Yours and the Presidents Company on the thirtieth to dine, will add Much to the pleasure of that day, in which Brattle Street Society will be again blessed with a Minister approved of without a dissenting Voice . As you once were Members there, I thought it would be pleasing to You—if So, I hope your State of health will be Such as to admit of Your gratifying us. The Solemn Ceremony commences...
202From 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...
203From François Adriaan Van der Kemp to Abigail Smith Adams, 9 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
Although I have it not in my power to make this Letter in any manner interesting—yet I am So fullÿ confident of your good opinion, and your willingness to oblige me, that you will permit me, in acquitting me of a duty, by assuring you of my grateful Sense of your favour. This acknowledgment you might not doubt—but it is a pleasure to indulge it. It was however a higher gratification—as it was...
204From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 September 1812 (Adams Papers)
Blessed are the Peace-makers!—In that glorious band of righteous do I class my friend Mrs. Adams. Your long silence, my dear Madam, has not been mis-construed.—I concluded you was waiting for the arrangement you proposed, when I received your very agreeable visit.—I think I did not mis-apprehend the message you then delivered from Mr. Adams, which you promised with his love to me, with a...
I presume, it is not abusing your kindness, in addressing you with a few lines, to assure you of mÿ Sincerest thanks for the unexpected gift of Quincÿ Adam’s Lectures—which you have bestowed on me. What enhances the value of this present, is that Seems to have been a mark of filial affection of a beloved Son, now endorsed to me bÿ your own hand. It is mÿ misfortune—Madam! that I can onlÿ...
206From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 29 July 1806 (Adams Papers)
By the last Letters I have received from my wife I expect she will reach Boston by the last of this week, or the beginning of the next—The House in which Mr: Ware lives will not be vacant untill after Commencement, and Mr: Pearson, proposing to sell his declines letting it—He is indeed in Treaty now, for the sale of it. I have therefore concluded to go into my House at Quincy again for the...
207From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 August 1816 (Adams Papers)
The receipt of all your Letters to that of 30. June has been acknowledged. To answer them, I must have time to think—a privilege which I so seldom enjoy that I cannot even anticipate when I may be indulged with it—Mr Tuckerman brought your last Letter—I saw him and his Lady once. But they were only three or four days in London, and are gone upon a tour into the Country. Mr Tuckerman says his...
208From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 17 November 1805 (Adams Papers)
We embarked at Providence on Tuesday morning, as I wrote you we purposed to do; and after a tolerably pleasant passage of three days and Nights arrived here the day before yesterday about noon; much to the satisfaction of my Sister and her children, who have thus reached the end of their Journey. But we for our part have accomplished not more than one half of ours; and we have taken Seats in...
209From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 March 1816 (Adams Papers)
I trust this letter will find you not in a sick chamber where your kind favor of the 10th instant was written, but out again, restored to your usual health, witnessing the return of spring and awake to its enjoyments. The kind expressions of your letter are not more flattering than endearing. Those little children of whom you so kindly inquire, will, I doubt not, at one day look over it with...
210From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of 26. November, is yet the latest that I have received from you—But since my last to you, and since mine of the 3d. instant to my father, I have received one from him, more earnestly calling upon me, to ask my recall from this Mission, and return home—I have in my last Letters both to him and you, expressed my sentiments and intentions on this subject, and have alledged such...
211From Richard Cranch Norton to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 February 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have received your kind letter dated Feby. 11th. and feel the warmest gratitude for your tender sympathy with me in my affliction. I am sure there is nothing so consoling to a heart wounded by grief, as the thought that others sympathize with us in our sorrows. You, my dear Aunt, knew my mother, and you knew how dearly and how deservedly she was loved by her family, her connexions and all...
212From Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your letters, dear Madam, are always welcome, and your requests are commands to me. I only regret that I can do so little towards obeying them. but eight and twenty years since I left France would, in the ordinary course of mortality, have swept off seven eighths of my acquaintances, and when to this lapse of time are added the knife of the Guillotine & scythe of constant and sanguinary wars,...
213From Charles Francis Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 July 1816 (Adams Papers)
I am now come home for the holidays and I hope to receive a great many letters but too I must mind to write to you as many times as you do to me There has been a latin play acted at Ealing called the Andrian one of Terences it was acted three times this year that is to say three times running as to the Actors I can not tell, I suppose you will soon hear Who they are; all I know is that George...
