1. Pickering likely enclosed John Quincy Adams’s letters to the secretary of state of 5, 15, and 19 Dec. 1795 (DNA: RG 59, Despatches from U.S. Ministers to the Netherlands; see also Ford, Writings of John Quincy Adams, description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed. Writings of John Quincy Adams. 7 vols. New York, 1913-17. description ends 1:434–61). John Adams wrote Abigail Adams that on this date he dined with GW, who told him that he had just received “three or four Letters from his new Minister in London, one of them as late as 29 of December” (25 March, MHi: Adams Papers; see also Adams Family Correspondence, description begins Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds. Adams Family Correspondence. 13 vols. to date. Cambridge, Mass., 1963–. description ends 11:228–30). In his letters of 5 and 19 Dec., John Q. Adams gave detailed reports of his conversations with Lord Grenville about compensation of the commissioners to be appointed under the Jay Treaty, ship seizures and condemnations, the British evacuation of frontier posts, the violation of American neutrality by a British vessel off Rhode Island and the subsequent dismissal of the British consul (see the notes to Pickering to GW, 26 Aug. and 4 Sept. 1795), the impressment of seamen, and the West Indies trade. In his letter of 15 Dec., Adams described his effort to ensure that his credentials were not construed into a formal appointment as minister to Great Britain.

The letter from William Allen Deas probably was that of 19 December. Deas reported that he was preparing a memorial in accordance with Pickering’s instructions of 22 Oct. (for which, see Pickering to GW, 26 Oct., n.1): “The little Attention however that appears to have been paid to former Memorials gives no great Expectations upon the Success which may attend this” (NHi: Rufus King Papers).