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Observations on Paine's Rights of Man, in a series of lectures, by Publicola

Edinburgh edition. First separate printing, originally published in Boston newspaper June-July 1791. Disbound. Attributed to John Quincy Adams by himself (see GLC 958.07)

GLC04398

to Silvanus Bourne

Refers to letter of Bourne's from 10 July 1798. Written to the American General Consul in Amsterdam. Tries to console Bourne about the publication of one letter and the false statements made about the contents of another that made him appear pro...

GLC04403

to Robert Fulton

Adams states that Levett Harris, then handling U.S. affairs in Russia, has learned from the Russian Minister of the Interior that Fulton is in danger of losing his "patent of exclusive privilege for his Steam-Boat invention" in Russia because he has...

GLC04334

[Printed engraving of John Quincy Adams with note].

Note on verso indicates date Adams signed the print. Numbered 983 (the previous number 1279 has been struck).

GLC03815

to Joseph Pitcairn

Discusses their correspondence, personal matters, and politics. Mentions the "Silesian letters" and comments on the cession of Louisiana to Florida. Pitcairn was stationed at Hamburg. Sealed with black mourning wax.

GLC04900.01

to Joseph Pitcairn

Written in the hand of Louisa Catherine Adams, requests that Pitcairn purchase and send Adams a copy of Johann Bode's "Uranographia," which contains "the most complete exposition of the starry Heavens, that has ever been exhibited." Mentions writing...

GLC04900.02

to Henry Colman

Invites Reverend Colman to dinner. Written in the third person.

GLC04675.10

to William Eustis re: treaty of Ghent, Napoleonic wars, and threat of Barbery

Discusses the Treaty of Ghent, Napoleonic Wars, threat of Barbary pirates, and the new Netherlands consititution. Re: the Napoleonic Wars, Adams writes: "France is a conquest, and as a conquest will be treated."

GLC03626

to Thomas Pinckney

Written by Adams as American Minister to the Netherlands. Recipient inferred as Thomas Pinckney, American Minister to Britain who was serving as envoy extraordinary to Spain to negotiate boundaries. Mentions Pinckney's letter of 28 October 1795 to...

GLC03675

to editor of Quincy Patriot

Written as Member of Congress. A report to his constituents regarding petitions made concerning the right to petition and its suppression through the Gag Rule, abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia and the slave trade in the US, his...

GLC03707

to Nathaniel Freeman

An amusing and friendly letter to his former Harvard classmate. Discusses their correspondence. Also discusses the visit to town of two young women (Miss Charlotte Geyer and Miss Breck) who Adams wishes to meet "under the shade of an amorous myrtle...

GLC05902

to Tristam Burges

Denies he is the source of political rumor that Burges "complained of the Treachery of the Whig Party...The party [whom] I had heard that they had dealt treacherously with you in the Senatorial Election." Explains how he heard about the "Treachery"...

GLC05290

Mr. Adams's Oration.

Elongated title on title page: "An Inaugural Oration, Delivered at the Author's Installation, as Boylston Professor of Rhetorick and Oratory, at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On Thursday, 12 June, 1806." Adams explains "the...

GLC06255

to John Weeks

Confirms that Weeks contracted the measles while in service. Asks that Weeks send him any papers requiring his signature.

GLC06728.099

to John Weeks

Writes that he has forgotten exactly what Weeks' disability was but thinks it was loss of speech due to measles. Asks that Weeks fill out the affidavit with the details of his illness

GLC06728.101

to Sylvanus Bourne

References Bourne's letter of 23 November 1798. Writes to Bourne, American Consul in Amsterdam. Says he does not have any recent information from America. Says stories on the yellow fever in the American newspapers are distressing, but otherwise the...

GLC05656

to Henry Knox

Writes to Knox to discuss why Adams "dissented from the vote for an address to remove the two Judges." Includes the major reasons as to why he dissented, such as that the judges were only accused of "official misdemeanors," and that the Constitution...

GLC02437.07788

to Edward Wyer

John Quincy Adams writes this letter as Secretary of State. The letter is prelude to the Monroe Doctrine (12/2/1823). Dispatches were for the ambassadors in Spain, Forsyth (Spain) and Shaler (Algiers). Spain was considering Latin America intervention...

GLC00510

[Speech fragment on the proposed annexation of Texas]

Report of Adams to his constituents on events in the 25th Congress, intended for newspaper publication. Adams mentions the speech of Vermont Congressman William Slade, which so offended southerners that they walked out. Discusses annexation of Texas...

GLC00567

to James Madison

The letter is concerning sending Journals of Constitutional Convention. Written at the Department of State.

GLC00639.03

To the Inhabitants of the 12th Congressional District of Massachusetts

Discusses the attempts to censure Adams' conduct through the "Gag Rule," the machinations of House Speaker Polk, and attempts to expel Adams.

