Scope and Content Note
The papers of Charles Guillaume Frédéric Dumas (1721-1796) span the years 1775-1793 and consist of diplomatic correspondence from the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary periods. Dumas was a native of Germany, born of French parents, who resided in the Netherlands as a man of letters before the Revolutionary War. In Holland, he befriended Benjamin Franklin and became a secret agent for the Continental Congress at the Hague. Later he served as secretary and translator to John Adams, and when Adams went to Paris, as United States chargé d'affaires at the Hague.
The papers contain contemporary copies of letters to and from Dumas concerning prisoners of war, the First League of Armed Neutrality, the French alliance, negotiations with Holland, peace negotiations, and a treaty of commerce with England. Correspondents include John Adams, the Committee for Foreign Affairs of the Continental Congress, Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de Lafeyette, and Arthur Lee.