11John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 8 July 1794 (Adams Papers)
The stage in which I had engaged a passage for Philadelphia this morning, has gone away by mistake, and left me behind, which gives me leisure to write a line by my brother. He intends to pay you a visit this summer, and will be the bearer of this. I was detained three days in Newport for a wind, but otherwise have had a very comfortable passage from Boston hither— I find my health better than...
12John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 11 August 1778 (Adams Papers)
you will pardon me if I do not write to you very often for you know how I used to teaze you to write a copy of a letter for me but now I do not have you to write and my Pappa being always a doing publick affaires or a writing to you cannot do it for me, so that I am obliged to think myself, sometimes I think of a few words to write but you know I am no great hand at letter writing for if I was...
13John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 January 1780 (Adams Papers)
I am (by the Grace of God) once more safely arrived at Bilbao. I have wrote you an account of my Voyage and why we put into Spain. I have heard Since I left Ferrol that a Child of foar years old might be put into the leak. It was well for us that we arrived as we did, one more Storm would very probably carried us to the bottom of the Sea. We arrived here yesterday at about one o’clock and...
14John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 September 1788 (Adams Papers)
M r: Lincoln, the bearer, is a young preacher, who belongs to Hingham; he is going home, and I cannot suffer the opportunity to pass unimproved; though I have little to say: except that I have been unwell: my nerves have been disordered, and the words of Henry have [. . .] obtruded themselves upon my mind, at the midnight hour. I came here last Saturday, and have such excellent care taken of...
15John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 February 1779 (Adams Papers)
I have now the pleasure to acquaint you some news which will be agreable to you. Yesterday morning an extroadinary express from England has brought this news that on Friday 12 i n st. the Populace of London put fire to the hotels of North, Sandwich, Germaine, and Paliseer which was consumed and that at the Moment of the depart of the Letter it went so well that they did not know where it would...
16John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 2 December 1778 (Adams Papers)
I just now recd. your Letter of septr. ye 29th and read it with great pleasure in which you say you think that writing is not a la mode de paris. on the contrary I have wrote very often to you whether they have fail’d, or whether they have been taken by the English I do not know but your Letters have been more lucky than my Pappa’s and mine for to day is the 2d time that I have received a...
17John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 19 September 1792 (Adams Papers)
I wrote to my brother Thomas more than a fortnight ago, respecting the warrant, & requesting him to see it forwarded— But whether from an apprehension on his part of an additional delay, or from what other cause I know not, he has not done it, and last Evening in answer to my Letter I received from him one urging very strongly the necessity of his having an order to receive the money.— Two...
18John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 26 December 1778 (Adams Papers)
it is now with Great Pleasure that I now sit down to write to you & many a time since I came here I have done the same though you say in several Letters that i.e. to My Pappa that you have not rec’d but two or three Letters from My Pappa or me but Pappa rec’d a Letter from Uncle Smith Dated November the 3th in which he says that he had taken a Number of Letters for the family Yours have been...
19John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 September 1778 (Adams Papers)
My Pappa enjoins it upon me to keep a journal, or a diary, of the Events that happen to me, and of objects that I See, and of Characters that I converse with from day, to day, and altho I am Convinced of the utility, importance, & necessity, of this Exercise, yet I have not patience, & perseverance, enough to do it so Constantly as I ought. My Pappa who takes a great deal of Pains to put me in...
20John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 November 1803 (Adams Papers)
I have received, My dear Mother, your kind letter of the 23 d: ult o: and it gives me the most cordial gratification to learn that your health was daily improving— I have also the satisfaction to tell you that my wife and children as well as myself are in very good health— As are all the family with whom we here reside, excepting M rs: Hellen, and she is fast recovering. My brother has...
21John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 20 April 1778 (Adams Papers)
I now Sit down to Write a few Lines To inform you That I am now at a good School which I like very Well. I will now give you an account how We live here at 6 o Clock in the morning We get up and go in to School and Stay till half after 8 When We Breakfast and Play till 9 When We go in & Stay till 12 When We dine after dinner we Play till 2 When We go in and Stay till half after 4 When We Come...
22John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 30 July 1783 (Adams Papers)
Altho’ I have already written you by Mr. Brush who will probably deliver this to you; yet I cannot help writing a few more Lines to justify myself with you, from a reproach; the Idea of which I cannot bear. If the Northern Regions have frozen up that Quick and Lively Imagination, which you are please to say, used to be agreeable to my Friends, they have most certainly not chilled my affection,...
