Your kind compliments on my safe return and most honorable re-election are very obliging. I have received no commission, nor instructions, nor any particular information of the plan; but from the advice and information from you and several other of my friends at Philadelphia and here, I shall make no hesitation to say, that, notwithstanding the delicacy and danger of this commission, I suppose I shall accept it without delay and trust events to Heaven, as I have been long used to do.
The convulsions at Philadelphia are very affecting and alarming, but not entirely unexpected to me. The state of parties, and the nature of their government, have a long time given me disagreeable apprehensions. But I hope they will find some remedy. Methods will be found to feed the army, but I know of none to clothe it without convoys to trade, which Congress, I think, will do well to undertake, and persuade France and Spain to undertake as soon as possible. Your packets for your friends in Europe will give me pleasure, and shall be forwarded with care and despatch.
[53] This alludes to the appointment of Colonel John Laurens to be Secretary to the Minister Plenipotentiary in France. _Secret Journals_, Vol. II. p. 261. It does not appear that Colonel Laurens accepted the appointment. He was the son of Henry Laurens, to whom this letter from Mr Adams is addressed.
I had yesterday the honor of receiving your letter of the 20th of October, enclosed with two commissions, appointing me Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States, to negotiate peace and commerce with Great Britain, together with instructions for my government in the execution of these commissions, copies of instructions to the Ministers Plenipotentiary at Versailles and Madrid, and two acts of Congress of the 4th and 15th of October.
Peace is an object of such vast importance, the interests to be adjusted in the negotiations to obtain it are so complicated and so delicate, and the difficulty of giving even general satisfaction is so great, that I feel myself more distressed at the prospect of executing the trust, than at the thought of leaving my country, and again encountering the dangers of the seas and of enemies. Yet, when I reflect on the general voice in my favor, and the high honor that is done me by this appointment, I feel the warmest sentiments of gratitude to Congress, and shall make no hesitation to accept it, and devote myself without reserve or loss of time to the discharge of it. My success, however, may depend, in a very great degree, on the intelligence and advices that I may receive from time to time from Congress, and on the punctuality with which several articles in my instructions may be kept secret. It shall be my most earnest endeavor to transmit to Congress the most constant and exact information in my power of whatever may occur, and to conceal those instructions, which depend in any measure on my judgment. And I hope I need not suggest to Congress the necessity of communicating to me, as early as possible, their commands from time to time, and of keeping all the discretionary articles an impenetrable secret, a suggestion, however, that the constitution of that sovereignty, which I have the honor to represent, might excuse.