11From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 30 April 1806 (Adams Papers)
I have always believed that the Afra Avis, was the Guinea Hen, but have lately heard it was the Turkey. You say “Alass poor Europe” – I say “ alass poor human nature.” I am as weary, as my friend the Abby Raynall, with contemplating the Stupidity of one part of Man kind and the Villany of the other: but I cannot say with him, if they are never to be wiser and better may they be annihilated....
12From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 15 February 1820 (Adams Papers)
I wrote you this Morning before I received your delightful letter of the 7th. which has opened a New world to me I rejoice with all my heart in your prosperity and comfortable pleasing prospects—I rejoice that the Governour and the Legislature and the People of the State of New-york—have the Wisdom to appreciate your labours at their just value—which I esteem an important service rendered not...
13From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 10 March 1818 (Adams Papers)
I Sincerely condole with you in the loss of your Friends Walker Wislar and Bray. I Sincerely Congratulate you on the Acquisition of an honourable Usefull and profitable Employment and Amusement for Life. And more cordially as it is a providential Rescue from your metaphysical and delirious Project of Writing Cosmogonies and Metempsichosies of Worlds. A Week before I recd. Your Letter, I...
14From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 28 February 1823 (Adams Papers)
In your last Letter you requested copies of my Letters to Dr. Price. They are inclosed— These letters and many others, and other writings and conversations to the same affect destroyed my popularity with mankind.—The Turgotests, the Condorcetians, the Rochefaucaultians the Brissotians the Jacobins and the Sans Cullotts—France took offence and pronounced me an aristocrat Rochefoucauldians; and...
15From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 24 February 1825 (Adams Papers)
The events of this month, have been to me almost overwhelming. They have excited my sensibility too much for a man almost ninety years to bear. The multitude of letters of congratulations which I have received I can never pretend to answer, for it fatigues me to dictate even a few lines—but none of these letters have been more cordially welcomed than that of my friend Van der Kemp. I...
16From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 2 March 1816 (Adams Papers)
At the hazard of the little Vision that is left me I have read your Travels in the Wilderness with as much Interest Pleasure and Instruction as Coxes or Moores or Crusoe’s or Gullivers. I have Sent the Manuscript to Alexander Bryant Johnson of Utica and requested him to return it to you by a safe hand. My dear Wife has been sick all Winter and is Still very week, tho’ We hope somewhat better....
17From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 25 April 1808 (Adams Papers)
You were a Letter in my debt, when you wrote yours of March 17th but you did not know it. I wrote you Some months ago, and asked the favour of you to inform me, what is the Christian Name the Place of Residence, and the present Titles of our Friend Mr De Gyselaer, formerly Pensionary of Dort. I had particular reasons for this Inquiry which you would not disapprove, though I am not at present...
18From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 31 January 1805 (Adams Papers)
I have, after so long a time, been favored with a loan of four Volumes of Captain Joseph Ingraham’s Journals of his voyage to the North West Coast of America, round Cape Horn, in the Brigantine Hope of Seventy Tons burthen. He sailed from Boston on the 16th. of September 1790. In these he often Speaks of a voyage he made the year or two before, in the Columbia, and refers to his Journal of it....
19From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 28 October 1812 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your Letter of 26. Septr…. It does not Signify! Van der kemp! It will not do, in this World, for a Man to have more Sense, more learning or more Virtue than his Neighbours. I know not, whether it is quite Safe to have so much, as the generality. Not only Opposition, but persecution, Seems to be the invariable Lot of every Man who distinguishes himself by uncommon Talents or...
20From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 5 February 1805 (Adams Papers)
This day I recd your favour of the 15 of last month you and I are in the same predicament. You are buried and forgotten as you Say in the Western Wilderness, and I am buried and forgotten at Mount Wollaston: But I believe you are happier than you were when bustling in Holland, and I am very Sure I have been happier for these four years passed than I ever was in any four of forty years before...
