Title: From Hannah Phillips Cushing to Abigail Smith Adams, 16 May 1811
From: Cushing, Hannah Phillips
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

Scituate May 16th. 1811

Not one word have I heard from you my dear Friend since your kind letter, saying that you was but just leaving the chamber, after a long confinement. I hope & pray that you soon regained your usual health though that at best is delicate. Various circumstances have prevented my being with you ere this. Three weeks since I was called to Plymouth, to sympathize with my beloved Mrs Hammatt for the death of her lovely infant, who went to bed well & was a Corpse before morg. The Phin. thought he had the quinsey. Doctor Barns’s sickness & death engaged some of my time; & now like Martha of old I am cumbered about many things, though I hope not altogether neglectful of the one thing needful. It was wisely ordained by Providence that we all should have parts, & duties, to perform, while we remain on earth, & my cares have greatly increased since I have to act them alone, & every days experience adds to my esteem & veneration for that departed Saint. It is hard very hard my Friend to be seperated from a protector, counseler, & bosome companion, who for thirty six years was a host to me, & in whose society I always delighted. At the same time my heart rises in gratitud to the great Ruler of the Universe, for continuing us so long together, & the all consoling hope revealed to us, of a reunion with our dear Friends in the World of spirits. Permit one observation more how cheerfully did our Friend encounter the blasts of winter, rough roads, & icy streams to get a support for me; at a time too when his constitution was greatly enfeebled by sickness, & an accumulations of years. You justly observed, “How blessings brighten as they take their flight.” How I have digressed from the motive of writing this letter, which was to ask after your health & Friends. Next week I may be prevented from accomplishing my long wished for visit as Judge Barns, & some of our Plymouth Relatives are expected; so it is not in my power to say when I may probably see Quincy. If you contemplate an excursion soon, be so good as to hint it by next Wedys. mail. My family remains the same, each member of which desires with me to be affectionately remembered to you & yours. My regards to Judge & Mrs Cranch, Mr. & Mrs Adams. Your Truly & / Affectionate Friend
H Cushing


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Ann Frances Harrod Adams, 17 May 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, Ann Frances Harrod

Dear Daughter
Quincy. May 17th 1811

I rode up to your house this morning to inquire how the Children were and heard that they were both well. dexter Slept there last night. I will Send George in with the chaise tomorrow, if mr Adams returns. George may come out in the Stage. If there Should be any Salmon to be had tomorrow and mr Foster would get me part of one, I will be much obliged to him—I should not like to give more than a quarter of a dollar pr pd.
Yours affectionatly
A A—


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Catherine Nuth Johnson, 19 May 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Johnson, Catherine Nuth

My Dear Madam
Quincy May 19th 1811

I received your favour dated at Baltimore of April 28th, with the Letter inclosed for Mrs Adams, which I had an opportunity of immediatly forwarding by a vessel which saild last week for St Petersburgh
I find by Letters from my Son, that those Letters which have gone by way of France have had the most speedy conveyance, and I regret that I have not oftener made use of it, altho they may be Subject to inspection—by Letters which I received by way of Newyork, last week from Saint Petersburgh, dated the first and 30 of Jan’ry, my Son writes, that they had not received Letters from Quincy of a later date than, 28 of july, but that mrs Adams had received Letters from you by way of France to the 3d of Novbr. and the Presidents proclamation, and dispatches from the department of State late in Octr
I hope they will begin to receive Letters in abundence. I have written many, and altho Several of them must bear them Melancholy tidings, they will also carry them intellegence of their Surviving Friends
To mrs Buchanan the death of the Rev’d Mr Emerson will give both pain and Sorrow. I know that She; as well as my Son abroad; mrs Adams and Kitty; will be Sincere mourners,
He had been for a long time in Slender health and for the last four months, unable to preach. a Scirrhous in the Stomach was found to be his complaint, and he might be said to have starved to death, as he could not keep any food upon his Stomach for a long time. To his Flock, and to the publick, his Death is Severely felt, at the early Age of 42 years & his amiable wife and Six Small children are calld to endure a loss to them irreparable. May that Being who knows their Sorrows heal them.
I presume you have Letters by the Same vessel which brought mine. mr Adams writes me, that they had not then experienced any very Severe cold, but that they had Scarcly Seen the Sun for two Months, that there Sunshine, when they were favourd with it, was usually attended with Severe cold. He Says they had got through the parade of this winter with more ease than the last. he regrets the loss of some of their most constant and agreable companions: mr J J Smith and mr Jones, who had left them to commence their travels, and mr Harris there Consul, who was gone to Moscow and Archangle upon buisness. at first mr Adams writes, that he inclined to go with him, but afterward concluded that it would not be adviseable for both of them to be absent from the Capital at once.
Mr Adams appears to have made up his mind for a residence there an other year, tho he says that you wrote his wife, that the Newspapers announced his return the present year. If mr Barlow has not yet Saild for France, I Shall try to get a Letter to him for St Petersburgh. can you inform me when he goes and from whence.
The political horizen my dear Madam does not Brighten or shine upon America. The two Great Warlike Nations are determined to darken us as much as their means will permit, or their power accomplish. The Maxim of our own Government, is, better to Suffer wrong,  than do wrong; Napoleans Spanish triumphs will not Shine in history as the most brilliant of his exploits. the Hair of Sampson must be clipt.
our Grandsons George and John are well and request me to present their Duty to you, and Love to their cousins. I am Dear Madam / affectionatly your Friend

A Adams


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Josiah, III Quincy, 21 May 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Quincy, Josiah, III

Dear Sir.
St: Petersburg 21 May 1811.

I received in September last, your favour of 11. July preceding, which was brought by Mr: Jones, together with the second part of the third Volume of the Memoirs of the American Academy; intended for the Imperial Academy of Sciences in this City; which has been duly presented to that body.
Early in the course of the last Winter, I received from their Secretary the Volume last published of their Memoirs, to be transmitted to the American Academy. I take accordingly the first opportunity which has presented itself, and you will receive it together with this letter.
There is at Moscow the antient Metropolis of this Empire a learned Society, called the Imperial Society of Natural History, of Moscow, which is desirous of being reckoned in the number of the Corresponding Institutions, to interchange their publications with the American Academy—I have sent them, one of the spare second Volumes of the Memoirs, which I brought with me from America—But they have neither the first, nor the third Volume, nor have I here a copy of either which I could send to them—If the Academy have any of those volumes to spare I beg leave to recommend that each of them may be sent here addressed to that Society; and that a copy of all the subsequent publications of Memoirs be forwarded for them, together with that which is usually sent to the Academy of Sciences of this City.
I am with great regard and esteem, Dear Sir, your friend & humble Servt

John Quincy Adams.Dear Sir St: Petersburg 4. June 1811.
Mr: Charles Etter, a Mineralogist attached to the Department of Public Instruction, and a member of the free economical Society of St: Petersburg, desirous of giving a testimony of his respect to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has requested me to transmit a collection of Russian Minerals, which he has formed, and presents to the Academy together with a description of them contained in the letter from him enclosed with this—I accordingly send them by the Laurel, Captain Burnham, in a box addressed to you, and accompanying this letter.
Mr: Etter is a zealous friend of Science, and would be gratified with an object opportunity of corresponding with the Academy or any of its members in relation to it. Presuming that they will pass a vote of thanks to him for this donation, I am sollicitous that it should be transmitted to him without any unnecessary delay.—If you think proper to communicate it through me, I expect to remain here still a sufficient time to receive it
From some intimations which Mr: Etter has given me, I believe he would consider it a distinguished honour to be elected a member of the Academy, and I am perswaded he would be a useful one. Should it be thought proper to bestow upon him this token of respect, I would further ask your attention to transmit the formal Certificate of his Election as soon as you can find it convenient.
I am, Dear Sir, very sincerely your’s
John Quincy Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Hannah Phillips Cushing, 22 May 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Cushing, Hannah Phillips

                            My Dear Madam
                            22 May 1811

Your favour of I received by the last mail. I had been in daily expectation of hearing from you, or Seeing you Since the begining of the Month. my own health is better than when I wrote you last and I think I could enjoy my dear Mrs Cushing Society whenever She will favour me with it; I have not any expectation of leaving home for more than two days which will be in Boston.
Since the Short period that we Saw each other, how many of our acquaintance are numberd with the dead. Some like Good dr Barnes full of years, Some in the midst of their days & usefullness like the worthy and much lamented mr Emerson Some where Who tho past the meridian, had not arrived to those years which the Psalmist computes as the Age of Man the Revd Mr Eckly, and the able judge Dana—and the Infant Bird you recount amongst the of your beloved Neice with whom I Sympathize. neither Age Youth or Sex are exempt from this Warfare
Judge dana is removed, and no man appeareth to lay it to Heart. If my absent Son had been in America, the Grave would not thus Silently have closed over him
A Man who Sustaind Several public offices and for Several years held that of chief Justice of the State, which all who knew him, acknowledge he discharged with fidelity and integrity, ably Supporting the character of a bound judge Suddenly taken out of the world—not a solitary Line to characterizes his worth, his very funeral unattended but by Relatives, and pall holders, with a few Scattering exceptions. the contrast with that of your beloved
Husband must forcibly Strike your mind. can we fail to call to mind upon this occasion the funeral obsequies of a Man cutt off in a duel,  and the mock Heroicks of party exhibited upon the occasion by, o Shame Clergy as well as Laiety—
The funeral honours paid to a much more worthy Character are still fresh in our memories. the Same Spirit of party Reign Was dominant upon that occasion, tho I do not doubt but that there were many Sincere Mourners who rather wished his asshes to have mingled with those of his Ancestors, than to Steady Friend to the Liberty and independence of his Country, he was not the devoted party man, have his memoirs exhibited as a pagent for the public to gaze at.
and Shall the Man who will not blindly Sacrifice to any party, desend to the grave unnoticed, without any honorable mention of him? No my Friend the Sincere and heartfelt tribute of gratefull remembrance embalms the ashes of him who is never mentiond but with the Reccollection of Some virtue—Some amiable traitS some benevolent purpose the Sweet Recollection of which still flourishes, tho He Sleeps in Dust,Sweet Solace to the wounded Bosom—
With respectfull remembrance to all your Relatives who encompass you, and with the hope of Soon Seeing You at Quincy I am my dear Friend / most affectionately / yours
My Family thank you for your remembrance of them and request me to present theirs to you & yours—
A, AMy Family thank you for your remembrance of them and request me to present theirs to you & yours—


Title: To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 30 May 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, John

My dear Sir.
St: Petersburg 30. May 1811.

