301From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
I received a very few days ago, your kind favour of 1. March last, which gave me great pleasure as a token of your remembrance, and by assurance of your restoration to health.—It contains like almost every letter from America, that I have received the last eighteen Months, tidings of affliction; but we had before been informed our brother’s misfortune in the loss of his youngest child. Your...
302From François Adriaan Van der Kemp to Abigail Smith Adams, 29 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
As I was, unexpectedly, So highly gratified with your favour of the 2d. instant, it might appear Some what Strange, that I Should delaÿ till now its answer, there I could not plead anÿ indisposition—neither would the multiplicity of mÿ dayly labour afford, in my opinion, a Sufficient motive for its delaÿ, as I felt my Self So highly obliged by it. No Madam! it was a more Sentic cause, and your...
303From Abigal Adams Shaw Felt to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 April 1815 (Adams Papers)
It is impossible for me to express to you my dear, my much beloved Aunt, the consolation your kind affectionate letter afforded me, it was balm to my oppressed, my wounded heart. Yes my dear Aunt, I have indeed been tried in the school of affliction, but that Almighty Being, who will not willingly afflict, or grieve the children of men, has enabled me to support this trying dispensation of his...
304From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I had the good fortune of sending a single letter from this place to England, in time to go by the Saratoga, a Cartel which sailed about the middle of this Month for New–York, and that letter was my last go to you. I hope it will reach you safely for it is the only opportunity by which I can expect that you will have heard from me, almost since the beginning of this Year—For the letters which...
305From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
As the Couriers between Paris and St: Petersburg have not yet ceased to be dispatched, by the arrival of one of them a few days ago, I had the pleasure of receiving your N. 1. of 5. January. which was not only like all your letters a balsam in itself; but was also precious by its contents, announcing your own health, that of my father, and of my children, brother and sister. I have no other...
306From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Todd having just called to announce his departure I hasten to write you although I do not think his departure will take place so soon as he expects. You will my joy on arriving in London at finding my Boys ready at our lodgings to receive me although in excellent health the pleasure was too much for me and I was several days before I recover’d my usual composure—We have not yet found a...
Had I not been honoured, So often; with proofs of your kindness, with which you was pleased to distinguish me among the numbers, who know, how to value the privilege of paying their homage to truth, I might deem an apologÿ necessarÿ for Sending a few insignificant lines from Philadelphia—From this point of view they would be considered by others—They may reallÿ be Stamped in this manner—your...
308From Hannah Phillips Cushing to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
Not one ray of information has reached us respecting your Family, or my Dear Mrs Cranch’s ill health, since your letter written the day after leaving here. I cannot but hope that she is convalesent, & that you my Friend with her Family & others, may yet be blessed with her society on earth a while longer. But if it should be otherwise directed by an allwise Providence, I doubt not but that you...
309From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
As Mrs: Perkins has kindly offered to take Letters, I hasten to answer your kind Letters of 24th: April & 2d May, which I received the day before yesterday. I fear the Boys will not be able to avail themselves of this opportunity, as they are much occupied previous to the Vacation, which takes place next Week. George has a part to perform in one of Terrences plays, and a French piece, and from...
310From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 January 1806 (Adams Papers)
The first thing I look for in all the letters I receive from Quincy, is that which relates to our children, who cannot speak for themselves, and both of whom we left indisposed, and when I find that they are well, I feel myself relieved thus far, and only hope that the rest of the letter may contain information equally pleasing, of all the other persons in whose welfare I am so deeply...
311From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
My last Letter to you was written at Reval, and dated the 12th: of May—It was forwarded from Gothenburg by a Swedish Vessel, bound to Boston; but since Admiral Cochrane’s Blockade, it is more doubtful than ever whether it will come to your hands.—I was detained ten days after it was written, in that City and its harbour, by head winds, and by the ice floating in the gulph of Finland—We were...
