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

Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 9

See this volume's table of contents
See this volume's table of contents

{p. R1}

The Adams Papers

RICHARD ALAN RYERSON, EDITOR IN CHIEF
SERIES III
GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE
AND OTHER PAPERS
OF THE ADAMS STATESMEN
Papers of John Adams
{p. R2} {p. R3}

Papers of John Adams

GREGG L. LINT, EDITOR
JOANNA M. REVELAS, ASSISTANT EDITOR
RICHARD ALAN RYERSON, EDITOR
CELESTE WALKER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
ANNE M. DECKER, EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Volume 9 • March 1780–July 1780
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS AND LONDON, ENGLAND
1996
{p. R4}
Copyright © 1996 by the Massachusetts Historical Society • All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Funds for editing The Adams Papers were originally furnished by Time, Inc., on behalf of Life, to the Massachusetts Historical Society, under whose supervision the editorial work is being done. Further funds were provided by a grant from the Ford Foundation to the National Archives Trust Fund Board in support of this and four other major documentary publications. In common with these and many other enterprises like them, The Adams Papers has continued to benefit from the guidance and cooperation of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, chaired by the Archivist of the United States, which from 1975 to the present has provided this enterprise with major financial support. Important additional funds were supplied from 1980 to 1993 by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The J. Howard Pew Freedom Trust, and The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation through the Founding Fathers Papers, Inc. Since 1993, The Adams Papers has received major support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and matching support from The Packard Humanities Institute, through The Founding Fathers Papers, Inc., and from The Charles Francis Adams Charitable Trust, The Florence J. Gould Foundation, and an anonymous donor.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data (Revised for vols. 9–10)
Adams, John, 1735–1826.
Papers of John Adams.
(The Adams papers: Series III, General correspondence and other papers of the Adams statesmen)
Vols. 1–6 edited by R. J. Taylor, G. L. Lint, and C. Walker.
Vols. 7–10 edited by G. L. Lint . . . [et al.]
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. United States—Politics and government—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775—Sources. 2. Massachusetts—Politics and government—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775—Sources. 3. United States—Politics and government—Revolution, 1775–1783—Sources. 4. United States—Politics and government—1783–1809—Sources. 5. Presidents—United States—Correspondence. 6. Adams, John, 1735–1826. I. Taylor, Robert Joseph, 1917–II. Lint, Gregg L. III. Title. IV. Series: Adams papers: Series III, General correspondence and other papers of the Adams statesmen.
E302.A26 1977 973.4′4′08 77-4707
ISBN 0-674-65441-2 (v. 1–2)
ISBN 0-674-65442-0 (v. 3–4)
ISBN 0-674-65443-9 (v. 5–6)
ISBN 0-674-65444-7 (v. 7–8)
ISBN 0-674-65445-5 (v. 9–10)
{p. R5  | view }
This edition of The Adams Papers
is sponsored by the massachusetts historical society
to which the adams manuscript trust
by a deed of gift dated 4 April 1956
gave ultimate custody of the personal and public papers
written, accumulated, and preserved over a span of three centuries
by the Adams family of Massachusetts
illustration
{p. R6}

The Adams Papers

ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE

  • Charles Francis Adams
  • John Adams
  • Thomas Boylston Adams
  • James Barr Ames
  • Emily Morison Beck
  • Theodore Chase
  • Lilian Handlin
  • Edward C. Johnson 3d
  • Henry Lee
  • Hiller B. Zobel

EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

  • Joyce O. Appleby
  • Bernard Bailyn
  • Joan R. Challinor
  • David Herbert Donald
  • William M. Fowler Jr.
  • Linda K. Kerber
  • Thomas K. McCraw
  • Ernest Samuels
  • Robert J. Taylor
  • Gordon S. Wood
The acorn and oakleaf device on the preceding page is redrawn from a seal cut for John Quincy Adams after 1830. The motto is from Caecilius Statius as quoted by Cicero in the First Tusculan Disputation: Serit arbores quae alteri seculo prosint (“He plants trees for the benefit of later generations”).
{p. R7}

Contents

  • Descriptive List of Illustrations ix
  • Introduction xv
    • 1. Paris and Amsterdam in 1780 xv
    • 2. John Adams and his Letterbooks xix
    • 3. Notes on Editorial Method xx
  • Acknowledgments xxv
  • Guide to Editorial Apparatus xxvi
    • 1. Textual Devices xxvi
    • 2. Adams Family Code Names xxvi
    • 3. Descriptive Symbols xxvii
    • 4. Location Symbols xxviii
    • 5. Other Abbreviations and Conventional Terms xxix
    • 6. Short Titles of Works Frequently Cited xxx
  • Papers of John Adams, March 1780–July 1780 1
{p. R8} {p. R9}

Descriptive List of Illustrations

 

Thomas Attwood Digges, Attributed to Sir Joshua Reynolds, ca. 1775–1781 9

This portrait, reproduced from a photograph that appeared in the Records of the Columbia Historical Society in 1904, was in the Digges family's possession until 1957. Its present location is unknown.
The letter of 3 March 1780 from Thomas Attwood Digges (1742–1821) to John Adams (below) opened a correspondence that endured less than three years, but is one of the most valuable in John Adams' career. Digges, a Maryland merchant living in London, carried on a parallel correspondence with Benjamin Franklin, was active in prisoner relief efforts, and had ties to such British supporters of the American cause as David Hartley (Digges, Letters , p. xxiii–liv). Writing under a variety of pseudonyms, Digges supplied John Adams with news gleaned from London newspapers and was Adams' primary source for pamphlets written in the ongoing British debate over the American war. It was through Digges, for example, that Adams received Thomas Pownall's A Memorial, Most Humbly Addressed to the Sovereigns of Europe, on the Present State of Affairs, Between the Old and New World, London, 1780; and Joseph Galloway's Cool Thoughts (London, 1780 [i.e. 1779]). John Adams' letters to Digges consist of appeals for additional printed material, requests for more information on current events, and comments on British policies. Of particular interest are the letters exchanged following Henry Laurens' October imprisonment in the Tower of London, for while Digges lacked direct access to Laurens, he spoke with those who did and kept Adams informed of Laurens' situation. Also of interest is Digges' involvement in the events surrounding the British arrest of the American artist John Trumbull in November, and his efforts, as an Anglo-Dutch war became inevitable, to conceal his American identity in letters sent to Adams at Amsterdam.
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
 

