The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume VI Part 14

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Amsterdam, October 15th, 1781.

Sir,

I am very sorry to learn, that Congress have received no letters from me from October to June. It is not that I wrote less than usual in that period, but that I was more unfortunate. Two vessels, which sailed from hence for Boston, each of which had despatches from me for Congress, destroyed them, one upon being taken, and the other upon being chased. But the most of my despatches were lost at St Eustatia, I fear.

While that island was in the possession of the Dutch, I sent a great number of letters, packets of papers, &c. by several vessels, to the care of Curson and Gouverneur, to be forwarded to Congress. It is very certain, the enemy have got possession of some, one very short and insignificant one they have published, and the London papers give intimations of more; but I fancy they will not choose to publish them.

I hope Commodore Gillon has arrived before this day, who had letters from me, and all the public papers for some time. I sent despatches also by several other vessels, which have sailed from hence. It is extremely difficult for me to send letters by the way of Nantes, L'Orient, &c. or by the way of Spain. There is so much bad faith in the public posts, that it would not be possible for me to write without having my letters opened, perhaps copied, and there is scarcely ever an opportunity by a private hand to any sea-port in France.

But I have a further apology to make to Congress for the few letters I have lately written. On the 2d of July I left Amsterdam at the invitation of the Count de Vergennes for Paris, for a conference upon the subject of peace, at the mediation of the two Imperial Courts, and the Congress at Vienna. After despatching all that was necessary relative to these sublime bubbles, I returned to Amsterdam. Not long after I got home, I found myself attacked by a fever, of which at first I made light, but which increased very gradually and slowly, until it was found to be a nervous fever of a very malignant kind, and so violent as to deprive me of almost all sensibility for four or five days, and all those who cared anything about me, of the hopes of my life.

By the help, however, of great skill, and all powerful bark, I am still alive; but this the first time I have felt the courage to attempt to write to Congress. Absence and sickness are my apologies to Congress for the few letters they will receive from me since June.

Whether it was the uncommon heat of the summer, or whether it was the ma.s.s of pestilential exhalations from the stagnant waters of this country, that brought this disorder upon me, I know not; but I have every reason to apprehend, that I shall not be able to re-establish my health in this country. A const.i.tution ever infirm, and almost half a hundred years old, cannot expect to fare very well amidst such cold damps and putrid steams as arise from the immense quant.i.ties of dead water, that surround it.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Amsterdam, October 15th, 1781.

Sir,

I wish it were possible to communicate to Congress the present state of every affair, which they have been pleased to confide in any measure to me. I have received the new commission for peace, and the revocation of my commission and instructions of the 29th of September, 1779.[4] To both of these measures of Congress, as to the commands of my sovereign, I shall pay the most exact attention. The present commission for peace, is a demonstration of greater respect to the powers of Europe, and must be more satisfactory to the people of America, than any former one; besides that it guards against accidents, which in my late sickness I had reason to think may well happen. I am, however, apprehensive that this commission will lie a long time neglected, and as useless as the former one.

I am myself seriously of opinion, that the English will not treat with the United States for many years. They will see all their dominions in the East and West Indies conquered by the French and Spaniards; they will see their government reduced to the limits of their own island before they will do it. The present Ministers must die off, and the King too, before there will be any treaty between Britain and America.

The nation will stand by the King and Ministry through every loss, while they persevere; whereas both would sink into total contempt and ridicule, if they were to make peace. While they persevere, they are masters of the purses and commerce too of the whole nation. Make peace and they lose a great part of this influence. National pride, when it has become a habitual pa.s.sion by long indulgence, is the most obstinate thing in the world; and this war has been made so completely, though so artfully the national act, as well as that of King and Ministers, that the pride of the nation was never committed more entirely to the support of anything. It is not to be supposed that the present Ministry will treat with America, and if there should be a change, and the leaders of opposition should come in, they will not treat with America in any character, that she can with honor or safety a.s.sume. They might propose a peace separate from France, or they might withdraw their troops from the United States, but they would not make a general peace. The Congress at Vienna will prove but a magnificent chimera, as the British Ministry ever intended it should be.

It has already answered their insidious ends, and now they are giving it a dismission, by insisting upon their two preliminaries; so that upon the whole, according to the best judgment I can form, it will not be worth while for Congress to be at the expense of continuing me in Europe, with a view to my a.s.sisting at any conferences for peace, especially as Dr Franklin has given me intimations, that I cannot depend upon him for my subsistence in future.

My commission for borrowing money has. .h.i.therto been equally useless.

It would fill a small volume to give a history of my negotiations with people of various stations and characters, in order to obtain a loan, and it would astonish Congress to see the unanimity with which all have refused to engage in the business, most of them declaring they were afraid to undertake it. I am told that no new loan was ever undertaken here, without meeting at first with all sorts of contradiction and opposition for a long time; but my loan is considered not only as a new one, but as entering deep into the essence of all the present political systems of the world, and no man dares engage in it, until it is clearly determined what characters are to bear rule, and what system is to prevail in this country.

