Papers of John Adams, volume 16
I wrote you the 23 Ult. and expect your Answer by the next Post.1 To Day I have yours of 26 Ult and have executed your orders, by writing to Amsterdam &c2
You require me to produce to you the Bills of Exchange accepted by me, and paid by Fizeau & Co But in this with humble Submission you are wrong.3
Dr Franklin obtained Money of the Court of Versailles Mr Grand of Paris, received it, and paid it out by means of his Friend at Amsterdam Mr Fizeau &c in discharge of these Bills. Mr Grand, in Accounting with you for that Money, will produce those Bills, as his Vouchers. I never recd any Money or paid any Bill. I only examined the Bills by their Marks Numbers, Dates &c to see, if they were genuine, and all this I have given you an Account of. Fizeau who paid the Bills kept them as he ought for his own Vouchers.
There is no Suggestion or Suspicion of any Mistake in these Bills. 187 No Duplicates were ever accepted by me, as you may See by looking over the List I gave you.
The Coach I beg you to take Care of, till my Arrival.
Yours
LbC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Hon. Thomas Barclay.”; APM Reel 107.
Barclay’s reply is dated 6 May, below.
JA wrote to the loan consortium on 4 May requesting that it deliver the letters that Barclay had enclosed in his 26 April letter, above, to the banking firms of Hope & Co. and Jean de Neufville & Fils and obtain their responses as Barclay had requested (LbC, APM Reel 107). The consortium responded on the 5th that it would do so, and on the 11th forwarded the reply from Hope & Co. and indicated that it was awaiting that from the Neufville firm (both Adams Papers).
See the 4 May letter to Fizeaux, Grand & Co., below.
I have received repeated Letters from Mr. Barclay, who is settling American Accounts, requiring me to produce the Bills of Exchange which were accepted by me, and paid by you in Amsterdam in behalf of Mr Grand at Paris, or of Dr. Franklin
If you are willing to deliver them to me, I will come to Amsterdam to receive them, and will take them with me to Paris. But I will not dissemble to you, that I think them your Vouchers, and that you should have them to produce to Mr. Barclay, or at least that Mr. Grand of Paris or Dr. Franklin should have them to shew, in support of the Account of the Money expended in the Payment of them. I should be obliged to you for an Answer, as speedily as may be convenient1
with much respect I have the honour to be / Gentlemen, your most obedient & most humble / servant &c.
LbC in C. W. F. Dumas’ hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs. Fizeaux, Grand & Co:”; APM Reel 107. This and two other letters of 4 May, to the loan consortium and Jonathan Jackson, not printed, are the only known instances in which Dumas performed the role of JA’s secretary by copying letters into a Letterbook, but for another example of Dumas in the secretarial role, see Proposed Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce, [9 April – post 5 May], No. II, descriptive note, above.
The principals in the Amsterdam firm of Fizeaux, Grand & Co. were Henri Fizeaux and Georges Grand, brother of Ferdinand Grand of Paris. It was the successor firm to Horneca, Fizeaux & Co., which had previously served as the United States’ banker in the Netherlands and sought to raise the American commissioners’ unsuccessful 1778 loan. It was formed in 1779 upon the death of Fizeaux’s partner, Jean Jacques Horneca (vol. 6:60–61). For the correspondence between JA and the firm that ultimately resulted in an accounting for 544 bills accepted by JA totaling ƒ 477,252.13 (to Thomas 188 Barclay, 24 May 1784, below), see JA’s letters of 8, 12, 19, and 20 May, all LbC’s, APM Reel 107, and the firm’s replies of 6, 14, and 19 May, all Adams Papers.