Thomas Pownall, by Henry Cheever Pratt, 1861 165

This treatment of Thomas Pownall is based on a 1777 engraving by Richard Earlom of a portrait by Francis Cotes.
Thomas Pownall (1722–1805) served as governor of Massachusetts from 1757 to 1759. According to John Adams, he was a good governor and for that very reason removed (to Edmund Jenings, 18 July, vol. 10). Pownall returned to England and sat in Parliament from 1767 {p. R10} to 1780, during which time he was sympathetic to the Americans in their dispute with the mother country, at one point even urging that the colonies be given representatives in Parliament ( DAB ; Namier and Brooke, House of Commons ; DNB ). But Pownall is best known for his seminal work The Administration of the Colonies (London, 1764), in which he proposed a unified colonial administration that would take full advantage of the colonies' growing economic potential. It was from that work that Pownall derived A Memorial, Most Humbly Addressed to the Sovereigns of Europe, on the Present State of Affairs, Between the Old and New World (London, 1780). The Memorial, like the Administration, emphasized North America's growing economic importance, but in it Pownall called for the restoration of peace so that Anglo-American commerce could be restored. By 1780, he believed that the colonies were irretrievably lost and that continued war endangered Britain's vital economic interests.
Thomas Pownall's influence on John Adams has been overlooked. This is unfortunate because the Memorial had a profound effect on Adams' views regarding the prospects for peace, postwar Anglo-American relations, and the course of American foreign policy. Adams believed that the importance of Pownall's work was obscured by the awkwardness of his prose and undertook to revise the Memorial so as to focus its arguments and emphasize those points he believed most crucial. Adams reduced Pownall's 127-page pamphlet by half and sent it off to Congress. He then prepared his manuscript for publication and it subsequently appeared under the titles Pensées sur la révolution de l'Amérique-Unie, extraites de l'ouvrage anglois, intitulé mémoire, addressé aux souverains de l'Europe, sur l'état présent des affaires de l'ancien et du nouveau-monde (Amsterdam, 1780) and A Translation of the Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe upon the Present State of Affairs Between the Old and New World into Common Sense and Intelligible English (London, 1781). The French version was intended to build support in the Netherlands for the American cause and assist Adams in raising a loan. The English version, which Adams would have preferred to see published in 1780, was part of a concerted effort by Adams to promote an Anglo-American peace in the summer of that year. That effort failed and, in fact, Adams never received credit for the Translation, which was usually attributed to Edmund Jenings.
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
 

Map of Paris, 1780 382

The Paris that John Adams knew in 1780 was a city of about 500,000 people concentrated in a relatively small area, leaving large open spaces on its borders. John Adams lived in the Hôtel de Valois at 17 Rue de Richelieu. He had stopped there briefly in 1778, before joining Benjamin Franklin in Passy, and would return for brief periods in 1781 and 1782. The Rue de Richelieu is approximately {p. R11} one-half mile long and extends from the Rue St. Honoré on the south to what is now the Boulevard des Italiens on the north. In 1780 it was home to luxurious hotels, theaters, gambling houses, and merchants such as the stationer Furgault from whom Adams bought several Letterbooks. Adams' hotel was on the west side of the street near its southern end, opposite the gardens of the Palais Royal, where Paris' rumormongers gathered beneath the “tree of Cracovie” (to James Warren, 18 March, below). Just to the north and also on the opposite side of the street was the Bibliothèque du Roi, now the Bibliothèque Nationale.
John Adams' hotel in the heart of Paris placed him in close proximity to its many sights. His letter to C. W. F. Dumas of 6 June (below) indicates that he enjoyed his walks about Paris and in a letter to his wife Adams marveled at the gardens of the Palais Royal and the Tuileries as well as the many squares and statues that graced the city. But John Adams devoted little time to describing the sights of Paris, an omission that he explained in a famous passage that reveals much about Adams' view of his pivotal roles as diplomat, revolutionary, and politician. “I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine” (to Abigail Adams, [post 12 May 1780] , Adams Family Correspondence , 3:341–342). It is to John Quincy Adams, therefore, that one looks for descriptions of the Hôtel de Valois and the Rue de Richelieu.
In 1815, during Napoleon's Hundred Days, John Quincy Adams lodged at the Hôtel du Nord, 97 Rue de Richelieu. Adams described the street as “one of the greatest thoroughfares in Paris,” and remarked that it looked “exactly like the Rue de Richelieu where I first alighted with my father in April 1778.” The Hôtel de Valois, however, had not stood the test of time so well. In 1778 and 1780 it had been “a magnificent and elegantly furnished hotel,” but in 1815 it was “no longer what it was, and the chambers and the furniture equally indicate the depredations of Time” (JQA, Diary, 5 and 12 Feb. 1815, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848 , ed. Charles Francis Adams, Phila., 1874–1877, 12 vols., 3:155; JQA to AA, 21 Feb. 1815, Adams Papers, The Writings of John Quincy Adams, ed. Worthington C. Ford, N.Y., 1913–1917, 7 vols., 5:277).
This folding map of Paris and its suburbs is an engraving on laid paper attached to a linen backing. It measures 30.5 inches x 21.5 inches and is drawn at a scale of 500 toises (fathoms, or 3,000 feet) per 4 inches. It was presumably obtained from the stationer Lattré in Bordeaux. The name below the map's title is traced over an earlier, penciled effort and is not by John Adams. On the reverse is the notation, “Map of Paris F. Dana. 1780.”
From the original in the Adams Papers.
{p. R12}  

Lord George Gordon, 1780 395

Between 2 and 9 June 1780, London was convulsed by the Gordon Riots. Named for Lord George Gordon (1751–1793), member of Parliament and president of the London Protestant Association, the riots are described by Thomas Digges in his letter of 8 June (below). The disorders began when Gordon, whom John Adams earlier compared with Oliver Cromwell and declared to be “the only Man of Common sense” in Parliament for his stance on Anglo-American peace (to Edmé Jacques Genet, 20 May, below), led 60,000 marchers to the Houses of Parliament to present a petition against the Catholic Relief Act of 1778. That law did little more than allow Catholics who had taken an oath of loyalty to worship freely and purchase and inherit land, but was a convenient vehicle for violent reaction against government authority and Irish Catholic laborers who competed with English Protestants for jobs. The rioters paralyzed the government, opened the prisons, mounted an abortive assault on the Bank of England, and destroyed the property of both Catholics and prominent members of Parliament. The riots, put down by massive military intervention, resulted in nearly 800 deaths and the end of parliamentary reform. Gordon was later tried and acquitted of inciting the riots (Christopher Hibbert, King Mob: The Story of Lord George Gordon and the London Riots of 1780, Cleveland, 1958; Morris, Peacemakers , p. 67–87). John Adams saw the riots as evidence of Britain's accelerating decline, which could be slowed or stopped only by concluding an Anglo-American peace.
This cartoon by R. Bran was published by John Harris on 4 August 1780. Lord George Gordon is shown standing above St. George's Fields, across the Thames from Parliament, where the marchers gathered to accompany Gordon to present the petition. His cane points to the “Protestant Petition,” while his right foot rests on a book inscribed “Popery.” Behind him are orderly groups of marchers, labeled A, B, C, and D, representing those from Southwark, London, Westminster, and Scotland, respectively (British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, comp. Mary Dorothy George, [London], 1935, 5:No. 5694).
Courtesy of the British Museum, London.
 

“Vergennes's Snarling, Growling Letters” 454

Few comments by John Adams better capture the essence of his relationship with the Comte de Vergennes in 1780 than this entry on the index page of Letterbook No. 11. The Letterbook is entitled “Paris 1780 From Feb. 12. to September 12 Peace, Correspondence with Vergennes & others.” As noted on its first page it contains letters to and from the French ministry, but they date from 31 December 1779 to 29 July 1780. The date 12 September refers to two notes by John Thaxter indicating that Francis Dana was carrying to Adams in Amsterdam duplicates of several letters exchanged by Vergennes and Adams.
The correspondence between John Adams and the Comte de Vergennes in 1780 is important for any study of John Adams' diplo• {p. R13} matic career. This is particularly true of the letters exchanged in June and July concerning Congress' revaluation of the Continental currency, French aid to the United States, and Adams' exercise of his powers to negotiate Anglo-American peace and commercial treaties. On each of these issues the two men were sharply divided, and while there was some substance in Adams' description of Vergennes' letters as “snarling” and “growling,” Vergennes might, with equal justification, have described Adams' letters in similar terms. Vergennes broke off further correspondence with John Adams with his letter of 29 July, but by then Adams had left Paris for Amsterdam, not to return until mid-1781 when Vergennes summoned him to discuss the Austro-Russian mediation proposal.
The word “Vindication” that Adams placed beside the entries for his two letters of 22 June is also significant. Those letters defended Congress' decision on 18 March to revalue its currency at 40 to 1 and opposed exempting French merchants from the effect of the action. Clearly Adams believed that he had vindicated Congress' position; in December Congress voted to commend him for his defense of the revaluation.
From the original in the Adams Papers.
 

Joseph Galloway, Etching by Max Rosenthal 535

Joseph Galloway (1731–1803), formerly a Pennsylvania politician, associate of Benjamin Franklin, and member of the First Continental Congress, was in 1780 an exile in London and the leading loyalist advocate of the military conquest of the colonies. John Adams believed that “a meaner, falser, heart, never circulated Blood” (to Edmund Jenings, 18 July, vol. 10). Adams considered Galloway a traitor for abandoning the American cause and serving under Gen. William Howe as superintendent-general of Philadelphia during the British occupation, but more particularly for his pamphlet Cool Thoughts (London, 1780 [i.e. 1779]). That pamphlet, which argued that Britain's loss of its American empire would so weaken the nation as to expose it to foreign conquest, spurred John Adams to write twelve letters in reply, ten of which were published in 1782 as “Letters from a Distinguished American.” For a discussion of Galloway's Cool Thoughts and the text of Adams' reply, accompanied by an examination of its origin, significance, and publication, see “Letters from a Distinguished American,” [ante 14–22 July] (below).
Courtesy of the Yale University Library.
{p. R14} {p. R15}

