Boston 23 June 1802. My dear friend. I have recently received two successive letters from you, full of that warm and honest friendship which has been one of the greatest comforts of my life, and which I find from them neither time nor absence have impaired on your part, as on mine they have remained unabated, and if changed at all, enhanced in value in proportion as experience of the world, and of the common principles and conduct of men, have proved them to be rare. The reasons you assign for having omitted to write me during my absence from this Country are amply sufficient for your justification if not for my satisfaction - Many were indeed the hours which during my residence in Europe would have been cheered and solaced by a communication and reciprocation of unreserved and confidential sentiments with you; but I was sensible of the obstacles which debarr'd me from these enjoyments, and I can only now congratulate myself that by my return, those impediments are in a great measure removed. These newspapers which I sometimes received, had informed me that you were a member of the General Court, and I had flattered myself from that circumstance, that I should have the happiness of meeting you soon after I should reach home - It was not untill after my arrival at Philadelphia, in September last, that I learnt you were fixed in another department, and I have yet met with no person who could tell me a twentieth part of what I wanted to know of your life and adventures since we parted. - Your own letters have still left me something to desire in this respect, and I hope on some future occasion you will gratify me with something more detailed concerning yourself - as an encouragement to which take this outline of my history since the date of my last letter to you, in September 1794. [2] A few days after it was written I embarked for London, where I arrived in October of the same year, and after spending a fortnight there, I proceeded to the Hague, the place of my destination - I reached Holland just in time to witness the downfall of the antient government, and a democratic revolution introduced by a foreign invader. I learnt little or nothing by this however - The series of events in its minute circumstances was of little consequence in any point of view - The great and important result of oppression wearing the uniform of popular sway, and conquest holding out the mock standard of liberty, was what every honest and reflecting mind had foreseen, and nothing more was realized. I remained in Holland untill November 1795. when by directions from President Washington I went again to England; on certain business concented with the Treaty which had been negotiated by Mr: Jay - In May 1796 I returned again to the Hague, and was soon after commissioned to go to Lisbon - in July 1797, being on my way to that place, I received in London different orders and another destination - Mr: Smith of South Carolina, was sent to Lisbon in my stand, and I was commissioned for Berlin - During my stay in London at that time I was married to a daughter of Mr: Johnson then Consul of the United States there, since, Superintendent of Stamps, and whom we have recently lost by death - I have on child, a boy, about sixteen months old - In October 1797. I went from London to Berlin, where I resided untill the month of June last year - at the close of the last Administration I was recalled, and upon my return, after visiting the city of Washington where my wife's family then resided, I resumed my residence and my profession, in this town, at the commencement of the present year. It was my desire, or at least I fancied so, to have renounced all further concern with politics, and to have confirmed myself rigorously to my private business - After eight years of total suspension and interruption to my professional pursuits, you can readily imagine, what my confidence in myself as a lawyer can be - I wanted time to recover almost all that I ever knew of the science and of the practices - I wanted still more [3] time to learn a great deal that I had never known, but which was essential to the qualification of a good attorney and counsellor at Law, and I wanted an immediate stock of business, to suit certain objects of personal convenience - yet all these considerations vanished when my townsmen thought proper to give me a seat in the Senate of the Commonwealth - In accepting this place, how much of my determination is to be placed to the account of public spirit, and how much to that of private weekness, your knowledge of the human heart in general and of mine in particular, will enable you to determine, perhaps better than I can myself. The Wicasset Bank, with two or three others, you will learn before you receive this letter, have passed both branches of the Legislature - They are incumbered with certain conditions besides those imposed upon the banks previously established, and they did not pass without considerable difficulty - I am one of those who believe that banking has already been carried much beyond the limits of its beneficial extent, in this Country, and excepting the Wicasset bank, for the propriety and use of which there was at least some pretence, had all the others created this Session depended upon my vote, they never would have seen the light - With respect to the plan proposed by your last letter, of authorizing that bank to establish offices of discount and deposit at Hollowell and Augusta, I found upon my conversing with gentlemen, and particularly with M:r Pickman to whom I showed your letter, that there would be so much opposition to it, that there could be no service in suggesting it. - M:r Dummer, has advocated and promoted the measure (I mean the bank) with great ardour and zeal I enclose for your perusal an Address lately delivered to a charitable association in this town; presuming rather that your friendship for the Author, than that the[struck: y] nature of the subject, will give it an interest sufficient to make it worth your reading - and I remain with faithful and unabated attachment your friend John Quincy Adams Honble: James Bridge [docket] J. Q. Adams 1802