Title: From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 15 September 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, George Washington

Letter 2.
N. 5.
St: Petersburg 15. September 1811.

The first point of view, in which I have invited you to consider the Bible, is in the light of a Divine Revelation. And what are we to understand by these terms?—I intend as much as possible to avoid the field of controversy, with which I am not well acquainted, and for which I have little respect, and still less inclination—My idea of the Bible as a Divine Revelation, is founded upon its practical use to mankind, and not upon metaphysical subtleties.
There are three points of doctrine, the belief of which forms the foundations of all human morality—The first is the existence of God—the second, is the immortality of the human Soul, and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments—Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three Articles of faith, and that man will have no Conscience—He will have no other Law than that of the Tyger and the Shark—The laws of man, may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous or happy—It is possible to believe them all without believing that the Bible is a divine Revelation—It is so obvious to every reasonable being that he did not make himself, and that the world which he sees could as little make itself, that the moment we begin to exercise the power of reflection, it seems impossible to escape the conviction that there is a Creator—It is equally evident that this Creator must be a spiritual and not a material being—There is also a consciousness, that the thinking part of our Nature is not material but spiritual—that it is not subject to the laws of matter and therefore not perishable with it—Hence arises the belief that we possess an immortal Soul—Pursuing the train of thought, which the visible Creation and observation upon ourselves suggests, we must soon discover that the Creator must also be the Governor, of the Universe; that his power, his wisdom and his goodness must be without bounds—that he is a righteous God, and loves righteousness; that mankind are bound by his laws of righteousness, and accountable to him for their obedience to them; and that as he does not always reward or punish them in this life according to their good or Evil deeds, the completion of divine Justice must be reserved for another lifeThe Existence of a Creator—the immortality of the human Soul, and the future state of retribution, are therefore so perfectly congenial to natural reason when once discovered, or rather it is so impossible for natural reason to disbelieve them, that it would seem the light of natural reason would alone suffice for their discovery—But this conclusion would not be exact.—Human reason may be sufficient to get an obscure glimpse at these sacred and important truths, but it cannot discover them in all their clearness.—For example—In all the numberless false Religions which have swayed the minds of men in different regions and ages of the world, the idea of a God has always been included
Father of all—in every age
In every clime ador’d—
By Saint, by Savage and by Sage—
Jehovah—Jove—or Lord.
So says Pope’s Universal prayer—But it is the God of the Hebrews alone, it is the God revealed to us in the Bible alone, who is announced as the Creator of the World—The ideas of God entertained by all the most illustrious, and most ingenious Nations of Antiquity, were weak and absurd—The Persians worshipped the Sun—the Egyptians believed in an innumerable multitude of Gods, and worshiped not only oxen, crocodiles, dogs and cats, but even garlicks and Onions—The Greeks invented a poetical religion and adored men and women, virtues and vices, Air, Water Fire, and every thing that a vivid imagination could personify—Almost all the Greek Philosophers reasoned and meditated upon the Nature of the Gods; but scarcely any of them ever reflected enough even to imagine that there was but one God—and not one of them ever conceived of him as the Creator of the World—Cicero has collected together all their opinions upon the nature of the Gods, and pronounces that they are more like the dreams of madmen, than the sober judgments of wise men—
In the first book of Ovid’s metamorphoses there is the an Account of the change of Chaos into the World—Before the Sea, and the Earth and the sky that surrounds all things, (says Ovid) there was a thing called Chaos—and some one of the Gods, he does not know which, separated from one another, the elements of this Chaos, and turned them into a World—Thus far and no farther could human reason extend—But the first words of the Bible are “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth.” This blessed and sublime idea of God, the creator of the Universe, this source of all human virtue and all human happiness, for which all the Sages and philosophers of Greece and Rome groped in darkness and never found, is revealed in the first verse of the book of Genesis.
I call it the source of all human virtue and happiness, because when we have once attained the conception of a being who by the mere act of his will created the world, it would follow as an irresistible consequence even if we were not so expressly told, that the same being must also be the Governor of his own Creation—That man with all other things, was also created by him, and must hold his felicity and his virtue on the condition of obedience to His Will—In the first Chapters of the Bible, there is a short and rapid historical narrative of the manner in which the world, and man were made; of the Condition, upon which happiness and immortality were bestowed upon our first parents; of their transgression of this Condition, and of the punishment denounced upon them, and the promise of redemption from it by “the seed of  the woman.”
There are and always have been where the holy Scriptures have been known, petty writings, and self-conceited reasoners, who cavil at some of the particular details of this narrative—Even serious enquirers after truth, have sometimes been perplexed to believe that there should have been evening and morning, before the existence of the Sun—That a man should be made of clay, and a woman from the rib of a Man—that they should be forbidden to eat an Apple, and for disobedience to that injunction be with all their posterity doomed to Death—That a serpent should speak, and beguile a woman—and that eating an apple could give the knowledge of good and evil—All this is undoubtedly marvelous, and above our comprehension—Much of it is clearly figurative and allegorical; nor is it easy to distinguish, what part of it is to be understood in a literal, and what in a symbolical sense—But that which it imports us fo to understand is plain—The great and essential principles upon which our duties and enjoyments depend, are involved in no obscurity—A God, the Creator and Governor of the Universe is revealed in all His Majesty and Power—The terms upon which he gave existence, and happiness to the common Parent of Mankind are exposed to us in the clearest light—Disobedience to the Will of God was the offence, for which he was precipitated from Paradise—Obedience to the Will of God, is the merit, by which Paradise is to be regained
Here then is the foundation of all morality; the source of all our obligations as accountable Creatures—This idea of the transcendent power of the Supreme being is essentially connected with that by which the whole duty of Man, is summed up in Obedience to his Will—I have observed that natural reason might suffice for an obscure perception, but not for the clear discovery of these truths—Even Cicero could start to his own mind the question whether Justice could exist upon Earth unless founded upon piety but could not settle it to his own satisfaction. “Haud scio (says he) an pietata adversus deos sublata, fides etiam et societas humani generis et una excellentissima virtus, justitia tollatur.” The ray of divine light contained in the principle that Justice has no other foundation than Piety, could make its way to the Soul of the heathen, but there it was extinguished in the low, unsettled and inconsistent Notions, which were the only foundations of his piety—How could his piety by pure or sound, when he did not know whether there was one God or a thousand—whether he or they had not any concern in the formation in the world; and whether they had any regard to the affairs or the conduct of mankind?—Once assume the idea of a single God; the creator of all things, whose Will is the Law of moral obligation to man, and to whom man is accountable, and Piety becomes as rational as it is essential—It becomes the first of human duties, and not a doubt can thenceforth remain that fidelity, and the association of human kind, and that most excellent Virtue of Justice, repose upon no other foundation.
At a later age than Cicero, Longinus, expressly quotes the third verse of the first Chapter of the Book of Genesis, as an example of the sublime—“And God said, let there be light: and there was light.”—And wherein consists its sublimity?—In the image of transcendent power presented to the mind, with the most striking simplicity of expression—yet this verse only exhibits one of the effects of that transcendant power, which the first verse discloses in announcing God as the Creator of the world—The true sublimity is in the idea given us of God—To such a God Piety, is but a reasonable service—To such a God the heart of man must yield with cheerfulness the tribute of homage, which it never could pay to the bleating Gods of Egypt, to the dissolute debauchers of the Grecian Mythology, nor even to the more elevated, but no less fantastical imaginations of the Grecian Philosophers and Sages.
I shall resume this subject in another letter—And I reserve a small corner of my paper to tell you that your Mama, brother Charles, and Sister Louisa, who was christened last Week, and the rest of us are well, and that we hope before the Winter sets in to hear the same good news, at least once more from our friends at Quincy—It is more than a month since we have received any letters from America.
From your father
A,


Title: From William Stephens Smith to Abigail Smith Adams, 15 September 1811
From: Smith, William Stephens
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

