Adams Papers Digital Edition

Papers of John Adams, volume 18

From James Warren

From Rufus King
To John Adams from John Jay, 1 May 1786 Jay, John Adams, John
From John Jay
Dr. Sir Office for foreign Affairs 1st: May 1786—

{It is the pleasure of Congress that you protract your negotiations with the Court of great Britain respecting the posts which should have been before this surrendered to the United States, and other infractions of the said Treaty by that power—so as to avoid demanding a categorical Answer respecting the same untill the further orders of Congress—}1

I have the Honor to be with great Respect / Dr. Sir / Your most obt. & very hble: Servt.

John Jay—

RC with decoded text in WSS’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Honble. J. Adams / Esquire— &c. &c.”; endorsed; “Mr Jay. 1. May / 1786.”; and by WSS: “Recd 24th. June 86.”

 1.

This paragraph was encoded using the Adams-Jay code, for which see JA’s first letter of 3 Dec. 1785 to Jay, note 1, above. In decoding the letter WSS initially interlined the plaintext between the lines of code and then, on the third, blank sheet of the letter, wrote out the text as it appears here. For JA’s reply, see his second letter of 27 June 1786, below.