331From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I was much instructed by the letters you were so good as to forward me from Russia, I wish the writer of them was nearer to us, our great men, however great they are, want aid, they want vigour and decission, the war has assumed a Character that they appear not to have calculated upon—here are laying 140 peices of heavy artillery and not a carriage to mount them upon—this place is totally void...
An occasion now offering to write you I sieze it with the utmost pleasure to inform you of our health which has hitherto withstood the severe shocks of a Russian Winter—I wish I could inform you of our comfortable establishment but I much fear that is fa r ther of than ever and we must submit to all the disagreeables of a Russian Hotel which are indescribable you can form no idea of the morals...
333From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 March 1813 (Adams Papers)
My last letter to you, dated 27. February, acknowledged the receipt of your favour of 29. July the latest letter I have from America, and which you mention in it was to be forwarded by Mr. B. Beale junr. I have now an opportunity to write by Mr. Plummer, a young man who has been here several years, as an Agent of Coll. Thorndike—He himself belongs to Salem, and as he intends returning as...
Your kind letter of the 2 September was delivered to me the day before yesterday, conveying the melancholy intelligence of the loss my poor Sister had sustained; my heart bleeds for her, for too well I know the pangs she must have experienced, and though time has and religion have soothed the excessive agony I endured under the same circumstance, memory still recalls the painful recollection...
Thanks be to kind Providence we are all alive though the cold Tuesday our blood seemed congealing, & it was hard for me to respire—I do not know as I ever felt more thankful, than when the rigor of the weather abated—but we have still severe cold of long continuance—as the quantity of Snow makes the air more pungent; I suppose we feel the cold much more than you at Quincy for the Snow is over...
336From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
Yesterdays mail conveyed me your kind Letter, which convinced me you had experienced those solid pleasures in your late visit to your early Friends, which I had anticipated for you. How happy, & how pleasant, when the Lamp of Life, holds out to burn, even to four score years, that the mind retains its Vigor, & is the brightest Luminary!—In such a case, “Old-age is desirable,” & grey Hairs, is...
337From Hendrick W. Gordon to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honor to write me the 14th inst. Immediately after I was informd that a report was in circulation, that Mr J Q A. had written his father that the war in which we are engaged, was unjust & unnecessary, I wrote my friend Mr Calhoun, to pay no attention to such a report ( if such an one should reach Washington ) ’till he heard from me again, adding, that...
338From Ann Frances Harrod Adams to John Adams, 20 June 1810 (Adams Papers)
When I take a retrospective view of the innumerable obligations which I owe you, not only as the revered Parents of my husband but as the kindest and best of friends, my heart expands with filial gratitude yet I know not how to attempt an expression of my feelings. After a residence of five years under your roof which has been endeared to me by some of the most interesting events of my life,...
339From François Adriaan Van der Kemp to John Adams, 13 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
How was I delighted in Seing your handwriting on the Addres—I could not guess—it was a Letter—I did not expect one—although I was confident, that, if the State of your health had been worse, Cornelia Amelia would have deemed it her duty to Send me a line—You can guess—how I was delighted—when opening it—I Saw it was a Letter from my revered frend—I glanced over it, without looking at the...
340From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Scarcely a day now passes, without the arrival of vessels from the United States; but they are principally from New York or more Southern Ports—The failure of the Harvests in this Country has much contributed to their frequency. Two years ago the British Parliament made a Law, to raise the price of Bread; having discovered that if that first necessary of life should be cheap, the Country would...