51To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 20 September 1815 (Adams Papers)
Since I have got settled here in the Country, eight miles distant, from Hyde Park Corner, I can find or make leisure about once a week to write a Letter, short or long, to you, to my mother or to my brother, and to enclose with it to you a weekly Newspaper—They will not reach you with equal regularity, for winds and waves will always be capricious—And thus after having received in three months...
52To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 9 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your favours of 27. 28 and 30 August were all received together—They, as well as your preceding Letters express so much uneasiness for me and on my account, that I wish it were in my power to tranquilize your feelings—Aware as I am of the heavy responsibility of my present situation, and diffident as I ought to be of my own fitness for it, I have certainly seen times, and gone through...
53To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 24 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Col. Aspinwall who arrived here a few days since, and delivered to me your two kind favours of October 13th informs me that he had the pleasure of seeing you at that time and that you were then suffering with an inflamation of the eyes. Nearly at the same time my own eyes which have long been very weak were afflicted with so violent an inflamation as to threaten little less than a total...
54To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 16 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
Mr. J. A. Smith, Secretary to the Legation of the United States at the Court of Great Britain, arrived here last week and delivered to me your favour of 22d Octr: I sincerely wish that he may find his new situation as agreeable and as profitable to himself as he anticipated. The construction which the British Court put upon the Treaties, as they relate to the Fisheries will be well known to...
55From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 16 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your Mama, and I, consent that you shall ask Doctor Nicholes’s permission to come home for the Holidays, on Tuesday; upon Condition that you will return to School after the Holidays, as cheerfully, as you now come from it. Your affectionate Father. MHi : Adams Papers.
56To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 5 January 1816 (Adams Papers)
I plainly perceive that you are not to be converted, even by the eloquence of Massillon, to the Athanasian Creed—But when you recommend to me Carlostad and Scheffmacher; and Priestly, and Waterland, and Clark, and Beausobre—Mercy! Mercy! what can a blind man do to be saved by unitarianism; if he must read all this to understand his Bible? I went last Christmas day to Ealing church, and heard...
57To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 24 February 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have for many Months made it a rule, to enclose to you a Newspaper, every week, and I have intended that it never should be without at least one Letter, from myself or some one of the family, to you or my Mother—I believe this intention has never entirely failed; but it has not always been possible for me to write, myself—The reasons of this are so well known to you, that I hope they will...
58To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 29 February 1816 (Adams Papers)
Major Swett, being about to embark for Boston, in the Galen, has been good enough to take charge of this Letter, and of two packages, addressed to you; one containing Tucker’s Light of Nature, and the other a piece of Cloth, for my brother. I have not been able to wade through the Book: but I plunged about half way into it—An inflamation of the eyes then seized me, which compelled me to...
59To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 8 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
Your indifference, as to the result of the Elections to the Presidency of the United States, and to the office of Governor of your own Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which I find avoided in your favour of 7. February is the best of all possible political symptoms—It proves, first that you consider all the Candidates as men likely to fill the respective Stations, if elected to them, with credit...
60To 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,...
61To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 29 May 1816 (Adams Papers)
It was only three days since, that Mr Prescott called out here, and left your kind favour, of 2. and 11. September last, enclosing one, from Mr Richard Sears of Chatham, concerning the subject of the fisheries—I happened at the time when Mr Prescott came, to be in London, and have not yet had the pleasure of seeing him. The question relating to the fisheries has been largely discussed between...
62To 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...
63To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 12 October 1816 (Adams Papers)
I am still not only to answer, but to acknowledge the receipt of your kind Letters of 3. 10. 18. 24. and 26. July; and 4. August—all of which I had the pleasure of receiving at once by Messrs Thacher and Bigelow, who came fellow Passengers in the same vessel Mr Bigelow has been out here and dined with us—His father, the Speaker, was one year before me, at the University, where I had a...
64To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 29 October 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have acknowledged the receipt of your seven Letters, dated in July, and August, received by Mr Thacher and Mr Bigelow and also of one dated in May, but very lately delivered by Mr Brooks. It is more than time for me to reply to their contents. I never had much relish for the speculations of the first philosophy. In that respect I resemble your Eels in Vinegar, and your mites in cheese, more...
65To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 3 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
Mr Cobbett whose political opinions, as you know have undergone some changes since he was battling it in favour of the British Government in Philadelphia, has become the great champion of Parliamentary reform; and in order to increase the number of his readers among the labouring classes of the People, he has lately had recourse to the expedient of reprinting particular numbers of his weekly...
66To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 3 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of 23. Septr: & 3. Octr. was brought to me by my old friend and Classmate I. M. Forbes, and that of 13. Novr. by General Boyd, who both came fellow-passengers in the same vessel. Mr Everett has since arrived, by whom I received a Letter of 26. November, from my dear Mother. I have briefly replied to my Mother upon the advice, which you and she have given me to return to the United...
67To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 14 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
As you live in terror of my long Letters, and as the very last, I had the pleasure of writing you, was of that description, and not without a smack of orthodoxy, I shall content myself this time with a very few lines, to accompany the Sunday’s Observer and Saturday’s cheap Cobbett; for the Porpuicine to shoot his Quills with more effect has made himself cheap, and although you will know what...