251From James Madison to John Quincy Adams, 7 June 1819 (Madison Papers)
I have duly received your letter of the 1st. instant. On recurring to my papers for the information it requests, I find that the speech of Col: Hamilton in the Convention of 1787, in the course of which he read a sketch of a plan of Government for the U. States, was delivered on the 18th. of June; the subject of debate being a resolution proposed by Mr. Dickinson “that the articles of...
252From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 21 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
The Revnd. Mr Greenwood the successor of Mr Thatcher and Dr Kirkland in the Church in Summer Street Boston; will deliver you this letter—and altho he is a more liberal Christian than you are—I hope you will receive him with Politeness and Cordial Civility as I have no doubt you will— George came to us last night and brought me joy and Literature—John & Charles will be here to night or to...
253From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 18 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
I am anxious for Susan.— I wish to be informed, whether Mr Clark has left any and what Property? And whether any public provision is made for the Widows and Orphans of Officers who died After the War? though they undoubtedly Sacrificed their Health and Their lives in it. I wish to know whether She is with you, on a Visit or as a dependent. I wish also to know, whether her consumptive, dying...
254From James Madison to John Quincy Adams, 18 May 1819 (Madison Papers)
I have received your favor of the 14th. in behalf of Mr. Cardelli. The examples and auspices alone, under which his request is made, entitle it to a ready compliance: and I know at present no objection to the particular time at which he proposes to make his visit. Mrs. Madison is very thankful to Mrs. Adams for the kind expressions you convey from her; and charges me to offer a cordial return...
255From Ward Nicholas Boylston to John Quincy Adams, 15 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have long meditated writeing you; but have always been reminded that I was either robbing you of your moments of leisure, or instrusively interrupting the important, and incessant employment which the duties of your high station has imposed on you— I was also kept back by the hope of seeing you and Mrs Adams in Boston sometime last month, but in this I found my self as much dissappointed, as...
256Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 10 May 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
An absence from home of some length has occasioned your letter of Apr. 24. to remain here unanswered until my return. the operation of sitting for portraits and busts, especially after it has been so often done, and probably as well as it will be done again, and that too before the havoc of age had left nothing but an anatomy to copy, needed the strong motive of my desire to meet any wish...
257From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 3 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have particular reasons—for asking the favour of you to inform me—in what year you wrote those three Essays—pray inform me in what Year—they were written—and under what Signature, in the Boston Centinal recommending a System of Neutrallity to the United States—I believe they were written in the year. 90. 91. or 92.—I believe they were printed together in a small Pamphlet—I must, and I will...
258From Josiah, III Quincy to John Quincy Adams, 4 April 1819 (Adams Papers)
I am requested by Mess Kavanagh and Cottril late owners of the Ship Hibernia to make some inquiries of your department, which they think may possibly result in some information, which may be useful to them. That Ship was taken, when bound in December 1800, on a voyage from Waldoborough to Jamaica, with a cargo of lumber, by a French Privateer, (Le Jeune Creole) fitted out of a Spanish port...
259From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 March 1819 (Adams Papers)
Your comprehensive letter of the 14th Feb’y has given me great entertainment & delight, I hope you will not mistake my employment in collecting my papers as intended to prepare materials for you to write my life for upon a serious retrospection of it—I find I am ashamed of it. I have had so great opportunities to do good and have done so little, and that little so awkwardly that I should blush...
260From William Cranch to John Quincy Adams, 1 March 1819 (Adams Papers)
I enclose the sermon of Mr. Whitney which you was so kind as to lend me. My daughter Nancy has copied that part which speaks of the character of th at e venerable friend whose loss we deplore. I was in hopes that my elder daughters would have had an opportunity of being personally acquainted with her; but as that is now impossible, I shall endeavour to impress upon their hearts the virtues...
261From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 19 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the noble pacquets of documents you send me, for though I cannot read them it is convenient to have them by me. I may get a friend to consult them for me as occassion may require. I thank your lady for me for her last journal. I am really grieved at her late severe indisposition which appears to me so alarming that she ought to be extremely cautious of exposing herself to any...
262From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have been employed for a month or six weeks in hard labour to save you trouble. I have ransacked chests, trunks, boxes, bureaus, chests of drawers, escritouirs, or in fewer words, every hole & corner, from the basement story to the cockloft, in search of manuscript books & papers, and in course I have been obliged to break open locks whose key’s were lost and destroy every thing that lay in...
