On 5 January 1794 John Quincy Adams wrote in a letter to his father,
I cannot write for the common purposes of ambition.
I cannot wish to be the rival of any
candidate for public office of any kind.
My first and certainly at present my only object is
to run with honor and reputation the career of my
profession, and whenever I have joined in the public
discussion of political questions, it has certainly been
from motives more patriotic than personal.
My country is entitled to my services however
small their value may be, and if she will but
approve, I shall not ask her to reward them.
The state of our public affairs assumes
an appearance, not only critical, but alarming.
Yet I cannot think our greatest danger to be
apprehended from external enemies.
They may distress us,
but we can be ruined only by ourselves.
We shall soon have no friends on this side Heaven,
and we shall have none but enemies there,
unless we heal in some measure our internal divisions.
To conciliate and unite appears to me
at the present moment more than ever,
the interest and duty of every American.
With respect to Genêt and his frenzies,
the object is in some measure accomplished.
But the prime agent to produce
this effect has been his own folly.
I wish that the wisdom of others may extend
the principle of reconciliation to the other
important interests of the Country.1
Thomas Jefferson had resigned as Secretary of State in January 1793.
John Adams learned that President Washington was considering
his son John Quincy as the minister at The Hague.
Edmund Randolph became Secretary of State,
and on 30 May 1794 President Washington sent this
Commission to the Netherlands to John Quincy Adams:
Reposing especial trust and confidence in your integrity,
prudence, and ability, I have nominated, and by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, do appoint you the
said John Quincy Adams Minister Resident for the United
States of America with their High Mightinesses the States
General of the United Netherlands, authorizing you hereby
to do and perform all such matters and things as to the
said place or office does pertain, or as may be duly
given you in charge hereafter, and the said office
to hold and exercise during the pleasure of the
President of the United States for the time being.2
John Quincy Adams on June 3, 5 and 8 wrote in his diary:
On the 3rd day of June 1794 when I returned to my
lodgings at the close of the evening, upon opening a letter
from my father, which I had just before taken from the
Post-office I found it contained the information that
Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State of the United States,
had on the morning of the day when the letter was dated,
called on the writer and told him that the President of the
United States had determined to nominate me to go to
The Hague as Resident Minister from the United States.
This intelligence was very unexpected and indeed surprising.
I had laid down as a principle that I never would solicit
for any public Office whatever, and from this determination
no necessity has hitherto compelled me to swerve.
From the principles of the same nature, which
my father has always rigidly observed, I knew that
no influence, nor even a request of any kind from him,
could have occasioned this intention of the President.
And yet I was very sensible that neither my years,
my experience, my reputation, nor my talents
could entitle me to an office of so much responsibility.
It is, however, of no service to
indulge conjecture upon the subject.
On the 5th I received further letters from my father,
informing me that the nomination had been made
and had received the advice and consent
of the Senate without a dissenting voice.
On the Sunday following, the 8th, my father arrived
at Quincy from Philadelphia, and on Tuesday the 10th
I went from Boston to Quincy to see him.
I found that my nomination had been as unexpected
to him as to myself, and that he had never uttered a
word upon which a wish on his part could be presumed
that a public office should be conferred upon me.
His opinion upon the subject agreed with my own;
but his satisfaction at the appointment
is much greater than mine.3
On 12 June 1794 the Secretary of State Edmund Randolph directed young Adams
to go to Philadelphia, and on July 10 he introduced Adams to President Washington.
Instructions would be sent by his Ministers.
Adams began reading the six volumes his father had written
when he was negotiating in Europe.
The President invited him to join a smoking ceremony with
sixteen Chickasaws who were concerned about the Cherokees.
Washington said that the Chickasaws had always been “sincere and faithful friends.”
Adams dined with General Knox.
Young Adams was confirmed, and he went to Philadelphia
to get his instructions from Edmund Randolph on July 10.
Here is what Adams wrote in his diary for July 10 and 11:
10th. I waited on Mr. Randolph, who immediately
accompanied me and introduced me
to the President of the United States.
He said little or nothing to me upon the subject
of the business on which I am to be sent.
All his directions and intentions on this head
I am to receive through the medium of his Ministers.
I dined with him, General and Mrs. Knox.
11th. The day on which I entered upon the
twenty-eighth year of my age,
I received my commission from the Secretary of State.
At the same time I began the reading of
six large folio volumes containing the dispatches
from my father during his negotiations in Europe.
By the invitation of the President I attended the reception he
gave to Piomingo and a number of other Chickasaw Indians.
Five Chiefs, seven Warriors, four boys
and an interpreter constituted the company.4
On July 12 he ate with the British Minister Plenipotentiary George Hammond.
On July 29 Edmund Randolph in Philadelphia sent instructions to
John Quincy Adams that included a treaty negotiated by John Adams in 1782.
Thomas Adams agreed to go to Europe as secretary for his brother John Quincy.
They sailed on the small Alfred on September 17 and reached England on October 15.
Adams saw some plays in London, and in October he met
with John Jay and the United States Minister Thomas Pinckney.
John Jay was in London working on a treaty of commerce with the British.
John Quincy Adams met with Jay and offered his ideas to him on
21 and 22 October 1794, and he described his meetings in his diary.
21st. Breakfasted with Mr. Jay.
Mr. Pinckney and Mr. William Vaughan were there.
We afterwards proceeded in the consideration
of the projected Treaty till 3, but did not finish
and are to renew the subject tomorrow.
We returned and dined with Mr. Jay and passed an hour
in very agreeable conversation after dinner with him.
22nd. We passed this forenoon like the two former,
and at length got through the discussion of the Treaty.
It is far from being satisfactory to those gentlemen;
it is much below the standard which I think would be
advantageous to the country; but with some alterations
which are marked down, and to which it seems
there is a probability they will consent; it is in the
opinion of the two plenipotentiaries, preferable to a war.
And when Mr. Jay asked me my opinion,
I answered that I could only acquiesce in that idea.
There are three points of view in which
this instrument may be considered.
As it respects the satisfaction to be received by the
United States; as it relates to the satisfaction to made;
and as a permanent treaty of Commerce.
In the first place, the satisfaction proposed to be made
to the United States for the recent depredations upon
her commerce, the principal object of Mr. Jay’s Mission.
It is provided for in as ample a manner as we could expect.
That complete indemnification will be made to every
individual sufferer, I fear, is impossible; but as the evil is
done and cannot be recalled, I know not well how we could
require more than the stipulations of this treaty contain.
The delivery of the posts is protracted to a more distant
period than would be desirable; but the compensation
made for the past and the future detention of them
will, I think, be a sufficient equivalent.
The commerce with their West India Islands,
partially opened to us, will be of great importance,
and indemnify us for the deprivation of the fur trade
since the Treaty of peace, as well as for the
negroes carried away contrary to the engagement
of the Treaty, at least as far as it respects the nation.
As to the satisfaction we are to make,
I think it is no more than in justice is due from us.
The indemnity promised to British subjects for their losses
resulting from the non-compliance with the Treaty on our
part, is to be settled in the same manner with that which
our citizens are to receive, and in fact is to depend upon
the fulfillment of their engagement to deliver the posts.
The Article which provides against the future confiscation
of debts and of property in the funds is useful,
because it is honest.
If its operation should turn out more advantageous to them,
it will be more honorable to us; and I never can object to
entering formally into an obligation to do that which,
upon every virtuous principle, ought to be done without it.
As a Treaty of Commerce, this Treaty will indeed
be of little use to us—and we never shall obtain
anything more favorable, so long as the principles of the
Navigation Act are so obstinately adhered to in this country.
This system is so much a favorite with the nation,
that no Minister would dare depart from it.
Indeed I have no idea that we shall ever obtain
by compact a better footing for our Commerce
with this country than that on which it now stands.
And therefore the shortness of time limited for the operation
of this part of the compact is, I think, beneficial to us.
The Article proposed by Lord Loughborough, the
Chancellor, is certainly extremely liberal; although Mr. Jay
thinks it best to leave it as a subject for future consideration.
It is, that in either country, the subjects or citizens of the
other shall be exempted from all the disabilities of alienage.
Such an Article would certainly tend to promote the friendly
intercourse between the Nations, and I do not know that
it could produce any material inconvenience to either.
But it would be necessary to have an Act of Parliament
to confirm the stipulation here, which his Lordship says,
may be obtained without difficulty.
A more material obstacle arises from the Constitution
of the United States with one clause of which
such an Article would certainly militate.
This nobleman, who during the American contest
was so conspicuous in his opposition to our principles
and pretensions by the name of Wedderburn, has
assured Mr. Jay that at present, that controversy
having been once determined and the point of
separation settled, his dispositions are perfectly
friendly towards America; that he thinks it for the
interest of both countries to assimilate and draw together
as much as possible; and that his sincere wishes are
to facilitate the most liberal and amicable intercourse.
The proposition which I have mentioned and several
others of inferior importance but equal liberality, seem to
prove that his assurances are not disingenuous or false.
And I think the intention of every man, who aims at
levelling the barriers which perpetuate the unnecessary
separation of Nations, and widen the distance between
man and man, is at least deserving of applause.5
Adams began writing letters on the 24th,
and on 28 October 1794 he wrote in his diary:
I called early this morning upon Mr. Jay.
In the first place, having received no answer to a letter
I wrote the American bankers at Amsterdam on my arrival,
for a draft to give me a pecuniary supply here, I found
myself rather short in the necessary article of cash.
I knew of no person upon whom I could more
confidently venture to call than Mr. Jay,
and found myself not disappointed in my idea.
He very readily gave me the draft I requested
and offered to extend his goodness.
I thought best, however, to take only a supply
for my immediate occasion, feeling obliged to him
for this additional instance of his friendship.
I then requested him to favor me
with his advice respecting the conduct which
in my public character it would be proper to hold
during the crisis in which that country now stands.
He was equally indulgent on that head,
and I believe I shall derive much benefit from his counsel.
He said that I should stand in a situation extremely delicate;
that the parties which so unhappily divide that country,
to which I am sent, might very possibly press me hard
on either side to show some preference or partiality;
that I ought very cautiously to avoid it, and take no part
whatever in their internal dissensions; that as to possible
revolution in Government to which they are now
particularly exposed, in case an essential change
should take place, the operation of my functions
would cease of course, and it would not be advisable
for me, upon any terms whatever, to do business
with any new power that might arise, until I should
receive instructions upon the subject; and in the meantime,
I might write as soon as possible for eventual instructions;
that if the French should obtain complete possession
of Holland, and the Government of the country be
actually dissolved, my best way will be to stay there,
if I can with any possible convenience;
but if I should be under necessity of quitting the country,
it will be more proper for me to retire to Hamburg,
as a neutral city, than to come to England,
or go to France, which might give occasion for censure,
or at least for observations that would be unpleasant.
And if the conquest should be so thoroughly completed
as to extinguish the independence of the Nation itself,
I may return home, rather than wait
any great length of time for the regular recall.6
British ships had been seizing American sailors, and Washington
decided to send John Jay to negotiate a treaty with the British.
John Quincy Adams studied the treaty they made,
and he realized it would not be popular.
The Adams brothers arrived at The Hague on October 31.
When Quincy Adams presented his credentials, the Dutch informed him
they would not accept them in English, and he translated them into French.
Adams wrote six reports to Secretary of State Edmund Randolph in November
and two in December included these paragraphs in this one on 2 November 1794:
Mr. Fagel is gone to London from hence upon a mission,
the purpose of which is said to be to demonstrate to the
British Ministry the absolute necessity of negotiating a
peace, and to give them notice that unless they will join in it,
the Hollanders must attempt it separately.
On the other hand Lord Spencer and Mr. Grenville
have returned from Vienna, having as is said totally
failed in the object of their mission, which was to
prevail upon the Emperor to continue the war with
vigor for the recovery of his own dominions, and to offer
him a subsidy of five millions sterling for the purpose.
I suppose all this to be conjectural, for the object
of those negotiations in both instances is not public.
What will not admit of any doubt is, that the allies,
as is usual among partners that play a losing game,
are dissatisfied with one another; nor is there
any present appearance that their armies will
cooperate with any sort of cordiality the ensuing
season in case the war should continue.
Five of the Provinces here have declared for negotiating
a peace separately; the other two no doubt will follow.
But what kind of peace can they expect to obtain
from France under the present circumstances?
The Patriotic party has no center of union;
they dare have but little communication together,
and I apprehend there is no plan for their operations
concerted by any considerable number of them.
From the few observations I have been able to make
hitherto I imagine they have no desire of peace at present.
Their animosity against the Stadtholder and the Regencies
is so great, that they would rather submit to the French
as conquerors, than make peace with them as friends
by the means of their present government.
The inveteracy of the parties against each other
is even greater than I expected, and if a revolution
of the ruling power should take place, it is to be feared
that humanity will suffer severely under the operation.
The expectation of the Patriots is, that if the French should
succeed, their private property will be respected.
Many of them suppose no doubt that a discrimination will be
made between them and the adverse party, and as France
declared war only against the Stadtholder and his adherents,
the nation will fraternize with all those who were before that
time and have continued to be their implacable enemies.
Private property has indeed hitherto been left untouched
by the French in the places which they have conquered,
and the only complaint of the people who have submitted
to them has been the compulsive circulation of assignats
in payment for whatever they purchase.
Should this system be pursued, and the conquest of the
country be completed, a total revolution of the government
and even of the Constitution here seems to be inevitable.
But whether the Provinces will be annexed to the
French Republic or left to form a new government
for themselves, to be in alliance with France,
no person here appears to have formed
an opinion whereupon to found a rational expectation.
As this event might place me in a very embarrassing
situation, I am anxiously desirous of receiving eventual
instructions to regulate my conduct in either of the cases
which have got so far within the limits of probability.7
Adams wrote letters to Secretary of State Edmund Randolph
that describe his activities on November 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11.
On November 7 he wrote,
Spain has also sent a minister to Paris to negotiate
a peace, and two ministers on the part of the Empire
are employed for the same purpose, one in Switzerland,
and the other is said to be now at Paris.
It seems to be an opinion prevalent here, as well as in
England, which I mentioned in my first letter from thence,
that the French Republic will be disposed to grant
moderate terms to all the allies except Great Britain,
and as the system of moderation appears to be
obtaining increasing ascendancy in the National
Convention and throughout the Republic, the
probability that England and France will be alone engaged
at the opening of the ensuing campaign daily strengthens.
As to this country it is well known to you, Sir,
how close a political connection has been
maintained between its government and that of
Great Britain since the Revolution here in the year 1787.
But a connection still closer has subsisted with Prussia,
which is cemented by the ties of blood between
the consorts of the Stadtholder and of the hereditary
Prince of Orange and the King of Prussia,
the former being his sister and the latter his daughter.
Hitherto the British and Prussian influence here
had been exerted in perfect union, but after
this peace made by Prussia I think it is impossible
they should long continue to harmonize.
The Court of St. James will no doubt be very much
dissatisfied with that of Berlin, for making this peace,
and a coolness between them must I think ensue.
The Prussian influence here must be favorable
to peace between this Republic and France,
to which Great Britain cannot certainly consent
But in the present situation of things
in this country, peace had become an object
of urgent necessity to the governing power here.
They imagine and perhaps not without foundation,
that their existence depends upon their obtaining it.
And for the very same reason
the Patriots do not appear desirous for peace at all.
They had rather submit to an external enemy
than bear a yoke, in their minds more intolerable,
of what they call oppression.
I do not give this sentiment as that of the Patriotic party,
who are far, very far from being united in their own politics.
I cannot even pretend to say how extensive this temper
may be, but from my observations hitherto, I cannot doubt
but that numbers here would rather see the conquest of
their country completed by the French, than a peace made
by them with the government now established here.
If therefore the French Republic will consent to
terms of accommodation with the Stadtholder and
the States General, upon condition that they shall
abandon their alliance with Great Britain, the personal
interest of the House of Orange and of the members of the
States will dictate to them an acquiescence in the measure.
The continuance of the war threatens immediate and total
destruction to them, and it is not in the power of their ally,
now they are abandoned by Prussia and are likely
to be deserted by the Empire to defend them.
Example is epidemical among nations, no less than
among individuals, and in this instance the court
of Berlin will think itself authorized by the precedent.8
There is a break in his Memoirs that resume on 1 January 1795.
On that day Adams met leaders of the government.
He went to Amsterdam on January 18 and began writing about their government.
On the 20th he wrote that it was “tranquil”
as French soldiers entered the city that afternoon.
He met with various people.
On January 22 Adams wrote in his diary that they learned that the United States
and Great Britain had concluded a Treaty of Commerce negotiated by John Jay.
Many of the Dutch considered England their enemy.
Adams wrote,
They said, however, that America, not having a Navy
sufficient to protect her commerce against Britain, and
having no possessions of that power near them, which
she could attack by land, was right in maintaining peace.
They acquiesced in the observation of Mr. Bourne,
that this peace was even for the interest of France,
because it enabled us to supply her with provisions
and other necessary articles, which,
in case we were at war, could not be done.
They spoke of Mr. Monroe’s reception
by the National Convention.
“Parbleu,” said one, “it was a scène attendrissante.”
It was “une des plus fameusese séances” of the Convention.
There were more than ten thousand persons present.9
When asked if he had been to France,
Adams told them that he had been educated there.
On January 31 Adams returned to The Hague.
He continued to send reports to Secretary of State
Randolph in the first six months of 1795.
On February 4 he met Madame Palm Daelders who called D’Alembert
and Diderot
“good company,” and Adams wrote they were “men of genius and learning.”
Adams wrote about an Assembly in which she said,
Condorcet made a report to the Assembly, appropriating
forty-two millions to public education for boys.
I was sent with a deputation from my section to demand
that the same advantages should be extended to her sex.
Condorcet had not noticed them
had not applied a denier to them.
I delivered my address.
I have a copy of it—you shall see it.
But I am sorry I have it not about me now.
We obtained, however, what
we demanded from the Assembly.
It was I that obtained an application of public expenses
for the education of girls, as well as boys.
I had the rights of Citoyenne granted me
in three different places where I had never been.
At Creil they sent me a very solemn deputation with
a medal which I have here (and showed me the medal).
“For eighteen months I never missed
a session of the Assembly.
A great many of the members did not like it.
One of them asked me once before several others,
what good there would be in giving an education to women.
‘Why,’ said I, ‘in such cases, if a woman should have
a fool of a husband, in such an office, for instance,
as you hold, she could direct him how to conduct himself’—
judge how they laughed at him.10
On February 5 Adams wrote how he visited citizen Paulus who was President
of the Assembly of Provisional Representatives of the People of Holland,
and he remembered his father, John Adams.
On the 6th Adams wrote that the Dutch had five Boards of Admiralty
in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Zealand, North Holland, and Friesland.
Adams received a letter from James Monroe on February 10.
Adams declined to join a patriotic society.
On the 16th he dined with three French generals and with Dutch generals.
The next day he noted that the King of Prussia’s army was unable to invade
Paris or Warsaw, and the Austrian Emperor returned to Vienna with less men.
