1Abigail Adams to John Adams, 1 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
I received your kind favours of the 19 & 22 of April. the printers were very obliging in taking particular care to supply me daily with the paper’s by which I learnt the arrival and Reception of the Pressident, & vice Pressident. if I thought I could compliment in so courtly and masterly a stile, I would say that the address to the Senate was exactly what it ought to be, neither giving too...
2Abigail Adams to John Adams, 5 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
Mr Dawes sent me word that he was going to Newyork this week. I would not omit any opportunity of writing to you, tho I know I must sometimes perplex you with domestick matters I would not do it, but that I wish your advise and direction. I wrote you in my last that the wall was compleated between mr Bass & you, and Barley has been sown. the Hill before the window, your Brother has had cleard...
3Abigail Adams to John Adams, 6 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
Brisler arrived last Evening and brought yours of May the 1 st I have not time to notice all I want to in it, I wish to know whether you would like that I should engage Daniel as coachman who drove you to Newyork when you get to House keeping, and what are the wages given. Tom we can never keep if we wish fer peace— would not the House out of Town be most agreeable to you and most for your...
4Abigail Adams to John Adams, 7 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
our parson has been praying for you to day that you may be enabled to discharge the high and important Trust committed to you with equal integrity and abilitis as you have heretofore excercised in Negotiations at Foreign courts & embassies abroad, and with equal Benifit & satisfaction to your Country. I have been reading with attention the various addresses to the Pressident & his replies....
5Abigail Adams to John Adams, 16 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
I yesterday received yours of May the 3 d by Captain Beal’s in which you request that I would come on imediatly Yours of May the first mentions several articles which you suppose it will be necessary for me to send forward, but add all is as yet uncertain, so that I am in doubt what to do, particularly as I have laid before you Since, a state of my difficulties to which I could have wish’t...
6Abigail Adams to John Adams, 26 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
I hope Barnard has arrived with the things which I sent by him. if there is any person in the House they had better be sent immediatly to it there to lie untill I arrive on the Recept of your Letter May 3’d I sent directly to Town and finding Barnard almost ready to sail I got him to take as many things as I could get ready, they are carpets linnen &c. after I had done this I sat out to visit...
7Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
I received yesterday your Letter of May the 24 th and shall begin tomorrow to get such things in readiness as will enable us to keep House. I feel a reluctance at striping this wholy at present, because I am well persuaded that we shall in some future period if our lives are prolonged return to it, and even supposing a summer recess, we might wish to come & spend a few months here. an other...
8Abigail Adams to John Adams, 7 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I this day received the Federal Gazzet, tho I got no Letter from you, I was in hopes to have heard this week in replie to what I wrote on Sunday last. Since that time mr Smith has been in Treaty for me, with two conneticut sloops one of which demanded 50 pounds freight for 2 thirds of his vessel. the other 40, each of them were about 70 Tuns he then applied to Blagett, Barnards owner & has...
9Abigail Adams to John Adams, 14 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I last Evening received your Letter of june 7th I will set of on Wednesday for Providence and embark in the first packet for New-york. pray get an oz of glober salts and half oz manna & take immediately, an oz of antimonial wine & take 30 drops three time a day. I will be with you however as soon as possible. Barnard got in on fryday. we had two days of voilent and incessant Rain, which tho...
10John 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...
11Abigail Adams to John Adams, 20 October 1789 (Adams Papers)
I yesterday received your kind favour dated at Fairfield and am happy to find that you had advanced thus far with no greater inconvenience than Rocky Roads & a Blundering Servant I will take better care of his Horses than he appears to have done of his master, for the old Proverb was never more verified, what is every bodys buisness, is nobodys buisness, than in Roberts going of without your...
12Abigail Adams to John Adams, 25 October 1789 (Adams Papers)
I presume you have reachd Braintree before this day I hope the sight of your Friends and of your Farm has restored your Health and spirits. you did well to flee before the very sickly period Mr Maddison lies very ill at Philadelphia, & it is reported that the Speaker of the House died last week by the Bursting a Blood vessel in this Epidemick cold, which scarcly one escapes. I hope however the...
