Title: From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 29 March 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

N. 14.
St: Petersburg 29 March 1811.

At length after an interval of five months and seven days, since that when your last preceding letter came to hand, I have this morning enjoyed the pleasure of receiving your’s of 24. September—It is more than six months old; but as it is dated two months later than any letter that I had yet received from Quincy, it was as welcome and almost as grateful as if it had come with the speed of a Telegraphic despatch.
It was forwarded to me from London by Mr: Farley, who was taken on his passage to France in a vessel of Mr: Gray’s, and carried into England; and like almost all the letters which have reached us from American, has travelled far by Sea and by Land before it could find me. It is still without a number, so that I am not certain but that it leaves others yet outstanding, between it, and its immediate predecessor hitherto received; which bears date the 7th: of May. As however it acknowledges at once the receipt of four letters from me dated from the beginning of February to the last of June, I infer that there is no intermediate letter from you, missing; and thereupon I recur again to the Rules, which I have laid down to myself for corresponding with you, and which I have already recommended for your use in return—1. To write at least once in the course of every Month. 2. Not to wait for the knowledge of an opportunity to send, but to have a letter always ready for the opportunity. 3. To return a separate answer to ever letter received.—By a steady and persevering practice upon these principles I am confident that we shall have the pleasure of hearing from each other more frequently & more recently than we have done hitherto.
I renew my cordial thanks to you for your careful attention to my private concerns, and for the information concerning them contained in your letter—I am glad that you have found it convenient, and warmly hope that it will prove as profitable as you expected to remove into the dwelling at the foot of Penn’s Hill—As to the Repairs, being perfectly satisfied of your Discretion, and that you would incur no expence for them which would not be necessary for your comfort and that of your family, I subscribe in the most entire Confidence to all your arrangements, and shall be pleased in proportion as you make them suitable to your own wishes.
The first intimation which I received of your removal and of your purpose to take my two boys into your family was by a letter from your wife to mine which was brought by Mr. Jones and which was received in September—It was a plan perfectly agreeable to us; and concerning which I could not hesitate, on the supposition that it would be agreeable to Mrs. Cranch—I felt myself under such Obligations to her for the kindness and care which she had bestowed upon them in times of our absence on repeated occasions, that I could not think of removing them from her family, unless it were with her own cheerful consent and approbation—My wife’s sentiments were precisely the same; and I wrote accordingly to my mother.—About a Month afterwards, I received your letter of 7. May mentioning more particularly your intentions; and have supposed untill now that the boys would be with you—I can now only say that I approve entirely of your plan, and shall be well satisfied to have you take them; but it must be on condition that Mrs. Cranch shall also be satisfied with the arrangement; and most especially that she shall be assured it is not from any abatement of our gratitude for her kindness, or of our persuasion that they would continue to have every parental affection paid to them under her care. I have in several of my late letters specified many particulars of their education, which I am very desirous should be attended to, and to which no person can so well attend as yourself—The use and management and necessary caution of fire-arms, and dangerous weapons, and the art of swimming in particular—Those are both things attended with so much danger that the very thought of my children’s being exposed to them is painful—But it is in both respects a knowledge so useful and so necessary to preserve from dangers inevitable through life, that I wish to have my boys familiarized to them under the eye of one whose caution will be sharpened with all a father’s anxiety.
The French Language, and the hand-writing are also objects of such high importance in my estimation that I must repeat the request that they may on no account be neglected. George had been so slow in learning to write, and in the course of two years had made so very little progress before we came away, that unless incessant attention be paid to him on this Article, I am afraid he will never write a good hand. As to the French, I am perhaps prejudiced a little in favour of it, from the particular advantages which I myself have derived from my own intimate knowledge of it; and which I am sensible have resulted rather from the special incidents of my life, than from any Circumstances generally applicable to the pursuits of Americans—I over-rate it perhaps, as I have sometimes thought my father over-rated the Law; because it has been so special a friend to myself—But so it is—What can we reason but from what we know? An American whose destiny will never lead him out of his Country may I know, get along very well through life, without French, but on the Continent of langua Europe, it is so universally the language of business, as well as of elegance and taste that I am extremely desirous that my children should all possess it.
I hope you have before this paid he Bill for £300 Sterling, which more than a year since I drew, upon the Credit, which he Mr: Gray had first furnished me on my leaving the United States—He has in the most obliging manner not only sent me the additional credit, which on my arrival here I had written to request of him, but gave orders to the Captains of all his Vessels which came here last year, to supply me any sum for which I should have occasion from the proceeds of their Cargoes—The very extent, and generosity of this Confidence operated as a warning to me not to abuse it, and I have now reason to hope, that I shall not be under the necessity of drawing upon it, at all—You may at least be assured that I shall not call upon you for any further contribution, and if on the receipt of this the Bill remains unpaid, I wish you to discharge it immediately, with my renewed thanks to Mr: Gray, for the accommodation which I have used, and for those which he has placed at my disposal, but for which I have had no necessary call.
I certainly approve of your expedient in placing even at private security the surplus of my funds in your hands, rather than insist upon a partial payment of principal on my note to my father, against his inclination—But by the receipt of this I trust you will be able to discharge the whole amount of the Note; and that he will be willing to receive it—You must yourself find out some way of investing it safely for him, which being upon the spot you can surely do with a little attention—But I must intreat you not to place any money of mine upon any private security whatsoever, so long at least as there is a Cent of debt of my own to pay—This injunction I wish you to consider as positive—And if my father and mother continue unwilling to receive the payment of my Notes to them, and you have a balance of mine in your hands, place it in the public funds and not upon private security. If I had not heretofore by a multiplied and dear experience learnt how worthless all private security is to a man separated from it by the Atlantic Ocean, I should have one indication of it in the shivers of Hilliard’s credit, and his incapacity to furnish you so much as the fifty Copies of my own Lectures, which I had purchased, to give as presents to my friends; while he in his ruin was subsisting upon the fruit of my labours.
The only stipulation, or rather verbal agreement with Mr. T. Welsh junr: of which I have any recollection, upon the rebuilding of the House in Court Street was, that the Rent should be suspended for the time, while he would be obliged to take an office elsewhere, and that he should be suited in the new Building with an Office, instead of that which he held in the old one—and at least the same Rent. I accordingly stipulated with Messrs: Osgood and Whitney that he should be so accommodated—But I never understood that Mr: Welsh had a thought of asking for an offset of arrears; nor do I see with what propriety he could ask it—That he should not pay for an Apartment while he could not occupy it, was a reasonable condition—That he should have in the new Building, one instead of that which he gave up was also reasonable, and I took care to secure it for him—But if he had claimed an offset of arrears, merely for his consent that I should rebuild the house, I should rather have waited untill the expiration of his term—The trouble of moving and removing his Office-furniture and Books was all the sacrifice that I could desire him to make, and had he asked it I should readily gave paid the expence of that—But I did not and do not expect to pay him for his consent, merely because he might have withheld it. Let him have every fair and just accommodation; and if payment is inconvenient to him, indulge him with time—If you can give him the occasion to pay in the way of his business, I shall be satisfied; but he certainly never hinted to me the idea of an offset of arrears.
I will write from this place to Mr: Copley in London, requesting him to deliver the Portrait to the order of Mr: Boylston; so that whenever the non-intercourse shall again cease, he may have it by writing for it. But you must also procure from your father an order upon Mr: Copley to deliver it to my disposal, which I think he did once give me, but which I had not then the means of transmitting, and which I have not now at hand—This reminds me of the two Portraits, of my father and mother which that, I know not what to call him, Stewart has so shamefully kept, and which I wish you could get once more out of his hands, as you once rescued them from the Sheriff at Philadelphia.—Among some of my papers which I left with you, is the receipt for painting that of my mother—But I know not whether you can find it.—If you can I recommend to you to bring an action for it against Stewart, and make the Sheriff take it from him again.
My paper draws to a close; and as I mean to send this letter over land to Amsterdam, I am too stingy of postage to commence upon another Sheet—But I shall glean the materials for another letter, from your last, which is as fruitful of epistolary matter, as according to one of Shakespear’s lovers, a request for a kiss is of conversation between a Lady and a Gentleman—We have here a new Winter just now setting in—I do not expect to have an opportunity to write you by direct conveyance for more than two Months to come.—The river Neva, at this moment would bear Atlas and his load.

A.All Well.


