21From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 12 January 1810 (Adams Papers)
AMSTERDAM, June 26, 1781—wrote to congress: “The Rubicon is passed! A step has been at last taken by the regency of Amsterdam, which must decide the fate of the Republic. The city of Amsterdam finding that their proposition of the 18th of last month was not sufficient to change the conduct of Administration, have ventured on another manœuvre. On the 8th of this month, as soon as the states of...
22From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 31 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
For the sake of harmony and ananimity Mr. Jay and Mr. Adams very readily agreed with Dr. Franklin to strike out the commencement of the letter to Mr. Livingston as first drawn up by Mr. Jay, and concluded to leave it out. The part left out is as follows: Sir—We have had the honor of receiving by captain Barney your two letters of the 25th and 21st of April last, with the papers referred to in...
23From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 31 October 1810 (Adams Papers)
The president De Thou introduces his history with “Pro veritate historiarum mearum deum ipsum obtestor.” Although I shall not follow the example of this great historian in this solemn appeal, in which perhaps he is singular, yet no man ought to commit any thing to writing as history, or as memorials to serve for history, without a strict regard to truth. I shall therefore designedly conceal...
24From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 15 January 1810 (Adams Papers)
AMSTERDAM, June 29, 1781—wrote to Congress: “On the 21st of this month, the field marshal, the duke Louis of Brunswick, presented to the States General, the following paper High and Mighty Lords, It is not without the greatest reluctance, that I see myself forced to interrupt the important deliberations of your High Mightinesses, and to have recourse to you, in an affair which indeed regards...
25From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 9 May 1809 (Adams Papers)
At first I intended to encumber your paper with no Documents but such as were absolutely necessary for my own vindication. But as the peace with France in eighteen hundred was not only an event of great importance in itself, but produced demonstrations of the prejudices, passions, views, designs and systems of parties, more perhaps than any other; I hope you will allow me room for such other...
26From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 9 July 1810 (Adams Papers)
Amsterdam, December 25, 1781—wrote to congress: “There has appeared an ulterior declaration, in addition to the ordinances of the thirtieth of April and the third of November concerning the navigation and the maritime commerce of the subjects of Prussia, during the present war. The ordinances, which the king has caused to be published of the 30th of April and third of November of this year,...
27From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 12 May 1809 (Adams Papers)
In a A Letter from Alexander Hamilton concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams Esq. President of the United States printed at New York for John Lang, by George F. Hopkins, 1800. Copy right Secured; the Subject of the Negotiation with France in that year is considered. In the twenty fourth page it is Said that “The Session which ensued the Promulgation of the Dispatches of our...
28From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 7 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
The preliminaries of peace were signed and I was weary of writing in the night. I do not find that I kept any journal during the remainder of the winter, until the month of May, 1783. I spent my time in looking at France, in the court and the city, in the theatres, churches, and especially in the palace, where the courts of justice are held. This survey of the laws, government, history,...
29From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 12 September 1809 (Adams Papers)
Amsterdam, January 1st, 1781—wrote to Congress: “The mail from London arrived this morning, brought us for a new year’s entertainment, the following MANIFESTO. George R. Through the whole course of our reign, our conduct towards the States General of the United Provinces, has been that of a sincere friend and faithful ally. Had they adhered to those wise principles which used to govern the...
30From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 25 November 1809 (Adams Papers)
AMSTERDAM, May 23, 1781—wrote to Dr. Franklin: I have the honor of your letter of the 19th, with its enclosures and thank your excellency, for the pains you have taken to communicate the news from America: which can scarcely be called bad, though Gen. Green lost the field. I had before received and published in the Amsterdam Gazette, the same accounts.—The gazetteers are so earnest after...
31From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 12 July 1810 (Adams Papers)
In the latter end of December, 1781, I concluded to present myself a second time to the President of their high mightinesses, for an answer to my former memorial, and drew up a memorial in English and French; but as I had reason to believe the Duke De La Vauguion and the Comte De Vergennes would not now oppose me, but on the contrary would be pleased by being consulted, I communicated my...
32From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 18 May 1809 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Hamilton, in his pamphlet, page 28, speaking of Talleyrand’s dispatches, says, “overtures so circuitous and informal, through a person who was not the regular organ of the French government for making them, to a person who was not the regular organ of the French government for receiving them, &c. were a very inadequate basis for the institution of a new mission.” Here, again, Mr....
