11To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 26 June 1780 (Adams Papers)
M. Adams, after having perused the inclosed Papers, is desired to give his Opinion on the following Questions. 1st. Whether Captain Landais, accused as he is, of Capital Crimes, by his Senior and late Commanding Officer, after having apparently relinquished the Command of the Alliance frigate, by with drawing his Effects from the same, after having asked and received money by Order of the...
12To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 2 October 1780 (Adams Papers)
By all our late Advices from America the Hopes you expressed that our Countrymen, instead of amusing themselves any longer with delusive Dreams of Peace, would bend the whole force of their Minds to find out their own Strength and Resources, and to depend upon themselves, are actually accomplished. All the Accounts I have seen, agree, that the Spirit of our People was never higher than at...
13To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 8 October 1780 (Adams Papers)
I received the letter you did me the Honour of writing to me by Mr. Andrews, and shall render him every Service I can in his Application. Your Books and Trunks have been lodged here by Mr. Thaxter, and will be taken care of. They are of no Inconvenience to me. We begin to be in pain for Mr. Laurens who was to have sailed 3 Days after M. Searle. If that took place, he has been out 10. or 11....
14To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 20 October 1780 (Adams Papers)
Understanding that in Case of Mr. Laurens’s Absence, you are charged with the Affair of procuring a Loan in Holland, I think it Right to acquaint you, that by a Letter from Mr. Jay of the 12th. Instant, from Madrid, we are informed that the King of Spain has been so good as to offer his Guarrantee for the Payment of the Interest and Principal of a Loan of Money for the Use of the United...
15To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 13 November 1780 (Adams Papers)
I am honour’d by your Excellency’s Letter of the 4th Instant, relating to the Bills drawn on Mr. Laurens. I recommended their being presented to you, as I understood you supply’d his Place during his Absence, and I thought it more reputable to our Affairs, that they should be accepted by you for him, than that their Credit should depend on the Good Will of a Dutch Merchant, who, except a few...
16To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 30 November 1780 (Adams Papers)
I have had a severe Fit of the Gout which has confined me six Weeks; but it is now going off, and I flatter myself that it has done me a great deal of Good. I have just received a Letter from Dr. Ezra Stiles, of which the inclosed is an extract. Please to communicate it to Mr. Searle, and then give it to M. Dumas if you judge it proper for Publication. I have also a large and particular...
17To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 22 February 1781 (Adams Papers)
I received the Letter your Excellency did me the honour of writing to me the 15th. Instant, respecting Bills presented to you for Acceptance, drawn by Congress in favour of N. Tracey for 10,000 £ Sterling, payable at 90 Days sight; and desiring to know if I can furnish Funds for the Payment. I have lately made a fresh and strong Application for more Money. I have not yet received a positive...
18To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 7 April 1781 (Adams Papers)
Among the late intercepted Letters from London, is one from the Army Agent there to the Traitor Arnold, by which it appears that his Bribe was 5000 £ Sterling, in Bills drawn on Harley & Drummond, who are the Contractors for furnishing the Army with Money. Inclos’d I send you a Copy of that Letter, and shall send you others by next Post. The English Papers tell us, that you have succeeded in...
19To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 21 April 1781 (Adams Papers)
Agreable to my Faith I have obtain’d a Promise of Money sufficient to pay the Bills you have accepted, and shall accordingly accept those you draw on me for that purpose. I request only that you would send me immediately a List of the Bills, and of the Times of their becoming due, that I may be always provided, and that as the Money will come gradually into my hands, you would not draw upon me...
20To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 29 April 1781 (Adams Papers)
I received the Letter you honour’d me with of the 16th. Instant. I had written to you on the 21st. which I hope you have received, that I would accept and pay your Bills, only desiring you to furnish me a List of them with the Times of their becoming due, and that you would draw, not for the whole at once, but for the Sums as wanted, and thro’ the House of Fitzeaux & Grand. Since the receipt...
