1518111th. (Adams Papers)
Dined with Mr. Adams at the Marquis de la Fayette’s. There was not much American Company: M: le Marquis de St. Simon, who has served in America. Mr. Grandchamp, Capitaine de Vaisseau, and M: le Marquis de Rosanbot premier president au Parlement de Paris. Mr. Ruston was there. This is the first comfortable day we have had this Season: the roads are exceedingly dusty for want of Rain. Madam...
15182Thursday July the 5th 1781. (Adams Papers)
This morning I went to see when the boats go for Utrecht. Mr. Dana and Mr. Thaxter din’d at Mr. Sigourney’s; I din’d at home. After dinner went to see Mr. Greaves; but found only Mr. Brailsford at home; I stay’d there but a little time, and went for Kaa’s; in the way I met Mr. Greaves and Captn. Henzel; and went to take a walk with them out of the Haerlem Porte and down along upon the Dyke; as...
151835th. (Adams Papers)
After passing all the day, at pretty Close Study, I went and spent the Evening at Mr. White’s. Mr. Osgood, and Major Bart lett, with their Ladies, were there: I had at length, an Invitation from the former, to go to his House. The terms that subsist between his family and Mr. Shaw’s, are such, that, I did not expect any notice from him: nor had I any right to expect it: but as a man possess’d...
15184From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have now to acknowledge the receipt of your number 6. dated 22. February, brought by the Henry Captain Harris; a vessel of which we had heard nearly a Month since, and which has at length arrived after a passage from Boston of 100 days.—The arrivals from America now crowd upon one another in multitudes which I am afraid will prove not very profitable to many of the adventurers.—From Quincy...
1518531st. Saturday. (Adams Papers)
Went this morning to the English Library. Went to a bookseller’s shop and bought some books. Mr. Wolff came here in the forenoon. Rainy weather. One that can be identified is Jean de La Bruyère’s Les Caractères, 2 vols., Paris, 1768 ( Catalogue of JQA’s Books Worthington C. Ford, ed., A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy Adams Deposited in the Boston Athenaeum. With Notes on Books, Adams...
1518630th. (Adams Papers)
Mr. Adams dined at the Spanish Ambassador’s, Count d’Aranda, an old man 70 years of age, who married, last year a young woman of 20. Peace be with him!
1518712th. (Adams Papers)
Charles and myself went over to Weymouth, and dined at Doctor Tufts’s. We were overtaken by a violent thunder shower. The lightening fell at a very small distance from an house where we took shelter while the Cloud pass’d over. When we return’d to Braintree we found Mr. Dingley at my uncle’s.
15188John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 May 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have to acknowledge the receipt since I wrote you last of your two kind favours of 15. November and 1. February last— The latter is the latest letter, from America that I have, and I still continue to receive as I have ever since I have been in Europe, received from you the most recent intelligence both public and private— As in this case the first direct notice of my brother’s arrival came...
15189To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 3 June 1811 (Madison Papers)
I received on the 29th: of last Month, together with some other despatches from the Secretary of State, one, enclosing a Commission to me, as an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; a new letter of leave to His Majesty the Emperor of Russia; a blank Commission for a Secretary of Legation, or Chargé d’Affaires, and an Instruction, in consequence of this new appointment...
1519016th. (Adams Papers)
Went with Mrs. A into Paris in the afternoon. Got a book of Pissot, and Brindley’s Terence, la folle journée , and Vossius de hist. grae: of Froullé. Left the Ladies, on the quai des Augustins, and went to see Mr. West, whose hand is still very much swelled. The Ladies came, in the evening, and took me at the Hôtel de Bretagne. Pissot, a publishing firm in Paris. The book has not been...
151912d. (Adams Papers)
I have been too busily employ’d, to have much to say. Study, does not afford, a rich source for description. We had a moot Court in the afternoon at Fiske’s Chamber. Packard was condemned. Mr. and Mrs. Cranch were here.
15192John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 18 April 1794 (Adams Papers)
M r: Newcomb has executed a power of Attorney, authorising you to receive his interest due. I herewith enclose it.— You mention in your Letter to your mother, that you expect to leave Philadelphia the 28 th: of this month. But not where you purpose to go. I should be glad to hear from you once in a while. I think you are now in my debt upon the score of our correspondence. War—seems to be now...
15193John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 June 1798 (Adams Papers)
Since the date of my last I have received your favour of 8. April, with the pamphlets mentioned in it.— The communications of the American Commissioners have resounded through every part of Europe, and produced a very sensible impression in the public opinion with regard to the characters exposed in them.— An attempt at defence has been made, by a publication in the official newspaper of the...
15194From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 5 January 1807 (Adams Papers)
On new year’s day I received your very agreeable Letter of Decr: 21st: which I should have answered immediately; but it was not sitting day; and I find no time for my correspondence but while we are in Session—The reason of which is that having become a Jack of so many trades, I employ all the time I have to spare at home , in preparing for my bussiness at Cambridge next Spring—I have...
15195John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 15 April 1795 (Adams Papers)
By the arrival of M r: Van Rensselaar, I am favoured with your letter of Nov r: 29. I have not yet seen that Gentleman, who is still at Amsterdam, but proposes visiting this place in a few days; you well know what a pleasure we always derive in foreign Countries merely from the sight of one of our own Countrymen, and in this instance I shall be still more gratified in meeting a person, who...
