Title: From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 29 August 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, George Washington

Dear George
Quincy August 29. 1815

I received yr last, with great pleasure and with Still more your Sensible Letter of the 17th of July, No. 4. I had before received No. 1. and No. 5.—Numbers 2. and three are behind Still lingering on their passage
I congratulate you on the fresh Lawrells acquired by our Naval Heroes in the Mediterranean. They have now carried the Arms of their Country in tryumph beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
I need not trouble you with my Advice in your Studies, because your Father is much better qualified than I am to give you all necessary directions. Your Employment in copying will improve you in thinking Writing and Composition faster than you can imagine. Where is the Youth, who has such Models as your Father and Mother? You and your Brothers have a great responsibility incumbent upon for a wise improvement of Such peculiar Advantages.
The Gentlemen gone to Holland have been unfortunate in the Death of my noble hearted Friend De Gyselaer in Leyden to whom they had Letters from Mr Van der kemp and from me.
My very cordial Approbation cannot be witheld, from Mr Saunders for his generous manly and noble Spirit of Patriotism, an example worthy of Imitation by great numbers of Lawyers Physicians Priests and Magistrates who have never crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
My dear George,! I have lost my first and only great grand child! Your Father and Mother will feel this affliction as I do. It will excite recollection in them as it does in me, that can never be forgotten. They knew the beauty and the promise of the flowr better than I did, who never Saw it. You and your Brothers must prepare Yourselves for these tender Emotions, and affecting Vicissitudes, though at present you can have no conception of them. My Love to Father Mother John and Charles and accept it / for yourself from
John Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 30 August 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My dear Son
Quincy August 30. 1815

I feel so uneasy, on your account, that I want to write to you, every hour. But I am become so great a Coward, that I dare not write any thing to you. I never take my Pen, but with the utmost Anxiety, last I should hurt your Feelings, embarrass your Employments, give you unnecesary solicitude for your Country or excite a useless gloom on the prospect before Mankind.
Shall I give you a History of Harvard Colledge? No! No! No! You know the Nature of the Boys there; and you know the Characters who have governed them, and who now govern them. I will hint however at two Phenomena that have appeared in our Horison. Mr English has published a strange Judaizing Attack upon Christianity, and has been answered by Mr Carey and noticed by Mr Channing. Your Rhetorical and Oratorical Successor, has published a continuation of Goldsmiths History of England, down to the Treaty of Ghent. Dr Morse, one of the Corporation, has published a Pamphlet in which he has involved Jefferson, Kirkland, and all the liberal and illiberal Christians in a Solemn Controversy concerning Athanasianism and Unitarianism. The Church of Rome and the Church of England grow and flourish in our Country, rather faster than the Church of the Pontiff Voltaire.
As to Politicks, your Treaty of Commerce will be received with as implicit Unanimity as your Treaty of Ghent.! Happy Negotiators? These temporary Expedients keep the World along: but he must be an Ideot who cannot see that this Tranquility will be of short duration. Love to every Individual is constantly felt and all ways implied in the Name of
A.
P.S. This is Commencement Day, and a finer never shone on Earth or in the Skies: But 80 Years have not strength to encounter, the fatigues of a Commencement Day. Indeed I have long since lost my Relish. While at the Bar, I was almost always obliged to Attend some distant Court: from 1774 to 1778 I was in Congress—from 1778 to 1788 I was in Europe. Since my Return I have been two or three times. But always met some unpleasant Circumstance. So no more at present.

A.August 31. As you live, your other Friend, John Lowell Esqr. has entered the List of Theological Gladiators, and has wielded his Weapons with equal dexterity and intrepidity, through 90 or 100 pages. Have mercy on ye all! Ye Reverend Drs. Morse, Woorcester, Andover Institution and all, if this Knight, once gets well healed in the Battle. It will require an Alliance among You to quell him, and a longer time than Emperors and Kings have been employed to encage Buona. How they will manage him, I know not. They will charge him with Anger: but he has written with a cooler temper than could have been expected.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Richard Rush, 30 August 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Rush, Richard

					Dear Sir
					Quincy August 30th 1815

				I transmit, to you two Letter lately received altho of an old date. they may communicate to you some facts which perhaps you might not receive from any other Source. I do it in confidence, as Some of the Sentiments are not calculated for the meridian where the writer now is. where in a Subsequent Letter of july 17th he writs that “one cannot indulge even a Sentiment of compassion for the condition of France, where the Armies of all Europe are ravaging and ransoming the Country, of which they proclaim Louis the Legitimate Sovereign”If they contain any thing you may think proper to communicate to the President, you are at liberty to do SoYou will be so good as to return them by the next mail, to your Friend

					A Adams

					Mr A. writes the treaty of commerce was Signd the 3 july, and mr Gallatin had Saild for N york with it


Title: From B. Bezerra to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 30 August 1815
From: Bezerra, B.
To: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

Rio de Janeiro August 30 1815

If my dear Mrs Adams does justice to herself, she must be sure that no one that ever knew her can forget her, or cease to love and admire her—time or distance has not lessened my affection or made me indifferent to the happiness of a friend so deservedly dear to my heart, I learn that Mr Adams is appointed to and is actually in London—I conclude you wd not remain in Petersburg I send this letter upon a venture supposing you arrived and shall be very impatient to learn that you have not forgot me—and above all that you are well and happy; for of this I am most certain that no one merits every good more than you I can not suppose that all my amiable friends in Petersburg have quite forgot me, I have wrote many letters but not one answer—I blush to say that only one to you a long time ago but not a line from any one have I been blessed with and my last dispatches have been so clouded with misery at my adored husbands situation that indeed I have been far from amusing but I am certain a heart like yours so good and amiable will not love me the less from having been unhappy—it is now near two years that my dear Husband was seized with a Palsey, occasioned we suppose from the too rapid change—from the cold of the Northern to the burning heat of the Southern,—all one side became helpless and for many days his dear life was in the outmost danger—his dear superior mind as I wrote you remained in tact & his looks soon recovered their sensible and sprightly appearance—these disorders come with out any warning the cure is alas tedious and difficult in this country often however accomplished—he was getting quite better but a bad overturn into a swamp—and repeated violent attacks of Gout—in both hands and feet have rendered him a complete cripple—he is now getting much better so I allow my heart to hope—often has it dispaired;—you who know my tender affection for the best and most amiable of husbands may imagine all I suffer and have gone through but Heaven has given me strength and courage to be able to soothe and comfort my adored Invalid who would be dead without me in this country which is still in its infancy—but enough of ourselves, I will only say that our most amiable Sovereign is all goodness—and honors my husband with every mark of kind attention;—I long to know and expect you will give me the history of yourselves ever since I quitted Petersburg—suppose I know nothing which is much the case—except that your pretty sister consented to bless Mr Smith—I conclude happiness is the result and that they will give birth to a beautiful race does he remain as minister or is any other gone to succeed Mr Adams & have they left Russia;—and how did you pass your time after the departure of the Great Alexander and the divine lovely Empress;—I want news of every one and am sure they must have wrote—but not a line have I received but immediately on my arrival—from Mme Colombie the Dutchess and Cpe Probapoff—What is become—of yr handsome Chargé d affaires Mr Guedes—not a line have we had from him these 2 years,—I can not divine why he is silent to those so well disposed for him there hangs a mystery that I long to have cleared up—surely many letters must have been lost—if you are so good as to honor me with a reply which I do flatter my self you will—knowing how dear such a proof of friendship will be to my heart send your letters to our Ambassadors care in London & they will be sure to find me—give me the history of all my amiable friends at P—I will not make myself unhappy by the idea that I am quite forgot—talk to me much of Guedes I heard he had been sick, did he get into any scrape, he appeared to me so good and amiable that I cannot bring my mind to fancy any ill of him—but his total silence I own perplexes me for my husband had ever been so partial to him;—you must my amiable friend have been very dismal in the long absence of Mr. Adams—did he return to fetch you—you see I know nothing and I am more anxious than I can say for your  and  felicity—have you given a little success  poor little angel God daughter who promised to have at least the beauty of her dear Mama talk to me of your little boy who my husband was so partial—you can not talk to me half enough of all those that are dear to you—therefore give me the interesting history of all that concerns you—with regard to politics what wonders have been accomplished since we left you—what an effusion of blood—merciful powers the soul shudders—at the thousands of widows & miserable mothers that are the fate of battle let me indulge the hope that the Heroic Lord Wellington has at length saved Europe What is become of the Tyrant—I trust he has not escaped and gone to raise a tumult in the Western Hemisphere—I want to know how you came or go to England if by land or in some American vessel—what becomes of yr Consul whose ambition was great,—My dear friend forgive the dullness of these lines I wd fain be agreable, but alas I am no able—but sick or well miserable or the reverse I can never cease to love you and be interested in yr happiness—My Husband kisses your pretty hands and unites with me in affectionate wishes for the felicity both yr self and Mr Adams—
I some times see the American Minister here he has a fine family of Children and claims the priviledge of an American Minister of possessing a very pretty amiable wife—tho I like much but not half so much as I do you—
May Heaven give you both health and every / other blessing is the sincere wish of your / ever affectionate and devoted / friend

B Bezerra


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to William Steuben Smith, 30 August 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Smith, William Steuben

Dear Sir
Quincy 30th 1815

Inclosed are two Letters which I received last evening with a Letter from your Brother Uncle, and your Aunt Sister, to me. his bears date 17 july. he Says the Commercial Treaty was signd the 3d of this Month, and that mr Gallatin and Clay have Saild for Nyork with it. it is only for four years duration.
His Situation in England is not like to be very agreable, either to him or to her; and he will be obliged to quit it, if the Government do not allow him an outfit, which She writes it is thought they will not. You know what his Sacrifice must have been in Russia, and when he quitted it, that it must have been at a great loss of various articles. With respect to our foreign Embassys our Country has always been a penny wise and a pound foolish. a public Minister is exposed to many mortifications upon this account, and few if any of his countrymen, who visit him, and wish to be noticed by him (many of whom ought so to be,) can form an opinion of his true Situation, or the necessary expences he is at to Support his Station—
I cannot give your Brother any Encouragement, as I have not a line from mr A upon the Subject nor did I write to him upon the Subject, untill I found he was to be consulted—I fear he would feel pretty much as George and John do very home Sick.
we are all well: my Love to mrs Smith / From your affectionate GM.

