert Smith, 28 December 1807 (Adams Papers)
I have received with pleasure, the letter you did me the honor to write me, on the fifteenth of this month: and pray you to accept my thanks for the impression of a medal, presented to the late Commodore Edward Preble in pursuance of the resolution of Congress of the third of March, one thousand eight hundred and five. This medal, in honor of the Commodore and in commemoration of a Splendid...
592To John Adams from William Heath, 28 December 1807 (Adams Papers)
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your highly esteemed favor of the 14th. current, and to ask your pardon for not doing it sooner, which has been prevented by particular engagements, In my attempts to arouse the military genius of my fellow Countrymen, your declarations of approbation and coincidence of sentiment, are no Small encouragment and Support. I do not recollect, to have seen the...
593From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 18 January 1808 (Adams Papers)
What a pitty it is; and indeed what a Shame it is, that We have not a Word in our language to express the idea of the French Word Naiveté ? There is not a figure of Rhetorick So impressive as this is ’tho it is no figure, but the most perfect simplicity. I know not whether it is possible to define it. Neat and plain, Seems to be flat and poor. Simple Nature, is not Satisfactory. Simplex...
594To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 18 February 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have escaped for ten minutes from the pressure of business, lectures–pupils, and the Charge of the Pennsylvania hospital, to drop you a few lines which I beg you will consider as the preface only of a longer letter a few Weeks hence, when I shall be relieved from three fourths of my present labors. Our Citizens are making great preparations for celebrating the birth day of the first...
595From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 25 February 1808 (Adams Papers)
Your two last Letters have puzzled me. In one you tell me that your Citizens are clamorous against the Residence of Congress at Washington. Now Washington was the Father of the Columbian Territory, the City of Washington and the Residence of Congress in it: and Washington Jefferson and L’Enfant were the Triumvirate who planned the City the Capitol and the Prince’s Palace. In your last Feb. 18...
596To John Adams from Henry Guest, 28 February 1808 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of 18 January 1806 Per post Came duly to hand and I Assure you that it gave Me greate pleasure,—for which be pleased to Except My Most Greatefull Thanks—until Very Lately I had no Subject that I thought Worthy of my the Notice of your Superior Mind—The Rever John Murry of Boston Lately paid Me A Short Visit As An Old frind that took him by the hand When he Was A Strainger in this...
597To John Adams from James Lovell, 10 March 1808 (Adams Papers)
Hoping to have, very speedily, an opportunity of testifying my Esteem of you, at your own house, in propria personâ; I now take the freedom of making a previous intreaty that you would find from Judge Cranch the origin of the Katascoptic Club; which met at the Chamber of Edmd. Quincy 3. times in a Chamber at in the Widow Salter’s House where Gl. Donnison now lives; – in 1756 or 57. I beg you...
598To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 17 March 1808 (Adams Papers)
I flatter me Self with the fond hope, that mÿ old and high-revered friend Shall not, after Such a long Silence, be displeased by mÿ intrusion. I can not bear it longer, to withold me Self the Satisfaction—of assuring you once more of mÿ warm attachment, and unabated respect—tho I must appear before you with empty hands—So empty—as not to defraÿ the loss of you precious time, in the perusal of...
599From John Adams to James Sullivan, March 1808 (Adams Papers)
Mr Pickerings Letter Neither Mr Pickerings claim to a Share of Attention, nor the republican duty to be jealous of public Men, if resonably interpreted, will be controverted, by me, upon this occasion. I must nevertheless acknowledge, that I am not one of those Republicans, who admire the Doctrine of the Duty and Virtue of Jealousy. Much Savage Brutality, I fear, has been introduced into the...
600To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 5 April 1808 (Adams Papers)
A bad cold, added to the pressure of business, has delayed my answer much longer than I intended to your last acceptable letter. You have mistaken the Church to which I belong in supposing that prayers will one day be offered up in it to the great man whose birth day has lately been celebrated in our Country. During the life of Dr Ewing whose influence was very extensive in the Presbyterian...
601Review of James Hillhouse, Propositions, 12 April 1808 (Adams Papers)
Review Propositions for amending the Constitution of the United States, Submitted by Mr Hillhouse to the Senate, on the twelfth day of April 1808, with his explanatory Remarks. In Pages five and Six, Mr Hillhouse defines his Terms, Monarchy, Aristocracy, Democracy, Federalists and Republicans. To his Idea of Aristocracy alone, Shall We make any objection, at present: but before We State our...
602From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 18 April 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have your favour of the 5th. My dear Mrs Adams bids me present her friendly regards to you and Mrs Rush and all your family, and to say to you that she has read your Letter with pleasure excepting what relates to a Gentleman from whom she had before a great Esteem, and all she can Say upon that Subject is that she wished she had not read it. In my jocular prayer to the Saint I meant No...
603From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 25 April 1808 (Adams Papers)
You were a Letter in my debt, when you wrote yours of March 17th but you did not know it. I wrote you Some months ago, and asked the favour of you to inform me, what is the Christian Name the Place of Residence, and the present Titles of our Friend Mr De Gyselaer, formerly Pensionary of Dort. I had particular reasons for this Inquiry which you would not disapprove, though I am not at present...
