Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 November 1813
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, John Quincy

my Dear Son
Quincy Novbr. 8th 1813

At Length after an intermission of Seven Months your Letters of June 21st arrived, in a swedish vessel call’d the Neptunus. mr Tilden was the bearer of them in 36 days from Liverpool
I was most sincerely rejoiced to see again your hand writing, altho not a solitary line was addrest to me, it is the first instance of the kind which has occur’d since your absence
Your Letter was for your Brother, and one for George No 10 of his Bible Letters one from my Grandson mr Smith to me and one to his sister.
I have not omitted any opportunity of writing to you, through Friends, or Enemies, for some Letters I have sent by cartels to Halifax open, to be forwarded by mr Mitchel, our agent there to mr Beasley in England. To William I have written twice, since the Melancholy 15th of August. a day which can never be effaced from my Memory so long as Breath remains. All my Letters since have related or referd to it. you have known affliction, you have been wounded by the loss of various relatives, but have never before been call’d to weep over a departed Sister, an only Sister,
I delight to dwell upon her patience, her submission, her Resignation, they remain deep engraven upon my Heart,—Blessed spirit, Why should I wish thy longer trial, and imprisonment—?
“Let these deplore their doom
whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn
But lofty souls, who look beyond the tomb
Can smile at death, and wonder how they mourn”
of the many Letters I have written, I fear few have reachd you, yet I continue to visit you,
I have never said to you, how very valuable I esteem the course of Letters you have written to George—2 Numbers are missing viz No 4 & 7. I treasure them up for him, when he shall be old enough to know the value of them, and read them with the interest and attention which they merit.
It is now six months since mr Gallatin and Bayard sailed from hence, we have received information more than two months since, of their safe arrival, but I cannot learn that a single Line has been received from them by Government, or by any private Friend—all seems inclosed in darkness. Yet we were never more anxious for intelligence—
we look at the Gigantic Armies of Russia and France, with their combined Allies, as at those of ancient days. our own are in comparison as Lilleputians, yet great deeds may be performed by all small means. witness the success of the gallant Perry upon Lake Erie which his Letter expresses, in terms as concise as those so much admired of Ceasars, “we have met them, and they are ours,” the whole fleet capturd at one stroke. the Newspapers will give you a more accurate account, where I ask is the American Blood which does no course through the Heart with a increased rapidity at Perrys Victory? neither Religion or Morality prohibit our rejoycing, or giving thanks to the God of Armies for delivering our Enemies into our hands, and giving Security to Infancy, Age and infirmity, from the savage scalping knife,
Mr Ingraham will probably be the Bearer of this Letter to you, my last went by mr Apthorp to Lisbon from thence he promisd to convey them—I despair of seeing you this year, I need not say how joyfully we should receive you; bearing the olive Branch. years and affliction have made such depredations upon your Parents, more particularly upon your Mother, that should she live to see you again, you would find her so changed in person, that you would scarcly know her—
Yet at the darkened Eye, the witherd face
or hoary hair, I never will repine;
But Spair O Time, what’er of mental grace
of candour, Love, or sympathy divine
what ever of fancys may or Friendships flame
is mine”
these glow with equal ardour, and entwine around the few remaining props which have survived the cruel stroke of Time,
your old preceptor in Law judge parson is dead, he has been failing these two years, he was a great Man—and I trust an upright Judge—
your Brother will write to you by this opportunity.
december 6th
And no dispatches from you, or private Letters. tomorrow Congress will convene. our Armies are gone into Winter quarters our Frigates are preparing to sail—our Crops have been abundent, and our Countrymen are for complying with that text of scripture if no other “If thy Enemy hunger, feed him”
your sons are well and here for the vacation, and for their winter cloathing, they both of them appeard to day in compleat suits of American manufactory—even to their shirts—I wish George Loved writing, as well as his Books, he cares not for sports, or play, but reading is his recreation—
I shall write if able, to mr Smith & to my daughter. my Love to my Grandson Charles, of whom all our Americans who have seen him, speak in praise—
I am my dear son / your ever affectionate / Mother
Abigail Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 13 November 1813
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

13 Nov. 1813

Quincy November 13th: 1813 Recd: of Thomas B Adams the sum of Twenty-five Dollars and fifty Cents in full for One quarter’s Interest due on J Q Adams Esqr Note, the first instant.
$25.50

Abigail Adams


Title: To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 13 November 1813
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, John

N. 28.
My Dear Sir
St: Petersburg 13 November 1813.

Your favours of 1st: and 2d: of July last came to hand a very few days after the date of my last; and with them one of later date from my dear Mother, which gave me too clear a foresight of the tidings which as yet have reached us only indirectly, of the Event which has bereaved you of a beloved, affectionate, and only daughter; and me of a Sister worthy of every sentiment of tenderness and attachment that can warm the heart of a brother—
How often in the course of the last three years, we have been called to mourn over the loss of our nearest and dearest relatives! and how inadequate on all such occasions is language, to express feelings which overpower the faculties of the mind! For the dead themselves, I believe it is neither wise nor pious to lament in any case; and if in any, certainly not in one of a person, who having fulfilled faithfully all the duties of social life and having endured severe afflictions upon Earth, could in the course of a just and beneficient Providence removed to another state of existence only to receive the reward of a good and faithful Servant, and an abundant compensation for the pains and sorrows which had been dispensed as trials in this World.
For ourselves, to grieve over the bier of a friend or lover, and especially over that of a child is a Law of Nature so general, and provided by Heaven for such wise and benevolent purposes, that neither Reason nor Religion can urge an argument against it—it belongs so essentially to the Constitution of our being, that we might as well be exhorted not to feel the pain of a broken limb, or to be cool in the paroxysm of a fever, as to be indifferent and unmoved at the stroke of Death when it falls on those whose existence forms so great a portion of the enjoyments and comforts of our own.—But Reason and Religion both concur to inform us that the tendencies of the heart in such cases are to excess, and that it is our interest and our duty to check them by the considerations which they offer to our Minds.—In the example of David, on the Death of his Child; in the precept of the Son of Sirach to “make little weeping for the dead because he is at rest”—In the sublimer precept of St: Paul “concerning them which are asleep, not to sorrow as others which have no hope, because if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him,” the Scriptures have given us very clearly and precisely the standard of our obligations—And how exactly the doctrine of Reason corresponds with that of Revelation let me remind you, not from the example of Cicero on the loss of his own Daughter, but from that which he ascribes to Cato on the Death of his Son—“O praeclarum diem, cum ad illud divinum animorum concilium, coetumque proficiscar, cumque ex hacturba, et colluvione discedam! proficiscar enim non ad eos solum viros, de qui bus ante dixi; sed etiam ad Catonem meum, quo nemo vir melior natus est, nemo pietate praestantior: cujus à me corpus crematum est; quod contra decuit ab illo meum. Animus vero non me deserens, sed respectans, in ea prosecto loca discesset, quo mihi ipsi cernebat esse veniendum. quem ego meum casum fortiter ferre visus sum: non quod aequo animo ferrem; sed me ipse consolabur, existimans, non longinquum inter nos digressum et discessum fore.”
I fervently pray that you, and my dear and venerated mother may be animated with these hopes and consolations under this new Visitation of the chastening hand of Heaven. For my own part I can rest upon no others.—Thick and frequent as these shafts have flown, now year after year, the strokes have been the same in kind, and the relief can never be but from the same source—My Sister and my Child, I fondly believe, are now kindred Spirits, in regions of purity and happiness; and my remaining duties are so to accomplish the rest of the rest of the pilgrimage allotted to me here, as of to be worthy of obtaining admission to a participation of their Society and of their Joys in the World of Eternity.
I will write you upon other subjects by the next opportunity, which will probably be by Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard, upon their return to the United States—We know that the British Government has positively and definitively refused to treat with America under the Russian Mediation, but this determination has not yet been officially communicated to us—We are told that it is coupled with the intimation of a willingness to treat with us directly; but we have no powers to treat otherwise than under the Mediation
We are as well as the Season and Climate permit—And with remembrances of duty and affection to all the family with and around you, I remain faithfully yours

A.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 November 1813
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

