3961From John Adams to Timothy Pickering, 3 October 1798 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed is a Duplicate of a Letter from Miranda with some Estimates. Read it and think of it. A number of questions and considerations over . We are Friends with Spain. If We were Ennemies, would the Project be usefull to us.—It will not be in for me to answer the Letter. Will any Notice of it, in any manner be proper. I shall send it by Mr. Humphreys, with Mr. Gerrys Papers. I am &c. MHi :...
39621780 January 8. Saturday. (Adams Papers)
Rode from San Juan Segun, to Paredese de Nava. We have passed thro a Village every League. The Villages are all built of Mud and Straw. They have no Timber nor Wood nor Stone. The Villages all appear going to decay. Every Village has Churches and Convents enough in it, to ruin it, and the whole Country round about it, even if they had nothing to pay to the King or the Landlord. But all three...
3963From John Adams to Henry Guest, 5 September 1809 (Adams Papers)
Your Grand Daughter writes so beautiful a hand that you need not be at a loss for an Amanuensis. I have received your favour of the 25th of August and had before received in its Season that in which you explained the Word Dormant. I never took any offence at that Word but if I had your Explanation would have cleared all up. I hope Hamilton reported and was forgiven. And I wish the Same could...
3964[Shakespeare’s Characters and Figurative Language, October–December 1758.] (Adams Papers)
Shakespeare, in the Character of Lady Mackbeth, and of Gertrude, the Wife of old Hamlet, and afterwards of King Claudius, and in the Character of Lady Anne in King Richard, has shewn a sense of the Weakness of Woman’s Reason, and strength of their Passions. The Horror of both divine and Human Vengeance, that attends guilty minds is strongly represented in the Characters of Mackbeth and his...
3965From John Adams to J.B. Binon, 7 February 1819 (Adams Papers)
I have received your polite favour of the 3d: of this month. I am afraid that you are engaged in speculations that will never be profitable to you. The age of sculpture & painting have not yet arrived in this country and I hope it will not arrive very soon. Artists have done what they pleased with my face & eyes head & shoulders, stature & figure and they have made of them monsters as fit for...
3966From John Adams to William Phillips, Jr., 1 November 1819 (Adams Papers)
Mr John Marston has requested me to write your Honour on a Subject in which I am very sensible I have no colour of right or pretentions to interfere, and on which I am not qualified to form a judgement.— All that I can say is, that I was acquainted with his Father, who had been an Officer in the Conquest of Louisbourg in one thousand seven hundred and forty five, that Mr Marston was himself in...
39671772. Feby. 2d. Sunday. (Adams Papers)
Have omitted now for 3 months almost to keep any “Note of Time or of its Loss.” Thomas Newcomb dined with me. He says that Etter, the Stocking Weaver, told him about a fortnight ago, that he saw the Governor within these 3 Months, and told him, he hoped the People would be contented and easy now they had a Governor from among themselves. The Governor said, “there were some Discontents...
3968From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 6 May 1785 (Adams Papers)
My Son would go home, very improperly without a Letter to M rs Warren, whose Virtues and Accomplishments his Father has so long admired. The Time is at length come in which the United States of America are to have a Minister at the Court of Great Britain. a time foretold by the Prophets and Seers, and Dreamers of Dreams but never, untill very lately Stedfastly believed by any to be so near at...
3969From John Adams to John Vaughan, 25 September 1815 (Adams Papers)
I know not by what right or colour of right, I address you: but as the World agrees that you are Benevolence personified I presume upon that principle to introduce to you Mr Samuel Gilman, whose Accademical Education was in the Family of my beloved Sister, whose University Education was at Harvard Colledge, whose Genius has already exhibited very promising productions in verse and prose from...
3970John Adams to Abigail Smith, 4 October 1762 (Adams Papers)
By the same Token that the Bearer hereof satt up with you last night I hereby order you to give him, as many Kisses, and as many Hours of your Company after 9 O’Clock as he shall please to Demand and charge them to my Account: This Order, or Requisition call it which you will is in Consideration of a similar order Upon Aurelia for the like favour, and I presume I have good Right to draw upon...
