Majority of the Surviving Signers of a Declaration which has had too much Credit in the World, and the Expence of the most of its Signers.1 As a Man of Science, Letters, Taste, Sense, Phylosophy, Patriotism, Religion, Morality, Merit, Usefulness, taken alltogether Rush has not left his equal in America, nor that I know in the World. In him is taken away, and in a manner most sudden and totally unexpected a main Prop of my Life. "Why should I grieve when grieving I must bear?" I can conceive no reason why Governor Plumer may not be furnished with every Scratch of a Pen relative to the X, Y, and Z Embassy. I know not where to look for any one Paper relative to it. It would give me great Pleasure to see Commodore Williams.2 His List of Prizes would be very acceptable. I wish he would write his own Life. With high Esteem and strong Affection, JOHN ADAMS ABIGAIL ADAMS TO MERCY WARREN QUINCY, June 20, 1813 Such is the warlike state of Nations and their various destinies, that we cannot calculate what is to be the end of these things, who are to be the conquerors, or why they thus destroy each other, but thus it has been from Age to Age, and will continue so, as long as time endures. Whether Bonaparte is again to become the conqueror, time must decide. The conduct of our own State Government cannot surely meet the approbation of any real American. I should much rather chuse, that the Name of my Family should be blotted from the page of History, than appear upon Record as the proposer of 1 Samuel Adams died in 1803, leaving John Adams, Robert Treat Paine and Elbridge Gerry the surviving Signers from Massachusetts. Paine and Gerry died in 1814. 2 John Foster Williams (1743-1814), but he does not appear to have held the rank of commodore. such a Resolution as past the Senate in their late Session.1 I do not view this war, as waged for conquest, or ambition, but for our injured Rights, for our freedom, and the security of our Independence, and therefore shall rejoice when any Naval victory, or military success attend upon our Arms, which may give us any hope or prospect of Peace, which always ought to be the object aimed at, and I sincerely believe is so by our Government. most sincerely do I wish that war could have been avoided. I inclose to you for your perusal several Letters from my son,2 they will perhaps give you a better Idea of the contending powers than I am able to. you will be so good as to return them when read. I am dear Madam with sentiments of Love veneration and esteem, your Friend, ABIGAIL ADAMS ABIGAIL ADAMS TO MERCY WARREN QUINCY, July 11th, 1813 MY DEAR MAdam, - I received your obliging favour with the Letters inclosed, and was gratified that the sentiments which they containd met your cordial approbation, and excited congenial feelings in the Bosoms of your sons if I may judge from the marks which distinguish them. I have indeed great cause for pleasure and satisfaction, in the ability, integrity, and fidelity with which my son has devoted himself to his Country, and if in the hand of providence he may be instrumental in restoring peace to it, it will enhance every other pleasure and compensate me for the loss I sustain in his company and society, which would be most dear to both his Father and Mother, who know that they have but a short space of time left to enjoy it. Read, my dear Madam, the inclosed Letter, which altho written I The Remonstrance against the war adopted by the General Court June 15, 1813. It is printed in the Columbian Centinel, June 23, 1813. 2 John Quincy Adams. more than a year since, I received but yesterday, and as usual opened. I rather wonder, when it containd such [cut] kers, that they were good enough to forwa[rd cut] the account of the Characters which are [cut] for any political information which it contains. What favorable issue can we expect to negotiation with a ministry formed of such Characters? May not British faith bear a parallel with Galic? I am extreemly grieved at the party violence which prevails, and which leads to such disgracefull outrages as that committed upon your Son. I hope the injury not so great as you at first feard. pray let me hear how he is. There is yet Law and I hope justice, to [punish] such offenders, and to bind them to good behaviour. the scripture calls for an eye, for an eye, yet even that will not restore lost sight. Since I received your Letter in which you so kindly interest yourself for my Dear Daughter Smith, I have received a Letter from my Grandson John A. Smith, who writes to me, that it is his Mother's most earnest wish to be brought to Quincy, and that altho for six weeks she has not been able to get across her Room, yet he thinks she has gained some strength; and in compliance with her desire he has undertaken to journey with her by slow