A Adams


Title: To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 31 August 1815
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, John

					My dear Sir
					Boston–House Ealing 31. August 1815.

				My last Letter to you I am ashamed to say was written on the 19th: of June—I have however since then written three Letters to my Mother, and in the last of them have given her a detailed account of my occupations, which will I hope serve as some excuse for the long intermission between my between my last and present number, to yourself—In the meantime I have enjoined it upon George to write you by every opportunity, and I believe he has missed none—I have occasionally sent you Newspapers, French and English;—The French I no longer receive, nor are they since the renewed Censorship of the Press, worth receiving or reading.I have to acknowledge the receipt of a considerable file of Letters from you—Their dates are 16. October 1814.—18 and 24 March (two of this date) 1. 8. 13. 15. April—1. 14. 16. May. 4. 7. 8. 13. and 30 June 1815—Sixteen Letters, with many valuable enclosures—In my Letter of 24. April from Paris, I informed you that I had received two others.Many of these Communications, and of the papers enclosed with them relate to the subject of the fisheries—Upon which I have as yet had no discussion with the Government of this Country, though it may probably be one of those upon which it will be difficult for the two Countries to come to an Understanding—You are acquainted with what has taken place upon our Coast—Some Evidence of the light in which it is viewed by the British Government was disclosed by several incidents towards the close of the last Session of Parliament. I am now called upon to present our view of it for the Consideration of this Cabinet—The result may probably be known in the United States soon after the commencement of the next Session of Congress—I shall only say to you, that if the fisheries are to be maintained, New–England which has the deepest interest in them will be called upon not only to feel but to manifest the determination to do her share in maintaining them—If she is as ready to resign them to the Bulwark of our holy Religion, as she was to resign her own children to the worse than Helot–Servitude of the Press–gang, you may rely upon it, they are gone—The Union will not (it is  at least my belief that they will not) again be kicked into a War for New–England interests, with New–England hanging as a dead weight upon all their exertions, or unblushingly siding with the Enemy in the contest—You have impressed upon me with the energy peculiar to yourself, and with the wisdom, in my situation so essential to me, the duty of supporting our rights on this important question. “It is not in man that walketh, to direct his steps.”…May mine be guided in the right path! but let me say to you—I am only the watchman at the gate—Will you, or will you not resign the fisheries?—And I ask this question, not of you, my father…for you have answered me already—But of you, New–England?—And I tell you, without reserve, that whether you will or not, this question will be brought home to you—It is not, by folding up your arms, and lamenting that there was no Article about it in the Treaty of Ghent, that you will escape from that question—If you mean to maintain the right, no Article in the Peace of Ghent was or will be necessary to preserve it—If you mean to give it up, no Article there would have preserved it—If I am not mistaken, in the first War for our Independence there were Resolutions passed by the Legislature of Massachusetts, insisting that Peace should not be made by any sacrifice of the right to the fisheries—If the same Spirit had animated the Legislature of Massachusetts in the second War for our Independence, that is the late War, no question about the fisheries could ever have arisen—But when the Bulwark found New–England binding her children hand and foot and yielding them up to the Press—gang; surrendering her Territory without resistance of effort to reserve recover it, and plotting Hartford Conventions to break off from the Union, she naturally concluded that a mere fishery, could not be hard to snatch from those who valued neither the personal security of their people, nor their territorial Sovereignty, nor their National Union; but in the midst of a formidable and desolating War, were conspiring against them all—And now, let me add, if the Legislature of Massachusetts will once more be animated by the Spirit, to which I have referred—If they will pass Resolutions that the fisheries must not be sacrificed, and shall be maintained, and if they and their Constituents will act up to the Spirit of such Resolutions, be the consequences what they may;—Then, Sir, I will not pledge myself that we shall escape a third War for our Independence, but I do pledge myself, and would stake my own life and the lives of my children upon it, that at the close of that war, no part of our fishing rights will be contested—So let New–England, and especially let Massachusetts look to it—The maintenance or the loss of this privilege, depends entirely upon herself.I have received from you, or from my Mother, or from some other friend, for I cannot always tell from whom they come, two or three political, and two or three religious party pamphlets—I perceive that the Trinitarians and Unitarians in Boston are sparring together—The bias of my mind is towards the doctrine of the Trinitarians and Calvinists—But I do not approve their intolerance—Most of the Boston Unitarians are my particular friends; but I never thought much of the eloquence of the logic of Priestly—His Socrates and Jesus compared is a wretched performance—Socrates and Jesus!—a farthing candle and the Sun!—I pray you to read Massillon’s Sermon upon the divinity of Christ, and then the whole new Testament—After which, be a Socinian if you can.Religion occasionally mingles with the affairs of Europe—You know that the Pope has restored the order of Jesuits, and that Ferdinand, the Beloved, has restored the Inquisition—But you do not know perhaps, that since the second restoration of Louis the desired, his nephew the Duke d’Angouleme, has declared that it will never be well with France, until they are all of the same religion—In consequence of which many hundreds of Protestants have been butchered in the South of France by the sword, and dagger—Others have been burnt to ashes with their habitations—Others driven to seek refuge in the Mountains of the Cevennes—A new St: Bartholomew has been loudly and openly called for—The number of victims in the City of Nismes alone exceeds six hundred—The magnanimous allies, in declaring the Bulwark of our Holy Religion, witness all this with composure and even with complacency—All the Protestants of France are set down for Jacobians. There was a foolish book printed in Philadelphia four or five years ago, called Inchiquin’s Letters—Last Summer, some loyal pensioner of the Quarterly Review took it up, and made it the canvass for a scurrilous and false invective upon America, and the whole American People—It suited the prejudices and passions of this people, who delight to see those vilified whom they cordially hate—I have seen two large American pamphlets in reply to the Quarterly Reviewer—One for New York by Mr Paulding—Another from New–England by some long winded junto–person Both of them, I know not why assume it, for granted that the Quarterly Reviewer was the Poat Laureate, Southy; and they mingle with their defence of their own Country a large portion of personal invective upon him—Southey, who began the world, with songs of glory to Joan of Arc, Brisant, Roland and Clavière, is ending with royal Courts of continued love for the magnanimous allies and twofold conquerors of France—But he was not the writer of the obnoxious review of Inchiquin, and has published his denial in the Courier—And having with his hundred Marks or pounds and his buit of Sack            by the year become of course a very courtly Gentleman, his delicacy is quite shocked at the rudeness of Mr Paulding’s pushes—This Yankey Person pleads only for British Mercy upon the pure federal republicans of New–England—All the rest of the Country he freely gives up to reprobation; and even for them he rests, their claim of exemption from the ribaldry of the Reviewer—only upon their Admiration of British transcendent virtue—That pamphlet and the Review are about upon a level with each other. But I have regretted that Mr Paulding should have wasted his time and talent upon such a despicable adversary as the lampooner of the quarterly Review—I have said few words about the present Condition of France—I have no doubt she is destined to go though the process which Poland has suffered—The first partition stripped her of all her conquests and acquisitions since 1792. The second, now consummating will tear from her those of Louis 14 and Louis 15. With the whole of her barrier—The Bourbons will be sat up like the Zedekiah of Judah, by Nebuchadnezzar—or the Poniatowski of Catherine—In some unlucky moment the puppets will forget their strings, and attempt to go alone—Then will come the third and final partition, and France, like Poland will vanish from the Map of Europe—What can evert this Catastrophe? Nothing less than the revival of a national energy now palsied—perhaps extinct—I must leave them to the Mercy of Heaven—I am, Dear Sir, your ever faithful and affectionate son


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 2 September 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My dear Sir
Quincy September 2. 1815

Though you may think the inclosed Letter from Mr Sears to Mr Marston, out of date; I inclose it to shew you the importance of the Object in View. The little Town of Chatham, is but one among many in Massachusetts Rhode Island Connecticut and New York who have used the Fisheries to advantage.
I conjecture the difficulties you have had to encounter.
The Fisheries in their utmost extent, according to the Treaty of 1783 are ours by natural Equity, by the Law of Nature which is the Law of Nations, by the Laws of England, by original discovery, by possession interrupted only by War, by defence, by Conquest, by every title and every Principle, by which Men hold their Rights, except force. And if all the rest fail, that must be summoned to the Bar. I thank you for the new and improved Edition of my Seal. I mean to transmit the Motto to all my Posterity, and hope it will be the Rule of their Conduct.
We all regret or affect to regret War. Our Washington always mourned over War. But
There never was a Republick; no nor any other People, under whatever Government, that could maintain their Independence, much less grow and prosper, without it. Every Republick, has always found itself in the Situation of the Polish Nobleman in Wraxalls Travels. The Count and Countess Podotski and his Countess. Pursued by a herd of Wolves, they must all have perished if they had not sacrificed first a Horse and then a faithfull Servant. Republicks have always occasion for Heydukes and they always find them when they are wise enough to employ them and provide for their Wives and Children. I therefore honour the Soldier and the Sailor. For hungry Wolves are not peculiar to the carpathian Mountains.
Though Sir William Temple in his Essay on Heroic Virtue, exalts the merit of Lawgivers above that of Heroes, and places their Glory higher than that of Conquerors; yet the common Sense of Mankind always decides otherwise. Military glory dazzles the Eyes and Eclipses all civil and political Lustre. Perhaps this ought not to be. Possibly the Universal Prevalence of Despotism Spiritual and temporal, may have been affected by this popular partiality for Courage and Carnage
But what avail these pedantic reflections of old age? The Business of the World will do itself. Providence says to the Preachers of perpetual Peace, as Blucher said to Wellington “Do you conduct your Speculations in your own Way: I will conduct both Peace and War in mine.”
Sept: 3d. Mr Gallatin and Mr Clay not yet arrived. The Treaty not yet known but by hints. The great questions undecided; seeds of future Wars as thick Sown as Weeds in my Garden. Mars! Bellona! Cheer up! Never fear and an end of your Empire! Monarchy Aristocracy Democracy, Jurieu The two great Doctors Towers, Father and son Priestly and Faber, and Bible Societies will never form a Confederation, “Abelle Alliance, to hunt down your Empire. You will never surrender to the Bellerophon. You will never be encastled in the Tower, or Dumbarton. Nor will you be poisoned assassinated, drawn and quartered, beheaded, shot drowned or hanged. The War of the Reformation Still continues, and will continue. This World is a Church militant and a State militant, to be sure. I pitty; from my Soul I pitty, both France and England. My Compassion is at least as much interested for England as for France, notwithstanding her present awful humiliation. My Son! I can write to you in no other Stile. If Superstition and Despotism are about to reassume their Empire, it will be the Reign of Anarck. It will be worse than the Crusades, the Wars of the Reformation or the French Revolution, or the feudal Barons Wars.
Sept: 9. Mr Gallatin arrived and feasted. Treaty not published nor conjectured.
Our Newspapers engaged in proving Buonaparte, a Coward and a little Man. It will probably not be long before they will be employed in proving Alexander and Blucher Cowards and no great Things.
I rejoice that you have at least last assumed an explicit Language and decisive tone relative to Secretaries of Legation.
A.
P.S. If you should summon up Spirit and decision enough to live at Lodgings till Spring and then return him home with or without leave as I did: give yourself no concern relative to an establishment. Come to my House, which is large enough for such Phylosophers as We are, with all our Families, till you have time at leisure to arrange your Affairs. Be assured it will be the most joyful part of my Life to receive and enjoy you all with open Arms

