691To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 4 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
In Spite of a Speech made by my wife a few days Ago, “that you and I corresponded like two young girls about their sweethearts,” I will not be outdone by you in the number and promptness of my letters. The General assembly of the Presbyterian Church have just finished a long and interesting Session. Among Other things done by them, they have addressed a petition to Congress praying that the...
692To John Adams from Hendrick W. Gordon, 12 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
Encouraged by your friendly disposition towards me, I now take the liberty to ask of you, in the most respectfull manner, a letter of recommendation to Richard Rush Esquire Comptroller of the Treasury, wherein you will be pleased to say whatever you can of me, in regard to my integrity and ability, & my fitness for the office of Collector of Direct Taxes for the County of Middlesex in this...
693To John Adams from William White, 3 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
I rcd yours of Octr 29, by Mr Everit: a young Gentleman with whose Talents I had been previously made acquainted, by a Perusal of his Answer to Mr English. It is certainly an able Performance, & shews an Extent of Reading very disproportionate to his Years. A personal Intercourse with him has raised him in my Estimation. Mr Colman has also been recently in this City: But I saw little of him,...
694From Abigail Smith Adams to John Adams, 1 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
I was much pleased to receive your Letter of july 26th and to mark your improvement in your hand writing & in the regularity of your lines; Your Visit to Clapham must have been very delightfull to you: It is a pleasant village. I used to go often there when I resided in London, to visit an American family by the name of Vassel. I should like to know if any Branch of it, are yet living? There...
695To John Adams from Alexander Hill Everett, 15 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to express to you my ackowledgments for the politeness, with which you were pleased to speak of my Address in your letter of the 4th. I hope you received it as a mark of respect: in any other point of view it was not worth offering. I beg you, Sir, to accept my grateful thanks for the Naval History with which you did me the honor to accompany the letter. I have read it with great...
696To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 10 January 1811 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for you son’s pamphlet. Much as I loath political discussions of all kinds, I was induced by your request, and my great respect for the genius of its author, to read it. with I thank you for the pleasure I derived from it. It is a masterly performance overflowing with argument & eloquence. He places Mr Ames where he ought to have been placed stood in the meredian of his political...
697To John Adams from John Holmes, 7 August 1815 (Adams Papers)
You may perhaps deem it evidence of my vanity, that I have ventured to submit the enclosed to your inspection—But I commit it to your liberality & candour, with views, I confess somewhat selfish—It is my hope that should you think it worth the perusal, you will generously point out to me its imperfections & erroneous sentiments—We, who have some trouble in resisting the opposition to repu...
698To John Adams from Cresswell and Addams, 24 December 1816 (Adams Papers)
We have the Honor of your Excellency’s Letter of the 16th. Instant wherein You inform us that you have received Authority from the Secretary of State of the United States to adjust and settle our Accounts for Services authorized by the late Genl. Lyman on the public Account of the United States. We beg to make our best acknowledgments for the Trouble and Interest your Excellency has taken in...
699Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 20 April 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I have it now in my power to send you a piece of homespun in return for that I recieved from you. not of the fine texture, or delicate character of yours, or, to drop our metaphor, not filled as that was with that display of imagination which constitutes excellence in Belles lettres, but a mere sober, dry and formal piece of Logic. ornari res ipsa negat . yet you may have enough left of your...
700To John Adams from John Adams Harper, 30 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 20th. of this month, for which you will be pleased to accept my most grateful acknowledgements.— That any remarks of mine, should receive the approbation of any fellow citizens, is a cause of gratification—but when I find that they meet with the warm applause of the most intelligent and virtuous of the community, it is truly pleasing— I have...
701To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 20 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
No, you will not blame me, though I make use of a Sundays afternoon—having the morning employ’d in familÿ worship—in writing to an honoured friend. This too is religion, to remember the favours, which we received, and Shew our gratitude in our good will, though it is not in our power to prove it bÿ more vigorous exertions Freed this daÿ of head-ache I must improve these moments, and...
702To John Adams from William Eustis, 10 March 1810 (Adams Papers)
I have this morning a disposition to intrude upon your retirement, to save you the trouble of enquiring, and to enable you to correct in your own mind the rumours which will reach your ear in consequence of advices received by the British packet. In an unofficial letter from Mr Pinckney, dated Jan: 4th. that gentleman states the substance of a conference held with the Marquis of Wellesley,...
703To John Adams from Jedidiah Morse, 11 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
I have to ask your pardon for delaying to answer Your’s of the 26th. ulto. & returning the enclosed pamphlet, till now—Your letter found me in the busiest season of the year, engaged to the full—& I have been kept so till this time—I wished to give it another reading before returning it—as it contains some important facts & opinions, recorded at the time , of whh I shd. wish to avail myself,...
704To John Adams from James Lloyd, 24 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
Mr Lloyd has had the honor to receive a highly flattering note from his Excellency Mr Adams, accompanying a copy of “Sketches of the Naval History of the United States.”—for which he offers his grateful acknowledgments, and begs leave to assure Mr Adams, that he shall at all times greatly reverence those, who in the Cabinet, or on the Ocean, have originated, reared, or upheld the Naval Glory...
705To John Adams from Lyman Spalding, 14 April 1809 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to inclose to your address the Portsmouth bill of Mortality for 1809, and at the same time to assure you that my best wishes accompany you, through life. I am Sir / Your most Obt / Servt. MHi ; MBAt : Adams Papers.
