271From John Adams to Ward Nicholas Boylston, 15 September 1820 (Adams Papers)
O that I had the talent at description of a Homer a Milton or a Walter Scott I would give you a picture of a hill that I have visited with more pleasure than I should mount Ida or Monticello. Mr David Hyslop has been importuning me for seven years to dine with him in Brookline: I have always declined till last Tuesday when taking my grandson George Washington Adams for my guide and aid de camp...
272From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
My thanks are due to you, and are most joyfully given, for two copies of your Report on Weights and Measures, one of them elegantly bound. Though I cannot say and perhaps shall never be able to say that I have read it, yet I have turned over Leaves of it enough to see that it is a Mass of historical, philosophical chemical mathematical and political knowledge which no Industry in this country...
273From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 6 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
I have enclosed to the President a letter from Dr Waterhouse. I wish you would ask to see it. Between you and me I suspect that our friend Eustace has been of no service to Waterhouse. Ancient Jealousies of him among professional men in Boston may have left some traces. But as this is mere conjecture I lay no stress upon it. Whether any thing can be done for him consistent with the public...
274From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 12 June 1821 (Adams Papers)
Our dear Shaw, who ransacks his Atheneum and the litterary World to afford me Amusements and Instruction, two evenings and one day in a Week, brought me on Saturday your Welcome letter of the 22d of May. The true cause of the infrequency of letters between You and me is a conscientious principle on my part. I know that you would answer every Scratch of a pen from me; but I k n ow the...
275From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 March 1822 (Adams Papers)
Contrary to my established habit for many years I must now become an intercessor for a candidate. You must remember a virtuous & industrious lady old lady the widow Owen who lived to be 90 odd years of age, and maintained an always an excellent character and was highly esteemed by your mother. You must remember also young Hollis her grandson who lived some time in our family and was the...
276From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 1 May 1822 (Adams Papers)
The documents you Send me from Mr. Williams have been to me for Several Years the most inscrutable Mystery in nature. My mind Suggest but one hypothesis for the Solution of it and that is not Satisfactory. I have explained it to Mr Williams. If the Mecklenburg resolutions were genuine and had been published at the time, they would have Sheltered me from the Vengeance of the Furies visited...
277From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 24 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
At the request of our worthy friend and excellent Neighbour Dr Amos Holbrook; I transmit you the inclosed papers, praying you to convey them to the Superintendent of the Patent Office, If I knew Dr Thornton was there I would have transmitted them to him. But I think I have heard some other Gentleman was there, and that he was in some other station—My Compliments to him, if you please— It is...
278From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 7 October 1822 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the present of your Book and your kind letter of the 24th. September. It was wisely done to collect all those papers together and arrange them in order that posterity might see them in one view without ransacking twenty libraries for the newspapers and the pamphlets of the day. Without this prudent precaution they would probably have never been all read by any one individual....
279From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 15 November 1822 (Adams Papers)
I received the letter you did me the honor to write me, on the 7th. of this month. Inclosing a copy of an additional return of the Census of Alabama in virtue of an act of Congress of the 7. of March 1822 / and salute you with the respect and affection / of your obid: & very humble Servant MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
280From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 4 December 1823 (Adams Papers)
I have seen many of your poetical effusions, from the time when you were at College, to this last Month. And there are so many indisputible proofs of natural and Social affections, and genuine poetical imagery that if you will had cultivate the muses as much as you have politicks you might have made a Shakespear, a Milton or a Pope, for anything that I know, how “How sweet an Ovid, is in...
281From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 5 December 1823 (Adams Papers)
I have seen many of your poetical effusions from the time when you were at College, to the last Month, And there are so many indisputable proofs of natural, and social affections, and genuine poetical imagery; that if you had cultivated the muses as much as you have politicks, you might have made a Shakespear, a Milton, or a Pope, for any thing that I know— How sweet an Ovid, is in Murray...
282From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 24 July 1824 (Adams Papers)
Mr Benjamin Parker Richardson, a Grandson of my old friend Mr Brackett, who is advancing with me far in our eighty ninth year, is desirous of an introduction to you. I hope your family will receive him with kindness. He seems to have a passion for seeing conspicuous characters, and I hope he will be gratified. He can inform you how faint and feeble I am, and how ardently I wish to see you and...
283From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 12 December 1824 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Alexander Townsend, bound to Washington has called to see if I have any Packages to send, having none I give him this letter of introduction though as I presume you know him personally, he will want none. Poor Baily still lives the life of a Spider:—and I fear you are soon to be cast in to the Crater of a Volcano. I am sorry to hear that Mrs Adams’s health is not so good as it has been I...
284From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 18 February 1825 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter of the 9th: Never did I feel so much solemnity as upon this occasion—the multitude of my thoughts and the intensity of my feelings are too much for a mind like mine in its ninetieth year—May the blessing of God Almighty continue to protect you to the end of your life as it has heretofore protected you in so remarkable a manner from your cradle. I offer the same...
285From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 2 March 1825 (Adams Papers)
I enclose you a letter from honest Spafford. I do it with great reluctance but he has so much merit in his New-York Gazetteer that I wish something could be done for him. I know however the difficulty indeed the impossibility that a President should get into any of the offices a single clerk. I tried to get Mr Dalton into an office in the Treasury Department. I proposed it to the Secretary who...
286From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 18 January 1826 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter inclosing the letters from Mr Basset and Mr. Custis Congress had resolved, but I believe not passed int o a law, to erect a monument to President Washington; but they passed resolutions requesting the then President to write a letter to Mrs. Washington soliciting her consent to have her remains removed, to be entombed with those of her Husband in the City of...
287From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 18 January 1826 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter inclosing the letters from Mr Basset and Mr. Custis Congress had resolved,—but I believe not passed int a law, to erect a monument to President Washington,—but they passed resolutions requesting the then President to write a letter to Mrs. Washington, soliciting her consent to have her remains removed, to be entombed with those of her Husband in the City of...
288From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 30 January 1826 (Adams Papers)
I herewith inclose to you a letter addressed to me from Mr. Shaw written at my request—I can only add that I entirely coincide with him in his opinion I am &ca. your affectionate / Father NN : William Smith Papers.
289From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 30 January 1826 (Adams Papers)
I herewith inclose to you a letter addressed to me from Mr Shaw written at my request. I can only add that I entirely coincide with him in his opinion I am &ca. your affectionate / Father DLC : John Quincy Adams Papers.