19491From John Adams to Henry Colman, 14 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the Loan of Tuckers Vision. Homer as We have him, was not his Effort of Genius. Compilations of Homer were made by Lycurgus, by Solon, and by Pysistratus, and the most Learned Men in Greece were employed in forming that Sacred Book. Spencers Fairy Queen, though We have but half of it, is the greatest Effort of Genius, that I recollect. But not So entertaining or instructive as...
19492To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 14 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I did rise yesterdaÿ morning with Severe headache—and espied, entering the room a Letter on the chimneÿ-piece, which, when I discovered it was from you, did give me a fearful foreboding. I laid it down, till I had breakfeasted, and found then to my great Satisfaction, that it contained a favorable report of mrs Adams—with a fresh proof of your high-valued friendship and unbounded confidence;...
19493To John Adams from Thomas Clark, 17 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have taken the liberty to forward to you a Copy of the Naval history of the U.S. Your kindness & zealous exertions have excited in me a sincere gratitude. Of our naval history, as well as of our naval establishment, you have been the first patron, & most active promoter. Enclosed are some of the proposals for the publication of my long contemplated history of the United States. Your...
19494To John Adams from Richard Rush, 17 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
Timeo Danaos, et dona ferentes. Nothing can be more applicable to our situation, and the late offer of Britain. I repeated it in conversation a few days ago in the hearing of Mr Ingersoll, of the house or representatives from Pennsylvania, and I have since heard with pleasure that he took occasion to thunder it out in his place at the capitol, and that it caught the ear of the house to a...
19495To John Adams from Mathew Carey, 18 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
By last Mail, I sent you a copy of the new Edition, & I now send you two, of which I request your acceptance. I hope this Edition will meet with as much approbation from you, as the former. It has cost the editor much pains & trouble. If it answers no other purpose, it will be of considerable service to future historians. Your obt. hble servt MHi : Adams Papers.
19496To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 24 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have great need of the indulgence so kindly extended to me in your favor of Dec. 25. of permitting me to answer your friendly letters at my leisure. my frequent and long absences from home are a first cause of tardiness in my correspondence, and a 2d the accumulation of business during my absence, some of which imperiously commands first attentions. I am now in arrear to you for your letters...
19497From John Adams to Mathew Carey, 25 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the reduction of the Price of the copies of the first Edition of the “Sketches” And I now thank for the two volumes of the Naval history. The arrangement is improved, and the same chaste simplicity is preserved. I cannot however but wish, that the elegant and masterly Biographia and the social Feasts might be preserved in some reputable collection. My reverend neighbour Dr....
19498From John Adams to Thomas Clark, 25 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your polite and obliging letter of the 17th and for the Copy in two volumes of the Naval History of the United States and for the several Copies of your Proposals for publishing A History of the United States. The plan is ample and judicious, and I wish you every encouragement in the execution of it. Mr. Trumbull of Connecticut has published a general history of this Country. I...
19499From John Adams to Richard Rush, 26 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
If I may judge of others by myself, Mr Hay had no cause of Apprehension that he Should be tedious: for when I had read the first page I could not lay aside the book till I had read the last. I know not when I have Seen a discussion of any legal or political question pursued with So dispassionate a temper, or written with more perspicuity, Accuracy or luminous Arrangement. The Author is Master...
19500To John Adams from Mathew Carey, 26 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
By this day’s mail I forward you a Set of the Naval History, which I request You will place in your library, as a mark of respect & esteem from / Your obt. hble servt. I send a Copy for Capt Marston P.S. I have much alarmed myself respecting the probability of a separation of the states. My friends generally are tranquil on the subject. This does not allay my fears. Will you be so good to...
19501From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 30 January 1814 (Adams Papers)
Yours of 14th are here. You must take hints: I cannot write Letters. Half recovered from a former Illness, the fine sleighing tempted me to Boston where I ran about in Irons and got a relapse and I can Scarcely hold Pen. Mrs A is recovered. The great Mr Mead, before Becker advanced the Doctrine which his grandson and Farmer pursued, But Enoch and Jude and Paul, and Calvin and Milton, and...
19502From John Adams to Richard Rush, January 1814 (Adams Papers)
When I meet The beattified Spirit I Shall Say to him, with our mutual frankness, “Sir you ought to have added two Chapters to your last Work; one upon Possessions, and another upon Dreams.” In the first, You you should have examined all that has been written by the great Mr Mead, by the little Doctor Mead, and by the learned Hugh Farmer, about Dæmons, Dæmoniacs, and Dæmoniacal Possessions: and...
19503To John Adams from Thomas McKean, January 1814 (Adams Papers)
In your favor of the 26th. Novembert last you say, “that you ventured to say, that about a third of the people of the Colonies were against the Revolution.” It required much reflection before I could fix my opinion on this subject, but on mature deliberation I conclude you are right, and that more than a third of influencial characters were against it. The opposition consisted chiefly of the...
19504To John Adams from John M. Carter, 1 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
We take the liberty to send you by mail a copy of Arator, written by Col. John Taylor of Caroline Va.—We do this from having been lately favored by him with an extract from a letter of yours to him concerning this treatise on Agriculture, in which you express a desire to purchase the book but know not where to apply for it—This is the only copy we have unsold from a large edition as you will...
19505From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 2 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
I send you a curiosity. Mr M Kean, is mistaken in a day or two, the final vote of Independence, after the last debate, was passed on the 2nd or third of July, and the declaration prepared, and signed on the 4th: What are we to think of history? when in less than 40 years, such diversities appear in the memories of living persons, who were witnesses. After noting what you please, I pray you to...
19506From John Adams to Mathew Carey, 3 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of Jan 26 is received, and a shower of obligations with it, before it, and after it, which demand my best Thanks, Mr. Marstons Copy I sent to him by his Son the Midshipman, to whom I gave one of my Copies. The elegant Copy you sent me Shall be placed upon my choicest shelf to be used only by me and my little Embryo Midshipman Isaac Hull, after me, who is yet 8 months old. Comfort...
19507To John Adams from Thomas Clark, 3 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have received your kind letter of the 25th. January. I am pleased that my undertaking has met your approbation, & sincerely thank you for your patronage. I lament your indisposition, & hope it may be of short duration. You mentioned Mr. Trumbull’s general history of the U.S. It is a very good compend, but not more. The only volume yet published commences with the discovery of America & ends...
19508To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 5 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
Being now pretty free from headache, I will indulge myself in the pleasure, to cheer mÿ depressed spirits, in answering your favour of the 4th. inst; not that I can promise myself the Satisfaction, of sending you any thing much interesting, but to convince you, if it could be wanted, how highlÿ I value everÿ line from your hand. Theÿ are the onlÿ remaining marks of affectionate esteem of a...
19509To John Adams from Richard Rush, 7 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
Mr Hay is the son in law of Mr Munroe, and the day after I received your last favor I took the liberty to read a passage from it to the latter. This morning he requested of me an extract of it to send to Mr Hay, saying that he knew how highly it would gratify him. I ha ve cheerfully consented. Thus, Sir, while your kind correspondence is a source of pleasure and of pride to me, I make it also...
19510To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 9 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
Fill the glass to the brim—and empty it till the last drop—now you rejoice with your friend on the reëstablished ancient Dutch Government—My friends rule once more—The Almighty make them prosper, and confound their enemies, and humble them in the dust. was John Adams now America’s President I would beg him, how ungracefully I may beg, to send me immediately on an extraordinary mission—to...
19511To John Adams from Mercy Otis Warren, 12 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
The sudden death of a very amiable Grand–Son, has involved myself and family in such deep affliction, as prevents me from replying, as I intended this day, to the last mark, of your kind attention, dated the Second Instt.—I thought it my duty to return Governor Mc.Kean’s letter immediately, as requested.—By your permission I took the liberty to have it copied, and may observe upon it, when I...
19512From John Adams to John M. Carter, 15 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of Feb 1, and a copy of Mr Taylors Arator. Your draught its price, shall be honoured at sight. and I should like to pay for a copy of the second edition at the same time. I have been waiting a long time, with some impatience for the communication & publication of Mr Taylors great work upon Aristocracy. I should be glad to pay for that work handsomely but at the same...
19513From John Adams to Richard Rush, 16 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
I perceive by your Letter of the 7th. that Mr Hay is married to a beautiful little girl, that I once Saw in Philadelphia, at her Fathers Apartments when She was not more than three or four years old. Before I proceed farther I must congratulate you on your transmigration. The Office of Att. Gen. must be more congenial, less confined and more liberal than that of Controuler. But your...
19514From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 19 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
Yours of the 5th. and 9th are received. My Eyes and my hands forbid every unnecessary Word. I have read Lardner and Jones; the latter 50 Years ago, and twice Sinse; the last time within a year. They both give Us their opinion but not proofs. They take for granted the Authenticity of Gospels Acts Epistles and Apocalypse, and then produce them as Witnesses. Sillimans Stones are not So...
19515From John Adams to William Adams, 23 February 1814 (Adams Papers)
My late neighbour Mr Caleb Hayden has presented me in your name some handsome wheat of the growth of your estate, and of a peculiar species, reputed to be less susceptible of blast, than any other as yet tried in this Country. I hold myself under much obligation to you Sir, for this kind attention and pray you to accept my best thanks; If I live I shall cultivate the wheat, by way of...
19516From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, February 1814 to 3 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
I was nibbling my pen and brushing my Faculties, to write a polite Letter of Thanks to Mr Counsellor Barton for his valuable Memoirs of Dr Rittenhouse though I could not account for his Sending it to me; when I received your favour of Jan. 24th. I now most cordially indorse my Thanks over to you. The Book is in the modern American Style an able imitation of Marshalls Washington, though far...
19517To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 1 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
I Should have yet delay’d further to answer your favour of the 30th of Jan: accompanying Condorcet’s had I not received your Second Summons of Febr. 19. What Shall I plea in defence but, peccari Pater! and yet—if I tell you the cause—which lureth me to Sin; you will I know mitigate the punishment. Not head: ache—although I was not free from it, but, the wish to answer the desire of a few...
19518To John Adams from Alexander Hill Everett, 9 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
I take the liberty of sending you a republication in the pamphlet form, of a series of papers essays that were published in one of the papers in this town during the Session of the legislature. They were prompted by a sincere conviction that the tranquillity and Union of the Country were really in danger and that every good citizen was bound to make such efforts as lay in his power, however...
19519To John Adams from Timothy Alden, 10 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
As my American Biography will contain sundry genealogical lists, executed with considerable minuteness, it will afford me pleasure and gratification to many to see the list of your ancestors and family in the same work—. If agreeable to you to cause the enclosed to be filled up so far as may be practicable and transmitted to me, at the city of New York, I shall then be able to execute my...
19520From John Adams to Alexander Hill Everett, 14 March 1814 (Adams Papers)
If I did not feel “the faintness of declining days” if my eyes could see and my hands be steady; I would write you a long letter on the subject of your Remarks on the Governors speech and the preface to them. But I can now only thank you for the pamphlet and express my approbation of it. If you should live to be an octogenarian as I hope you will, you will know by experience, the delight that...