13Abigail Adams to John Adams, 3 November 1789 (Adams Papers)
I did not write to you by the last post. I was in hopes to have received a Letter from your and to have known from under your own Hand how your Health was. Tommy wrote me by your direction; and I heard by other Hands of your safe arrival and the News papers inform us that by desire of his Honour the Leiu t Govenour you was in the procession to accompany the President to his Residence. there is...
14Abigail Adams to John Adams, 10 November 1789 (Adams Papers)
Tis more than a month since you left Home, and except the few lines from Fairfield, I have not received a single Letter from you. I have written to you every week, and should have been very happy to have learnt from your own Hand that you was benefitted by your journey and that you was conveniently accommodated. I get only one Boston paper, so that I am in the dark with regard to the politicks...
15Abigail Adams to John Adams, 14 November 1789 (Adams Papers)
I received yours of Nov br 4. on thursday last. Brisler and his Family got here the same Day & are waiting the arrival of Barnard to go into their House. the President got home on fryday last, looks much fatigued with his jouney, and has beat out all his Horses. Brisler says the Roads are getting very bad, and that you will find it very tedious travelling in a few weeks pray take care that...
16John 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...
17John 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...
18John 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...
19Cotton Tufts to John Adams, 6 January 1791 (Adams Papers)
We begin to feel the good Effects of our national Government— By the Presidents Speech at the opening of the present Session of Congress, our public Affairs wear a promising Appearance. His Speech gave a new Spring to public Credit; in the Course of Three or Four Days after it reachd us public Securities rose 10 or 15 P r C t — The several Departments of Government being well filld, from the...
20Abigail Adams Smith to John Adams, 7 January 1791 (Adams Papers)
I have received your two Kind letters of Decr 8 th and 17 th and am much obliged for your good wishes, and advice I have no desire to mix with the World or associate with any but my friends during the absence of my Husband—retirement from the World and an intercourse with, and attention, to ones family and friends are I presume Compatiable— the former it is my wish to observe the latter...
21William Stephens Smith to John Adams, 5 August 1791 (Adams Papers)
I should have long before this answered your affectionate Letter of Congratulation on my return to my family and friends but since my arrival, I have really been so perfectly and fully engaged, that I could scarcly call an hour my own— I had hurried myself for this week past in expectation of attending M rs: Smith to Braintree, but the situation of my public and private business tho’ agreable...
22William Stephens Smith to John Adams, 21 October 1791 (Adams Papers)
The information I gave you relative to M r. Hammonds official Character at the moment of your departure for Philadelphia, you will probably have confirmed previous to the receipt of this— The various important stations I have filled and the particular agency I had in producing this conciliatory advance of the British Court to the Government of The United States, Justifies to my mind the offer...
23Richard Cranch to John Adams, 1 February 1792 (Adams Papers)
I have lately received a Letter from my worthy Friend and Nephew M r. William Bond of Portland, informing me that he wishes, thro’ my intervention, to offer his Service to Congress as an assistant in the Mint of the United States which he supposes will be soon established. I have reason to think that very few Persons can be found at present in the United States who are so well acquainted with...
24Abigail Adams Smith to John Adams, 7 May 1792 (Adams Papers)
the Letter which I had the pleasure to receive from you before I left New York I had not time to answer, I have now the pleasure to inform you of our safety after a Short but boisterous passage of 29 days and only 12 days from the Banks of Newfoundland to soundings in the English Channell, we were all very sick during the voyage but are now pretty well recovered and I hope to be able to...
25Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 13 May 1792 (Adams Papers)
Those Letters which I was directed to Copy and deliver to M r. Cary for insertion in his “Museum”, were prepared in season for last month; when I took them to Cary, he wished me to explain the occasion upon which they were written. I told him that the Gentleman to whom one of the letters is addressed, (M r. M. Weems), had applied in England for Orders, as an Episcopalian Bishop, but that the...
26Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 16 August 1792 (Adams Papers)
In my last Letter I promised to transmit the Result of the Town meetings which have been lately held in this City; the inclosed abstract will supersede the necessity of any additional remarks from me; It will be sufficient to say that the Party, which on the last meeting in which any business was transacted, had the majority, having gained all their measures prevented any further business on...
