6651Monday. 9th. (Adams Papers)
Attended Major Crosbeys Court. Where Capts. Thayer and Hollis made their Appearance. Thayer had taken 2 Accounts of Nathan Spear, in his own Hand Writing, and got the Writts drawn by Niles. But upon my making a Defence for Hunt, Spear was afraid to enter and so agreed to pay Costs and drop. But poor Thayer had to say, several Times I told him so, but he would have his own Way. This little...
6652From John Adams to Robert R. Livingston, 21 February 1782 (Adams Papers)
I know very well the Name of the Family where I spent the Evening with my worthy Friend Mr. — before We set off, and have made my Alphabet accordingly: but I am on this occasion as on all others hitherto utterly unable to comprehend the sense of the Passages in Cypher. The Cypher is certainly not taken regularly under the two first Letters of that Name. I have been able sometimes to decypher...
6653Fryday. Jany. 10th. 1766. (Adams Papers)
Humphry Ploughjogger received a Letter from a Friend, thanking him for his good Advice and presenting him with a Crimson, Homespun Cap to wear with his Hide, as a Reward. —Mr. Etter came in before Dinner, about his Petition to the General Court for Assistance in his stocking Weaving Business.—Went in the afternoon with my Wife to her Grandfathers.—Mr. Cleverly here in the Evening. He says he...
6654John Adams to Charles Adams, 31 January 1796 (Adams Papers)
A fat Sleekheaded young Gentleman was here last Week or the Week before who told me he knew you, that you were well that you had a good share of Business: that your disposition was so amiable that People were fond of throwing Business into your hands &c— All this was Musick in my Ears— I know not his name but am told he is a Limb of the Law in your City. According to Peter Pindar Business is...
6655John Adams to Isaac Smith Jr., 11 April 1771 (Adams Papers)
Three Days since I received your obliging Favour of February 21st. for which I thank you. The Account you give me of the late Negociations, with Spain, the expensive Preparations for War, and the ridiculous Termination of both, is not at all surprizing, to Us in America. We think it, of a Piece with the other Measures of Administration, especially those relative to Us. A Ministry, base enough...
6656From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 14 September 1783 (Adams Papers)
Give me Leave to introduce to Your Acquaintance and Friendship, M r Thaxter, who goes home with the definitive Treaty. This Treaty which is but a Repetition of the Provisional Articles was all We could obtain, a poor Compensation for nine Months Negotiation; but I assure you We were very glad to get the Hand put to this. I was in hopes to have Soon Seen you in Philadelphia, but Congress have...
6657From John Adams to Benjamin Stoddert, 3 September 1798 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favor of the 27th of Aug. & return the commission for Captain George Cross signed, and I pray you to make out a commission for Capt. Patrick Fletcher, one day earlier. I am happy a convoy has been ordered for the trade of the Havanna. & am Sir / your most obedient &c. MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
6658From John Adams to Thomas Barclay, 26 October 1785 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 13 th with my accounts settled by yourself up to the first of August 1785, signed by you on the 10 th of this Month. the article of Eighty five Florins 17 May 1784 is probably right. the difference between the Charge of Mess rs Willinks &c on the 31 of August 1784 and the Credit I gave I can account for only by supposing that they Charged the Exchange and a...
6659From John Adams to Richard Henry Lee, 13 February 1779 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged to you for your kind Congratulations on my Arrival, and agreable Accommodation at Paris. I assure you, Sir, I have no Objection to the “Splendid Gayety of a magnificent Court,” in a Country, where Manners, Habits and the Constitution of the Country Government make it necessary, which I hope however, will never be the Case in America. He must be of a Strange Disposition,...
666026 Monday. (Adams Papers)
Rose at 7. Read carefully 30 lines in Virgil.