I cannot refrain any longer from taking my pen and assureing mr van der kemp of the high gratification his visit to Quincy gave to his Ancient Friends there, the only regret attending it was, that it was so short, to his new acquaintance he communicated unexpected pleasure by the urbanity of his manners the politeness of his address by the exquisite tenderness & sensibility of his Heart, so...
22From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 20 November 1816 (Adams Papers)
I believe I must endorse you over, or rather bequeath you as a Legacy to The Philosopher of Montecello! What! Why! Wherefore? Is not the Life of Jesus, in the four Evangelists? Where else can you find it? In the Gospell of St. Thomas? Of the Evangellian Jesus, The Philosopher of Monticello, knows as much as you know, and has Studied it with as critical Attention. And could write it as well in...
23From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 4 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
The Apostle Paul in the 11th. Chapter and 5th. Verse, of his Epistle to the Hebrews, Says “ Πίστεί ἐνωχ μετετέθη τοῦ μὴ ἰδεῖν θάνατον· καὶ οὐχ εὑρίσκετο, διότι μετέθηκεν αὐτον ὁ θεός. πρὸ γὰρ τῆς μεταθέσεως αὐτου μεμαρτύρηται εὐηρεστηκέναι τω θεῶ .” The Apostle Jude, in the 6th. Verse of his Epistle, Says, Αγγέλους τε τοὺς μὴ τηρήσαντας τὴν εαυτῶν αρχὴν, ἀλλὰ ἀπολιπόντας τὸν ἴδιον οἰκητήριον,...
24From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 20 May 1819 (Adams Papers)
I see by your favour of May 10th that we must all grow Old—but you have not yet experienced one tenth part of the Infirmitys of Old Age—I am very glad your Physician promises you, that all will be well In your Researches do you find any Evidence of Persecutions of Quakers Anabaptists Witches or any–other Sectary’s amongst your Primitive Dutch Settle’rs in New–york—or amongst the cortier...
25From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 28 September 1802 (Adams Papers)
I have recd yours of Aug. 1802. I agree with you that “the deadly infection has not Spread thro every Limb.” But what Shall We Say when Such a Writer as Mr Callender, can write down the Administration of Washington, write up an administration of Jefferson and then write it down again. The Editors of Newspapers, have no Check, and yet have Power to make and Unmake Characters, at their Will; to...
26From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 27 February 1790 (Adams Papers)
Your agreable Letter of the 9. Jan. has lain too long unanswered.—M r Mappa, I should be happy to present to the President and to Serve in any other Way in my Power. Your Criticisms upon “the defence” deserve more Consideration than I have time to give them. I can Say for myself, and I believe for most others, who have ever been called “leading Men,” in the late Revolution, that We were...
27From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 22 February 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have just received your favor of the 20th of Jan. & am sensibly touched with the remembrance of our learned & ingenious friend whom I saw at the red Lyon in Leyden I thank you for his poems. Whether you will find purchasers for the edition of his juvenile poems you meditate I cannot say. My Countrymen I fear do not sufficiently attend to Greek & Latin after they leave College, perhaps not...
28From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 4 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have Sent to The Post Office this Morning, your Diploma, as Member of our Accademy. How many years ago ought you to have had it? I hope you will now communicate your Speculations to that Body through Mr Quincy their corresponding Secretary. I should advise Mr George Marsden to petition Congress for Relief, Setting forth his Service Commissions and present Circumstances. of Meteroric Stones I...
29From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 15 August 1808 (Adams Papers)
You have puzzled and confounded me, by your Letter of the 3 of Aug.—After allarming me with Some Suggestions or Suspicions of Infidelity in the Post office you Say “I Suppose the Crime is perpetrated in Massachusetts. Look at the inclosed Sealing. it is from you?” I thought this gave me a Right and made it my duty to open it, and Lo! a lovely Letter from your amiable Daughter to your worthy...
30From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 28 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
I had last night your letter of the 12th. the friendly Sentiments of which have tenderly affected me. The Affliction in my family from the melancholly death of a once beloved Son, has been very great, and has required the Consolations of Religion as well as Phylosophy to enable Us to Support it. The Perspects of that unfortunate youth were once pleasing and promising: but have been cutt off...
