201From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
I want words to express the grateful feelings of my heart for your kind sympathy on our late heavy affliction, we have indeed suffered a bereavement that can never be repaired to us as individuals or as a family.—A husband, a father, a protector, snatched from us with but little time to prepare our minds for such a stroke, twenty hours before his pure spirit fled from us forever, we had no...
202From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
By Mrs Welsh, who spent the afternoon with us, I was informed that Your dear Grandson was going to Russia. He will be an agreeable, interesting Companion, for he is possessed of singular strength of Mind—And if he goes, may the Angel of Mercy, be commissioned be to smooth his Passage, & waft him in safty over the briny Ocean, with prosperous Gales, & conduct him to the embraces of parental...
203From Benjamin Waterhouse to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
It is with some degree of mortification that I have to inform you, that I have not been able to get that extract of a letter from your son inserted in the Patriot, without submitting it to certain curtailments, & alterations, to suit with the notions of the party; and without omitting entirely that last paragraph which speaks of the disasters of the French army.— I yesterday withdrew the...
204From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 5 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
Last week I received your kind and affectionate Letter of 25. 27. February—which had been destined for France, but the vessel on board of which it was, being taken and sent into Plymouth, the Gentleman who was the bearer of your letter, (his name has not come to my knowledge) was released as a Non Combattant , and they were forwarded to me by the Mail. Your letter of previous date—25. January...
205From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 9 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have perused the Letters from Russia which you were so good as to forward to me, I submitted them as you requested to The perusal of the Vice President, who when he returned them, he expressed his thanks for the confidential communication & observed “they develope the Character of the british administration, as well as the opinions of our friend Mr. J. Q. A. on the subject” I have a Letter...
206From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I was much instructed by the letters you were so good as to forward me from Russia, I wish the writer of them was nearer to us, our great men, however great they are, want aid, they want vigour and decission, the war has assumed a Character that they appear not to have calculated upon—here are laying 140 peices of heavy artillery and not a carriage to mount them upon—this place is totally void...
207From William Steuben Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
On the 24. May I had the very great satisfaction of receiving your kind letter of 23d. February. I felt doubly obligated to you for it as I conscious it must have been written under the impression, arising from the existing relations between the U. States and Britain, that the probabilities were very much against my ever receiving it; and I regret to say that the political appearances are not...
208From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
Though I have received no reply to my last, I interrupt Mrs. Adams again on a subject that lays near my heart.—It was reported to me yesterday that my beloved Mrs. Smith was again attacked by a dreadful malady which she has once surmounted:—and that apprehension of its fatal & speedy termination she has sent for her mother. When I receive an answer to the above enquiry I most ardently pray...
209From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
Enclosed I send you a letter from my dear Caroline mentioning that my dear Mrs: Smith is getting better—It will give her great pleasure to have our Son John with her for a time— On Thurday last I dined at the Presidents and was honoured with the seat next to Mrs: Madison, who is a polite amiable elegant Lady, She entered on the Subject of Williams marriage and expressed herself very much in...
210From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
Your long silence (My Dear Sister) made me fear that you, or some of your family were sick—I was at Haverhill, & enquired of Mrs Harrod, but she did not mention it, only told me, that another Grandson was announced, whose name was to be Isaac Hull—Perhaps, the deceased Lawrence, might be as able, & intrepid a Commander, as the victorious Hull—But Laurels seldom spring, from the ashes of the...
211From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
It is matter of much consolation to know that frends so dear to My lamented husband as Mr and Mrs Adams intend to continue, or or rather to transfer to me the frendship with which they have so long favord him. I shall cherish it as of inestimable value, tho conscious that I have no other claim to the honor they so kindly have offered, but that I was dear to him who they loved and respected...
212From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have not received a Letter for a long time that gave me such real heart-felt pleasure, as yours of the 20th. Instt.—I had been led from report to despair of the life of my friend, Mrs Smith.— Think then, how much I must rejoice to see her mother write concerning her in so good spirits, and to express a hope of again embracing her daughter, under the parental roof.—I also rejoice to hear of...
213From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 29 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I am myself, my dear Madam, in great trouble—since my date of yesterday, my amiable son the Collector, unaccompanied by any man, was followed on the street by a ruffian neighbour, who after several scurrilous epithets of abuse, lifted his vulgar fist & gave him such a blow in his right eye that it appears doubtful whether he will again have the use of it.—This man, one Joseph Bartlett has been...
