John Adams to the President of Congress, 13 December 1781

To the President of Congress

Amsterdam 13 December 1781. RC in John Thaxter’s hand (PCC, No. 84, III, f. 426–429). printed: Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. description begins The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, ed. Francis Wharton, Washington, D.C., 1889; 6 vols. description ends , 5:43–44. This letter, read in Congress on 15 March 1782 and acted upon on 26 March (JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, Gaillard Hunt, John C. Fitzpatrick, Roscoe R. Hill, and others, Washington, D.C., 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 22:150), contained the English text of Lord Stormont’s acceptance of Russia’s mediation of the Anglo-Dutch war. Formulated in early September, Stormont’s answer to I. M. Simolin, the Russian minister, reversed Britain’s refusal, in March, of Russia’s first mediation offer and proceeded from the joint representations made at the end of August by the Russian, Swedish, and Danish ministers in London (to the president of Congress, 6 Aug., 1st letter, calendared, vol. 11:440). In his acceptance, Stormont recited British grievances against the Netherlands, but pointedly rejected any Swedish or Danish role in the mediation. He did so to avoid legitimizing the League of Armed Neutrality, the Dutch accession to which was the real, if unstated, reason for Britain’s declaration of war against the Netherlands. Stormont did not inform the Russian minister of Britain’s terms for reaching a settlement. Those were sent to St. Petersburg by a separate courier and included provisions requiring the Dutch to provide financial assistance in the war against France and cease the sale of munitions and naval stores to Britain’s enemies (from Jean de Neufville, 2 March, note 2 and references there, vol. 11:172–173; De Madariaga, Armed Neutrality of 1780 description begins Isabel de Madariaga, Britain, Russia, and the Armed Neutrality of 1780: Sir James Harris’s Mission to St. Petersburg during the American Revolution, New Haven, Conn., 1962. description ends , p. 337–340, 346–351).

RC in John Thaxter’s hand (PCC, No. 84, III, f. 426–429). printed: (Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. description begins The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, ed. Francis Wharton, Washington, D.C., 1889; 6 vols. description ends , 5:43–44).

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: John Adams to the President of Congress, 13 December 1781
Author: Adams, John
Recipients: Hanson, John
President of Congress
Date: 13 December 1781

Reference

Cite as: “John Adams to the President of Congress, 13 December 1781,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-12-02-0086. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 12, October 1781 – April 1782, ed. Gregg L. Lint, Richard Alan Ryerson, Anne Decker Cecere, C. James Taylor, Jennifer Shea, Celeste Walker, and Margaret A. Hogan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004, p. 128.]