1From John Quincy Adams to John Adams Smith, 3 May 1820 (Adams Papers)
This Letter is to introduce to your acquaintance and to recommend to your kind attentions and good offices Dr. Charles Williamson of Milledgeville, a highly respectable Citizen of Georgia and a particular friend of Mr. Walker one of the Senators in Congress from that State—At his desire I am happy to have the opportunity of making Dr. Williamson known to those of my friends who may possess the...
2From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Welsh, 29 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
In answer to your Letter of yesterday I readily agree that the board of my two Sons residing with you should be for the ensuing year at the rate of five dollars a week each, and I beg you and Mrs. Welsh and Miss Harriet to accept our warmest thanks for your unvarying kindness to them— I am with the strongest respect and attachment Dear Sir / Faithfully Yours MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
3From John Quincy Adams, 7 October 1819 (Adams Papers)
I John Quincy Adams of Boston in the County of Suffolk and Commonwealth of Massachusetts Esquire, do make and declare this to be my last Will and Testament. I give and bequeath to my eldest Son George Washington Adams, all that real Estate in Quincy, in the County of Norfolk, known by the name of the Mount-Wollaston Farm, conveyed to me by my honoured father, by his Deed dated the twenty-third...
I return the enclosed letter according to your desire, painfully regretting, that I can not consistently with my sense of my duties, comply with the wish of the writer; and yours in his behalf. The reasons of this I cannot fully explain to you, but I trust you will be assured they are not incompatible with that ardent and sincere affection to which you so forcibly appeal, & the power of which...
On the 22d. of September, the day upon which I entered on the Execution of the duties of my Office, I received your Letter of the 16th. which the pressure of business prevented me from answering immediately—Your mother however answered it for me, and now that I am enabled to catch a moment of leisure, I take advantage of it to write to you myself. Your remarks upon Mr Gilman’s discourses which...
6To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 12 November 1822 (Adams Papers)
I take pleasure in introducing to your acquaintance the Revd. Mr Barber, who has been some years attached to the Catholic Seminary at this place and to the College at Georgetown, and is now going to reside at Claremont in New Hampshire. In passing through Boston he proposes to pay you a visit, from which I am persuaded you will derive equal satisfaction with him. I am, Dear Sir, your faithful...
7From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 30 March 1825 (Adams Papers)
I have this day drawn upon you, at sight, for ten thousand Dollars, in favour of Richard Smith, Cashier of the United States Branch Bank or Order—I drew for the whole sum, because I cannot comprehend, how you should want five hundred dollars, to supply any claims upon you, on my account, while you are in the receipt of all the rents due not only on the first of January last, but on the first...
Your dear Mother not long since received a Letter from you, in which I read with great pleasure, that you get on at School pretty fast, and that in three weeks you hope to begin College Studies—As it is just three weeks since you wrote that Letter; if your hopes have been fulfilled you will this very day begin upon your College studies; and Oh! how happy shall I be, if you can hereafter write...
9From John Quincy Adams to John Adams Smith, 9 July 1821 (Adams Papers)
I take pleasure in introducing to your acquaintance, and recommending specially to your kind attentions, the bearer, Mr. Waldburg, a Gentleman of highly respectable character and connections, who visits Europe with views of instruction and amusement. I understand it would be agreeable to him to be attached to one of the legations of the United States in Europe, as other young Men have...
10From John Quincy Adams to John Adams Smith, 7 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have but one instant to inform you that we arrived here yesterday; all well. Mr Coles also arrived in the Evening from Liverpool, and delivered to me your Letter of 17 June with the Dispatch for the Secretary of State, and the Packets from Mr G. Joy & Mr Bentham. W. S. Clarkson is below while I am writing: your family relations are well. We expect to see Mr and Mrs DeWint to-morrow. I go...
11From John Quincy Adams to John Adams Smith, 19 June 1824 (Adams Papers)
Within a few Months, I have received many letters from you; for which I have not even found time to offer you the thanks to which they so well entitle you.—And even now I cannot write you without coupling with the acknowledgement of those favors, the solicitation of others. I have promised letters of introduction, for Mr. Noah Webster who has just embarked at New York for Liverpool, before I...
12From 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 & 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 perseveringly devoting your attention to the art of regular account-keeping & I can not erase exhorting you to master it thoroughly & to apply it unintermittingly to...
It appears on a resurvey of the Quincy Hancock Wood lot belonging to the estate of John Adams late of Quincy deceased, there was two Acres two quarters and nine rods of Swamp land which was not included in the first survey. We the Subscribers do appraise the same at twelve dollars the Acre making the whole $30.67. MHi : Adams Papers.
14From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 9 March 1818 (Adams Papers)
You have here enclosed, a draft on the United States Branch Bank at Boston to the order of Charles Newcomb, for 172 dollars 54 Cents, being the amount of dividends on the six and three per Cent Stocks due to him standing on the Books here, and for which I have signed receipts as his Attorney. The payment comes down to the second Quarter of 1816—inclusive—Upon the subject of the other...
15From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 4 March 1824 (Adams Papers)
I duly received your Letter of 15. January, with a Statement of your Account of Agency to the close of last year, upon which I have one remark to make, to which I wish you to pay the most pointed attention—It is that in charging yourself in the Account B. with $1139..29 for Cash received, you do not shew on the credit side, in what manner or for what purposes it has been expended—You only...
