The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume VI Part 19

The English papers, which I forward by this opportunity, will inform Congress of the state of things and parties in England. The Ministry talk of a new system. Perhaps they may attempt Rhode Island once more in exchange for Charleston, and try their skill in intercepting our trade.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE DUC DE LA VAUGUYON.

The Hague, December 19th, 1781.

Sir,

It has been insinuated to me, that the Spanish Amba.s.sador here has instructions from his Court to enter into a negotiation with their High Mightinesses, concerning an alliance between Spain and the Republic. If this fact has come to your Excellency's knowledge, and there is no inconvenience nor impropriety in communicating it to me, I should be very much obliged to you for the information; not from curiosity merely, but for my government, in the steps I may have to take.

By my late instructions, of which your Excellency has a copy, I am to inform myself concerning the progress of American negotiations at the Court of Spain, and, if an alliance shall have been entered into between his Catholic Majesty and the United States, to invite his Catholic Majesty into the alliance proposed between France, their High Mightinesses, and the Congress. If no such alliance shall have been formed, to receive his Catholic Majesty, should he manifest a disposition to become a party, &c.

Congress have wisely enjoined it upon me, to confer in the most confidential manner with your Excellency, and I have made it a law to myself, to take no material step in this negotiation without your approbation; but my instructions seem to make it necessary to take some measures, at least, to sound the disposition of the Spanish Amba.s.sador. I would, therefore, beg leave to propose to your consideration, and to request your opinion, whether you think it advisable for me to do myself the honor of making a visit to the Spanish Amba.s.sador, and communicating to him the substance of my instructions, as far as it relates to the Court of Madrid; or whether it would be better to communicate it by letter; or whether your Excellency will be so good as to take upon yourself this communication, and inform me of the result of it?

I am advised here to wait on the President of their High Mightinesses as soon as possible, and demand a categorical answer to my former proposition, and then to wait on the Grand Pensionary and Mr Secretary f.a.gel, and, in turn, upon the Pensionaries of all the cities of Holland, to inform them of the demand made to the President. But I submit to your consideration, whether it will not be expedient to communicate the project of a triple or quadruple alliance to some confidential members of the States; as to the Pensionary of Dort, Haerlem, and Amsterdam, for example, with permission to them to communicate it, where they shall think it necessary, in order to give more weight to my demand?

The Court of Great Britain are manifestly availing themselves of the mediation of Russia, in order to amuse this Republic, and restrain it from exerting itself in the war, and forming connexions with the other belligerent powers, without intending to make peace with her upon any conditions, which would not be ruinous to her. It is, therefore, of the last importance to Holland, as well as of much consequence to the other belligerent powers, to draw her out of the snare, which one should think might be now easily done by a proposition of a triple or quadruple alliance.

Tomorrow morning at ten, I propose to do myself the honor of waiting on your Excellency, if that hour is agreeable, in order to avail myself more particularly of your sentiments upon these points.

In the meantime, I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

THE DUC DE LA VAUGUYON TO JOHN ADAMS.

Translation.

The Hague, December 20th, 1781.

Sir,

I have received the letter you did me the honor to address me. I shall be impatient to converse with you on the subject to which it relates, and shall expect to see you at ten o'clock tomorrow morning, as you desire.

Receive, Sir, my renewed a.s.surances of the profound respect with which I have the honor to be, &c.

DE LA VAUGUYON.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Amsterdam, December 25th, 1781.

Sir,

There has appeared an ulterior declaration, in addition to the ordinances of the 30th of April and the 3d of November, concerning the navigation and the maritime commerce of the subjects of Prussia during the present war.

"The ordinances, which the King has caused to be published of the 30th of April and 3d of November of this year, have, in truth, already prescribed to the subjects of his Majesty, the manner in which they ought, for their greatest safety, to direct their navigation and their commerce; nevertheless, as several doubts have arisen in this regard, his Majesty, in order to obviate them, and to direct his subjects who trade by sea, has thought fit to establish, ordain, and declare, as follows.