My dear Madam
Lebanon Septr. 15th. 1811—

I received your very affectionate Letter (dated the 20th. of August, post mark 2d inst.) on Wednesday; in my Letter of August 12th. I may have expressed myself with too much Solicitude and given my opinion too decidedly in Opposition to that of professional men—they will have liberallity , enough, to excuse me—I fully agree with you that it would be best, having advised with Surgeon’s and Physicians to follow their advice—I shall never hazard an opinion on the subject again, but being conscious of having fully discharged my duty to you, and my dear Wife, in this interesting case, I will hope in tollerable tranquility, for the best, do every thing I am requested to do, and acknowledge I am totally ignorant of the case, and will only attend to her wishes on the subject.
With respect to my proposition to reside near you I conceived it a duty I owed you, and mrs: Smith, that duty being paid, I rest satisfied with your answer.
The season is fast advancing when travelling will be unpleasant, I should wish, that mrs: S. and Caroline would be in motion homewards as soon as agreable to them after the receipt of this Letter, I think the stage conveyance too harsh for them If you can spare them the Chariot, and inform me of the day of departure by Post, I will meet them with a covered carriage, and attend them home, where we have always lamented their absence, and now grow solicitous for their return—The sooner the amiable creatures are with us, the better, for we are all anxious for their Society &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. &c.
You are pleased to speak in flattering terms of this State I think it merits it—there is lately published a brief Topographical and Statistical Manual of the State for the present year, it presents three-hundred Villages, generally from thirty to forty and six hundred houses, four hundred and fifty two towns including four cities—forty five counties and the census of 1810. give nine thousand hundred and sixty-thousand inhabitants and the returns of the Militia regularly enrolled in 1809. was one hundred & two thousand and sixty eight—and agreable to calculation the next general return of the enrolled militia will exceed one hundred and eighty thousand—we have thirty three thousand and sixty eight looms, which produced the last year nine million, ninety nine thousand, seven hundred and three yards of cloth, worth five million, two thousand, eight hundred and ninety one dollars & eighty two Cents—we have one million two hundred and eighty thousand sheep, three hundred thousand horse and one million of neat cattle—besides numerous establishments of tan works, Breweries falling mills, Paper mills, Hat factories, Powder mills, Rope Walks, sugar houses, oil mills, blast furnaces, air furnaces, cut nail factories, forges trip hammers, rolling and slitting mills, that Value twelve million eighty two Thousand five hundred & twenty five dollars—four hundred & thirteen Carding machines and twenty six cotton factories—the value of these anually exclusive of private domestick manufactories exceeds sixteen million of dollars.
The County of Cayuga produces annually two million two hundred & forty skeins of silk and the salt at the works, one hundred and forty seven thousand dollars annually and encreasing—there are thirty six bridge companies with five hundred & nine thousand dollars of Stock, one hundred thirty five turnpike companies with seven million five hundred fifty eight dollars stock and our roads extend over a length of four thousand five hundred miles
The capital stock of the incorporated banks is eleven million six hundred & ninety thousand dollars—besides other important, Items too lengthy to detail—
Such my dear Madam are the recourses of the single state of N. York other states no doubt, present proportionably similar important and interesting lines, which I apprehend our dignified rulers are not so intimately acquainted—with as our real enemies and false friends—
I apprehend internal commotion, I do not dread a foreign War, the latter if entered into some time past, with a  becoming dignity, would have put the former asside, but wiser men must deside the important question—I have no objection to share the danger but I cannot solicit employment—
Present me most respectfully to the President / And believe me respectfully and affectionately / Yours,
W: S: Smith


Title: From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 22 September 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, George Washington

No 6N. 6.
(Letter 3)
My Dear George,
St: Petersburg 22 Septr: 1811.

My last letter contained the substance but not the form of an argument for considering the Bible as a divine Revelation. It explicitly stated the three points of belief which I deemed indispensable to the happiness the virtue and improvement of mankind.—1. The existence of one God, the Creator and Governor of the Universe and particularly of mankind—2. The immortality of the Soul—3. A future life of reward, and punishment.—I shewed you that the natural and ordinary powers of the human mind are not sufficient for the discovery of these truths—That they are disclosed in the Bible, by special and distinct Revelations from God, in a manner altogether different from the ordinary course of nature—And hence it follows that the Bible, considered as Divine Revelation contains a series of direct Communications from the Creator of mankind to individual persons, which have been by some of them committed to writing, and which include a code of moral and religious Laws suitable for all mankind, and binding upon all who are blest with the Knowledge of it. But if the belief of these doctrines be essential to the happiness, virtue and improvement of mankind, why were they particularly disclosed by Revelation to a few individuals of a single nation? Why were they not made discoverable to all men by the simple operation of their reason? the answers to these questions, are also to be found in the Bible—The first Parents of mankind were created immortal, innocent, and happy. But they were created free. The tenure of their blessed state was on the condition of obedience to the Will of God.—This Condition they violated—they forfeited by their transgression, their immortality their innocence and their happiness—With them they lost their posterity; who could be redeemed to their original State, only by intervention of a Saviour.—Among the miseries brought upon mankind by the Apostacy of their Ancestor, was the loss of the Knowledge of the true God, and of their own immortality.—This loss was not however total in any part of the World; a remnant of it was every where preserved; but in different degrees among different Nations—It was the purpose of divine Providence that it should never be wholly lost, and that in his due time it should be wholly restored—To a succession of Patriarchs untill Abraham, and afterwards to him and his descendants alone untill the appearance of Jesus Christ. God continued to communicate his Will by special Revelation. But even from them he reserved the clear and certain hope of a future life: untill Jesus Christ came with glad tidings of great joy to all mankind; bringing life and immortality once more to light by the Gospel. To the three articles of Faith, which I have supposed to be essential for all Religion and Morality—the Bible as a Divine Revelation adds therefore a fourth—the original excellence and present fallen condition of man—This tenet is peculiar to the Religions founded upon the Bible, and it has great and numerous consequences upon the moral system of Christianity—An omnipotent Creator, an immortal  Soul, and a day of Judgment are sometimes considered as the foundations of Natural Religion, though after all, independent of the Bible, they are mere speculation and conjectures which men may believe or disbelieve according to the strength or weakness of their minds.—But the fall and redemption of man, with all the duties incumbent on us in consequence of them, are taught only in the Bible. Obscure and confused traditions, preserved among the heathen world some memorial of this truth as well as of the others.—In the mythology of the Greeks it was believed that men were originally made virtuous and happy, and had gradually become vicious and miserable.—Hence their poetical fictions of the four ages of gold, silver, brass and iron.—But in those curious mixtures of forgotten history with inventive fancy, there was no moral principle involved. They admitted the degeneracy of mankind, but they inculcated no precept for its restoration to its original purity—They lamented that Astræa had abandoned the Earth, but they gave no hopes of her returning to it again.—By admitting the Bible as a divine Revelation, we have hopes of future felicity, inspired together with the conviction of our present wretchedness.—The blood of the redeemer has washed out the pollution of our original Sin, and the certainty of eternal happiness in a future life is again secured to us on the primitive condition of obedience to the Will of God. By considering the Bible as Divine Revelation, we acknowledge a frequent miraculous interposition of divine power.—The reluctance at coming to this admission is to many persons of the present times, the strongest objection against the authority of the sacred Scriptures—Nature it is there operated by general Laws, but those Laws of which we have no Knowledge but by inferences which we draw from the observation of their effects are themselves among the Evidences of an omnipotent Creator, and it requires no great effort of the understanding to perceive that he whose power was competent to produce the general rule must also be possessed of the power of making every particular exception.—The power to create being once admitted to exist, it would bear  scant trifling to cavil about the modes of Creating. A miracle is nothing more  than a physical phenomenon, different from those which we are accustomed to observe; for if by a miracle we understand merely something incomprehensible to our understandings, the growth of a spire of grass is as miraculous as any thing related in the Bible. In receiving the Bible as a diving Revelation, I do not consider every part of it even in the original languages as having been written by preternatural inspiration from Heaven. I do not suppose it necessary to consider the Book as exempt from physical, geographical and Chronological errors.—The translations into modern languages, and the English translation still used, in particular abound with errors. The revelations themselves are of two kinds, those which were made to particular persons, occasionally and for temporary purposes and those which affected the destinies and duties of mankind, for all ages.The forms of Revelation which Divine Wisdom assumed were so various and would multiplied that it would require a long Dissertation and perhaps a large volume to enumerate and explain them.—It is necessary here only to remark that from the Creation untill the Death of Moses God manifested himself to the Patriarchs sometimes in human shape and sometimes by visions, by dreams. and by angels, and finally sometimes by voices which were heard in the air when there was nothing to be scene.—The direct and personal intercourse from God to Man, ceased from the time of Moses, untill that of Jesus Christ.—In Deuteronomy XXXIV. 10. It is expressly said—“And there arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face”—It is the belief of the great majority of Christians, that in the person of Jesus Christ, God himself again appeared in human form—That He took upon himself the nature of man, to teach mankind his most perfect law, and to redeem them from the curse of death, by submitting to it himself. This however has become a subject of great controversy among Christians themselves.—I have read very little of the numberless volumes which have been written on both sides of this question.— But I have endeavoured by assiduous attention to the New Testament, to settle my own opinion concerning it—There are so many passages both in the Gospels and the Epistles, which Countenance the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ, and so many which appear incompatible with it, that to my Judgment it is not among the things clearly revealed.—I know not how to order my order my Speech by reason of Darkness, and I therefore conclude it is one of those mysteries, not intended to be unfolded to me during the present life. But whether Jesus Christ was a manifestation of Almighty God in the form of a man; or whether he was but the only begotten Son of God, by whom he made the world, and by whom he will judge the world in righteousness, I consider as merely a speculative question, which I am not called upon to settle, and about which my only duty is not to suffer my Passions or Prejudices to be engaged on either side.—That he came into the World to preach repentance & remission of Sins—to proclaim glory to God in the highest, and on Earth Peace Good Will to Men—and finally to bring life and immortality to light in the Gospel, all this is equally clear, if we consider the Bible as Divine Revelation, and all this it imports infinitely to our conduct in this world, and our happiness in the next to know—The rest may be left to a brighter state of existence to ascertain.
Let us now, my Dear Son,  conclude by resuming the duties to God, to our fellow creatures and to ourselves, which are derived as immediate consequences from the admission of the Bible as Divine Revelation.—1. Piety—From the first Chapter of the old Testament to the last of the New, Obedience to the Will of God, as inculcated, as including the whole duty of Man—2. Benevolence—The love of our neighbour is very forcibly taught in the Old Testament, but to teach it more effectually was the special object of Chris’ts mission upon Earth—“Love”, says St. Paul XIII Romans 10. “as the fulfilling of the Law.” But Christ in his discourse to the apostles at the last Supper says “A new commandment I give unto you. That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another—By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love  one to another.”—3. Humility—The profound sense of our own infirmities, which must follow, from the Doctrine of Original Sin, and of its punishment inflicted on all human kind, necessarily inspires meekness and lowliness of Spirit—these too, are commanded in express terms by Jesus Christ, and as principles of morality, they are not only different from the maxims of every other Known system of ethics, but in direct opposition to them.—I shall perhaps on some future occasion, undertake to shew you a comparative estimate of these three Cardinal Virtues of Christianity, with the four Cardinal Virtues of the heathen Philosophers—which were Justice—Prudence—Temperance  and Fortitude—every one of them entitled to the epithet which Cicero gives to the first of “una excellentissima virtus.” but which as forming the measure of human duties, can only serve to shew forth in brighter evidence, the unrivalled superiority of the moral Code of the Bible. From your affectionate father—
“The bright & most excellent virtue


