Justice & judgment are the habitation of thy throne, O my God! but thy mercy endureth forever— In the depths of Sorrow, I have lifted up mine Eyes, & felt some ray of comfort, when I saw this thy darling Attribute shining with distinguished lustre—“many, very many were the virtues of my Friend”— feign would I hope, they were such as would more than ballance his failings— feign would I hope...
252Charles Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 September 1795 (Adams Papers)
Your favor of the 19 th instant I have received I thank you for your congratulations upon an event which has united me to the woman of my affections Your kind invitation shall be accepted as soon as I can leave my business for a few weeks how soon this may happen I cannot tell, nor can I flatter myself it can be in a short time. Since our marriage we have been at a house the Colonel has bought...
253Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 31 October 1795 (Adams Papers)
I have this moment heard Mr & Mrs Black is in town, & going out again immediately but I would not let slip this favourable opportunity of sending directly to you— I have omited writing before, as I wished to see Mr Peabody, & inquire of him if he knew of any place worth purchasing— I have [in]quired of Mr Tucker, & others but can find none, not any, but what will want constant repairs, & not...
254John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 November 1795 (Adams Papers)
Your few lines of August 25 th. were forwarded to me from the Hague by my brother, and though short, yet as the tokens of your remembrance, gave me the customary pleasure. A longer interval than I can fully justify to myself has elapsed since I wrote you last. But having written repeatedly to my father, I have always supposed myself writing at the same time to you. As you have been a traveller...
255John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 November 1795 (Adams Papers)
You will receive the letter I wrote you during my captivity at Helvoetsluys, where I was detained by opposite winds and violent weather almost three weeks. On the 11 th: inst t: I arrived here. How long I shall stay is yet unknown to myself, but I hope not long; there is something so dissipated and yet so solitary in the residence of a City like this, that I have never found in it either the...
256Thomas Boylston Adams to Abigail Adams, 1 December 1795 (Adams Papers)
I had the pleasure to write you a few lines by the Betsey Capt n: Clarke, which sailed from Rotterdam last week; another occasion now offers by the Ann. Captain Lord, the same which brought your favor of the 8 th: October to my Brother, in little more than a month. I have forwarded your letter to him. He arrived in England on the 10 th: ult o: and I hear by a letter from London of the 13 th:...
257John Adams to Abigail Adams, 6 December 1795 (Adams Papers)
We have been favoured with fine Weather and tolerable Roads in such a manner that We reached Kingsbridge on Fryday night and came into N. York by Nine o Clock on Yesterday morning. If it had not been for the Desire of seeing my Children I should have gone immediately on with the other Passengers. The stage House was so near C. Smiths and I knew not where my Son lived: so that I put up at...
258John Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 December 1795 (Adams Papers)
The Newspapers will inform you before this Letter reaches you that the Ratifications of the Treaty have been exchanged by M r Deas the Chargé d’Affairs under M r Pinkney. The President told me the orders were that if M r Adams did not arrive by a certain day this Business was to be done by another. Whether our Son will go over at all or not is to me uncertain. If he has lost a White Feather,...
259John Adams to Abigail Adams, 17 December 1795 (Adams Papers)
I went to Senate this morning with Expectations highly raised of receiving my first Letter from you: and happily was not disappointed. I began to entertain fears for your health. I know not how to account for it, but your Short Accounts of the Progress of Business upon the farm Serves as a Substitute for the Pleasure of Seeing it as it goes on: and every Word of it is a cordial drop. The...
260John Adams to Abigail Adams, 21 December 1795 (Adams Papers)
My old Acquaintance M r Walton, who Served in Congress, with me in 1776 and 1777 is returned a Senator from Georgia in the room of General Jackson who has resigned. He is or has lately been Chief Justice. As old Acquaintances are easily Sociable We soon fell into Conversation about Affairs old and new. I asked him whether The Negative of M r Rutledge would have any ill Effects at the...
261John Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 December 1795 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you this morning inclosing a Post note for 600 and went to Senate with full Expectation of receiving a Letter from you. The Door Keeper had the Letters for others but none for me— What a Disappointment! I went mourning and moaping about for Some time, grumbling at my Stars and almost blaming my best Friend: but it was not long before the Letter of the 15 was brought me from the...
262John Adams to Abigail Adams, 28 December 1795 (Adams Papers)
I have just rec d from the P. Office your Letter of the 20 th. by Brisler who went to carry one for you— I write by every Post i.e by Mondays and Thursdays which are the only ones on which Mails are made up for any Place beyond N. York, and the only ones on which Letters arrive here from any Place beyond that City. M rs Adams your new Daughter behaves prettily in her new Sphere— I dined with...
263John Adams to Abigail Adams, 2 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
The Weather here is as fine as it was the last Year. The Festival season of Christmas and the new Year, is enjoyed in Perfection by all, for what I know, but poor Cabot and me. He is as solitary and disconsolate as a lone Goose. He strives to keep up his Spirits and preserve his usual Gaiety but one plainly perceives it is all Exertion. There are Letters to the secretary of State upon public...
264John Adams to Abigail Adams, 5 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
There is a dead calm in the political Atmosphere, which furnishes no Event worth relating. The House of Reps is wholly taken up with two worthless Agents of Corruption. I have this day however heard News that is of some Importance. It must be kept a Secret wholly to yourself, One of the Ministry told me to day that the President was solemnly determined to serve no longer than the End of his...
265John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 6 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have the receipt of two Letters from you to acknowledge; the one bearing date September 15. and the other October 8. of the year which has just been added to the rolls of departed Time. For both these Letters please to accept my cordial thanks. As the principal subject of them relates to the Treaty, which brought me here, they are not susceptible of a lengthy answer from me.— The part which...