N. 53.
St: Petersburg 19. November 1813.

If my last Letter should reach you before this, my ever dear and affectionate mother, you will see by the Postscript, that before it was dispatched we had been informed through an indirect channel of the decease of my beloved Sister—This event, so distressing in itself, but for which your kind letters of 2 and 14 July, had in some measure prepared my Mind, has excited a new and additional anxiety to hear again from you—I know and confide in the Christian Resignation and Fortitude, which I am perswaded have supported my honoured Parents through those trying scenes which you anticipated, and which were so soon and so severely realized; but I know too how sharp your affliction must have been and how great the need of Consolations, which nothing but the firm reliance upon a merciful Providence can bestow—May they have been, and still be to you and to my venerable father, neither small nor few! may they prove better to you than Sons or Daughters! And may the sympathies and dutiful Affection of your remaining Children, and of all theirs, supply as far as it is given to any thing upon Earth to supply a bereavement, the sorrows of which I humbly pray and trust will be compensated to you in a purer and more blessed state of existence!
My latest letter form America is your’s of 14 July.—I have continued to write, punctually, once at least in every month to you, and almost as frequently either to my father or to my brother. There are Americans constantly going from hence with the intention of returning to the United States, and by them I have had frequent opportunities of forwarding letters as far as Sweden and even England—But lately the Americans in England have not been permitted to embark for America, and several of the Gentlemen charged with letters from us have been stopp’d as they were on the point of departure—Some of them had I believe already forwarded my letters, and I hope they will come safely to your hands.—There are also numbers of vessels going from Gothenburg directly to the United States, but their Captains have in some instances declined to take American Passengers, and in others sealed letters—If this practice should become general, I shall be under the necessity of leaving open my letters to you, which I shall do rather than omit writing to you at all.
I expect indeed to have shortly the opportunity of writing to you by Mr: Gallatin and Mr Bayard, who are now waiting only for the official communication of what we inofficially know with certainty to take their departure on their return to America—At the close of the last and the first days of the present Month, there was every prospect that the Waters of the Neva and Gulph of Finland would be immediately locked up by the frost—All the Bridges over the River in this City were actually carried away by the floating ice, as always happens at the freezing of the river—But the weather suddenly moderated, the ice disappeared and the Navigation of the river and gulf is yet open; and now later in the Season than I had ever witnessed it before. At the time when the waters were thought to be closing, the Neptune sailed from Cronstadt to go to Gothenburg from which place the Navigation if suspended during any part of the Winter will be open again much earlier in the Spring than here—Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard intend to go to Gothenburg by land, and as they will probably leave this place within a Month or six weeks, and intend to stop some time in England on their way home, they will not be likely to reach the United States before next June.—The British Government have positively refused to treat with us under a Mediation, but have given some manifestations that they are willing to treat with us directly—We have no authority for this, but my Colleagues will take the opportunity as they return to ascertain whether any thing can be done by a direct Negotiation.
Since the renewal of the War in Germany, the odds of force have been too decisive against the French, and the catastrophe of their Army has been nearly equal to that of the last year—Napoleon himself has been defeated and overpowered by the four combined armies Austria, Russia, Prussia and Sweden, and on the 19th: of October escaped from Leipzig, leaving his ally the king of Saxony a Prisoner, more than twenty of his Generals, and forty thousand men also prisoners, and 400 pieces of Cannon, Ammunition, baggage &c in proportion to the conquerors—All his other German Allies have deserted him and taken side against him; the Austrians are advancing in Italy, and Lord Wellington with his English, Spaniards and Portugueze, are invading France from the Pyrenees—
We are not more than usually out of health—Charles is now at a boarding school; and comes home from Saturday till Monday—I hope he will soon be able to write to his brothers—
I am always affectionately your’s
A.


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 28 November 1813
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My dear Son
Quincy Nov. 28. 13

No language can express my Anxiety for you and your Family and no volume could contain the multitude of my thoughts concerning my Country and my Posterity.
One Thing is clear in my mind, and that is that you ought to be at home; if there, you should be obliged to live on Turnips Potatoes and Cabbage, as I am. “My Sphere is reduced to my Garden: and So must yours be. The wandering Life that you have lived, as I have done before you, is not compatible with human nature. It was not made for it, We must move in narrower Circles.
Chicanery, I expect, will keep you in Europe another Winter, and more Winters. And what is this World, and this Life to me? You were the greatest Comfort of my Life, and of that I have been and am deprived. It would be insanity in me to write to you upon the War or the Politicks of Europe or America. The Wise men of Europe are determined to make, of the Simplemen of America, Warriors. It will take time; a number of years. But when they become Warriors, they will be troublesome by Sea and Land, to Europe Asia and Africa. Perhaps in the end usefull. Almighty Power reigns, in Wisdom and benevolence. Let Us, the Earthborn, rejoice.
An ingenious, indefatigable Quaker of Albany is ambitious of communicating to The Emperor a Specimen of the Grouth of this Country. You know best what to do with it.
We are all well. George and John are here, and well and good. As We have no desire, to produce more Buckminsters, Charles Elliots, Kirk Whites and Parson Spencers; We do not push them as I fear you do, my dear Charles.
I can do nothing, in this fourth year of my 16th. Lustre, for You your Lady, my Charles my William or my Catherine, but pray for you all: and that I do with humble and fervent sincerity.
Love to them all from
John Adams


Title: From Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Smith Adams, November 1813
From: Warren, Mercy Otis
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

Plymouth. Ms. Nov. 1813

I did not my dear Mrs. Adams, write by yr Son when last in Plymouth, because I wished to retain the very valuable Letters of the American Minister at Petersburg, a little longer in my hand.—I wish’d my Son Winslow and his father to peruse them, which from sickness and other causes they could not do immediately.—I have not communicated them to any eye but those of my Son’s, though I think them replete with instruction and improvement for the aged as well as for younger life.—I should have been gratified, had I been permitted to have retain’d a Copy of the tenth Letter, if no other, but thought it not consistent with honor to transcribe a single line without direct permission.—I observe in this Letter, your worthy Son promises, a continuance of his pious & useful observations;—when you receive them, I hope to participate in your pleasure—every Letter of his must be a feast to his parents.—Yet, we must contemplate our pleasures,
“With such a sober sense of joy,
As Angels well may keep,
A joy chastiz’d by piety,
A joy prepared to weep.”
Will you not tell me it is a weakness, if I acknowledge I have dropped a tear on the departure of my lovely Marcia, though she appears happy in her prospects; and but when the colours are just hoisted we know not how the voyage may terminate. I do not anticipate or good or evil.—We must improve the passing and present changes in the best manner we can—however, this much I must say, I feel a privation of the sensible, sprightly & pleasing converse of my lovely young companion, who has now taken upon herself the various duties of the mistress of a family, the wife, the neighbour &c. &c. et cetera, et cetera. I pray heaven she may discharge them with satisfaction to herself and to all with whom she may be connected.—
I thank you for your expression of kindness & esteem for her & her brother who recently visited yourself and family and who were both delighted with the interview.—You will tell my sweet Girls, Caroline and Susan, I shall not give up my claim to a repetition of their visits, should I live to enjoy it.—They may visit my daughter in the Capital under circumstances more pleasing to youth, but hope they will not forget her aged Grandmama Warren so long as she can smile on the joys & hopes & expectations of a lovely young circle of acquaintance that occasionally surround her board.—
I know you will be gratified if I tell you I have been blessed with health so far, as to call my children, Grandchildren and others to sit down at my table and celebrate the annual festival so laudably kept up by our ancestors from the first settlement in this once happy country.—May it still be blessed with peace, liberty, & virtue, notwithstanding the present perturbed state of society.—Man is not always to expect a cloudless sky through the peregrination of his day of probation—
I will not fatigue you by the protraction of my Letter—I now only add my respectful regards to your good husband, to whom I shall speak myself in my next direction to my Quincy friends.—
With usual affection, subscribes / Yrs:

M Warren—You will let me know soon if you receive the packet with this safely.—


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 6 December 1813
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

my Dear Daughter
Quincy December 6th. 1813

I will not let mr Ingraham depart without a few Lines to you. I have written to you Several times since the date of your last Letter to me was in May. it carried with it so many melancholy traits, that I was greived to find how deeply You had been wounded. the Resignation, and fortitude you discoverd, after the first Paroxisms of your Greif had Subsided, made me hope, that it would not prey upon Your Health as I fear it has.
Bitter is the loss of a sweet Infant, but how much increased are the pangs which rend the Heart of a Mother, when calld to part with the Head of a Family, in the midst of her days, and usefullness? endeared by a thousand Strong ties?
The hour, the day, the year are all before me, and can never be effaced from my memory, untill Life and recollection expire together—
yet how great is the Sum of the Blessings Still left me? the Dear Representitive of her Mother, all that I can wish for. She is, the Life and health and vigor of intellect of the Husband of my Youth, Still continued to me, a young Stock Shooting up-round, whose early years promise future usefullness. In anticipation, that of again embraceing my dear Son and Daughter in their Native Land, before I go hence and be here no more
and of presenting to you your two Sons, good Children, adicted to no vice, and with principles of honour and truth ingrafted into their Hearts.
George Said mrs Kemble to me yesterday, the Lady of the Preceptor, has a fine taste & a Noble mind—I do not Mean however to flatter you, to Say that he has put away all Childish things. he Stands in need of that Gaurdonship which he has in the Family of his Preceptor, and of those admonitions which I am not deficient in bestowing and which have their weight.
John is a fine Boy, more inclined to action than George, who when his School hours are over, devotes him self to reading, without any inclination to mix with his Schoolmates in play
John is a good Scholar, resembles you much in countenance and in Size, fiery in his disposition, which makes his Cousins give him the name of Hot Spur. Yet he is usually right in what he asserts. reason and time will correct this dissposition—as the qualities of the Heart are good.
Susan Still lives with us, is much improved. She possess a fine flow of Spirits, and keeps us lively She has a very good understanding.
Abbe is gone with her Mother to the valley.
I received a Letter from your Sister Adelaide Hellen, last week, the first I have had with that Signature. I was very glad to See that She had become the wife of so worthy a man. She complains much that She does not hear from you, or from her Sister Smith.
The Society in Quincy is much the Same as when you left it, with the addition of one or two agreable Families.
In Boston, Changes have taken place Some of your acquaintance are dead, and Some are married. of the Latter Number is our cousin Betsy Smith, to a widower a mr Hall, a worthy and Respectable Man. Miss Susan Storer is the next. She is married to a mr Eaton a Church Clergyman
december 19th
I intend to write if I am able to mr Smith and to your Sister, but Since I began this Letter I have had a very Severe attack of a Lung fever. the cough has reduced me and I am Still very weak, but my Physician Says I have got through it wonderfully, and am now out of danger. at my Age, much is not to be looked for—I Still however flatter my self that I Shall live to See you again, but whether I do or not, my Blessing I leave with you / and am your affectionate Mother
A Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Adams Smith, 13 December 1813
From: Adams, John
To: Smith, John Adams

Dear Sir
Quincy December 13th 1813

You grieve me when you tell me that “your city is thronged with officers of the army.” Infandum, renovare jubes, dolorem. In the most critical moments of our affairs in 1776, I twice travelled through New Jersey; and with indignation and contempt which I feel still to my fingers ends, saw the taverns crowded with officers, who ought to have been in face of the enemy in New York, and at frogs point. If the Canadians do not give us some kicks, at Sacketts, or Ogdenburg, or St Regis, Chary, or somewhere, I shall conclude that they are as weak as we are. Will it be possible ever to introduce discipline, civil or military into this Country? Yes. If we do not put on our considering caps, it will not be many years before, we have the discipline of the french republick, ie the discipline of french Ideology; and that will infallibly produce the discipline of the French Empire. As to “shuffling for place;” by all that I have read in history, or experienced in the world, there has been little else, among governments, or people, Monarchists, Aristocrats, or Democrats, from Cain & Abel to this day; all deceiving themselves like Balaam; all devoutly praying to god, to give them leave, to curse their rivals. I have never seen, nor heard of “Nathan Fords letter to General Wilkinson.” “Ross Bird, of famous memory” I never heard or read John! you ought to send me these curious things from New York, or at least give me intelligible account of them.
John! 20,000 Citizens of US, have emigrated to Canada, since the peace of 1783. These are now in arms against us. Suppose we take them prisoners. Are we to hang, draw, & quarter them all? To be sure Silla, and Antoninus Pius did, something of this kind. But Napoleon, even if we admit that he poisoned his wounded in Egypt, which I do not believe, never did any thing so bad.
John! I quoted to you long ago, the british Statutes, which naturalized all deserters from all nations: I do not believe you have read them. I insist upon it that you find them, that you copy them, and send them to me. If you do not, I will copy them, and send them to you.
Your fathers experience, & sagacity in military affairs, I hope will be of some service to his Country in Congress.
You ask my Dear John “how these questions can be settled.” I answer as all other questions have been settled; with an aching heart, as all other questions have been settled, by the Ratio Ultima, Rerum, publicarum et Regum, et Impuratorum. In grief and apprehension your Grand father
John Adams.


