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Online: The Adams Family






Selected Manuscripts

View some well-known Adams manuscripts with complete transcriptions.

The documents are transcribed according to the standards developed for The Adams Papers volumes. Roman text set within square brackets (i.e. [roman]) indicates the editors' conjectural reading for missing or illegible matter. A question mark is inserted before the closing bracket if the conjectural reading is seriously doubtful. Italicized text set within square brackets (i.e. [italic]) is an editorial insertion.


Remember the Ladies, Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1776
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John Adams's Copy of the Declaration of Independence, ante 28 June 1776
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The Great Anniversary Festival, John Adams on the Declaration of Independence, 3 July 1776
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Honest and Wise Men, John Adams's prayer for the executive mansion,
2 November 1800
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Whatever You Write Preserve, John Adams to George Washington Adams and John Adams 2d, 3 May 1815
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For the Cause of God and Man, John Quincy Adams against the slave trade, Diary entry, 29 March 1841
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