A.Sept. 11. Mr Prescott a young Gentlemen of the best Connections and Superiour merit, tho’ unfortunate in his Sight, will deliver this. I pray you to shew him all the kindness in the power of your Family. My Sight is so bad that I can sympathize with him with the more feeling; as I do with my Brother who at 77 was totally lost an Eye. W can we do? poor Creatures who love reading, without Eyes? A


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 2 September 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

My Dear daughter
Quincy Sepbr 2d 1815—

Your Letter of July 9th was joyfully received by me, it was not untill your Letter arrived, that I had any certain knowledge where you were, altho I had presumed from mr Adams Letter of 19 March from Paris, that you might have reachd there, the day after your Sister Smith left it.
It grieves me to Say to you, that she has, had a Severe trial and affliction since she arrived in America, in the loss of her dear Infant, Born under your patronage, and a daughter, you must have had for it, a strong attachment, and will sympathize with her, under this berevement, I do not know whether I ought to regret, not having seen it, as it would have been an agravation to my son an for its loss.
Caroline dewint, was here upon a visit at the time, which she regreted, as your Sister had not any female friend with her as a relation, but she found kind friend’s in those who were not so by kindred
If you remain abroad, I hope the government will allow an outfit, I do not see how you can decently appear without, but they cannot form any Idea of its necesity, or how much the honor and dignity of the Country requires it.
The society You describe, is very similar to what it always has been. I found it so, when under similar circumstances I resided there; distant haughty and unpolite.
We must allow Something for their feelings, humbled as they really are, in the Eyes of all Europe, at the triumphs and victories obtaind over them, by land, and by sea. It is only Americans who forgive their Enemies, and Hug them too!
there is very little Friendship, or cordiality in the polite circles, you find much more of it, in the country, in the middle walks of Life.
By the King I was always treated politely, I cannot say so much in favour of her Majesty. I despised, and looked down upon her, and as seldom as decency, and the duty I owed to my country requird gave her an opportunity of displaying her Airs.
I have a curiosity of knowing something of the said princess of Salm whom the Duke of Cumberland has married,—as so much freedom has been used in the House of commons, with both their Characters, it will not be any slander, to relate what has given so much disgust to the Royall Family. can it be any thing worse then his hopefull Brothers have pratised?
 Alas Alas! poor France, how will order spring out of confusion, how many more humane victims must be offerd up before tranquility will succeed?
what will England; or the Allies dare to do with Napolean. must not his person be held sacred by the Laws to which as a prisoner of war he has Surrenderd?
I should not have feard him, if he had come to America, but it was fortunate that he did not. it would have caused a good deal of warmth, and excited much party Spirit.
at present we are tranquil Electioneering for the presidency has not yet commenced—mr Madison is so popular that he might be reelected if he chose to retain the Station. I think mr Munroe will be the candidate who will carry the vote. I wish mr Dexter might be chosen for Vice President.
I hope you will continue to write to me frequently, the Letter before me disproves your assertion, "that you are not a good correspondent," and you must permit me to be a judge in this case by adding my testimony to that of the letter, which does great honor to the writer need I add my assurance of the affection and / attachment with which I am / your Mother

Abigail Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 5 September 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Welsh, Harriet

Dear Harriet
Quincy Sepbr 5 1815

My correspondents increase so fast, that it puts out my eyes to write to them all. I have employd all this rainy morning in writing to Caroline to Abbe Shaw and to John Smith, the last Mail, did not give me the opportunity of writing to you this morning. I think with you that mrs A’s is a very good correspondent. She feels, what I experienced when I was in her situation; all is ceremony, all is show, few of the charities of life, are exhibited in high Life unless you can obtain notice by a dash—a stile, as it is calld, a grand monte, which would cost an American minister half a years sallery in one Evening, even tho according to English Hospitality your servants should furnish your candles and card’s
When mrs A. lived there in her youth she was under the care and protection of her parents the chief of the company they entertaind were Americans, her father being American consul, and himself a Native American—she knew only by report the manners of high life. she may now become acquainted with foreign ministers and their Ladies, but the united states have never given their ministers a sallery which will permit them to be conversant with the Nobility, except in the way of Buisness. men of learning and talents will value them and cultivate them in all Countries and societies. Beside the American minister cannot be very cordially received in their hearts, after such an assendency has been obtaind over them by his countrymen, both by land and sea ageless sea! there’s the Rub, Britania no longer rules the waves, and all Europe knows it—and all England feel it—
now I must write to you respecting John, another person had been recommended before his application, this puts that matter out of the question—but that is not all, mr A’s thinks that as the law of the United States makes the Secretary of Legation alltogether independent of the minister, he ought not to be a Relation, and he could not under any circumstances recommend to public office a person so nearly related to him. you know his delicacy of feeling upon this haed—I have written both John and Caroline upon the subject I have however omitted all he says, about his former experience & embarressments—as he has written upon that subject more fully than he ever did before. I would not wound any of their feelings.
Of his Aunt Peabodys death he writes thus, "She was next to you, one of the earliest and tenderest Friends & Gaurdians of my youth.—since that time, every reflection recollection that I have of her is of acts of kindness, to myself and to my children
"The news of her decease could not therefore but most painfully affect me, and the sentiment was deepned by that of the impression with which I knew that you must have been affected by the event. But at the close of a Life so blameless and pure as hers, death hath no sting; and the consolation for the loss of a friend can, never fail, when as in this instance, we may with equal devotion and confidence pray, not only that our last end, but that the whole tenor of our lives may be like that of the Relative we have lost."
is not this a vol’m?
I have written a long Letter—I must have a new recruit of paper; yours as ever

A Adams


Title: From James Madison to John Adams Smith, 8 September 1815
From: Madison, James
To: Smith, John Adams

Greeting,
8 September 1815

Reposing especial Trust and confidence in your Integrity Prudence and Ability, I do appoint you the said John Adams Smith Secretary of the Legation of the United States of America to His Britannic Majesty; authorizing you hereby to do and perform all such matters and things as to the said place or office doth appertain or as may be duly given you in charge hereafter and the same to hold and exercise during the pleasure of the President of the United States for the time being, and until the end of the next Session of the Senate of the United States and no longer.
In Testimony whereof I have caused these Letters to be made patent, and the seal of the United States to be here unto affixed Given under my hand at the City of Washington the Eighth day of September A.D. 1815; and of the Independence of the United States the Fortieth.

James MadisonSeal. By the President


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 8 September 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Welsh, Harriet

					dear Harriet
					Quincy Sep’br 8th 1815—

				By your note last Evening I conclude you had not received my Letter by the post of fryday which I expected to have reachd you the Same day—it containd a Letter from me to mr Adams to go by the vessel which is up for London, and which I then expected would Sail on Sunday,I inclosed a dollar requesting a supply of paper, to be sent me last evening, the P. and I are quite exhausted—I want a quire of out Side wraping paper with it—The Letter from Caroline came after the last mail was gone. in the cover She Says all well the 2d of October, and Susan had a Letter from utica 27 Sep’br all well there—I wish to Send mr Channings Letter to mr Adams be so good as to get it for me. John expected to Sail to day. my Letters went last week to him. John Gray is going in one of the Galens. I Shall write by him. when he John wrote me last, he had not received his commission, tho he hourly expected it. I wrote him, by no means to go without it, least he Should have the same fate with William—we are in pretty good health here except mr judge Adams who has one of the voilent colds and coughs—and She is very unwell, with a similar complaint, I want to get Martha to make me a slip like that which She made for Caroline—I will request you to get the cambrick and lace for it, and pray her to do it directly. I inclose a two dollar Bill—I think we must provide for a pr. twins I beleive She will have two—or one half grown up—I really feel more anxious for her than I ever did before—let me hear from you as formerlyyour affecly

					A Adams

					is there any Havannah White Sugar at what price? or good Brown. let me know—
				Mr Holly preaches the weather so rainy and damp that I dared not venture out. we did not know of it till noon so Sir had Letters to write and Susan was indisposed so was Louisa and he preached to bare walls almost.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 8 September 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Welsh, Harriet