Title: From John Adams to William Stephens Smith, 14 December 1813
From: Adams, John
To: Smith, William Stephens

Dear Smith
Quincy December 14 1813

It gave me great pleasure to be informed of your punctual arrival at the head quarters of good Principles and of good dispositions as I hope; of too little experience as I fear; and of too much eloquence as I certainly know.
I need not quote to you “Dum Roma deliberat periat Seguntum.” My memory furnishes enough of examples of more modern date and nearer home. Canada was lost 35 or 36 years ago by wrangles in Congress by eternal opposition and debate upon every question. I then thought those delays and embarrassments were studied and practiced by the Peace party, for we had, a peace party then as we have now, for the deliberate purpose of defeating all our measures. as the Mass peace party are actuated by the same principles and stimulated by the same motives now, as then, I hope they will not have the same success. You will impute it to the imbecillity of age if I say that Rhetorick and Oratory, Metaphysicks and Chicane were as well understood and as skillfully practiced then as they are now. I cannot say that all the disasters of the revolutionary War were attributed to Congress. Deliberation and execution, are commonly pretty equally marked with imperfection. Counsel and action are all performed by Men.
In my just and necessary war with France the Democrats told the people that I was about to “harness them in Taxes” that I was about to take from them “all they had” How many Buckles and Leathers are now preparing for us? Let them come. There is not an horse that will be more galled by them than myself—Yet as I see and acknowledge the necessity I will not object, thought I should be obliged to sell the few acres I possess. All this Rhodomontade. I now am serious, every disaster and disgrace we have suffered, has been caused by want of conviction of the necessity of power on the Lakes and Rivers—Three of four Gunboats have defeated Wilkinson! Ships have defeated Hampton. Cut down Oaks and Pines; make ships if they last but one year, command very Lake and River. Till this is done Millions of Money thousands of lives will be expended to no purpose, by the disgrace of our counsels and arms. Varnum is President of the Senate!
Be cool! be patient! be resigned! Your Career will not be long any more than that of
John Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Julia Stockton Rush, 21 December 1813
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Rush, Julia Stockton

my dear Friend
Quincy December 21 1813

your Letter found me this morning rising from the Bed of Sickness, to which I have been for three weeks confined by a dangerous Lung fever. I am much reduced, and weakened by the voilent cough which has accompanied it. my Symptoms, are now favorable my Physician assures me: but it is easier to pull down an old Building, than to repair, or rebuild to it and I must Sensibly feel my weakness. but I would not refrain from writing to you, a few lines, to assure you of my continued Friendship, and Sympathy with you. there is not any Bosom into which you can pour your Sorrow’s, or which more fully Shares them, than hers to whom you have confided them.
Altho it has not yet been my mournfull Lot to be deprived of the partner of my early Years: I have Shared deeply of other Sorrows, and I feel as it respects my dear departed Daughter, all that you Express. That Time has not lessned my estimation of my loss, and that in Silence I contemplate the departed Blessing—I would not make my Habitation the abode of melancholy; or unpleasent to youth. I rejoice in their pleasures, and encourage the moderate use they are disposed to make of them—I strive to consider my Sorrow as Selfish, and unworthy of an immortal Being, and to Say with the Poet
“Let those deplore their doom
whose hope Still grovel in this dark Sojourn
But lofty Souls—who look beyond the Tomb
can Smile at Death, and wonder how they mourn”
I have to thank you dear Madam for Your last kind Letter which containd the well merrited Eulogiums inclosed. how Sweet is the memory of the just, during this Sickness. my dear old Physician and Friend, has been the frequent Subject of my thoughts and that with all his amiable and endearing traits of character, I read his writings with renewed pleasure and improvement, and I rejoice to find in the Letters of your Son, the Same honest integrity of Character and independence of Spirit, which enobled the Character of his Father, and he writes like a Son to a Father, when addressing his Fathers Friend. his Letters are all excellent. I want you to introduc him to my Son in Law, now in congress col Smith. I think they would receive mutual pleasure from an acquaintance, not of the ceremonious, but the family Social kind. I beleive there are not any families in Washington that he has much intercourse with, and Such was the State of my daughters health during all the last Session of congress, that he refused all invitations. he is a very Sincere mourner for her—
The port folio of your City, was Sent me the other day as containing the likeness of your Husband—I put it from me with disgust. I could not trace the Character or the likeness I know that 15 or 16 years must have made alterations, but I wish not to have eraced from my recollection, the traces which were then Stamped.
I Should have informd you my dear Madam Sooner, if Sickness had not prevented, that your Letter to mr Cathbert was sent immediatly, and then in a Short time after, my Friend informd me that it had reachd Quebeck—I do not wonder at your anxiety for your Children. I often thought of you, and of them during the expected attack upon Montreal. If in my power to releive your anxiety by transmitting Letters for you, it will give me real pleasure. I know and daily feel the Calamities attending upon the loss of communication. I have not had a line from my Son in St petersburgh Since 24 of last June—I believe no public dispatches have been received Since the new ministers arrived I most Sincerely join in the petition. Give us peace in our day but whether I live, or not to See it, I hope our Children may. I fear we have too lightly estimated our Blessings.
I must quit my pen, being forbiden to write much; this is only the Second attempt I have made Since my Sickness: write to me my dear Friend. your Letters are a cordial to my Heart.
Remember me kindly to all your Family and to any others of my acquaintance or Friends, and I used to think I had Some when I resided in your city, particularly in Judge Chews and Judge Peters family. the old Stock are chiefly gone of the Stage. Bishop White and family, I remember with pleasure & rejoice that the good Bishop Still lives. our good minister mr Coleman to whom the President gave Letters returnd home enraptured with your City, and the polite attention he received there—
To your Family I have other and Stronger ties than mere acquaintance. Bonds which can never be Severed, but by that which will Sever from Life
Your assured Friend
Abigail Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 24 December 1813
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, John Quincy

my dear son
Quincy december 24th 1813

Altho I have already written to you by this opportunity, and my Letters are now quite old, I know I shall give to you renewed pleasure by adding a few lines more, as they may bear to you a token of my returning health, after a very Severe attack of a Lung fever of a very dangerous nature
I am Still confined to my chamber weak and debilitated, but my Cough has nearly left me, and I feel that I am gaining Strength, but what is Strength at my age but weakness? Yet I wish to Live to see you again and so I Shall if it please God. if otherways orderd, to his will we must Submit.
I do not Love to tell you how dissapointed I have been upon the recept of the two last packets of Letters from you, that not a Solatary Line was addrest to me. your Father your Brother and your children, all had Letters!
Not Since the 1st of last May have I had a line. I know you must have written, but I have been more than usually unfortunate in not receiving them—to you not a Month has past, without my writing.
We are Embargod by our own government, and Blockaded by the British Government, so that our communication will be still more obstructed than ever the war is like to continue, and we Shall daily experience more and more of its affects. Speculators abound with us and every article of foreign use growth has mounted up beyond common purchase, brown sugar 32 dollars per hundred ten 3/2 dollars per p’d other articles in proportion. I fear the distress occasiond by the Embargo and by the new taxes taking place at the Same time, that the people will not bear with it—time must be given for the industery of the people to turn into different channels—


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 24 December 1813
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

Dr Sir.
Quincy Dec. 24. 1813

If you were in any spot between New Orleans and Passamaquoddy I should write you every day, if I could. But the communication now is so uncertain and so dangerous that I never write without fear of hurting you or the Public.
You, almost from your Cradle, and I from 16 years of Age have been Heluones Librorum. We have hunted Books in Boston, in Bourdeaux in Paris in Nantes L’Orient and Brest; in Amsterdam, The Hague and Leyden, in London Berlin and Petersburg. But I think neither of us can boast of much discriminating Judgment in our Choice. We have many good Books: but thousands that are comparatively worth very little. I once bought Muratori, and Byzantine Historians, at the same shop, where I might have had Fabricius. I would now give more for Fabricius, than for all of them. I have bought Smollets and Humes and Rapins and Tyrrels &c &c. &c I would now give all of them for Rymers Fœdera. I would now give more for the Parliamentary History, and the Debates in Parliament, than for hundreds of Volumes of English and French and Dutch and German Trash. I was taught and practised at the Barr, the Precept “Petere Fontes”; but how I forgot it, in my Travels and You in yours I know not.
I perceive my son that you are a great Student in the Bible: I know you have been a long time; perhaps all your Life. But have you studied the Canon of Scriptures? its History? its Evidence? its Authority? In what sense do you understand the Inspiration, the Infallibility, and the Sanctity of the Books of the old and New Testament? How far do you believe them inspired? and how far not? Have you considered what is to be understood in a litteral Sense, and what in a figurative? What is History? and what is Allegory? Have you read Lardner and Jones? Have you considered the Darkness of the 3 first Centuries and the false Light of all that followed? Do you believe Solomons Song, the Apocalypse and St. Jude to be cannonical inspired and infallible.
I wish you procure the Books I have mentioned for your future Use.
I have a million more things to say. But Our liberal Christians and biblical Criticks are Setting up Alexander Hamilton Fisher Ames and Theophylus Parsons, as great Authorities in Support of Christianity. I dare say that not one of three knew more of the Argument than they did of Shastaism, Lamaism, or Mahommedism Koranism.
A.


