Adams Family Correspondence, volume 3
I send Josiah Spear, the bearer, to inform you of the Agreeable news of the Arrival of Mr. Adams in France.
A London News paper taken Out of a prize from London which Arrived Yesterday att Salem says that Mr. Adams Arrived in France the 15th. Aprill, and brings Accounts that the Commissioners saild Ten days before this Vessell.—I congratulate you on so Agreeable intelligence and are Yr. Uncle &c.,
Under London news the following item appeared in the Boston Independent Chronicle of 18 June: “Paris, April 15. Mr. Adams, brother of the celebrated Member of the American Congress, arrived at Dr. Franklin's house here a few days ago, with some advices from America, the contents of which are not yet publicly known.” Its phrasing provides some justification for JA's rueful observation early in 1779 that “all Parties both in France and England . . . agreed in this—that I was not the fameux Adams” (
Diary and Autobiography
, 2:351–352).