1From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 6 August 1817 (Adams Papers)
After a passage of fifty days from Cowes, we have this day landed from the Ship Washington; all well—We shall stay here only so long as may be indispensable for landing our baggage, and making other necessary arrangements. In the course of a week or ten days, I hope to enjoy the happiness of seeing once more, my dear father and you—Remaining in the meantime, ever affectionately your’s. MHi :...
2From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 26 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
Last week I sent you a number of the Monthly Theological Repository, containing some Speculations of Mr Van der Kemp and Mr Jefferson—With this Letter I enclose to my Father the numbers just published of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews—Presuming that you know the History and Character of those Publications from Cobbett, you will sufficiently understand them to be in the Nature of Lawyer’s...
3From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 September 1816 (Adams Papers)
Our Sons John and Charles are come home from school this morning, to spend the Michaelmas Holidays, and have brought one of their schoolmates with them, to whom John has taken a great liking and who is nearly of his age. He was already here, part of the Summer Holidays, and is a very intelligent and well behaved boy. These Holidays come so often that I am not at all partial to them; but those...
4From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you last week by Captain Bronson, and sent you a Volume of Letters from the Continent, about the Battle of Waterloo and the like, by the Poet Walter Scott—I now send you a Newspaper in which you will find certain effusions of another personage, who is not only a Poet but a Lord—He has been married little more than a year, and is already separated from his wife—Partly, as his verses...
5From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 27 October 1807 (Adams Papers)
I wrote a line to my father, from New-York, enclosing a letter for Mr: Shaw, and informing you of our safe arrival thus far, upon our Journey.—We stopp’d at New-York two days, and then proceeded with as much expedition as we found practicable, untill we reached Baltimore. We stopp’d only one Night at Philadelphia, and had no opportunity to visit any of our acquaintance there—We came on in the...
6From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 8 March 1809 (Adams Papers)
I had heard of your illness with extreme concern, from my wife, and also through Mr: Cranch and Mrs. Quincy—The sight of your hand-writing again, has given me the purest joy, though allayed by the evident weakness in which you wrote—I believe there is in the sentence I have just written there is something which might be called a bull —But my feelings both of pleasure and pain at the idea of...
7From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 February 1807 (Adams Papers)
I have received your kind letter of January; and shall particularly attend to your directions at Philadelphia, respecting the flour—It is at present my intention to leave this place the 4th: of next month; but the winter and the roads are now breaking up; so that I know not whether the roads will at that time be passable The termination of this Congress will leave our public affairs in a...
8From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 October 1809 (Adams Papers)
The seventy-ninth day since our departure from Boston, and not yet in Petersburg—But we are on land, within twenty miles of it, and at the end of our voyage in the ship Horace.—We have indeed had a very long passage, and it has not been without its interesting incidents, had I but the time of narrating them—But to you as well as to us, the most interesting of them is, that we are all, thanks...
9From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
I mentioned to you in a former Letter, the visit that I had received from Mr Frend, and Mr Aspland, the Minister of the Unitarian Congregation at Hackney—Since then I have dined with Mr Frend, who is a Unitarian, and Astronomer, and Actuary , of an Insurance Company. There I met again Mr Aspland, who afterwards made me a present of several of his own publications, and from Dr Disney a copy of...
10From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
General Boyd, Mr Stores, Mr Forbes, and Mr and Mrs. Everett, have all arrived in London within the week past; and by them, with many other Letters and despatches I have received your favours of 5. and of 26. November—There must be I think a Letter in arrear between the 30th. of September and the 5th. of Novr—You acknowledge the receipt of my Numbers 92 and 93—and 97 and 98. I hope the...
11From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
There have been a multitude of American Vessels, wind–bound at Liverpool near two months, several of which have Letters for you, and for my father, and which I suppose will nearly all arrive about the same time—In the interval there will be a wide chasm during which you will be without advices from us, as we have now been long without any from you—The present will go by Mr A. H. Everett, who...
12From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
A Treaty of Peace between the United States and Great Britain has this day been signed by the British and American Plenipotentiaries at this place. It is to be dispatched to-morrow, by Mr Hughes the Secretary of the American Mission, who is to sail in the Transit from Bordeaux—I have not time to write a single private Letter excepting this, but I request you to inform my brother that I have...
13From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 4 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
Since I last wrote to you, I have received your kind Letters of 27. August, and of 10. June, which I mention in the order, not of their dates, but of their reception. That of June enclosed a printed Copy of Judge Story’s biographical eulogium of our late excellent friend Dexter, whose loss is a calamity to our Country, and especially to our Native State, which with all her errors and follies I...
