The American Commissioners to Paul R. Randall, [7 July 1786]

The American Commissioners to Paul R. Randall

London June 29. 1786— [7 July 1786]1

Sir

We have written to Mr Lamb, to return to America without Loss of Time, either by the first Opportunity from any Port in Spain, or by the French Packett at L’Orient.— If You Should choose to Accompany him, We wish to accommodate you and therefore consent: but our Desire is rather that you Should come first to Paris & London that We may avail ourselves of an opportunity of conversing with you more particularly upon the Affairs of the United States with those of Affrica. We have written to Mr Lamb to furnish You with Cash from the Sum that remains in his Hands, to defrey the Expence of your Journey to Paris and London.

We have the Honour to be, Sir / your most obedient & most / humble servant

John Adams.

RC (DLC:Jefferson Papers); internal address: “Mr Randal.” LbC (Adams Papers description begins Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (APM). description ends ); APM Reel 113.

1. Thomas Jefferson would have presumably signed this letter on 7 July if it had been sent on to Randall. The letter was drafted by JA, who then enclosed a signed fair copy with his 29 June letter to Jefferson for his signature (Jefferson, Papers description begins The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, Princeton, N.J., 1950– . description ends , 10:79). By 5 July, when the letter arrived, Randall had reached Paris. Jefferson therefore retained the letter in his papers (from Jefferson, 9 July, below). See also the letter that JA drafted on 29 June to John Lamb at [7 July], the date on which Jefferson signed it, above.

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: The American Commissioners to Paul R. Randall, [7 July 1786]
Author: American Commissioners
Recipient: Randall, Paul R.
Date: 7 July 1786

Reference

Cite as: “The American Commissioners to Paul R. Randall, [7 July 1786],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-18-02-0205. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 18, December 1785–January 1787, ed. Gregg L. Lint, Sara Martin, C. James Taylor, Sara Georgini, Hobson Woodward, Sara B. Sikes, Amanda M. Norton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016, p. 378.]

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