The Duke of York returned to London with few laurels.
The Memoirs editor noted that the diary of John Quincy Adams
became continuous from 1 March 1795 to 31 December 1802.
On 8 March 1795 he wrote:
And ever since the marriage of William the Second
with a daughter of Charles the First of England,
the House of Orange has derived its external support
principally from the alliance of Great Britain.
The attention of the other party has therefore necessarily
turned to the rival power of France, and from the days
of John De Witt to the present, the Republicans
have always attached themselves to that country.
Cerisier was a Frenchman born
and an ardent Republican in principle.
The heroes of his history therefore are Barneveldt,
the De Witts, De Ruyter, and all the Chiefs who have
been the most distinguished antagonists of the Stadtholders;
while at the same time, though he values himself
much upon his impartiality, he appears to pay
a reluctant tribute to the merits of the Princes,
and to display with a peculiar satisfaction their
manifold faults, their vices, and their crimes.
Barneveldt and the De Witts were undoubtedly
the martyrs of liberty and the victims of despotism.
Yet even at this day the Orange faction do not render
justice to their memory; and it is not two months
since I heard a Dutchman of understanding,
versed in the history of his country, affirm that
the judgment of Barneveldt, to be sure,
was not perfectly reconcilable to the forms of justice,
but that he really deserved his fate.
Such is the creed of courtiers!11
On March 12 Adams wrote this about the Chargé-d’affaires from Prussia:
12th. Mr. Bielfeld called on me this morning,
and I took a walk with him round the town.
Conversation with him upon a variety of subjects,
principally political speculation.
We talked much of the rights of man,
the origin and foundation of human society,
and the proper principles of Government.
He says that in his opinion no consideration
whatever can in any case justify a violation of truth.
I told him that such a sentiment was rather
extraordinary coming from a diplomatic man.
He declared his determination never to depart from it.
We discussed the theory of
human rights and of Government.
We soon concluded that aristocracy, feudality, nobility, could
not be reconciled with a Government founded upon rights.
But whether man is so constructed as to be capable of
living in society upon any plan of government clearly
deducible from a theory of rights was then a question,
which we debated until we found our walk at an end.12
Adams wrote on 15 March 1795,
France and Portugal are at war.
Yet in consequence of the generous system pursued
by the French from the time of their arrival here,
D’Araujo has never been molested, and between these
representatives of nations in actual hostility the most perfect
civility and good humor was observed on this occasion.
D’Araujo evidently was desirous of getting acquainted
with the Frenchmen, of engaging them in conversation,
and of giving them a favorable opinion of
himself by a discovery of his knowledge
and attachment to the arts and sciences.
Perhaps he wants to obtain the means of
getting on foot a negotiation for peace
between his country and Spain with France.13
The powerful French imposed a peace treaty on the Dutch on 16 May 1795.
On that day John Quincy Adams in a letter to his mother Abigail wrote,
Since I wrote you last (April 25)
nothing very material has taken place here.
We are very quiet very secure, and in danger
of nothing that I know of but hunger.
The scarcity of provisions begins to be very
alarming here, and it is already severely felt
in almost every part of Europe.
In some places it amounts to an absolute famine.
Two new members of the French National Convention,
and of the Committee of Public Safety, Rewbell and Syeyes
arrived here a few days since and are negotiating
with a deputation from the States General.
They are both characters of note,
but the latter is particularly famous.
He appears to be between 40 and 50 years of age,
middling stature, spare person, pale countenance,
strong features, and bald head; dress simple but neat;
manners cool, approaching to the asperate.
A single interview of a quarter of an hour, would not
warrant any more particular characteristic observations.
The object of this mission is supposed to be important,
from the choice of the members.
Syeyes was President of the National Convention,
when he was chosen for this errand and sat out upon it.
France is far from being entirely tranquil.
I have repeatedly given you my ideas relative to
the practical moderation to be expected from thence.
The last accounts contain details of the execution of
Fouquier Tinville, and of fifteen Judges and Jurors of
Robespierre’s Revolutionary tribunal, condemned
by the Judges and Jurors of a succeeding Revolutionary
tribunal, to whom one of the present sufferers
upon hearing his sentence, foretold, that
their turn also would very speedily come.
At Lyons on the 4th: of this month the people,
forced the prisons and massacred
the persons detained to the number of 60 or 70.
These severities and cruelties are the reaction of the
Revolution, and although afflictive to all sentiments of
humanity, seem to lose some of their horrors in the
consideration that they are exercised upon the people
who were the first examples & instruments of the murders
without number with and without legal forms, which
proved during so long a time the desolation of France.
On the other hand, fairer prospects rise from the complete
pacification of the Vendee, said to be at length effected;
from the Prussian Peace, negotiated at Basle, and signed
on the part of France by your old acquaintance Barthelemi,
and from the increasing probability of a general Peace,
or at least with the exception of Great Britain alone.
I have just got letters from my brother Charles
of March 10.6 and New York papers from whence
it appears that the Treaty signed by Mr. Jay had
at length arrived, and that the Senate were to meet
in June to determine upon the point of Ratification.
I am apprehensive it will occasion a tour to Philadelphia
in June, which will not be very pleasant to my father, as it
will call him at a busy time from the pleasures of his farm.
I rejoice to hear that the next Senate will be so
well composed; a little wisdom, and a little moderation
is all we want to secure a continuance of the blessings,
of which faction, intrigue, private ambition, and desperate
fortunes have concurred in exertions to deprive us.
The Government of the United States need not
even appeal to the judgment of posterity,
whose benedictions will infallibly follow those
measures which were the most opposed.
The voice of all Europe already pronounces their
justification; the nations which have been grappling
together with the purpose of mutual destruction,
feeble, exhausted, and almost starving,
detest on all sides the frantic War they have been waging;
those that have had the wisdom to maintain a neutrality
have reason more than ever to applaud their policy,
and some of them may thank the United States
for the example from which it was pursued.14
John Quincy Adams maintained neutrality during the conflict.
On August 25 the new Secretary of State Timothy Pickering sent
Adams instructions, and they did not reach The Hague until October 19.
The Washington administration decided to send J. Q. Adams
as a special envoy
to England to work on the ratifications of the Jay Treaty,
and he was to leave by October 20.
On 31 October 1795 from Helvoetsluys he wrote this long letter to his father:
I have been detained about ten days in this place, waiting
for a wind, and am very like to be detained as many more;
the westerly winds prevailing in the channel at this Season
of the year almost without intermission.
Since my arrival here, I have received your favor of
August 25 transmitted to me by my Brother, who remains at
the Hague, with the care of our affairs during my absence.—
Independent of the pleasure which a letter from you must
always afford me, I cannot express the happiness it gives
me, to have the repeated testimonials of your approbation,
and the assurance that my performance of
my duties here has been acceptable.
For the force of expressions, used especially
in your last Letter I endeavor to make the
allowance which I feel to be necessary.
As evidence of your kindness and indulgence,
it is gratifying in the highest degree
But if the opinions which you mention as being
entertained of my correspondence, have not received
a very high coloring from parental affection, they are
such as would give me still more anxiety than delight.
Undeserved estimation is still more dangerous than flattery
and may be much more pernicious because it must be the
result of error: A baseless reputation is one of the things
on earth that I should most fervently deprecate, and
I hope you will not think it ridiculous, if I assure you,
that to find myself so much over-rated, by judgment so
respectable would be to me a subject of serious alarm.
For your approbation, for that of the Executive Ministers
with whom my correspondence is maintained, I can
never cease to be solicitous, but I am equally desirous,
that not only the expression of their opinions,
but even the opinions themselves, may be
confined to simple approbation; that the former may
not extend to applause, nor the latter to admiration.
These observations, with which my mind has long
labored, but which I have not hitherto ventured to
communicate even in the confidence of filial affection and
gratitude, may perhaps be rendered more excusable at the
present moment, when the orders in consequence of which
I am now at this place have been most recently received.
Although the business upon which I am now employed is
doubtless, the simple execution of orders, in which there
will be little or no discretion admissible, and although the
circumstances of local proximity and convenience for
expedition, afforded the preponderant inducements for
commanding my services on this occasion, yet it naturally
presents itself to my mind, as an indication not barely of a
continued but even of an increased confidence; I will add,
of a confidence more incommensurate with my talents or
merits, than was my original appointment to this Country.
Under these circumstances, I think it becomes less
improper to suggest my apprehensions to you,
and to guard myself against the dangers, which
may derive not only to myself but to my Country
from a possible opinion too favorable to me.
The service indeed upon which I am now ordered
has nothing to please in prospect.
To deal with a British Minister; to deal with him after
Mr. Jay, and with the furious persecution that this
Gentleman has suffered for this very transaction,
fresh before my eyes, and yet rumbling in my ears,
has nothing attractive to ambition or flattering to hope.
On one side the perspective is illiberal and captious
negotiation and probable failure, or such a success
as will be not much better; on the other is virulent
reproach and abuse to extend as usual, to my nearest
friends, and lavished more on them than on me.
That both these things will be combined for my
endurance in the course of the business is highly probable.
One or the other of them is inevitable; for the existence
of the first in its utmost extent, will be the only possible
protection against the certainty of the second.
These anticipations do not however
in themselves form my principal concern.
I know that success is seldom at human disposal,
and that censure if unmerited is an evil, not intolerable.
It is not therefore the responsibility of this agency
that I dread, but it is the magnitude of the trust,
and my own incompetency; the first being only
my personal concern; but the last involving the most
important interests and the welfare of my Country.
