51From John Quincy Adams to Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody, 29 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
I received with the liveliest pleasure your kind favour of 26. February, as independent of the joy which it always gives me to hear good tidings from you, it affords me the occasion to give my own and my dear wife’s grateful thanks to you, and to Mr Peabody and to my amiable Cousin, for your affectionate kindness, to our dear boys. In the course of the last eighteen months we have indeed been...
52From John Quincy Adams to Walter Hellen, 9 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Gallatin upon his arrival here, delivered me your obliging favour of 20. April, from which I perceive with surprize that you had not then received my letter of 5. October last. It was forwarded by Mr. Jackson an American Gentleman, who arrived in the United States early in March, and by whom I sent many other letters, some of which I know have been received.— How it happened that the one...
53From 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...
54From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 17 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
You will recollect that some time in the year 1799—or 1800, while I was at Berlin, a Mr: Charles Engel sent you a power of Attorney, and a large claim upon a house of Mark and Company, which I believe some time before that, had failed at New-York. Very soon after my arrival here, I received from this Mr. Engel two letters, one of which had been written in January 1809, and sent to America,...
55From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 29 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
At length after an interval of five months and seven days, since that when your last preceding letter came to hand, I have this morning enjoyed the pleasure of receiving your’s of 24. September—It is more than six months old; but as it is dated two months later than any letter that I had yet received from Quincy, it was as welcome and almost as grateful as if it had come with the speed of a...
56To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 1 August 1816 (Adams Papers)
The multiplicity of business, and of things that consume more time than business, have in spite of all my efforts, broken down to such a degree the regularity of my private Correspondence that I am now to acknowledge the receipt of your favours of 20. and 28. March of 10. and 20. May—and of 16. and 25 June; every one of which contains matter, upon which if I had the time and the talents I...
57From John Quincy Adams to Isaac Smith, Jr., 1 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your obliging favor of the 2 Sepr. was forwarded to me from Liverpool by Mr. Cary the mournful anticipations of whose friends were unhappily very soon afterwards realized; He died at Royston on the way from Liverpool to London on the 22nd of October; His Lady is now residing with her friends at Islington, and as I learn purposes to return to the U:S: accompanied by her Brother the Ensuing...
Although I have been since I wrote you last Friday constantly engaged in preparing for my departure, I have not been able to get away this day as I had intended, and it is possible that I may not go before the last of the week; beyond that time I do not see the prospect of being detained, and indeed my present intention is to start the day after to-morrow—If I pass Friday I shall write you...
59From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 15 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter dated the sixth of February last, and was very much delighted to see it so well written; because I know that it was written by yourself.—I have marked it down, number one, and put it upon my file—When your next letter comes, and I hope that will be soon, I shall compare the hand-writing with that of number one, and shall see what progress you make in writing. I...
60From 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...
61From John Quincy Adams to Walter Hellen, 24 October 1810 (Adams Papers)
I received the day before yesterday your favour of 11. June. with a duplicate of that of 22 March—Mr. Kettell sent me the original of this from Gothenburg,—I wrote to him at that place early in the month of August, but have not heard from him since—I also answered your letter about the same time, and enclosed to you, an account of the Russian trade, drawnup by a merchant of long experience,...
62From 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:...
63To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 9 November 1810 (Adams Papers)
One hundred and twenty American vessels have sailed from the Port of Cronstadt for the United States during the present Season—The two last of them were Captain Bainbridge, for Philadelphia, and Captain Leach for Boston, in the American Hero a vessel belonging to Lieutt: Governor Gray.—They sailed on the first of this month and both of them carried letters from us.—They were the last vessels...
64From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 7 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
By the arrival of Messrs: Gallatin and Bayard, I have had the pleasure of receiving your favour of 25. April last, numbered 28/19— Your last preceding letter, dated 6. Decr: 1812 has the same numbers; and in the interval between the two I have received the duplicate of your Account for the year 1811.—dated 2: March 1813.—The Account for 1812 I am still expecting, and regret that it missed both...
At length I may indulge the hope of having reached the remotest bound of the distance which separates me from you, and that when I move again, it will be to return to you. Mr Russell left his Son at Amsterdam having placed him at a School where Mr Bourne had his two sons. Being thus left alone, he took a seat with me, in the Dormeuse. We left Amsterdam at 6 in the Morning, the day before...
66From 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...
67From 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...
