1John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 28 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
It has not been altogether from a neglect of my duties that I have hitherto omitted writing you; from situation as well as from inclination, I have been in a great measure secluded from such political information, as might afford you any entertainment, and from a proper modesty, I thought it best to forbear transmitting, any insignificant details concerning my own person.— Even now the same...
2John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 19 March 1790 (Adams Papers)
I have to acknowledge the receipt of two Letters from you, of the 9 th. and of the 19 th: of last month; the former of which I received, about three weeks ago, while I was at Boston, attending upon the Session of our Supreme Court; and the latter came to hand, but two days since. I hope I shall ever feel suitably grateful, for the tender solicitude, which you express with respect to my future...
3John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 21 September 1790 (Adams Papers)
I have received within a few days three Letters with which you have favoured me, and shall pay to their contents all the attention which I can command. The scheme which you have traced out in the last of them is so extensive, that I am apprehensive it will require much time, as well as very constant enquiries, to obtain the information of the several kinds which you mention. I shall endeavour...
4John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 19 October 1790 (Adams Papers)
I have a Letter from you which has called forth the few remaining sparks of my attenion to politics— Were my own mind at ease, I should at the present time enter more than ever into the spirit of speculation upon public affairs. The prospect is really glorious; but it is perhaps impossible, at least for a man whose patriotism is not tinctured with more heroism than mine, to consider the...
5John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 8 December 1792 (Adams Papers)
Our Electors met in this town on Wednesday last, and their Votes for President and Vice-President were unanimous this was generally expected here, and the event is supposed to have been nearly if not wholly the same in all the New-England States— New-York it is imagined was unanimous for M r: Clinton as V.P. their Electors are chosen by their legislature, where their Governor has a bare...
6John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 16 December 1792 (Adams Papers)
I received last evening your favour of the 5 th: instant— The votes of the Electors in Connecticut and Rhode-Island, were unanimous it seems, as well as in this State; I have not heard any further, but we presume there was the same unanimity in New-Hampshire, which if it be the case, will I think do credit to New-England. We expect nothing but the voice of Faction from New-York; and we know...
7John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 10 February 1793 (Adams Papers)
As I was going to meeting this afternoon a Gentleman met me in the street, and desired me to fill him a writ immediately which he intends to have served as early as possible in the morning. I accordingly did it, and as it is now too late to attend the afternoon service, I think I cannot employ the leisure time thus thrown on my hands better than in giving you an account of the commercial...
8John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 5 January 1794 (Adams Papers)
I must apologize for not having answered before this your last Letter; but your conjectures with respect to Columbus were not without foundation, and what with politics and Law, what with public and private discussion, I have scarcely had a moment that I could call my own to perform my duties to you.— Columbus has been attacked in the Chronicle by a writer under the signature of Americanus,...
9John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 2 March 1794 (Adams Papers)
You will doubtless hear before this reaches you, the event of a Town-meeting which was called here lately for the purpose of helping forward M r: Madison’s resolutions, and of intimidating our respresentatives who opposed them. After great [exertion] had been made to raise a Committee ready for every thing, [and the?] Committee had reported a number of resolves to answer [their purpo]ses, a...
10John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 24 March 1794 (Adams Papers)
I received on Saturday your favour of the 13 th: Inst t: Our Supreme Court closed their session in this town last monday, and I am thereby left with more leisure, and less care upon my hands than I had been for some time past used to. The anxieties of business carry with them an antidote, but the anxieties of no business have nothing to weaken or alleviate them. My Grandmother is still living,...
11John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 12 April 1794 (Adams Papers)
I received this morning your favour of the 3 d: inst t: We still hold tolerably firm to the text of neutrality; though we have our partialities for the french, and are much irritated against the british.— This is natural enough, and indeed, although we have some grounds of complaint against both with respect to their treatment of our commerce, in their present contest; yet it is not to be...
12John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 26 May 1794 (Adams Papers)
M r: Dorr obtained a passage in the vessel with M r: Jay, and M r: Jones, had an opportunity to go from Newport, so that they had no occasion to make the application to Congress, in behalf of which I requested your favour. I drew another petition some time since, for the manufacturers of snuff and tobacco in this Town, making representations against the tax proposed upon those articles. I know...
13John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 10 July 1794 (Adams Papers)
I arrived here last Evening, and this morning paid my Respects to the Secretary of State, who introduced me to the President.— I find that it is their wish that I should be as expeditious in my departure as possible. I told the Secretary, that the state of my own affairs would render my return to Boston previous to my departure, extremely eligible to [my]self. He enquired whether it would be...
14John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 18 July 1794 (Adams Papers)
Since my arrival here, I have employed all the Time, that I have been able to spare, from the more important business of visits and dinners, in the Office of the Secretary of State, and have gone through six large folio volumes containing your dispatches to Congress while you were in Europe. They can have but little relation to the business upon which I am about to proceed; but they have...
15John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 27 July 1794 (Adams Papers)
I expected to have been on my way to Boston before this; but M r: Hamilton is gone into the Country, and I cannot be supplied with my instructions untill he returns. He has been expected every hour these four days, and it is very possible that four days hence he may still be hourly expected. In the mean while I am here lolling away my time, and sweating away my person, with nothing to do, and...
