1To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 30 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your finale on Mr. Hutchinson’s Character was duly received. If I rightly remember, the Governor soon after dissolving the Provincial Assembly, retired or rather fled to England to shelter himself from the approaching Storm, & secure his hard earned Reward. The few Years of the revolutionary War which he lived must have embittered his declining Days marked by Neglect, & Disappointment....
2To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 15 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
The animated Style in which you have described the circumstances attending the Trial of Corbet & his comrades & the unfair Manner in which You were treated by the strange Species of Judges which made up the Vice Admiralty Court leads me to urge You to explain the Secret of Hutchinson’s Conduct in this multitudinous Divan; (for such the Court became by their repeated Adjournments to the Council...
3To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 11 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
From your Letter of the 7th. I find some Misconception has arisen between you & the Editor of the N.A. Review. Your note of the 5th. I handed to that gentleman, & told him how fully I agreed with you in the Sentiment that the Hutchinsonian Controversy & the Impeachment of the Judges, if not the Pivots upon which the Revolution turned they certainly urged on & hastened, those Measures which...
4To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 5 April 1818 (Adams Papers)
Since my last short Conversation with you, I have read Mr. Wirt’s Biographical Romance, a singular Book indeed! Composed more with a View to display the Author’s Talents, than those of his Subject. A better attempt at flattering Virginians, than furnishing Facts for sober, future, Historians. His Materials were scanty indeed, & he has made the most of them. Henry was undoubtedly a bold &...
5To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 30 November 1800 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the Honour of your Letters of the 14. & 19. I hope no Reply that can give Consequence to the Author of the Book written by the Enemy, will be made. Your present Sovereign Station will most probably be holden. And whilst it continues, Acts of Infidelity & Treachery, ought not to make too deep Impressions. You are the Supreme Head of a Nation, in which Suspicion and Aspersion...
6To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 13 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
Was I to draw the Portraits of the two Characters You mention, of the first I should say that he was not a Man of military Genius, but of consummate Discretion. He could rise on Misfortune in an extraordinary Manner & thus obtained the Confidence of his motley Army. But he committed several gross Blunders. The first was at Long Island in 1776. After our the Battle in which we were defeated by...
7To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 25 June 1818 (Adams Papers)
I ought sooner to have thank’d you for your last biographical Notices, but you had before left me to take my own time for scribling, & must not complain for my Abuse of the License. The anecdotes you have given of the Destruction of the private Papers of Mr. Otis & Mr. S. Adams has rescued two important facts from being totally lost to Posterity. They confessedly were two very extraordinary...
8To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 5 November 1800 (Adams Papers)
The Celebration of the Birth Day of 30 Oct. was more generally & cheerfully enjoyed & rejoiced in than I ever remember. The Company at Concert Hall was more numerous & respectable than I ever before noticed there. Although there was not any of the Faction there. The best Volunteer Toast was “May every Friend Enemy of the President write a Pamphlet.” That Book has done much Good. It has...
9To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 14 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
There are two sets of Persons here who appear particularly anxious to learn the Result of the Presidential Election. The Hamilton Faction shew much Exultation at the Appearance of Mr. Pinckney keeping an equal Pace with the Man they hate, on the Road they constructed for the New England Electors to pursue. Those Electors, at least those of Massachusetts, are desirous to know whether their...
10To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 23 July 1798 (Adams Papers)
It was with peculiar Pleasure, I rec’d your kind Letter of the 16th. I could not be dazzled with French Splendour for I saw none. And being a meer Passenger through their Country, Unknowing & unknown, I was not an Object for finesse. I never was disposed to be a Creature to any Faction; & certainly least of all to a foreign one. Detestible, however as I hold the French Government & all their...
11To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 27 May 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have to regret that I was out of Town the Morning that you called upon me. At the Time Doctor Welsh acquainted me with it he added that you had returned to Braintree, or I should have endeavoured immediately to have seen you, to have thanked you for so kind a Visit, as well as for those many Acts of Friendship from which, in early Life, I derived so much advantage. The Voyage and subsequent...
12To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 28 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
My son was particularly gratified with your account of Governor Pownal. His Impressions towards his Character from reading his Work on the Administration of the colonies, were favourable, though vague. He remarked to me, strongly, how valuable your Letters were, as in this Instance you had given several facts which probably no other Person now living was acquainted with, and which at some...
13To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 17 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
The reproof I received in your Letter of the 11th. & which I was favoured with only last Evening would have been more keenly felt if I had not written you one in the Morning. And now once more permit me to beg your Indulgence untill I can be relived from the daily Toil I am subjected to by the Duties I owe to the S. J. Court which now sits both forenoon & afternoon six Days in the week, & will...