Introduction

Docno: PJA09d001

Paris and Amsterdam in 1780

John Adams ended the year 1780 by observing that it had been “the most anxious and mortifying Year of my whole Life.”1 The documents presented in volumes 9 and 10 supply ample evidence of the anxiety and mortification that he experienced, but they also offer an unparalleled portrait of Adams the diplomat, first at Paris, as he tried against all odds to initiate Anglo-American peace negotiations, and then at Amsterdam, as he sought against equally formidable obstacles to encourage European political and financial support for the American cause.
John Adams was named minister to negotiate Anglo-American peace and commercial treaties on 27 September 1779, and by early February 1780, after a perilous voyage on the French frigate La Sensible and an arduous trek through Spain, he reached Paris.2 There, with his sons John Quincy and Charles, and secretaries Francis Dana and John Thaxter, Adams took up residence at the Hôtel de Valois on the Rue de Richelieu. Adams remained in Paris through July, seeking to execute his mission in the face of vigorous opposition from the French foreign minister, the Comte de Vergennes. The French minister feared that Adams' efforts to bring the North ministry to the negotiating table would only divide the Franco-American alliance and encourage the common enemy. Historians have long focused on the two men's sharp exchanges over Adams' mission as well as their views of Congress' revaluation of its currency, and the adequacy of French military and financial aid to the United States. But the present volumes do not merely lay out the dramatic Adams-Vergennes correspondence, they also illuminate Adams' motives in his dispute with Vergennes.
The single most important document for understanding Adams' view of Franco-American and Anglo-American relations and his con• {p. R16} duct as a diplomat is his reworking of Thomas Pownall's A Memorial, Most Humbly Addressed to the Sovereigns of Europe, on the Present State of Affairs, Between the Old and New World (London, 1780). Adams published his revision as Pensées sur la révolution de l'Amérique-Unie, extraites de l'ouvrage anglois, intitulé mémoire, addressé aux souverains de l'Europe, sur l'état présent des affaires de l'ancien et du nouveau-monde (Amsterdam, 1780), and as A Translation of the Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe upon the Present State of Affairs Between the Old and New World into Common Sense and Intelligible English (London, 1781).3 Pownall's pamphlet was the catalyst that prompted Adams to draw together his own ideas and form a coherent view of American foreign policy that would be his guide in all future diplomatic endeavors.
Adams saw Pownall's notion that Britain's political and economic welfare demanded peace and free trade as a wedge that he might use to open peace negotiations. This strategy, and a growing perception of France as an obstacle to peace, prompted Adams to reply to a pamphlet entitled Cool Thoughts (London, 1780 [i.e. 1779]), written by Joseph Galloway, a loyalist exile and former Pennsylvania politician. Adams' rebuttal, entitled “Letters from a Distinguished American” when published in 1782, countered Galloway's justification for Britain's continuation of the war and, as an inducement to those Englishmen for whom the Franco-American alliance was an obstacle to peace, declared that the alliance would last no longer than the war.4 These and other documents show that as Adams' conflict with Vergennes intensified, he was drawn to the possibility of a peace settlement in 1780. And as this vision grew stronger, his willingness to accept Vergennes' concerns as valid diminished. This led to increasingly contentious exchanges in June and July, and, on 29 July, Vergennes broke off all relations with Adams. Two days earlier, however, Adams had left Paris to go to Holland for what he believed would be a brief visit.5
Adams had no suspicion, upon his arrival at Amsterdam in mid August, that he was beginning a most important two-year mission to the Netherlands. But in October, he learned that Henry Laurens, Congress' minister to the Netherlands, had been captured and im• {p. R17} prisoned in London. Using his authorization from Congress to act in Laurens' place, Adams intensified his efforts to promote American interests and took on the role of de facto minister to the Netherlands. Despite the friendship and support offered him by individuals, Adams' letters indicate his surprise at finding far less Dutch support for America than he had expected. In an effort to advance the American cause, he cultivated the friendship of such men as Hendrik Calkoen, an Amsterdam lawyer; Jean Luzac, editor of the Gazette de Leyde; Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol, the highest ranking Dutch partisan of the American cause; Antoine Marie Cerisier, a pro-American publicist; and Hendrik Bicker, a leading Amsterdam banker. Adams exchanged letters with each of these men, but two are of particular interest: Calkoen posed a series of questions to Adams, who replied with twenty-six letters that emphasized the bond between the Dutch and American republics, each having its origin in a revolt against a despotic occupying power;6 and Luzac proved an important ally by publishing Adams' Pensées and offering his newspaper as a ready forum for Adams' contributions.
With few exceptions, such as a brief correspondence on the production and quality of Bordeaux wines,7 the documents in these volumes reflect John Adams' devotion to the business of diplomacy. Adams conducted an extensive, but one-sided, correspondence with Congress. He requested intelligence and instructions on such matters as a truce and his relations with Vergennes, but received little in return. Most of his eighty-seven letters written to Congress from March through July concerned such matters as the League of Armed Neutrality, the County Association Movement in England, the Gordon Riots, and British, French, and Spanish military and naval deployments. Adams became Congress' principal source of European intelligence, obtaining his information from British and European newspapers, and from such men as Edmund Jenings and William Lee at Brussels, Thomas Digges at London, John Bondfield at Bordeaux, Joshua Johnson at Nantes, and Joseph Gardoqui at Bilbao.
To dispel misperceptions about the American cause and promote his peace initiative, Adams supplied Edmé Jacques Genet with items for his Mercure de France and sent pieces to Edmund Jenings for publication in England. He tried to avoid involving himself in Ben• {p. R18} jamin Franklin's business, and when he was forced to, as in the controversy over Pierre Landais' command of the frigate Alliance, he did so reluctantly.8 Adams wrote to friends in America, such as Samuel Adams, James Lovell, Benjamin Rush, and James Warren, and received useful information on political and military events in return, but his trans-Atlantic correspondence was relatively sparse, and he often complained that inadequate American intelligence hindered his efforts in Europe.
Fewer letters are printed for the five months of 1780 that John Adams spent in Amsterdam than for the similar span of his residence in Paris. This is because Adams wrote fewer letters to Congress, had no correspondence with the Dutch government, failed to record some letters in his Letterbooks, and had a smaller circle of acquaintances. He continued to correspond with Edmund Jenings, Thomas Digges, and William Lee, all of whom wrote on the steadily deteriorating state of Anglo-Dutch relations. Although he wrote fewer letters to Congress, those that he did write were more substantive. Many were intended to inform Congress about the complex nature of the Dutch government, if only to make clear the reasons for his apparent lack of success.
These volumes show John Adams to be an active, intelligent diplomat, determined to further his nation's interests as he saw them. His actions, whether at Paris or Amsterdam, were carefully calculated to promote his view of American foreign policy. But unlike most of his contemporaries, Adams was as concerned with the long-term as he was with the short-term interests of the United States. While in France, this led him to revise Pownall's Memorial, debate the Comte de Vergennes over the existing and future Franco-American relationship, and attempt to initiate peace negotiations. In the Netherlands, particularly after learning of Henry Laurens' capture, Adams began efforts to raise a loan and opened a propaganda offensive to educate the Dutch about the American cause. For John Adams, 1780 was anxious and mortifying because so much had been tried and so little accomplished, but he could hope that “more Vigour, Wisdom and Decision may govern the Councils, Negotiations and Operations of Mankind in the Year 1781.”9
{p. R19}

John Adams and His Letterbooks

John Adams' Letterbooks are indispensable because they often permit the reconstruction of an entire correspondence when Adams' original, outgoing letters have been lost, and because they supply text that is missing from damaged recipient's copies. From 1 March through 31 December 1780, John Adams recorded most of his public and private letters in Letterbooks numbered 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14; which appear respectively on reels 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, and 102 of the Adams Papers microfilm. The first three, containing copies of public and private letters for the period from November 1779 through July 1780, have been described in the Introduction to volumes 7 and 8, which also contains a general discussion of the nature of John Adams' Letterbooks.10
Letterbook 12, entitled “Paris 1780 From June 10. to August 14. 1780. Peace.,” contains twenty letters to the president of Congress.11 Numbered 81 to 100, these copies are, with the exception of a portion of No. 91 and all of No. 100, drafts in John Adams' hand and complete the record, begun in Letterbook 10, of his correspondence with Congress from his arrival in Spain in 1779 to his departure from France in 1780.12 As in Letterbook 10, John Thaxter's notations explain the means by which the letters were sent to Congress. The letters fill 68 pages of the 292-page Letterbook, the remainder of which is blank, except for ten pages near the end where Thaxter recorded statistics on population, trade, weather, and the costs of outfitting naval vessels. The intended use of this material is unknown.
Letterbook 13, entitled “Holland 1780 Vol. 1. From August 14. 1780 to Feb. 7. 1781 and Letters to The P.H. Jan. 22. 1782 Pol. Holl.,” contains John Adams' letters to the president of Congress written at Amsterdam between 14 August 1780 and 7 February 1781. Adams restarted his numbering system upon arriving at Amsterdam so the first letter is No. 1 and the last, “never sent nor copied,” is No. 44. The letters to Congress are followed by drafts of four letters to {p. R20} Antoine Marie Cerisier, publisher of Le politique hollandais, that were done on or about 22 January 1782, in which Adams commented on Révolution de l'Amérique by Guillaume Thomas François, Abbé Raynal.13 Adams used 102 pages of Letterbook 13, leaving the rest blank.
Letterbook 14 contains 203 private letters, many of these copies by John Thaxter, and is entitled “Holland August 17. 1780 to April [1782] Amsterdam Leyden.” It begins with John Adams' letter of 17 August 1780 to Francis Dana and ends with that of 26 April 1782 to the Amsterdam merchant John Hodshon. Adams wrote one hundred of these letters in 1780, the last being that of 18 December to Edmund Jenings. Unfortunately, he recorded no letters between 10 and 16 December or between 19 December 1780 and 15 January 1781. This has resulted in the loss of an undetermined number of letters to Thomas Digges, William Lee, and others.

