Paris, 27 March 1780. RC ( PCC , No. 84, I, f. 361–364). In this letter, received by Congress on 31 July and read on 1 Aug., John Adams wrote that war “is now generally considered as a Contest of Finances; so that the Nation which can the longest find Money to carry on the War, can generally hold out the longest.” Adams believed that Great Britain, because of its heavy taxation since 1774, had...
2To John Adams from Jeremiah Allen, 27 March 1780 (Adams Papers)
Some Villain, has reported, and it is almost universally Creditted by the people of this place, that the Americans, have concluded a peace with Great Britain, and notwithstanding the absurdity of the report, and all the reasons, that I could give them, such as, the impossibillity of concluding peace, in so short a time, and from the disposition of the people when I left America—also that no...