1To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 5 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am, indeed, gratified by the receipt of your letter of the 27th ulto. The approbation of those we ourselves reverence for their virtues, is, perhaps, the sweetest reward for our efforts to be useful. Only eleven volumes of the Weekly Register are yet finished. These may be forwarded, if you please, immediately to Boston, & can be easily sent to you, through Mr. Dawes; or by my agent there,...
2To John Adams from Harrison Gray Otis, 5 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have the satisfaction to inform you that John Quincy Adams Esq. was this morning nominated Secretary of State, and forthwith agreed to, in Senate, with only one dissenting vote—Mr Crawford continues in the Treasury and Gov Shelby is appointed Secy of War;—Mrs: Otis unites with me in respects to Mrs. Adams and yourself, and hope you have experienced no material inconvenience from the rigour...
3To John Adams from Charles Cushing, 10 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
To my very great surprise and mortification, I saw in the daily Advertizer a week or ten days since, letters written by you in early life to my Father, and how they ever got abroad or published is wholly a mystery to me, and to our Family; I recollect to have seen them some twelve or fifteen years since, & then they were in a trunk of my father’s, with other private papers, that trunk was in...
4To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 25 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I set out the first of next week on the journey to the South in execution of a State commission to examine the various penitentiaries. I have a desire to visit Washington if time will permit, and will certainly attempt to get there if my brother in law Captain Stewart will accompany me from Philadelphia as he has proposed—I knew Mr Monroe in England, and I may perhaps say he honored me with a...
5To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 26 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am, indeed, gratified by the receipt of your letter of the 27th ulto. The approbation of those we ourselves reverence for their virtues, is, perhaps, the sweetest reward for our efforts to be useful. Only eleven volumes of the Weekly Register are yet finished. These may be forwarded, if you please, immediately to Boston, & can be easily sent to you, through Mr. Dawes, or by my agent there,...
6To John Adams from Joseph Delaplaine, 3 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have received, within a few days, your portrait, painted by Mr. Morse for me.— I have already informed you that I received an anonymous letter from a lady without date or place of residence, but bearing the Boston postmark, requesting me in urgent terms not to use the portrait for an engraving. Before the portrait arrived, I heard, through various channels, from persons of Boston, that the...
7To John Adams from Leslie Combs, 8 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have taken the liberty to send you by mail two books—Kentucky Productions, for your perusal and thro you to be presented to the “ Boston Atheneum ”— “The philosophy of the human mind,” is thought by some to possessess merit— “The History of the late war in the North West” contains a correct detail of facts & may give some idea of the true Indian character & manners—The distinction which it...
8To 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, &...
9To John Adams from Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 28 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
I Most affectionately partake in the Gratification You are going to derive from the Arrival of Mr and Mrs Quincy Adams with your grand children to the Satisfaction of a father you will join that of a patriot, the Appointment of Your Son to the place of Secretary of State being a great public Advantage. I Refer Myself to Him for European News, in this Extensive Question in Betwen Rights and...
10To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 5 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
Absences and avocations had prevented my acknoleging your favor of Feb. 2. when that of Apr. 19. arrived. I had not the pleasure of recieving the former by the hands of mr Lyman. his business probably carried him in another direction; for I am far inland, & distant from the great line of communication between the trading cities. your recommendations are always welcome, for indeed the subjects...
11To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 18 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
I was going to trouble you with a letter on the subject of a continuation of the remarks on the Jesuits, which it would I presume be desireable for the Editor to receive by the first of next month, as the number for July will then go to press, when my Father gave me your letter of the 15th inst. to read. The pamphlet you mention of Hutchinson’s I have never seen. I am going to prepare an...
12To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 19 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
I gratefully return to you the little pamphlet, & send with it a copy of the Register in which I have published it. I used the license you gave me, as to your letter in full, as well for an introduction to the sketch itself, as because I thought it might be of advantage to me. Many have been much gratified in reading that sketch—& I, indeed, rejoice at having had the pleasure to disseminate...
13To John Adams from James Madison, 22 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have recd. your favor of the 22d Ult: with the two vols. bearing the name of Condorcet. If the length of time they remained in your hands, had been in the least inconvenient to me, which was not the case, the debt would have been greatly overpaid, by the interesting observations into which you were led by the return of them. The idea of a Government “in one center” as explained and espoused...
14To 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....
15To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 4 June 1817 (Adams Papers)
It is with warm feelings that I acknowledge the favor you have conferred upon me by your letter of the 25th ult. accompanied by the very interesting pamphlet you forwarded. After carefully using it for the purposes proposed, I will faithfully return it. I do not wish to be thought to as saying what I do not believe, which is not my point, when I assure you of my belief that this pamphlet may...
16To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 8 June 1817 (Adams Papers)
Since the 7th of Febr—I did not receive a line from my frend—but having been honoured with two Letters of your Ladÿ, without a hint, that your health was not So good, and having read in the N. papers—that you were present at a festival at Boston, I presume, that other more Serious occupations kept you employ’d—or that Letter writing became rather to you a penible task, whenever you could not...