Notes on Editorial Method

Since the first volumes of the Papers of John Adams appeared in 1977, some changes have occurred in the editorial method. Most have been refinements, resulting from the need to deal with specific problems that arose during the editorial process, but it seems appropriate here to reiterate the central aspects of the editorial method common to all volumes and to make clear the principles that have guided the editors in the preparation of the present volumes.
The decision to print, calendar, or omit a document is based on how well it illuminates John Adams' thoughts and personal behavior. The degree to which Adams played a role in a document's creation is of paramount concern in deciding whether to include it. The editors also consider whether a document is a repetition of a letter already printed or calendared; is a routine letter of transmittal or recommendation; or is a letter to Adams requesting help or favors. All letters omitted from volumes 9 and 10 are listed in the Appendix immediately preceding the index.
Most of the 131 letters that John Adams wrote to the president of Congress from March through December 1780 have been calendared. Almost all of them appear in Francis Wharton's Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, and consist of extracts {p. R21} from printed sources, material taken from letters to Adams, or comments repeated by him in letters to other correspondents. A letter to the president of Congress is printed in the Papers of John Adams when Wharton's version differs materially from either the recipient's copy or Adams' Letterbook copy, or when it led directly to action by Congress, was a request for instructions, or presents a significant analysis of an important issue not repeated elsewhere. This last consideration has resulted in the publication of a higher percentage of Adams' letters written at Amsterdam than at Paris.
One change in the format of calendar entries should be noted. Endorsements on calendared letters will be omitted when they merely indicate a letter's date and author and provide a brief summary of its contents. The date on which the letter was received or read in Congress, if indicated, will be noted in the text of the calendar. Letterbook copies of Adams' letters to Congress will not be routinely mentioned if the only reason for doing so is to indicate a letter's number, but if it contains a substantial notation the Letterbook copy will be indicated and the notation included.
Other categories of documents also need to be mentioned. In these and other volumes, the editors have presented a few important documents written by John Adams, or by him in collaboration with others, in more than one form. The changes and development of the text in these cases is too elaborate to handle clearly with editorial apparatus and footnotes joined to only one printed text.14 French and Dutch documents are followed by an English translation in which the footnote numbers are repeated. Translations provided by the editors appear in a smaller typeface, but when a contemporary translation used by John Adams in the course of his activities is available, it has been used in preference to a modern one because of its historical relevance. Because it then constitutes a separate document, it is set in the normal font size. Third-party documents, those involving Adams but not written by or sent to him, are occasionally included based on the editors' judgment of their intrinsic worth to the study of our subject.
Letters or documents often exist in more than one form. When multiple copies of the same letter were sent, we print the copy that was received first. When another copy of the text exists (i.e. draft, {p. R22} Letterbook copy), differences between that and the printed text are noted when they reveal something about the intentions, style, and mood of the author. Copies of letters that were made from the recipient's copy ordinarily are not referred to in our descriptive note on the text; if significant, they are mentioned in the footnotes.
Our primary purpose is to present a text that can be read by both scholars and the general public, while striving faithfully to retain the spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation of the original manuscript. While no transcription policy can take care of all questions that will arise, the following practices guide us in our efforts.
Punctuation follows that in the manuscript with the following rules for intelligibility. All sentence breaks are retained as in the manuscript, but when needed we silently supply an uppercase letter at the beginning of the sentence and a period at the end. Dashes obviously intended to be terminal marks are converted to periods, and superfluous dashes are removed, but dashes evidently intended to indicate breaks or shifts in thought or used as semi-paragraphing devices are retained. Minimum punctuation for intelligibility is silently supplied in dialogue and quoted matter. If quotation marks appear only at one end or the other of a passage of direct discourse, the matching pair is supplied without notation when its location is clearly determinable, but quotation marks are not systematically inserted according to modern usage. The editors have refrained from altering, suppressing, or supplying punctuation in passages that are truly ambiguous. When punctuation is supplied in a passage where there could be more than one reading, it is always noted.
Abbreviations and contractions are preserved as found in names of persons and places; in the datelines, salutations, and complimentary closes of letters; in endorsements and docketings; in units of money and measurement; and in accounts and other tabular documents. They are also retained elsewhere if they are still in use or are recognizable. Ambiguous abbreviations are silently expanded when the editors are certain of their meaning. Abbreviations that are indeterminate or questionable are expanded in brackets following the abbreviation. Where abbreviations are retained, superscript letters used to indicate contractions are brought down to the line. The ampersand is retained in the form “&c.” and in the names of firms; elsewhere it is rendered as “and.”
Missing and illegible matter is indicated by square brackets enclosing the editors' conjectural readings (with a question mark appended if the reading is doubtful), or by suspension points if no reading can {p. R23} be given. If only a portion of a word is missing, it may be silently supplied when there is no doubt about the reading. When the missing or illegible matter amounts to more than one or two words, a footnote estimating its amount is attached.
Canceled matter in the manuscripts is included when it is of stylistic, psychological, or historical interest. In our text such passages are italicized and enclosed in angle brackets. If a revised equivalent of a canceled passage remains in the text, the canceled matter always precedes it.
Variant readings (variations in text between two or more versions of the same letter or document) are indicated when they are significant enough to warrant recording, and then always in footnotes keyed to the basic text that is printed in full.
Editorial insertions are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.
In recent years the editors have tended to a slightly more literal rendering of the text, especially in retaining peculiar but often consistent punctuation and abbreviation oddities. This practice reflects the expanded awareness and expectations of both our academic and general audiences. The editors know, however, that there is no way to give the reader a completely literal textual reproduction except by document facsimile.
In addition to the 627 letters and documents in these two volumes and the 168 omitted letters listed at the end of vol. 10, over 100 letters by or to several Adamses for the period March–December 1780 appear in Adams Family Correspondence , vol. 3:292–425, and vol. 4:1–56. The most important of these, for a full appreciation of John Adams' public career in 1780, are 21 letters from John to Abigail Adams, and 14 letters from Abigail to John. Another 13 letters written by John to Abigail, and 4 by Abigail to John, from November 1779 through February 1780, also contain much valuable material for this same period. Other important correspondences in the Family volumes for 1780 include those between John Adams and John Quincy Adams, Richard Cranch, Isaac Smith Sr., John Thaxter, and Cotton Tufts; interesting views of John Adams' life in Europe and commentary on public matters appear in Abigail Adams' correspondence with John Quincy Adams, Elbridge Gerry, James Lovell, John Thaxter, and Mercy Otis Warren. The Diary and Autobiography of John Adams , especially vol. 2:344–453, and vol. 4:173–254, and the Diary of John Quincy Adams , vol. 1:1–75, are most helpful in understanding John Adams' diplomatic mission and in following his travels through Europe in 1779–1780.
 