6661From John Adams to James Warren, 11 September 1779 (Adams Papers)
I was told in Boston that Mr. Avery and Mr. Wendell had been proposed for Judges of the Inferior Court for the County of Suffolk, in the Room of my Friend Pemberton. I said not a Word, but since I have been at home, I have reflected upon this and altho these Gentlemen have amiable Characters I cannot think them So well qualified for this Place as Mr. Cranch, whose great Natural Abilities, and...
6662From John Adams to Tench Coxe, May 1792 (Adams Papers)
The first Thing I have to communicate to you, must be an Explanation of the Date of my Letter. The Legislature of Massachusetts, last Winter, upon a Petition of the North Parish in Braintree, Seperated it from the rest of the Town, erected it into a new one and gave it the Name of Quincy. By this Measure you See they have deprived me of my Title of “Duke of Braintree,” and made it necessary...
6663From John Adams to C. W. F. Dumas, 2 February 1781 (Adams Papers)
Nulla Dies Sine Lineâ, said a great Geometician and you are so good an American, that you will agree with me, that We ought to let no day nor Hour pass in which We can do any Service to our Country, without embracing the opportunity. Such an Occasion as the present when the popular Affections and even the sentiments of Men in Power, Seem to be turning towards America. When I landed in Spain I...
6664John Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 14 January 1801 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for yours of the 9 th and its contents, and for the pains to have taken to search Authorities upon the Collision of Treaties. The Point I think is explained and proved very fully, and So it is understood in England. The Sixth Article however is by no means nugatory. It is of great importance to France. Our Treaty with Britain expires in two years after the termination of the...
6665John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 May 1782 (Adams Papers)
On the Twelfth, I removed into this House which I have purchased for the United States of America. But, it will be my Residence but a little while. I must go to you or you must come to me. I cannot live, in this horrid Solitude, which it is to me, amidst Courts, Camps and Crowds. If you were to come here, such is the Unsteadiness of the Foundation that very probably We should have to return...
6666From John Adams to Ma., Grand Jury Middlesex County, 3 December 1798 (Adams Papers)
I have received and read with pleasure your kind Address, Agreed adopted at the Court of General Sessions of the Peace at Cambridge on the third Monday in November. I Sincerely regret, with you, that there is a Want of Unity in political Sentiments, in that Part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that you inhabit. I hope you are mistak If there is a Faction in this Country who prefer the...
6667From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 21 December 1809 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the pleasing account of your Family in your favour of the 5th. As I take a lively interest in their Prosperity and Felicity, your relation of it gave me great Pleasure. We have Letters from our Colony navigating the Baltic, dated at Christiansand. They had been so far as prosperous, healthy and happy as such Traveller’s could expect to be. Pope said of my Friend General...
6668From John Adams to Benjamin Hichborn, 27 January 1787 (Adams Papers)
I have received with pleasure your obliging Letter of the 24 of october and am much affected with the disagreable State of things in the Massachusetts— It is indeed news to me that there is any such fixed determination as you mention in the minds of men of greatest Influence. Perhaps I am not a proper confident of those Gentlemen, As to my comeing home it is not possible for me to come home...
66691766 March 1st. Saturday (Adams Papers)
Spent a Part of last Evening with Mr. Jo. Cleverly. He is a Tiptoe for Town Meeting. He has many Schemes and Improvements in his Head—vizt. for seperating the offices of Constable and Collector.—Collecting Taxes has laid the Foundation for the Ruin of many Families—John Vesey, Ben. Owen, Jed. Bass. He is for 5 select Men and will vote for the old ones Mr. Quincy, and Major Miller. He hears...
6670From John Adams to Eliphalet Brush, 26 November 1782 (Adams Papers)
Your favor from Bourdeaux of the 19 th. , I have had the pleasure to recieve, & congratulate You on your successful Voyages. I thank You too for your Care of my Dispatches and kind Attention to me. The Dutch have been induced to make common Cause with Us, but have not yet exerted themselves in it with so much Unanimity & Zeal as might be wished for their own sakes as well as ours— Yet it makes...
