Hon. George N. Briggs, Lansborough Quincy 24. Sept 1842 My dear Sir, Nothing could give me warmer satisfaction than to comply with your kind invitation repeated in your Letter of the 21st inst. to attend at your Cattle Show and fair in the first week of next month - But independent of the admonitions of age and its infirmities which daily thicken upon me, to withhold myself from all public or mass meetings, and especially from all at which I should myself be an object of notice, even the most flattering, my late constituents, and neighbours have taken such possession of me since my return home, that I am disabled for any excursion more than ten miles distant, for weeks to come - I have two engagements at Boston for Thursday the 6th of October, which is the second day of your exhibition, and renders my attendance there impracticable. For the solicitude of my fellow citizens in your quarter to see me, and to honour me with personal testimonials of their approbation and esteem I pray you to assure them of my heartfelt gratitude. Had they no other title to my respect and esteem than their continued confidence, and oft renewed commission of trust, to their Representative in Congress my colleague of twelve years standing in [2] the house, that stedfastness alone would be worth more in my estimation than a hundred diplomas. I infer with much pleasure from the firmness of your handwriting, and from the date of your Letter at Pittsfield that you have entirely recovered from your indisposition, and hope to meet you again at Washington, the first Monday in December, under better auspices than those which have overshadowed us since Captain Christopher Sly was installed at the white house. I am, Dear Sir, ever faithfully your friend John Quincy Adams.