1To John Adams from John Trumbull, 3 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
You will forgive my having so long delay’d to reply to your very kind letter of January 1st., when you know that I have waited until I could write with certainty: and I did not feel that I could do this, until I knew the decision of the house of Representatives on the agreement made with me by the President:—the passing of the Appropriation bill by that house, including a Sum on account of...
2To John Adams from Gerry Fairbanks, February 1817 (Adams Papers)
The undersigned a Committee of Arrangements for a dinner to be given on the fourth of March next, in honor of the election of James Monroe Esqr. to the Presidency of the United States, beg leave to wait on your Excellency— With the day approaching are associated recollections most dear to the heart of the patriot; recollections which bring to our view, what this Country once was, the hours of...
3To 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...
What a gratification again have you bestowed upon me in your Letter of Febr. 7th. not never to mention ing the cadeau of which I disposed directly with the next mail, as you intended—and which Shall I doubt not, be highly acceptable to Monticello’s Philosopher. It Seems—I see you in all your grandeur in your Superb castle—and yet the most admirable part was its owner—I Should Saÿ so, as once...
5To John Adams from Henry Colman, 20 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
I fear you must have thought me inattentive to your request that I would ascertain the requisitions for admission into the Sophomore and Junior Classes at Harvard University;—I immediately procured a copy of the College Laws, expecting to find the course of Studies prescribed in them but was disappointed; I then applied to Mr A. Norton and Prof. Ware on the subject, and from the former...
6To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 2 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
An attack of rhumatism which has confined me to my room & kept me in such a feverish, irritable state as to be almost incapable of any thing, has alone prevented my writing to return my thanks for the few hints on the subject of the Jesuits; I hope Sir, you will be willing to continue the subject which has long appeared to me one of the most interesting in modern history. The peice you sent...
7To John Adams from Theodore Lyman, Jr., 31 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am certainly very glad, Sir, that the Baron de Grimm with his 16 big tomes has been able to amuse You for a few hours, and So far at least one feels disposed to forgive him his philosophy, though upon the whole it may be senseless and unprofitable enough.—Indeed, I readily beleive, that You will also forgive him a few weak paragraphs about his holy Church philosophir, since he has indited so...
8To John Adams from John Trumbull, 28 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 1st. of this Month was received by me here on the 6th. I will not attempt to express to you the feelings which were excited in my mind by its kind & approving Language—to have the approbation of the first benefactor & most eminent patriot of my Country gratifies my proudest ambition. You also will be gratified to learn that in this instance Our Country has departed from...
Although I continue to be an invalide by a relapse Since three weeks—I will endeavour to amuse myself—while I have once more a prospect of recovering Soon—in perusing again and answering your affectionate lines of the 27 of Dec. last. you will not deem it a triffle for a man—who know not Sickness as by name, to be confined to his chair—during three months—often under torturing pains—But—it...
10To John Adams from Horatio Gates Spafford, 21 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
I send, by this Mail, Nos. 7, 8, & 9, of my Magazine, & invite thy particular attention to the Essay of Franklin , on a National School, &c. Please favor me with thy opinion of it, & of the plans that he suggests. The little Work I mentioned sometime ago, is printed, at Boston, & I have directed my publisher to send thee a Copy. It is anonymous, because I must conceal the of Authorship. I hope...
11To 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...
12To 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...
13To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 14 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
As you live in terror of my long Letters, and as the very last, I had the pleasure of writing you, was of that description, and not without a smack of orthodoxy, I shall content myself this time with a very few lines, to accompany the Sunday’s Observer and Saturday’s cheap Cobbett; for the Porpuicine to shoot his Quills with more effect has made himself cheap, and although you will know what...
14To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 11 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Forty three volumes read in one year, and 12. of them quartos! dear Sir, how I envy you! half a dozen 8vos. in that space of time are as much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long hours from my rest; nor would that time be allowed me indulged to me, could I, by that light, see to write from sun-rise to one or two oclock, and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging...
15Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 11 January 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Forty three volumes read in one year, and 12. of them quartos! dear Sir, how I envy you! half a dozen 8 vos in that space of time are as much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long hours from my rest; nor would that time be allowed me indulged to me, could I, by that light, see to write. from sun-rise to one or two aclock, and often from dinner to dark, I am...
