1From John Adams to Tristram Dalton, 1 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favr of the 28th Inst, and that of the 26th of March, and it is not for Want of Inclination, that the Letter has not been acknowledged before. I thank you for your kind Congratulations; but at my Age, and in the present and probable Circumstances of public affairs, I know not whether Condolences would not be more Natural. The Commissioners of the Federal City are Gentlemen...
2From John Adams to Tristram Dalton, 26 May 1786 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of Jan: 23. like all your other Letters, contains valuable information & judicious reflections— The time is now come, when the affairs of the United states must take a turn for the better or become much worse— The Impost I presume is granted to Congress by this time. I only wish it were 20 p r. Cent instead of 5— indeed if 40. were necessary, to pay the Compleat interest of the...
3From John Adams to Tristram Dalton, 22 February 1799 (Adams Papers)
I must beg your pardon for neglecting to answer your friendly letters for which I am obliged to you If congress moves the publick offices must all move as the law now stands. But all the prophets could not foresee what will happen in a year. I suppose the government will move. If there is any thing in particular that you have in view I pray you to indicate it. My disposition is so good that it...
4From John Adams to Tristram Dalton, 23 February 1780 (Adams Papers)
Since my Arrival in this City, which was on the 9th. of this Month I had the Pleasure of your Letter concerning your Vessel which was sunk in the West Indies. I immediately waited on Dr. Franklin who informed me that he had received a similar Letter from you and in the Time of it applied to Court and obtained an order for your Compensation, which he transmitted to you, and which I hope you...
My letters, for the future will come to you, not from a School House but from the Cell of an Hermit. I am removed from Worcester to Braintree where I live secluded from all the Cares and Fatigues of busy Life in a Chamber which no mortal Visits but myself except once in a day to make my Bed. A Chamber which is furnished in a very curious manner, with all sorts of Hermetical Utensils. Here, no...
6John Adams to Tristram Dalton, 2 May 1784 (Adams Papers)
I have rec d , Yesterday, your obliging Letter of the fifth of December, having before received and answered as I Suppose, my Letter Book of that time being at Paris, those of July and August.— These Letters have given me great Pleasure as they let me into the Spirit of the Times and of Affairs in a Country, whose Happiness interests me very much. It would be improper for me perhaps, if I were...
7John Adams to Tristram Dalton, 5 March 1785 (Adams Papers)
I had last night the Pleasure of your Letter of Dec r: 21. I cannot, indeed Sir flatter myself at present that the Nation will receive, “the greatest Benefits” from any of my Labours in a public Line. It is a Consolation to me under all discouragements, to reflect upon services, which I have now & then had Opportunities of rendering. But such Occasions rarely occur: public Life is like a long...
8From John Adams to Tristram Dalton, 19 January 1797 (Adams Papers)
I received this morning with great Pleasure your friendly Letter of the 16, and thank you for your kind congratulations on an Event which seems determined in the public Opinion, tho not yet legally ascertained I have lost by the course of years so many of my Friends and so many others in their old Age, have become weathercocks that the Sight of correspondence of a few who have proved...
9From John Adams to Tristram Dalton, 26 April 1785 (Adams Papers)
My Son is going home, and for his sake as well as my own, I will not let him go without a Line to you. We are glad to find that Congress are in a Place where they may be comfortably accommodated, and are anxious to learn their Decisions. probably they may adjourn in June, but I hope they will accomplish something towards raising a Fund for the payment of the Interest of their Debts abroad and...
10From John Adams to Tristram Dalton, October 1758 (Adams Papers)
Braintree, October? 1758. Printed: JA, Earliest Diary The Earliest Diary of John Adams , ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1966. , p. 65–66 . Printed : ( JA, Earliest Diary The Earliest Diary of John Adams , ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1966. , p. 65–66 .)
11From John Adams to Tristram Dalton, 30 March 1798 (Adams Papers)
I am as much in debt in the Litterary and Epistolary way, as our princes of modern speculation are in their pursuits; and I suppose for similar reasons, vz: want a Method in accuracy of account, no œconomy, and undertaking more than I am able of managing; to you I am indebted for three late Letters at least— The character drawn in the first and alluded to in the second, has always been civil...