I had the pleasure of writing you last, on the 9th of November, since which I had not enjoyed that of hearing directly from you, untill this day last week when your two favours of 11 and 14 Feby: came to hand—together with Mr. Quincy’s Louisiana speech—several other letters, and a number of Books and pamphlets, and newspapers, from which almost all my attention has hitherto been diverted, by the melancholy and distressing tidings in the letters.
I am not deeply versed enough in Greek, and have not time to spare from more indispensible occupations, to read Epictetus in his original tongue—But in both the English Translations of Mrs. Carter and of Lady Mary, I have read him many years ago, and at a still earlier date, I had read in a French Translation, belonging to you, at Auteuil, the Meditations of Marcus Antonius, the Imperial disciple of the slave Epictetus, and who I think has been as an instructor more useful to me than his teacher.—The two Books ought always to be read and studied together—They are both founded on the same system of philosophy; but there is this difference between them; that the slave prepares us most effectually for the evils of life, while the Emperor guards us most carefully against its prosperities—It becomes me with Gratitude to a kind Providence to acknowledge that the occurrences of my own life hitherto have been of a character to require the application of Marcus–Aurelius’s lessons of Temperance more than of Epictetus’s school of Fortitude—For both I have had frequent occasion, and I have had quite as much faith in them as I ought—perhaps more. I believe much, very much in the usefulness of the Stoic Philosophy, to promote the pursuit of happiness as well as the practice of virtue, and it is of all the antient systems of philosophy, that which is most congenial to the still wiser and more perfect doctrine of Christianity—It is a very feeble though a very common objection to both, that the practice of those who believe in them often contradict their professions; and a still more trivial argument against them, that human Passions, are often too mighty for their controul—Hypocrisy would never assume a mask, but for its likeness to an Angel—The mask is a vile imposture, but the angel is not the less a celestial Spirit—To say that the sensitive part of our nature, is too frail for the government of its rational part, is to take the exception for the rule—There are degrees and moments of pain, when the precepts of Epictetus can take no effect—But because the bandage or the balsam cannot instantaneously heal the wound, must they therefore never be applied?—
7. June 1811
In the midst of my dissertation upon the Stoic Philosophy, came upon me the whole budget of Dispatches, letters and newspapers brought by Mr: Erving as far as Paris, and by the Russian Consul in France, from that City. I had been thinking how congenial to my own feelings and resolutions was the following passage of your letter of 11. Feby: “In absolute private life, scorning all intrigue, but employing your studies for the solid Interest of Mankind and your Country you may do more real good in my Opinion than in any publick Station”and had been pleasing myself that you would be gratified in finding that I had already expressed precisely the same sentiments in my letter to my brother of 10. April—when to give me another view of the question, comes a Commission as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and your, and my ever dear and venerated mother’s letters of 4. March—When I assure you that in the whole course of my life, I scarcely ever did a responsible act of which I was proud or ashamed, without feeling my soul soothed or galled with the reflection how it would affect the sensibility of my Parents, I leave it to your own imagination to judge who all my philosophy, all my love of retirement, all my opinions of my superior usefulness in private life, have been staggered by this Commission and these letters—The Commission, inasmuch as it offered me an honourable station, and a pittance, (a miserable one indeed) for the maintenance of my family, during the remainder of my days, was all that my ambition could wish, or that my estimate of the value of money could expect—As it presented me the occasion of returning creditably to my Country, to my friends, and above all to my Parents and my children, it brought me the most welcome of messages—But you have long known my own sense of my own unfitness for a seat in Judicial Tribunals—You did not perhaps know, but I had written to my brother, at a time when I had not a suspicion of this appointment, whah particular objections I had against this Office, arising from a wish long since settled in my mind that it might be occupied by another person.—I will not say that there was little attraction to me, in a place which had already been declined by one man, and to which another had been nominated before me—I never did and never will suffer considerations of this nature to influence my determinations—But to take the seat which from the bottom of my heart I believe due to my friend, and for which I am equally convinced that my friend is better fitted than myself—if my reluctance to this must be considered as fastidious delicacy—be it so—It is not one of the sentiments for which it will be necessary for me to apologize to you.
Yet I am deeply sensible to the personal kindness as well as to the honour shewn me by the President in the Nomination—to the much more surprising though not more unexpected unanimity of the Senate in approving it—To the popularity with which you assure me the appointment has been received; and to the wish manifested by several of my friends, and most especially by yourself and my Mother that I should avail myself of this opportunity to return home—Concurring with my own ardent inclination to be once more restored to the bosom of my Country, to the pleasures and instruction of your Society, to the means of Superintending the education of my darling boys, and with the impulses physical and moral which urge me to more southern climes and a more frugal establishment, these can comport with a residence in this Country, they would have produced an extreme perplexity of mind, and a conflict of emotions under which either decision would have been followed by an uneasiness and dissatisfaction with myself, not very suitable for a Stoic philosopher—From this Dilemma, the blessing of Providence (for so I fervently pray, that I may ultimately have cause to consider it) had by a simple and very natural circumstance in the condition of my family, graciously pleased to relieve me—My wife is labouring under what Shakespear calls “the pleasing punishment which women bear.” She expects her deliverance in August, and from October the Navigation of the Baltic becomes impossible—In this state of things I cannot embark for a Voyage to America—To say that no Office in the Union could tempt me to expose the lives of a wife and infant to the dangers inseparable from such a passage at this time, would but weakly express my resolution upon this occasion—I am not aware of any duty which can counterbalance that which commands me to await the result of this dispensation of Heaven here—In January last I had received permission to return home, and had some expectation of being superseded here—I then informed the President, that under these circumstances, if my mission here should be terminated, I should remain here as a private individual untill the next Summer—Such was, and such still remains my determination—It rests upon a foundation not lightly laid, and which not even this new and extraordinary incident has been able to shake.
The idea did for a moment suggest itself to my consideration, of stating the facts anew to the President, and leaving it at his discretion, to fill the place by a new nomination, or to leave it vacant untill the next Summer when I have every reason to hope I shall find it practicable to go home.—But my Spirit could not brook the thought of asking or even permitting that an Office thus important should be kept vacant merely to suit my private convenience, and besides the dictate of my own principles, I had before me your example, when appointed Chief Justice of Massachusetts—I remembered that you had declined the acceptance of that Office, to prevent it from remaining too long unfilled by the necessity of your attendance upon other duties—As a direction for my conduct upon every occurrence involving public principle, I know of no human Law more unerring than your example.
I have therefore explicitly declined the acceptance of this appointment, and in a letter to the President of the United States, have alledged with as much delicacy as the subject would admit the motives of my determination—It has been painful to me to be brought to this test of my principles, and I regret exceadingly that a fourth nomination should have become necessary for an Office to which as my sincerest wishes could have availed there would been only one—With regard to my own conduct as I had not a moment of hesitation with regard to upon its propriety, I am not apprehensive that I shall ever look back with dissatisfaction upon the course I have taken—But I would gladly be justified for it in the opinion of the President to whom I am indebted for the nomination, and above all in your’s, and in that of my Dear Mother—There is neither Office, Dignity, Honour, nor Emolument in the gift of man, single or collective, upon this spot of Earth, which could for a single moment counterbalance the anguish that I should feel in giving by any voluntary act of mine a serious pang to you.—I feel however a cheerful confidence that after fully weighing the difficulties of my situation you will approve the grounds upon which I have rested—I am sorry, very sorry to disappoint the expectations of my Country, by withholding myself from that Judgment Seat where their partiality would have placed me; but how much happier for me and for them is it, than it would be to disappoint their expectations upon the seat itself!
I cannot, my Dear Sir, mingle any other subject in the same letter with this—I received with your letters of 4. March, those of 15. and 25. Jany.—in all, five, dated since the Commencement of the present year—I intend to answer them all, as well as those from my mother, Brother and Children which came also by Mr. Erving—We have now many vessels ready or nearly ready to sail for America, and I shall write is possible by them all—My duty, love, and friendship wherever due—We are all as well as can be expected

A.


