The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume V Part 26

The character with which you are invested, your wisdom, and the confidence I have in your principles and sentiments, induce me to communicate to you a correspondence, which I have had with Mr Adams.

You will find, I think, in the letters of that Plenipotentiary, opinions and a turn, which do not correspond either with the manner in which I explained myself to him, or with the intimate connexion which subsists between the King and the United States. You will make that use of these pieces, which your prudence shall suggest. As to myself, I desire, that you will transmit them to Congress, that they may know the line of conduct, which Mr Adams pursues with regard to us, and that they may judge whether he is endowed, as Congress no doubt desires, with that conciliating spirit, which is necessary for the important and delicate business, with which he is intrusted.[8]

I have the honor to be, &c.

DE VERGENNES.

[8] A copy of the Correspondence between Count de Vergennes and Mr Adams, respecting the communication of his powers to the British Ministry, being forwarded to Congress, a committee was appointed to consider the subject. Conformably to their report, the President wrote to Mr Adams the following letter in the name of Congress, on the 10th of January, 1781.

"Sir,

"Congress considers your correspondence with the Count de Vergennes, on the subject of communicating your Plenipotentiary powers to the Ministry of Great Britain, as flowing from your zeal and a.s.siduity in the service of your country; but I am directed to inform you, that the opinion given to you by that Minister, relative to the time and circ.u.mstances proper for communicating your powers, and entering upon the execution of them, is well founded.

"Congress have no expectations from the influence, which the people may have on the British counsels, whatever may be the dispositions of that nation or their magistrates towards these United States, nor are they of opinion, that a change of Ministry would produce a change of measures. They therefore hope, that you will be very cautious of admitting your measures to be influenced by presumptions of such events, or their probable consequences.

"I am, &c.

S. HUNTINGTON,

_President of Congress._

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Amsterdam, August 14th, 1780.

Sir,

On the 27th of July I set out from Paris on a journey to Amsterdam. I left Mr Dana, and Mr Thaxter at Paris, who will regularly transmit to Congress whatever shall occur of importance to the United States to know. They will also enclose all the English, French, and Dutch gazettes. They are exerting themselves in this Republic to man their ships of war, in which they have great success, as they give very great premiums for seamen, as far as sixty ducats a man. The Russian men-of-war are arrived and anch.o.r.ed in sight of the Texel, and several of their officers have been ash.o.r.e in this city. The Plenipotentiaries are gone to Petersburg. Sweden and Denmark have adopted the declaration of Russia. It is whispered, that the Dutch Ministers to the Congress at Petersburg are shackled with instructions, to insist on a warranty of their possessions in the East and West Indies, previous to their acceding to the confederation of the maritime powers, but this instruction produced a protest of the city of Amsterdam, with such reasons against it, that it is thought the opposite party will not venture to take upon themselves the consequences of a refusal to join in the confederation; so that it is expected the treaty will take place.

It is universally considered as a great misfortune to us, by all whom I converse with here, that Mr Laurens is not arrived. Some prudent person, authorised by Congress, is earnestly desired here. He would not be publicly received, at least until the States shall take a decided part with the other maritime powers against England; this case, however, may soon happen. But there is not in Europe a better station to collect intelligence from France, Spain, England, Germany, and all the northern parts, nor a better situation, from whence to circulate intelligence through all parts of Europe than this. And it may be depended on, that our cause has never suffered from anything more than from the failure of giving and receiving intelligence. A Minister here, from Congress, would be considered as the centre of communication between America and this, and many other parts of Europe; and I have since my arrival here, been more convinced than ever, that Congress might open a considerable loan here, and be supplied from hence with stores and with clothing, and at the same time be gradually extending the commerce between this country and America, to the great advantage of both. I have had a great deal of conversation upon the subject of a loan, and shall have more. I am sure that a loan might be obtained by any one with powers from Congress. But there are no powers as yet arrived in Europe that will ever succeed here.

We are still in daily hope and expectation that Mr Laurens will arrive; but should he decline to come, or in case any accident has befallen him, I most earnestly recommend to Congress the appointment of some other gentleman, with a proper commission, with full powers and especially to borrow money, and to sign proper promissory notes for the payment of it.

The King of Sweden is at Spa, from whence in the letter of the 30th of July the public are informed, that his Majesty, the first who during the present maritime war has given validity to the rights of neuters, by means of the declaration which he caused to be made the last year to the belligerent powers, and by means of the protection which he granted from that time to the commerce and the navigation of his subjects, in sending out from his ports a numerous squadron, has manifested the consistency of his sentiments and disposition in this respect, by a new declaration, lately made to the Courts of Madrid, Versailles, and London, an authentic copy of which here follows.

