Adams Papers Digital Edition

Diary of John Adams, volume 3

Dec. 11. Wednesday.

1782 December 13. Fryday.
12. Thursday. JA 12. Thursday. Adams, John
12. Thursday.

Met at Mr. Laurens's, and signed the Letter, I had drawn up to Mr. Dana, which I sent off inclosed with a Copy of the Preliminaries1 — and consulted about Articles to be inserted in the definitive Treaty. Agreed that Mr. Jay and I should prepare a joint Letter to Congress.

At 7.1 met Mr. Jay at his House and We drew a Letter.2

1.

Signed by the four American Commissioners and dated this day, this letter is in MHi:Dana Papers; a facsimile is in Cresson, Francis Dana , facing p. 278.

 2.

The version finally agreed upon, dated 14 Dec., signed by the four Commissioners, and sent to Secretary Livingston, is in PCC, No. 85; printed in Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. , 6:131–133. In the Adams Papers is JA's “rough draught of a common i.e. joint Letter,” dated one day earlier. See also the following entry in this Diary. This dispatch and its enclosure, a certi- 96fied copy of the Preliminary Articles, were carried to Philadelphia by Capt. Joshua Barney in the packet Washington. Barney did not sail from Lorient, however, until mid-January and did not arrive until 12 March (Pres. Boudinot to George Washington, 12 March 1783; Burnett, ed., Letters of Members , 7:71).