[May 19. 1778.]
[from the Autobiography of John Adams]
[May 19. 1778.]
May 19. 1778. We wrote to Congress, and to the Count De Vergennes.
[Commissioners to the President of Congress]
To the President of Congress
Passi May 19. 1778
Sir
We have the Honor to inclose a Copy of a Letter received from Monsieur the Count De Vergennes, the Secretary of State for foreign Affairs, with a Copy of a Letter inclosed in it, for the Consideration of Congress, not doubting that Congress will give it all the Attention, that an Affair of so much importance demands. We have the Honor to be &c.
[Commissioners to the Comte de Vergennes]
Passi May 19. 1778
Sir
We have had the Honor of your Excellencys Letter of the fifteenth instant, inclosing a Copy of a Letter from Mr. De La Rouilliere, Consul at Madeira of the 15th. of March [i.e. February?] 1778.
We have inclosed to Congress a Copy of your Excellencys Letter with a Copy of its Inclosures, and have recommended to Congress, the earliest attention to the Subject, and have no doubt that Justice will be speedily done. We have the Honor to be &c.
B. Franklin,
Arthur Lee,
John Adams.
His Excellency Le Compte De Vergennes.
I find this Note of this date, in my book.
[To William Hyslop]
May 19. 1778.
Mr. A. returns his respectfull Compliments to Mr. Hyslop, and informs him with much pleasure, that Dr. Chancey and his Family were well, the beginning of February and as he supposes Mr. Hyslops Family likewise, having never heard any thing to the contrary. As to Advice, what Mr. Hyslop had best do, Mr. A. is not able to give any, but wishes Mr. Hyslop to follow his own Judgment which is much better. Hopes the Storms will blow over in time, and that he shall have the pleasure of again seeing Mr. Hyslop in fair Weather.2
1. No recipient’s copy of this letter has been found, and probably none was received by Congress. Copies of both the letter and its enclosures (the letters inserted in the Autobiography under 15 May, Vergennes to the Commissioners and de Sartine to La Tuelliere, above) are in PCC, No. 85, made by Henry Remsen Jr. from “a Volume of the Commissioners Letters kept by Mr. [Arthur] Lee.”
2. This was in answer to a third-person note from Hyslop, London, 8 May, inquiring about his own and Dr. Chauncy’s families in Boston (Adams Papers). The writer was doubtless William Hyslop, a Boston merchant who was a connection by marriage of the eminent clergyman Charles Chauncy (Thwing Catalogue, MHi; , 8 [1854]: 128r–u).