27Charles Adams to John Adams, 20 August 1792 (Adams Papers)
I have this day opened an office in Hanover square. The situation is as eligible as any in the City. There is but one objection, which is the high rents which are demanded for rooms in so public a situation. I have however been advised to take it, rather than go into a more retired seat. I wrote a few days since to my Mama, I then mentioned that forty pounds was the rent required for a small...
28William Stephens Smith to John Adams, 5 October 1792 (Adams Papers)
M r. Bond delivered your Letter of the 20 th. of april I should have answered it sooner, but I really have been so much occupied in my private affairs, that I have scarcely had time to attend to any of my Correspondents out of the line of real business—but I now have a pretty clear prospect of getting well thro’ the great points I embraced— I shall however, I find, make more reputation than...
29Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 30 October 1792 (Adams Papers)
Your kind favor of the 11 th: reached me some time since. The reasons you assign for delaying your journey to Philad a: would be sufficient to satisfy me, but I have been particularly requested by several of your warmest Friends, to mention that your determination may be viewed in a different point of light by those who seek occasions & opportunities to injure you or your cause. It has become...
30Abigail Adams to John Adams, 26 November 1792 (Adams Papers)
Such has been the weather Since you left me, that I cannot form any accurate judgment where you now are. I sometimes conjecture that you are not farther than Brookfield. at any rate you must have had an unpleasent week, tho perhaps not so severe a snow storm as we have had here. Monday afternoon & all twesday it raind then cleard up very cold and blustering. on fryday came on a snow storm wind...
31Abigail Adams to John Adams, 4 December 1792 (Adams Papers)
I was very happy to receive on thanksgiving day the 29 of Nov br. your Letter dated Hartford. I feard that you had not reachd so far the weather was so dissagreable, but if the Roads have mended as much with you as they have this way, you have reachd Philadelphia by this time. I shall with impatience wait to hear of your arrival there. the snow remaind with us but one week Since which we have...
32Charles Adams to John Adams, 8 December 1792 (Adams Papers)
I had yesterday the honor of receiving your kind letter of the fifth. Our electors have returned from Poughkeepsie but are determined by the information I have procured to keep the State of their votes a secret. There is it is true a report that they were unanimous, but I beleive it arises from no good authority A certain nephew of our Governor has held out hopes of twelve votes from the...
33John 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...
34John 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...
35Abigail Adams to John Adams, 23 December 1792 (Adams Papers)
I congratulate my Country upon the uninimnity exhibited in the Nine states whose votes are made known, and I congratulate my Friend upon the same occasion as it is much more pleasing to serve a people whose willing and general suffrage accompanies their Choice, than when spairingly given. I think it a proof not only of the wisdom and integrity of the people but of their Satisfaction & content...
36Charles Adams to John Adams, 26 December 1792 (Adams Papers)
I am very sorry that M r Bull has been so very dilatory that I received the horses but a day or two since He I find can make good promises. I am now looking out for a purchaser and hope to find one soon The horses do not look so well as I expected they would. We have accounts from Europe of the retreat of the combined armies from France. In this event I am only able to see a state of Anarchy...
37Abigail Adams to John Adams, 29 December 1792 (Adams Papers)
I received your two kind favours of 7 th & 12 of this Month. I have written to you regularly every week since you left me. we have not had any deep snow since the first in which you was caught upon the road. the greater part of that soon left us, & has been succeeded by two slight snows of a few inches depth. the weather has however been steadily cold & generally with a clear Sun shine. I find...
38Abigail Adams to John Adams, 2 January 1793 (Adams Papers)
our son brought me your favour of the 19 december on sunday last, by which I find that the same Ideas have past through both our minds on a late Election amidst all that has been written upon the occasion, no one has ventured to state the comparative merrits, and services of the Candidates, but have contented themselves with saying that they would not bear a comparison, that clintons were...