68From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 31 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
My last letter to you was of 14. November since which I have not had a line from you, nor indeed from any of my friends in America— The second year has passed away since I received last best account of my affairs in your hands. The intervals between my own letters to you, insensibly lengthen—It shall not be so if any thing should ever occur, the information of which can give you pleasure. The...
69From 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...
70From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 23 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
Mr. W. Story, arrived at Gothenburg on the 28th: of last Month, and forwarded to me from that place several Letters from Quincy, among which was your N. 25/16 May 7. 1812. and 30/21 May 21. and July 1. 1813.—In this last I read thus “With my present letter I shall forward a copy of our Current account, under a separate cover &c.” I looked anxiously for the separate cover, for reasons which I...
71From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 12 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of 15 July, gives me much pleasure, as it always does to receive a Letter from you; and it would have given me still more, if it had been better written—Comparing it with your former Letters which I have on file, I find it not so well written as either of the others, although the first of them is dated nearly three months before. Your brother George learnt with much difficulty to...
72From 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...
73From 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...
74From 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...
Last night I received your kind favour of the 4th: instt: with the information the most delightful to my feelings, that my mother is recovering still, that the children are well, and that I may hope to find you so, upon my return.—May God Almighty grant that this hope may be realized. This is the last Letter which I purpose to write you from this place—Yesterday the Supreme Court delivered...
76From 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...
Your Letter of 30. September, not numbered, was brought to me yesterday, after I had given up the hope of hearing from you for several weeks. That which you had previously addressed to Dresden, conformably to my request, I presume is there, waiting for me, and may possibly still wait for Months.—On Saturday last we received from the British Commissioners a Note more distinctly marked than any...
78From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 15 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
The first point of view, in which I have invited you to consider the Bible, is in the light of a Divine Revelation . And what are we to understand by these terms?—I intend as much as possible to avoid the field of controversy, with which I am not well acquainted, and for which I have little respect, and still less inclination—My idea of the Bible as a Divine Revelation , is founded upon its...
79From 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...
80To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 6 May 1816 (Adams Papers)
I keep a constant search on foot for the books which in any of your Letters, you have expressed the desire of procuring; but the excessive prices at which all books are held, deters me sometimes from taking those that I find, and I am not always successful in finding those for which I am on the lookout.—The Translation of the New Testament by Beausobre and L’Enfant is in two Quarto Volumes,...
81From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 20 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
Since I wrote you last, I have had no letter from you, or indeed from any person in the United States. The Embargo, and the Declaration of War, have effectually superseded all arrivals here directly from America. To this general fact there is an exception occasioned by the Declaration of War itself.—A Pilot Boat was on the 22d of June dispatched from New York by certain Merchants of that City...
82From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 28 October 1809 (Adams Papers)
At length, after eighty days of tedious and dangerous navigation, we are all safely landed at the place of our destination—I have written to you twice upon our passage—first, from the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, and once in the Cattegat, the night before we expected to arrive at Elseneur—From that time, I shall now continue the narrative of our voyage, which though address’d to you, is for all...
83From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 16 November 1809 to 28 November 1809 (Adams Papers)
My last Letter brought our good Ship Horace to anchor safe in the Road of Elseneur—on the 28th: of September.—At that place we were detained a full week, by adverse winds—Having been informed upon my landing there, that the king of Denmark, and his principal Minister, Count Bernstorff, were both absent from Copenhagen, I gave up, in the first instance the intention of going thither—But having...
84To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 13 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
The extract contained in one of your last Winter’s letters to me from the Astronomics of Manilius, excited my attention to that writer, of whom I had previously known nothing more than the name—I have not been able to purchase it here, but General Pardo da Figueroa the Spanish Minister at this Court, one of the most learned classical scholars in Europe has had the goodness to lend me this...
85From 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...
86From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 July 1810 (Adams Papers)
Captain Harrod, by whom your kind favour of 20. March to me, mentions that you had written to my wife, and also sent a Box of Articles which she had requested to procure for her, has not yet arrived—Your letter of 20. March itself was brought to me, a few days past, I know not from whence; but having apparently been opened, and having suffered much from a soaking; but whether in salt or in...
87From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
If I could have omitted to welcome the return of this day, and to renew my prayers for many happy repetitions of it to my father and you, I should still have been charged with the obligation of acknowledging the receipt of your two letters of 1. and 14. July which I received last week from Gothenburg—They were brought to that City by Mr Story, who writes me that he had a long passage from...
