1. JA enclosed JQA’s missives of 12 Feb., 1 April, 4 May, and 22 May. His letters of 12 Feb. and 22 May are above. In his 1 April letter, JQA observed that a circle of Dutch Patriots were reorganizing the government and drafting a new constitution, adding that peace between France and Prussia seemed imminent. As JA explained in his 25 Aug. reply, such detailed reportage was critical to read and circulate at home, rendering JQA’s letters “in So much request in this Country that I can never keep them long enough to make regular Answers to them” (JQA, Writings description begins Writings of John Quincy Adams, ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, New York, 1913–1917; 7 vols. description ends , 1:310–316, 339–344; AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 11:20).

2. In the wake of the Senate’s 24 June ratification of the Jay Treaty, Federalist and Democratic-Republican factions sought to sway the president prior to his signing it, via pamphlets and public meetings. On 10 July Boston citizens met at Faneuil Hall to discuss the treaty’s implications. The crowd of 1,500 citizens opposed the Jay Treaty since it failed to guarantee reciprocity in Anglo-American trade and did not address two long-simmering issues: the British Navy’s impressment of American sailors and compensation for property lost during the American Revolution. Three days later, acting on behalf of the citizens at the meeting, Boston selectmen sent Washington a list of nineteen resolutions encapsulating their views.

Boston’s opposition kindled resistance to the Jay Treaty elsewhere. As protest grew, Benjamin Franklin Bache printed the Jay Treaty and widely distributed copies to every state. Philadelphia citizens marked the Fourth of July by burning the agreement along with effigies of John Jay. Dissent gripped the southern states as well. James Madison petitioned the Virginia legislature, echoing concerns that the treaty’s terms assigned an inferior status to the United States. Washington’s subsequent replies to the Boston selectmen and to citizens in Richmond, Va., helped to ease the popular protest, for which see his letter of 20 Aug. to JA, and note 1, below (Todd Estes, The Jay Treaty Debate, Public Opinion, and the Evolution of Early American Political Culture, Amherst, Mass., 2006, p. 73, 74, 75, 77, 92–93, 98, 137; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, ed. W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Jack D. Warren, Mark A. Mastromarino, Robert F. Haggard, Christine S. Patrick, John C. Pinheiro, David R. Hoth, Jennifer Stertzer and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1987– . description ends , 18:327–332).