It is two years this month, through the Blessing of Heaven, since I have been prevented by Sickness, from sitting at our Table & giving a portion to each of my family in due Season, which is a Favour, which I cannot feel too grateful for—But for this fortnight past I have with Others in the Neighbourhood, been afflicted with what is called the Disorder of the Season—There has been but few...
252From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
By Mrs Welsh, who spent the afternoon with us, I was informed that Your dear Grandson was going to Russia. He will be an agreeable, interesting Companion, for he is possessed of singular strength of Mind—And if he goes, may the Angel of Mercy, be commissioned be to smooth his Passage, & waft him in safty over the briny Ocean, with prosperous Gales, & conduct him to the embraces of parental...
253From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
By your Letter I was glad to find it was only the agitation occasioned by extraordinary, & unexpected events which prevented your usual kindness of writing, & not your own; or family’s Sickness—We were brought almost to the depths of dispair respecting Peace, & the sudden assurance of it, was like the blaze of meridian day, without the twilight— My fears now are that, like Jeshuran we shall...
254From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
I hope my Dear Sister’s Fibres are not so relaxed by the late intense heat of the weather, as not to be able to hold a Pen, & by her communications inform, comfort, & eddify her anxious Sister, & Friends—I was agreeably supprized by receiving two very kind letters from our good Brother Cranch, since my return to Atkinson—They gave me a very gratifying account of our dear Sister’s gradual...
255From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 26 July 1809 (Adams Papers)
I am rejoiced to hear that you, & my niece got home safe. Such little excursions are really advantageous to our Health—We require some relief from the same round of cares, & objects. Though I have often found myself fatigued at the time, yet the Friendship & cordiality of my Friends, has proved the balm of Life, & very beneficial to my health & spirits— To your kind enquiries after my Abbys...
My social Spirit, which often nightly “me revisits,” has been so busy, & importunate of late as to deprive me of the tranquilizing effect of Sleep, wafting me to the Bed of langour & Sickness, & had impressed my mind so powerfully, that I should hear some of my Family were sick, that when I received your Letter to Day, I opened with the hand of tremulous anxiety my Dear Sister’s kind assurance...
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...
258From 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...
259From Emily Phillips to Abigail Smith Adams, 14 September 1810 (Adams Papers)
I am sorry my dear Madam to be under the necessity of communicating melancholly tidings to you, but I am requested by my dear & affected aunt to inform you of the sudden death of her truly estimable husband—he died this morning at 11 o clock after a confinement of eleven days—aunt discovers that fortitude & christian resignation which you would expect from her—his funeral will probably be...
I had the pleasure to receive your kind and friendly letter yesterday, and hasten to inform you, that my dear husband is better. He has had a sharp attack of billious fever, which left him weak and debilitated; and now a violent cough continues to harrass him day and night, and prevents his taking that kind of nourishment, which would most speedily restore his strength. Tomorrow will be three...