Papers of John Adams, volume 17
Our Secretary of State for foreign Affairs, in a Letter of 13. Ap. informs me, that he wrote Us a Letter by Capt. Lamb dated 11. March, inclosing a Variety of Papers respecting the Treaties We are directed to negotiate and conclude with the Barbary Powers.1
inclosed is a Copy of a Resolution of Congress of 14. Feb. 1785, inclosed to me, in the Secretary’s Letter.—2 I know nothing of Capt Lambs Arrival or of the Dispatches by him.
On the 26. I communicated to Lord Carmarthen my Credentials, and left him Copies, as We have done upon former Occasions in France, and am to have my Audience of the King in his Closet as the Secretary of State informs me, next Wednesday. I have the Honour to be, very respectfully, / Gentlemen your most obedient and most / humble servant
RC and enclosure (PCC, No. 84, V, f. 429–431); internal address: “Their Excellencys / Messs Franklin and / Jefferson”; endorsed: “Westminster May 29th / from / M. Adams”; notation: “London Mr.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 111.
John Jay’s 11 March letter and its enclosures (vol. 16:559–563) did not reach the commissioners until 18 Sept., when John Lamb finally arrived at Paris, and then it caused JA and Jefferson to revise their preparations for negotiations with the Barbary States, for which see Barbary Negotiations, 12 Sept. – 11 Oct., and Jefferson’s second letter to JA of 24 Sept., both below.
For the enclosed resolution of 14 Feb. permitting the commissioners to expend funds from the Dutch loans for an agent to carry out the negotiations with the Barbary States, see vol. 16:559–560.