61From John Adams to C. W. F. Dumas, 18 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
It is a long time Since I had the Pleasure of writing to you. I have been, to the very gate of the other Mansion. My Feet had well nigh Stumbled on the dark mountains: but by the Skill of Dr Osterdike and the Barks wondrous Virtue, I am returned here to take two or three more Lessons of Politicks. If your affairs will admit of your Spending Some time at Amsterdam, I should be obliged to you,...
62From John Adams to Robert R. Livingston, 21 February 1782 (Adams Papers)
I know very well the Name of the Family where I spent the Evening with my worthy Friend Mr. — before We set off, and have made my Alphabet accordingly: but I am on this occasion as on all others hitherto utterly unable to comprehend the sense of the Passages in Cypher. The Cypher is certainly not taken regularly under the two first Letters of that Name. I have been able sometimes to decypher...
63From John Adams to John Jay, 26 November 1781 (Adams Papers)
By the last Post, I recieved from L’Orient a sett of fresh Instructions from Congress, dated the 16th. of August, and with the more enjoined to open a Correspondence with your Excellency, upon the subject of them. I presume You have Copy by the same Vessel; but as it is possible it may have been omitted, I shall venture to inclose a Copy, and hope it may pass unopened. I have communicated it...
64From John Adams to C. W. F. Dumas, 13 March 1782 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your two Letters both without Date and one without a Name. My Respects and Thanks to Mr Carmichael &c. I have Some of the Resolutions of Congress touching that department but cannot Say whether I have all. I have had last Evening an agreable Interview with the two worthy Gentlemen you mention. They are both of opinion, that it is better to wait and See what will be proposed by the...
65From John Adams to the President of Congress, 15 January 1782 (Adams Papers)
Amsterdam, 15 January 1782. RC in John Thaxter’s hand ( PCC , No. 84, III, f. 458–459). printed : Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States , Washington, 1889; 6 vols. , 5:111. In this letter, JA provided the English text of a note presented by the Russian minister, Prince Gallitzin, to Hendrik Fagel, secretary...
66From John Adams to Francis Dana, 14 December 1781 (Adams Papers)
This day was brought me, your kind favour of August 28th. the first Line I have received from you, Since We parted. A Line from my dear Son, aug. 21. O.S. which I recd 3 days ago, was the first from him. The publick News from America, you have before now. It is grand and I congratulate you upon it, with a gratefull Heart. Our allies have this year adopted a System, which you and I have long...
67From John Adams to Francis Coffyn, 19 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I Yesterday received, your Favour of the 2d Of this Month by Beers who with his Wife and two Children came to me, in deplorable Distress, his Children having been Sick and detained him on the Road, untill he had Spent his last shilling. This Man never made a greater Mistake than in coming to Holland where at Present, all Business being in a State of Stagnation, Tradesmen in General find the...
68From John Adams to Benjamin Franklin, 22 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have recieved your Excellency’s Letter of the 12th. I should be much obliged to You for your sentiments, of what is to be understood by accepting the Mediation of a Power or Powers? Is a Mediator to be an Arbitrator, and is the Power that accepts the Mediation bound to submit to the Award? Is the great question of the War submitted to the discussion and final Judgment of the Mediator? For...
69From John Adams to Francis Dana, 15 March 1782 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of Feb 10/21. arrived last night, and I thank you for the Copy inclosed. I think that if the Ct. of St. James’s is capable of taking a hint, she may see herself advised to acknowledge the Sovereignty of the U.S. and admit their Ministers to the Congress. There Seems to be a Change of System in England, but the Change is too late: the Kingdom is undone past Redemption. Minorca, St...
70From John Adams to the President of Congress, 16 January 1782 (Adams Papers)
RC ( PCC , No. 84, III, f. 462–465). printed : Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States , Washington, 1889; 6 vols. , 5:114–116. In this letter JA included English translations of two items that appeared in Dutch newspapers, including the Gazette de Leyde of 8 and 11 January. The first was the representation...