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

My Dear Son
Quincy Sep’br 24 1811

your Brother returnd this Evening from Boston and gave me notice that a vessel would Sail for Sweeden tomorrow the notice is So Short, that I can only write you a Short Letter. I Shall in future follow your advice, have a Letter ready for the occasion and not wait for the opportunity. it was not however, untill last Saturday that I received a Letter from William Smith, that I was informed of the necessity you were under of passing an other Season in Petersburgh. I had conjectured it from what you wrote in Your Letter of May 19th, which is the latest date I have yet received from you; your Brother received one last Saturday from you dated in June; and George one from his Mother of the Same date. by your Brothers Letter, I found you had received those written to you by mr Erving,as well as those by the Washington—I have written many Since, but not So frequent as I Should, if I had not flatterd myself that you would return.
your Children are well, but they as well as I, are in danger of loosing one of their dearest and best Friends. In the Month of May, my dear Sister Cranch was Seizd with a fever, of the plurisy kind. it was So voilent, as to require Severe Remedies. for Several weeks She was So ill, that we expected every day would be her last. the fever however Subsided, but Nature is exhausted. it is near four Months that She has lain Sick in a consumption. her feet have Swelld, and a voilent Cough daily waste her. She is taken up in a chair and put into a carriage and carried out to ride, and thinks She Shall recover. during the height of her disorder, your uncle was so opprest and borne down with affliction, that we all thought one grave would Soon receive them both. through the whole of this most distressing Sickness, She has had an uncommon flow of Spirits, a care and Solicitude for her Family, which only death can diminish. when She was first taken for several Weeks, I had as many of the Children with me, as I could, George and John & one of mrs Nortens. but as Soon as her fever Subsided, She would have them all back. it really has appeard to me, and to all her Friends, that as her Body weakend, her mental powers brightend. what is very Singular; She Will think that She Shall yet be restored, altho all her Friends, and her Physicians would not be Surprized at her departure at any hour. Hard indeed have I found the trial,.my heart recoils when I endeavour to realize the Seperation. To her Family, her death will be—a loss not to be estimated—To the Children committed to her care—She has been more than a Mother—Gaurdian, Friend companion—The will of heaven be done If we part, we Shall Soon meet again.
In my own Family I have a Sever Sickness. mrs C Adams has been Seven weeks confined to her Chamber by complaints which tend to a Hectic. She was Seazd with a puking of Blood to a very allarming degree. when that Subsided, it left her in Danger of an affection upon her Lungs She remains yet very Sick—
William Smith dyed last week with in a Consumption, of the most rapid kind, to the great distress of his parents and Friends;
My Chapter of Melancholys is closed
with a gratefull heart, I thank heaven For the health of Body and vigor of mind which your Father enjoys, altho he met with an accident a fortnight Since which has lamed him ever Since—he went out in the dark to view the Comet, and Struck his Leg against a Sharp Stick & cut it, So much as to lay him by—I hope it is now in a good way to recover.
I have got this far through the Season without any Severe Sickness, altho it has been the hottest Summer we have had for many years—
your Sister and Caroline have made me a charming visit this Summer. they have been a comfort to me under my trouble, tho I could not but regret that they were call’d to so painfull a duty— they will leave me next Month. Caroline is all that is Lovely in a woman— She has all the virtues, and graces united, not so much in a Regular Set of features or complexion, “but an animated form which Speaks a mind within.”
I Shall not touch upon politicks. my Letters I hear are Sometimes opened. they cannot be any great booty to any one, and this I am Sure will have no charms to attract attention—
The dissapointment your Friends all experience at the necessity you have been under to decline your appointment is a proof that they believe you well calculated for it.
I had flatterd myself that I Should See you again. I will Still Cherish the Idea.
My Love to your dear companion whom I hope I may congratulate on the Birth of a daughter—If a Son, I Shall not repine. your Brothers last is a daughter—one judge is perhaps as much as falls to the Share of one Family. Your Brother is Chief Judge of the County of Norfolk, under the New Regulation the Countys of plimouth, Barnstable & Bristol will be included I Suppose you will learn all this from himself—as well as that he is one of the Govenours Counsel—
Mr Smiths pamphlet will no doubt be Sent you—you can make your own comments—Mr Pickerings Letters too will appear in a pamphlet—the Mountains labour—
If the Country  disgraced by such publications it would be of little concequence—“as it is they fret their hour upon the Stage”
I had a Letter form Washington not long Since The Families were all well. mr Hellen had given up his House to the British Minister—
I hope we shall Soon receive Letters of a Recent date from you and from Mrs A—Remember me to Caroline To my Grandsons, and to every Member of your American Family
George and John Shall both write Soon
you will hear a long Story about the Frigate President, and little Belt, Captain Bingham—the result of the Court of inquiry attach no blame to Comodore Rogers.
I have no time to coppy or correct.
most tenderly and affectionably / Yours
A—


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 25 September 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