39Charles Adams to John Adams, 5 January 1793 (Adams Papers)
I yesterday received your affectionate letter of the first instant. In return for your kind wishes, I present my respects, with an ardent hope, that you may yet many years be spared to your children, your friends and your Country; and that each returning season may still, as they ever have, find you happy, in that greatest of blessings to the just, an applauding conscience. Many are the...
40Abigail Adams to John Adams, 7 January 1793 (Adams Papers)
I received your Letter by mr Roberdeau who with our son and young mr Quincy came out and dinned with me to day. I was pleased to see a son of your old Friend and acquaintance for whom you have so often expresd a Regard; as well as the agreeable Husband of miss Blair that was; we had much conversation about my acquaintances in Philadelphia, many of whom he could give me a particular account of....
41Abigail Adams to John Adams, 22 January 1793 (Adams Papers)
I received your kind favours of Ja’ nry 8 & 9 th and on saturday a Letter from our daughter I have been in Town for a few days—for the first time I chose not to come till all the Bustle of Election was past Election for a Representitive has taken place since I came here. Honestus’s Friends and emisaries have been indefatigable in procuring votes for him, and their success has been Such that he...
42Charles Adams to John Adams, 31 January 1793 (Adams Papers)
I received your favor of the 29 th yesterday I had sold the horses the day before for £70:. The Baron returned on teusday his visit has been of service to him He said to me upon sitting down to supper that evening “I thank God my dear Charles that I am not a Great man and that I am once more permitted to set down at my little round table with Mulligan and yourself enjoy more real satisfaction...
43Abigail Adams to John Adams, 1 February 1793 (Adams Papers)
your last date, as yet received, was the 14 of Jan’ ry , I may have Letters in Town; but as the week has been stormy I have not got them: I wrote you last from Boston the day before the Civic Feast, as it was Stiled. the day past in much better order than was apprehended; for to men of reflection the Cry of Equality was not so pleasing, and to men of Property very alarming it was agreed...
44Abigail Adams to John Adams, 9 February 1793 (Adams Papers)
I received your kind favour of the 24 th of Jan’ ry together with the News papers. the writings of the American Mirabeau, if he is an American & those under the Signature of Cincinnatus are insolent indeed, and are in unison with a Number of papers Published in the Boston Chronical calld the crisis, Supposed to be written in Philadelphia and sent here for publication as I was told in Boston...
45John 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...
46Abigail Adams to John Adams, 16–18 February 1793 (Adams Papers)
I received your kind Letters of Jan ry 28 & 30 th I well recollect receiving a Letter from mr Gerry soon after you went first to France informing me of your being Elected a member of the Phylisophic society in Philadelphia and when you received the vol m in England of their transactions, I never could account for not finding your Name with the Members. the loss of the Records at that time...
47Charles Adams to John Adams, 19–20 February 1793 (Adams Papers)
I have this moment received your kind favor of the 17 th. I am not ignorant that dayly abuse is poured upon not only the officers of Government, but even upon the President himself who heretofore has been exempted from public attacks of this nature. I console myself by reflecting that the authors of these libels are a few hirelings of Antifederalism in the City of Philadelphia. The...
48Abigail Adams to John Adams, 22 February 1793 (Adams Papers)
my Last Letter was written to you in Bed I write this from my chair, my fever is leaving me and I am mending So that I can set up the chief of the day. the dr says it was the unexpected News of mrs smiths return that had so happy an effect upon me as to Break my fever. I am languid & weak but hope to be well by the Time you return. I shall forward my next Letter to you, to be left at N york as...
49Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 7 April 1793 (Adams Papers)
I am requested by M r: Dobson to enquire of you what disposition you desire to be made of your Book’s of which he has a considerable supply of Coppies. Whether some of them should not be sent to Boston & New York, or whether you would wish them to remain where they are. He thinks you gave him no possitive directions about them before you left the City. Various events have taken place in France...
50Charles Adams to John Adams, 10 May 1793 (Adams Papers)
It is sometime since I have written to you but still longer since I have had a line from my dear father. I do not repine for while you are happy in your feilds I will willingly give up that share of pleasure and instruction which I constantly received from your kind communications. It appears as if this City was fated to be the scene of constant disquietude and jarring cabal no sooner have the...