There is no authority in Europe more absolute, not even that of the two empires, not that of the simple monarchies, than that of the States-General is in their dominions, and n.o.body but M. de Neufville dares advance faster in a political manoeuvre than the States. M. de Neufville has done his utmost, and has been able to do nothing; three thousand guilders, less than three hundred pounds, is all that he has obtained. Notwithstanding this, there is a universal wish that the world may be made to believe that my loan is full. It is upon 'Change, by a unanimous dissimulation, pretended to be full, and there are persons, (who they are I know not,) who write to London, and fill the English papers with paragraphs that my loan is full. M. de Neufville has advertised in the customary form, for all persons possessed of American _coupons_, to come and receive the money at the end of the first six months. These persons cannot be more than three in number.

My letters of credence to their High Mightinesses have been taken _ad referendum_ by the several Provinces, and are now under consideration of the several branches of the sovereignty of this country; but no one city or body of n.o.bles has as yet determined upon them. None have declared themselves in favor of my admission to an audience, and none have decided against it; and it is much to be questioned whether any one will determine soon.

I have often written to Congress, that I never could pretend to foretell what the States-General would do. I never found anybody here who guessed right; and upon reading over all the negotiations of Jeannin, Torcy, d'Avaux, and d'Estrades, in this country, I found every one of those Ministers were, at the several periods of their residence here, in the same uncertainty. It appears to have been for this century and a half, at least, the national character, to manage all the world as long as they could, to keep things undetermined as long as they could, and finally to decide suddenly upon some fresh motive of fear. It is very clear to me, that I shall never borrow money until I have had an audience; and if the States pursue their old maxims of policy, it may be many years before this is agreed to. I am much inclined to believe that nothing decisive will be done for two or three years, perhaps longer; yet it may be in a month. Parties are now very high, and their pa.s.sions against each other warm; and to all appearance, the good party is vastly the most numerous; but we must remember, that the supreme Executive is supposed to be determined on the other side, so that there is real danger of popular commotions and tragical scenes.

The question really is, whether the Republic shall make peace with England, by furnishing her ships and troops according to old treaties, and joining her against all her enemies, France, Spain, America, and as many more as may become enemies in the course of the war? The English party dare not speak out and say this openly; but if they have common sense they must know that England will make peace with them upon no other terms. They pretend that upon some little concessions, some trifling condescendencies, England would make peace with Holland separately. Some pretend that a separate peace might be had upon the single condition of agreeing not to trade with America; others upon the condition of considering naval stores as contraband goods; but the commercial cities are almost unanimously against both of these articles. The English party are sensible of this, yet they entertain hopes by keeping the Republic in a defenceless state, that commerce will be so far ruined, and the common people in the great trading cities reduced to such want and misery, as to become furious, demand peace at any rate, and fall upon the houses and persons of those who will not promote it.

The English party, I think, will never carry their point so far as to induce the nation to join the English. There are three considerations, which convince me of this beyond a doubt. First, corrupted and abandoned as a great part of this nation, as well as every other in Europe is, there is still a public national sense and conscience, and the general, the almost universal sense of this nation is, that the English are wrong and the Americans right in this war. The conduct of the Americans is so like that of their venerable and heroic ancestors, it is evidently founded in such principles as are uniformly applauded in their history, and as every man has been educated in a habitual veneration for, that it is impossible for them to take a part in the war against America. This was universally conspicuous upon the publication of my memorial to the States. Secondly; the commercial part of these Provinces, I think, will never give up the American trade. Thirdly; England is so exhausted and so weak, and France, Spain, and America so strong, that joining the former against the three latter, would be the total ruin of the Republic. Nevertheless, the court party will find means of delay, and will embarra.s.s the operations of war in so many ways, that it will be long before any decisive measures will be taken in favor of America.

Whether, under all these circ.u.mstances, Congress will think proper to continue me in Europe, whether it will be in their power to furnish me with the means of subsistence, as Dr Franklin in his letter to me thinks I cannot depend upon him, and I have no hopes at all of obtaining any here, I know not, and must submit to their wisdom. But after all, the state of my health, which I have little reason to hope will be restored without a voyage home, and more relaxation from care and business than I can have in Europe, makes it very uncertain whether I shall be able to remain here. In short, my prospects both for the public and for myself are so dull, and the life I am likely to lead in Europe so gloomy and melancholy, and of so little use to the public, that I cannot but wish it may suit with the views of Congress to recall me.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

FOOTNOTE:

[4] The new commission for negotiating peace was given to John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and Thomas Jefferson. See the Commission and Instructions in the _Secret Journals of Congress_.

Vol. II. pp. 445, 447.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Amsterdam, October 17th, 1781.