23John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 April 1789 (Adams Papers)
I expected to have received ere this some Letters either from Braintree or Boston; But excepting what I have collected from the Newspapers I have heard neither directly nor indirectly from either. Had any good opportunity for sending, presented itself I should have written, although the only topic of information, would have been concerning myself.— The sum total of my news is that since I...
24John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 17 July 1785 (Adams Papers)
We are now sailing up North River; and have met the french packet about 6 leagues from New York: she will sail to morrow morning; and has sent her boat on board, while we are at sail. I profit of the only minute instant I have to inform you, that after a tedious passage of 8 weeks, we expect by noon to be at New York. I have not even time to seal the Letter I have prepared for my Sister, and...
25John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 25 May 1778 (Adams Papers)
Celle ci etant la premiere fois que je ecrire en François ne sera surment pas trop bien Faites mais j’espere que vous le recevére avec le meme plaisir que si elle etoit mieux, si vous considerée le peu de tems que jai eté icí vous ne blamerez pas moi pour ne pas avoir apprit plus de françois. RC ( Adams Papers ); addressed in JA ’s hand: “Mrs. Adams Braintree near Boston.” Text is given here...
26John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 4 September 1783 (Adams Papers)
I should deserve, all the reproaches which my friends in America have made me if I neglected writing, by so good an Opportunity as the one that presents itself at this time. Mr. Thaxter who will deliver you this expects to sail for New-York in the course of this Month. He will probably carry the Definitive Treaty, (which was at last signed yesterday,) to Congress. So you will not receive this...
27John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 20 March 1796 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of January 23 d. by Captain Barnard reached me two or three days ago. I am a little surprized that you had not at that date received any letters from me later than July. But indeed the intercourse between America and Holland is so precarious and interrupted that it is scarcely possible that a letter should pass from the one to the other in a shorter time than four or five months....
28John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
I received not untill last Evening your kind favour of Feb y: 10. which however is the latest date that I have from you, and this circumstance is of itself sufficient to give me great concern respecting the state of your health— The Boston Newspapers in April, mention likewise that you were again ill; but I have some comfort in hearing by a letter from D r: Welsh to his son, that you were...
29John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 5 May 1796 (Adams Papers)
I received a few days ago your favour of Feb y: 29. which was doubly grateful to me, as it was the first letter I had received from America, for many weeks.— Since then I have also received a letter from Philadelphia, which determines my immediate return to the Hague, from whence I hope that the next letter I shall write you will be dated. You will find in the papers enclosed all the news that...
30John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 November 1801 (Adams Papers)
We left Washington on the 3 d: inst t: as I informed you in my letter from that place of the 1 st: it was our intention to do.— M r: and M rs: Johnson and their two youngest daughters accompanied us to Frederick— But M r: Johnson and my child were both taken so ill on the road that we had some difficulty to complete our day’s journey— M r. Johnson’s illness detained us a week at...
31John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 18 January 1797 (Adams Papers)
A few days ago, I received a Letter from my father dated at Quincy the 28 th: of October, and brought by a vessel directly from Boston. But there came with it, none from you either to my brother or to me, and my father does not mention the state of your health, so that we are much concerned about it, particularly as a Letter from M r: Cranch at Washington, written in September mentions by...
32John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 25 May 1800 (Adams Papers)
The latest letters I have had the pleasure of receiving from you are of January 5. and Feb y: 8. But M r: Paleske has arrived at London on his way hither, and I expect to see him here in the course of a few days— He informs me that he has letters for me from you. A longer time has elapsed since I wrote you last than I can apologize for with propriety; it is possible that at some future day I...
33John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 February 1795 (Adams Papers)
The arrival of the french Army in this Country, as the friends and allies of the Batavian People, and the Revolution, which has abolished the Stadholdership, the nobility, the former States of the Provinces, and the Regencies of the Cities, will undoubtedly be a subject of considerable attention in our Country; perhaps it may give occasion to many groundless rumours and reports, and possibly...
34John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 30 March 1796 (Adams Papers)
The opportunities for writing occur so frequently at this time, and there is so little to say that I am apprehensive some of them will escape without carrying any letters to you; for one is ashamed to write a short letter; when it is to go so far; and like most correspondents I do not always remember that to write little is better than not to write at all. I send you by the present opportunity...
