The Commissioners to John Paul Jones, 22 August 1778
The Commissioners to John Paul Jones
Passi August. 22. 1778
<Sir>
<We have received your Letter of the 16th.1 and have written to Captain Whipple to appoint a Court Martial for the Tryal of Lieutenant Simpson provided there are a sufficient Number of officers to constitute one.2 We are3 This however is not to make any Change in the Command of the Ranger untill the Tryal is over, nor then unless the Judgment of that Court is against him. We are.>
LbC (Adams Papers); notation: “not sent.”
1. An inadvertance for the 15th.
2. For this sentence as a possible postscript, see the Commissioners’ first letter to Jones of this date, note 5 (above). No letter to Abraham Whipple has been found. The Commissioners may, in the meantime, have received Whipple’s letter of 19 Aug. (above) and concluded that a reply was unnecessary or, more important, that he and perhaps Simpson had already sailed for America.
3. The preceding two words were canceled in the course of drafting, indicating that the letter was originally meant to end here, before it was decided to make clear the Commissioners’ position on the appointment of Simpson to command the Ranger.