214From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, January 1818 (Adams Papers)
I am very happy to find by your Letter of the 7th that you are kind enough to be satisfied with my efforts to amuse you I am generally obliged to write in so great a hurry that I cannot attend to elegance of style and I believe I cannot always boast of writing sense—I am only guided by the current of my thoughts which frequently flow too rappidly to be perfectly rational—If however they enable...
215From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 4 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have been honored with your favor of the 28th of last month, which got to hand this morning. The wishes of which it makes mention on behalf of Mr. Clarke, to be the bearer of the dispatches by the Chippewa to Spain, I will, with the greatest pleasure, lay before the secretary of state: the testimonials to his merit, and fitness for such a trust are so perfectly ample, that I flatter myself,...
216From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 August 1816 (Adams Papers)
I shall send you by the earliest opportunity the newly published numbers of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews; but unless you read Cobbett’s New-York Register, you will not have the key to the secret History of those works—There are now three very distinct parties in this Country—Tories, or the Ministerial party—Whigs—and Reformers—The Quarterly Review is the Literary instrument of the...
We have arrived safely at this place after a fatiguing journey owing to the dust and extreme heat of the weather which nearly overcame me and produced so much fever by the time we reach’d New London we were apprehensive I should be incapable of proceeding as I found myself considerably better we took our passage in the Steam Boat at New London yesterday morning at 7. o-clock and reached New...
218From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Adams’s business accumulates so rappidly and Genl. Jackson has cut out so much new and difficult work for the Government I despair of seeing you this year—Contrary to your idea Mr. Adams enjoys his health hitherto perfectly but I have totally lost the little share I possessed on my arrival in this Country as I now scarcely know what it is to be well two days together—my lungs are very much...
219From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
An alternation of six Stages, and six Steam-Boats finally landed us here yesterday afternoon, being the very day upon which I had promised to be here. The President had arrived here on Wednesday, and occupies the official mansion, where I had an interview with him last Evening—But the walls are fresh plaistered, and the wainscoting is new painted; and they render it so insalubrious for present...
220From James Warren, Jr. to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
To the very much beloved friend of my much beloved mother—of that lamented & departed friend, I must express my acknowledgements of the reception of Mrs Adams’s letter of the 22d.—Long, very long, have I enjoyed the sympathies and regards of my beloved mother & her excellent friend—at all times and in all circumstances, have I heard them express’d, nor at any moment of her blessed life, were...
221From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am very happy that you have favored me with a letter respecting Mr Smith. It increases the interest that I before took in his situation. I will not permit myself to believe that any recollections are cherished to his disadvantage, on account of that portion of his conduct as a youth to which you have alluded. It would not be simply unkind, but unjust. It would be cruel. I took great pleasure...
222From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1814 (Adams Papers)
To offer you anything like consolation for your irreparable loss my dear Mother is I feel utterly impossible and Heaven alone can pour balm into the wound which in its wise decrees it has ordained. Too recently have I suffer’d the same dreadful stroke not to feel how every fibre of your heart must have been rent by this great great affliction if the tenderest sympathy could in the smallest...
I have delayed writing dear Madam longer than I intended, in the hope of giving you a more favorable account of Mr. Adams’s health, which has been extremely indifferent ever since his arrival. I was much surprized and grieved to see him look so ill when he return’d I thank God he is now better though I am apprehensive while he continues in public life there is little chance of his enjoying...
224From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 May 1816 (Adams Papers)
Mr: William Cranck Bond, a relation of ours, with whom you are no doubt acquainted has been some months in this Country; and is now upon his return to America—I shall endeavour to send you by him the last number of the Edinburgh Review; and the Newspaper now enclosed will give you a copious account of the Nuptial Drawing Room, which was almost as crowded as the Lord Mayor’s Easter Monday...
225From François Adriaan Van der Kemp to Abigail Smith Adams, 4 May 1818 (Adams Papers)
I hail this happy day—the Snow and rain can not lessen my enjoyment—I arose chearfully and thanked a bountiful God—when my Son delivered me your affectionate Letter, which giveth a new zest to my delightful feelings—you intended to assuage the heart rending pangs of Sorrow—which had been already Soothed by a Sense of religion—by the noble example of my amiable Daughter in Law—who has learned...
