Your letter of the 16th: brought me consolation and hope in the information that you were all getting well—My anxiety on account of my mother has been extreme; having heard through Mr: Cranch & Mr: Quincy, that she had been very dangerously ill—I learn also that George is at Mr. Cranch’s I am still waiting for my Cause to be called in Court—It was called again the day before yesterday; but Mr:...
It is sometimes said that suspense is worse than the certainty of evil—But it is a hard relief from suspense to be informed of evils worse than were apprehended. From the length of time which had pass’d without bringing me a letter from you, I felt great anxiety; but it was principally for the dear child, whom I had left so unwell—Your letter when it came, announced to me not only the child...
I have not received a line from you since I wrote you on Monday—Your mother however has had a letter from Catherine, mentioning that you had on the day she wrote, given Charles an Emetic for his cough—I endeavour to controul my anxiety as much as possible. I now write you a line merely to tell you that your sister Hellen’s youngest child is better—They have now great hopes of its recovery—And...
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...
I thank you for your letter, and Kitty for her watch paper— I had like to have had no watch-case to put it in—For at Baltimore I lost my watch for several hours, I need not tell you how—for thereby hangs a tail.—Suffice it to say that having occasion for my seal, on closing my letter to you from that place, I found my watch was missing—I immediately recollected where I had last left it; but it...
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...
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...
I write you a line from the Stage–Office: having just this moment arrived, and intending in half an hour to start in the Mail–Stage for Philadelphia—The weather is so fine, and the roads are so good, that I am afraid of losing the advantages they offer, and recollect the admonition to take time by the forelock—I hope to be in Philadelphia, to–morrow morning before day light; and shall pass the...
My project of coming from Washington to this place, by the way of Annapolis was disappointed, by the badness of the roads, which prevented the arrival of the Stage from Annapolis in Season for us to take it the 4th:—so I took my passage on the usual way to Baltimore, Thursday and arrived here by the new line of Packets last Evening—To-morrow, I shall pursue my journey to New-York, where I...
I received yesterday your letter of the 15th: and this morning that of the 17th: enclosing in the former a letter from to your Mamma, and in the latter, one to Mrs: Boyd—We are now at the last days of the Session, and you know how much we are oppress’d with public business at such times—This will give you my excuse for the shortness of this letter—It is not yet certain whether the members of...
Since I wrote you last I have been a little affected with the rhumatism in my shoulder, so that I did not attend at Mrs: Erskine’s Ball—I had also something of a cold, and was disinclined to be out so late at Night as a Ball necessarily imports—Your Mamma and the Girls were there: the company was numerous and the party very agreeable. We have this day received a Message from the President,...
The enclosed lines were written as a tribute of my affectionate remembrance, of your birth-day—But though begun upon that day they were not finished untill the next, and the necessity of copying them fair, has delayed their transmission, untill this time. I have not heard from you of a later date than the 1st: of this month; nor have I later letters from any of my friends at Quincy—We have had...
I yesterday enclosed you a letter from Adelaide, under a blank cover, because I was all the morning writing to my brother, and when I came to enclose the letter to you, it was so late that I had not time to add a line with it—I now send a letter from Kitty for Caroline, and must tell you that we are well; excepting Mrs: Boyd’s child which continues in the same State of illness from time to...
Since I wrote you last, when we were in the midst of a hurricane from the Northwest, untill this moment, we have had the coldest spell of weather I ever knew in this place—On that day as I wrote you, the windows were blown in and broken down here at the capitol—Houses or at least one House was unroofed—Carriages were overset; and Mr: Quincy undertaking to walk home was so much overpowered by...
Your letter of 26. Jany: enclosing one to your Mamma, reached me the same day that I wrote you last—I have myself no objection to the publication of my lines in the Anthology; but as they were address’d to your Sister, they belonged to her more than to me, you must answer for the printing to her—I know not that she would take any displeasure from it, and suppose you had reason for presuming on...
Since I wrote you last, which was on the 1st: of this month I have not heard from you—I enclose you now a letter from Eliza, who is unwell with a bad cough—Mrs: Hellen is also this day quite unwell—The rest of us are in usual health. Since Messrs. Bollman and Swartwout have been committed to prison, without bail, on a charge of high Treason, we have not heard any thing material from Burr—It is...