Title: From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 10 June 1811
From: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

Petersburg June 10th 1811

With a mind sorely depressed by the late afflicting intelligence from America and the many additional circumstances which are hourly occurring to encrease the difficulties of my present situation and I feel  almost incapacitated from writing even a few lines to thank you & my dear Sister Adams for the very tender and affectionate manner in which you broke to us the melancholy Tidings of our poor Nancy’s dreadful death Terrible was the shock and it is much embitter’d owing  to the Situation of the other branches of my family from whom we have not recieved one line to soothe the cruel anxiety of our minds heaven has granted me strength to overcome this bitter stroke after two days of suffering and anticipation of a premature confinement I am restored to health with every prospect of going through my full time but even this circumstance adds to the present unneasiness of our family here as it renders a removal impossible at least Mr Adams will not hear of it and the season of the Year when I shall be released will render a passage very dangerous should I get well over it for all of us but particularly for myself and so young an Infant the Navigation of these Seas is at all times dangerous but particularly so during the long nights in October & Nov. and Mr A. does not like the idea of risking a journey by land which would be attended with almost equal difficulties before we could reach a Port from whence we could sail with less danger—
You will have seen my dear Madam ere this reaches you that Mr. Adams has the to declined the acceptance of the appointment of the Judgeship from motives which I did not even know existed but which although I regret are too honorable not to meet with my fullest approbation this circumstance inplaces us in a most uncomfortable situation as we are beset by reports that keep us in a state of perpetual agitation yesterday it was said Mr R. Smith was arrived to take Mr A’s place and we are assured that he is on his way to this place having left America sometime since in a Frigate should this really be the case it appears to me that steps must have been taken of a very remarkable nature at the seat of G. as they would at least I should imagine wait for an answer of acceptance or refusal before they would actually make an appointment to supercede him here all these things combin’d tend to keep my mind in such a state of trouble agitation and suspense that I hardly know what I write and I am sure you will feel and accept my excuse—Write my beloved Mother that we are all well but tell her I dare not yet trust myself to write but as soon as I attain a little more composure I will write her at length Kiss my sweet Boys for me and assure them as well as yourself of the true and sincere affection / of your daughter
L C A.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 June 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

N. 20.
St: Petersburg 11. June 1811.

Your letter of 15. Feby: which was brought by Captain Brown, of the Washington, and which I received on the 23d: of last Month, gave me the first intelligence of those afflicting Events the Death of Mrs: Hellen and Mrs: Norton—I received it early in the morning, and was thereby enabled to communicate it to my wife and her Sister, with as much preparation as the nature of the case would admit—But after the long, long expectation of letters from America, which had been sharpening in eagerness for so many Months, the first suggestion that they were come, and were to give any thing but joy, told so effectually the full tale of woe, that it was impossible to break altogether the abruptness of the stroke—They were both affected as you will conceive better than I can describe—My wife was for several days severely ill, and it is yet in the dispensations of merciful Providence to determine to what extent she has been or may yet be a sufferer by the consequences of this heavy calamity—By the blessing of God we are now encouraged with favourable hopes—She is as well as could be expected in her situation, and has written you a letter which I enclose.
A week after the receipt of yours of 15. Feby:—which is numbered 5. came the packets which had been sent by Mr: Erving, containing your N. 1. Jany: 20:—N. 2. Jany: 26. and N. 7. 4th March—So that if correctly numbered there are still 3—4—and 6 to be received.—But there have come at the same time your letters of 15 and 21 Jany: and 4. March to my wife; besides one to Catherine Johnson.
The subject which most urgently calls for an immediate answer is that spoken of in the letter of 4. March—Besides your wishes, and those of my father, expressed in a letter from him of the same date, I am stimulated by all the considerations which have presented themselves to my own mind, and by the advice of several other friends who wrote me by Mr: Erving to return home—A duty however of a still more commanding nature has required me to stay, and consequently to decline the acceptance of an office, the duties of which I cannot discharge. I have sufficiently explained to the President of the United States, and still more fully to my father the motives upon which I came to my determination—There are occasions in the private concerns of individuals, as well as in the public affairs of Nations, when the wisdom of a resolution can be ascertained only by the issue of Events—The rejection of an excellent offer seems to be among those things which nothing but ultimate success can justify—I cannot hesitate in saying to you, that for my individual interest, there is not in the United States nor under them an Office so eligible as that of a Judge of the Supreme Court—A settled Station during good behaviour; tantamount to a tenure during life, or at least during my own pleasure—useful and honourable occupation—a secure competence to support my family—the happiness of being at home with you; with my father, with all my children, and the prospect of a harbour sheltered from that tempest of foul and malignant passions, through which it has been and still must be my lot to live, all this was included in the Commission so unexpectedly tendered me by the President and an unanimous Senate—All this I have irrevocably put away from me—and at a moment when according to a report current here, I am already superseded, in the mission to this Country.—But in the beginning of last January, I was led to expect a recall, and I then informed the President that I should in such case remain here, as a private individual probably untill the next Summer—The occasion which detains me, continues to this day, and I have no reason to think it will be possible for me to embark for America with my family, during the present year—Neither can I ask or consent that the office should be kept open and unfilled another year to suit my private convenience. I have therefore declined it; and have not been under the necessity of sacrificing to selfish and prudential considerations my sober and deliberate opinion of my own comparative unfitness for the office—my long formed and steadily entertained aversion to a Judicial Station, and my best feelings of personal friendship.
We were long in a state of uncertainty, whether the Navigation between this Country and the United States, would be at all admitted during the few months of the present year, while the season allows it—Before the British fleet appeared in the Baltic, a number of American vessels were detained by Danish privateers; and what is yet worse, four at least have been taken by french privateers and carried into Dantzick—There was a party in England for declaring a general Blockade of the Baltic, from an idea, that it would force the Northern Powers to admit vessels and goods into their Ports under the British flag—In reality it would have excluded them more rigorously than ever; and so the British Government appear themselves now to be convinced—For although they have a very large force in the Baltic they have hitherto declared no blockade, and have suffered neutral vessels coming here freely to pass the Sound. upwards of thirty American vessels, have already arrived at Cronstadt since the Navigation commenced, and most of them within the last week.—Several directly from the United States; but hitherto none, excepting the Washington, from Boston—I wrote you more than a month since, by the William, Captain Standly, who sailed however only a few days past from Revel; and now I write by the Galatea, Captain Towne, a vessel belonging to Mr: W. R. Gray—This and several other vessels by which I send public despatches or private letters, sail nearly at the same time, and if eventually successful in their voyages, will also arrive in America about the same time. In your letter of 4. March, you mention having requested me in a former letter to send you out by any vessel of Mr: Grays sheeting and table linen to the amount of one hundred Dollars—Not having yet received that former letter, I know not in what proportions you would chuse to have each of the two Articles, and have therefore thought best to wait a little longer before I execute the Commission—I expect there will be other vessels  Mr: Gray’s here, besides those now ready to sail, and the Palafax, Captain Welsh is here, not yet ready to go.—I shall be careful to perform your order, before the close of this Season; though I shall probably not come home with the goods myself.
There has been a prospect of War between France and Russia—the natural consequence of which would be a peace between Russia and Great Britain—I say this to you freely, because I believe it is no secret any where—But I must renew a request which I made in one of my first letters to my brother after I left America—Let nothing from my private letters be published in Newspapers, and in the communication of them even to friends, (holiday friends) let great reserve be used—My very earnestness in this wish may seem ridiculous to you; but remember there are readers, and very sharp-sighted readers too in London, Paris and St: Petersburg as well as in Boston; New-York and Washington—I have never learnt the art of turning my letters to my family and dearest friends into a diplomatic Correspondence—I must write to you in careless confidence or I cannot write at all—Yet, sloven as I am, I do not like to present myself in my night-cap and bed-gown, before assemblies of Emperor’s, Kings Princes and Peoples—still less to have reported to them, what I say about some of them to my nearest intimates; which though strictly true, and not improper for me thus to say, assumes a very different character, when appearing as if authorized by myself and under my name.
But I was saying there has been a prospect that Russia would have before this time Peace with Britain, and War with France—Had it been realized I think the War between us and England would have been inevitable—I have been strongly apprehensive it would be so at all events; from this obstinacy of the British Government in adhering to their orders of Council—I pray God that it may prove otherwise, and that Mr: Foster whom they have now sent out as Minister may carry something which we can accept—The orders of Council have brought upon England herself burdens which she cannot much longer bear, and infamy which she can never wash out—A paper currency depretiating to nothing, and fraud and perjury, under public authority by her system of licences.—Their Bank Bills are already thirty per Cent below par, and consequently the exchange is every where draining them of the precious metals—They debate about it in Parliament, where the Chancellor of the Exchequer talks on the subject like a school-boy or a pettifogger—he is told there is an excess of paper, and he asks for a definition of excess—He hears that Spanish Dollars pass for six shillings sterling a piece, and he quibbles upon the meaning of depretiation—Mean time the Bank piles million upon million of paper money—the necessaries of life rise nearly if not quite in proportion to silver and gold—There is a paper price and a specie price for every thing that can be bought and sold, and to crown the whole a man’s person cannot be arrested for a debt after a tender of payment in paper, but his estate may be sold on Execution to effect a payment in coin—The frauds and perjuries of the licence trade have been exposed, and they are the genuine though base-born offspring of the Orders in Council—But the project of monopolizing the Commerce of the World still makes them cling to this base and disgraceful system, and Heaven alone can turn their minds from it—When will Britain and France, and America become sensible that neither of them will ever attain the full extent of its pretensions, and begin to think of what each must yield to the pretensions of the other?—The Emperor Napoleon is said to have made a speech not three months ago, asserting in the broadest terms that he would atchieve the utter ruin of Great-Britain—How long will it be before he recovers from that delirium?—God only knows; who for wise purposes, however mysterious to us, makes the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing—
I will write as soon as possible to my boys—In the mean time I ask the Blessing of Heaven upon them; on my Father; on all the family around you, and Benjamin’s portion upon you.
A.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Walter Hellen, 13 June 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Hellen, Walter

