1John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 17 December 1795 (Adams Papers)
I am returned to my yearly servitude, and have began to drudge for the winter, if not for both winter and spring. I should long since have been weary of this laborious course, if, insignificant as my office appears, it had not been manifest upon several occasions, that some of the greatest questions upon the Constitution, as well as the great point of war or peace, had depended upon my...
2John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 14 December 1793 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your kind letter of the tenth of this month. Mr. G. may well be shocked at the Message. It is a thunderbolt. I cannot but feel something like an apology for him, as he was led into some of his enterprises by the imprudence of our fellow-citizens. The extravagant court paid to him by a party, was enough to turn a weak head. The enthusiasm and delirium of that party has involved...
3John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 21 February 1797 (Adams Papers)
I believe I have not acknowledged your favour of the 20th January, which I received in its season. I hope your apprehensions that “the party who have embarrassed the President, and exerted themselves to divide the election, will endeavour to render my situation as uncomfortable as possible,” will be found to be without sufficient foundation; I have seen, on the contrary, a disposition to...
4John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 29 October 1792 (Adams Papers)
I received with great pleasure your kind letter from Dover, and rejoiced in your safe arrival in England; but I have not been able to write you until now. When I was at the bar, I had commonly clerks who took off from me much of the manual labour of writing. While I was abroad I had commonly Secretaries to assist me. But now, when my hand shakes and my eyes fail, I have no one even to copy a...
5John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 7 January 1794 (Adams Papers)
Colonel Smith spent the last evening with me, and presented me with your kind letter of the 29th of December. I have seen Mr. G.; he made me a visit which I returned. His conversation was agreeable enough; but he appeared, by all his discourse, to be a young gentleman of much ingenuity, a lively wit and brilliant imagination, enamoured to distraction with republican liberty, but wholly without...
6John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 10 March 1792 (Adams Papers)
Your kind letter of the fourth of this month is before me. I have frequently desired your mother to consent that I should send for other advice; but she has always forbid it, alleging that she was perfectly satisfied. The assiduity of her physician has, indeed, been very great; and his anxiety to do every thing in his power, most apparent. She is better to-day than she has ever been since her...
7John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 1 May 1794 (Adams Papers)
Whether we shall preserve peace, or be involved in war, is a problem, not easily solved; but I think we shall preserve our neutrality another year, and after that I presume that Great Britain will be weary enough with her war against France. In the improbable case of a war, however, it would not be easy to take New-York, and it would be still more difficult to keep it. So large a fleet and so...
8John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 18 November 1794 (Adams Papers)
After a journey without any accident, I arrived here, in good health, the Friday night after I left you, and went into lodgings, which I did not find convenient, and the next morning removed to Francis’s hotel, where I have good accommodations, with company enough. I forgot to thank you for your kind present of patriotic manufacture; but I own I am not, at my age, so great an enthusiast, as to...
9John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 6 February 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have received your kind letter of the first of this month. Mr. Langworthy appears to me, as he does to you, a man of information and good sense: how much of the projector and adventurer may be in him, time will discover; I know not his resources nor his connections. Searchers and diggers for mines have generally been as unsuccessful as inquirers after the philosopher’s stone, a universal...
10John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 2 January 1795 (Adams Papers)
I received this day your kind letter of the 30th ult. With cordial affection and sincerity do I reciprocate your compliments of the season, and wish you and yours many happy returns of these pleasant anniversaries. There has lately been published extracts from a Journal of Brissot, in which, as upon many other occasions, there has appeared a disposition to give to Mr. Jay as much of the honour...