263From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 3 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
You made me a rich present when you allowed your son George to spend his vacation with me. He has been to me a companion and a friend. He has indulged in no dissipation, has been very constant to his studies & his reading. I cannot find it in my heart to say that he has indulged a little too much in his segars and in his flute. I see that you have the honour to be the target of all the sharp...
264From Andrew Jackson to John Quincy Adams, 25 January 1819 (Adams Papers)
Majr. General Jackson presents his Compliments to Mr & Mrs. Adams and regrets that he & his family cannot accept of their polite invitation to dine; having determined to decline all personal attentions of this kind until the issue of the proceedings in his case now pending before Congress. MHi : Adams Papers.
265From John Adams Smith to John Quincy Adams, 24 January 1819 (Adams Papers)
On the 14th instant the day of the meeting of Parliament we dined with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Vansittart has been exceedingly attentive and civil to us, and has manifested so far as these civilities extend what may be deemed perhaps marked attention to the American Legation. On my right hand sat Mr Hammond, former Minister to the U.S. a much younger man than I could have expected...
266From John Jay to John Quincy Adams, 11 January 1819 (Jay Papers)
The last mail brought me a Letter, dated the 3 d of Nov r . last, from the House of the Mess rs . Fox at Falmouth in England; mentioning the Death of M r . Robert Were Fox, who had long been our Consul there; and who they observe had rec d . repeated Testimonies of the approbation of our Government. They express a Desire that his Son Robert, whom they represent as being a Man of “Ability...
267From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 24 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 14th. found me deeply immersed in researches, not astromical or mineralogical or metaphisical; but after old Papers, Trunks Boxes Desks Drawers locked up for thirty Years have been broken open because the Keys are lost. Nothing Stands in my Way. Every Scrap Shall be found and preserved for Your Affliction for your good. I am now employed very anxiously and laboriously,...
268From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 7 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
I thank you, my dear Son, for your Letters and for the Presidents Speech, which is Consolation for all our Miseries for 60 Years. But I must have done with public affaires. Your Sons who behave well have been with Us last Week. They leave Us this morning for their School. Mr and Mrs Clark, and my little darling Susanna Maria were comfortably lodged last Night at Dedham on their Way to...
269From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
The bitterness of Death is past. The grim Specter So terrible to human Nature has no Sting left for me. My consolations are more than I can number. The Separation cannot be So long as twenty Separations heretofore. The Pangs and the Anguish have not been So great as when you and I embarked for France in 1778. The Sympathy and Benevolence of all the World, has been Such as I Shall not live long...
270From James Madison to John Quincy Adams, 2 November 1818 (Madison Papers)
I have received your letter of the 22 ult: and enclose such extracts from my notes relating to the two last days of the Convention, as may fill the chasm in the Journals, according to the mode in which the proceedings are recorded. Col. Hamilton did not propose in the Convention any plan of a Constitution. He had sketched an outline which he read as part of a speech; observing that he did not...
271From Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 1 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday, in the afternoon, was committed to the Tomb, the earthly remains of our dearly beloved and venerable Mother. She died about One oClock, PM, of Wednesday the 28th: ult: after an illness of three weeks and three days; but we did not think her case dangerous until the last week. but Her decline from this day week was very rapid, and she sunk into the arms of the great destroyer without...
272From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 October 1818 (Adams Papers)
Exoterick and Esoterick Doctrine. See the American Encyclopedia Tit. Exoterick: the French, Title Exoterique; the Dictionaire de Trêvoux, the Same Title, Stephens’s Thesaurus Tit. Exotericus, Gesners Dictionary Tit. Exotericus, and Acroaticus, Fabers Thesaurus Tit. Exotericus. See Also Herodotus Diadorus Siculus, Pausanias Strabo, Plutarch, Aetius , Aristotle Cicero and Aulus Gellius. See also...
273From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 23 June 1818 (Adams Papers)
enclosed is a Letter which you will see contains a request to me; and through me to you. the ploughing with the Hiffer is not yet out of date. were the object an office, I should refuse to medle with it, but as it is only a simple renewal of a midshipman from one ship & station to an other, I would hope no great interest necessary; particularly as his Health has sufferd severely in this...
274From William Wirt to John Quincy Adams, 6 June 1818 (Adams Papers)
The enclosed letter from Mr. Bache, the post-master at Philadelphia, ought, I think, to be communicated to the President of the U.S. As it is not improbable that an application for pardon, in the case alluded to, may follow him, on his tour. Taking it for granted that, some channel of communication between him and your department, during his absence, has been settled between you, I have...