My Dear Sir.
St: Petersburg 1/13 June 1811

I received a few days since, your kind letter of 11. January, containing the distressful intelligence of the heavy misfortune which had them just befallen you, in the loss of your nearest and dearest friend. Sympathizing with you sincerely in this severe dispensation of Providence, my concern is much aggravated, by the account you give me of your own state of health, and the anticipations which I fervently pray to God, may not be realized—We had already been informed of your long and distressing illness, and were longing as we still long ardently for better tidings concerning you—We yet indulge the hope that a merciful Heaven will spare you to your family and friends, and that this Letter may find you restored to them and to health.
The anxiety that you naturally feel on account of the future prospects of your children, and your recommendation of them to my kindness, has affected me deeply as it ought—At this distance from my Country and from them, I know not in what manner it may be possible for me to be useful to them—But be assured, My Dear Sir, that I have every motive that can influence my heart, to give them every assistance that they may need, and which may be in my power; and that if they should as you fear unhappily be deprived of their remaining Parent, I shall together with the other friends to whom you may commit the care of them, endeavour to supply, as far as it can be supplied, the place of Parents to them.
I have not been able to obtain any information respecting the Tobacco which you had ship’d by the John Andrew, Captain Bayne; but I been informed by Mr: Pitcairn, at Hamburg, to whom I had written to make enquiries in consequence of your former letters, that your other shipment of sixty Hogsheads had safely arrived at Tonning, and were by order of Messrs: Van Staphorst and Co: of Amsterdam put under the care of Messrs: Bauers of Altona, who are mentioned to me as a safe house From your own letter, I am led to hope that you had at least the certain information that the other adventure has also been safely landed—They may therefore be considered as out of all danger, excepting the oppressive duties with which that as well as other Articles of American produce have been burthened in France and the Countries under French Dominion.
I am much surprized to learn that the original of my letter of 8. August last to you, had not been received by you; so long after the arrival of Mr: Roberts in the United States. And I regret it the more, because with it was enclosed a letter from a very respectable commercial House here, containing a circumstantial account of the Russian Commerce which would have been extremely useful to you, in case you should have continued in the intention of attempting a speculation to St: Petersburg.—It is however more than probable that the markets will be so overstocked with adventures from America the present year, that for your personal interest it will be best not to have been one of the adventurers—Sweden and Russia, are the only Countries in the North of Europe where our trade can obtain admission; and the demand of those two Nations, for Articles which we can furnish them, as well as our demand for their Goods in return, is so extremely limited, that it is a branch of Commerce easily broken down by the weight of its own fruits—Thirty-five American vessels, almost all with rich Cargoes have arrived at Cronstadt within the last month, and three or four times as many may be expected before the close of this Season, that is within the next four months For the Navigation of the Gulf of Finland is scarcely ever practicable more than five months in the year; and the last of them is extremely dangerous.
This same state of things has made it necessary for me to decline the appointment, which the President and Senate have bestowed upon me, as a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States—I have reason to suppose that it will be impossible for us to embark for America this year, and the office cannot wait for me untill the next.
My wife and Catherine have both been excessively distressed at the loss of their beloved Sister; and are deeply anxious respecting the state of your health, as well as that of their other sisters. An anxiety rendered more painful by their receiving no letters from Mrs. Johnson, or from any part of the family themselves—I am aware—and endeavour to persuade them that this forbearance arises altogether from motives of prudence and of regard to them; that the intelligence which must so profoundly afflict them, might at least reach them in as gentle a form as it could be presented—They have both been several days ill—my wife severely and alarmingly ill—She is now far from well, but so far recovered as to flatter us that she will yet get safely through her time—She expects to be confined in August.
We are otherwise in good health—As I again pray to God that this may find you—I beg to be remembered affectionately to Mrs: Johnson—to your children, and to all the branches of the family in your neighbourhood—Remaining with great regard and esteem, My Dear Sir, your friend and Servt
John Quincy Adams.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 15 June 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, John

N. 1.
My Dear Son
St: Petersburg 15 June 1811.

I have received your letter dated the sixth of February last, and was very much delighted to see it so well written; because I know that it was written by yourself.—I have marked it down, number one, and put it upon my file—When your next letter comes, and I hope that will be soon, I shall compare the hand-writing with that of number one, and shall see what progress you make in writing. I trust that every letter you write me, will give me the pleasure of seeing it better written than the one before it.
I also put number one to this letter, because it is the first that I write to yourself only, and in answer to the first from you to me—I am very well pleased that you have resolved to keep your own file, and hope that it will be followed by an entertaining and instructive correspondence between us.
I rejoice at being informed that you went so steadily to Mrs: Bass’s school, and that you committed to memory the pieces that were given to you to learn.—As you are now almost eight years old, and will, with God’s blessing be in your ninth year when you receive this letter, I suppose you will have begun to go to school with your brother George at Mr: Whitney’s; and then you must write me what you learn there. To whatever school you go, you must always be careful to learn as fast and as well as you can; not only because the more and the better you learn, the more your Parents and friends will love you, but because when you grow up to be a man, the more knowledge you possess the better enabled will you be to fulfill your duties to God and to your Country.—“Take fast hold of instruction” says Solomon, the wisest of men; “let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.”
Your Mama, and Aunt Kitty, and brother Charles, are all pretty well; and we all long very much to see you—But I fear we shall not be able to come home untill next year.—Charles does not go to school yet; but he learns to read at home—And he speaks English not quite so well as German, and a little better than French.—About a fortnight ago, your Mama put away his petticoats and had him dressed in a jacket and pantaloons, such as you wear—When he had worn them two or three days, I said to him “now Charles is a man”—“Yes said he—but I am not a man when I go to bed”—That was because when he goes to bed he takes off his jacket and pantaloons—don’t you think it was a droll answer?
Give my respects to uncle and Aunt Cranch, and my love to your brother George—I wrote to him about a month ago, and intend to write to him again very soon.
I am, my dear Son, your affectionate father
John Quincy Adams.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 20 June 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

N. 19.
St. Petersburg 20. June 1811.

The letters by Mr. Ewing have arrived—And among them I have to acknowledge the receipt of your numbers 1. 2. and 3. of the new series, dated 20. 22. and 31. Jany. together with your account to the close of last year—I have already acknowledged the receipt of your number 4/13 and I have within a very few days recd: your 5/14 dated 3. March.
In one of my late letters I sent you an exact list of all the Letters from you, together with their dates which I had untill then received.—There were seven which with the five of the present year make twelve, exclusive of the account.—There must therefore still be two of your last year’s letters which I have never received.—One of them is that of which you speak in the one of 20. Jany as having tied me of the compensation of the “building in Court that; of the situation of the New Market Interest, and of the fate of my Contract for the first Edition of my Lectures.”
Your number 4/13 had prepared me for disappointment, on receipt of the account; and in my last I threatened you with a second scolding in return for it—I cannot say that the general result is satisfactory to me, but I shall reserve my particular remarks for a future letter.—It is my earnest desire in what I shall have to say on the subject, to avoid if possible, wounding your feelings, to make every possible allowance, for the loss on one side, and the charges on the other, which however unexpected to me, were inevitable or necessary—And perhaps then I shall honor duty, scrutinized my own expectations as well as your realities. I shall really find little to blame, but my own ill luck excepting that of which I said quite enough in my last letter
It is probable that you will have only one more occasion to furnish me an account of your receipts and expenditures for me previous to or upon my return home. In that case it may at all Events be needless for me to give you my further Instructions for the future—Nevertheless I cannot forbear to repeat the injunction which I have so often given you before—to pay my debts—and not to  any money of mine to private accurity—Light your fire with my Bank Bills sooner than lend it upon the note or Bond of my name, untill my debts are paid.
I shall now take up your letters, in chronological order, and refer successively to the subjects, noticed in them, remembering my promise to give you a seperate answer to every single letter, and only reminding you of the Thread needle that maxim that method, however dull, “is the soul of business.”
With regard to the residence of my boys, I am now satisfied that they should remain where I placed them on leaving home—I am not only sure that they will be treated there with all possible care and tenderness, but grateful as I ought to be for the constant kindness and affection that they have experienced there—I should have been equally confident that they would have been carefully and affectionately treated in your family, and as a matter of pecuniary convenience both to yourself and me, I should have wished them with you. But what is convenient to us, may be convenient elsewhere too, and from the moment that I knew it contributed to the ease and comfort of declining years, and to support burthens which Heaven has seen fit recently to aggravate—I cannot withdraw the little aid which this thrift may contribute to the purpose of pure benevolence, while fulfilling on my part the duties of the most vigorous Justice—I shall regret the loss that George especially may sustain by not residing with you, particularly by missing the necessary means of preserving his French; but after all it will only cost him a little more trouble hereafter, and I flatter myself I shall eventually have the glory of teaching it to him all myself.
If you was surprized at my use of the term cockering, my surprize was in the fourth degree of comparison more than superlative, to find that it was not only new to you, but that you entirely mistook its import. As however it is a word the meaning of which it very materially imports you to know, give me leave to impart to you “in dreadful secrecy,” from a rare and curious Book called Johnson’s Dictionary, the definition, derivation and illustration of this most mysterious word.
To Cócker, va (Coquiliner. French) To cede; to fondle; to indulge. Most children’s constitutions are spoiled by cockering and tenderness. He that will give his son sugar plums to make him learn, Locke on Education: does but authorize his love of pleasure, and cocker up that propensity which he ought to subdue.
Bred a fondling and an heiress
Dress’d like any Lady Maryress
Cocker’d by the servants round,
Was too good to touch the ground.—Swift.
Now don’t you serve me as Cousin William Cranch did when I sent him an extract from Hume’s History—don’t you threaten me with a quotation from Noah Webster—for if you will look into his compendious Dictionary you will find that cockering is as good a word and as bad a thing for the children of New as for those of old England.
I wish you had concluded to compromise the Turnpike business at the first turn, while the other party was in check; and when a moderate arm might have ransomed me from the effects of my own folly. I have little relish in throwing away good money after bad; and how can I expect that the real Justice of my cause should be discovered by the Court, when it was so egregiously misunderstood by my own Counsel, and that Counsel Mr. Dexter. If he does not know but I ought to pay the money, I have too much reason to believe that the Judge’s uncertainty upon the same question will ultimately settle against me.—The fraud and falsehood in obtaining my signature, and my neglect to take witnesses when before the Company had been at a dollar of expence, I told Lazell to strike out my name; and dispose of the shares to some other person, cannot be proved to the Court, and between you and me, since certain decisions of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, in the Half Moon business, and some other Circumstances upon which I do not wish to enlarge, I am not entirely confident that the merits of the case are sufficient to obtain a judgement from that tribunal, in a cause to which your or I may be a party.
Mr. Dexter told you that our defense was good in Law—that my signatures was in its nature conditional—that is, that I would take the shares, on the terms, prescribed by the Act of Incorporation—and on the sale penalty of forfeiture of the shares, if they should not be paid for.—Why, my dear friend, this is precisely the ground of my equitable defence—It was my own undoubting conviction that such was exactly the extent of my obligation and no more, which made me sign my name so readily, upon the verbal promises of a stranger, and which made me afterwards content myself with telling Lazell most explicitly to withdraw my name, without taking legal evidence to substantiate the fact. From that time (April 1805 at Mr. J. Greenleafs house) I never considered myself as having any thing to do with the Company—I never was notified of their meetings, and never had any opportunity of voting or acting as a proprietor Many months after, Lazell sent me Certificates of shares by Captain Beale, which I refused—Lazell himself afterward sollicited me to take them without pretending that he considered me bound so to do—I again refused them and in both instances referred to the promise made me by Lazell when I first signed, that the Company should proceed to no expences untill all the shares should be taken; and to my formal notice to Lazell, before any expence was incurred, to withdraw my name.—If I had believed that instead of being obliged to transfer my shares, according to the act of incorporation; Lazell and his associates could go on accumulating charge upon charge, and at the end of five years sue me and recover money to pay for all their extravagant, and fraudulent expences, I certainly should have taken effectual  measures to escape their claws at an earlier period—If nothing else could have been done, I could have claimed the benefit of forfeiting my shares, for the first payment—If my ground in the suit is not equitable, I am sure I know not what equity is—However as the cause is to be argued in October, to a full Court, I hope you will receive this letter before the Session of the Court; and I beg you to assure Mr. Dexter with my best respects, that if I believed my defence only a legal one, I would never have travelled the Supreme Court to decide it, or any Counsel to argue it. I have no doubt however but he will do me full Justice in the argument
I have much yet to say, and little paper left—So you must wait for my next number—Only one word—If you  have still a difficulty to pay off my debts, by partial payments; and have a balance unemployed in your hands consult Mr. Gray the Liett. Governor, on my behalf and at my request about it—I find there is a new Insurance Company, of which he is President—I wish you had vested the Balance you had in that Stock—I know Mr. Gray will advise you judiciously and readily about it He has placed a similar confidence in me, in concerning his own, for the amount of ten times as much property as I ever did or ever shall own, And I feel perfectly secure of his friendship, in relation to any advise you  may ask of him on my account.
We are all well—excepting as before excepted—Expecting, in humble Hope—and ever your’s—


