close
To Edmé Jacques Genet
Docno: PJA07d328
Recipient: Genet, Edmé Jacques
Date: 1779-02-14
[dateline] [ca. 14 Feb. 1779 ] 1
I have the Honour to transmit you, three Letters, received by the Marquiss de la Fayette. I send you the Letters from Mr. Adams and Mr. Lee that you may know their Sentiments. All that is said of <Mr.> me, in both these Letters I hope you will omit. They are only Compliments, and I fancy Mistakes. What is said also, of General Sullivan in
{p. 415}
Mr. Adams's Letter should also be omitted. And what is said in Mr. Lees Letter concerning our Currency, ought to be omitted also. With great Respect,
[signed] John Adams
You will be so good as to return these Letters, when you have made your Use of them.2
1. The date is derived from JA's letter to Samuel Adams of 14 Feb. (above), which mentions the visit by Lafayette to Passy on the previous day.
2. The three letters sent by JA were from Samuel Adams, 25 Oct. 1778; Richard Henry Lee, 29 Oct. 1778; and Samuel Cooper, 4 Jan. 1779 (all above). Genet translated and printed them, with the omissions requested by JA, in Affaires de l'Angleterre et de l'Amerique, “Lettres,” vol. 13, cahier 65, p. clxxii–clxxix. The letters were returned with an undated note (Adams Papers; now dated [post 14 Feb. 1779], it was filmed under the date of [July 1778?
], Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 349). In that note Genet mentioned the constitution of New York, which he had apparently received from JA, and informed him that it had already been printed in Affaires. No letter from JA to Genet enclosing that document has been found.
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/