N. 23.
St: Petersburg 25 Septr: 1811.

The flood of our letters from America, as well as of vessels arriving from the United States has almost entirely subsided. From the last week in May to the first in August we received nearly thirty letters from Quincy, so that I began to think I had entered rather rashly into the engagement, among others of answering separately every individual letter—Nor have I yet since that time completely fulfilled the promise—But by adhering strictly to that of writing at least once every month to you, and to my mother, to which I have now added a third letter to my father, I expect eventually to acquit the score though several months may elapse before the whole debt will be paid.
Since my last to you, which the enclosed copy will shew you was written the 27th: of August, the only letter we have received had been one from my Mother of 21. June.—It was brought by a vessel of Lieutt: Governor Gray’s, destined to this Port—The Radius, Captain Lander—Unfortunately she was taken by a privateer wearing French colours, and carried into Copenhagen—There she is still detained, and will continue to be so, at least over this Winter—Mr. Erving however obtained from on board of her my Mother’s letter to me, and forwarded it to me by the Post—I received it last Saturday.—it has sharpened the desire of hearing from you again, and at a later date—Its accounts of Mrs. Cranch’s illnesses, and the consequences of your bruise by the fall from your horse give me no small concern and some alarm—I pray for better tidings by the next conveyance.
The London Newspapers are usually from three to four weeks from their date in reaching this place—And they commonly contain one or more paragraphs of Public news from the United States which have got across the atlantic in a similar interval of time—It is through this channel that we always receive the most recent intelligence from our Country, though it sometimes come to us through another secondary medium by transfer into the French or German Gazettes, which we regularly receive twice a week—They are seventeen days coming from Hamburg; and three weeks from Paris.
It was in a London Paper, the Courier that I first saw the political forgery, pretended to be a letter from the Duke of Cadore, which had originally been published in the Boston Patriot—In addition to the original imposture, which though it first came from America, I hope and believe to have been of English origin, the Editor of the Courier trumped up a tale of its having been addressed to the Russian Ambassador at Paris—sent by him to the Emperor Alexander—communicated by the Russian Government to me, transmitted by me to my own Government; and to my father, though whom he says it was first published—And all this without hesitation or scruple—Not as a conjecture given as probable—not as a report received from others, but as if unquestionable certainty and incontrovertible fact.—I am perfectly sure that the assertion respecting my father is as false as all the rest, but it is utterly unaccountable to me how the Editor of the Patriot could have been made the dupe of what appears to me to be so clumsy an imposition—He says it bears the very image and superscription of modern Caesar—which only shews how little he is acquainted with that personage, and how open he has suffered his mind to the rank absurdities, and cunning misrepresentations of Englishmen and anglified Americans.—Ames tried to scare all our federal old women out of their senses by telling them with a grave face that he trembled for fear Bonaparte would take his and their children for a conscription against St: Domingo; and Walsh, with a little mincing of the matter, just enough to shew that he does not believe a word of it, says that indeed he does not know but—he is no coward—but really there may be some danger of the conscription against St: Domingo—In all this however there is no forgery—Ames’s fears raised a Spectre before his mind’s eye, which he really believed he saw, and from which he started with a shriek of horror—Walsh affects to partake of his trepidation, because he has his purposes to answer by spreading it among others—but the author of this spurious paper advances one step further in the righteous Cause—Hobgoblins and prophecies are not highly-seasoned enough for his palate—Plain, downright forgery, is his fashion of raising bugbears, and so he puts the Duke of Cadore’s name to a jumble of materials as incongruous, and ridiculous as the composition of the Caldron of Macbeth’s witches, the result of which is to be, that Bonaparte intends to destroy the English Constitution, and dethrone the hose of Hanover, and that he considers the United-States, as ruled by the weakest and most contemptible of Governments.—That such a wretched piece of Patch-Work should have pas’d current for genuine among the profound wiseacres of the federal Gazettes, that Russell or Coleman should have taken or given it all out for Gospel would have been natural enough; but I really should never have suspected quite so much cullability, in the Editor of the Patriot.
Since I wrote you last I have also read in the Aurora, the whole of Mr: R. Smith’s publication, and I have seen one or two more of Mr: Pickering’s addresses to the People—I hear that Mr: Smith has been answered in the National Intelligencer and has replied— There seems to be something in that office of Secretary of State peculiarly calculated to overset under-ballasted minds—Edmund Randolph—Peace be to his Remainders—but he like Mr Smith was obliged to Vindicate his Resignation—Pickering mistook Mrs: Reynold’s paramour for President of the United States, and surrendered up his official virtue to that gay deceiver as fondly as the lady did her conjugal virtue—He did not chuse to resign, and so he now vindicates his going out upon expulsion—Mr Smith seems to have mistaken who was President too, but his optical illusion terminated in himself.—As a party pamphlet his publication is written with some address—But do you think he ever put to himself the question whether the single fact of the publication did not involve in it a breach of trust, more dishonorable to him and more detrimental to the public than every thing he has made out against Mr Madison? If he did, and settled it to his own satisfaction that he should not be chargeable with such a breach of trust, he ought, instead of hackneyed, and in his case not very applicable adage about measures and not men, and the drawcansir parade about the dangers to which he was exposing himself, to have begun by proving as much to the satisfaction of his readers—These breaches of trust, have indeed unfortunately been so frequent in our short History, and they have always been so much countenanced by party Spirit, and so secure of impunity, that I am afraid it has infected the very principle of our National Character—The vote of censure upon Mr: Pickering last Winter was a tardy, feeble, and I fear ineffectual attempt to maintain the rule of secrecy upon which alone the possibility of confidential communication between the President and the Senate can subsist; and even that was too much an affair of party—I believe that our heads of Departments and our Ministers to foreign Powers, ought all to be under the restriction of an Official Oath; and I wish some of the thoughtful members of our National Legislature, would bring the subject before Congress for discussion—Our Laws do not contemn the aid of Oaths as ties upon human Conscience in matters of revenue, where perhaps their efficacy is most questionable; and we administer quite enough of them in our Custom-houses, to secure the payment of the paltriest impost—
In the acts of establishing the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of War, there is an Oath of Office “well and faithfully to execute the trust committed to him” provided to be taken by the Secretaries—But there is none required by the Acts establishing the Departments of the Treasury and of the Navy, and none any where for the Ministers abroad.
I am still without instructions from the Government respecting my continuance here—As the navigable season is drawing rapidly to a close, and we have another Russian Winter at hand, I am looking out for expedients to transmit our letters, between the months of October and June—Mr: James Anderson, was appointed last May, Consul of the United States, at the Port of Gothenburg in Sweden—He arrived at Archangel, and is now here on the way to his Post—He intends proceeding thither immediately—I shall enclose my letters for America during the Winter to him to be forwarded, and as it is probable that soon after this can reach you there will be vessels coming to that Port, it will likewise afford you opportunities for writing to us, which I hope you will use—Enclose your letter under cover to him, and they will be forwarded to us by the Swedish Mails.
We are so pleasantly situated in our Country house, that we shall leave it with reluctance.—But our neighbours are already moving into the City, and we shall not be able to remain here with comfort more than another fortnight—The house in which we formerly resided is at last definitively sold, and we have been obliged to take another—We shall not be quite so well lodged but at about the same expence. The air of the Country has however been so salutory to us all, and particularly to Charles, that I do not regret the changes of our residence—We are now all in good health—As you assure me in one of your letters that your son Thomas looks like my wife’s father, my wife perhaps to return the compliment insists that her daughter Louisa looks like you—The only resemblance that I can find in her is to my father.
Mr: F. Gray left us last week with Mr: T. M. Jones, for Paris. I wrote to his father a few days ago by the Rubicon, Captain Hovey, who has not yet sailed—I expect this will go by the Cordelia, in which Mr: Swan came out and returns.
Remember me faithfully to all friends and believe me ever yours—
A.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 29 September 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, George Washington

Letter 4.
N. 7.
My Dear Son
St: Petersburg 29. September 1811.

The second general point of view, in which I propose to you to consider the Bible, to the great end that it may “thoroughly furnish you unto all good works,” is in its historical character. To a man of liberal education the study of History is not only useful and important, but altogether indispensable; and with regard to the History contained in the Bible, the observation which Cicero makes respecting that of his own Country is much more emphatically applicable—that it is not so much praise-worthy to be acquainted with it, as it is shameful to be ignorant of it.
History, so far as it relates to the actions and adventures of men may be divided into five different classes. 1. The history of the world, otherwise called Universal History. 2. That of particular Nations. 3. That of particular Institutions. 4. That of single families and 5. That of individual men—The two last of these Classes are generally distinguished by the name of Memoirs, and of Biography—All these classes of History are to be found in the Bible; and it may be worth your while to discriminate them from one another.
1. The Universal History is short, and all contained in the first eleven Chapters of Genesis, together with the first chapter of the first Book of Chronicles, which is little more than a genealogical list of names—But it is of the highest importance, not only as it includes the history of the Creation, and of the fall of man, of the antideluvian world, and of the flood, by which the whole human race, excepting Noah and his family were destroyed, but as it gives a very precise chronological account of the time from the Creation untill the birth of Abraham—This is the foundation of all antient History, and in reading the profane historians hereafter I would advise you always to reflect upon their narrations with reference to it—With respect to the Chronology, a correct idea of this is so necessary to understand all history antient and modern that I may hereafter write you something further concerning it—For the present I shall only recommend to your particular attention the fifth and eleventh Chapters of Genesis, and request you to cast up and write me the amount of the World’s age, when Abraham was born.
2. The remainder of the Book of Genesis, beginning at the twelfth Chapter, is a history of one individual, (Abraham) and of his family during three Generations of his descendants—After which the book of Exodus, commences with the history of this same family multiplied into a Nation—This National and family History, is continued through the Books of the Old Testament, untill that of Job, which is of a peculiar character, differing in many particulars from every other part of the Scriptures.
There is no other history extant, which can give so interesting and correct a view of the rise and progress of human associations, as this account of Abraham and his descendants, through all the vicissitudes to which individuals, families and Nations are liable—There is no other History, where the origin of a whole Nation is traced up to a single man, and where a connected chain of Events, and a regular series of persons from generation to generation is preserved. As the history of a family, it is intimately connected with our religious principles and opinions, for it is the family from which Jesus Christ in his human character descended—It begins by relating the command of God to Abram, to abandon his Country, his kindred, and his father’s house, and to go to a land which he would shew him—This command was accompanied by two promises, from which and from their fulfillment arose the differences which I have just noted between the History of the Jews and that of every other Nation—The first of these promises was that God would make of Abram a great Nation, and bless him—the second and incomparably the most important was that in him, (Abram) all families of the Earth should be blessed.—This promise was made about two thousand years before the birth of Christ, and in him it had its fulfillment—When Abram in obedience to the command of God had gone into the land of Canaan, the Lord appeared to him, and made him a third promise which was that he would give that land to the Nation which should descend from him as a possession—This was fulfilled between five and six hundred years afterwards.—In reading all the historical Books both of the Old and the new Testament, as well as the Books of the prophets, you should always bear in mind the reference which they have to these three promises of God to Abram—All the history is no more than a narrative of the particular manner and the detail of Events, with which those promises were fulfilled.
In the Account of the Creation, and the fall of man, I have already remarked that the moral doctrine inculcated by the Bible is that the great consummation of all human Virtue consists in Obedience to the Will of God. When we come hereafter to speak of the Bible in its ethical character, I shall endeavour to shew you the intrinsic excellence of this principle, but I shall now only remark how strongly the principle itself is illustrated, first by the account of the fall, and next by the history of Abraham.
In the account of the Creation we are informed, that God after having made the world, created the first human pair, and gave them dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth—and also gave them every herb bearing seed, and fruit of every tree for meat—And all this we are told God saw, was very good.—Thus the immediate possession of every thing good, was immediately given them; and its perpetual enjoyment ensured to their descendants; on the sole condition of abstaining from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—It is altogether immaterial to my present remarks whether this narrative is to be understood in an allegorical or a literal sense—As not only the knowledge but the possession of all created good was granted, the fruit of the tree could confer upon them no new knowledge but that of evil, and the command was nothing more than to abstain from the knowledge of evil—to forbear from rushing upon their own destruction—It is not sufficient to say that this was a command in its own nature light and easy—It was a command to pursue the only law of their Nature—to keep the happiness which had been heaped without measure upon them—But observe, it contained the principle of Obedience—It was Assigned to them as a duty; and the heaviest of penalties was denounced upon its transgression—They were not to discuss the wisdom or Justice of this command—They were not to enquire why it had been enjoined upon them; nor could they have the slightest possible motive for such an enquiry—Unqualified felicity and immortality was already theirs—wretchedness and death were alone forbidden them, but placed within their reach merely as a trial of their Obedience—They violated the Law—they forfeited their Joy and Immortality—they “brought into the World, death and all our woe.”
Here then is one extreme case in which the mere principle of obedience could be tried—A command to do abstain from that which from which every motive of reason and every interest would  have deterred, had the command never been given—A command given in the easiest of all possible forms, requiring not so much as action of any kind, but merely forbearance.—And as its transgression was so severely punished, the only inference we can draw from it is, that the most aggravated of all crimes, and that which includes in itself all other is disobedience to the Will of God.
Let us now consider how the same principle of Obedience is inculcated in the history of Abraham by a case in the opposite extreme—God commanded Abram to abandon forever his Country, his kindred, and his father’s house, to go, he knew not where; promising as a reward of his obedience to bless him and his posterity, though he was then childless—He was required to renounce every thing that could most contribute to the happiness and comfort of his life, and which was in his actual enjoyment; to become a houseless, friendless, wanderer upon Earth—on the mere faith of the promises that a land should be shewn him which his descendants should possess, that they should be a great Nation, and that through them, all mankind should receive in future ages a further blessing—The obedience required of Adam was merely to retain all the blessings that he enjoyed—The obedience required of Abraham was to sacrifice all those that he possessed, for the vague and distant prospect of a future compensation to his posterity—The self-controul and self-denial required of Adam was in itself the slightest that imagination can conceive, but its failure was punished by the forfeiture of all his enjoyments—The self-dominion to be exercised by Abraham was of the severest and most painful kind, but its accomplishment will ultimately be rewarded by the restoration of all that was forfeited by Adam. But this restoration was to be obtained by no ordinary proof of obedience—The sacrifice of mere personal blessings however great could not lay the foundation for the redemption of mankind from Death—The voluntary submission of Jesus Christ to his own Death, in the most excruciating and ignominious form, was to consummate the great plan of redemption, but the submission of Abraham to sacrifice his beloved and only Son, the child promised by God himself, and through whom all the greater promises were to be carried into effect—the feelings of Nature, the voice of humanity, the parent’s bowels, were all required to be sacrificed by Abraham to the blind, unquestioning principle of Obedience to the Will of God—The blood of Isaac was not indeed shed—The butchery of an only son by the hand of his father was a sacrifice which a merciful God did not require to be completely executed—But as an instance of Obedience it was imposed upon Abraham, and nothing less than the voice of an Angel from God, could arrest his uplifted arm, and withhold him from sheathing the knife in the heart of his child—It was upon this testimonial of Obedience, that God’s promise of redemption was expressly renewed to Abraham—“And in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice”—Gen. XXII. 18.
I have not done with this subject, and intend to pursue it, in my next letter—
From your father
A.