16John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 31 October 1795 (Adams Papers)
I have been detained about ten days in this place, waiting for a wind, and am very like to be detained as many more; the westerly winds prevailing in the channel at this Season of the year almost without intermission. Since my arrival here I have received your favour of August 25. transmitted to me by my Brother, who remains at the Hague, with the care of our affairs during my absence.—...
17John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 21 November 1795 (Adams Papers)
Since my last Letter (15.) nothing very material has occurred. The newspapers enclosed will shew you the degree of opposition that is made against the Convention bills as they are called. The City of London has instructed its members to vote against them. They will however pass. I know not whether you have seen the review of the new Edition of your book, and therefore send the monthly Review...
18To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 5 April 1790 (Adams Papers)
I have more than once mentioned to you, the state of retirement from political conversation in which I live, and the restraints which I am endeavouring to lay upon a disposition inclining perhaps with too much ardor, to feel interested in public occurrences. But it sometimes happens that I am accidentally witness to conversations upon these subjects; from which I collect some trifling...
19To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 4 February 1792 (Adams Papers)
A variety of circumstances have occurred since you left this part of the Country, which have combined to change in some measure the state of our parties in this State; you have probably heard of them from other Quarters, and ought to have heard of them before this from me. I will endeavour however to retrieve as far as possibly my former deficiency, and to give you an account of the present...
20To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 5 January 1793 (Adams Papers)
The bearer of this Letter, Mr. D’Hauteval, is a french Gentleman from the Island of St. Domingo, where he had lately the misfortune to lose a plantation of great value, by the devastation of the insurgent negroes. He has been about two months in this town, where I have frequently had the pleasure of meeting him in Company, and where his amiable manners have entitled him to as much esteem, ás...
21To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 27 April 1794 (Adams Papers)
Mr: Ebenezer Dorr, and Mr: Edward Jones, merchants, of this Town, by this Post send a petition to Congress for leave, to send a small vessel in ballast to some port in Europe. It is a matter of great importance to them, that they should obtain their request. Mr: Dorr has bills of exchange drawn in France in his favour upon some person here, and they are protested. It becomes therefore of the...
22To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 23 October 1794 (Adams Papers)
On the 15th: instant in the Evening, twenty-eight days after our departure from Boston, we arrived in this place, and I now write you from our old station at Osborne’s Hotel, in the Adelphi. We landed at Deal and came up from thence by Land. The Dispatches which had been delivered to me for Mr. Jay, and which were my principal inducement for coming here, were so bulky that they could not be...
23To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 9 November 1794 (Adams Papers)
Under the present circumstances of affairs in this Country, I did not think it prudent to make any unnecessary delay in England, and accordingly left London on the 28th: of last month. Our passage to Helvoet was short though not agreeable; the packet being very much crowded with passengers. We were only three days from London to this place. I had been told in England, that I should perceive...
24To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 17 November 1794 (Adams Papers)
The day before yesterday, I had my Audience of the Stadtholder and delivered him my credentials. He enquired after you, mentioned the time of your arrival here and that of your acknowledgment and reception asked me if I was not here with you, and whether I did not study at Leyden. Yesterday I came here by the Schuyts through Leyden and Haerlem; I had not been here an hour before I was informed...
25To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 18 November 1794 (Adams Papers)
The bearer, Major-General Eustace, after having served with great honor and reputation in the Armies of France, retired from that service on receiving the Presidents Proclamation, declaring the Neutrality of the United States, & is now upon his return to America. It is with great pleasure that I introduce to your acquaintance, and recommend to your attentions a Gentleman of so much merit, and...
26To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 3 December 1794 (Adams Papers)
I enclose herewith a letter from Mr: Dumas, which he requested me to transmit. The old Gentleman’s health appears to be very good, and he looks not older than he did when you saw him last. But oppression has had its proverbial effect upon him, and he can write think nor talk about any thing but representative democracy and Joel Barlow. Last Week at Leyden I saw our old friend professor Luzac,...
27To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 21 December 1794 (Adams Papers)
I hear of a vessel to sail in two or three days from the Texel, and cannot lose any opportunity to write you directly from hence at this time; as the severity of the season will in all probability soon close the rivers and suspend the expedition of any more vessels for a month or two. But I have nothing very material to say. In my letters as well to the Secretary of State (which I am afraid...
28To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 12 February 1795 (Adams Papers)
Since the date of my last Letter, (December 25: 1794.) a revolution has taken place, the substance of which had been for some time expected, but the forms of which have been infinitely milder, than had ever entered the imagination of any man. The french Army of the North, after a brilliant and successful campaign from March till December, had at length reached the banks of the Waal, and was...
29To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 1 April 1795 (Adams Papers)
Since the date of my last Letter, February 12, nothing very material has taken place in this Country. The customary tranquility has been uninterrupted, and the Patriots of the present day have been proceeding with moderation towards their first object the annihilation of the Government that has hitherto existed. I say the Patriots of the present day because the party is not exactly the same,...
30To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 4 May 1795 (Adams Papers)
Mr: Wilcox has not yet been here but sent me from Hamburg your favour of February 11. which was the first letter I have been happy enough to receive from you since we left America. When he comes here, I shall be happy to shew him every civility in my power. It is extremely pleasing to hear that the elections for the ensuing completion of the Senate have been so favourable. I believe the time...