331From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 3 February 1824 (Adams Papers)
On the 5th. of last month I received your Letter dated on the first and have been in expectation of receiving the statement of your account promised in it, which has not yet arrived—It gives me great pleasure to learn that you are persevering by elevating your attention to the art of regular account keeping, and I cannot cease to exhorting you to master it throughly and to apply it...
332From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 1 March 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 19th: of Last Month, informing me of your admission to the University gave me great Satisfaction; and as you are now fully enrolled among the Sons of Harvard, I hope you will make it your constant and earnest object to do honour to that Institution, by the regularity of your conduct, and the steadiness of your pursuits You say that in the Class which you have entered,...
333From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 18 August 1825 (Adams Papers)
Thomas J. Hellan is to be offered as a Candidate for admission at Harvard University this year—I wish you to give him all the assistance which he may need for that purpose, and to consider him as under your parental, or brotherly care—You will be one of his bondsmen and request my brother to be the other—You will attend to the payment of his quarterly bills, and other necessary expenses,...
In Joke while I was in Boston you one day said you would lend your Books to your Uncle Tom in New Orleans I then laughed at the idea but on arriving here he I found a Letter from him in which he requests such a loan from your father and as I know that in that way it would be difficult to procure them you would be rendering me a most essential service if you send a box of them to him which he...
335From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 21 September 1824 (Adams Papers)
I certify that George Washington Adams was a Student of Law under my direction at the City of Washington, for two years from the first of October 1821. MHi : Adams Papers.
336From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 22 February 1822 (Adams Papers)
Do not the cannon which have thundered this morning in honour of your Namesake, in flame a holy Ambition in your breast to imitate his Virtues talents and qualities? you have received, no doubt Alexander Everetts Europe. It has been read to me. It discovers attentive observation, Sedulous inquiry and profound reflection. But it wants in many points the maturity of Judgment which is only the...
337From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 19 November 1826 (Adams Papers)
Your short note of the 14th. enclosing your Account to the first of July 1826. 4. Copies of Mr Whitney’s funeral discourse, and the pamphlet and annuity blank, of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company; and also the N. 2. Glass Company’s bill, has been received—I reserve my observations upon the Account, till that of the subsequent Quarter to the 1st. of October last shall come. I...
338From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 10 March 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received your No 19, 24, Feby. When I recollect the freedom of speech, which I indulged, and in which I was indulged, and which I fear I sometimes abused in congress from 1774, to 1778, I ought not to be very severe upon Mr Randolph, or on Mr M. Durfee, I must say however that the liberty I claimed I always granted to others, and my pertness was plentifully retorted upon me. I think...
339From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 20 September 1822 (Adams Papers)
Your beautiful letter of the 8th has given me great pleasure I call it beautiful because the style is handsome and handwriting marvellous for you. You cannot be in a better school than when writing for Your Father. You will return to Your Studies with greater pleasure after having written for him George! I have read I believe in Anacharsis a law of one of the democratic republics of Greece I...
Your Letter with that of Hariet Welsh was received by me a few hours after your father and John had left the City on their way to Boston—with the vain hope as it has proved of still being in time to receive the last blessing of your truly venerated Grandfather—Heaven has ordained otherwise and we must bow submissively to its all wise but inscrutable decrees and in gratitude raise our hearts in...
341From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 24 June 1822 (Adams Papers)
Your No 33. has pleased me much and I beg you to continue your observations on the cavilling and chicanery of the quarterly review. I grow more and more every day in love with Stuart and the Scottish school. I have had read to me three volumes of Browns lectures on Metaphysics and ethics and I recommend them to your careful perusal as well as to your brothers. They are a rich mine and mass of...
We suffer too much from the heat my Dear George not to make allowance for your purisse but I am very glad to see that at least it does not affect your spirits or that the lovely brides (for brides you know must always be lovely old or young) have not produced a marrying mania and set you to seek too hartily for that which neither time nor care can ensure in its perfection—In the selection you...