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

N. 25.
St: Petersburg 2 October 1811.

Your favour of 21. June, without a number, was forwarded to me from Copenhagen by Mr. Erving, who recovered it from the Radius, which on her passage to this place, was taken by a french privateer, and is still detained in Denmark—Like almost all the letters which we have received this year it brought tidings of sickness and affliction among our friends—In the sorrow which they have so often inflicted, I still bless God that they assure me of the health and welfare of my Parents, and of my Children.
In the first letter which you wrote me this year, there was an extract of a letter from Burke to Barry the painter, upon which I have reflected many times since I received it—One of the reasons why I am so much an admirer of Burke is because he always thinks so much, and leads his reader to think so much upon every thing that occurred within his observation—I have within a few days seen the Edinburgh Review of the life and Works of Barry, from which you took this Extract; at least I find it again there, and the history and character of Barry there given in connection with it, explains to me the only part of the extract, upon which my mind had hesitated a little in assenting to its accuracy—Moderation—Gentleness and indulgence to others are undoubtedly, and universally of “strong prevailment,” in counteracting the ill dispositions of the world, but I am not sure that a great deal of distrust of ourselves is always calculated to produce the same effect. I readily perceive why Burke recommended it with the other qualities to Barry; because it was precisely that of which Barry stood most in need, and that for the want of which he was most severely suffering—But I believe there are many tempers and dispositions, who carry the distrust of themselves to excess, and to whom it would be more wise and just to recommend Confidence in themselves, and reliance upon their own Judgments—My own experience of life, and self-observation, has often led me to the conclusion that one of my failings was too much distrust of myself—In the scenes of political life, such as those that I have been engaged in, distrust of ones self, renders absolutely indispensable a proportionate Confidence in others—In Legislative Assemblies every man whether a leader or a follower must often sacrifice more or less his own judgment to that of those with whom he associates— And in times of party virulence these sacrifices must be greater and more frequent than in more tranquil periods.—It is then that the principle of distrusting and that of confiding in himself becomes to every conscientious man a question of no small difficulty and delicacy; and even in the ordinary affairs of life, I have often found it a very perplexing question. Of the ill-dispositions of the world, it would not become me to complain—The confidence of my Country in me has for many years been to say the least equal to any thing that I had a right to expect, and in a very recent instance has far exceeded my own—On one occasion however it was withdrawn, and in a very conspicuous manner by the Legislature of my native State—It was for having confided in myself, and for having acted upon questions of great public interest, according to the dictates of my own deliberate judgment, in opposition to the momentary feelings and heated passions of my Constituents.—Had I during that period followed Mr Burke’s principle of greatly distrusting myself, and of course greatly confiding in others, my conduct would have been certainly very different, and I might possibly have retained the Confidence of those to whose opinions I must have sacrificed my own—But I have no reason to believe that the general Confidence of my Country in me would now be greater than it is, or which is infinitely more important that the result would have been more useful or more honourable to my Country.
I am just informed by the French and German Gazettes, that Congress are called, together by Proclamation, to meet on the 4th: of November; and in the English newspapers I find that there is a sort of Coalition between the two quondam Secretaries of State, in assailing through the medium of the press Mr: Madison’s administration. Mr Pickering’s perseverance and tenacity is worthy of a better Cause though his “mauvaise foi” (he would certainly impute this expression to French influence) is as remarkable in his present, as it has been in many of his former publications; and his personalities shew very little either of Mr Burke’s distrust of himself, or of his moderation, gentleness or indulgence to others—I know not how Mr: Smith and Mr Colvin have settled between themselves their militating claims to the composition of the letters which were to ascertain the contested title of the late Secretary’s abilities, but perhaps Colvin is only one of the parasites of power, who were to raise the storm, which Mr Smith assures the People of the United States he will have to buffet.
There are now very few American vessels left here, and we cannot expect the arrival of any more, during the present year—At least if any others should yet arrive they will, like ourselves be obliged to remain here untill next Summer before they can return. I expect to send this by Mr Loring Austin, a young Gentleman who came last Summer to Archangel, and is now about to embark for Boston.Although we are within the bounds of the City of St. Petersburg, the situation where we are is so much in the Country that it begins to be uncomfortable, and we intend to remove next Week into the City.—If you have the English translation of Storch’s Picture of Petersburg, I can show you where we are—Please to open the Plan, and look to the Branch of the river marked C. That is the Nevka, upon the borders of which is our residence—This river together with the Little Nevka, marked on the Plan D and a small stream called the Karpoffka marked M forms an island called The Apothecaries Island, on which a Building marked 123 is designated in the Explanation of the Plan as the Surgery School—Our house is the next door to this building, and with only the Street between them—Here is a fac-simile of that part of Storch’s Plan.DRAWINGThe dotted part is not upon the Plan—I have added it here to shew you our house, Garden and pier extending out upon the river at the end of which, according to the fashion of the Country we have a flag-staff, and on the days when we receive Company, hoist the flag of the United States. You will see by mere inspection of the Plan, that the situation is quite rural, and as a mere Summer residence, it is as pleasant as any place of abode that ever fell to my lot—From our door down to the Karpoffka, there is a Mall, enclosed by low railings on both sides, extending along the Bank of the River, and kept in excellent order, for the sole convenience of walkers—The plot, marked 122 is a very large public Garden, called the Apothecary’s or Botanic Garden; containing a great variety of plants, and always open for walking—Beyond the river at the separation of the two Nevka’s the figure in form of a spade, and mark 126. indicate the Imperial Palace, the usual Summer Residence of the Emperor and Empress, in front of which, upon the River, are stationed two Yachts, with an excellent Band of Music, who have regularly entertained us with their martial Concerts, at the Emperor’s dining hour, between four and five O’Clock, and at nine in the Evening, almost every day throughout the Summer—We are so near, that with the open doors and windows of warm weather, we heard it as if it had been before our own door. The Palace is upon an Island formed by the two Nevka’s, contiguous to the isle of Apothecaries, and called Kammenor Ostroff, which in Russian signifies Stony Island—On the main land beyond that Island, and in sight from our Windows, is the Country Seat of Court Strogonoff, with a large and very beautiful English Garden, likewise always open to the Public, and sometimes in the Summer much frequented—Count Strogonoff is one of the most distinguished noblemen of the Country; and is yet more illustrious by his attachment to the fine Arts, than by his great wealth, high rank and venerable years—In the City he has one of the finest Collections of Pictures, extant in Europe—But his garden here has a rarer and more memorable ornament—The very tomb of Achilles, before which Alexander the Great and Julius-Caesar, paid their homage to the character of the hero. It was brought from Greece by the Commander of a Russian fleet, which was so much celebrated for its naval victories over the Turks during the reign of Catherine, and by him presented to Count Strogonoff, who has placed it with many other monuments of Antiquity in his Garden.—There are two other large and handsome Gardens, open to the Public, in our neighbourhood, and over which I have occasionally varied my daily walks—The French Ambassador, and the Danish Minister are our near neighbours, and many others with whom we have as much intercourse as suits our mutual convenience—While the weather was fine, we never wanted Company, and even now we have no reason to complain of being Solitary—But the leaves before my windows are falling in showers from the trees as I write. The river, as Charles tells me is méchante, by which he means stormy—The days of dampness, and darkness, and chilling frigidity, are at hand and even here—I still linger in my Russian Arcadia, but the ladies and the children call for the snug comforts of the City; and at the next letter I shall write you I shall have bid a last farewell, as a residence, to the pleasant borders of the Nevka, and be once more “in populous City pent.”In the meantime Adieu—We are all well.
A.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to George Washington Adams, 6 October 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, George Washington

Letter 5.
N. 8.
St: Petersburg 6. October 1811.