14To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 5 September 1798 (Adams Papers)
Last Evening at a Meeting of the Boston Marine Society , an address (Copy of which I inclose) to the President of the united States was unanimously & with Enthusiasm, voted to be presented to you, & a Committee of seven Members directed to wait upon you with it. The Committee have desired me to acquaint you that they propose going to Quincy on Friday to execute their Commission provided it...
15To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 22 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
In thanking you for your last ing interesting Letter, I have been particularly gratified, in finding you roused to those Recollections which may amuse whilst they recall the Circumstances of that interesting Period which produced those persevering Energies that terminated in the Liberation of our Country. You have given me a Text Book, which others may hereafter descant upon, if Hutchinson’s...
16To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., March 1818 (Adams Papers)
At the Request of General Welles I write this Letter to introduce Mr. Binon the Artist we yesterday mentioned in the Committee’s Address & whose Services you so kindly condescended to encourage, for the Public Purpose of gratifying the Citizens of this Town, & Posterity. From the Specimen of his Abilities as an Artist of which We have a satisfying Proof in a Bust of General Dearbo r n, we...
17To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 4 August 1818 (Adams Papers)
My Son William who is residing in the Country for Confirmation of his Health says among other Things in a letter of the 1st. instant “I wish very much when you write to President Adams that you would ask him for his Opinion about the Suggestion I made him in my Letter of the 4th. of July. I told him I had long thought of undertaking to write the Life of James Otis, towards which his Letters...
18To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 2 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
If I don’t reply immediately to your kind Letters, pray attribute it to my being an Inquirer, & have little to communicate in Return; besides I have furnished You with so much Matter to discuss & explain that I have some fears of becoming oppressive. Your last very confidential Letter makes me eager to obtain more of them. When I sported the Character of Hutchinson, I started a Subject which I...
19To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 5 September 1816 (Adams Papers)
An extraordinary Paragraph which appeared in the Boston daily Advertiser of this morning, & which I inclose, (lest you should not take that Paper) induces me to renew a Correspondence, which I regret has been so long intermitted & which was always a Source of pleasurable & important information. No American who knew the Character of at lest one of the Diplomatists whom the Baron has thought...
20To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 8 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I do rejoice that “I have brought out the old gentleman”, & the Public would rejoice with me were they in Possession of all my Letters from Quincy since the 4th. of November last, especially of the two last. There are in the Details of this confidential Correspondence such Traits & Detections of Character, as could not have found their Way into the public Papers of the Day they refer to, &...
21To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 19 September 1816 (Adams Papers)
I yesterday received from the Post Office your very obliging Letter of the 16th. which has completely fulfilled the kind Engagement you offered me in your’s of the ninth. My only Apology for not immediately answering it arose soley from an apprehension of too soon giving you the additional Trouble, which I fear I have occasioned you from the trembling of your hand. But I will forget it in the...
22To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 13 February 1801 (Adams Papers)
When I sported the Idea of an Ambassadorship I meant Nothing more than that it must be a most desirable Thing to the People of the United States to have their forign Affairs Again committed to the Charge of the ablest Minister they ever had in Europe; And that too under Circumstances more dignified & singular than any other Nation ever exhibited. As Farmer of Stonyfield You certainly can unite...
23To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 9 January 1801 (Adams Papers)
I took immediate Care to hand the public Papers, as authenticated by Mr. Otis, to the Printers of the Commercial Gazette, & shall lodge the Certificate with the Files of the historical Society. I could not avoid so apt an Occasion of making a few prefatory Observations, designed more for the Republicans of the Southern States, than our New England Citizens. A vast Majority of whom undoubtedly...
24To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 22 January 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have been persuaded (though I doubt of it’s Success) to forward to You the earnest Request of Mr. Wait, the Printer of “the state Papers & public Documents of the United States”. In a Paragraph of his printed Advertisement he expresses so strong a Regret for having omitted the inaugural Address which he now wishes to procure a Copy of, that I will hope, if in your Power, You will indulge him...
25To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 20 May 1818 (Adams Papers)
Did Mr. Otis write more than two political Pamphlets? One his spirited “Vindication of the House of Representatives” printed in 1762. And the other that “Of the Rights of the Colonies asserted & proved” in which he strangely concedes the Authority & Right of the British Parliament to make Laws binding upon the Subjects however distant their Situation, & variant their Circumstances, in all...