Sartine to the American Commissioners, 26 October 1778: résumé
Sartine to the American Commissioners3
Copies: Massachusetts Historical Society, National Archives, Library of Congress (two)
<Marly, October 26, 1778, in French: The second part of your letter of October 12 deserves a response as well as the first, to which I have already replied. Although it would serve a double purpose if all American sailors remaining in British service by inertia or coercion could be returned to their native country, the matter poses difficulties. I shall take up the question of the impressed seamen with His Majesty. I have given orders to put at your disposal the four prisoners in Dinan whose release you request.4>
3. Published in Taylor, Adams Papers, VII.
4. Presumably the men named in the commissioners’ letter of Oct. 15 to the prisoners: Harrison, Lemon, Driver and Nichols.