The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume VI Part 3

TO M. BERENGER, SECRETARY OF THE FRENCH EMBa.s.sY AT THE HAGUE.

Amsterdam, June 8th, 1781.

Sir,

I have received the letter, which you did me the honor to write me, on the 5th of this month, informing me, that you have received a letter from the Count de Vergennes, by which his Excellency directs you to tell me, that the interests of the United States require my presence at Paris, and that he should desire that I should go there, as soon as my affairs in Holland will permit me.

I should be extremely obliged to you, Sir, if you would confide to me the nature of the business that requires me at Paris, that I might be able to form some judgment, whether it is of so much importance, and so pressing, as to make it necessary for me to go forthwith.

His Excellency Dr Franklin, and Colonel Laurens, have arranged affairs in such a manner, that the accounts of the Indian are to be produced to me, and I am to draw bills to discharge them, so that it would r.e.t.a.r.d the departure of that interesting vessel, if I were to go now; and it is of some importance to the public that I should complete my despatches to go to Congress by her. I am also unfortunately involved in a good deal of business, in accepting and discharging bills of exchange, a course of business which would be put into some confusion, if I were to go immediately; and the general affairs of Congress in this Republic might suffer somewhat by my absence. But notwithstanding all, if I were informed that it is anything respecting a general pacification, or an invitation of this Republic to accede to the alliance between France and the United States, or any other affair of sufficient weight to justify my quitting this port immediately, I would do it. Otherwise it would, as I humbly conceive, be more for the public interest, that I should wait until some of the business that lies upon me here is despatched, and the rest put into a better order.

Let me beg the favor of your sentiments, Sir. Whenever I go, I must beg the favor of you to furnish me with a pa.s.sport.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Amsterdam, June 11th, 1781.

Sir,

The following pet.i.tion is too curious in itself, and too much attended to by the public at this time, to be omitted.

"To the Gentlemen, the Burgomasters, Sheriffs and Counsellors of the city of Antwerp.

"The inhabitants of the city of Antwerp in general, and those who are there concerned in commerce, in particular, should think that they injured their own interests, if they neglected, at a time when all Europe talks of the advantages, which the opening of the Scheldt would produce, to address themselves to you, Gentlemen, to make known their desire, that you would please to take the necessary measures for this purpose. While all nations fix at present their attention upon the liberty of navigation, shall we be the only people, who, although having a greater interest in it than others, should remain quiet, and suffer to pa.s.s away, unimproved, the moment, which appears to be now arrived to deliver ourselves from the yoke, which the Republic of Holland imposed upon us in the days of their first celebration? No! It is time that we awake! Since the treaty of Munster, this city and its commerce are fallen into a great decay, but we have still the means in our hands to revive them, because the inhabitants have ever continued to have an indirect portion in commerce. It was they, who after the suppression of the Company of Ostend, have a.s.sisted in the establishment of the East India Companies of Sweden and Denmark; and it would not be difficult to prove, that projects of all sorts have taken place in their speculations. What could they not do, therefore, when it shall be free to them to make a direct and unrestrained commerce? The simple hope, which they have of it, causes among them a revival of the spirit of commerce. When we compare the situation of the cities of Amsterdam and Antwerp, we shall find that that of the latter has many advantages over the former. The commerce of corn, which makes of Holland the factory of Europe, and all the trade of the North, offers itself to the city of Antwerp. We should soon find there magazines provided with everything necessary to extend commerce, and equal that of Amsterdam. This commerce alone would be sufficient to make a revival of the bright days, which preceded the peace of Munster.

"But what afflicts us, Gentlemen, is, that there are persons who would divide the interests of provinces, and give birth to a rivalry between the ports of Ostend and Antwerp, as if one port the more would be too much for the States of his Majesty. If this could be a question, no man could doubt that the city of Antwerp is much better situated to make an extensive commerce, than the city of Ostend. Experience alone is sufficient to demonstrate it. The commerce, which Antwerp has made heretofore, came there naturally of itself, although it had been formerly at Bruges, because the port of Antwerp was better, and in all respects more advantageous. But these cities have nothing in common, and if the Scheldt was open, and remained open, Ostend would not suffer any damage from it. We have the advantage to have in our Sovereign a Prince, whose whole application tends to render his subjects happy; nothing can contribute more to their prosperity than commerce. The fine arts, which have supported themselves at Antwerp, in spite of the decay of commerce, for near one hundred and forty years, would acquire here a new degree of perfection and l.u.s.tre.