"ARTICLE I. It cannot be doubted, and it is understood, that the Prussian vessels, which have put to sea before the publication of the ordinance of the 3d of November, and which, by consequence, could not be furnished with pa.s.sports expedited by the Minister of foreign affairs, which are therein prescribed, cannot be taken or molested, by reason of the want of such pa.s.sports, but that the pa.s.sports heretofore in use, which they have taken at their departure, ought to have, until their return, their force and value, and to procure them, until that time, a sufficient security. To remove, however, still more effectually, all difficulties, which might exist in this regard, the obligation to furnish themselves with immediate pa.s.sports from Berlin, is not to commence until after the 1st of January, 1782, to the end that every one may have time to take his measures in consequence.

"ART. II. It is repeated and ordained, that small vessels, which do not carry more than fifty lasts, as well as those which navigate only in the Baltic Sea, and in the North Sea, and which do not pa.s.s the Channel, which separates France and England, are not obliged, at least if they do not themselves think it proper, to take pa.s.sports from Berlin; but to gain time, it is permitted to them to take them as heretofore, at their convenience, from the Admiralties, the Chambers of War, and of the Domains of each Province, and from the magistrates of the cities. In consequence of which, it is ordained to these Colleges in the most express manner, not to grant these pa.s.sports but to the real and actual subjects of the King, with the greatest precaution, providing carefully against all abuses which may be made of them, and observing strictly the ordinances published upon this object. The end which his Majesty proposed to himself in publishing the declaration of the 3d of November, has been, and is, singly, to procure to Prussian vessels, which navigate beyond the Channel in the ocean or the Atlantic Sea, and which carry their commerce into these distant seas and regions, a safety so much the greater against all prejudicial accidents, in causing to be expedited to them pa.s.sports by his Minister of Foreign Affairs, who, by his knowledge of the state of public affairs, is the most in a condition to take the necessary precautions.

"ART. III. The navigators, not being able to send to Berlin complete bills of lading of the cargoes of their vessels, before they are entirely loaded, there is not required of those who have occasion for immediate pa.s.sports of the Court, any other thing, except that they produce certificates, and general attestations from the Admiralties, the Chambers of Domains, or the magistrates of the cities, concerning the property of the vessel, and when the pa.s.sport should express also the cargo, concerning the quality of the cargo, that is to say, in what it consists; which is sufficient to judge, whether the merchandises are lawful, and whether the pa.s.sports requested can be granted. The bills of lading, and complete and specific attestations of the quant.i.ty of each merchandise may be expedited as heretofore, in the usual manner, to places where the loading is made by the Admiralties, the Chambers of Finances, or the magistrates of the cities.

"ART. IV. In the ordinance of the 30th of April, his Majesty has been pleased, to encourage his subjects to the national commerce, to advise them to engage in maritime commerce as much as possible upon their own account, and with their own merchandises; and it has been established in consequence, in the declaration of the 3d of November, that to obtain pa.s.sports from the Court, it was necessary to prove, by requisite certificates, that the owners both of the vessel and the cargo were Prussian subjects; nevertheless, all this was done properly in the form of advice, and to render them so much the more attentive to the precautions which they ought to take; it is not, for this the less free and lawful to the subjects of the King, who have obtained requisite pa.s.sports, to transport also in their vessels, in conformity to the ordinance of the 30th of April, to places and ports which are not besieged, nor close blocked, merchandises and effects belonging to foreign nations, and even to belligerent nations, provided that these merchandises are of the nature of those, which, according to the 2d article of the declaration of the 30th of April, and conformably to the customs and rights of nations, are permitted and not of contraband; his Majesty will not fail to protect them, in such cases according to the principles which he has adopted and established in this regard with other powers, allies, and friends, and he has judged necessary to declare all which goes before, for preventing all abusive interpretation of the declaration of the 3d of November.

"ART. V. The captains and commanders of Prussian vessels ought, when they arrive in ports or places, where reside consuls of the King, to present to them their pa.s.sports, and demand of them attestations, which certify that their vessels are still furnished with pa.s.sports expedited to them.