71From John Adams to Francis Dana, 28 April 1782 (Adams Papers)
Yours of 28 March is this day recd —the other Paper you mentioned I also recd, but after my Letter was written. Your other Letters are also recd. You will have Seen by the Papers, that the great Point is gained here with much Unanimity, and many indifferent People think it a great Point. I may think more highly of it, than it deserves, but it has ever appeared to me, the turning Point. Be this...
72From John Adams to Fizeaux, Grand & Co. and Others, 30 April 1782 (Adams Papers)
1. If the Houses of Fizeaux Grand & Co. John Hodshon & Son Mess. Crommelin, Mess. Van Staphorst, Mess. De la Lande & Fynje and Mr. John de Neufville & Son, will all join together in an American Loan, Mr. Adams will open it without demanding any Stipulations for any certain Sum. 2d. If the first Proposition is not agreed to, Mr. Adams will open a Loan with as many of these Houses as will agree...
73From John Adams to Robert R. Livingston, 27 February 1782 (Adams Papers)
Friesland has at last taken the Provincial Resolution to acknowledge the Independence, of which United America is in full Possession. It is thought that several Cities of Holland will soon follow their Example, and some say it will be followed forthwith by the whole Republick. The first Burgomaster of this City has said within a few days past, that in six Weeks at furthest, the Independence of...
74From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 27 November 1781 (Adams Papers)
I am this moment honoured with your Letter of Yesterdays date and I thank you for your kind Congratulations, on the News from America. May Great Britain ever Send to America, while she continues to send any, only such brave, able, active and enterprizing Generals as Cornwallis and Burgoine. Every Such General will consume them an Army of Ten or Fifteen Thousand Men, every Campain, without...
75From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 29 November 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your favours of the 14 and of the 26. I thank you for the Extract, and hope you will discover by whom and to whom it was written. That they do not give to me, a very blind Confidence is true. That they have given orders to some Persons to Spy me, may be true. That they know me to be an honest Man, and inflexible in the cause, and perhaps some times too ardent, I am certain. That I...
76From John Adams to J. Bernhard, 18 January 1782 (Adams Papers)
I have received the Letter which you did me the Honour to write me, Yesterday from Leyden and it would give me Pleasure, if it were in my Power to give you a Satisfactory answer. But it is not. I am So far from having any Authority, from Congress to encourage officers, to go to America from Europe, with a View of obtaining service in the American Army, that my orders are quite the Contrary....
77From John Adams to Jn. Pas. Lacoste & Courtiau, 29 April 1782 (Adams Papers)
I have recd. the polite Letter, which You did me the honor to write me on the 26th with the Letter from St. Petersbourg. Let me beg of You to give me a minute of the Postage of this and any other Letter You may recieve for me, that I may repay You. You do me too much honor in ascribing the late glorious Event to me. It is the Result of a vast Combination of Causes which have been operating in...
78From John Adams to the President of Congress, 18 December 1781 (Adams Papers)
Having recieved an Invitation to the Hague, in order to have some Conversation with some Gentlemen in the Government concerning the further Steps proper for me to take in the present Conjuncture, I had determined to have undertaken the Journey to day: but the Arrival in Town of the Duke de la Vauguyon, determined me to postpone it until tomorrow. At noon to day, his Excellency did me the honor...
79From John Adams to Robert R. Livingston, 19 April 1782 (Adams Papers)
I have the Honour to transmit, the following Resolutions of the respective Provinces, relative to my Admission in Quality of Minister Plenipotentiary, together with two Resolutions of their High Mightinesses upon the Same Subject, all in the order in which they were taken. Extract from the Register Book of the Lords the States of Friesland. “The Requisition of Mr Adams, for presenting his...
80From John Adams to John Jay, 28 February 1782 (Adams Papers)
I have the pleasure to inform You, that Friesland has taken the Provincial Resolution to acknowledge the Sovereignty of the United States of America, and to admit their Minister to an Audience, and have instructed their Deputies in the Assembly of their high Mightinesses at the Hague to make the Motion in eight days from this. The States of Holland have also taken my last Requisition and...
