121From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 17 July 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your kind Letters of 20 May and 4 June have been received together with others to my wife and the children which they have answered and will answer for themselves. Hitherto since our arrival in London, I have been obliged to rely upon their punctuality in answering your Letters, as an apology for the temporary deficiency of mine. Besides the multitude of trifling but indispensable avocations...
122From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 8 July 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your last kind Letters of the 20 of May reached London only two days since and according to your request I hasten to answer it—I wrote you some time since that I had performed my journey in safety and passed two delightful Months in Paris which I quitted with the greatest regret since which the fate of that unfortunate Country has been decided and it is doomed to return to that state of...
123From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
Just after the date of my last Letter (7. May) I received orders form the Secretary of State, in consequence of which I proceeded as speedily as possible to this City—A Commission and Credential Letter to this Court had been sent here, where I was directed to come and find them. We came from Havre De Grace to Dover, where we landed on the 24th. of May, and came up the next day to London—Upon...
124From William Smith Shaw to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
Received of Abigail Adams in trust for my sister Abbe A Shaw thirty four dollars, which with three dollars 50 cents, paid by mrs Adams to mrs Foster, is in full for a quarters Rent of the Medford Farm, due in April MHi : Adams Papers.
125From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
Altho’ I have not had the pleasure to receive a letter from you, since I last wrote; yet your goodness to me on all occasions gives me the assurance that you will excuse the liberty I now take to ask a favor for my daughter Manners; she has I suppose sail’d for England before this time, and in her last letter to me express’d a wish to get a letter of introduction to our Minister at the Court...
126From François Adriaan Van der Kemp to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
How can I express mÿ deep Sense of gratitude for your condescending kindness, in gratifying me So unexpectedly with your affectionate Letter of the 24. last. you art thoroughly acquainted with the art of enhancing the value of a gift. what drooping Spirits would not be revived bÿ Such a powerful tonic? and I owe you the acknowledgment, that theÿ dispelled a while the gloom—But—it has So manÿ...
127From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 12 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Todd having just called to announce his departure I hasten to write you although I do not think his departure will take place so soon as he expects. You will my joy on arriving in London at finding my Boys ready at our lodgings to receive me although in excellent health the pleasure was too much for me and I was several days before I recover’d my usual composure—We have not yet found a...
128From Hannah Phillips Cushing to Abigail Smith Adams, 5 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
We were highly gratified in receiving a few lines from our dear Susan, to whom my love & thanks are due. I was in hopes ere this to have been with & sympathize with you, for the departure of several of our valued Friends, since we last met; In particular your beloved Sister, whom I esteemed, & venerated. By the strong ties of nature which twines around my heart & draws me close to my Sisters,...
129From Richard Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 3 June 1815 (Adams Papers)
I had the honor of your favor of the 14th of last month enclosed to me by Mr Smith, and upon this, as on all other occasions, was gratified at the receipt of it. There was also one for Mrs Madison, which I will take great pleasure in presenting to her, as soon as she returns to Washington. She is now expected in the course of a few days. I most sincerely hope, that the wishes of Mr John Adams...
130From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 May 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have been with my friend Charles, and spent two days with General La Fayette, at his Country Seat of La Grange, about forty miles distant from this City—He resides there with his Children and Grand Children, forming a numerous and very amiable family. His son married a Mademoiselle de Tracy and has three daughters—His eldest daughter married a Mr de la Tour Maubourg, and has also three...
131From Abigal Adams Shaw Felt to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 April 1815 (Adams Papers)
It is impossible for me to express to you my dear, my much beloved Aunt, the consolation your kind affectionate letter afforded me, it was balm to my oppressed, my wounded heart. Yes my dear Aunt, I have indeed been tried in the school of affliction, but that Almighty Being, who will not willingly afflict, or grieve the children of men, has enabled me to support this trying dispensation of his...
132From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 April 1815 (Adams Papers)
Mr and Mrs: Smith left Paris on the 22d: of March to embark in the Fingal at Havre for New-York—I wrote to you by them on the 19th—They sailed on the 30th with a fair wind, and having a fine ship, the most favourable season of the year for a voyage to America, I hope they are at this time near the port of their destination, Here the Easterly winds have constantly prevailed from the time of...
133From Harriet Welsh to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 April 1815 (Adams Papers)
To fulfil my promise I set down to give you an account of George & John—they brought Stephen Perkins here—& as he seem’d to be very much pleas’d at being with them & not inclined to quit them I took him with us to Mr. Lymans—to see the picture—which George examined with attention—We then went to get John’s hlep &—proceeded to Mrs. Quincys Crufts & Smiths. Perkins desir’d me to let them go in...