Title: To John Adams from William Stephens Smith, 28 December 1813
From: Smith, William Stephens
To: Adams, John

Dear & Respected Sir—
Washington City Tuesday Decr. 28th. 1813

I have your letter of the 15th. inst., the aspect of public affairs become every day more gloomy
The slap which I predicted before I left you has been realized, I expected it from the dividing of our force, and knowing that Govr. Provost as an officer, would try a battle of manævre, previous to our troops taking too imposing a position, he tried it and it put a period to the Campaign—The enemy have recoiled, and the Indian is reanimated—our troops have demolished fort George and horrid to relate have burnt the Town of new Ark on the british side of niagara river—our Inhabitants are flying to the Interior & the enemy repossess Queens town, Chippawa, and the scite of fort Erie, and will no doubt soon shew themselves at the moravian Towns—Malden Sandwich the river Thames & the Huron Church—
Yesterday the House met, continued untill past 12 & adjourned, The Speaker being absent to pause the Issue of a duel, between Mr. Grosvenor and Mr. Calhoun, which however was settled on the field in a way honourable to both parties, as is said—
General Wade Hampton is here, has resigned his Commission as Major General, to the President, last night, this is here a secreet at present, I will not pen my calculations, they would destress you—
Yours sincerely,
W: S: Smith


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 December 1813
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

N. 54.
St: Petersburg 30. December 1813.

As the time is approaching for the departure of Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard, and as the Month and year are drawing to a close, I avail myself now of the opportunity of writing to you by them, although it is yet uncertain when they will go, and still more uncertain how long it will be before they reach he United States.
The British Government peremptorily refused negotiating for Peace with America, under the mediation of the Emperor of Russia—This has been perfectly well known to us these two Months, and has been sufficiently announced to the World by the English Regent in his speech at the opening of the Session of Parliament—But in order that my Colleagues may be enabled to take leave of this Court, the official communication of the refusal to treat on the part of the British must come from the Russian Government to us. It has not yet been made; and the delay is owing to the absence of the Emperor Alexander from his Capital, and probably to the transactions more important to him than his offered Mediation, in which he has been so deeply engaged, during the whole course of the present year—The Events of the time have been too conspicuous, and too memorable in the History of the World, not to be well known to you, and many considerations will occur to you, dispensing me from the task of enlarging upon them—But in the various and continual movements of the Armies, which with the exception of the armistice, have been incessant—in the vicissitudes of Fortune which have marked the military history of the year; and in the multitude of complicated Negotiations, and of sanguinary Battles which have occupied and engrossed the Emperor’s time, it is not surprizing that some delays should have taken place in the course of the communications from his Government to us—These delays are less materially important, as the Season of the year has been unpropitious for travellers; so that if Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard could have left this place sooner they would scarcely have been advancing upon their Voyage, which they could not in any case have completed untill the return of Spring.
In refusing the Mediation, the British Ministry, through an indirect channel, have intimated a willingness to treat with the American Envoys, directly, and have given us a sort of invitation to go thither for that purpose—We have no authority, either to treat thus with them or to go to England—But Mr. Gallatin and Mr Bayard, considering the Mission of Mediation as terminated, on their departure from this place, have it in contemplation to stop in England, on their way home, and will probably wait there for further Instructions from the United States; and at the same time ascertain what prospect there may be of a favourable issue for a direct Negotiation, if our Government should deem it advisable to substitute that mode of treating in the place of the rejected Mediation.
I speak of both my Colleagues, because the decision of the Senate with regard to Mr Gallatin of which we were informed through the medium of the newspapers, about the 17th: of October, and which had taken place in July, is to this day, officially, a secret to us, as much as the refusal of the mediation by the British.—We have not a line from our own Government, dated later than 23. June, and Mr Gallatin’s powers to act, are yet unimpaired by any revocation which he considers as authentic.
When the navigable Season here was finishing, the Neptune was ordered to Gothenburg, there to wait for the Gentlemen; but as the Events of the War have opened the mouth of the Elbe and the Ports of Holland, they will perhaps order her to Helvoetsluys, and perform the journey thither by Land—The Communication with Holland by Post is not yet opened here, but undoubtedly will be within a few days, and in time to enable them to go in that direction.
For my part, I am still bound up here in these “thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice.” I am unable to judge whether our Government will think proper to accept the overture from the British, for a direct Negotiation; and if they should, whether the President and Senate will consider it expedient to charge me with any participation in it.—The determination of the British Government has released me from the responsibility of a trust which would have weighed heavily upon my Mind had the Negotiation been formally entered upon; but it will be attended with much greater difficulties in the direct form—If on our side it should be concluded to make the attempt, and I should be joined in a new Commission for that purpose I shall be gratified with it as furnishing me the occasion of returning to my friends, my family and my Country—for the prospect is faint indeed of the possibility of accomplishing any Peace with England, consistent with our rights as an Independent Nation—But a good Cause, should never despair of the blessing of Providence.
The state of health among us in the family is, better than it has been at this period of former Winters, but the Season of trial is just now coming on. The weather has hitherto been milder than usual, and Mr Bayard cannot persuade himself that the climate of St: Petersburg is colder than that of Wilmington in Delaware.—I am now writing you however with Fahrenheit’s thermometer at 0.
Charles is at a boarding school, where he learns chiefly to write—He comes home on Saturdays, and stays untill Monday—There is a Christmas Vacation to commence next week and which lasts a Month—In that interval I must again be myself his Schoolmaster—I wish his brothers could have had the opportunity of learning the French and German as he has done—He speaks them both with nearly as much facility as English—He knows besides much more of the Russian, than all the rest of us put together.
The Empress of Russia has received an invitation from the Emperor to go to him at his Head-Quarters, which are in the neighbourhood of Baden, her native Country.—She is to leave this City, with her Sister the Princess Amelia to-morrow—The Empress-Mother, with two of the Emperor’s younger Brothers and one of his Sisters remain here, and will continue to give us the opportunity of attendance at Court.
Accept, my ever dear and affectionate Mother, and offer to my venerated father, the renewal of my fervent prayers to heaven for a blessing to you on the year now at hand, and all those that shall succeed it—As it is the Jubile of your Marriage; may it be followed by many more years, and each of them be a Jubile of comfort and peace, only to be exceeded by that which will have no end nor bounds—
A


Title: To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 2 January 1814
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, John

My Dear Sir.
St Petersburg 2. January 1814.

The last Letters I have had the pleasure of receiving from you are those of 1. and 2. July, and excepting them and others of the same period, from my Mother and Brother, I have nothing from America dated later than June—The Communications are now nearly annihilated, and but for the return of the Gentlemen who came out here on the extraordinary Mission, and that of their companions I should be deprived of all means of transmitting a letter to my friends.
The Neptune, the vessel in which those Gentlemen came, and which they ordered in the beginning of November to go and wait for them at Gothenburg has affected her passage to that Port—Mr Gallatin, who to this day has received information of the decision of the Senate upon his nomination to this mission, only through the medium of a newspaper, intends leaving this place in the course of eight or ten days. He has received a letter from one of his Relations in Geneva, proposing to meet him in Switzerland, and I believe contemplates commencing his Journey in that direction—You will easily judge from your intimate knowledge of the usual course of official transactions, of the situation in which he personally, and his Colleagues have been placed, with the certain information, now nearly three Months since received of the vote in Senate upon the nominations, and without any authentic Communication of the fact.—As neither Mr Bayard nor myself have received our Commissions under the appointment with advice and consent, Mr Gallatin’s powers to act, are still precisely the same as our own, and if the Mediation had been accepted, and the Negotiation in progress, we should have been thrown into a dilemma not a little awkward and embarrassing. The British Government however peremptorily refused to treat with the United States, under the Mediation of Russia, or as they expressed it, under any Mediation.—This Determination they communicated to the Emperor Alexander at his Head-Quarters, and from the Nature of the occupations which have occupied his time and absorbed his attention, no official communication has yet been made to us of this Event. Mr Gallatin on receiving intelligence of the issue of his nomination in the Senate, determined not to wait for official dispatches announcing it; but as he has no other means of returning to the United States than by the Neptune, and as we have been daily expecting the information from this Government which will authorize the departure of Mr Bayard, he has been waiting hitherto untill the State of the roads and the advancement of the Season have induced him to conclude upon his departure with out longer delay.
The British Government through an indirect channel, have offered to treat with the American Envoys, directly, either at Gothenburg or in England, and have intimated to them an invitation to London for that purpose—As we have no powers to treat otherwise than under the Mediation we could not accept this invitation, but Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard propose to avail themselves of it, to stop in England on their return home, and to ascertain in a manner involving no responsibility what the views of the British Government are in relation to a Peace with  the United States—Those views have indeed been made known to us in a manner sufficiently intelligible to leave me little expectation that my Colleagues will find a favourable opportunity for bringing an accommodation to a successful issue, but the desire of our Country and of our Government is so strong for Peace, that no honourable opportunity for attempting to accomplish it ought to be neglected.
As the military and political Revolutions in the North of Europe have now opened a communication from this Country to England by the way of Holland, Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard intend to take that course instead of going to Gothenburg. They propose ordering the Neptune to Falmouth, and going by land themselves to Amsterdam. The Packets already pass between Helvoet-Sluys and Harwich, and will furnish them the means of conveyance to  England—As Mr Gallatin takes his departure first, he will make his visit to Switzerland, and meet Mr Bayard again in Holland.
Mr Payne Todd, Mrs: Madison’s son, and Coll: Milligan who came out with Mr: Bayard, are going through Sweden, to Gothenburg, there to embark for England, intending to wait, for the arrival of the other Gentlemen there, and it is by them that I now have the opportunity of writing to you.
The changes of all kinds in Europe which have occurred in the course of the year now elapsed have been too momentous not to have been universally known in America, and too decisive in their character not to have been justly appretiated by you. The general result has been the natural and obvious consequence of the preceding campaign of 1812—The fatal blow to the exclusive dominion of France upon this Continent was given by the immediate hand of Heaven.
Δῖα δίκη σβέσσει κρατερὸν κορὸν, ὔβριος ὑίον,
Δεινὸν μαιμώοντα, δοκεῦντ ἀνὰ πάντα πυθέσθαι.
Compescet juvenem meritissima poena, superbum,
Instinctum furiis, Sibi cedere cuncta putantem.
This Oracle is in Herodotus. VIII. p. 483. but not having an Herodotus at hand I take it from Jortin’s remarks on Ecclesiastical History.—I pray you to give it to my Son George as an exercise to construe—There is in Jortin an amusing critical discussion of the meaning of the terms ὔβριος ὑίον, which are emasculated in the latin Juvenum superbum—how they suited Xerxes may be matter of controversy, much more than their application to Napoleon.
 Since the victory of Leipzig the allied Powers say they have made proposals of Peace to him, and there are rumours that a Negotiation is in train—That Peace is seriously intended may be questioned, but as France is now invaded, on three sides at once, her prospects are by no means cheering—In a military point of view the great parties are nearly where they were in 1792! But France has past from the inflammatory to the putrid stage of her fever—The Prince of Orange, styles himself Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands, and is to give them a Constitution—Thus ends in Europe the Romance of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity—The Rights of Man—and Republics, one and indivisible.
May the blessings of Heaven attend you, this and many succeeding years—So prays your ever affectionate Son
John Quincy Adams.


