2 May 1828

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Document signed

Title: [Patent for Silas Hyde's improvements in the bedstead]

Signed by Adams as President. Countersigned by Henry Clay as Secretary of State and William Wirt as Attorney General. Docketed and signed by Henry L. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents. Sealed and bound with bright red ribbon.

GLC07324

1838

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Pamphlet

Title: Speeches given in Congress re: resolutions of seven state legislatures

Discusses annexation of Texas. Collateral to GLC 567 Adams fragment, a draft of the preface to this compilation of speeches given June 16- July 7 in the House. The fragment was expanded in details on pp. 6-8.

GLC07397

10 April 1826

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Printed document signed

Title: [Indiana land grant to Samuel Cook]

Countersigned by George W. Graham, Commissioner of the General Land Office. Partially printed document granting Cook eighty acres in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

GLC06418.04

10 March 1828

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Document signed

Title: [Patent for George M. Selden's improvement in the tide pump basin or reservoir]

Signed by Adams as President. Countersigned by Henry Clay as Secretary of State and William Wirt as Attorney General. Selden's written description of his improvement is signed by Thomas Addis Emmet and Dudley Selden as witnesses. Contains a receipt attached to page one signed 9 February 1828 by Michael Nourse, Assistant United States Treasurer. Sealed and bound with red ribbon.

GLC06467

4 March 1825

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Broadside

Title: [Inaugural address of John Quincy Adams]

President Adams inaugural address printed in an extra from the National Intelligencer, a Washington, D.C., newspaper.

GLC06661

January 15, 1822

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: to James Mease

Returns a pamphlet on weights and measures (not present) and thanks him for loaning it. Mentions that he is looking forward to sending his own pamphlet on the same subject to Mease.

GLC06550

January 17, 1804

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter

Title: to Thomas B. Adams

Adams, then a Massachusetts senator, writes to his brother about "the receipts and expenditures, upon the Seamen's fund" and the Louisiana Purchase. Discusses the legislation relating to Louisiana that would "tax them, then make a government for them, and at last admit them as a State or States, by Acts of Congress..." Notes that he has finally settled his accounts from when he was abroad working as a diplomat.

GLC06606

May 27, 1845

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph manuscript

Title: Railroad Depot Speech for Unitarian Coalition [Christian unity and tolerance]

Addressed to "Fellow Citizens - Christians, Brethren and Sisters." Adams's hope for unity among all Christians; he even quotes an unnamed Roman Catholic poet at the beginning. While describing dissenssions between denominations in various countries, Adams suddenly stops and asks instead for people to pray for those who fight each other. He calls upon his listeners "Let us teach them by the example of harmony among ourselves, how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren (and sisters) to dwell together in unity...when they shall have found...harmony among themselves, we shall be ready…

GLC06965

10 February 1845

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Angier

Sends Angier a condolence letter upon the death of his wife (and Adams' niece), Abigail Smith Adams.

GLC05513

January 20, 1842

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: to James Brooks

Adams comments upon his "essay" in defense of British actions in China during the Opium War. He maintains that he confined himself "to the question of right from wrong between the parties, as it stood upon the ransom of Canton." He bases his judgments on two principles: the equality of men and the love of God and neighbor. Adams alludes to Chinese demands of submission, and contrasts that with the Britons, "a Christian nation of Freeman" whom he hopes will practice mercy and moderation.

GLC05508.001

December 1, 1798

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: 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 news is good. Says Congress adjourned on 1 December 1798, but he does not know what Elbridge Gerry told them after he returned from France after the XYZ affair in October 1798. Believes that no matter what Gerry said, it will not change American-French relations. Says "As long as they continue to treat neutrals much worse than their Enemies, it…

GLC05656

February 5, 1825

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Document signed

Title: [Certifying copyright for the 1825 enlarged edition of Nathan Daboll's Schoolmaster's Assistant].