We were considering the Bible in its historical character, and as the history of a Family—From the moment when the universal History finishes, that of Abraham begins, and thenceforward it is the history of a family of which Abraham is the first and Jesus Christ the last person. And from the first appearance of Abraham, the whole history appears to have been ordered from age to age expressly to prepare for the appearance of Christ upon Earth.—The history begins by the first and mildest trial of Abraham’s obedience, and the promise as a reward of his fidelity, that in him all the families of the Earth should be blessed.—The second trial, that which required the sacrifice of his Son, was many years afterwards and the promise was then more explicit and more precisely assigned as the reward of his obedience.—There were between these periods two intermediate occasions, recorded in the 15th: and 18th: Chapters of Genesis, on the first of which the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision—and promised him that he should have a child from whom a great and mighty Nation should proceed, which after being in servitude four hundred years in a strange land, should become possessors of the land of Canaan from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates.—On the second the Lord appeared to him and to his wife Sarah; repeated the promise that they should have a child, that Abraham should “surely become a great and mighty Nation and that all the nations of the earth should be blessed in him.” For I know him (said the Lord) that he will “command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment: that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”—From all which it appears obvious that the first of these promises was made as subservient and instrumental to the second; that the great and mighty Nation was to be raised, as the means in the ways of God’s Providence, for producing the sacred person of Jesus Christ, through whom the perfect sacrifice of atonement for the original transgression of man should be consummated, by which all the families of the Earth should be blessed.
I am so little versed in controversial divinity, that I know not whether this 18th: Chapter of Genesis has ever been adduced as an argument in support of the Doctrine of the Trinity—There is at least in it an alternation of the three divine persons and of one, not a little remarkable and which I know not how to explain—If taken in connection with the 19th: Chapter it would seem that one of the three men, entertained by Abraham was God himself, and that the other two were angels, sent by God to destroy Sodom—Leaving this however let me ask your particular attention to the reason assigned by God for bestowing such extraordinary blessings upon Abraham—It unfolds to us the first and most important part of the superstructure of moral principles erected upon the foundation of obedience to the Will of God—The rigorous trials of Abraham’s Obedience, mentioned in this and my last Letter were only tests to ascertain his character in reference to the single and I may say abstract point of Obedience—Here we have a precious gleam of light disclosing what the Nature of this Will of God was—that he should command his children and his household after him—by which the parental authority to instruct and direct his descendents in the way of the Lord, was given him as an authority and enjoined upon him as a duty; and the lessons which he was thus empowered and required to teach his posterity were to do Justice and Judgment—This as Obedience to the Will of God is the first and all comprehensive Virtue taught in the Bible, so the second is Justice and Judgment towards Mankind, and this is exhibited as the result naturally flowing from the other.—In this same chapter too is related the intercession of Abraham with God, for the preservation of Sodom from Destruction—The City was destroyed for its crimes, but the Lord promised Abraham that the whole City should be spared if in it only ten righteous men should be found. The principle of mercy was therefore sanctioned in immediate connection with that of Justice—
Abraham had several children, but the great promises of God were to be performed through Isaac alone; and of the two sons of Isaac, Jacob the youngest only was selected for the foundation of the sacred family and Nation—It was from Jacob that the multiplication of the family began, and his twelve Sons were all included in the genealogy of the tribes which afterwards constituted the Jewish People—Ishmael; the Children of Abraham by Keturah, and Esau the eldest son of Isaac, were all the Parents of considerable families, which afterwards spread into Nations, but they formed no part of the chosen People, and their History as well as that of other neighbouring Nations, is only incidentally noticed in the Bible so far as they had relations of intercourse or of hostility with the People of God.
The history of Abraham and his descendants to the close of the Book of Genesis, is a biography of individuals—The incidents related of them are all of the class belonging to private and domestic life—Joseph indeed became a highly distinguished public character in the land of Egypt, and it was through him that his father and all his brothers were finally settled there; which was necessary to prepare for the existence of their posterity as Nation; and to fulfill the purpose which God had announced to Abraham, that they should be four hundred years, dwelling in a strange land.—In the lives of Abraham—Isaac—Jacob, and Joseph many miraculous Events are recorded; but all those which are spoken of as having happened in the ordinary course of human affairs, have an air of reality about them which no invention could imitate.—In some of the transactions related, the conduct of the patriarchs is highly blameable; circumstances of deep depravity are particularly told of Reuben—Simeon, Levi and Judah, upon which it is necessary to remark that these actions are never spoken of with approbation; but always with strong marks of censure, and generally with a minute account of the punishment which followed upon the transgression. The vices and crimes of the patriarchs are sometimes alledged as objections against the belief, that persons guilty of them should ever have been specially favoured by God; but vicious as they were there is every reason to be convinced that they were less so than their cotemporaries—Their vices appear to us at this day gross, disgusting and atrocious; but the written Law was not then given—the boundaries between right and wrong were not defined with the same precision, as in the Tables, given afterwards to Moses—The law of Nature was the only guide of morality by which they could be governed, and the sins of intemperance of every kind, recorded in Holy Writ, were at that period less aggravated than they would have been in after ages, because they were in a great measure sins of ignorance—
From the time when the sons of Jacob were settled in Egypt, untill the completion of the four hundred years during which God had foretold to Abraham that his family should dwell there, there is a chasm in the scared History—We are expressly told that “all the souls of the house of Jacob which came into Egypt were three score and ten”Gen: 46-26. and Exod. 1.5.—It is then said, that Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation—after which nothing further is related of their posterity than that they were fruitful, and increased abundantly; and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them, untill there “arose up a new king, which knew not Joseph.”—On his first settlement in Egypt Jacob had obtained the grant from Pharaoh of the Land of Goshen, a place peculiarly suited to the pasturage of flocks—Jacob and his Sons were shepherds, and this circumstance was in the first instance the occasion upon which that separate spot was assigned to them, and secondarily was the means provided by God, for keeping distinct and separate two Nations thus residing together—Every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians—and the Israelites were shepherds—Although dwelling in the land of Egypt therefore, the Israelites were Sojourners and strangers; and by a mutual antipathy toward one Another, originating in their respective conditions of life, they were prevented from intermingling together by marriage, and losing their distinctive characters—This was the cause which had been reserved by the Supreme Creator, during the space of three generations, and more than four Centuries, as the occasion for eventually bringing them out of the land.—For in proportion as they multiplied, it had the tendency to excite the Jealousies and fears of the Egyptian king as actually happened—Those Jealousies and fears, suggested to the king of Egypt a policy of the most intolerable oppression, and the most execrable cruelty towards the children of Israel—Not content with reducing them to the most degraded condition of servitude, and making their lives bitter with hard bondage, he conceived the project of destroying the whole race of them by ordering all the male children to be murdered immediately after they were born—In the wisdom of Providence this very command was the means of preparing the family, thus multiplied into a Nation, for their issue from Egypt, and for their conquest of the land which had been promised to their ancestor Abraham; and it was at the same time the immediate occasion of raising up the great Warrior, Legislator and Prophet who was to be their deliverer, and leader—Henceforth they are to be considered as a People, and their History as that of a Nation.
During a period of more than a thousand years, the Bible gives us a particular account of their destinies—An outline of their Constitution, civil, ecclesiastical and military, with the code of laws prescribed to them by the Deity, is contained in the Books of Moses, and will afford us copious materials for future meditation—Their subsequent revolutions of Government, under Joshua—fifteen successive chiefs denominated Judges, and a succession of kings, untill they were first dismembered into two separate kingdoms, and after a lapse of some centuries both conquered by the Assyrians and Babylonians, and after but at the end of seventy years, partially restored to their Country and their Temple—constitute the remaining historical Books of the Old Testament—Every part of them is full of instruction—But my present purpose is only to point your attention to their general historical character.—My next letter will contain a few remarks on the Bible, as containing a system of morals—In the meantime I remain your affectionate father,
J. Q. A.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to William Cranch, 17 October 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Cranch, William

My Dear Nephew,
Quincy,  17  October, 1811.

