Papers of John Adams, volume 15

From Joseph Marie François de Lassone, 3. June 1783 Lassone, Joseph Marie François de Adams, John

From Joseph Marie François de Lassone

Monsieur 3. Juin 1783

Je me suis trouvé à la Séance de la Société Royale de Médecine lorsque M. Vicq Dazyr nous a fait part du désir que Vous Lui avez témoigné de voir établir une Correspondance entre le College de Médecine de Boston & cette compagnie. cette Proposition était trop flatteuse pour la Société pourqu’Elle ne s’empressât point de vous en témoigner sa reconnaissance par l’intermede de son Secretaire, comme j’apprends avec plaisir par votre Lettre du 20 Xbre. dernier, qu’il a eu soin de s’en acquitter. soyez persuadé, Monsieur, que la Société Royale, qui saisit toutes les occasions de rendre ses recherches plus généralement utiles par les Liaisons qu’Elle aime à contracter et à entretenir avec les différentes compagnies savantes Nationales & Etrangeres, ne laissera échapper aucune circonstance dans laquelle Elle croira pouvoir donner au College de Médecine de Boston des preuves de son amitié & de son Dévouement.1

J’ai l’honneur d’être avec Respecteuese Consideration / Monsieur / Votre très humble & / très-obéissant serviteur.

Lassone 16

Translation

Sir 3 June 1783

I was attending a meeting of the Royal Society of Medicine when Mr. Vicq d’Azyr informed us of the desire that you had expressed of establishing a correspondence between the Boston College of Medicine and this society. This proposition was so flattering to the society that it naturally wished to show its gratitude. Its secretary, as I learned with pleasure in your letter of 20 December, has carried out this task. Please rest assured, sir, that the Royal Society, which takes every opportunity to make its research more generally useful through connections that it takes pleasure in undertaking and maintaining with various learned societies, both domestic and foreign, will not lose any opportunity to give to the Boston College of Medicine proof of its friendship and devotion.1

I have the honor of being, with respectful consideration, sir, your very humble and very obedient servant

Lassone

RC (MBCo:Bowditch Book); internal address: “M. John Adams, à l’hôtel du Roi / au Carrouzel.”; endorsed by John Thaxter: “M. de Lassone / 3d. June 1783.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 110.

At the behest of Cotton Tufts, JA had undertaken an effort in late 1782 to establish a correspondence between the Royal Society and the newly formed Massachusetts Medical Society ( AFC , 4:386). For JA’s accomplishment of his goal as described in correspondence with members of the Royal Society, including Lassone, Félix Vicq d’Azyr, and Etienne Louis Geoffroy, see vol. 14:142–143, 144, 232–234, 303, 518, 521. See also JA’s 10 June 1783 letter to Edward Augustus Holyoke, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and Holyoke’s reply of 6 Nov., both below.

To C. W. F. Dumas, 5 June 1783 Adams, John Dumas, C. W. F.

To C. W. F. Dumas

Sir, Paris June 5th. 1783.

I have recd. your favor of 30. ulto.— I am very apprehensive that the Gentleman you conversed with concerning the Loan is decieved, as his worthy Brother was on a former occasion, by whose Advice chiefly I was led to open the Loan with those three Houses.1 He was then of opinion, that even ten Millions might be obtained; whereas the three Houses have not been able to obtain in a year, so much Money as Mr. Hodshon would have obtained in a Month, if not in the first day.2

I hope that the first Ships will bring my Letter of Recall from that Republick, & another Minister to take my place with power to borrow Money. In that Case, the new Minister will be at liberty to open a new Loan if he thinks it prudent. I have a great Esteem for the Messieurs Willinks, & have no Objection to your conversing with them upon the Subject. I wish you would with all Secrecy.—

I waited last Evening on Mr. Laurens with your Postscript, 17respecting the Purchase of Lands in South Carolina— Mr. Laurens will give me his Sentiments of it.3

My Regards to your Family & to your Ward. / your’s respectfully.—

LbC in John Thaxter’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr. Dumas.”; APM Reel 108.

In his letter of 30 May (vol. 14:508–511), Dumas recounted a conversation with Pieter Johan van Berckel in which the newly appointed Dutch minister to the United States proposed a new loan to be raised solely through the firm of Wilhem & Jan Willink, thus bypassing the three-firm consortium then raising the loan. JA may have seen the proposal as ironic, since Pieter Johan’s brother, Engelbert François, had been a major influence on JA’s decision to choose the consortium. JA reported the proposal to Robert R. Livingston in a letter of 23 July, below, suggesting that it be discussed when the Dutch minister reached Philadelphia. But even if JA thought the proposal promising, he was not free to act. In May 1782, while negotiating the terms of the loan, he promised not to open a new loan in the Netherlands until the current f5 million loan was complete (vol. 13:58–60). The promise, however, was binding only on him, which explains his call in the second paragraph of this letter and in his letter to Livingston for the appointment of a new minister who would be free to act as he saw fit.

John Hodshon, an important Amsterdam banker who had been JA’s first choice to raise a loan for the United States in the Netherlands. He ultimately was deterred from choosing Hodshon by pressure from members of the pro-American Patriot Party who thought the banker too pro-British (vol. 12:434–435).

The postscript to the 30 May letter requested information on the purchase of land on the Saluda River near the Ninety-Six District of South Carolina by members of an Amsterdam synagogue (vol. 14:511–512). No response by Henry Laurens, who owned 13,000 acres in the District, has been found (Laurens, Papers , 16:660).