Notes that Samuel Green, stereotype printer, is granted copyright to Nathan Daboll's Schoolmaster's Assistant a "plain, practical system of arithmetic,... adapted to the United States." Marked "No. 687." Written while Adams was Secretary of State.

GLC05320

19 October 1835

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: 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" in the election from the newspaper and "public notoriety."

GLC05290

21 April 1846

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph manuscript signed

Title: 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

December 21, 1841

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: 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 and memories in a "poetical record" superior to the usual diary form. Some of Plumer's verses remind Adams of his own thoughts, and he praises the poet for giving them permanent existence. Plumer was a former New Hampshire congressman.

GLC00047

November 14, 1826

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Document signed

Title: [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 thirty dollars attached to the back of page one signed by Thomas Tudor Tucker, United States Treasurer. Sealed and bound with blue ribbon and accompanied by a paper seal.

GLC00065

December 26, 1795

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Thomas B. Adams

Observations of riots by the poor of London, who were attempting to get more power from the government. Adams calls the rioters "Revolutionists" and notes their hunger, possibly indicating that they took inspiration from the French Revolution and referencing the poor harvest of 1795 as a direct cause for the unrest. Mentions Parliament's suppression of these outrages against "the royal virtues and crimes of the Jacobins" by passing the Treasonable Practices Act and the Seditious Meetings Act, which limited political discussion. Praises Thomas, who was John Quincy's brother, for becoming "a…

GLC00392

1835

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Book signed

Title: 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 to Gayton P. Osgood. Cover is contemporary ribbed red morocco.

GLC01238

September 4, 1838

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Joseph Gales, Jr.

Previously received one hundred copies of a pamphlet, sent by a Mr. Franklin. Only recently had time to revise it, and transmits his corrections. Notes that he will free frank the pamphlets, saving Mr. Franklin the trouble. The Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society at New York recently asked for permission to print an edition of a speech Adams gave the previous summer. Adams notes that since there is no copyright, "it may be reprinted by any one who may think it worth his while."

GLC01194

June 15, 1841

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: 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 patent for his invention. "Mr. George G. Bishop, a gentleman who has invented a mode of making cloth without spinning and weaving and recommended to me by several friends of highly respectable character, is going to London with a view to obtain a patent for his invention, and I beg leave to commend him to any kind of service which it may at your…

GLC01123

July 31, 1832

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Edward Cornelius Delavan

Adams thanks Delavan for the 5th number of the Temperance Recorder, a publication of the New York State Temperance Society of which Delavan was chairman. He assures Delavan that he will distribute copies of the issue as "may fulfill the humane and benevolent purposes of the New York State Temperance Society, and their Executive Committee."

GLC01409

1825

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph manuscript signed

Title: [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. Three other notes, New Haven, Buffalo and New York, 1865 news clipping on Palmerston death, one small broadside concerning $1 contribution to the Washington Monument and piece of embroidery. Bound by P. Thompson, Washington City, in red ribbed morocco binding with gilt decorative board.

GLC01826

22 April 1818

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Letter signed

Title: to Louis De Onis

Adams, Secretary of State, informs Onis, Minister Plenipotentiary from Spain, of the troubled travels of American William Davis Robinson in Mexico. States that Robinson was imprisoned after surrendering to Spanish authorities in Playa Vincente; following his surrender, the United States appealed to Spain to release him. Requests Robinson's immediate release. This document is fragile and slightly torn in the creases in page two.

GLC02403

February 14, 1803

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: 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 does not provide for the removal of judges except by the impeachment procedure.

GLC02437.07788

May 6, 1824

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Autograph letter signed

Title: 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 the topic (written on p. 3 in a secretarial hand) and indicates it can be "found in the Octavo Edition of the Journals of the Senate recently published Vol. 4, p. 155." Describes it as "the first Resolution ever offered in Congress, contemplating a general system of internal improvement." Discusses the congressional vote on it and the…

GLC01727