21To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 11 May 1781 (Adams Papers)
I am honoured with your Excellency’s Letter of the 27th. past, acquainting me with your Appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary to the States General, on which please to accept my Compliments and best Wishes for Success in your Negociations. We have just received Advice here, that M. la Motte Picquet, met with the English Convoy of Dutch Ships taken at St. Eustatia, and has retaken 21. of...
22To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 19 May 1781 (Adams Papers)
I received the Honour of yours, with an Account of the Bills you have to pay. I have accepted your Drafts for 77,000 Crowns, at 15 Days Date. The Shortness of the Term is inconvenient; and as our Money comes to hand by Degrees, and these unexpected Demands from Holland and Spain oblige me to anticipate our Funds, for which Anticipation I pay an Interest of five Per Cent, I wish you would for...
23To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 5 June 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have received the honour of your Letter dated the 25th. past, advising me of your Drafts for Forty Thousand Livres payable to the Order of Captain Joiner, which I shall accept when they appear. No specific Sum having been mentioned to me by Col. Laurens, as what would be wanted to fulfil his Orders in Holland, I think myself obliged to acquaint your Excellency that I fear my Funds will not...
24To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 11 June 1781 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Grand has communicated to me a Letter from your Excellency to him, relating to certain Charges in your Account, on which you seem to desire to have my Opinion. As we are all new in these Matters, I consulted when I was making up my Accounts, one of the oldest Foreign Ministers here, as to the Custom in such Cases. He informed me, that it was not perfectly uniform with the Ministers of all...
25To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 30 June 1781 (Adams Papers)
This is to request that you will accept no more Bills with an Expectation of my Paying them, till you have farther Advice from me: For I find that Mr. Laurens, who went away without informing me what he had done, has made so full a Disposition of the Six Millions granted at my Request before his Arrival, that unless the Specie he sent to Holland is stopt there, I shall not be in a Condition to...
26To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 7 July 1781 (Adams Papers)
Dr. Franklin presents his Compliments to Mr. Adams, and sends such of his Trunks as can be got at; W.T.F. in whose Chamber it is suppos’d there may be more, being gone to Paris; and having with him Mr. F’s Carriage prevents his waiting on Mr. Adams immediately as he would otherwise wish to do; but Mr. F. requests the Honour of Mr. Adams’s Company at Dinner to-morrow. RC ( Adams Papers ).
27To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 6 August 1781 (Adams Papers)
I some time since gave Orders as you desired to Mr. Grand, to furnish you with a Credit in Holland for the Remainder of your Salary to November next. But I am now told that your Account having been mixt with Mr. Dana’s, he finds it difficult to know the Sum due to you. Be pleased therefore to State your Account for two Years, giving Credit for the Sums you have receiv’d, that an Order may be...
28To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 12 August 1781 (Adams Papers)
Since my last of the 6th. Instant there have been several Arrivals in France from America. I have Letters from Philda. of the 20th. June, tho’ none from Congress. The Advices are, that General Green has taken all the Enemy’s Out Posts in So. Carolina and Georgia, and that their Possession in those Provinces is reduc’d to Charlestown and Savannah. In North Carolina they also have Wilmington....
29To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 16 August 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have the honour to inform your Excellency that I yesterday received Dispatches from Congress, refusing for the present, the Dismission I had requested, and ordering me upon an Additional Service, that of being join’d with yourself and Messrs. Jay, H. Lawrence and T. Jefferson, in Negociations for Peace. I would send you a Copy of the Commission, and of another which authorizes us to accept...
30To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 31 August 1781 (Adams Papers)
I duly received the Letter you did me the honour of writing to me the 17th. Instant inclosing a Copy of one from Mr. John Ross, acquainting me with the Presentation to you of 51 Bills Drawn in his Favour the 22 June last on Mr. Henry Laurens; for the Sum of 40,950 Guilders; and desiring to know whether I will pay them. I have already paid or provided for the Payment of all the former Congress...
