13561Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 7 February 1802 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the Jan’ry I received near a fortnight ago, and have thought every day since that I would write to you; but few occurrences arise to amuse You, or entertain You of a domestick nature, and dissertations are not what you want; Your proposed project of removing to the state of Newyork occupies my attention. I know it must be urksome to you to pluck up stakes, (as the saying is)...
13562John Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 6 April 1801 (Adams Papers)
I know not how it has happened that I have not found time to write you Since my return to my long home. The angry North East Wind, which has prevailed with little Interruption has pinched my faculties, I believe. We have been all, pretty well. This is the Day of our Election of Governor Lt Gov r. & senators. The Democrats are very Sanguine and the others are not So. The former Say that M r...
13563John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 13 February 1794 (Adams Papers)
I received by the last post your favour enclosing a draft upon the branch Bank, for 100 dollars. The political speculations of which your fraternal feelings have formed so favourable a judgment, originated in motives at least as disinterested, as are the common sources of patriotism. That a literary reputation is an object of Ambition to the writer, it would be false and absurd to deny. That...
13564John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 21 August 1803 (Adams Papers)
You will be so anxious to hear the state of your mother’s health that I cannot forbear writing you a line— Since I wrote you last no material change has taken place— The danger has not apparently increased, neither can we flatter ourselves that it has diminished— Her pain is not so severe as it was, and she has now little fever; but her weakness is the most formidable symptom— She has little...
13565William Cranch to Thomas Boylston Adams, 30 January 1800 (Adams Papers)
I suppose this session of the supreme Court will decide the point whether M r. Bayard will resign his office of Clerk, and whether I shall be appointed to succeed him. It is an object which has occupied my thoughts and absorbed my wishes, ever since you first suggested to me the Idea. Whenever I have felt the heartake, the hope of obtaining this little unenvied place, has cast a beam of light...
13566William Smith Shaw to Thomas Boylston Adams, 3 February 1801 (Adams Papers)
Agreeable to my promise in my last, I now inclose to you Mr Jeffersons letter, which I consider to be the counterpart of the letter to Mazzei and which, you must have more philosophy, than I think you possess, to read without bitter indignation—without execrating the author, in the most unqualified terms. The whole letter is in the canting style of the vilest demagogue of our Country.—...
13567John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 3 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
At the close of my last letter I left you, in a cool refreshing shade, in the view of the Kockelfall, from which we proceeded the same evening to this inn— It was, as you may suppose a fatiguing day; though not so much so, as one or two we have gone through since, & several, which still await us— This village in one respect resembles an American country, more than any other spot I have seen in...
13568From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 12 September 1820 (Adams Papers)
I have to reply to at least three Letters to you, the reason of which I will tell you hereafter, if it please God—At present I only write to give you full power to do with my Penn’s Hill farm and both the Houses as you think best.—The same with that at Mount Wollaston—except that you must not strip the latter of any good wood—And beware of running me too much in debt for repairs. I was much...
13569John Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 9 June 1796 (Adams Papers)
It was no longer ago than Yesterday that I received your kind Letter of the 14. of December last, which arrived, after a long Passage, I Suppose, at Baltimore, and came from thence by the Post which carried them to Cape Cod and then returned them to Quincy. We have been anxious on your Account as We had rec d no Letter except your Letter of Introduction to M r De Persyn, and We heard you had...
13570John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 24 March 1804 (Adams Papers)
An attempt was made this morning to postpone the adjournment for two days—from the 26 th: (Monday next) to Wednesday the 28 th: — The motion however was rejected.— Next came a motion to meet tomorrow. yeas 3. nays about 20.— The motion to protract, will probably be renewed on Monday; but I believe without success. A bill has pass’d the Senate, the object of which is to abandon the further...
13571John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 22 February 1780 (Adams Papers)
I am once more settled down in a school and am very content with my situation. I was the other night at the Foire St Germain in Paris which is a publick place and full of curiosities. We went and saw a Woman who (in truth) was not very tall but who weigh’d 450 weight. The large part of her arm was as big round as my body and she cover’d With her thumb a Crown peice. Her thimble was big enough...
13572From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 4 November 1819 (Adams Papers)
On the 7th. of last Month, I left at the Branch Bank, Boston, a Check payable to you, requesting it might be passed to your credit, as my agent, which was no doubt accordingly done, and which as you recollect was to be reserved to pay for the timber, for which you had agreed, for building the Barn upon the Mount Wollaston farm, and for the work and other expenses of building it—The check was...
13573From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 3 December 1826 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 26th. ulto. with one from President Kirkland enclosed in it, and your answer were received yesterday—I suppose the genealogical narrative in your Letter, contains all the information that he may desire—It comprizes as much of the family history as we have to tell for a century preceding the birth of your father—The short and simple annals of the poor—If I had leisure, I...
13574John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 5 October 1802 (Adams Papers)
The apt and excellent quotation from Horace’s epistles, in your letter of 26 th: ult o: made me turn over all the editions and translations of the old poet, that came within my reach, to find the context— When once a man takes up Horace, it is not easy to lay him down again— So in turning over the leaves, I stumbled by the strangest accident imaginable upon the fourth Ode of the second book—...
13575From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 25 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
The flood of our letters from America, as well as of vessels arriving from the United States has almost entirely subsided. From the last week in May to the first in August we received nearly thirty letters from Quincy, so that I began to think I had entered rather rashly into the engagement, among others of answering separately every individual letter—Nor have I yet since that time completely...
