Note 72 — THE CORRESPONDENCE OF HENRY LAURENS,

This letter is missing, nor does it appear from the Correspondence at what time, or from what place Mr Laurens sailed. On the 20th of June, 1780, it was resolved in Congress, that, as circumstances had prevented his departure, the commission to negotiate a loan in the United Provinces and the Low Countries, should be transferred to John Adams. And on the 7th of July, it was resolved, “That the commission, which was agreed to on the first day of November, 1779, for the honorable Henry Laurens, as a Commissioner to negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce with the States-General of the United Provinces of the Low Countries, be delivered to him; and that the consideration of the instructions relative to the negotiation of the treaty be for the present deferred; and that Mr Laurens, on his arrival in Holland, inform himself of the state of affairs in that country, and advise Congress particularly thereof, that they may be able to decide with more certainty upon the terms on which such treaty ought to be settled.”