John Paul Jones to John Adams, December 20, 1789

Amsterdam Dec r. 20.
1789.

Dear Sir,

The within documents, from my Friend the Count de Segur Minister
Plenipotentiary of France at S t. Petersburg, will shew you
in some degree my Reasons for leaving Russia, and the danger to which I have been
exposed by the mean subterfuges and dark Intrigues of Asiatic Jealousy and
Malice.— 1 Your former Friendship for
me, which I remember with particular pleasure and have always been ambitious to merit,
will I am certain be exerted in the Use you will make of the three Peices I now send
you, for my justification in the Eyes of my Friends in America, whose good opinion is
dearer to me than any thing else.— I wrote to the Empress from Warsaw in the beginning
of October, and sent her Majesty a Copy of my Journal; which will shew her how much
she has been deceived by the Account she had of our Maritime Operations last Campagne.
I can prove to the World at large that I have been treated Unjustly, but I shall
remain silent at least till I know the fate of my Journal.

It has long been my intention to offer you my Bust, as a mark of
the respect and attachement I naturally feel for your Virtues and Talents. If you do
me the honor to accept it, I will order it to be immediately forwarded to you from
Paris. 2

I intend to remain in Europe till after the opening of the next
Campagne, and perhaps longer, before I return to America. From the troubles in
Brabant, the preparations now making in Prussia and in this Country & c. I conclude that Peace is yet a distant object, and that
the Baltic will witness warmer work than it has yet done. 3 On the death of Admiral Greig, 4 I was last Year call’d from the Black Sea, by
the Empress, to command a Squadron in the Baltic & c. This set the invention of all my Enemys and Rivals at work, and the event has proved
that the Empress cannot always do as she pleases: I do not therefore expect to be
call’d again into Action.

Present I pray you my respectful compliments to M rs. Adams, & beleive me to be, with sincere Attachement,
/ Dear Sir, / Your most obedient / and most humble Servant

PAUL JONES

My address is under cover “A
Messieurs N. & J. Van-Staphorst & Hubbard à Amsterdam.”

NB. M r. Jefferson will inform you
about my Mission to Denmarc. I received there great politeness & fine Words. That business may soon be concluded, when America shall have
created a respectable Marine. 5