1From Abigail Smith Adams to William Eustis, 5 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
I address you upon a subject of much delicacy and which from circumstances which must be well known to you makes me diffident in presenting to your view the oldest Revolutiary Feild officer now Living. I presume I need not name to you his former Services, nor the loss of property which his Family sustaind by the Enemy, nor the wounds he received in the Service, or those qualification, which so...
2From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 11 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged by your favour of the 9th. just received. Though I called the Subject of my former letter, a Bagatelle, it is perhaps of Some Importance; for as a Navy is now an Object, I think a circumstantial History of Naval Operations in this Country ought to be written, even as far back as the Province Ship under Capt. Hollowell &c and perhaps earlier Still. Looking into the Journal of...
3From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 20 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
In former Letters, I have made a few hasty Remarks upon Mrs Warren and Mr Marshall: permit me now to add one or two upon Dr Gordon. In the Second Volume of his History, page 144, he Says, “The Massachusetts Assembly resolved, October the ninth, to fit out armed Vessells; ” But how is this? This Resolution is four days later, than the Resolution of Congress, Octr. 5. which asserts that...
4From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 9 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
I return the correspondence in ten Numbers with Thanks for the perusal of them. They are indeed curious. I cannot reconcile myself to the opinion of one Law for a Judge and another for a Governor. Nor can I believe that Judges have So much Legislative Authority as to make Laws by Implications, Inferences, Constructions So remote and So Strained. If Judges undertake to make gag Laws they Should...
5From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 21 October 1813 (Adams Papers)
I find with some Surprise, in looking over unanswered Letters, One from yourself of 26 August. We gave Letters to Mr Wiger; but I must own I was not much fel fascinated with his conversation; and if his principles of honour and integrity are pure, I have since heard so little in favour of his discretion, that I think Govt ought to be cautious of the Trusts they commit to him. The sympathy of...
6From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 2 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your address to the Senate. I wish the Presidents Message, your address, and Governor Strongs speech might be printed together in every News-paper. There are pretty stories universally circulating here of your fortuitous journey in the Stage with Colonel Pickering. I have heard them with pleasure, for they really do honour to both. They are really good natured. The Millenium...
7From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 21 June 1811 (Madison Papers)
I thank you for your polite communication of the Speech to your Legislature. The solid & seasonable truths so emphatically inculcated in it, can not fail to do much good. The noise & anger which it is exciting, prove that the faction is deeply stung by the exposure of its guilt, and will increase the public indignation, by rousing a more diffusive attention to the subject. The delay of Mr....
8From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 26 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
Although Governor Gages Prediction to General Jo. Warren has not yet, been fully accomplished in this Country; yet as His Observation was Suggested by History, it will be found too just, Some time or other. Selfishness has dissappointed The Hopes of Patriotism and Philanthropy in all Ages, not only in England at the Period of her Commonwealth. Edes’s Watertown Gazette Shall be carefully...
9From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 14 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favours of the 8th. and 10th and the volume of Benjamin Edes’s gazettes printed at Watertown between the 5th of June 1775 and the 9th. of December 1776. I am much obliged to you and to Mr Austin, for the Loan of this prescious collection of Memorials I read last Fall and Winter, The Scottish Chiefs, Thadeus of Warsaw and The Exiles of Siberia; and Scotts Lay, Marmion and...
10From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 14 March 1809 (Madison Papers)
I have been obliged as you will note to avail myself of your indulgence in answering your favor the 20th. Ult. I have looked over attentively your observations at the Cambridge Meeting, and tho’ I do not enter into the aptitude of all your observations, I perceive in them a very interesting view of our public affairs. On the question whether a publication of them would be useful, I am...