Title: From Madame Colombi to John Quincy Adams, 1 April 1811
From: Colombi, Madame,Colombi, François
To: Adams, John Quincy,Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

Leurs Excellences Monsieur & Madame de Adams
1 April 1811

Sont invitées de la part de Mme Colombi et de celle de Mr. François Colombi à assister aux cérémonies funèbres d’Antoine Colombi, leur Époux et frère, qui auront lieu Lundi 20 Mars, dans l’Église Catholique, à 10 heures du matin.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody, 2 April 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Peabody, Elizabeth Smith Shaw

My Dear Sister
Quincy April 2d 1811

An inflamation in one of my Eyes, will prevent me from writing more than to thank you for your last very flattering Letter; and to say that I place it amongst my richest treasures—
The president was in Town last Saturday and brought out with him your son. he does not appear to me to be fit for Buisness. he is very lame, and full of Rheumatism yet. he wants a wife to Nurse and tenderly care for him. If he had been where he could have been properly attended to, he would neither have sufferd half as much, or half as long. a sick person wants food frequently. I believe from what I can learn, that he never got even broth more than once a day. his coffe in the morning, & at night. his Land Lady, very seldom Saw him, and believed very little about his complaints; no Soft tender female hand to dress even his Blisters, or wrap him in flannels—in short he was basely used. and every body is exclaming against his remaining in the house any longer. one of the Boarder gave up to him a very warm & comfortable chamber, but his Bed was not attended to no it ought to have been. a Black Man Slept in his Room  when he could not keep himself at all, and was more humane kind and tender than his mistress—I have insisted upon his quiting her house & charged him if he found himself unable to do buisness, to take a carriage & come up immediately to Quincy and he has promised me that he will.
My own mind is, that you should come to Boston and see him, if you are able, and bring Abbe with You. you may as well make your visit to us in the Spring as September fall of the year  must not blame him too much for, not writing. he could not bend his  at all, nor hold a pen. he was much worse after I Saw him than before. he owns that he never before knew the true value of kind attentions when he was sick, knew them by the want of them, poor fellow. instead of attending to buisness, he wants nursing, but he would be better able to do buisness if he had kind and attentive care at home
Mrs Smith has procurd him lodgings with a woman whose kindness in sickness is well known and attested, who offers him the choice of any Chamber in her House, and who says she should esteem it an honour to have mr Shaw for her Boarder, a Mrs Hatch and there I hope he will go. it did not cost him less than 15 dollars pr week I do not know but 20 whilst he was sick—he found his own wood, and all his Liquors for any company who call’d to see him, and  I presume the extra attendance of the black Man—and his Doctors Bill. I do not take in his loss in buisness. I repeat it, that if he had a prudent good wife he might live much more comfortable, and I believe with as little
You must come and see him. he w. be at the office he says if he can Sit up—he rides there & back, a Journey will be the best thing for him, as soon as the weather grows mild and he can Spair time to go. But I really  do feel much concern for him
Mrs Adams has made several attempts to get to Haverhill, but has repeatedly been dissapointed—I do hope She will Succeed now. if She can I know she will not leave there, without Seeing you.,and she can tell you all about us. poor feeble invalides we are, Sister Cranch and myself—we look old, witherd, feeble, and most good for nothing—parson wilird used to ask, what is an old woman good for? the only answer I could give, was that She would do as a Set off against an old Man—Whilst I live however I hope I shall not be intirely useless to myself or others—so prays your truly / affectionate Sister

A Ado you think an old cheese or two could be procurd of mrs Little we have just finishd the last, and the President does not know how to do without Some. If you could get them for me, and they could go to mr Harrods to be Sent to mr Forters by the stage. I should be glad to have them and to pay whatever they may charge—I ought to have mentioned to you that mrs Greenleaf had lost her infant 12 weeks old which was never well from the time of its birth—


Title: From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 6 April 1811
From: Peabody, Elizabeth Smith Shaw
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

My Dear Sister—
Atkinson April 6th. 1811.

I have but just received your very Sisterly Letter, by Mrs Adams, handed me this morning. I immediately sat down & wrote to my Son, urged him to adjust his affairs with his Landlady, pay if possible, & thank her for any extra—kindness he has received—& quit her House as soon as convenient—I certainly know he may obtain respectable Boarding, at good Houses, for a less price—A little unconcern, or cold uninterested manner when we are sick, sinks our Spirits, & chills the vital Blood—How tenderly have I watched over the pillow, & gently, softly dressed the Blisters of my sick Boarders!—you, & I have nothing, no defficency of this kind, to reproach ourselves with, I desire to be thankful for—It grieves me to the Heart, to think how much my Son, must have suffered—There may be many excellent Landladys for the Gay, the robust, & the healthy, but alas! how few affectionate, tender Nurses—Who from genuine principles or Phylanthropy will delight to pour oil, & wine, & bind up the wounds of a Stranger, & the swoln Limbs of their fellow mortals—Yet Heaven be praised, the good Samaritan once lived, & such do still exist, though the number may be but small indeed—And those, with such a heavenly disposition, I hope he will endeavour to seek, & as soon as he can adjust his affairs, place himself under very different Care, from what he has experienced of late—
My youngest Girl has a terrible Felon, I have to poltice it several times in a Day—She neither eats, nor has slept for a fortnight much—& it must be opened again—She is patient as possible, but says, Mamm, I cannot help crying—Lydia, has gotten a bad cold & coughs again, but if nothing more happens, I intend to go to Boston, or Abby shall, as soon as I possible can—I intend going to Haverhill this afternoon & see Mrs Adams if I can—I have time to write no more then that I am, with sincere affection, in the bonds of love—your Sister
Elizabeth Peabody
PS—At Table to day, the question was asked In what does beauty consist? The Ideas of it, vary so in different countries, that it is assumed that there is none but in Opinion—I well know this, that aged people have to pay, whatever they once possessed or did for the protraction of their Lives—At least I think time has taken all, or the little I ever had—Why then does, the learned sagacious Addison say, that Beauty, it consists principally in the mind? For I am not willing, yet to allow that I am less wise, or good, & yet Abby says, “O Mamm,” how you look”—nor will I allow, that my Sister’s Hearts, or minds is less lovely, though their External figures may  decayed—


Title: From Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 7 April 1811
From: Adams, Thomas Boylston
To: Adams, John Quincy

No 16 Old6 new Series
My Dear Brother.
Quincy April 7th 1811

The departure of the Ship Horace, the same in which you sailed, for St Petersburg, was as sudden as her actual destination was unexpected to me. She has gone again to Russia, within a few days, and I was in the belief that she was bound to France. Mr Gray wrote by her, but I do not know of any other letters for you on board. I had written a short letter to you, but a little time since and I hope it will be the first to inform you of your appointment to return home. Whether any intimation was given you, in a formal manner, of the intentions of the Executive, in order to prepare you for the event, I have never heard. Every body enquires when you are expected home, as much as if I knew all about it, and as if your appointment as Judge, had been known to you, a twelvemonth before it happened. I had prepared for you a long letter, in which my opinion of certain measures of Government, of recent date, was expressed with more freedom than, upon better reflection, I thought expedient for me to communicate to you. I destroyed the labour of some hours in a blaze of the moment, and, considering the dangers of the Seas &ca: I have not repented the act. Most of my Letters, since the commencement of the current year, have related chiefly to your private affairs, but from the mode of conveyance, and the length of their detention after their dates, I apprehend you will be too long deprived of them, for your comfort or my justification. The US. Corvette John Adams, sailed from New Port. RI. the 20th: March, having on board Mr Erving, whose ultimate destination is Denmark, but whose first errand is said to be in Paris. I gave him leave, if he found it practicable to forward some of the numerous letters he bears for you, by land. He is sufficiently aware of the necessity of exertion in this respect, and will probably transmit but few in that way. His appointment to this Mission took place so soon after the meeting of Congress, in the Autumn; that I presume you will hear of it many months before you hear of the Envoy’s arrival, in Europe, and it will naturally occur to you that we should write at large by so good a conveyance.
Your latest letters for any of our family, have been received within a few days. No 11. to your Mother; I received in Boston on the 4th instant, and as I was necessarily detained in Town until yesterday, having no good chance to send it to Quincy, I ventured to break the seal and examine the contents. It appears by it, that you had then, 5th/17 Decr: received nothing from me of later date than May, at which I am not well pleased, since the frequent expression of your anxiety upon the subject of your affairs in my hands, may not have been relieved for a length of time after that date. My Letter of the 24th September was very full upon the subject, though unaccompanied with a formal account current. I fear it miscarried, by being sent in some circuitous route, of which I am quite ignorant, since my letters have gone from Mr Gray’s Counting Room, when opportunities have offered. If the said letter of September went to France, there is no hope of its safe passage, and you will be yet in a distressing suspense upon the business to which it relates. But I will not distress myself with conjectures. You want to hear the news of this day rather than the surmise of six months ago.
My business in Boston, last week was for the purpose of attending the Supreme Court, and bringing your suit with the N Bedford Turnpike to a conclusion. It was continued Nisi from Plymouth County, last October, and until the last week, there has been no Court aptly composed to hear the argument. I have informed you of the course it took at Nisi Prius—A Verdict was found for the Plffs, and the Judge Reported the points made by Defts Counsel to be argued to a full Court. The single questions whether the paper bearing your signature, contained a special promise to pay your proportion of the expence of making the Road & Bridges, and whether the Count in the declaration which was the foundation of the Verdict would support it, were all the Court would hear, and before Mr Whitman had much more than broke ground, the Court decided, (arguendo, among themselves) that the Verdict should be set aside and the Cause stand over for a new trial, and if the Plaintiff moved to amend by his Declaration, it should be upon terms. I was surprised to find that the Court, under our Statute of Jeofails, have gone so far as to admit an Amendment in so late a stage of the Cause; but I find they have in more than one reported case, and therefore we could not induce the Nisi Prius Judge to Non-suit the Plaintiff at the trial. I must presume however to congratulate myself that there is every prospect, but one, of our ultimately prevailing in this contest. I need not mention the glorious uncertainty of the law, as our only dread. You have given a fair trial to your Adversary and have thrown him on his back; should he rally again to the struggle, we cannot cry Craven. Genl: Lazell was present at the defeat; indeed he has been chiefly instrumental in the whole engagement, but even his high rank could not shield him from the catastrophe. His Son-in-Law N Mitchill, wrote his argument and sent it to Boston to be read, which was accordingly done. If the attack is to be renewed it will commence at the adjourned Court for Plymouth County, this Summer, but as I shall not yield an inch of ground, there can be no ultimate decision before your return. This circumstance is a considerable relief to me on various accounts, particularly as it respects your funds.
I have procured for you a complete set of the US. Coins. Mr Quincy brought them, when he returned from Washington, and our friend S Ewing Esqr: paid Dr. Rush on my account for them. They are so nearly done up in papers that I did not undo any, and I have delivered them to Captain Boit of the Shop Cordelia, which will sail in a few days for St Petersburg, where I hope you well receive them in a good condition.
By this time you may think I ought to say something of the Election of State Officers. I think there is no doubt of the re-election of Messrs Gerry & Gray by handsome majority, and many believe in the choice of a majority of Republican Senators. This, if true, is a great stroke, considering the times and the pressure of Commercial restrictions. I have a great deal more to write, but time fails. It would be ungracious in me however to conclude without informing you that I have recently been honoured by the Governor with a Commission of considerable importance, in association with Perez Morton Esqr Atty General and Jonathan Smith Esqr of W Springfield, to go into the County of Lincoln in obedience to an order of the house of Representatives; to enquire into the causes of discontent which have some time since been manifested in some towns of that County, and to make Report, at the next Session of the Genl Court. I expect to set out, if my health will admit, in about a fortnight. The Journey will do me good, if I can but being and proceed; I am sorely afflicted with many grievous complaints.

