951To John Adams from Thomas B. Wait, 10 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
When I had the honour of calling on you, I only conjectured that the printing of the Journals of the Convention, &c would be under the direction of the Secretary of State; but by the inclosed N. Intelligencer it appears to be very certain that the publication will be committed to his care.— You will recollect that in the letter wh. I shewed you from Mr: King, it was suggested that, were I on...
952To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 29 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Habituated as I have long been to consider your judgement as infallible, I have not found it exactly so on the subject of our two last letters. When I wrote to you on that subject of the heart, I had come to a fixed resolution of following the advice of my family & friends. I have penetrated their thoughts, & have discovered their opinion which taken collectively amounts to this— we censure...
953To John Adams from John Trumbull, 26 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
You will forgive my long delay in replying to your very interesting & confidential favor of the 18th. March:—I was reluctant to write until I could inform you that I had made some progress in the work so honorably confided to me by the Nation. You justly observe that the intended size of the paintings appears to you vast:—They will considerably exceed the dimensions of the descent from the...
954To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 26 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
I enclose you a Post-Note upon the Branch Bank of the United States at Boston, for Nine hundred and one dollars, and ninety–five Cents, being the amount of the dividend of five per Cent upon the debt proved under the Commission of Bankruptcy of Robert Bird and Co at New-York—I will thank you for a line acknowledging the receipt of this, and remain, Dear Sir / ever affectionately yours CSmH .
955To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 22 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Accept my most cordial thanks for your truly friendly epistle. I loose not a moment in answering your interesting query. The Lady in question is, I conceive legally divorced. Her quondam husband is now in the jail of New York, for the third or fourth time; a mere vagabone. They were divorced in 1810, by the Supreme Court of Vermont. The Lady & her father, with the aid of Judge Dawes were...
956To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 21 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your Letters of 21 and 26 Novr. and of the 8th: instant have been received—Of Mr Mason the bearer of the first, I have seen much less than I could have wished; and of Mr Barrell who brought the second a little more; for coming not only with your Recommendation, but with a volume of others all highly respectable, he pushed his importunity to such an excess, that I lost my temper with him, for...
957To John Adams from Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 16 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged to You for the Very Agreable Acquaintance of Mr Theodore Lyman; to Him I Will Be Under obligation for the kind Care He takes to forward this Letter: He lives in the Capital: I in the Country Where the pleasure and occupation of farming are to Me a Continual source of Enjoyment. Not So Exclusive However as to Render me insensible of What is Going on in the political line. our...
958To John Adams from Benjamin Waterhouse, 13 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
I received your letter with pleasure, and read it with high satisfaction. You have paid the highest compliment on the President’s Message or rather, Elogium, that I have yet seen, or have ever heard of—Our proud federalists however are displeased & mortified that he did not tell the whole world, how grand, how rich, how powerful, how gifted & how virtuous they in Boston are above all other...
959To John Adams from John Jackson, 11 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Who can better explain the character of a patriot of our Revolution, than his copatriots in the field or in the council? With the approbation of Judge McKean I am collecting materials for a life of his late father. Will you, Sir, many of whose nights were consumed, with Thomas McKean, in watchings for your Country’s sake, communicate to me any anecdotes of him, which are reposited in your...
960To John Adams from Josephus Bradner Stuart, 10 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have obtained from Wm. Temple Franklin, Esqr. a selection of the manuscript writings of the late Dr. B. Franklin, which I am now arranging & intend ere long to publish.—It is my intintion in this work to present to the publick a political view of the times from 1770 to 1790. & to transmit to posterity the united fame , of those celebrated worthies to whom we are indebted for the glorious...
961To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 7 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
I take the liberty of sending to you the only copy entire , which I possess of the Discourse I delivered before the Humane Society last Spring. I have promised it to Mr Shaw ultimately, and when you have read it, if you will take that trouble I will thank you to give it to him I do not ask you to read the Discourse itself which is a trifling performance on the trite subject of Charity, but the...
962To John Adams from Hannah Adams, November 1817 (Adams Papers)
Sensible of the honour I received by your permitting me to prefix your name to the second and third editions of this work, I am desirous that the present should appear under the same respectable and distinguished patronage. The talents and virtues which you have exhibited, both in public and private life, will, I trust, be duly appreciated by the rising generation; and it is my ardent wish,...
963To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 29 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
As I returned home in safety in the course of this week, the first moments of leisure, after having informed my children and mr Busti of this happy event, shall be devoted, to acknowledge the favour of your’s of the first of Oct. In my former from Philadelphia I mentioned—how I was bruised—wounded—healed—and restored to perfect health—now I can only mention, and this, I am assured is a far...
964To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 24 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have to answer two Letters from you—one of 28 October, and the other of 13. November—Tant va la Cruche à l’eau qu’à la fin elle se casse, was an old french proverb, long before Washington’s Mother was born. Tant va la Cruche a l’eau qu’à la fin elle s’emplit is the variation of Beaumarchais’s Basila in the Marriage of Figaro—But whether the pitcher is filled or whether it is broken it was...
965To John Adams from Timothy Alden, 20 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your esteemed favor of the 29 of April was duly received. In that you mention having received five numbers of the Alleghany Magazine. I have taken the liberty, which I hope you will excuse, to transmit all the numbers published, except the two last, which accompany this line. Please to accept them as a token of that respect, which I have been taught from early life to cherish for one, of whose...