151962d. (Adams Papers)
Mr. A and myself went and dined with the Marquis de la Fayette, Comte and Chevalier de la Luzerne, Comte de la Touche, General du Portail: A Letter was brought after dinner to my father from Dr. Franklin, informing him that Mr. Randall arrived from New York in the last Packet, and that he has Letters from Mr. Jay for my father. We went immediately to the Hôtel d’Orléans Rue St. Anne, and found...
15197[August 1783] (Adams Papers)
This morning, I set out from the Hague, in Company with my Father; at about half past 4. o’clock in the morning. At 7. we arrived at Rotterdam; passed the Maes Meuse , and rode as far as Moerdyk, where we arrived at about 12. We were obliged to stay till 4. o’clock, because the wind, and tide were both contrary. We arrived at about 11. o’clock at night at the last Post before Antwerp, and...
15198From John Quincy Adams to John Adams Smith, 11 November 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have the Honour to acknowledge the Receipt of your several letters, with their respective enclosures, from No 1 to No. 10. inclusively. Mr. Rush, who takes charge of this Despatch, having been appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States in England, your office of Charge ‘d affairs will of course cease upon his presenting his letter of Credence to the...
15199To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 27 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
The situation in which I am placed often brings to my mind, that in which you were situated in the year 1782. and I will not describe the feelings with which the comparison, or I might rather say the contrast, affects me—I am called to support the same interests, and in many respects the same identical points and questions—The causes in which the present war originated, and for which it was on...
15200To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 18 November 1824 (Madison Papers)
I take much satisfaction in having the opportunity of introducing to you Mr George Sullivan a Citizen of Massachusetts the son of a former governor of that State in his life time I believe personally well known to you & distinguished during the period of our Revolutionary War as well as in more recent times. Mr Sullivan is at this time agent of the State for certain claims on the Government of...
15201From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 2 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 28th. of last Month, has this day brought me the most distressing intelligence that I ever received; yet my dear John, if there was any thing that could soften its bitterness, it was that it should first come from a beloved and affectionate hand—Such it was coming from yours, and I thank you, for the kind and filial attention with which you immediately communicated the...
15202From John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 9 January 1807 (Adams Papers)
Last Evening I received your truly kind & affectionate letter of the 1st: instt: and most sincerely reciprocate every sentiment of kindness it contains—It is impossible for me to enjoy life without your affection, and the assurance of possessing it must always be grateful to my heart—So great and so numerous are the blessings for which I ought to be impress’d with the favour of Providence,...
15203John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 11 June 1784 (Adams Papers)
I am so pleased with your Letters, in general, that you may well believe that of the 6. has contributed very much to my Happiness. As you have found the Way into the Gallery, I hope you will not neglect it, but attend every Day. It is a great and illustrious School. I return you inclosed, the Letter from Mr. Dexter to Mr. Temple, to whom present my Compliments. In a Letter I wrote a Year ago...
15204From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
Since I wrote you last, 1. February I have had no opportunity of putting a Letter even on its way, to reach you, when it should please Heaven. The ordinary intercourse between this Country and England by the way of Gothenburg has been suspended from the 24th: of December untill this day, by the freezing of the Harbours, and there are now 22 Mails due, from London—The same Cause has prevented...
15205[December 1783] (Adams Papers)
This evening I went with Mr. West to the Academy of Painting &c. and had the same entertainment as that of which I spoke last Monday. This day my father dined out; in the evening I went to the Drury Lane Theatre, had the Beaux Stratagem with the Ladies Frolick. George Farquhar’s The Beaux’ Strategem , London, 1707; The Ladies’ Frolick , London, 1770, by James Love, pseudonym for James Dance (...
15206To George Washington from John Quincy Adams, 11 February 1797 (Washington Papers)
Since I had the honour of writing you, I have been informed that about a year ago a workman in the sword manufactories at Sohlingen a hilt founder by the name of Alte, was induced in consequence of the unsettled and distressed situation of that part of Germany to go to America, and before he went had the sword made according to his own fancy, with the intention as I understand of presenting it...
152073d. (Adams Papers)
Pass’d the evening at Little’s in Newbury. A Mr. Coffin, who graduated two years ago, at Harvard, was there. We spent our time in sociable chat, and in singing; not such unmeaning, insignificant songs, as those with which we killed our time last evening; but good, jovial, expressive songs such as we sung at College, “when mirth and jollity prevail’d.” One evening of this kind gives me more...
15208From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 2 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of 21. June, without a number, was forwarded to me from Copenhagen by Mr. Erving, who recovered it from the Radius, which on her passage to this place, was taken by a french privateer, and is still detained in Denmark—Like almost all the letters which we have received this year it brought tidings of sickness and affliction among our friends—In the sorrow which they have so often...
15209From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 17 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have not had the pleasure of hearing from you since I wrote you last; but having an opportunity, which now seldom happens, of sending letters to America, I will not let it pass, without writing you to inform you that your Mamma, and brother Charles, with myself are in as good health as the excessive cold weather of this Country and Season will admit—But I shall not have time at present to...
15210Monday the 25th. (Adams Papers)
Dined at Pappa’s with several American Gentlemen. Supp’d at Mr. Le Roi’s. Got back to School at about ten o clock.