The American Commissioners to Schweighauser, 4 January 1779: résumé
The American Commissioners to Schweighauser6
AL (draft): Massachusetts Historical Society; copies: Library of Congress, National Archives (two)
<Passy, January 4, 1779: We acknowledge your undated letter, and refer you to ours of the second of this month. We cannot furnish Gilbank with more money; perhaps our protest of his bills will convince him.7 We have applied for the convoy with the greatest possible urgency.8 We approve your solicitude on behalf of the prisoners9 and look forward to learning if you have recovered the cargo of the Thérèse.1>
6. Published in Taylor, Adams Papers, VII, 338.
7. Schweighauser had provided Gilbank with funds: see Gilbank’s letter of Dec. 15.
8. See the commissioners to Vergennes, Dec. 29.
9. I.e., the prisoners currently being held at Brest who had been taken by John Paul Jones.
1. Which the commissioners had ordered Schweighauser to sell. The ownership of this cargo engendered a major dispute with Beaumarchais: see his letter of Feb. 13.