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I have not received a Line, nor heard a Syllable from you Since my Arrival, but I know your incessant Application to things of the first Moment, and therefore presume you have good Reasons. Our Ennemies are Still in a Delirium: and are pleasing themselves with Hopes that Clinton will be more bloody than How. Nothing is so charming to their Imaginations as Blood and Fire. What an Heart must...
I am much obliged by your favour of the 9th. just received. Though I called the Subject of my former letter, a Bagatelle, it is perhaps of Some Importance; for as a Navy is now an Object, I think a circumstantial History of Naval Operations in this Country ought to be written, even as far back as the Province Ship under Capt. Hollowell &c and perhaps earlier Still. Looking into the Journal of...
In former Letters, I have made a few hasty Remarks upon Mrs Warren and Mr Marshall: permit me now to add one or two upon Dr Gordon. In the Second Volume of his History, page 144, he Says, “The Massachusetts Assembly resolved, October the ninth, to fit out armed Vessells; ” But how is this? This Resolution is four days later, than the Resolution of Congress, Octr. 5. which asserts that...
The Imputation of a weak Passion has made So much Impression upon me, that it may not be improper to Say a little more about it, even although I Should convert you, more and more to the Opinion of those who think the public Interest in danger from it. The Truth Should come out, and if the danger is real the Remedy is easily applied. According to all that I have read of Morals or Seen of...
I return the correspondence in ten Numbers with Thanks for the perusal of them. They are indeed curious. I cannot reconcile myself to the opinion of one Law for a Judge and another for a Governor. Nor can I believe that Judges have So much Legislative Authority as to make Laws by Implications, Inferences, Constructions So remote and So Strained. If Judges undertake to make gag Laws they Should...
I am infinitely obliged to you for your Favour of 29 of september and for the Journals. These are so much wanted in Europe, that if I should go there, there is nothing of so small Expence that I so much wish as 20 or 30 setts of them. They are an handsome Present. Cant Congress or some Committee order them to me. The Appointment of Mr. Dana is as unexpected as my own. No Man could be found...
The third of September, will be more remarkable for the Signature of the definitive Treaties than for the Battle of Naseby or Worcester or the Death of Oliver Cromwell.— We could obtain no Alteration from the Provisional Articles. We could Obtain no explanation of the Articles respecting the Tories nor any Limitation respecting Interest or Execution for Debts. I am however less anxious about...
I find with some Surprise, in looking over unanswered Letters, One from yourself of 26 August. We gave Letters to Mr Wiger; but I must own I was not much fel fascinated with his conversation; and if his principles of honour and integrity are pure, I have since heard so little in favour of his discretion, that I think Govt ought to be cautious of the Trusts they commit to him. The sympathy of...
We are going on, with as much dispatch as the Nature of our Business will admit of, and We proceed with wonderful Harmony, good Humour and Unanimity. The D r , is confined to his House and Garden by the Stone as he thinks. He has not been farther from Home, than my House at Auteuil which is within a mile of his, for these twelve months. He cannot ride in a Carriage, because the motion of that...
It is necessary that you should be minutely informed, of the minutest and most secret Springs of Action here, if it is possible. Yet the Danger is so great of our Letters, being taken and getting into English News Papers, that it is very discouraging to a free Correspondence. I will however take all the Precaution in my Power, to have the Letters sunk, but if all these fail and my Letters...
I thank you for your address to the Senate. I wish the Presidents Message, your address, and Governor Strongs speech might be printed together in every News-paper. There are pretty stories universally circulating here of your fortuitous journey in the Stage with Colonel Pickering. I have heard them with pleasure, for they really do honour to both. They are really good natured. The Millenium...
Looking over your Letter again, I find several Things unanswered. I should be Sorry to think that Mr. D. was the only vote against me. I had rather believe it was Some other State, than that this Gentleman voted vs. from a personal Pique founded on so futile an Affair, So innocently intended and so unlukily divulged, as the only semblance of anything personal between me and him. In public...
There are many parts of your Letter I have omitted, indeed it requires more Leisure than I have to do it Justice. Men of Cander and Discernment, you observe, have thought that my Predecessor erred, in some particulars. This may be and who has not? But you must remember that the French were always antifederalists. Always opposed and countenanced and stimulated the Party that opposed the federal...