33From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 19 September 1809 (Adams Papers)
1781, January 18—wrote to Mr. Mazzei, at Florence: “Yesterday I received yours, of the 19th of October. Some time since, I received the other, of the 19th of August: both went to Paris, and I being here, Mr. Dana and Mr. Thaxter forwarded their enclosures to America, according to my desire, but I am not able to say in what vessel. In consequence of Mr. Laurens’s calamity, I am ordered to...
34From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 25 January 1810 (Adams Papers)
During my absence, which was nearly through the whole month of July, the following state papers were translated by the gentlemen of my family, whom I left in Holland, and transmitted to Congress, or to be kept for me to sign, according to my directions after my return. Amsterdam, 5th July, 1781—“The following is an extract from the registry of the Resolutions of their high Mightinesses the...
35From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 21 November 1809 (Adams Papers)
AMSTERDAM, May 8, 1781—wrote to Dr. Franklin: “I have the honor of your letter of the 29th of April, and according to your desire have inclosed a list of the bills accepted with the times of their becoming due; and shall draw for the money to discharge them, only as they become payable and through the house of Fizax & Grand. I sincerely congratulate you upon the noble aid obtained from the...
36From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 18 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
As my object is to deposit as much about information concerning an interesting period of our history, as remains in my possession, and that they may not be scattered like the season’s leaves and like my friend Samuel Adams’ papers, I think it proper to send you some other copies which happen to be in my power.— To B Franklin, Esq. Paris, 5th June, 1782. Sir—Mr. Laurens, while under confinement...
37From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 30 July 1809 (Adams Papers)
Though I thought I was negociating for peace , to better purpose in Holland than I could in France, yet as I could not be responsible for that, I was obliged to depart. The adventure of a journey, which, in the hands of Sterne, would make a sentimental romance, are of no importance here. On the 7th day of July, 1781, I wrote the following note to the Comte de Vergennes. Versailles, July 7,...
38From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 26 May 1809 (Adams Papers)
In pamphlet , page 27, it is said that the great alteration in public opinion had put it completely in the power of our executive to control the machinations of any future public agent, of France. Therefore Philadelphia was a safer scene of negotiation than Paris. Mr. Hamilton’s erroneous conceptions of the public opinion may be excused by the considerations that he was not a native of the...
39From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 8 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
The Hague, September 17, 1782—Wrote again to Mr. Secretary Livingston, “This morning I was in conference with Mr. secretary Fagel in order to make the last corrections in the language of the treaty, which is to be executed in English and Dutch, as that with the crown of France was in English and French. We have now I hope agreed upon every word, if not every point. Nothing now remains but to...
40From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 29 September 1809 (Adams Papers)
1781, February 1st—wrote to Congress: “One of the most brilliant events which has yet been produced by the American revolution, is the following TREATY OF MARINE, Concluded at Copenhagen, the 28th of June, 1780, Old Style, between her Majesty the Empress of Russia, and his Majesty the King of Denmark and of Norway, for the maintenance of the liberty of neutral mercantile navigation , and in...
41From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 8 February 1810 (Adams Papers)
This people must have their own way: They proceed like no other; there cannot be a more striking example of this, than the instructions given to privateers and letters of marque. The commander is ordered to bring his prizes into some port of the united provinces, or into the ports or roads of the allies and friends of this republic, especially France, Sweden, North America or Spain. And the...
42From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 31 July 1809 (Adams Papers)
On the 24th of August, 1780, transmitted to Congress, by another conveyance, duplicates of the declarations of Sweden, Denmark, &c. relative to the maritime confederation. September 4th, wrote to Congress, news that the outward bound West-India fleet of 52 sail, and five East-Indiamen, on the 9th of August, fell in with the combined French and Spanish fleets, about sixty leagues from Cape St....
43From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 29 May 1809 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Hamilton , in his pamphlet, page 21, speaks of the anterior mission of Messieurs Pinckney, Marshall and Gerry, and says, “it was resolved to make another, and a more solemn experiment in the form of a commission of three.” When I first read this sentence, I am not certain whether it excited most of astonishment, indignation, contempt, or ridicule. By whom was this Measure resolved ? By...
44From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 27 July 1810 (Adams Papers)
Amsterdam, Feb. 21, 1782, wrote to the Hon. Robert R. Livingston, Secretary of State for foreign affairs. Secret and confidential.—Sir, 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...
45From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 6 June 1809 (Adams Papers)
In page 28, Mr. Hamilton acknowledges that "the President had pledged himself in his speech, (he should have said in his message) to send a minister, if satisfactory assurances of a proper reception were given." Notwithstanding this, Mr. Hamilton, and all his confidential friends, exerted their utmost art and most strenuous endeavors to prevail on the President to violate this pledge. What can...
