Papers of John Adams, volume 7
1778-09-08
Your Letter to me from Forton Goal dated in July1 I have lately received, and altho I most Sincerely condole with you under the Misfortune of your Captivity, yet I rejoice with you in the Continuance of your Health and in the Humanity, and Charity, and Friendship of your British Benefactors.
As to the Assistance you are to expect, you may be assured and you may assure your fellow Prisoners, that the Commissioners in France have taken a great deal of Pains to obtain their Liberty: but hitherto 13without Success. And I can promise nothing for the future, but that I will do all in my Power to procure their Exchange.
You are pleased to compliment me, with “Nobleness of Sentiment,” but would you as a virtuous Citizen of America, a young Republic, Struggling under infinite Misfortunes, request or advise me, as a servant of that Republic and a stewart of its T a small Part of its Treasure, to indulge a “Nobleness” of Sentiment at the Expence of our bleeding, burning Country impoverished almost ruined Country. It would be very easy for me as long as the public Money lasted in my Hands to be generous and to get a Character with Persons to whom I should give, for Magnanimity. But sir as I never engaged in the service of my Country for the Advancement of my private Interest, So I never entered it to obtain the Character of Generosity, Magnanimity, or Nobleness of Sentiment.
I must therefore tell you plainly, that I cannot justify to my Constituents nor to my Self the least degree of Partiality to you on Account of my Acquaintance with your Fathers Family. That every other Prisoner in Forton and Plymouth has the Same right with you, to any assistance in my Power to give in my public Capacity. That the State of the Public Finances is such, that in my opinion it is impossible for Us to do more for the Prisoners than We have done. But if you apply to my Supposed “Nobleness of Sentiments” in my private Capacity, and ask me to give you or lend you Money out of my private Pockett, you know, or ought to know that my whole Time and a great Part of my Property and all my Prospects have been Sacrificed to the public service for a Course of years past and that my Family is suffering under the Consequences of it.
After all however, if you will write me an Account of any Necessaries that you want I will Send you the Money out of my private Pocket, if it is a reasonable request and within the Compass of my very small Abilities. I am your Countryman and humble servant.2
That of 16 July, which asked that letters be sent to an address in Portsmouth, near which the prison was located (vol. 6:293–294).
JA did not draft a second reply to Greenleaf's letter of 16 July, nor did Greenleaf again write to JA.
1778-09-08
This morning Arrived the Privateer Schooner Success—Attwood Master from Virginia. She left Cheasapeak Bay 13 July. The Captains 14inteligence consists that the ninth Comte d'Estaing saild from the Bay for New York remained in the Bay five French Frigates.1
Some English Prisoners are brought in here taken by American Privateers their enlargement or detention is optional in the Captures no claim under your Authority being made of them and as being prisoners of the States the French Government dont appear to enterfer.
There are frequent Altercations betwixt Masters and their Seamen being matters of a Civil Maratime Nature between parties not Subjects in this Kingdom are not Connoisable in their Courts by Which the injured are sometimes agreivd without redress.
In One of my former I mentiond to you an Advantage that I apprehended would result should all Vessels belonging to the States be order'd to make their Report to your Constituents2 thereby enabling them to transmit you circumstantial Accounts of all that related thereto as well as the earliest information. I am attentive to procure as Authentic Accounts as private Curiosity will permit which of course being bounded I am not so interestingly inteligent to you as at all times I should esteem myself happy to be.
I have the honor to be with due respect Sirs Your most Obedient Humble Servant
This is probably the first report of Estaing's arrival in America to reach the Commissioners directly from America (see Commissioners to the president of the congress, 11 Sept., below). The news had been eagerly awaited ever since the departure of the fleet of twelve ships of the line and five frigates from Toulon on 13 April because of the expectation that a decisive battle would be fought between Estaing and Adm. Richard Howe. The fleet's slow passage and missed opportunities, however, doomed such hopes. Estaing arrived off the mouth of Delaware Bay—not the Chesapeake—on 8 July, ten days too late to prevent the escape of the British fleet from Delaware Bay to the safety of New York. On 11 July, Estaing arrived off Sandy Hook, but was again unable to join the battle when he determined that the shallowness of the entrance and the strength of the defenses would not permit him to force his way into New York Harbor. On the 29th the fleet arrived off Newport, R.I., where Estaing hoped, in conjunction with an American army, to dislodge the British from the town and harbor. The plan failed because of a lack of coordination between the Franco-American forces and the arrival of Howe's fleet off Point Judith on 9 Aug. The following day the French fleet put to sea in an attempt to close finally with the British, but a storm intervened and so damaged Estaing's ships that he was obliged to go to Boston for repairs, arriving there on the 28th. In November, his repairs completed, Estaing sailed for the West Indies, thus ending, without decision, the first major French challenge to British supremacy in American waters (Allen, Naval Hist. of the Amer. Revolution
, 1:327–333; Mahan, Navies in the War of Amer. Independence
, p. 63–78; Dull, French Navy and Amer. Independence
, p. 122–123). For JA's concern at receiving no information on Estaing's fleet, see vol. 5:xxviii, note 43, and references there.
No such proposal has been found, but it may have been part of the plan referred to, but not described, by Bondfield in a letter of 17