The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume V Part 5

JOHN ADAMS.

_P. S._ There is an article in the Amsterdam Gazette of the 2d of May, taken from the Hague of the 30th of April, that "Mr Faucet, General in the service of the King of England, has set off from his residence, and we learn from Dort, that the English vessels are at last arrived there, and that the recruits of Ans.p.a.ch and Hanau will be embarked in a little time to go to America."

This Mr Faucet is the officer (they call him General in the papers, but I believe he is not more than a Major or Lieutenant Colonel) whose whole time and service are devoted to picking up the recruits for the German regiments in the British service. He constantly fills all the newspapers of Europe with his motions from place to place, and gives his accounts an air of mystery, which leaves the world, both in Europe and America, to magnify the numbers he raises at discretion, or rather according to their imaginations. But Congress may rely upon this, that the service is very unpopular and odious in Germany; that they are put to great trouble and expense, annually, to raise the recruits whom they have sent, who have never been enough to repair the breaches, and that this year they have not been able to get more than last, and these will arrive as late as those last year, and in all probability as sickly.

J. A.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Paris, May 8th, 1780.

Sir,

The English have a faculty of deceiving themselves, which has lost them thirteen colonies, has brought them into a war, first with France and then with Spain, has nearly lost them Ireland, and has at last put them in a fair way of uniting all the other maritime powers of Europe against them. Yet they are still able to deceive themselves.

There is an example of this in the Hague Gazette of the 1st of May, in the article Great Britain.

"They make here a thousand conjectures concerning the declaration of this Court of the 17th of this month, and the consequences which may result from it. The declaration of Russia does not afford less matter of speculation. It is agreed that it will render the three belligerent powers very circ.u.mspect in their conduct relative to the commerce of neutral powers, but the more moderate politicians cannot persuade themselves, that this declaration is more hostile towards England than towards the other powers at war, although our patriots, as they call themselves, exert themselves to give it a turn, as if Russia had it in view to break with England.

"Since the unfortunate contest between Great Britain and her colonies of America, the balance of commerce between Russia and England has been, one year with another, more than five hundred thousand pounds in favor of Russia, and there is also a very considerable balance in favor of the other northern powers. But these moderate English politicians ought to consider, whether this balance of commerce is enough to prevent a great and able princess from seizing an opportunity of distinguis.h.i.+ng her character with the world and in history, for wisdom, equity, and magnanimity, by rendering to mankind a most essential service, by introducing into the law and practice of nations a reformation of those errors, which the English chiefly had attempted to establish; a reformation which the interest and rights of humanity so loudly and manifestly call for, and by a.s.sisting in the separation of the new world from the domination and monopoly of England, which is also so obviously for the honor, the prosperity, and the happiness of mankind in general. The English should further consider, whether this balance of trade is likely to be less in favor of Russia, for the independence of America, and for the security which is aimed at for neutral powers. All the world out of England sees that it will not."

I will conclude this letter, by adding the letter of Lord Stormont, of the 17th of April, to the Count de Welderen, Envoy Extraordinary of their High Mightinesses.

"The King has always hoped, that the faith of treaties and the ties of an alliance, which has subsisted for more than a century, as well as those of a reciprocal friends.h.i.+p, and a common interest joined to the evidence of the danger, which threatens the Republic herself, if France and Spain accomplish their ambitious designs, would have induced their High Mightinesses to a.s.sist his Majesty to frustrate these designs by furnis.h.i.+ng him the succors stipulated by treaties the most solemn.

"But since their High Mightinesses have adopted another system, as contrary to the interests of the Republic as to those of Great Britain, since they have not made any answer to the repeated demand of these succors, and have not even shown the least intention to fulfil engagements so clear and so formal, his Majesty has found himself necessitated to execute his intentions, which have been so clearly announced in the Memorial, which his amba.s.sador presented the 21st of March last, and in the verbal declaration, which I had the honor to make to you, by express order of the King. As you are perfectly informed, Sir, of the sentiments of his Majesty, it only remains for me to communicate to you, ministerially, the order which the King has given in his Council, and to pray you to inform their High Mightinesses of it. In reading this order, you will there see, Sir, a particular attention to the interests of the commercial subjects of their High Mightinesses. The publication of the memorial presented by the Amba.s.sador of the King, as well as that of the verbal declaration, will, without doubt, render all further advertis.e.m.e.nts unnecessary.

But the King desires, that individuals should suffer as little as possible from the consequences of a system, which their High Mightinesses have adopted, and which appears as opposite to the sentiments of the Dutch nation as it is to the interests of the Republic."

How confident these people are, that no other nation of Europe understands its own interest. According to them, France, Spain, Holland, Russia, and the other maritime powers and the United States of America, are all acting, shedding their blood, and spending their money for objects directly opposite to their proper interests. But it is much to be wished that the English, for the sake of their own preservation, as well as the report of mankind, could be brought to think, that other nations understand their own interests very well.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO AN UNKNOWN PERSON.[1]

[1] The name of the person to whom this letter was sent is not mentioned in the original.

