To Benjamin Franklin from John Quincy Adams, 12 April 1779
From John Quincy Adams5
ALS: Dartmouth College Library
Nantes april 12th 1779
Sir
I am obliged to you, for the Mention you have been so good as to make of me in several of your letters to my Pappa, whom I have accompanied to Brest & back to Nantes.6
I hope you have recovered a perfect state of Health & that you will enjoy it a long time.
I beg of you to remember me respectfully to Mr Franklin & affectionately to Mr Benjamin.
I have wrote several times to my Freinds at Passy7 but recd no answers. I suspect my Letters have miscarried. I beg you would deliver those inclosed as directed I am with great Veneration sir yours.
John Q Adams
5. This is BF’s first letter from the eleven-year-old.
6. They returned to Nantes on April 11: Butterfield, John Adams Diary, II, 358n.
7. His former schoolmates BFB and Silas Deane’s son Jesse (for whom see XXV, 646).
The young Adams wrote to WTF on April 22 from the Alliance, anchored off St. Nazaire, to say that he and his father had arrived at Paimboeuf at 12:00 the night before. He hopes soon to sail for America. APS.