13576John Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 16 March 1777 (Adams Papers)
I believe I must make a Phisician of you. There seems to be a Propriety in your studying Physick, because your Great Great Grandfather after whom you was named, was of that Profession. Would it not please you to study Nature, in all her wonderfull Operations, and to relieve your Fellow Creatures under the severest Pains, and Distresses to which human Nature is liable. Is not this better than...
13577John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 30 October 1802 (Adams Papers)
I received last evening your favour of the 21 st: inst t: and now enclose you a set of three bills at sixty days sight, drawn on Mess rs: Bird, Savage and Bird, London, for one thousand pounds Sterling— With them I send a letter of advice, unsealed; at the bottom of which you may add that you have endorsed over the bills, when you shall have sold them. Then seal it up, and be careful to send...
13578Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 13 [December] 1800 (Adams Papers)
Well My dear son S Carolin has behaved as Your Father always Said She would. the concequence to us personally, is that We retire from public Life: for myself and family I have few regreets; at My age and with my bodily infirmities I shall be happier at Quincy. neither my habits, or My Education or inclinations, have led Me to an expensive stile of living; So on that score I have little to...
13579From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 5 February 1806 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 19th: of last Month, has been several days in my hands.—I have enclosed you the two sheets which were wanting to complete your files of the Journals of the House, but I cannot find a spare copy of the first sheet of the Senate’s Journals—I send most of the public documents to Shaw, because he wants them more than you, and because you will always have the first perusal of...
13580John Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 7 April 1796 (Adams Papers)
It is a long time Since I have rec d a Letter from you and it is too long Since I have written to you. I have read your Dispatches as Chargé d’affaires at the Hague with much Satisfaction: But I find the Secretary of the Treasury is anxious to hear from You on the subject of Affairs in Holland which have more immediate Relation to his Office. The House of Representatives of U.S. are engaged in...
13581John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 16 August 1799 (Adams Papers)
I received your N. 6. dated 3. June, about three weeks ago, at this place, and should have replied to it sooner, but for a violent fever which seized me on the first of this month, and confined me for about ten days— It was only an intermittent, and paid me no more than five visits; but they were long and severe enough to leave me very weak.— I think myself now altogether recovered, and can...
13582Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 10 January 1795 (Adams Papers)
Should a vessel cross the Atlantick, and my dear Thomas not find a few lines from his Mother, I know he would feel sadly dissapointed, yet not a Solitary Scrip, has reachd her yet, to assure her, of his, or his Brothers Safety. The arrival of the vessel has been confirmd by a Letter, received in Boston, in replie to one which went in the Alfred, so that my anxiety respecting the Ship was...
13583John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 12 October 1803 (Adams Papers)
We have been detained here since Sunday the 9 th: inst t: by the severe illness of my wife— We think however to go on this day, as far as Elizabeth-town, and to proceed by easy Stages to-morrow as far as Princeton, and the next day, (God willing) to Frankfort, where we hope to find you— If you can procure for us in that place, or on the other side of the City, towards Baltimore, convenient...
13584From Abigail Smith Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 14 September 1814 (Adams Papers)
Received Quincy September 14th: 1814 of Thomas B Adams Esqr: Twenty-one Dollars and eighty seven Cents, for one quarter’s interest due on JQ Adams’s note due August 1st:— $21.87 MHi : Adams Papers.
13585John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 7 February 1801 (Adams Papers)
I received only three days ago your N: 22. dated the 6 th: of December, and containing the melancholy tidings of the death of our unhappy brother at New-York. I had been informed of it two days earlier by a letter from my excellent friend M r: Murray at the Hague, who had seen an account of it in a New-York Gazette.— Of the situation in which he has left his wife and children you say nothing,...
13586John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 9 August 1800 (Adams Papers)
Since our return to this place we have indulged ourselves with a few days of rest. The morning after we came back, I went over the lutheran church, which is the handsomest building in the town, & makes a conspicuous figure in all the views from the neighbouring hills. It is built in the shape of a cross, painted white, & roofed with red tile. These colours shew to great advantage here, as they...
13587John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 24 September 1800 (Adams Papers)
I continue to number my letters, although the series containing our Silesian tour is closed, so that untill our return to Berlin, you may know whether you receive all those I write— At Dresden from which my last to you was dated, we spent six days, in the course of which I renewed my acquaintance with the picture gallery, made an excursion one afternoon to Tharandt, through the valley of...
13588John Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 15 September 1801 (Adams Papers)
Have a care, that you do not let Captain Duane know, that I am reading Cicero de Senectute again: because he will immediately insert in his Aurora Borealis, that I recollected, those Words in the 17 th Chapter “nihil ei tam regale videri, quam Studium agri colendi.” He will Say that there is nothing in building Stone Wall, or in collecting Heaps of Compost, but the tang of Royalty and...
13589Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 10 June 1796 (Adams Papers)
A Neighbour of ours Captain Richard Beal is going this week to sail for England, and I do not know a more direct conveyance to you. the Communication between America and Holland is not half so frequent, as with England. The last Letter which I had the pleasure to receive from you, was dated the 1 of December. Your Father has received two from you of a latter Date, but none Since December. From...
13590From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 27 November 1824 (Adams Papers)
I return with thanks, Mr Jarvis’s Letter, enclosed in your’s of the 6th.—The sense of the People, throughout New. England, as signified by their suffrages in the choice of Electors, has been very gratifying to me—If in other parts of the Union it has been less favourable, I have in almost every part of it been honoured with a support for which I ought to be grateful—The opposition in...