Quincy Letters for the years 1794 thru 1843

Quincy, MA - 5 January 1794

John Quincy Adams letter to father... Columbus has been attacked in the Chronicle by a writer under the signature of Americanus

Quincy, MA - 3 February 1794

I go from home but very little, yet I do not find my time hang heavy upon my hands. You know that I have no aversion to join in the cheerful circle, or mix in the world, when opportunity offers.

Quincy, MA - 8 March 1794

I have been only two davs (when I was too sick to attend) absent from the sick bed of your grandmother. Your desire, that her last days might be rendered as comfortable as it is possible to make them, has been fulfilled.

Quincy, MA - 10 March 1794

I think our ladies ought to be cautious of foreigners. I am almost led to suspect a spy in every strange character. It is much too easy a matter for a man, if he has property, to get introduced into company in this country

Quincy, MA - 8 February 1797

And may it prove an auspicious prelude to each ensuing season. You have this day to declare yourself head of a nation.

Quincy, MA - 26 April 1797

The funeral rites performed, I prepare to set out on the morrow. I long to leave a place, where every scene and object wears a gloom, or looks so to me. My agitated mind wants repose.

Quincy, MA - 8 November 1797

I have much upon my mind which I could say to you ; prudence forbids my committing it to writing.

Quincy, MA - 3 May 1801

I have to acknowledge the receipt of the raspberry bushes, and the pot of strawberry vines, for which accept my thanks. I have had them placed in a good part of the garden

Quincy, MA - 12 July 1801

You will find your father in his fields, attending to his hay-makers, and your mother busily occupied in the domestic concerns of her family.

Quincy, MA - 20 May 1804

Had you been no other than the private inhabitant of Monticello, I should, ere this time, have addressed you with that sympathy which a recent event has awakened in my bosom ; but reasons of various kinds withheld my pen

Quincy, MA - 1 July 1804

But you have been pleased to enter upon some subjects which call for a reply ; and as you observe that you have wished for an opportunity to express your sentiments, I have given them every weight they claim.

Quincy, MA - 18 August 1804

Your statement inspecting Callender, and your motives for liberating him wear a different aspect as explained by you, from the impression which the act had made

Quincy, MA - 25 October 1804

It was not until circumstances concurred to place you in the light of a rewarder and encourager of a libeller, whom you could not but detest and despise, that I withdrew the esteem I had long entertained for you.

Quincy, MA - 11 March 1805

Scarcely had the grave closed over the remains of my esteemed friend Madam Sargent, relict of the late Judge, ere it was again opened to receive those of one still dearer to me.

Quincy, MA - 5 June 1809

It is said, if riches increase, those increase that eat them ; but what shall we say, when the eaters increase without the wealth ?

Quincy, MA - 26 February 1811

I have some troubles in the loss of friends by death, and no small solicitude for the motherless offspring, but my trust and confidence are in that being who "hears the young ravens when they cry."

Quincy, MA - 19 November 1812

Your neat, pretty letter, looking small, but containing much, reached me this day. I have a good mind to give you the journal of the day.

Quincy, MA - 3 February 1814

I agree with Mr. Vanderkemp, that, in declaring his opinion, he has expressed that of most gentlemen, the true cause of which I shall trace no farther than that they consider a companion more desirable than a rival.

Quincy, MA - 2 December 1814

Can there be any deeper damnation in this Universe than to be condemned to a long Life, in danger Toil and anxiety?

Quincy, MA - 30 December 1814

With Mr. Gerry died one of the first and oldest patriots of the revolution a firm steady and unshaken friend of more than fifty years ripening. "Such friends grow not thick on every bough."

Quincy, MA - 12 May 1816

How can I address you, or offer human consolation for a wound which must bleed afresh at every attempt to assuage it?

Quincy, MA - 9 January 1819

My family are reading it to me every evening, and though we have not finished it, we have proceeded far enough to excite an earnest desire to know your opinion of it.

Quincy, MA - 19 February 1822

Your remarks on the first volume of Botta, confirmed as they were by Presidents Adams and Jefferson, were communicated to the reviewers of my translation of that author, and were by them introduced into their account of the work published

Quincy, MA - 12 September 1826

I learn, with much concern, that your health did not derive, from your visit home, so much benefit as you had anticipated.

Quincy, MA - 7 September 1831

I have availed myself of both these occasions to lay before our countrymen throughout the Union, the opinions which I have constantly entertained upon the doctrine of Nullification

Quincy, MA - 11 October 1843

Nothing could give us more pleasure than to accept your offered hospitality and to visit you at your residence at Ashland.