Although Governor Gages Prediction to General Jo. Warren has not yet, been fully accomplished in this Country; yet as His Observation was Suggested by History, it will be found too just, Some time or other. Selfishness has dissappointed The Hopes of Patriotism and Philanthropy in all Ages, not only in England at the Period of her Commonwealth. Edes’s Watertown Gazette Shall be carefully...
I have received your favours of the 8th. and 10th and the volume of Benjamin Edes’s gazettes printed at Watertown between the 5th of June 1775 and the 9th. of December 1776. I am much obliged to you and to Mr Austin, for the Loan of this prescious collection of Memorials I read last Fall and Winter, The Scottish Chiefs, Thadeus of Warsaw and The Exiles of Siberia; and Scotts Lay, Marmion and...
Some day next Week Mr. John Thaxter, will Sett off, on his Journey for York Town. You may remember, the Want of Secretaries and Clerks, which We suffered before I came away, and that I agreed to send you one or more. Mr. Thaxter is of a good Family, was educated at H. Colledge, and has Spent three Years in the study of the Law in my office, and was last Summer Admitted to the Bar. You may...
I have this morning received your favor of the fourth & immediately communicated it to the present Sec. of State Gen Marshall who will look into the papers relative to the subject & bring it soon to a conclusion—A business which ought to have been done last fall.—I have taken a view of the federal city & its environs as far as Mount Vernon & am well pleased with the whole. I think Congress...
I have received your Letter of the 15 of June and am happy to inform you, that M r Jefferson and M r Humphrey are Arrived, as well as my Family with whom I am once more Settled. The Appointment of M r Jefferson is a very happy one. He is as active in Business as he is able, and has nothing So much at Heart as the real Service of his Country. I have known him of old. We have acted together...
I am, this moment informed, that the Packet is arrived but neither D r F. nor I have any Letters as yet. this is unlucky, because We Shall not be able to answer by this Packet. I Suppose it is a question with you whether you shall Send a Minister to Spain; I really hope you will. it is a question too no doubt, who to send.— There will be some perhaps many, perhaps all for M r Charmichael. I...
Since my Arrival in Europe I have had Reason to be very well Satisfied with my Reception, hitherto, in Spain, in France, and especially among the Americans in Europe. I have received Letters, from various Quarters of warm Congratulations and full of Professions, of Respect and offers of service. Such Letters I have had from Mr. Bondfield at Bordeaux, Mr. Williams and Mr. Johnson, and Mr....
Your two Letters of the 5th. of May I have recieved with more pleasure than You can imagine. They are the first Lines I have recieved from Philadelphia. Your Letter prepared my mind for the horrid History We have since recieved in the Court Gazette from London of the Surrender of Charlestown. This is the severest Blow We ever recieved. Yet We shall soon get over it. I hope it will arouse the...
I have this moment written a Message to the Senate nominating you to be an Envoy Extraordinary to the French Republic. Knowing as I did Mr Dana’s aversion to the Sea, and his continual dread of his Mother’s fate, I was always apprehensive he would decline and should have nominated you at first, if I had not been overruled by the opinions of many Gentlemen that Mr. Dana’s Experience in this...
The Baron de Arundl, desires a Letter of Introduction to some Gentleman in Congress from me, and I dont know to whom to write upon this occasion better than to you. I inclose you some of our Constitutions. A vessell has arrived at L’orient, with a Paper of 8 April, and there are Letters to the Comtess de la Lucerne, and others perhaps as late as the 15th. but not a Line from Congress to any...
I have this moment your Letter of the 10th. That Man must have more Skill in Intrigue than any that I have been acquainted with who can Sap the foundation of the Confidence I have in Mr Gerry....No Such Attempt has been made. All have confessed to me your honour and Integrity—Some have expressed doubts of your orthodoxy in the Science of Government—others have expressed fears, of an...
Yours of the 4. is before me. Mr. Dana, I think will accept. I have no personal Objection to either of the Gentlemen you mention. You know more of the political Character of one of them, than I do. With the other I never had any personal Misunderstanding. He has Abilities and he has had his Merit. But he has been in the Center of Disputes so much, that you must have learned perhaps more of his...