14From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 9 August 1806 (Adams Papers)
I left Cambridge yesterday, after having finished my weekly performance, to come here and meet my wife whom I expect hourly here—I received this morning letters from her, dated one at Philadelphia 30. July—and one at New-York 3. August—She was with my Sister, who was well and in good Spirits—She intended to stay over Commencement which was last Wednesday, and then come on as soon as possible—I...
15From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 8 February 1816 (Adams Papers)
The receipt of your favour of 2. December was acknowledged in my last, dated the 9th. of January—Three days afterwards, I received your Letter of 9. and 18. November which had been brought by Mr Tarbel—But it was forwarded, I believe from Manchester, Mr and Mrs Tarbel not having yet arrived in London. We have received no Letters of a later date from Quincy. Our Sons, after a Vacation of seven...
16From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
Last week I sent you with a Letter from my wife the Newspaper containing the Account of the Lord Mayor’s day feast at Guildhall, where you will find again some mention made of the American Minister—The singularity of the feast did not however consist in his being there; but in the Circumstance that no other Minister, either home-bred or foreign was present; and in the phenomenon still more...
17From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 3 December 1804 (Adams Papers)
I received some days since your kind letter of the 11th: of last month, and was delighted to find you had so far recovered as to be able to write—Since then I have been informed by my brother and Mr: Shaw, that your health continued improving and I sincerely pray to the great disposer of Events that it may be entirely restored and long continued, for your own comfort and the happiness of us...
18From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 July 1816 (Adams Papers)
Mr Tarbell informs me that he and his Lady have determined to return to the United States, and that they expect to sail next Monday for from Liverpool. I have now barely time to tell you that we are all well, and to send you a Newspaper, and the last number of the Quarterly Review—We have received Letters from my father and brother, and from you, to the 27th. of May—If the intervals between my...
19From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 6 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Nothing further received from you, since I wrote you last week—My boys have returned to School; and to close their holidays I went with them to Drury–Lane Theatre, and saw the Tragedy of Richard the third—The part of this amiable hero, was performed by Mr Kean, who is now the reigning favourite of the Public—They have mutilated this Play so much in their manner of getting it up, that it is...
20From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 December 1805 (Adams Papers)
I received some days ago your kind favour of the 29th: of last month; and since then my brother’s letter of the 4th. instt:—from the last of which I am made happy by the information that you and my children are well I have occasionally forwarded packets containing the documents which have been communicated to us from the President, and others which have occurred since the Commencement of the...
21From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Mr J. Sergeant, arrived in London last week, and delivered to me Letters from you, my father and my brother. Your’s is of 5. December—At that time, you observe, the Season with you, had become very cold—Most fortunately for this Country, there has been no cold weather this Winter, and scarcely any Snow. The verdure of the fields in this neighborhood, is like that of May—There are several...
22From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Scarce a day now passes without the arrival of vessels laden with flour from the United States. I am informed from Liverpool that upwards of twenty-five thousand Barrels have already been received there since the opening of the Ports. We have had several days ago accounts from New-York, down to the 18th. of last Month; and on Saturday I received your kind Letter of 8. Jany.—There is an old...
23From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
Last week I enclosed several numbers of Cobbett’s Register, as they are republished in open Sheets—Here are two additional numbers, with, an Observer where you will find an account of the late Riots in London, and an extract from a recent publication containing some interesting particulars about Napoleon at St Helena. The Ministerial daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly publications, the...
24From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 5 October 1816 (Adams Papers)
As I am not yet enabled to write the threatened long Letter to my father, I must replace it by the weekly short one to you. Last Sunday, Mr E. Brooks, Mr Bigelow, and a few others of our American Visitors, came out and dined with us—Two days afterwards Mr Brooks sent me your Letter of 2d. May enclosed, with Mr Norton’s funeral Sermon upon our venerable friend and kinsman Dr. Tufts; and a...
25From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 4 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
Last Evening I had the pleasure of receiving your favour of 25th: ulto: which contained the first information we had received from you or from our children since we left Boston—and for which we began to be very anxious. I am glad to hear that George is so well satisfied with his situation and promises so well—If the french Gentleman will allow him to chatter with him according to his own...
26From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 October 1816 (Adams Papers)
The quiet Season has at length arrived. For the last six weeks I have had no occasion to go into London, except upon business, and there is some relaxation of that—Almost all the Cabinet Ministers are absent upon excursions; and Lord Castlereagh is gone to Ireland to see his father . The Morning Chronicle gives a shrewd hint, that it is the sign that Parliament will be dissolved, and that his...
27From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 May 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have had the pleasure of receiving your kind Letters of 22. March. and 7. April; and at the same time my wife and children all received the like tokens of your affectionate remembrance. The last is to Mr J. A. Smith of 13 April.—They ought all, and I hope will answer you more at length, than it is in my power to do. For the last six weeks, besides the pressure of my correspondence, which is...