35John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 26 June 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have not written to you, since receiving your very kind Letter of 3 d: March. though I received it almost a month ago. I have determined finally to go by the way of England; you will readily conceive that this circumstance together with the necessary attention to the preparations for my departure from this Country, and since the arrival of M r: Murray, the arrangements for introducing him to...
36John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 15 March 1804 (Adams Papers)
A few days since, I received your kind favour of 25. ult o: and am greatly rejoyced at the restoration of your health— But I have delayed answering it hitherto, because as the Session draws to a close, we find ourselves more driven for want of time; in addition to which we have had the extraordinary business of trying an impeachment, and I have been in trouble with illness in the family— Both...
37John 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...
38John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 25 October 1794 (Adams Papers)
We have been already ten days in this place, but there has been no opportunity to Boston since our arrival. And altho’ I have done but very little, yet I have been so perpetually busy, that I have scarce found time even to write to the Secretary of State, and to my Father. My Brother I presume has informed you, how pleasant our passage was in every respect, excepting the conveyance, & how very...
39John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 April 1801 (Adams Papers)
I received a few days ago your kind letter of 29 January. After having been so many months without a line from you, it gave me sincere pleasure to see your hand-writing again, though I could not but sympathise with the afflictions under the immediate burden of which it was written— I have cordially and deeply lamented my poor brother, and will obey your injunction respecting his child I learn...
40John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 February 1798 (Adams Papers)
By your letter to my brother dated 3. January which he has just received I find that at the time when it was written you had received from us no advices later than the 16 th: of September, a circumstance equally surprizing and mortifying to me. After that date I wrote on the 19 th: and 21 st: of September to my father and on the 4 th: of October addressed to him some observations upon an...
41John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 6 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I am once more in the same pleasant situation as that which I described to you twenty months ago from Helvoetsluys. Nine days since, we left the Hague, and I believe you will think I have at least as much occasion for Patience and Philosophy as I had upon the former occasion. I am going to London, where I shall stay no longer than will be absolutely necessary, and from whence I intend to...
42John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 6 October 1785 (Adams Papers)
I am afraid my dear Mamma, will accuse me again of neglect for not having written to her, since I left her, before now; several Circumstances have concurred to prevent me; and among the rest, the want of an opportunity to convey any Letters; the stagnation of commerce, has of late been so great; that no vessel since my arrival, at Boston has sailed from thence to any port in Great Britain, and...
43John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 1 August 1787 (Adams Papers)
At length the scene of my collegiate life is closed, and about a fortnight ago I made a public exit from the university: by the public papers you will have some account of the performances of the day. In one of them (the centinel) you will see it very positively asserted that Freeman, who spoke the other oration is my indisputable superior in style, elegance and oratory. in another paper that...
44John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 21 May 1797 (Adams Papers)
The last Letter I have received from you is dated the 11 th: of last November. I know not whether since that time the multiplicity of your own avocations or the uncertainty where your Letters would find me have prevented you from writing to me. However it be I cannot suffer a long period to pass without writing, on my part, and I feel already culpable in some degree, when I reflect, that I...
45John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 20 November 1790 (Adams Papers)
I received with great pleasure, my dear Mamma, your favour of the 7 th: inst t: which relieved me in some measure from my anxiety on account of your health, though it is now again alarmed at having no letters this evening by the Post. I want exceedingly to hear of your arrival at Philadelphia, and of the thorough restoration of your health.— I hope nothing will induce you to spend another...
46John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 October 1797 (Adams Papers)
It is but a few days since I received your kind letter of 14. July, brought to Holland by Gen l: Marshall, and forwarded to me here. The pamphlets also which you have been kind enough to send me have come to hand. I value them much not only for the advantage of perusing them, but because I am endeavouring to preserve a collection of such publications. My state of continual motion is indeed...
47John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 28 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
I believe it is almost three months since I wrote you last. The interval has been a disastrous and distressing period to me, and as while our misfortunes were pressing upon me, I had not the time to write even to my dearest friends, so now that as I hope they are past, I feel little inclination to give you pain by a minute recital of them. It may suffise to say that soon after the date of my...