April 8th:
P.S. Your Boys are well—They are not to live with us, as I have made up my mind; it is best they should remain with their Unckle and Aunt Cranch. I did however acquit myself of an obligation imposed by a regard to your pecuniary interest and in reply to a Letter addressed by my Aunt to my Wife, after the receipt of your Letter to my Mother in which you mention the prospect of your Son’s changing their abode, for the purpose of becoming members of my family, I very fully expose my motives as a justification for having meditated a change. If by the Providence of God it should be our Lot to meet on Earth no more, I appeal to that Letter with great confidence that you will find therein my excuse if not my justification.
My Dear Spouse has left me in a temporary state of widowhood by going to Haverhill for a few days. She would join me very cordially in her love to all her friends in Russia, were she present, at this writing, by which I subscribe / our faithful friend & Brother


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 April 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, John Quincy

No 9
my dear Son
Quincy April 8th 1811

Your Letter of december No 6—/17 came Safe to hand yesterday, the last No was 8. So that two others must be upon their way.
I thank you for your punctuality in writing, and have only to regret, that from july, untill october: I did not write, as there were not any vessels up for the North of Europe, and the impediments were so multiplied as to discourage me, but from that time to the present, Scarcly a Week has elapsed, but either your Father, Brother, or I have written to you as you will find, if mr Erving Who Saild about three weeks Since for denmark arrives Safe, as well as Several of mr Grays vessels; by which we have Sent Letters.
your Father received a Letter from you of Novbr 9th, No 5— in the Month of Feb’ry These two last Letters,—were unexpected Guests but not the less welcome. we have had this Winter the greatest Quantity of Snow that has fallen for many years. it has had a very gradual Thaw, without any great Rain, So that we have not Sustaind any injury as was apprehended
The Month of March has been very pleasent, and the Season very healthy. I have as usual been confined during great part of Jan’ry and Feb’y and Some part of the time very Sick. my Constitution bends to the blast, and rises again. my Spirits are good altho the flesh is weak, but old Age is a disease which time does not cure, and, I must Say, I would not live alway if I could..
It is not necessary for me here to repeat, the melancholy events which have taken place amongst our connexions, as many Letters from Washington, and Quincy have already related them to you, and those of a pleasing and agreable nature, you will receive nearly at the Same time, Such I call the prospect of your return to your Native Country, and Event which to me is very gratefull, as the Seat to which you are appointed, is honorable and respectable.. I hope it will meet with your approbation, and acceptance. your Friends are gratified with it, one of whom expressess herself in this manner
“The appointment of mr Adams as the Successor of my blessed Husband gave me great Joy. I know not that Being I Should have prefered” even those whose political Sentiments differ from Yours, express a confidence and Satisfaction which is a homage to virtue.
The Mission to Russia is looked upon with a different aspect now, to what it was when you first engaged in it and altho you must expect that your Services will be grudgeingly acknowledged yet they are Seen and felt, by those who Silently enjoy the Sweet fruits of them.
It will be attended with Some difficulty, to find a proper Successor. Since the rising of congress, it has been reported that mr Smith, the Secretary of State was appointed by the President to Russia, an other report Says that he has resignd his office, but declines going to Russia these are Newspaper reports; What real foundation there is for them, I cannot determine.
There is much murmur, and ill will, as you may readily Suppose, by the Renewal of the Nonintercourse with Great Britain. this is made a political Engine against the Government, and all those who support it every method is tried to excite an open opposition to it. terror, Jealousy and falshood are all in a way to allarm the ignorant, and to influence our Election for Gov’r
Mr W Phillips is united with mr Gore. you know how extensive “connection he has in Boston, and there they carried the vote. a Majority of three hundred” more this year than the last against mr Gerry—my own opinion is that mr Gerry will be chosen—but with a less Majority than the last year
To aid the importent work of a junto Election the old Champion of British Rights, has assumed the pen, and addrest the good people of the united States, in a Series of Letters, in which he attacks the administration of Adams, Jefferson and Madison. he throws about arrows fire Brands and darts, with the venom of the Serpent, and dips his pen in the gall of the Asp—The Major was affraid to publish the Letters previous to the Election, least it Should ruin their cause, the Sober federalists Condemn him, Whilst the Republicans are gratified that he has Shown his teeth. Timothy must be craked, for he asserts things without foundation, and absolutely false to my certain knowledge. it would engrose too much of my paper to detail them. Dr Holten once told him, that he would not be happy in heaven if he found his Superiour there.
His ReElection as Senator depends upon the present Election of Govenour—he professes to have no Anger, no resentment, but writes from pure Love to the people, who are the most duped and deceived people in the world with respect to their Rulers—every line discovers the fretted porcupine.
your Sons are both well. George grows fast John is Small of his Age. They are Still with their Uncle Cranch. in Some Letter which I wrote you, I Said, there I hoped they would remain, without adding any reason for the wish; which I ought to have done—it did not arise from any apprehension that they would not be equally kindly and tenderly treated, if they were removed, for otherways, my apprehension arose, least they would be too much indulged. George who is a fine Boy, altho as I have mentiond rather positive will yeald to the decicive Authority of his Aunt. her old Age and the respect which the other Children pay to her orders, are an example to him, and rason, and reflection, always bring him to an acknowledgment when he has done wrong—
your Brother is necessarily So much absent from home, that he could not attend to them, as mr Cranch does who is always at home, and She Seldom absent even a day. the distance from School was an other objection—to his Aunt Cranch. George Spends many of his Evenings in reading loud to her—where there are three young Children, and a fourth Soon expected it would be impossible to pay that attention Which is so necessary at Georges Age John is easy-managed without any difficulty, and a very good Child—I mean no disparagement to Mrs A, who is a prudent, industerous exelent wife and Mother making Small means, appear handsome, who is every thing to him which a good wife ought to be—adieu my dear Son. Remember me kindly to my daughter, her sister, and / William whose family are well. ever Your Affectionate Mother
Abigail Adams.


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 April 1811
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

N. 7 or 8 in 1811
My dear Son
Quincy April 8. 1811

The Public Mind Seems decided that Gerry and Gray are elected, and a Majority of Senators their Friends.
Our Friend P. will not then be So Successful as he was when he brought G. in and turned you out.
You are destined to be a Judge, and I am glad of it because it affords me a Chance of enjoying a Portion of your Society at least once a Month or two. And because it takes you out of The Tourbilion of Politicks.
Can you purchase for me and bring home with you Manilius’s Astronomicon? Let me give you an Extract of a Letter from Van der Kemp of 28th March 1811.
“I am more and more convinced that “Eripuit Cœlo Fulmen” &c is a downright Plagiarism. Your question who is the Franklin in Manilius”? removes every doubt. Manilius gives a Description of the Progress of the human Mind. How it went on gradually from  Earth to Heaven, till it explained Meteors &c I Submit the whole Passage to your decision
Nec prius imposuit rebus, finemque manumque Quam Cœlum ascendit, Ratio, cepitque profundis Naturam rerum causis, viditque quod Usquam est, Nubila cur quanto quaterentur pulsa fragore;Hibernâ, œstivea, nix grandine mollior essetArderent terræ, Solidusque tremesceret orbis,Cur imbres ruerent, ventos quæ causa moveret,Pervidit; solvitque aniumis miracula rerum:Eripuitque Jovi fulmen, vires que tonandiEt Sonitum ventis: concessit nubibus ignem.
Lib. 1. 96—104.
I wonder the democratical Divines and Philosophers have not united with The In Atheists and all other Infidels in Europe to apply Some of these Lines to Tom Paines Age of Reason and other enlightened Writings, to Joel Barlows Advice to the priviledged orders, and good Dr Stiles’s learned and prophetic Lives of the Judges Goff and Hayley.
But it Seems Manilius did not foresee the progress of Reason in making Such discoveries in Religion and Government.
Your Sons are well and good. George was here Yesterday and is delighted with his Virgil: intends to get into Cicero before Pa, comes home. John went from Us this morning to school. He reads charmingly and writes pretily.
Our Friends are all as well as Usual.
My Love to Louisa, William, Kitty and Charles and all others who know or care for your affectionate
A.