Title: From John Adams to William Stephens Smith, 7 January 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Smith, William Stephens

Dear Sir
Quincy Jan 7th. 1814

I go farther than you in your Glooms I expect Detroit and Michigan will be again taken and all Perry fleet taken or burned
How far you go in your hopes of Peace I know not. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. Romans would not treat in adversity neither Gauls nor Hannibal, could intimidate Rome, nor terrify any one to pronounce the word Peace. America asleep and Britain awake thro the winter may produce a Winnowing next summer the Chaff will be separated from the Wheat, I hope. Be thankful that you are out of the scrape
We shall have a Whirlwind of Vengeance ere long, But what avails Investigations? You must go back fourteen years to discover the causes of our disasters

John Adams


Title: From Julia Stockton Rush to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 January 1814
From: Rush, Julia Stockton
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

My dear Madam
Philadelphia Janary 7th 1814

Accept my thanks for your last favor, and the congratulations of myself and family on the return of a new year, may it come fraught with the best of blessings to my distinguished and respected frends. It finds me surrounded with all the comforts I have ever enjoyed except my dearest and best frend, the blank made by his absence seems to be particularly felt at the recurrence of noted days and seasons of the year, but I thank God I am becoming gradually more resigned and submissive than I have been—the merciful being who sees it necessary to afflict his creatures, has so constituted our natures, that time will have its effect in softening our sharpest sorrows
I have communicated to my Son your wish that he should be acquainted with Coll Smith.  I am sure it will be attended to.—
Our City in common no doubt with the rest of our country have been rejoycing in the prospect of peace held out to us in the public prints.—it is so desirable an event to me that I can hardly allow myself to beleive so much happiness is in store for me at present—the situation of my two daughters makes it more important to us than to most others who have only the good of their country to desire, I feel that sentiment in common with them and a degree of selfishness in addition.
Will you have the goodness dear Madam to send the enclosed letter to the gentleman who was kind enough to send one to Quebec for me—I must continue to write tho I get  no return—I cannot just now recollect his name—will you add a direction to his case—
present me respectfully to Mr Adams and beleive me dear Madam / your obliged frind
Julia Rush


Title: From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 January 1814
From: Peabody, Elizabeth Smith Shaw
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

Atkinson Jan. 10, 1814

I too my Dear Sister, have to address you from the Bed of Sickness— The wednesday night after I wrote to you last, I was waked with a shaking fit great distress at my vitals, which was succeeded by a regular Lung fever—I have had specimens of this fever twice before in the course of my Life, but nothing so severe as now—But through the goodness of an ever kind Providence, the Crisis formed the fifth & sixth days—I did not grow worse after that, but remained much the same for several days—It is three weeks to day since I was seized, & can now sit up two hours at a time, & last night slept considerable comfortable, for which mercy, O my Sister! how thankful should we be!—Having obtained mercy, we are continued in Life, I trust for some important purpose, either as it respects ourselves, or our fellow mortals—
Mr Peabody had been so unwell for several weeks that I had a fire in our room, he had not been able to dress himself for three weeks, but finding me so violently seized, he sprung up, almost as if nothing had ailed him, dressed himself—luckily I had arranged a mug of mullen Tea at the fire, & bottles of drops for miss Gilman, which he readily found, & gave me some—When the Dr came, he said my pulse was very full, & irregular—I perceived I had the distressing process of a fever to bear, if I lived which I considered very doubtful, my Lungs are naturally so weak—One of my watchers, would not let me sleep more than a few minutes at a time—poor creature thought I was dying, my sleep was so distressed—
When I was first taken sick my Sister, you cannot conceive how wretchedly glomy every thing seemed—The longest nights, coldest weather—Mr Peabody wanting himself a Nurse—no kind Sister near, with some Other melancholly circumstances, all crouded & depressed my mind,—though naturally firm, & cheerful—It has however pleased heaven to favour me with Friends, & I have had every thing comfortable for Sickness—Miss Gilman got me half dozen Lemons, Mr King brought Oranges, & Mr Jett, oranges, & Tamerinds, which I have found very servicable—we have wood enough, & Abby has had better health than ever, & been an excellent Nurse to me, & her Father—& Lydia, is faithful & spry as ever—Mercies should be ennumerated with Gratitude, I am sensible I have more than I deserve—more perhaps, than half my fellow creature enjoy—
Abby wrote last Tuesday mail to her Brother, I am sorry to find my dear good Son, so unwell—She would have written to you, but here heart was too full—And she thought it would distress you to know I was so sick—
I thank you for your letter yesterday, I want to hear as often as I can from my dear Sister—I am grieved to hear of Mrs Adams sickness—I pity her more than ever—the Stage is come
adieu—
E P—


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 16 January 1814
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, John Quincy

My Dear Son
Quincy Jan’ry 16th 1814

I was never more at a loss what to Say to you than at the present moment. to accuse you of neglect, I cannot  I will not, for I do not beleive it possible! Yet so unfortunate have I been, that not a line has reachd me from you, of a later date than the 1st of May. Two packets have since been received, containing Letters for your Father, your Brother, and for your Sons, but not a solitary Line for your Mother, who may at least plead her more frequent communications to you, than any other of the Family, the unfortunately it has been her painfull office to give you information which She would most joyfully have consigned to any other pen.
Such have been many of her late Letters Some of which She presumes you must have received, and therefore She draws a veil over the too distressing Scene.
just recovering herself from a dangerous Lung fever, she has but little Strength to write, yet the opportunity which now presents itself, must not, and cannot be neglected.
Lord Castlereagh dispatches to our Government, have reachd them, before the arrival of the Neptune. We are daily and anxiously looking for her, For not a line has been received by our Government from our Ministers Since their arrival in St Petersburgh.
The President has accepted the offer of the Prince Regent to Negotiate, and I presume will nominate a Minister to join you, in the place of mr Gallatin, and I embrace this opportunity to Say that I Shall most Sincerely rejoice if the negotiation should terminate in an honorable Peace, and put an End to a war which as a Nation, we can have no desire to see prolonged altho In time our troops would be disciplined to the combat, and certainly they do not want courage. Yet they are not such as can meet the Eneminy upon equal terms, and many, very many, must fall through want of experience, through lack of experienced, and able Leaders and commanders. compare our Land forces, with our sailors, and our Generals with our Commodores, and Captains. What a contrast? I forbear you will hear enough upon this Subject to Sicken you.
I received a Letter from John the last week, he writes me that both he and George were well. oweing to my own sickness, and that of your Brothers Family, I have not had them here for Several weeks. Soon after I was Sick, Mrs Adams was seizd with the Same fever, and Several fo the Children—and so distresst were the Family, that I took the Infant home, and got a Nurse into the Family to take charge of it. Mrs Adams is still sick, and will have an absess in her Breast
I have written to George & to John exhorting them both to write to You by this opportunity.
This moment a Sleigh has Stoped at the door with two Gentlemen, one of whom a mr Gibson has brought me a Letter from you dated in July, which I have had great Joy in receiving as it informed me of the health of your Family; Your latest Letters to your Father were in August.—
Mr Gibson has been taken by an English vessel of war, and he says most infamously used.
The postscrip to your Letter give me pain, as every reflection connected with that Subject has done for a long time—your dear Sisters is removed from the Evil to come—she was never informd of what we all knew would give her pain—because the prospect was forlorn, not from any personal dislike—
we hear that mr Smith is on Board the Neptune which makes us More anxious for her arrival. the Season is far advanced to come upon this Coast, altho we have had one of the mildest winters, and finest weather that I have known for many Years untill yesterday, we have not had any fall of snow, it is now about one foot, and level. I hope to get out in a few days, but my Lungs are very tender; and I am exhorted to great care—to prop up this feeble Frame. I ask myself for what has my life been preserved? to take care of the little Infant, deprived of the Mothers care, is one replie. and for other services no doubt that I may know my duty and be enabled to discharge it is the constant, and devoute Supplication of your / affectionate Mother
Abigail Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to John Adams, 16 January 1814
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, John