6671From John Adams to the President of Congress, 25 May 1781 (Adams Papers)
Amsterdam, 25 May 1781. RC PCC , No. 84, III, f. 169–170. printed : Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States , Washington, 1889; 6 vols. , 4:435–436. John Adams provided an English translation of a convention signed at Versailles on 1 May by the Comte de Vergennes and the Dutch ambassador, Lestevenon van...
6672From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 29 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
The Journal proceeds—1782—November 26—Tuesday—Breakfasted at Mr. Jays, with Dr. Franklin, in consultation upon the propositions made to us yesterday by Mr. Oswald.—We agreed unanimously to answer him, that we could not consent to the article respecting the refugees as it now stands. Dr. Franklin read a letter which he had prepared to Mr. Oswald, upon the subject of the tories, which we had...
6673From John Adams to Samuel Adams, 27 April 1785 (Adams Papers)
The Child whom you used to lead out into the common to see with detestation the British Troops and with Pleasure the Boston Militia will have the Honour to deliver you this Letter. He has since seen the Troops of most Nations in Europe, without any Ambition I hope of becoming a military Man. He thinks of the Bar and Peace and civil Life, and I hope will follow and enjoy them with less...
6674Monday. June 16th. (Adams Papers)
Arose before the sun. Now I am ignorant of my Future Fortune, what Business, what Reputation, I may get, which is now far from my Expectations. How many Actions shall I secure this Day? What new Client shall I have? I found at Evening, I had secured 6 Actions, but not one new Client, that I know of.
6675From John Adams to James Warren, 21 March 1783 (Adams Papers)
The Situation of things in England cannot be too much attended to at this time— The whimsical state of Parties; the Anarchy in Government and the Confusion of Opinions among the People, have been occasioned in a great Measure by the want of an American Commission to make a Treaty of Commerce with Great Britain— It is this that has brought all things to a stand.— The Merchants and Manufacturers...
6676From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 February 1816 (Adams Papers)
I know not what to say of your Letter of the 11th of Jan. but that it is one of the most consolatory, I ever received. To trace the commencement of the Reformation I suspect We must go farther back than Borgia, or even that Huss or Wickliff, and I want the Acta Sanctorum to assist me in this Research. That Stupendous Monument of human Hypocricy and Fanaticism the Church of St. Peter at Rome,...
6677John Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 6 February 1796 (Adams Papers)
I have received your kind letter of the first of this month. Mr. Langworthy appears to me, as he does to you, a man of information and good sense: how much of the projector and adventurer may be in him, time will discover; I know not his resources nor his connections. Searchers and diggers for mines have generally been as unsuccessful as inquirers after the philosopher’s stone, a universal...
6678John Adams to Isaac Smith Jr., 1771 (Adams Papers)
P.S. There is another Gentleman whose History and Character I want to know more of, than I do at present, I mean Dr. Arthur Lee. These Things however in Confidence. If you should stay in London this Winter, and have not been introduced to him and Dr. Franklin, and have a Desire to be acquainted with those Gentlemen or Either of them, I believe I could procure you Letters to them from Gentlemen...
6679From John Adams to Samuel Dexter, 8 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
I rejoice, with joy unspeakable, in the news I hear of the open Part you have taken with no less Wisdom and Fortitude than Justice and Generosity, in the present great Crisis of your Country’s Fortune. To endeavour, with or without Success, to assuage the passions and allay the fever of your fellow Citizens; when upon the point of precipitating themselves down a precipice: was worthy of...
6680From John Adams to John Hancock, 2 September 1785 (Adams Papers)
This letter will be delivered you by M r: S. —a Gen t: who has lived sometime in my family at the Hague, in Paris & in London. He will inform you in what manner the late Navigation-Act of the Mass a: has been rec d. here— Some say it is a measure taken in a passion, & not well-weighed in the scales of reason—that we are ruining ourselves—that an act of Parliament will be passed to retaliate...