81From John Adams to the Duc de La Vauguyon, 20 December 1781 (Adams Papers)
It has been insinuated to me, that the Spanish Ambassador, here, has Instructions from his Court, to enter into Negotiation with their high mightinesses, concerning an alliance between Spain and the Republick. If this fact has come to your Excellencies Knowledge, and there is no Inconvenience nor Impropriety in communicating it to me, I Should be very much obliged to you, for the Information,...
82From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 3 April 1782 (Adams Papers)
Last night I recd yours of March 31. inclosing a Receipt from some American Prisoners for Money advanced them. Let me beg of you sir to Point out, in what Way, I may remit this Money. I am ready to pay a Bill upon Sight, or to purchase a Bill here and transmit it, whichever is most agreable. The new British Ministry will only, plunge their Country into deeper Misfortunes if they Spend time to...
83From John Adams to James Searle, 29 November 1781 (Adams Papers)
While you were at Sea I recd the inclosed dispatches with a desire to open them if you were absent, which I did, and read them with very great Pleasure. Mrs searle’s Letter I did not open you will receive it as I did. I have received your kind Letter from L’orient. The dispatches for Congress are not now of Consequence, as Duplicates and Triplicates of them have arrived by Newman and Brown....
84From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 24 October 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have never answered your favor of August 22d. As to the Letters inclosed, I can say nothing. I cannot advise your Friend to take much Trouble about the Affair, because I think Congress will not be able to attend much to such things until the War is over. It is wholly out of my department, and I can do nothing in it, unless it be to inclose these or any other proposals to my Constituents. I...
85From John Adams to Jean Luzac, 20 March 1782 (Adams Papers)
This morning I recd. the Letter, which You did me the honor to write me on the 19th. of this month with the two Copies inclosed, of the Petition of the Merchants, Manufacturers and Traders of Leyden, to the Great Council of that City, praying for the Conclusion of commercial Connections with the U. States of America. You will be pleased to present my Acknowledgments to the respectable Body,...
86From John Adams to Jean de Neufville & Fils, 24 December 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favours of the 21. and 23d, and have now to inform you that Mr Barclay Consul General of the United States is arrived in Town, and his commercial Knowledge as well as the nature of his office, make it proper, that I should relinquish to him, as I do, all the Care, that I might before have had of the continental Goods, as Dr Franklin has done. He will endeavour to finish...
87From John Adams to Benjamin Franklin, 1 December 1781 (Adams Papers)
Last night I had the honor of yours of the 23d. and 26th. Ulto. If it should be convenient for Mr. Barclay to come here and take the Care of the Goods, it would be happy for me. I am also very happy to learn from your Excellency, that our Troops are tolerably well cloathed, and will be in a short time completely so. This Information will make me less anxious about a little unavoidable delay,...
88From John Adams to Samuel Andrews, 6 April 1782 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your two Letters, and Should be glad to do you any Service in my Power. I will endeavour to Speak to the Nobleman you mention upon the Subject. But as I know nothing of the merits of your Cause, you must be Sensible that there is little Prospect of Succeeding. He is a very good Character and I flatter myself is disposed to oblige me: But it will Seem odd to him to write to...
89From John Adams to Jean de Neufville & Fils, 3 December 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have no authority to interfere, in the Direction of the Continental Goods, which Mr Gillon contracted to convey to America, but Such as is derived from the Desire of Dr Franklin, to take the best care of them in my Power. I therefore hold myself obliged to observe his Excellencys advice in this Business. In a Letter from his Excellency of the 26 Novr, he observes “The owners of the Ships...
90From John Adams to Benjamin Franklin, 25 January 1782 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 11. with the Copy of that from M. Le Comte de Vergennes of 31. of Decr. I had the Honour to receive by the last post. By, your leaving it to me to judge how far it is proper for me to accept further Draughts on Mr Laurens, with any Expectation of your enabling me to pay them, I am Somewhat embarrassed. If I accept any Bill at all it must be in full Confidence of your paying...