John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 2 May 1797
John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams
The Hague 2 May 1797.
My dear Brother.
I am very much gratified to find by your favour of the 26th: that your Journey from Brussels was so pleasant, and that you are so well satisfied with what you had seen.— I shall request Messrs: Moliere to extend your credit with their correspondents at Paris.
There is a Danish vessel going to Lisbon from Amsterdam in the course of three weeks or a month. I shall go to Amsterdam in a few days to ascertain whether it will be expedient to take passage in her.
Your friend Parker is here for a few days. The Citizen Plenipotentiaire & our Tilly are sitting to him for their pictures.1
Your numerous friends here, always obligingly demand of your news. I go on in the usual stile, more and more dissatisfied with my solitude. No letters from America.
Remember me particularly to my friends at Paris, and to Messrs: d’Aranjo and Brito. Tell the latter that I shall be happy to take any commands for his Country. He mentioned before he went from here that he might have some.2
After the letter, which you will find I have written this morning to Mr: Pitcairn,3 you will not be sorry to see me come to a short conclusion with you, in the assurance of being your ever affectionate brother.
LbC in TBA’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr: T B Adams. Paris”; APM Reel 130.
1. That is, Mr. Parker, the artist who had painted miniature portraits of JQA and TBA, for which see vol. 10:xii. Parker’s current subjects were François Noël, the French minister at The Hague, and Tilly Whitcomb, JQA’s servant.
2. Francisco José Maria de Brito was the secretary of the Portuguese legation at The Hague, described by JQA as “a sensible well informed Man.” Brito had likely accompanied Antonio de Araujo de Azevedo on the latter’s special mission to France (D/JQA/24, 22 March, 9 April 1795, APM Reel 27).
3. JQA to Joseph Pitcairn, 2 May 1797, in which JQA commented on Algerian-American relations and criticized recent French attempts to instigate war with the United States. He also discredited rumors of James Madison’s arrival in Paris as envoy extraordinary to France (OCHP:Joseph Pitcairn Letters).