1From John Adams to United States Senate, 20 June 1797 (Adams Papers)
I nominate the Honourable Elbridge Gerry Esqr of Massachusetts to be Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, to the French Republic jointly and Severally with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Marshall; in the Place of Francis Dana, who has declined his appointment, on account of the precarious State of his Health DNA : RG 46—Records of the U.S. Senate.