RC (Adams Papers).

Matthew Ridley, who had left The Hague for Amsterdam on 21 May, returned to The Hague on the 25th, the same day, according to Ridley's journal (MHi), that Henry Laurens arrived for meetings with JA. Laurens apparently met twice with JA, first, according to Ridley's journal, on 26 May, and second probably on the 27th or 28th, prior to Laurens' departure for Amsterdam on the 29th. Laurens' purpose was to inquire as to whether he should take up his duties under his 1779 commissions to raise a loan and negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce. When JA informed Laurens that the objectives of his commissions either had been or were in the process of being accomplished, Laurens concluded that JA thought “my Attendance is not requisite, and that it could only be productive of unecessary Expence to the Public, which I neither wish nor would encourage.” He then set out to visit his family in the south of France (Laurens, Papers , 15:518, 521–522; JCC , 15:1198, 1210, 1235–1236). For JA's account of his exchange with Laurens, see his letter to Edmund Jenings, ante 28 Aug. , below; for the possibility of an otherwise unrecorded JA-Laurens meeting in early June, see JA to Jenings, 5 June, below.

Matthew Ridley dined with JA and Laurens on the 26th. In his journal, Ridley indicates that after Laurens left, “soon after dinner on account of his illness,” he and JA, “took a ride to Scheidam about 3 miles from Town.” In the course of their ride the two men apparently had a conversation that, as recorded by Ridley, sheds some light on what passed during JA's meeting with Laurens but also expands on JA's criticism of Benjamin Franklin raised in his first meeting with Ridley on 20 May (to Lafayette, 21 May, note 1, above). According to Ridley, JA told him that there was

“no great prospect of Peace—Mr L. will not go to Paris—intends as soon as possible out to America. There is no doubt that when Mr. L was in the Tower and wrote to D. F for money that he gave directions for £100 part of the Money sent for the Prisoners to England to be given Mr L. This Mr L refused and never after made any application to the Dr. There seems a general dissatisfaction with Dr. F. and no scruples are made in saying the time will come when his Character will be known—that he is an intriguing unfeeling Man—at Comte de Vergennes disposition has his parties and favorites &c. &c. Mr. A. cannot forgive him for sending out Mr de Vergennes complaint agt. Mr. Adams respecting his declaration of the necessity and Justice of the 18: March business and not giving Mr Adams Notice of it. Mr A hardly knew any thing of it untill he got the Resolve of the Thanks of Congress to him for his Behavior. I find Mr A has a good opinion of Mr. Morris.”

For Laurens' request for funds in late 1781 that was relayed through Benjamin Vaughan, Franklin's response, and Laurens' reaction, see Franklin, Papers , 36:59–60, 61; Laurens, Papers , 15:385. JA's comments regarding Franklin refer specifically to Congress' 18 March 1780 revaluation of its currency and his defense of that decision in correspondence with the Comte de Vergennes. In fact, however, he is referring to the entirety of his acrimonious exchange with Vergennes in the summer of 1780 and the role played by Franklin therein, for which see the editorial notes on The Revaluation Controversy, 16 June – 1 July 1780; and The Dispute with the Comte de Vergennes, 13–29 July 1780, vol. 9:427–430, 516–520.

The pamphlets sent by “Mr. Myers” have not been identified, but for Jenings' promise 84regarding the Memoires, see his letter of 17 Sept. 1781 to JA, at note 9 (vol. 11:488).

For the dissatisfaction with the oligarchical government of Geneva that led to unrest in 1781 and to a full-scale revolution in 1782, see vol. 12:47–49. The Comte de Vergennes' letter to the government of Geneva, in which he stated the French position and laid the groundwork for intervention, appeared in the Gazette d'Amsterdam of 19 Oct. 1781. For an English translation, see vol. 2 of the Remembrancer for 1781, p. 302–304. With the 6 May 1782 issue of Le politique hollandais, Cerisier began a series entitled “Sur la Contitution & les Troubles de la République de Geneve,” which continued in the issues of 20, 27 May; 17, 24 June; and 1, 22 July.

Jenings presumably refers to John or Matthias Bordley. CA had sailed from Bilbao, Spain, on the Cicero in early Dec. 1781 and reached Massachusetts in late Jan. 1782 (vol. 11:286; 12:324, 410).

Dupl (MHi: John Adams, Embassy MSS); endorsed: “Secy. Livingston 29 May ansd 6. Sept. 1782 no 7.” Although JA wrote a detailed reply to this letter on 6 Sept., he acknowledged its arrival in the form of a duplicate in his letter of 4 Sept., both below.

This letter bears the date on which it was dispatched (from Livingston, 30 May, below), but Livingston may have drafted it as early as 25 May, for which see note 4.

The Courier de l'Europe of 26 Feb. contained a French translation of the final two paragraphs of Livingston's letter to Dumas of 28 Nov. 1781 (Wharton, Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. , 5:30–32). The extract from the letter to Dumas formed the first third of a longer passage entitled “Extrait d'une Lettre d'un Américain à son Correspondant en Hollande.” The source of the remainder of the text is unknown, but it contained references that appear in other letters written by Livingston in late November.

JA's letter to Franklin had reached Livingston as an enclosure in Benjamin Franklin's letter of 30 March 1782 to the secretary for foreign affairs, for which see note 3 to JA's letter of 26 March (vol. 12:352).

Since there is no extant letter from Livingston to JA of 26 May, he may be referring to his letter of 22 May, above. That would suggest that this letter of the 29th, and the letter to Francis Dana bearing the same date (Wharton, Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. , 5:446–447), may have been drafted on or about 25 May.

The letter to Francis Dana of the 29th contained a detailed account of the case of Capt. Charles Asgill of the 1st Foot Guards. Captured at Yorktown, Asgill was selected for execution in retaliation for the murder of an American prisoner, Capt. Josiah Huddy, by a loyalist officer, Capt. Richard Lippincott. George Washington demanded that Lippincott be turned over to the Americans for trial. General Clinton condemned the actions of the loyalists, but he refused Washington's request, ordering instead that Lippincott be court-martialed. This led to Asgill's selection to be executed in Lippincott's stead. For a variety of reasons, including an appeal by his mother through the French government, Captain Asgill was released and returned to England on parole ( DNB ; Mackesy, War for America , p. 490–491; JCC , 23:845–846). In his reply of 6 Sept., below, JA indicates that Dumas translated the portion of Livingston's letter to Dana pertaining to Asgill. It appeared in the Gazette d'Amsterdam of 13 September.

This is the first mention in any letter to or from JA of Rodney's victory over the French fleet commanded by the Comte de Grasse at the Battle of the Saints on 12 April. News of the battle, which resulted in de Grasse's capture and the loss of seven French ships of the line, reached London on 18 May (London Gazette, 14–18 May; Mackesy, War for America , p. 456–459). For JA's first comment on the battle, see his brief note of 5 June to Edmund Jenings, below.