1.  The copy of the preliminary treaty enclosed by JA is not with this letter in the PCC, Misc. Papers, but is with a duplicate of this letter in PCC, No. 84, IV, f. 301–308.

2.  This letter and others from Henry Laurens, Thomas Jefferson, and Francis Dana were referred to a congressional committee that reported on 1 April 1783. The committee offered resolutions to accept the resignations of JA and Laurens, notify Jefferson that his mission to France was no longer necessary, and approve Dana’s return to America. Congress adopted the resolutions concerning Laurens, Jefferson, and Dana, but, according to James Madison’s notes, “the Eastern delegates were averse to doing any thing as to Mr. Adams, untill further advices sd. be recd.” (JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, Gaillard Hunt, John C. Fitzpatrick, Roscoe R. Hill, and others, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 24:225–227; Madison, Papers, Congressional Series description begins The Papers of James Madison, ed. William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, and Robert Allen Rutland, Chicago, 1962–1991; 17 vols. description ends , 6:425). JA informed AA of his decision to resign in a letter also dated 4 Dec., and Arthur Lee wrote her on 23 April 1783 to advise her that “you may rely upon it, that leave will be given as he requests,” but Congress took no further notice of JA’s resignation (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, and others, Cambridge, 1963–. description ends , 5:46–47, 131). For Livingston’s view of the matter, see his letter of 14 April 1783, below. Writing also to AA2 on 4 Dec., JA wrote that he would return home rather than have her come to Europe and encounter “the follies and depravities of the old world, which is quite as bad as that before the Flood” (same, p. 47).