From John Adams to the President of Congress, No. 67, 16 May 1780

To the President of Congress, No. 67

Paris, 16 May 1780. RC (PCC, No. 84, II, f. 51–52). printed: Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols. description ends , 3:680.

This brief dispatch, read in Congress on 11 Sept., served as a covering letter for a number of letters and three packets of newspapers entrusted to the Chevalier de La Colombe, former aide-decamp to Lafayette and John Adams’ fellow passenger from Boston to El Ferrol, who was returning to America on the Alliance. See also JA to the president of Congress, 13 May (No. 66, calendared above). In his letter, Adams noted the rumored reopening of the port of Antwerp and a report that Austria was outfitting three warships to protect its Mediterranean trade from the Barbary pirates. The information regarding Antwerp was taken from Edmund Jenings’ letter of 7 May (above), while that concerning the Austrian warships came from the Gazette de France of 16 May. Adams speculated whether British influence was behind either move.

RC (PCC, No. 84, II, f. 51–52). printed: (Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols. description ends , 3:680.)

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: From John Adams to the President of Congress, No. 67, 16 May 1780
Author: Adams, John
Recipients: Huntington, Samuel
President of Congress
Date: 16 May 1780

Reference

Cite as: “From John Adams to the President of Congress, No. 67, 16 May 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-09-02-0200. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 9, March 1780 – July 1780, ed. Gregg L. Lint and Richard Alan Ryerson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996, p. 320.]