214From Elizabeth Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 3 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Altho’ I did not Accept of your kind invitation for yesterday, it was then my intention to have been with you to day but alas we know not what a day will bring forth My good Brother is unexpectedly remov’d from Office and it has thrown us all into such Consternation that with my present feelings I could not partake of that pleasure—which I have ever receivd & had anticipated the ensuing...
215From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt of your Letter of the 30th. of June, and enclose you a letter from Mrs Smith, which I received yesterday, two from Caroline and one from my Son John, whose affectionate attentions have no doubt contributed much to the restoration of their dear Mother’s health, who I am extreamly happy to find is able to travel and that she is now on her way to...
216From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
You know my Dear Sister, that my Heart is ever prone “to rejoice with those who rejoice, as well as to weep with those who have cause to weep.” And I most sincerely lament that your Daughter is afflicted in so grievous a manner, while I rejoice, that she has so amiable a Daughter to attend arround her Bed, & a Son to comfort, & “prevent the asking Eye,” now in the absence of his Father—It is...
217From William Allen to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter of the 11th, with the enclosed sermons, & communication of your late brother in law, Judge Cranch,—& for your condescension in writing to me & in imparting information so acceptable I beg leave to return you my most cordial thanks.—The facts, which you have communicated, will contribute to improve the second edition of a work, compiled almost entirely without...
218From Hendrick W. Gordon to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honor to write me the 14th inst. Immediately after I was informd that a report was in circulation, that Mr J Q A. had written his father that the war in which we are engaged, was unjust & unnecessary, I wrote my friend Mr Calhoun, to pay no attention to such a report ( if such an one should reach Washington ) ’till he heard from me again, adding, that...
219From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Mr: Gallatin and Mr Bayard reached Gothenburg Roads, on the 20th: of June. A Russian Gentlemen who had come as passenger in the same vessel with them, and then proceeded by land to this place, brought me a letter from them dated 21 June, and arrived here, eighteen days since—They wrote me that they intended to proceed as speedily as possible upon their voyage—that they had letters for me from...
220From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have your letter of the 16th I hasten to ansr. it as I have by the same post receivd a Letter from our dear Caroline from Schnectady giving an account of the safe arrival of the Party there in improved health they go on to Ballstown to try the Springs & from thence proceed to Quincy; where I now have no doubt but they will arrive safe—I have addressd the paper of the day to Caroline by which...
221From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Our mutual Friend Mrs Cushing called upon me a few days since and informed me that she expects you at Scituate in a short time.— Have you not in contemplation a design to extend your rout as far as Plymouth? I need not say it would give me great pleasure to see you, here before Mrs Smith can rationally be expected at Quincy. I most sincerely wish she may safely arrive there in due season, and...
222From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 5 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
your good grandchildren are just gone to repose in the arms of sweet Sleep, soothed by the consciousness of having endeavoured I trust to perform their duty to one of the best of Parents—I was so pleased with their coming to see us, that I could not bear to deprive myself of one moment of their company till they had retired to their bed—And now I embrace one moment, to assure you, of my...
223From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
If all the tenderest sympathy of a most affectionate Sister, could soothe your afflicted Breast, sure mine would impart some healing Balm. But though it may have some power to ameliorate, yet, unless aided by divine Consolations, it can have but little efficacy—Thanks be to Heaven, the resources derived from Christianity are open to you, my venerable Brother, & Sister,—& dear bereaved young...
224From Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
A kind note at the foot of mr Adams’s letter of July 15. reminds me of the duty of saluting you with friendship and respect; a duty long suspended by the unremitting labors of public engagement, and which ought to have been sooner revived, since I am become proprietor of my own time. and yet so it is, that in no course of life have I been ever more closely pressed by business than in the...
225From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard have been here a complete Month. They had arrived at Reval, a Port just at the entrance of the Gulph of Finland, about 250 miles from this place, at the date of my last Letter—The next day I was informed of their arrival; and the day following they reached this City—They are accompanied by a Son of Mr Dallas of Philadelphia, Mr: Milligan of Delaware, Mr. Todd, Mrs:...
