From John Adams to William Vernon Jr., 2 December 1778
To William Vernon Jr.
Passy Decr 2 1778
Dr Sir
This Evening, I received the inclosed in a Letter from your Father.1 He writes that he has never herd from you nor me—I have wrote him several Times. Soon after Mr. Revellat was here, I had accounts from America that Congress were about to take into Consideration the State of foreign Affairs, and I did not know but they might make Such Alterations in the System of Their Affairs here as might render any assistance to me in the Character of a Clerk unnecessary.2 I have waited to this Moment without Intelligence, excepting, by the Packet received this day, that Congress on the 12 of October had Still foreign Affairs under Consideration. We shall soon learn their Determination, and that will determine me, mean Time, I am with Esteem
LbC (Adams Papers).
2. JA is referring to the clerkship that he had offered William Vernon Jr. in a letter of 15 Sept., but which Vernon had declined in his reply of 26 Sept. (both above). JA’s observation that soon he might no longer need a clerk is significant because this is the only extant letter written to anyone in Europe, prior to the official end of the Joint Commission in February 1779, in which JA indicates that the congress might be considering a revision of its diplomatic establishment in Europe.