312From François Adriaan Van der Kemp to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 March 1818 (Adams Papers)
I was then once more honoured with your affectionate favour of the 27th favour—from which I receive a fresh proof, that you do justice to my feelings, and perceive, how highly I value Such distinguished marks of your attention. I regard these indeed as one of the great blessings, which a kind Providence bestows on my chequered life, and for which I can never be too ardently thankful, could I...
313From 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...
314From François Adriaan Van der Kemp to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
How can I express mÿ deep Sense of gratitude for your condescending kindness, in gratifying me So unexpectedly with your affectionate Letter of the 24. last. you art thoroughly acquainted with the art of enhancing the value of a gift. what drooping Spirits would not be revived bÿ Such a powerful tonic? and I owe you the acknowledgment, that theÿ dispelled a while the gloom—But—it has So manÿ...
315From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
My last Letter to you, was of the 31st: of January, from Bruxelles; and I enclosed it to Mr Beasley at London, requesting him to forward it by the earliest possible opportunity. By his answer he informs me that he dispatched it by the Packet which was to sail on the 15th: instant from Falmouth—Two days after it was written I left Bruxelles and came to this City where I arrived on the 4th:...
316From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
In proportion as the time lengthens since the receipt of your last Letter, which is also the last that I have received from any of my friends at Quincy, I find not only my anxiety to hear directly from you increasing with it, but also my desire and determination if possible to relieve you and my other friends with you from a similar anxiety respecting us, which you would feel in the case of so...
317From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
When I wrote you my last Letter, a press copy of which, is enclosed, I had little or no expectation that I should at this day still be here. The John Adams sailed from the Texel, with Mr Dallas on board, the 28th: of August, and has, I hope, by this time half-performed her passage—It is one of those singular incidents, which occur occasionally in real life, and which would be thought too...
318From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of 15. Feby: which was brought by Captain Brown, of the Washington, and which I received on the 23d: of last Month, gave me the first intelligence of those afflicting Events the Death of Mrs: Hellen and Mrs: Norton—I received it early in the morning, and was thereby enabled to communicate it to my wife and her Sister, with as much preparation as the nature of the case would...
319From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
A dutch Vessel, called the Prince of Orange, which had taken out to America the Minister, Mr. Changuion, arrived on the first of this month at the Texel, from Boston, after a passage of thirty days. She brought Boston newspapers to the first of September, but very few private letters, and to my great disappointment, none for me—Mr Boyd had arrived here, a day or two sooner, with dispatches...
320From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
Just as I was closing my last Letter to you, I received your letter of 12. April, and had barely time to make a minute of it, at the bottom of the one I was sealing up for you—Since then I have not had the pleasure of hearing from you I then flattered myself that the Revocation of the British Orders in Council, of which I had just been informed, would be known in the United States, in Season...
321From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
As I shall probably not have an opportunity of dispatching letters for America, after that of which I now avail myself, at least before the expiration of the present Month, and as I am unwilling to break through the rule which I prescribed to myself of writing to you, at least once every Month, I sit down to repeat to you, what only three days since, I wrote to my father, namely, that I have...
322From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 July 1810 (Adams Papers)
Captain Harrod, by whom your kind favour of 20. March to me, mentions that you had written to my wife, and also sent a Box of Articles which she had requested to procure for her, has not yet arrived—Your letter of 20. March itself was brought to me, a few days past, I know not from whence; but having apparently been opened, and having suffered much from a soaking; but whether in salt or in...
323From 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...
324From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you a few lines on the day that the Treaty of Peace was signed, which I sent by Mr Hughes the Secretary of the American Mission, who was the bearer of one copy of the Treaty. A second copy was dispatched the next day by Mr: Carroll, who had been private Secretary to Mr Clay; and by him I, wrote a long Letter to my father—Mr Hughes embarked at Bordeaux in the Transit, the dispatch...
325From Charles Thomas Clark to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
My letters to my dear wife will have informed you of our arrival here: I sent several to her by the London Packet bound to Baltimore: there was a Boston ship near Portsmouth but she sailed before I could get any letters on board of her and I do not think she will arrive at this season of the year as soon as one farther South. I find my health improve (notwithstanding this damp climate) very...