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 April 1811
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My dear Son
Quincy April 10. 1811

Yesterday Mr Pope of The House of Boardman and Pope, No. 37. India Wharf, was so obliging as to call upon Us to let Us know that they had a Ship to depart for St Petersbourg on Fryday next the 12th. The Ship Cordelia Captain Boit: and that they were desirous of taking any Letters from Us. Since then I have heard that Mr.  Jordan is going in her, but he has not been so complaisant as to Let us know it.
Concordiâ res parvæ crescunt: discordiâ maxima dilabuntur. Jefferson, Hamilton, Randolph Knox &c were always in dissention in Washingtons time. You know what happened in the time of his successor: not so much dissentions among themselves, and as Contradictions to their Master. We have formidable Amounts, now of Controversies in the Cabinet. Smith out, Monroe in; Eustis going out, the Lord knows what Clintonian or Livingstonian coming in. Duane Seriatim attacking Gallatin and pleading the Cause of Wilkinson. &c &c &c
It is agreed on all Sides that Gerry and Gray are chosen and probably a Majority of senators of their Confidence. All is yet uncertainty from Europe. A special session of Congress is expected by many.
In this state of Things I think you cannot hesitate to accept a Seat on the Bench. I do devoutly pray that you may not refuse it. How corrupt and malicious sower might be the motives of some who voted for it, I am sure it is a smile of Providence upon you and yours.
Duane has published Franklins Secret Journal in France, in four Volumes of his Works. I have not seen them. I have already sent to the Printers matter enough for Six or Eight or Twelve Months to come and have but just arrived at Paris to meet the Ministers of Peace. My famous Journal with all its follies on its  head must now come out! and to the discussions of this day must be added the dissentions of 30 years ago. So be it.
I believe it will be found that The President of the United States must have some controul over his Ministers Secretaries & heads of departments.
Reason, notwithstanding the Prophecy of Manilius has not yet made Progress enough to subdue the formidable Host of Passions Prejudices and Interests, his Enemies to preserve Harmony and pure undeviating public Virtue; much less as a perfect conformity of Understanding among Mankind.
Love as Usual. All well. Uncle Cranch swallowed up in Raptures with a new Book called Bible News. A new Sect of Christians to be called Worcesterians rising up. Poor human Nature: Disputes in Religion and dissentions in Politicks, without End.
The Boys well Yesterday. good Boys.

A.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Caroline Amelia Smith De Windt, 18 April 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: De Windt, Caroline Amelia Smith

My dear Caroline.
Quincy April 18. 1811.

I write you a few lines just to say that I send your mother a century Sermon, preached in this town when your Grandfather was about four years old. He says he recollects the day—as his mother carried him to meeting and pointed out to him the old lady Penniman mentioned in the Sermon said to be near an hundred years old—The Sermon had got out of print—A number of persons who wished to preserve it more as an ancient Record than for any particular merit there is in it, had it reprinted—and as many of my ancestors as well as those if your grandfather are named in it I thought your mother would like to have one to preserve. You will see by these records that this town was originally a part of Boston—that it was not separated until the year 1634. The only part of the town which retains the name of Mount Wollaston was owned by my Grandfather Col. John Quincy and after the death of my Uncle Norton Quincy the Farm was purchased by your Grandfather and is now in his possession.
The reverend Moses Fisk who was ordained here in 1672 married my Grandfather Quincy’s Mother and Madam Marsh the Mother of Mrs Josiah Quincey formerly Ann Marsh was a daughter of the Reverend Mr Fisk. The first Deacon of the Church Mr Samuel Bass married an Alden—A daughter of their’s married an Adams the great grandfather of your Grandfather now living. Madam Mary Norton mentioned as having presented a velvet cushion to the church was my Great-Grandmother by the Mother’s side. Hon. Edmund Quincy who went as Agent to Great Britain and died there with the small pox was Uncle to my grandfather Quincy.
I have written this to you because it is a subject which young people scarcely ever think of but as they advance in years they become more inquisitive about their ancestors. As this country was settled by a religious and learned people although somewhat bigotted we can trace our Ancestors much easier than those people who are settled by conquest—and we can trace them to pure unadulterated English blood.
With my love to you father and Mother / I am, my dear child, / Your affectionate Grandmother
Abigail Adams.


Title: From William Eustis to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 April 1811
From: Eustis, William
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

Madam,
Washington April 22nd. 1811.

It is among the instances of good fortune which are now & then permitted to accompany the discharge of a public duty, that franking a Letter from the State Department in the absence of the Secretary has brought me to your recallection and attention. Judge Adams as I am informed has been requested to return to the United States as soon as circumstances will admit: and as no public vessel has sailed or will probably sail within a short time for the baltic, he will select a merchant vessel in which to make the voyage. Captn Bainbridge in a very fine ship I think from Baltimore has been mentioned—but this will depend on the time of her sailing from Russia with perhaps other circumstances. With great respect to President Adams & the family / I am Madam, your obliged / and humble Servt.
W. Eustis


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 23 April 1811
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My dear Son
Head Quarters of The Lieutenant Governor in Boston April 23 1811

Your Mother and your Father have dined here with great Pleasure this day, and I have borrowed a Pen to write you one Line by a Vessel to Sail in a day or two, barely to Say we are all well. George and John are very well and very attentive to their Studies.
The Corporation for an Hospital have met to day, and all Parties very cordial and unanimous.
I can add no more, only that Mr Gerry and Mr Gray and their Families are well and happy
Our News from France and England afford us no great comfort and but little hope.
Let me introduce to you The Captain of the Vessel that carries this who is recommended to me as a very worthy Man.
My Love to Louisa and Kitty, to Mr Smith, Mr Everet and all others who know any thing of me, especially to Master Charles. Oh how We all long to grasp the dear Boy in our Arms. Your / Mother joins with your Father
J. A.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 24 April 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, John Quincy

my dear Son
Quincy April 24th 1811

your Letter No 10 has found its way in four Months after its Date. It is as you observe, three and four Months that Letters are upon their passage before they reach the place of their destination. I have thought it very fortunate, with all the chances they run, that So many of them reach us in perfect order, not of time, but condition
your No 4 I give up as wholy lost, but of the late Numbers, 9 only is missing. 11 I have received. I dinned yesterday in Town, at the Leiut. Govenours, where I like much to go, because I can take a dinner with them at any time, quite in the family way, and indulge ourselves in our favorite topick, that of our Dear absent Children.
you have by your last Letter almost reconciled me to the Russian climate. I had conceived from the Weathers being so much colder than ours, and the winter so much longer, that the Snow Storms must be as much more voilent, as the weather was colder. the braking up of your winters must be bad, and the Streets dangerous to pass.
The little day light, and sunshine, would be an insurmountable obstacle to me against the climate, for most dearly do I love the Glorious Luminary. you will recollect the Country with pleasure, having been So cordially received by his Imperial Majesty, and distinguishd by his personal Regard.
I am desirious of learning how you realish your Recall, and the office to which you are designated?
I am for fixing your Residence with us at Quincy, where I hope to the paternal Mansion, you and your family will come, upon your first arrival. Mrs Richard Beals House is to be Sold soon. Mr Braidly who married her Sister, and who purchased the house, having ly dyed. Mrs Blacks House and Gardens will be to Let an other year
I hope Mrs Adams will be reconciled to living in Quincy the few remaining years of the Lives of your Parents.
you will be obliged to pass Some part of your time at washington, when no doubt it will be agreable to mrs Adams to accompany you, and to visit her Friends
My Imagination has dwelt with Delight on the prospect, by I rejoice with trembling, knowing how easily and how Suddenly all may be blasted.I desire to Submit all events to that overruling Providence, who has carried you out, and returned you heretofore in Safety, and whose protecting Arm is Still over you for good, and who if Seen best, will, will permit us again to meet.
It with pain I mention to you the declining health of your valuable Friend, and Respected Pastor, the Rev’d mr Emerson, who is thought to be in the last Stage of a decline, and who is expected to live but a few Days more. at the Same time I must inform you that judge Dana, is despaired of, if now living, from three Paralytic Strokes.
Mr Gerry and Gray are Reelected by a larger Majority than the last year, notwithstanding the Efforts made to remove them, by the Boston Caucus, who “declare, who resolve, that Such an unjust, oppressive and tyrannical act,” meaning the Non intercourse If persisted in, must and will be resisted”
yet not all their Resolves, or inflamitory publications, has produced the least opposition to the Law it has been peacably acquiesced in, altho bearing hard upon the merchants
I inclose you one Number addrest to mr otis upon this occasion. It needs no comments of mine
your Brother Sits of tomorrow if able upon an excursion to the Eastward. I hope it will Serve his health he is appointed one of three Commissoners to Settle the disputes between the Landholders in the County of Lincoln. I am very anxious for his Health. he has many very dissagreable complaints which allarm me. he returnd last Evening from Dedham court, So unwell that I fear he will not be able to go So Soon as required.
present me affectionatly to Mrs Adams, with Love to William and Charles. your Dear Boys are both well. no School to day, So George is with Us, as we like to have him and he thinks It a treat to come.
I am my dear Son / most affectionatly / yours—
A


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 24 April 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