Dear Harriet
Sunday Sepbr 8th 1815

I have not committed burglary this time—Caroline haven written in the cover, all well the 9th of Sep’br no I did not tell her of the liberty I took, So you need not go to frighten her least I should See clandestanly what you will communicate voluntaryly (Susan would Say See: G M—how you spell, So I will mend the word, voluntarily
I did write you a note yesterday by the C. mail, did you not send? I am glad your Mother has returnd. I Shall hope to See her, and it will give you an oppertunity to make us a visit; I got the letters you mention, they were not so late as some we have had, one from mr A. the rest from the Boys. I am Sorry John was so Sanguine in his expectations, but that is often the case of youth, and ardent spirits. if it was not, they could not make exertions. I hope it will have a contrary effect from what you apprehend, and Stimulate him to greater exertions in his own professions. as expences are in England, he could not have lived upon his sallery as charge de Secretary of Legation, for being made wholy independent upon the Minister, he is Subject to much greater expence, than if he was connected with him—he is obliged to keep up a seperate establishment; to keep a carriage Servants &c (wholy different from a private Secretary) to attend Court—too which is expence enough of itself. My own opinion is that mr Adams will return in the Spring. mr Gallatin says he will unless something is done to enable him to stay—and the house of mgrs you know, do not like to hazard their popularity with their constituents, who many of them think that foreign Ministers may make fortunes by their sallries, whilst all foreign Nations laugh at the niggardly allowance.
Martha Says, I hear, that She has not got all her baggage. if there is any remaining, She had better write to mr Smith about it, and  if it was taken from the Ship I will send the letter for her, and receive his replie, without expence to either. I should be glad to assist her to obtain it if I can—You will be so good as to tell her so, and if She writes, She may give the letter to you to get franked here
I Send this by mr Marston, mr Shaw has not come up—the weather to day is very oppressive Such as makes people Sick—
Love to all inquiring friends / Yours as ever

A A


Title: From John Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 11 September 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, Charles Francis

My dear Charles
Quincy Septr 11. 1815

I thank you for your kind Letter of July 26. Your Visit to Mr Clarksons must have been very pleasant. Such a number of young Ladies who all spoke in your mother tongue must have had to you, all the charms of Novelty as well as beauty.
I have never read Mr Clarkson’s History of Quakers Anabaptists or Methodists
You are too young to form a permanent Judgment whether you like London, Petersburg or Paris best. If you are attentive in your observations and patient in your reflections, you cannot fail to find in any of those great Cities, Objects enough for your entertainment and Instruction, not only for the Short time to you have to Stay, but for your whole Life. You will not forget however, that America is your Country, and Boston your native place.
As you have been to Clapham, where I have formerly Spent many pleasant hours, I wish you to enquire after the Family of Mr Smith a Member of Parliament, and Mr William Vassal deceased, at whose Houses I was received with great Civility.
This Letter will be carried honoured by Mr Prescott a Young Scollar of a very respectable Family and fine reputation tho’ unfortunate in his Eye Sight like your Grandfather and Great Uncle
Write often to your affectionate Grandfather
John Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Adams, 11 September 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John

My dear John
Quincy September 11. 1815

You cannot imagine, how much pleasure, your Letter of July 24th gave me.
Your Father and Mother have improved Your hand in a few days, more than We were able to do, in as many Months.
I enter So feelingly into the Spirit of your Amusements that I wish you had mentioned the names of the principal Dancers male and female at the Opera. I have been present at all those Scenes of life that you mention and know their Attractions to young Minds and old ones too. But these Luxuries are not to be long indulged.
Your Excursion from the City into the Country must have been delightfull. I hope it will not be the last. The Taste, the delights and the Glory of England are in the Country. They charmed me more than her Policy or her Arms. The Gentlemens Seats, appeared to me the most finished Models of rural Felicity. The Proprietors of them, nevertheless, did not appear to delight in them So much as I did. Their Charms were too familiar to their owners. Osterley, Zion Hill, Paines Hill, the Woburn Farm, the Lessows, Hagly, Edge Hill, Mount Edgecome and many others and above all Stow, were Seen by me with a delight which I cannot describe mixed as it was with mellancholy Ideas of Wars and national Debt from which these polished and Splendid improvements gerally look their rise.
Other Reflections, Still more impressive diminished by raptures. My own Country was, as I believed, too Soon to imitate if not to emulate this Refinement.
This Letter will be delived by Mr Prescott, a respectable Young Gentleman to whom I hope all your family will shew every kindness.
My Love to all the Family
John Adams


Title: To John Adams from Charles Francis Adams, 11 September 1815
From: Adams, Charles Francis
To: Adams, John

					Dear Grandpapa
					Ealing September 11th: 1815.

				We Have left School for a day because John was not quite well. we go to Ealing School kept by Doctor Nicholas of Wadham College, Oxford. There are 275 boys of which I know a 140 I learn Latin, Greek, Drawing, Dancing, French, Music, English, Arithmetic, Writing, and Fencing. Papa has bought a Curricle, and a Landau.It is the fashion at Ealing, for Ladies to ride on Donkeys, which is the genteel name for Asses.I asked General Scott about the battle of Bridgewater, and he would not talk about it. If I wanted to go into the Army, he said he would take care of me.Present my duty to Grand mama, uncle, and Aunt, and to all my Cousins, and believe me your Dutiful, and / Affectionate Grandson,

					Charles. Francis. Adams.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 September 1815
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

					N. 76.My dear Mother.
					Boston House, Ealing 11. September 1815.

				The Opportunities for writing to you are now so frequent, that it is impossible, to avail ourselves of them all—They are indeed principally from Liverpool, through which place, I have for the last two Months and upwards sent Letters or despatches almost every week—There are however occasionally Vessels going from the Port of London, and by one of them I now write—I have determined to forward as long as possible at least once a week a letter from myself or some other person of the family, to Quincy; and with it to enclose for your and my father’s amusement a weekly Newspaper—I have for some weeks past sent Bell’s weekly Messenger; but I find it so miserable a Paper that I shall in future exchange it for some other.—Since I wrote you last, on the 24th. of August, I have not had the pleasure of receiving any from you, or at all from Quincy; but I do not forget that in return for ten Letters which since my arrival in England I have received from you; this is only the fourth that I am writing to you—In my last Letter I gave you a summary of our present mode of life—Our situation here is perfectly comfortable, and will be very agreeable as long as the fine Season lasts; but as winter approaches, I am apprehensive of feeling more sensibly the inconvenience which even now I find in the necessity of going at least three times a week to London—The distance from Hyde-Park Corner, is just about the same as from your house at Quincy to my old Residence at Boston in Nassau-Street—In the Pressure of my Occupations, every visit to London absorbs  at least half a day; and when the days grow short and the roads heavy—I expect to find these continual errands more irksome—There are other Considerations also, which may require my residence in the Capital at least during the winter; so that we have not definitively settled it to remain here longer than until the close of the year—John and Charles are at School, within a Mile of us and come home sometimes for half-holiday, and sometimes to stay with us over Sunday—They and George have hitherto taken lessons of fencing, which indeed they began, a Month before we came out from London, but which will now cease, much to my regret—They have been of service to them all, but particularly to George, in correcting that awkwardness of deportment which you have so often noticed, and which with a few Months more of lessons from the Fencing Master, he would entirely shake off.I found he had retained and acquired more of the French Language than I had expected; but his progress in the Greek and Latin was much less than I had anticipated, from the information that he was to have  been offered this year for College—I know not how he could have been offered, or at least how he could have obtained admission, unless he has forgotten upon his voyage much of what he had learnt at Hingham—I now teach him as well as I can in my own way; but unless he returns to the systematic instruction of a School, I am fearful he will in the end be as superficial in his Classic acquirements as his father.—I am in some concern for his health, which is now good; though he had one severe bilious attack while we were in London—He seems more suited for an active than a sedentary life, and appears to have certain martial propensities, which I have not yet settled in my mind whether to indulge or to discountenance—He occasionally manifests a strong desire to go into the army—I have endeavoured to convince him that as a career of itself, independent of any profession in civil life, the army presented unpromising prospects to an American Youth, whose subsistence must depend upon his industry, and I have pointed his attention to the indifference with which even now hundreds of officers who had served with honour in the time of peril were disbanded, and turned aloof upon their own resources—I shall continue to impress his mind with the necessity of having some other prop to rely upon for his future situation in Life; but at the same time I have told him that if he perseveres in his military partialities they shall meet with no insuperable obstacle from me.John appears to have a vocation still more decisive for the Sea—He discovered this very strongly upon the passage from America, and arrived at Liverpool, almost an accomplished Jack-Tar—He pleads hard and frequently for permission to enter the Navy, and I am still less disposed to countenance this inclination than that of his brother—Charles partakes of the same feelings, and when General Scott came and dined with us about three weeks ago, turned to him of his every accord and said “Sir, will you tell me something about the Battle of Chippewa?”—The General was much gratified with the compliment that he almost bespoke Charles for an Aid de Camp. In one of your Letters, you have expressed some curiosity  to hear of my reception at Court—The Newspapers I have no doubt have informed you that I was received by the Prince Regent, “most graciously.” He remembered my father, and enquired after him, as he also did after Mr Thomas Pinckney and Mr King, with whom he said he had been acquainted—There were only two Levees after my arrival here before the close of the Session of Parliament, and there have been none since—The Queen has had no drawing room, and as no Credential Letter for her was sent me, she has not thought fit to appoint a private Audience to receive me—The Prince Regent’s Court, is much like that of other Emperors, Kings and Princes, which I have frequented for those twenty years—The Prince has still something about him of the graces of youth.On the 25th. of last Month, being St Louis’s day, I dined with a diplomatic Company at the French Ambassador’s, the Count de la Châtre—The Duke of Orleans was there—the British Cabinet Ministers, and all the Corps Diplomatique—I had been presented to the Duke of Orleans, at his own Palais Royal in February last; and believe I wrote you at the time—He then mentioned having been in the United States when my father was President and spoke with gratitude of the reception he had met in that Country. He has been at Paris since the second restoration of Louis 18, but there is a great jealousy prevailing against him at that Court, because there is in the Nation a very large party desirous of seeing him at its head—He has therefore returned to live again in exile in this Country—I do not think there is any prospect that he will ever reign in France—And it is extremely doubtful whether France will ever again be governed by a French Sovereign—The second dismemberment of that Country, is now about to take place—that something will still be left, called France over which a phantom of a Bourbon, will   be for some time maintained by foreign armies, I have no doubt—But the example of Poland has shewn the scale by which a great Country is gradually demolished  by the process of Partition. The substance of all such Histories may be found in the last three Chapters of the second Book of Kings, or in the last Chapter of the Second Book of Chronicles.—Hitherto the allied armies, after entering France as the allies of Louis 18 have been glutting their Revenge upon the French People, for all the evils they have suffered from them for more than twenty years—Having done this, their next  course is to prove themselves of the same Species of ravenous animal as the French—As to Louis the desired the rabble of Paris amidst all the bayonets of his allies, and under the very windows of his Tuileries, have given him by acclamation the title of Louis jupon, or Louis petticoat, and his own allies in derision have nicknamed him Louis L’inevitable—The Duke and Duchess of Angoulême, worthy successors of Charles the 9th. and Catherine of Medici’s, have organized, instigated, and countenanced a Massacre of all the Protestants in the South of France; they have accordingly been butchered, by hundreds and by thousands without discrimination of age or sex—Their houses, and their Churches have been consumed by fire, and as Nero after setting fire to the City of Rome, charged it upon the Christians, and made it the pretext for torturing and slaughtering them, so now the French Bourbonists impart to their victims the very fire and sword under which they are perishing; all which the Bulwark of our Holy Religion witnesses, and suffers, nay openly approves because the Protestants of the South of France were Jacobins and Bonapartists. I send you by this occasion the Memoirs of the life of an old friend of yours, who little dreamed that such were to be the fruits of the French Revolution—Yet, let not the friends of virtuous freedom despair—From so much evil, the moral Governor of the Universe will in his own due time bring forth more than a compensation of good—Such is not only the prayer, but the firm belief, of your faithful and affectionate Son—