226From Ruth Hooper Dalton Deblois to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 June 1817 (Adams Papers)
The long friendship experienc’d from you, and the President and the regard he has ever had for our lamented Father and my poor agoniz’d Mother induces me to take the liberty of soliciting you both in our behalf—When we left Washington we had reason to believe if my Parent was unable from indisposition or if this sad event we now all mourn —was to take place, my Husband would be his...
As this is probably the last opportunity I shall have to write you I sieze it with avidity, and hope notwithstanding the failure of our negociations, that some favorable circumstance may occur, which will render the communication more frequent, and more safe. Our prospects are dreadful, and I see no end to our banishment, unless some miracle should release us from our present difficulties. I...
228From William Allen to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter of the 11th, with the enclosed sermons, & communication of your late brother in law, Judge Cranch,—& for your condescension in writing to me & in imparting information so acceptable I beg leave to return you my most cordial thanks.—The facts, which you have communicated, will contribute to improve the second edition of a work, compiled almost entirely without...
229From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 8 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
We wait with much anxiety for Letters, to reassure us on account of your health; although the last accounts were highly favorable, for which I am indebted to my old and valuable friend Harriet Welsh, we yet cannot feel perfectly satisfied, until we are assured under your own hand, of your complete restoration to the blessing of health. I am at last enabled to answer your questions concerning...
I received your two kind letters a few days since and was much affected by the account of poor Louisa’s illness and the dreadful misfortune which has befallen Mr. Smith and family our much esteem’d friends. too well am I enabled by sad experience to participate in their affliction on my first entrance into what is called the world I learnt this painful lesson and though I was shielded from the...
231From Benjamin Waterhouse to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
It is with some degree of mortification that I have to inform you, that I have not been able to get that extract of a letter from your son inserted in the Patriot, without submitting it to certain curtailments, & alterations, to suit with the notions of the party; and without omitting entirely that last paragraph which speaks of the disasters of the French army.— I yesterday withdrew the...
232From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 July 1816 (Adams Papers)
As the week comes round, the Sunday Newspaper reminds me of the despatch to be made up for Quincy; but the pressure of business and of dissipation equally indispensable has not for many weeks left me an hour, for writing to you. I have now scarcely a moment to acknowledge the receipt of your favours of 5. and of 20. May. which I have had more than a Month; and to which I hope to be at some...
233From James Monroe to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
I declind answering your letter, untill I could obtain some details, which were material, in relation to its object. The interest, which you take, in favor of persons a family, with whom you are so closely connected, & with whose merit, you are so well acquainted, commands my great high respect & warm approbation, and it would give me much great satisfaction, if circumstances permitted, an...
234From Hendrick W. Gordon to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honor to write me the 14th inst. Immediately after I was informd that a report was in circulation, that Mr J Q A. had written his father that the war in which we are engaged, was unjust & unnecessary, I wrote my friend Mr Calhoun, to pay no attention to such a report ( if such an one should reach Washington ) ’till he heard from me again, adding, that...
235From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Scarcely a day now passes, without the arrival of vessels from the United States; but they are principally from New York or more Southern Ports—The failure of the Harvests in this Country has much contributed to their frequency. Two years ago the British Parliament made a Law, to raise the price of Bread; having discovered that if that first necessary of life should be cheap, the Country would...
236From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
We are waiting with great anxiety to hear again from Quincy, and pray that they may bring us favourable accounts of your health—We have none later than of 19. February, which came by the New Packet, and which were received nearly a Month since. Mr and Mrs Tarbell are gone with Mr: and Mrs O. Everett, and Captain Stuart to France. We have a constant succession of our Countrymen coming and...
237From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Our mutual Friend Mrs Cushing called upon me a few days since and informed me that she expects you at Scituate in a short time.— Have you not in contemplation a design to extend your rout as far as Plymouth? I need not say it would give me great pleasure to see you, here before Mrs Smith can rationally be expected at Quincy. I most sincerely wish she may safely arrive there in due season, and...
