Well, Charles, how comes on the file? is yours as big as John’s? are your walks so delightful you cannot get one moment of time to write me? or are you so busy in giving your french Lessons to your friend Dawes that you are obliged to decline my correspondence?—I am so perfectly sure that you have some very good reason for your silence I by no means wish to reproach you—But as it is long time...
102From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 6 May 1822 (Adams Papers)
Why will you give way to despondence? the time you have been at College has been too short in any way to decide upon your Scholarship and you should not dwell too much upon your standing as long as you exert yourself to improve it—I am told that it is not customary to let young men know any thing about it for fear of exciting jealousy therefore you cannot ascertain what is perfectly immaterial...
John in his last Letter to me tells me that you make a secret of my Letters to you and will not let him see them—I did not think you were so boyish more especially since you have become a Sophomore—Do not then embitter by such nonsense the hours you have to spend together and be assured that the affection of your Mother is so equally divided between her Sons that each is the equal object of...
Your father was amused by your last Letter and glad to learn that you were pleased with any part of your studies and thinks that your distate of Mathematics may decrease as you advance in your course—George is gone to Rockville to visit Johnson whose health is very indifferent in consequence he says of severe study and probably some other nameless causes—He has not been up since you saw him...
105From Abigail Smith Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 28 March 1816 (Adams Papers)
I must write you a short Letter, least you Should think yourself neglected, as I have written to both your Brothers, and your Grandfather is so much engaged with his Books that he cannot write to any of his Grandsons now. your Mother writes me word, that you have forgotten your Russian & German Languages. you should not forget, what you learn that is valuable. that is the misfortune of old...
I have been so sick my Dear Charles since my arrival at home it has been altogether out of my power to write to you or to George and I now sieze the earliest opportunity that you may be convinced I can never neglect you or forget my promise of writing frequently—Washington looks very dull although it is full of strangers but it is said we are to have a very gay and crowded Winter unless...
Your Letter from Cambridge arrived yesterday my dear Charles and I was sorry to find you still suffered from your old nervous timidity—Do not however despair I struggled many years of my life from against the same difficulty but fortunately conquered it and now can almost generally command myself—Habit and constant practice will soon get the better of this very unpleasant sensation and reading...
108From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 17 July 1825 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 2d. Instt. has remained some days unanswered, more from a repugnance in me to think at all upon the subject, than from any other cause. If as you say, you have destroyed the prospect of having any part assigned to you for Commencement, I agree with you in the opinion that it will be most comfortable for you, to be as far distant from Cambridge, on that day as you can—Under...
Huzza, my little gallant Soldier—what wonderful feats of glorious prowess am I to anticipate from your valour?—Military and philosophical a union of necessity for I believe a poor Soldier never understands philosophy so well as when he is forced into the midst of danger without an opportunity to get out of it—In your military exertions which I understand from your brothers former experiences...
I congratulate you upon the recovery of your spirits; and I do not know what to say about Langdon as I doubt if he is as steady and good a boy as Horner, but if Horner does not enter I cannot know of any person better calculated than Langdon for a Chum On your share of prudence you know best how much I can rely and conduct towards your brother George from whom I have not heard for many weeks...
I am so concerned at the style of your last Letter I hasten to answer it immediately although I have not had it more than an hour. Your health which is so precious to both your father and myself is our first care the state of your mind the next—If the first I charge you to take great care. You know the remedies I always apply for a cough as unfortunately you have had too much experience of...
In yours of the 4th & 7th you tell me that you had taken a fresh cold but that it was nearly well—I am very happy to hear it and will only caution you against any imprudence during the coming season which though it betokens the approach of Summer is infinitely more injurious than actual cold weather; be careful to make no change in your cold clothing until I write you and do not hastily throw...
You seem by the facetious tone of your Letters when you honour me with any to imagine that I have a very high opinion of your conduct and the steadiness of your character and take wonderful pains to assure me that you are not exempt from human frailty—do not be uneasy on this score! In the first place you are my Son and have a little of the Mother in you. In the second your very demure people...
I am very much pained by your account of your health and hope sincerely that you have made a short visit to Quincy where such remedies have been applied as have restored you entirely— It gives me great pleasure to learn that you are growing popular in your Class and I grieve that you must lose your room because I know what delight you took in it, and that you spent a good deal of money on it—...
115From John Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 19 December 1825 (Adams Papers)
Knowing as I do the whirlwind of business, ceremony, Levee’s Drawing rooms Dinners, Parties, with which you are hurried away, I acknowledge it a great favour for you to write a letter to me—and when I receive one, it is so much the more pleasure— As to the Message a Father says, that a more meritorious state paper has never appeared on the American Annals; And I think it gives as universal...
I am sorry to say that your last Letter was so badly written that I could scarcely read it and I again implore you to write a larger hand and you will soon get rid of the cramped style which you have acquired I suppose you have been passing an agreeable Vacation at Quincy and found your Grandfather quite well—and as usual occupied in all perusing all the new publications—Your father has...
117From John Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 17 November 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your beautiful letter of Sept 11th has given me great pleasure. You are at a very respectable Academy, and have all the means, & advantages for instruction that I could wish for you. You must have made a rapid progress, in your Nomenclature, if in so short a time, you can distinguish the faces, and call the names of 140 out of 275 of your fellow Students I wish I could have the benefit and...
I have been so unwell it has not been in my power to answer your last Letter—Poor John—Has the belle passion again seized his imagination it is not yet time for it to occupy his heart —Is this the cause of his poetic ardour and his fits of absence—Tell him I shall be much hurt if he does not write me soon for though I will make all possible allowance for love I must not be forgotten— Your...