I wrote you a hurried Letter the other day my dear George in answer to your last as I was fearful you might purchase me another Shawl. As I am now much better than I was I will enter more fully into my winter plans and of our present life. As yet we have but little company excepting occasional morning visits—I have been papering and painting one or two of my rooms and that with the bad state...
344From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 21 August 1820 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 13th: instt. is received and gave me pleasure—It would have been still more acceptable if it had contained your opinion of Prodicus’s Fable of the Choice of Hercules; your account of which is correct as far as it goes—Its first appearance is in the Memorabilia Socratis, of Xenophon, and is I think there represented not as written, but spoken in a dialogue. You will recollect...
Although my Dear George I fear that my last Letter was not very palatable to your high spirit being in better health and spirits than I have been for sometime I must seize the opportunity of writing least they should again sink and I should be compelled by dire necessity to abandon once more an occupation more delightful to my heart than all the pleasures this gay world can offer that of free...
As you know me to be an Amateur of the horrible incidents of human Tragedy if my Dear George you will not be surprized at receiving some lines written by me on a melancholy event which recently took place in the City—The Actors were in a middling class of society and the circumstance has died away like the poor miserable victims of passion with out eliciting a remark excepting from the levity...
In all the hurry and confusion which attended our journey it was impossible for me to write you even a few lines to let you know how we were— Elizabeth has no doubt given you all an elaborate account of all the fine things we saw in Philadelphia into which I was so unexpectedly drgged dragged. It was a splendid show and I whirled amid the glittering confusion until my brain was almost turned....
I am very glad my Dear George find by your Letter which is just received that you are better and if possible still more pleased to learn that you are likely to become very busy as I believe this is the only means to keep you in health— I regret very much not to see you as any journey to the North appears very doubtful this Summer and I am sorry to see your account of your Grandfathers state—It...
I send you three sheets of the dialogue because it was too little at once to read only a sheet—I am making out a fair copy of the whole which I will either send or bring when I come. You gave me such a good account of your health in your last Letter but one that was the reason I did not write to L Smith—but I am apprehensi ve you deceived me a little—from your last. I am so unwell I cannot...
350From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 5 October 1826 (Adams Papers)
We John Quincy Adams and Josiah Quincy, Executors of the last Will and Testament of John Adams late of Quincy in the County of Norfolk, Doctor of Laws, appoint George W. Adams of Boston, in the County of Suffolk, Attorney at Law, our Attorney, for us in our said capacity to do and perform any and every act, relating to the Execution of the Said Will, which we or either of us could do and...
With the utmost pleasure I would write to you as often as you wish were my health perfectly and entirely restored. This unfortunately is not the case as I am still subject to chills and fear I shall continue to be so throughout the winter—This has induced me to fix my Tuesdays once a fortnight instead of once a week which is more than I am able to undertake— You would laugh could you see Mary...
Your father has intended writing to you several days but something or other perpetually occurring he has not yet fulfilled his intention—And finding nothing to do I shall devote half an hour to your and in the first place tell you how much I am flattered by the improvement which I am informed has taken place in your appearance and manners and which your Grandmother obligingly attributes to my...
353From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 29 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 11th. and your mother has that of the 16th. from Paris. I wrote you by Mr Boyle, and have not written since, supposing a Letter could not reach Paris before you would have left it.—We shall from this day be constantly expecting your return, and I write this merely with the chance of its finding you at Bruxelles. We are preparing with all possible despatch to...
354From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 15 November 1821 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your letter of the 4th. November I am very glad to hear that you are so nearly through Hallams Middle Ages.—I am travelling through the same country from the benevolence of your friend Quincy.—who after travelling through it himself gave me a lease of it for a term.—It is a valuable compendium and I am very glad to find that he gives so great a character of MU RATORI, whose...
355From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 26 March 1822 (Adams Papers)
I am delighted with your number 22. It is not too free. It is modest enough. It is wise learned and ingenious. I have sometimes the feelings of Theophrastus who at 115 as I learn from casauban, thought it hard to die when he had just learned to live. Never was I more ardently interested in historical and political studies or Amusements. Hobard Johnson Morton, Winslow Bradford and a hundred...
