Adams Papers Digital Edition

Papers of John Adams, volume 6

James Moylan to the Commissioners, 17 August 1778 Moylan, James First Joint Commission at Paris JA James Moylan to the Commissioners, 17 August 1778 Moylan, James First Joint Commission at Paris Adams, John
James Moylan to the Commissioners
Honorable Gentlemen L'Orient 17 Augst. 1778

The Brig Lady Washington Cap: Rowntree arrived here yesterday from James River Virginia loaded with Tobacco. She sail'd from thence the 8th. July. The Captain tells me the two army's 376were then in the Jerseys, and that the Enemy's ships were still in the Delaware, in order I suppose to insure it's retreat if necessary, that General Washington's army amounted to 18,000 men,1 the people in general in high spirits and the money increasing in it's value. He gives no other account of Count D'Esting, than that his fleet was daily expected, on which account the English Naval forces were united in Delaware. I have the honor to be respectfully Honble. Gentlemen Your assurd hle. st.,2

James Moylan

RC (PPAmP: Franklin Papers); addressed: “The Honorable Plenipotentiary Ministers of the United States of America at Passy”; docketed: “Mr. Moylan ans. Aug. 22. 1778”; in another hand between the lines of JA's docketing: “17. Aug. 78.”

1.

In terms of the total forces under Washington's command, this figure is low. In June, following the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, Washington's army consisted of 24,405 men and increased to 28,638 in July following the movement of the army to White Plains, N.Y. (Charles H. Lesser, ed., Sinews of Independence, Chicago, 1976, p. 72–73, 76–77).

 2.

The Commissioners' answer on the 22d emphasized their desire for information about Estaing's fleet (LbC, Adams Papers).

 The Commissioners to Sartine, 18 August 1778 First Joint Commission at Paris JA Sartine, Antoine Raymond Jean Gualbert Gabriel de The Commissioners to Sartine, 18 August 1778 First Joint Commission at Paris Adams, John Sartine, Antoine Raymond Jean Gualbert Gabriel de
The Commissioners to Sartine
Passi August 18 1778

We embrace this first opportunity to answer the Letter, which your Excellency did Us the Honour to address to Us, the Sixteenth of this Month.1

We have examined, with Some Attention the Alterations which your Excellency has made in the second and fourteenth Articles of the projected Regulations and are of opinion, that they will remove the Difficulties We apprehendd from the first Draught.

We thank your Excellency for the obliging Expressions of your Readiness to receive any Representations We may hereafter have occasion to make of Inconveniences arising in the Execution of these Regulations, which however We hope will not occur. We submit the whole to your Excellencys Deliberation and Decision and are, with Sentiments of the sincerest Respect, your Excellencys, most humble and most obedient servants.

LbC (Adams Papers).

1.

See also Sartine to the Commissioners, 29 July (calendared above) and references there.

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