275From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 30 May 1818 (Adams Papers)
I think I once heard you Say—to make a thing choice it Should be rare. your kind Letter last Evening received—possesst both those qualities. The very Sight of your hand writing—addresd as formerly gave a Spring to my Spirits, and your Father Sprung from the settee to place himself by my Side, while I read it to him—I have foreborne writing to you, during the Session of Congress, being...
276From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 20 May 1818 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the documents you Send me, which I give to the Athenaeum believing they will do more good there than in my possession. I dare not write to you upon public Affairs, because I do not understand them. All that appears under your Signature is cooly approved as Usual, and will be, till fifty Years after you are dead and then it may possibly be admired by a fine Antequarians. Your...
277From John Adams Smith to John Quincy Adams, 19 May 1818 (Adams Papers)
An Anonymous writer has commenced his communications with me & I received his first letter on saturday evening the 9th of May. I shall give you extracts from these letters, not doubting, but you will be better able to form a correct opinion of the matter of them, which may be considered worthy of attention & remark. He communicates three important points— 1. The Newspapers of this country will...
278From Alexander Contee Hanson to John Quincy Adams, 1 February 1818 (Adams Papers)
Mr. & Mrs. Hanson are highly flattered by having it in their power to acknowledge the honor of an invitation to dine with Mr. & Mrs. Adams, and certainly do not regret less than Mr. & Mrs. Adams the circumstances which will deprive them of the pleasure of accepting it. They take pleasure in reassuring Mr. & Mrs. Adams of their very high respect & consideration. MHi : Adams Papers.
279From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 29 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
I write but seldom to you, least you should feel as tho’ you were obliged to replie, when you must be much occupied with public Business and as I am now engaged to address you in that line, You will feel obliged to listen. My present design is to name to you a Gentleman for office conditionally. It is reported that Major Warren of plymouth is about to resign, or be removed from the office of...
280From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 29 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
This will be presented to you by Mr Holley whom you know and whom I pray you to receive with Civility; because he is one of the few in whom I delight. I love him because he is, as Dr Holmes calls him “a phylosophical divine.” I do not much affect any unphylosophical Divines though I candidly tolerate them all and esteem Some. I am told there will be complaints against Henry Warren as Collector...
281From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
Of Mr Wait, I know little, but that he was once introduced to me by General Knox, twice by Judge Thatcher, and Last Week by Mr Shaw, all in this House. He has always been represented And Appeared to be a modest discreet and respectable Citizen. There has been So much Huggermugger, about Secret Journals and Files of Congress and Conventions, which I always detested, that I rejoice they are now...
282From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
De Pradt, I Suspect is a descendant of that Arcbishop Bishop of Clermont, the Bastard of Cardinal du Pratt, and the Oputent Protector of the infant Society of the Jesuits in 1545. See Duprat in the Dictionaire historique. The Archbishop of Matines I Suspect is of that Breed and worthy of his Race. See also The History of the Jesuits Vol. 1. Our national Sympathy with the Patriots of South...
283From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 2 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 26th. of December 1817 inclosing a Postnote upon the Branch Bank of The United States at Boston for nine hundred and one dollars and Ninety five Cents, being the Amount of the dividend of five per Cent upon the debt proved under the Commission of Bankruptcy of Robert Bird and Co. at New York. I am your affectionate Father MHi : Adams Papers.
284From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 31 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 21 has excited my Sympathies, visible and irascible. I never had the Shadow of a Shade of doubt that you was my legigtimate Son. But if I had been afflicted with Jealousy, the frank confession in your Letter of your impatience with Barrel would have cured me. For never were two Peas parching in the Same fire more alike. This however is no laughing Matter. If there is any...
285Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 26 December 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return to this place after an absence of 6 weeks I find here your favor of Nov. 29 . when I proposed to the President the appointment of mr Sasserno to be Consul at Nice , I was not possessed of his Christian name. I therefore took measures immediately to obtain it, and found also, on my return here, the answers to my enquiries. his name is Victor Adolphus Sasserno . I was intimately...
286From James Madison to John Quincy Adams, 23 December 1817 (Madison Papers)
I received two days ago your favor of the 15th. with the written and printed accompaniments. I am glad to find that your personal interviews with Mr. Bentham, afforded an entertainment which may have been some recompence for the trouble which I contributed to give you in relation to him. The celebrity which this philosophic Polititian has acquired abroad as well as at home do not permit one to...
287From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 14 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
As you accused me last Evening, or rather Night with preventing the Ladies from writing to you; I apologized by saying that I had a Letter written to you at home,which was really the case. I made a Fairy visit to Washington last night, in which time I visited mrs Munroe, mrs Madison &c, and meeting you and mrs Adams in the street, in fine Health and Spirits, you accosted me as above—I was too...
