91From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 14 March 1806 (Adams Papers)
It is so long since I have had one hour of leisure that I could appropriate to correspondence with my friends at Quincy and Boston, that I am fearful you will impute to some other cause the length of the interval between my letters—My health however has been gradually improving ever since I left you, and on the whole has been better through the Winter, than for two years before.—A variety of...
92John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, 25 May 1804 (Adams Papers)
I should have answered your kind letter of the 13 th. a day or two sooner, but for company which has fallen in, and call’d me away just at the time I devoted to the purpose of writing— M r: & M rs: Greenleaf of Cambridge, Charlotte Welsh, and her brother William, who has just returned from India, and M r: Isaac Smith, and his Sister, who are here at this time— And yesterday, a tea-party of...
93From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 3 September 1806 (Adams Papers)
I now enclose you the auctioneer’s Bill and will thank you to make out the list of the Books, by their titles , with the prices fixed against them, and get the receipt of the auctioneer upon it, as received of me , which will be necessary for me as a voucher—There are only two volumes (Mason on Elocution, and Carey’s Pocket Atlas, which I purchased for myself, and are not to be included in the...
94John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 December 1803 (Adams Papers)
I received two days ago your kind favour of the 3 d: inst t: and it was very precious as containing information of your health, and that of my father, and friends at Quincy.— I have been and am sensible of the inconvenience there would be in any free interchange of political sentiments upon the passing events, by a correspondence which must pass through the channel of the Post-Office— I...
On leaving Boston I had formed the Resolution of travelling only in the day-time, but at the close of the second day, arriving at Hartford, I found I should be four days more in getting to New York, unless I proceeded that same Evening, about forty miles to New-Haven—The roads were excellent for sleighing; I was alone in the Stage, and there was a moon bright almost as the morning—I therefore...
96From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 3 December 1804 (Adams Papers)
I received some days since your kind letter of the 11th: of last month, and was delighted to find you had so far recovered as to be able to write—Since then I have been informed by my brother and Mr: Shaw, that your health continued improving and I sincerely pray to the great disposer of Events that it may be entirely restored and long continued, for your own comfort and the happiness of us...
97John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 14 January 1804 (Adams Papers)
The Louisiana revenue bill (of which I sent you some time since a copy) has this day pass’d the third reading in the Senate— But with various amendments so that it must go back to the House of Representatives, where it will probably pass on Monday— The first section has been altered in point of form, and made as I conceive more vague and uncertain than it was at first— In thirty-five days from...
98To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 21 March 1801 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
21 March 1801, Berlin. No. 186. Reports continuing British embargo on Swedish shipping is likely to close Elbe and Weser to British vessels. Relays hearsay that among British seamen detained in Russian ports there are some Americans as well. Has pressed Russian minister to free such persons; recounts minister’s reluctance and his suggestions that U.S. appoint a consul in Russia and recall...
I have just this morning received your kind favour of the 2d: instt: which at once confirmed my apprehensions, and in some degree relieved my anxiety—From the time that the Saturday pass’d over untill now I have had an aching heart, and although I learn from your letter that you had been very ill, yet to know you were on the recovery, and had pass’d what I had long looked forward to as a very...
100From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 3 December 1805 (Adams Papers)
This morning I had the satisfaction of receiving your kind letter of the 21st: ulto: which partly relieved me from the anxiety occasioned by the letter of a previous date from my brother, mentioning your illness and confinement—The weather has of late been so remarkably fine and mild in this quarter that I hope its benign influence has been extended to your regions, and has restored you...
101John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, 23 September 1801 (Adams Papers)
I hope you have duly received the letter which I wrote you, from New-York, giving you a regular account of my proceedings untill I reached that city.— T[he] packet on board of which I took passage was detained by adverse winds untill Friday , the 18 th: when we sailed at about 5 in the afternoon— Of all the passages by water that I ever made, this I think was the most perfectly pleasant; and...
102From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 8 February 1805 (Adams Papers)
I have two or three letters from you which I am afraid will never be answered in the manner all your letters deserve to be answered; but I know you will make all the proper allowances for my situation, and the shortness of my Time.—There is however a question or two which I can no longer delay to answer.—And first; respecting the enlargement of the Meeting-House, I have to say that I cannot...
103To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 8 March 1805 (Adams Papers)
During the last days of the Session of Congress which has just expired, I found it impossible to continue the correspondence which I had previously maintained even so far as to enclose from day to day the public documents as they were printed—From 10 O’Clock in the morning untill 7 in the Evening the Senate was constantly in Session, with the interval of only half an hour each day for a slight...
104To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 27 January 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have already written you a very long letter in answer to your favour of the 8th: instt:—and after writing it, upon reading it over concluded the best disposition I could make of it would be to burn it—Accordingly the flames have consumed it, and I must begin again. Your answers and observations upon my inquiries respecting the impressment of our seamen by the British are of the highest...
105From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 19 March 1806 (Adams Papers)
I have received two letters from you, since I wrote you last; but I presume you will know the reason which has prevented me from answering the first of them before the coming of the last.—As the Session advanced the business to which my attention became necessary accumulated so much that I had scarcely time to go home and come to the Capitol from day to day—And besides all the subjects which...