Your dear Father has joind the Spirits of the Blessed made perfect, on saturday last he was taken sick, appeared as he frequently has upon former days was wandering in his mind,—but a general prostration of strength took place. He was sensible only for a few moments at a time; exhausted Nature sunk to rest, without pain or struggle, and heaven has been pleased to save him the anguish of following your dear Mother to the Tomb. She supports herself with the Resignation of a true christian; saying the “Lord’s will be done, we are parted only for a few hours or days. I shall soon meet him in Realms of Bliss.”
She can have but a few days longer upon earth. Emaciation, so that her Bones are almost bare, together with swelling of her feet, hands and face, show us daily that her passage to the grave is speedily hastening; and, my dear Nephew, we have every reason to believe that your dear and blessed parents are gone and going to the God and our God, whom they have faithfully served upon Earth—and if we trust in him, as I hope we do, we shall be supported through life & through death. I am, my dear Nephew, /  your sympathizing / and afflicted Aunt,
Abigail Adams.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to William Smith Shaw, 18 October 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Shaw, William Smith

Dear William
Quincy october 18th, 1811

Your good uncle Cranch is gone. heaven has Saved him the greatest anguish he could experience in this Life. the following her to the Tomb, She is still living, which is all we can say. The family requested me to notify you that the funeral will be on Saturday at 2 oclock—the Corpse to be carried to the meeting House. I will thank you to lend me if you can without inconvenience to yourself 30 Dollars dr Tufts has not been able to go to Town this week. when he is I will repay you with thanks. Your Sister wants Some articles of mourning—as She has not any thing to wear—
Louissa will inform you what they are and purchase them for her; I am my dear Nephew / Your afflicted Aunt

Abigail AdamsPS since writing the above Louissa I believe will not want of you more than 10 dollars on my account


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 21 October 1811
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

N. 24.
St: Petersburg 21 October 1811.

The original of the enclosed did not go, as I had expected by the Cordelia; for she sailed on the very day that it was written, and before I could send it down to Cronstadt. But it was dispatched by the Hector, Captain Hetherington, which sailed, only three days later, for Providence—All the vessels which had arrived here during the regular season, are now gone—The last, or last but one that sailed was the Weymouth, Captain Gardner, on board of which Mr: Loring Austin went passenger—By him I wrote to my mother—Since then I have had one opportunity of writing indirectly by the way of Gothenburg, and wrote to my father—This letter I expect to send by Commodore Bainbridge, who has spent the Summer here, and untill lately expected to be detained here the whole Winter—Having however completed his business sooner than he had apprehended he has determined to return, and takes his course through Sweden—I hope to have several other similar opportunities during the remainder of this and the next month, after which the passage hence to Sweden becomes generally impracticable
Since the summer vessels have all departed, and within the last week a number of new comers have appeared; four or five Americans have reached Cronstadt, and several others have put into Ports short of the Gulf, and from which it may still be possible for them to get away this year—New difficulties however have arisen to annoy the Navigation of the Baltic, which make it now unsafe for any unprotected American, and which it is probable will make it the next season quite inaccessible to our vessels.
During the present year the British have not blockaded either the passage of the Sound, or even the Port of Elseneur—At the beginning of the Season, and untill the first week in August, the passage was entirely free; and all the vessels from the United States came and returned through the Sound, without resorting or needing to resort to the aid of a Convoy—Before the British squadron appeared in the Baltic, a privateer under french Colours from Dantzig took four American Vessels with valuable Cargoes—all of which have been condemned at Paris, on the pretence of their having been English property; but in reality because they were bound to Russia; and because money was wanted to fortify Dantzig—As soon as the English fleet appeared this privateer was laid up, and we thought the danger for this Season was past—After the Disaster of the Little-Belt, some of the English Commanders stop’d American Vessels, untill they had time to receive new orders from England—But after a short detention released them again—In the first week of August, a Privateer appeared at Copenhagen; and issuing from that Port immediately after two Americans, which had already passed the sound, and were coming here, took them and carried them back the same day to Copenhagen—But instead of a Danish, the Privateer had a French Commission—The papers of the captured vessels were put into the hands of the French Consul, and sent to Paris, where they will no doubt be treated just like the British captures, carried into Dantzig—Soon afterwards several others of these privateers with French Commissions appeared at Copenhagen and Elseneur, resolved to take every vessel coming up or going down that they could—They have actually taken several, though I know not how many—The English keep themselves I suppose purposely distant, and suffer these privateers to have their full range—Their success however this year, will have been partial and not very extensive—But unless our vessels next year should be protected by Convoy, they must not attempt coming into the Baltic—If the Government think the trade worth protecting they must send Convoys of their own—for besides the disgrace of recurring to British Convoys for Protection they are not altogether without danger— The Danes condemn everything they can lay hold of, that has been under convoy, whether coming or going, and although they seldom catch any such, they have got several Americans thus taken last year, and have damaged others this Season—
Mr: Barlow arrived the 6th: of last Month at Charbourg—I have a letter from Mr Russell at Paris of the 20th: he does not say that he had then seen Mr: Barlow, but he assures me that the Frigate in which he came had brought no letters for me; owing as he supposes to the expectation when she sailed from the United-States, of our arrival there—This reason is satisfactory so far as respects Communications from the Government—But from you or my Mother, who had determined to continue writing untill you should be certain, of our being upon our return, I did expect to have heard by this occasion; and the disappointment is by no means diminished when I think of the information in my Mother’s last letter, concerning the health of friends very dear to us—But why should I tell you of my sinister forebodings, instead of relying upon a gracious Providence?—Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Mr Russell goes, (or rather by this time is gone) to take charge of the public affairs of the United-States in England, untill the appointment of a Minister—I have a great regard and esteem for Mr J. S. Smith, who was several months with us here, and whose amiable disposition, and lively character made him an universal favourite—When I learnt that he was to be our Chargé d’Affairs in England, though I thought him well qualified for that Office, I was a little surprized that a situation of such importance and responsibility should have been assigned to so young a Man, and with so little experience—At present, I am persuaded that the change has not been occasioned by any deficiency on his part in the performance of his duty; and I hope it has not been necessarily connected with the misconduct of his uncle—With Mr Russell I have been in correspondence during his residence at Paris, and it has been a source of much valuable information—I expect to renew this Correspondence with him in England—If as I now expect, we should return home next Summer, it will be too late to ask you to write to us under cover to him—But probably that channel will be the shortest and the surest for the transmission of letters between the United States and Russia.
Mr Barlow will be obliged to wait, I presume, untill the Emperor Napoleon’s return to Paris, before he can enter upon business, or even be recognized in his diplomatic character—When acknowledged, I am not very sanguine that he will be able to accomplish any thing useful or honourable to his Country—He will have according to a French proverbial expression to feed upon adders—But if as I hope, he is authorized to assume with the French Government a tone becoming the dignity of the Nation that he represents, and if as I trust, he is not to be cajoled by unmeaning phrases, and hypocritical compliments, he may do honour to himself and refute as Armstrong effectually refuted the Calumnies of those who have so long charged us with subserviency to France—The manner in which Armstrong’s letter of 10. March 1810 was received by all Europe as well as all America, proves to perfect demonstration that the full assertion of our rights, in a style of firmness and intrepidity is the most useful as well as the most spirited policy—
I hope that Congress will take special care not to break into a War with England—It is probable, and I might say almost inevitable that the British system of policy which has been so full of outrage to our rights will soon undergo a great change—It is now persevered in only from passion, obstinacy, and defiance of opposition—It is already recoiling upon England herself with such increasing pressure, as must ere-long be intolerable—I have reasons which I cannot fully explain to you, for wishing that a War may still be avoided; but one equivalent to all the rest is that it would reduce us to a state of great dependence upon France—It would draw us into the Vortex of the french political system from which it might take a Century to extricate us again—or by a reaction equally pernicious it would throw us back as an appendage to the British system, and plunge us headlong into the ruin towards which that is so rapidly tending—
The most important piece of private intelligence that I have to communicate is the news of our removal back into the City of St: Petersburg—I have explained in former letters, what we mean by this, and in my last letter to my Mother I have shewn even geographically how it has happened that without really going out of the City, we have resided during the summer months in the Country—I because so much attached to that Residence, that I could hardly be persuaded to leave it, even by the appearance of Winter—We have a tolerably comfortable house in town, which I was obliged to take for a year—We came in the 8th: instt: and have had snow almost everyday, from that time—The Summer has been uncommonly fine for the climate, but we are threatened with a Winter longer and severer than usual.
I have said nothing to you in my late letters, concerning my affairs in your hands—No need I say any thing at present—The Newspapers have informed me that the Directors of the Middlesex Canal are calling for more Assessments—for those you have doubtless provided—After the close of the present year I hope you will have an addition to your receipts by the rent of the house in Court Street
Always remember me dutifully to my Parents and affectionately to my boys to your own family and to the kindred circle in your neighbourhood—If I often repeat this in the same phrase it will only prove the perpetuity of the Sentiments from which it proceeds.
A.


Title: From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Smith Adams, 21 October 1811
From: Peabody, Elizabeth Smith Shaw
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

