31James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 13 January 1780 (Adams Papers)
I send you a Continuance of the Journals. The Printer having lately made a Mistake in the Course of sending me the Sheets of 1778, I was led to think he had done so before, as to that which I have written to you about already, called by him H; I therefore now put up one, as well as M.N. which I am certain were not before inclosed to you. I would have you send all forward to our Friend, unless...
32James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 16 July 1779 (Adams Papers)
March 6 1779. “Our friend my late Colleague means to embark soon and from him you will learn the State of our Affairs here. Mr. Izard and myself would have accompanyed him had not our Commissions prevented us.” The above is an Extract from a Letter of Ar. Lee to Mr. S. Adams and tho Mr. Lee writes afterwards on April 6th. yet it was a very short Letter of Information concerning the Enemys Plan...
33James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 6 January 1780 (Adams Papers)
You will see, lovely Woman, by the Papers which I have sent that we shall have more post Advantages of Communication than we have had for some time back; but I fear this Remark will tend to my Disadvantage, and if it was not for Oeconomy I would throw by the present Sheet and take up another in which I would only tell you that I regard, esteem and respect you and will certainly write to you as...
34James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 10 November 1777 (Adams Papers)
As the delivery of this Billet cannot be attended with the disagreable allarm which the amiable Mrs. Adams some time ago suffered from a well meant but indiscretely-managed little Compliment of one of her Admirers, I improve this fair opportunity to congratulate her, thus, upon the late happy events at Saratoga, greatly important to the Public and, consequently, interesting to her patriotic...
35James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 26 June 1781 (Adams Papers)
The Alliance may have brought you Letters: neither that nor the Franklin have given us any from Mr. Adams. Mr. Dana on the 4th of April resolved to go from Paris to Holland on the Sunday following. He mentions nothing of Mr. A but I send you a Scrap from the Hague which proves the Health of him and his, in a good Degree, March 4th. Any Thing to the contrary would have been mentioned by Mr....
36James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 9 August 1779 (Adams Papers)
Indeed, my lovely anxious Friend, you lead me to doubt whether Mr. A. is really on the Water: The Report of the Alliance being in Concert with a 40 Gun Ship on a secret Expedition tallies with Something of which I am certain. A Man of War of that Size has been given up to the “Direction” of John Paul Jones, and the Name has been changed to“Poor Richard” that it may not appear to belong to the...
37James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 8 January 1781 (Adams Papers)
Yes I will try it. To one of the most sensible, virtuous and consequently most lovely of the Loveliest Sex, it will drop its Ink in Paragraphs of calmer Stile than for the last fifteen minutes. My Penknife formed it at first for the Purposes of Friendship; whence then such a Flow of Bitterness and Execration? All this too to the Husband of Portia! Will he become a Distributor of such Evil? No....
38James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 14 July 1780 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of June 13th. reached me this Morning. I will endeavour to write intelligibly in answer;—but, alas! I have already fallen into my old track, and must give a note of explanation before I pro ceed further. N.B. The above underscoring means that I love flattery and a flatterer; nay, more, tho it may seem contradictory to the first part of my nota bene, it means that I love Saucyness...
39James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 2 July 1781 (Adams Papers)
The Gentleman by whom I meant to send the inclosed was obliged unexpectedly to return to Baltimore. I do not find, upon breaking the Seal that it can give Mr. Rivington much Amusement. I am sorry to find by this day’s Receipt of yours of June 10th. that you had not more Satisfaction from the Arrival of the Alliance. You will know, by what Genl. Ward had to convey to you, that an Expression in...
40James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 1 September 1778 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday the Letters of Portia of June 24th. and Augst. 19th. came to my hand together, by Post. The wishes expressed in the latter have made all the Impressions of the most pleasing Commands, and shall be strictly attended to upon the first possible Occasion of fulfilling them; which must, I think, be soon, tho the Embargo is not yet taken off. As to the former , I will not now make it the...
41James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 13 July 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have already acknowledged the Receipt of your Favour of June 10th. Severely as it concluded in Regard to my Reputation I did not arraign its Justice, but wrote an ingenuous Confession, similar to one I had before made by the Opportunity of Genl. Ward. I thought your Conclusion was founded upon a natural Construction of what you had been reading. I venerated the Purity of your Sentiments. I...
42James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 17 July 1781 (Adams Papers)
The Dates of my Letters connected with the Time of the Receipt of yours are become somewhat essential towards a right Judgement of my Character, so much called in Question lately by the Censorious. Though John Paul Jones may not even yet have left the City you will sometime or other find what I wrote to go by a Mr. Anderson and afterward delivered to the said Chevalier Jones. You will also...
43James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 21 May 1781 (Adams Papers)
I hope you are not still without later Dates from Mr. A’s Hand than what we have—Oct. 24. I conclude he was well about the last of Febry., because Mr. Carmichael under Date of March 11th sends us Mr. A’s Plan of a Loan to be opened at the House of Nieufville & Son March 1st. We have no Vessels from Holland. Accept of my Conjecture as a Proof of my uniform Wish to contribute to your Ease of...
44James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 23 November 1779 (Adams Papers)
Instead of sending the inclosed to the Navy Board I shall from Time to Time direct them as now, that after you have had the Amusement (such as it is) of reading them you may forward them to the Friend for whom they are designed, through the Care of the Navy Board at Boston. If you are quite indifferent as to this method, I will lodge them in future where those for Mr. Dana are lodged by my...
