Quincy May 20 1804
Sir
Had you been no other than the private inhabitant of Monticello, I should e'er this time, have addrest you with that sympathy which a recent event has awakened in my Bosom. But reasons of various kinds withheld my pen, untill the powerfull feelings of my heart, have burst through the restraint, and called upon me to shed the tear of sorrow over the departed remains of your beloved and deserving daughter, an event which I most sincerely mourn.
The attachment which I formed for her, when you committed her to my care upon her arrival in a foreign land, has remained with me to this hour, and the account of her death, which I read in a late paper, recalled to my remembrance the tender scene of her seperation from me, when, with the whole force of her childlike nature, she clung to me, and wet my Bosom with her tears, saying, O! now I have learnt to Love you, why will they tear me from you?
It has been some time since that I conceived of any event in this life, which could call forth feelings of mutual sympathy. But I know how closely entwined around a parents heart are those chords which bind the filial to the parental Bosom, and when snaped asunder, how agonizing the pangs of seperation.
I have tasted the bitter cup, and how well I know how to sympathize with those who drink it to the dregs.
I do most sincerely condole with you. It is a loss which you will feel through every period of your future life, and none but those who have experienced the like can judge of the desolation it occasions.
Receive, Sir, the assurance that with every sentiment of Respect and esteem I am,
Your Humble Servant, A Adams