On 17 February 1778 John Adams and his oldest son John Quincy Adams
with the servant Joseph Stephens were taken to a new 24-gun frigate Boston
on the coast at Marblehead away from Boston because of the spies in the city.
Adams studied French and read Molière’s Amphitryon in a bilingual edition.
Captain Samuel Tucker was ordered to consult with
Adams on all occasions to insure his safe arrival.
The Boston fired a shot at a British merchant ship which fired back
until they realized that they were outgunned and surrendered.
Adams had joined the brief battle with a musket and told Tucker,
“I ought to do my share of the fighting.”1
They landed at Bordeaux, France on March 29.
They learned that the United States and France had agreed to
an alliance on February 6 when Adams was still at Braintree.
They reached Paris on April 8.
John Adams went to see Benjamin Franklin
who was living in Passy near Versailles.
Franklin and Arthur Lee let him go with them to a luncheon with
the French Minister of Finance Jacques Turgot.
Franklin informed Adams about the Treaty, and he invited him to
stay in his hotel suite in the room that Deane had occupied.
John Quincy attended a boarding school nearby.
Adams was surprised to learn that France had
not yet decided to enter the war against Britain.
In the treaty both nations had promised not to make a separate peace with Britain.
Both agreed to continue the war until the British
recognized the independence of the United States.
Adams made friends with the La Rochefoucauld family,
and their son spoke good English.
He also met the philosopher Condorcet.
Lee suspected that Deane had been making money while buying military supplies,
and his letters caused his brothers in Congress to accuse Deane of corruption.
Lee was very suspicious and also thought that Franklin was corrupt.
Adams could not find any records, letters or
books to guide him on what had occurred.
They did have the Dr. Edward Bancroft from New England as a trusted secretary.
What they did not know was that he was spying for the British
and giving them regular reports in invisible ink.
Deane had already left, and Franklin told Adams
that Arthur Lee was “very disagreeable.”
Those two usually opposed each other on each issue which
meant that Adams often had the deciding vote.
Adams advised the Congress to maintain one commissioner in France
and send the others to other European capitals in quest of aid.
Franklin let Adams stay with him in the suburb.
Franklin and Lee took Adams to meet the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Comte de Vergennes.
Adams was a friend of Arthur Lee’s brother Richard Henry Lee.
Franklin tried to win Adams over on each issue.
After a month Franklin offered to give Adams a share in the
Vandalia Company that was speculating in western land.
Adams declined that and tried to be neutral in their discussions.
Adams naturally spent much more time with Franklin
and considered him a charlatan and a womanizer.
On May 8 Franklin, Lee, and Adams met with King Louis XVI at Versailles,
and they attended a public supper with the royal family in June.
That month the British were attacking French ships.
The British were treating captured Americans
as traitors and not as prisoners of war.
On 21 May 1778 John Adams in a letter to Samuel Adams wrote,
The Situation of the general Affairs of Europe,
is still critical and of dubious Tendency.
It is still uncertain, whether there will be War, between
the Turks and Russians; between the Emperor and the
King of Prussia; and indeed between England and France,
in the Opinion of many People; my own Conjecture
however is, that a War will commence and that soon.
Before this reaches you, you will be informed,
that a strong Squadron of thirteen Capital Ships
and several Frigates, has sailed from Toulon, and that
another Squadron is ordered to sail from Spithead.
Whatever I may have heard of the destination of the first,
I am not at Liberty to mention it.
We have yet no intelligence that the latter has sailed.
Chatham the great is no more: but there is so much of his
wild Spirit in his last Speech, yet left in the Nation, that
I have no doubt but Administration will put all to the hazard.
We are happy to hear, by the Frigate Le Sensible,
which has returned to Brest, that the Treaty
arrived safe at Casco Bay.
We hope to have the earliest Intelligence
of the ratification of it....
The Commissioners from England, who sailed about
the twenty second of April, will meet
as We suppose with nothing but ridicule.
Prussia is yet upon the reserve concerning America,
or rather, forgetting his Promise has determined
not to acknowledge our Independence, at present.
His Reason is obvious.
He wants the Aid of those very German Princes
who are most subservient to Great Britain,
who have furnished her with Troops to carry on the War
against Us, and therefore he does not choose
to offend them by an Alliance with Us, at present.
Spain is on the reserve too: but there is not the least doubt
entertained here, of her intentions to support America.
In Holland there is more Friendship for Us,
than I was aware before I came here.
At least, they will take no part against Us.
Our Affairs in this Kingdom, I find in a State
of confusion and darkness, that surprises me.
Prodigious Sums of money have been expended,
and large Sums are yet due.
But there are no Books of Account, or any Documents,
from whence I have been able to learn what
the United States have received as an Equivalent.
There is one Subject, which lies heavily on my Mind,
and that is the expense of the Commissioners.
You have three Commissioners at this Court,
each of whom lives at an Expense of at least
Three thousand Pounds Sterling a Year,
I fear at a greater Expense.
Few Men in this World are capable of living
at a less Expense, than I am.
But I find the other Gentlemen have expended,
from three to four Thousand a Year each,
and one of them from five to six.
And by all the Enquiries I have been able to make, I cannot
find any Article of Expense, which can be retrenched.
The Truth is, in my humble Opinion,
our System is wrong in many Particulars,
1. In having three Commissioners at this Court.
One in the Character of Envoy is enough.
At present each of the Three is considered in the Character
of a Public Minister; a Minister Plenipotentiary,
which lays him under an absolute Necessity
of living up to this Character.
Whereas one alone would be obliged to no greater Expense,
and would be quite sufficient
for all the Business of a Public Minister.
2. In Leaving the Salaries of these Ministers
at an Uncertainty.
You will never be able to obtain a satisfactory Account,
of the public Monies, while this System continues.
It is a Temptation to live at too great an Expense,
and Gentlemen will feel an Aversion
to demanding a rigorous Account.
3. In blending the Business of a public Minister
with that of a Commercial Agent.
The Businesses of various departments, are by this means
so blended and the public and private Expenses
so confounded with each other, that I am sure
no Satisfaction can ever be given to the Public,
of the disposition of their Interests, and I am very confident
that Jealousies and Suspicions will hereafter arise
against the Characters of Gentlemen, who
may perhaps have Acted with perfect Integrity
and the fairest Intentions for the public Good.
My Idea is this, separate the Offices of Public Ministers
from those of commercial Agents....
Recall, or send to some other Court,
all the Public Ministers but one, at this Court.
Determine with Precision, the Sum that shall be allowed
to the remaining one, for his Expenses and for his Salary,
i.e. for his Time, Risk, Trouble &c., and when this is done,
see that he receives no more than his allowance.
The Inconveniences arising from the Multiplicity of
Ministers and the Complications of Businesses are infinite.2
Adams in that letter asked the Congress to make Franklin the
ambassador to France so that he and Lee could be recalled or reassigned.
While his son attended a school, Adams studied the French language and history.
Abigail’s first letter that made it to Adams arrived on June 16.
Adams later claimed that he wrote 50 letters to Abigail from
April to September, and she received only two of them.
For the commissioners to get guidance from the Congress
in Philadelphia took about six months.
Adams spent ten months in France.
He believed that the French would help the Americans win the war,
and he hoped that Spain would go to war against the British.
John Paul Jones captured 200 British at sea, and
the British mistreated American prisoners-of-war.
On June 15 British forces began withdrawing
from Philadelphia and crossed into New Jersey.