degrees, and if possible get her here, which will relieve my mind of that constant anxiety which I daily have to know how she is. her son gives me but a melancholy account of her health. I hope the journey and change of air, society of her family and Friends, will have a favorable effect. "God tempers the wind to the shorn Lamb," Sterne tell us, and all our troubles in this Life are no doubt designed for salutary purposes. with them is blended goodness and mercy — and with Jobe, I would say, altho he slay me, I will trust in him. with an affectionate remembrance to all your family I subscribe yours as ever, ABIGAIL ADAMS ABIGAIL ADAMS TO MERCY WARREN QUINCY, Sep'br 5th, 1813 MY DEAR MAdam, Your kind and sympathetic Letter demands my thanks, and receives my gratitude. My own loss is not to be estimated by words, and can only be alleviated by the consoling belief that my dear Daughter is partakeing of that Life and immortality brought to light by him, who endured the cross, and is gone before to prepare a place; for those who Love him, and keep his commandments.1 Her patience submission, and Resignation have been a lesson to me, neither to murmur or complain, but cheerfully to resign her into the Hands of that Being, who gave her to me, and who certainly had the best right to remand her, gratefull to him, that her sufferings were so soon terminated. She has left me a treasure, whose conduct upon this trying occasion, exemplifies her faith in the Religion of which she has been early in Life a public professor, and the precepts of which, its promisses and rewards, are the sources to which she resorts for comfort, deprived thus early in Life of a parent who was devoted to her, and to whom she was attached by the strongest ties of fillial Love duty and gratitude. The president thanks you for your sympathy with him. the precepts of phylosophy may teach us to endure what the laws of the universe make necessary, it may infuse stubborness but Religion alone can teach submission and patience, as Johnson remarks. My dear Caroline has exprest a wish in unison with your own, and gratefully accepts your kind invitation to visit the Ancient Friend of her Mother, and of her Grandparents, and to manifest to you the Respect and Veneration in which from her earliest years she has been instructed to hold the partial Friend of her Mother. It would give me pleasure to accompany her, but I feel more wedded to home than ever, and could not leave the Bereaved Father a prey to solitude. I beg leave to substitute in my Room an other Granddaughter, 1 Abigail (Adams) Smith died August 15, 1813. a good girl lively and affectionate. She is very desirious of paying her respects to, and being noticed by a Lady so highly and so justly respected as the venerated Friend of many years, the long tried and Ancient Friend of her Grandparents. She is the Eldest Daughter of my son Charles well known to you in early Life.1 I regret that Mrs. Adams,2 my son Thomas's wife, cannot have the long anticipated pleasure of visiting you with them, as she was prepared to do, when yesterday she was summond to Boston to attend the funeral of her sisters child - an Infant of a year old, suddenly taken out of Life, by the disease of the season. In that warfare there is no distinction. I have not, dear Madam, received any late Letters from my son in Russia. when any arrive which I can communicate, it will be a double pleasure to know that my Friend will share it with me. Col. Smith the respected partner of my late dear Daughter accompanies the Ladies, and will do himself the pleasure of waiting upon you. be assured that I am what I ever have been, and ever shall be your affectionate Friend, ABIGAIL ADAMS ADAMS MSS. MERCY WARREN TO JOHN Adams SIR, -I was much gratified by seeing your signature affixed to a Letter addressed to Mm. Warren. I am also gratified and obliged by the marks of your attention manifest in the interesting inclosures in yours under date September 1st, one of which deeply affected me as a Sister. I have for many years known your I Charles Adams (1770-1800) married in 1795, Sarah Smith (1769-1828). Their eldest daughter Susanna B. (1796-1846) married (1) Charles Thomas Clark (1793-1818) and (2) William R. H. Treadway (1795-1836). 2 Ann (Harod) Adams. 3 A letter from Governor McKean, August 20, 1813, in which he wrote: "In the Congress of 1765 there were several conspicuous characters: Mr. James Otis appeared to me to be the boldest and best speaker. I voted for him as our President, but Brigadier Ruggles succeeded by one vote, owing to the number of the Committee from New York, as we voted individually: when the business was finished our President would not sign the petitions, and peremptorily refused to assign any reasons, until I pressed him so hard that he |