6681From John Adams to Edward Cruft, 7 May 1821 (Adams Papers)
When I left your hospitable Mansion last december, I entertained a hope of seeing you again in a few days; but I found myself so ill that I almost dispaired of ever Seeing you again—My disorder left me so feeble that I have not had Strength and Spirits to thank you as I ought for the kindness I received from yourself Mrs Cruft and Mrs Smith—I congratulate you all on the birth of a daughter,...
6682From John Adams to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 30 September 1798 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed are the full powers to borrow five million and two million signed according to your report made to me and dated the 20th. of September. The duplicates I shall send by another opportunity if those should not arrive to you. This is I suppose as you intended I am &c MHi : Adams Family Papers, Letterbooks.
668330 Fryday. (Adams Papers)
A very rainy Day. Dreamed away the Time.
6684From John Adams to Leslie Combs, 12 May 1817 (Adams Papers)
I have received “the history of the late war in the western country by Mr Robert B McAffe” and “the philosophy of human nature by Mr Joseph Buchanan; both of the growth, production, & manufacture of Kentucky.” I rejoice to see literature following the steps of patriotism & heroism, in a region, which since my memory, was a simple wilderness, inhabited only by the children of nature I have...
6685John Adams to Norton Quincy, 30 March 1776 (Adams Papers)
The Acquisition of Boston, and its Harbour is of such vast Importance to the Province of Massachusetts Bay and New England in general, and indeed to all the confederated Colonies; that the Utmost Wisdom and public Spirit of our Countrymen ought to be employed in order to preserve it by such Fortifications as will make it impregnable for the future by any hostile Fleet. There is not in the...
6686From John Adams to United States Congress, 5 February 1798 (Adams Papers)
I have received a letter from his Excellency Charles Pinckney Esqr. Governor of the State of South Carolina, dated the 22nd October 1797, inclosing a number of depositions of Witnesses to several captures and outrages committed within and near the limits of the United States by a French privateer, belonging to Cape Francois or Monte Christo, called the Vertitude or Fortitude and commanded by a...
6687Tuesday Novr. 11th. (Adams Papers)
Rain. Deacon Webb here at Tea, and put this strange Question to me, what do you think of the Lieutenant Governor, sir? I told him, what I once thought of him, and that I now hoped I was mistaken in my Judgment. I told him I once thought, that his Death in a natural Way would have been a Smile of Providence upon the Public, and would have been the most joyful News to me that I could have heard....
6688From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 8 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
Amsterdam, October 4, 1780, wrote to Mr. Dumas—“I should be glad to see a copy of the dispatches from the Dutch plenipotentiaries at Petersburgh, or at least as exact an account of their substance as possible: and to learn whether the object of the congress is simply to form a plan for supporting each other and making a common cause in defence of those principles only which the three northern...
6689From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 5 February 1781 (Adams Papers)
Yours of 31. Jan. is arrived. A Courier is arrived from Petersburg, who carried the Notice of Sir Yorkes leaving the Hague. All’s well in the north. The Courtiers in England, who indeed compose the nation, flatter themselves they shall raise the Devil in Holland. They may raise a Spirit but it will be a good one. The Symptems are very Strong. If popular Rage gets loose it will not dewitt, John...
6690From John Adams to Andrew Dunlap, 22 July 1822 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your Oration of the fourth of July 1822. It is so intelligent, eloquent, and pathetick that no ancient eyes can read it without being suffused with tears, and no ancient ears could hear it without a throbing bosom. I remember not to have read any one with more delight; you have made one mistake however Jefferson and Adams were never rivals, it was Hamilton that was the rival of...
66911760. Saturday July 5th. (Adams Papers)
Last Night Cranch explained to me, the Water Works in the River Thames which convey water, all round the City of London. There is first, a long water Wheel, like the Water Wheel of some saw Mills, which is carried round by the River. On the End of the Axis of this water Wheell are Coggs, which carry round a cogg Wheel. This Cogg wheel has upon the End of its Axis, a Number of Cranks and each...