604To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 13 June 1808 (Adams Papers)
Public and private news & anecdotes are now so limited by the present state of our Country, that I have had nothing worth putting upon paper for your Amusement since the reciept of your letter. The principal design of this hasty scrawl is to inform you that you still live in my Affections, and that few persons occur oftener to my thoughts. Indeed I can scarcely review any of the memorable...
605To John Adams from Henry Guest, 15 June 1808 (Adams Papers)
Your Very Frindly Letter of the 14th. March last Came Duly to hand. it gave and Still gives Me Much pleasure—I am allso Much pleased with my son Henry for doing himself so Much Sattisfaction As his Paying you that respect that He Knew I should have done if Near you on a Journey to Boston—He realy gave Me Much Sattisfaction that his Pollitical ideas pleased you. His Lettes to Me Are full of...
606From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 20 June 1808 (Adams Papers)
I give you this Title for the present only. I Shall Scarcely allow you to be a political, moral, or Christian Philosopher, till you retract Some of the Complaints Lamentations, Regrets and Penitences in your Letter of the 13th.—But more of this presently. Mr John Reed, the first Lawyer who left a great Reputation in our State, in the Administration of Governor Shirley was a Councillor, or in...
607From John Adams to Henry Guest, 26 June 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of the fifteenth of this Month and read it with pleasure; and my Son, who happened to be with me, on a visit, from Boston where he resides read the part of it addressed to him, with apparent Satisfaction. on his return from Washington he presented me, in your name with that fine American Staff which I call “My Guest,” for which I give you a thousand Thanks. It not...
608To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 13 July 1808 (Adams Papers)
The Campaign of Summer diseases being opened,—and my duties calling me at all hours of the day into the field of sickness and distress, I have not had time ’till now to answer your last letter. I shall abruptly say in reply to the latter part of it, that the Union of the Democrats and Quids in our state was founded upon the dread of federal power manifested in the supposed removal of your son...
609From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 25 July 1808 (Adams Papers)
Handsome Bradford, of thy City, allarmed me, the other day at our Athenaeum in Boston, by telling me, that Dr Rushes Business had amazingly encreased and was encreasing. Knowing thine Ardor in thy Profession, I was apprehensive that thy Zeal for the Health of the Sick would Soon eat thee Up, and consequently that thine Ether would escape from this Colluvies of Humanity to the Regions of...
610To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 3 August 1808 (Adams Papers)
I can not express in words the livelÿ Satisfaction I enjoy’d in receiving your favour of the 25th of april. It was Some time, before I observed, that it was more than three months old. From where does this originate. Is the correspondence of an Insignificant, forgotten western Inhabitant an object of alarm? but it can not be poor V. d kemp at whom these reptiles aim—they gnaw with rancour at a...
611From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 15 August 1808 (Adams Papers)
You have puzzled and confounded me, by your Letter of the 3 of Aug.—After allarming me with Some Suggestions or Suspicions of Infidelity in the Post office you Say “I Suppose the Crime is perpetrated in Massachusetts. Look at the inclosed Sealing. it is from you?” I thought this gave me a Right and made it my duty to open it, and Lo! a lovely Letter from your amiable Daughter to your worthy...
612From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 15 August 1808 (Adams Papers)
The inclosed Letter came under cover, to me in a letter from your father dated the 3d. of August. After hinting that there had been some unfair play in the Post Office he says “I suppose the Crime is perpetrated in Massachusetts—Look at the inclosed sealing. It is from you?” I looked at the sealing and concluded there was something within to unriddle the mystery. I accordingly clipped the...
613To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 24 August 1808 (Adams Papers)
In Contemplating the events that have lately taken place in Spain, and their probable Consequences, I we feel disposed to exclaim in the bold Apostrophe of Jeremiah “O! thou Sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy Scabbard, rest, and be Still.” Chapt: 47. verse 6th: shall we hope that a Voice from heaven has arrested the destroyer of nations, or is he...
614From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 31 August 1808 (Adams Papers)
Instead of preparing for Commencement, I am answering your delicious Letter of the 24th.—But where to begin or where to end! I will follow your own order. If I had ever heard that a Pen of Tacitus had been preserved among the Reliques of Antiquity, I Should Swear you had Stolen it to draw the Character of the most conspicuous moral political and military Character Phenomenon of this Age.— I...
615To John Adams from Skelton Jones, August 1808 (Adams Papers)
HAVING secured the copy right of a book, of which the enclosed is a prospectus, I take the liberty, though personally unacquainted with you, of requesting such information of the events of the period mentioned in the prospectus, as you may, from your public station, have been particularly acquainted with. As it relates to the biographical sketch that will be given of your own character, the...
616From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 8 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
I will not Stand upon Ceremonies, with you, and wait for the Return of a Visit, or an Answer to my last Letter. Whatever proportion of Loyalty to an established Dinasty of Kings, or whatever taint of catholic Superstition there may be in the present Sensations of the Spanish People, I revere the Mixture of pure Patri or however their Conduct may have been excited by British or Austrian Gold, I...