3971From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 19 February 1805 (Adams Papers)
When I wrote you a line of Acknowledgment for your Lecture upon Tobacco, I kept no Copy of it, not expecting to ever hear any thing more of it, and I really remember very little that was in it. Tobacco, I have found by a long experience, having learned the use of it upon Ponds of Ice, when Skating with Boys at Eight years of Age, to be a very dangerous Vegetable, extremely apt to Steal upon a...
3972From John Adams to Daniel Hitchcock, 24 August 1776 (Adams Papers)
Yours of the Twenty Second is before me. You mention, the Delicacy of appointing, an Officer of the Same State over another. And you put the Case of Coll Varnum and yourself. I have been a long Time puzzled to account, for Varnums Standing on the List of Colonells before you, whom I know to be many Years older than that Gentleman, has been represented to me to be. I have heard, this young...
3973From John Adams to U.S. Cabinet, 15 May 1800 (Adams Papers)
The President requests the Several heads of Departments to take the most prudent and oeconomical Arrangements for the removal of the public offices, Clerks and Papers, according to their own best Judgments as soon as may be convenient, in Such manner that the public offices may be opened in the City of Washington for the dispatch of Business by the fifteenth of June. DLC : Miscellaneous...
3974From John Adams to the President of Congress, No. 62, 8 May 1780 (Adams Papers)
Paris, 8 May 1780. RC ( PCC , No. 84, II, f. 23–26). LbC in John Thaxter’s hand( Adams Papers ). In the Letterbook this letter begins on the page following that of 11 May, numbered 64. printed: Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States , Washington, 1889; 6 vols. , 3:656–660. In this letter, read in Congress on...
3975John Adams to Abigail Adams, 28 February 1779 (Adams Papers)
I suppose I must write every day, in order to keep or rather to restore good Humour, whether I have any thing to say or not. The Scaffold is cutt away, and I am left kicking and sprawling in the Mire, I think. It is hardly a state of Disgrace that I am in but rather of total Neglect and Contempt. The humane People about me, feel for my situation they say: But I feel for my Countrys situation....
3976From John Adams to John Peter De Windt, 1 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
You would be pleased to See the pretty Figure your Peach Trees and Cherry Trees make in my Garden. Their buds are at least a fortnight more forward than any of our native Trees. I hope you will contrive to come and see them next fall. Be Sure to bring the Sprightly Elizabeth with you. Tell her never to forget how her great grandfather Smoked his Segar. Tell her, if She will come and See him...
39771780. January 14. Fryday. (Adams Papers)
Rode from Ezpexo to Orduña, four Leagues. The Road is made all the Way, at a great Expence, but the Descent of the Mountains of Orduña is a great Curiosity. These Mountains are chiefly Rocks, of a vast hight: But a Road has been blown out of the Rocks, from the Hight of the Mountains, quite down into the Valey. After winding round and round a great Way, and observing the Marks of the Drills...
3978From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 12 March 1822 (Adams Papers)
I thank you kindly for the Portrate of Mr Jay, which I very much admire, it is a great likeness it is stamped with wisdom sagacity, and benevolence as they have been, stamped upon his Countenance and Conduct, all his Life time.—I have delivered your formal letter to Mr Charles Shaw, to Mr William Smith Shaw the superintendent of the Boston Atheneaum and I shall deliver that inclosed with Mr...
3979From John Adams to Thomas McKean, 24 September 1813 (Adams Papers)
If I am committing an indiscretion, I hope you will pardon it. The Reverend Mr Henry Colman of Hingham, a Clergyman established in the Affections and Esteem of this Neighbourhood is on a Journey to Philadelphia. He has an Ardent desire to See the Old Patriots of the Revolution, and where can I look for an older one, than to Governor M. Kean? In addition to his professional Virtues of Piety and...
3980Enclosure: Draft of Peace Negotiation Articles, 13 July 1781 (Adams Papers)
Answer of the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, to the Articles to serve as a Basis to the Negotiation, for the Re-establishment of Peace. The United States of America, have no Objection provided their Allies have none to a Treaty with Great Britain, concerning the Re-establishment of Peace in America, or to another concerning the Re-establishment of Commerce, between...