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to John Quincy Adams, 21 June 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, John Quincy

my dear son
Quincy June 21 1811

I write to you by every opportunity altho I hope you will have left St Petersburgh before this can reach you, but as there admits of a possibility that you may be Still, there,  I know it will be a great gratification to you to learn that your parents are Still living, and in health. your children too are well, and Good Children which is of more concequence than mere animal enjoyment.
I have been in great distress for this fortnight for my dear Sister Cranch whose valuable Life has for more than a week, been desparid of from a plurisy fever & reduced to the very brink of the Grave. we now hope that her valuable Life may be preserved yet longer, to Sustain that of your uncle who could not many days Survive her, and for the Sake of her Motherless Grandchildren—your Brother has been confined for 5 weeks from a fall from his Horse, which bruised him so much that an absess was formed upon his Thy thigh, which has been opend, and we now hope he is upon the recovery;
The Republican Majority are determined to Support Government. the opposite Party have conducted very rashly—but I Shall not enter into any minute account of their proceedings as this Letter may have more chances than usual to run. Govr Gray was here yesterday and informd me that he had a vessel going from Newport, by which I Send this with Love affection and regard to the Family from yours,
AA


Title: From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 28 June 1811
From: Peabody, Elizabeth Smith Shaw
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

My Dear Sister,
Atkinson June 28th. 1811

The very sudden change of the weather last Sabbath, when I was in a high state of persperation; caused so great opression & hoarseness upon my Lungs, as made me feel quite sick, & detained me in Town a day longer than I intended—As I had not sent to Mr Peabody, I thought best to send to Mr Parker, & go on Bag, & baggage, to our own Door in Atkinson by Wednesday Stage, which was much more convenient, than to Stop & take a chaise in Haverhill—I arose about three Clock, found the weather gloomy as I felt—Dressed me, & waked Cousin Abby—She was soon ready—& all the bundles at the Entry door, when the shrill Horn, & the rattling wheels gave signal of the Stage near at hand—This waked our affectionate, attentive Mrs Foster, for he, poor Man, was too feeble to arise, & assist, as I know he would, had his health permited—But she dear Woman, kindly prevents the wishes of her friends, & does all she can, for every One—would not let me open the gate, but went Herself—Mr Parker the Driver, was very good, & placed in all our things very nicely—She had made some Coffee the night before, but neither of us could drink it—nor eat—So without being more than half awake, Cousin Abby placed herself in the Stage close by my side, very safe—And Mr Driver proceeded to take up the other Passengers—The Town, seemed in solemn silence all—Sols bright, cheering radience was obscured by a thick Atmosphere, & scarce any One had risen to “Hail the new Day”—Presently the Stage stoped at a House, &, a Number of Gentlemen appeared equiped for their Passage—As I wanted One to fill up the Vacancy in the seat, I eagerly cast my Eye around, & fixed upon him, whose air was modest, & dignified, whose Countenance was & Expression was literary, & Classical—& requested him to take his seat on the same Box—with me—The thick Clouds had dissappointed my anticipated pleasure, of beholding Aurora dapplng the East with all the vivid colours of the rainbow, while the glorious Orb of Day, rises in peerless Majesty, & leads the mind gratefully to contemplate upon Him who “causeth the Day Spring high to know his Place”—
The late heat of the weather had relaxed every human Fibre—Intelligence itself seemed withered—& we all for some Time sat as Muets. Exhibiting the Noddeer, & the Nodde—Every one, but your Sister fast asleep, & all “the Sweets of forgetfulness proved”—My Swain was dreaming of the Aonian Maids, I fancyed & looked as if invoking the aid of Urania—His countenance was sweet, & so expressive of a rectified Heart, & Peace within, while his Head gently reclined upon my shoulder, that I could not be so cruel as to rouse him from his Elysium—untill I could no longer refrain from the agitation of laughing at the droll Figure we all made—He very politely appologized, & said, that he had been riding from New york all the Night before,—& was greatly fatigued by the Journey
The weather was cool, we breakfasted at Reading a little after Six, arrived at Haverhill a quarter after Ten—had the pleasure of announcing to Mr Harrod the birth of another Grandaughter, “plump as a little Duck”—& safely reached our own Door, a few minutes before twelve—where the thronged roof echoed, with, “I am glad to see you”—How do ye, &ca—After I got home, I had the mortification to find my hoarseness increase, & it was with great dificulty, that I could answer the numberless questions of my family—To day I feel relieved, & am much better—It is with, (I hope) a grateful heart that I reflect upon the convalescent state of our beloved Sister—She has more important duties yet to perform, & Heaven is pleased to protract her Days, & will I trust afford her Strength in the Hour of Trial, should it see fit, to take from her, her Lover, & her Friend—I think he has been so shaken that he cannot continue long—but soon must his earthly Tabernacle fall—His pure Spirit be welcomed to mansions of never ceasing bliss—
After so long an absence, to return, & find all the family in comfortable health, demands my grateful acknowledgements, to Him, “who is the Giver, of every good Gift, & the Health of our countenance—”
Cousin Abby Adams had a cold, but is better, attends to day the Academy, & seems quite happy with her companions—
Mr Peabody, & my Daughter unite with me, in wishing the President, & you every needed Blessing—With sentiments of / Love, Gratitude, & Esteem, I am ever /  Yours affectionately
Elizabeth Peabody
PS Excuse the writing, I would copy it, if I thought it worthy, & had time—
Tell mrs Adams, I know all her feelings respecting the absence of a beloved Daughter—But what our judgment considers as best, we should view as a pleasure—


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 30 June 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