31To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 5 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I congratulate your Excellency on your Recovery. I hope this Seasoning will be the means of securing your future Health, by accomodating your Constitution to the Air of that Country. Here are Advices from Admiral de Grasse, which left him the 13th of August coming out of Straits of Bahama, with 28 Sail, of the Line; bound to Chesapeak Bay: unless he should meet at Sea a call to N. York from...
32To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 12 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I received the Letter your Excellency did me the honour of writing to me the 4th. Instant. I have never known a Peace made, even the most advantageous, that was not censured as inadequate, and the Makers condemn’d as injudicious or corrupt. Blessed are the Peace makers , is I suppose to be understood in the other World: for in this they are more frequently cursed. Being as yet rather too much...
33To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 22 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have written to Messrs. Fizeau & Grand impow’ring them to draw on me at 30 Days sight for the Sums you may want from time to time to discharge the Acceptances of which you have given me Notice. The Queen was this Day happyly delivered of a Prince, which occasions great Joy. Inclos’d I send you Copies of more Letters relating to the Ship South Carolina. Please to inform me whether the Ships...
34To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 7 November 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have been honoured with the following Letters from your Excellency during the last Month, viz. of the 4th. 10th. 18th. 22d. 22d. 25th. 26th. and 27th. which I should have answered sooner, but that I waited for a safe Opportunity, having reason to believe that all your Letters to me by the post are opened, and apprehending the same of mine to you. I send herewith the Covers and Seals of those...
35To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 23 November 1781 (Adams Papers)
I congratulate your Excellency on the late great Event. I received yours of the 12th. I wrote my Mind fully on the Subject of the Goods in mine to you by Mr. Fox, which I suppose must have come to your hands soon after that Date. Gillon wrote to me that Mr. Searle and Jackson were gone to France.1 As it is so long since, and they are not arrived, I suppose it may be true that they are gone to...
36To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 26 November 1781 (Adams Papers)
I am honour’d with yours of the 19th. Inst. I received a Letter from Capt. Jackson dated at Bilbao the 12th. in which he mentions nothing of his departing thence for America, so that I should have continued to expect him here, if he had not written positively to you of that Intention. Mr: Barclay, the Consul, too, I thought would have been here before this time, and I know not what detains him...
37To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 6 December 1781 (Adams Papers)
I am honour’d with your Excellency’s Letters of the 22d and 26th. past. The Proposal relating to the Goods was, you say, more unreasonable than you expected. It did not so much surprise me, who possess a former Sample exactly of the same Stile and Sentiment, and I therefore think this to be of the same Author. His Professions of Disinterestedness with regard to his Shares, are in my Opinion...
38To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 14 December 1781 (Adams Papers)
I duly received your Excellency’s Favour of the 1st. and 6th Instant. I wrote to you by Mr Barclay, who went from hence some Days since, and I hope is with you by this time, and that he will with your Assistance be able to settle every thing relating to the Goods. I have receiv’d a long Letter from Messrs. Neufville, the Purport of which is, that they are willing for their Parts to deliver the...
39To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 17 December 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have received the Packet, containing the Correspondence relating to the Goods. I suppose that Mr Barclay is there before this time, and the Affair in a way of Accomodation. Young Mr Neufville is here, but I have thought it best not to give him as yet any Hopes of my Paying the Bills unless the Goods are delivered. I shall write fully by next Post. This serves chiefly to acquaint you that I...
40To John Adams from Benjamin Franklin, 11 January 1782 (Adams Papers)
Your Excellency will see by the within the Situation I am in, and will thence judge how far it may be proper for you to accept farther Drafts on Mr Laurens, with any Expectation of my enabling you to pay them, when I have not only no Promise of more Money, but an absolute Promise that I shall have no more. I shall use my Endeavours however, but am not sure of Succeeding, as we seem to have...