171From François Adriaan Van der Kemp to John Adams, 13 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
How was I delighted in Seing your handwriting on the Addres—I could not guess—it was a Letter—I did not expect one—although I was confident, that, if the State of your health had been worse, Cornelia Amelia would have deemed it her duty to Send me a line—You can guess—how I was delighted—when opening it—I Saw it was a Letter from my revered frend—I glanced over it, without looking at the...
172From François Adriaan Van der Kemp to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
This morning I received the letter, with which you was pleased to honour me the 28th of June. your medical advice, how Salutarÿ in its effect, Should, I believe, not have prompted me to answer it So Soon, had you not destroy’d its beneficial influence—by rousing all mÿ fears for the live of a man, whom you know, I love and revere. By recollecting, it appears to me, that I am unjust towards...
173From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
As Mr & Mrs Smith are about leaving this Country I cannot suffer them to depart without a few lines although my Spirits are not in a state to render a letter from me very agreeable Mr Adams as you probably know has left me in Petersburg and it is very uncertain when we shall meet again; did I not fear to indulge my feelings I could make bitter complaints of the cruel separations I am obliged...
174From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 5 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday as soon as the mail arrived I sent to the Office full of expectation of receiving a Letter from my dear Sister—Are you all so absorbed in matrimonial affairs, as that none of your family can find leisure to give me the least intelligence how you progress, & how you all do?—Our amicable Cousin Hannah, has had the indisoluable knot completed at last, I see by the news paper—& your...
175From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
My last Letter to you was written at Reval, and dated the 12th: of May—It was forwarded from Gothenburg by a Swedish Vessel, bound to Boston; but since Admiral Cochrane’s Blockade, it is more doubtful than ever whether it will come to your hands.—I was detained ten days after it was written, in that City and its harbour, by head winds, and by the ice floating in the gulph of Finland—We were...
176From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
With pleasure I congratulate My Dear Brothers & Sister, upon the agreeable prospect they have of seeing an amiable & beloved Grand-duaghter, eligibly settled in a worthy family, & with a Partner who I hope will have sagacity & goodness sufficent to duly estimate her real Excellence. It was said of Miss Caroline, by a Lady, who I presume you will allow to have some skill in determining female...
177From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 May 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have often felt thankful that we cannot trace our Geneology to the family of Kill-Joys , but are closely allied to those, who considered every dispensation as the allotment of an alwise Parent, who has permit ted us in this Vale of Tears, to gather every comfort, every incidental circumstance, which may grow into a Blessing, & gratefully enjoy the present moment— While I regret Mr T. Adams’,...
178From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 May 1814 (Adams Papers)
I left St: Petersburg on the 28th. of last Month, as in the Letter of which I now enclose a press-Copy, I mentioned to you was my intention, and I arrived here on the morning of the first of May.—The ice had not then broken up in this harbour, and no vessel has yet ventured to sail from it—I have engaged a passage for Stockholm in one of the first which will depart, and I am now flattered with...
179From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 May 1814 (Adams Papers)
Yes, my dear Friend—I am indeed the only one of my Father’s house who yet stands in this fading, precarious portion of existence.—Little did I think my excellent brother would be called before me, but the thread of my life has been drawn out until I stand a wonder unto all around me.—I hope it is to add another note of gratitude to that unbounded sum which is due to my Creator and Preserver.—...
180From Hannah Phillips Cushing to Abigail Smith Adams, 5 May 1814 (Adams Papers)
It is so long a time my beloved Friend since I have had the satisfaction of hearing from you, that I am induced notwithstanding the weakne ss of my eyes to write a few lines to ask after your welfare, with other Friends at Quincy & to offer my thanks for an affectionate letter written in a sick chamber, where I regreted much it was not in my power to have been with you. I took some cold on...
181From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 26 April 1814 (Adams Papers)
Mr: Nathl: W. Strong arrived here on the 31st. of March, and brought me an Order from the Secretary of State to go immediately to Gothenburg. I intend leaving this City the day after to–morrow, in compliance with that Instruction, and should have been gone before this, but that the passage of the gulph has been for some time impracticable. Mr Strong besides the despatches with which he was...
182From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 April 1814 (Adams Papers)
My daughter Cuthbert has written to me declaring her wishes to make me a visit this summer if one of her brothers can meet her at the lines, it is necessary for me to write immediately to her to settle the plan of meeting—I again solicit your good offices to send it to the gentleman who has been so good as to send others for me. I was paind to hear of the illness of yourself and my venerable...
183From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 April 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have your Letter of the 12th. inst, I lament that the delay of my answers should have excited unpleasant sensations, the circumstances from whence it sprung, were out of my controul— They however furnished the young Gentleman with an opportunity of expressing his solicitude, and has finally thus far progressed as you express yourself to your satisfaction, and that it does so, adds to my...
184From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 2 April 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have your letter of the 22d. of march, and am much gratified that my enquiries and communications relative to Mr. De Wint meet wit your approbation—you will no doubt observe by my last letter to my dear Caroline, that ultimately my Ideas fully correspond with your own, and thinking that I was hard with the young man, I softened my letter, and withdrew from that stern position that I had...
185From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
Since I wrote you last, 1. February I have had no opportunity of putting a Letter even on its way, to reach you, when it should please Heaven. The ordinary intercourse between this Country and England by the way of Gothenburg has been suspended from the 24th: of December untill this day, by the freezing of the Harbours, and there are now 22 Mails due, from London—The same Cause has prevented...