					John Quincy Adams.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 30 September 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

My Dear Daughter
Quincy Sepbr 30th 1815

I have to acknowledge a very tender and affectionate Letter from you, bearing date 8th Janry 1814, which I received only a few days since.—Sympathy from those we Love, when affliction assail us, is balm to the Bleading Bosom, and assuages the wound it cannot heal, and which is opened affresh.
"when Memory with busy art
will o’er the heart Strings play
wake tender strains, tho full of smart
Nor let them die away."
at the Age to which I have arrived I must naturally look for the fall and decay, of my early Friends, and associates, every year diminishes their number, untill I stand allmost alone. all the ravages of the great destroyer have not been limited to Age. The Infant Bud, the blooming Youth, and the mature in Life have fallen around me. even to the only Twig of the third generation which appertaind to me; why should I complain? he who knows our Frame, and that we are but dust, knows best, at what period of our Lives it is most consistent with wise designs to recall us. and unto his infinate wisdom, let us commit,—The hour, the day, the Year.
I think of the Dear Boys, who have left me with much tenderness, they feel not less near to me than my own children they have been very good in writing to us—and I like to see their own native effusions, especially Johns Naivete. Mr Adams will Judge whether George will not be most benifited by remaining with him for the present, John and Charles, he will find it necessary to put to school.
I have received only a few days past, the Linnen, Cambrick and handkerchiefs, which mr Adams sent for George and John, and the watches sent by you. I could send the watches by some private hand, if you wish to have them returnd to them. but I had rather wait for your direction first. The other articles will take no damage by time and I have put them in a draw by themselves, which is locked and of which Louisa has the key. If I should be gone, and see you no more, she will deliver them to you, on your order.
When you went abroad, you recollect mr Adams sent a Trunk to the Bank in Boston, Mr Dalton the Cashire of the Bank(since dead) advised mr Adams to have the Trunk removed, as he found  dampness of the vault would injure the articles. accordingly I sent for the Trunk, and it is lodged here. mr TBA has the keys, and we opened the Trunk to see if any injury was Sustained, but we found every thing so well gaurded and Secured, that all appeared Safe. the Trunk was then locked, and has not since been opened.
I received this week a Letter from your Brother at Norleans. we have always exchanged Letter two or three time in a Year, ever since he has been there. it is so good a Letter, that I will inclose it to you, as you may not have recently heard from him.
From Kitty I have a Letter this day, She has not recoverd the shock sustaind by the loss of her dear little Girl, altho she writes in better spirits than she did, and from an intimation in her Letter, I think she is now in a Family way—I do not know whether mr Smith is like to find employment. we see in that instance, and a thousand others, the pernicious effects of Educating children without a profession in our country—The History of the Basket Maker in Holland, is a good lesson for youth—
You will be over Run with introductions from Americans. many who apply here for Letters, are such characters as I wish to have introduced, and are worthy of notice. Mr John Gray, the Brother of Francis, and Sin to the Liut Goveneur—call’d the last week for Letters I shall write by him: an other Young Genteman, mr Prescott by name, has taken Letters from your Father to mr Adams and the children. by him I did not write, as he was going to some west India Island for the recovery of his health. He is one of our fine young men, but like all these hard  Students, has lost his health, and is in danger of loss of sight.
I pray you to write frequently; I hear you look as well, as when you went from Boston. Your long journey might be of Service to your health. If mr Adams should complain of rhumatism, I would by all means have him try the warm Baths, of Bath. I have a good opinion of them for that complaint.
An other object I would recommend to him is to visit Scotland, I have always regretted that I did not, it is the hotbed of Genius, Ireland too would afford much entertainment to a mind like his, but Scotland I would not omit.
I hear very seldom from Mrs Hellen I learn that Mrs Pope has three Children—and enjoys fine health, but I suppose now you are in England you will hear often from all your Friends none of whom can feel a more tender interest for you, than your / affectionate mother

Abigail Adams


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 1 October 1815
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

N. 77.My dear Mother.
Ealing, 1. October 1815.

Your favour of 15. August, a few days since received informs me that even that you had received no Letters from me, later than these of March, which were sent by Mr. W. S. Smith—I know not how it happens that one of 22d. April which I gave to Mr Crawford had not reached you, so long after the arrival of the Neptune; but I have already explained to you, how it happened that the one of 7. May, which was also on board the Neptune, could not come to your hands, until the arrival in the United States of Mr Todd, in whose trunk it was locked safe.—Advices have been received here that the Galen arrived at Boston the 26th: of August, and the Lorenzo, with Messrs: Gallatin, Clay and Todd, at New-York the 1st: of September—In the Galen there was a Letter from me to my father; and the Seal, Broad cloth and knives and forks which had been ordered by him and you. Mr: Gallatin had my Letter to you of 30 June—That of 17. July went about the same time by Mr Dexter in the Mary, from London, of whose arrival we have not yet heard.—Thus you will perceive that I have steadily adhered to the rule of writing to yourself at least once in every month; and if since our arrival in England, I have not written oftener, it has been owing to causes, which will apologize to you for me.
We were made affected at learning the death of Mr and Mrs: Smith’s child, and the more so, as she had been born in our house, and had been so long like a child of our own family—It brought other recollections too of our own loss, painful enough to me, but peculiarly severe to the feelings of a mother—Their loss however may be in some sort repaired—Ours is only to be endured with resignation.
I have written to you, and to Mr J. A. Smith himself upon the Subject of his application for the appointment of Secretary of Legation to this Court—If he is qualified, for the situation he must obtain it by other recommendations than mine, and for a different Legation—I must be responsible for the conduct public and private of no more nephews, totally independent of my controul. It is indeed very doubtful whether I shall remain here, longer than the next Spring; and if I should, I had not only recommended the appointment of another person, as Secretary to this mission, but had received applications from two others, before him, which I had been compelled to meet with denials. I sincerely believe it will be much more for Mr J. A. Smith’s advantage, to make his way at home, by his Industry, and active exertions, than to come to Europe to see the world, under the shelter of a Commission as Secretary of Legation—Of the multitude of young men whom I have seen flocking to Europe, in the suite of our Public Ministers, for nearly forty years, certainly not one in ten has been made by it more useful to himself or his Country; it has utterly ruined the greater part of them, and I hardly know that it has been of essential service to any one—In saying this, it is just that I should include myself among the number—That it has been of great advantage to me, it would be ingratitude to Heaven, to my father and to you to deny. But if you or my father had known the moral dangers through which I passed, and from which by the mercy of Providence I escaped, I think neither of you would have had the courage to expose me to them—Yet I was never in that situation where the danger is the greatest—with a public Office, and public duties to perform, and at the same time an insatiate and insatiable passion for the sights, the amusements, and dissipations of European fashionable life—A Secretary to this Legation, to do his duty at this time, would have no leisure for dissipation, and none even for curiosity—He must be a drudge chained six hours every day to the Office and the writing desk—I have not yet had one day, to go with George and see Westminster abbey or St: Paul’s; and my Secretary has been more constantly occupied than myself—But when a Secretary of Legation imposes, whose business will be to frequent the Theatres, and the Race Grounds, and the Boxing–Matches, and the Lions, and the Routs, and the Mascarades, and the "At Homes"—not to mention the more laudable resorts of Parliament, the Courts of Law, and the Churches, or the disreputable ones not to be named, and whose occasional amusement will be to attend at the office; I ask not what use such a Secretary can be of to the Minister; but of what service can he be to the public or to himself?
You express an expectation of receiving particular accounts from me of what is passing in Europe, and my free remarks upon it—But the events themselves have not been of a nature, to make me dwell with complacency upon their details—When the Emperor Napoleon landed at Cannes, I firmly believed that his career would be closed within a week—When I saw the Bourbons fly from Paris before him, and the French Nation receive him with transports of joy as their Sovereign, I for a moment believed that he would maintain himself upon the throne that he had resumed—When I saw the confederacy of all Europe against him, and the internal conspiracy against him generated by it, and combining with it, I believed that he would be overpowered, and that the immediate consequence of his fall would be the dismemberment of France, and at a remoter period the entire dissolution of that Nation, after the manner of Poland—When I left France, in May, I thought that the Fate of that Country, and of Europe, would depend upon one Battle, which he might possibly win, but would probably lose—Had he won it, Europe would have been prostrate at his feet, and France more powerful than ever—If he lost it, France was undone, and he could not escape with his life—In many of these opinions I have been mistaken—His career of success while he had only the power of the Bourbons to contend with was however the only point upon which my error was founded on erroneous premises—Hitherto I have had no reason to change my opinion as to the consequences of the Battle of Waterloo—The vital spark of national existence is extinct—Civil War, is in every heart—The conflict of individual interests, and individual Passions, is such that there is no centre of union towards which the Sentiment of Independence can flow, or from which its energy can emanate—The allies maintain the Bourbons as their slaves to tyrannize over one part, and to consummate the mutilation of the other part of France; and the French now familiarized to the degraded condition of a conquered People, will fit to their own necks the yoke of the foreign master, if he will but grant them the indulgence of tearing one another to pieces—The allies, Independent of their own Spirit of Rapine, plainly perceived that having now the Giant by the throat, they cannot lose their grasp without danger to themselves until they have effectually crippled him, and as this sort of caution is always excessive, they will take care to leave him without the means not only of arrogance, but of self-defence—I cannot calculate what the next consequence will be of the disappearance of such a Power as France from the centre and the system of Europe—But although the two principal powers of Germany have been preserved from annihilation, by the intervention of Russia, and by the moderation of Napoleon in victory, they both have the seeds of dissolution within them, and will be saved from the Fate now befalling France only by the quiet and unambitious character of the Emperor Alexander—He has made an effort to withstand their rapacious projects of despoiling France, but there is little doubt they have prevailed or ultimately will prevail in obtaining his acquiescence in it, by giving him corresponding portions of aggrandizement elsewhere—The partition of France may yet occupy for some years the Statesmen and Warriors of the European Continent; but when it is accomplished, the weight of Russia will be felt in all its energy. Rousseau’s prophecy that Europe was destined to be overrun by the Tartars, is advancing by Giant Strides towards its completion. This Island may perhaps be exempted from the general subjugation, but whether it can exist in Peace without internal convulsions and Revolutions, is a portentous question not only to her but to us—She has already been reduced to the necessity of passing laws to prevent the necessaries of life from becoming cheap; if the price of bread falls, the Landlord can no longer pay his taxes—and where is the revenue? and where are the War Loans? and where is the navy that rules the deep, and the army and subsidies that rule the Earth? If the bloated humour on the face of the Nation once strike inward, what a convulsion must ensue! To save themselves from this Catastrophe, there is every probability that their Ministers will take care to plunge them betimes into a foreign War, and my greatest apprehension is that they will find us the most convenient party to assail. I pray nevertheless that the Peace which we now enjoy may be long continued to us; and that we may continue to grow in population, in prosperity and in strength.
 Our boys have had two or three days of Vacation at Michaelmas—John has been highly delighted at reading upon American Newspaper the account of his Grandfather’s visit to the Ship Independence. We all join in presenting our duty to him, and affection to all the family around you.
I remain, my dearest Mother, your ever affectionate Son

