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From John Adams to Don Pedro Martin Cermeño, 18 December 1779

To Don Pedro Martin Cermeño

Saturday 18. December 1779, at Corunna

Mr. Adams presents his Compliments to the Governor of Corunna,1 and informs him according to his desire, express’d last Evening, that the Names of the Persons for whom he requests a Passport, from His Excellency, the Governor of this Province, are as follow

John Adams, a Ministre, plenipotentiary from the United States of America

The Honourable Francis Dana Esqr., Secretary, to Mr. Adams’s Commission, a Member of Congress, and a Member of the Council of the Massachusetts Bay.

Mr. John Thaxter, private Secretary to Mr. Adams

John Quincy Adams a Son of Mr. Adams of about twelve Years of Age

Charles Adams another Son of Mr. Adams, near 10 Years of Age.

Mr. Jeremiah Allen a private Gentleman, of Boston in the Massachusetts2 accidentally <travelling> in Company,3 he is a Merchant travelling with a View of establishing a private Commerce in Spain as well as France.

Samuel Cooper Johonnot, another Infant of 10 or 11 Years of Age, a Grandson of a particular Friend of Mr. Adams’s in Boston going to Paris for an Education in the University there.

Joseph Stevens a Servant of Mr. Adams

John William Christian Fricke a Servant of Mr. Dana

Andrew Desmia a Servant of Mr. Allen

Mr. Adams requests a Passport for all these Persons4 to go to Madrid, and from thence to Bilbao and from thence to Bayonne in their Way to Paris, with Liberty at the Same Time to go directly to Bayonne by the nearest Road without going to Madrid or to Bilbao, as it is uncertain whether Mr. Adams will have the Time to gratify his Inclinations with the Sight of those Cities or not.

LbC (Adams Papers).

1. As the passport that resulted from this letter (see note 4) makes clear, JA was addressing Don Pedro Martin Cermeño, governor of the province of Galicia, not the military governor of La Coruña, Galicia’s administrative capital.

2. The preceding five words were interlined for insertion here.

3. The remainder of this sentence was interlined.

4. Only JA is named in the passport, the rest of the party being described by their relationship to him. The document, in Spanish, is in the Adams Papers, dated 18 Dec., and is reproduced in JA, Diary and Autobiography description begins Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. description ends , 2:following 290.

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    From John Adams to Don Pedro Martin Cermeño, 18 December 1779
    Author
    Adams, John
    Recipient
    Cermeño, Don Pedro Martin
    Date
    18 December 1779

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From John Adams to Don Pedro Martin Cermeño, 18 December 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-08-02-0185. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 8, March 1779 – February 1780, ed. Gregg L. Lint, Robert J. Taylor, Richard Alan Reyerson, Celeste Walker, and Joanna M. Revelas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 299–300.]