From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 16 June 1781
To Elbridge Gerry
Amsterdam June 16. 1781
Dear sir
Mr. Le Roy the Bearer of this, is a young American educated in Amsterdam where he has good Connections. He wants mercantile Connections in America.1
I wish he could give you hopes of any usefull Connections between our Country and this. If he can, it is more than I am able to do.
The armed Neutrality turns out little better than a Bubble. But as We have little to hope from it, We have nothing to fear. France has settled every Thing this Year, better than ever, and much to the satisfaction of America as I hope and believe. But you must not entertain the most distant Idea of Peace while there is one British soldier alive and at Liberty in America. I am my dear sir your Frd.
J. Adams
RC (NNPM: Gilder Lehrman Coll., on deposit).
1. On 16 June JA wrote at least four more letters of introduction for Herman Le Roy. The other letters were to AA (, 4:148), Richard Cranch (RC offered for sale, 1951), Benjamin Rush (Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle, Series A, Phila., 1892, p. 20– 21), and William Tudor (MHi: Tudor Papers). For a sketch of Le Roy, who had translated Dutch documents for JA, see the letter to AA.