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Browsing: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 5
Docno: ADMS-04-05-02-0121
Recipient: Adams, Abigail
Date: 1783-07-26
John Adams to Abigail Adams
[dateline] Amsterdam July 26. 1783. Saturday
[salute] My dearest Friend
Last Saturday, I left Paris, and on Tuesday arrived, at the Hague. To Day I am come
to this Town. I Shall return to Paris in a Fortnight. { 218 } So as to make my whole Absence about three Weeks. Soon after my Return I expect the
definitive Treaty will be Signed, but in this I may be mistaken. My Son is with me
in good health. I had a tender Meeting with the dear Companion of my Voages and Journeys,
and have been very happy with him, ever Since. He is grown a Man in Understanding
as well as Stature. He gives a very intelligent and entertaining Account of his Travels
to and from the North. I shall take him with me to Paris, and Shall make much of his
Company.
I have no Letters from you this Year,1 and not knowing what to do with myself, I am in much Perplexity. I hope Soon to be
informed of the orders of Congress. If they accept my Resignation, I may come home
in October. If not, I know not what will become of me. To Stay another winter hung
up between one Thing and another in suspence would be the most disagreable Thing that
could happen to me. Patience however. If my Health was as good as it was two Years
ago, before my great Sickness2 I could be patient. But continual ill health added to all the Perplexities that distract
me, is too much for me. I want two Nurses, my Wife and my Daughter, and three gay
Boys about Us to keep Us all in good humour. But this is too much. My Boys must have
their Educations.
I am told a Vessell is just arrived from Boston and another, Cazneau expected. I hope
for Letters by both.
A Letter from Mr. Dalton and a few Lines from Mr. Smith and Mr. Storer are all I have
had from N. England an immense long Time. What have I done to be thus punished?
I am come here to See if any Thing can be done to get Money, to prevent Mr. Morris's
Bills from being protested. I hope that Some thing may be done but am not very Sanguine.3
I wonder whether any body but you would believe me Sincere if I were to Say how much
I love you, and wish to be with you and never to be Seperated more?
RC (Adams Papers).
2. JA's first serious illness in Europe occurred in Amsterdam, from late August to early
Oct. 1781 (see vol. 4:224, and note 3). Since that dismal event, JA periodically complained of poor health, especially when he was in Holland, and a
fear of the return of his illness colored his statements that he was in good health
(vol. 4:265, 272, 324, 337, 360, 369).
3. Robert Morris was Congress' superintendent of finance. JA's efforts to secure funds from Dutch bankers for Morris' bills of exchange, which
America's Paris banker, Ferdinand Grand, could no longer cover with the funds remaining
in America's account, and his efforts to advance the Dutch loan that he had earlier
contracted for the United States, appear in the correspondence between JA, Robert Morris, R. R. Livingston, Benjamin { 219 } Franklin, Thomas Barclay, and John Jay, between May and Nov. 1783, in Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev., vol. 6; in Morris to JA, 12 May (Adams Papers); and in Morris to JA, 23 Oct. (DLC). Grand's letter of 12 May to the Peace Commissioners, announcing the depletion of
America's funds, is also in Wharton, 6:420–421. Background documentation and commentary
on America's fiscal crisis of 1783 appears in The Papers of Robert Morris, ed. John Catanzariti and others, vol. 7, Pittsburgh, 1988.
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, 2017.
http://www.masshist.org/apde2/
http://www.masshist.org/apde2/