[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]

PHILAD Augt 11 -78

MY DEAR SIR

I am quite ashamd that I have not yet acknowledgd the two Letters which
I have had the Pleasure of receiving from you since I left Boston; you
will excuse me when I tell you, I have many Letters, which are daily
accumulating, unanswerd, and very little Leisure. This by the Way, must
convince you how unfit a Person I am even if I were otherwise
qualified, to undertake the important Task you require of me in your
last. While I am giving you the true Reason of my Silence, I hope it
will not prevent your writing to me by every opportunity. Herein you
will lay me under great obligations.

By the late Publications, you have seen, and doubtless have made your
own Comments on the epistolary Correspondence between the British
Commissioners & Congress. The short Resolution on their last Letter,
has put an End to it. Last Week the Minister from France had an
Audience in Congress. The Manner of conducting this Ceremony, together
with a Letter from his most Christian Majesty and the Speeches of the
Minister and the President are publishd in the inclosd News Paper. I
have had several opportunitys of seeing him at his own House, and a few
days ago he made a Visit to the Delegates of the Massachusetts who live
together. He is easy and polite in his Manners and converses freely
without much Ceremony.

Nothing can equal the barefaced Falshood of the Quakers & Tories in
this City, unless perhaps their Folly, in giving out that M. Gerard