16From John Quincy Adams to John A. Shaw, 12 September 1826 (Adams Papers)
I pray you to accept my thanks for your obliging Note of the 25 ulto. and for the copy of your Eulogy upon John Adams and Thomas Jefferson with which it was accompanied. And as a member of the family of Mr Adams, I tender you in their name the assurance of our sensibility to the kindness of your tribute, and that of the Inhabitants of Bridgewater to his memory. With respectful consideration,...
Your Journals to the inclusive have been regularly received, and have become a sort of necessary of life to George and me—Whatever the Cause of the Confidence which you say you have but recently acquired of writing to me whatever comes into your head, as I am the principal gainer by the acquisition—hope it will be permanent—Your advice is always acceptable, and if I do not always profit by it,...
18From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 9 October 1819 (Adams Papers)
On examining my books at the Athenarum, I find there are several volumes missing; among which—Vols. 1. 2. and 32. of Voltaire—1. Volume of Racine—One Volume, from three different sets of Shakespear. 1. Vol: of the Glasgow Sophocles; and some others—part of not all of which, you have—There is danger, if you keep them out that they will get damaged, or mislaid and forgotten; and then make broken...
19From John Quincy Adams to John Quincy Adams, 15 November 1826 (Adams Papers)
Received of the Executors of the last Will of John Adams, by an order, on the Cashier of the United States Branch Bank, Boston, the sum of two thousand seven hundred and nine dollars eighty cents, being the amount of three Orders, from William S. Smith, one of the Devisees, named in the said last Will—of which orders, one for 1488 dollars three Cents is in my favour, for payment of dues due...
20From John Quincy Adams to John Adams Smith, 8 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
Will you have the goodness to order Mr. Micklain , the Tailor (who has my measure) to make for me two Broadcloth Coats, one black, and the other blue, with metal buttons, and both with internal side pockets, such as he has made for me before? Also two pair of best Broadcloth or double–milled blue Kersaymeer Pantaloons—Let the Package be given to Captain Forman , who returns to London in the...
21From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 13 April 1826 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 1st. instt. and am expecting another with your quarterly account—From your account of the projected Railway in Quincy, I shall follow Mr Cruft’s advice, and take no part in it—of which you will at proper time notify the Gentleman who wrote to me on the subject. With respect to the woodland you must obtain more direct and precise information—both as to the...
22From John Quincy Adams to George Johnson, 16 November 1823 (Adams Papers)
I recieved your note of yesterday with the Bank & flour books & shall be glad to see you tomorrow morning— My son mentioned you told him you had sold yesterday 500 barrels of Flour for Cash . I will thank you to deposit that & all future receipts of Cash, in the Branch Bank to the credit of my son John Adams; & draw upon him for all monies which you may have to pay, in this business. I request...
23To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 24 September 1822 (Adams Papers)
You have been made acquainted with the controversy in which I have been for some Months engaged in relation to transactions at the Negotiation of Ghent. As the subject is one in which the defence of my own character and that of two of my Colleagues was inseparably connected with principles of deep concernment to this Union, I have thought it necessary to collect in one publication the papers...
24From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 6 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
I received about a fortnight since a few lines from you so ill written that it was with difficulty that I could read them, and to my great surprize dated at Quincy, when I had expected you were assiduously pursuing your studies at Cambridge, after an interruption not less melancholy than indispensable—Your Letter barely hinted at the temporary dissolution of your Class, and by its brevity and...
25To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 9 February 1825 (Adams Papers)
The enclosed note from Mr King, will inform you of the Event of this day, upon which I can only offer you , my congratulations, and ask your blessing and prayers. Your affectionate and dutiful Son P.S. Have the goodness to cause the Note from Mr King, to be sent back to me. MHi : Adams Papers.
26John Quincy Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 June 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
By a Resolution of Congress , of the 19 th of January last , the Secretary of State has been instructed to furnish each College and University in the United States with one copy of the Journal of the Federal Convention, recently printed by Order of Congress . Being uncertain whether a selection of a Principal or President has been made for the Virginia University , I beg leave to confide the...
27To Thomas Jefferson from John Quincy Adams, 18 November 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
M r George Sullivan, the bearer of this Letter, is a distinguished Citizen of Massachusetts, whose father was well known to you, in person and by reputation; and particularly as Governor of that Commonwealth, at an interesting period of your public administration. M r Sullivan is at this time the Agent of Massachusetts for certain claims upon the Government of the Union; and avails himself of...
28From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Greenleaf, 8 September 1826 (Adams Papers)
Upon the decease of my late honoured Father, I have considered it a duty devolving upon me to erect a plain and modest monument to his memory; and my wish is, that divested of all ostentation it may yet be as durable as the walls of the Temple, to the erection of which he has contributed, and as the Rocks of his native Town, which are to supply the materials for it. This purpose may be most...
29From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 28 October 1819 (Adams Papers)
Since my return to this City I have received your Letters of the 12th and 21st. instt. the former, enclosing a list of my books which you have in your possession—and the latter, six dollars in Bank Bills. It is not, nor has it been my intention to withdraw from you the permission to take out from time to time at the Athenaeum such of my Books as you may wish to peruse—but merely to caution you...
30From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 28 March 1822 (Adams Papers)
It has given me great satisfaction to learn that a part has be assigned to you to perform at the exhibition, fixed for the 30th. of April—and should be well pleased if it if it were in my power to be present at the performance—But as that will not be practicable, I wish you to let me know what dialogue it is that you are to speak—I feel also some anxiety for your performance, and quite...