Adams Papers Digital Edition

Papers of John Adams, volume 7

To Ferdinand Grand

To the Comte de Vergennes
To Gabriel de Sartine, 16 February 1779 JA Sartine, Antoine Raymond Jean Gualbert Gabriel de To Gabriel de Sartine, 16 February 1779 Adams, John Sartine, Antoine Raymond Jean Gualbert Gabriel de
To Gabriel de Sartine
Sir Passy Feb. 16. 1779

By the late Appointment of Dr. Franklin to be a Minister plenipotentiary at this Court, I am left at Liberty to return to my own Coun-416try, as it does not appear that Congress, have any further Service for me to do in Europe. I therefore wish to return, as Soon as possible. But the English have heard So much of me, in Times past that I should be very loth to be exposed to their Goodwill. If it is in your Excellencys Intention therefore to Send any Man of War to any Part of the united States, I would ask the Favour of a Passage for myself, my little son and a servant.1 I have the Honour to be, with the highest Consideration, &c

LbC (Adams Papers).

1.

Because he did not know when a French vessel would be dispatched to an American port, Sartine recommended in his reply of 28 Feb. that JA take passage on the continental frigate Alliance, which had carried Lafayette and Benjamin Franklin's new commission to France and was under orders to prepare for an immediate return to the United States (Adams Papers; French text printed in JA, Works , 7:88–89).