3rd: December. My whole morning was occupied with visits and writing cards of invitation—we have had 40 or more Members of Congress already here and all who call I invite to my Evengs. if I can help it I will invite only those who call lest it should be said I am courting them to further any particular purpose—We dined alone and Mary being sick I denied myself to company—Mr Petry called and...
You will be quite worn out my dear George with my would be poetic effusions; but as I told you in my last I know that the événemens de tout les jours are so well and so constantly sent to you by your brother, I have nothing left but to send you the singular scraps of my folly elicited occasionally by unlooked for circumstances On the departure of General Lafayette from our own house I felt...
358From Thomas Jefferson to George Washington Adams, 9 August 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson returns his thanks to mr George Washington Adams for the eloquent oration on the late 4 th of July which he has been so kind as to send him. he deems it a subject of worthy congratulations to his fellow citizens that a young character of so much promise, and descended thro’ a lineage so meritorious, is now entering on the stage of life, with so much personal, as well as...
359From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 20 February 1825 (Adams Papers)
Your letter has given me great pleasure, and so have those of your brother John—they are lively, animating and cheerful, and at the same time judicious and prudent, which to me is of more importance than all the rest. This great nation appears to me to be as well satisfied as so great a nation can be and in their satisfaction I sincerely rejoice. What obligations does this event impose upon...
I have at length received your Letter, after having unpatiently waited untill your more important avocations were so far terminated, as to permit you to think of so trifling a personage as your Mother—As however the period is arrived at which you have some little time to spare, I avail myself with pleasure of the opportunity thus offerered, of renewing a correspondence so warmly urged during...
361From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 25 May 1826 (Adams Papers)
I had postponed a reply to your last two Letters under the expectation of seeing you here. With your mother I had been deeply concerned to learn that your health was suffering; and I knew that she had invited you to come and seek its restoration with us. Your Letter to her of the gave indications of recovery from another department of the Materia Madica, and followed as it was immediately...
N. 9 has reached me and I hasten to answer it although I must complain a little at your neglecting to do so to the Letters I send you— Some time since my Dear George I wrote to inquire if any goods had arrived at Washington for your Uncle and begged you to write me word. I have looked in vain hitherto for the answer to my question but do not find it any where—As he is rather of an anxious...
I am at length about to attempt to answer your Letter but am not quite sure whether I shall be successfull as it is late and impossible to guard against interruptions— In the first place the Missouri question is decided—How I leave you to judge as you will read the account in the publick papers—The juggling between the Clerks of the House and the Speaker places our National Councils in so...
I was much gratified by the receipt of your Letter my dear George yesterday at noon and am somewhat surprized to find that you have not read my translation of Plato which was sent on some weeks since to your Grandfather by Mr. A. and which I supposed you had already read soon after its arrival—The two first Dialogues were sent together and the copying of them was very laborious to me—I wish...
It is some time my dear George since I wrote but much sickness and trouble have kept my mind in a state of anxiety which has prevented my answering your last which was most kind and affectionate—Our pore coachman John Cook was found dead in his bed last week and left us a prey to surmizes and conjectures as to the causes of his decease which can never be satisfied— I had got thus far when your...
366From Edward Everett to George Washington Adams, 17 October 1825 (Adams Papers)
I will thank you to Send Me by the bearer the diplomas of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences of which We Spoke at Mr Lloyd’s. If they do Not happen to be in Your Keeping may I trouble You to let me know when I shall send for them. Your friend & Servant MHi : Edward Everett Papers.
My absence from the City must plead My excuse for not sooner congratulating you on your success in obtaining the prize and still more on the probability of your obtaining a reputation as an Orator one of the most essential requisites for a Publick man in our Country—It is a talent which may be considered as leading most directly and immediately to promotion and frequently to the highest...
368From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 26 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have but one moment of time to answer your Letter of the 2d: instant—and to direct you at the close of the Winter Vacation to offer yourself and pass examination for admission to the present Freshman Class; and, I hope you will assiduously employ the interval in preparing yourself for it. I cannot but acknowledge my surprize and mortification, to learn that you have been wasting your time...
