John Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 March 1780

John Adams to Abigail Adams

Paris March 24. 1780

My dear Portia

This goes by Colonel Fleury, whom you know, who desires to carry a Letter to you.1 My three Boys dined with me Yesterday, being a Playday for them, in fine Health and Spirits.

I long to hear, whether Captain Trash arrived from Corunna, who had Letters from me to you, or Captain Babson who had Letters and more. I dont know whether you have yet heard of our Arrival.

There are a great Number of Letters for You, in the Hands of the Marquis de la Fayette, the Viscount de Noailles, Mr. Lee, Mr. Brown, Mr. Izard, and others. I hope you will receive them and some small Packetts with some of them.

My dearest Love to my N[abby] and T[ommy]—Affections, Duties, and Respects, &c.

If you send me any Minutes in future of any Thing to send you, pray be more particular in describing the Things. I find a great difficulty in getting french Words to express them often, because not knowing the Nature and the Prices of the Things myself, I am puzzled.

Yours.

RC (Adams Papers).

1. François Louis Teissèdre de Fleury, a volunteer French officer who had served with distinction in the Continental Army, 1776–1779, and who then, following a leave in France, returned to serve with Rochambeau’s army, 1780–1781 (Lasseray, Les français sous les treize étoiles description begins André Lasseray, Les français sous les treize étoiles (1775–1783), Macon and Paris, 1935; 2 vols. description ends , 2:425–433; JA, Diary and Autobiography description begins Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. description ends , 4:104). Congress voted Fleury a medal for his gallantry in the storming of Stony Point, July 1779; see reproduction in Lasseray description begins André Lasseray, Les français sous les treize étoiles (1775–1783), Macon and Paris, 1935; 2 vols. description ends , vol. 2, facing p. 430. From a list of passengers recorded in JQA’s Diary under date of 24 Nov. 1779, it appears that Fleury returned to France on the Sensible with the Adams party; thus he could have met AA in Boston or Braintree before they sailed. See, further, Fleury to AA, 6 Oct.; AA to JA, 15 Oct. and 13–24 Nov., in vol. 4, below.

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: John Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 March 1780
Author: Adams, John
Recipient: Adams, Abigail
Date: 24 March 1780

Reference

Cite as: “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 March 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-03-02-0244. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 3, April 1778 – September 1780, ed. L. H. Butterfield and Marc Friedlaender. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973, pp. 316–317.]

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