1To John Adams from William Gordon, 7 January 1784 (Adams Papers)
You have very fairly & fully discharged your epistolary account of the preceeding year; which is an encouragement for me to begin anew. There is both pleasure & profit in corresponding with You; & notwithstanding some desponding expressions, I trust your strength & spirits will not be exhausted, till the business is completed. Finesse & subtilty are ministerial qualifications; & the only...
2To John Adams from William Gordon, 8 April 1785 (Adams Papers)
I hope this will find you at Westminster. I congratulate You upon your late appointment; it was what I wished for, as what I thought would be agreeable to you, & for the good of our country. The treaty of commerce may be too far settled to admit of alteration: but if your correspondents have not urged you in the most pressing manner, to exert every nerve to obtain an importation of our whale...
3To John Adams from William Gordon, 13 August 1785 (Adams Papers)
Yours by your son was a very agreeable letter. I rec d it last wednesday while at the President’s, where I had the pleasure of viewing your living picture. You have confirmed me in my suspicion, that tho’ there were many pictures abroad there was little likeness. I shall do my best, & it may be well for one who is not a writer of the first talents, nor been employed thirty years in making my...
4To John Adams from William Gordon, 4 October 1785 (Adams Papers)
Your two letters of Ap r 27 th & June 26 th were duly received. The first at the President’s, Rich d Henry Lee Esq r , where I had the pleasure of dining with your son on the 10 th of Aug t , being at New York on my last tour for collecting historical materials. I have not seen him, since he reacht this state; but have heard of his welfare. I am busily employed in the way you mention; & am...