Papers of John Adams, volume 14
Mr Grigby, the Bearer of this Letter, is recommended to me, by Gentlemen, who have been friendly and Usefull to America in the Peace, in Such a manner that I beg Leave to introduce him to your Acquaintance.1 His Views I Suppose are commercial, but a Letter to You may do him more Honour, than to many more Merchants, and perhaps more service even in his own Way.
I have been waiting month after Month for the Compleation of the definitive Treaty, and for News from America, but cannot yet Say when We shall see either. The Pause has been very disagreable. But We hope for an End soon.— I want to come home for many Reasons, one of which lies with great Weight upon my Mind. it is to persuade you to make a Collection of your Writings, in which I think the new World deeply interested, and the old one too.2
With great Regard, your humble servant
RC (NN:George Bancroft Coll.); internal address: “Hon. Samuel Adams.”; endorsed: “from JA Apr 5 1783.”
For earlier recommendations of Grigby, see Benjamin Vaughan's letter of 25 Feb., and note 1, above.
JA had long believed that Samuel Adams’ actions were central to the origin and success of the American Revolution: in January he had advised Antoine Marie Cerisier and the Abbé de Mably that his second cousin's writings were crucial to any historian of the Revolution (John Adams and the Writing of the History of the American Revolution, 9 Jan. – 8 March, above). More recently, on 28 March, he had asked AA to urge Samuel Adams to publish his papers (
AFC
, 5:111, 112), but see also
JA's 10 April letter to William Lee, below. Despite JA's efforts, there was no contemporary publication of Samuel Adams’ writings.