31From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 9 October 1819 (Adams Papers)
On examining my books at the Athenarum, I find there are several volumes missing; among which—Vols. 1. 2. and 32. of Voltaire—1. Volume of Racine—One Volume, from three different sets of Shakespear. 1. Vol: of the Glasgow Sophocles; and some others—part of not all of which, you have—There is danger, if you keep them out that they will get damaged, or mislaid and forgotten; and then make broken...
32From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 28 October 1819 (Adams Papers)
Since my return to this City I have received your Letters of the 12th and 21st. instt. the former, enclosing a list of my books which you have in your possession—and the latter, six dollars in Bank Bills. It is not, nor has it been my intention to withdraw from you the permission to take out from time to time at the Athenaeum such of my Books as you may wish to peruse—but merely to caution you...
I have at length received your Letter, after having unpatiently waited untill your more important avocations were so far terminated, as to permit you to think of so trifling a personage as your Mother—As however the period is arrived at which you have some little time to spare, I avail myself with pleasure of the opportunity thus offerered, of renewing a correspondence so warmly urged during...
34From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 12 January 1820 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your letter of new-years-day, and congratulate you on your arrival in the great City that is to be where you will have an opportunity of seeing the great world & making many observations & reflections upon it: you may there see a variety of sentiments on government: despotism to the depths of sansculotism, & religious opinions; from the sublimities of Catholics to the...
As I presume you will have accomplished your journey ere this epistle arrives, and that you will have enjoyed the amicable greetings of your friends, and have in some measure fallen into your old habits, I may venture without the apprehension of recalling too tender ideas , to relate some of the circumstances which have occurred since you left us. Poor Colvert has lost one of his Children...
I am at length about to attempt to answer your Letter but am not quite sure whether I shall be successfull as it is late and impossible to guard against interruptions— In the first place the Missouri question is decided—How I leave you to judge as you will read the account in the publick papers—The juggling between the Clerks of the House and the Speaker places our National Councils in so...
37From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 13 March 1820 (Adams Papers)
If you have a desire of a long life and a happy life I advise you to read Cicero. Your Father has expressed sufficient admiration of his office and his other writings but I wish at this time to recommend to you particular his treatise on Friendship. his dream of Scipio his letter to his brother Quintus about to take upon him for the third time the Government of Asia, and above all his treatise...
38From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 3 April 1820 (Adams Papers)
If you can obtain leave of absence I wish for the pleasure of your Company here on the twelfth of the month—and I wish you to present my Compliments to the President, and Tutors whose consent is requisite, and ask the favour of them There is not any topick of Conversation here, but the horrours of duelling—and Mail Robbers, we do not meddle with politicks— love to John—and am affectionately /...
It is long since I wrote you, because I thought you so busily engaged that you would have no time to answer me, and because I believe my letters are rather an incumbrance than a pleasure— I thank you very much for the Poem which you sent me; it is like all the Poetry of Rogers very beautiful, but almost too highly polished, and if I may use the expression “smells too much of the lamp ” . You...
Your Letters were both delivered to me yesterday the one by Dr Waterhouse and one by the Mail. I am very happy to observe that you have at last considered the object of a correspondence with your parents in its proper point of view and from henceforth I have no doubt you will be as attentive as we could possibly wish— You must naturally feel a little anxious concerning your Socrates and I hope...
41From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 10 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
In looking over my file of Letters received, I find that the latest date I have from you is of 10. November 1819—I am not sure that I have written since then to you—so let this pass for N. 1. of the year 1820—I have lately had at least the satisfaction of hearing from you indirectly, by your Correspondence with your Mother and your brother; but shall be glad to hear from you more immediately....
42From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 31 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
If the twenty-five Volumes of the projected compilation of English Poetry, which were published at Philadelphia, for which I subscribed, and which I promised to give you, should be sent on to Boston, you shall still have them; but it is not worth while to purchase them there, if the remaining volumes are not to be published—You shall not lose however an equivalent for the donation, and you may...
As I am much afraid that I shall not accomplish the plan proposed in my last Letter to John you will have an opportunity to take a part at the last exhibition in preference to the one you mention in October as should your father be able to go on he will probably not stay more than a fort night and that might not suit the time fixed— Your Letters to me leave me so little to answer that I can...
44From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 21 August 1820 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 13th: instt. is received and gave me pleasure—It would have been still more acceptable if it had contained your opinion of Prodicus’s Fable of the Choice of Hercules; your account of which is correct as far as it goes—Its first appearance is in the Memorabilia Socratis, of Xenophon, and is I think there represented not as written, but spoken in a dialogue. You will recollect...
Your Letter has remained unanswered some time in consequence of the illness of Mary which has been pretty severe tho’ short she is now convalscent and I hope will soon be well— I propose to leave Town for Frederick on Thursday next where I shall probably remain ten days after which I shall go to Baltimore to the Wedding of Susan Buchanan who is to be married on the 21st. we shall only stay one...
