George Washington Papers

To George Washington from Edmund Randolph, 22 July 1794

From Edmund Randolph

Tuesday Morning. [22 July 1794]

The Secretary of State has the honor of submitting to the President the rough draughts of the letters of credence for Mr Adams.1

AL, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State. The date is supplied from the docket on the AL, which agrees with the date on the letter-book copy.

1The rough drafts have not been identified. The two letters of credence for John Quincy Adams bear this date, although they were recorded in GW’s journal of proceedings under the entry for 24 July (JPP description begins Dorothy Twohig, ed. The Journal of the Proceedings of the President, 1793–1797. Charlottesville, Va., 1981. description ends , 316). The letter addressed to the States General of the United Netherlands reads: "To maintain the Friendship and Harmony so happily subsisting between our Republics, I have appointed John Quincy Adams to be Minister Resident of the United States of America, near your High Mightinesses.

"From my confidence in his merit and talents, I am well assured, that he will avail himself of every occasion to fulfil those very interesting objects of his Mission. I beseech your High Mightinesses, therefore, to give entire credence to whatever he shall say to you on the part of the United States, and, particularly, when he shall represent to you the sincerity of our Friendship, and our Wishes for your Prosperity: And I pray God to have your High Mightinesses in his safe and holy keeping" (LS, NL-HaNA: entrance 1.01.04, Archief Staten-Generaal, 7462; LB, DNA: RG 59, Credences).

That addressed to the Stadtholder of the United Netherlands was similar: "I have appointed John Quincy Adams, one of our distinguished citizens to be Minister Resident near you for the United States of America.

"The confidence, which I place in his merit and talents, will not suffer me to doubt, that he will prove himself acceptable to you, and will embrace every occasion for promoting an intercourse of Friendship and mutual Interest between the two Republics. I beseech you, therefore, to give entire Faith to whatever he shall say to you on the part of the United States; and most of all, when he shall assure you of our Friendship.

"I pray God to have you, our very good Friend, in his holy keeping." (LS, NL-HaKA, Archief Willem V, nr. 1189; LB, DNA: RG 59, Credences).

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