46From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 6 October 1809 (Adams Papers)
AMSTERDAM, February 7th, 1781—wrote to Congress: “By the tenth article of the treaty of alliance with France, the Most Christian King and the United States agree to invite or admit other powers who may have received injuries from England, to make common cause with them, and to accede to that alliance, under such conditions as shall be freely agreed to, and settled between all the parties.”...
47From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 17 February 1810 (Adams Papers)
Amsterdam, August 16, 1781, wrote to congress—“Mr. Temple has held offices of such importance, and a bank so considerable in America before the revolution, that his return to his native country at this time cannot fail to cause much speculation, and it is to be feared, some diversity of sentiments concerning him. As he came from London to Amsterdam, and did me the honor of a visit, in which he...
48From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 4 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
ON the 20th of September, 1780, wrote to his excellency Joseph Reed, Esq. President, and the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, in answer to a letter recommending Mr. Searle and his mission, that he might depend upon every civility and assistance in my power, consistent with the duties of the place I was in. Mr. Searle was sent by them to Europe, to borrow money. Such was the distress...
49From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 5 June 1809 (Adams Papers)
IN page 25, is a strain of flimsy rant, as silly as it is indecent. “The supplement to the declaration was a blameable excess.” It waved the point of honor, which after two rejections of our ministers, required that the next mission, should proceed from France. Where did he find this point of honor? If any such point had existed, it had its full force against the second mission: and its...
50From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 12 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
The Hague, October 8th; 1782—Wrote to Secretary Livingston—“At 12 o’clock to-day I proceeded, according to appointment, to the state house, where I was received with the usual formalities at the head of the stairs, by Mr. Santheuvel, a deputy from the province of Holland and Mr. Van Linden, the first noble of Zealand, and a deputy from that province, and by them conducted into the chamber of...
51From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 10 April 1809 (Adams Papers)
I was glad to see in your paper of the 7th of this month, the extract from the Baltimore Federal Republican , for many reasons, which may be explained in due time; one or two may be stated now. 1. I was pleased with the candid acknowledgment, that “Mr. Adams never was a favorite with the leading men of the federal party." The words leading men will require some explanation and some limitations...
52From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 10 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
24th October, 1780—wrote to my correspondent in London: “Give me leave to trouble you to send me two newspapers, the General Advertiser and the Morning Post. Let them be sent constantly by the post. I have an opportunity already of seeing some other papers. Let me beg the favor of your sending me, also, General Burgoyne’s and General Howe’s narratives. When your funds are near exhausted, let...
53From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 8 June 1809 (Adams Papers)
IN page 20, Mr. Hamilton says, my "conduct in the office of President was a heterogeneous compound of right and wrong, of wisdom and error." As at that time, in my opinion, his principal rule of right and wrong, of wisdom and error, was his own ambition and indelicate pleasures, I despise his censure, and should consider his approbation as a satire on my administration. “The outset," he says,...
54From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 25 August 1810 (Adams Papers)
Soon after the petition of Leyden, I transmitted to Congress the following address of thanks with a further petition. To the noble, great and venerable Lords, the great Counsel of the city of Leyden: The undersigned manufacturers, merchants and other traders interested in the manufactures and fabrics of this city, give respectfully to understand— That a number of the undersigned having taken,...
55From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 10 April 1809 (Adams Papers)
FROM Mr. Murray, the American Minister at the Hague, who had been appointed by President Washington, I received assurances from the French government similar to those in Mr. Barlow’s letter and so many others. They were conveyed from the French Directory to Mr. Pichon, Secretary of Legation and Charge des Affaires of the French Republic near the Batavian Republic, in the absence of the French...
56From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 16 April 1810 (Adams Papers)
AMSTERDAM, October 25, 1781—wrote to congress—“I see in the London Courant which arrived to day, an advertisement of a translation into English, of the address to the people of the Netherlands: so that this work is likely to be translated into all languages and read by all the world; notwithstanding the placards against it. I have before sent that of Utrecht: that of Holland is as follows. The...
57From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 29 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
The Journal proceeds—1782—November 26—Tuesday—Breakfasted at Mr. Jays, with Dr. Franklin, in consultation upon the propositions made to us yesterday by Mr. Oswald.—We agreed unanimously to answer him, that we could not consent to the article respecting the refugees as it now stands. Dr. Franklin read a letter which he had prepared to Mr. Oswald, upon the subject of the tories, which we had...