1. To the president of Congress, 31 Dec., No. 35 (below).
 
2. JCC , 15:1113. For JA's activities in Paris during February, see vol. 8:320–380.
 
3. See A Translation of Thomas Pownall's Memorial, 19 April–[ca. 14 July] (below).
 
4. See “Letters from a Distinguished American,” [ante 14–22 July] (below).
 
5. SeeThe Revaluation Controversy, 16 June–1 July; and The Dispute with the Comte de Vergennes, 13–29 July (both below).
 
6. See Replies to Hendrik Calkoen, 4–27 Oct. (below).
 
7. See JA to John Bondfield, 2 April; B. de Cabarrus Jeune to JA, 8 April; and John Bondfield to JA, 12 April (all below).
 
8. See Franklin's letter of [ante 26 June] and JA's reply of 26 June (both below).
 
9. To the president of Congress, 31 Dec., No. 35 (below).
 
10. Introduction, part 2, “John Adams and his Letterbooks,” 7:xxv–xxvii; see also notes 37 and 38 there for Letterbook 9, AA's only attempt to keep a Letterbook; and Letterbook 34, containing a record of JA's expenses from February through July 1780.
 
11. On the inside front cover is a bookplate for “Furgault, Marchand de Papiers,” the same stationer from whom JA had purchased Letterbooks 10 and 11.
 
12. In letter No. 91, John Thaxter finished copying the text of a memorial from Amsterdam merchants to the States General. Letter No. 100, dated 14 Aug., was inserted by Thaxter while JA was in Amsterdam and has not been printed; see JA to the president of Congress, No. 1, 14 Aug., note 1 (below).
 
13. See JA's letter of 9 Dec. to James Warren, note 1 (below).
 
14. See also the Editorial Note to A Translation of Thomas Pownall's Memorial, 19 April–[ca. 14 July], and No. II there, Translation of Thomas Pownall's Memorial, [ca. 8–14 July], descriptive note (both below).
{p. R24} {p. R25}

Acknowledgments

Docno: PJA09d002
The titlepage is far too small to list all those to whom the editors owe a large debt of gratitude for their assistance in preparing these volumes. Lisa S. Peck verified most of the annotation. Her sharp eye helped the editors avoid error and her critical mind suggested new avenues of investigation. Former Assistant Editor Keith Schlesinger contributed to the initial editing of volume 9. Laura Graham assisted in the final stages of production during her tenure as a National Historical Publications and Records Commission fellow at the Adams Papers. As in previous volumes, most of the French translations are by Viola Thomas, but two are by a new contributor, Arthur Goldhammer. Karen Engle helped with the transcription of the Dutch text of Hendrik Calkoen's letter of 31 August 1780, and Professor Richard Thomas of the Department of Classics at Harvard University assisted with Latin translations. Jonathan Dull of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin answered questions about John Adams' colleague in Paris.
These volumes could not have been produced without the devoted assistance of our colleagues at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Particular appreciation is owed Louis Leonard Tucker, Director, Peter Drummey, Librarian, Mary E. Cogswell, former Associate Librarian, and to library staff members Aimée Bligh and Virginia H. Smith, as well as to Chris Steele, Curator of Photographs. We would also like to thank the devoted members of the Adams Papers Administrative Committee, listed on p. vi above, who in recent years have assumed an increased responsibility in response to new financial challenges for the project.
Finally, Harvard University Press provided the Adams Papers staff with support as we took over responsibility for typesetting and producing camera-ready copy. We would like to thank the Press' Production Manager John Walsh as well as our typesetters Kevin and Ken Krugh of Technologies 'N Typography for their help in guiding us through unfamiliar territory. Elizabeth Suttell of the Press' editorial department has given us timely advice and assistance. Our editor for three decades at the Press, Ann Louise Coffin McLaughlin, has continued in retirement to encourage and support our efforts.
{p. R26}

Guide to Editorial Apparatus

In the first three sections (1–3) of the six sections of this Guide are listed, respectively, the arbitrary devices used for clarifying the text, the code names for designating prominent members of the Adams family, and the symbols describing the various kinds of MS originals used or referred to, that are employed throughout The Adams Papers in all its series and parts. In the final three sections (4–6) are listed, respectively, only those symbols designating institutions holding original materials, the various abbreviations and conventional terms, and the short titles of books and other works, that occur in volumes 9 and 10 of the Papers of John Adams. The editors propose to maintain this pattern for the Guide to Editorial Apparatus in each of the smaller units, published at intervals, of all the series and parts of the edition that are so extensive as to continue through many volumes. On the other hand, in short and specialized series and/or parts of the edition, the Guide to Editorial Apparatus will be given more summary form tailored to its immediate purpose.

Textual Devices

The following devices will be used throughout The Adams Papers to clarify the presentation of the text.
[...], [....]   One or two words missing and not conjecturable.  
[...], [....]   More than two words missing and not conjecturable; subjoined footnote estimates amount of missing matter.  
[ ]   Number or part of a number missing or illegible. Amount of blank space inside brackets approximates the number of missing or illegible digits.  
[roman]   Conjectural reading for or editorial expansion of missing or illegible matter. A question mark is inserted before the closing bracket if the conjectural reading is seriously doubtful.  
<italic>   Matter canceled in the manuscript but restored in the text.  
[italic]   Matter editorially inserted.  

Adams Family Code Names

First Generation    
JA   John Adams (1735–1826)  
AA   Abigail Adams (1744–1818), m. JA 1764  
{p. R27}
Second Generation    
JQA   John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), son of JA and AA  
LCA   Louisa Catherine Johnson (1775–1852), m. JQA 1797  
CA   Charles Adams (1770–1800), son of JA and AA  
Mrs. CA   Sarah Smith (1769–1828), sister of WSS, m. CA 1795  
TBA   Thomas Boylston Adams (1772–1832), son of JA and AA  
Mrs. TBA   Ann Harrod (1774?–1845), m. TBA 1805  
AA2   Abigail Adams (1765–1813), daughter of JA and AA, m. WSS 1786  
WSS   William Stephens Smith (1755–1816), brother of Mrs. CA  
Third Generation    
GWA   George Washington Adams (1801–1829), son of JQA and LCA  
JA2   John Adams (1803–1834), son of JQA and LCA  
Mrs. JA2   Mary Catherine Hellen (1806?–1870), m. JA2 1828  
CFA   Charles Francis Adams (1807–1886), son of JQA and LCA  
ABA   Abigail Brown Brooks (1808–1889), m. CFA 1829  
ECA   Elizabeth Coombs Adams (1808–1903), daughter of TBA and Mrs. TBA  
Fourth Generation    
JQA2   John Quincy Adams (1833–1894), son of CFA and ABA  
CFA2   Charles Francis Adams (1835–1915), son of CFA and ABA  
HA   Henry Adams (1838–1918), son of CFA and ABA  
MHA   Marian Hooper (1842–1885), m. HA 1872  
BA   Brooks Adams (1848–1927), son of CFA and ABA  
LCA2   Louisa Catherine Adams (1831–1870), daughter of CFA and ABA, m. Charles Kuhn 1854  
MA   Mary Adams (1845–1928), daughter of CFA and ABA, m. Henry Parker Quincy 1877  
Fifth Generation    
CFA3   Charles Francis Adams (1866–1954), son of JQA2  
HA2   Henry Adams (1875–1951), son of CFA2  
JA3   John Adams (1875–1964), son of CFA2  