On June 28 Generals George Washington and Charles Lee
led an American army of 14,300 against 17,660 British
led by General Henry Clinton by the Monmouth Courthouse.
The Americans lost about 500 men killed, wounded, and missing
while
the British had more than twice as many casualties including many missing.
Yet the British managed to return their army to New York City.
John Adams and the commissioners worked on prisoner exchanges.
On September 15 the Congress in Philadelphia appointed
Benjamin Franklin the minister Plenipotentiary to the court of Louis XVI,
and their dispatches did not get there until 12 February 1779.
Adams agreed with George Washington that the
French Navy could help them defeat the British.
He worked at being diplomatic, and Franklin was very popular.
Vergennes was trying to form an alliance with Spain.
In late December the British invaded Savannah, Georgia,
opening a southern campaign.
The three commissioners Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, and John Adam
in the first week in January 1779 submitted a letter asking France with their fleet
to help bring a “speedy conclusion” to the war.
The Foreign Minister Vergennes was preoccupied planning a French invasion of England.
Spain informed Vergennes that they would help mediate
the end of a war that was in its fourth year.
Adams urged the French to send 5,000 troops to the United States
so that they could win the war soon.
Vergennes directed France’s Minister to the United States,
Conrad Alexander Gérard, to ask the American Congress
to appoint a minister to negotiate a peace treaty starting on February 15.
The Congress had promised the French that they would work together for the peace,
and they chose two committees that began discussing various issues.
In February the three American commissioners in France were given notice
that Franklin was made the sole minister to France, and Lee was sent to Madrid.
Adams was given no direction, and he decided to go home.
He and his son John Quincy with their servant Stephens left Passy on March 8,
and they did not get on board Le Sensible until June 17.
They returned to Braintree, Massachusetts on August 2,
and Adams learned they were planning a constitutional convention.
In early September he joined about 250 delegates in Cambridge.
He was chosen for the drafting committee,
and thirty met in Boston on September 13.
A subcommittee had the convention’s president James Bowdoin
and the two Adams John and Samuel who picked John to write the state constitution.
His ideas and writings shaped their Constitution of 1780.
The Congress of the United States voted unanimously to appoint John Adams
a minister plenipotentiary to help negotiate the peace to end the War of Independence,
and they sent John Jay of New York to Madrid as the ambassador.
The Continental Congress created so much currency and loans that prices rose,
and British counterfeit money also resulted in prices being eight times higher by 1779.
Prices were especially high in Philadelphia, and on October 4 some militiamen
from there attacked the home of Congressman James Wilson.
On October 28 John Adams revised work that became
A Constitution or Form of Government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
This is the Preamble and the Declaration of Rights:
PREAMBLE
The end of the institution, maintenance and administration
of government, is to secure the existence of the body-politic;
to protect it; and to furnish the individuals who compose it,
with the power of enjoying, in safety and tranquility,
their natural rights, and the blessings of life:
And whenever these great objects are not obtained,
the people have a right to alter the government,
and to take measures necessary for their safety,
happiness and prosperity.
The body politic is formed by a voluntary association
of individuals; it is a social compact, by which the whole
people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen
with the whole people, that all shall be governed
by certain laws for the common good.
It is the duty of the people, therefore, in framing
a Constitution of Government, to provide for an equitable
mode of making laws, as well as for an impartial
interpretation; and a faithful execution of them,
that every man may, at all times, find his security in them.
We, therefore, the delegates of the people of
Massachusetts, in general Convention assembled,
for the express and sole purpose of framing a Constitution
or Form of Government, to be laid before our Constituents,
according to their instructions, acknowledging, with grateful
hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe,
in affording to this people, in the course of His providence,
an opportunity of entering into an original, explicit,
and solemn compact with each other, deliberately
and peaceably, without fraud, violence, or surprise;
and of forming a new Constitution of Civil Government,
for themselves and their posterity; and devoutly imploring
His direction in a design so interesting to them and
their posterity, DO, by virtue of the authority vested in us,
by our constituents, agree upon the following Declaration of
Rights, and Frame of Government, as the CONSTITUTION
of the COMMONWEALTH of Massachusetts.CHAPTER I
A DECLARATION of the RIGHTS of the Inhabitants
of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
1. All men are born equally free and independent,
and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights:
among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying
and defending their lives and liberties;
that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting their property;
in fine, that of seeking and obtaining
their safety and happiness.
2. It is the duty of all men in society, publicly,
and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING,
the great creator and preserver of the universe.
And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained,
in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshiping GOD
in the manner most agreeable to the dictates
of his own conscience; or for his religious profession
or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the
public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship.
3. Good morals being necessary to the preservation
of civil society; and the knowledge and belief of the being
of GOD, His providential government of the world,
and of a future state of rewards and punishment,
being the only true foundation of morality, the legislature
hath therefore a right, and ought, to provide at the expense
of the subject, if necessary, a suitable support for the public
worship of GOD, and of the teachers of religion and morals;
and to enjoin upon all the subjects an attendance
upon their instructions, at stated times and seasons:
Provided there be any such teacher, on whose ministry
they can conscientiously and conveniently attend.
All monies, paid by the subject to the support of
public worship, and of the instructors in religion and morals,
shall, if he requires it, be uniformly applied to the support
of the teacher or teachers of his own religious denomination,
if there be such, whose ministry he attends upon:
otherwise it may be paid to the teacher or teachers
of the parish or precinct where he usually resides.
4. The people of this commonwealth have the sole
and exclusive right of governing themselves, as a free,
sovereign, and independent state; and do, and forever
hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power,
jurisdiction, and right, which are not, or may not hereafter,
be by them expressly delegated to the
United States of America, in Congress assembled.
5. All power residing originally in the people,
and being derived from them, the several magistrates
and officers of government, vested with authority,
whether legislative, executive or judicial,
are their substitutes and agents,
and are at all times accountable to them.
6. No man, nor corporation or association of men,
have any other title to obtain advantages,
or particular and exclusive privileges, distinct from those
of the community, than what arises from the consideration
of services rendered to the public; and this title being
in nature neither hereditary, nor transmissible to children,
or descendants, or relations by blood, the idea of a man
born a magistrate, law-giver, or judge,
is absurd and unnatural.
7. Government is instituted for the common good;
for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness
of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private
interest of any one man, family, or class of men:
Therefore the people alone have an incontestable,
unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government;
and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their
protection, safety, prosperity and happiness require it.
8. In order to prevent those who are vested with authority
from becoming oppressors, the people have a right,
at such periods and in such manner as may be delineated
in their frame of government, to cause their public officers
to return to private life, and to fill up vacant places
by certain and regular elections.
9. All elections ought to be free;
and all the male inhabitants of this commonwealth,
having sufficient qualifications, have an equal right to elect
officers, and to be elected for public employments.
10. Each individual of the society has a right to be
protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty
and property, according to standing laws.
He is obliged, consequently, to contribute his share
to the expense of this protection; to give his personal
service, or an equivalent, when necessary:
But no part of the property of any individual can,
with justice, be taken from him, or applied to public uses,
without his own consent, or that of the representative body
of the people; in fine, the people of this commonwealth are
not controllable by any other laws, than those to which their
constitutional representative body have given their consent.
11. Every subject of the commonwealth ought to find
a certain remedy, by having recourse to the laws,
for all injuries or wrongs which he may receive in his
person, property or character; he ought to obtain right
and justice freely, and without being obliged to purchase it;
completely, and without any denial;
promptly, and without delay; conformably to the laws.