238From John Pope to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 July 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am one of the Trustees of the Trasylvania University, and on that account have to request the favour of you to give me in detail as correct a view as you can of the moral habits, literary attainments, and religious tenets, of Docr. Holly—Is. he a Christian? Does he deny the divinity of Jesus Christ? That is does he believe Jesus Christ to be merely an inspired man, or the Son of God in the...
239From William Steuben Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
On the 24. May I had the very great satisfaction of receiving your kind letter of 23d. February. I felt doubly obligated to you for it as I conscious it must have been written under the impression, arising from the existing relations between the U. States and Britain, that the probabilities were very much against my ever receiving it; and I regret to say that the political appearances are not...
Through the protecting hand of a gracious Providence, I am rising from a bed of Sickness, where I have been confined for more than three weeks—Indeed, I did not keep about but a few days after my last letter to you—Lydia was evidently much better her Tongue cleared, & her fever had a proper turn & had got to eating Beef, & drinking wine, but still her Cough hung round, & kept her too weak to...
241From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 8 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
I thank you My Dear, & revered Brother & Sister, for your repeated attentions to me, & mine. The Cold, & the Snow yet remaining upon the Earth, renders it I fear, very painful & unpleasant Weather for my Son. I hoped to receive a Letter from him before this time, Silence in any one else I should construe as inability, or an increase of Disease. Few Children I believe are half attentive enough...
242From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 June 1810 (Adams Papers)
I this Day by the Mail received your kind letter, & am happy to hear you got Home, with your little Ones well, though I did not expect, or welcome you home in Idea till Monday afternoon—It was so very warm & dusty, that I thought neither you, nor your Horses would like to travel—I told Lydia, that you thought you felt better for your late excursion—“Do write, & ask her to come again” Said She,...
243From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
Your long silence (My Dear Sister) made me fear that you, or some of your family were sick—I was at Haverhill, & enquired of Mrs Harrod, but she did not mention it, only told me, that another Grandson was announced, whose name was to be Isaac Hull—Perhaps, the deceased Lawrence, might be as able, & intrepid a Commander, as the victorious Hull—But Laurels seldom spring, from the ashes of the...
244From Mary Smith Gray Otis to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
I presume dear Mrs Adams, you know ‘ere this, that the “Star in the East,” who is to make the Palace tremble, is the Vice P— Why he is thus designated, I dont know. I should think his star was allmost sett & that he would be willing to have it go down in peace; rather than in the turmoil of politics: but I believe, the last spark, that is extinguished in the heart of Man, is ambition. Govenear...
245From Mary Smith Gray Otis to Abigail Smith Adams, 29 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
I was much gratified my dear Mrs Adams the last week; by a line from you: especially as it announced your own health & that of your family with Mrs Smith’s restoration. I have thought of her with much anxiety & sympathised with you both , on the various events, which have call’d forth all the feelings of the human Heart. Whilst you feel the loss of your excellent Brother & Sister, you cannot...
You my beloved Sisters, whose time is ever filled , with the various duties of Life, can more readily pardon me, for not sooner acquainting you how, & when I got home—Leaving a large family only for a few weeks, makes domestic Cares press hard, & my Boarders Cloatths got very much out of repair, in my absence, & the cold season, & thanksgiving advancing, made new, highly necessary, so that no...
How changed My Dear Sister, is the weather now, from the clam clear Sunshine I enjoyed with you in my late very pleasant visit at Quincy! Winter has indeed, trod in rapid succession upon the verdant fields, & striped the trees of their green foliage; but kindly covered the roots, & herbage in mantles of Snow—Still more to vary the Scene & as if to vie with yellow Autumn, & the “wheaten Sheaf,”...
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...
249From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 5 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
The Calender informs me it is the month of May, my Dear Sister—I should not suppose it, by the warmth of the weather, the budding of the trees, nor the Verdure of the grass—for Lo, the ground is covered with Snow, two, or three Inches thick, & I am almost froven—It is an extraordinary Storm for the Season of the Year—It is not without most fearful apprehensions that I perceive this whole globe...
My Dear Sisters, interesting Letters conveyed by the Mail, were gratefully received by their obliged & sympathizing Sister—As I had not written to you for many weeks, I considered your letters as adding Obligations upon me, not to be remiss for the future,—But you knew it was not from want of affection, & though you might not suspect the Truth, yet your Candor, always puts the best...