From John Adams to C. W. F. Dumas, 3 April 1787

To C. W. F. Dumas

Aprill 3d. 1787.

D. Sir.

your Letter of the 13 of March was brought in to me but this moment—1 I am not able to give you any information you desire— a Gent. by the Name you mention & with the title of Colonel has been introduced to me & has dined with me at this House & I saw him in Holland—2 His Behaviour is Genteel and his Character is in all respects unexceptionable, as far as I know, having Never heard any suggestions to his disadvantage: but can give no further Testimony of him or his family of my own knowledge— accept of my thanks for your obliging Inquiries. My dear Mrs Adams, has been frequently out of health since you saw her— she is now ill of an intermittant fever— but is somewhat better— Mrs. Smith was happily got to bed yesterday, with a fine son, so that I hope to have some Amusement—3 my three sons are all well at the University, in America—4

Please to present my best wishes & respects to your Lady & Daughter—

I have a Volume to send you, as soon as I can find an opportunity— & I wish to have your remarks upon it.

with great regard &c

J A—

LbC in WSS’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr. Dumas—”; APM Reel 113.

1. Not found.

2. Presumably Col. Uriah Forrest, who also delivered JA’s 5 Sept. letter to Dumas, below.

3. In a 26 April letter to niece Lucy Cranch, AA described her first grandchild, William Steuben Smith, as “a fine Boy, & I already feel as fond of him as if he was my own son.” AA2 hoped that he would pursue law and thereby “become a pupil of his grandfather’s” (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 8:24, 303).

4. JQA, then in his final year at Harvard, graduated on 18 July. CA was a sophomore and TBA was a freshman (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 8:461).

Index Entries

You Are Looking At

Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: From John Adams to C. W. F. Dumas, 3 April 1787
Author: Adams, John
Recipient: Dumas, Charles William Frederic
Date: 3 April 1787

Reference

Cite as: “From John Adams to C. W. F. Dumas, 3 April 1787,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-19-02-0023. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 19, February 1787–May 1789, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Amanda M. Norton, Neal E. Millikan, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016, pp. 33–34.]

More between these correspondents