3981From John Adams to Antoine Marie Cerisier, 19 August 1782 (Adams Papers)
I dare not venture to send the Comte’s Manuscript. If You will come here, You shall have the use of it as long as You please, and all the Accomodations You can desire. Pray quote the Reflections You mention from the Courier de Bas Rhin. I shall be glad to see yours in addition—there is ample Room for many. The Treaty of Commerce is not yet arranged. I have recd. a Card from the G. Pensionary,...
3982John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 July 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 27 th June is received with pleasure, for the free air of it delights me. Your number of 1267. letters in a year, does not surprise me; I have no list of mine, and I could not make one without a weeks research, And I do not believe I ever received one quarter part of your number. And I very much doubt whether I received in the same year one twelfth part; There are reasons enough...
3983From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 28 October 1814 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 10th is too delicious, to be disgraced by Ceremonies and Apologies in my Answer. You might as rationally ascribe the Events of this Annus mirablis, or any Annee la plus chetive et meprisable to the Power of Animalcules in Cayan Pepper Water, as to the Power or Policy of Men. I see nothing in the History of Napoleon more wonderfull or inexplicable, than in that of Zingis, of...
3984John Adams to Thomas Barclay, 11 June 1784 (Adams Papers)
My Express who sett off, on the third from Amsterdam is with you before now, and I hope you have found the Bills of Exchange to your Satisfaction. I am anxious for his Return, that I may have once collected together, under my own Eye, all that belongs to me in Europe, and be able to finish my Accounts. I should be much obliged to you, if you would examine my Accounts and Vouchers and give me...
3985John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 12 May 1794 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of April 27 was put into the Post office at New York and I have neither seen nor heard of M r Dorr nor M r Jones. It is probable they found a Conveyance for their Letters in the ship which carries our Envoy Extraordinary and their Journey to this Town became unnecessary. I should have been glad to have seen them and I suppose they might have obtained their Request without...
3986From John Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 August 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have received your letter of the 31st of August by Captain Brownson. I saw in an American Paper that Grandpapa has been on board the Seventy four which is in the command of Commadore Bainbrige and thought it a very fine Ship and and am in hopes of having a great many more by my return. I do not like England near so well as America nor do I think I should like any country so well as my native...
3987From John Adams to the Marquis of Carmarthen, 24 September 1787 (Adams Papers)
In Obedience to the orders of Congress I do myself the Honour, to inclose to your Lordship a Memorial to His Majestys Ministers of this days date. I have likewise the honour to inclose for the Information of his Majestys Ministers the Several Papers, numbered fom one to Seven, containing authenticated Accounts of the Proceedings, of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,...
3988From John Adams to Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 3 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your Friend J. Q. A has given me Such an Account of his kind reception by your Family and of his delightful Journey and Visit to La Grange: that, though I could not envy his family their pleasure, I ardently wished I could have been one in their Suite. I would go father for such an excursion than for a Sight of Scipio in his retreat. Many Heroes, Statesmen and Phylosophers have retired: but...
39891780 Feb. 5. Saturday. (Adams Papers)
On Wednesday, the second of Feb. We took Post for Paris, and on Fryday the 4 arrived at Coué, where We lodged, but in the night it rained and froze at the same time untill the Roads were a glare of Ice, so that the Postillions informed Us, it was impossible for their Horses which in this Country are never frosted to go. We passed by Angouleme Yesterday Morning and encircled almost the whole...
3990From John Adams to Timothy Pickering, 23 September 1799 (Adams Papers)
I return you Mr. Murrays letters of May 28. June 13 & 22d, July 13 & 15 & the parts of newspapers inclosed with them. The private letter you sent me from Mr Murray, sometime ago, contained much such a review of the pamphlet of Boulay de la Meurthe. I have been anxious to see it, but it is not yet arrived. A parrallel between the English republic & the French must be a curious thing. I have...