326From Richard Cranch to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 March 1809 (Adams Papers)
Agreeably to your request I have been recollecting some particulars respecting the antient and honourable family of Quincy (from which you are descended) that I have met with in reading or that my long acquaintance with the family have brought to my knowledge. It appears from antient historians, particularly from Mathew Paris, who flourished in the thirteenth century, that Robert De Quincy...
327From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 November 1814 (Adams Papers)
In my Letter of 22. of last Month, I mentioned to you my disappointment at having received no Letters from Quincy or from Boston, by the Dutch vessel, which sailed on the first of September, and arrived at the Texel—I had been equally disappointed a short time before, by the arrival of Mr Boyd from Washington, having left that City the 12th: of August, and bringing no Letters from you—He gave...
328From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 May 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have been with my friend Charles, and spent two days with General La Fayette, at his Country Seat of La Grange, about forty miles distant from this City—He resides there with his Children and Grand Children, forming a numerous and very amiable family. His son married a Mademoiselle de Tracy and has three daughters—His eldest daughter married a Mr de la Tour Maubourg, and has also three...
329From 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...
330From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 29 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
My last letter, of which a press-copy is enclosed, was sent by the Palafox, Captain William Welsh, since which I have received four letters from you, N. 9—dated 8. April—one of 24. April not numbered—one of 15. May, and one of 28 May—both numbered 11.—So that I have now nine of your letters since you began to number them The numbers missing are 3 and 4. between 26 Jany. and 15. Feby. and N. 8....
331From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 March 1816 (Adams Papers)
Since I wrote you last on the 4th. instant we have been in a continual state of anxious concern on account of your health; and it is scarcely less now that by the arrival of the New-Packet at Liverpool, I have received your kind favour of 10. February, and further accounts of you from obliging friends at Quincy and at Boston to the 19th. They all encourage hopes that you were recovering, which...
332From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
Every day that passes gives me occasion more and more to lament this unfortunate War, with which it has pleased heaven to visit us—If it could have been avoided we should now have had a free commercial intercourse with all the North of Europe, at least to Bremen inclusively, and in a few Months more with Holland—Besides the advantages which our Country would have derived from this, I should...
333From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 November 1810 (Adams Papers)
I received a few days ago, and since I wrote you last a letter from Captain William Welsh, dated at Lisbau, a Russian Port in the Baltic, to which I suppose he came, on finding that all American vessels were excluded from the Port to which he was originally destined—He enclosed to me at the same time your kind letter of 25th: July—In the obstructed state of navigation in the Baltic, I have...
334From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 9 January 1816 (Adams Papers)
Mr Bagot, or to speak in the style and after the fashion of this Country, the Right Honourable Charles Bagot, was immediately after my arrival in this Country, appointed by the Prince Regent, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States of America—He is a young man—I conjecture about thirty, brother of Lord Bagot, and his Lady is a daughter of Mr Wellesly-Pole, the...
335From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
The John Adams is to sail from the Texel on the 25th: of this Month, and Mr Dallas, who is to be the bearer of our Dispatches to the Government is to leave this City on the 21st. I employ the last moments that will be left me previous to his departure, to perform they duty of writing to you, and of acknowledging the receipt of your favour of 1. May. It came by the return of the French ship...
336From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 17 July 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your kind Letters of 20 May and 4 June have been received together with others to my wife and the children which they have answered and will answer for themselves. Hitherto since our arrival in London, I have been obliged to rely upon their punctuality in answering your Letters, as an apology for the temporary deficiency of mine. Besides the multitude of trifling but indispensable avocations...
337From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 4 July 1816 (Adams Papers)
We have been some time now without receiving Letters from you, although we have heard of you from other branches of the family. In your last Letters to the Children you mention the approaching marriage of Susan which ere this has probably taken place should it be so I must beg you will make my congratulations acceptable with every good wish for her future happiness. We are here plunged into...
338From 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...
