A website from the Massachusetts Historical Society; founded 1791.
close

Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 6

The Commissioners to John Paul Jones -

Passi August 15 22 1778
Your Letter from Brest of August ...

The Commissioners to J. D. Schweighauser -

Passi August 22. 1778
We received yours of the 18 ...

Search for a response to this letter.

The Commissioners to John Paul Jones

Docno: PJA06d337

Author: First Joint Commission at Paris
Author: JA
Recipient: Jones, John Paul
Date: 1778-08-22

[dateline] Passi August. 22. 1778

[salute] <Sir>

<We have received your Letter of the 16th.1 and have written to Captain Whipple to appoint a Court Martial for the Tryal of Lieutenant Simpson provided there are a sufficient Number of officers to constitute one.2 We are3 This however is not to make any Change in the Command of the Ranger untill the Tryal is over, nor then unless the Judgment of that Court is against him. We are.>
LbC Adams Papers ; notation: “not sent.”
 
1. An inadvertance for the 15th.
 
2. For this sentence as a possible postscript, see the Commissioners' first letter to Jones of this date, note 5 (above). No letter to Abraham Whipple has been found. The Commissioners may, in the meantime, have received Whipple's letter of 19 Aug. (above) and concluded that a reply was unnecessary or, more important, that he and perhaps Simpson had already sailed for America.
 
3. The preceding two words were canceled in the course of drafting, indicating that the letter was originally meant to end here, before it was decided to make clear the Commissioners' position on the appointment of Simpson to command the Ranger.
Cite web page as: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2007.
http://www.masshist.org/ff/