[allmendream]

John Adams, a founding father and a lawyer by vocation, was sent to represent us in France - and was considered an unlikely choice because he did not at the time speak French.

He became fluent only after living in France. So it seem he, as just one example, did not study almost exclusively in French.

[editor-surveyor]

Adams was a minister of the Gospel in the Congregational Church, not an intellectual, nor a scholar of renown.

Mostly he was recognized as a social leader in the colonies.

[DiogenesLamp]

John Adams, a founding father and a lawyer by vocation, was sent to represent us in France - and was considered an unlikely choice because he did not at the time speak French.

He became fluent only after living in France. So it seem he, as just one example, did not study almost exclusively in French.

And who do you suppose he lived with for several months while he was in Europe? If you said "Charles W.F. Dumas" then go to the head of the class.

Yes, John Adams was the long time house guest of the very man who published and sent the copies of Vattel to Benjamin Franklin. Over the several months/years that John Adams stayed with and worked with Charles Dumas (Who became a paid agent for the US Government.