Paris, May 9th, 1780.

Dear Sir,

I thank you for your note of yesterday, and the papers enclosed.

The proposals for a general pacification, by the Dean of Gloucester, whether they were written by him, or by another, were probably intended to feel the pulse of France, or Spain, or America. Nay, it is not impossible, that they might be intended to sound even so inconsiderable a portion of existence as Mr John Adams. But it must be something rather more plausibly written; something a little more consonant to reason, and to common sense, which will draw out of Mr Adams his sentiments on the great work of pacification, if ever he should enter into any detail upon this subject, before general conferences take place, which he at present believes he shall not do.

Concealing, however, my name, you may take these few observations upon these proposals.

1. England may be heartily sick of the imprudent part she has taken.

This point I shall not dispute with the Dean of Gloucester. Yet I wish she would give some better proof of it, than she has done hitherto.

But of Americans I can speak with confidence and certainty; and so far from being sick of the part they have taken, they look upon the past madness of Great Britain, which has compelled them to overcome all the prejudices and weak pa.s.sions, which heretofore bound them to her, and to become independent, as the greatest blessing which Providence ever bestowed upon them, from the first plantation in the new world. They look upon it, that a council of the wisest statesmen and legislators, consulting together on the best means of rendering America happy, free, and great, could not have discovered and digested a system so perfectly adapted to that end, as this one, which the folly and wickedness of Great Britain has contrived for them. They not only see, and feel, and rejoice in the amelioration of their forms of government, but in the improvement of their agriculture and their manufactures, and in the discovery, that all the omnipotence of British fleets has not been able to prevent their commerce, which is opening and extending every year, as their population is increasing in the midst of the war.

2. To suppose that France is sick of the part she has taken, is to suppose her to be sick of that conduct, which has procured her more respect and consideration in Europe, than any step she ever took. It is to suppose her sick of that system, which enabled her to negotiate the peace between Russia and the Ottoman Porte, as well as the peace of Teschen; that system, which has enabled her to unite, in sentiment and affection, all the maritime powers, even the United Provinces, in her favor, and against England. It is to suppose her sick of that system, which has broken off from her rival and natural enemy the most solid part of his strength, a strength that had become so terrible to France, and would have been so fatal to her. I do not mean to enlarge.

As to the propositions themselves, it would be wasting time to consider them. Of all the malicious plans of the English against America, none has ever been more so than this. It is calculated only to make America the sport of Britain in future; to put it in her power to be forever fomenting quarrels and wars; and, I am well persuaded, that America would sooner vote for a hundred years' war.

I may be thought again too sanguine. I have been too sanguine these twenty years, constantly too sanguine; yet eternally right.

Adieu,

JOHN ADAMS.

_P. S._ I do not see Captain Waters's engagement yet in any of the papers. I would have sent it to England and Holland for publication, if I had known it could not be printed here.

J. A.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Paris, May 9th, 1780.

Sir,

I have the honor to enclose to Congress proposals for a general pacification, by the Dean of Gloucester.

"Proposals to the English, Americans, French, and Spaniards, now at war.

"First. That Great Britain shall retain Newfoundland, with the desert coasts of Labradore; also Canada, Nova Scotia, and the country bordering on the Bay of Fundy, as far as the bay and river of Pen.o.bscot.

"Secondly. That all the country from the Pen.o.bscot river to the river Connecticut, containing almost all the four populous Provinces of New England, shall be ceded to the Americans.

"Thirdly. That all the country from the Connecticut to the river Delaware, containing the whole of New York, Long Island, and the Jerseys, with some parts of two other Provinces indenting with them, shall return to Great Britain.

"Fourthly. That all the country from the Delaware to the northern boundary of South Carolina, containing the greatest part of Pennsylvania, all Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, shall be ceded to the Americans.

"Fifthly. That all the country from the northern boundary of South Carolina to the extreme point of the eastern Florida, containing three whole Provinces, shall be retained by Great Britain.

"Sixthly. That West Florida, chiefly barren sand, and the Fortress of Gibraltar (totally useless,) shall be ceded to Spain, in order to satisfy the punctilio of that nation, and that the Spaniards shall give Porto Rico in exchange, an island on which they seem to set no value and which indeed is of no use to them, though large in itself, stored with good ports, well situated, and capable (in the hands of the English) of great improvements.

"Seventhly. Lastly, that the English shall give up the conquests they have made on the French in the East Indies, who shall do the like to the English in the West Indies."

I shall make no remarks upon this plan, but there is no Englishman who thinks of a wiser, or at least who dares propose one. All, who talk of propositions, throw out something as absurd and idle as this, which will convince Congress that we shall have no peace for some time.