4561Monday. Aug. 30 1773. (Adams Papers)
Spent the Evening with my Wife at her Uncle Smiths, in Company with Mr. Lynch, his Lady and Daughter, Coll. Howorth, his Sister and Daughter, Mr. Ed. Green and his Wife, &c. The young Ladies Miss Smith and Miss Lynch entertained us upon the Spinnet &c. Mr. Lynch still maintains the Character. Coll. Howorth attracted no Attention, untill he discovered his Antipathy to a catt.
4562From John Adams to C. W. F. Dumas, 25 January 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have to acknowledge the Receipt of your Favours of the 15 and 24. the latter inclosing a Letter to Congress, which I will do myself the Honour to inclose with my first dispatches. This method will be very agreable to me, if you choose to continue it. There are Bruits here, of a 74 gun ship with Six homeward bound East Indiamen taken from the English by some french Men of War near the Cape of...
4563Draft of a New Year’s Address to His Nieces, January 1761 (Adams Papers)
Braintree, January? 1761. Printed: JA, Diary and Autobiography Diary and Autobiography of John Adams , ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. , 1:193–196 . The letter is of course pseudonymous; at this time JA had no nieces. Printed : ( JA, Diary and Autobiography Diary and Autobiography of John Adams , ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. , 1:193–196 ).
4564John Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 17 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have rec d this Evening yours of the 14 th. — My little bark has been oversett in a Stor Squal of Thunder and Lightening and hail attended with a Strong Smell of Sulphur. Nothing remains for me, but to indulge that Vanity which I have found out lately is considered as the predominant feature in my Character, by Singing the Song of Horace The Soothing considerations Suggested by you, my dear...
4565John Adams to Abigail Adams, 1 April 1782 (Adams Papers)
The States of Holland and West Friesland have followed the Example of Friesland, in acknowledging American Independence. I received The American Minister received Yesterday officially, from the Grand Pensionary of Holland a Copy of their Resolution. We have not yet the Mail, with an Account of the new British Ministry, tho the last informed Us of a Change. Whether for the better time will...
4566From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 25 November 1809 (Adams Papers)
AMSTERDAM, May 23, 1781—wrote to Dr. Franklin: I have the honor of your letter of the 19th, with its enclosures and thank your excellency, for the pains you have taken to communicate the news from America: which can scarcely be called bad, though Gen. Green lost the field. I had before received and published in the Amsterdam Gazette, the same accounts.—The gazetteers are so earnest after...
4567John Adams to Charles Adams, 13 February 1792 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 9 th , gave me great Pleasure as it discovers a curiosity that is laudable and contains a very handsome Relation of political Events and Movements in New York of great Importance to that State and very interesting to the United States. The Writings which have excited your inquisitive disposition, were of Some importance in their day as they had Some Influence on the public...
4568From John Adams to Robert R. Livingston, 18 November 1782 (Adams Papers)
The Instruction from Congress, which directs Us to pay So Strict an Attention to the French Ministry, and to follow their Advice is conceived in Terms So universall and unlimited, as to give a great deal of Anxiety to My Mind. There is no Man more impressed with the Obligation of Obedience to Instructions. But in ordinary Cases, the Principal is so near the Deputy, as to be able to attend to...
4569From John Adams to John Thomas, 7 March 1776 (Adams Papers)
The Congress, have determined to send you to Canada. They have advanced you one Step, by making you a Major General, and have made an handsome Establishment for a Table. Your Friends the Delegates from your native Province were much embarrassed, between a Desire to have you promoted and placed in so honourable a Command, on the one Hand, and a Reluctance at loosing your Services at Roxbury or...
4570From John Adams to United States Senate, 8 January 1800 (Adams Papers)
I nominate the following Gentlemen to be officers in the Navy George Little of Massachusetts to be a Captain in the Navy John Rodgers of Maryland to be a Captain in the Navy Edward Prebble of Massachusetts to be a Captain in the Navy John Mullowny of Pennsylvania to be a Captain in the Navy James Barron of Virginia to be a Captain in the Navy Thomas Baker of Pennsylvania to be a Captain in the...
4571From John Adams to the President of Congress, 17 May 1781 (Adams Papers)
Amsterdam, 17 May 1781. LbC Adams Papers . printed : JA, Corr. in the Boston Patriot Correspondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters , Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts. , p. 455. This letter is not in the PCC and was probably never sent. It contains a list, according to nationality, of vessels paying tolls to Denmark in 1780 for passage...
4572From John Adams to John Taylor, 25 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
The Corporeal Inequalities among Mankind, from the Cradle, and from the Womb, to the Age of Oglethorp and Parr, the intellectual Inequalities from Blackmore to Milton, from Cocker to Neuton and from Behmen to Lock, are So obvious and notorious, that I could not expect they would have been doubted. The moral Equality, that is, the Innocence, is only at the Birth; As soon as they can walk and...
4573Tuesday [19 August]. (Adams Papers)
Dined at Captn. Cobbs with Coll. G. Leonard, Paine, Leonard, young Cobb &C. John Rowe made a much fuller entry of the events of this day at Taunton court in his diary: “19 August Tuesday Rose Very Early this morng. Reachd Taunton at Noon dind there with the Judges. Colo. Geo Leonard, Colo. Ephraim Leonard, Mr. Justice Williams and Mr. Justice Elisha Toby who was this [day] Swore into his...
4574From John Adams to Ward Nicholas Boylston, 24 July 1819 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favor of the 16th. It is impossible for me, as it was for Junius to recollect the innumerable trifles I have written. of those that were printed in the olden time of the Revolution I believe I could give a list—but nothing I ever printed or wrote in my whole life, is fit for the inspection of Posterity—all written in a hurry distracted with care, dispirited by...
