2281From 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...
2282From 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...
2283From 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...
2284From 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...
2285From 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...
2286From 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...
2287From 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...
2288From 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...
2289From 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...
2290From 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,...
2291From 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...
2292From 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...
2293From 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...
2294From 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...
2295From 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...
2296From 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...
2297From 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...
2298From 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.
2299From 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...
2300From John Pope to Abigail Smith Adams, 20 July 1817 (Adams Papers)
I am one of the Trustees of the Trasylvania University, and on that account have to request the favour of you to give me in detail as correct a view as you can of the moral habits, literary attainments, and religious tenets, of Docr. Holly—Is. he a Christian? Does he deny the divinity of Jesus Christ? That is does he believe Jesus Christ to be merely an inspired man, or the Son of God in the...
2301From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
We have been many weeks without receiving a line from you, or from any of our friends at Quincy—Your last was of 8. January, and then remarked on the mildness of the Season on that side of the Atlantic; corresponding with that which had been experienced here—But here it continued through the Winter, and to this day we have scarcely been visited with frost or snow, while we hear that in your...
2302From Ann Frances Harrod Adams to John Adams, 20 June 1810 (Adams Papers)
When I take a retrospective view of the innumerable obligations which I owe you, not only as the revered Parents of my husband but as the kindest and best of friends, my heart expands with filial gratitude yet I know not how to attempt an expression of my feelings. After a residence of five years under your roof which has been endeared to me by some of the most interesting events of my life,...
2303From François Adriaan Van der Kemp to John Adams, 13 July 1814 (Adams Papers)
How was I delighted in Seing your handwriting on the Addres—I could not guess—it was a Letter—I did not expect one—although I was confident, that, if the State of your health had been worse, Cornelia Amelia would have deemed it her duty to Send me a line—You can guess—how I was delighted—when opening it—I Saw it was a Letter from my revered frend—I glanced over it, without looking at the...
2304From Abigail Smith Adams to Ann Frances Harrod Adams, 16 February 1806 (Adams Papers)
I expected to have heard from you by Mr Beal, but his comeing to dine yesterday with the club I presume prevented, the Snow has left us so far that we went in the carriage to meeting to day. We are all well, and wish to see you Dexter was in Town one day. I directed him to call, but he said the Town was so full, and so crouded that he could not leave his team; does mr Adams intend comeing out...
2305From Abigail Smith Adams to Ann Frances Harrod Adams, 13 September 1812 (Adams Papers)
It was not untill Saturday morning when I went to See my poor old domestic Pheby, that I learnt a word respecting my dear little Elizabeths Sickness—I carried up Abigail with to See you Supposing you had returnd, too much fatigued to call in the Evening. Inda then informd me that She heard by mr Saxon that She was very Sick. you may easily imagine how anxious I was untill mr Adams returnd in...
2306From Abigail Smith Adams to Ann Frances Harrod Adams, 7 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
Mrs Dexter went on Sunday morning to your House, as she promissed me she would on Saturday. the Children all dined with me on Sunday— I have had such a Succession of company yesterday and to day that I have not been able to get out untill this Evening, when I went up to See the children and found them all happy and at play, mrs Dexter at her spining wheel—I read her that part of your Letter...
2307From Abigail Smith Adams to Ann Frances Harrod Adams, 10 February 1809 (Adams Papers)
I will write you a line the first I have attempted, to tell you I am getting better I hope tho very slowly. I am very weak, and not a little anxious to hear how my dear Abigail is. sick as I have been I regret that she is from home, tho I doubt not you will receive every attention and kindness, but you must das assistance, and have a home, more particularly so in Sickness—as soon as you think...
2308From Abigail Smith Adams to Ann Frances Harrod Adams, 20 September 1806 (Adams Papers)
Having finishd my Farm House avocations I sit down to inquire how you are, and how my dear little Girl is after your journey. the fog of the morning I feard would prevent your Sitting out early, and make it late before you reachd the much longed for paternal Habitation. I could enter into all your sensations upon approaching it, and meeting again a kind and affectionate Mother after a long...
2309From Abigail Smith Adams to Ann Frances Harrod Adams, 17 May 1811 (Adams Papers)
I rode up to your house this morning to inquire how the Children were and heard that they were both well. dexter Slept there last night. I will Send George in with the chaise tomorrow, if mr Adams returns. George may come out in the Stage. If there Should be any Salmon to be had tomorrow and mr Foster would get me part of one, I will be much obliged to him—I should not like to give more than a...
2310From Abigail Smith Adams to Ann Frances Harrod Adams, July 1814 (Adams Papers)
I Sit down to thank you for your Letter yesterday received by the post, and to Say that I was much rejoiced to find you and my Son, in improved health & Spirits, and at the Same time to Say to you that, your Children are well. Thomas my particular Charge is very well and as good a Boy as I wish— gives me no trouble—Hull is finely—I have heard from him every day, and been twice to See him, and...