88From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you a few lines on the day that the Treaty of Peace was signed, which I sent by Mr Hughes the Secretary of the American Mission, who was the bearer of one copy of the Treaty. A second copy was dispatched the next day by Mr: Carroll, who had been private Secretary to Mr Clay; and by him I, wrote a long Letter to my father—Mr Hughes embarked at Bordeaux in the Transit, the dispatch...
89From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 28 April 1812 (Adams Papers)
The only notice of existence directly from yourself that I have received since your letter of 2. June 1811. is by a scrap of half a dozen lines dated 5. January last which I received together with a letter of the same date from my Mother, by the way of Paris— This scrap was also enclosed with three or four newspapers, and short as it was gave me great pleasure— The letter which it mentions as...
After I had closed my Letter for you which is to go by this night’s Post, I received a Letter from Mr Sterky, the Swedish commercial Agent at St: Petersburg, dated the 10th: instt. last Tuesday; and enclosing one from Count Engeström of 26. April, only two days before I left you—So that if I had gone by the way of Abo, I should not have been detained by the Ice, an hour—And here—I have seen...
91To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 25 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
The fortieth American vessel, which has arrived at Cronstadt, since the opening of this years navigation, was the John Adams, Captain Thomas Downing from Savannah; she arrived last Saturday the 22d: instt:—and the first which sailed for America was the Laurel, Captain Burnham, belonging to Mr: Gray; by whom I sent the letter to you of which the enclosed is a press-copy—She sailed the 10th:...
92To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 16 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
The flames of War, which are again spreading universally over Europe, have at length caught across the Atlantic, and involved our Country in the Conflagration—Numerous as the obstacles to a safe and speedy Communication of Correspondence between us and our friends in the United States have heretofore been they are now greatly aggravated and multiplied—We received on the 5th: of this Month, the...
93To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 7 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
The last Letter that I had the pleasure of writing to you, was dated 8. May, at Reval—since which this day completes two Months. During the interval, if the idea in your favour of 28 November, that a wandering life is not compatible with human Nature, be correct, (I ought to ask your indulgence for questioning the correctness of any opinion that you express) I have been most unnaturally...
94From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
A Treaty of Peace between the United States and Great Britain has this day been signed by the British and American Plenipotentiaries at this place. It is to be dispatched to-morrow, by Mr Hughes the Secretary of the American Mission, who is to sail in the Transit from Bordeaux—I have not time to write a single private Letter excepting this, but I request you to inform my brother that I have...
95From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 11 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
The last Letter that I wrote to you, was dated the 31st: of August 1813. Almost a year ago—and as I know not whether you have received it, I enclose with this one a Copy of it—I have explained to your brother George in a Letter to him the causes which have prevented me from writing to either of you for so long a time—He will shew you his Letter, where you will find them—I now send addressed to...
96From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 November 1814 (Adams Papers)
In my Letter of 22. of last Month, I mentioned to you my disappointment at having received no Letters from Quincy or from Boston, by the Dutch vessel, which sailed on the first of September, and arrived at the Texel—I had been equally disappointed a short time before, by the arrival of Mr Boyd from Washington, having left that City the 12th: of August, and bringing no Letters from you—He gave...
97From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 May 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have been with my friend Charles, and spent two days with General La Fayette, at his Country Seat of La Grange, about forty miles distant from this City—He resides there with his Children and Grand Children, forming a numerous and very amiable family. His son married a Mademoiselle de Tracy and has three daughters—His eldest daughter married a Mr de la Tour Maubourg, and has also three...
98From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 10 April 1811 (Adams Papers)
You observe in your letter of 24 September last, that my Son George was losing much of his french conversation idiom, that is, precisely one of the things upon which I had most earnestly set my heart, in his education. Walter Shandy Esqr was of opinion that there was a great, and mysterious virtue in the name given to a child—He intended to call his son Trismegistus, and the name which above...
99From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 17 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I expected that Mr: Gallatin or Mr Bayard, would have been the bearer of the last letter, that I wrote you; which was at the close of the last year. But it was taken by Mr Todd, who with Coll: Milligan, Mr Bayard’s private Secretary left this City about ten days since; bound to England by the way of Sweden. Mr: Gallatin’s intention now is to go in a week or ten days; but he takes his direction...
100From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 13 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
It was so long since I had received a Letter from you that I began to be quite impatient; and then your Mama, who loves you so dearly that she is always very anxious when you are not in perfect good health had written me that you was not well; so that I was quite distressed on your Account, when your Letter of 15 August came, last Saturday, and gave me great joy. So you have had the...