Yesterday morning, D r. Franklin produced a Resolution of Congress, that A. F. & J. should be joined in a Commission to treat of Commerce with Great Britain. This is well, & I hope you will pursue the plan & send another Commission to the same Persons to treat with Joseph, Catharine, Denmark & Portugal. Jay & I do admirably well with the old Man. We go on very smoothly, & make him know what is...
Thanks be to God, my dear Gerry, that our Tom Cod are Safe, in Spight of the Malice of Ennemies the Finesse of Allies and the Mistakes of Congress.— The Fisheries were attacked through my Sides, but they have not been wounded. We have obtained an explicit Acknowledgment of our Right to all the Fisheries, and the most unlimited Liberty to catch Fish, and Liberty to dry them on Nova scotia,...
You will have Seen by my Public Dispatches what Prospects We have of any Sudden Arrangement with this Country. I may be more free, in a Letter to you, than I have been, in the Public Letters to M r Jay.— There is a mysterious Reserve among the Ministers which indicates either a Want of Unanimity among them, or a Dissatisfaction towards Us, or a Timidity arising from the Prejudices and Passions...
The inclosed Letters I Sent to M r Jay in Cypher, but as the Conversations with the King and Queen have been reported by Lord Carmarthen and the Lord and Ladies in waiting on the Queen, and are become generally known, there is no longer a Necessity of so much mystery, yet you must be Sensible of the Delicacy of the Subject, and therefore communicate them with Discretion and in Confidence. if M...
Before the Arrival of your kind Letter by Wingrove I had heard, from various quarters, of your Marriage and had received the most agreable Accounts of the Character of the Lady. give me leave to congratulate you, on this happy Event. Nothing can be more pleasing than the Transition from the Turbulence of War and Politicks to the Tranquility of domestick Life, in the Arms of a Lady of so much...
This Letter will be delivered you by my Friend M r Storer by whom I may write more confidentially, than I usually do, even to you. I wish I had as much publick Cause as I have private to Speak respectfully of the present Ministry. They have treated me, and I Suppose advised their Master to treat me, with all the personal Respect, and all the Regard to my public Character, which I can desire. I...
I am under Such Restrictions, Injunctions and Engagements of Secrecy respecting every Thing which passes in Congress, that I cannot communicate my own Thoughts freely to my Friends, So far as is necessary to ask their Advice, and opinions concerning Questions which many of them understand much better than I do. This however is an inconvenience, which must be Submitted to for the sake of...
Mr. Le Roy the Bearer of this, is a young American educated in Amsterdam where he has good Connections. He wants mercantile Connections in America. I wish he could give you hopes of any usefull Connections between our Country and this. If he can, it is more than I am able to do. The armed Neutrality turns out little better than a Bubble. But as We have little to hope from it, We have nothing...
I received your Favours by M r Reed and by Coll Herman, and am much obliged to you for your friendly Sentiments and instructive Communications. Your Plan of a Commission to treat with the maritime Powers, has not it Seems been adopted, and the departure of M r Jay for New York, has now rendered it, impracticable. Congress We are told is adjourned. M r Jay, and Mr Laurens as well as M r Dana...
Vive la bagatelle. How shall we cure that distemper of the Mind State Vanity? You know to what a degree the ancient dominion was infected with it, and how many Sacrifices We have been obliged to make to it. You remember, how Pensilvania had it. “Pensilvania was first in Arts and Arms,”! “Philadelphia was the heart of the Union.” So said George Ross. Dr Lyman Hall of Georgia, readily...
Passy, 9 July 1778. printed : JA, Diary and Autobiography Diary and Autobiography of John Adams , ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. , 4:149–150 . Adams discussed Great Britain’s shortsighted and self-defeating policy in refusing a just treaty and, as an example of Britain’s self-deception and misunderstanding of America, pointed to a peace proposal, rejected out of...
The Letters inclosed on the Spirit and Resources of G.B. were written by Edmund Jennings Esq. Perhaps it will be well to publish them. Be so good as to deliver the Essex result to the Chevalier, who is curious to collect Things of This kind. I hope he is well beloved among you. We are told here that Silver is exchanged in Philadelphia for Paper. Will you be so good as to inform my dear Portia,...
