To the honourable the Commissioners of the United States of North America, the Petition of the Jovial Tars Now on board the Continental Sloop of war Ranger, most humbley Sheweth,

That your Petitioners regard and love For their Countrey, and dutey to there ancient fore Fathers, have most of them left there wives, and Familey Cruized the wide Atalantick, in the most dangerous places, greatley Damadgeing and distressing, our enemys, and all the Satisfaction and recompence we receive for our Labour, are, Vain and Flattering promisses, likewise arbitrary Proceedings, which Causes a general murmer and uneasiness among all on Board. They therefore think it there Duty to make application to your honours for releive, From there pressent Greiveances.

That the greates number of them entered in the Service particulraly upon Mr. Simpsons our first Leiutenants account knowing him to be a Gentelman of honour, Worthey and capeable of his Officeships, and who is now confined inocentley, as we think in a Lousey Dirtey french Goal.

That they that entered for a Cruize, or a Twelve month Expected to be discharged at the expireation of that time, But Capn. Jones, since there entry and without there Concent, has ordered an uncertain term of time to be wrote Against there names, rendering them subservient to him during his absence from the eastern States, which we think Arbitrary and unconstitutional, and must when heard of in America be a hindrance and a preventment For aney Seamen to enter into the Service, or Depending upon the honours of Commanders, Like ours.

There is a number of Prizes brought into this port, but no Satissaction, or account for them, unless Your honours, will take it into Consideration, in those Material affairs, and to See Justice done by the captors. On our first arrival in France we brought in tow two prizes2 one of which fetchd not half the first cost, and the other deliverd to Mr. Delap of Bourdeaux of which can get no Account, or Satisfaction for.

We have been Lying in different ports in France since the first of December last and onley made one Cruize, and that to perfection had we our rights, But we can expect no more when we see our, Faithfull, true and Fatherley Officer our first Leiutenant used so abruptley, and we beleive and what wee have Seen without a Cause, thus have we been Deluded from our Freinds, Famileys by ungratefull and False Promises and deceitfull Advertisements, we have fought and Taken, Ships Sunk and Destroyd them and all the conslation we can send to our distressed and perhaps Famishing wives and Children, is, that there prizes is in the Hands of him, who has Deceived us, from the Begining.

We humbley pray you be pleased to take our Case into consideration and render us some veiw and Satisfaction Of what we have gone thro with and to Send us home and not For us to Let our poor wives, and Famileys Suffer with Dispair,3 and we in dutey bound will ever pray.

Passy, 4 June 1778. printed: JA, Diary and Autobiography , 4:127. Replying to letters (not found) from Bondfield of 26 and 30 May, the first enclosing accounts for the purchase of supplies for the Boston, and the second reporting on the conspiracy against the Boston and enclosing an affidavit on the episode, the Commissioners approved Bondfield's purchases, noting that the price of beef seemed too high, and expressed their hope that the Boston would soon sail and thus reduce expenses. The Commissioners further reported that the affidavit had been sent to the Ministry, expressed their concern, and declared that every effort should be made to punish those involved.

See also, Samuel Tucker to JA, 27 May (above); and Bondfield to the Commissioners, 6 June (below).

Passy, 4 or 6 June 1778. printed: JA, Diary and Autobiography , 4:127–128; not sent. The Commissioners appealed “for an immediate Exchange of Prisoners in Europe.” They protested the treatment of American prisoners “in a manner unexampled, in the practice of civilized Nations” and promised retaliation if such treatment continued.

Although the letter bears no date, in the Autobiography it immediately follows a letter to Vergennes dated 4 June and is introduced by a statement, “on the same day We wrote to Lord North.” However, in the Letterbook from which Adams derived the text (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 92), the letter follows a series of items dated 4 June and immediately precedes a number of letters dated 6 June. Additional doubt is cast on a 4 June date by the placement of an Arthur Lee copy of the letter (misdated 6 May) between a letter dated 5 June and one of the 6th (PCC, No. 102, IV, f. 11).

Adams' Letterbook copy provides no indication that the letter was sent, but notations on a draft in DLC: Franklin Papers and on Arthur Lee's copy indicate specifically that it was not. An explanation may be that direct correspondence with Lord North became unnecessary. A letter of 5 June from David Hartley to Benjamin Franklin gave the Commissioners an apparently firm proposal for an exchange of prison-185ers (see the Commissioners to John Paul Jones, 10 June, calendared below).

The text of Adams' Letterbook copy incorporated the additions and deletions made during the drafting process. This is particularly true of the final paragraph, which in the draft, with deletions indicated, read: “Most earnestly we beseech your Lordship, no longer to sacrifice the essential interests of Humanity to Claims of Sovereignty, the vainess of which the Issue of our most solemn Appeal to Heaven has sufficiently proved. It is a fatal Mistake by which you seem to have been mislead to think —that when you trampled upon Humanity you triumphed over us. which your Experience must by this time have convinc'd you are become impracticable are not to be maintained.”