It is possible that the result of my present mission may
ascertain the termination of my residence in Europe,
independent of any act of my own will:
or perhaps it will serve to give a direction to it.
Your recommendation to me to return to America
at the close of a three years absence, unless removed to a
different scene, and raised to a higher trust will have, as all
advice from you, will always have great weight in my mind.
But I must assure you in the most unequivocal manner,
that I have not the shadow of a wish for a more elevated
rank than that in which I am now placed, and that,
of the only two American Missions in Europe, where
the higher character is employed, I consider the English
as an object of aversion and the French of indifference.
As there is no present prospect of vacancy
in either of those places, it will be unnecessary
for me to give you the numerous reasons upon
which my sentiments concerning them are formed.
A dislike both of the Government and National character,
perhaps amounting even to a prejudice, is the principal
ground of the first, and the unsettled revolutionary State of
the Country, is at least a counterbalance to any predilection
I might otherwise entertain in favor of the other.
Besides these considerations, if I had not collected a
sufficient portion of the “Stoic Spirit,” to dull the edge
of my ambition; if the vanity of rank, or the parade of
representation had in my eyes such charms as could
overpower my philosophy, I should at least teach my
desires a subordination to the sentiments of Justice;
at least command them to compare the merits
of their claims with those of others and be silent.
If diplomatic promotion in this course of duty be an
advantage or a reward, and the occasion should occur, for
bestowing it, the United States besides all their deserving
Citizens at home, have other Servants in Europe in the same
Station with me older in years, more versed in public affairs,
entitled by long and faithful service to the notice of public
recompense; and without a delirium of extravagance could
I expect advancement while they remain stationary?
without an arrogance of equal injustice
and absurdity could I wish it?
The situation at the Hague therefore, insignificant as it is
satisfies me with an employment, which without being
tedious or painful is adequate to my talents, and leaves
me leisure to pursue any course of studies that may
be recommended by its amusement or utility.
Indeed Sir, it is a situation, in itself much preferable to that
of eternal expectation in a lawyer’s office, for business
which when it comes is scarcely sufficient to give bread,
and procures one more curses than thanks.
I may be reduced once more to the necessity of going
through that trial, but as long as any other honest resource
is left me, the remembrance of that probation will suffice
me, and I shall not be willing to go through it again.
As I have known from the beginning your attachment
to the idea of my returning to the Bar, and as I have
never disguised to you the reluctance with which
I should do it, I think it necessary candidly to
acknowledge, that my feelings on this subject,
become daily more strongly confirmed.
I shall therefore always consider the bar as a resource,
but I shall certainly consider it as the last.—
As to affronts from my Countrymen, I am unwilling
to anticipate what I hope I shall never deserve.
But if destined to this mortification, I hope to be prepared
to sustain it, and shall endeavor to meet it with the Spirit
not barely of a Stoic, but of a Christian; not only with
the fortitude to bear, but with the Charity to forgive.
But situations like those here supposed require such
efforts of extraordinary Virtue, that from diffidence
of my own strength I hope not to be brought to the test.
With respect to neglect, I do not fear it, because
I am sure I shall never consider it as an evil.
It has always been my opinion that the notice of the
world is a thing to be commanded, but never solicited.
The trifling portion of it that I have hitherto enjoyed, has
come to me of its own accord unexpected, and I can safely
add undesired, though certainly received with pleasure.
Upon this point, I think it in my power to speak
with the more confidence, because I know
perfectly well what it is to be neglected.
I suffered it for three long years at my entrance into the
world, when its effect was to leave even my subsistence
dependent upon your kindness; and if I had not the
magnanimity to endure it altogether without complaint,
at least the idea never entered my head, of blaming
the public for not giving me more confidence.
I am ashamed of perceiving what a letter I have
here written upon the single subject of myself.
It will not however be uninteresting to parental kindness.
But as it could only bear the appearance of foolish
or affected Vanity to any less indulgent reader,
I request particularly that it may be seen
only by my mother and yourself.
I will therefore mingle nothing more worthy of other
perusal with it, but conclude with the usual assurance
of unalterable affection from your Son.15
John Adams wrote back on November 17 to his oldest son offering him much advice.
On 14 October 1795 Adams had received a letter dated August 14
from Secretary of State Randolph ordering him to go directly to London
to work on the ratification of the Jay Treaty of Commerce.
He had trouble finding a ship and did not get there until November 11
and worked with the Minister Thomas Pinckney.
Adams was able to meet with the Under Secretary of State Hammond on November 25.
Two days later Hammond introduced Adams to Foreign Secretary Lord Grenville.
The envoy James Monroe had joined Adams at the Hague a week after Adams arrived.
Monroe’s ideas were bolder, and he wanted to address
the Convention to protect the bond with France.
Quincy Adams met with the British undersecretary George Hammond
on November 25, and he said this to Hammond:
You should know that when I or any other American
diplomat speaks, it is for the whole people,
not just one political faction.
All American citizens are political equals.
Hammond asked,
Why do you not make common cause with us?
We are your best customer.
Adams replied,
Yes, but on your terms.
You take our raw materials at what you choose to pay
and charge us for your manufactured goods
at whatever price you choose to set.
All the specie the United States earns from its trade
with other countries is drained off into your coffers.16
Finally on December 4 Adams was able to converse
with Grenville for nearly three hours.
Adams wrote a letter of 15 pages to the Acting Secretary of State
Timothy Pickering on December 5 which concluded:
With respect to the pressing of seamen, it will
be observed in the newspapers that notice issued
yesterday from the Admiralty office, that directions have
been given not to press any more men regularly protected.
Whether these directions will meet with proper execution,
time alone will unfold.
I am in hopes of Mr. Pinckney’s return
within a few days; by Christmas at latest.
I expect it with anxiety, being ardently desirous
to resign into his hands a task to which I must take
the liberty of observing that I am altogether inadequate;
and a trust the extensive importance of which
could not be fully perceived at the time
when my orders to repair hither were transmitted.
From the foregoing account an opinion may be formed
how far the relative situation of the United States
and this country is still critical; and it would not
become me to suggest what measures the interests
and the security of the former may render advisable.
That the disposition here is candid, harmonious,
or sincere may be believed, if the amplest professions
are to be admitted for substantial proof.17
On December 9 young Adams wrote in his Memoirs about the Court
and his opportunity to meet privately with King George III:
After the Levee was over, I was introduced into the
private closet of the King by Lord Grenville, and presenting
my credential letter, said, “Sir, to testify to your Majesty
the sincerity of the United States of America in their
negotiations, their President has directed me to take the
necessary measures connected with the Ratifications of
the Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation
concluded between your Majesty and the United States.
He has authorized me to deliver to your Majesty this Letter,
and I ask your Majesty’s permission to add, on their part,
the assurance of the sincerity of their intentions.”
He then said, “To give you my answer, Sir,
I am very happy to have the assurances of their sincerity,
for without that, you know, there would be
no such thing as dealings among men.”
He afterwards asked to which of the States I belonged,
and on my answering, Massachusetts,
he turned to Lord Grenvile and said,
“All the Adamses belong to Massachusetts?”
To which Lord Grenville answered they did.
He enquired whether my father
was now Governor of Massachusetts.
I answered, “No, Sir;
he is Vice President of the United States.”
“Ay, said he, and he cannot hold
both offices at the same time?”
“No, Sir,”
He asked me where my father is now.
“At Philadelphia, Sir, I presume,
the Congress being now in session.”
“When do they meet?”
“The first week in December, Sir.
“And where did you come from last?”
“From Holland, Sir.”
“You have been employed there?”
“Yes, Sir, about a year.”
“Have you been employed before, and anywhere else?”
“No, Sir.”
I then withdrew.
Mr. Cottrell invited me to go and witness the ceremony of
an address presented by the Bishop and Clergy of London,
which was received upon the throne.
The Bishop read his address, to which a very gracious
answer was returned, and they all kissed his hand,
kneeling to obtain that honor.
As I was coming from the Palace with Mr. Cottrell,
he called for the American Minister’s servants, and
said that he had spoken to Lord Grenville, who said that,
in the Gazette which would mention my audience,
I might be styled Minister Resident, but without saying
whether it was to be added, to this Government or not.
Determined to see Hammond on this matter.
Resolved on the same account not to go to the
House of Commons this evening to hear the debates.
Hammond has intimated to me that I should have a place
under the galleries, as one of the foreign Ministers;
and as they seem to make a point of it, I am
determined to assume no privilege that shall imply
anything like an assent on my part to the principle.18
Adams wrote again in his diary on 11 December 1795:
11th. Mr. Deas breakfasted with me.
He said that what I had told him yesterday made him
think it necessary for him to notice a circumstance
that had occurred to him the day before, when he
had been to hear the debates in the House of Commons.
On his first attempting to go in under the gallery, as usual,
the Serjeant-at-arms told him he did not know whether
he should let him in, as he had received a note from the
Secretary of State’s office, informing him that another
Minister from America had arrived; that, however, after
some further explanations, he admitted him; that on going
into the House he found Hammond there and suspected
him of having given the hint to the Serjeant-at-arms.
He had now determined to take notice of the thing
and meant to write to Lord Grenville on the subject.
It looks so much like a plan to force upon me
the character of a Minister at this Court
that it gives me a real alarm.
Went, as I had determined, to see Mr. Hammond;
told him it was necessary there should be no
misunderstanding between us on this article; that I have not
the character of a Minister to this Court, and could not have.
I had only the orders and instructions of the
American Government to execute upon certain points.
To enable me to obviate a scruple of form, a credential
Letter to the King had been sent me, special in its nature,
and designating me under my real character.
“If this be not sufficient,” said I,
“let us stop here,—no harm is done.
