31From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 11 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
Lieutenant John Percival of the Navy of The United States is about to embark for London, and from thence to the other maritime Powers of Europe upon business of importance to Navigation and consequently to Humanity. The Subject is a new Invention of an eliptical Valve Pump, which if I understood it, I must not explain. I earnestly recommend him to your Attention, as much as possible; though I...
32From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 7 December 1818 (Adams Papers)
I thank you, my dear Son, for your Letters and for the Presidents Speech, which is Consolation for all our Miseries for 60 Years. But I must have done with public affaires. Your Sons who behave well have been with Us last Week. They leave Us this morning for their School. Mr and Mrs Clark, and my little darling Susanna Maria were comfortably lodged last Night at Dedham on their Way to...
33From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
A new Administration has commenced, Mr Monro’s inaugural Oration you will See in the Newspapers. It Seems to be popular. Even Ben Russel Says there has been nothing like it Since Washingtons Administration. If there is any Faith in the Government or any Sincerity in the People, you are appointed by the former, and are elected by the other Secretary of State. My Advice is to accept it without...
34From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 September 1820 (Adams Papers)
Our George has gained the first prize—and bares his honour meekly—He is a dutiful Son, for he is deeply engaged in Platonick Greek, In obedience to your advice and requisition—and what surprises me more is, that he is becoming an early riser—He was up this Morning before I was—And his Mind appears to be awakned by an Ambition to become an eminent and useful Man—John is at present devoted to...
35From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 3 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have particular reasons—for asking the favour of you to inform me—in what year you wrote those three Essays—pray inform me in what Year—they were written—and under what Signature, in the Boston Centinal recommending a System of Neutrallity to the United States—I believe they were written in the year. 90. 91. or 92.—I believe they were printed together in a small Pamphlet—I must, and I will...
36From 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...
37From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 19 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the noble pacquets of documents you send me, for though I cannot read them it is convenient to have them by me. I may get a friend to consult them for me as occassion may require. I thank your lady for me for her last journal. I am really grieved at her late severe indisposition which appears to me so alarming that she ought to be extremely cautious of exposing herself to any...
38From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
I must, as long as octogenarian infirmities will permit, Send you a line to prove to you my continued Vegatation Peter Heigne’s Mother, when the News arrived of her Sons glorious death arrived , Said “Peter was always running about, and She always expected he would come to a bad End.” Washingtons Mother used to Say that “George would be like the Pitcher which after going So often to the Well,...
39From 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...
40From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 29 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
This will be presented to you by Mr Holley whom you know and whom I pray you to receive with Civility; because he is one of the few in whom I delight. I love him because he is, as Dr Holmes calls him “a phylosophical divine.” I do not much affect any unphylosophical Divines though I candidly tolerate them all and esteem Some. I am told there will be complaints against Henry Warren as Collector...
41From 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...
42From 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.
43From 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...
44From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
The bitterness of Death is past. The grim Specter So terrible to human Nature has no Sting left for me. My consolations are more than I can number. The Separation cannot be So long as twenty Separations heretofore. The Pangs and the Anguish have not been So great as when you and I embarked for France in 1778. The Sympathy and Benevolence of all the World, has been Such as I Shall not live long...
45From 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...
46From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 18 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
I am anxious for Susan.— I wish to be informed, whether Mr Clark has left any and what Property? And whether any public provision is made for the Widows and Orphans of Officers who died After the War? though they undoubtedly Sacrificed their Health and Their lives in it. I wish to know whether She is with you, on a Visit or as a dependent. I wish also to know, whether her consumptive, dying...
47From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 31 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 21 has excited my Sympathies, visible and irascible. I never had the Shadow of a Shade of doubt that you was my legigtimate Son. But if I had been afflicted with Jealousy, the frank confession in your Letter of your impatience with Barrel would have cured me. For never were two Peas parching in the Same fire more alike. This however is no laughing Matter. If there is any...
48From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 July 1820 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed is a letter, and an account from Mr. Gales for the National Intelligencer— I am very loth to trouble you—and I must beg the favour of you to pay Mr. Gales his account and take his receipt and his Certificate—My subscription is stoped—for I hereby request, and Order, that it may be stoped—for I never read it—I am overwhelmed with a Cart-load of Newspapers for which I never...
49From 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...
50From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 21 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
The disapointment of the Anglomaniacs and the Antigallicans, who are the same persons, on one hand, and of the Gallomaniacs, Antianglicans and Hyperdemocrats who are all the same people, on the other: in the Choice of Mr Mason a Sound untainted American Republican, for the Representative of the Suffolk district, will give that Friend of yours an Opportunity to present you this letter. This...
51From 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...
52From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 27 September 1819 (Adams Papers)
Know ye, That upon the Day of the Date hereof, before Me, at a Court of Probate, held at Dedham, in the County aforesaid, the Will of John Adams, late of Quincy in the said County, Doctor of Laws deceased, a Copy of which to these Presents annexed, was proved, approved, and allowed: Who having, while he lived, and at the Time of his Death, Goods, Chattels, Rights or Credits in the County...
53From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 25 September 1819 (Adams Papers)
KNOW all Men by these Presents, That I John Adams of Quincy in the County of Norfolk Esquire, in Consideration of One dollar to me paid by John Quincy Adams, of Boston, in the County of Suffolk, Esquire the Receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, have remised, released, and forever quit-claimed, and do, for my self and my Heirs, by these Presents, remise, release, and forever quit-claim unto...
54From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 March 1819 (Adams Papers)
Your comprehensive letter of the 14th Feb’y has given me great entertainment & delight, I hope you will not mistake my employment in collecting my papers as intended to prepare materials for you to write my life for upon a serious retrospection of it—I find I am ashamed of it. I have had so great opportunities to do good and have done so little, and that little so awkwardly that I should blush...
55From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 29 September 1817 (Adams Papers)
I may now congratulate you on your Arrival at the Seat of our national Government: yourself your excellent Lady, all your Friends relations and domesticks, are We hope, in good health. Your Interview with the President; to whom present my affectionate respects, So Soon after his Arrival must have been very agreable to both. As the Endemic dissentary is not yet abated your oldest Son is with Us...
56From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 27 September 1819 (Adams Papers)
I John Adams of Quincy, in the County of Norfolk Esquire, do hereby give to my Son John Quincy Adams, of Boston, in the County of Suffolk Esquire, all my Manuscript Letter Books, and Account-Books, Letters, Journals, and Manuscript papers; together with the trunks in which they are contained; also a Bureau, with three large Drawers, two small Drawers, and two glass folding Doors, standing near...
57From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 26 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
The Father of Mr George G. Barrel, Still living at 85 his Uncle Joseph and one or two more were once well known to me and esteemed. You will find the Bearer So intelligent and So correct that if you have time to converse with him you will find pleasure and Information. Though I presume not to give any Opinion upon this Application or any other; Yet I will venture to Say, that the Pretensions...