31From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I had the good fortune of sending a single letter from this place to England, in time to go by the Saratoga, a Cartel which sailed about the middle of this Month for New–York, and that letter was my last go to you. I hope it will reach you safely for it is the only opportunity by which I can expect that you will have heard from me, almost since the beginning of this Year—For the letters which...
I this Day by the Mail received your kind letter, & am happy to hear you got Home, with your little Ones well, though I did not expect, or welcome you home in Idea till Monday afternoon—It was so very warm & dusty, that I thought neither you, nor your Horses would like to travel—I told Lydia, that you thought you felt better for your late excursion—“Do write, & ask her to come again” Said She,...
33From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I was very much gratified to find that it was not the Presidents, your own, or your family’s Sickness which prevented your writing, & that the delay was owing only to much company, & that in the Circle was your excellent worthy Friend Mrs Cushing—I know both the President, & my Sister highly enjoy her society, & rank her among the faithful of the Earth, for she is one with whom you can realize...
34From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
As the Couriers between Paris and St: Petersburg have not yet ceased to be dispatched, by the arrival of one of them a few days ago, I had the pleasure of receiving your N. 1. of 5. January. which was not only like all your letters a balsam in itself; but was also precious by its contents, announcing your own health, that of my father, and of my children, brother and sister. I have no other...
Your long silence (My Dear Sister) made me fear that you, or some of your family were sick—I was at Haverhill, & enquired of Mrs Harrod, but she did not mention it, only told me, that another Grandson was announced, whose name was to be Isaac Hull—Perhaps, the deceased Lawrence, might be as able, & intrepid a Commander, as the victorious Hull—But Laurels seldom spring, from the ashes of the...
Mr. Todd having just called to announce his departure I hasten to write you although I do not think his departure will take place so soon as he expects. You will my joy on arriving in London at finding my Boys ready at our lodgings to receive me although in excellent health the pleasure was too much for me and I was several days before I recover’d my usual composure—We have not yet found a...
Not one ray of information has reached us respecting your Family, or my Dear Mrs Cranch’s ill health, since your letter written the day after leaving here. I cannot but hope that she is convalesent, & that you my Friend with her Family & others, may yet be blessed with her society on earth a while longer. But if it should be otherwise directed by an allwise Providence, I doubt not but that you...
As Mrs: Perkins has kindly offered to take Letters, I hasten to answer your kind Letters of 24th: April & 2d May, which I received the day before yesterday. I fear the Boys will not be able to avail themselves of this opportunity, as they are much occupied previous to the Vacation, which takes place next Week. George has a part to perform in one of Terrences plays, and a French piece, and from...
I hope my dear Sister, & family are well, though I have not heard from her for three last mails—Has Col. Smith, & Sister, arrived Safe?—How is good Dr Tufts, & poor aged Phebe? I hope, she has solacing & comfortable views of the Heavenly world, & humble trust in Him, who has made of one blood all the Nations of the Earth—& has said, he who feareth God, & worketh righteousness shall be...
40From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
If I have detained the enclosed letter longer than was proper, I beg it may be ascribed, not to any insensibility to the favor done me in being allowed its perusal, but to a desire to turn it to the uses that it appeared to me to deserve. After showing it to the President, I took the liberty of reading parts of it to two of the members of his cabinet, that sentiments so important, coming from...
41From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
My last Letter to you was written at Reval, and dated the 12th: of May—It was forwarded from Gothenburg by a Swedish Vessel, bound to Boston; but since Admiral Cochrane’s Blockade, it is more doubtful than ever whether it will come to your hands.—I was detained ten days after it was written, in that City and its harbour, by head winds, and by the ice floating in the gulph of Finland—We were...
42From Mary Smith Gray Otis to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
I presume dear Mrs Adams, you know ‘ere this, that the “Star in the East,” who is to make the Palace tremble, is the Vice P— Why he is thus designated, I dont know. I should think his star was allmost sett & that he would be willing to have it go down in peace; rather than in the turmoil of politics: but I believe, the last spark, that is extinguished in the heart of Man, is ambition. Govenear...
43From Mary Smith Gray Otis to Abigail Smith Adams, 29 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
I was much gratified my dear Mrs Adams the last week; by a line from you: especially as it announced your own health & that of your family with Mrs Smith’s restoration. I have thought of her with much anxiety & sympathised with you both , on the various events, which have call’d forth all the feelings of the human Heart. Whilst you feel the loss of your excellent Brother & Sister, you cannot...
