Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow QUERIES BY B. FRANKLIN. - The Works of John Adams, vol. 7 (Letters and State Papers 1777-1782)

Return to Title Page for The Works of John Adams, vol. 7 (Letters and State Papers 1777-1782)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

QUERIES BY B. FRANKLIN. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 7 (Letters and State Papers 1777-1782) [1852]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 7.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


QUERIES BY B. FRANKLIN.

Mr. Adams, after having perused the inclosed papers, is desired to give his opinions on the following questions.

1st. Whether Captain Landais, accused as he is of capital crimes, by his senior and late commanding officer, after having apparently relinquished the command of the Alliance frigate, by withdrawing his effects from the same, after having asked and received money by order of the minister plenipotentiary, in order to transport himself to America, and take his trial there upon the said accusation, and after having for that purpose, in writing, requested a passage to be procured for him, was entitled, at his pleasure, to retake the command of the Alliance (contrary to the positive order of the minister plenipotentiary, whose orders the said Landais was by the navy board instructed to obey,) and to dispossess his successor, the oldest naval officer of the United States in Europe, who had commanded the said frigate near eight months, and brought her to the port where she now is?

2d. Whether the conduct of Captain Landais, at Lorient, in exciting the officers and seamen of the Alliance to deny the authority of Captain Jones, under whose command they had voluntarily come, and remained there, and encouraging the said seamen to make unlawful demands on the minister plenipotentiary for the United States, and to enter into a mutinous combination, not to put to sea with the Alliance till said demands should be complied with, thereby retarding the departure of the said frigate, and of the public stores on board, be not highly culpable?

3d. Whether, after Captain Landais’s late conduct, and the manner in which he has retaken the command of the frigate Alliance, it be consistent with good order, prudence, and the public service, to permit him to retain the direction of her, and of the public stores intended to be sent with her, accused as he is of capital crimes, by his late commodore, and for which, if he arrives in America, he must of course be tried?