Adams, John, second President, as Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain

Autograph letter signed, 3 pages (8 7/8 x 7 3/8 in.; 226 x 189 mm) on a bifolium (watermarked posthorn | gr),  Auteuil near Paris, 11 May 1785, to Charles W. F. Dumas, being a retained copy with autograph docket on the final blank: "Copy of Letter to Mr Dumas May, 11, 1785 from Auteuil. original of which he delivered to Mr. Fagel"; a few words of docket partially erased, very short separations at head and foot of central fold.

The Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang Foundation (part 2, Sotheby's, 14 November 1978, lot 326)

Adams expresses misgivings about his charge to establish diplomatic ties with George III: "Whither this Mission to London is a Subject of Felicitation or not, I know not. One Thing I know, I quit the Situation in Europe the most to my Taste, and the most for my Health, for one which will probably be agreable to neither. I exchange a quiet chearfull Mind for an anxious one and a Life of Ease, for a Scene of Perplexity, Confusion and Fatigue."

A year after Congress had ratified the Treaty of Paris, John Adams was appointed as the first envoy of the United States to the Court of St. James. In this revealing letter to Dumas, a Dutch intelligence agent for the United States, Adams admits his regret at leaving Holland, but vows, as so many of the Founding Fathers did, to subjugate his personal preferences to public service. 

"I have received the orders of Congress to go to London according to the Article you read in an English News Paper which appears to have been copied, from a Gazette of New York. I have received too a Commission and Letter of Credence as Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the King of Great Britain, and William Smith, formerly Aid de Camp of General Washington, is Secretary of Legation. Congress have resolved too, that it will be expedient to appoint a Minister to their High Mightinesses to succeed me. At first I concluded to go to the Hague, and take my Leave of their High Mightinesses, and of the Nation, with all that Respect, Affection and Gratitude, which is due from me to them. but as I have not received a Letter of Recall, and my Successor is not arrived, I cannot yet take leave according to the Forms; and I learn that Colonel Smith was to embark in the Packett for Falmouth, so that he may be expected by this Time, and I must see him as soon as possible, to receive from him some additional Papers among which may possibly be, my Letter of Recall, so that I have concluded to go to London first. Upon the Arrival of my Letter of Recall or of my Successor, I shall go over to the Hague if possible. But if I should chance to be engaged in Business for the Public, which I cannot leave, I shall take leave of their High Mightinesses, and of his most Serene Highness by a respectfull Letter. In this case, however, I will not loose the Pleasure of a Visit to Holland, and of seeing my Friends there, but will take a Journey thither with Mrs Adams as soon as the Public Service will admit."

In language remarkably similar to that employed four years later by George Washington in his famous letter to Henry Knox about his reluctance to assume the presidency, Adams writes to Dumas regarding his own doubts about assuming his new responsibilities in London: "Whither this Mission to London is a Subject of Felicitation or not, I know not.—One Thing I know, I quit the Situation in Europe the most to my Taste, and the most for my Health, for one which will probably be agreable to neither. I exchange a quiet chearfull Mind for an anxious one and a Life of Ease, for a Scene of Perplexity, Confusion and Fatigue. if the Public, however, should derive any benefit from it, I shall not regret it." Adams also discusses how he and his fellow minister Thomas Jefferson will deal with ongoing treaty negotiations after the departure of Benjamin Franklin, and he concludes the letter with conventional family news and well-wishes: "The Communication between the Hague and London will be shorter and more frequent and I hope to hear from you often. My Family send their Respect to yours. My Son is to take leave of us tomorrow Morning and may Heavens Blessings attend him. Remember him and his Father to all our good Friends whom you know well."

Less than three weeks after this letter was written—and over the objections of George III— Adams was installed as the American minister to Great Britain. King George was extremely reluctant to meet with the United States minister, complaining in a 27 May 1785 letter to the Marquis of Carmarthen, his Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that "the arrival of a Minister from America is the most unfortunate political event that could happen to me." Despite the regent's misgivings, Adams reported in a letter of 3 June 1785, that his "mission was treated by his Majesty with all the Respect, and the Person with all the Kindness which could have been expected or reasonably desired and with much more I confess than was in fact expected by me."