31From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 12 February 1821 (Adams Papers)
I owe you a letter or two I believe, and my Conscience smites me for the neglect,—and my daring attendance in the Convention a whole Month, threw me into a fever, which has confined me from the eighteenth of December— Yesterday I ventured out to Church, for the first time—Recluse as I have been, I have had opportunity to read, and here read, a great deal of the Current Literature of the...
32From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 9 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
My Philosophy and my Religion, Such as they are, are brought to a Tryal. My dear, my only daughter lies in the next Chamber consuming with a Schirrous Cancer; my Daughter in Law, Charles’s Widow lies in the next Chamber, extreamly weak, and low with one of the most dangerous diseases to which We are liable. My Wife a valetudinarian through an whole Life of 69 Years, is worn down with care,...
33From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 3 April 1815 (Adams Papers)
I thank you, dear Sir for your favours of 7. and 20th. Ult. Messrs Everett and Mr Ticknor will have the benefit of your Introductions. Oh! that I had been So introduced when I entered Holland a forlorn Pilgrim in 1780, without a Single Line of Introduction to any body. What a Knighterrant I have been? There has been too much Said about Franklins Plagiarism. If he was guilty, which I do not...
34From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 8 April 1815 (Adams Papers)
I forgot in my last the most brilliant Topick, of all that splendid Phenomenon in the female World, of Genius Taste Learning Observation and Reflection, Madam La Baroness de Stael Holstein. You Seem to Suppose that I have the honour of her Ladyships Accquaintance. Alass! I never had Such good Fortune! I never Saw her Face or figure. Indeed I Should be afraid to behold either, for I have as...
35From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 20 February 1811 (Adams Papers)
You have planned more Work in your favour of the 9th than could be executed by any Body in twenty years: by me, not in 50 or 100. But Sobrius esto! Oh my Soul! I must not Speak of your Indisposition lightly. Your Bark and Exercise and friendly Visits and Games of Chess are better for you, than Study or Writings. If your lovely Daughter reads to you The Lady of the Lake, I approve of that...
36From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 30 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
In Answer to your kind favour of the 21st. I have had a very feeble Winter and am Still afflicted with paines and Imbecilities which render it very difficult to take the exercise necessary for my health. J. Q.s Report must speak for itself. I am not a Judge of it: but Farrar who is, and who has read it with care Speaks well of it. If a Reviewer can be found in France or England to tear it to...
37From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 1 October 1817 (Adams Papers)
Mr J. A Smiths appointment was not by J. Q. A but by the President “Sancte Socrate ora pro nobis” Said Erasmus on reading the Doctrine of Socrates so like the christian. My memory does not recollect the place in Plato and my Eyes cannot look it. But as Plato learned all he taught in Egypt and India, I choose “petere fontes.” I am of Sir William Jones’s Mind that “Our divine Religion, has no...
38From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 3 April 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have recd Condorcet, in good order and your favour of 20th. Ult. Enfields History of Philosophy, is worth many Condorcets. This great Work is drawn up from Brucker’s “Historia critica Philosophiæ”; an immense Work in half a dozen folio Volumes of Greek and Latin. Can you give me the Sketch of this Brucker? Who was he? Neither Brucker nor his Abridger, had Seen the Asiatic Researches; nor...
39From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 26 January 1802 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your favors of the third, and am much obliged to you and to Mr. Mappa for your Observations on the generation of shell fish &c My Privilege of franking extends to all Letters and Packetts. I return your letter to Chandler Livingston with this, and will return that to Mr. Boon, in a short time. I can afford you no ideas on the Subject of the mammoth because I have none. The Spirit...
40From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 14 March 1805 (Adams Papers)
Your favor of Feb. 25th. is recd.—Ingraham, I think, must be no further North than the 56th: degree, but when I can find a little time, I will read his Journal again and if I find any thing that will entertain you, perhaps I may transmit it. Rumphius, whom you quote is unknown to me. If what he says, which corresponds with my Observation in the generation of shell fish on the Surface of the...