N. 21.
St: Petersburg 30. June 1811.

I have now to acknowledge the receipt of your number 6. dated 22. February, brought by the Henry Captain Harris; a vessel of which we had heard nearly a Month since, and which has at length arrived after a passage from Boston of 100 days.—The arrivals from America now crowd upon one another in multitudes which I am afraid will prove not very profitable to many of the adventurers.—From Quincy we have yet nothing later than 4. March; but letters and newspapers have been received by other Americans here to the beginning of May.
The Massachusetts election appears to agitate the Americans in Europe almost exclusively; of all the other Elections going on at the same time in many parts of the Union, I see paragraphs in the newspapers, but hear not a syllable from any other Quarter—But American Federalists in this City have received letters from their friends in London and in Gothenburg, in high exultation, announcing the Election of Mr: Gore by a majority of more than three thousand votes—other Americans of different politics contest the validity of this return, and affirm that Mr: Gerry and Mr Grey have been re-elected, though by a reduced majority compared with that of the last year.—Why this extreme anxiety and concern for the Massachusetts Election?—Is it Mr: Gore, for whose elevation all this enthusiasm is harboured?—I think it by no means difficult to account for—There is much foreign hope and fear involved in these Massachusetts Elections—All the rest—even New-York are despaired of—But the Massachusetts federal politicians have got to talk so openly and with such seeming indifference, not to say readiness of for a dissolution of the Union; they are so valiant in their threats of resistance to the Laws—they seem so resolute for a little experiment upon the energy of the Union and its Government, that in the prospects of a War with America, which most of the British Statesmen now at the helm, consider as in the line of wise policy, they and all their partizans calculate boldly and without concealment or disguise upon the co-operation of the Massachusetts federalists—The Massachusetts Election therefore is a touchstone of national principle, and upon its issue may depend the question of peace and War between the United States and EnglandHowever hostile a British Ministry may feel against us, they will never venture upon it untill they can depend upon an active co-operation with them, within the United States,—It is from the New-England federalists alone that they can expect it, and from them they will doubtless received it—From the same view of the subject, though prompted by very opposite feelings, I too take a deep interest in the Massachusetts Elections—I have known now, more than seven years the projects of the Boston faction against the Union—They have ever since that time at least been seeking a pretext and an occasion for avowing the principle—The people however have never been ready to go with them; and when in the Embargo time they did for a moment get a majority with them, they only verified the old proverb about setting a beggar on horse-back—Mr: Quincy has been at the pains now of furnishing them with a new pretext, which will wear no better than its predecessors—Mr Quincy should not have quoted me as an authority for a dissolution of the Union—He may be assured it is a doctrine that never will have my sanction.—It is my attachment to the Union, which makes me especially anxious for the result of the Massachusetts Elections—They are a contest of life and death for the Union—If that Party are not ultimately put down in Massachusetts as completely as they already are in New-York and Pennsylvania, and all the Southern and Western States, the Union is gone—Instead of a nation coextensive with the North-American Continent, destined by God and Nature to be the most populous and most powerful People, ever combined under one social compact; we shall have an endless multitude of little insignificant clans and tribes, at eternal War with one another, for a rock or a fish-pond, the sport and fable of European Masters and oppressors.
Let me turn to your letter—The President had informed me of that which you had written to him, and of which you have now sent me a copy—The consequence was that on the 4th: day of January last I received his permission, communicated to me by the then Secretary of State, to return home—The time however was left at my own option, and more than a month afterwards I received a private Letter from him (of the same date) with that of my official leave to go home) urging me to stay, if I could without making too great a sacrifice of my private interest.—From the 4th: of January it was for more than five Months physically impossible for me to embark for America—for although the river broke up rather earlier in the season than usual, the 10th: of this month was the day upon which the first vessel bound to the United States sailed from Cronstadt—But besides this, on the 4th: of January, we were but just aware of another cause of detention, which might continue, untill it would be too late to embark during this year’s navigable season, and which if so, would detain us untill June 1812—I suppose you know why I say it might detain us, and why I yet say it may detain us untill that time—We were and are looking forward to an uncertain period—it may be longer or shorter—It may even now still terminate in time to make it possible for us to embark this year—But this is not our natural expectation—I did therefore instantly determine, at all Events to stay though it should be at my own cost and in my capacity as a private individual—I wrote so to the President, and waited for the next incident. That proved to be my appointment as a Judge; and it is said, the appointment of a successor to me here—The condition of my family remains the same—I cannot go—I have declined the seat on the Bench, and I am patiently waiting the arrival of my successor—I know that your letter to the President was written from the tenderest and most affectionate concern for myself and my family—And I see that our letters to you on our first arrival here, fully justified all your alarm, on the foundation of which you wrote—Happily for me, in fixing my establishment here, I did finally resolve to break through all the trammels of immemorial usage and indispensable extravagance—I did buckle it down to the very edges of my means—I make no debts—and shall make none, if I can go home immediately upon the cessation of my public character—A year of expence without compensation, and with the additional burthens of an increased family, must inevitably encroach upon my Estate in America; but excepting that I shall sink no Capital—
You enquire what my illness in March and April of last year, mentioned in one of my former letters, was—It was complicated—A very severe cold, with an excessive inflammation of one eye—A broken shin (how it came I never knew) which fretted and inflamed untill it laid up my leg for a fortnight—A nervous fever, caught by keeping late hours, by surfeiting banquets, and by the harrassing vexations incident to my situation at that time—My letter from which you sent the President an extract, gave you a general idea of them—the details would be manifold, and tedious—All together they confined me to my bed and chamber about a Month, since which time I have enjoyed my health and Spirits remarkably well.—We have kept house more than a year, very comfortably, and allowing for suitable sacrifices of Vanity very agreeably.—We have Society, both European and American, as much as we desire, and may have more when we please—I have had official business enough to do to occupy all my time, it is perhaps not business of such high importance and deep responsibility as an ambitious man might wish to be charged with; but I am not an ambitious man—My coming here was not of my own seeking—But after having accomplished a Voyage of 6000 miles—nearly half of which was a Baltic Navigation in October, I have no special eagerness to return through the same risks, with a family so much more unfitted to encounter them—The worthy friends of mine who began by charging me with meddling to exclude American Commerce, have now changed their Notes—The Mission to Russia now needs nothing but “a vigilant officer of the Customs”; and Mr: A. is admitted to have discharged its duties sufficiently—If I am suited to the service, the service is assuredly suited to me—From the instant that the public interest shall be deemed to be accommodated by my recall, I would if possible fly from here upon the wings of the winds—But for me—I want no other Office, at home or abroad—I must indeed go home to my children and my Parents, without unnecessary delay; but do you think when I do come home that I shall be suffered to live in Peace?
My father laughs at me and says “it is a terrible thing to be a man of so much importance”—I think he will have the pleasure of another laugh at my consequential airs, when he reads what I have written to him and to you, with regard to publications from my letters—But although I have suggested their inconvenience, I do sincerely thank you for that which you did allow—the motive is entitled to all my gratitude, and the effect, my justification from an infamous calumny appears to have been complete.
I shall procure and send you the sheeting and linnens according to your orders; and I will if possible send them out, by our old friend the Horace, which has found the way to Cronstadt again, unexpectedly—This letter I mean to send by the Palafax Captain Welsh, but she goes so immediately after the receipt of your letter that I shall not be able to procure the Articles to go by her.—We have been suffering nearly a week from the excessive heat of the weather—The Sun is eighteen hours and a half of the twenty-four above the horizon, and the night is scarcely cooler than the day—My blessing to my boys.
A.


Title: To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 30 June 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, John

Extract of a letter from Mr John Quincy Adams.
St: Petersburg 30th of June 1811.

“The Massachusetts election appears to agitate the Americans in Europe almost exclusively; of all the other Elections going on at the same time in many parts of the Union. I see paragraphs in the Newspapers, but hear not a syllable from any other Quarter—But American Federalists in this City have received letters from their friends in London, and in Gottenburg in high exaltation, announcing the election of Mr. Gore by a majority of more than three thousand votes—And other Americans of different politicks contest the validity of this return, and affirm that Mr: Gerry and Mr: Gray have been re-elected, though by a reduced majority compared with that of the last year.—Why this extreme anxiety and concern for the Massachusetts Election?—Is It Mr: Gore, for whose elevation all this enthusiasm is harboured?—I think it by no means difficult to account for. There is much foreign hope and fear involved in these Massachusetts Elections—All the rest—even New York are despaired of—But the Massachusetts federal politicians have got to talk so openly and with such seeming indifference, not to say readiness for a dissolution of the Union: they are so valiant in their threats of resistance to the Laws—They seem so resolute for a little experiment upon the energy of the Union, and its Government, that in the prospects of a War with America, which most of the British Statesmen now at the helm, consider as in the line of wise policy, they and all their partizans calculate boldly and without concealment or disguise upon the co-operation of the Massachusetts federalists—The Massachusetts Election therefore is a touchstone of national principles and upon its issue may depend the question of peace and War between the United States and England—However hostile a British minority may feel against us, they will never venture upon it untill they can depend upon an active co-operation with them, within the United States—It is from the New England federalists alone that they can expect it, and from them they will doubtless receive it—From the same view of the subject, though prompted by very opposite feelings, I too take a deep interest in the Massachusetts Election.—I have know now, more than seven years the projects of the Boston faction against the Union—They have ever since that time at least been seeking a pretext and an occasion for avowing the principle—The people however have never been ready to go with them; and when in the Embargo time they did for a moment get a majority with them, they only verified the old proverb about setting a beggar on horse-back—Mr Quincy has been at the pains now of furnishing them with a new pretext, which will wear no better than its predecessor. Mr Quincy should not have quoted me as an authority for a dissolution of the Union. He may be assured that it is a doctrine that never will have my sanction. It is my attachment to the Union, which makes me especially anxious for the result of the Massachusetts Elections—They are a contest of life & death for the Union—If that party are not ultimately put down in Massachusetts as completely as they already are in New York & Pennsylvania, & all the Southern & Western States, the Union is gone—Instead of a nation co-extensive with the orthAmerican Continent, destined by God & Nature to be the most populous & most powerful People, ever combined under one social compact; we shall have an endless multitude of little insignificant clans and tribes, at eternal War with one another, for a rock or a fish-pond, the Sport & fable of European Masters and oppressors.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Lucy Cranch Greenleaf, 30 June 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Greenleaf, Lucy Cranch