48John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 30 May 1798 (Adams Papers)
I have received within these few days your letters of the 17 th: and 29 th: of March, together with the books and pamphlets mentioned in the former. The last was forwarded to me from England by M r: King, and at the same time one from the Secretary of State of the 10 th: ult o: — I had long been without letters, and they have now been pouring in by floods at once. I have written to you and...
49John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 9 December 1803 (Adams Papers)
I inclose you a letter from my wife, who would have written you earlier but that George has been very ill with a fever, for several days— He is however, thank God now recovered. I have not written to you so often myself as I ought to have done, the only reason for which has been the ardour with which I have thoughtlessly thrown myself into the vortex of public business— The only object or use...
50John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 July 1783 (Adams Papers)
It is indeed a long time since I have receiv’d any Letters from my friends in America, and I must own I have been a little behind hand within these two years; in writing to them. However, I hope they will consider that I have been all that time, almost at the world’s end, or to make the best of it, in such an out of the-way place, as made it very inconvenient for me to write: But I should...
51John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 21 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
I received at Töplitz, on the 3 d: of last month, your kind favour of 12. June, which I did not immediately answer, because I was then in bed, with a fever, which however confined me, only for about ten days, and since then my health has again been very good.— The principal motive of our Journey to Töplitz, I wrote you before I left Berlin. It was on account of my wife’s health, and with the...
52John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 December 1790 (Adams Papers)
I have just returned from the Post-Office, where I was in hopes of finding Letters from Philadelphia, but found myself disappointed. I wrote you almost a month ago by a private hand, (M r: Gray) and I hope you received my Letter in Season. I have since thought that some of the expressions in it, upon a subject which principally concerns myself might rather tend to increase your alarm than to...
53John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 April 1796 (Adams Papers)
You will find by the papers that I send with this letter, what you will perhaps know before the receipt of it; that is that the negotiations for Peace have stumbled at the threshold, and that a trial of one more year of War is to be endured by the contending Nations. The Notes of M r: Wickham & M r: Barthelemi are considered as decisive upon this point.— The scarcity of provisions has suddenly...
54John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 29 August 1790 (Adams Papers)
I received by M rs: Atkinson your favour of the 20 th: inst t: which has added not a little to the weight of anxiety which, before hung heavy upon my mind. The Suspense in which I must continue, I know not how long with respect to my own prospects, has at present a constant operation to depress Spirits not naturally very lively; but when my solicitude for the welfare and happiness of my Sister...
55John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 December 1803 (Adams Papers)
I received two days ago your kind favour of the 3 d: inst t: and it was very precious as containing information of your health, and that of my father, and friends at Quincy.— I have been and am sensible of the inconvenience there would be in any free interchange of political sentiments upon the passing events, by a correspondence which must pass through the channel of the Post-Office— I...
56John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 8 February 1797 (Adams Papers)
Though not many days have elapsed since I wrote you last, and I scarcely know what I can write for your amusement, I cannot omit the acknowledgment of having recently received your kind Letter, dated November. 11. which besides the pleasure which your Letters always afford, had the additional merit of relieving me from great anxiety on account of your health. The address of the President...
57John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 25 July 1796 (Adams Papers)
Your letters of May 20. and 25. have both reached me forwarded from London. The latter was brought by M r: Gore, who sent me at the same time the speech of M r: Ames which one of your letters mentions in terms of applause which I think it well deserves. After the apprehensions and anxiety, which the preceding accounts from America had excited, I was not a little gratified at the intelligence...
58John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 25 April 1795 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of Nov r: 26. Was not quite five months in reaching me. I received it about a week since, and as the first direct communication from you, since we sailed it was peculiarly acceptable, though it had been so long on the way. You have received before this time I presume, my letter of Feb y: 12. at least you are informed of the great changes which have taken place in the Government of...
59John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 10 March 1801 (Adams Papers)
I am almost asham’d to acknowledge how long it has been since I wrote you last, and can only hope you will consider my numerous letters to my brother, most of which I intended as much for you as for him, to be a sufficient apology— I have not received a line from you or from my father since last June, though I think it impossible but that you should have written more than once— My last letter...
60John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 30 December 1786 (Adams Papers)
Three months have now elapsed, since, I have received, one line from Europe; and the only information I have had in all that time, were a couple of paragraphs in the newspapers, the one mentioning your departure from London, and the other your return there; I feel very impatient and anxious for letters, a vessel arrived a few days since; but, I do not hear, that she brought any: if I have been...