134From Mary Smith Gray Otis to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 April 1815 (Adams Papers)
I could not my dear Mrs Adams hear of the sudden death of your beloved Sister, without sympathizing in your sorrows; you like myself, have recently been call’d to part with many dear friends. The tender cords, of consanguinity friendship & affection are breaking fast from us, & we are every day call’d to mourn, for our own, or the publick loss. Your sister’s has been a useful & an active life,...
135From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 8 April 1815 (Adams Papers)
I am at a loss how to express my obligations for your kind remembrance after the long interruption to our correspondance. Be assured dear Madam it is not because I am insensible to the favor you have conferred on me. I feel the full force of your condecension. I also feel how inadequate I am to offer you any suitable return for the gratification your letters afford me, therefore I have been...
136From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 April 1815 (Adams Papers)
will be so good as to send the enclosed to Dr Tufts, & she will oblige me—I have not time now only to request you to give our love to the dear Lads, who are going to the arms of the best of Parents—May they reach him in safty, & rejoice his heart—My dear Brother, & Sister, have long sacrificed private feelings, to the publick Interest—Though I regret the satisfaction you are deprived of, in...
137From 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...
138From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 March 1815 (Adams Papers)
I received your kind letter of the 22d. of Feby. this morning—I have the pleasure to inform you of the restoration of my health—Congress will adjourn of course on Friday next—the roads are intollerably bad I have my horse and Sulkey with me, and after the roads get a little settled, I shall travel on gently to new york, and perhaps to the Valley—an extra meeting of Congress will take place,...
139From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
My last Letter to you, was of the 31st: of January, from Bruxelles; and I enclosed it to Mr Beasley at London, requesting him to forward it by the earliest possible opportunity. By his answer he informs me that he dispatched it by the Packet which was to sail on the 15th: instant from Falmouth—Two days after it was written I left Bruxelles and came to this City where I arrived on the 4th:...
Again I owe an increase of my happiness in my Solitude to your kindness in honouring me with your interesting letter of Febr. 3d—with which I was So unexpectedlÿ favoured. It is true, I owe it in part to an unwelcome guest, but it would be in me ungrateful—to defraud him of mÿ thanks, how unpleasant his appearance may have been to you. That visitant at least is in So far good natured, that,...
Thanks be to kind Providence we are all alive though the cold Tuesday our blood seemed congealing, & it was hard for me to respire—I do not know as I ever felt more thankful, than when the rigor of the weather abated—but we have still severe cold of long continuance—as the quantity of Snow makes the air more pungent; I suppose we feel the cold much more than you at Quincy for the Snow is over...
142From Ann Thompson Gerry to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
I received with much Gratitude my dear Madam your Affectionate, & condoling Epistle of the 8th. Dec. last, & should long ere this, have acknowledg’d your kindness, had not the situation of my mind, in addition to my ill State of health, rendered me unable to perform the task; you, my dear Madam I hope, will make Just allowance for me. I know no friends for whom my dear departed Husband felt so...
143From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you a few lines on the day that the Treaty of Peace was signed, which I sent by Mr Hughes the Secretary of the American Mission, who was the bearer of one copy of the Treaty. A second copy was dispatched the next day by Mr: Carroll, who had been private Secretary to Mr Clay; and by him I, wrote a long Letter to my father—Mr Hughes embarked at Bordeaux in the Transit, the dispatch...
You will now have no occasion to wish for more Snow, if at Quincy you are favoured with as much as we are in Atkinson—I find it adds much to the coldness of the Atmosphere, though it has made it better travelling—I hope I feel grateful to Heaven for preserving us as yet, in so much better health than we had in our family last winter— The spotted fever, I see by the papers, has again commenced...
I had the pleasure to receive your kind and friendly letter yesterday, and hasten to inform you, that my dear husband is better. He has had a sharp attack of billious fever, which left him weak and debilitated; and now a violent cough continues to harrass him day and night, and prevents his taking that kind of nourishment, which would most speedily restore his strength. Tomorrow will be three...
146From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 6 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
To day I re ceived your Letter with its contents all safe, & thank you for your care & for your obliging me with the perusal of your Son’s excellent Letter—I consider every word as Truth —a just representation of the state of our affairs, of which we have little, I believe in our public papers—I have not time to say now what I wish—I shall inclose his letter, for dear you may want it, & the...
147From 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...
148From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
I received your letter enclosing one addressed to Mr. Adams, and presented it to the Secretary of State it will be forwarded with the public dispatches to Gent. I do not admire Williams return at this moment, having recieved his Commission as Secretary of the Legation, I think he had better hold it, and remain abroad for the present—least he should be on his Way I stated to Mr. Monroe, as he...
149From 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...
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,”...