706To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 9 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
Fill the glass to the brim—and empty it till the last drop—now you rejoice with your friend on the reëstablished ancient Dutch Government—My friends rule once more—The Almighty make them prosper, and confound their enemies, and humble them in the dust. was John Adams now America’s President I would beg him, how ungracefully I may beg, to send me immediately on an extraordinary mission—to...
707To John Adams from William Bentley, 11 April 1810 (Adams Papers)
Agreably to your request, I accompanied Capt. John Endicott, senior, above seventy years of age, yesterday to the Pear Tree, & received from the Tree the twigs which I have sent by a careful hand, to be sent directly from Boston to Quincy. Capt Endicott said he had been in two wars for his Country, & to be remembered by Mr Adams, by a respect for his Ancesters, was good to his old age. I trust...
708To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 7 July 1816 (Adams Papers)
I make no apologÿ in not answering your gratifying favour of the 26th of may Sooner, nor do I Suppose, you required it. My avocations having been So manÿ—mÿ work So crowding—having no help but my Son, daÿ after daÿ planting and replanting, and Sowing again—what had been killed by the frost in my garden, that I really was no Sooner at leisure—and yet—often I took your letter in hand—but only to...
709To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 20 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
The 4th of July has been celebrated in Philada: in the manner I expected. The military men, and particularly one of them, ran away with all the glory of the day. Scarcely a word was said of the solicitude and labors, and fears, and sorrows and sleepless nights of the men who projected, proposed, defended, and Subscribed the declaration of independance. Do you recollect your memorable speech...
710To John Adams from William Campbell, 12 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
Have I mistaken your political principles or have I rightly understood them as being truly federal upon the Basis of our Constitution and the government of our own choice. The People of the United States at the time of choseing their Convention-men for the formation of the Federal Constitution upon which government as been Administered must have had all the zeal of Freemen emancipated from the...
711To John Adams from Joshua Cushman, 2 August 1814 (Adams Papers)
As a token of my high respect, I inclose to you an oration delivered on the late anniversary of American Independence. I present it not from an impression that it contains any uncommon excellence; but because it inculcates doctrines and countenances a Spirit of loyalty to the Powers that be , which, I believe, you have uniformly Sanctioned, not less in the Shade of retirement than when...
712From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 28 September 1812 (Adams Papers)
Since I wrote you last, which was on the 23d: of June, we have received your letter to your mother, dated 2. March, in which you express the wish that we should come home: that you might have the pleasure of knowing, and loving, and paying every attention of an affectionate brother to your little Sister—These were good and laudable wishes, but it has pleased God, to determine that they should...
713To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 10 August 1815 (Adams Papers)
The simultaneous movements in our correspondence have been really remarkable on several occasions. it would seem as if the state of the air, or state of the times, or some other unknown cause produced a sympathetic effect on our mutual recollections. I had set down to answer your letters of June 19. 20. 22. with pen, ink, and paper before me, when I recieved from our mail that of July 30. you...
714To John Adams from William Cranch, 8 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
Mr Norton paid me five dollars for your subscription to the National Intelligencer. As I am entirely out of the secrets of all departments of the Government, and of every political party, I can give you no political news. For myself, I think the nation would disgrace itself if it did not now provide the means for carrying into effect the system it has adopted. I am therefore not sorry to find...
715To John Adams from Joseph Bradley Varnum, 12 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have this day Received your Letter of the 7th. Instant, and am, and always shall be thankful for a Line from you. I will try if any thing can be done for our good friend Dr. Warterhouse. A bill has this day passed the Senate 23. to 7 to a third Reading, and will ultimately pass that House by about the same Majority, for Building four 74 Gun Ships and Six forty fours, in addition to the four...
716To John Adams from James Madison, 12 October 1816 (Adams Papers)
Your favor of the 4th. of Sepr. was handed to me, by Docr. Freeman, at my abode in Virga. just before I left it for this place. His transient stay afforded but a slight opportunity for the civilities I wished to shew to one who enjoys so much of your esteem, and who appeared so well to deserve them. He was so good as to call at the door since my arrival here; but being at the moment engaged,...
717To John Adams from Pseudonym: "76", 15 June 1809 (Adams Papers)
“Oh Shame, Shame! where is thy blush” that thou shouldst thus dare prophane the manes of the immortal Hamilton “a Spirit pure as the unsullied light of Heaven & incorruptible as Heaven itself—” Why weak old fool wage war with the dead? A cannibal could not more—Why not publish those impious falsehoods during his existence? Oh, how lost how degraded view’d with digust by one party, & pitiful...
718To John Adams from Richard Rush, 20 May 1814 (Adams Papers)
On my return four day ago from Philadelphia where I had been for a fortnight I had the pleasure to find your favor of the 2d of this month which arrived during my absence, for which, as for all I get from you, I must return my thanks. One of the objects of my visit was to lay in a stock of new law books, as I hope, by hard study, to lay in a stock of law knowledge. At least I know this is my...
719To John Adams from Mathew Carey, 21 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
The enclosed art is, I find, in the Appendix to the Naval History. I therefore return it, & am, / respectfully, / Your obt. hble Servt MHi : Adams Papers.
720To John Adams from William Stephens Smith, 21 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
This day’s Post brings a communication from Abbey under date of the 13th. from a Gentleman of very high standing of from which the following is an extract— “General Hulls trial will be terminated in a few day’s, the evidence on the part of the prosecution have closed, The Unfortunate Old man, will have but a slender Defence, the Court must I think sentence him to be shot, the state of the Army...