33511779. April 22nd. Thursday. (Adams Papers)
Yesterday Morning, embarked at Nantes, with Mr. Hill, the first Lieutenant, and Mr. Parks, who is Captain of Marines, and my Son. We stopped and dined at Portlaunay, after Dinner crossed over to Pelerine Le Pellerin , where We went to the House of a Mr. Char-michael, a Scotch Man who lives by salting Beef and making Bacon for the Navigation of this River. This Man I suppose was a Jacobite who...
3352[September 1783] (Adams Papers)
This Morning, I went out to Passy, and Dr. Franklin put into my hand the following Resolution of Congress, which he received last night, vizt., By the United States in Congress assembled, May 1. 1783. on the Report of a Committee, to whom was referred a Letter of Feb. 5 from the Honble. J. Adams. Ordered that a Commission be prepared to Mess rs . John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay,...
3353[Saturday March 30. 1776.] (Adams Papers)
Saturday March 30. 1776. Ditto.
3354From John Adams to Jonathan Sewall, February 1760 (Adams Papers)
I am very willing to join with you, in renouncing the Reasoning of some of our last Letters. There is but Little Pleasure, which Reason can approve to be received from the Noisy applause, and servile Homage that is paid to any Officer from the Lictor to the Dictator, or from the sexton of a Parish to the sovereign of a Kingdom: And Reason will despize equally, a blind undistinguishing...
3355From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 11 June 1822 (Adams Papers)
Half an hour ago I received, and this moment have heard read, for the 3d. or 4th. time, the best letter that ever was written by an Octogenarian, dated June the first. It is so excellent that I am under an almost invincible temptation to commit a breach of trust by lending it to a printer. My Son Thomas Boylston—says it would be worth $500—to any Newspaper in Boston—But I dare not betray your...
3356Adams’ Minutes of the Arbitration: Boston, October 1769 (Adams Papers)
Silvanus Snow and Amos Knowles. Captains. Have been long acquainted with the Customs of Whaling. If A. strikes a Whale, and B. puts in a 2nd. Iron upon a Call or Swing, from A. or otherwise and A’s Iron draws, the Whale is in the Possession of A. the first striker. Knowles to the Mateship and Value of the Whale. Gamaliel and Barzillai Smith. It was the Custom 1765 at Streights of Bellisle,...
3357From John Adams to John Lowell, 15 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
In the distresses and confusions of my family I saw not your address from yourself till yesterday I had read it on its first publication. It is full of information instructive to the Farmers of this Country elegantly written and perfectly adapted to the occasion on which it was delivered. Accept the sincere of your obliged / humble Servant MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
3358From John Adams to Adriaan Pieterszoon Loosjes, 11 September 1782 (Adams Papers)
The Evening of the Second, I had the Pleasure of receiving from you, a most elegant Present in a Volume intitled “Gedenkzuil ter Gelegenheid der Vry—Verklaaring Van Noord America.” It is indeed “Monumentum aere perennius.” The Connection formed between your Country, Sir and mine is an Event of So much Importance to both Nations, and will have Consequences So extensive in the political System...
3359From John Adams to United States Senate, 3 January 1800 (Adams Papers)
I nominate John Cassin, of Pennsylvania, to be a Lieutenant in the Navy. John W Whidbie, of Virginia, to be a Lieutenant in the Navy. Richard H. Lee Lawson, of Virginia, to be a Lieutenant in the Navy. Benjamin Champney, of New Jersey, to be a Surgeon in the Navy. Samuel R Marshall, of Pennsylvania, to be a Surgeon in the Navy. Charles Harris, of Maryland, to be a Surgeon’s mate, in the Navy....
3360John Adams to Abigail Adams, 21 September 1776 (Adams Papers)
Yours of Septr. 9. I have received. Septr. 5. I sent you another Cannister by Mr. Hare. I have only Time to tell you I am not worse in Health than I have been. Where are your new Delegates? None arrived here yet. Our People are as lazy and slothfull, as Congress. LbC ( Adams Papers ). 7 Sept. , above; see note 1 on that letter. The General Court during its session of Sept.–Oct. 1776 took no...
3361John Adams to the president of Congress, 5 July 1784 (Adams Papers)
Having been obliged to come to Holland, the Beginning of this Year to obtain Money, to prevent M r Morriss Bills from being protested, I have remained here untill this Time, in Expectation of receiving the further Commands of Congress. From the Resolution of the 1. of May 1783 and from many private Letters, I expected that a Commission would have arrived to the late Ministers at the Peace, to...
3362John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 24 August 1794 (Adams Papers)
In its due time, I received your Letter from Philadelphia of the 27. of July. Although, in the Opinion of The Secretary of State, the Mission to Holland may be “almost exclusively reduced to a pecuniary Negotiation,” yet, in the Opinion of others among whom your father is one, the Post at the Hague is an important Diplomatick Station, which may afford many opportunities of acquiring political...