106John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 16 May 1801 (Adams Papers)
M r: Welsh proposes to return home by the way of Amsterdam, and will be the bearer of this letter— With it, I enclose the 4 th: number of the Gazette, and copies of former letters to yourself and to my dear mother. I wish I could promise myself a more speedy departure than that which I anticipated in my last Letter to you; but we can no longer form a hope of my wife’s immediate recovery— There...
107John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, 31 May 1804 (Adams Papers)
This morning I received your kind favour of the 20 th — And am delighted to hear that you and the children are so well— M rs: Hellen’s indisposition, I hope will prove only to be “the pleasing punishment that women bear”— I wish we could have here a little of that superfluity of rain which fell just before you wrote me; as it would bring forward my garden stuff as we call it.— You have no...
The day after I wrote you from Baltimore, that is to say on Thursday, I came to this place; though in the Night at Baltimore I was taken so ill, that I was afraid I should be obliged to postpone for a day or two the completion of my journey—I am however now as well as usual. The expedition with which I travell’d has given me two days more here than I expected when I left you—But they have been...
I have been expecting to hear from you these two or three days, and begin to feel some anxiety to learn how you all have been since I left you. Yesterday was the day at which the Session of Congress commenced, and a Quorum of both houses appeared—The President’s Message has just been read, and is very long—But it gives no information on the subjects of the highest importance to the Nation—the...
110John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 22 January 1804 (Adams Papers)
I do not take the Washington Federalist; and it is now in general so poorly conducted as hardly to be worth sending you if I did— But I sent you some time since one of its numbers, and will send you others if they should contain any thing interesting to the fire-side. I can also inclose to you the Intelligencer which contains a pretty good report of the debates in the House— Those in the...
I have received but one letter from you since I left Boston, and that was written only two days after my departure—So long an interval during which I have not heard a word from you, and neither your mother, nor any other of the families here have received a line, begins to make me uneasy; and the state of our Charles when I came away, and of Kitty’s health when you wrote tends to increase that...
112John Quincy Adams to Walter Hellen, 28 April 1802 (Adams Papers)
I received last evening your favour of the 20 th: inst t: containing the distressing intelligence of M r: Johnson’s decease; which I had indeed been in some measure prepared to expect, by a letter from M rs: Johnson to M rs: Adams, received a few days before— I endeavoured to communicate the melancholy event to my wife in a manner which might soften as much as possible the shock— The agitation...
113From John Quincy Adams to Ward Nicholas Boylston, 11 December 1805 (Adams Papers)
When I pass’d through Baltimore on my way to this place, I applied to Mr: William Pinckney, late one of our Commissioners at London, and who has now returned to the practice of the Law, and left with him the management of your claim on the bills drawn in favour of Jonathan Titcomb. According to your direction I requested Mr Pinckney to draw upon you for his charges. Mr: Harper was not then at...
114John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 10 March 1801 (Adams Papers)
I am almost asham’d to acknowledge how long it has been since I wrote you last, and can only hope you will consider my numerous letters to my brother, most of which I intended as much for you as for him, to be a sufficient apology— I have not received a line from you or from my father since last June, though I think it impossible but that you should have written more than once— My last letter...
115To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 25 June 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have the honour to enclose copies of a letter from Mr: Engeström, the Swedish Minister at Berlin, which I received since my arrival here; and of my answer to him. You will perceive that his letter contains the renewal of a proposal made by the king of Sweden about eighteen months ago, for an arrangement between the United States, Sweden and Denmark, mutually to protect their commerce in the...
116From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 18 February 1808 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you some time since and enclosed an order on the Branch Bank at Boston, to be placed to my credit; since which I have not heard from you. I have now only time to request you to pay to my father two hundred and ninety dollars, on my account—being $250. Divd: on ten Shares in N. E. Mc Insurance Company & $40. for do: on ten Shares in Boston Bank.—I expect in a few days to give you an...
117John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, 17 June 1804 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday my mother went to Boston, and in the Evening brought out M rs: Foster with her two children, one of whom is unwell, and requires the benefit of a little rural air— But what was of more immediate consequence to myself, was your letter of the 6 th: inst t: which my mother also brought out, the profiles and all. One of your profiles is much more like than the other; and that of course I...
118John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 January 1804 (Adams Papers)
Your kind favour of the 10 th: inst t: came to hand last evening— And I would take this opportunity to request that all letters for me from Quincy, may be put in to the post-office there; without waiting to send them to Boston— I shall thus get them sooner— My own letters too I hope go directly to Quincy.— My brother I imagine will be satisfied with the frequency of my writing or inclosing...
119From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 22 June 1806 (Adams Papers)
Here I am at length, established as an intimate, in the family of Dr: Waterhouse; but from a variety of delays I did not come from Boston, untill the Evening before last—And being once here I concluded to adhere a sufficient time to get habituated and reconciled to my new Situation before I would absent myself from it—This prevented me from going out yesterday to Quincy, according to my...
120From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 December 1805 (Adams Papers)
I received some days ago your kind favour of the 29th: of last month; and since then my brother’s letter of the 4th. instt:—from the last of which I am made happy by the information that you and my children are well I have occasionally forwarded packets containing the documents which have been communicated to us from the President, and others which have occurred since the Commencement of the...