Descriptive Symbols

The following symbols will be employed throughout The Adams Papers to describe or identify in brief form the various kinds of manuscript originals.
D   Diary (Used only to designate a diary written by a member of the Adams family and always in combination with the short form of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: D/JA/23, i.e. the twenty-third fascicle or volume of John Adams' manuscript Diary.)  
Dft   draft  
Dupl   duplicate  
FC   file copy (Ordinarily a copy of a letter retained by a correspondent other than an Adams, for example Jefferson's press copies and {p. R28} polygraph copies, since all three of the Adams statesmen systematically entered copies of their outgoing letters in letterbooks.)  
Lb   Letterbook (Used only to designate Adams letterbooks and always in combination with the short form of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: Lb/JQA/29, i.e. the twenty-ninth volume of John Quincy Adams' Letterbooks.)  
LbC   letterbook copy (Letterbook copies are normally unsigned, but any such copy is assumed to be in the hand of the person responsible for the text unless it is otherwise described.)  
M   Miscellany (Used only to designate materials in the section of the Adams Papers known as the “Miscellany” and always in combination with the short form of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: M/CFA/32, i.e. the thirty-second volume of the Charles Francis Adams Miscellany—a ledger volume mainly containing transcripts made by CFA in 1833 of selections from the family papers.)  
MS, MSS   manuscript, manuscripts  
RC   recipient's copy (A recipient's copy is assumed to be in the hand of the signer unless it is otherwise described.)  
Tr   transcript (A copy, handwritten or typewritten, made substantially later than the original or than other copies—such as duplicates, file copies, letterbook copies—that were made contemporaneously.)  
Tripl   triplicate  

Location Symbols

CLjC   James S. Copley Library, La Jolla, Calif.  
CtY   Yale University  
DLC   Library of Congress  
DNA   The National Archives  
DSI   Smithsonian Institution  
MB   Boston Public Library  
MBAt   Boston Athenaeum  
MHi   Massachusetts Historical Society  
MWiW-C   Williams College, Chapin Library  
MdHi   Maryland Historical Society  
N   New York State Library  
NHi   New-York Historical Society  
NN   New York Public Library  
NNC   Columbia University Library  
NSchU   Union College, Schenectady, N.Y.  
Nc-Ar   North Carolina State Department of Archives and History  
NjMoHP   Morristown National Historical Park  
PHi   Historical Society of Pennsylvania  
PPAmP   American Philosophical Society  
PU   University of Pennsylvania  
ScHi   South Carolina Historical Society  
ViHi   Virginia Historical Society  
{p. R29}

Other Abbreviations And Conventional Terms


  • Adams Papers
  • Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (see below). The location of materials in the Letterbooks and in the volumes of Miscellany is given more fully and, if the original would be hard to locate, by the microfilm reel number.

  • Adams Papers Editorial Files
  • Other materials in the Adams Papers editorial office, Massachusetts Historical Society. These include photoduplicated documents (normally cited by the location of the originals), photographs, correspondence, and bibliographical and other aids compiled and accumulated by the editorial staff.

  • Adams Papers, Adams Office Files
  • The portion of the Adams manuscripts given to the Massachusetts Historical Society by Thomas Boylston Adams in 1973 and retained in the editorial office of the Adams Papers.

  • Adams Papers, Microfilms
  • The corpus of the Adams Papers, 1639–1889, as published on microfilm by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1954–1959, in 608 reels. Cited in the present work, when necessary, by reel number. Available in research libraries throughout the United States and in a few libraries in Canada, Europe, and New Zealand.

  • The Adams Papers
  • The present edition in letterpress, published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. References to earlier volumes of any given unit take this form: vol. 2:146. Since there will be no over-all volume numbering for the edition, references from one series, or unit of a series, to another will be by title, volume, and page; for example, JA, Diary and Autobiography , 4:205.

  • Algemeen Rijksarchief
  • Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague.

  • Arch. Aff. Etr., Paris, Corr. Pol., E.-U.
  • Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris, Correspondance Politique, Etats-Unis.

  • Arch. de la Marine, Paris
  • Archives Centrales de la Marine, Paris.

  • Bibliothèque Nationale
  • Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

  • PCC
  • Papers of the Continental Congress. Originals in the National Archives: Record Group 360. Microfilm edition in 204 reels. Usually cited in the present work from the microfilms, but according to the original series and volume numbering devised in the State Department in the early 19th century; for example, PCC, No. 93, III, i.e. the third volume of series 93.

Short Titles of Works Frequently Cited


  • Adams Family Correspondence
  • Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963–.

  • T. R. Adams, American Controversy
  • Thomas R. Adams, The American Controversy, A Bibliographical Study of the British Pamphlets About the American Disputes, 1764–1783, Providence and New York, 1980; 2 vols.

  • Allen, Mass. Privateers
  • Gardner Weld Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution (Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, vol. 77), Boston, 1927.

  • Allen, Naval Hist. of the Amer. Revolution
  • Gardner Weld Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution, Boston and New York, 1913; 2 vols.

  • Bemis, Diplomacy of the Amer. Revolution
  • Samuel Flagg Bemis, The Diplomacy of the American Revolution: The Foundations of American Diplomacy, 1775–1823, New York and London, 1935.

  • Boston Record Commissioners, Reports
  • City of Boston, Record Commissioners, Reports, Boston, 1876–1909; 39 vols.

  • Cal. Franklin Papers, A.P.S.
  • I. Minis Hays, comp., Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1908; 5 vols.

  • Cambridge Modern Hist.
  • The Cambridge Modern History, Cambridge, Eng., 1902–1911; repr. 1969, [New York]; 12 vols.

  • Catalogue of JA's Library
  • Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917.

  • DAB
  • Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–1936; 20 vols. plus index and supplements.

  • Davies, ed., Docs. of the Amer. Rev., 1770–1783
  • Documents of the American Revolution, 1770–1783, (Colonial Office Series), ed. K. G. Davies, Irish University Press, Shannon, 1972–1981; 21 vols.

  • Deane Papers
  • Papers of Silas Deane, 1774–1790, in New-York Historical Society, Collections, Publication Fund Series, vols. 19–23, New York, 1887–1891; 5 vols.