A.


Title: From John Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 3 October 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, Charles Francis

141
Dear Charles
Quincy October 3rd 1815

Mr John C Gray is to take this letter, & with it my fervent wishes for your happiness, & for that and the success of your education. We are anxious to know whether your parents have placed you in any public or private school, who are your instructors who your fellow Students, and what branches of Literature & Science you are taught. You have had great opportunities to see the masterpeices of the fine arts, in Russia, & in France, and now in England. I hope you will make it a serious persuit, to see especially, all the American Painters, Mr West, Mr Coply, Mr Trumbull & Mr Alston, and as many as possible of their productions. your advantages have been greater than those of your Brothers, especially, & above all, in the Society, Instruction & examples of your Parents. After all the Virtues of the heart are of more importance to your happiness, and usefulness, than all arts & Sciences, than all personal accomplishments, however elegant graceful or ornamental. Modesty, prudence, honour & fidelity will ensure you the good will of the world, no less than the approbation of your own mind. You may depend upon it, every deviation from moral rectitude, will make work for inward repentance, whether you acknowledge it to others or not. If your mind, is made like mine every incivility to others, of whatever age or class, which may even inadvertently escape you will give pain on the recollection to the end of your days. You & your brothers have fine opportunities for learning all the languages worth Knowing, Greek, Latin, Italian, German, & French. The Hebrew Alphabet, Lexicon & Grammar may occasionally gratify your curiosity if you should live as long as I have: but you & your brothers, must study for lives, as none of your Ancestors will never be rich enough to leave any of you independent of your own exertions; you must make your own fortunes by your Industry, Patience, Perseverance, Prudence & Frugality. Love to Parents & Brothers.
A.


Title: From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 3 October 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, George Washington

Dear George
Quincy Octr. 3. 1815

Mr John Chipman Gray, who is to be the Bearer of this Letter is about to make the Tour of Europe, begining with England. If you and your Brothers Should See him I hope you will Shew him not only all the respect that is due from you to all your Countrymen, but the particular Civility which he merits as the Son of your Fathers and Grandfathers Friend.
My Solicitude, for you all, has increased very much Since you left Us. Your Studies are very near to my heart. You have a propensity to modern languages Spanish Italian and French: but I wish to hear more of your Love of Greek. An indiscriminate Curiosity for all Languages, is good for nothing but to make Pedants. The Mind and the Heart is lost in an infinite Series of Words. The Greek is the most perfect Language that ever was spoken: and in it are the most finished Compositions in Prose and verse that ever were written. All the most polished Writers of modern times in England France Italy &c had been ardent Students in Greek: So had all the Poets orators and Historians of Rome. Virgill Cicero Livy Tacitus, Fenelon, Malesherbes, Rousseau &c Hume Gibbon Swift Pope &c all Admirers of Greek Models. In Mr Humes Account of his own Life; and in Mr Gibbons Journal in his posthumous Words, a new and enlarged Edition of which is announced, you will See the determined Resolution and perseverance of those exquisite Writers to make themselves compleat Masters of the Exemplaria Græca.
“Des Sa premiere jeunesse, il marqua, de l’inclination pour les Sciences; mais, avec le desir de tout sçavoir, il eut la Sagesse de Se borner” is as significant a Compliment as can be made to an ardent young Student.
Science and Litterature are infinite. The human Mind cannot grasp them. Discernment Judgment and Taste ought to be cultivated, and summoned to Counsel no matter how early in Life. The Usefull and ornamental ought to be carefully Seperated from the Unattainable the Useless and frivolous as Gold dust is sifted from the sand.
Love to Father Mother and Brother from your ever / affectionate
A.


Title: From John Adams to John Adams, 3 October 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John

Dear John
Quincy October 3 1815

I know not whether you have read Tristram Shandy, or The Sentimental Journey or the Sermons or Epistles of Stearne.
I was never an enthusiastic Admirer of him, though he was amusing enough Sometimes; moral now and then; pathetic once in a while but tedious often and always Odd.
I See announced, a Publication of Dr John Ferriar, of Manchester under the Title of “Illustrations of Sterne, with other Essays and Verses in an Octavo Volume, in which are detected the sources from which Sterne borrowed many of the Ideas dispersed through his eccentric performances.”
The People of England, like all other People, are very fond, of discovering Plagiarisms in great Writers; Milton, Shakespeare, Franklin have undergone this Ordeal Tryall. And now Sterne is taken in hand. One loves to know what can be Said in Such cases; and therefore I wish you to pray your Father and Mother to make Some Slight Inquiry concerning this Book and another by the Same Dr Ferriar “An Essay towards a Theory of Apparitions, and another on the medical properties of The Fox Glove, or Digitatis purpurea,” which has lately wrought an almost miraculous cure upon our Neighbour Mr Charles Miller.
I went yesterday with your Grand Mother to Jamaica plain to visit Mr Ward Nicholas Boylston who has been dangerously Sick for a long time: and is yet in great danger. He charged me with many kind and respectful Messages to your Father and Mother. He is extremely anxious for your return to America. We Stopped at Mr Steuarts the Painter in Roxbury. I hope you will be introduced to all the American Painters in England, Mr West, Mr Copley, Mr Trumbull Mr Alston, who is also a Poet, of merit Love to Parents and Brothers
A.


Title: To John Adams from Charles Francis Adams, 3 October 1815
From: Adams, Charles Francis
To: Adams, John

					Dear Grandpapa
					October 3rd: 1815

				I have recieved your Letter of the fourth July. I will write you what I have seen at Paris. I have been to the Theatre des Variété. Feydeau l’Odéon. Francais. l’Opérá, l’Ambigu, la Porte de Saint Martin, Cirque Olympique, Robertsons & les Funambules. J’ai aussi vue le Musée Napoléon le tableau de Raphaêl étoit le plus beau, et la bataille de Marengo qui etoit superbe. J’ai ainsi été a la gallerie des statues. La Venus de Medecis etoit la plus belle. l’Apollon de Belvedere, et le Laocoon. Je me suis promener plusieurs fois dans les Jardins des Thuileries, et de Luxembourg, qui  sont delicieux. J’aime mieux les Thuileries parcequ’ils ont des jolis jet’d’eauMon pére et moi, ont fait une visite a Auteuil, ou nous avons vue la maison dans laquelle vous avéz demeurez. J’aime Paris beaucoup mieux que Londres parceque Paris est beaucoup plus gaie.Mon Pére a achetér des buste en Bronze, Ciceron, Virgil, Platon, Socrate, Homere, et Demosthene.Il a aussi achetér le Bibliotheque des Theatres, et l’histoire des animaux par Buffon. J’ai lu deux ou trois des comedies, mais trés peu de Buffon.Je suis cher Grandpapa votre / trés obeissant et affectionnée / Petit Fils

					Charles F Adams

					P.S. I intended to have written an English Letter as I was writing about France I could not think in English (Charles F A


Title: To John Adams from John Adams, 4 October 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John