My Dear Neice
Quincy June 30 1811

I promised to write you what I considerd the State of Your Dear Mother. She has appeard since you left her to be mending Slowly, has Slept considerable at night. her Sleep has not been altogether quiet, a Groaning which you no doubt observed attended it. She had taken the Bask Several times, but yesterday was obliged to quit it, her mouth and Stomach being very Soar, and her Breast tight. her nerves were much agitated, and a hack cough very troublesome yesterday, which prevented her lieing down or Sleeping. I think the cold change of weather obstructed her persperation, and brought on some fever. I thought her too low yesterday to be left without a Watcher. Mrs Dexter was with her last night, and reported to me this morning that she rested the latter part of the night
Louissa was with her yesterday and is so again to day. I was with her in the afternoon of yesterday, and Shall See her again this afternoon—
Just returnd from your Seeing your Mother. She is better to day. her Mouth is very Soar. the Sparce is covering it, but her other complaints have Subsided. She has slept Some to day. your Father is much better than he was last week—I hope my dear Neice that both parents may be continued to their family and Friends, and restored to health and usefullness again. I am most affecly / Your Aunt
A Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Anonymous, June 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Anonymous

my dear Madam
June 1811

your two last favours of May 18th & 29th are now before me unreplied to. my apology must be that it has been our general Election for of the High, altho nigardly paid office of Govr Leiut Govenour Senators & Legislature. and pray Madam methinks I hear you ask what have you to do in it. why really nothing at all, but to give them my good wishes. but you must know that at this period there is a collecting together Friends and Relatives from all parts of the State, Some to attend the Annual Festival, and others to meet their acquaintance. accordingly we have a larger proportion of company at this period than at any other part of the Year—having had a number of Friends to visit me, my time has been occupied in attending to them, and upon my Son who was thrown from his Horse three weeks Since, and most Severly bruized So that he has been confined ever Since to his Bed, chiefly, I hope he is upon the recovery but think it will Still be a work of Time.
I am now to thank you for your interesting communications from St Petersburgh, as well as from Washington
The High and distinguishd honers confered by the Imperial Family upon mr Adams and his Family will ever be acknowledged as a Respectfull and Friendly disposition of the Emperor towards America and gratefully as it personally respects Regards her Minister. I am not anxious for fear any of their Heads Should be turned. Courts have been too Familiar to mr and mrs Adams for them to be renderd vain by the distinctions Shown them however marked, and most certainly those of the Emperor Alexander have been pecularly So. we will allow Kitty to feel herself particularly honourd and flatterd by the emperors urbanity politeness and graciousness. She ought to entertain a high Sense of it—but her good Sense will instruct her what use to make of it whenever She returns to this Country—where envy would be excited by and those passions which would do her more real injury, than all the distinctions She has received could possibly benifit her. “I was not a little pleased at her observation, that her travells, had renderd her Modest” Books may instruct & inform the mind, but we must Rise with the world, to learn Mankind—
which we Shall find “a wild where weed and flowers promiscuous shoot”
you observe that the Federal papers abuse the president for the concequences of the engagement between Commodore Rogers and the little Belt. If the president was not assailed I Should think he had not done right. The honour of the American Flag has been nobly Supported—and the insolence of the opponent properly Chastized—I regret the poor fellows who fell in concequence of the misconduct of their Commander but Innocent Blood has been Shed to appease the Slander of innocent Blood, as it Should Seem. we know who hath declared vengance is mine I will repay it,—pray my dear Madam read with attention Govr Gerrys Speech at the opening of the Legislature. do not let the Length of it terrify you. I unite with him in allmost all he has said—The assemblage as he Stiles them, the Leaders particularly deserve all the Chastisement he has given them. The Anglomanes and the alias the Junto will abuse him for it—but he cares little for that—He has not any pecuniary motive to be their Govenour, but quite otherways—he is superiour to their favors and their flattery he would despice—he Speaks the truth boldly to them and he does it in the language and Stile of a Gentleman—the Speech must be highly approved by every Friend to the honour and interests of our Country.


Title: From Alexander Hill Everett to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 6 July 1811 to 18 July 1811
From: Everett, Alexander Hill
To: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

Vibourg. July 6–18. 1811.

I reached this place, Madam, after a ride of 22 hours. I cannot refuse myself the satisfaction of sending you a few lines; not only because I suppose, it will be the first letter you ever received from here and perhaps the last you ever will, but because I think it the most effectual remedy  against being forgotten at the first post. It cannot be supposed that I have in an absence of 22 hours obtained any information of great moment or unveiled any diplomatic secrets, that would deserve to be transmitted in cypher. I have merely seen—but I anticipate the contents of my letter, before I have finished the introduction. I think you may have observed, Madam, that there is a happy elasticity in the springs of all the intellectual operations of men, which occasions them to resist with a very slight assistance and overcome very great pressures. You have no doubt in consequence of my note of yesterday of the great abattement  which I was suffering on leaving your family: which was not much lessened by taking leave yesterday morning of a number of good friends and I parted from Mr. Adams with tears in my eyes. Gray and myself indulged in some melancholy reflexions, as we rode out beyond the gate, the chamber of which was blackened by the cloudiness of the day and the foulness of the road. We talked of the flight of years and the frailty of men: His leaving me was the last accession to my really melancholy situation and you must confess yourself that such a complication of woes was enough to press a royal merchant down, much more one, who is neither merchant nor royal. As I advanced, the clouds retired from the sky and the roads began to grow better. The fields were strewed with all sorts of wild flowers, on which not being botanist enough to tell exactly in what page of Linnaeus to find them all, I bestowed names to my fancy. There was the “waving heath with blossoms red,” the blue harebell which by the advice of Mr. Sevlt I suffered to flourish still: the daisy, that little flower with silver crest and golden eye and many, many more than I can tell. I plucked a few bundles of them and placed in my bonnet upon which I felt a great awakening. The country for the first two stages was still exceedingly pleasant and at 50 min. past 8, as I reached the third stage, therm. at 18° Reaumur, the sun went down most beautifully over the land of our nativity. All these things were so delightful, that they immediately reminded me of those lines of Beattie, which not doubting you know them by heart, I shall transcribe for your amusement.
Oh how canst thou renounce the boundless store
Of charms, that nature to her votary yields;
The warbling woodland, the resounding shore
The pomp of groves and garniture of fields
All that the genial ray of morning gilds
And all that glitters to the beam of even
All that the mountain’s sheltering bosom shields
And all the dread magnificence of heaven
Oh how canst thou renounce and hope to be forgiven.
Having, or I trust, given you some idea of the face of the country, I shall now, Madam, endeavor to illustrate the character of the people that inhabit it, a race of men entirely different from the Russians in language and manners, who call themselves Tchoudes. They are not so comely and well-made as the Russians, and I think them an inferior race of people. In order to ascertain what their notions are of government and politics, I made Thäus ask a postilion, who, tho’ young had as intelligent a face, as any I had seen whether he knew any word for Gorudas, but he could not be made to understand the term. In order to come still nearer home, Thäus asked him by my direction what the name of his master was on which point he was equally ignorant. This rather proved the postilion’s ignorance or want of comprehension, than the deficiency of the language and on inquiring at the next tavern (which I have long made it a  & point to consider as the only mode of resolving difficulties) I found that Emperour was Käsar and King Köning, both Swedish words.—Their difference from the Russians appears very strongly in the language, which has no affinity with the Russian. There is a vast  deal of humming and haing in it or aspiration. I obtained from the intelligent postilion abovementioned a list of the numbers as far as five, which are as follows. Kax 1. Yux 2. Kolomy 3. Mees 4. Tâtsomy 5. In order to retain them better in memory, I put them into verse, which I transcribe for your use if you should have the same disposition. Kax, Yux, A nest of rooks, Kolomy Mees. We’re all of a piece Tâtsomy, One two many, imitated from the old poem, One, two, come buckle my shoe &c.
You will observe, if you please, Madam, that these numerals have no apparent resemblance either with the Gothic or Teutonic—the Latin or Greek or the Sclavonian dialects, which are commonly considered the sources of all the languages of Europe. These three fountain languages have indeed considerable resemblances, tho’ commonly looked upon as originally different, which is evidently proved by the same example, by which we have proved the difference of the Russian and Tchoud languages viz, the first five numerals, which are for example in German Ein zwei, drei fier fünf. In Greek. Heis, duo, trees, tessares, pente. in Russian, Oden, dva, tre, chetere, pait, all of which are more or less like each other and not at all like Kax Yux, &c, which resemble more the croaking of a crow, than any thing human.
Il faut tout dire says Voltaire. I met on the first stage, a couple of persons with dark swarthy faces and black beards, at whose appearance Thäus was a good deal puzzled. He first pronounced that they looked like priests and giving up that idea, he thought they looked like rascals. At last he concluded that they were a couple of descendants from the old worshipper of Osiris and Isis, that travel about the world under the name of Zangari and tell fortunes for a few copecks. They conversed very fluently in Tchoud with our intelligent postilion, who was then on the box.—This is all, that occurs to me at present, worth communicating. Perhaps as I go on I may get  some more particulars of this  very singular race of beings.
Present my best regards to all your family, particularly to Charles and permit me to offer my assurances of perfect respect and devotion. (The two preceding letters were not sent.)