"ART. VI. The commanders of these vessels would do well also, to take with them the ordinances of the 30th of April and the 3d of November, and the present declaration, to follow so much the better the precepts of it, and to be able, in case of need, to show them, and justify their conduct by them. Nevertheless, those two ordinances, as well as this, which renews them and serves to explain them, have not been published but for the direction of Prussian subjects, who exercise navigation and maritime commerce; and in cases even where they may fail in some point of their observation, and where they may not be furnished with pa.s.sports requisite, they are not responsible for their negligence, but to his Majesty, their lawful sovereign, and the commanders of armed vessels of the belligerent powers cannot think themselves authorised thereby to stop them, or to take them, when they have not acted openly in a manner contrary to the principles of the maritime neutrality, adopted by his Majesty.

"Given at Berlin, the 8th of December, 1781, by express order of the King.

DE HERTZBERG."

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Amsterdam, December 25th, 1781.

Sir,

On the 11th of September, Lord Stormont delivered to the Baron de Noleken, Envoy of Sweden, the following notification of the refusal of the mediation of the Court of Stockholm, and the acceptation of that of Russia.

"The conservation of the public tranquillity has been the first object of the care of his Majesty, during the whole course of his reign. The commencement of this reign has been signalised by the return of peace.

The King has made great sacrifices to procure this blessing to humanity, and he had reason to flatter himself, that, by this moderation in the midst of victory, he was establishing the public tranquillity upon solid and durable foundations; but these hopes have been disappointed, and these foundations have been shaken by the ambitious policy of the Court of Versailles. This Court, after having secretly fomented the rebellion enkindled in America, has leagued herself openly with the rebel subjects of his Majesty; and by this violation of the public faith, by this direct act of hostility, she began the war.

"The conduct of the Republic of Holland, during the whole course of this war, has excited a general indignation. This nation presents itself under an aspect very different from that of a nation simply commercial. It is a respectable power, connected for a long time with Great Britain by the strictest alliance. The princ.i.p.al object of this alliance was their common safety, and especially their mutual protection against the ambitious designs of a dangerous neighbor, which their united efforts have so often defeated, to their mutual prosperity, and that of all Europe.

"The desertion of all the principles of this alliance, which the King on his part had constantly maintained; an obstinate refusal to fulfil the most sacred engagements; a daily infraction of the most sacred treaties; succors furnished to those very enemies, against whom the King had a right to demand succor; an asylum and protection granted in the ports of Holland to American pirates, in direct violation of stipulations, the most clear and the most precise; and, to fill up the measure, a denial of satisfaction and of justice, for the affront committed to the dignity of the King, by a clandestine league with his rebel subjects; all these acc.u.mulated grievances have not left to the King any other part to take, than that which he has taken with the most sensible reluctance. In laying before the public the reasons, which have rendered this rupture inevitable, his Majesty attributed the conduct of the Republic to its true cause, the fatal influence of a faction, which sacrificed the national interest to private views; but the King has marked at the same time, the most sincere desire to draw back the Republic to the system of strict union, of efficacious alliance, and of mutual protection, which has so much contributed to the prosperity and the glory of the two States.

"When the Empress of all the Russias offered her good offices to effectuate a reconciliation by a separate peace, the King signifying his just grat.i.tude for this new proof of a friendship, which is so precious to him, avoided to involve the mediation of her Imperial Majesty in a fruitless negotiation; but at present, as there are certain indications of an alteration of disposition in the Republic, some marks of a desire to return to those principles, which the wisest part of the Batavian nation has never forsaken, a negotiation for a separate peace between the King and their High Mightinesses, may be opened with some hopes of success under the mediation of the Empress of all the Russias, who was the first to offer her good offices for this salutary work. If his Majesty did not at first take advantage of it, it was because he had every reason to believe, that the Republic at that time sought only to amuse, by an insidious negotiation; but the King would think, that he answered ill the sentiments, which dictated those first offers, and that he was wanting to those regards so justly due to her Imperial Majesty, and to the confidence, which she inspires, if he a.s.sociated in this mediation any other, even that of an ally most respectable, and for whom the King has the sincerest friendship."

I have the honor to be, &c.