					Mi Care Ave,
					ad Ealing scripsi die quarte Octobris 1815 October 4 1815

				Ego recepi tua epistolam a te scriptam Vigesimo tribus mensis Julii. ubi nuntius te a bombardâ matutinâ expavi actum fuisse dicis quoque tibi propinationês plamusque nullo modo placeve et frateribus mihi qua valda placent.Discipulus sum in Schola Doctoris Nicholas, ad Ealing, ubi docenti Septuaginta quisque condiscipulos habeo—Magister noster Universitatis Oxonii alumnus est, et mihi maxima gratus.Hanc primare meam in Lingua Latina epistolam, Carissime ave, benigne  accipias; mandisque ejus multifariis ut ignoscas.Vale, mi ave, et ama, nepotem tuum humillimum et amantissimum,

					J. Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 6 October 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, John Quincy

					My Dear Son
					Quincy Sep’br October 6th 1815

				Last week I Sent Letters to Newyork for you Mrs Adams, and the children. I write now to Say that we are all well, and because I would not let a vessel go without a Letter for youI inclose one for George. we have not any Letters of a later date from you than july—Harper is displaying his Anti American Principles, if Principles he has. in Maryland a Part of that State are as turbulent as our old Massachusetts has been. at present we are tolerable peacable—our young Men like the wild Geese, are all flocking to N york to Baltimore to the Southard as the Scene of Buisness lies there.our fishermen have returnd with very fine fans of fish unmolested, except in a smugling case—The late Hurricane has done us very great damage in all the Towns near Boston, and dreadfull has been its destructive effects in Providence & in Newport.Some people are rather impatient for the commercial Treaty, but as congress will be together at their Stated period, it did not Seem necessary to convene them earlier as it would not have made a fortnights difference—There is to be a Grand Divison Review of the Militia this week at at Dedham the next week, when there are to assemble from Eight to ten Thousand Men—This may appear a small Number to you, who are daily accustomed to hear of hundreds of thousands, but it will be a handsome Number for one Division of our State—a Gentleman the other Day, compared G’r Strong to Pharoah, who would not let the people go. if the fountain had been clear, the Streems would have followd its direction. The State is Humiliated, and She feels it, in the triumph of those She has pretended before to despise—a haughty Spirit, before a fall. as a Native of the State, I feel the disgrace, altho I had no lot or portion, in the Sentiments, and opinions which produced Measures So derogatory to Dignity and honour of it—with my Love to every Member of the family—I am your affectionate

					A—


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 12 October 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My dear Sir.
Quincy Octr. 12 1815

A Gentleman, whose Name is Reynolds a Native of Boston, a Graduate at Cambridge, a Pupil in Medicine and Surgery of the late Dr Warren, a Son of a respectable Merchant, a good Scholar and an amiable Character, requests as all other young Travellers do, Letters to You. He goes, I Suppose to See the Hospitals in England Scotland France &c.
I have nothing in particular to Say, but that Yesterday I went to Dedham. I wish I had taken Susan with me as my Aid de Camp, that She might have described the Scene. There is a large plain, between the blue Hills and Dedham, very near the Estate of the late Dr Sprague on one hand And the new Factory on the other,; it is adjoining to the great Meadows. Major General Crane, having ordered a Review of the first division of Massachusetts Militia, consisting of three Brigades and nine Regiments, Sent me an invitation in the name of the General Officers to their Marquee. The day was fine. The Sight of fifteen or twenty thousand Thousand People, of all Ages and both Sexes, arroused  my old New England blood, to such an enthusiastic exaltation, that I was vain enough to Say to the a General Officer, laughing “I ought to have been the Commander in Chief of you all to this day”: and this General though a Republican and the Son of a Republican, was left to say “true.” A Review of this Division is an unprecedented Thing. But it is a memorable Event. It is surprising that Such a Sacrifice of Time and Expence and fatigue, and hardship, and risque to health Should be So patiently, So chearfully, So cordially and So gaily endured by Farmes Tradesmen and Labourers.
But the Militia, And the Navy, begin to be Favourites, in the public opinion. They are considered by the thinking People as Sworn Brothers; the everlasting Bulwark of the Religion, the equal Laws and the Independence of our Country.
Oh that George John and Charles had been with me at the Sublime Scene. Love to all.
John Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 12 October 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, John Quincy

My Dear Son
Quincy Oct’br 12th 1815

Captain Tracy is to Sail on Sunday in the Galen. our young Gentlemen are all flying abroad. Some upon buisness. Some from curiosity. those of the most respectable standing apply for Letters of introduction to you—Your Father has given Letters to mr Prescott, who goes first to the Brazills. he has also written to you, and the children by mr John Gray, who is a passenger in the Galen.
An other Gentleman by the name of Reynolds has applied, his Father is a merchant in Boston. his mother being out of health, since dead, past a summer at mrs Blacks, by which means, this young gentleman became acquainted in our Family. he received his Education, at Cambridge university, Studied Physicks with the late Dr Warren, and is now going to Edinburgh to finish his Studies there, he is a young Gentleman of a fair character.
By him I send you mr Channings second Letter to Revd Dr Worcester. I have before sent you all the pamphlets lately publishd upon this controversy. and the conclusion of the whole matter, as I believe, may be sumed up in that couplet of Popes,
“For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight
"His can’t be wrong, whose Life is in the Right”
I acknowledge myself a unitarian in Dr Clarks sense. Believing that the Father alone is the supreme god, and that Jesus Christ, derived his Being, and all his powers and honours from the Father. I regret to See a narrow selfish exclusive system gaining ground, instead of that liberal spirit of christianity recommended by St Paul. When through Dr Morse’s influence the pamphlet taken from mr Belsham’s life of Dr Disney was publishd Dr Morse sent one to your father Supposing it must be quite new to him but we had seen the whole vol’m, and read it, more than a year before.
Your father wrote him a Letter in return. the contents of which by some means or other took air. and no Relic of a saint has been more sought after than that Letter. the Liberal Clergy wanted to have it printed, but being a private letter, your Father would not consent. I will inclose to you a coppy of it. when he wrote it to the Dr, he never thought of hearing of it again—
But I must quit Theology for Biography: You may recollect, that in the year 1809 mr Skelton Jones a Native of Virginia, addrest circular Letters, to many of the distinguished characters in this state, requesting information from them, respecting their parentage, education, and professions &c &c his professed object was to continue Bush’s History of Virginia, and anex to it, Biographical Schetches of Eminent Characters, mr Jones died before he had compleated the work. “That task, Says the writer of a letter to your Father, together with the Documents, fell into my possession, and the details respecting mr John Quincy Adams appeard too interesting, to be concealed from the public Eye. he adds that he has usherd them into light, in their Simple and unadorned, but captivating form, which seemd to him far preferable to the studied and Elaborite polish which Biographers generally attempt, accordingly this writer has published, in a paper of which he is the Editor. the whole Biography. it is calld the Richmond Daily Compiler and Commercial Register: it is in two papers, one of 22 & 25th of Sepbr, which he sent with his Letter. his Name is L H Girardin, a French man by Birth: who came to this country he says in the year 1794 has been Naturalized, and become a citizen of the united States. he writes very handsomely, and his professd object, in writing to your Father, whom he says he remembers to have seen, with Dr Franklin, when he was a Boy in his native Country. is to obtain from him, further information respecting your diplomatic career, since the Epoch at which the detail leaves you
Your Father has replied to his Letter and corrected a few mistakes, made in the Biography, such as your Great Grandfathers Smith being a minister, in Stead of a merchant; and something, respecting the line of descent of himself and mr Samuel Adams—Your Father has written him, that all your diplomatic Dispatches are lodged in the Secretary of States office, from your Embassy to Russia, to the treaty of peace at Ghent, and the commercial Treaty with England.—If however there are any documents which you may think proper to supply; and which no other hand can supply, You will transmit them here. he has made use of the third person, out of delicacy, instead of the first person, which he says; is the only alteration from the original. I shall leave to your own suggestion why this Biography is brought forward at this time, by a perfect stranger: by a Native of France, and in the state of Virginia!
I have written so very lately to you to mrs Adams and the children, that I cannot find materials to supply my pen for them. I have not any Letters later than july from you or them—your Father will tell you tomorrow of his vallient excursion to dedham this day, at the grand review, where he dinned with the general officers in their Markee—and returned this Evening in fine spirits—he is wonderfull for a man who in a few days will be four score. his Eyes trouble him. otherways his health is good—I am / Dear Son Your affectionate Mother

A Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 October 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

Dear Sir
Quincy Octr. 13. 1815

The young Gentlemen are all flying to Europe, and apply to me for Introductions to our Ambassador in London. You must Shake hands with them all, invite them to a dinner on Mutton and Brockoli, with your Wife and yourself; but Entertainments a la mode you cannot give. The Corps diplomatique, will say “Adams lives “dans le plus infame Œconomy” their Coachmen and Footmen will look down on yours with the Utmost Scorn and Contempt. Their Secretaries, and Gentlemen attaches a l’Ambassade will Smile and leer and Sneer and Shrug their Shoulders. Quid inde? Your Father has Seen and felt all this before You.
Do your remember Magis at the Hague? He was Min. Plen. from the Elector of Cologne. He told me, he had been Minister for thirty years, but Le Roi mon Maitre, has never been able to afford me any appointment, that could enable me to reciprocate Civilities, and therefore “J’ai mangee des Ambassadeurs, il y a trent Anns.” The Ambassadors always invite me and I always accept but I never could return their Civilities.
You represent, not Cologne, but ten or a dozen Millions of People. What will be the consequence of their present Policy? All really honest Men will decline their Service, and Stock Jobbers and Abusers of their Priviledges will be the only Men who can Accept their most important Trusts.
Col Aspinwalls appointment is infinitely less responsible and infinitely more desirable to a really honest Man than yours, on his own private Account.
My Advice to you is Study Epictetus in Greek as I did more than fifty Years ago.
A.


