Adams Papers

To John Adams from Henry Laurens, 12 November 1782

From Henry Laurens

London 12th November 1782.

Dear Sir,

An untoward Circumstance had hurried me from Bath, where I had been about a Month in the progress of health; I was waiting the Determination of this Court, whether I might, upon terms consistent with my honor, return & continue in the same pursuit during the Winter Months, or be obliged at all hazards to withdraw immediately from the Kingdom. In this dilemma, I had this afternoon the honor of recieving your letter of the 6th. Instant, accompanied by an Act of Congress of the 17th. of September.

My Country enjoins & condescends to desire, I must therefore, also at all hazards to myself obey & comply. Diffident as I am of my own Abilities, I shall as speedily as possible proceed & join my Colleagues.

For the rest, the Wound is deep, but I apply to myself the consolation which I administered to the Father, of the Brave Colonel Parker. “Thank God I had a Son who dared to die in defence of his Country.”1

My Dear freind / Adieu.

Henry Laurens.

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excellency John Adams Esquire / at Paris.”

1Laurens refers to his condolences to Richard Parker of Virginia upon the death of his son Col. Richard Parker in 1780 at the siege of Charleston (Laurens, Papers description begins The Papers of Henry Laurens, ed. Philip M. Hamer, George C. Rogers Jr., David R. Chesnutt, C. James Taylor, and others, Columbia, S.C., 1968–2003; 16 vols. description ends , 15:246–247).

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