  • De Madariaga, Armed Neutrality of 1780
  • Isabel de Madariaga, Britain, Russia and the Armed Neutrality of 1780, New Haven, 1962.

  • Dict. Amer. Fighting Ships
  • U.S. Navy Department, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History Division, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Washington, 1959–.

  • Dict. of Americanisms
  • Mitford M. Mathews, ed., A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles, Chicago, 1951.

  • Digges, Letters
  • Letters of Thomas Attwood Digges, ed. Robert H. Elias and Eugene D. Finch, Columbia, S.C., 1982.

  • DNB
  • Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1900; 63 vols. plus supplements.

  • Dull, French Navy and Amer. Independence
  • Jonathan R. Dull, The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774–1787, Princeton, 1975.

  • Edler, Dutch Republic and the American Revolution
  • Friedrich Edler, The Dutch Republic and the American Revolution, Baltimore, 1911.

  • Evans
  • Charles Evans and others, comps., American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America [1639–1800], Chicago and Worcester, 1903–1959; 14 vols.

  • Ferguson, Power of the Purse
  • E. James Ferguson, The Power of the Purse: A History of American Public Finance, 1776–1790, Chapel Hill, 1961.

  • Franklin, Papers
  • The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W. Labaree, William B. Willcox (from vol. 15), Claude A. Lopez (vol. 27), Barbara B. Oberg (from vol. 28), and others, New Haven, 1959–.

  • Gérard, Despatches and Instructions
  • Despatches and Instructions of Conrad Alexandre Gérard, 1778–1780: Correspondence of the First French Minister to the United States with the Comte de Vergennes, ed. John J. Meng, Baltimore, 1939.

  • Hamilton, Papers
  • The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Harold C. Syrett and others, 27 vols., New York, 1961–1987.

  • Heitman, Register Continental Army
  • Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, new edn., Washington, 1914.

  • Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale
  • J. C. F. Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours, Paris, 1852–1866; 46 vols.

  • JA, Corr. in the Boston Patriot
  • Correspondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts.

  • JA, Diary and Autobiography
  • Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols.

  • JA, Legal Papers
  • Legal Papers of John Adams, ed. L. Kinvin Wroth and Hiller B. Zobel, Cambridge, 1965; 3 vols.

  • JA, Papers
  • Papers of John Adams, ed. Robert J. Taylor, Gregg L. Lint and others, Cambridge, 1977–.

  • JA, Works
  • The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols.

  • JCC
  • Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols.

  • Jefferson, Papers
  • The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen (from vol. 21), John Catanzariti (from vol. 24), and others, Princeton, 1950–.

  • JQA, Diary
  • Diary of John Quincy Adams, ed. David Grayson Allen, Robert J. Taylor, and others, Cambridge, 1981–.

  • Journal of the Convention
  • Journal of the Convention for Framing a Constitution of Government for the State of Massachusetts Bay from . . . September 1, 1779 to . . . June 16, 1780, Boston, 1832.

  • Laurens, “Narrative”
  • Henry Laurens, “A Narrative of the Capture of Henry Laurens, of his Confinement in the Tower of London, &c., 1780, 1781, 1782,” South Carolina Historical Society, Collections, 1 (1857):18–83.

  • Mackesy, War for America
  • Piers Mackesy, The War for America, 1775–1783, Cambridge, 1965.

  • Mahan, Navies in the War of Amer. Independence
  • Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence, Boston, 1913.

  • Mass., Acts and Laws
  • Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [1780–1805], Boston, 1890–1898; 13 vols.

  • Mass., House Jour.
  • Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts [1715–1779], Boston, reprinted by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1919–1990.

  • Mass., Province Laws
  • The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, Boston, 1869–1922; 21 vols.

  • MHS, Colls., Procs.
  • Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections and Proceedings.

  • Miller, ed., Treaties
  • Hunter Miller, ed., Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America, Washington, 1931–1948; 8 vols.

  • Morison, John Paul Jones
  • Samuel Eliot Morison, John Paul Jones, a Sailor's Biography, Boston and Toronto, 1959.

  • Morris, Peacemakers
  • Richard B. Morris, The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence, New York, 1965.

  • Namier and Brooke, House of Commons
  • Lewis Namier and John Brooke, eds., House of Commons, 1754–1790, London, 1964; 3 vols.

  • NEHGR
  • New England Historical and Genealogical Register.

  • Nieuw Ned. Biog. Woordenboek
  • P. C. Molhuysen and others, eds., Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, Leyden, 1911–1937; 10 vols.

  • OED
  • The Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford, 1933; 12 vols. and supplements.

  • Oxford Classical Dictionary
  • The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2d edn., Oxford, 1970.

  • Parker, Dutch Revolt
  • Geoffrey Parker, The Dutch Revolt, rev. edn., New York, 1985.

  • Parliamentary Hist.
  • The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, London, 1806–1820; 36 vols.

  • Parliamentary Reg.
  • Parliamentary Register, ed. John Almon, London, 1774–1780; 17 vols.

  • Penna. Archives
  • Pennsylvania Archives. Selected and Arranged from Original Documents in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 1852–1935; 119 vols. in 123.

  • PMHB
  • Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography.

  • Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter aller Länder
  • Ludwig Bittner and others, eds., Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter aller Länder seit dem Westfälischen Frieden (1648), Oldenburg, &c., 1936–1965; 3 vols.

  • Rowen, Princes of Orange
  • Herbert H. Rowen, The Princes of Orange: The Stadholders in the Dutch Republic, Cambridge, Eng., 1988.

  • Benjamin Rush, Letters
  • Letters of Benjamin Rush, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Princeton, 1951; 2 vols.

  • Sabine, Loyalists
  • Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, with an Historical Essay, Boston, 1864; 2 vols.

  • Schulte Nordholt, Dutch Republic and Amer. Independence
  • Jan Willem Schulte Nordholt, The Dutch Republic and American Independence, transl. by Herbert H. Rowen, Chapel Hill, 1982.

  • Sibley's Harvard Graduates
  • John Langdon Sibley and Clifford K. Shipton, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873–.

  • Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates
  • Paul H. Smith and others, eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1976–.

  • Stinchcombe, Amer. Rev. and the French Alliance
  • William C. Stinchcombe, The American Revolution and the French Alliance, Syracuse, 1969.

  • Wallace, Life of Henry Laurens
  • David Duncan Wallace, Life of Henry Laurens, New York, 1915.

  • Warren-Adams Letters
  • Warren-Adams Letters: Being Chiefly a Correspondence among John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Warren (Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, vols. 72–73), Boston, 1917–1925; 2 vols.

  • Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.
  • Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols.

  • WMQ
  • William and Mary Quarterly.
{p. R35}

volume 9

Papers

March 1780 – July 1780

{p. R36}
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/