Atkinson October 21st. 1811

My dearly beloved, & only Sister, for the “threefold silken Cord is broken” To what an unusual Striking, affecting Providence have you been called to witness,—such as my Eyes never beheld—Very pleasant, & lovely through a long series of years, & in Death we may say, they were not divided—Together freed, their Gentle Spirits flew, to Scenes of immortal Bliss, we humbly trust—Thought can pursue no further—the Curtain is droped—Our dear Brother was not permitted to converse—you say, he was not sensible of his approaching Summons—but his excellent life, still speaks, & will be a continual Lecture—O how I wished to have been witness to those heavenly strains, which solaced our Sisters latest moments—Her pious Resignation to the will of our heavenly Father, will comfort you in your retired moments—& may her life, Sickness, & Death, be an incentive to the young relatives as well as to the aged—to live in the conuptial State like our dear departed Brother, & Sister, joint Heirs of the Grace of God, that they may die, the Death of the Righteous—
Like you my Sister I would recollect mercies, & be thankful that they were continued to us, & to their dear Children for so great a length of years—An infinitely wise God, knows the best time when to accomplish his Purposes—& with humility, meekness & resignation we should submit all to his Disposal—Most young persons can ease their Grief, by Tears—I cannot—
Poor William, & Richard, just saw their Grandparents, enough to lament their Loss—but they nor the other dear Orphans, know not their loss & the value of those Instructions, nor of the fervent prayers which were daily offered by their ever to be revered Grandparents—& do not feel the loss, like us—Upon you my dear Sister, I know it comes with peculiar weight—How will the House sit Solotary, that you were wont so oft to visit,—Where are those angelic Smiles that beamed benevolence, & love!—& cheered the Hearts of all their Friends!—glowing perhaps, with Seraphic ardor—praising the “Lamb that was slain, that was, & is, & is to come”
“Why should we mourn such departed Friends,
Or shake at Deaths alarm—
‘Tis but the voice that Jesus sends
To call His Children to his arms”—
Your cares of heart & head have been great, & still are my Sister—for with the surviving, our duty lies now—I hope Mrs Greenleaf will be permited to take the House & live in it—but at this distance I know not what is proper—Mrs Nortons numerous family, what will be done with them? While their Grandparents lived, the little girls would never have felt the loss of their dear Mother—nor the Sons neither—It was a great Comfort, that Mrs Greenleafs health would permit her being with her mother, for she could provide for the whole family, better than any other person—But dear woman! how will she feel the weight of this Bereavement—& how will her worthy Brother support the heavy Tydings—I had written, intending to send a letter to be convey’ed as usual to Washinton  Saturdays mail,—but your Letter frustrated  my purposes—& shewed me how uncertain all our prospects are—I add to Mrs Cranchs Letter, a few lines, & mentioned the mournful Event of his Fathers death—Mrs Cranch had written to me & said there was 30 Dollars at Quincy, which she wished might be taken for me to get the Lads cloathing, flannels, &ce for the winter—every thing now is deranged—but I thought I would mention it before—Mr Richard Norton returned to Washington—for the Children want Shoes, & have had them made I have had company all this afternoon & Evening, for which I am Sorry, for I had rather be alone—I do not love to see people, who do not feel, & are wholly uninterested for me—They are now gone to Bed—it is late, & this must appologise for this incoherent Scrawl—I am almost affraid to hear from Quincy, lest it should bring tyding, that you are sick, but as your needs go I pray heaven, may be your Strength—
If My dear Abby wants anything I have, let me know & I will send it by Judge Peabody to Boston next week Mr Peabody is better, but his Leg is bad, & I have to bathe him yet—He tenderlly sympathises with the bereaved, & joins in prayers, & love with your afflicted, & sympathising Sister
 E.— PeabodyI wrote to my Brother Cranch, that Mr Peabody would have Thomas Norton come when it was convenient & he would give him three months board at the Academy—his Fathers paying —O that my power to do good was equal to my wishes—
My dear Sister, I can never enough thank you for being so good as to write—pray continue your favors to your affectionate

 E P.Abby do you write too, you have had an impressive Lesson—pray heaven to bless, & to sanctify the afflictive Scene which has passed before you.


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody, 22 October 1811
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Peabody, Elizabeth Smith Shaw

my Dear Sister
Quincy October 22d 1811

I wrote to you upon fryday, but I do not now recollect what I have written. I know that my heart was full and my mind wrought up, to a pitch, beyond what it would bear.
The Solemn Scene which presented to me, two Dear Relatives Sleeping in Death at the same moment, can never be effaced from my mind. upon Saturday I followed their remains to our own Tombs and Saw them dposited Side by Side, never more to be Seperated. 50 years had they lived together in the greatest harmony Love and Friendship, united in their Religious principles and Sentiments as well as in their worldly pursuits. together they have I trust assended to their God and our God. they have joined the Spirits of the just made perfect and are Singing Hallelujah to the most high. these reflections my dear Sister rob Death of his Sting, and assuage the too Selfish grief of my heart. why do I ask myself—Should I wish their longer Stay upon Earth? they had fulfilld the Age allotted to Man. they lived to every usefull purpose whilst upon Earth, and were not permitted to become burdensome and helpless, to themselves, or others. I really feel a releaf from  when I reflect, that neither is left to mourn for the Death of the other.
“The thought of death indulge” I will give it its wholesome Empire, and may it Still the tumult of my ruffled breast”
Mr Whitney deliverd a most excellent discourse from the hundred and 12 Psalm, 6 verse, the righteous Shall be held in everlasting remembrance, in which he drew the Character of our dearly beloved, and Respected Brother. while he was writing this Sermon  intelligence was carried to him, that our dear Sister had expired. affected as he was, he added a handsome Sketch of her Character to his Sermon. Truth was his Guide. there was not any flattery, nor any part of the Character over charged, as a large and crouded  Audience  testified by their attention, their tears and their Silence. the Relatives and Friends will apply for a coppy for the press—The week before her death, I was with her when mr Whitney visited her, and prayed with her. She calld him to her Bedside, and thanked him, conversed with him upon her faith and hopes Said, that She frequently thought, that She was not an inhabitant of this world if She could be write down her thoughts, we should find that She held converse with Superiour Beings—
Mr Cranch came in. mr Whitney asked him how he did? he replied, well only in trouble. trouble Says She with the most Cheering voice, what troubles you? Your Sickness my dear he replied. O Says She, be like me. there is not any thing troubles me. She preserved that Cheerfullness to the last moment. I never saw her Shed a tear through her whole Sickness. when she was told that he was gone—She replied we Shall soon meet again. he has left me only for a few moments. I Shall know where to find him. the day before her death She  sufferd much,  was lost and wandering at times—Said once to me—Seems to me, never any body faild So fast as I have, yet even then exprest hopes of Recovery. I did not live to Say Sister we think you cannot get well. how could I damp the ardour of her Spirits, which Strove to keep alive the wish of living for the  poor Motherless Children of her departed Daughter?
She Said in the conversation which I think in my last Letter, I mentiond her having with Susan about an hour before her Death, that She was both ready and willing to depart if it was the will of heaven. an hour before I was there, mrs Quincy was calld to See her. She was going to Boston for the Season. She took a most tender and affectionate leave of her, told her She Should never see her again—thanked her for all her kindness to her, and to her Family. Seeing Mrs Quincy much affected, She desired her to retire, and  overcame —
She had received Letters from mrs Clark and mrs Foster from abroad She call’d for them, and gave them me to read, desired me to write answers to them—directed me with the utmost Calmness to the draw where mr Cranchs will was deposited, gave directions respecting the post office, and in all respects appeard collected and more like her former self than I had Seen her. I had not any Idea when I left her but that She might continue Several days. She spoke to the President when he went in, with as much cheerfullness and Spirit as usual, desired me to  direct Some Rice boild for her. her exit was as Sudden when it took place as possible. a Suffocation as I Suppose from the water which I heard the Evening before rolling within her.
I thank heaven that her Suffering was not prolonged and much greater. She never complaind or , every body was kind, and good—every thing She ate or drank was pleasent.
Mr Cranch was Lethargic from the first. he had Some lucid intervals, but could not express himself in a connected Sentence. this I regret, as I know we Should have all been Edified by his conversation. he did not Suffer any pain, but a distress for Breath—thus my dear Sister has the Scene closed upon our dear Friends. may we be prepared to  follow them, our lives as  blameless and our death as happy and Peacefull as theirs that we may be of that happy number who shall be held in Everlasting Remembrance—Mrs Greenleaf has conducted herself with the calm temper of a Christian, and a worthy descendent of Such pious parents.
My dear Neice has behaved with propriety as She always does. every thing proper and necessary was done for her. She is gone to day to Boston to get her a coat, which I Shall have made for her when She returns.
Col Smith arrived here upon Sunday morning, and was  releived to find mrs Smith had gone through the dreaded opperation and to find her also so well She walks from one chamber to an other, and Sits up the chief of the day. the wound has closed and healed. her arm She is forbidden to use, keeps it in a Sling, and is not allowd to lift it up—She is weak but not more so than might be expected. Abbe Adams is getter better Slowly—
Since I began this Letter I have received yours of october 29th—I beg mr Peabody to take great care of his Leg a wound in the Leg, is a serious matter. Six week has the president Sufferd from his. it is  just so that his  upon it now
 in vinigar, and wash the bruised places. it will remove the  Blood, and restore the circulation. Let me hear from you, and know how he does—
we all desire to be kindly rememberd to you and I doubt not, we have your prayers for us—as we are mindfull of you in our petitions to heaven— I am my dear Sister your / Sympathizing and afflicted / Sister
Abigail Adams


Title: From William Cranch to Abigail Smith Adams, 22 October 1811
From: Cranch, William
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

My dear Aunt,
Washington Octr. 22d. 1811

I received yesterday your kind letter of 17th. instant, informing me of the death of my dear and venerable father, and of the hopeless state of health of my dear Mother. I rejoice and am thankful that my father was not left to linger out a painful and solitary existence deprived of the dear partner of all his comforts. which It seems like a special interposition of the all–merciful hand. My dear Mother, I know, feels all the anguish, which a christian can or ought to feel. I am sure she also rejoices, (if she has not already escaped from all her troubles) that my father has gone before her. And if she is sensible of approaching death she will feel still less of Anguish. The separation will be only momentary. She has less to attach her to Earth. Her regrets will be for those she leaves behind; but having perform’d her duty most faithfully, she will, with confidence, trust their fate to the mercy of Him who  gave them existence.
I have not hear’d from Mrs. Boyd & Mrs. Pope the last three days; but they were then on the recovery and were consider’d out of danger. All the rest of the family were well. Mr. Boyd has return’d.
My two eldest daughters are with their Aunt Greenleaf at Allen-town in Pennsylvania. The rest of us are well.
I hope my Uncle has recover’d from the wound in his leg. Please present him my most respectful affection, and beleive me most sincerely your affectionate, respectful & obliged nephew
W. Cranch.