Adams Papers

From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 January 1786

To Thomas Jefferson

Grosvenor Square Jan. 28. 1786

Dear Sir

I have recd yours of the 12, but Yesterday, and wish it were in my Power to order the Interest due to the French Officers to be paid: but it is not.— They must remain unpaid, be the Consequence what it may untill Congress or the Board of Treasury order it. indeed, I dont know how your Subsistence & mine is to be paid after next month.— Mr Grand will be likely to advance yours, but from whence mine is to come I know not.

I am clearly for treating with the Emperors Ambassador immediately, and even for the Netherlands only, although it would be better to extend it to all the rest of his Dominions.— Why will not the Prussian Treaty answer for the Model. I pray you to proceed in the Business, as fast as you please. Treaties commercial with the two Imperial Courts cannot possibly do Us any harm that I can conceive.

This Letter goes by Mr Joy, whom I pray You to attend to a little. He wishes to go to the East Indies, with Views of promoting a Trade between the United States and that Country.1

in great Haste yours forever

John Adams

RC (DLC:Jefferson Papers); internal address: “Mr Jefferson.” LbC (Adams Papers description begins Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (APM). description ends ); APM Reel 112.

1. No definitive evidence has been found to identify “Mr Joy,” but from JA’s reference to his interest in East Indian trade, he may be the Newburyport merchant Benjamin Joy (1757–1829). Appointed first U.S. consul “at Calcutta, and other ports and places on the coast of India” in 1792, he was recognized only as commercial agent (Holden Furber, “The Beginnings of American Trade with India, 1784–1812,” NEQ description begins New England Quarterly. description ends , 11:248 [1938]; U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour. description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, Washington, D.C., 1789– . description ends , 2d Cong., 6th sess., p. 126).

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 January 1786
    Author
    Adams, John
    Recipient
    Jefferson, Thomas
    Date
    28 January 1786

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 January 1786,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-18-02-0062. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 18, December 1785–January 1787, ed. Gregg L. Lint, Sara Martin, C. James Taylor, Sara Georgini, Hobson Woodward, Sara B. Sikes, Amanda M. Norton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016, p. 128.]

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