The Potowmac Bridge question is at last postponed untill the next Session of Congress, after seven days of as warm and close debate as I ever witness’d in the Senate—The postponement was carried by a single vote 17 to 16, and in all probability had the question on the Bill itself been taken, it would have prevailed—I have been so constantly engaged upon it, that I could not find time for...
I wrote you last Monday a few lines enclosing a letter for Caroline, and intended further to have written you the following day—But we were four whole days engaged upon the Bridge Question, untill 4 O’Clock or later, and having taken a part in the debate my attention to it was so much engross’d that I could not find time even to answer your other letters which I regularly recieved down to the...
Since I wrote you, which was last Thursday, I have received three letters from you, which call for a particular Answer—I must however defer it untill to-morrow; for at this time we are in the midst of a debate on the Bridge question; to which I must give all my attention—The weather too is so cold that I am scarcely able to write in my seat—My thermometer stood this morning at 6. degrees. I am...
The last Letter I have received from you was that of the 1st: instt: which I answered last week—I then mentioned to you that I had written some lines to Mrs: Hellen, in consequence of your observations in a preceding letter—and that I would send you a copy of them—They are accordingly now enclosed—Of their merit or demerit, a part belongs to yourself, as they were instigated by your remarks;...
Last Evening I received your truly kind & affectionate letter of the 1st: instt: and most sincerely reciprocate every sentiment of kindness it contains—It is impossible for me to enjoy life without your affection, and the assurance of possessing it must always be grateful to my heart—So great and so numerous are the blessings for which I ought to be impress’d with the favour of Providence,...
I received yesterday your letter of Decr: 28th: with the enclosures to Mr: & Mrs: Hellen, and to your Mamma—I enclosed to you last Evening a letter from her to yourself, and one for Caroline, but not having received them untill my return from the Capitol which was late, I was obliged, to save the last Evening’s Mail to defer answering your letter untill this morning— I take in kind part your...
I have just received your letter of 24. Decr: and lament that the expression of my anxiety to hear from you should in any respect have been understood by you as implying any idea of complaint as if you had been negligent in writing—I never had such intention, and have always been convinced of your attention in writing regularly. It gives me great pain to find by your letter that your health &...
I cannot suffer this day to pass without wishing you and our dear children many and many happy returns of it though my fingers are almost too numb to write—The year has introduced itself with great severity; though with delightful weather—My thermometer this morning stood at 9. which is precisely the lowest point to which it descended through the whole course of last Winter. The Senate...
I have as little faith in presentiments as yourself—but the anxiety which I have felt for this whole week on your account has been such, that on receiving this morning your two letters of the 19th: and 21st:—I opened them with a trembling hand and heart—I lay this morning an hour before day-light, torturing myself with the fancy that some calamity of fire had befallen you or the children; and...
The latest letter I have from you is dated the 14th: when you were very unwell with a sore throat and George with a very bad cough—I wait every Evening with the hope of a line from you of a more cheering nature —not unmingled with an apprehension of having in its stead, addition of anxiety—My hopes and my fears must be postponed from day to day and the state of Suspense still hangs over me....
Last Evening I received your’s of the 14th: which makes me anxious to hear from you again—Your sore throat and George’s cough will keep me upon thorns untill I hear better tidings of you—I am perhaps the more susceptible on this subject from the heavy calamity so recently befallen the family here.—It is vain to lament or to anticipate—and would be vain to attempt expressing what I feel. The...
I wrote you yesterday that little Walter had been again very ill the night before; but was better—He continued so untill the Evening—Dr: Weems had been sent for the night before last; but was gone to Alexandria, to attend Mrs: Merry, who is ill of a fever—On his return he came to Mr: Hellen’s, and pronounced that the child had the hives, but did not think him in any danger—He was so well that...
I now enclose you the two bills, together with an order upon the Bank at Boston for their amount—which I hope will reach you by Christmas—You will see that the order is made payable to Mr: Shaw, who will receive and pay you the money.—I will thank you to get receipts upon the bills and forward them to me; as Mr: Hellen must have them. The party at Mr: Madison’s yesterday was almost entirely...
Your letter of the 7th: and 9th: came to hand last Evening, and relieved me from the pinches of Imagination which had haunted me for three or four days, upon not hearing from you, or from my friends at Quincy—For the future I have no doubt I shall regularly get from you or from them a line as often as once or twice a week—just to say we are all well . I know not where the report could have...