I too my Dear Sister, have to address you from the Bed of Sickness— The wednesday night after I wrote to you last, I was waked with a shaking fit great distress at my vitals, which was succeeded by a regular Lung fever—I have had specimens of this fever twice before in the course of my Life, but nothing so severe as now—But through the goodness of an ever kind Providence, the Crisis formed the...
45From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
I cannot express to my dear Mrs. Adams the ardent desire I feel that we might at least have one more personal interview, before we are either of us called to leave the passing scenes of pleasure and pain, that have so long danced before us and vanished as the vapour of the morn. I long to have you by my side in my retired mansion at Plymouth, where we might indulge the feelings of the heart...
46From Mary Smith Gray Otis to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 April 1812 (Adams Papers)
With pleasure & I hope, with Gratitude, I take up my pen, to assure you my dear Mrs A that we are all in perfect health; & could I but know that all the dear friends, I have left behind were so too, I should feel better reconciled to so long a seperation from them; having Husband & children with me, I could endure all other privations, & they are not few with great patience. A principle one...
47From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
It is matter of much consolation to know that frends so dear to My lamented husband as Mr and Mrs Adams intend to continue, or or rather to transfer to me the frendship with which they have so long favord him. I shall cherish it as of inestimable value, tho conscious that I have no other claim to the honor they so kindly have offered, but that I was dear to him who they loved and respected...
How can I express mÿ deep Sense of gratitude for your condescending kindness, in gratifying me So unexpectedly with your affectionate Letter of the 24. last. you art thoroughly acquainted with the art of enhancing the value of a gift. what drooping Spirits would not be revived bÿ Such a powerful tonic? and I owe you the acknowledgment, that theÿ dispelled a while the gloom—But—it has So manÿ...
49From James Monroe to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
I fear that the pressure of much business, and an anxiety to avail myself of a moment of leisuir, to write to Mr Adams in reply to his kind letter, made me delay it longer than I ought to have done. I now return you the letter—which he had the goodness to submit to my perusal, and with many thanks to him for it. The sentiments which it conveys do honor to the head & the heart of the author—....
50From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 8 March 1809 (Adams Papers)
I had heard of your illness with extreme concern, from my wife, and also through Mr: Cranch and Mrs. Quincy—The sight of your hand-writing again, has given me the purest joy, though allayed by the evident weakness in which you wrote—I believe there is in the sentence I have just written there is something which might be called a bull —But my feelings both of pleasure and pain at the idea of...
51From Henry Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
The friendships of early youth never cease but with the dying breath.—“Tell my Dear Mrs: Adams to write me or see me very soon, else we only meet in Heaven”—was one of the last expressions of your departed friend & my ever to be respected mother.—Her constant, ardent, almost sisterly affection imposes it on me as an earliest duty to inform you that death has made another inroad on your...
The peircing cold air of this Month has made me quiver so that I could not quit the fire side scarcely for a moment, & it has gone to the marrow of Mr Peabody’s bones, so that it has made him very lame again, & is obliged to walk with a cane—But otherways he is a well as could be expected, for which I desire to be grateful, to that gracious Being who has brought us to see the return of another...
53From Katherine Dexter to Abigail Smith Adams, 14 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
I lament that indisposition should have obliged me to defer so long acknowledging your kind letter; it was received with a deep sense of gratitude, with a mixture of feeling only to be produced by so generous a sympathy in a loss so severe as I have been called to meet. You have offered me Dear Madam, all that a wounded heart can ask—the sympathy of friendship; and to the departed the best...
54From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
My last Letter to you, was of the 31st: of January, from Bruxelles; and I enclosed it to Mr Beasley at London, requesting him to forward it by the earliest possible opportunity. By his answer he informs me that he dispatched it by the Packet which was to sail on the 15th: instant from Falmouth—Two days after it was written I left Bruxelles and came to this City where I arrived on the 4th:...
How changed My Dear Sister, is the weather now, from the clam clear Sunshine I enjoyed with you in my late very pleasant visit at Quincy! Winter has indeed, trod in rapid succession upon the verdant fields, & striped the trees of their green foliage; but kindly covered the roots, & herbage in mantles of Snow—Still more to vary the Scene & as if to vie with yellow Autumn, & the “wheaten Sheaf,”...
