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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