211From 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...
212From 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...
213From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 September 1805 (Adams Papers)
After receiving so many trifles you will not be surprised at another. I wish you to tell me whether the Barilla is the same with the Kali or Soda! In the first Volume of the Supplement to the American Encyclopedia, p. 8 I find an Article British Barilla is the name given by Mr. James King of Newcastle upon Tyne, to a material invented by him, to Supply the place of Spanish Barilla in the...
214From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 31 January 1805 (Adams Papers)
Until your wishes & enquiries shall be known concerning, Ingraham’s Journal, I see nothing more likely to afford you amusement, than that part in which he seems to believe, that he had added somewhat to our Stock of Geographical Knowledge. In the 2d. volume the first page of which he has marked 52 or book 2 ch:4, he says—"1791 April 19, We steered NNW from the Island of Dominica and at 4...
215From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 17 August 1807 (Adams Papers)
In the 306 page of your first Volume there are certain Traits that I had overlooked. “Richard Henry Lee Esq. was the first who dared explicitly to propose a Declaration of Independence. The Proposal Spread a Sudden dismay. A Silent Astonishment, Seemed to prevade the Assembly” &c. These Expressions, Madam, could only have arisen from Misinformation, or perhaps I shall express myself more...
216From John Adams to William Cunningham, 16 January 1804 (Adams Papers)
I ought to acknowledge my fault in having two of your kind letters to answer at once. I return you with thanks, Mr: Thomas’s Spy in which my poor "Thoughts on government," are wickedly and libellously imputed to "the greatest man in America." This was received in your letter of Dec 2d: I thank you for the trouble you have taken to ascertain that Mr: Zabdiel Adams’s Sermon on the validity of...
217From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 1 September 1807 (Adams Papers)
It is rare, that a Letter of yours remains so long upon my Table unacknowledged as has that of July 9th. Crudens Apophthagm is well worthy of your Remembrance and that of your Posterity for forty times forty years more. It is the only Clue to the Labyrinth of the World, the only key to the Riddle of the Universe. “Some Crimes are punished to prove a Providence; others escape to teach a future...
218John Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 1 February 1802 (Adams Papers)
Politicks are forbidden fruit to me, at present, and what other Subject can I choose for a Letter? Shall I tell you what Books I read? or how many times a Week I go into the Woods? These Informations would not be interesting to you. I Suppose I may hint at a Question of Law without giving offence to the Powers that be, or the Powers that once were, but be not. A great noise has been made about...
219From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 12 April 1807 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 3d is received; I am willing to allow you Philosophers your opinion of the universal gravitation of matter, if you will allow mine that there is in some souls a principle of absolute levity that buoys them irresistibly into the Clouds. Whether you call it etherial spirit or inflammable air it has an uncontroulable tendency to ascend & has no capacity to ascertain the height...
220From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 30 September 1805 (Adams Papers)
Although it is a gratification to my feelings to write to you and a much greater pleasure to receive a Letter from you: Yet I have no desire to give you any trouble, or the least Anxiety on my Account when your Answer is delayed. I know your Avocations and respect them. No Apology is ever necessary, for any pause in our Correspondence. The Journals of Congress afford little light, in...
221From 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...
222From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 23 July 1806 (Adams Papers)
I have two of your Letters to acknowledge, at once. The Treatise on the Spleen I have read, and been entertained by it, perhaps more than I should have been if I had been better acquainted with the sciences on which it depends. Your medical Speculations are to me as entertaining as Romances of which I am a great lover: but they are as much in request among the learned of your Profession: so...
223From John Adams to Christopher Gadsden, 16 April 1801 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favor of the 11th. of March and, with a pleasure far exceeding all my powers of Expression perceive that your friendly Sentiments for me are as kind and indulgent as they were six and twenty years ago. I read with the Same Satisfaction your publication last fall, and with a tenderness which was almost too much for my Sensibility. While Wythe and Pendleton and McKean and...
224From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 31 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
In answer to your kind Inquiries concerning my health, in your favour of the 14th, I can inform you that I enjoy as good health as a Man in his fifteenth Lustre, can reasonably expect, except a little paralytic trembling in the hands, which does not much incommode me however in Writing. I have been engaged this Summer as you have in reading History. Voltaires Moeurs et Esprit des Nations and...
225From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 23 April 1807 (Adams Papers)
you have Spent your Winter with delight as well as Industry. My Moments have neither produced pleasure or improvements to be compared to yours. I am obliged to be very œconomical of my sight. Though I can See very well, with Glasses, or without them My Eyes cannot bear fatigue as they did when they were young. you have Sett me a Task that will infallibly make me blind before it will be...