Sir,

There is at present a fermentation in this nation, which may arise to violent extremities. Hundreds of pamphlets have appeared, all of which must be adjudged to be seditious libels; some against the Court, and some against the city and sovereign magistrates of Amsterdam. At length, a large pamphlet has appeared in Dutch, and been distributed through the streets of the Hague, Leyden, Rotterdam, and other cities, which has occasioned a great alarm to the government, and a great agitation of spirits among the people. All parties speak of it as a composition, in the strongest terms of admiration. The substance of it will appear from the following placard against it.

"We, the Deputies of the States of Utrecht, make known, that as it is come to our knowledge, that, notwithstanding the strong and serious advertis.e.m.e.nts and publications against the composition, sale, and distribution of lampoons, scandalous pamphlets, or libels, and defamatory writings of whatever sort, or in whatever form they may be, to the prejudice of the high sovereignty of these Provinces, and of those who are placed in any administration or direction of public affairs already, heretofore, and lately promulgated, both by the Lords, the States of this Province, and by others, and the rigorous penalty therein decreed against transgressors; nevertheless, the spirit of discord, of wickedness, of calumny, and of sedition has burst forth, and spread itself in this State so far, that it has not been possible, hitherto to restrain it by such advertis.e.m.e.nts, but, on the contrary, it has arrived at such a height, that there has been printed and dispersed within a few days a most pernicious libel, under the t.i.tle of Aan het Volkvan Nederland, (to the people of the Low Countries) containing a great number of wicked and slanderous imputations against the Most Serene Person of his Most Serene Highness, our Lord, the Prince of Orange and Na.s.sau, Hereditary Stadtholder, Captain and Admiral-General of these Provinces, against his Most Serene father and mother of glorious memory, as also our Lords, the Princes of Orange, William the First, Maurice, Frederick, Henry, William the Second, and William the Third, ill.u.s.trious predecessors of his Most Serene Highness, and interspersing efforts the most seditious, tending to overturn not only the present form of the Regency, but even to introduce, instead of the Regency in the State, which also is therein painted, in the most hateful manner, a democracy, or Regency of the people, and thus to cause the Republic to fall into an entire anarchy, which would increase and multiply still more extremely, the dangers to which the dear country is exposed at present by a foreign war, joined to an intestine division; and taking into consideration that such most detestable wickedness, if not restrained, can have no other consequences, than the total ruin and destruction of the dear country, if G.o.d by his grace does not prevent it, and that it is inc.u.mbent on us to employ all the means possible to hinder it, and to punish offences according to their demerit; for these causes, we renew that which has been heretofore and lately ordained in this respect by the publication of their n.o.ble Mightinesses, of the 4th of July of the present year, 1781, and not only the punishments by fine, but also of discretionary correction, according to the exigence of the case against the transgressors there mentioned, to discover the author or the authors, and the distributor or the distributors of such a dangerous libel as that before mentioned, and to the end that they be punished, as examples to others, according to the magnitude of such a crime, tending to the ruin of the country; we have thought fit to promise, as we do by these presents, a premium of a hundred ryders (fourteen hundred guilders) in favor of those who may discover or make known, the author or authors, distributor or distributors, in such manner that they may be juridically convicted and punished, concealing the name of the informer if he requires it. And we ordain, moreover, to all the officers and judges in the city, cities, and countries of this Province, to make all possible search, and to endeavor, without any negligence, dissimulation, or connivance, to discover and arrest the aforesaid malefactor, or malefactors, and to proceed and to cause to be proceeded, as is convenient, against them, as seditious persons, and disturbers of the public repose, guilty of overturning the foundations of the government of these Provinces, and of the sovereignty of the Lords, the States of the Provinces respectively, and as the enemies the most dangerous of the country; and to the end, that no man may pretend ignorance, these presents shall be published and posted up in convenient places.

"Done at Utrecht, the 3d of October, 1781.

I. TACTS VAN AMERONGEN.

"By order of the said Lords Deputies,

C.A. VOS."

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Amsterdam, October 18th, 1781.

Sir,

The Committees of the Fisheries of Vlaardingen and Maaslleys have presented to their High Mightinesses a pet.i.tion to give them to understand, "that they learned with the most lively sensibility that the gentlemen, the committees of the respective colleges of Admiralty had proposed to their High Mightinesses to permit the free navigation of the ports of the Republic, with or without convoy, excepting, nevertheless, until further order, the vessels destined to the greater and lesser fisheries. The pet.i.tioners represent the inevitable losses, with which they are more and more threatened, in case that all the fishery, without exception, remain longer suspended; that they might very well find a remedy in a certain manner by excepting from this prohibition the ships employed in taking fish for salting, and in the fishery of fresh cod. They solicit, that it may please their High Mightinesses to revoke in this regard the placard of the 26th of January, 1781, or at least to make in it such alteration as their High Mightinesses may find convenient."