966From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 17 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have received three Letters from you since I have been here, all grumbling Letters; and all very badly written—The first was of the 16th: the second of the 17th: of September, and the last of the 27th: of October—This last I disapprove of the most; and request you to write me no more such Letters—You conclude it by saying that you hope I will forgive any thing rash in my Son; but I shall do...
967From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 17 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
You will receive a Letter from your father by the same Mail which conveys this Letter to you in answer to the one which you wrote to him last week in which I am sorry to say you assumed a tone highly improper and disrespectful—The tender affection I bear you and the ardent desire (which forms a part of my existence) that I must ever feel for your welfare has induced me frequently while in...
968To John Adams from James Riley, 14 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
I had the Honour duly to receive your highly esteemed favour re commendatory of my Narrative, under date of 23d July last.—It would have given me great pleasure, to become personally acquainted with a Gentleman, who has been so preeminently favoured by Heaven, with extraordinary intellect, Virtue, talents, & strength of mind, whose life has been devoted to his countrys best interests, in...
969To John Adams from John Gardiner, 10 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
I take leave to present to you a Map, (of the military bounty Lands in the Illinois Territory) engraved for the use of the Soldiers of the late Army. By means of these Maps every Soldier can, for one dollar, obtain accurate information relative to the soil, Timber, & position of the Tract which falls to his lot, & thereby appreciate the value of his Country’s bounty. I have the honor / to be...
970To John Adams from Elkanah Watson, 2 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
It is now 37 years since I had the pleasure to recieve your first letter at Anconis It was a paternal letter containing advice to a Young Man, which was peculiarly usefull to me. You than said—“ I must talk to you like an old man ”—I am now 15 years older than you was than. In several of your Subsequent letters you express’d a wish to know precisely, the conversation which pass’d between Judge...
971To John Adams from David Sewall, 28 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
I take the liberty of Congratulating you on the returne of your worthy Son to America, after years of absence in Europe, And may He satisfactorily discharge the duties of his present appointment.—I was pleased and much gratified with a short interview with President Munro, on his late tour into the District of Maine: And have considerable expectations that the difference in Sentiment, on the...
972From Abigail Smith Adams to John Adams, 23 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
mr Dexter will come to Boston tomorrow for the Trunks you must go with him to mr Crufts who when you pick out the Trunks will deliver them—I See that nobody here will attend to them if I do not—they are lodged at mr Thorndikes Store Custer lies very dangerously sick your GM MHi : Adams Papers.
973From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 18 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am so much pleased with your last Letter of 7th. instant that I sieze the earliest of opportunity of expressing my satisfaction at the rapid progress which you have already made in you style of writing and the hand writing does you much credit and Charles’s was likewise very good His turn of thought is evidently french and he requires great care and attention to correct him from the habit of...
974To John Adams from Alpheus Cary, 13 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
I received on Saturday last, through the medium of the Post-Office, a letter from you dated the 9th. inst. in which you request me to procure you a piece of white marble 24 inches in length, by 20 inches in breadth, with an inscription engraved on it. Your request shall be immediately attended to, and the slab ready for delivery within eight or ten days from the date of this letter. You have...
975From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 12 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
I was very much pleased with the writing of your Letter and only have to recommend to you now to pay some attention to your style, which is essential to a gentleman; as he must necessarily through life enter into correspondence either on business or familiar subjects in which a correct and elegant style is expected and more particularly from persons possessing great advantages of education—I...
976To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 5 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday your kind Letter of 29 September came to hand I thank you for your Congratulations upon my arrival here—My Wife and our family relations at this place are well. I was happy to meet the President here, but had the pleasure of seeing him only once before he departed for his Seat in Virginia. I am breaking in to the business of my Office. I find it even now as burdensome as I had...
977To John Adams from Thomas Loring, 3 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
I would inform you my daughter Mrs: Lincoln died yesterday after a lingering illness. The funeral will be tomorrow.—The bell will toll at 3—O—clock.— If convenient it would be highly gratifying to us for yours, Judge Adams’s & Mr. John Greenleafs families to attend.— With sentiments of the highest respect / & esteem your most obedient servant.— MHi : Adams Papers.
978To John Adams from Henry Channing, 30 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
I regret that I had not the pleasure of seeing your son, when he passed through this city. I did not hear of his being here, till the Steam Boat had left the wharf. I now address a line to you, asking your opinion on certain points, on which I want information and your advice.—Our Gen. Assembly meet at N. Haven, on the ninth of October—and I shall leave this on the eighth, being chosen a...
979From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to John Adams, 25 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter my dear Son was received by your father a few days since but he is so extremely busy it is impossible for him to answer it immediately—We are very sorry to observe by your Letter that you are disatisfied with your situation and I must say I think you formed an opinion before you had time to judge either of its advantages or disadvantages. You must be perfectly sensible that both...
980To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 20 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
Having in so long a time not received a word from Quincÿ, although I was freed from all anxiety about your wellfare mrs Guild and her amiable sister Catherine, both having informed me, that you continued to enjoy not only a hum cum dignitate, which would be nothing new—but all possible happiness that can fall to the share of human mind, while your excellent Lady’s gratification must have...