56From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
In proportion as the time lengthens since the receipt of your last Letter, which is also the last that I have received from any of my friends at Quincy, I find not only my anxiety to hear directly from you increasing with it, but also my desire and determination if possible to relieve you and my other friends with you from a similar anxiety respecting us, which you would feel in the case of so...
57From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 October 1809 (Adams Papers)
The seventy-ninth day since our departure from Boston, and not yet in Petersburg—But we are on land, within twenty miles of it, and at the end of our voyage in the ship Horace.—We have indeed had a very long passage, and it has not been without its interesting incidents, had I but the time of narrating them—But to you as well as to us, the most interesting of them is, that we are all, thanks...
58From James Monroe to Abigail Smith Adams, 3 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have had the Honor to receive your Letter of the 28th ult. covering one to your Son the American Minister at St Petersburg. I fear it will be too late for the “Hornet” sloop of war: but I have had it put under cover to Mr Barlow and sent to the Collector of the Customs at Newyork, requesting him to forward it by the first safe conveyance With great Respect / I have the Honor to be / Madam /...
59From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
When I wrote you my last Letter, a press copy of which, is enclosed, I had little or no expectation that I should at this day still be here. The John Adams sailed from the Texel, with Mr Dallas on board, the 28th: of August, and has, I hope, by this time half-performed her passage—It is one of those singular incidents, which occur occasionally in real life, and which would be thought too...
As another opportunity offers my dear Mother which I am told is a very safe one I cannot refrain from writing a few lines to assure you of the health of the family in general and to entreat you will write by every opportunity. we have only heard three times from you since we left you and you who have been placed in the same situation know how much frequent intelligence of your health and would...
61From John Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 August 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter of the 31st of August by Captain Brownson. I saw in an American Paper that Grandpapa has been on board the Seventy four which is in the command of Commadore Bainbrige and thought it a very fine Ship and and am in hopes of having a great many more by my return. I do not like England near so well as America nor do I think I should like any country so well as my native...
62From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
I mentioned to you in a former Letter, the visit that I had received from Mr Frend, and Mr Aspland, the Minister of the Unitarian Congregation at Hackney—Since then I have dined with Mr Frend, who is a Unitarian, and Astronomer, and Actuary , of an Insurance Company. There I met again Mr Aspland, who afterwards made me a present of several of his own publications, and from Dr Disney a copy of...
63From Hannah Phillips Cushing to Abigail Smith Adams, 5 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
Accept my Dear Friend of my sympathy for the loss of your lovely grand Daughter. For Mrs Charles Adams I can most sensibly feel for her bereavment, having so recently like her been deprived of a good Mother. May we all apply to the Great Physician of Soul & body, to pour the balm of consolation—into our wounded bosoms. I desire to rejoice greatly that you my Friend have escaped a seated Fever,...
64From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 29 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I am myself, my dear Madam, in great trouble—since my date of yesterday, my amiable son the Collector, unaccompanied by any man, was followed on the street by a ruffian neighbour, who after several scurrilous epithets of abuse, lifted his vulgar fist & gave him such a blow in his right eye that it appears doubtful whether he will again have the use of it.—This man, one Joseph Bartlett has been...
65From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
General Boyd, Mr Stores, Mr Forbes, and Mr and Mrs. Everett, have all arrived in London within the week past; and by them, with many other Letters and despatches I have received your favours of 5. and of 26. November—There must be I think a Letter in arrear between the 30th. of September and the 5th. of Novr—You acknowledge the receipt of my Numbers 92 and 93—and 97 and 98. I hope the...
66From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of 15. Feby: which was brought by Captain Brown, of the Washington, and which I received on the 23d: of last Month, gave me the first intelligence of those afflicting Events the Death of Mrs: Hellen and Mrs: Norton—I received it early in the morning, and was thereby enabled to communicate it to my wife and her Sister, with as much preparation as the nature of the case would...
67From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
Altho’ I have not had the pleasure to receive a letter from you, since I last wrote; yet your goodness to me on all occasions gives me the assurance that you will excuse the liberty I now take to ask a favor for my daughter Manners; she has I suppose sail’d for England before this time, and in her last letter to me express’d a wish to get a letter of introduction to our Minister at the Court...
