From John Adams to the President of the Congress, 14 August 1778

To the President of the Congress

Passi Aug. 14. 1778

Sir

I have the Honour to inclose to Congress a few of the public Papers, which contain all the News that is passing. As it is uncertain by what Vessell the Gentleman will go who takes this, the Conveyance is too precarious, to send any Thing which ought not to be known to the Enemy.

We are waiting with an impatient Anxiety, to hear from America, the last Accounts from thence having been brought by Captain Ayers and Barns from Boston neither of them later than the 3 or 4 July. We have no Advice of the Compte D’Estaings Fleet Since he passed the straights on the 16 May. I have the Honour to be &c.1

LbC (Adams Papers).

1. This may be JA’s letter that was “laid before Congress by the Committee for Foreign Affairs and read” on 7 Dec. (JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 12:1198). JA had also written to the president of the congress on 12 Aug. That letter, printed in the Independent Chronicle for 19 Nov., reported the capture of four valuable prizes by French men-of-war at Toulon and enclosed newspapers and a letter from Spain.

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: From John Adams to the President of the Congress, 14 August 1778
Author: Adams, John
Recipients: President of Congress
Laurens, Henry
Date: 14 August 1778

Reference

Cite as: “From John Adams to the President of the Congress, 14 August 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-06-02-0280. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 6, March–August 1778, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983, p. 370.]