To John Adams from John Brown Cutting, 11 August 1790
From John Brown Cutting
London Aug. 11. 1790
Dear Sir,
If ever there was a time when the volunteer exertions of a citizen of America became a duty incumbent upon him in a foreign realm—that period has existed here.
For many weeks past I have not been absent a single day from the Admiralty—sundays only excepted. It is not for me to say how efficacious in resisting individual oppression or national mischief this un-intermitting attention has proved.
I have not yet leisure to transmit either to Yourself or to Mr Jefferson a full detail of facts. By the inclosed papers however You will obtain some information.1
The press notwithstanding pacific appearances in the newspapers yet continues, throughout the british ports: but whether the british fleet is rendering thus formidable for warlike enterprize or only politic intimidation, the best informed people here can only conjecture.
The preliminary articles of a pacification between the courts of Berlin and Vienna are signed— By these it is said the house of austria must relinquish every fruit of their war with Turkey except the dismantlement or demolition of a few turkish fortresses.2 The reduction of the revolted Netherlands—is a measure that Leopold is resolved on.3 Nobody will pity a race of revolutioners so debased by bigotry as to pass contentedly from the imperial yoke to that of priestly and aristocratic fabrication.
The empress of Russia has signified her consent to the Emperor that is to be—of Germany—to make a seperate peace for himself—if his affairs require it. Firm and haughty she defies her foes and relies on her own resources for carrying on a war with Sweden & the Porte.4
Very respectfully Your affectionate and most obed sert
John Brown Cutting
RC (Adams Papers).
1. The enclosures have not been found, but for Cutting’s efforts on behalf of American sailors, see his 17 July letter to JA, and note 2, above. He documented the struggle in his Facts and Observations, Justifying the Claims of John Browne Cutting, Phila., 1795, No. 28522. Cutting claimed that he assisted more than 700 American seamen, spending nearly $7,000 of his own funds, and he asked Congress for reimbursement. He received a partial payment of $2,000 in 1792 (, 23:105, 106).
2. Leopold II, emperor of Austria, agreed to a truce with the Ottoman Empire on 19 Sept. 1790 and signed the Treaty of Sistova on 4 Aug. 1791. Austria relinquished portions of Bosnia, Serbia, Moldavia, and Wallachia (, p. 262, 263; Mehrdad Kia, The Ottoman Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia, 2 vols., Santa Barbara, Calif., 2017, 1:49).
3. For the revolt in the Austrian Netherlands, see John Bondfield’s letter of 20 Nov. 1789, and note 2, above.
4. The Russo-Swedish War ended on 14 Aug. 1790 with the Treaty of Varala. The Russo-Turkish War continued until 1792, culminating in the Treaty of Jassy (vol. 19:42; from John Paul Jones, 20 Dec. 1789, and note 3, above).