12. No subject shall be held to answer for any crime
or offence, until the same is fully and plainly,
substantially and formally, described to him:
He cannot be compelled to accuse himself,
or to furnish evidence against himself;
and every subject shall have a right to be fully heard
in his defense, by himself or his council, at his election;
to meet the witnesses against him face to face,
to produce all proofs that may be favorable to him;
to require a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury
of the country, without whose unanimous consent,
or his own voluntary confession, he cannot finally be
declared guilty, or sentenced to loss of life, liberty or property.
13. In criminal prosecutions, the verification of facts in the
vicinity where they happen, is one of the greatest securities
of the life, liberty and property of the citizen.
14. No subject of the commonwealth shall be arrested,
imprisoned, despoiled, or deprived of his property,
immunities or privileges, put out of the protection of the law,
exiled, or deprived of his life, liberty or estate,
but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land.
15. Every man has a right to be secure from all
unreasonable searches and seizures of his person,
his houses, his papers, and all his possessions.
All warrants, therefore, are contrary to this right,
if the cause or foundation of them be not previously
supported by oath or affirmation; and if the order
in the warrant to a civil officer, to make search
in suspected places, or to arrest one or more
suspected persons, or to seize their property,
be not accompanied with a special designation
of the persons or objects of search, arrest or seizure;
and no warrant ought to be issued but in cases
and with the formalities prescribed by the laws.
16. In all controversies concerning property,
and in all suits between two or more persons,
the parties have a right to a trial by a jury;
and this method of procedure shall be held sacred;
unless, in causes arising on the high-seas,
and such as relate to mariners wages,
the legislature shall hereafter find it necessary to alter it.
17. The people have a right to the freedom of speaking,
writing and publishing their sentiments:
The liberty of the press therefore
ought not to be restrained.
18. The people have a right to keep
and to bear arms for the common defense.
And as in time of peace standing armies are dangerous
to liberty, they ought not to be maintained without
the consent of the legislature; and the military power
shall always be held in an exact subordination
to the civil authority, and be governed by it.
19. A Frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles
of the constitution, and a constant adherence to those
of piety, justice, moderation, temperance, industry
and frugality, are absolutely necessary to preserve the
advantages of liberty, and to maintain a free government:
The people ought, consequently, to have a particular
attention to all those principles, in the choice of their
officers and representatives; and they have a right
to require of their law-givers and magistrates, an exact
and constant observance of them, in the formation
and execution of the laws necessary
for the good administration of the commonwealth.
20. The people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable
manner, to assemble to consult upon the common good;
give instructions to their representatives;
and to request of the legislative body by the way of
addresses, petitions, or remonstrances, redress of the
wrongs done them, and the grievances they suffer.
21. The power of suspending the laws, or the execution
of the laws, ought never to be exercised
but by the legislature, or by authority derived from it,
to be exercised in such particular cases only
as the legislature shall expressly provide for:
and there shall be no suspension of any law
for the private interest, advantage, or emolument,
of any one man or class of men.
22. The freedom of deliberation, speech and debate
in either house of the legislature, is so essential to the rights
of the people, that it cannot be the foundation
of any accusation or prosecution, action or complaint,
in any other court or place whatsoever.
23. The legislature ought frequently to assemble
for the redress of grievances, for correcting, strengthening
and confirming the laws, and for making new laws
as the common good may require.
24. No subsidy, charge, tax, impost or duties ought
to be established, fixed, laid, or levied, under any pretext
whatsoever, without the consent of the people
or their representatives in the legislature.
25. Laws made to punish for actions done before the
existence of such laws, and which have not been declared
crimes by preceding laws, are unjust, oppressive,
and inconsistent with the fundamental principles
of a free government.
26. No man ought in any case or in any time,
to be declared guilty of treason or felony
by any act of the legislature.
27. No magistrate or court of law shall demand
excessive bail, or sureties, impose excessive fines,
or inflict cruel or unusual punishments.
28. In time of peace, no soldier ought to be quartered
in any house without the consent of the owner;
and in time of war such quarters ought not to be made,
but by the civil magistrate
in a manner ordained by the legislature.
29. No person can in any case be subjected
to law martial, or to any penalties or pains, by virtue
of that law, except those employed in the army or navy,
and except the militia in actual service,
but by authority of the legislature.
30. It is essential to the preservation of the rights
of every individual, his life, liberty, property and character,
that there be an impartial interpretation of the laws,
and administration of justice.
It is the right of every citizen to be tried by judges as free,
impartial and independent as the lot of humanity will admit.
It is therefore not only the best policy, but for the security
of the rights of the people, and of every citizen,
that the judges should hold their offices as long as
they behave themselves well; and that they should have
honorable salaries ascertained
and established by standing laws.
31. The judicial department of the State
ought to be separate from, and independent of,
the legislative and executive powers.3
In Chapter 6 following Section 1 on The University in Section II
The Encouragement of Literature, &c. he wrote,
Wisdom, and knowledge, as well as virtue,
diffused generally among the body of the people, being
necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties;
and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and
advantages of education in the various parts of the country,
and among the different orders of the people, it shall be
the duty of legislators and magistrates, in all future periods
of this Commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature
and the sciences, and all seminaries of them; especially
the university at Cambridge, public schools, and grammar
schools in the towns; to encourage private societies
and public institutions, rewards and immunities,
for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce,
trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country;
to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity
and general benevolence, public and private charity,
industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their
dealings, sincerity, good humor, and all social affections,
and generous sentiments among the people.4
In October 1779 John Adams learned that he had been
appointed
the minister plenipotentiary to negotiate a
peace treaty to end the War of Independence.
He accepted and chose to take his two oldest sons John Quincy
and Charles along with Congressman Francis Dana
as commission secretary and John Thaxter as his private secretary.
John Quincy wanted to stay home and prepare himself for Harvard.
His mother Abigail persuaded him to go with his father, saying,
It will be expected of you, my son, that as you are favored
with superior advantages under the instructive eye
of a tender parent, that your improvements
should bear some proportion to your advantages.
These are the times in which a genius would wish to live.
It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose
of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.
The habits of a vigorous mind are formed
in contending with difficulties.
Great necessities call out great virtues.
When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that
engage the heart, then those qualities which would
otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form
the character of the hero and the statesmen.5
John Adams with his two oldest sons, his private secretary John Thaxter
to tutor the boys, Francis Dana, and three servants including Stephens
embarked on Le Sensible on November 15.
A
storm caused leaks that forced all hands to take turns pumping out the water.
They managed to reach Ferrol, Spain on December 8,
and they saw there many French and Spanish naval officers.
Adams bought a 3-volume Spanish dictionary and hired two carriages,
and after a week they began a trek with mules
that finally reached Paris on 9 February 1780.
John Adams in February 1780 did not tell Benjamin Franklin why he was in Paris,
and he stayed at the Hotel de Valois until he got a house nearby.
His sons John Quincy and Charles attended Monsieur Pechigny’s academy
at Passy and stayed with their father on weekends.
Adams did not want Franklin trying to take over his job
as the only American to negotiate the peace treaty.
France’s Foreign Minister Vergennes preferred Benjamin Franklin
to Adams and worked against the latter.
Adams insisted that he be treated as an equal and not as a subordinate.