My dear John
Quincy Janry 16th 1814

I thank you for your Letter: and was very glad to hear from you; I was the more gratified to hear from you because I had written to your Brother, and not to you. I thinke George ought to have written. to your inquiries how the Family are, I can give you but a poor account. I have been sicke and confined to my chamber ever since you went away, and your Aunt Adams has been, and still is sicke with a fever so sicke, that I have been obliged, to send, and take the Baby here, and get a Nurse into the House for it.
Your cousin Susan is now sicke a Bed with an inflamitory soar Throat. the dr has been to see her for four days she is  better, but still very sicke.
we have had so sicke a Family and at one house and the other, that we have not been able to attend to any thing else. your mittins I found and have been waiting for your uncle to find a day, when he could leave home to go to Hingham and take them with him. he has had the money to pay your Bills some time by him. he did not like to send it by the post, and but for the sickness of his Family would have been over.  Your grandfather has had such a cold and cough, that he did not go out for a fortnight, he is better and gone out to meeting to day. I am getting a pr of Mittins knit for George which I will send soon, and hope he will take better care than to lose them.
tell George that he must write to his Father & to his Mother and you must do the same and that immediately for there is a vessel going to be sent by government to Russia with public dispatches, by which I shall write. You must send your Letters here under cover to your Grandfather by the post, and I will take care of conveying them
You do not know how much gratified your your parents will be to receive Letters from you even tho they should not exhibit the best specimen of hand writing—
Give my best respects to Mr & Mrs Tremble. be sure you are a good child, obliging kind and affectionate / Which will always give pleasure to / Your affectionate / Grandmother
A AdamsThe Letter you mention for your uncle has not been recived


Title: From Charles Francis Adams to John Adams, 16 January 1814
From: Adams, Charles Francis
To: Adams, John

My dear Brother
St: Petersburg 16 January 1814

Yesterday I wrote a letter to Brother George, and so I thought that I ought to write you one too; for I love both my Brothers equally well, and I hope it will not be much longer before we shall all meet together again. I want to go home, to see my Grandpapa and Grandmama, who have always been so kind to you and Brother George, and to live where it is not so cold as in this Country; for here, it is so cold, that sometimes we can hardly go out of the house for whole weeks.
At Mr: Fishwick’s school, I have several school-mates that I love to play with, very well: but I should like still better to play with my Brothers. Apropos of play: the other day I wrote two copies: one was, "Recreation ought to be allowed." The other, "Never neglect your employment." And Papa asked me which I liked best: and I said, the First. Was not that funny? But now I say, I like them both just the same.
I told Mr: Smith that I was going to write to you, and he charged me to give his love to Brother George and youI am, My dear John, / your affectionate Brother,
Charles Francis Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 17 January 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My dear Son
Quincy Jan. 17. 1814

Mr Gibson, within this hour, called upon me for a Moment and gave me your Letter to your Mother of theday of July, and another to Mr J. A. Smith from his Brother as I suppose Dispatches for Government if he had any, The Captain would not allow him to take. He was taken and complains of ill treatment &c
Our Govt. has agreed to treat at Gottenburg.  I have lived upon hopes of embracing you last Fall; but now I can form neither Hopes nor conjectures. Mr Gallatin and Mr Smith and Family are expected every hour in the Neptune.
I repeat no grievancies, and have none to complain of but your Mother has been dangerously sick and confined for Six Weeks. Suzan is very sick but they are both better. Your Brothers Wife has been very sick but she is better. But enough of Family Dismals.  National Dismals are more numerous. But these you have in English Papers, probably without much exageration of coullering colouring; for of tha there is no need. We know not the termination of the War in Europe, and can form no opinion of the prospect of Peace.
Can you possibly procure me Joseph Scalligers Prophecy of Enoch, quoted by St. Paul and St Jude? Can you find send me The Marquis D’Argens’s translation and Commentary of Timæus of Locris, and another of the Disciples of Pythagoras?
I wish our President had agreed to negotiate in London because that would have brought you nearer home, and I should have hoped to see you Sooner. Your sons are well. Love to all. I hear high Encomiums of Charles’s Accomplishments and dignified Deportment

A.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 17 January 1814
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

N. 55.St: Petersburg 17. January 1814.

I expected that Mr: Gallatin or Mr Bayard, would have been the bearer of the last letter, that I  wrote you; which was at the close of the last year. But it was taken by Mr Todd, who with Coll: Milligan, Mr Bayard’s private Secretary left this City about ten days since; bound to England by the way of Sweden. Mr: Gallatin’s intention now is to go in a week or ten days; but he takes his direction through Germany, to Holland—Perhaps he may go by they way of the Emperor Alexander’s Head–Quarters—He has already taken leave at Court; and has his Passports—Mr. Bayard has not—But they will probably go together.—Mr. Gallatin goes, upon the information he has received of the vote of the Senate upon his Nomination; although he is yet without any official Communication of the fact—Mr. Bayard waits, because we have not yet received from this Government any official Notification that the Emperor’s offer of Mediation, has been rejected by the British Cabinet.  His patience however is so nearly exhausted, that he intends to ask an Audience to take leave of the Empress–Mother; and for his Passports, in time to take his departure with Mr. Gallatin, in the course of the next week.—It will be yet many Months before they can reach the United States—Their Journey to Holland will scarcely be performed in less than six weeks—Their purpose is to go from thence to England, where Mr Bayard at least, will wait for advices from our Government—They will scarcely get home before Midsummer, and it may be as long before you will receive this letter—I have no Prospect however of a shorter or of so safe a means of conveyance, and as I learn the Cartels, between the United States and England are entirely stopped; I know not how I shall find opportunities of writing to you hereafter.—Hitherto the occasions for transmitting the monthly letter have never failed, and I can but hope that some new opening will present itself, to accomplish the same effect in future.
Your letter of 14. July is still the latest date that I have directly from the United States. The only intelligence that we receive from home is that which comes to us in the English Newspapers; and how much of that is falsehood or misrepresentation we infer not only from the general character of all paragraph–news in the British Prints; but from the lies which they have told about ourselves. Some time ago, they stated that the American Envoys had asked to go to the Emperor Alexander’s Head–Quarters, and had been refused—the Emperor alledging that there were no suitable accommodations for their Excellencies—Since then they have asserted that Lord Walpole had declared to this Government that the British Ministry having rejected their Mediation would be well pleased that the American Envoys should be dismissed, and that he was instructed to say so.—Both these paragraphs are totally unfounded.  We have good reason to conclude that almost all their news from America is equally distorted from the truth. They have not been able however to suppress the Event of the naval Action upon lake Erie. I have not seen Commodore Perry’s account of that affair, but it has been published in English Papers, and Sir George Prevost’s letter announcing it to his Government contains a Circumstance, certainly not intended by him to honour his Enemy, but of to which the annals of English Naval glory will not readily furnish a parallel—He says that he has the knowledge of the facts, only from the American Commodore’s Dispatch, published in the American Papers—That he himself has no official Report of it, and can expect none for a very long time, the British Commander, and all his Officers, having been either killed, or so disabled that there was not one left to tell the tale.
This same Sir G. Prevost, and Sir James L. Yeo the British Commander on Lake Ontario, in their official Reports, have charged Commodore Chauncey’s squadron with want of Spirit—I believe it to be a mere Hectoring Bravado on the part of Yeo, and I pray as fervently as Sir George himself, that Yeo may have had his opportunity of meeting Chauncey, and not the opportunity of running away from it—We have the account of Procter’s retreat, and a Report that his whole force, excepting himself and about fifty of his men, had been destroyed or taken—But of this, hitherto no official confirmation—
From the style and tone of Sir G. Prevost’s dispatches I suspect he has very much exaggerated the forces of Genls: Wilkinson, Hampton and Harrison, opposed against him—If he has not, they ought before this to have given a good account of him and his Province—But experience has taught me to distrust our land operations, and I wait with an anxiety predominating over my hopes, the further accounts that must soon be received concerning them.
One of the advantages which we may derive from this War, (and from so great an evil we ought to extract all the good we possibly can) is that of acquiring military skill, discipline, and experience—No Nation can enjoy Freedom and Independence, without being always prepared to defend them by force of Arms—Our military incapacity when this War commenced was so great that a few more years of Peace would have extinguished every spark of martial ardour among us.—All our first attempts upon Canada were but sources of humiliation to us.—The performances of the year just now elapsed, so far as we know them have certainly been less disgraceful, and in some particulars have been highly honourable—there is yet much room and much occasion for improvement; God grant that it may not be lost.
If I fill the pages of my letters to you with American News, it will indicate to you the subject nearest to my heart—The great Scenes of action in Europe are now so remote from this Country that the knowledge of them will reach the United States nearly as soon as we receive it here—After all the bloody Tragedies which have been acting on the face of Europe these two and twenty years, France is to receive the Law, and Constitution, from the most inveterate of her Enemies—She abused her hour of Prosperity to such Excess, that she has not a friend left to support her in the reverse of her Fortune—What the present Coalition will do with her is yet very uncertain; but there is no question in my Mind that they will do with her what they please.
I enclose to you, letters from my Son Charles, to my Father and you, and to his brothers, George and John—They are written altogether with his own hand and will show you what progress he has made in that part of his studies—The Vacation at his school finishes in three days, and I shall place him there for another Quarter. We have had during the last three weeks a thorough sample of the Russian Winter; and one of the coldest days ever known at St: Petersburg. Fahrenheit’s Thermometer was 35 1/2 degrees below 0 (67 1/2 below the freezing point) at 6 in the Morning, 32 below 0 at 2. P.M. with a bright Sunshine, and 37 below 0. at 10 in the Evening.—Mr Bayard begins to think it colder here than at Wilmington.—We are all Well.
Ever affectionately your’s
A.