But the thing with us is Constitutional; and were I
to assume the character of a Minister at this Court,
and act under it, I should not only be impeachable for it,
but it would be deceiving you not to tell you that
the United States would be bound by none of my acts.”
Hammond had just received Deas’s letter to
Lord Grenville on the affair that had happened
to him in the House of Commons.
It had put him quite in a rage.
“I know what made you come here, said he;
“one William Allen Deas.”
“No, indeed, said I, “you are mistaken.
That is by no means the occasion of my coming.”
“Well,” said he, “this matter shall be arranged
so that you may be sure no blame shall fall
on you or the American Government.”
“That is not the thing,” said I.
“My only wish is that neither the American Government
nor I should be misunderstood.
If there be a difference of opinion which must
prevent me from acting in this case, let us wait.
Mr. Pinckney will be here in a few days,
and it will be better to stay for his arrival
than make a question between the two Governments.”19
The Adams Memoirs continued on 13 January 1796:
January 13th, 1796. Attended the Levee.
Saw Mr. Morris there.
Heard of Mr. Pinckney’s arrival.
Mr. Hammond at the Levee too.
The King did not speak to me.
My reception at Court this day contrasted
completely with those on former occasions,
when I was to be cajoled into compliance.
I valued it much more highly; it flattered my pride
as much as the former fawning malice humbled it.
14th. Morning papers say that I took leave of the King
at the Levee yesterday, introduced by Lord Grenville,
and that I am upon my return home.
I suppose it is meant as a hint to me to go away.
I can certainly henceforth do no good here.
But I cannot well go without receiving
further orders from home.20
J. Q. Adams also had a conversation with King George III.
Thomas Pinckney returned to London in February 1796.
Quincy in early August learned that he had been appointed a minister plenipotentiary
to Portugal with his salary doubled by his new title to $9,000.
On 28 May 1796 President George Washington sent this brief message to the
United States Senate nominating John Quincy Adams as present Minister Resident
of the United States at the Hague and to be their Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon.
The entire Senate advised and consented to this nomination to Portugal.
Adams returned to The Hague, and his Memoirs resumed on 6 June 1796.
He completed his letter to the Secretary of State Timothy Pickering on June 15.
Adams went back to England and arrived on June 30 and wrote
that he decided to apply his life to business and study.
In the mornings he read Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, and in afternoons
he read English translations by Alexander Pope of Homer’s works
and Dryden’s version of Virgil’s Aeneid.
On his birthday on July 11 he wondered
if he was spending too much time in relaxation.
He read various English versions of Ovid’s Metamorphoses
and worked on his translation.
He also translated Tacitus and read a life of Agricola.
By September 4 he had completed his reading of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
The Patriotic Society invited him to a dinner on December 13.
In the United States elections from 4 November to 7 December in 1796
John Adams was elected President with 71 Electoral votes to 68 for Thomas Jefferson
who was elected Vice President.
Adams also won the popular vote over Jefferson 35,174 to 30,860.
John Quincy Adams in February 1797 wrote to Pickering urging
that William Vans Murray be made an envoy to France.
On February 20 President Washington sent this short letter
to John Adams about his oldest son:
I thank you for giving me the perusal of the enclosed.
The sentiments do honor to the head & heart of the writer;
and if my wishes would be of any avail, they should go to
you in a strong hope, that you will not withhold merited
promotion from Mr. John Adams because he is your son.
For without intending to compliment the father or the
mother, or to censure any others, I give it as my
decided opinion, that Mr. Adams is the most valuable
public character we have abroad; and that there
remains no doubt in my mind that he will prove
himself to be the ablest, of all our diplomatic Corps.
If he was now to be brought into that line, or into
any other public walk, I could not upon the principle
which has regulated my own conduct, disapprove
of the caution which is hinted at in the letter.
But he is already entered.
The public, more and more as he is known,
are appreciating his talents & worth;
and his country would sustain a loss if these were
to be checked by over delicacy on your part.21
On 20 May 1797 President John Adams sent this brief message to:
Gentlemen of the Senate:—
I nominate John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts,
to be their Minister Plenipotentiary from
the United States to the King of Prussia.22
On May 23 the United States Senate postponed consideration of this nomination,
and they continued to do so until they decided
there was no need to send a Minister to Prussia.
The Treaty with Prussia was debated, and it had agreed on these three principles:
1. Exemption from the operation of embargo
in the ports of each other, whether general or special.
2. Privateering on each side abolished.
3. Neutral vessels cover the property of enemies;
familiarly known under the phrase,
free ships, free goods.23
Adams found it difficult to follow the instructions.
On 4 March 1797 John Adams was inaugurated as the second
President of the United States, and Thomas Jefferson became Vice President.
Quincy received the news of his father’s election later.
On April 9 a letter from the Secretary of State informed him that he was recalled
and was commissioned as the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Portugal.
Another letter provided instructions for his mission.
On June 1 President John Adams appointed his son John Quincy Adams
to be the Minister Plenipotentiary to the King of Prussia.
On June 5 young Adams wrote in his Diary:
Passed the evening with Cutting, Mr. Vancouver,
and Marshall the younger, and Lee.
Mr. Vancouver’s brother has made the last voyage
round the world, which is soon to be published.
He himself is a traveler,
a man of information and understanding.
Cutting told us of Mr. Jefferson’s instructions
to the traveler Ledyard when he intended
to try the passing across from Kamschatka.
He was to carry nothing with him, no instruments, no books,
nothing that could possibly tempt the avidity of a savage.
But he was to keep the journal of his travels
by pricking it with thorns upon his skin.
He had scale of a foot marked out with Indian ink in inches
and lines upon his arm between the elbow and the wrist.
If he met any remarkable mountain or other object,
of which he wished to know the latitude, he was to cut him
a stick of three feet long, and in the same spot mark the
length of its shadow by the rising and setting sun,
and then by the point of intersection drawn from the
extremity of the two shadows, he would find the length of
the shadow at noon, whence the latitude might be collected.
If he came across a river and wished to measure its width,
he was to plant a stick at some station upon the bank,
then with another stick horizontally level his eye
at the opposite bank; after which, turning round
his stick and preserving it at the same angle,
take a sight with it at some object on the bank
where he stood and measure the distance,
which would of course give him that across the river.
Cutting was in ecstasies while he told all this.
Poor Ledyard was stopped on his travels at Tobolsk,
and afterwards died at Grand Cairo
on another journey to Abyssinia.
But had he pursued his northwest road, whatever benefit his
success might have procured to mankind, his journal upon
his skin would not, I think, have been worth much.24
On June 22 President Adams in a letter to his son John Quincy Adams wrote,
In short, what is to be the future system of Europe,
and how We can best preserve friendship with them all,
and be most useful to them all, are Speculations
and Inquiries worthy of your head and heart.25
After Murray was chosen to be the new minister to the Netherlands,
John Quincy Adams was free to leave Holland,
and his diary noted that he left The Hague on 31 June 1797.
After his father John Adams became President, he wrote to his son Quincy
that he was not to go to Portugal but to Prussia instead.
He also advised his son to use his “political telescope” to pay attention to
what was going on in Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark.
Adams wrote in his Memoirs in July these two entries:
London, July 18th.—As I was going out this morning
I met Mr. King, who delivered me letters from the
Secretary of State of 27th May and 1st June,
and from my father of 2nd June.
They direct me not to proceed to Lisbon, but wait here
for a commission and instructions to the Court of Berlin.
26th. At nine this morning I went, accompanied
by my brother, to Mr. Johnson’s, and thence to the Church
of the parish of All Hallows Barking, where I was
married to Louisa Catherine Johnson, the second daughter
of Joshua and Catherine Johnson, by Mr. Hewlett.26
John Quincy Adams wrote in a long letter to John Adams on 21 September 1797,
The French Revolution was commenced in the name
of the People, in their name all its horrors have been
palliated and excused, in their name the Guillotine
has mowed its thousands, and the grapeshot have
swept off their tens of thousands.
In their name, in that of their liberty, their equality, their
fraternity, have the sublime inventions of the noyades and
of the Republican nuptials shed a new gleam of light upon
the brilliant illumination of the eighteenth century.
For them, for their unlimited and unalienable
sovereignty have these deeds without a name
which make a humane mind ready to deny its
own nature and shrink from the name of Man,
been almost justified, always palliated, as the
unpleasant but necessary means for the
attainment of a glorious end—the supreme dominion of the
people exercised by a representative government.
They have got their representative government,
but even at the moment of establishing it,
they discovered their dread and jealousy of that very
people who had been the perpetual burden of their whoop.
They dared not go out of power at once, and contrary to
the tenor of their boasted constitution, forcibly continued
two-thirds of themselves in the legislative body, allowing
the people only the choice of one-third new members.
When the sovereign people resisted the provision and
insisted upon the exercise of their whole right, their
arguments were answered by cannon balls, and between
five and ten thousand of the sovereign people were
slaughtered in the very streets of Paris, as a propitiatory
sacrifice to the genius of the dying Convention.27
On 22 September 1797 Adams was given his instructions as the
minister plenipotentiary to Prussia, and the British lost his passport.
John Quincy Adams with his wife Louisa and his brother Thomas
as his secretary traveled on the Prussian merchant vessel Frans
and passed from Gravesend to Hamburg in eight days.
They left Hamburg on November 2.
Prussia’s Foreign Minister Count Finckenstein accepted the Adams credentials
that had been addressed to the father of the new king Frederick William III
whose reign began on November 16.
They began negotiating a new trade treaty.
John Quincy Adams and William Vans Murray informed President John Adams
that France’s Foreign Minister Talleyrand wanted a peace treaty with the United States.