My absence from the City must plead My excuse for not sooner congratulating you on your success in obtaining the prize and still more on the probability of your obtaining a reputation as an Orator one of the most essential requisites for a Publick man in our Country—It is a talent which may be considered as leading most directly and immediately to promotion and frequently to the highest...
47From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 31 January 1821 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your letter of the 31st. as well as for that from New York—I have been reduced so low in health that I have not been able to write answers to letters as I used to—Your letter to Claudious was sent to him, as soon as it was received—I have long been anxious for your Mother—presuming her to be unwell—And rejoice in her Convalescence— I am impatient to hear Your admiration of the...
48From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 6 February 1821 (Adams Papers)
With this Letter I commit to you a power of Attorney to receive for me any dividends, due or which may hereafter become due to me on Stock belonging to me in the State Bank at Boston There is now standing in my name of the Stock of that Bank 227 Shares at 60 Dollars a Share $13620. And the dividends due to me there, as appears on my books are Octr. 1819—on five Shares at 3 per Cent $9 April...
I yesterday received your Letter dated Quincy and was delighted to find your very formidable journey without accident. I admire very much your kindness in having lengthened your ride, and separated from your Brothers for the purpose of delivering the Letter of your new acquaintance who I think must be exquisitely delighted by this exalted mark of friendship and devotion— I am sorry you could...
Your Letter which I received yesterday gave mutual delight to all of us—It was exactly the style I have so often wished you to acquire easy playful and affectionate. This is the peculiar charm of familiar correspondence and worth all the studied phrases and elegant quotations that you could select from the first rate and best authors I suppose your appointment to be one of the standing...
Your ridiculous Letter as you call it was received yesterday and gave me great pleasure as at least it evinced all the discernment which I have ever given you credit for and proved your own worth by the discarding all those little petty jealousies and narrow feelings which are too apt to colour our opinions and to jaundice our opinions judgment—I have no particular partiality for either of my...
Mary is amusing me as usual in crying and whining because I suggest to her the necessity of some occupation She has written one page of your fathers Bible Letters and imagines that after such an immense exertion she must rest from her labours altogether. I will leave it to you to decide whether the Sabbath is to be literally understood as a day of total inactivity both of mind and body or...
Your Letter caused me some uneasiness perhaps more than was necessary in consequence of your first concealment which though done with the very best motive renders me fearful and suspicious that you still make less of your complaint than is necessary and by this means decieve yourself as well as me as to the care and attention which may be due to remove it—You are at a critical age and caution...
54From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 8 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
Though the theory of Government is a nice and dangerous Study as I have found by experience; Yet I am glad to find that the lectures you have attended have drawn your Attention to it—Without Some knowledge it, you will be always in confusion, blown about by every Wind. It is a melancholly pursuit, because it is humiliating to human Nature. Selfishness prevails over benevolence; Knavery over...
55From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 11 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
I have finished the Sprit of the King. About 3400 pages, as romantick as any of Scotts Novels and as ennuiuse as they are Sprightly. The great modern novellist is as true an historian as any We have. L’Esprit de la Fronde concludes with an Observation which every reader must have made on every page of the Work. It is, “It now remains to profit of a great truth, of which this history is but a...
56From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 23 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
I have received a very pleasant letter from you of the 21st. of the month; your close attention to the lectures of your professor Chief Justice Parker, would be of great benefit to you—my letters will not be lectures, but only hints— The proper Study of mankind in general is man, but it is the peculiar duty of law givers and legislators to study human nature in all its intricacies, to search...
Your Letter calmed my anxiety concerning your health which had been great and still more so because you are apt to be thoughtless and imprudent and not to pay that attention either to your diet or your exercise which is essential at the present period of your life on which probably your future health and Constitution depend— I shall shortly have the pleasure of seeing you when I hope you will...
The melancholy situation of Judge Cranch’s family in consequence of the almost sudden death of Mrs. Norton and her Infant has filled us with grief and with the deepest sympathy for their suffering which is great in proportion to their dreadful calamity—At six o’clock this Eveng she and her Infant are to be buried—This is a trial almost too much for the known fortitude of the Judge whose...
59From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 27 October 1821 (Adams Papers)
Your kind letter of the 21st. has given me great satisfaction, indeed you have been very good I have received letters from all places you stoped at, as far as Trenton—The safe arrival of you all at Washington is very agreeable news—I hope you will not expose yourselves to the pestilence that walks in darkness through the whole region round about you—I hope the frosts have before this time...
60From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 3 November 1821 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 28th. of October has been received with pleasure—First because it is sprightly ingenious and agreeable—Secondly because it is a proof of your continued punctuality and Correspondence—Thirdly because it gives us a most refreshing assurance of the abatement of the epidemic in Washington, Georgetown, and its neighbouring region Fourthly, because you appear to be pleased with...