Title: From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 17 January 1814
From: Peabody, Elizabeth Smith Shaw
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

My Dear Sister,
Atkinson Jan: 17th. 1814

I was much grieved to hear of Mrs Adams sickness, both upon her own account & yours—Such a weight, & distress upon the Lungs adds greatly to the Fever, & makes respiration difficult—The last smoke from the fire, seemed to suffocate me—I am sure I shall pity any one more than ever I have done—And I was rejoiced to hear Tuesday by Mrs James Foster, that you were better, & Mrs J. Adams too, was thought out of danger—Last Wednesday Abby got out for an hour or two, called at Mr Harrods, to know how Nancy did, found she Mother was not gone to Quincy as I expected, said she was not very well, herself, but did not mention her Daughter Fosters Baby as sick—but Saturday we saw its Death in the news paper—
As Master Hull is near nine months old, had he not better be weaned? espicially, as she is like to have a broken breast—Inspired by his name he must learn early to endure hardships, that he may become a robust gallant youth—For if a Peace is patched up now, & the Coals smothered, it is quite likely to me, that some pretext for another War may be found, perhaps, more plausible than has ever appeared for the present, by the time my little Master Hull arrives to manhood, & can weild the Trident—
I am always anxious when I know of any ones being seized suddenly with a voilent head ake, & sore throat—you, & I have not forgot the wormwood, & the Gall, of the old throat distemper,—Every year we hear of some, to whom these sore throats prove fatal—vinegar, & the flower everlasting steemed into Mr Peabodys mouth, was what I believe, under Providence, was the means of saving his Life—Mr Huntington lost his, by the same disease—I hope Miss Susans firm Constitution will get through without long confinement—& that my dear Cousin Louisa, & Caroline, will be comfortably enabled to go through all the family avocations which  are neccessarily devolved upon them, by your Confinement to your Chamber, & the addition of Mrs Adams’ Sickness—Two Infants, my Sister, arround you!—I hope noise does not worry you—yet how much do we cheerfully endure for our children—How does my venerable Brother do? Now his dear Partner is recovering, I suppose he looks as calm, resigned, & placid, as when I last saw him—
I do not mean to mention any more than you, a word of Politicks—I am too feeble every way—I can only say, that I suppose Governor Strongs Speech will be extolled by some, & reprobated by others—Our own House, is nearly equally divided—Mr Peabodys Son, & Son in Law are quite opposite—but we agree not to love each other less—Miss Gilman is very warm on the side of Exsex Junto—Mr Felt, more candid to Government—& they spat—but agreed, with myself to love every thing that contributes to the good, & honour of our Country—
I thank you my Sister, for the Hint you gave me—When I was in Boston, I was in hopes to have conversed with my Son alone, but had no Opportunity,—And I have such an aversion to Mothers proclaiming that their Children are engaged, perhaps, years before it can be realized that, considering circumstances, I thought it best to be silent—& was very sorry it took air—One of my Boarders told it to his Aunt, & away the report flew—I dislike long Courtships—though Addison says, it is the sweetest, pleasantest part of a persons Life—I do not believe it—
As soon as I am able I shall write, & appolize to my Son, for Abby, consideres him almost as a Parent, & feels quite hurt that her Brother has not officially been apprized of  Her anticipations, & Prospects—Present Abby mine, Mr Peabodys best Love, where due—
Ever yours affectionately.
E—P—I recollected your reflections upon your Glass my Sister, & was about making an amicable Truce with mine. But rising from my writing Table to replace something, such a pale, meagre visage started up to my view as put all my courage, & resignation to the Test—Humilating, faithful Mirror—& I will forgive thee, though thou present the striking Emblem of yellow Atumn, & the falling Leaf—yes! I will forgive thee! For thou discernest not, nor canst reflect the Virtues of the Heart, that though the lustre of the Eye, & the vivid Beauties of the "illuminated face", are shut down withered & decayed, thou discernest not the Faith, & Hope, that invigorates the Soul—that as we approximate nearer, & nearer to the Source of Excellence, we may find our Graces increasing with added years, ’till we bloom with celestial lustre, "brighter & brighter, unto the perfect Day"—


Title: From Charles Francis Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 19 January 1814
From: Adams, Charles Francis
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

My Dear and Honoured Grandmama,.
St: Petersburg 19 January 1814

After having written to my Grandpapa, and my Brothers, I must not omit writing to you, to express my gratitude for your kindness to my Brothers, as well as to myself, longer ago than I can remember.
We have now vacation time at school; and one Evening, Papa and Mama permitted me to have a party of my school-mates, and a few other young Gentlemen and Ladies of my acquaintance. We had a great many pretty shows, and Punch and his wife, and the Chinese Shadows; and oh! how happy we all were!
Last Evening, I went to another party, at Mr: Cayley’s. Two of his sons are my school-mates. There were two fiddlers who play’d for us: and we drew for King and Queen,. Miss Sophie Krehmer was Queen; and I was King. And then we drank healths.
Tomorrow the school begins again, and I hope to improve, so that my next letter may be better written than this one.
I am, Dear Grandmama, your dutiful Grandson,
Charles Francis Adams


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 24 January 1814
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

N. 42.
St: Petersburg 24 January 1814.

I avail myself of the opportunity by Mr: Gallatin and Mr Bayard, who have concluded upon their departure to offer you my affectionate remembrance on the entrance of the New Year and the assurance of my Prayers to Heaven that it may be propitious to the comfort and happiness of yourself and all your family— and that it may be succeeded by many many others of pleasantness and peace for you all.
My last Letter to you was dated 22 Octr: since which time I have not received a line from Quincy, and only one letter of a very old date from any part of the United States—The intercourse between England and America by Cartels is now said to be stop’d entirely and other Americans here, even Merchants, whose Correspondence finds its way when all others fail have not much later advices than ours.—Hitherto, we have had opportunities for sending letters, at least as frequently as before the War; and if Holland should remain neutral between us and England there will be a new opening for Communication both to and from America more direct than those by the way of England or of Gothenburg.
You will know long before this letter can reach you that the Prince of Orange has returned to Holland, where instead of resuming the title of Stadtholder he has taken that of Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands.”—The Old Constitution of States General, States of the Provinces and Sovereign Cities, has therefore been totally abandoned—The Prince in one of his Proclamations says  they shall have a Constitution; and a previous Proclamation by a sort of Revolutionary Committee of his friends says that it is to be prescribed by him.—The English Government have sent troops there to support him, and according to common Report, his Son, the Hereditary Prince of Orange, who has distinguished himself in Portugal and Spain, under Lord Wellington is to be the husband of the future Queen of England
I am informed that one of the first Acts of the Government formed under the Prince’s Authority was an informal Notification to Mr Bourne that his functions as Consul General of the United States had ceased.—The same notification was given to Mr Forbes at Hamburg when that City was incorporated as a part of the French Empire, and it may be principally a matter of form, or an expedient to obtain a recognition of the new Government. There is certainly among the People of Holland no disposition unfriendly to America, and I can suppose none in the Prince.—But what his engagements with England may be, time only can disclose—All the other allies of England have remained neutral to her War with America. There may be motives, and among them, the strongest will be the clear, manifest and important Interest of  Holland to remain neutral for prompting the British Government to deny the Hollanders the benefit of neutrality—By the measures with which the Prince commences his Career, connected with the purposed marriage, it may be the Project in England to make Holland hereafter an Appendage to the British Empire in form a well as substance.—Perhaps they will discover that Holland is an Alluvion of Hanover; a hint which they may take from their friend the Ruler of France—To whatever disposition they may adopt, Holland must be as she has been ever since the first year of Batavian Liberty, (with which you were so well acquainted,) altogether passive.
The Events of the last two years opened a new prospect to all Europe, and have discovered the glassy substance of the Colossal Power of France—Had that power been acquired by Wisdom, it might have been consolidated by Time and the most ordinary portion of Prudence—The Emperor Napoleon says that he was never seduced by Prosperity; but when he comes to be judged impartially by Posterity, that will not be their sentence. His Fortune, will be among the Wonders of the age in which he has lived—His military Talent and Genius, will place him high in the rank of Great Captains; but his intemperate Passion, his presumptuous Insolence, and his Spanish and Russian Wars, will reduce him very nearly to the level of ordinary men—At all Events he will be one of the standing examples of German Vicissitude, ranged, not among the Alexander’s, Caesars and Charlemain’s, but among the Hannibal’s Pompey’s and Charles the 12ths—I believe his Romance is drawing towards its close; and that he will soon cease even to yield a pretext for the War against France—England alone will be “afraid of the Gunpowder Percy, though he should be dead.”
By the return of Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard, you will have ascertained, what I suppose you have already sufficient reason to expect, that we are to have no Peace with England by the means of a Mediation.—These Gentlemen intend to touch in England upon their return home. If there is any prospect of obtaining Peace by a direct Negotiation, they will have the opportunity of promoting it, but the successes of the British, in their other Wars, have not been calculated to prepare them for the termination of that with America.
Of my own future destination I remain in total uncertainty. I am desirous of returning to my Country, and should be most happy to carry home a Treaty of Peace in my Pocket—But I am apprehensive that Providence has not this Blessing in reserve for me; and I must submit to its decrees with resignation.
With respect to my affairs in your hands and under your Management, I can only remind you that I am now again two years, without any statement of your accounts, and therefore unable to give you any other directions than merely to request the continuance of your obliging attention to my concerns. You have generally informed me that the value of my property, and its income has been much reduced by the Consequences of the War, and I could neither expect; nor wish that they should be exempted from the evils which bear upon the rest of my Countrymen. You have however promised me that the remainder of my debts left in America should soon be discharged; and I am anxiously waiting for the fulfilment of that promise. My Solicitude on that subject continues as strong as it has been expressed in any of my former letters.
If I continue here, and you have no opportunity of sending my boys to me, I beg you to make them write to us. I enclose by this opportunity four letters from their brother Charles, which are the Commencement of his Correspondence—They must not let him get the Start of them—I hope George is by this time nearly prepared for College.
Present my affectionate regards to your wife and Children, and kind remembrance to all other friends; and believe me to be, ever faithfully your’s.