16To John Adams from Richard Rush, 7 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
The winter is always the busy season here. With me, it is especially so from the fortnight that precedes the session of the supreme court, until its close. Therefore, before the arrival of that time, I must, while I can, have the pleasure of writing to you. It is chiefly that I may thank you for one or two of your late favors. That from “Montezillo”, written on Christmas day, I have...
17To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 3 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of 23. Septr: & 3. Octr. was brought to me by my old friend and Classmate I. M. Forbes, and that of 13. Novr. by General Boyd, who both came fellow-passengers in the same vessel. Mr Everett has since arrived, by whom I received a Letter of 26. November, from my dear Mother. I have briefly replied to my Mother upon the advice, which you and she have given me to return to the United...
18To John Adams from Henry Colman, 1 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
You know my vanity and therefore are probably surprized that I have not before this transmitted you a journal of my travels; now do not condemn me too soon nor at any rate too severely but let it mitigate my sentence to recollect that Mrs. Adams herself invited this freedom and that I avail myself of the honor and kindness of that permission. I shall always consider myself, my dear Sir, under...
19To John Adams from John Trumbull, 26 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
Twenty Eight years ago, I had the honor of painting in London your portrait in my picture of the Declaration of Independance,—the long succeeding period of War and Calamity palsied and suspended thy progress in the work of which that picture was a most important part. Peace is at length restored; I have resumed my task; that Picture is finished; Trenton, Princeton & York Town are far advanced;...
20To John Adams from Cresswell and Addams, 24 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
We have the Honor of your Excellency’s Letter of the 16th. Instant wherein You inform us that you have received Authority from the Secretary of State of the United States to adjust and settle our Accounts for Services authorized by the late Genl. Lyman on the public Account of the United States. We beg to make our best acknowledgments for the Trouble and Interest your Excellency has taken in...
21To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 23 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
As editor of the Weekly Register (a work that I am flattered with a belief has effected a good deal, of his building up a national character for his country, of which you may have heard) I have been loudly called upon to collect & preserve in an extra volume, a body of the speeches, & neglected or almost forgotten public papers of the times of the revolution—to give to an admiring posterity...
22To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 15 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
ἀναπέτομαι δὴ πρὸσ ολυμπον πτερυγεσσι κούφαις — μ’ ἐπίβωτον κατὰ γειτόνας ποιήσεις. And I was gratified by your condescending kindness—as to this I was chiefly indebted to that distinction, with which I was honored in your state—and even here—but with what pleasure I have accepted these favours, may you conclude from—hence—that—ornandus et tollendus sum—where and whenever you find it...
23To 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...
24To John Adams from Ward Nicholas Boylston, 13 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
From your suggestions, I have attempted and publish’d an Analysis of the Will of Mr Boylston, which its probable you have seen; but how far I have succeeded in meeting your expectations, (that is, as far as I have gone into it—) you can best determine—any hint or amendment from you on the subject, I shall be greatly obliged to you for As your opinions have the force of a Commandment I averr’d...
25To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 3 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
Mr Cobbett whose political opinions, as you know have undergone some changes since he was battling it in favour of the British Government in Philadelphia, has become the great champion of Parliamentary reform; and in order to increase the number of his readers among the labouring classes of the People, he has lately had recourse to the expedient of reprinting particular numbers of his weekly...
26To 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...
27To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 25 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
I recieve here, dear Sir, your favor of the 4th. just as I am preparing my return to Monticello for winter quarters; and I hasten to answer to some of your enquiries. the Tracy I mentioned to you is the one connected by marriage with La Fayette’s family. the mail which brought your letter brought one also from him. he writes me that he is become blind & so infirm that he is no longer able to...
28Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 25 November 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve here, dear Sir, your favor of the 4 th just as I am preparing my return to Monticello for winter quarters; and I hasten to answer to some of your enquiries. the Tracy I mentioned to you is the one connected by marriage with La Fayette ’s family. the mail which brought your letter brought one also from him . he writes me that he is become blind & so infirm that he is no longer able to...
29To 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...
30To John Adams from Richard Rush, 18 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
You have seen so much, read so much, and thought so much, of publick affairs under all aspects; you know so well what is becoming in national dignity and spirit, and what is due also to policy and seemliness, that I declare, according as your ripe judgment may disapprove or sanction the enclosed paper, will I either put it by, or lay it before those who have the power, if they think fit, to...