Letter from John Adams, Minister to Britain, to John Jay, Secretary of State, reporting on his audience with the King, June 2, 1785, page 480

John Adams arrived in London on May 26, 1785, to assume the post of the first United States Minister Plenipotentiary to Britain. Less than one week later, he went to St. James Palace to present his credentials to the King.

This letter is Adams’s official report on that extraordinary meeting. It includes the remarks that Adams made (a speech he had rehearsed and committed to memory) and, as best as he could remember, the words spoken by the King in reply.

National Archives, Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention