We have a blind story here [Paris] of somebody attempting to assassinate your 217 King. No man upon earth has my prayers for his continuance in life more sincerely than he. He is truly the American Messias, the most precious life that ever God gave. And May God continue it. Twenty long years has he been laboring to drive us to our good, and he labors and will labor still for it, if he can be spared. We shall have need of him for twenty more. The Prince of Wales on the throne, Lansdowne and Fox in the ministry and we are undone! We become chained by our habits to the tails of those who hate and despise us. I repeat it, then, that my anxieties are all alive for the health and long life of the King. He has not a friend on earth who would lament his loss as much and so long as I should. --
TITLE: To Mrs. John Adams.
EDITION: Ford ed.,iv, 261.
PLACE: Paris
DATE: 1786