2251From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
By your Letter I was glad to find it was only the agitation occasioned by extraordinary, & unexpected events which prevented your usual kindness of writing, & not your own; or family’s Sickness—We were brought almost to the depths of dispair respecting Peace, & the sudden assurance of it, was like the blaze of meridian day, without the twilight— My fears now are that, like Jeshuran we shall...
2252From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 5 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
Last week I received your kind and affectionate Letter of 25. 27. February—which had been destined for France, but the vessel on board of which it was, being taken and sent into Plymouth, the Gentleman who was the bearer of your letter, (his name has not come to my knowledge) was released as a Non Combattant , and they were forwarded to me by the Mail. Your letter of previous date—25. January...
As this is probably the last opportunity I shall have to write you I sieze it with avidity, and hope notwithstanding the failure of our negociations, that some favorable circumstance may occur, which will render the communication more frequent, and more safe. Our prospects are dreadful, and I see no end to our banishment, unless some miracle should release us from our present difficulties. I...
2254From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 17 September 1810 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Jones arrived here from Gothenburg & Stockholm a few days since, and brought me your kind favour of 11. July—in two months time from its date—Indeed we Since our arrival here, you have been the most frequent and most constant of my Correspondents–I have no Letter from my brother later than Febuary; though I know that he has written at least one that I have not received.—Captain Bainbridge,...
2255From William Allen to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter of the 11th, with the enclosed sermons, & communication of your late brother in law, Judge Cranch,—& for your condescension in writing to me & in imparting information so acceptable I beg leave to return you my most cordial thanks.—The facts, which you have communicated, will contribute to improve the second edition of a work, compiled almost entirely without...
2256From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 8 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
We wait with much anxiety for Letters, to reassure us on account of your health; although the last accounts were highly favorable, for which I am indebted to my old and valuable friend Harriet Welsh, we yet cannot feel perfectly satisfied, until we are assured under your own hand, of your complete restoration to the blessing of health. I am at last enabled to answer your questions concerning...
2257From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
I hope my Dear Sister’s Fibres are not so relaxed by the late intense heat of the weather, as not to be able to hold a Pen, & by her communications inform, comfort, & eddify her anxious Sister, & Friends—I was agreeably supprized by receiving two very kind letters from our good Brother Cranch, since my return to Atkinson—They gave me a very gratifying account of our dear Sister’s gradual...
2258From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 February 1805 (Adams Papers)
I received your two kind letters a few days since and was much affected by the account of poor Louisa’s illness and the dreadful misfortune which has befallen Mr. Smith and family our much esteem’d friends. too well am I enabled by sad experience to participate in their affliction on my first entrance into what is called the world I learnt this painful lesson and though I was shielded from the...
2259From Benjamin Waterhouse to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 May 1813 (Adams Papers)
It is with some degree of mortification that I have to inform you, that I have not been able to get that extract of a letter from your son inserted in the Patriot, without submitting it to certain curtailments, & alterations, to suit with the notions of the party; and without omitting entirely that last paragraph which speaks of the disasters of the French army.— I yesterday withdrew the...
2260From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 April 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have your Letter of the 12th. inst, I lament that the delay of my answers should have excited unpleasant sensations, the circumstances from whence it sprung, were out of my controul— They however furnished the young Gentleman with an opportunity of expressing his solicitude, and has finally thus far progressed as you express yourself to your satisfaction, and that it does so, adds to my...
2261From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 26 July 1809 (Adams Papers)
I am rejoiced to hear that you, & my niece got home safe. Such little excursions are really advantageous to our Health—We require some relief from the same round of cares, & objects. Though I have often found myself fatigued at the time, yet the Friendship & cordiality of my Friends, has proved the balm of Life, & very beneficial to my health & spirits— To your kind enquiries after my Abbys...
2262From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
By every vessel that has arrived for several months from America, and which we should have expected to bring letters for us, we receive, instead of letters, apologies for not writing, because we were thought to be on our passage home—You only have foreseen the contingency which has actually happened, that we might be detained over the present Winter, and you only continue to give us some...
2263From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 July 1816 (Adams Papers)
As the week comes round, the Sunday Newspaper reminds me of the despatch to be made up for Quincy; but the pressure of business and of dissipation equally indispensable has not for many weeks left me an hour, for writing to you. I have now scarcely a moment to acknowledge the receipt of your favours of 5. and of 20. May. which I have had more than a Month; and to which I hope to be at some...
2264From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 December 1813 (Adams Papers)
My social Spirit, which often nightly “me revisits,” has been so busy, & importunate of late as to deprive me of the tranquilizing effect of Sleep, wafting me to the Bed of langour & Sickness, & had impressed my mind so powerfully, that I should hear some of my Family were sick, that when I received your Letter to Day, I opened with the hand of tremulous anxiety my Dear Sister’s kind assurance...
2265From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 2 June 1810 (Adams Papers)
Your very kind and welcome letter arrived yesterday and completely reanimated my frame which was almost congeal’d by the intense cold of these frozen regions it is now June and only the day before yesterday we had a Snow storm I verily believe my dear Mother had not the electric shock which the very unexpected good news your ever watchful kindness sent me us to cheer our painful exile from...
2266From Elizabeth Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 14 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
It would be injustice in me not to return an immediate Answer to your letter, and its important Contents.—Your Opinion upon every Subject I have ever highly respected, but pardon me if I say upon this One you have err’d.—The Gentleman mentioned I esteem for his own personal Merit,—and as the chosen friend of my much lov’d Cousin I shall Continue to regard him.—And I fervently wish his future...
2267From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 June 1813 (Adams Papers)
I was much instructed by the letters you were so good as to forward me from Russia, I wish the writer of them was nearer to us, our great men, however great they are, want aid, they want vigour and decission, the war has assumed a Character that they appear not to have calculated upon—here are laying 140 peices of heavy artillery and not a carriage to mount them upon—this place is totally void...
2268From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 January 1810 (Adams Papers)
An occasion now offering to write you I sieze it with the utmost pleasure to inform you of our health which has hitherto withstood the severe shocks of a Russian Winter—I wish I could inform you of our comfortable establishment but I much fear that is fa r ther of than ever and we must submit to all the disagreeables of a Russian Hotel which are indescribable you can form no idea of the morals...
2269From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 March 1813 (Adams Papers)
My last letter to you, dated 27. February, acknowledged the receipt of your favour of 29. July the latest letter I have from America, and which you mention in it was to be forwarded by Mr. B. Beale junr. I have now an opportunity to write by Mr. Plummer, a young man who has been here several years, as an Agent of Coll. Thorndike—He himself belongs to Salem, and as he intends returning as...
2270From James Monroe to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 September 1818 (Adams Papers)
I declind answering your letter, untill I could obtain some details, which were material, in relation to its object. The interest, which you take, in favor of persons a family, with whom you are so closely connected, & with whose merit, you are so well acquainted, commands my great high respect & warm approbation, and it would give me much great satisfaction, if circumstances permitted, an...
2271From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 June 1808 (Adams Papers)
I received your kind letter, with the sum enclosed for Mr Little. Butter has, since yours was engaged, fallen to fifteen Cents pr pd—but we have had none yet, under a shilling—It is very mortifying to the Farmers to bring their produce so many miles, & have to take a quarter less than they expected—An high price, has for many years sweetened their Labour—& their heavy toils have been lightend,...
2272From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 2 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your kind letter of the 2 September was delivered to me the day before yesterday, conveying the melancholy intelligence of the loss my poor Sister had sustained; my heart bleeds for her, for too well I know the pangs she must have experienced, and though time has and religion have soothed the excessive agony I endured under the same circumstance, memory still recalls the painful recollection...
2273From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 13 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
Thanks be to kind Providence we are all alive though the cold Tuesday our blood seemed congealing, & it was hard for me to respire—I do not know as I ever felt more thankful, than when the rigor of the weather abated—but we have still severe cold of long continuance—as the quantity of Snow makes the air more pungent; I suppose we feel the cold much more than you at Quincy for the Snow is over...
2274From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
Yesterdays mail conveyed me your kind Letter, which convinced me you had experienced those solid pleasures in your late visit to your early Friends, which I had anticipated for you. How happy, & how pleasant, when the Lamp of Life, holds out to burn, even to four score years, that the mind retains its Vigor, & is the brightest Luminary!—In such a case, “Old-age is desirable,” & grey Hairs, is...
2275From Hendrick W. Gordon to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honor to write me the 14th inst. Immediately after I was informd that a report was in circulation, that Mr J Q A. had written his father that the war in which we are engaged, was unjust & unnecessary, I wrote my friend Mr Calhoun, to pay no attention to such a report ( if such an one should reach Washington ) ’till he heard from me again, adding, that...
2276From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 25 January 1817 (Adams Papers)
Scarcely a day now passes, without the arrival of vessels from the United States; but they are principally from New York or more Southern Ports—The failure of the Harvests in this Country has much contributed to their frequency. Two years ago the British Parliament made a Law, to raise the price of Bread; having discovered that if that first necessary of life should be cheap, the Country would...
2277From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 April 1816 (Adams Papers)
We are waiting with great anxiety to hear again from Quincy, and pray that they may bring us favourable accounts of your health—We have none later than of 19. February, which came by the New Packet, and which were received nearly a Month since. Mr and Mrs Tarbell are gone with Mr: and Mrs O. Everett, and Captain Stuart to France. We have a constant succession of our Countrymen coming and...
2278From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, 23 July 1813 (Adams Papers)
Our mutual Friend Mrs Cushing called upon me a few days since and informed me that she expects you at Scituate in a short time.— Have you not in contemplation a design to extend your rout as far as Plymouth? I need not say it would give me great pleasure to see you, here before Mrs Smith can rationally be expected at Quincy. I most sincerely wish she may safely arrive there in due season, and...
2279From Thomas Jefferson to John Quincy Adams, 31 December 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson requests the favour of Mr. & Mrs. Adams. to dine with him on Saturday the 4th. Jany. at half after three. The favour of an answer is asked. MHi : Adams Papers.
2280From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 18 November 1808 (Adams Papers)
You my beloved Sisters, whose time is ever filled , with the various duties of Life, can more readily pardon me, for not sooner acquainting you how, & when I got home—Leaving a large family only for a few weeks, makes domestic Cares press hard, & my Boarders Cloatths got very much out of repair, in my absence, & the cold season, & thanksgiving advancing, made new, highly necessary, so that no...