of Bancroft’s inspired duplicity (ibid., 550–51) includes an unpublished case study done by the CIA.
20. JA to AA, 27 November 1778,
AFC
3:122–23, where John recounts his recommendation to the Continental Congress; for the debate in the congress, see
JCC
12:908.
21. JA to AA, 21 February 1779,
AFC
3:176–78; the “wedged in the Waiste” quotation is from
AFC
3:229.
22. Three recent biographies of Franklin have informed my interpretation: Isaacson,
Benjamin Franklin;
Edmund S. Morgan,
Benjamin Franklin
(New Haven, 2002); and Gordon S. Wood,
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
(New York, 2004).
23.
DA
4:69, 77, 118.
24. AA to JQA, 10 June 1778,
DA
4:37.
25. JQA to AA, 20 February 1779,
DA
4:175–76.
26. For the voyage home, see the editorial note in
DA
4:183, and JA to AA, 14 May 1779,
DA
4:195–96.
27. See the long editorial note on John’s role in drafting the Massachusetts Constitution in
DA
4:225–33. The quotation is in
DA
4:228.
28. Another lengthy editorial note, in
PA
8:228–36, provides more context on the contents of the document, which is reproduced in
PA
8:237–61. The quotation is in
PA
8:237.
29. JA to Elbridge Gerry, 4 November 1779,
PA
8:276.
30. These are my interpretive conclusions, indebted to the work of earlier scholars, most especially Robert J. Taylor, “Construction of the Massachusetts Constitution,” American Antiquarian Society
Proceedings
90 (1980), 317–46.
31.
JCC
13:487, for the official reprimand of Dean and the absolution of Franklin and John; Henry Laurens to JA, 4 October 1779,
PA
8:188–91.
32.
PA
8:199–201, for letters urging speed from James Lovell and Benjamin Rush.
33. JA to Henry Laurens, 4 November 1779,
PA
8:279.
34. JA to AA, 13 November 1779,
AFC
3:224.
35. AA to JA, 14 November 1779,
AFC
3:233–34.
36. John described the overland journey through Spain and southern France in
DA
2:415–33 and 4:218–38; JA to AA, 11 December 1779,
AFC
3:243–44.
37. JA to AA, April-May, 1780,
AFC
3:332–33; JA to AA, 12 May 1780,
AFC
3–342.
38. JA to AA, 6 April 1780,
AFC
3:319; AA to JA, 13 April 1780,
AFC
3:320–21.
39. AA to JA, 23 August 1780,
AFC
3:400–1; AA to Mercy Otis Warren, 1 September 1780,
AFC
3:402–3; AA to JA, 25 December 1780,
AFC
4:40; JA to AA, 2 December 1781,
AFC
4:251.
40. AA to JA, 10 April 1782,
AFC
4:305–8.
41. The effort by Vergennes to have John recalled is summarized in two editorial notes,
AFC
3:390–95 and 4:174–76. For John’s version, see
DA
3:103–5. The quotation is in
DA
2:446. The debate and vote in the Continental Congress is in
JCC
20:746.
42. Benjamin Franklin to Continental Congress, 9 August 1780,
AFC
3:395; Benjamin Franklin to R. R. Livingston, 23 July 1780, reproduced in
AFC
5:251–52.
43. Elbridge Gerry to JA, 30 July 1781,
AFC
4:189.
44. AA to James Lovell, 30 June 1781,
AFC
4:165.
45. AA to JA, 17 March 1782,
AFC
4:293.
46. AA to JA, 25 May 1781,
AFC
4:128–31; JA to AA, 14 May 1782,
AFC
4:323. John’s Dutch initiative, if recounted fully, would require a separate volume of its own. My account here is, and only intends to be, a brief summary, its brevity necessitated by the need to sustain the focus on the relationship between Abigail and John. The editorial note in
AFC
3:390–95 describes John’s multiple movements and machinations in the Netherlands during 1780 and 1781.
47. AA to JA, 9 December 1781,
AFC
4:255–61; AA to JA, 5 August 1782,
AFC
4:356–59.
48. AA to JQA, 19 January 1780,
AFC
3:268–69.
49. JA to AA, 18 December 1780,
AFC
4:34–35.
50. John’s rather terrifying injunction to John Quincy dates from a later time, though it represents his consistent paternal posture. Obviously, when he was a young boy, John Quincy was not expected to become president, because no such office existed. But he was expected to lead a life of public service that culminated at the top. See Ellis,
Passionate Sage
, 195; AA to JQA, 26 December 1783,
AFC
5:284. For a psychiatric