266John Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed is another Production of Porcupine, whose quils will Stick. The President appears great in Randolphs Vindication throughout excepting that he wavered about Signing the Treaty which he ought not to have done one moment. Happy is the Country to be rid of Randolph: but where shall be found good Men and true to fill the offices of Government. There seems to be a Necessity of distributing...
267Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Adams, 9 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
It is indeed several weeks since I have written to you—an eventful term to me—multiplied with cares, which have prevented me from presenting my most cordial Thanks to my dear Sisters, for their kindness, & the maternal affection they have shewn my Daughter— I think I Justly estimated her genius & temper—& my expectations were raised, that, when under your fostering hand she would greatly...
268John Adams to Abigail Adams, 15 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
We have floods of rain but no frost nor Snow and very little news. The Democrats continue to pelt as you will See by the inclosed Political Chess. We go on as We always have done, for the three first months of the Session, distributing Business into the hands of Committees, meeting and adjourning. The Gallery finds little Entertainment in our Debates. We have Seldom more than 30 or 40 in it...
269John Adams to Abigail Adams, 20 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
This is one of my red Letter Days. It is the Anniversary of the Signature of the Declaration of an Armistice between The U.S. and G. Britain, in 1783.— There are Several of these Days in my Calandar, which I recollect as they pass in review, but which nobody else remembers. And indeed it is no otherwise worth my while to remember them than to render an Ejaculation of Gratitude to Providence...
270John Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have nothing to write you at this moment but Scandal, and that about one of our Connections and Acquaintances, in whose Character and Fortunes Several of our near Relations and kind Friends are deeply interested for which Reason I write in Confidence and pray that Calumny if it is such may not be propagated from me nor in my name. It is reported here in Company of senators and others of...
271John Adams to Abigail Adams, 26 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday I came to Senate as usual on a monday morning pleasing my Imagination and my heart with the hope and Expectation of a Letter from—my dearest Friend. No Letter for The Vice President Says Mathers! All Day in bad humour—dirty Weather—wet walking—nothing good—nothing right. The poor Post Offices did not escape—it was some blunder—some carlessness of theirs—in Philadelphia—New York or...
272John Adams to Abigail Adams, 29 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday which was Post Day from the Eastward I was disappointed again of a Letter and went pesting all the day long against the Post office. But this morning has produced me yours of the 15 th which informs me that you meet with similar Dissappointments. There has not one Post parted from Philadelphia for Boston Since I have been here without a Letter from me to You. Wednesdays and Saturdays...
273Charles Adams to Abigail Adams, 31 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
My Sister informs me that you have not lately heard from your sons in Holland and that you were anxious respecting them. I am happy to have it in my power to relieve your mind and to relate the cause of your not receiving intelligence from them. I have within these six weeks received a half a dozen letters from them some of a date as late as the 7 th of October They are in good health and...
274John Adams to Abigail Adams, 31 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have a secret to Communicate to Your Prudence. The Defence by Camillus was written in Concert between Hamilton King and Jay. The Writings on the first ten Articles of the Treaty were written by Hamilton The rest by King, till they came to the question of the Constitutionality of the Treaty, which was discussed by Hamilton— Jay was to have written a concluding Peroration: but being always a...
275John Adams to Abigail Adams, 2 February 1796 (Adams Papers)
I rec d yesterday yours of 21. and 25 Jan. The Senate and House of Massachusetts without any flights or flashes in their Answer to the Governors Spech have discovered a Gravity, Wisdom, Firmness and Dignity as much to their honour as it is to the Consolation of the Sober and impartial Part of the Community and the humiliation of all the corrupt and distracted. I See daily So many affecting...
276John Adams to Abigail Adams, 6 February 1796 (Adams Papers)
You Say you have no desire to be the first, and I cannot say that it is desirable: but according to all present appearances you will either be the first or among the last in another thirteen months. I would not distress myself to obtain the Priviledge of carrying an heavier Load than any of my fellow Labourers: but if the Fates destine one to attempt it it would be dastardly to Shrink if it...
277Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Adams, 6 February 1796 (Adams Papers)
The tender solicitude you have shewn for my health, demands the earliest return I can make—& it is greatly to my satisfaction that I can inform you of my recovery, so as to be about the house again— I tried all in my power, not to have my indisposition noticed—but I struggled in vain, for at last I was obliged to go to bed, & lie there for three days— I told William not to tell you how sick I...
278John Adams to Abigail Adams, 8 February 1796 (Adams Papers)
It is monday, the Time to expect the Eastern mail other Men have Letters— I have none— humiliated and mortified and at the Same time irritated, I feel sometimes a disposition to abuse the Post offices, sometimes to make a rash Vow never to Spend another Winter seperated from my Small Family that remains to me, but never once harbour a Suspicion that Madam may have omitted to write. Upon the...
279John Adams to Abigail Adams, 10 February 1796 (Adams Papers)
The inclosed Slip from Benjamins Paper of this Morning will Shew you that the Electioneering Campaign is opened already. The “good Patriot, Statesman and Philosopher” is held up as the Successor. I am determined to be a Silent Spectator of the silly and the wicked Game and to enjoy it as a Comedy a Farce or a Gymnastic Exhibition at Sadlers Wells or Astleys Amphitheatre. I will laugh let them...
280John Adams to Abigail Adams, 13 February 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have only time to inform you that Monday and Thursday have passed away without bringing me a Letter from you. It is the first Week that has failed me in the whole, tho sometimes the Letters have not arrived on the proper day. There is a D r Somebody here from Connecticutt, who pretends, with an Instrument made of some kind of Metal or Composition of Metals by a sort of Mesmerian, rubbing or...