617To John Adams from Henry Guest, 8 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have Deferred Acknowleging the reipt. of your Very Obliging Lettr. Of 16 June Last wherein in a Peculiar Manner you are pleased to Except of your Guest. May it be to you the Service intended from the Simplicity of honist intentions—And I hartily Wish I Could So Easily transpourt the Doner to your preasence for an hour when your Lasure Would Admit—He which in the first Moments Endeavour to...
618To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 16 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
I shall answer your letter of Augst: 31st: by giving you an Account of one of my late dreams. After having recently observed the fatal effects of intemperances in the use of Ardent Spirits in one of my patients, and reflecting afterwards upon the incalculable evils they are spreading through our Country, I went to bed a few evenings ago at my usual hour, and during the night I dreamed that I...
619To John Adams from Gabriel Duvall, 17 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
The House of Representatives of the United States having passed a resolution directing the Secretary of the Treasury to lay before them at their next Session a list of all balances due to the United States on account of monies advanced, it is desirable to Settle as many accounts as it Shall be found practicable to examine before the first day of October next, and particularly in cases where it...
620To John Adams from William Cunningham, 19 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
In a Letter which I had the pleasure, some time since, to receive from you, you expressed some reproof of the inactivity of the Federalists—Their conduct, at present, is not liable to such a censure; perhaps it may deserve the reproach of intemperate ardour. The zeal of party has certainly attempted to overbear the freedom of private opinion, and totally to overthrow the character of him who...
621To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 22 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
The politicks of our City are under the direction of three Classes of people, old tories, merchents, and brokers. They are neither anticipating, nor retrospective animals. All their calculations are for the present moment. They know nothing of its treaties, nor of the former volcanic eruptions of the power and tyranny of France. The last shower with them is always the heaviest. Why then do you...
622From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 27 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
That Rosicrusian Sylph, that Fairy Queen Mab, or that other familiar Spirit whatever it is, that inspires your nightly dreams, I would not exchange, if I had it, for the Dæmon of Socrates. You have more Wit and humour and Sense in your Sleep, than other People I was about to Say, than you have yourself when awake. I know not whether I have ever read two finer Allegories, than the two you have...
623From John Adams to William Cunningham, 27 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
The papers to No. 6, which you mention in your kind letter of the 19th I have never seen nor heard. In what paper or pamphlet were they published? The federalists, I think, might suffer my old lamp to go out without administering their nauseous oil, merely to excite a momentary flash before it expires. Do you think the federalists believe themselves when they say that I am on the side of the...
624From John Adams to Henry Guest, 30 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
I agree with you in your obliging letter of the eighth of this month that the new England states ought to have their equitable share in the government of the nation and I think that hitherto they have not, I think too that hitherto they have not I think too, that they ought not to bear more than their just proportion of the public burden; but I know that they have. They are so much outnumbered...
625To John Adams from J. J. Van der Kemp, 30 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
The letter you did me the honor to write to me, reached this place during my absence on a visit to my esteemed Parents and that beloved Sister, whose letter to me accidentally fell into your hands, and which you had the goodness to enclose.—I returned only a few days ago from Oldenbarneveld, or I should have embraced an earlier opportunity of expressing my sincere thanks for your kindness and...
626To John Adams from William Cunningham, 5 October 1808 (Adams Papers)
The papers, to which you have obligingly ask’d a more particular reference, were published in the Palladium, with the signature of Chatham. I deem’d their composition in a higher strain than my principles suggested, to be necessary to arrert the public attention—in moments of peculiar excitement, the ruling passion is frequently the only avenue through which sober reflections can be conveyed...
627From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 10 October 1808 (Adams Papers)
The three Classes of People in Boston, who direct our public Affairs are the Same as those you describe in your favour of 22 of Sept. It gives me great pleasure, to learn that our old Friend Mr Clymer is as he always was a pure-American. I cannot however boldly defend the long Continuance of the Embargo. I thought it at first a necessary Measure, but was fully apprehensive it could not be long...
628From John Adams to Gabriel Duvall, 13 October 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have received the Letter you did me the honor to write me on the Seventeenth of September; and in Answer to it I beg leave to inform you, that the account of the fourteen thousand dollars granted on the Second of March 1797 for the further Accommodation of the Household of the President of the United States was Settled before I left Washington, as appears by the enclosed Copy of a Letter to...
629From John Adams to William Cunningham, 15 October 1808 (Adams Papers)
The information in your last letter, to look in the Palladium for certain speculations, is very agreeable. As I have never subscribed for that paper, I have never read them. Indeed I seldom see it. Your friendship for J. Q. Adams, encourages me to say, that Washington was indeed under obligations to him, for turning the tide of sentiment against Genet, and he was sensible of it and grateful...
630To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 21 October 1808 (Adams Papers)
The election in Pennsylvania has issued in a manner totally unexpected by the federalists, and beyond the expectations of the Democrats. I was deceived in the Opinion I gave you in my last letter by some of my federal friends who pretended to know the dispositions of the interior And frontier Counties Stse of the State. Mr: Langdon will be returned governor by a majority of nearly 30,000...