11John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 February 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
In our good old English language of Gratitude, I owe you and give you a thousand thanks, for Tracy ’s Review of Montesquieu which M r Dufief has Sent me by your order. I have read an hu n dred pages, and will read the rest. He is a Sensible Man and is easily understood. He is not an abstruse misterious incomprehensi ble Condorcet . Though I have banished the Subject from my thoughts for many...
12From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 31 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your kind Letter of the 21st, and for the three Magazines inclosed, of December January and February. They contain curious and Usefull Matter. You ask my Opinion of the Essays of Franklin. You have Stated your own Opinions frankly fairly and candidly; you have explained your reasons for those Opinions, dispassionately—and your readers, I hope, will judge them, with Candour and...
13From John Adams to Jacob Bigelow, 28 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Accept my Thanks for your Inaugural Oration. It would have been a great pleasure to me, to have heard it: but at my Age, all Such pleasures are forbidden me. The Edinbourgh Reviewers have Said, that, “if the whole of American Litterature were annihilated with the exception perhaps of something of Franklin, the World would loose nothing of the Usefull or agreable.”! These Gentlemen have merited...
14From John Adams to Nathaniel Gorham, 28 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
My Thanks are due to you for your Inaugural Address of Decr. 11th. I rejoice that Such a Professorship is established and that So accomplished a Professor has been chosen. I am afraid to express my wild Ideas on this Subject. We are all Chymists from our Cradles. All Mankind are Chymists from their Cradles to their Graves The Material Universe is a Chemical Experiment, Its Author and Conductor...
15From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 24 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Bernard, Hutchinson, Oliver, the Commissioners of the customs, and their Satellites had an Espionage as inquisitive, as zealous, and as faithful, as that in France, before, during, or since the Revolution, by which the Tories were better informed of the anecdote, which I am about to relate to you, than the Whigs themselves were in general. That the Tory histories, may not hereafter...
16From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 22 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Last night your Brother brought me your delicious Letter of 29th Octr. How do you know that Bees and Ants, and even Caterpillars and Cankerworms never enquire into the Why and the “Wherefore”? You cannot prove it. St. Justin and Dupuis, Dr Priestley and my Neighbour Colman all agree in the Precept “Be good.” I do not find however, that any of the Popes or their Janisary Loyola, or Luther or...
17From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 19 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Thanks for your favour of the 14th. You urge me to explain the secret of Hutchinsons conduct. I have explained in my letter of the 11th. It was fear of explanations before the people of the doctrine of Impressments You may have but another nail upon the head; and there had been before and were afterwards many such nails, but they are too frivolous to be remembered one only, excepted, before...
18From John Adams to Theodore Lyman, Jr., 18 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
I ought long ago to have acknowledged my obligation to you for the loan of Grim who has afforded me a sumptuous feast for many months. In several of his scenes, most characteristic of the age, I was present and a witness, and could add some comical circumstances, that he has omitted. This philosophy, which was nearly that of Pythagoras, is as credible & intelligible to me, as that of the...
19From John Adams to Richard Rush, 14 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Montezillo, in the Spanish language signifies “a little hill.” You will search for it in vain in Italy; none of the Alps, the Appenines, no, nor the Pyranees, nor Asturians, ever bore that name. the City, Village or Villa, ever arrived to that honour. Search, and research. find it if you can. Neither Montezillo, nor Monticello desire many of your thoughts; but the Italian Republicks, like the...
20From John Adams to Henry Colman, 13 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
What Temples Statues, Mausoloumes, pray, have you seen, that you cannot could pretend to entertain a Man who has read Clark, Porter, Chateaubriand, Eustace, and, Dupuis.? Yet I should read your Journal with more cordial Satisfaction than all of them.— If any of my Letters have given you an agreable hour the information of it has given me more than one. Though the Barriers of Party in our...