31From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 22 May 1779 (Adams Papers)
Yours of the 15 reached me, Yesterday. I am waiting here in anxious Expectation of the new Minister, with whom, it is said I am to embark. It would give me Pleasure to form an Acquaintance with this Gentleman, because his Character is good, and because, it would give me an opportunity of convincing him of the Importance of keeping himself disconnected with Parties. Not only the Benefits of the...
32From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 25 February 1780 (Adams Papers)
I have this Moment your Letter from Brussells of the 19th of this Month, and I thank You for your kind Congratulations on my safe Arrival. Whether I come in the amiable and blessed Character, as You say You have heard, with the Olive Branch in my Hand, and surrounded with Doves, Lambs and Angels or not, You will learn, in due Time. At present, the common Enemy shews a Picture, of a very...
33From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 11 June 1780 (Adams Papers)
I have recieved with great pleasure yours of the 5th. I have certainly seen those extremes of Confidence and of Diffidence that You saw. We ought to attend to proofs, but we ought to discountenance Suspicions without Grounds. In these points We are agreed. I assure you, Sir, I am of your Mind, that Providence is working the general Happiness, and whether We co-operate in it, with a good Will,...
34From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 12 August 1782 (Adams Papers)
Your two Letters containing the Anecdote and the Preliminaries have been recd., and You have seen the use of them. I have at length a friendly Letter from Mr. Jay, who tells me some good News, which I must not communicate. I have Letters too from Petersbourg with other News. Upon the whole they are consulting upon Preliminaries at Paris, and concerting Plans elsewhere for a Congress. If the...
35From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 27 June 1783 (Adams Papers)
What are We to infer from the Indecision of the present Ministers?— Do they expect to draw their Country out of her Embarrassments; to preserve her Credit,; to avoid a Bankruptcy; to Settle a Plan with Ireland; to pacify Scotland &c &c &c, by a Sour Countenance towards America? We desire nothing but our natural Advantages in Commerce? if these are refused can it be expected that our People...
36From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 5 July 1780 (Adams Papers)
In the 116 page of the inclosed Mercury, you will find the Strictures upon Lord G. Germaines nonsense. I dont see them in the English Papers. I suppose no Printer dares insert them. But I Swore they shall be seen, and therefore I beg you to get them inserted in the Leyden or Amsterdam or the Hague Gazette or all three. If it cant be done without pay let them be paid. I will repay in a moment....
37From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 12 March 1781 (Adams Papers)
I am honoured with yours of 5. You will honour and oblige me much sir, by your Thoughts upon the Subject of European Jealousy and Caprice, hinted at. You will see that the Empress has undertaken to mediate between E. and Holland, but she will not join the Emperors Mediation but on two Conditions Sine quibus non. These are 1. an Acknowledgment by England of American Independance. 2. An...
38From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 29 April 1781 (Adams Papers)
The Bearer of this Mr. Winslow Warren, is the Son of my Friend Major General Warren of the Massachusetts. He is, on all Sides of Families the most ancient and honourable and meritorious of that Part of America. And the Young Gentn. himself is amiable and has Merit. I should be vastly obliged to you, if you would shew him Brussels. Pray shall We have the Pleasure to see you here in a few days?...
39From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 7 October 1780 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Bowdoin, a gentleman of Virginia, is passing through Brussells in his Way to France. He is a young American of good Character here, and I have the honour to recommend him to your Notice. Pray what think you, of the Face of affairs? According to present Appearances a year or two more, will probably deliver our country from the Ennemies within it, tho it may not bring Peace. The K. of...
40From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 9 July 1782 (Adams Papers)
You have very much obliged me, by the Act and the Bill. It is to the last degree Astonishing to see, that perfect Ignorance, of the United States of America, which still prevails in old England. They willfully Shut their Eyes, that they may be Sure not to See. My Bowells of Compassion begin to be moved for this blind, debauched, devoted old Woman Britannia. Is there no possibility of reforming...
41From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 13 April 1779 (Adams Papers)
I am ashamed to acknowledge that I received your kind Letter, in due time, and have not answered it before: My apology is that I was on the Point of Setting out for Brest when I received it and have been travelling ever since. I am much obliged to you for the Letter and very happy to find that one Gentleman is to be found in France whose sentiments will give some Countenance to my own. I have...
42From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 19 April 1780 (Adams Papers)
I have only time at present, to beg the favour of you, to procure the inclosed, to be inserted in all the English newspapers. There is not a Circumstance exagerated, and the half is not told. RC with enclosure ( Adams Papers ); notation on back of enclosure: “printed in the English Papers.” For the possibility that JA wrote two letters to Jenings on 19 April, see Jenings’ letter of 24 April ,...
43From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 5 February 1781 (Adams Papers)
Yours of 31. Jan. is arrived. A Courier is arrived from Petersburg, who carried the Notice of Sir Yorkes leaving the Hague. All’s well in the north. The Courtiers in England, who indeed compose the nation, flatter themselves they shall raise the Devil in Holland. They may raise a Spirit but it will be a good one. The Symptems are very Strong. If popular Rage gets loose it will not dewitt, John...