He was also to arrange a commercial treaty.
Spain had joined the war against the British but not as an ally of the United States.
On March 4 John Adams in a letter to Samuel Adams wrote.
This will be delivered to you by Mr. Izard,
who goes out in the Alliance, with Mr. Lee,
Mr. Wharton, Mr. Brown and others.
He will wait on you of Course, and will be able to give you,
good Information concerning the Intentions of the English
and their military Preparations by sea and Land:
and those of the French and Spaniards, at the same Time.
He will also give his Opinion very freely concerning
American and other Characters here as well as Measures.
In many Things his opinions may be just, but in some
and those not a few I am sure they are wrong.
The great Principle, in which I have differed from him,
is this, in the Mode of treating with this Court.
He has been always of opinion that it was good Policy,
and necessary to hold a high Language to this Court.
To represent to them, the danger of our being conquered
subdued if they did not do this and the other Thing for Us,
in order to obtain Money and other Aids from them.
He is confident they would not have dared
to refuse Us Any Thing.
Although no Man in America or in the World,
was earlier convinced than I was, that it was the Interest of
France and Spain to support the Independence of America,
and that they would Support it, and no Man is more sensible
than I am of the Necessity they are under to support Us,
yet I am not and never was of Opinion that we could
with Truth or with good Policy, assume the Style of Menace,
and threaten them with returning again to G. B. and joining
against France and Spain—even tell them that We should be
subdued, because I never believed this myself,
and the Court here would not have believed it from Us.
The Court here have many Difficulties to manage
as well as we, and it is a delicate and hazardous Thing,
to push Things in this Country.
Things are not to be negotiated here, as they are
with the People in America, even the Tories in America,
or as with the People of England.
There is a Frankness however that ought to be used
with the Ministry, and a Candor, with which the Truth
may be and has been communicated:
but there is a harshness, that would not fail to ruin,
in my opinion the fairest Negotiation in this Country.6
On March 18 John Adams in a letter to Nathanael Greene wrote,
Give me Leave, by the Opportunity of the Viscount de
Noailles, to take this Method of reviving a Correspondence,
which has been interrupted almost three Years,
but was one of the most pleasing I ever had.
It is unnecessary to say anything of the Expedition
with which this Letter is intended to go, because I hope
it will reveal itself to You, in Accounts which will make
themselves heard and understood by all the World.
As there is a probability, that there will be more frequent
Communication, with America this Summer, than there
ever has been, let me beg the favor of your Sentiments
both upon Subjects of Policy and War.
Every Operation of your Army has its Influence upon all the
Powers of Europe in France, Spain, England, Ireland,
Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Prussia, Portugal,
and even in the German Empire.
America is the City, set upon a Hill, I do not think myself
guilty of Exaggeration, Vanity or Presumption, when I say,
that the proceedings of Congress are more attended to,
than those of any Court in Europe,
and the Motions of our Armies than any of theirs.
And there are more political Lies made and circulated about
both, than all the rest: which renders genuine Intelligence,
from good Authority, the more interesting and important.
There is a great Variety of Policy on foot, in England,
Ireland, Holland, and among the Northern Powers, all
tending to favor the Cause of America, which is promoted
by nothing more than by prompt and accurate Intelligence.7
On March 23 John Adams in a letter to Samuel Huntington wrote,
I have the Honor to enclose the English Papers
of the eleventh, thirteenth and fourteenth of March.
The Courier de L'Europe and the Hague,
Leiden and Amsterdam Gazettes.
We are in hourly Expectation of great News from Holland,
Ireland, England, Spain, and
above all from America and the West Indies.
I have not a Letter from America, since I left it,
except one from my Family of the tenth of December;
and indeed, although several Vessels have arrived,
I can hear of no Letters or News.
By the English Papers Congress will perceive the violent
Fermentation in England, which has arisen to such
a Height, as to produce a Congress in Fact,
and it will soon be so in Name.
The Proceedings in the House of Commons on the
fourteenth, which were terminated by a Resolution
of the Committee of the whole House, to abolish
the Board of Trade and Plantations, carried against the
Ministry after a very long and warm Debate by a Majority
of Eight Voices, is not only the most extraordinary Vote
which has passed in the present Reign,
but it leads to very extensive Consequences.
I believe it is very true, that this Board has been the true
Cause of the Quarrel of Great Britain against the Colonies,
and therefore may be considered as a natural Object of
national Resentment; but a Resentment of this kind alone,
would not probably have produced this Effect.
Whether it is the near Approach of an Election, that
has intimidated the Members of the House of Commons;
or whether the Committees, Petitions, Associations and
Congress have alarmed them; or whether the Nation
is convinced that America is indeed lost forever,
and consequently that the Board will in future be useless,
I don’t know.
Be this as it may, the English Nation, and even the Irish
and Scotch Nations—all parts of the World will draw this
Inference from it, that even in the Opinion
of the House of Commons, America is lost.
The free and virtuous Citizens of America, and even the
slavish and vicious, if there are any still remaining of this
Character, under the Denomination of Tories, must be
convinced by this Vote, passed in the Heyday of their Joy
for the Successes of Admiral Rodney’s Fleet, that
the House of Commons despair of ever regaining America.
The Nations, subject to the House of Bourbon, cannot fail
to put the same Interpretation upon this Transaction.
Holland, and all the Northern Powers, with the Empress
of Russia at their Head, who are all greatly irritated
against England for their late Violence against
the innocent Commerce of Neutral Powers,
will draw the same Consequences.
The Politicians of Great Britain are too enlightened in the
History of Nations, and the Rise and Progress of Causes
and Effects in the political World, not to see that all these
Bodies of People will, in Consequence of this Vote, consider
the Colonies as given up for lost by the House of Commons;
and they are too well instructed not to know the important
Consequences that follow, from having such points as these,
thus settled among the Nations.
I cannot therefore but consider this Vote, and the other
respecting the Secretary of State for the American
Department, which arose almost to a Balance as a
most important Declaration of the Sense of the Nation.
The first probable Consequence of it, will be one further
Attempt, by offering some specious Terms, which they know
we cannot in Justice, in Honor, in Conscience accept,
to deceive seduce and divide America,
throw all into Confusion there,
and by this Means gain an Opportunity to govern.
There is nothing more astonishing
than the Inconsistencies of the Patriots in England.
Those, who are most violent against the Ministry,
are not for making Peace with France and Spain,
but they wish to allure America into a separate Peace, and
persuade her to join them against the House of Bourbon.
One would think it impossible, that one Man of Sense
in the World could seriously believe, that we could thus
basely violate our Faith, thus unreasonably quarrel with
our best Friends, thus madly attach ourselves
to our bitterest Enemies.
But thus it is.
Sir George Saville threw out in the House, that
he wished to carry home to his Constituents the News
of an Accommodation with America,
and Mr. David Hartley has given Notice
of his Intention to make a Motion relative to Us.
But I confess I have no Expectations.
Mr. Hartley’s Motions and Speeches have never made
any great Fortune in the House, nor been much attended to;
from whence I conclude, if the present great Leaders
of Opposition in the House, were seriously disposed
to do anything towards a Pacification,
which we could attend to, they would not suffer
Mr. Hartley to have the Honor of making the Motion.
The Heads of many People run upon a Truce
with America, and Mr. Hartley’s Motion may tend this Way:
but a Truce with America cannot be made
without a Peace with France and Spain;
and would America accept of such a Truce?