226From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 29 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
I cannot longer be silent while my friends are mourning the death of such a daughter as was our much loved Mrs Smith.—But why mourn?—She is happy and soon shall we also meet the termination of time, when, may we unite in the universal harmony of love and gratitude which attune the song of the righteous!— Mr Adams’s philosophic view of the changes of time and his belief in the sovereignty of...
The arrival of Mr Bayard, & Galatin, my dear Madam, has made so little alteration in our situation, that I have little or nothing to write you, but complaints, of the prospect I have of a much lengthen’d stay in this Country: and the additional grief of losing the society of my Sister, which was almost the only thing left me to render life supportable. Mr A is even more buried in study than...
228From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
This day two Months have elapsed since Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard arrived and delivered to me your favours of 5 and 23 April—Nothing later from you has yet come to hand.—Very shortly after their arrival, the ship Hannibal, belonging to Mr Astor of New-York arrived at Gothenburg—This vessel was furnished with a British licence with a permission even to bring a Cargo, and to carry one back in...
229From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
I scarcely know whether it is most proper for me to appologize for my long silence, or for intruding again upon your time by writing, but when I recollect that I cannot expect to be favored with your consoling, and gratifying letters without making some, tho a poor return, I will begin without any other excuse, but to say that I went from home immediately after I had the pleasure to receive...
230From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 8 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
The day after I sent my last letter to you I received your interesting communication, most sincerely do I sympathize with Mr Adams and you this melancholy occasion, this is indeed a changing scene, a dying world, and I think the last six months has been a time of unusual mortality—your dear daughter we trust was made perfect through sufferings and is inheriting the promises, where sin and...
231From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
I cannot express to my dear Mrs. Adams the ardent desire I feel that we might at least have one more personal interview, before we are either of us called to leave the passing scenes of pleasure and pain, that have so long danced before us and vanished as the vapour of the morn. I long to have you by my side in my retired mansion at Plymouth, where we might indulge the feelings of the heart...
232From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 14 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have just this moment returned from attending the funeral obsequies of the late general Moreau; which have been solemnized with suitable splendour at the Roman Catholic Church of this City. He died at Töplitz on the 2d. of September, of the wounds he had received before Dresden, the 17th. of August.—His Body was sent here by order of the Emperor Alexander, and has been buried with all the...
233From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
If I could have omitted to welcome the return of this day, and to renew my prayers for many happy repetitions of it to my father and you, I should still have been charged with the obligation of acknowledging the receipt of your two letters of 1. and 14. July which I received last week from Gothenburg—They were brought to that City by Mr Story, who writes me that he had a long passage from...
234From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, November 1813 (Adams Papers)
I did not my dear Mrs. Adams, write by yr Son when last in Plymouth, because I wished to retain the very valuable Letters of the American Minister at Petersburg, a little longer in my hand.—I wish’d my Son Winslow and his father to peruse them, which from sickness and other causes they could not do immediately.—I have not communicated them to any eye but those of my Son’s, though I think them...
The unexpected and exquisite gratification I received from the polite Letter, with which you honoured me, convinced me more than ever of the truth, that in pleasure, as well as in the pain it is often difficult to ascertain the point, at which it can not bear a farther increase. I am entirelÿ at a loss, Madam! how to address you with empty hands, more So, as you Shower Such–a–profusion of...
236From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 6 November 1813 (Adams Papers)
With the same glow of affection which has for many years been cherished in my bosom, I received yours of the first Instt. and seldom indeed do I meet with any thing in the Letters of my Friend Mrs Adams that causes a moments uneasiness.—But I have been anxious since your last & more so since the arrival of this day’s Post least some accident may have happened to a valuable Packet which I was...
237From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 November 1813 (Adams Papers)
If my last Letter should reach you before this, my ever dear and affectionate mother, you will see by the Postscript, that before it was dispatched we had been informed through an indirect channel of the decease of my beloved Sister—This event, so distressing in itself, but for which your kind letters of 2 and 14 July, had in some measure prepared my Mind, has excited a new and additional...
238From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 December 1813 (Adams Papers)
It seems that I may again indulge my own feelings by intruding another letter upon you, without supposing that I have any thing to say that can interest You, except as coming from one to whom You have kindly offered a transfer of frendship long since cherished for a more worthy object now no more. Oh my dear Madam the months that have pass’d since the loss of that revered object have not...
