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The Commissioners to the Comte de Vergennes
Docno: PJA07d168
Recipient: Vergennes, Charles Gravier, Comte de
Date: 1778-11-12
[dateline] Passy Novr. 12 1778
[salute] Sir
The Alliance between this Kingdom, and the United States of America, is an Event of such Magnitude in their History, that We conceive it would be highly pleasing to our Constituents, to have the Picture of <their> his Majesty their illustrious <Friend and> Ally, to be kept in some Public Place where the Congress sits.
We would carefully avoid every Thing which would be disagreable <to the King and Queen>, and would therefore submit this Proposal to your Excellencys Consideration: and if you should be of opinion that no offence would be given, We request, your Excellencys kind offices, to procure Us for the Benefit of our Constituents, the Pictures of their Majestys the King and Queen, that Posterity, as well as those of the present Generation who may never have an opportunity of seeing those Royal Personages, may become acquainted with the nearest Resemblances of them, which the Arts have devised.1
1. If sent, this letter brought no results. It was not until 1784 that portraits of the King and Queen arrived in America, and then it was in response to the congress' request contained in its congratulatory message of 15 June 1779 to Louis XVI on the birth of his first child, Marie Thérèse Charlotte (
JCC
, 14:737; 26:239–241).
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/
http://www.masshist.org/ff/