"We hope, Gentlemen, that your care and zeal for everything, which can contribute to the prosperity of a city, which you have already lately delivered from beggary, will make you discover, with particular satisfaction, new means of procuring labor for the poor and needy, diminish thereby the expense of their maintenance, without reckoning all the other advantages, and especially the augmentation of our population, which would be the result of our demand."

This pet.i.tion discloses objects of so much weight in those scales, in which the political and commercial interests of the nations of Europe are now balancing, that it is worth while to transmit some observations, which have been made upon it, which will lay open the whole subject, with all its connexions. They were written in French by M. Cerisier.

"It is to have a false idea of things, to think and to say, that Holland and Zealand, taking an unjust advantage of their victories, and of the weakness of their enemies, have dictated, with arms in their hands, the outrageous and despotic conditions of holding their ports shut up. We have only to cast our eyes upon the geographical situation of Antwerp, we have only to recollect the first events of the Belgic Revolution, to acknowledge this error. The city of Antwerp for a long time made a part of the Belgic confederation; she entered into the union of Utrecht, as she had entered into the pacification of Ghent, she was even for several years the centre of the new Republic; it was not until 1585, that she fell back under the yoke of the Spaniards. But the Duke of Parma, in retaking Antwerp, could not equally make himself master of all the forts situated below that city, towards the mouth of the Scheldt. The confederates continued masters of these, and even retook some places, which had been taken from them in the course of the war. Thus they remained masters of the lower navigation of this river, an advantage, which they caused to be confirmed to them in the treaty of peace. In casting our eyes on the other hand, on the memorable siege of Antwerp, it is to this city that it is necessary to impute the misfortune of having an useless port, since, by a more vigorous and wise defence, she would have remained in the union, with all the advantages which resulted from it.

"Zealand and the city of Amsterdam, have always held the slavery of the port of Antwerp of much importance. But it is very far from being true, that this city, by recovering the liberty of her navigation, would be able to draw away any considerable part of their commerce.

The maritime places of the United Provinces have had for several ages, and many years before the revolution, a great navigation and a flouris.h.i.+ng commerce; this has been demonstrated by modern authors.

See the _Tableau de l'Histoire des Provinces Unies, et la Richesse de la Hollande_. It is an error then to believe, that they were raised upon the ruins of Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp; although we cannot deny, that they have received some augmentation from them.

"But it is England, which has drawn the greatest advantages from them.

The cause is evident; it is, that the same troubles, which chased commerce from these cities, agitated at the same time Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and the neighboring Provinces. The factions of the Houcks and the Cabeliaux, the Schieringers, and the Vetkopers, the Litchembergs, and the Gunterlings, the Hekeren, and the Bronkhorst, have nearly at the same time for many years, torn almost the whole country, which forms at this day the Republic of the United Provinces, in the times when Flanders was a prey to the most violent intestine dissensions, when Ghent and Bruges held the Emperor Maximilian in prison; and when the chastis.e.m.e.nts inflicted on these two cities, drove out the industry, and commerce, which enriched them. The United Provinces were the centre of the rebellion and the theatre of the most afflicting calamities, when the cruelties of the Spaniards chased commerce from the city of Antwerp. The most violent causes, in fact, are necessary to drive commerce from a country where she has fixed her residence. The powerful houses of commerce, the immense funds necessary to carry it on, the credit, the industry, do not transplant themselves easily from one country to another.

"We ought not to impute to slavery the fall of the commerce of the Austrian Low Countries. We must ascend to that epocha, when the fiscal and religious despotism of Spain carried into the Low Countries the yoke of civil servitude and the flames of the Inquisition. Commerce cannot harmonise with slavery, with the tyrannical exaction of imposts, with persecutors, or with hangmen. It was princ.i.p.ally to London, that industry, and the merchants of Louvain, Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp, fled. Although Holland and Zealand were at the same time a prey to similar misfortunes, and even still more terrible, they found themselves in a condition to raise a powerful marine, to beat their ancient masters, and to seize upon their spoils in the Indies.

