Adams Papers
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From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 18 December 1780

To Edmund Jenings

Amsterdam Decr. 18. 1780

Dear Sir

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.1

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.2 However I believe he knows enough of the nature of them, to answer his End, which I take to be to intimidate them from doing any thing more for America and particularly from lending me any Money. Many are apprehensive, that the Prince is at the Bottom of all this, and in Concert with the King of England, or rather with his Ambassador: and that the Intention is, for the King of England to give orders to his ships of War and Privateers, to make Prizes of ships belonging to Amsterdam, in order to ruin the Merchants of that City, and by this means disaffect them to the Regency.

The Body of Merchants, and the Common People are at present, as well affected to the Regency as they ever are. But the Wish of the English Party is to detach them.

The Constitution of the City is Such, that it Seems to me impossible that there should ever be a very Strong Attachment in the Minds of the People to the Burgomasters. The People must consider the Interest and Honour of the Burgomasters, Councillors and Schepins as distinct from their own, and cannot therefore, feel any Thing which touches their Rulers as touching them selves.

I have the Honour to be with great Respect, sir, your most humble sert

John Adams

RC (Adams Papers). LbC (Adams Papers); notation: “Many Letters from me and those of Mr. Jennings were sent by Capt. John Van Nuberg, of the ship Oostrust, who is to Sail 21 of decr. for St. Eustatius.”

1. Neither Jenings’ letter of 11 Dec. nor the enclosures have been found, but for John Amory, see Jenings’ letter of 20 Nov., and note 4 (above).

2. That is, Yorke’s memorials of 10 Nov. and 12 Dec., for which see JA’s letters to the president of Congress of 16 Nov., No. 20 (above) and 18 Dec., No. 27 (below).

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    Source Project
    Adams Papers
    Title
    From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 18 December 1780
    Author
    Adams, John
    Recipient
    Jenings, Edmund
    Date
    18 December 1780

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 18 December 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-10-02-0240. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 10, July 1780 – December 1780, ed. Gregg L. Lint and Richard Alan Ryerson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996, p. 419.]

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