Papers of John Adams, volume 7
1778-09-19
Altho We have not written to you directly, for some time You may be assured, We have not been unmindfull of your Interests, your Comfort or your Liberty. We have been engaged, a long time, in negociating a Cartell of Exchange. This Work We found attended with many Difficulties, but at last have obtained Assurances from England that an Exchange shall take Place. We have also obtained from the Government of this Kingdom, a Passport for a Vessell to come from England to Nantes or L'orient, with American Prisoners, there to take in British Prisoners in Exchange. We now sincerely hope, that you will obtain your Liberty. We cannot certainly say however that all, will be immediately2 exchanged, because We fear, We have not an equal Number, to send to England. Those that remain if any will be those who have been the latest in Captivity and consequently have suffered the least.
While the British Government, refused to make any Agreement of Exchange We the Commissioners here never discouraged their Countrymen from escaping from the Prisons in England, but on the contrary, have lent small sums of Money, sufficient with great Œconomy, to bear their Expences to some Seaport Town, to such as have made their Way hither. But if the British Government should, honourably keep to their Agreement to make regular Exchanges We shall not think it consistent with the Honour of the United States to encourage such Escapes, or to give any Assistance to such as shall escape.
Such Escapes hereafter, would have a Tendency to excite the British Administration to depart from the Cartell—to treat the Prisoners that 55remain with more Rigour and to punish those that escape if retaken with more severity.
On the other Hand, We have now obtained Permission of this Government to put all British Prisoners, whether taken by Continental Frigates, or by Privateers, into the Kings prisons, and We are determined to treat such Prisoners precisely as you are our Countrymen are treated in England to give them the same Allowance of Provisions, and Accommodations and no other. We therefore request you to inform Us with Exactness, what your Allowance is from the Government that We may govern ourselves accordingly. I We have the Honour to be, with much Respect and Affection your Countrymen and humble servants.
This date is taken from an apparently contemporary copy that appears at the beginning of the journal of Timothy Connor (DLC). Connor, a prisoner at Forton Prison, Portsmouth, wrote in his journal on 1 Oct., probably in reference to this letter, that “Mr. Wren came and brought us the news of his having a letter from Dr. Franklin in France where he positively affirms that we shall be exchanged very soon.” Although Connor notes in his journal for the following day that this report engendered “great hopes of an exchange,” such did not occur until Feb. 1779 (Larry G. Bowman, Captive Americans, Athens, Ohio, 1976, p. 112).
This word, written in a different ink from that used in the rest of the letter, was interlined for insertion here, probably by Benjamin Franklin. The substitution of “We” for “I” in the last sentence of the letter may also have been done by Franklin. The remaining cancellations were by JA.
1778-09-19
On Tuesday Morning, as I have already had the Honor of informing Your Excellencies, I shall set out for Holland, and from thence embrace the first Opportunity of returning to America, after an Absence of Twelve Months.
Permit me to request a Letter of Recommendation to Congress: also to the Council of the State of Massachusetts Bay,1 from whom I was more immediately dispatch'd with the important News of the Fate of General Burgoyne and his Army; an Event which has been so very favorable for our Country throughout Europe. Any other Letters, whether for public Assemblies or Individuals, shall gratefully esteem.
I am so well acquainted with the State of your present Finances, that I would not ask the least Consideration for my Time, Expences, the Risque of crossing the Atlantic, or my constant Attendance upon you since my Arrival, had I a Fortune to support this Expence, in ad-56dition to several others I have been at during this War; or even if the Difficulty of making immediate Remittances, was attended with less Risque. If I had sufficient Property in France, or if I had not exceeded the Credit which the Gentlemen of the Board of War at Boston gave me on the House of Mssrs. Phaine Penet & Co. Merchants in Nantes, (which Credit would have been enlarged had I requested it, as it was only Money lent me) I would not have troubled your Excellencies at this time, for what you may imagine necessary for my Expences to Holland and probably back again, even now if you think fit, I will be answerable for any Monies you may advance me, either to Congress or to You in France.2
I have the Honor to be with Respect Your Excellencies most Obedient and very humble Servant
PS. I beg Leave to enclose our Address, that if any Gentlemen here shoud incline to speculate to the Northward, you'd be so kind as to recommend our House to them, and doubt not we shall be able to give them as great Satisfaction as any other Person whatever. My time its true has been so much employed for the Public, that I have not made that Proficiency in the French Language I otherwise might have done, yet doubt not I shall soon be able to inform them of everything relative to my proceedings, in French.3
The Commissioners wrote letters recommending Austin to the president of the congress and to the Massachusetts Council on 22 Sept. (both LbC's, Adams Papers).
In the letter to the Massachusetts Council of the 22d, the Commissioners stated that they had advanced 100 louis to Austin, for which he was to be accountable to the congress.
This letter was enclosed in another of the same date, addressed to and docketed by JA, in which Austin requested that, if JA approved of the letter, he place it before the other Commissioners (PPAmP: Franklin Papers).