Adams Papers Digital Edition

Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1

Wednesday 26th.

Friday 28th of July 1780.
Thursday 27th. JQA Thursday 27th. Adams, John Quincy
Thursday 27th.

Stevens went to the lewtenants of the Police for a passport to go out of the kingdom. He could not get it till 10 o clock. At twelve o clock we dined. Mr. Austin,1 Mr. Appleton,2 Mr. Dana, 36Mr. Thaxter Mr. Fox3 Captn. Robinson and Dr. Foulk4 took leave of us and at about 1 o clock we sot out. We passed over the boulevards and out of the porte St. Martin and left Paris. We had very good roads passed over some land very well cultivated and at about ten o clock at night we arrived at Compiègne which is a small city and a very old one. We came 9 Posts and a half which is 57 Miles to day.

 1.

Jonathan Loring Austin, one-time secret agent for Franklin in England and secretary for JA at Passy, had come back to Europe in a vain endeavor to secure a loan for Massachusetts from Dutch, French, and Spanish authorities (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates, 16:303–308; Adams Family Correspondence, 3:262–263).

 2.

John Appleton, son of Nathaniel Appleton, the commissioner of the Continental Loan Office and Boston merchant, was in Paris on mercantile business and later followed the Adams' party to Holland, carrying letters for JA (Francis Dana to JA, 31 July, Adams Papers; Adams Family Correspondence, 3:390, where the date of Dana's letter is incorrectly given as 31 Aug.).

 3.

George Fox, an American traveler in Europe, portrayed as a man of “fortune and genius,” sympathetic to the promotion of agriculture, natural history, and the arts in America (Anne H. Cresson, “Biographical Sketch of Joseph Fox, Esq., of Philadelphia,” PMHB , 32:196 [April 1908]; Cal. Franklin Papers, A.P.S., 2:243).

 4.

Dr. John Foulke, described in Benjamin Rush's letter of introduction for him to JA as “a young gentleman of a respectable Quaker family who goes to France to finish his Studies in Medicine” (Benjamin Rush to JA, 28 April, Adams Papers).