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From Joshua Johnson
Docno: PJA11d021
Recipient: JA
Date: 1781-01-09
[dateline] Nantes 9 Jany. 1781
[salute] Sir
My last was on the 29 July1 since which I am deprived of any of your ever esteemed favours. Inclosed I forward you an American News Paper of the 3d. November which contains matter of the greatest consequence to us and which I most seriously hope will proove true.2 I most certainly should have addrest you before this on a subject interesting to myself had I been furnished with your address on your arrival in Holland and for which at present I am indebted to my very worthy Friend Mr. Jenings, on hearing from you in reply to this and knowing that my Letters will reach you safe, I will trouble you on that subject. The Lady Lee, by whom I rec'ed the Inclosed Paper will return in a few Weeks for Annapolis, if you have any Letters to send forward them and every care shall be taken of them. Capt. Dashiel commander of the aforesaid Vessell informs me that he left the Capes of the Chesapeak on the 15 Novem. and that the Enemy had embarked from Portsmouth and returned to New York.
I am in expectation of the Doves Arrival every Day by her I hope
{p. 29}
for a confirmation of the News from the Southward and which you may depend upon my handing you by the first Courier in the mean time I am with the greatest respect & esteem Sir Your most Obedt. Hbl. Serv.
[signed] Joshua Johnson
RC
Adams Papers
; addressed: “The Honble. John Adams Esqr. Amsterdam.”
2. Since Johnson indicates that the Lady Lee was returning to Annapolis, it is likely that the enclosed newspaper was the Maryland Gazette. The issue of 3 Nov. contained several items that would have interested Johnson and JA, most notably the account of the American victory at King's Mountain on 7 Oct., an erroneous report that 6,000 French troops had landed at Sunbury, Ga., and that Cornwallis was in full retreat. It is likely that JA sent the newspaper to Jean Luzac for publication in the Gazette de Leyde, for the issue of 23 Jan. contained the account of the French landing taken from the “Gazette de Maryland” of 3 Nov., while that of 26 Jan. included the report on King's Mountain taken from the same source. For the publication of these items and other material received by JA in mid-January, see Jean Luzac's letter of 22 Jan., below.
From the President of Congress
Docno: PJA11d022
Recipient: JA
Date: 1781-01-10
[dateline] In Congress January 10: 1781
[salute] Sir
Congress consider your correspondence with the Count de Vergennes on the subject of communicating Your Plenipotentiary Powers to the Ministry of Great Britain as flowing from your Zeal and Assiduity in the service of your country: but I am directed to inform you that the Opinion given to you by that minister relative to the time and circumstances proper for communicating your powers and entering upon the execution of them is well founded.1
Congress have no expectations from the influence which the People of England may have on the british councils whatever may be the dispositions of that nation or their Magistrates towards these United States: Nor are they of Opinion that a change of Ministers would produce a change of measures, they therefore hope you will be very cautious of admitting Your measures to be influenced by presumptions of such events or their probable consequences.
[salute] I am, Sir, with great respect Your humble servant, (By order of Congress)
[signed] Sam. Huntington President
1. On 26 Dec. 1780 Congress received copies of eight letters that JA and the Comte de Vergennes exchanged the previous July dealing with the sufficiency of French aid and JA's desire to execute his mission to negotiate Anglo-American peace and commercial treaties. These were JA's letters of 13, 17, 21, 26, and 27 July (vol. 9:520–529; 10:1–4, 17–18, 42–51) and Vergennes' of 20, 25, and 29 July (vol. 10:16–17, 32–42, 56–58). Congress was most concerned with JA's of 17 and 26 July and Vergennes' of 25 July dealing with JA's mission and accordingly referred them to a committee, the report of which resulted in this letter (
JCC
, 18:1194; 19:41–42). For an overview of the correspondence between JA and Vergennes, see The Dispute with the Comte de Vergennes, 13–29 July 1780 (vol. 9:516–520).
From Francis Dana
Docno: PJA11d023
Recipient: JA
Date: 1781-01-10
This is a summary of a document and does not contain a transcription. If it is available elsewhere in this digital edition, a page number link will be provided below in the paragraph beginning "Printed."
[dateline] Paris 10 January 1781.
RC
Adams Papers; filmed at 12 July 1780, Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 352. Designated “No. 9,” this letter is written on the lower half and reverse of the triplicate of the Committee for Foreign Affairs' letter of 12 July 1780.
It was a covering letter for several documents brought to France by Thomas Bell of the Chevalier de La Luzerne and James Josiah of the Anne, whose arrival is noted in William Temple Franklin's letter of 11 Jan., below. It is impossible to identify all of the documents carried by Bell and Josiah, but for some indication, see vol. 9:507–508; vol. 10:278–280, 311–312, 411–414, and JA's letter to Arnold Henri Dohrman of 18 Jan., below. Dana chose to retain, however, some items from Congress that he believed JA had already received or that he feared might be intercepted, such as JA's additional instructions regarding a peace treaty (vol. 10:278–279). He did send Congress' resolutions of 2 and 28 Oct. that authorized JA to accept bills drawn on Henry Laurens (vol. 10:311–312). Dana also sent extracts of two unidentified letters from Bordeaux and Nantes. With letters from John Bondfield and Joshua Johnson to JA from the same cities and dated 2 and 9 Jan., both above, they may have formed the basis for material sent to Jean Luzac and published in the Gazette de Leyde of 23 January.
RC
Adams Papers; filmed at 12 July 1780, Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 352. Designated “No. 9,” this letter is written on the lower half and reverse of the triplicate of the Committee for Foreign Affairs' letter of 12 July 1780.
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/