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to John McLean

Secretary of State Adams writes to McLean, Commissioner of the General Land Office, about the government responsibility for internal improvements. In response to McLean's request, he encloses a copy of an 1807 resolution he put before the senate on...

GLC01727

to Oliver Wolcott Jr.

Partly printed circular letter signed as Secretary of State written to the Governor of Connecticut, with printed resolution on page 3 directing distribution of copies of the (W. J. Stone) facsimile of the Declaration, and other documents. A note at...

GLC01728

[Album autographed by John Quincy Adams and Marquis de Lafayette].

A note by Lafayette dated January 23, 1825 indicates he was an "old friend" of the parents of the young lady who owned this album. Adams writes a seven-line poem dated March 10, 1825. A note from William White dated March 23, 1825 quotes Proverbs...

GLC01826

to William Plumer, Jr.

Adams praises Plumer's volume of poems and describes his own journal writings as "volume after volume of trash." In retrospect, Adams wishes he had focused his energies on producing a great historical work. He deems Plumer's style of recording time...

GLC00047

[Patent for William Willis' improvement in the two-cylinder atmospheric steam engine, or generating steam engine]

Signed by John Quincy Adams as President. Countersigned by Henry Clay as Secretary of State and William Wirt as Attorney General. Willis' description of his improvement is signed by Horace Atley and Robert Browne as witnesses. Contains a receipt for...

GLC00065

To Miss Cordelia Frye.

Adams composes a poem at the request of Frye, the daughter of Maine Senator William Frye. Eight stanzas, six lines each.

GLC00095

to Henry Clay

President Adams, writing to Secretary of State Clay, defends Joel R. Poinsett, the American ambassador to Mexico, against accusations of Masonism. Describes Congress' accusations as "vague, indefinite and sustained by no better evidence than morbid...

GLC00104

to Susan Decatur

Responding to Decatur's letter, Adams will find it "highly gratifying" if he is able to aid Decatur in advancing her claim currently before Congress. Decatur was attempting to secure a pension for service rendered by her husband, Commodore Stephen...

GLC00105

to Alexander H. Everett

Thanks Everett, Adams' law apprentice, for a letter written in a classical language (Latin or Greek). Senator Adams praises the value of "ancient learning," but writes this letter in English because he has not used his knowledge of the ancient...

GLC00125

to Miss Anna McKnight

A poem in which he expresses his attachment to her and asks her to consider him a true and honest friend: "My pulses, mix'd emotions blend, unchang'd by wind or weather. Of lover-brother-father-friend, to take them all together." Adams was President...

GLC00209