288From William Cranch to John Quincy Adams, 13 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a set of documents, and the second Volume of Wheaton’s reports stiched in boards, which have been sent to me by the department of State.— And to be with high respect / your most obedt. servt. DNA : RG 59—ML—Miscellaneous Letters.
289From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Nature did not make me of a jealous disposition; but a dismal experience has made me Suspicious of myself, not less than of others. I often Suspect myself, and that my Imagination deceives me; that I mistake posibilities for probabilities and Non Entities for probabilities; that I See “ Au dessous des cartes ” many things which in reality may not be there. Masons and Austins are Old South...
290From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 26 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
The Father of Mr George G. Barrel, Still living at 85 his Uncle Joseph and one or two more were once well known to me and esteemed. You will find the Bearer So intelligent and So correct that if you have time to converse with him you will find pleasure and Information. Though I presume not to give any Opinion upon this Application or any other; Yet I will venture to Say, that the Pretensions...
291From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 21 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
The disapointment of the Anglomaniacs and the Antigallicans, who are the same persons, on one hand, and of the Gallomaniacs, Antianglicans and Hyperdemocrats who are all the same people, on the other: in the Choice of Mr Mason a Sound untainted American Republican, for the Representative of the Suffolk district, will give that Friend of yours an Opportunity to present you this letter. This...
292From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 18 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
Captain James Riley politely Sent me his travels in a handsome volume which I read with interest, for, though it abounds in the Marvellous and sometimes aproaches the miraculous; yet excruciating Sufferings and a Strong imaginaleo may apologize for So much of it as to leave enough of it credible to make it an entertaining affecting and instructive Work Inclosed is a letter from him, on a...
293From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
I must, as long as octogenarian infirmities will permit, Send you a line to prove to you my continued Vegatation Peter Heigne’s Mother, when the News arrived of her Sons glorious death arrived , Said “Peter was always running about, and She always expected he would come to a bad End.” Washingtons Mother used to Say that “George would be like the Pitcher which after going So often to the Well,...
294Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 1 November 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 4 th of Oct. was not recieved here until the 20 th having been 16. days on it’s passage, since which unavoidable avocations have made this the first moment it has been in my power to acknolege it’s reciept. of the character of M. de Pradt his political writings furnish a tolerable estimate, but not so full as you have favored me with. he is eloquent, and his pamphlet on colonies...
295From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 28 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have not acknowledged your 5. & 7 Octr. We have had another delightful Family Scene. Madam De Wint her Son your Nice with two of my Great Grand Children and to finish the Picture Mrs Clark all arrived in perfect health. On the 83d 25th Octr. We all drank “All our Friends and Connections of every generation”. “Now lettest thou, thy Servant depart in peace” has been So hackneyed that I will...
296From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 15 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
The president has thought it Safe for the Students to assemble at Cambridge upon fryday last, and George has followd yesterday. we Shall miss his Society much. he has been company for his Grandfather Since Louissa has been Sick—I hope he is properly imprest, with the necessity of arduous application—John and Charles appear to like their Preceptor very well and perform their lessons I am told,...
297From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 30 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
Mr Jefferson has been good enough to Send me the enclosed Pamphlet An history of the restoration of Royalty in France 31, March 1814 by De Pradt. As it has Some pretentions to Authority, and as you may not have Seen it, I Send it to you: and as the owner desires me to return it, I pray you after you Shall have read it to transmit it to Monte Chello, with whose Inhabitants I hope you will have...
298From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 29 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
I may now congratulate you on your Arrival at the Seat of our national Government: yourself your excellent Lady, all your Friends relations and domesticks, are We hope, in good health. Your Interview with the President; to whom present my affectionate respects, So Soon after his Arrival must have been very agreable to both. As the Endemic dissentary is not yet abated your oldest Son is with Us...
299From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday was one of the most uniformly happy days of my whole long life. The Morning brought Us a Letter from our Friend Crafts of your Arrival; in a few hours our Neighbour Beal brought Us a Newspaper confirming it, and the Evening presented Us your Letter to your Mother of the 6th. that you were Landed “All well”. A thousand Circumstances exalted the delight or as West used to Say upon all...
300From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
Through the kind of attention of mr Crafts we learnt yesterday morning of the arrival of the Washington, and in the Evening, through our watchfull centinal Harriet, I received the gratefull intelligence under your own hand, that you were Landed and all well for which joyfull News to your parents; God be thanked—we now wait, in pleasing expectation of welcoming You; one and all, to the old...