The American Commissioners to Dumas
AL (draft): Library of Congress; incomplete LS: New-York Historical
Society; copies: Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères, Koninklijk
Huisarchief, Massachusetts Historical Society, National Archives
(two)
<Paris, April 10, 1778: We have received your dispatch of the
3rd and appreciate the intelligence in it. Mr. John Adams has
arrived; he came on the Boston, which took a valuable prize and
sent her to America. He tells us that Congress considered
sending an envoy to the Netherlands but, for fear that he might
be an embarrassment, decided to wait until Dutch views were
known. He may be less so now that the French alliance has
made our independence appear more stable; please find out.
The Netherlands have been our great example of defending
liberty; our similar situations and constitutions may bring us
together, while commercial intercourse erases the bad impression
made on some Americans by the Dutch refusing them
military supplies in their distress. When Mr. Adams left the
United States in mid-February our affairs were improving and
our troops well supplied; now that Gen. Burgoyne’s army has
been detained we have more than 10,000 prisoners.>
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