Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
I have a letter from your brother Thomas, dated London, 19th October; and the Secretary of State has one from John of the 22d. They had a good passage, and were in good health. They intended to go to Holland on the 29th.
Enclosed is a copy of a letter from me to Mr. Jay, dated at the Hague, August the 13th, 1782, which probably put him first upon insisting on a new commission from Great Britain, before he would treat, expressly authorizing Mr. Oswald to treat with the Ministers of the United States of America. Put this copy with those that I sent you before.1 Col. Smith, if he thinks fit, may show this in confidence to Mr. Webster, Mr. McCormic, and Judge Hobart, if he will.2
Charles and I smoke our segars and look over old letter books, in great comfort together. He talks of leaving me next Thursday.
I wish you good health and a daughter, and the blessing of Heaven on the mother and all her children.
MS not found. Printed from AA2, Jour. and Corr.,
2:138.
In this letter, JA reiterated his opinion that negotiations for peace should not commence until American independence was recognized. That it was a shared belief is evident by John Jay’s 1 Sept. 1782 response, in which he informed JA that he formally stipulated such recognition to the British commissioners (JA, Papers
, 13:236, 238–239, 412–413).
John Sloss Hobart (1738–1805), Yale 1757, was born in Fairfield, Conn., but settled in Huntington, N.Y. After serving in the provincial congress from 1775 to 1777, he was elected to the state supreme court in May 1777, where he served until his election to the U.S. Senate in Jan. 1798. After only four months in the Senate, JA appointed Hobart a federal judge for New York, a position he held until his death (
DAB
).