17To John Adams from D. Lynch, Jr., 14 June 1817 (Adams Papers)
“The American Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Manufactures”, instituted in this city, sensible of the zeal you have uniformly displayed in the promotion of every object; connected with the Welfare and Independence of our Country, had the honor, to elect you a member, at their last meeting, convened on the 13th: Inst. for the purpose of initiating into the Society James Monroe,...
18To John Adams from Thomas McKean, 17 June 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am at present obliged to write to you by another hand. The inclosed letter was sent to me in May last by your Son Thomas B. Adams Esquire, with a request that I should return it under cover to you. I regret that owing to a mistake of his residence, I had not the pleasure of his company at my table when he was last in this City. Miss Rutter has been so kind, I understand, as to explain the...
19To John Adams from Horatio Gates Spafford, 28 June 1817 (Adams Papers)
Thou wast good enough to inform me that ‘no Book of mine would disturb thy peace,’ & I accordingly ordered my publisher to send thee a small volume, some time last winter. It is a little thing—but still as it is my youngest child, in this way, I feel some degree of anxiety about its fate. I speak of ‘The Mother-in-Law,’ published at Boston. I congratulate thee, & the country, on the return of...
20To John Adams from James Monroe, 4 July 1817 (Adams Papers)
I regret that I could not have the pleasure of seing you again before you left town, which I found that you had done, when I calld yesterday at your lodgings. I wanted to communicate more fully with you, respecting the part I ought to take, in the ceremonies of this day. It is possible you may be in town to day in which I case I may still enjoy that advantage. my particular object in sending...
21To John Adams from James Riley, 4 July 1817 (Adams Papers)
as A tribute of respect and Esteem for the Eminent virtues of one of the principal Fathers of my Nations Admirable institutions and a promoter of her Independence I take the Liberty of presenting you a copy of the Narrative of my late Disasters and Sufferings in Africa &c cherishing a hope that its perusal will not prove irksome. I have the Honour to be with the greatest / regard and profound...
22To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 5 July 1817 (Adams Papers)
I gratefully return the papers you did me the honor to send into me, with a copy of them inserted in the Register. I hardly knew how far I was authorized to give your private letter to the public; but the parts inserted seemed necessary as an introduction to the papers; & I hope I have not transcended your will in that respect. I will thank you for the papers about Miranda’s affair. It is not...
23To John Adams from George Washington Jeffreys, 15 July 1817 (Adams Papers)
A Society has been established at this place for the promotion of agricultural and rural affairs—It consist of the most respectable and intelligent citizens of our county, who convinced of the imperfect state of agriculture among us, are stimulated by the most laudable motives to effect some improvements in it, and not only by examples on their farms, but by every other means which lay in...
24To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, 16 July 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have the pleasure to return to you the letters of Gov McKean, with a copy of them inserted in the Register. My early & good friend Cæsar A Rodney, of Delaware, nephew of C.R. of the “76 congress, informs me that he has some of deceased patriots’ letters dated in 1777—1799; & says he will furnish them. When they are published, I shall send a copy to you. I am gratified to observe that the...
25To John Adams from Henry Channing, 21 July 1817 (Adams Papers)
Presuming that, as age advances, it must become irksome to maintain your extensive correspondence, I have long delayed addressing a line to you, hesitating, though I knew the subject would interest. The high respect I entertain for yourself and your son, the honble John Q. Adams, will not permit me longer to hesitate, since the communication, given in a Kentucky Paper, respecting our...
26To John Adams from Hezekiah Niles, July 1817 (Adams Papers)
After revolving upon some suitable apology for intruding myself with the following statement and request, I have thought it most respectful to decline offering any, expect to observe that if ought appears to your better judgement improper in either, that you will attribute it to any thing else than a willingness on my part to act so, in any respect towards you. For six years ending with the...
27To John Adams from Henry Channing, 9 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
With great pleasure, I, yesterday, received your favour of the 1st Inst. acknowledging the receipt of my letter of July 21st.—I conceive it important always thus early to advise a correspondent of the receipt of important letters, which I offer as my apology for this line. Were it not for the trouble in writing at your time of life, I should be tempted to draw largely upon your benevolence, in...
28To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 8 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
A month’s absence from Monticello has added to the delay of acknoleging your last letters; and indeed for a month before I left it our projected College gave me constant employment; for being the only Visitor in it’s immediate neighborhood, all it’s administrative business falls on me, and that, where building is going on, is not a little. in yours of July 15, you express a wish to see our...
29To John Adams from William Bainbridge, 16 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
On the rect. of a Letter signed by you and several others, respecting a Boat belonging to a Mr. Davis of Quincey; I immediately ordered an investigation of the transaction; And now forward to you the enclosed Letters, showing the result of the Inquiry—The injury that the Boat sustained appears to been purely accidental. I regret that Mr. Davis did not represent the Circumstance to the...
30To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 20 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
Having in so long a time not received a word from Quincÿ, although I was freed from all anxiety about your wellfare mrs Guild and her amiable sister Catherine, both having informed me, that you continued to enjoy not only a hum cum dignitate, which would be nothing new—but all possible happiness that can fall to the share of human mind, while your excellent Lady’s gratification must have...