123711John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 7 January 1794 (Adams Papers)
Colonel Smith spent the last evening with me, and presented me with your kind letter of the 29th of December. I have seen Mr. G.; he made me a visit which I returned. His conversation was agreeable enough; but he appeared, by all his discourse, to be a young gentleman of much ingenuity, a lively wit and brilliant imagination, enamoured to distraction with republican liberty, but wholly without...
123712John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 10 March 1792 (Adams Papers)
Your kind letter of the fourth of this month is before me. I have frequently desired your mother to consent that I should send for other advice; but she has always forbid it, alleging that she was perfectly satisfied. The assiduity of her physician has, indeed, been very great; and his anxiety to do every thing in his power, most apparent. She is better to-day than she has ever been since her...
123713Abigail Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 8 March 1794 (Adams Papers)
I received your kind letter of February 12th, as well as one, by Mr. Storer, of February 2d. I have been every day since thinking that I would write to you, but a superior duty has occupied all my time for six weeks past. I have been only two days (when I was too sick to attend) absent from the sick bed of your grandmother. Your desire, that her last days might be rendered as comfortable as it...
123714Abigail Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 7 July 1788 (Adams Papers)
It has been no small mortification to me since my arrival here, that I have not been able to hold a pen, or use my hand in writing, until this day. I came on shore with three whitloes upon the thumb and two fingers of my right, and two upon the left hand, so that I could not do the least thing for myself. I begged my friends to write, and let you know of our arrival, after a very tedious...
123715John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 31 July 1796 (Adams Papers)
I received a few days ago your letter of April 27 th: which was forwarded to me from London. My stay there was much longer than I had expected when I went from this place. I returned here about two months ago. The time when you wrote was indeed a critical moment in the state of our political affairs. I was before I came from England witness to the effect produced there by the resolutions past...
123716John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 1 May 1794 (Adams Papers)
Whether we shall preserve peace, or be involved in war, is a problem, not easily solved; but I think we shall preserve our neutrality another year, and after that I presume that Great Britain will be weary enough with her war against France. In the improbable case of a war, however, it would not be easy to take New-York, and it would be still more difficult to keep it. So large a fleet and so...
123717John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 18 November 1794 (Adams Papers)
After a journey without any accident, I arrived here, in good health, the Friday night after I left you, and went into lodgings, which I did not find convenient, and the next morning removed to Francis’s hotel, where I have good accommodations, with company enough. I forgot to thank you for your kind present of patriotic manufacture; but I own I am not, at my age, so great an enthusiast, as to...
123718Abigail Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 26 December 1790 (Adams Papers)
I would tell you that I had an ague in my face, and a violent toothache, which has prevented my writing to you all day; but I am determined to brave it out this evening, and inquire how you do. Without further complaint, I have become so tender, from keeping so much in a warm chamber, that, as soon as I set my foot out, I am sure to come home with some new pain or ache. On Friday evening last,...
123719John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 6 February 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have received your kind letter of the first of this month. Mr. Langworthy appears to me, as he does to you, a man of information and good sense: how much of the projector and adventurer may be in him, time will discover; I know not his resources nor his connections. Searchers and diggers for mines have generally been as unsuccessful as inquirers after the philosopher’s stone, a universal...
123720John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 20 November 1794 (Adams Papers)
About a month after I last took my leave of you in New York, I sailed from Boston, and after a passage of twenty eight days landed at Deal in England. We spent a fortnight in London, where we saw several of your friends who enquired particularly after you: and have now been about three weeks in this Country, principally at the Hague. It is at a very critical and dangerous period for this...