3363John Adams to Abigail Adams 2d, 14 April 1783 (Adams Papers)
By this time, I hope, your inclination to travel has abated, and the prospect of peace has made you more contented with your native country. You little know the difficulties of a voyage to Europe, even in time of profound peace. The elements are as unstable in peace as in war, and a sea life is never at first agreeable, nor ever without danger. In foreign countries few persons preserve their...
3364John Adams to Abigail Adams, 26 August 1777 (Adams Papers)
Howes Army, at least about 5000 of them besides his Light Horse, are landed, upon the Banks of the Elke River, and the Disposition he has made of his Forces, indicate a Design to rest and refresh both Men and Horses. General Washington was at Wilmington last Night, and his Army is there to day. The Militia are turning out with great Alacrity both in Maryland and Pensilvania. They are...
3365From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 1 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
I congratulate you on the new acquaintences you have made. Madam de Stael and Sir Francis D’Ivernois are illustrious personages who will make a figure in history; a more splendid figure, that I can expect; or even than you can hope. Madam I never had the honor to see. With her handsome Lord I have enjoyed many a diplomatic dinner sometimes at his own hotel, and if I was not mistaken he had...
3366From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 26 April 1780 (Adams Papers)
Your’s of the 22d have just recieved. I wrote You a Line the 22d. Am happy to find that We agree so well in Opinion concerning the Equity of the Russian Negotiation. If that Court had gone farther, and endeavoured to abolish the whole doctrine of Contraband, excepting in Case of Siege, I should have thought it a beneficial Improvement in the Law of Nations. I can’t see, that because two...
3367To Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 31 January 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received from our old Acquaintance D’Ivernois the inclosed Volume for you in the Course of the last Week. I consider all Reasoning upon French affairs of little moment. The Fates must determine hereafter as they have done heretofore. Reasoning has been all lost—Passion, Prejudice, Interest, Necessity has governed and will govern; and a Century must roll away before any permanent and...
3368[November] 1760. (Adams Papers)
Pater was in a very sociable Mood this Evening. He told 3 or 4 merry stories of old Horn. Old Horn, a little crooked old Lawyer in my fathers Youth, who made a Business of Jest and Banter, attacked an old Squaw one Day upon the Neck. The old Squaw made answer, “You poor smitten Boy, you with your Knife in your Tail and your Loaf on your Back, did your Mother born you so?” A Man, whom he...
3369From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 31 January 1821 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your letter of the 31st. as well as for that from New York—I have been reduced so low in health that I have not been able to write answers to letters as I used to—Your letter to Claudious was sent to him, as soon as it was received—I have long been anxious for your Mother—presuming her to be unwell—And rejoice in her Convalescence— I am impatient to hear Your admiration of the...
3370From John Adams to Jean Luzac, 15 October 1780 (Adams Papers)
I have only, Time, at present to request of you, to let me know whether, “the Pamphlet” is printed. You gave me hopes it would be out last Week but I hear nothing of it. When it is done I should be glad to have a dozen or two of them, for which I should be glad to pay, upon the Receipt of them. I am Sir with much respect, your humble servant LbC ( Adams Papers ). Pensées sur la révolution de...
3371From John Adams to William Hindman, 22 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have received your kind letter of April 24 th —recommending Gustavus Scott Esq r for employment in the Law Department— The President is you know in the first Instance the sole Judge of the Persons proper to be nominated to officer When the Nomination is made the Senate have a Negative but the Vice President has no Voice excepting in the case of an equal division of the Senators— There are...
337227 Wednesday. (Adams Papers)
At Colledge. A Clowdy morning. Afternoon, together with Lock, took a ride to Watertown-Bridge and from thence round through Brookline Back to Colledge again. Samuel Locke (1732–1778) , of Lancaster, Harvard 1755, later minister at Sherborn and, from 1770 to 1773, a most ill-fated president of Harvard College ( Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates John Langdon Sibley and Clifford K. Shipton,...
3373From John Adams to William Tudor, 11 March 1777 (Adams Papers)
Yours of the 7th. instant, I just received. Am glad to find the Post begins to do its Duty, and that Intelligence, is like to be more regular. I doubt, whether the Enemy have at Amboy and Brunswick So many as near 10,000 Men. But are they not posted in Smaller Numbers at other Places? Cannot these Places be attacked or Surprised? We must continually harrass them. As to their marching to...
3374Ap. 26. Monday. (Adams Papers)
Spent the Morning in translating with my Son the Carmen Seculare, and the Notes. There is a Feebleness and a Languor in my Nature. My Mind and Body both partake of this Weakness. By my Physical Constitution, I am but an ordinary Man. The Times alone have destined me to Fame —and even these have not been able to give me, much. When I look in the Glass, my Eye, my Forehead, my Brow, my Cheeks,...