28From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 August 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have received Letters from you, of 22. March, 7. April, 9. and 20 May, and 29. and 30 June. every one of which, had it been possible, I would have answered by a long Letter—But even now, I can do little more than express my joy at perceiving the recovery of your health and Spirits, in the cheerfulness and gaiety returning to your Style. I had flattered myself that after the rising of...
29From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 November 1805 (Adams Papers)
As our driver is about to return, I take the opportunity to inform you that we arrived here safely last Evening, and found a Packet, ready to sail, and waiting only for us—Mr: Otis is here also, and goes on with us—We are all well, excepting Mrs. Adams and Eliza, whose coughs are very troublesome— We are to go on board the Packet at 9 o’clock this morning; the weather is as fine as possible;...
30From 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...
31From 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...
32From 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...
33From 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...
34From 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...
35From 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...
36From 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...
37From 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...
38From 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...
39From 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...
40From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 August 1815 (Adams Papers)
You will imagine that the place from which I now write you has been thus named by us; but so it was not—We found the names already settled—Ealing is a parish in the immediate neighbourhood of Brentford, that “town of mud”—immortalized in the Poetry of Pope and Swift; and the house in which we reside has been thus named by its proprietor, in honour of a kinsman of his, one Lord Boston, who has...
41From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
This day two Months have elapsed since Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard arrived and delivered to me your favours of 5 and 23 April—Nothing later from you has yet come to hand.—Very shortly after their arrival, the ship Hannibal, belonging to Mr Astor of New-York arrived at Gothenburg—This vessel was furnished with a British licence with a permission even to bring a Cargo, and to carry one back in...
42From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 February 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have just received your affectionate letter of the 15th:— and do not a moment delay to answer your question— I did attend the meeting of members at the Capitol on the 23d: of last Month— but not without invitation— I received the same invitation, which was given to the other members— And besides that I was also personally urged to attend, by another member of the Senate— I did not attend...
43From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 May 1811 (Adams Papers)
The late french Ambassador at this Court, the Duke de Vicence, has taken leave, and his succesor Count Lauriston has been received—He takes his departure this Evening or to-morrow for Paris, and I avail myself of the opportunity to enclose a line for you, under cover to Mr Russell our Chargé d’Affaires at that place—I have already sent several letters for you and for my brother to him to be...
44From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
I know not whether it was generosity, or any other virtue, or merely a disposition to receive the postage, that induced the transmission of your favour of 30. December to Mr: Williams at London; for by him it was kindly forwarded to me, and on the first day of this Month, to my inexpressible joy came to hand—It was but so short a time before that I had received your letter of 29. July!—and...
45From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 March 1815 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday Morning I received the first information of the ratification, by the Government of the United States of the Treaty of Peace concluded at Ghent on the 24th: of last December—The Ratification was received at London last Monday Evening the 13th: instant, and the Communication of the Event by Lord Castlereagh to the Lord Mayor was made about eleven O’Clock that Night—It was brought by...
46From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 6 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday I went to London, to the anniversary dinner of the Society of Friends of foreigners in distress; of which Society our old friend Mr William Vaughan is Treasurer; and being in Town, I found at my Office, in Craven Street, three Letters Post-marked “Liverpool ship-Letter,” and superscribed to me, in one of the Quincy hand-writings; but on opening them I found myself accosted first as...
47From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 14 October 1810 (Adams Papers)
Captain Smith, who was the bearer of your kind letter of 7. May, has met with the same misfortune which has befallen so many others of our Countrymen—On his passage to Gottenburg he was taken by a Danish Privateer and carried into Norway—From Christiansand he enclosed his letters for me to our Consul at Copenhagen, and he forwarded them to me by Captain Bainbridge, who came with a furlough in...
48From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
I received a very few days ago, your kind favour of 1. March last, which gave me great pleasure as a token of your remembrance, and by assurance of your restoration to health.—It contains like almost every letter from America, that I have received the last eighteen Months, tidings of affliction; but we had before been informed our brother’s misfortune in the loss of his youngest child. Your...
49From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I had the good fortune of sending a single letter from this place to England, in time to go by the Saratoga, a Cartel which sailed about the middle of this Month for New–York, and that letter was my last go to you. I hope it will reach you safely for it is the only opportunity by which I can expect that you will have heard from me, almost since the beginning of this Year—For the letters which...
50From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
As the Couriers between Paris and St: Petersburg have not yet ceased to be dispatched, by the arrival of one of them a few days ago, I had the pleasure of receiving your N. 1. of 5. January. which was not only like all your letters a balsam in itself; but was also precious by its contents, announcing your own health, that of my father, and of my children, brother and sister. I have no other...