Reports to Congress August 9 that John Adams, now commissioner to negotiate peace with Britain, has given offense to French court by repeated insults in letters to Vergennes, copies of which Franklin sends to Congress at Vergennes’s request. Adams is thereafter bitterly hostile to French and to Franklin. Rejects, October 2, surrendering American claims to the Mississippi as price for Spanish aid: "A Neighbour might as well ask me to sell my Street Door."