DECLARATION OF SWEDEN.

"From the commencement of the present war, the King has taken care to make known his fashion of thinking to all Europe; he has prescribed to himself a perfect neutrality; he has discharged the duties of it with scrupulous exactness; he has thought himself ent.i.tled to enjoy in consequence of it the rights attached to the quality of a sovereign absolutely neuter. Notwithstanding his trading subjects have been obliged to demand his protection, and his Majesty has found himself under a necessity of granting it to them. To fulfil this object, the King caused to be armed the last year a certain number of vessels; one part of them he employed upon the coasts of his kingdom, and the other has served to convoy the Swedish merchant vessels, in the different seas where the commerce of his subjects called them to navigate; he communicated these measures to the belligerent powers, and he prepared himself to continue them in the course of the present year, when other Courts, which had equally adopted a neutrality, communicated to him the dispositions which they had made, conformable with those of the King, and tending to the same end. The Empress of Russia caused to be presented a declaration to the Courts of London, Versailles, and Madrid, by which she informed them of the resolution she had taken to defend the commerce of her subjects, and the universal rights of neutral nations. This declaration was founded upon principles so just, that it did not appear possible to call them in question. The King has found them entirely conformable to his own cause, to the treaty concluded in 1666, between Sweden and England, and to that between Sweden and France; and his Majesty has not been able to excuse himself from acknowledging and adopting these same principles, not only with regard to the powers with whom the said treaties are in force, but also with relation to those who are already involved in the present war, or who may become so in the sequel, and with whom the King has no treaty to appeal to. It is the universal law, and in default of particular engagements, this becomes obligatory upon all nations. In consequence of which, the King declares once more, that he will observe in future the same neutrality, and with the same exactness, which he has observed heretofore. He will forbid his subjects, under severe penalties, to deviate in any manner whatsoever from the duties which a similar neutrality imposes; but he will protect their lawful commerce by all means possible, when they shall conduct it conformably to the principles abovementioned."

From Hamburg, the 1st of August, we have the following article. "All nations and all commercial cities being interested in the liberty of the seas and the safety of navigation, attacked and violated in our days, in a manner whereof history furnishes few examples, we have not learned here with less joy than in the rest of Europe, (if we except perhaps Great Britain,) the generous resolution which the three Powers of the North have taken to protect, by an armed neutrality, the commerce of their subjects, and at the same time the rights of all nations; rights immemorial, which honor and justice alone ought to cause to be respected, without having occasion to recur to the sanction of treaties. The Court of Denmark has adopted these principles into the declaration, which, after the example of Russia, she has made to the belligerent powers, and which is conceived in these terms."

DECLARATION OF DENMARK.

"If a neutrality the most exact and the most perfect, with a navigation the most regular, and an inviolable respect for treaties had been sufficient to place the freedom of commerce of the subjects of the King of Denmark and Norway in a state of safety from these misfortunes, which ought to be unknown to nations which are at peace, and who are free and independent, it would not be necessary to take new measures to insure them this liberty to which they have a right the most incontestible.

"The King of Denmark has always founded his glory and his grandeur upon the esteem and the confidence of other people; he has made it a law to himself, from the commencement of his reign, to manifest to all the powers, his friends, a conduct the most capable of convincing them of his pacific sentiments, and of his sincere desire to contribute to the general prosperity of Europe. His proceedings, the most uniform and which nothing can conceal, are a proof of this. He has not hitherto addressed himself, but to the belligerent powers themselves, to obtain the redress of his grievances; and he has never failed of moderation in his demands, nor of grat.i.tude when they have had the success, which they ought to have. But the neutral navigation has been too often molested, and the most innocent commerce of his subjects too frequently disturbed, for the King not to think himself obliged to take at present measures proper to a.s.sure to himself and to his allies, the safety of commerce and navigation, and the maintenance of the indispensable rights of liberty and independence. If the duties of neutrality are sacred, if the law of nations has also its decrees adopted by all impartial nations, established by custom, and founded in equity and reason, an independent and neutral nation does not lose by the war of another the rights which it had before that war, because that peace continues for her with all the belligerent people, without receiving, and without having to follow, the laws of any of them. She is authorised to make in all places, (the contraband excepted) the traffic, which she would have a right to make if peace existed in all Europe, as it exists for her. The King pretends to nothing beyond that which neutrality ent.i.tles him to. Such is his rule and that of his people, and his Majesty not being able to avow the principle, that a belligerent nation has a right to interrupt the commerce of his States, he has thought it a duty, which he owed to himself and to his people, faithful observers of his regulations, and to the powers at war themselves, to lay open to them the following principles, which he has always had, and which he will always avow, and maintain in concert with her Majesty the Empress of all the Russias, whose sentiments he acknowledges to be entirely conformable to his own.