4575From John Adams to Antoine Marie Cerisier, 10 March 1783 (Adams Papers)
Pray be so good as to insert an exact Translation of the inclosed Letter in the Politique Hollandais, without my Name or that of the Abby. or if you chose it you may add it to the Essay &c It is high Time for Writers to reflect a little upon the Subject before they pretend to write an History of Such an Affair. This will put them on thinking. Mr Marmontel as Historiographer du Roi is to write...
4576From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 22 October 1815 (Adams Papers)
This will be presented by my grandson and namesake, and your Nephew John Adams Smith, Esqr who is Secretary of Legation to your Commission. I have merited nothing from you or from him in this Appointment because I never approved it. I thought he had better follow his Profession in New York. But he appears to have had more Interest at Court than You or I both together. He procured...
4577From John Adams to James McHenry, 7 May 1800 (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honor to write me on the sixth day of this month, & consider the requests contained in it as very reasonable. They are readily agreed. I as Sir with much esteem / your most obedient & humble servant MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
4578From John Adams to John Jay, 30 November 1787 (Adams Papers)
I do myself the Honour to inclose the Kings Speech at the Opening of Parliament as it has been transmitted to me from the Marquis of Carmarthen: and the Morning Chronicle of the 28, which contains, not the debates, for there were none, but the Panegyricks upon it. I have long Seen sir, in silent Astonishment and Grief the negligent and imprudent Conduct of a deceased French Minister of foreign...
4579From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 30 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of Decr 24th. I have Settled the Plan with Mr Morse. You ask a Sketch of my Life. I was born Octr 19. 1735 in Quincy then the North Parish in Braintree, my Father was John Adams, born in the same Parish My Grandfather was Joseph Adams Junior born in the same Parish, My great grandfather was Joseph Adams senior, and my Great Great grandfather was Henry Adams who came...
4580Novr. 30th. Sunday. (Adams Papers)
Read no Law. Read Bolinbroke.
4581From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 11 November 1807 (Adams Papers)
I have, long before the receipt of your favour of the 31 of October, supposed that either you were gazing at the Comet or curing the Influenza: and in either case, that you was much better employed than in answering my idle Letters. Pray! have our Astronomers at Phyladelphia, observed that Stranger in the Heavens? Have they noted its Bearings and Distances, its Course and progress! whence it...
4582From John Adams to Richard Henry Lee, 24 February 1821 (Adams Papers)
You have confered an obligation upon me by your kind letter of February the 6th. In former years of my Life I reckoned among my friends 4 gentlemen of your name Richard Henry Lee Francis Lightfoot Lee William Ludlow Lee and Arthur Lee, all Gentlemen of respectable characters for capacity information and integrity, with your Grandfather Richard Henry Lee I served in congress from 1774 to 1778...
4583From John Adams to the President of Congress, No. 95, 15 July 1780 (Adams Papers)
Paris, 15 July 1780. Dupl, both text and signature in John Thaxter’s hand ( PCC , No. 84, II, f. 197–199). printed : Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States , Washington, 1889; 6 vols. , 3:859. In this letter, read by Congress on 26 Dec., John Adams sent a comparison of the strength, in ships of the line, of...
4584From John Adams to Albert Gallatin, 11 April 1817 (Adams Papers)
Give me leave to introduce to you, Mr Theodore Lyman junior, a young Gentleman of Education and Travel of modest and virtuous Character, ardent in pursuit of Science and Letters. His Father is respectable in fortune and Connections. Mr Lyman I presume wishes to be acquainted with the Litterateurs as well as to See The King and The Court. He can give you all Our American News, much better than...
4585From John Adams to Richard Rush, 11 August 1813 (Adams Papers)
Thanks for your favour of the 2d. The “Portion of time that you can command every day” affords me very pleasing hopes. Reading Machiavel, is like conversing with a professed Actor on the Theatre: you can never know when he is in Jest, or when in earnest: whether he lies or Says the Truth. In his Art of War he inculcates a different doctrine, from that which you quote: namely that Princes, and...
4586[April 12th. 1776.] (Adams Papers)
April 12th. 1776. No Committee of the whole.
4587Draft of a Letter to the Boston Gazette on the Evils of Licensed Houses, May 1761 (Adams Papers)
Braintree, May 1761. Printed: JA, Diary and Autobiography Diary and Autobiography of John Adams , ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. , 1:212–215 . Fourth and last in the series of newspaper communications on this subject. See entry for the earliest draft in the series, 29 May 1760 , above, and references there. Printed : ( JA, Diary and Autobiography Diary and...
4588From John Adams to Charles Eliot, 20 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
Mr Adams presents his compliments and thanks to Mr Elliot for his obliging note of the 17th and his valuable present of Miscellaneous writings of Charles Elliot to which are prefixed some notices of his character Mr A had read many of the peices at the time of their publication with much pleasure The others shall be read to him by his grandchildren to whom he will reccommend the character of...
45891760 Decr. 18th. Thurdsday. (Adams Papers)
Yesterday spent in Weymouth, in settling the Disputes between old Thos. White and young Isaac French. White has the Remainders of his habitual Trickish lying, cheating Disposition, strongly working to this Day—an infinity of jesuitical Distinctions, and mental Reservations. He told me he never lost a Cause at Court in his Life—which James White and Mr. Whitmarsh say is a down right Lye. He...
4590[Notes on Civil Law, December 1758–January 1759.] (Adams Papers)
Sequestration is when two, or more, deposit a controverted Thing, with a 3d Person, on that Condition, that he, at the Conclusion of the suit, Dispute, will restore the Thing to the Conqueror. This is either voluntary, which is made done by the Agreement of Parties, or necessary, which is done by the Authority of a Judge. This, regularly, is prohibited. From a Deposit, arises a twofold Action,...