45James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 19 December 1780 (Adams Papers)
As you are entitled to a Wife’s Portion of Mr. A’s Honors and Satisfactions I inclose for your Reading some Papers to be afterwards forwarded to Holland. I do not intend to have any of my future Letters to Mr. A. thrown overboard unless they are specially so directed on the Cover. I chalenge any body to tell the Contents truly. The Letters of Mr. Luzerne are never sunk.—I am told the Enemy...
46James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 29 August 1777 (Adams Papers)
It is probable that Genl. Howe will waste the fall of this year between Chesapeak Bay and Delaware River. I send you a copied sketch of part of the country to which the Gazettes will frequently refer; as I know You give singular attention to the interesting concerns of America in the present struggle. This knowledge is only part of the foundation of my affectionate esteem of you. Nor will I...
47James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 10 August 1781 (Adams Papers)
I am persuaded to believe that I have acknowledged the Receipt of your Favor of June 30th tho it is not so endorsed. I think I recollect to have discovered my Unwillingness to persuade my dearest Friend, my affectionate, faithful, generous-spirited Maria to put herself in the Way of a Meeting with a Stranger prejudiced against me and perhaps prompt to utter her Prejudices. I am sure such Ideas...
48James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 26 November 1781 (Adams Papers)
I shall have an excellent Opportunity to send those Articles of yours, which have been long under my Care, by a Waggon of Genl. Lincoln going in a few days to Boston and perhaps also to Hingham. I feel a Sort of Mortification, at the Air of Negligence which seems to be thrown over my past Endeavors to serve you, by this early Execution of the Promises which our good Friend Lincoln made to you...
49James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 23 August 1781 (Adams Papers)
I feared moths—have opened your Goods—aired and shook the Wollens—added good Tobacco leaves and again secured them for Transportation. I shall put Clamps to the Chest and send it to the Store of the Deputy Commissary General where Mr. Jno. Checkley will secure the first good public or private Carriage to Mr. Hughes or to Boston. I mentioned Gauze for Mr. Tufts. You say he misses some gauze...
50James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 13 June 1778 (Adams Papers)
Amiable tho unjust Portia! doubly unjust!—to yourself, and to me. Must I only write to you in the Language of Gazettes, enumerating, on the Part of Britain, Acts of Deceit, Insolence and Cruelty; or, on the part of America, Instances of Patience under repeated Losses, Fortitude under uncommon Hardships, and Humanity under the grossest Provocations to Revenge? Must I suppress Opinion, Sentiment...
51James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 4 December 1781 (Adams Papers)
In answer to some Questions contained in your Letter of Sepr. 26 you may know that Mr. Laurens might pay any sum up to five hundred po unds s terling therefore the same is now to be done at discretion. F. Dana is accompanied under somewhat similar discretionary stipulations. Indeed you are mistaken about the Scales. I should be happy to be sure of what you only conjecture. I mean that J. Jay...
52James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 4 September 1781 (Adams Papers)
Supposing Col. Laurens to have arrived at Rh. Island, I was greatly chagrined when he told me he had no Letters for you; and I was searching his papers to pick from them all the Comfort I could, to be transmitted to Braintree, when I found he had landed at Boston and had sent you a Message of what Satisfaction he could furnish relative to your dear Partner and your Children. What I told you...
53James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1778 (Adams Papers)
I have this Afternoon received your Favour of June 12th. and at the same Time a Gazette from Boston, of later Date, in which I find a pleasing Entry in Regard to Mr. Adams’s Arrival in France. It is so likely to be true from the blundering Manner of it that I venture to congratulate you upon it. Mr. Thaxter is not yet arrived here, but is expected hourly. He will heartily participate in the...
54James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 9 July 1778 (Adams Papers)
I heartily congratulate you upon the indubitable Proofs of our Friends Arrival in France. You might imagine that the Congress had received some important Intelligence in the large Packets sent lately from Boston, if I did not acquaint you that they were chiefly for Monsr. Girard who is not yet arrived. A french Fleet having sailed for America, an English One being ready to follow, and a second...
55James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 7 March 1780 (Adams Papers)
The Post but now arrived will be again on his Way in an Hour; I retire therefore from a Circle of public Debate, to acknowledge, at a Side-Window, your Favor of February 13th. this Moment unsealed. I admire the Remarks. Be persuaded, lovely Moralist, to indulge me with a Sight of what occasioned them—“Passages of Letters of January 6th. and 18th.” I shall be much chagrined if you do not...
56James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 19 May 1780 (Adams Papers)
Large Packets are here received from Mr. Adams up to March 4th. His Reception was of the most cordial Kind. I shall execute speedily all his confidential Requests, and shall tell you the Nature of them in some Moment of more Leisure than the present. If a depreciating Currency has not ruined our Spirit and Principles of Patriotism, it is not a mad Thing to hope that this Year’s Campaign will...
57James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 19 July 1779 (Adams Papers)
Your Favor of June 18/26 is this Hour come to hand. “Do I love the natural Sentiments of the Heart”? Yes, Amiable Correspondent, I truly love them; and your little Story was far, very far from non -natural. You was betrayed, it seems, by a Combination of Circumstances such as a tender Sensibility and the Dusk of the Evening, to make a Pressure to your lovely palpitating Bosom which soon after...
58James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 5 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I doubt not Madam, you have Letters from Mr. Adams of later Date than what we have received but that Fact will not prevent your Expectations of Something from me in the Way of retailed Politicks: — He has sent as I imagine but few duplicates of what are actually on Board Gillon. He dated May 16 and Augst. 3d. from Amsterdam, July 11. 14. 15 from Paris. He thinks Britain altogether insincere as...