N. 17.
St: Petersburg 12/24 April 1811.

The Russian People pass their lives in a continual and alternate succession of feasting and fasting. Every individual whether of high or low degree celebrates two days in every year; one for his birth and the other for his baptism, which is called his name day, and is kept on the day marked in the Calendar, as devoted to the Saint of the same name; for it is a religious principle that every body must be named after some Saint, and a rule of the Greek Church never to give more than one Christian name to the same person—The days of public solemnity are all of a religious character, and all annually return—The ecclesiastical year commences at Christmas, which is celebrated the 25th: of December—From this day the people are allowed to eat flesh untill eight weeks before Easter; that is for a time of varying duration, Easter being in the Greek as well as in the Latin Church a moveable feast—It is the Sunday following the full moon which happens on or next after the twenty-first day of March—Christmas day and two or three after it are Holidays during which the People amuse themselves with various sports, and drive in procession sleighs, round a Corner of the Winter Palace in this City—For a week before Christmas there is a market of frozen meat brought from distant parts of the Empire, and from which the lower classes of People in St: Petersburg stock themselves with their whole Winter’s provision of fresh meat—The bullocks, sheep and Swine are all brought in sledges and without being cut up into quarters—Most of the Marketmen think it a good piece of wit, or at least an expedient to attract notice to set them upon their legs, and it is a curious show for a stranger to walk through a succession of fleeced and embowelled flocks and herds, and droves, amounting to many thousands.
The Russian Calendars all inform the people how long they may eat meat—Thus in the almanacs of the present year it is announced that meat may be eaten 6 weeks and one day—That is from and including Christmas day to the 5th: of February—Then began what they call the Butter-week; that is a sort of ambiguous week, half fast and half feast, during which they must renounce flesh, but may eat fish, and butter, (from which it has its name) and when the Christmas sports, the races and Ice hills upon the river, and the processions of sleighs before the Imperial Palace are resumed with double ardour—The Butter-week is extended to the Sunday which succeeds it, and from that day follow seven weeks of rigorous lent, called by the Greek Church the great lent, during which according to the severity of the Church rules they should eat absolutely nothing but bread and salt.—Something of this rigour is however abated in practice in the interval between the first and last day of these seven weeks, and among the highest class of the nobility there are persons not extremely scrupulous about observing the fast at-all.—This laxity however affects their reputation in the popular opinion, and there are few even of the highest ranks, but choose to be thought regular in their practice—The Imperial family are punctilious in setting the example—During the last year’s lent the Empress-Mother, and her unmarried daughter the Grand-Duchess Ann, paid a visit to the Grand-Duchess Catherine, a Sister of the Emperor’s, who is married to a Prince of Oldenburg, and usually resides at Twer, a City between this place and Moscow—On their way they pass’d through the City of Novogorod the antient metropolis of Russia—They were received and entertained by the magistrates of that place, in the most distinguished manner. That is to say, the magistrates met them at the gates of the City, accompanied them to Church where they attended the divine service, and afterwards presented them—bread and salt.—All which was publicly announced in the official Court Gazette—During the whole seven weeks of Lent, all the Theatres are closed—The only species of public amusements, that are allowed, are Concerts and Oratorio’s—No entertainments are given, and the families which profess to be scrupulous in their duties neither pay nor receive visits—There are religious solemnities three or four times a week throughout Lent, and in the last or Passion-week every day—On the Thursday of Passion-week, the Metropolitan of St: Petersburg the highest ecclesiastical parsonage of the Empire washes the feet of twelve poor persons, in commemoration of the same act, performed by our Saviour to his Apostles the day before his crucifixion.—The next day, that is on Good-Friday, there are in the Churches religious ceremonies specially allusive to the crucifixion, and a regular funeral procession to a place within each church where a scenical representation of the holy sepulchre is exhibited, and remains, lighted with lamps untill Easter day—I saw this scene on the last Good-Friday, at the Roman Catholic Church in this City—It was in a chapel adjoining the great altar. In the middle of the Chapel was a transparent tomb within which was the image of a corpse, large as a man’s body. In the background was a view of Calvary with three Crucifixes standing and at a distance the temple of Jerusalem—At the foot of the tomb were the figures of two women, the Virgin Mary in the attitude of fainting, and Mary Magdalen: at the head were the images of two Angels, one of them bearing a canvass unrolled with the head of John the Baptist painted on it and in front of each end of the tomb, at a small distance from the figure of a soldier in the antient Roman armour to represent the guard mentioned in the gospels.—This and similar exhibitions in all the Greek Churches are preparatory to the solemnities of Easter which celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and which are the most remarkable of all—They begin precisely at Midnight by a religious ceremony which lasts between three and four hours—The signal for their Commencement in all the Churches of this City, is a Cannon fired from the fortress.—I attended this year the celebration at the chapel in the Imperial Palace, where the foreign Ministers are not on this occasion invited, but where they are admitted and have a good stand secured to them as Spectators, if any of them chuse to be present—I say a good stand, because it is one of the peculiarities of the Greek Church, that all their religious acts are performed standing—The only exceptions are occasional kneeling, and prostrations; but no person is ever allowed to sit—there is neither chair nor bench, nor seat of any kind in the Church. Between eleven and twelve at Night of Saturday, the day preceding Easter, I went to the Palace in full dress as to Court, and just before the Ceremony began was introduced into the Chapel, and placed at a station the most advantageous for witnessing all that was to take place.—Precisely at Midnight the Cannon sounded from the fortress, and the Emperor entered the Chapel. He was accompanied by his Mother, and followed by two of his brothers, one Sister, and all his Court.—He took his stand within the Chancel on the right hand; and his Mother stood at his left—The princes and princess stood without the Chancel surrounded by the crowd of Ministers, Generals and Courtiers which filled the Chapel—Eight or ten officiating Priests stood in a line before the Sanctuary, the doors of which on this occasion alone are open—and a Quire of Male singers was stationed behind a railing on either side of them—The singers are partly men grown and partly children; but the Greek Church allows no instrumental music, and no female voices.—Some of the attendants in waiting, presented immediately to the Emperor and Empress Mother, and then to every other person in the chapel a small lighted wax taper, which every person took and held in hand during a part of the Ceremony—Then the Quire of Singers commenced chanting a hymn, and marched out in procession, followed by the Priests, and the Emperor and Imperial family, walking two by two, and every one with the lighted taper in the hand—They went out of the Chapel, and performed three times the round of three or four halls adjoining the Chapel, into which they then returned in the same order & resumed their respective Stations—At the ordinary Churches this procession marches out into the Church-yard, or Street, and thrice round the building itself. It was followed at the Chapel by what I believe was a Mass; for my total ignorance of the language in which the solemnities are performed prevents me from understanding any thing that is said or sung—At the close of it however, seven of the Priests ranged themselves in a line, each of them having a holy relic in his hand—The Emperor went up and kiss’d the relics and afterwards embraced the Priests themselves—The Empress mother and the other members of the Imperial family followed in succession and went through the same process, excepting that the Priests instead of being embraced by the Ladies, kiss’d their hands.—This however is a recent innovation, as the antient rule was that the women as well as the men should always on this occasion salute one another with a holy kiss.—And the ceremony being considered as emblematical of the primitive equality of all Christian believers, and of the purity of Christian innocence, I find many persons here and of various ranks in Society who are by no means edified at the substitution of hand-kissing, for the good old smack upon the cheek and lips, which they boast of as having always been given at Easter, by the Empress Elizabeth, with indiscriminating favour, alike to men and women. The kissing is not confined to the Priest-hood—Every individual in the chapel (not including strangers) was understood to have the privilege of going up and embracing the Emperor, and so many of them exercised it, that for a full hour he was employed in bestowing this mark of kindness upon everyone who chose to approach him—At the same time in every part of the chapel each individual was exchanging embraces with all the others around him, and in the course of the hour, I was witness to a multitude of kisses which it seemed to me would have satiated the greediness of Joannes Secundus—After this operation was over a new religious ceremony began, the most remarkable part of which was the reading of the four gospels—There are four of the Priests, standing at desks, each one with his face towards one of the Cardinal points, who read in alternate succession, and by three verses at a time, a chapter from each of the four gospels, beginning with the first Chapter of St John—This is meant to commemorate, and mark the fulfillment of the Saviour’s injunction to his disciples to preach the gospel to all the Nations of the Earth—It concluded by the Principal Priest’s taking the Communion; but without administering it to any other person. We came home between three and four in the Morning.—This was the mere introduction to the Easter Holidays—I shall give you an account of them in another letter—The time draws near when I hope to have opportunities of writing to you directly—The lock of ice upon the Neva river was last-night broken open.—We are all Well.
A.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 28 April 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

my Dear Daughter
Quincy April 28th 1811

Scarcly a week has past, for these two Months in which I have not written either to my Son, or to you, but our Letters are not only committed to the Chance, of winds and waves, which may Scatter them like the leaves of the Sibyls, but they have many other hazards to run, through the Dens of Cyclopes, and the fangs of the Harpies.
I write this to Send you by the Ship Hugh Johnston, Captain William Johnston Master, belonging to the House of Loring & Curtis American Merchants, belonging to Boston, and with whom Price Greenleaf, the Son of mr Thomas Greenleaf of Quincy, and Brother of Thomas Greenleaf junr, well known to you, Served his time.
They have requested to take Letters to the American Minister at Petersburgh, knowing that in case of Capture, they might be considerd as Some Evidence of their perfect Neutrality
other Merchants have made Similar applications having been informd, that Letters from the Family, had been the means of the clearing of more than one vessel. I wish the fair and honest Merchant to be Secure; and every imposture detected, and punished.
I received a Letter from your good Mother this week, dated April 16th from Baltimore, where She had been to visit Mrs Buchanna whom She writes me, has a fine Son, as mrs Boyed had, before she left washington.
Mrs Pope continues at washington through the Summer as a Session of Congress is not improbable. Adelade is better in health. mr Hellen, very feeble, and infirm
Your Brother left them last week for new orleans
all this you might learn from your own Family but the chances are So much against the Security of vessels, that it will be no injury to repeat the Same thing
your dear Sons, are well, and good Boys. George grows fast. John has not yet taken a start. Mrs Cranch has a great charge having taken the three Daughters left by mrs Norten and one Son, which with a Son of mrs Greenleafs and your two Boys, make up a Group of young ones the eldest of the whole, is but 12 years old, yet she gets on with great care method and regularity.
Mrs T B A—expects to be confined in June. her Little ones are now, all Sick at once, with what the dr calls a Catarrhous fever, and to add to our anxiety, her Husband was necessitated to leave them having been appointed one of three commissoners to go to the Eastern Country to adjust claims of Lands. he has been much out of health, ever Since last Spring I had hoped a journey might be of Service to him, if he could have left home with a mind at ease. I Still hope he may be benifited, but he has many very dissagreable complaints.
My anxiety is great also for my dear and only daughter I have not mentiond it before, I know that It would distress william—She is apprehensive of a cancer in her Breast. I have besought her to come on to Boston and take advise, and I have consulted dr Welch, and Holbrook. they have advised as well as they could without Seeing her, but wish her to come here I cannot yet prevail upon her. She thinks that She cannot leave home without the Col. and that he cannot come, but the real Truth is, I believe, She thinks the Physicians would urge the knife, which she says, the very thoughts of would be Death to her
Heaven knows what is proper for our trials in this Life. I pray that I may be resignd, and Submissive, what ever I may be calld to endure. heitherto, I may Say; Goodness and mercy have followed me.
Tomorrow Your Father has the Melancholy office of pall holder to the Remains of his much esteemed Friend and companion through many trials, Judge Dana. he was Seizd Suddenly with a paralitick Stroke about a week Since, which in a few days terminated his Life
I know my dear Son will mourn the Death of his Friend and Preceptor with whom he first trod the Russian territory, more than near thirty years ago, and with whom he was intimatly connected, and for whose memory he will always preserve a high respect and Esteem. alass I fear I Shall Soon have to add to the Melancholy List, his Worthy Pastor, Mr Emerson—whose case is thought incureable—your Father and I are both well at present. at our Age, we cannot promise ourselves length of years. that it may please heaven to prolong them, in vigor, untill we may hail your return to America, is the wish nearest the heart, / of your truly affectionate / Mother
Abigail AdamsMy best Love to my Son to whom I wrote last week. to your Sister, to william and Charles a kind remembrance—our last Letters were dated in December which we have received from you. your Mother mentions that She has received Letters of the same date. I coverd two Letters for William from his Father and Mother last week, which were committed to the Leiut Govenour—