GLC00639.05

to George N. Briggs

John Quincy Adams declines an invitation to a Cattle Show and fair, citing age, and his inability to attend public functions, and previous engagements. He hopes to soon meet Briggs in Washington, D.C., "under better auspices than those which have...

GLC00655.03

to Barbara O'Sullivan Addicks

He thanks her for the copy she sent of her "pocket manual treating the Science of the French Language" ("An elementary practical book for learning to speak the French language, expressly adapted to the capacity of children. Tr. from the German of...

GLC00693.05

to William Rabun

Secretary of State Adams informs Governor of Georgia Rabun that President Monroe has directed that Captain Obediah Wright be prosecuted for the murder of Chehaw Indians. He discusses some details necessary to start the prosecution. The Chehaw were...

GLC00782.11.02

to James Bridge

Adams chronicles a trip to New York to visit the first United States Congress. Adams describes his interactions with a man named Atkins and another named Mr. Mayer in Newport. He also describes various passengers on the ship he took to New York. In...

GLC00958.05

to James Bridge

Adams apologizes for delay in notifying Bridge that President Washington has appointed Adams minister to the Netherlands. Adams will not be able to attend to business Bridge had given him. Adams left much of his unfinished business to a former...

GLC00958.10

to James Bridge

Adams wishes to become reacquainted with his old friend from Harvard. Adams provides an outline of his history abroad since he last wrote Bridge in September 1794. He discusses travel to Holland, England, and Prussia, while serving the Unites States...

GLC00958.11

to Thomas Aspinwall

Introduces George Bishop to Aspinwall, United States Consul to London. Recommends Bishop, claiming that he "has invented a mode of making cloth without spinning and weaving." Informs Aspinwall that while in London, Bishop will attempt to gain a...

GLC01123

Oration on the Life and Character of Gilbert Motier De Lafayette

Title page continues: "Delivered at the request of both Houses of the Congress of the United States, before them, in the House of Representatives at Washington, on the 31st December, 1834." Published by Gales and Seaton. Signed by Adams and inscribed...

GLC01238

[Commission of James W. Ripley as Captain in the Fourth Regiment of Artillery]

Engraved document signed by Adams as president and countersigned by James Barbour as secretary of war. Includes a paper seal. A note on the side signed by "R. Jones" indicated that it was "Registered Vol: 2 page 59" in the attorney general's office...

GLC01492

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

Slave Trade. Message from the President of the United States, communicating correspondence with Great Britain in relation to the Convention for suppressing the slave trade.

Relating to the convention for the suppression of the slave trade. House Executive Document 16, 19th Congress, 1st session, Document no. 16. Secretary of State Clay advises the British that the Senate will not agree to British right of search along...

GLC00267.034

to Stephen R. Bradley

John Quincy Adams explains his 1804 opposition to a bill supported by General Samuel Smith that would further protect U.S. sailors from British impressment. Refutes Smith's suggestion that Adams' position justifies British impressment. Argues that...

GLC00496.003

to William C. Bradley

Written as Secretary of State. The letter discusses not complying with a request and the Treaty of Ghent

GLC00496.004

to John Vaughan re: purchase of books at a Philadelphia auction

Written as President

GLC02793.017

to Ward N. Boyston re: history of the Boylston family and letter to his father

Written as President, shortly after the death of his father.

GLC02793.018

Message from the President of the United States, transmitting in compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of 13th January, 1825.

"A statement of convictions, executions, and pardons, under the authority of the Government of the United States, since the adoption of the Constitution. February 26, 1829. Read, and laid upon the table." Printed as House Document no. 146, 20th...

GLC02821

to Roscoe G. Greene re: Grey's Elegy, the Constitution

Adams comments at length upon punctuation in Grey's "Elegy in a Churchyard" (and the powers of Congress as limited or expanded by a semi-colon in the Constitution. He also writes that "No land of slavery could ever have produced Grey's Elegy."

GLC02847

to Nathaniel Williams

Forwards commission appointing Williams Attorney of the United States for the District of Maryland (commission not included with letter). Signed as Secretary of State.

GLC03701

Argument of John Quincy Adams, before the Supreme Court of the United States : in the case of the United States, appellants, vs. Cinque, and others,...

... (title continues) Africans, captured in the schooner Amistad, by Lieut. Gedney, delivered on the 24th of February and 1st of March, 1841: with a review of the case of the Antelope, reported in the 10th, 11th, and 12th volumes of Wheaton's Reports...

GLC03809

to Lewis Tappan

Written as congressman. A beautiful and deeply felt letter. Concerning the opposition of abolitionists to his bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Adams writes that with opposition from both abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates...

GLC03891