I will begin my letter, by offerering the joint congratulations of your father and myself, to you and your brothers, and all our mutual friends, on the anniversary of the new year, which we passed with more than usual pleasure, in consequence of the very flattering accounts which we have received in a variety of forms from Boston, of the good conduct and improvement of yourself and your...
Having just dismissed my visitors Mr. Jackson and Mr McTavish I hasten to write you in answer to your long expected and long wished Letter which reached me yesterday— Your encreasing popularity is a thing as you observe calculated to excite vanity you must therefore be on your guard against the encroachment of so ignoble a passion for even men of superior understandings suffer it sometimes to...
121From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 4 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
You reproach me without a cause and I dare say you got your Letter the very day after you wrote—My time has however been very much occupied in sitting for a picture which is not a quarter finished and which it is probable will employ me the whole summer— You complain without reason of your Letter to me which was by no means bad tho’ it was odd but I do not know what you mean by saying you were...
122From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 10 November 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 2d. instt and trusting entirely to the faithfulness of the account which you give in it, of your own conduct, am prepared as I have before promised you to make every allowance for the interruption of your studies occasioned by your infirm state of health—Hoping that it is now permanently recovered, I flatter myself you will make henceforth the proper use of...
123From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 16 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
The last Letter that I wrote you was on the 6th: of this Month, by Mr Shaw—And on Tuesday last I received your Letter of 18 November, but it is not numbered—I have marked it number 8 as it should be; but if you keep copies of all the Letters that you write, I wonder how it comes to pass that you forget to number them. I was quite rejoiced to see this last Letter of your’s so much better...
I received yesterday my dear Charles your Letter of the 4th. and hasten to answer it as I really feel anxious lest the heated atmosphere in which you appear to have lived for the last week or two should produce have a bad effect and produce the fever which is so common at Cambridge towards the end of a term and generally so frightfully infectious— We are much obliged to you for the information...
125From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 18 May 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have learnt from some of the Letters which you have lately written to your Mother and your Brother, that you express yourself dissatisfied with your situation at the University, and that you have repeatedly intimated the desire of leaving it— My motive in placing you there, was to furnish you with the means of passing through life in the exercise of a liberal profession—By debarring yourself...
I wrote you a very few lines yesterday my dear Charles, with a promise to write to you again immediately and more fully, but I fear that it will not be in my power to say all I wish to say, and for that you will thank your stars—In the first place let me beg you will not suffer Johnson to leave the house to sleep in his barn ; for the consequences might prove fatal to him—In the next let me...
127From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 21 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
It is related of Augustus Caesar, that being upon his death-bed, he turned just before he expired to the friends who were standing around, and asked them what they thought of the part which he had acted on the scene of human life—They express’d their admiration as their feelings or their prudence inspired—Then said he “Plaudite”. In the article of Death, Augustus was what he had been...
128From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 15 September 1826 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 9th. instt. and now enclose a Check on the Branch Bank for 500 dollars payable to your order—With this you will repay the Coachman, his advances; repay to Mary Hellen the 50 dollars borrowed of her, and give the remainder to Antoine, for the purchase of winter fuel and other necessary payments. You and I will settle accounts when I return to Washington, which...
129From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 30 January 1822 (Adams Papers)
You are well aware, because you have mentioned it in more than one of your letters to this place, with how much sorrow I have learnt that at the close of the first term of your studies at the University you were found upon the scale of scholarship among the very lowest in your Class. At the same time it is said that nothing exceptionable has been observed in your personal deportment. That you...
130From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 18 February 1822 (Adams Papers)
I have received, and duly reflected upon your Letter of the 10th instt. and approve very cordially of the determination you have taken, of exerting yourself by diligence to acquire a respectable standing in your Class—From this day your term begins, and if you carry your Resolution into effect I shall not only never have any inducement to repeat the proposal which I made you in my last Letter;...
131From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 16 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your Mama, and I, consent that you shall ask Doctor Nicholes’s permission to come home for the Holidays, on Tuesday; upon Condition that you will return to School after the Holidays, as cheerfully, as you now come from it. Your affectionate Father. MHi : Adams Papers.
132From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 6 May 1815 (Adams Papers)
Hence forward I Shall adress you all three at once. Yesterday was one of the happiest days of my Life. It brought me News of your Father and Mother at Paris and your Uncle Aunt and Cousin at New York all in good health. My Boys! I want to Say Something to you on the Subject of Languages. I have no great Opinion of those who boast of possessing a great number of them. If you know Greek and...
133From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 1 September 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have received Letters from you all, and you know not how gratifying they have been to my heart. With pleasure I See the great Advantage you have already derived from the Advice of your Father. I have recd. four Letters from George N. 1. 2. 4 and 5. Number Three only is missing. George writes like the elder Brother he is. John writes with that Vivacity and Spirit which always delighted Us;...
134From Antoine Claude Juste de Noailles to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 7 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
AU NOM DU ROI. Nous Ambassadeur de S. M. le Roi de France près S. M. l’Empereur de toutes les Russies prions les Officiers Civils et Militaires, chargés de maintenir l’ordre public dans tous les Pays amis ou alliés de la France, de laisser librement passer Madame Louise Catherine Adams et Monsieur charles Francois Adams son fils, se rendant à Paris avec leurs domestiques. et de leur donner...
135From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 9 September 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have now gone through Terence, and noted a few Lines for you to consider. Many perhaps have escaped my Notice that deserved it MHi : Adams Papers.