Papers of John Adams, volume 14
J’ai reçu la lettre dont Votre Excellence a bien voulû m’honorer le 21 du mois passé.2 La présente lui sera remise par Monsieur Hardouin negociant au Havre de Grace qui a eu l’honneur de faire la Coñoissance de Monsieur votre fils en cette ville et qui est en état de vous en donner de bonnes nouvelles.3 Il m’a prié de Le recommender à vos bontés, et comme Il part de ce païs y regretté de tous ceux qui L’y ont connû je prends la liberté de vous supplier de daigner L’honorer de votre bienveillance et de L’acuillir favorablement. Je saisirai toujours avec empressement toute occasion que se présentera pour vous temoigner ma recoñoissance ainsi que Le profond respect avec lequel j’ai L’honneur d’étre / Monsieur / de Votre Excellence / Le trés humble et trés / obeissant Serviteur
Translation
I have received the letter of 21 March with which your excellency honored me.2 The present letter will be delivered to you by Mr. Hardouin, a merchant of Havre de Grace who had the honor of meeting your son in this town and who will be able to give you good news of him.3 He asked me to commend him to your good offices, and as he is leaving the country, much to the regret of all who knew him here, I take the liberty of begging you to honor him with your goodwill and to receive him favorably. I shall always seize eagerly on any occasion that arises to demonstrate my gratitude, together with the profound respect with which I have the honor to be, sir, your excellency's very humble and very obedient servant
RC (Adams Papers).
The firm of Parish & Thomson also wrote on 4 April (Adams Papers) to inform JA that JQA was still at Hamburg but would proceed overland to The Hague. In the letter, JA's of 19 and 24 March were mentioned, for which see the firm's letter of 7 March, and notes 1 and 2, above.
Probably JA's of 24 March thanking Lagau for his assistance in tracking JQA (LbC, APM Reel 108).
JQA introduced the otherwise unidentified Hardouin in a 6 May letter to JA
, describing him as “a French young Gentleman whose company I had the pleasure of from Hamborough to Amsterdam, and who intends to go to Havre de Grâce to form an establishment in the commercial way” (
AFC
, 5:150).
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.
th.1783.
I have recd. your favor of Decr. 3d, & thank You for the Register, Catalogue & Pamphlet, which are precious Presents to me.1 Since 387the Date of your Letter, you have recd. no doubt a great deal of News, and I should be very glad if I could this moment know from you the Operation of it, about which We are very anxious.
We are not yet certain about the Arrangement of the British Ministry, altho’ there are Reports circulating, that a Coalition of three Parties has been formed— Such a Staganation as We have seen for some Months, not only of all Business, but of all Intelligence both from our old Friends & old Enemies, has been very irksome, and even as distressing I think as War— But it cannot now be many Weeks before We shall hear from all Parts.
I have been negociating a Connection and Correspondence between the Medical Society at Boston and the Societé Royale de Medicine here, and have succeeded to my Wish— I hope the Society at Boston wont think me impertinent and officious— If they do, I must throw the Blame upon Dr. Tufts, who led me into the Scrape.
Mr. Winslow Warren has been sometime at Marseilles, and I am told is now gone into Italy, in pursuit of Commerce and Knowledge at once—2 What could any Man do better? I wish I could follow him— His Friends will be obliged to You for News of him.
With great Esteem, I am, Sir.—
LbC in John Thaxter's hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr. Guild.—”; APM Reel 108.
For the enclosures that arrived with the 3 Dec. 1782 letter, above, but which came under cover of one dated 7 Dec. (Adams Papers), see Guild's letter of 28 Nov., and note 7, above. JA received the letters of 3 and 7 Dec., and probably also, although it is not mentioned, the 28 Nov. letter on 8 April; all were among the “Lettres Américaines” forwarded by Dumas with his letter of 3 April, above. For the possible impact of the 28 Nov. letter, see JA's 9 April letter to James Warren, note 2, below.
Winslow Warren, in fact, left Europe for America on 12 March and landed at Philadelphia in May (Charles Warren, “A Young American's Adventures in England and France during the Revolutionary War,” MHS, Procs., 65:266 [Jan. 1934]). See also letters to Mercy Otis Warren of 29 Jan., and note 5, above; and to James Warren of 12 April, below.