226From 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...
227From John Adams to Josiah, III Quincy, 23 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for all the fine Speeches you send me and especially for that of Mr Loyd and the letter of the 14th. inclosed with it. The Speech is a chaste, neat composition, very Sensible, candid, frank and manly. I conclude with him “remove the Embargo, authorize the Merchants to arm their Vessels, put the Nation in a State of defence and assert your well established and indisputable Rights or...
228From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 3 March 1804 (Adams Papers)
Last night I recd your favor of 15 of Feb. At the two last Meetings of our Academy I made Inquiry concerning your Manuscript, and found that the committee had referred it to a Sub committee who were not then present and had not reported. I will endeavour to get this matter settled at the next meeting, in May. Buffon, I presume from all that I have heard or read of him believed in nothing but...
229From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 27 February 1805 (Adams Papers)
I have just now received your friendly letter of the 19th. and rejoice with you Sincerely in the Wellfare of your Family. I wish you had named the Captain in the British Army who has been So fortunate as to marry your Second daughter; Many of those officers are worthy Men, and you are much in the Wrong to deplore her as lost to you,—for life. Neither Upper Canada nor England are so far off,...
230From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 11 November 1806 (Adams Papers)
When I recd your favour of the 24. Oct, I Soberly expected a grave dissertation on the Perfectibility of Man. Although I thank you for the political information you give me, which is amusing and although I doubt not your Physiological researches will result in something usefull to the publick, yet, as I have ever considered all Arts Sciences and Litterature as of small importance in comparison...
231From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 23 January 1809 (Adams Papers)
What Signify Clamours against Commerce Property Kings Nobles Demagogues Democracy, the Clergy Religion? For to each and all of these has the Depravity of Man been imputed by some Philosophers. Rousseau says the first Man who fenced a Cabbage yard ought to have been put to death. Dr but Diderot says the first Man who Suggested the Idea of a god ought to have been treated as an Enemy of the...
232From 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...
233From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 25 June 1807 (Adams Papers)
John Bunjan, if he had written my last Letter to you would have called it an history of Gods Judgments against Lyars and Libellers. Such indeed it seems to be. A great Number of others might have been added, and two or three at least ought to have been. Phillip Freneau is one of the Number: but I know not in what Light to consider him. A Libeller, he certainly was not only against me but...
234John Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 12 March 1802 (Adams Papers)
I rec d. last night, your Letter of the 3 d.— It was far from my thoughts to assign you a task. I meant only to turn your mind to a Subject, which must necessaryly engage much of your contemplations, as long as you live. The Folc Right, the Peoples Right, the common law, is the natural, Inheritance of Us all. It is our Birth Right. But precious as it is, and dear as it ought to be to all our...
235From 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...
236John Adams. (Adams Papers)
Begun Oct. 5. 1802. As the Lives of Phylosophers, Statesmen or Historians written by them selves have generally been suspected of Vanity, and therefore few People have been able to read them without disgust; there is no reason to expect that any Sketches I may leave of my own Times would be received by the Public with any favour, or read by individuals with much interest. The many great...
237From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 22 December 1806 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for yours of the twenty fifth of November. I was in hopes you would have explained to me the System of human Perfectibility which was is claimed as the Invention of Dr Priestley. The System of the French Œconomists I took some Pains, more than five and twenty years ago, to understand; but could not find one Gentleman among the Statesmen, Phylosophers and Men of Letters, who...
238From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 13 July 1801 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 20 of June has been long on its Journey. I cannot recollect, in detail, the particulars of the Conversation you allude to at Mr De Neuvilles.—Capellen de Poll was a noble man by Nature. A frank, manly, generous Soul. Wherever I have met such spirits I have always felt them. Capellen was frequently with the Reports fabricated by the Anglomanes, representing the affairs of...
239From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 11 July 1807 (Adams Papers)
As it is neither consistent with my Principles, Disposition or habits, upon any misunderstanding with an ancient Friend, to conceive Resentment and hostility to be changed into an Enemy, I shall still continue my old Style of address to Mrs. Warren. I have read much if not all your history of the Rise Progress and termination of the American Revolution. I am not about to write a review of it....
240From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 14 December 1802 (Adams Papers)
"Il ne vaut pas un sou d’etre votre ami" Said Count Sarsofield to me, on day in London.—Upon a curious occasion which I will explain to you another time. Mean while I believe you will find that he estimated my Friendship at as much as it was worth. My Correspondence is not worth one groat. I am more occupied in gathering Seeds and preparing Fields than you are if I may judge by the fruits of...