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ALS, one page, 7.75 x 9.75, April 11, 1817. Addressed from Quincy, Massachusetts, a handwritten letter to French statesman and diplomat François Barbé-Marbois, introducing young Boston traveler Theodore Lyman, Jr. and requesting his assistance during a planned visit to France. In full: “A young Gentleman of Studious and inquisitive Character, as well as respectable Parentage and connections in Boston, Mr Theodore Lyman junior, has requested a Letter from me to some Gentleman in France to whom he may appeal to shew that he is no idle or mischievous Adventurer. More than one third advanced in my Seventeenth Lustre, I have lost all my Friends and Acquaintances in France excepting yourself and The Marquis de La Fayette. As I am very desirous that Mr Lyman should conceive an esteem and affection for France, such as I feel in my own Breast, I have ventured to give him this Letter, hoping for your pardon. The Hours of our Passage from L’Orient to Boston are dayly recollected with Pleasure: and the Vicissitudes we have both experienced before and Since, make the present existence of either of Us appear a kind of miracle. With my Sincere Wishes that you may live to See your Country restored to her usual Happiness, and that the good understanding between your Country and mine may be perpetual.” The address panel on the reverse of the second integral page is penned in another hand to “Monsieur le Comte Barbe-Marbois, Pair de France,” and bears remnants of the original red wax seal. In fine condition. Accompanied by a printed French funeral announcement, dated 1869, for Jeanne-Louise-Georgette Courtois de Minut, Comtesse de Courteillers, through whose family the letter was subsequently preserved.
A warm and reflective retirement-era letter from the second president to one of the last surviving French figures personally connected to America's Revolutionary generation. Adams and Barbé-Marbois first became acquainted during the American Revolution, sharing a transatlantic voyage from Lorient to Boston in 1780. By 1817, both men had witnessed the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the dramatic political transformations of two nations. Adams's poignant observation that their continued survival appeared "a kind of miracle" stands as a remarkable reflection on nearly four decades of upheaval.
Equally striking is his remark that he had lost all his friends and acquaintances in France "excepting yourself and The Marquis de La Fayette," a touching reference to the famed Revolutionary War hero at a moment when Lafayette had already survived the Terror, imprisonment, the Napoleonic era, and the Bourbon Restoration. Adams's wish that France be "restored to her usual Happiness" further reflects the uncertain political climate following Napoleon's final defeat and the restoration of the French monarchy under Louis XVIII.
His recommendation proved well placed: Theodore Lyman Jr. later emerged as a prominent Boston political figure, serving in the Massachusetts legislature and as a two-term mayor of Boston. The recipient, François Barbé-Marbois, later served as Napoleon's Minister of the Treasury and played a central role in negotiating the Louisiana Purchase, making this an especially appealing intersection of American and French diplomatic history.
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