I learn with much Pleasure, that you are again in Congress, at the head of a respectable Delegation, and that the States in general are So well represented. Experience will Show the Necessity of having that Assembly composed of the best Men, by whom I mean Men of the most Experience, the best Talents and greatest Virtues. it is by these alone that fœderal Principles and Feelings, can be made...
Since I have read again your Line “for encouraging the fitting out armed Vessels,” printed in Ecles’s Watertown Gazette of the 13th November 1775. I have had the curiosity to look into several of our historians in order to see what notice they have taken of this transaction which had such important consequences. It was natural to begin with Mrs Warren as she was a native of this province a...
The British Admiralty sent Orders to Portsmouth the 21st. Feby., for the Departure of a small Squadron of Frigates, which accordingly sailed on the 28th, under the Command of Captain Marshall of the Emerald of 32. Guns: The others are the Hussar of 32, the Surprize of 28, the Squirrel, and the Heart of Oak of 20: the Sloops the Beavers Prize of 14, the Wolf and Wasp of 8, with the Cutters the...
Mr. Gadsden of South Carolina whose Fame you must have heard, was in his younger Years, an officer, on board the Navy, and is well acquainted with the Fleet. He has Several Times taken Pains to convince me that this Fleet is not so formidable to America, as we fear. He Says, We can easily take their sloops, Schooners, and Cutters, on board of whom are all their best Seamen, and with these We...
I have just now received your Favour of the 12 th. of April. The Arrets I inclosed to King, to be delivered to you, if at New York, and to be Sent to you if gone to N. England, unless he Should have occasion to use them in Congress. I now inclose you some Papers relating to the British Whale Fisheries by which you will see What forced Plants they are, and how easily We may rival them. When you...
I have recd your favour of this morning; and in Answer inform you that I have not recd an Answer to my Letter to Mr Pickering. The Engagement of his office, besides the confusion of a removal have been extreamly pressing.—I Shall See him Soon and Something will be determined. I Shall not have the Pleasure of Seeing you again probably till next Summer, Imperious Necessity or absolute Duty...
A very fortunate day to write to you, My dear Sir, and especialy on a Subject, without which my Letters of 1775 would have been no Blessing. In my last Letter I intimated a design of looking into other American Historians, after that of Mrs Warren, on the Subject of a Navy. C.J. Marshal, in the 2nd. Vol. of his Life of Washington p 255 in the month of October September, Says “The importance of...
Your Letter of the 24 of February was this morning put into my Hand. That which you refer to as informing me, that M r Livingston was in nomination with M r Rutledge and me, I have not yet received. Of all the Letters I ever received in my Life, excepting one from M r Osgood, this is perhaps the most friendly and faithfull and lays me under the greatest Obligations. I rejoice in the...
It was but last Week that I received your Letter of the 14 th. of July.— With regard to the Money borrowed by me, and applid to the discharge of M r Morris’s Draughts, My Bankers in Amsterdam have as they inform me, transmitted their Accounts both to the Board of Treasury and M r Barclay.— By them it will appear that Several Millions of Livres I mean were remitted to Le Couteulx at Paris, and...
I have at last obtained liberty, by a vote of Congress, to acquaint my friends with a few of the things that have been done. The Congress have voted, or rather a committee of the whole house have unanimously agreed, that the sum of two million dollars be issued in bills of credit, for the redemption of which, in a certain number of years, twelve colonies have unanimously pledged themselves....
I have transmitted my Account to the Board of Treasury, according to their Directions together with my Vouchers, and have desired that these last may be delivered to you after the Board should have done with them. I must beg the favour of you to receive them and transmit them to me by a safe Hand. I see that Congress have allowed to their Commissioners, one half of what they voted in the...
As to the Boundaries of Mass. I have asked Mr. A. about them but he did not recollect them. The Council appointed a Committee, within a few days after my Arrival, to ascertain them and did me the Honour to put me upon it, altho not a Member of Either House, with Mr. Bowdoin and Mr. S. A. but we have never met, and now it would be improper. They will appoint a new one I suppose. As to the Claim...
I have just recd your favours of 28. May, No. 6 and No. 7. with a Copy of No. 3. This last I had recd before. I had no share in the Recall of Monroe, and therefore am not responsible for the Reasons of it.—But I have heard such reports of his own Language in France at his own Table, and the Language of those whom he entertained and countenanced, and of his correspondences with Bache Beckley &c...