3375[April 4. 1776.] (Adams Papers)
April 4. 1776. We did great Things again. Agreable to the order of the Day, the Congress resolved itself into a Committee of the whole to take into Consideration the Trade of the United Colonies, and after some time spent thereon, the President resumed the Chair and Mr. Harrison reported that the Committee had taken into Consideration the matters referred to them and had come to sundry...
3376John Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
You will See by the Proclamation in the Public Papers that I have been obliged to convene Congress on the 15 th of May, and as it is probable they will Sitt till the Middle of July, this measure must make an entire change in all our Arrangements There are so many Things to do in furnishing the House in which I want your Advice, and on so many other Accounts it is improper We should live in a...
3377From John Adams to John Taylor, 7 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
In the third page of your “Inquiry”, is an Assertion, which Mr. Adams has a right to regret as a gross and egregious misrepresentation. He cannot believe it to have been intentional. He imputes it to haste; to ardor of temper; to defect of memory; to any thing, rather than design. It is in these Words, Mr. Adams asserts, “that every Society naturally produces, an order of Men, which it is...
33781760. Decr. 1st. Monday. (Adams Papers)
I am beginning a Week and a month, and I arose by the Dawning of the Day. And by sun rise had made my fire and read a number of Pages in Bolinbroke. Tuesday and Wednesday passed, without reading any Law. There are no further entries in D/JA/4, JA ’s record of studies, until 27 Jan. 1761 .
3379From John Adams to Benjamin Stoddert, 19 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
I received your letter of July fourth by Mr. Hudson, & immediately signed & delivered his commission & sent him down to the Ship. The ship has been three days detained by dead calms & contrary winds. She has fallen down as far as she could & will sail at the first fair breeze. MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
3380From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have been employed for a month or six weeks in hard labour to save you trouble. I have ransacked chests, trunks, boxes, bureaus, chests of drawers, escritouirs, or in fewer words, every hole & corner, from the basement story to the cockloft, in search of manuscript books & papers, and in course I have been obliged to break open locks whose key’s were lost and destroy every thing that lay in...
3381From John Adams to Henry Colman, 5 August 1819 (Adams Papers)
I received the first Volume of the Defence in perfect order, several mails before your polite letter which was intended to accompany it arrived—I now send you the fourth Volume of the Defence, under the Title of Discourses on Davila.—as this Volume is out of print, and I have no other Copy—and as in this is are contained in many manuscrips notes in the margin of my own—I pray you to return it...
3382From John Adams to Samuel Allyne Otis, 21 November 1800 (Adams Papers)
The President asks the favour of the Secretary of the Senate to furnish him with an Attested Copy of the Presidents Message to the senate of the 18 of February 1799, nominating William Vans Murray to be Minister Plenitentiary to the French Republick, and a Copy of the communication accompanying it. Also an Attested Copy of the Presidents Message of the 25 of Feb. 1799. nominating Oliver...
3383From John Adams to Benjamin Stoddert, 9 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for yours of the 3d and Capt Fletchers letter inclosed in it. I wish as you do that the trade to St Domingo may turn out to be worth the cost To speak in the style of a Frenchman I have never felt any very sublime enthusiasm on that subject. If ten merchantmen are expected at St Domingo from France it is ten thousand pitties that our cruisers have not authority to avail themselves...
3384[July 1784] (Adams Papers)
I have not been able to write a line since Monday when a North east Storm came on and held till Wednesday Mor’g. It was with the utmost difficulty that we could set or lie only by holding by each other with our feet against a table braced with ropes, that we could keep up; and when in bed I was obliged to hold fast by the sides till my hands and wrists aked to keep in: only conceive a great...
3385From John Adams to United States Senate, 26 February 1801 (Adams Papers)
I nominate Edward William Tilghman Esqr of Pensylvania to be Chief Judge of the third circuit of the United States in the place of Jared Ingersoll Esqr., who for satisfactory reasons has declined his appointment DNA : RG 46—Records of the U.S. Senate.
33861784 [i.e. 1804]. Aug. (Adams Papers)
The last Week in August We ploughed a ditch and brought the Earth into the Yard and 32 loads of Mud from the Cove.
3387[11–13 July 1778] (Adams Papers)
July 11. 1778 We have had the honour of your Excellencys Letter of the Fifth Instant relative to Captain Jones, and We redily consent that he should be at your Excellencys disposition and shall be happy if his Services may be in any respect Usefull to the designs your Excellency may have in Contemplation. We have the honour to be with the greatest respect, your Excellency’s &c. The Letter to...