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 28 April 1811
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

N. 9. or 10 in 1811
My dear Son
Quincy April 28. 1811

This Line will go by the Ship Hugh Johnston William Johnston Master bound for St. Petersbourg. She belongs to the House of Loring and Curtis and is consigned to Mr Joseph Austin, all Citizens of Boston: So that I presume if Neutral Ships Neutral owners Neutral Cargoes and Neutral Consignees can in any case Sail Securely, this Letter will reach you with safety.
I have Mementos enough. Fryday brought me a Summon to the Funeral of the late Chief Justice Dana and Saturday from Judge Sewall of York an account of the Death and sepulture of my Classmate Dr Hemenway of Wells.
Yesterday I visited the Botanical Garden and dined with The Trustees and Visitors at President Kirklands in Cambridge. The Garden is a grand and beautiful object. A new and handsome house for the Professor an Admirable Green house and hot House and a Garden in a train of fine Cultivation, well formed on every Side present objects very agreable and much to the Credit of our young Country.
We are all well—as your Sons are well and behave well and make handsome Proficiency in their Studies.
Your Brother is gone to Wiscasset with The Attorney General and Mr John Smith of Springfield, on a Commission to Settle disputes between Claimants to Land.
Our Governors are chosen by Majorities larger than last year, The Senate is with them 21 to 19.
Nothing certainly to be concluded as yet from any Intelligence from France or England.
This whole Nation expects and desires to See you on the Bench with a Unanimity that you must respect. Every day brings fresh Proofs of this that cannot be contradicted, disputed or evaded. And with the Nation al Voire your Mother, and all your other Relations / cordially unite your affectionate / Father
John Adams


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 29 April 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

N: 16.
St: Petersburg 29. April 1811.

I am informed that a vessel belong to Mr: W. R. Gray, called the Washington, which sailed from Boston the 20th. or 28th: of February last has arrived at Baltic-Port, not more than two hundred miles distant from this place, and is expected at Cronstadt as soon as the Navigation of the gulph will be entirely clear—We had heard a week or ten days since the arrival of this vessel at Elseneur, and have all been from that time on the tiptoe of expectation for letters from our friends at Quincy; which we think it impossible but that she must have on board—The river Neva pass’d from the solid to the fluid state six days ago, but the Ice from Lake Ladoga has yet to float down; which usually happens from ten days to a fortnight after the breaking up of the Ice at the City—Untill that happens the gulph is not considered as navigable; so that we have yet about a fortnight to look forward for the arrival of the Washington at Cronstadt.
In the mean time having an opportunity to write by two of our Countrymen who are going to Gothenburg, and thence directly or indirectly to the United States, I shall not suffer it to escape me, and in addition to all the rules for improving the speed and frequency of our Correspondence which I have adopted and recommended to you before, I now add that of writing a few lines at the latest possible hour before the departure of the person by whom the letter is to go—I cannot indeed promise always to practice upon this rule with you; because I have a public Correspondence to which my duty requires that on every occasion my first attention should be paid—Neither would I be understood to exact it very rigorously of you in return; because it might make it necessary for you to be more constantly and severely upon the alert than the importance of the object may require—But as a rule to be born in mind, and practiced upon whenever it may be not inconvenient, I think it will contribute to the result at which I aim.
As promotive to the same end, I send you a list of all the letters that I have received from you since I sailed from Charlestown, marking their dates, the days of their reception, and the time intervening between the two periods—By this you will perceive that the average of time between the date and reception, of the seven letters received is five months—To this I add a list of the letters which I have written to you—From which you will ascertain whether you have received them all, and if you marked the several dates of their reception you can draw a similar average of the time that they were upon their passage—Since the adoption of the rules, I find that I have written much more frequently than before—Time slides away so insensibly that I should scarcely have imagined, had I not brought this list before my eyes that from June to September last and from October to February I had not written to you—I did indeed in the intervals write several times to my Mother, so that since last July I think you can scarcely ever have been a full month without hearing from us.
Besides the motive of quickening the circulation of our correspondence, I have another reason for entering into these minutiae—As this Country is absolutely locked up against all intercourse by sea upwards of seven months of every year, and as one of my public duties is to give information as frequent and as recent as I can, I have been naturally put upon the search for expedients to transmit letters and despatches—The political state of Europe is continually multiplying and varying obstacles to the communication, in addition to those of Nature; and I would willingly persuade our Government if I could that their Communications with their public agents in Europe ought to be more active and expeditious than I have ever known them; and as this unquestionably of all Europe the spot with which the difficulties of Communication are the greatest, I have been constantly upon the watch for means to remove them as much as possible.
Your letter of 24. September is yet the last which I have received; and from my dear Mother I have none later than 25. July. As the world of waters is again open before us I hope we shall now hear from you very often during the navigating Season. At least I have no doubt but we shall have vessels from the United States, arriving here in swarms, if the English, the French, the Danes and Swedes will let them come—Indeed they might dispense with the permission of all these Nations except the first; but without their leave none will reach a Russian Port.—The trade however according to all appearance will be good for Nothing, and much more probably a source of loss than of profit—First because it will be, as it already is overstocked; and secondly because it will ere long labour under the double burthen of highly aggravated duties and of English fellow-customers, in competition—They hitherto have been excluded; but as an immediate War between France and Russia is considered as unavoidable, the Peace between Russia and Great Britain will follow of course—I can hardly say this to you now without indiscretion, because to this day there has been no public manifestation of the slightest misunderstanding between the Cabinets of the Tuileries and of St: Petersburg—But you know the fashion of modern War is to strike before they speak, and it is highly probable that you will hear of actual hostilities between the Russian and French armies, before you receive this Letter.—The Condition of the Ports on the Baltic and Gulf of Finland will then depend upon the Fortunes of the Campaign—On this subject I do not think it prudent to say more at present.
We are in hourly expectation of hearing the arrival of Mr: Livingston as Minister in France, and of Mr: Irving, in the same capacity at Copenhagen. Neither of those Gentlemen will find his Mission a bed of Roses. The one will be extremely dependent as to its result upon the other.—The policy of France is at this time as hostile to the United States as it ever was since our existence as a Nation.—We hear and I most sincerely hope truly, that the Non-importation act which was proposed in Congress before the discovery of what the French Government intended by the professed revocation of the Decrees of Berlin and of Milan did not eventually pass.—It was a trap to catch us into a War with England—A War which England most richly deserves, but which would on our part be more than ever impolitic at this time—
Mr: Pinkney has taken leave at the English Court, and by this time I suppose is far advanced upon his passage home—The British Ministers however say that the Negotiations are not yet at an end, but that they have sent out new propositions by Mr: Foster, who goes as Minister Plenipotentiary—I have no hopes that these propositions will be acceptable or admissible, but I hope Foster will behave himself better than Jackson; that he will spare his Country’s partizans in Congress and the Massachusetts Legislature, the degradation of proclaiming themselves the satellites of his insolence, and that he will not undertake to instruct the Antient and Honourable Artillery company of Boston at a public dinner where he is their guest, against, whom they are to draw their swords, meaning particularly as he and they know, against their own Government.
I am yet waiting for Instructions from Washington to ascertain precisely the time when we are to embark upon our return home.—But I have still the prospect of being detained here another Winter.—I had taken a lease of the house in which we now reside for two years from the first of last June Old Style, and this lease has accordingly a little more than a year to run—But he Emperor of Russia has just now some occasion for the house, and is in Treaty with the owner to purchase it, for the Crown. By the Laws of the Country the sale of a dwelling House annuls all leases, and so at the expiration of my first year I shall have to look out for a new habitation.—Our intention at present is to take a house for the Summer in the neighbourhood of the City, and to seek at leisure for another Winter-Residence.—We shall find none either so comfortable or so cheap as that in which we are.—We are as well, as, all things considered, can be expected; and ever affectionately your’s.
A. List of Letters received from you since 5. Augt: 1809.
Dates. Time of Passage Reception.
1809.August11.4. MonthsDays.1809.Decr:11.Novr:62151810.     Jany:21 1810Jany:12420June1Feby:20519Augt:8March27625Octr:22May7529Septr24651811March29.List of Letters written by me to you since 5. Augt: 1809.1809. Number1.Augt:16.1810. Feby:5.Cypher.1811. Number11.Feby:2.Septr:24. Dup. Number5.Feby1412March52.Octr:286.April2113173.Novr287.June3014294.Decr:148.Septr:815April10.
9.Octr:23.1629.10.27