The President chose two loyal Federalists Charles Cotesworth Pinckney,
who was at The Hague, and the Virginian John Marshall.
Adams chose Elbridge Gerry for his integrity despite Federalist objections.
Alexander Hamilton did most of the writing for their instructions
which called for replacing the 1778 treaty with France.
The United States Commissioners could ask for claims for ships the French had seized.
Talleyrand demanded they provide $250,000 in cash and loan France $12.8 million.
Pinckney responded, “No! Not even six pence!
We are unable to defend our commerce on the seas, but we will defend our shores.”28
John Quincy opposed abandoning the principle of free ships making free goods,
which had also been given up in the Jay Treaty with the British.
Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry began negotiating in Paris.
A coup d’état on September 4 gave the French Directory a hard line.
Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry presented their credentials
on October 8 and were told to wait.
On 15 January 1798 John Quincy Adams wrote to the United States Secretary of State
James McHenry with information that the French Council of 500 and the Council of Elders
had all agreed to approve a law proclaiming that a neutral flag would no longer
protect enemy property on ships with British products and lawful prizes.
Adams observed that this was proclaiming war.
John Quincy had started taking German lessons in 1798,
and he was reading works by Lessing, Schiller, and later Wieland’s Oberon.
He translated Gentz’s Origin and Principles of the American Revolution
Compared with the Origin and Principles of the French Revolution.
Then he read Immanuel Kant’s brilliant Project for a Perpetual Peace
which predicted that European governments would become democratic.
Murray informed John Quincy Adams of a major change in French foreign policy,
and in another letter to his father on 31 January 1798 from Berlin he wrote,
The experience of the last six years has abundantly
shown how impossible it is to keep us disconnected
with the affairs of Europe while we have such essential
mercantile connections with the great maritime States,
and the numerous injuries we have suffered alternately
from both parties amply prove how essential it is
to our interests to have other friends than either.
In every naval war it must be the interest of Britain and
of France to draw or to force us into it as parties, while it
must always be our unequivocal interest to remain neutral.
In the present war I am confident we have suffered
more for want of a free intercourse, communication
and concert with the neutral states in Europe, than would
discharge five times the expense of maintaining ministers
with them, and if we should finally be forced out of the
system which the government has had so much at heart
and compelled to engage in hostilities for our own defense,
it may be in some measure attributed to the neglect of
a good understanding with the nations which have had
an interest similar to ours, that is a neutral interest.29
John Quincy Adams was the primary advisor of President Adams
from 1798 to 1800 during the so-called “Quasi-War” which
was fought at sea between France and the United States.
John Quincy wrote that European empires in the New World would not last.
In a letter to William Vans Murray from Berlin on 20 March 1798 he wrote,
If it be a drawn game between France and Great Britain,
all the dangers now impending will continue
to threaten until the rivals begin again.
The battle between them must be for life or death.
Both cannot live together, and both
know full well this to be the truth.
Spain and Portugal you say will certainly fall,
of which I have with you very little doubt.
But it is not to me so clear that
their colonies will necessarily fall with them.
If they should for a time,
France cannot possibly keep them long.
She can do nothing with colonies.
Nothing can be more anti-colonial than her whole system
at this day—no slaves, no commerce, no property.
She may very easily conquer colonies,
but how can she possibly keep them?
Turgot, one of the fathers of the Revolution,
saw this so clearly more than twenty years ago,
that he wrote a long memorial to prove that all
the powers of Europe must lose their colonies, and
the sooner they reconciled themselves to it the better.
Upon this view of things speculation may be
founded with some degree of certainty.30
In April 1798 the French government demanded money from the
American peace commissioners, and they all refused to pay a bribe.
The others left while Gerry decided to stay to maintain communication to prevent a war.
President Adams resented the way the French had treated the
three American Commissioners, and he recalled them and asked for more defense.
Vice President Jefferson considered his message to Congress “insane.”
Adams allowed their dispatches to be published but instead of the names
of the French agents involved he used the letters W, X, Y, and Z.
This scandal was called the “XYZ Affair.”
In June 1798 President Adams promised,
I will never send another minister to France
without assurances that he will be received,
respected and honored as the representative
of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation.31
In the summer of 1798 Congress passed a war loan for an army,
and they authorized a Navy Department.
A thousand men marched to the President’s House
in Philadelphia to volunteer against the French.
Congress approved 80,000 militiamen on active duty.
George Washington wanted Alexander Hamilton to be second in command,
and Adams appointed him inspector general.
Federalists took advantage of this opportunity to push through their legislation.
John Quincy Adams wrote this letter to George Washington from Berlin on October 29:
I have the honor to enclose herewith, a letter from a
young Gentleman who bears your name, and who flatters
himself with being (though distantly) related to you.
He is by birth a Hollander, but of a family originally
English, which went over from England, and settled
in the United Netherlands, sometime near the
beginning of the present century.
At the commencement of the present War, he served
in the Dutch troops, and was for some months a prisoner
in France; but at the period of the Revolution, which
made his country an ally to France, he resigned his
Commission and is now desirous, if an opportunity of
service should present itself in America, to go there—
His superior officers several of whom are here bear
honorable testimony to his character and conduct—
His rank was that of an Ensign—He expects to spend the
Winter here, in the further pursuit of military knowledge—
From the favorable account I have had of him, I have not
hesitated to comply with his request in transmitting the
enclosed letter, and in promising to deliver to him such
answer as you may think proper to make to his application.
I am happy, in having this opportunity, to express my
warm and cordial participation in the joy, which all true
Americans have felt, upon finding again secured to our
Country, the benefit of your important services, by your
acceptance of the command of her armies.
However much to be regretted, is the occasion, which
has again summoned you from your beloved retirement,
there is every reason to hope, that the spirit of firmness
and dignity which your example has so powerfully
contributed to inspire, and maintain, will either obviate
the necessity of another struggle for our independence, or
once more carry us victoriously and gloriously through it.
I received in London, the Letter which you did me the
honor to write me, at Mount Vernon on the 25th of June
of the last year, and beg leave to offer you my grateful
thanks for the favorable sentiments, which you were
pleased to express in it relative to myself, and my
continuance in that line of public service, to which
I had the honor of being introduced by your choice;
a circumstance which I shall always cherish, as one
of the most flattering and honorable events of my life.
Renewing the most ardent wishes for your health
and happiness, I remain with perfect respect, Sir,
your very humble and obedient Servant.32
The Adams Administration then enacted their Alien Enemies Act and the Sedition Act.
These were opposed by Republicans as Jefferson and Madison
wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.
John Quincy Adams and his friend Murray gave secret dispatches for peace
to Quincy’s brother Thomas Adams who handed them
to his father in Philadelphia in January 1799.
President Adams was working with Federalists who wanted to preserve peace.
Moderate Federalists had been elected in 1798.
In the first week of May 1799 Adams wrote on
what he accomplished in work for a treaty with Prussia:
May 1st. Received from the Cabinet Ministry
their new project for a Treaty.
Busy with it most of the afternoon.
2nd. Busily employed all day in making out
a copy of the proposed Treaty.
3rd. Finished my copy of the Treaty.
6th. Called at half-past twelve upon Count Finkenstein,
and delivered him the copy of the Treaty
in both languages ready to be drawn up.
15th. Evening party at the Minister Arnim’s.
Spoke to the Count Haugwitz concerning
the affair of the Jew Bluch.
He told me he had made his report to the King
upon the subject of the Treaty, and that he
expressed his satisfaction that the business was
drawing so near to a conclusion agreeable on both parts.
July 9th. Received from the Cabinet Ministers a notification
to meet them on Thursday the 11th, at Count Finkenstein’s
to exchange the full powers and sign the Treaty.
The Austrian Chargé des Affaires told me he heard
I was negotiating a Treaty of Commerce here.
11th. I am this day thirty-two years old.
Went at eleven o’clock according to the notification
which I received from the Cabinet Ministry
to Count Finkenstein’s, where I found the
three Ministers assembled, and Mr. Renfuer,
a counsellor in the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The four copies of the Treaty, two in English and two
in French were ready, and we immediately proceeded to
exchange full powers, and then to sign and seal the Treaty.
I then took them all with me home to
examine them and ascertain their accuracy.
In the evening I carried back and left at
Count Finkenstein’s the copies which are to remain here.
15th. Very busily employed the whole day writing letters.
Evening at Bellevue.
Prince Ferdinand asked me how the King of England
looked when my father was first
presented to him as American Minister.
I said he assured him of his friendship for the United States.
“I should not much trust in such assurances,” said he.
I said we could trust in them as far as it was
the King’s interest to observe them.
“It was the King’s caprice,” said the Prince, “and
Lord North’s which occasioned the American Revolution.”
He has said the same thing to me before.
He hates most cordially the King of England—
I know not why.
17th. At about four this afternoon
I set out with Mrs. Adams, Epps, Whitcomb,
and André from Berlin.33
Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the five men in the French Directory
on 9 November 1799, and he restored diplomatic relations.
After losing half his army to a plague in Egypt, Napoleon became eager to sell Louisiana,
and he became friendly toward the United States.
John Quincy wrote 43 letters that he sent to his brother Thomas
so that he could take them to Philadelphia.
They would be published as Letters from Silesia.
Napoleon made Talleyrand foreign minister and directed him to make peace
with the American government using Washington’s policy of neutrality
and that was signed on 30 September 1800.
In May 1800 Federalists nominated John Adams for President again
and C. C. Pinckney for Vice President.
In the summer of 1800 John Quincy Adams, instead of in his Diaries,
he wrote to his brother Tom this criticism of Adam Smith and his Wealth of Nations:
It is possible, for I cannot dispute the principles of
Adam Smith, respecting the division of labor, that by
the separation of all these single operations, the same
quantity of industry, might produce a greater quantity of
worked materials, but it is very doubtful whether it would
produce a competent subsistence to so many individuals….
The single workman, is thus placed altogether
in the dependence of the great capitalist,
and must of course become his drudge.
Thus hundreds of men will be compelled to groan
and sweat under a weary life, for the sake of adding
thousands more to the thousands of one merchant.34
John Quincy Adams began traveling in Silesia in July 1800.
With his wife Louisa and child George he returned in September
to his parents’ home in Quincy, Massachusetts.
A Convention called the “Treaty of Mortefontaine” was signed
by the United States and France on September 30.
John Quincy from Berlin wrote this very long letter to his father,
President John Adams, on 25 November 1800:
Many months have passed since I received
a line from you, or from my dear mother.
From my brother Thomas I have no letter of a
later date than July, and from the department of
State I have but one dated since last February.—
Perhaps I am to impute the greater part of this
seeming oblivion of my American correspondents
to my own remissness during the last winter—
For six months however I have scarcely suffered
a week to pass without writing, and unless my
letters should have been unfortunate beyond the
common proportion of failures, many of them,
must before this have reached the United States.—
I have not written indeed directly to you since July,
but I suppose most of my letters to my brother, written
upon my tour into Silesia, have been perused by you,
and have given you frequent information of our situation.
I have therefore been obliged to depend upon the
accounts from America, contained in the public newspapers,
and the private intelligence of some Americans in Europe.—
All these concur in representing the state of parties and
the temper of the public mind in such a state, as to leave
scarce a doubt but that a change will take place at the
ensuing election, which will leave you at your own disposal,
and furnish one more example to the world, how the most
important services to the public, and a long, laborious life
anxiously, and successfully devoted to their welfare,
are rewarded in popular governments.
As I know, that from the earliest period of your political
life, you have always made up your account to meet
sooner or later such treatment in return for every sacrifice,
and every toil, I hope and confidently believe, that you
will be prepared to bear this event with calmness and
composure, if not with indifference—
That you will not suffer it to prey upon your mind,
or affect your health; nor even to think more
hardly of your Country than she deserves—
Her truest friends I am persuaded will more
keenly feel your removal from the head
of her administration than yourself.—
Your long settled and favorite pursuits, of literature and
of farming, will give you full employment and prevent
that craving void of the mind which is so apt to afflict
statesman out of place; which conjures up a spectre
to haunt them, or embitters them against their own
species in a degree that renders their own lives miserable.
In your retirement you will have not only the consolation
of a consciousness that you have discharged all the duties
of a virtuous citizen, but the genuine pleasure of reflecting,
that by the wisdom and firmness of your administration,
you left that very Country in safe and honorable peace,
which at the period of your entrance into office, was
involved in dangerous and complicated disputes with
more than one formidable foreign power.—
That without the smallest sacrifice of national honor and
dignity you have succeeded in settling a quarrel with France,
which under any other system of conduct than that which
you pursued, would at this moment have burst into a
most ruinous and fatal war, or could only be pacified
by disgraceful and burthensome humiliations.—
The merit of this system too, is so entirely and exclusively
your own, that we are told it was disapproved by almost all
the principal leaders of the party friendly to the Constitution
and the Union; the great supporters of your last election—
Nay, the general opinion is, that to this defection of your
friends, originating solely in your adherence to the system
you had adopted against their opinions must be ascribed
your removal from the chair at this time—
Indeed, my dear Sir, if this be the case, it is not
your fame or honor that will suffer by the result.—
The common and vulgar herd of statesmen, and warriors,
are so wont to promote on every occasion their private
and personal interest at the expense of their Country,
that it will be a great and glorious preeminence for you, to
have exhibited an example of the contrary; of a statesman
who made the sacrifice of his own interest and influence
to the real and unquestionable benefit of his Country.
I am fully convinced that the Gentlemen who were so
much dissatisfied with your determination to send the last
mission to France acted from motives of pure patriotism
at first, however they may have suffered wounded pride,
and angry passions to influence their conduct since.—
But in their aversion to the last embassy they certainly
proceeded upon inaccurate information as to the general
state of things in Europe, and upon judgments into which
there entered more of temper than of consideration—
Had the issue of the mission been eventually unsuccessful,
it would still have been a measure grounded upon
the soundest policy; but if ever the wisdom of a
questionable plan was justified to the utmost by
the event it has been so, on this occasion—
The convention with France has not indeed given us
everything we could have wished, but it has secured us
more than we ever could have obtained without it,
and has entirely removed the danger of a War, which
must probably have ended in a dissolution of our Union—
And this arrangement will not even occasion a difference
between us and England, since the British government
have given a formal assurance that they see nothing in
the Convention of which they have reason to complain.
Probably the individual sufferers under the French
depredations, and the party who declared themselves
so strongly against the late negotiation, will think the
want of a stipulation for complete indemnity, a sufficient
objection against the conclusion of the Treaty—
But those who know how impossible any stipulation of
indemnity is to obtain where it cannot be compelled,
or how illusive and nugatory it would be if made, will
be convinced, as I think the people of the United States
in general will be convinced that the convention
taken altogether is highly advantageous to us.
Let then a thinking and impartial man, compare the
situation of the United States on the 4th: of March 1797,
when you assumed the functions of their first Executive
Magistrate, with their situation on the same day 1801,
when I here suppose they will cease—
Let him observe them at the first period, at the point of War,
to every appearance inevitable, with France and Spain,
yet at the same time having the highest reason to
complain against the treatment of Great Britain—
At the last period in full, and as far as human foresight can
judge, in safe and permanent peace with all these powers—
And let him ask himself how much of this favorable change
ought justly to be ascribed to you; the answer will flash with
the light of demonstration: had you been the man of one
great party which divides the people of the United States,
you might have purchased peace, by tribute under the name
of loans, and bribes under that of presents; by sacrificing
with pleasure, as one of the leaders of that party formally
avowed his disposition to do, the rights of the Union,
to the pleasure of France, by answering her injuries with
submission and her insults with crouching: had you been
the man of the other party, you would have lost the
only favorable moment for negotiating peace to the
best advantage, and at this moment would have seen
the United States at open war, with an enemy in the
highest exultation of victory without an ally, and in the
general opinion of the world, if not in real truth, little
better than once more a colony of Great Britain.—
In resisting therefore with all the energy which your
constitutional powers enabled you to exercise, and all,
your personal influence could excite among your
countrymen the violence of France you saved the
honor of the American name from disgrace, and prepared
the way for obtaining fair terms of reconciliation—
By sending the late mission, you restored an honorable
peace to the nation without tribute, without bribes,
without violating any previous engagement, without the
abandonment of any claim of right, and without even
exciting the resentment of the great enemy of France.—
You have therefore given the most decisive proof that in
your administration, you were the man, not of any party,
but of the whole nation; and if the eyes of faction will
shut themselves against the value of such a character,
if even the legal and constitutional judgment of your
country, as expressed by their suffrages at an election
will be insensible to it, you can safely and confidently
appeal from the voice of heated and unjust passions,
to that of cool and equitable reason from the prejudices
of the present to the sober decision of posterity.
Whatever changes may take place in the political system
of the new world, they cannot be more extraordinary than
those which are happening from day to day in the old—
The chain of important events which within these few
years have multiplied so far beyond the common course
of human affairs, appears to be spreading with
accelerated rapidity in proportion as we draw nearer
to the commencement of another century.—
The spirit of Jacobinism, which has so largely contributed
to the calamities which have long afflicted this quarter of
the globe, would scarcely have imagined two years ago,
to find in the Emperor of Russia its greatest aid and support,
and in General Bonaparte its most formidable enemy.
For as on the one hand, Paul affords a striking
example of the ill consequences of power in
hereditary succession, Bonaparte on the other proves
as forcibly the tendency of all the absurd and wicked
theories of equality and fraternity, and representative
democracy, to end in absolute and hereditary sway.
You remember with what impetuous fury Paul
began about eighteen months ago an active War
against France; and how he broke off all intercourse
with Denmark and Prussia, because they
declined joining him and the coalition—
You have reason to remember it, as he expressed
his willingness at that time to make a commercial
Treaty with us, upon condition that we should
not negotiate for Peace with France—
Britain and Austria were then his dear allies,
and the Emperor of Germany, the best friend
(according to his own expression) he had in the world—
All this tenderness of affection is blown away
like the wind of yesterday—
Denmark and Prussia have become
his dearest friends and allies—
He insults the Romish emperor in his court Gazette
and refuses to receive embassies from him—
Embargoes all English ships in his ports, sequesters
all English property in his dominions, and proclaims
the English Nation, to be not a race of human beings,
but a vermin that infest the sea.—
In the meantime he makes his Peace with France, and by
indulging the violence of his resentments against Austria and
England forgets entirely that he is throwing all his weight
into a scale which already preponderates too much, and
the load of which his own Nation will soon feel to its ruin.