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 13 October 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

Dear Sir
Quincy Octr. 13th 1815

I wrote you this morning by Doctor Reynolds and now write by Colonel Thomas Aspinwall, your quondam Tenant, Son of your once Brother Senator of Brokeline. He is Consul in London and must be intimate with you. His mutilated Limb among many other Witnesses proves his Merit as a military Officer and his Education in the University and at the Bar ensure him for a pleasant associte in the public Service. His Character here is very good.
Since I wrote you in the Morning I have received a Letter from Utica from Mr Johnson with the joyful News that on the 3d. of Octr, was born to me a great grandson, “large, Strong and noisy,  with hair, Eyelashes and Eyebrows as black as a sloe. Both the Mother and Son, had enjoyed refreshing Slumbers and promised the happiest Prospects.”
They have given him a name that has been driven on the Wings of mighty Winds through good report and evil report, and whether it will do good or harm to the Babe I know not. In all Events I pray for a Blessing on him. The Boys will rejoice to hear of Couzen Abbys Felicity
John Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 13 October 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

					My Dear Mrs Adams
					Quincy october 13th 1815

				I must inclose a Note to you, to Say that this morning the mail from Utica in N york, informd me that I am again a Great Grandmother, Abbe Johnson was deliverd of a son upon the 3rd. of this Month, mr Johnson writes that he has a head of Black hair and black Eyes. a fine Boy you may be sure. and that he has taken the Liberty to call him after his Great Grandfather, Mother and Babe well upon the 8th of last Month, the Mother was Seventeen years of Age! too young to be a Mother, tho solid as 25,yours most affectionatly

					A Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Harriet Welsh, 16 October 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Welsh, Harriet

Dear Harriet
Quincy October 16th 1815

Mr Adams call’d yesterday morning before six oclock, I rose before light in order to write to you, and waited only for the sun to give me light to do so; but the man came before, and I had only time while he waited to scratch of the hasty line I sent, or I should have told you, that the paper came safe the by mr d Greenleaf. Caroline’s Letter informs me that she was well the 7th. that John had not then received his commission but daily expected it, I have written to him by no means to go untill he is sure of it. I thank you for your care of the Letter I sent. I have written by Dr Reynolds who goes in the Galen, and the Dr. has written by mr Gray, and Col Aspinwall, I also thank you for all your attentions, to the slip, waiter &c the lace is just what Susan wanted to compleat a lap—The influenza is prevalent, every House is afflicted, we have two of our domesticks down with it the P and I have escaped as yet. I suppose Susan wrote you Johnsons description of the black receivd and Black Eyed Boy—the P. answered hs letter, and told him Abbe had deserved well of her country, and hoped soon to hear the same from Caroline
John writes his uncle, that he shall not sail untill the 20th—I inclose the paper you desired to have returnd
Love and good Will to all, our text this afternoon, "was do good as you have opportunity," this Duty is always so readily performed by you, that I need not recite the ten reasons our minister gave, for inculcating this Doctrine, and doing his discourse, he said he had limited himself to ten—but he could have added an hundred—Yours as ever

A A

I thought I would wait, hoping sugar might fall


Title: From William Smith Shaw to John Quincy Adams, 19 October 1815
From: Shaw, William Smith
To: Adams, John Quincy

					May it please your Excellency,
					Thursday Morning 19th. Octr. 1815 68 Chancery Lane—

				Actions of little import, can demonstrate the Man of Magnanimity. I exult Sir, as an American Citizen, and it is with Pride, pleasure, & honorable Ambition, that I announce, the fact to have been demonstrated, in your Excellencys deportment in a late Transaction. Permit me Sir to make my acknowledgments with Sentiments, and in a manner, far above ordinary respect, and to assure Your Excellency that my interest in the Welfare, Comfort & Happiness of yourself & your Family will be sincere & shall be manifested on every Occasion. In the conclusion I was wounded in pressing for more than was consistant—there was no intention to lead into Error; the object wasmerely, to satisfy my Friend, that I had sedulously, & earnestly, done All, that was in my power to do, on the Occasion, I pray Sir, that this may be the only impression, that the Application will admit of. Intending to leave Town for Lpool to Morrow, or Saturday, & having Arrangements to make, I offer my Apology to your Excellency for not dining with you this day, with a perfect sense of your Excellencys politeness, & obliging kindness, & a solicitude for the Stealth of yourself & Family. Wishing you a safe & happy return to your own Country / I Am with great Regard & Respect / Your Excellency’s hble Servt

					W. Shaw


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 20 October 1815
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

My Dear Daughter
Quincy October 20th 1815

It was with great pleasure that I received and read your Letter of August 6th from Ealing, and it communicated to me a double portion of delight, as it appeard to be the emanation of a mind more at ease, than you experienced in that cold dark region of Russia—Altho the climate of G Britain is much more humid than that of America, and you can never as the proverb, says praise a fair day, untill night. I do not know but the temperature of it, is more agreable through the whole season, than our brighter sun, and colder climate.
Your information respecting the controversy between mr Capel Loft and the Lady, was amusing enough As I knew mr Loft when in England, and he was so polite as to present me with a poem of his own writing. I felt the more interested in his defence of Bonaparte. I have seen in a late publication his arguments I do not know how they can constitutionally be refuted. mr Loft is a Sensible Man, but a singular one. his Laura as he calls it, being a collection of Sonnets, in Several volms, is a proof of this, and would do to place by 5 volms of Epitaphs, lately collected and publishd by a mr Alden, a Clergyman of some Eminence, who has lately been chosen President of a Colledge in Pensylvania. he made an excursion into New England to visit all our burying grounds for this purpose—
I pray you to continue your correspondence altho I cannot make you returns of equal interest, living not in the world, but retird from all the gay Scenes of it, which would ill comport with my Age, or inclinations, my chief pleasures are limited to the society of a few Friends; my Books and pen, and here I am limited by frequent weakness of my Eyes. the Company of my Grandsons used to be a pleasure to me. I did not press Georges application to his studies with the zeal I should have done, if his growth had been less rapid. he used to be frequently afflicted with Severe head acks—and I had witnessd in too many Scholars premature ripening. I was averse to his entering colledge, if he had remained here, so young as he was, at an Age when few youths have acquird firmness sufficient to resist the allurements of vice—or can pronounce that all important monisyllable No—
As to his passion for the Army I Should certainly reason him out of it. I considerd it as wholy arising from hearing so much of the war like Spirit of the Age, and the circumstances of his own Country engaged in war also. it was this which lighted up the fire in Georges mind.
"The pride, and pomp, and circumstance
of Glorious warfare, which made Ambition virtue"
that caught his youthful fancy, and has kindled his ardour for the Army—and this Spirit of chivalery—I hope in this Country we Shall never be tempted to commence an offensive War, or incroach upon the Right and Liberties of other Nations—therefore there can be but little inducement to the youth of our Country to adopt the profession of Arms I had rather See my descendents cultivating the civil Arts and forming themselves for the Cabinet, than the field.
Nov’br 20ththis letter has lain open and unfinished. my Eyes, my Eyes complain I have been obliged to Sit in darkness, with a shade over my Eyes, yet I cannot refrain from using them. the Washington paper of the last week informd me of the Death of mr Hellen. I hope I am not the first, as I have been upon many to impart to you this melancholy event. the consumptive habit which for several years has been Saping his constitution, and destroying his health, daily threatned his dissolution. he has hung over the grave for Several years, with little hope of continuing from month to month yet the final event, comes with not less painfull sorrow, to those nearly connected, and to his Children, and to your Sister, his Death must be truly afflictive. I knew both mr Adams and you, entertaind a sincere regard for him. I have now written to your Sister. Since her marriage I have had less correspondence with her than formerly, and have Seldom heard from her. From mrs Smith I get a Letter Some times William remains at Nyork—John will no doubt have Letters for you from them. This letter is written to go by mr and Mrs Turbel of whom I have written to mr Adams.
believe my Dear daughter / most affectionately your Mother

A Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Adams, 22 October 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John

Dear John
Quincy October 22 1815

Your capacity is as Smart and quick and ready, and retentive as any bodies. I Should not therefore be Surprised if you Should soon take a turn in your thoughts and pursuits, and outstrip both your Brothers, George and Charles in Latin and Greek, as well as in Arithmetick and Geometry.
But I want to know what School You attend; where you board; who are the Masters, Proceptors Ushers Schollars; and who your Playmates are and what your Games and Sports; and how you American Boys agree with the English Boys.
You must bend your mind to your Greek and Latin; to your Arithmetic and Fractions Vulgar and decimal, to Algebra and Geometry. These are the Studies that make Strong Minds and qualify them for every thing; for all Arts and Sciences; for every Species of Business; for all kinds of Service, public and private. I hope Soon to hear from you, Your Parents and Brother to all of whom present the love of
A.


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 22 October 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My dear Sir
Quincy Octr 22 1815

This will be presented by my grandson and namesake, and your Nephew John Adams Smith, Esqr who is Secretary of Legation to your Commission. I have merited nothing from you or from him in this Appointment because I never approved it. I thought he had better follow his Profession in New York. But he appears to have had more Interest at Court than You or I both together. He procured recommendations in the Strongest terms both for Talents and Morals, from Governor Tompkins, Judge Van Ness and others of great Weight in our American Empire.
I am curious to know what Construction the British Court put upon the Treaties as they relate to the Fisheries
When is Louis to be anointed at Rheims.? Can he be a legitimate Souvereign without the holy Oil upon his head? Such as ran down Aaron beard.?
When will the great Question be decided, Whether Authority is natural or miraculous? Whether it be derived immediately from the People, or from God the third, in the form of a Pidgeon?
I pitty you. I know You can neither acquire laurels, nor gain profits: And though I know you will do no harm, Yet I believe you can do no good for your Country. My own bitter Experience, when in your Situation, convinces me of this. I pray that I may be mistaken.
You have a pleasant Situation in the Boston House in Boston Lane. I long to hear of the Boys at School. Their Mother is anxious to give them a Deportment, and I highly approve her Judgment and her Taste. A Deportment is indeed of very great importance: but it is not easy to be learned, Classicks and Mathematciks are of more essential Consequence.
Our Harbour so long a Desart, now exhibits Canvass in Abundance. The National Finances are not yet in order: and the Banks are playing naughty Tricks before high Heaven. But the Opinion that a Stable Standard is necessary begins to gain ground. Love to all.
A.