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Lucy Cranch Greenleaf, April 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Greenleaf, Lucy Cranch

my dear Neice
ca. April 1811

I thank you for your kind inquiries. I am better to day. I had the Rheumatism in my head, and was quite Sick yesterday. I took a little medicine last night and find it has releived me, tho I am not very smart to day. mrs Smith thanks You and will call and see you. She is engaged to her Brothers to day—She has walked out twice into the Neighbours—your Brother wrote me Sometime Since that altho he did not doubt mr Adams would be a good judge, yet he thought they might obtain judges. but Such an other Statesmen was not easily to be found in whatever Station he may be placed. my greatest pleasure will arrise from the belief, that he is a good and an honest Man your affectionate / Aunt
A A


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 2 May 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

N. 18.
St: Petersburg 2. May 1811.

The religious ceremony of which in my last Letter I gave you an account, began at Midnight and terminated between three and four in the morning.—It was accompanied by a Salute of 21. Guns fired from the Fortress, two or three times, at particular stages of the performance—This was conformable to the customary practice; which always ushers in Easter day at St: Petersburg with an expence of gunpowder and a volume of Sound, equal to that which in the good Town of Boston, introduces our Independence-Day—This is only one of many particulars in which there are characteristic resemblances in the celebration of the two days—Thus, for example, they are both days of military Parade—At ten in the morning the Emperor reviewed all the troops then in this Metropolis, amounting to more than thirty thousand Men—Our military exhibitions are not so numerous, nor so splendid; but of these thirty thousand heroes, how many may never stand again to be reviewed on Easter-day!
In front of the Imperial Winter-Palace is a large and Magnificent Square, connected by a public walk in front of the Admiralty, with another square equally spacious and magnificent; In the centre of which is the marble Church of St: Isaac; with the incomparable equestrian Statue of Peter the Great before it, and further on in the same line a Bridge of Boats crossing the Neva, and the commencement of the Granit-sided Quay, which is one of the wonders of the reign of Catherine.—A minute and sufficiently correct description of all these objects is contained in Porter’s sketches, which in one of your letters to me, you mention having read.—It is on these two Squares that the troops are drawn up, when reviewed by the Emperor, which he usually does every Sunday morning; but with peculiar solemnity on Easter-day—But besides the splendor of appearance derived from this Parade, the Square of St: Isaac on these occasions is the scene of all the popular amusements which enliven the festivities of the Season—A number of slight buildings are erected on one side of the Square, in which from Easter-day untill and including the ensuing Sunday, continual exhibitions during the day-time are presented of Rope-dancers, Chinese-Shadows, puppet-shows, mechanical and optical representations, strange animals, and the like delights of the Populace, to the successive Crowds of People, who can afford a few copeeks for admission to each of these places of entertainment—And to some of these temporary theatres, there are adjoined, an external stage or Balcony, upon which Punch and his wife, Jack-Pudding and Merry-Andrew occasionally sally from within, to allure by their antic tricks and the delicious sample of their Sports, the wavering Prudence of the simple youths, whose parsimony struggles with their love of pleasure, and whose Copeeks still linger in their pockets.—On each side of the Church are raised a number of Swings and Whirligigs, filled by a succession of men, women and children who keep them in perpetual motions—The Swings consist of a suspended plank upon which three or four persons sit side by side, while at upon each end of them stands a man or woman, who by the alternate pressure of their own weight keep the vibration constant from side to side, untill weariness puts an end to their sport.—The Whirligigs are cross bars something like the wings of a wind-mill, with a large chair, or bucket suspended at the ends of each bar; in each of which two or three persons are seated, and which are swung round perpendicularly by machinery.—Twenty or thirty of these two sorts of machines are ranged along close to one another, and intermixed together, which from Noon to Sun-set of every day, are incessantly whirling and balancing, all together, and as one set of the occupiers tires, instantly filled with another—Beyond them, on the side of the Equestrian Statue, are two sliding hills, another of the amusements peculiar to this Country.—At the amusements of the Butter-week, which are in February, they are erected on the river, and are called ice-hills—an accurate description of them is given of them in Porter’s 15th: letter, and they have indeed so often been described that I shall spare you the repetition of the same thing here—At Easter–time the Ice upon the river is usually so much weakened, and the weather in the day time so warm, that the real Ice–Hills can no longer be enjoyed—But so fascinating is this pastime to the common People here, that they substitute these artificial Imitations of the Ice-hills in their stead—The Construction of the Stages is the same—But the inclined planes down which they slide, and the flat between the Stages at their feet, are laid with Planks, and the sledges upon which the Sliders go down are upon little wheels or rollers, confined on each side by a small channel in which they must run.—Of these Sports, only the lowest classes of the People partake; but every afternoon during the week, the People of better condition, that is every body who owns or can hire a Carriage, ride in procession round the two Squares for two or three hours, beholding all these amusements of the nobility, and at the same time exhibiting themselves, and their Carriages, and Liveries and Horses, in Spectacle to one Another—The Imperial family occasionally appear two or three times every year in these processions, and the Emperor himself sometimes attends them on horseback.
On Monday, the day after Easter, a levee or Diplomatic Circle is held by the Emperor, at the Winter Palace, where according to the appropriate phrase of Etiquette, he and the Imperial family receive the felicitations of the foreign Ministers.—Felicitations for what? do you ask?—For the Resurrection of Christ: to the celebration of which all these festivities are devoted—In all the religious ceremonies and in all the traditionary usages of this Week, there is some allusion to that great event.—The kiss promiscuous, so disgusting to Porter, and so delightful to Carr, (for these two British travellers, both rapturous sentimentalists, were very differently affected by a fashion, which custom here soon flatters into indifference as much to those who behold, as to those who practice it)_this kiss which levels all distinctions both of rank and sex, and which the Imperial Consort of Russia must in the rigour of principle bestow upon the meanest moozhik who presents her an egg, is nothing more than a recognition of that universal equality and brotherhood which Jesus came to proclaim to the whole human race; and as to the egg, which puzzles all the travellers so much to account for, what more expressive emblem could have been chosen to express that eternal life, bursting from the shell of mortality, of which the Resurrection of Jesus was the first fruit, and the most precious pledge?—The custom of giving eggs, is as universal as that of kissing—Servants give them to their masters—Friends interchange them with one another, and it is an act of delicate gallantry from a Gentleman to a Lady—On presenting the egg, the giver pronounces the words “Christos Voskrest”—Christ is risen—to which the receiver answers “Voistinnoi Voskrest”—He is indeed risen; and then the salutation succeeds. The common people who can afford no more, give real, hard boiled hens eggs, with the shells dyed red—But persons in easier circumstances give artificial eggs, of paste-board, wood, glass, marble, porcellain, candied sugar, and in short of almost every material that can be fashioned into the shape—Boxes of Sugar-plums assume this form in presents for children, much to the entertainment of master Charles; and it can take even the shape of a Lady’s work-bag; not to call it on so serious an occasion a Ridicule—The windows of innumerable shops in the City are decorated with multitudes of these artificial eggs, of various sizes, suspended by silk ribbons of all the gaudy Colours, and of various prices from five Copeeks to a hundred rubles—They are also hawked about the streets by the Carriers of Ginger Bread, and sugar-candy—In short these objects are so multiplied at these times before the eyes of a Stranger to the Custom, that he would almost be induced to believe that in Russia, breeding eggs, and kissing, was the business of human life.
On Easter-day the seven-weeks Fast is at an end. Many of those whose abstemiousness has been carried to an excess which physical Nature can scarcely support, now plunge into the other excess, of bestial gluttony and drunkenness. The habits of intoxications to which the Russian Populace are addicted, have often been noticed—It is the natural vice of those who have not the means of indulging others.—But there is a singular character of harmlessness in the ebriety of this People—Among the multitudes whom I daily meet staggering and sprawling about the Streets, I have never witnessed any thing like a fray, and scarcely ever any thing like a brawl—This quietude is partly owing to the submissive Spirit of the Nation, and partly to the rigorous vigilance of the Police—Every Police officer, of the lowest class has the privilege of using the cudgel over the backs of the populace at discretion; and so faithfully is the privilege exercised, and so numerous are the Police–Officers, that on the slightest symptom of disorder by a moozhik in the Streets, he receives the immediate admonition of a severe bastonade, from some little, spare green-coated Beadle, who seems as if to start out of the ground for that single purpose, administers the discipline without speaking a word, and then vanishes with as little noise as he appeared. The regularity and absolute power of the Police is equally visible in the tranquility with which the crowds of People assembled at the Sports disperse immediately after Sun-set—In the course of half an hour the sliding-hills are deserted, the Whirligigs and Swings are emptied and unmoveable, the hundreds and even thousands of equipages have retired, the bustle of the throng has given place to silence and Solitude, and the Square just swarming with festive myriads is as quiet and unfrequented as the Streets of an American City On a Sunday.—The change of its appearance after the close of the Holidays is still more remarkable—In twenty-four hours the Sliding-hills, the whirligigs, the Swings and the Theatres have all disappeared, the Square resumes its customary appearance, and not a trace remains of the motley multitudes which have been eight-days reveling upon it.
Besides the Great Lent, before Easter, there are three other fasting terms in the course of the year—One called the Fast of St: Peter—thirty–one days in May and June—One from the 1st: to the 15th: of August, called the Fast of the Mother of God—and the fourth from the 15th: of November to Christmas day—They are not quite so rigorously kept as the great one, but they are all preceded and followed by one or more days of festivity and intemperance.
Thus much for Russian Holidays and Fasts—If you incline to slumber over this account of them, or any other of my frequent letters, I can only beg you to consider them as apologies for repeating to you as often as possible, that we are well, and ever faithfully your’s.
A.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 10 May 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, George Washington

