Adams Papers
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From John Adams to John Jay, 25 January 1787

To John Jay

Private

London Jan. 25. 1787.

My Dear Friend

I wrote you Yesterday, in your Ministerial Capacity as well as mine, my ulltimate Determination to revisit my Country, this time twelve months.— I now write you this private Letter to intreat you as a Friend, to promote in every Way in your Power, an Arrangement as early as possible, by which I may be permitted to return, with Decorum.— It is not from a desire to stimulate any Body to vote for a new Commission to be sent me to this Court, which may for what I know be Suspected by Some, but from a sincere and unalterable Resolution to come home in all Events, that I have taken this measure thus early.— It would hurt me to come home in disobedience but in all Events I will come home. if Congress should send me a new Commission I shall certainly return it, unaccepted.— this is between you and me, and not intended to offend the Feelings of any Man whatever.— My Northern Friends, may wish me to remain longer in Europe, but I must be excused.1

I Shall compleat, with submission to Providence, my ten Years in Europe, and then go home.

My Family joins with me, in affectionate Compliments to you and yours. a Year will soon come about, and then or soon after, I may have to Pleasure of kissing your hand. meantime I am / with every sentiment of Esteem and / Regard your Friend & humble Servant

John Adams.

RC (NNC:John Jay Papers); internal address: “Mr Jay”; endorsed: “Mr. Adams / 25 Jany. 1787 / and. 25 July 1787.” LbC (Adams Papers description begins Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (APM). description ends ); APM Reel 113.

1. On the same day, JA wrote a “Private” letter to the Massachusetts delegates informing them of his “fixed resolution to return” to the United States and asking them to support the plan in Congress. “To be explicit,” he wrote, “I am determined to come home, though I should be compelled to do it in an ungracious manner; but I hope this will not be made necessary” (JA, Works description begins The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols. description ends , 8:425).

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    From John Adams to John Jay, 25 January 1787
    Author
    Adams, John
    Recipient
    Jay, John
    Date
    25 January 1787

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From John Adams to John Jay, 25 January 1787,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-18-02-0294. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 18, December 1785–January 1787, ed. Gregg L. Lint, Sara Martin, C. James Taylor, Sara Georgini, Hobson Woodward, Sara B. Sikes, Amanda M. Norton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016, pp. 556–557.]

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