3388[Braintree and Boston, 1771–1773] (Adams Papers)
The complicated Cares of my legal and political Engagements, the slender Diet to which I was obliged to confine myself, the Air of the Town of Boston which was not favourable to me who had been born and passed allmost all my life in the Country; but especially the constant Obligation to speak in public almost every day for many hours, had exhausted my health, brought on a Pain in my Breast and...
3389From John Adams to James Warren, 18 March 1777 (Adams Papers)
There is a Part of your Letter of 22 of Feb. which I did not remark upon in a Letter I wrote this Afternoon and Sent to the Post Office. It relates to our Navy, a Subject which has ever lain near my Heart. It is of the last and highest Importance to Us. If there has been any Negligence, in the marine Department, I am Sorry for it: I have heard continual Complaints for a great while: But...
33901778. Feb. 18. Wednesday. (Adams Papers)
Last night, about Sunsett We sailed out of Marblehead Harbour, and have had a fine Wind, from that time to this, 24. Hours. The constant Rolling and Rocking of the Ship, last night made Us all sick —half the Sailors were so. My young Gentlemen, Jesse and Johnny, were taken about 12 O Clock last night and have been very seasick ever since. I was seized with it myself this Forenoon. My Servant...
3391From John Adams to United States Senate, 21 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
I nominate William Linton of Virginia, to be Collector and Inspector of the Customs for the District of Dumfries and Newport, in the place of David Wilson Scott resigned DNA : RG 46—Records of the U.S. Senate.
3392From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 January 1786 (Adams Papers)
I have rec d yours of the 12, but Yesterday, and wish it were in my Power to order the Interest due to the French Officers to be paid: but it is not.— They must remain unpaid, be the Consequence what it may untill Congress or the Board of Treasury order it. indeed, I dont know how your Subsistence & mine is to be paid after next month.— M r Grand will be likely to advance yours, but from...
3393From John Adams to Benjamin Franklin, 29 April 1779 (Adams Papers)
I had, Yesterday, the Honour of yours of the 24th inclosing a Letter from his Excellency M. de Sartine, expressing his Majestys Desire that the Alliance Should be retained here a little longer. As my Baggage was on board, and every Appearance promised that We should be under Sail in three or four days for America, in a fine ship and the best Month in the Year, this Intelligence, I confess, is...
3394John Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 31 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
I am very much concerned, least you as well as your Brother, should think hard of me, for neglecting so long to write to you, but the multiplied Cares and engagements of Life added to indifferent health must plead my Excuse M r: Murray is to take the place of your Brother, and M r. Dandridge is to be his private Secretary, your brother will go to Lisbon, and you I hope will return to...
3395John Adams to Cotton Tufts, 30 June 1776 (Adams Papers)
Your Favour of the 17th. I received by Yesterdays Post. Am much obliged, to you for your judicious Observations of the Spirit of Com merce and Privateering, and many other Subjects, which I have not Time to consider, at present. I mean to express my Sentiments of them in this Letter. You tell me a Plan is forming for immediately erecting a Foundery. I wish you would oblige me so much as to...
3396From John Adams to Timothy Pickering, 20 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have your favor of the 13th received only last night. I sent you lately Mr. Listons two letters with one from Govenor Miflin & a copy from chief justice McKean. I will not comment on the letters of Mr. Liston nor examine whether all his sentiments are just or politick. But I heartily reprobate the outrage on the British government in violating the seals of its accredited minister to the...
3397John Adams to Abigail Adams, 21 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have not yet seen the Work from whence the inclosed Extracts were made. A set is on the Road, a Present from the Friend of Man, to me. Meantime a Friend at a Distance who has a Set has sent me these Extracts. They are worth printing in the Gazette, not to gratify the Vanity of an Individual so much as for the noble Testimony of a Character so much respected as that of Mr. Hollis in favour of...
3398From John Adams to Peleg Wadsworth, 28 October 1798 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favor of the 19th and have accepted the service of the Portland federal volunteers & written to the Secretary at War to send them their commissions without loss of time. With great esteem and regard I have the / honor to be Sir your most obedient & / humble servant MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
3399From John Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 18 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your pretty little letter of October 3rd., mongrel as it is, part English, part French, has diverted me much. I have ran about here, & there, and every where, with delight especially to Auteuil. But my good boy you have many voyages & Journeys to perform, before you can trace all the residences of your vagrant Grand Father. You must go to the Rue de Richlieu to Passy, & to the place de...
34001771. Feby. 12. (Adams Papers)
At a Time, when the Barriers against Popery, erected by our Ancestors, are suffered to be destroyed, to the hazard even of the Protestant Religion: When the system of the civil Law which has for so many Ages and Centuries, been withstood by the People of England, is permitted to become fashionable: When so many Innovations are introduced, to the Injury of our Constitution of civil Government:...