44From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 24 March 1783 (Adams Papers)
I am very much obliged to you for your excellent Letter of the 14 of this Month. As The British Administration have made it their Business for 8 or 10 Years, to propagate in the Nation false News from America, and conceal the true, it is not Surprising that People are in Ignorance: But they must think seriously and inform themselves truly, now, or they will be the Loosers. I regret the Delays...
45From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 12 June 1779 (Adams Papers)
This Moment I received yours of the 16 as it is dated, but I suppose was the 10. You cannot imagine how much I am obliged to you for this Letter and the other of the second, and the Parliamentary Remembrancer. I have read the 12 Letters and am charmed with their Spirit—hope the Author will continue, for his Abilities and Temper must be of great service to our Country. Ld. N. is probably, at...
46From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 27 April 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have received yours of the 22. Will you be so kind as to give me the Address of your Nephew, that I may be able to convey to him, Letters for America, as I may have opportunity before he Sails. At present I know not what to write from this Country. We are now to wait untill the 20th. of June and then see great Things. The Packets you mention reached me, the Sixth of this Month, after many...
47From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 29 May 1780 (Adams Papers)
I have received yours of 22, with the Letter, which I return, unable to comprehend the meaning of it. I am informed by Mr Jay and Mr Charmichael both, that Sir John Dalrymple is at Madrid, with his Lady, travelling from Portugal, thro Spain and France for her Health, as is given out. He had a Passport from the Spanish minister. He has seen the Imperial Ambassador, the Duke of Alva, and Some...
48From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 22 April 1780 (Adams Papers)
If you think that any thing I sent you lately is improper for publication, I hope you will stop it, or alter and correct it, by your own discretion, or delay it, till you think the time, proper. A vessell has arrived at Bilbao, from Newbury Port, by which I wrote to Congress and to my friends from Corunna, she brings news that two Vessells which lay at Bilbao when I was there, have also...
49From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 18 December 1780 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Favour of the 11. The Inclosures I have packed with my Dispatches, and the Duplicate of Mr. Amorys, to go by the first opportunity. Sir Joseph will kick, and cuff and pinch this People untill he forces into them a little Spunk. They cry shame upon his last Memorial more than the former. However I believe he knows enough of the nature of them, to answer his End, which I...
50From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 15 May 1780 (Adams Papers)
I am ashamed to acknowledge that yours of 2 and 7th. are yet unanswered. I never read Linguet, till yours of 2d. I went and subscribed. He is ingenious, but a sort of Nat. Lee, I think. The English have trumpeted their omnipotence, till they have put his Imagination in a Turmoil, as well as many others. The English Powers, really consist more in the fears of their Ennemies than any thing else....
51From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 7 September 1782 (Adams Papers)
I have recd, your Letter with other Slips for which I thank you and another Since. I take constantly the Morning Post, Morning Chronicle London Courant and have taken the Evening Post, but Shall change it Soon for the General Advertiser. The Couriers de L’Europe and du Bas Rhin, the French Gazettes of Hague Leyden and Amsterdam and all the Dutch Gazettes. Is this to be a News Monger? I take em...
52From 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...
53From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 20 January 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have just received your Favour of the 18th., and thank you for the good News. I dont believe any Thing of the story of the French Fleet and Army, at Carolina, but the Tide is turned and the Torrent will soon flow in the south. The Actions of Trenton, Bennington and Kings Mountain are enough to shew, the total Impractibility of subduing America or any Part of it. In times of the greatest...
54From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 28 March 1783 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged to you for your Favour of 21. and its Inclosures. I do not think myself at Liberty to write my private Sentiments about the Regulations of Trade between G. Britain and America, without consulting my Colleagues.— The British should have a Minister here to treat with Us upon this Matter.— all I can Say is that no commercial Regulations which Parliament can make will materially...
55From 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...
56From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 29 April 1779 (Adams Papers)
There is a fatal spell set upon, all Intelligence between This Country and Ours. Two Vessells have arrived, from Virginia one at L’orient the other from at Morlaix, and no News. I have seen four or five News Papers which came by the latter, one of which is a Virginia Paper as late as 12 March. No News, excepting a Letter from G.W. to Congress containing a Letter from G.M. to him concerning the...
57From 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...
58From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 9 June 1783 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Favour of June 3 d. — The Gentleman intended in it, has never once Since his last Residence here, mentioned the Subject to me, nor I to him, So that I hope it will be forgotten. I wish it may. I think M r B. must have meant that you Should Send the Paper in question to me. This Intention is necessary for his own Justification or Excuse. for if he Sent it to M r L. & to...
59From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 3 January 1781 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Favour of the 1st. of this Year, and thank you for your kind Congratulations, which I return with equal Sincerity. My Mind is, as you conjecture much engaged at present, and altho I am not able to do much towards midwifing the great Events, with which the Times are pregnant, yet I dont think the less, nor the less anxiously about them for that. Englands temporary Security,...
60From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 5 June 1782 (Adams Papers)
Just a Line, by our venerable Friend, President Laurens, with whom your Communions will be sweet. Pray let me know if Mr Jay is coming to Paris, or come. The last Victory of Rodney, to whom Heaven grants them to shew that it dispizes them, has restored the national Delirium, in all its Effervescence. We shall have no Peace I suppose, in Consequence. War then! War? Yet I sigh for Peace as much,...