The Chevalier de Ronnay to Abigail Adams: A Translation, 2 October 1782
The Chevalier de Ronnay to Abigail Adams: A Translation
Braintree 2 October 1782
Madam
I am sorry that I forgot to return to you the memoir1 which you had the kindness to lend me when I had the honor of seeing you the time before last. Please forgive me.
This memoir greatly honors Mr. Adams not only because it is very well written but even more so because it is based on systems founded on his political conscience.
I have the honor to be with respect, Madam, your very humble and very obedient servant
de Ronnay2
Please ask Miss Adams to accept the assurance of my respect.3
RC (Adams Papers).
1. Probably JA’s A Memorial to Their High Mightinesses the States General of the United Provinces of the Low Countries, 19 April 1781. See vol. 4:109–110, note 3, and 122, note 4.
2. The Chevalier de Ronnay, an officer in the Armagnac regiment. On this same day Ronnay was forced to decline AA’s invitation to dine at Braintree because 600 troops with Adm. Vaudreuil’s fleet at Boston, including 300 of the Armagnac regiment, were assigned to help fortify Portsmouth, N.H., where three of the fleet’s ships were being repaired. Vaudreuil’s entire force left New England for Puerto Cabello on the northern coast of South America in December. (Ronnay to AA, 2 Oct. [2d letter], Adams Papers, not printed; Howard C. Rice Jr. and Anne S. K. Brown, eds., The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, Princeton and Providence, 1972, 2:194–195, 197–198; Cotton Tufts to JA, 10 Oct., and AA to JA, 23 Dec. 1782, and Ronnay to AA, 26 April 1783, all below.)
3. See Ronnay to AA, 26 April 1783, below.