Title: From Levett Harris to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 28 January 1814
From: Harris, Levett
To: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

dear Madame,
Netuneedz 28 Jany 14.

I am truly Sensible to the Sourcant with which you have just honored me, and I receive it as new testimony of the friendly regard you so frequently shewn me. I trust dear amie, that nothing will ever estrange You from these feelings, to give to them permanency shall ever be after oy on my parts & with these sentiments allow with all those of my most sincere & respectful consideration.
levett harris / B.a.I had not the pleasure of seeing Mr Smith last Evening. I beg You to offer him my sincere regard & to recommend me to his friendly remembrance.


Title: From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 31 January 1814
From: Peabody, Elizabeth Smith Shaw
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

Atkinson Jan. 31 1814

I feel much obliged my Dear Sister, to the Christian Desciple for the mild, & pacific Principles, which he so zealously endeavours to inculcate—I hope the Writers feel there powerful influence upon their own Hearts—"Wrath, & Evil Speaking," never made one Proselite, any more than the tortures of an Inquisition—If we must be stigmatized, reprobated as Harties, fools, & Knaves, because we differ in our views, & oppinions from our fellow Christians, “what chance have we, for the Improvement of the mind, the propogation of Truth, or the recovery from Error”—A Spirit of developement, & enquiry is gone forth—the consequence will be, a defusing of knowledge to the Ends of the Earth—Truth I hope, will shine brighter & brighter, irradiated by the Sun of Righteousness, untill we shall need no more the lights which "are set for Days, & for Seasons"—you my Sister, will rejoice with every friend of Humanity at the total abolition of the Spanish Inquisition—& at the power of Eloquence, so nobly displayed by Antonio Ruiz de Padron, will whose name must ever be held in sweet remembrace—
The two last Gentleman appointed by President Madison, to meet Mr Adams is not considered more favourable to an amicable negotiation, than his appointment of Mr Galitin—I wish I could feel as much confidence in the Triumvirate as I do in the wisdom, & inflexible integrity of your dear Son—
Family Love my Sister, shews itself in different ways—some is visible only in externals—in clamourous professions—few in the realities, in the energies, in the seasons, which call most for immediate assistance, & relief—Ours was brought up in such an old fashioned way, which our Mother taught us, by her own precious example, that we should never to wait to be requested to do a kind Office, an act of Love, benevolince, or friendship—but to "be up, & doing"—seeking where we might do the most good—I should think the full, akeing Bosom of a Sister, would sufficently remind her, of the wants of a dear Infant, deprived of its own maternal sustenance & that is was a call in Providence, for her to supply—a Duty—which she could not omit—but—Excuse the inies—
I am very glad that you are all upon the recovery, that your Daughter Adams, & Miss Susan are relieved—but the winter I find is a dangerous time for the Sick to get about & to take the air—I go out of my room but little—And to day is so cold, I am frozen—
Mr Peabody got to the meeting house yesterday, & performed his usual Duties,  he seems quite feeble to Day, & stiff in   Legs, standing strained the muscles—
Let me know if, you please how Mrs Greenleaf, & family are? Sister Smith, this winter?—whether Mr Norton has heard from his absent Sons,?—how Cousin George & John do?—I hope my dear Niece Louisa, will not be weary in well doing—follow in her Aunts Steps—The President though lost in this Climax, yet with my Sister always stands highest in the estimation.
respectful, & affectionate Love, / of your Sister
E. P—


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 February 1814
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

N. 56
St: Petersburg 1. February 1814.

I have already written you once, by Mr: Gallatin, who, together with Mr Bayard left this City on the Evening of 25. January, for Amsterdam—But as Mr Harris our Consul, who was also the Secretary of Legation to the Extraordinary Mission is to follow them in a few days, and expects to overtake them at Berlin, I consider it as another opportunity for writing to you, and have prescribed it as a law to myself to lose none which offers itself; although the contents of my letters may often convince you, rather how little, than how much I have to say.
The departure of my Colleagues, preceded and followed by that of the Gentlemen who composed their family, and now succeeded by that of Mr Harris, makes again a great breach in our habitual Society—A dreadful accident has occasioned another of a more Melancholy character. The wife of the Chevalier Bardaxi-Azara, the Spanish Minister, a beautiful healthy, robust young woman of twenty-six, about three weeks since, in stooping to take some linen out of a trunk, which stood before a stove, caught fire by her Clothes, from behind, at the fire burning in the stove, the door of which was open, and was so shockingly burnt that after a fortnight of the most cruel sufferings, she sunk under them a few days ago, leaving a disconsolate husband, and two infant children too young to be sensible of their loss—She had been in this Country less than three Months, and our acquaintance with her was of course not very intimate—But she was a very amiable and respectable woman, and lived with her Husband in a degree of Harmony and Affection, seldom equalled in any Country, and especially rare in Europe.
Just before Messrs: Gallatin and Bayard took their departure the weather became moderate and has continued so ever since—As they are travelling South, towards more merciful climates they have had the most favourable time that this Winter has afforded to get beyond the reach of its rigours. For five and twenty days before they left us, with the exception of six or eight hours, one day, the thermometer had been lower than the extremest cold that I had witnessed in three Winters at Washington.—It was the longest and the severest succession of Cold that I have ever known even here.—I hope and trust that it was the Heart of the present Winter,; and that henceforth we may expect a milder temperature—The Month of January has indeed according to our uniform experience been the most trying part of the Season, in respect to the cold; because it is then unremitting—Before and afterwards there are many sharp nights, and occasional severe days—But not for three weeks at a time—In December there is more darkness than Cold; and in February the influence of the Sun begins to be felt. For the two Circumstances which make it possible for human life to exist in a state of the atmosphere which freezes quicksilver, is are that the sky at such times is invariably clear, and the air a perfect calm.
Since I wrote you last we have no American news whatsoever. But of European news, there is a great abundance, and a very rapid succession—The allies after making Propositions to France for the Negotiation of Peace, and acknowledging the neutrality of Switzerland, have nevertheless entered France by the way of Switzerland; taken possession of Geneva, and undoubtedly before this, of Lyons—They are also in possession of the whole Province of Alsace, and Lord Wellington maintains himself in the neighbourhood of Bayonne. The decrees for raising the new Conscriptions in France have in many places failed of Execution, and that Country after having been twenty years the terror of Europe, appears now so destitute of all means of self-defence that it is falling almost without an effort of resistance into the hands of the coalesced Powers—As they have adopted among themselves one of the most inflammatory of the Revolutionary heroes, they have learnt from him to talk the language of the Revolution, and while they are carrying fire and the sword into the heart of France, they proclaim themselves the best of all possible friends to the French People; and making the extermination of Bonaparte the great and only pretence for continuing the War. Denmark has been compelled to make her Peace, by the Cession of Norway to Sweden, in return for which she receives Swedish Pomerania—It is something like the exchange of armour between two of Homer’s Heroes—A shield of brass for a shield of gold. Homer says that the one who gave the golden shield, was struck at the moment with a fit of Folly—But his translator Pope makes it a fit of generosity—Denmark however in this transaction has to charge herself neither with folly nor Generosity—Necessity, dire Necessity has been her motive and must be her justification—She has been plundered, for the benefit of Europe’s Independence.
We are all as well as the times admit—Charles’s Vacation being at an end he has returned to School—On Sundays and Holidays he comes home, and the Holidays in this Country are more numerous than suits my inclination—He enquired very particularly whether I had sent his Letters, and expressed his expectation of having answers to them all.
Most affectionately your’s
A.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 3 February 1814
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan

Dear Sir,
Quincy, 3 February, 1814.

Ever since your letter to the President, of December last, I have had a great inclination to address a letter to Mr. Vanderkemp; and, being now confined to my chamber, by an attack of the rheumatism, I find a leisure hour to address my friend in his solitude.
And in the first place, to put him perfectly at his ease, I assure him that I make not any pretensions to the character of a learned lady, and therefore, according to his creed, I  am entitled to his benevolence. I can say, with Gays hermit,
“The little knowledge I have gained,
Is all from simple nature drained.”
I agree with Mr. Vanderkemp, that, in declaring his opinion, he has expressed that of most gentlemen, the true cause of which I shall trace no farther than that they consider a companion more desirable than a rival. In reading the life of Madame de Staël, I learn that it was her superior talents and learning, perhaps too ostentatiously displayed, which produced that coldness, estrangement, and unhappiness, which marred all her pleasure with the Baron de Staël, soured every domestic enjoyment, and was the occasion of that sarcastic question to her by the Emperor Bonaparte. Upon some occasion, she had solicited an interview with him, and recommended to him some measure for him to pursue. He heard her, but made her no other reply than this: “Madam, who educates your children?”
I like your portrait of female excellence. Solomon has also drawn one in the character of a virtuous woman; but, if a sound understanding had not been united with virtuous habits and principles, is it probable that he would have represented the heart of her husband as safely trusting in her? or that he would have derived so much lustre from her character, as to be known in the gates, when he sat with the elders of the land? It is very certain, that a well-informed woman, conscious of her nature and dignity, is more capable of performing the relative duties of life, and of engaging and retaining the affections of a man of understanding, than one whose intellectual endowments rise not above the common level.
There are so few women who may be really called learned, that I do not wonder they are considered as black swans. It requires such talents and such devotion of time and study, as to exclude the performance of most of the domestic cares and duties which exclusively fall to the lot of most females in this country. I believe nature has assigned to each sex its particular duties and sphere of action, and to act well your part, “there all the honor lies.”
Have you seen John Randolph’s letter, and Mr. Lloyd’s reply?
Present me in friendly terms to Mrs. Vanderkemp. Tell her, I wish we were neighbours. I should then have a pleasure which our residence in the country deprives us of, that of the society and converse of a gentleman of taste, science, and extensive information; and, although much of his learning might be above my comprehension, his benevolence, politeness, and urbanity would render it grateful, and be in union with the good-will and friendship entertained for him by
Abigail Adams.