TO JEREMY BELKNAP.

[Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, 1st ser., vol. iv.,
p. 83; a draft is in the Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]

BOSTON, March 30, 1795.

SIR,

I received your note, stating what Dr. Kippis had asserted, respecting
a recommendation of Dr. Franklin, minister from America in France, in
the year 1779, to the American cruisers, to treat Capt. Cook, on his
expected return from a voyage of discoveries, as a friend, and not an
enemy; assuring them, that in so doing, they would obtain the
approbation of Congress. But that the Doctor was mistaken, for that
assembly, at least the greater part of them, instantly reversed the
order of Dr. Franklin, and directed, that a special order should be
taken, to seize Capt. Cook, if an opportunity for doing it occurred.

You request me to give you a certificate respecting the matter, and to
express the years when I was in Congress.--I was a member from the first
sitting of Congress, in the year 1774, until the Spring of the year
1781. It was my constant practice, once in twelve or fifteen months, to
make a short visit to my constituents. In the year 1779, I was detained
in Boston a much longer time than usual, by a fit of sickness; in which
time, I constantly received from Mr. Lowell, and my other colleagues,
information of the most material transactions of Congress. I do now
declare to you, that I do not recollect, either while I was present in