MS in JA's hand (Adams Papers); docketed: “Accounts”; with the following summary beside the docketing:

There are two errors in this summary. First, the correct difference between money received and the total paid is 14,499. 7. 3, which would leave the proper balance owing to JA (before postage expense) of 4,546.12. 9 (which JA gives correctly in the full account on the inside page; see text above). Second, the salary figure allotted was per year, not per month. Filmed under Aug. 1779 (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 350), this is presum-159ably a copy of Account D, enclosed with JA to the Board of Treasury, 19 Sept. (above).

This figure agrees with the total of the amounts recorded in JA's Diary as received, less an amount of 4,294 livres for Deane's furniture. See JA to the Board of Treasury, 19 Sept., note 7 (above).

For the derivation of this figure, see JA to Elbridge Gerry, 20 Sept., note 1 (below).

LbC (Adams Papers).

On 6 Aug. the congress had resolved “that an allowance of 11,428 livres tournois per annum, be made to the several commissioners of the United States in Europe for their services, besides their reasonable expenses respectively” ( JCC , 14:928). JA received this resolution and another by the Treasury Board of 26 Aug., ordering that it be sent to him, as enclosures in a letter of 2 Sept. from Robert Troup, secretary of the Board of Treasury, which also asked him to submit his accounts (Adams Papers). It was from the resolution of 6 Aug. that JA derived the figure given for his annual salary in his accounts printed under the date of ca. 19 Sept. (above). JA's complaint concerned the apparent incongruity between the congress' action in 1779 and that taken in 1776. When the Commissioners were first appointed the congress did not set a precise salary, but rather, in a resolution on 28 Sept. 1776 that was postponed and may not have been acted on later, declared “that the Commissioners should live in such stile and manner at the court of France, as they may find suitable and necessary to support the dignity of their public character” and “that besides the actual expences of the commissioners, a handsome allowance be made to each of them as compensation for their time, trouble, risque and service.” At the same time a salary of £1,000 per year was proposed for the Commissioners' secretary ( JCC , 5:833–834). These resolves, even if not formally adopted, were considered while JA was at the congress, and he presumably would have assumed that the salary allowed the Commissioners would be higher than that of their secretary. However, £1,000 was equal to approximately 24,000 livres, a far cry from the 11,428 livres allowed in 1779, thus explaining JA's anger at the miserliness of the congress.

JA may be referring to money he furnished to Americans imprisoned on these islands who escaped or were exchanged, but he may also be speaking of goods sent by him to America that were captured by the islands' notorious privateers. See, for instance, his letters to AA of 26 July 1778, and note 2, and 6 Nov. 1778, in Adams Family Correspondence , 3:66–67, 114–116.

The clause beginning with “and part is foolishly spent” is interlined.

“My fortune” is interlined as a replacement for “the case,” perhaps because JA had already used “case” twice in the sentence.

The remainder of this paragraph is squeezed in, in smaller writing, before the next paragraph.

JA refers to Gerry's letter of 24 Aug. (above). Gerry did not specifically resolve JA's uncertainty in his reply of 12 Oct., but felt he had generally enlightened JA in his long letter of 29 Sept. (both below).