186From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 26 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
Yesterdays Mail, My Dear Sister, conveyed your Letter safe to me, with the two Bills—I do not so much think of what I want, as what I can best do without ,—We all have duties, & calls, when it might not be proper for the right hand, to know what the left doth, & therefore, I like to have some property subject to no enquiry—you know I said, I wished to keep my property as equal for the two , as...
187From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have myself, my dear Friend, been very unwell since I received your short but consolatory letter dated Feby. 21st. which inform’d me of your recovery from a languid state of health. You observ’d then it was only partial, I hope now it is complete.— Inform me also when you write again, of the health of Mr. Adams.— I regret much for him the privation of sight— it is a rich blessing at all...
188From Harriet Welsh to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
I went yesterday & return’d Mr. E’s sermons to Mr. Lyman’s to Mr E was there, & gave him the thanks which the President sent—I promis’d to pass the day with Miss L. & came home to say so—Your kind letter was then handed me—Susan came here & wrote you I too wrote a few lines which were seal’d in her’s to go yesterday but the stage-man had gone when they were sent—Mr. G. has just call’d & taken...
189From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
The peircing cold air of this Month has made me quiver so that I could not quit the fire side scarcely for a moment, & it has gone to the marrow of Mr Peabody’s bones, so that it has made him very lame again, & is obliged to walk with a cane—But otherways he is a well as could be expected, for which I desire to be grateful, to that gracious Being who has brought us to see the return of another...
190From François Adriaan Van der Kemp to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
Among Several letters—laid aside—during my late exertions in behalf of a countrÿ, which I cannot cease to love, I must do my Self the pleasure, of paying you a debt of the gratitude for your favour of Febr. 23, with which you was So obliging to honour me again. Knowing the yet infirm State of your health, I had not dared to flatter mÿ Self, to receive So Soon a fresh proof of your kind...
191From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have your Letter of the 2d. inst. one from My dear Caroline of the 28th. of Febry. and one from my son John of the first and one from Mr. DeWint of the 2d. inst. all of which I have answered, the majority however goes by this post— The subject is highly interesting I have promptly answered Caroline, my Son and Mr. De Wint— I wrote a note to The Hon ble : Mr. Oakley a member in Congress from...
192From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
Your kind attention in answering my letters heretofore, and my last being yet unanswered excites the apprehension that your health has been worse than common this winter I hope I may hear of any other cause, except an abatement in your friendship, but that I do not for a moment admit—Your condsending goodness to me has perhaps caused me to expect more than I have a right to look for, more...
193From Charles Francis Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 6 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
At Mr: Fishwick’s School, where I am, there are sixteen boys besides myself, and besides his two daughters, Charlotte and Eliza. We learn on Mondays and Fridays Russian; on Tuesdays and Thursdays German; and on Tuesday Morning, Drawing; on Wednesdays and Fridays, French, Every day English Spelling and Grammar. Writing every day except Saturdays and cyphering sometimes. On Saturdays in the...
I was in hopes of receiving a Letter by yesterdays Mail from you—I was glad to see by the News Papers that Col. Smith, who formerly girded on the Sword for his country’s defence, was now opening his mouth, I trust in wisdom, advocating the same noble cause—What will be the issue of the present agitation of your State, & ours, I cannot predict, but I fear, unless great pains is taken to...
195From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have already written you once, by Mr: Gallatin, who, together with Mr Bayard left this City on the Evening of 25. January, for Amsterdam—But as Mr Harris our Consul, who was also the Secretary of Legation to the Extraordinary Mission is to follow them in a few days, and expects to overtake them at Berlin, I consider it as another opportunity for writing to you, and have prescribed it as a...
I feel much obliged my Dear Sister, to the Christian Desciple for the mild, & pacific Principles, which he so zealously endeavours to inculcate—I hope the Writers feel there powerful influence upon their own Hearts—"Wrath, & Evil Speaking," never made one Proselite , any more than the tortures of an Inquisition—If we must be stigmatized, reprobated as Harties, fools, & Knaves, because we...
197From Charles Francis Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
After having written to my Grandpapa, and my Brothers, I must not omit writing to you, to express my gratitude for your kindness to my Brothers, as well as to myself, longer ago than I can remember. We have now vacation time at school; and one Evening, Papa and Mama permitted me to have a party of my school-mates, and a few other young Gentlemen and Ladies of my acquaintance. We had a great...
198From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 17 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I expected that Mr: Gallatin or Mr Bayard, would have been the bearer of the last letter, that I wrote you; which was at the close of the last year. But it was taken by Mr Todd, who with Coll: Milligan, Mr Bayard’s private Secretary left this City about ten days since; bound to England by the way of Sweden. Mr: Gallatin’s intention now is to go in a week or ten days; but he takes his direction...
I was much grieved to hear of Mrs Adams sickness, both upon her own account & yours —Such a weight, & distress upon the Lungs adds greatly to the Fever, & makes respiration difficult—The last smoke from the fire, seemed to suffocate me—I am sure I shall pity any one more than ever I have done—And I was rejoiced to hear Tuesday by Mrs James Foster, that you were better, & Mrs J. Adams too, was...
I too my Dear Sister, have to address you from the Bed of Sickness— The wednesday night after I wrote to you last, I was waked with a shaking fit great distress at my vitals, which was succeeded by a regular Lung fever—I have had specimens of this fever twice before in the course of my Life, but nothing so severe as now—But through the goodness of an ever kind Providence, the Crisis formed the...