339From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 January 1811 (Adams Papers)
The year eighteen hundred and ten according to Russian reckoning still exists—But as its last hours are upon the wing; and as the New-Year has already made the progress of almost half a month with you, I can no longer delay the opportunity of wishing you, and my dear father, and my George and John, and all the family around you, not the compliments of the Season, but a truly joyful year to be...
340From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 September 1812 (Adams Papers)
During the last two years, the unwelcome task has too often been allotted to you, to communicate to my dear wife and me tidings of affliction by the death and sorrows of those whom we loved—The turn has now come to me to ask your sympathy for our own peculiar distress—We have lost our dear and only daughter...as lovely and promising a child, as ever was taken from the hopes of the fondest...
341From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 14 March 1806 (Adams Papers)
It is so long since I have had one hour of leisure that I could appropriate to correspondence with my friends at Quincy and Boston, that I am fearful you will impute to some other cause the length of the interval between my letters—My health however has been gradually improving ever since I left you, and on the whole has been better through the Winter, than for two years before.—A variety of...
10 Mr Adams attended the funeral of Mr Astor’s grandson on arriving at Mr Astors the old Gentleman told him he had received a most urgent Letter from Mrs Bentzon begging that the body might be sent to her at New York and asked his advice what he should do on the melancholy occasion Mr Adams told him that considering all the circumstances he thought it would be best for him to indulge his...
Your last Letter was indeed flattering to me. eminently as you are gifted with the talent of writing your approbation must afford the greatest pleasure and exite encouragement. It has often been to me a source of wonder how you can write to so many in one family, and yet never appear at a loss for subjects; but you possess the talent of giving interest even to trifles and the easy course of...
344From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 2 May 1811 (Adams Papers)
The religious ceremony of which in my last Letter I gave you an account, began at Midnight and terminated between three and four in the morning.—It was accompanied by a Salute of 21. Guns fired from the Fortress, two or three times, at particular stages of the performance—This was conformable to the customary practice; which always ushers in Easter day at St: Petersburg with an expence of...
345From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
On the 10th: of August 1811. we received your favour of 22. September 1810 to my wife; not quite eleven months after it was written; and the next day we received that of 8 June 1811. which has performed its voyage in a little more than two. Whether the Passage has been short or long the letter always gives pleasure, and always contains some intelligence that is new. You have repeatedly...
346From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 September 1815 (Adams Papers)
The Opportunities for writing to you are now so frequent, that it is impossible, to avail ourselves of them all—They are indeed principally from Liverpool, through which place, I have for the last two Months and upwards sent Letters or despatches almost every week—There are however occasionally Vessels going from the Port of London, and by one of them I now write—I have determined to forward...
347From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 3 December 1805 (Adams Papers)
This morning I had the satisfaction of receiving your kind letter of the 21st: ulto: which partly relieved me from the anxiety occasioned by the letter of a previous date from my brother, mentioning your illness and confinement—The weather has of late been so remarkably fine and mild in this quarter that I hope its benign influence has been extended to your regions, and has restored you...
348From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
After I had closed my last Letter to you dated 1st. October, I received on the same day your favour of the 30th. August, and some day’s afterwards the collection of Pamphlets on the late Trinitarian controversy, they were brought as far as Liverpool by Mr. Cary, who survived the Passage across the Atlantic, but who was not destined to reach London alive. he died at Royston on the road from...
349From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I will not suffer the first day of this new year to pass over, without renewing to my dear Mother the expression of my fervent prayers to God, that it may be a year of health enjoyment, and every blessing to her and to my father, as well as to my beloved children who are with you, and to all the family around you—And with the hope of auspicating it to us all, I join that of having once more...
350From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 September 1816 (Adams Papers)
My wife’s brother J. B. Johnson has written from New Orleans, to his sister and me, requesting us to send him our Portraits, and we are accordingly sitting for them to a young American named Locke, who is working hard to make a reputation as a Painter.—This is the second time that according to a melancholy yoke of poor Sheridan’s, I have undergone the operation of sitting for my Picture,...