France will doubtless derive immense advantages
from this temper, and from the vehemence with
which he gratifies it—
Whatever Austria’s sins against Russia were,
(and they admit of no excuse; of no palliation)
they have at least been dearly expiated—
Even a vindictive spirit might be soothed into compassion,
by the state to which Austria has been reduced;
and to leave her at the mercy of an inexorable
and triumphant enemy, is what Russia ought to be
the last of European powers to do—
Yet, not content with this, Russia without any apparent
motive proceeds to press upon the only remaining
power which can withstand in any degree the
overbearing weight of France, and takes the present
moment to press as hard upon England, as upon Austria—
His proposal to the three other Northern powers, for the
revival of the armed neutrality will be known to you before
you receive this letter; and such have been in frequent
instances of late the insolence and excesses of the
British navy towards neutral powers, that if the Russian
Emperor had only gone thus far, his conduct might have
been justified by the principles of sound policy,
and must have had the approbation of other nations—
But such is the violence with which he proceeds,
that he will probably force England into a war with
him before his plan of the armed neutrality can be
accomplished, and without his aid and influence the
system would hardly be strong enough to support itself.
It is so difficult to account for the excessive rancor
and inveteracy of Paul, against his late allies, from any
rational motive of interest or of policy, that many persons
acquainted with the state of the court at St. Petersburg,
ascribe them rather to the peculiar character and
temper of the man, and to the influence of certain
personages, such as are usually possessed of the
real dominion in almost all despotic governments—
His ostensible ministers for foreign affairs the
Counts Rostopsin and Panin, are supposed to be very far
from suggesting, or approving the present system;
but they have little or no influence, and he scarcely
sees them from one month’s-end to another—
His great favorite is a man who bears the name of
Kutoizow, and sometimes of Ivan Paulowitz,
because the Emperor, when Grand-Duke
was his god-father at his baptism—
He is by birth a Turk; was taken, when quite a child,
at the siege of Bender, and given by the Russian
general who commanded there to the Emperor,
who had him educated at his own expense, and then
took him into his service as his valet de chamber—
From this menial office he has raised him to
places of the highest rank in the empire,
and loaded him with wealth and honors.—
This Turkish slave, travestied into a Russian nobleman,
keeps a French opera-singer by the name of Chevalier,
who was sent for, between two and three years ago,
and went from Hamburg to St: Petersburg—
For this woman it is said the Emperor himself indulged a
transient fancy, and she has so well improved the
moment of his kindness, and the subsidiary but more
durable attachment of his favorite, that from a very
threadbare subsistence, with which she entered Russia,
she has already amassed a splendid fortune.
Through this channel it is reported the first advances
were made towards the negotiation which is still carried
on between France and Russia; the present state of which
I have mentioned in so recent a letter which I presume
will be submitted to your perusal, that it would be
superfluous for me to say anything further about it here.
Such is the government of a country,
where arbitrary power is established
in one person by hereditary succession—
In France, the scenes of a democratic revolution
are approaching towards their catastrophe.—
The power of the first Consul, is little more limited
than that of the Emperor of Russia; but his authority
is new and far from being firmly established—
The Jacobins can never forgive his desertion of their cause,
and a very recent conspiracy has been detected,
the object of which was to assassinate him.
One of the principal persons concerned in this plot
was an Italian sculptor by the name of Ceracchi,
who is well known in America, and whose conduct has
for many years been that of a fanatic revolutionist—
Among the rumors circulating in the European world,
of which it is not easy to ascertain the authenticity,
it is asserted that Bonaparte in consequence of this
intended attempt upon his person became sensible
of the necessity of designating his successor,
in case any accident should befall him, and sent
expressly for General Moreau, whom he thought best
entitled to this distinction; that this measure gave extreme
dissatisfaction to the Consul’s brother Lucian, and produced
an altercation between them, the result of which was that
Lucian was sent away upon a special mission abroad—
This last circumstance at least is true, though it is not
yet known where the Minister of the interior is gone—
But there are men it seems in France who either desire
or pretend to desire that the sovereign power should
be given as an inheritance to the family of Bonaparte—
Several pamphlets have within these few weeks been
gratuitously distributed about Paris and in the departments,
arguing from a great variety of considerations the
expediency and even the necessity of adopting this system;
and it is not positively certain whether the propagation
of these sentiments is to be imputed to the real friends,
or to the concealed enemies of the first Consul—
I am for my own part most inclined to think them the
insidious expedients of the royal party, or else of the
Jacobins themselves, to excite an odium against the
present possessor of the chief magistracy.
Whatever the real fact may be, Bonaparte certainly feels the
desire of giving duration and permanency to his authority—
There is but one alternative for his ambition; that of settling
down peaceably, as a brother to the other European
monarchs, or of becoming at the head of his armies
the conqueror of them all—
It is alike uncertain which of these careers is most suitable
to the Consul’s inclination; and which of them
he would find most difficult in the execution.—
One of his brothers, a young man of two or
three and twenty has lately been here,
attended by two officers, nearly of his own age—
He is a colonel in the army
and travels to acquire military knowledge.
He was treated here universally with as much distinction
as is shown to a foreign prince, and is now gone upon
a short tour through the Prussian provinces.
It would be of little use to tell you the mere news
of the day, which is of little importance, and which
would be no longer news when my letter shall reach you.
At this season of the year I can scarcely ever expect
that you should receive a letter from me within
four months of its date, though from England you get
the public intelligence usually in the course of two—
On the 22d: of this month the hostilities between
the French and Austrians were to recommence,
and unless Austria should consent to negotiate
her peace separately from England
(for that is the point upon which they broke off)
the French according to every probability will
before the new year be in possession of Vienna.—
The necessity of the case will therefore beyond all doubt
eventually compel Austria to treat separately, and Great
Britain will of course be obliged to do the same thing.—
Her distresses are so rapidly accumulating upon her that
the consequences are highly menacing even to her internal
tranquility, yet there is a large fund of stubbornness in the
English character, which it seems to me will for some time
longer prevent the conclusion of her peace with France.35
After Thomas Jefferson was elected President, John Adams directed
Secretary of State John Marshall to recall John Quincy Adams from Berlin
so that Jefferson could choose his diplomats.
That news reached Quincy Adams on 12 April 1801.
He and his family left from Hamburg in June
and returned to the United States on September 4.
Quincy liked the ethical rules of conduct he found in Cicero’s De Officiis.
John Quincy Adams wrote in a letter to his mother Abigail on 1 November 1801:
I have intended every day since my arrival here to write
you a line and inform you of my having safely reached it;
but have hitherto been prevented, partly by business,
and partly by the waste of time in visits, dinners and
other avocations of the like nature: I say partly by business,
for I have found much more of that to do here than I was
aware of; upon undertaking to settle my accounts here,
I find myself charged by the accounting officers with about
forty-five thousand dollars more than ever came into my
hands; to discharge me of which, I am required to produce
vouchers from divers persons in various parts of Europe—
For a small part of this amount, though much too large
for me to afford losing, that is for about 1400 dollars.
I am led to expect that a serious difficulty upon a settlement,
will be made; though at the same time, there is
not one of the accounting officers, but professes
a perfect and entire satisfaction of mind, that
my claims and statements are perfectly just—
They must take their own way—
I feel myself on the safe side of Justice and even of Law;
nor shall I give up a title of my right.
I came from Boston to this place in six days and a half;
that is all the way with the mail—
I was indeed obliged to ride
almost the whole time; night and day—
But I had very fine weather, and
a journey by no means unpleasant—
I found my wife much better than when I parted from her
at Philadelphia; and excepting a bad cold for the
last three or four days, she has continued well—
The child’s health continues yet uninterrupted—
Mr. Johnson, has been one or two days quite ill;
but is now much recovered—
The rest of the family all well.
I have visited the President
and the heads of departments—
Have once dined with the former and been
very civilly treated by the Secretary of State—
We have likewise been to Mount Vernon and paid our
respects to Mrs. Washington, who desired to be very
affectionately remembered to you and to my father—
It has made me very happy to meet again Mr. Cranch,
and Mr. Dalton with his family; both of them have given us
a cordial welcome; but they reside so far distant from
Mr. Johnson’s that it has not been in my power
to see them so often as I should have wished.
I have been detained here some days longer
than I expected; but have engaged the stage
for Frederick the day after tomorrow—
I still hope to be with you by the twentieth of this month—
the day I mentioned as that of my purposed return,
before I left Quincy—
But it probably may be four or five days later—
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson intend going with us,
as far as Frederick with their two youngest daughters.36
Notes
1. John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 5 January 1794 (Online).
2. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Volume I 1779-1796
ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, p. 191.
3. Memoirs of Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848
by John Quincy Adams ed. Charles Francis Adams, Volume I, p. 31-32.
4. Ibid., p. 34.
5. Ibid., p. 48-50.
6. Ibid., p. 55-56.
7. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 211-213.
8. Ibid., p. 219-220.
9. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 61-62.
10. Ibid., p. 71-72.
11. Ibid., p. 85-86.
12. Ibid., p. 88-89.
13. Ibid., p. 89-90.
14. John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 May 1795 (Online).
15. John Quincy Adams to John Adams October 31, 1795 (Online).
16. Quoted in John Quincy Adams: A Man for the Whole People
by Randall Woods, p. 128.
17. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 449.
18. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 160-161.
19. Ibid., p. 162-163.
20. Ibid., p. 164-165.
21. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Volume II, p. 125-126.
22. Ibid., p. 173.
23. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 198.
24. The Diary of John Quincy Adams 1794-1845, ed. Allan Nevins, p. 16.
25. Quoted in John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit by James Traub, p. 96-97.
26. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 167.
27. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Volume II, p. 214.
28. John Quincy Adams by Randall Woods, p. 163.
29. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Volume II, 251.
30. Ibid., p. 271-272.
31. John Quincy Adams by Randall Woods, p. 171.
32. To George Washington from John Quincy Adams, 29 October 1798 (Online).
33. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 195.
34. Quoted in John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit by James Traub, p. 104-105.
35. John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 25 November 1800 (Online).
36. John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 1 November 1801 (Online).
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