6692John Adams to Richard Cranch, 17 June 1782 (Adams Papers)
“I can tell you no secrets about Peace—a Mr. Forth, a Mr. Aswald Oswald and a Mr. Greenville have been at Paris, to sound the Dispositions, but I cannot learn that they have sufficient Powers, or that they have made any serious Propositions. The work of Peace is very difficult to accomplish. The pretentions of so many Nations, are to be adjusted, that my Hopes are faint. It serves the Stocks...
6693From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 18 July 1818 (Adams Papers)
Will you accept a curious Piece of New England Antiquities. It was a tolerable Chatechism for the Education a Boy of 14 Years of Age, who was destined—in the future course of his Life to dabble in So many Revolutions in America, in Holland and in France. This Doctor Mayhew had two Sisters established in Families in this Village which he often visited and where I often Saw him. He was intimate...
6694From John Adams to Nh., Citizens of Portsmouth, 25 May 1798 (Adams Papers)
This handsome Address from the Youth of Portsmouth, shows evinces the same Spirit and the same Principles which animate the rising Generation in general throughout the United States and is not less agreable to me than any I have before received. The opinion you have formed of the Wisdom Prudence, Firmness Perseverance and Bravery of your Fathers is not exagerated, and their Example is worthy...
6695Adams’ Notes of Authorities: Suffolk Inferior Court, Boston, January 1771 (Adams Papers)
The Jury found a Verdict for the Sum sued for. Kent moved that the Verdict should be rejected. I deny’d the Power of the Court to reject it, and said if he would move for a new Tryal, that would not be without a Precedent in the Superiour Court tho it would in an inferiour Court. 13 Ed. 1. c. 30. Barrington Obs. on Stat. 103. “Item ordinatum est quod Justitiarii ad Assisas capiendas assignati,...
6696From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 5 February 1795 (Adams Papers)
The inclosed Pamphlet and Papers I have received this Week from the Author, with his request to transmit them to you. I have before transmitted in the Course of this Winter, another Packet from the Same Writer; but have as yet no answer from you: so that I am uncertain whether you have rec d it— M r Jays Treaty with Britain is not yet arrived at the Secretary of States office; though there is...
6697From John Adams to the President of Congress, 29 May 1781 (Adams Papers)
The English, by the capture of St. Eustatia, seem to have committed the most compleat blunder of all. There was found in that Island a greater quantity of Property belonging to the Britons themselves, than to the French, Dutch, or Americans. They have broke up a Trade, which was more advantageous to them, than to any of their Enemies, as it was a Channel through which British Manufactures were...
6698From John Adams to Citizens of Mississippi Territory, 7 April 1799 (Adams Papers)
With much pleasure, I have received, through your able and faithful Governor your obliging Address of the fifth of January. As your situation on a frontier of the United States near a Nation, under whose Government many of you have lived, and with whose Inhabitants you are well acquainted, qualify you in a particular manner, to maintain a benevolent pacific and friendly conduct towards your...
6699John Adams to Abigail Adams, 19 November 1794 (Adams Papers)
The Presidents Speech is so important to the Public that I know you will be anxious to See it as early as possible. When the Answers of the two Houses come to be debated We shall See whether there are any Apologists for Rebellion, in these Sanctuaries. As M r Edwards of Kentucky appeared in Senate to Day, We can do Business if one Member should be Sick, but it will be very inconvenient to have...
6700From John Adams to Ezra Stiles, 27 April 1785 (Adams Papers)
I received with Pleasure, your Letter by Col. Humphreys whom I have found in all respects the Man of Merit and Taste whom you describe, well qualified for the Office to which Congress has appointed him. The last Letters from New York have given me, some Anxiety on his Account. If the Commissions to which he is attached Should be dissolved, and no Provision be made for him, he will be in a...