will the House of Representatives allow, though the Senate have voted a small addition.  All the linen besides.  I shall not pretend to keep more than one pair of horses for a carriage, and one for a saddle.  Secretaries, servants, wood, charities, which are demanded as rights, and the million dittoes, present such a prospect as is enough to disgust anyone.  Yet not one word must we say.  We cannot go back.  We must stand our ground as long as we can.  Dispose of our places with the help of our friend Dr. Tufts, as well as you can.  We are impatient for news, but that is always so at this season. 
                                             I am tenderly your J. A.”

The same to the same.

“Philadelphia, 9th Feb., 1797. 
“My Dearest Friend,

“The die is cast,[Footnote:  Mr. Adams had, the day previous, been announced President elect of the United States.] and you must prepare yourself for honorable trials.  I must wait to know whether Congress will do anything or not to furnish my house.  If they do not, I will have no house before next fall, and then a very moderate one, with very moderate furniture.  The prisoners from Algiers [Footnote:  American citizens who had long been in captivity among the Algerines.] arrived yesterday in this City, in good health, and looking very well.  Captain Stevens is among them.  One woman rushed into the crowd and picked out her husband, whom she had not seen for fourteen years.

“I am, and ever shall be, yours, and no other’s, J. A.”

MRS. JOHN ADAMS TO HER HUSBAND.

“Quincy, 8th Feb., 1797. 
“’The sun is dressed in brightest beams,
To give thy honors to the day.’

“And may it prove an auspicious prelude to each ensuing season.  You have this day to declare yourself head of a nation.  ’And now, O Lord, my God, thou hast made thy servant ruler over the people.  Give unto him an understanding heart, that he may know how to go out and come in before this great people; that he may discern between good and bad.  For who is able to judge this thy so great a people?’ were the words of a royal sovereign; and not less applicable to him who is invested with the Chief Magistracy of a nation, though he wear not a crown, nor the robes of royalty.

“My thoughts and my meditations are with you, though personally absent; and my petitions to Heaven are, that ’the things which make for peace may not be hidden from your eyes.’  My feelings are not those of pride or ostentation, upon the occasion.  They are solemnized by a sense of the obligations, the important trusts, and numerous duties connected with it.  That, you may be enabled to discharge them with honor to yourself, with justice and impartiality to your country, and with satisfaction to this great people, shall be the daily prayer of your A. A.”

MR. ADAMS TO HIS WIFE.