Another allusion to his son while abroad, is made by the elder Adams, in a letter dated Philadelphia, March 25,1796.

“The President told me he had that day received three or four letters from his new Minister in London, one of them as late as the 29th of December.  Mr. Pickering informs me that Mr. Adams [Footnote:  John Quincy Adams] modestly declined a presentation at court, but it was insisted on by Lord Grenville; and, accordingly, he was presented to the King, and I think the Queen, and made his harangues and received his answers.  By the papers I find that Mr. Pinckney appeared at court on the 28th of January, after which, I presume, Mr. Adams had nothing to do but return to Holland.”

During his residence as Minister at the Hague, Mr. Adams had occasion to visit London, to exchange the ratifications of the treaty recently formed with Great Britain, and to take measures for carrying its provisions into effect. (Alluded to in the above letter from John Adams.) It was at this time that he formed an acquaintance with Miss Louisa Catharine Johnson, daughter of Joshua Johnson, Esq., of Maryland, Consular Agent of the United States at London, and niece of Governor Johnson of Maryland, a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  The friendship they formed for each other, soon ripened into a mutual attachment and an engagement.  They were married on the 26th of July, 1797.  It was a happy union.  For more than half a century they shared each other’s joys and sorrows.  The venerable matron who for this long period accompanied him in all the vicissitudes of his eventful life, still survives, to deplore the loss of him who had ever proved a faithful protector and the kindest of husbands.

In the meantime, the elder Adams had been elected President of the United States, in 1796.  The curious reader may have a desire to know something of the views, feelings and anticipations of those elevated to places of the highest distinction, and of the amount of enjoyment they reap from the honors conferred upon them.  A glance behind the scenes is furnished in the following correspondence between John Adams and his wife, which took place at his election to the Presidency. [Footnote:  Letters of John Adams, v. ii. pp. 242,243.  Mrs. Adams’ Letters, p. 373.]

Mr. Adams to his wife. 
                                       “Philadelphia, 4th of Feb., 1797. 
“My Dearest Friend,

“I hope you will not communicate to anybody the hints I give you about our prospects; but they appear every day worse and worse.  House rent at twenty-seven hundred dollars a year, fifteen hundred dollars for a carriage, one thousand for one pair of horses, all the glasses, ornaments, kitchen furniture, the best chairs, settees, plateaus, &c., all to purchase; all the china, delph or wedgewood, glass and crockery of every sort to purchase, and not a farthing probably