Give Great Britain time to encroach and fortify
upon all our Frontiers?
To send Emissaries into the States
and sow the Seeds of Discord?
To rise out of her present exhausted and ruined Condition?
Suffer France and Spain to relax?
Wait for Alterations by the Deaths of Princes,
or the Changes in the Characters of Princes
or Ministers in the System of Europe?
I ask these Questions, that Congress may give me
Instructions if they think necessary.
At present I don’t believe that my Powers are sufficient
to agree to a Truce, if it was proposed;
nor do I believe it would be for our Interest
or Safety to agree to it, if I had.
I don’t mean however to give any decided Opinion
upon such a great Question, in this hasty Letter.
I am open to Conviction, and shall obey the Instructions
of Congress with the most perfect Respect.8
Adams wrote articles using a pseudonym that were published
in England with help from his friend Edmund Jenings.
The American agent Thomas Digges sent Adams items from British newspapers.
Francis Dana and John Adams worked well together.
Dana insisted on being treated as an equal, not as an employee, and Adams agreed.
He exchanged letters with James Warren, James Lovell,
Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Adams, and Benjamin Rush.
Once in a while he wrote to Vergennes to keep him informed about America.
On April 2 John Adams in Paris in a letter to Edmund Jenings wrote,
After Settling a Point or two here, I now think myself
at Liberty to inform you, that I have indeed the Honor,
to be a Minister plenipotentiary from the United States
of America, “vested with full Powers and Instructions
to confer, treat, agree and conclude with the Ambassadors
or Plenipotentiaries of his most Christian Majesty and
of his Britannic Majesty, and those of any other Princes
or states, whom it may concern, vested with equal Powers,
relating to the Reestablishment of Peace and Friendship,
and whatever shall be so agreed and concluded to Sign,
and make a Treaty or Treaties and to transact everything
that may be necessary for completing,
the great Work of Pacification.”
This you may affirm, without making Use of my Name
as your Authority, at present unless to particular Friends.
My Mission was not the Effect of any sudden Joy or Sorrow,
Hope or fear arising from any Event of War prosperous
or Adverse: but a measure more than a year under
Consideration of Congress, and it was thought very proper
to have a Minister residing in Europe, Solely
for the Purpose of attending to Propositions for Peace.
Their Deliberations were long upon the Commission
and Instructions, which were at last concluded,
and the Choice to my utter astonishment fell upon me,
by the Votes of Eleven states, twelve only being present.
This Unanimity, after all the Struggles and Divisions
about our foreign Affairs, and the Certainty of still greater
Divisions, which I was assured would be the Consequence
of my Refusal, determined Me, to put myself
once more to sea from a quiet and a happy Harbor.
It is a situation that is and will be envied.
And I have Seen enough of what there is in human Bosoms
to know that Envy is a formidable Enemy.
It is however more justly to be dreaded than envied.
I assure you it appalls me, when I reflect upon it.
The Immensity of the Trust, is too great for everything
but an honest Heart, and for that too, without a sounder
Understanding, and profounder, sublimer and
more extended Views, than I have any Pretentions too.
I should esteem it as a favor if you would take Measures, to
have Some Paragraphs inserted in the English Newspapers,
announcing the Purport of my Mission.
The Nature of them I shall leave to your Discretion.9
On April 18 John Adams in a letter to the United States Congress wrote,
It is my Duty to transmit to Congress, as soon as
Prudence will admit, every Thing which deserves
Consideration, as having either a direct or an indirect
tendency to Peace, or even to Negotiation
for that important Object.
The enclosed Letter has been transmitted to Paris
in such a Channel, that I have Reasons to believe
it was particularly intended for my Inspection.
It is from a Gentleman, who, to do him Justice,
has long expressed an earnest desire of Peace,
but who nevertheless, has never yet reflected maturely
enough upon the State of America, of Great Britain and
of all Europe, to get into a right Way of thinking
concerning the proper Means to his End.
Congress will perceive it, from the Letter itself,
in which it is obvious enough.
The first remarkable Sentiment is “We must, at all Events
support our national Honor, by the most vigorous Exertions,
without shrinking: but surely, in such a complicated War,
as this is, if we can make any equitable Offers of Treaty
to any of the Parties, common Prudence calls upon Us,
to use our Endeavors, to unravel by Negotiation,
the Combination of Powers now acting against Us.”
In this Paragraph, I see the manifest Marks of a Mind
that has not yet mastered its Subject.
True Policy would have omitted everything in this Letter,
which should call up to the Minds of the People,
the Ideas of National Honor.
Every Man in the World, who is thoroughly acquainted
with the Subject, knows, that Great Britain never can obtain
a Peace, without a Diminution of her Honor and Dignity.
It is impossible without Miracles, and therefore
the Englishman who undertakes to plan for Peace, must be
convinced of this and take it into his Plan, and consequently
should avoid with the utmost Caution every Word, which
should excite these Ideas in the Minds of the People.
For People cannot bear the Ideas of national Disgrace.
They stir Passions which make them mad.
He should have avoided with equal Solicitude, every
Insinuation of a design to unravel by Negotiation, the
Combination of Powers, now acting against Great Britain.
This Combination, is in fact, much more extensive,
much more universal, and formidable,
than the Letter writer had any Idea, or Suspicion of.
But if it had been no more extensive than France, Spain
and America, the Impracticability of unravelling it,
ought to have been too obvious and too clear;
for the Writer to have thrown out this Sentiment.
By it, he proposes by Negotiation to bring those to dishonor
themselves, who have certainly no Occasion for it,
at the same time that he stimulates others to cherish
and preserve their Honor, who have already lost it, and
under an absolute Necessity, sooner or later of sacrificing it.
By this Means, he only puts the Confederates
more upon their Guard, and renders the Attainment
of his professed Object, Peace, impossible.
The next Solecism in Politics, that he commits,
is undertaking to vindicate America from the Charge
of having sought and formed this Confederacy.
America wanted no such Vindication.
It is folly to suppose it a Fault, for all Mankind will agree,
even his Correspondents themselves,
that it was Wisdom and Virtue.
Surely another Turn must be given to popular Ideas,
before they will be brought to petition for Peace.
Nor do I think, it was prudent in him to hold up,
that America had proceeded with Regret
and Reluctance to the Treaty.
That this is true I know and feel to this very Moment:
for although I had no such Reluctance myself,
those Gentlemen with whom I had the Honor to sit
in Congress at the time will remember that
I had very good Reasons to be sensible that others had.
But, how well so ever he might be informed of the Fact, and
from what Source so ever he might draw his Information,
it was bad Policy in him to hold it up, because he ought
to have been equally sure, that America has now
no Reluctance to the Treaty, nor any Inclination to violate it.
He ought not therefore to have held up
a Hope of this to the People.
Neither ought he to have flattered the People with Hopes,
that America would not form any perpetual Alliance
with France, nor that their limited Alliance
might be satisfied and discharged.
The Alliance already made is limited it is true, to a
certain Number of Articles, but not limited in its Duration.
It is perpetual; and he had no Grounds to sooth the People
with Hopes either that France would give up any of the
Articles of the Treaty, or that America would violate them.
He ought also to have avoided his Insinuations,
that America has been so much harassed by the War.
This is an Idea too refreshing to the present Passions
of the People of England, that instead of tending to dispose
them to Peace, it only revives their Hopes of Success,
and inflames their Ardor for War.
That America has been harassed by the War, is true,
and when was any Nation at War without being so?
especially when did any Nation undergo a Revolution in
Government and sustain a War at the same time without it?
Yet after all America has not been so much harassed, or
distressed, or terrified, or panic struck from the Beginning,
as Great Britain has been, several times in the Course of it.
But the most exceptionable Passage of all is this.
“It is apparent to all the World, that France might long ago,
have put an End to that part of the War, which has been
most distressing to America, if She had chosen so to do.
Let the whole System of France be considered,
from the very Beginning, down to the late Retreat from
Savannah, and I think it is impossible to put any other
Construction upon it, but this, viz, that it has always been
the deliberate Intention and Object of France, for purposes
of their own, to encourage the Continuation of the War
in America, in Hopes of exhausting the Strength
and Resources of this Country,
and of depressing the rising Power of America.”
Upon this Paragraph, I scarcely know
what Remarks to make.
But after deliberating upon it, as patiently and maturely
as I can, I will clearly write my Opinion of it,
for my Obligations to Truth, and to my Country
are antecedent and superior to all other Ties.
I am clearly and fully of Opinion then, that the Fact is true,
that France might have put an End to that part of the War,
which has been most distressing to America:
and I certainly knew that the means were extremely simple
and obvious, and that they were repeatedly proposed
and explained and urged to the Ministry;
and I should have had a terrible Load of Guilt of Negligence
of my Duty upon my Conscience if it had not been done,
while I had the Honor of a Commission to this Court.
But when the Letter Writer proceeds so far as to say,
that it was to encourage the Continuance of the War,
in Order to exhaust the Strength and Resources
of Great Britain, I cannot accompany him,
much less can I join with him in the Opinion,
that it was to depress the rising Power of America.
I believe on the contrary, that France has not wished a
Continuance of the War, but that She has wished for Peace.
The War has been attended, with too much Loss
and Danger to France, to suppose that She wished
its Continuance, and if She did not wish its Continuance at
all, She could not wish it to depress the Power of America.
She could not wish it, in my opinion, for this End,
because it is not the means to this End.
It has a contrary Tendency.
The longer this War is continued in America,
the more will Americans become habituated
to the Characters of the Soldier and the Marine.
Military Virtues and Talents and Passions will gain Strength,
and additional Activity every Year, while the War lasts, and
the more these Virtues, Talents and Passions are multiplied,
the deeper will be the Foundations of American Power
be laid, and the more dangerous will it become,
to some or other of the Powers of Europe,
to France as likely as any other, because it will be
more likely to be ambitious, enterprising
and to aspire at Conquests by Sea and Land.
This Idea however, deserves to be considered,
with all the Attention that Americans can give it.
Although I am convinced by everything I see, and read
and hear, that all the Powers of Europe, except perhaps
the House of Austria, and I am not very clear
in that Exception, rejoice in the American Revolution,
and consider the Independence of America as
for their Interest and Happiness, in many Points of View,
both respecting Commerce and the Balance of Europe.
Yet I have many Reasons to think that not one of them,
not even Spain nor France, wishes to see
America rise very fast to Power.
We ought therefore to be cautious how we magnify
our Ideas and exaggerate our Expressions of the Generosity
and Magnanimity of any of these Powers.
Let us treat them with Gratitude, but with Dignity.
Let us remember what is due to ourselves and our Posterity,
as well as to them.
Let us above all things, avoid as much as possible,
entangling ourselves with their Wars or Politics.
Our Business with them and theirs with Us, is Commerce,
not Politics, much less War.
America has been the Sport of European Wars
and Politics long enough.
I think, however, that this Letter Writer,
was very much mistaken in his Judgment,
when he threw out this Language of his.
It could be meant only to excite a Jealousy and a Quarrel
between France and America, or rather,
to feed the Yorkshire People, and the People of England
with a Hope of exciting such a Quarrel.
This is not the Way to come at Peace.
They will never succeed in such a Plan,
and every attempt towards it is false Policy.
The next Mistake is the Idea of a Reconciliation
and federal Union with America.
This must be intended to separate Us from our Allies,
which this Gentleman ought, before now,
to have known is totally impracticable.
I have very little more Relish for the Notion of a Truce.
We are in a safer Way at War.
We cannot make a Truce without France.
She will never consent that We should make a Truce,
unless She makes Peace: and such Alterations may be made
in the Constitutions of the Courts of France and Spain,
and in the other Courts and political Connections in Europe,
before the Expiration of the Term of the Truce,
that it would be attended with too much hazard to Us.
Neither France nor Spain, nor the other Powers of Europe
might, after a Truce, be ready to go to War again:
unforeseen Divisions may be excited
among ourselves by artful Emissaries from England.
We are going on now in the sure and certain Road:
if we go out of it, We may be lost.
Upon the whole; I think that this Letter Writer
should have stated the true Situation of Europe,
of Great Britain, Ireland and America.
From this State, his immediate Conclusion
should have been, open Conferences for Peace:
make Peace with all the World upon the best Terms
You can—this is the only Chance You have for Salvation.
It must come to this, very soon; otherwise,
there will be a total Dissolution of the British Empire.10
France was preparing a large fleet to sail, and in the spring of 1780
they sent General Rochambeau with 4,000 troops across the Atlantic.
First they reinforced the French West Indies.
Spain sent a force that captured Mobile so that
they could occupy East and West Florida.
France’s Foreign Minister Vergennes wanted to get John Adams out of Paris
and he stopped communicating with him while relying on Ben Franklin.
On May 13 John Adams in a letter to Thomas Digges wrote,
Have not yet received, the debate upon Conway’s motion.
I have seen the paper and read the debate.
It is the scene of the Goddess in The Dunciad
reading Blackmore to her Children.
The Commons are yawning, while the Ministry and Clinton,
are cementing the Union of America, by the blood
of every Province, and binding all to their Allies,
by compelling them to shed theirs.
All is well that ends well.
These wise folk are giving France and Spain a
Consideration in Europe too, that they had not,
and are throwing away their own as nothing worth.
Sweden and Denmark, are in the Same System
with Russia and Holland.
Indeed if the Ministry, had only common Information,
they would have known that this Combination
of the maritime powers, has been forming these 18 Months,
and was nearly as well agreed a year ago as it is now.
But when a Nation is once, fundamentally wrong, thus it is.
Internal Policy, external defense, foreign negotiations,
all go away together.
The bad Consequences of a Principle essentially Wrong,
are infinite.
The Minority, mean only to try if they can make peace
with America Separately, in order to revenge themselves,
as they think they can upon France and Spain,
but this is as wrong and as absurd,
and impracticable as the plans of the ministry.
All Schemes for reconciliation with America short of
Independence, and all plans for Peace with America,
allowing her Independence, Separate from her allies, are
visionary, and delusive, disingenuous, corrupt and wicked.
America has taken her equal Station, and she will behave
with as much honor, as any of the nations of the Earth.
To Say that the Americans are upon the Poise,
are balancing, and will return to their Allegiance
to the King of England, is as wild as bedlam.
If Witnesses cannot be believed,
why don’t they believe the nature of things.
Ask the Newspapers, which are so free, that
nothing is Spared, Congress, and everybody is attacked.
Yet never a Single paragraph, even hinting
in the most distant manner, a wish to return.
Ask the Town meetings.
Those assemblies which dared readily enough, to think
as they pleased and say what they would, dared attack
the King, Lords Commons, Governors, Councils,
Representatives, Judges and whole armies,
under the old Government, and that attack,
everybody and everything that displeases them of this day.
Not one Vote, not one Instruction to a Representative,
not one Motion, nor so much as one Single Speech,
in favor of returning to the Leeks of Egypt.
Ask the grand and petit Juries, who dared to tell the Judges
to their faces, they were corrupted, and that
they would not serve under them because
they had betrayed and overturned the Constitution.
Not a single Juror, has ever whispered a Wish to return
after being washed to their wallowing in the mire.
The Refugees you mention never did know the Character of
the American people, but they knew it now less than ever.
They have been long away.
The Americans of this day,
have higher notions of themselves than ever.
They think, they have gone through the greatest Revolution
that ever took Place among Men, that this revolution is
as much for the benefit of the generality
of Mankind in Europe, as for their own.
They think they should act a base and perfidious part
towards the World in general, if they were to go back,
that they should manifestly counteract the designs
of providence, as well as betray themselves,
their posterity and mankind.
The English manifestly think Mankind
and the World made for their Use.
Americans don’t think so.
But why proceed.
Time alone can convince.12
John Adams read a 4-volume biography of Louis XV, and he believed that
it confirmed his idea that a French-American alliance would be beneficial.
On June 11 in another letter to Edmund Jenings from Paris he wrote,
I assure you, Sir, I am of your Mind, that Providence
is working the general Happiness, and whether We
co-operate in it, with a good Will,
or without co-operate We must.
We mortals feel very big sometimes, and think ourselves
acting a grand Role, when in Truth it is the irresistible
Course of Events that hurries Us on,
and We have in fact very little Influence in them.
The utmost that is permitted to Us is to assist,
and it is our Duty to be very cautious
that what we do is directed to a right End….
When Nations are corrupted, and grown generally
vicious when they are intoxicated with Wealth and Power,
and by this means delivered over to the Government
of the baser Passion of their Nature, it is very natural
that they should act an irrational part….
There is but one Way—that is make Peace—
let Us live in Peace:
in this Case We shall never designedly injure them.
We shall trade with them, and in this Way
help them to keep up some of their Importance.13
When Congress chose Adams as their peace envoy, they also selected
Henry Laurens to go to the Netherlands; but a British frigate captured him
at sea in July 1780, and he was held for 15 months.
Adams visited Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, and The Hague,
and he had written 95 letters to Congress by July.
That month he wrote 12 “Letters from a Distinguished American.”
John Adams on July 26 in a letter to the France’s Foreign Minister,
the Count of Vergennes, wrote,
I have received the letter which your Excellency did me
the honor to write me the twenty fifth of this month.
The sincere respect I entertain for your Excellency’s
sentiments would have determined me, upon the least
intimation, to have communicated my letter and your
Excellency’s answer to congress, and to suspend,
until I should receive orders on their part,
all measures towards the British ministry: without
your Excellency’s requisition in the name of the king.
I shall transmit these papers to congress, and I doubt not,
the reasons your Excellency has adduced, will be sufficient
to induce them to suspend any communication to the
British ministry, as it is undoubtedly their wisdom,
to conduct all such measures in concert with their allies.
There is a great body of people in America, as determined
as any to support their independence, and their alliances,
who notwithstanding wish that no measure may be left
unattempted by congress or their servants to manifest
their readiness for peace, upon such terms
as they think honorable and advantageous to all parties.
Your Excellency’s arguments, or indeed your authority,
will probably be sufficient to satisfy these people
and to justify me, whereas without them
I might have been liable to the censure of numbers.
For it is most certain that all due deference will be shown
by the people of the United States and their servants
both in and out of congress,
to the sentiments of the ministry of France.
This deference however by no means extends so far as to
agree in all cases to those sentiments without examination.
I cannot therefore agree in the sentiment, that proposing
a treaty of peace and commerce is discovering a great deal
of weakness, or that the Americans have forgotten
the British system of tyranny, cruelty or perfidy,
or to invite her to believe the Americans have an irresistible
predilection for England, or to fortify her in the opinion that
the American patriots will submit through weariness, or
through fear of the preponderant Influence of the Tories.
And so far from thinking it would give credit to the
opinion, if there be such a one in all Europe, that
the United States incline towards a defection, and that
they will not be faithful to their engagements,
it seems to me, on the contrary, that it would discredit
the opinion which prevails too much in Europe
that there is some secret treaty between France
and the United States, by which the former is entitled
to exclusive privileges in the American trade.
It is very true, that the independence of America must be
acknowledged before a treaty of peace can be made:
But the prospect of a free trade with America upon
principles of perfect equality and reciprocity,
like that between France and the United States,
might be a powerful inducement with the people of England
to acknowledge American independence.
Indeed I do not see any other considerable motive that
England can ever have to make that acknowledgment.
The congress have given no positive instructions
respecting the time or manner of making these powers
known to one court or another.
All this is left at discretion, and to a construction
of the commissions themselves.
It is very certain that all the belligerent powers are busily
occupied every winter in their councils
and preparations for the ensuing campaign.
And it is also certain that the artifice of the British ministry
in holding up to view every winter some semblance
of a design of reconciliation formerly and of peace latterly,
has been a real Engine of hostility against America,
equal to a considerable part of the British army.
Neither the people of America nor Mr. Adams have any
the least dread upon their minds of an insolent answer,
from one of the British ministers, nor of the ridicule of those
nations who have not yet acknowledged
the independence of America.
No man of any knowledge, justice or humanity in any
of those nations, would laugh upon such an occasion:
on the contrary he would feel a just indignation
against a minister who should insult a message so obviously
calculated for the good of England and of all Europe,
in the present circumstances of affairs.
I am very much mistaken, for I speak upon memory,
if the Duke of Richmond did not make a motion
two years ago in the House of Lords, and if Mr. Hartley
did not make another about a year ago, which was
seconded by Lord North himself in the House of Commons
tending to grant Independence to America.
And it is very certain that a great part of the people of
England think that peace can be had upon no other terms.
It is most clear that the present ministry will not grant
independence: the only chance of obtaining it
is by change of that ministry.
The king is so attached to that ministry, that he will not
change them, until it appears that they have so far lost
the confidence of the people, that their representatives
in parliament dare no longer to support them:
and in the course of the last winter, the weight and
sentiments of the people were so considerable as to bring
many great questions nearly to a balance, and particularly
to carry two votes, one against the increase of the influence
of the crown, and another against the board of trade
and plantations, a vote that seemed almost to decide
the American question, and they came within a very few
votes of deciding against the American secretary.
Now where parties are approaching so near to a balance,
even a small weight thrown into either scale, may turn it.
In my letter of the 19th of February, I said that
my appointment was notorious in America, and that
therefore it was probably known to the court of London,
although they had not regular evidence of it.
The question then was more particularly concerning
a commission to assist in the pacification.
This was published in the American newspapers
in a general way: but I have no reason to think
they are particularly informed of these matters;
if they were, no evil that I am aware of could result
from giving them the information officially.
Certainly they have no official information,
and it is reported that they deny that
they know the nature of Mr. Adams’s commission.
Without any great effort of genius, I think it is easy
to demonstrate to any thinking being, that by granting
American independence, and making a treaty of peace,
upon principles of perfect reciprocity, England would
in the present circumstances of affairs
make an honorable and an advantageous peace.
