In the Name & by Order of the Town of Boston1 in Meeting legally assembled December 14 1781.
1 Signed, in the original as published, by William Cooper, Town Clerk. This letter and the instructions of the town of December 11, 1781, were printed in a pamphlet of three pages. A copy is in the Boston Public Library.
TO JOHN ADAMS.1
[MS., Adams Papers, Quincy; a draft is in the Samuel Adams Papers,
Lenox Library.]
BOSTON 18 Decr 1781
MY DEAR SIR
I have already written to you this Day by the Marquis de Lafayette. This passes thro the Hands of Count de Noailles, whom you did me the Honor to introduce to me. I duly acknowledgd the Receipt of your Favor which he brought me; but the LOSS of my Letter was attended with an infinitely greater, that of Collo Palfrey. I wrote to you largely by him.
The Son in Law of one of our good Friends has lately arrivd here from England, which gives great Disgust to more Persons than his near Relations conceive of. On his Arrival, the Governor & Council directed him to state his Reasons for going to England and returning hither without the Leave of Government. He stated his Reasons; which in general were to render Service to the United States, particularly by removing the Ideas which the British Minister had conceivd of the Attachment of nine tenths of the Americans to that Government, and their Wishes to return to it. However frivolous this may appear to others, his nearest Friends speak of it, can you believe me, in a high Tone, and Mr —— told me that Mr ——— was happy in being conscious not only of Innocence, but of great Merit.2—Those who hope for a Change of Person in our first Magistrate next Spring will be much embarrassd by this Circumstance. Adieu my Friend.
1 Addressed to Adams at Amsterdam.
2 The draft at this point has the words. "the Affair is in the Hands of the Attourney General by the Direction of the Govr & Council."