N. 2.
My Dear Son George.
St: Petersburg 10. May 1811.

I received only two or three days ago your letter dated the 24th: of September of the last year; and although it had been written so many months before it came to me, it gave me and your Mama very great pleasure, and I take the first opportunity to write you this in reply to it.
I was glad to see that the greatest part of your letter was written with your own hand; and I hope very soon to receive another letter from you, written wholly by yourself—I shall keep this one, and all those that will come from you hereafter, to compare them together, and to see what improvement you make in your hand-writing.
I am also much pleased with your account of the Books that you had been studying and reading when you wrote me— When you write me again, you must tell me in what language it was, that you read Virgil and Homer’s Iliad, because as you do not tell me any thing about learning a Greek Grammar,  and as you only say you had got into Cornelius Nepos, in the progress of your latin studies, I do not suppose that you meant to say you had read Virgil in Latin, or Homer’s Iliad in Greek; and yet, you doubtless know that Homer’s Iliad was written in Greek and that Virgil wrote in latin—There have been many translations of the famous Poems of these authors, some into prose and some into verse. I suppose it is some of them that you read, and should like to know which—I suppose you know too the difference between prose and verse.—If you do not, ask your uncle Thomas to lend you from your Grandpapa’s library the volume of Moliere that contains le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and read that Comedy—That will tell you what prose and verse are, and help you to retain or recover your French, and give you a hearty laugh besides.
There are La Fontaine’s Fables too, which are many of them taken from Æsop’s Fables, that you have studied—Supposing you were to read one of them every morning or every Evening before you go to bed—What I am not pleased with in your letter, is to find you are afraid of forgetting your French; because if you do, it will be owing to your own carelessness and neglect
The last letter that I wrote you was in September—We live here in a Country where the winter lasts so long and it is so cold that for seven months in every year, and sometimes more no ships can come to it or go from it—St. Petersburg is built on the sides of a river called the Neva and in the beginning of November this river freezes over so hard that the ice is five or six feet thick: and so it remains untill the Month of April; and sometimes untill May—In February and March the people dig out great rocks of this ice each big and heavy enough to load a one-horse sledge, and carry them about the City to fill the ice-cellars where they keep it all through the Summer—Some years ago there was a house of ice built upon the river, and a wedding of two dwarfs celebrated in it—All the furniture of the house, the chairs the tables, the bed-stead, every thing was made of ice, and they fire a salute in honour of the marriage from Cannon made of ice—In the midst of winter the Sun rises at a quarter after nine O’Clock in the Morning, and sets at a quarter before three in the afternoon; so that there seems to be hardly any day-time—But then in the Summer the days are as much longer than ours as they are shorter in Winter; and at midnight we can read and write without candles as easily as at noon—I do not know whether you have begun to learn Geography and the use of the Globes—If you have, you will soon understand the causes why the days and nights are of such different lengths in different Countries.
We are in great hopes of receiving a letter soon from your brother John, to whom you must present my love and tell him I shall answer all his letters as soon as possible after I receive them—Charles has not forgotten you though he was so young when we left home—He learns to speak English, French and German all at once, and we hope when we return will speak them all with ease.
Your Mama and Aunt Catherine are well, and we all long to have letters from Quincy to tell us the same good news of our friends there—There was a vessel called the Washington that came from Boston the latter end of February, and we were in hopes to have received letters by that opportunity; but we were disappointed, and so must hope that the next vessel that comes will bring them—You will give my dutiful affection to your Grandpapa and Grandmama, and my kind remembrance to all your uncles, and Aunts, and cousins—Also my respects to Mr: Whitney, to whom I hope you will continue to give satisfaction by attention to all your studies.
I am, my dear Son, your affectionate father
John Quincy Adams.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 13 May 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

N. 12.
My dear Brother,
St: Petersburg 5 March 1811

The Austrian Minister, Count H. Julian, some time since, jokingly asked me if I had received any very late advices of the year before last from home—When I turn to the last letter that I have received from you, and find it dated 7. May 1810. the Count’s wit seems to have lost all its exaggeration. The longer we remain absent from our Country and our friends the more uneasy we feel under the long intervals between the times when we receive letters from you. It is now more than four months since I have received a line from you, and ten full months since the date of your last letter.
As the westerly voyage from Europe to America is almost always longer than the easterly voyage from America to Europe, it is in the natural course of things to be expected that our letters to you will be longer from the times of their date in reaching your hands than your’s in coming to our’s.—yet from the frequency with which since our arrival here I have written, and the pains that I have taken to send by various conveyances, I think it impossible either that you should have been at anytime upwards of four months without receiving a letter from me, or that the date of my last received letter should at any time have been full ten months old.
My dear Mother does indeed complain in the latest letters that we have received from her, that you had also been long without hearing from us—We had not the last Winter so many opportunities of forwarding letters to places from which they could be dispatched to America, and as none of the vessels which went from Cronstadt sailed before the middle of June, and all experienced considerable detentions before they got clear of the Baltic and the North Sea, most of our letters must have been of antient date when you received them. But from the time when the Horace arrived at Boston, which I hear was on the 13th: of September untill this time, and indeed untill you receive this letter, if you remain at any time a month without receiving letters from us, it will be because the obstacles to their transmission are absolutely insuperable.
I have in a former letter requested you to write me at stated periods, say at least once a month, without waiting to know by what opportunity to send it. During the Summer Season, while vessels bound directly to Russia sail from the United States, if when your letter is written you will give it to Mr. Gray, and request him to forward it by the first opportunity that may occur, to judge from the experience of last year, your letter will never wait a fortnight, without being dispatched, and although it may be four or even six months before it will reach me; yet the succession being once established, the intervals between the receipt of one letter and another will on the average not be longer than those between their dates—At least we shall not have the mortification of seeing vessel after vessel of Mr. Gray’s or Mr. Thorndike’s arriving direct from Boston, Salem or Beverly at Cronstadt or at Archangel, without bringing us a line from Quincy
But by the time when I can expect you will receive this letter, that is, by the last of July the Season for dispatching vessels direct from the United States for Russia will be past, and as my present anticipation is that we shall spend the next Winter, as we have the present and the last at St: Petersburg, I am now thinking of expedients to secure the transmission of your letters to us from October ’till June—We have no temptation to bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, but I should fain loose the bonds of Orion.
Mr. F Gray who is with us, received letters from his father about a fortnight since, dated 13 December—They bore the Post mark of Paim-boeuf, a very old acquaintance of your father’s and mine, which is about ten leagues below Nantes upon the River Loire—We conclude therefore that the letters must have been sent by a vessel bound to Nantes, and that they were put into the Post office at Paim-boeuf—They came without difficulty, and very expeditiously having been received here in little more than two months from their date.
Mr Russell of Providence, who brought me a letter from you is now our Chargé d’Affaires at Paris—you may enclose under cover to him any letter for me, and he will forward it either by the Post or by some Courier from the Russian Ambassador to his Government—I have received several letters from the United States through that channel.
If Mr. Pinkney should return home from England, I understand that Mr. J. S Smith who left us about two months ago, is to be the chargé des affaires in England—you may enclose under cover to him or to Mr. Lyman our Consul at London letters for me, and they will not have much difficulty in transmitting them to me.—If the non-Intercourse should be removed, there will perhaps be despatch vessels sent by the government, or the Packets may still go—You will always recollect that the letters to send thus should be light—A single sheet of paper, and a cover—If you enclose one letter within another take that the inside letter be sealed only with a wafer—Sealing wax is objectionable not only for its weight; but because it wears out or tears the paper within which it is enclosed.
Here is precept upon precept—and on my part I promise you that it shall be followed by line upon line—From this time forward, unless prevented by Circumstances as far beyond my controul as they are beyond my foresight, not a month shall pass by without my writing at least one letter to you, and one to my mother—I ask of you a like return; and if you have no subject to write upon, send me extracts from Hutchinson’s History.
I mentioned Mr. J. S. Smith’s having left us—since his arrival in Europe he has been an industrious traveller—He landed in Norway, and went by land to Stockholm: there he was taken sick, and was detained almost the whole of last Winter—To come here however he was obliged to travel round the gulph of Bothnia, a journey of two thousand miles; by the impracticability at that particular season of a water passage of less than fifty—He arrived here towards the latter end of March and in June and July visited Moscow, and the celebrated annual Fair of Makarieff—He returned and spent about five months here, during which he was with us almost every day—He finally quitted us about the last of December, intending to go to Berlin—Dresden—Vienna and Paris—His appointment will probably shorten his tour, and direct his course immediately towards England—We were all much pleased with his Society, and regretted his departure—He is of an amiable disposition and of agreeable manners. I think him well qualified for the station to which he is appointed You must always take it for granted that we are all well, when I do not tell you otherwise—This is the inference which I always intend to make when our letters from America do not expressly say that you are all well. But the last summer one of the letters which we received happened to speak only of our George, without saying anything of his brother, and untill the next letter came, my wife was a little anxious lest John should have been sick—I argued with her that the conclusion was not logical, but in fact I was almost as uneasy as herself, that it might be true— you know what love and absence are, and how they operate upon the solicitude and imagination of a Mother—We have not been so much involved in dissipation this Winter as the last, though yet too much for my taste—We are now in the midst of the longest and most rigorous of the four Russian lents—All is quiet and devotion, and I had almost said famine, untill the Easter Holidays, which are still six weeks distant—
Feasting or Fasting, I am always equally your’s.