It is my indispensable duty upon this occasion to inform your Excellency, without consulting either of my colleagues, that the honorable Arthur Lee was as long ago as 1770 appointed by the House of Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay, of which I had then the honor to be a member, their agent at the Court of London in case of the death or absence of Dr Franklin. This honorable testimony was given to Mr Lee by an assembly in which he had no natural interest, on account of his inflexible attachment to the American cause, and of the abilities of which he had given many proofs in its defence. From that time to the year 1774 he held a constant correspondence with several of those gentlemen, who stood foremost in the Massachusetts Bay against the innovations and illegal encroachments of Great Britain. This correspondence I had an opportunity of seeing, and I assure your Excellency from my own knowledge, that it breathed the most inflexible attachment, and the most ardent zeal in the cause of his country. From September 1774 to November 1777, I had the honor to be in Congress, and the opportunity to see his letters to Congress, to their committees, and to several of their individual members. Through the whole of both these periods, he communicated the most constant and certain intelligence, which was received from any individual within my knowledge, and since I have had the honor to be joined with him here, I have ever found in him the same fidelity and zeal; and have not a glimmering of suspicion, that he ever maintained an improper correspondence in England, or held any conference or negotiation with any body from thence, without communicating it to your Excellency and to his colleagues. I am confident, therefore, that every insinuation and suspicion against him of infidelity to the United States, or to their engagements with his Majesty, is false and groundless, and will assuredly be proved to be so. The two honorable brothers of Mr Lee, who are members of Congress, I have long and intimately known; and of my own knowledge I can say, that no men have discovered more zeal in support of the sovereignty of the United States, and in promoting from the beginning a friendship and alliance with France, and there is nothing of which I am more firmly persuaded, than that every insinuation that is thrown out to the disadvantage of the two Mr Lees in Congress is groundless. It would be too tedious to enter at present into a more particular consideration of that address. I shall therefore conclude this letter, already too long, by assuring your Excellency, that I am, with the most entire consideration, your most, &c. JOHN ADAMS. COUNT DE VERGENNES TO JOHN ADAMS. Translation. Versailles, February 13th, 1779. Sir,