My social Spirit, which often nightly “me revisits,” has been so busy, & importunate of late as to deprive me of the tranquilizing effect of Sleep, wafting me to the Bed of langour & Sickness, & had impressed my mind so powerfully, that I should hear some of my Family were sick, that when I received your Letter to Day, I opened with the hand of tremulous anxiety my Dear Sister’s kind assurance...
240From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 December 1813 (Adams Papers)
As the time is approaching for the departure of Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard, and as the Month and year are drawing to a close, I avail myself now of the opportunity of writing to you by them, although it is yet uncertain when they will go, and still more uncertain how long it will be before they reach he United States. The British Government peremptorily refused negotiating for Peace with...
241From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1814 (Adams Papers)
To offer you anything like consolation for your irreparable loss my dear Mother is I feel utterly impossible and Heaven alone can pour balm into the wound which in its wise decrees it has ordained. Too recently have I suffer’d the same dreadful stroke not to feel how every fibre of your heart must have been rent by this great great affliction if the tenderest sympathy could in the smallest...
242From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
Accept my thanks for your last favor, and the congratulations of myself and family on the return of a new year, may it come fraught with the best of blessings to my distinguished and respected frends. It finds me surrounded with all the comforts I have ever enjoyed except my dearest and best frend, the blank made by his absence seems to be particularly felt at the recurrence of noted days and...
I too my Dear Sister, have to address you from the Bed of Sickness— The wednesday night after I wrote to you last, I was waked with a shaking fit great distress at my vitals, which was succeeded by a regular Lung fever—I have had specimens of this fever twice before in the course of my Life, but nothing so severe as now—But through the goodness of an ever kind Providence, the Crisis formed the...
244From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 17 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I expected that Mr: Gallatin or Mr Bayard, would have been the bearer of the last letter, that I wrote you; which was at the close of the last year. But it was taken by Mr Todd, who with Coll: Milligan, Mr Bayard’s private Secretary left this City about ten days since; bound to England by the way of Sweden. Mr: Gallatin’s intention now is to go in a week or ten days; but he takes his direction...
I was much grieved to hear of Mrs Adams sickness, both upon her own account & yours —Such a weight, & distress upon the Lungs adds greatly to the Fever, & makes respiration difficult—The last smoke from the fire, seemed to suffocate me—I am sure I shall pity any one more than ever I have done—And I was rejoiced to hear Tuesday by Mrs James Foster, that you were better, & Mrs J. Adams too, was...
246From Charles Francis Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
After having written to my Grandpapa, and my Brothers, I must not omit writing to you, to express my gratitude for your kindness to my Brothers, as well as to myself, longer ago than I can remember. We have now vacation time at school; and one Evening, Papa and Mama permitted me to have a party of my school-mates, and a few other young Gentlemen and Ladies of my acquaintance. We had a great...
I feel much obliged my Dear Sister, to the Christian Desciple for the mild, & pacific Principles, which he so zealously endeavours to inculcate—I hope the Writers feel there powerful influence upon their own Hearts—"Wrath, & Evil Speaking," never made one Proselite , any more than the tortures of an Inquisition—If we must be stigmatized, reprobated as Harties, fools, & Knaves, because we...
248From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have already written you once, by Mr: Gallatin, who, together with Mr Bayard left this City on the Evening of 25. January, for Amsterdam—But as Mr Harris our Consul, who was also the Secretary of Legation to the Extraordinary Mission is to follow them in a few days, and expects to overtake them at Berlin, I consider it as another opportunity for writing to you, and have prescribed it as a...
I was in hopes of receiving a Letter by yesterdays Mail from you—I was glad to see by the News Papers that Col. Smith, who formerly girded on the Sword for his country’s defence, was now opening his mouth, I trust in wisdom, advocating the same noble cause—What will be the issue of the present agitation of your State, & ours, I cannot predict, but I fear, unless great pains is taken to...
250From Charles Francis Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 6 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
At Mr: Fishwick’s School, where I am, there are sixteen boys besides myself, and besides his two daughters, Charlotte and Eliza. We learn on Mondays and Fridays Russian; on Tuesdays and Thursdays German; and on Tuesday Morning, Drawing; on Wednesdays and Fridays, French, Every day English Spelling and Grammar. Writing every day except Saturdays and cyphering sometimes. On Saturdays in the...