It would have been more for their honor and advantage
never to have made this war against America, it is true:
but having made it, all the dishonor and disadvantage
there is in it, is indelible: and after thirteen colonies have
been driven to throw off their government and annihilate it
in every root and branch, becoming independent in fact,
maintaining this independence against a force of
sixty thousand men and fifty ships of war, that would have
shaken most of the states of Europe to the very foundation,
after maintaining this independence four years, and having
made an honorable treaty with the first power in Europe;
after another power had fallen into the war in consequence
of the same system; after the voice of mankind had so far
declared against the justice of their cause, that they could
get no ally; but on the contrary all the maritime powers are
entering into a confederacy against them upon a point which
has been a principal source of their naval superiority
in Europe; if England consider further, that America is now
known all over Europe to be such a magazine of raw
material for manufactures, such a nursery of seamen,
and such a source of commerce and naval power,
that it would be dangerous to all the maritime powers
to suffer any one of them to establish a domination
and a monopoly again in America;—in these circumstances,
the only honorable part they can act, is to conform
to the opinion of mankind; and the dishonorable
and ruinous part for them to act is to continue the war.
For the principle, that the people have a right to a form
of government according to their own judgments
and inclinations, is in this enlightened age so well agreed
in the world, that it would be thought dishonorable
by mankind in general for the English to govern
three millions of people against their wills by military force,
and this is all they can ever hope for, even supposing,
they could bribe and tempt deserters enough from our army
and apostates from our cause, to make it impossible
for us to carry on the war.
This however I know to be impossible and that they never
will get quiet possession again of the government
of any one whole state in the thirteen, no not for an hour.
If England considers further, that America is now known
all over Europe to be such a magazine of raw materials
for manufactures, such a nursery of seamen and such
a source of commerce and naval power, that it would be
dangerous to all the maritime powers, to suffer any one
of them to establish a domination
and a monopoly again in America.
I know there exists in some European minds a prejudice
against America, and a jealousy that she will be hurtful
to Europe, and England may place some dependence
upon this prejudice and jealousy; but the motions
of the maritime powers begin to convince her,
that this jealousy and prejudice do not run so deep
as they thought and surely there never was a more
groundless prejudice entertained among men, and
it must dissipate, as soon as the subject is considered.
America is a nation of husbandmen,
planted on a vast continent of wild uncultivated land.
And there is and will be for centuries no way in which
these people can get a living and advance
their interests so much as by agriculture.
They can apply themselves to manufactures, only to fill up
interstices of time, in which they cannot labor on their lands,
and to commerce only to carry the produce of their lands
the raw materials of manufactures to the European Market.
Europe is a country whose land is all cultivated nearly
to perfection, where the People have no way to advance
themselves, but by manufactures and commerce.
Here are two worlds then fitted by God and nature
to benefit each other, one by furnishing raw materials,
the other manufactures, and they never can interfere.
The number of the States in America; their position and
extension over such a great continent, and their
fundamental constitution that nine States must concur
to war, show that nine of these States never can agree
in any foreign war, or any other but for self-defense,
if they should ever become powerful.
But in this case, however disagreeable a prospect
it may open to Americans, Europe has an everlasting
warranty against their becoming dangerous to her,
in the nature of men, the nature of her governments
and their position towards one another.
All these circumstances serve to show, and the people
of England begin to be sensible of it, that Europe will never
suffer them to regain their domination and monopoly,
even if the English were able to extort a forced submission.
In this situation then the only honorable and advantageous
course for England is to make peace and open commerce
with America, in perfect consistency
with her independence and her alliances.
The people of England cannot be said to furnish subsidies
without murmuring; for it is certain there never was so
much murmuring and such radical discontent in that nation
or any other, but at the eve of a revolution.
I very cheerfully agree with your Excellency in opinion,
that the court of Spain has sagacity enough to penetrate
and to defeat the deceitful designs of the English,
and am not under other apprehensions from thence
than that the report of a negotiation with Spain,
will leave some impressions in America,
where I believe the English ministry chiefly intend it.
I have already said that from the present British ministry
I expect no peace.
It is for the nation, and for the change of the ministry
as a step towards peace that I thought it might have
some effect to make the communication,
and to satisfy these people in America,
who without the most distant thought of departing
from their independence or their alliances wish still
to take every reasonable measure towards peace.
Your Excellency’s letter will convince them that
my apprehensions were wrong, and your advice will
undoubtedly be followed, as it ought to be,
for they cannot promise themselves any advantage from the
communication equivalent to the inconveniency, of taking
a measure of the kind, which ought not to be done but in
concert, against the opinion of the ministry of France.14
On July 27 Adams removed Quincy and Charles from Passy and took them to Holland.
On July 29 Vergennes notified Adams that he was ending communication with him,
and he would deal only with Benjamin Franklin.
Vergennes sent his correspondence with Adams to Franklin
who sent that to Congress with his comments.
Adams settled in Amsterdam in August,
and on the 17th he wrote this to Franklin:
I never was more amused with political Speculations,
than Since my Arrival in this country.
Everyone 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
and an ambitious military and naval Power,
and consequently 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 they think the Connection
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
Connection with America is a trifling Consideration to Spain?
To the fifth, that America will not make manufactures
enough for her own Consumption, these 1000 years.
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, 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 grow up again, with Trees and Bushes,
and to become again the Habitations of Bears and Indians,
forbidding all navigation to that
quarter of the globe 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.15
On September 16 Francis Dana arrived from Paris and told Adams
that Congress gave him the authority to negotiate a loan from the Dutch.
Adams had Quincy and Charles enrolled in a Latin school in Amsterdam.
John Adams began learning Dutch.
In October he learned Henry Laurens had been captured by a British warship
and that he was imprisoned in the Tower of London in solitary confinement.
Laurens had thrown a sack of secret papers in the sea,
but the British had retrieved them.
The British had conquered Charleston, South Carolina and defeated Americans
led by General Horatio Gates at Camden, killing nearly 1,000 and capturing 1,000.
John Adams worked on getting the Dutch to accept American independence.
Charles W. F. Dumas was a friend of Franklin and a Dutch radical.
He began working as a translator for Adams who got his Massachusetts
Constitution translated by John Luaz of Leyden and published in his Gazette de Leyde.
The government at The Hague would not talk to Adams,
and so he stayed in Amsterdam where there was more money and political power.
John Adams in October wrote 26 “Replies to Hendrik Calkoen,”
a prominent lawyer in Amsterdam.
In December the British ambassador Joseph Yorke began threatening
the Dutch who did not want to be in a war.
For five months Dutch officials refused to meet with Adams.
On December 20 Britain declared war against Holland.
Notes
1. John Adams by David McCullough, p. 186.
2. John Adams Revolutionary Writings 1775-1783, p. 163-165.
3. Ibid., p. 249-255.
4. Ibid., p. 276.
5. John Adams by David McCullough, p. 226.
6. John Adams Revolutionary Writings 1775-1783, p. 287-288.
7. Ibid., p. 289-290.
8. Ibid., p. 290-293.
9. Ibid., p. 293-294.
10. From John Adams to the President of Congress, No. 48, 18 April 1780 (online).
11. John Adams Revolutionary Writings 1775-1783, p. 300.
12. Ibid., p. 300-302.
13. Ibid., p. 308, 310.
14. The Works of John Adams: Second President of the United States, Volume 1
by Charles Francis Adams, p. 322-327.
15. John Adams Revolutionary Writings 1775-1783, p. 387-389.
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