"1st. That neutral vessels may navigate freely from port to port, and upon the coasts of nations at war.

"2d. That the effects belonging to the subjects of the powers at war may be free upon neutral vessels, excepting merchandises of contraband.

"3d. That nothing be understood by this denomination of contraband, but that which is expressly defined as such in the third article of the Treaty of Commerce with Great Britain, in 1770, and in the twentysixth and twentyseventh articles of his treaty of commerce with France, in 1742; and the King will equally avow that, which is fixed in these articles towards the powers, with which he has no treaty.

"4th. That we should consider as a port blocked, that into which no vessel can enter without an evident danger, by reason of ships of war, stationed to form very near an effectual blockade.

"5th. That these principles serve as a rule, in all proceedings, and that justice be rendered with despatch and according to the doc.u.ments of the sea, conformably to treaties and to received usages.

"His Majesty does not hesitate to declare, that he will maintain these principles, as well as the honor of his flag, and the liberty and independence of commerce, and of the navigation of his subjects; and it is to this end, that he has caused to be armed a part of his fleet, although he desires to preserve with all the powers at war, not only the good intelligence, but even all the intimacy, which a neutrality can admit. The King will never deviate from this, without being forced; he knows the duties and the obligations of it; he respects them as much as his treaties, and desires nothing but to maintain them. His Majesty is also persuaded, that the belligerent powers will do justice to these motives; that they will be as far as he is himself from everything, which oppresses the natural liberty of men, and that they will give to their Admiralties and to their officers, orders conformable to the principles here announced, which evidently tend to the prosperity and the interest of all Europe.

"Copenhagen, July the 8th, 1780."

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO B. FRANKLIN.

Amsterdam, August 17th, 1780.

Sir,

I was never more amused with political speculations, than since my arrival in this country. Every one has his prophecy, and every prophecy is a paradox. One says, America will give France the go-by.

Another, that France and Spain will abandon America. A third, that Spain will forsake France and America. A fourth, that America has the interest of all Europe against her. A fifth, that she will become the greatest manufacturing country, and thus ruin Europe. A sixth, that she will become a great military and naval power, and will be very ambitious, and so terrible to Europe. In short, it seems, as if they had studied for every impossibility, and agreed to foretell it, as a probable future event.

I tell the first, that if the King of France would release America from her treaty, and England would agree to our independence, on condition we would make an alliance offensive and defensive with her, America ought not to accept it, and would not, because she will in future have no security for peace, even with England, but in her treaty with France. I ask the second, whether he thinks the connexion of America of so little consequence to France and Spain, that they would lightly give it up. I ask the third, whether the family compact added to the connexion with America, is a trifling consideration to Spain. To the fifth, I say, that America will not make manufactures enough for her own consumption these thousand years. And to the sixth, that we love peace, and hate war so much, that we can scarcely keep up an army necessary to defend ourselves against the greatest of evils, and to secure our independence, which is the greatest of blessings; and, therefore, while we have land enough to conquer from the trees and rocks and wild beasts, we shall never go abroad to trouble other nations.

To the fourth I say, that their paradox is like several others, viz, that Bacchus and Ceres did mischief to mankind, when they invented wine and bread; that arts, sciences, and civilization have been general calamities, &c. That upon their supposition, all Europe ought to agree to bring away the inhabitants of America, and divide them among the nations of Europe, to be maintained as paupers, leaving America to be overgrown again with trees and bushes, and to become again the habitations of bears and Indians, forbidding all navigation to that quarter of the world in future. That mankind in general, however, are probably of a different opinion, believing that Columbus, as well as Bacchus and Ceres, did a service to mankind, and that Europe and America will be rich blessings to each other, the one supplying a surplus of manufactures, and the other a surplus of raw materials, the productions of agriculture.

It is very plain, however, that speculation and disputation can do us little service. No facts are believed, but decisive military conquests; no arguments are seriously attended to in Europe but force.

It is to be hoped, our countrymen, instead of amusing themselves any longer with delusive dreams of peace, will bend the whole force of their minds to augment their navy, to find out their own strength and resources, and to depend upon themselves.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.