Papers of John Adams, volume 14
Pray be so good as to insert an exact Translation of the inclosed Letter in the Politique Hollandais, without my Name or that of the Abby.1
or if you chose it you may add it to the Essay &c2
It is high Time for Writers to reflect a little upon the Subject before they pretend to write an History of Such an Affair. This will put them on thinking.
Mr Marmontel as Historiographer du Roi is to write it. The Abby de Mably was to write it. as it was given out. The Abby Raynal has written it. But this Letter which has been shewn to both the former, has convinced them that thirteen compleat Revolutions in America, one in France, one in Spain, one in Holland and one in England, not to mention the armed Neutrality, are not so easily described
yours
LbC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr Cerisier”; APM Reel 110.
This is
JA's 15 Jan. letter to the Abbé de Mably on writing a history of the American Revolution (above at 9 Jan.), which Cerisier published in the 24 March edition of Le politique hollandais, p. 83–91. JA used Cerisier's translation when he included the letter to the abbé as a postscript to the first volume of his Defence of the Const., 1:384–392.
The “Essay” was the French translation of “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” which JA had sent to Cerisier with his letter of 15 Feb., and note 1, above.