369From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 1 October 1823 (Adams Papers)
I have constituted and appointed you my Agent and Attorney, for the management of my property in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, excepting that in the town of Quincy, and for the transaction of my private business; for which I hereby give you full authority, subject to the instructions herein contained. The following is the specific property, which I commit to your care. 1. House in Court...
370From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 20 June 1826 (Adams Papers)
Mr Walker delivered me your Laconic epistle of the 3d. instt. promising an answer at an early day to my Letter of the 25th. ulto—for which answer I am patiently waiting—I made suitable allowance, for the accession to your necessary occupations, occasioned by the Session of the Legislature—From which however you will have been relieved before you shall receive this— Your Accounts for the...
I yesterday received your Letter dated Quincy and was delighted to find your very formidable journey without accident. I admire very much your kindness in having lengthened your ride, and separated from your Brothers for the purpose of delivering the Letter of your new acquaintance who I think must be exquisitely delighted by this exalted mark of friendship and devotion— I am sorry you could...
372From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 16 October 1826 (Adams Papers)
We had a jovial day at Newport, after you left me, till five in the afternoon, when I embarked in the Revenue Cutter, Captain Cahoone—As we went on board the vessel, the gale subsided; the sun burst forth, and his last hour was unclouded—We proceeded with a light breeze and beautiful weather till last Evening, when coming to the pass of Hell-gate we were compelled to drop anchor—This morning...
373From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 24 October 1826 (Adams Papers)
Your Letters of the 16th. and 20th. instt have been received, and have given me great pleasure. The first relieving me from some concern on account of your health, and the second announcing an intention of diligence, and a commencement of performance highly satisfactory—Perseverance for a very short time in that plan of regularly rising at 5 in the morning, and devoting yourself to the...
I send you a sheet of journal my Dear George which you can read to your Grandfather if you please or such parts of it as you think fit—I shall address it to you thro’ the winter which I think will be more prudent and I wish that you could coax y. Grandfather to give you all that I have written as I think it would be safer in your possession in case of accidents— Journal 30 Novbr. 1823 In a...
I was very happy to hear from you my dear George as I felt anxious on account of the great heat knowing you would be exposed to all the ferver of an intense Sun and am very glad to find that you have not suffered from it— You say so little concerning the brilliant display of which we are told so much in the papers, that I suppose you were in too enthusiastic admir a state of admiration to find...
376From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 13 March 1820 (Adams Papers)
If you have a desire of a long life and a happy life I advise you to read Cicero. Your Father has expressed sufficient admiration of his office and his other writings but I wish at this time to recommend to you particular his treatise on Friendship. his dream of Scipio his letter to his brother Quintus about to take upon him for the third time the Government of Asia, and above all his treatise...
Accept my congratulations my Dear George on your success in the performance of a task become unpleasant from its constant repetition and the almost impossibility of striking out something novel either to amuse or instruct—The line you adopted was very correct and gave more scope than the beaten topic’s usually appropriated to the day and avoided one of the evils into which fourth of July...
Last Eveng Mr. Ingersol called and sat with us sometime and we had a good and pleasant chat after which Messieurs Walsh and Hopkinson came and remained with us till ten o’clock—Mr Walsh told me he had received a Letter from your father in which he speaks of his (Mr W’s) neutrality concerning the Russell business. He told me that this was a misunderstanding and that he had made no comments on...
379From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 27 January 1822 (Adams Papers)
The splendid account we receive from you and others of the dinners parties and balls from Washington almost persuade me to give you an account of the splendour of my family In addition to those which you know very well, we have Mr Shaw Mr DeWint and his lady & two servants. Your two brothers who by the way are very studious & skate, cut & saw wood no more than is beneficial to their health....
In the course of my ride from New Brunswick yesterday my Dear George the wish you expressed for something like a translation or imitation of the Lines I wrote in french and I dictated to Elizabeth while she wrote the very indifferent lines which follow—One verse is added and I beg you to alter or correct as you please—I know they are not good but they in a great degree convey the ideas...