68From Hannah Phillips Cushing to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have not been unmindful of you my Dear Friend, nor of each member of your worthy family since leaving your hospitable Mansion, where christian graces adorn the possessors. My delay in writing in hopes of sending the promised Receipt has been in vain, for it has been to no purpose that I have repeatedly searched for it. However I do not regret it so much as I otherwise should do as the Root...
69From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
Your kind attention in answering my letters heretofore, and my last being yet unanswered excites the apprehension that your health has been worse than common this winter I hope I may hear of any other cause, except an abatement in your friendship, but that I do not for a moment admit—Your condsending goodness to me has perhaps caused me to expect more than I have a right to look for, more...
70From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
A dutch Vessel, called the Prince of Orange, which had taken out to America the Minister, Mr. Changuion, arrived on the first of this month at the Texel, from Boston, after a passage of thirty days. She brought Boston newspapers to the first of September, but very few private letters, and to my great disappointment, none for me—Mr Boyd had arrived here, a day or two sooner, with dispatches...
71From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 November 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 5th. inst. with its enclosures, to and from the Secretary. I thank you for the interest you have taken in in the promotion of my wishes, relative to military command, but I at present think it is almost too late—If my profered Services had been accepted, in the first instance, I am conscious I could have rendered material Service, but as affairs are now...
When you were here, I lent a great Coat, a small one—to Mrs Harrod, to keep of the rain, which she says, she put the next morning into the Carriage—I suppose your Man, forgot to bring it into the house—I thought it was at Mr Harrods, & did not send for it, till the week before I was sick—It has a piece set in behind on the shoulder—If it should be found, please to let it be taken care of—you...
73From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
Just as I was closing my last Letter to you, I received your letter of 12. April, and had barely time to make a minute of it, at the bottom of the one I was sealing up for you—Since then I have not had the pleasure of hearing from you I then flattered myself that the Revocation of the British Orders in Council, of which I had just been informed, would be known in the United States, in Season...
Yesterday as soon as the mail arrived I sent to the Office full of expectation of receiving a Letter from my dear Sister—Are you all so absorbed in matrimonial affairs, as that none of your family can find leisure to give me the least intelligence how you progress, & how you all do?—Our amicable Cousin Hannah, has had the indisoluable knot completed at last, I see by the news paper—& your...
75From Carolina Virginia Marylanda Johnson Buchanan Frye to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
I avail myself of the opportunity that now offers of writing to my dear and absent Sisters whose affection for me will receive a severe pang, from the melancholy events that have lately occured. My mind has become in some degree resigned to the Will of Heaven. Your sympathizing and Maturnal Friendship has soothed and comforted my afflicted heart whose sorrows can only find alleviation in the...
76From Adelaide Hellen to Abigail Smith Adams, 3 January 1816 (Adams Papers)
Accept my thanks my Dear Madam for your kindness in so promptly favoring me with your Advice from my eagerness to obtain your opinion I over looked the liberty I took in requesting it. I hope this will prove a sufficient apology my dear Mr Adams for my having obtruded my private Affairs on your time. Suffer me to offer my Thanks for the valuable counsel you have gained for me believe me I...
I have but just received your very Sisterly Letter, by Mrs Adams, handed me this morning. I immediately sat down & wrote to my Son, urged him to adjust his affairs with his Landlady, pay if possible, & thank her for any extra—kindness he has received—& quit her House as soon as convenient—I certainly know he may obtain respectable Boarding, at good Houses, for a less price—A little unconcern,...
I am sorry you did not find time to write me a line—reports are so various, & calamitous that it keeps me in constant agitation of mind—I am distressed for my country, & for my dear Boston friends, who I hear are moving as fast as they can find an asylum—I wanted, & intended to have written to my dear Son, & Mrs Foster, but I have been obliged this week to go to N ewbury, & have been to...
79From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
As I shall probably not have an opportunity of dispatching letters for America, after that of which I now avail myself, at least before the expiration of the present Month, and as I am unwilling to break through the rule which I prescribed to myself of writing to you, at least once every Month, I sit down to repeat to you, what only three days since, I wrote to my father, namely, that I have...
I was much grieved to hear of Mrs Adams sickness, both upon her own account & yours —Such a weight, & distress upon the Lungs adds greatly to the Fever, & makes respiration difficult—The last smoke from the fire, seemed to suffocate me—I am sure I shall pity any one more than ever I have done—And I was rejoiced to hear Tuesday by Mrs James Foster, that you were better, & Mrs J. Adams too, was...