Title: From William Cranch to Abigail Smith Adams, 7 July 1811
From: Cranch, William
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

Dear Madam
Washington July 7th. 1811.

Upon receipt of your kind letter of the 17th. ulto. I was too deeply afflicted by the information it contained even to thank you for it, as I aught to have done. I inferr’d from it that my dear mother had gone to join the departed spirits of her mother, her father and those other friends from whom she had been so long separated by death. It was A day or two pass’d before I was undeceived; so that your kind letter had fully prepared me to meet the dreadful certainty which I every moment expected. The parting pang was over. Her restoration (if it shall please heaven to restore her to health) will to me be like a resurrection. Next to our Gratitude to the great disposer of Events, is that to you, my dear Aunt, and her other kind friends, for their your tender assiduities during her sickness. As for myself, while I have life & recollection, I can never cease to be grateful to you, not only for this particular instance of your goodness, but for the thousand, thousand kind offices you have render’d to all branches of our family.
How solitary would have been the last days of my father! How desolate his habitation! But I will not dwell upon a scene which may never be realized. I will rather hope that the clouds which hang round the evening of his life may grow brighter as his sun declines.
I am happy to find by my father’s letter that you have hear’d from Mr. Adams at St. Petersbugh and that he and his family were well the last of March.
I was, as you may well believe, much gratified with his appointment to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court; although for the good of my country I wish his Sphere of action were more enlarged. His talents as a statesman will be more important than his services as a Judge. We might possibly find such another Judge, but we may in vain look for another such statesman.
I was also much pleased to find hear of the appointment of Mr. T. B. Adams to a seat on the bench of Massachusetts, though I believe there is more of honour than profit attendant upon the office.
Please present him & Mr. Adams my affectionate remembrance.
To my dear & venerated Uncle present my most grateful & affectionate respects—and to Miss Smith my kindest regards.
We are all well—Mrs. Cranch joins in every sentiment of respectful & affectionate gratitude, with which / I am, my dear Aunt, / your respectfully affectionate / Nephew
W. Cranch.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 10 July 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

N: 20.
St: Petersburg 10. July 1811.

We are in the midst of the bustle of a removal—I wrote you some time since that we were in the predicament of having the house in which we live sold over our heads—afterwards I told you, as I was told by my landlord that the bargain was broken off, and we should remain in the house—About ten days ago my Landlord came and informed me that it was sold, and that if I could go out on the first of July Old Style, it would be a great accommodation to the purchaser, who wished then to come in—Luckily there was a pleasant house in the Country, about two miles without the City, which was to be let, and which I immediately engaged for the remainder of the Summer—If we stay here next Winter as in all probability we must, I shall have the trouble and vexation of house hunting, as well as that of removing again in September—In other respects the Country residence for two or three months will be preferable to that of the Summer.
A few days since I received your favour of 19. March—As it is short and not numbered I suppose I am to consider it as a volunteer—The abundances of letters received from you and others of our friends since the Summer commenced has in some sort compensated for the long interval during which we were deprived of them.—As long as the Waters flow, we have very frequent, and often very recent intelligence from our CountryThe public news we generally get from the Gazettes.—For example I find in the Boston papers which I have seen to 8. May, that you was one of three Commissioners appointed to go into the District of Maine, and that you were at Wiscasset the first day of that month—I was happy to hear so much as that of you, and of so late a date—But I marvelled that you had mentioned nothing of this appointment in any of your letters. The first accounts that we had of the Massachusetts Elections (they came from England) were that Mr. Gerry and Mr. Gray were superseded by the federal Candidates. This I find was a miscalculation—But the complexion of both Branches of the Legislature remains yet very uncertain—Massachusetts appears still to depend upon foreign Politicks.
The Port Folio Critique upon my Lectures has never presented itself to me, neither am I at all anxious to see it—I never heard of its existance but by your letter of 22d. Jany:—If it is as dull as the Knickerbocker History, I should chuse to be excused from reading it—Whatever may be my fate elsewhere, I am sure I shall  never have an impartial Critic in America, while I am myself alive—No one but a friend or foe will take the trouble to review me; or a mongrel of both breeds like the anthologist—As to the Port Folio to which you and I once rendered so many thankless services. I expect as little Justice from it, as from all the other federal common Sowers of Literature and politicks in America—How the Port Folio under all its metamorphoses has lived so long is to me unaccountable—I think it  has now received its death wound from Walsh whose Review will be edited with more talents, more Industry, more Consistency, and incomparably more address. I have seen Walsh’s pamphlet on France and the first number of his Review. Making allowances for the prejudices and passions of a violent Partizan, his account of France appears to be tolerably correct; but his bombastical enthusiasm for England is not only so absurd but so full of representations ridiculously false, that it has given me a strong suspicion of his honesty—It looks too much as if it was calculated for the federal swallow, (for which no camel is too big) with a cool and deliberate contempt of truth—He has had the cunning to declare himself a warm friend to the American Revolution—Dennie and the Anthology, were more candid and more in unison with English Passions—Walsh will find it hard, very hard to get along with his ardour for the American Revolution, and his worship of John Bull, marching pari-passu. He sets out with the avowed intention of indoctrinating the People of America to know what is good for themselves—Ames tried that Experiment for several of the last years of his life—Timothy labours in the same vineyard—and they recommend themselves to their auditory, began by telling them that they were all a pack of Knaves and fools & madmen. Hopeful disciples to turn into wise and sober and virtuous Patriots!—Walsh is more cunning too in this respect—He does not begin so much like the Irish Orator with you “ragged, beggarly, lousy rascallions, I love you, you know I do.” But he tells us the Country is hideously metamorphosed since the days of Washington, and promises very kindly to change it back again to all its former beauty—There is no character which our federal heroes are so fond of assuming as that of a reformer—But it is not like their Charity—it never begins at home.
Mr. Blodget of Philadelphia, arrived here last week and brought me a letter from our friend J. Ewing—Though it was written last August, he mentions having received the copy of my Lectures which you had sent him—But does not tell me, what I first learnt from Mr. Blodget, that he was married—I believe Dennie now remains the only bachelor of your old circle of intimates at Philadelphia, and he I understand lives entirely with Mr. Meredith.
We have had since our first arrival here a continual succession of Americans, so that we dwell among our own People, almost as much as if we were at home—The winter before last sixteen American vessels wintered at Cronstadt and several at Archangel.—Upwards of one hundred and fifty arrived at and sailed from Russian Ports last Summer.—More than thirty pass’d the last winter in them, and sixty three have already arrived this Summer at Cronstadt, besides twenty or thirty at Archangel and Riga—a large proportion of these vessels have supercargoes or owners, and many of them bring letters of introduction to me—They are for the most part transient acquaintance who remain here only while their business detains them, but they enliven our Society, and by their own Correspondences with America, keep us informed of the principal news in circulation sooner than we can obtain it from our own.—Some of them are naturalized Americans, but the greater number are natives of the Northern and Eastern States as far as Virginia inclusive—Of the States South or West of that I think I have not seen a native since I have been in Russia.
Having cooled down to a proper degree of temperature from the disappointment which I have acknowledged to you that I felt on the receipt of your Account, I may now suggest to you some of the observations which on due reflection, remain upon my mind after its examination.
I cannot forbear to request that you would for the future be less indulgent to tenants in the Article of repairs—If you suffer yourself to be frightened into expence for them by every tenant who chuses to threaten that he will leave the house without them, you will not only have the rents wholly absorbed, but as you have done in Hefferan’s case, make the house a charge instead of an income—For such tenants as Hefferan not a cent of expence should ever be allowed for repairs—yet you have charged me nearly fifty dollars, for Carpenter’s Work and laying a floor in his Cellar; for which there was no sort of necessity.—Tenants are always clamorous for repairs, and Landlords almost always refuse them—I am now going into a house the Landlord of which refuses even to repair the broken windows—I am going out of a house where I have had a Landlord noted as one of the best and most liberal in St: Petersburg—He has very civilly refused to incur the expence of repairs in every case when we have asked them.—Yet many of them have been so necessary, that I have had them done at my own expence; and now the house is sold and I had ten days notice to quit—your charges for repairs upon all my houses are far beyond my expectations, and I must earnestly recommend to you to be close handed and not quite so good natured—you have always a sufficient excuse plead your orders.
Another charge you have voluntarily assumed for me, by paying nearly a hundred dollars a year town Tax for me—I ought not to have been taxed a Cent—It is all for my real Estate, for those same houses, and you should have stipulated with every tenant that he should pay the taxes—
There are numbers of your charges that I do not understand—Such as Discount for foreign bills—Joseph Faxon’s account—Bills for Posts and Rails for farm—Taxes in Braintree Quincy and Milton—Charles Newcomb’s bill for work done in Briesler’s time—and several others—of the Taxes and repairs I must say the same as I said of those in Boston—of the repairs on your own house, great as they are, I will repeat that as they were for your comfort and that of your family, and as they were in amount, so much beyond your intentions, I freely allow them—But I leave to your own reflections whether you ought to charge me a Commission of 2 1/2 per Cent, for expending my money, to your own use.
At the close of the present year, the lease of the house in Court Street will expire I wish you to lease it at public Auction, for five or seven years, to one tenant, who must stipulate to pay all the taxes, repairs and charges upon it during the term—to deliver it up at the end of the term in as good condition, as he takes it, reasonable use excepted, and to pay the rent quarterly, giving security to your satisfaction for punctual payment.
I still expect to pass the next Winter here—But whether as a public or a private man, is altogether uncertain, as it depends upon the pleasure of P. U. S.—I rejoice therefore that you promise to continue writing untill you hear of my intention to return home.—All well.