58From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 8 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
Amsterdam, October 4, 1780, wrote to Mr. Dumas—“I should be glad to see a copy of the dispatches from the Dutch plenipotentiaries at Petersburgh, or at least as exact an account of their substance as possible: and to learn whether the object of the congress is simply to form a plan for supporting each other and making a common cause in defence of those principles only which the three northern...
59From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 12 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
WE will now return to Mr. Laurens, on the correspondence upon other subjects. On the 14th of October, 1780, wrote to Dr. Franklin—“The extracts of letters you were so good as to send me, have been inserted in the public papers, and I should be obliged to you for future communications of the same kind. Notwithstanding the flow of spirits and vigorous exertions of our countrymen, this year, I am...
60From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 14 October 1809 (Adams Papers)
LEYDEN, March 10, 1781—wrote to Commodore Gillon: “I have received the letter you did me the honor to write me on the eighth of this month, requesting me to furnish you with fifty obligations of the United States, to enable you to discharge the debts of the ships, of which you have the command, in the service of the state of S. Carolina. I have considered your letter, sir, and all the...
61From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 10 April 1810 (Adams Papers)
Amsterdam, October 17, 1781—wrote to congress: “There is at present a fermentation in this nation which may arise to violent extremities. Hundreds of pamphlets have appeared, some against the Court, some against the city and sovereign magistrates of Amsterdam, all of which must be adjudged to be seditious libels. At length a large pamphlet has appeared in Dutch; and having been distributed...
62From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 8 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
When the conferences between the British and American ministers were first opened, or very soon afterwards, the former demanded the cession of the whole Province of Maine. They pretended that it was no part of the province of the Massachusetts bay, and therefore no part of the American confederacy, and consequently not included in their commission nor in ours—that the boundary between the...
63From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 16 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
1780, November—wrote to Mr. Jennings: “I have received yours of the first. Will you be so good as to explain to me what is meant by ‘Instructions to endeavor to inspire American agents at Madrid, with distrust and jealousy of one another, at present employed in Europe?’ Let me remark here, Mr. Carmichael and Mr. Littlepage are no more. Mr. Jay and Judge Livingston live. It may be in their...
64From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 4 September 1810 (Adams Papers)
The resolution mentioned in my last of Holland and West Friesland, is as follows— Extract of the resolutions of the lords, the states of Holland and West Friesland, taken in the assembly of their noble and grand mightinesses, Thursday, March 28, 1782. Deliberated by resumption, upon the address and the ulterior address of Mr. Adams, made the fourth of May, 1781, and the ninth of January, 1782,...
65From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 6 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
By this time we were pretty well convinced that the coalition cabinet would do nothing by treaty, but leave all to the king’s absolute power by his orders in council; and I became more inattentive and frivolous than ever, if that is possible, in my diary. Such hower as it is, I shall lay all of it before the public, which was laid before congress, though not a quarter part of it was ever read...
66From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 12 September 1810 (Adams Papers)
AMSTERDAM, 26th April, 1782—The following note to Mr. Hodshon, omitted in the order of its date must not be ordered here because it is connected with one of the most intricate and vexatious transactions that I ever found to puzzle me in all my life. Mr. Hodshon is desired to make the necessary inquiries, and as soon as he will give me under his hand his engagement to furnish congress with four...
67From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 20 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
My last letter contained the journal of the 19th of June, 1783, and completes the copy of that journal, which was intended for no eye but my own: but which by a sudden thought was intended to be sent to Jonathan Jackson, Esq. peradventure, to furnish him with some hints to defend the American ministers, or at least to apologize for them in the case, that was very probable, of a motion of...
68From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 21 April 1811 (Adams Papers)
In my first personal interview with Mr. Jay in private, between him and me alone, that minister opened and related to me in detail, the transactions which had passed after his arrival at Paris, from Madrid, and before my arrival on the 26th of October. Mr. Jay informed me, that after the arrival of Mr. Fitzherbert’s latin commission, which you have already published, the Comte de Vergennes...
69From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 22 April 1809 (Adams Papers)
WHEN I had received that authentic act of the sovereign authority of France, a copy of which is inserted in my last letter to you, communicated by their Secretary of State, through their Secretary of Legation and Charge des Affaires and our Minister at the Hague, fully complying with all my requisitions, upon mature deliberation I determined to nominate a Minister to France. Some of the...
70From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 10 May 1810 (Adams Papers)
(No VII.) Mr. President—Permit me to address to you, partriplicata, a copy of my despatch of the 24th of March 1798, which Mr. Caro, my compatriot, has had the honor of transmitting to your excellency from Falmouth, the 10th of May following. The object being of the highest importance, and the accidents of war having possibly prevented the arrival of the two former, it has appeared to me...