It was upon their courage, upon their navigation, upon their establishments in the Indies, and not upon the mouth of the Scheldt, that they laid the foundations of a commerce, the richest and most extensive that ever was.

"If all the Low Countries had remained attached to the confederation, they would all have partaken of the riches, the industry, the power, and the grandeur of the United Provinces. The Austrian Low Countries were not able to recover their brilliant commerce, because they had lost it. To repair this loss, it would have been necessary, that Holland and England, filled with their manufactures, should have had the complaisance to send them back all these manufactures with their riches, their workmen, and their raw materials. It was only Louis the Fourteenth who could in this respect take Philip the Second for a model. If the Flemish and the Brabantians, should have again a source of raw materials, and of workmen, would it be easy to recall industry and naturalise it there, after so long an exile? The little progress of commerce in those countries has many other causes, besides the subjugation of one of its brooks. It is necessary to look for them in the mult.i.tude and enormity of the duties imposed upon merchandises, which enter, or go out of the Austrian dominions, duties, which are repeated from one Province, and even from one city to another; it is necessary to look for them in the tyrannical and insolent inquisition of officers, with whom the frontiers are covered, in the fiscal and iniquitous subjection, to which packages and travellers are exposed; the former to a search, which exposes the goods to be spoiled, and the other to an indecent and odious inspection. They have forced women to strip themselves, even to their s.h.i.+fts, to discover, with a scandalous avidity, effects subject to these odious taxes.

"A part of the commerce of Germany, and several Provinces of France with Holland, would have no other market than the Low Countries, if the imposts and the collection of them were not tyrannical. The merchants of St Quentin, of Rheims, of Paris, will all tell you, that the lawns, wines, and modes, which they send into the countries situated upon the Baltic, would be embarked at Ostend, without those armies of inquisitors like highwaymen, who drive away, by a perpetual restraint, commerce, the friend of liberty. Add to this, the delays, and the dearness of land-carriage, interrupted with barriers, in the countries, where there are no ca.n.a.ls; all these obstacles do not only hurt the commerce of transportation, but also that of importation and exportation. The foreigner, finding so many difficulties in spreading his superfluities in those countries, is the less capable of taking off theirs.

"Moreover, how many ameliorations may be made in the natural resources of that country? Before they allow themselves in uncertain speculations abroad, they should carry to the highest point, industry at home. There are even reformations, which are very difficult, and without which these countries will never hold the balance against countries, in which the number, the celibacy, the riches, and the laziness of the clergy, do not devour the industry of the people. Is the slavery of the Scheldt then the cause, that Louvain is peopled only with students and professors? Malines filled with attornies and judges? That Mons, Tournay, Ypres, Ghent, and Bruges, are no longer more than carca.s.ses? If there were a means of reviving these cities, would it not be by the enlargement and the safety of the port of Ostend?

"Even if the ports of Ostend, of Nieuport, and Antwerp offered roads free, safe, and commodious, would business fly to them for refuge, and abandon the ports of Hamburg, Dantzick, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Middleburg, Dunkirk, Rouen, Nantes, Roch.e.l.le, Bordeaux, the Elbe, the Somme, the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, and the ports of the three kingdoms of Great Britain, where it enjoys all the advantages and facilities, which it can desire? The English themselves, who dazzle at this day the Austrian Low Countries with the hope of a free and flouris.h.i.+ng commerce, would not they be the first to oppose this revolution, if it had any appearance of success? It is their jealousy of the prosperity of Amsterdam, which makes them clamor against the subjection of the Scheldt. But they would clamor much louder, if the liberty of the Scheldt should restore to the Low Countries the hope of recovering their ancient commerce. All States seek with emulation to augment the national industry. Russia, and even other northern States, are making efforts and sacrifices to procure for themselves manufactures. All countries, even Spain and Portugal, begin to perceive that these things are more useful than _autos-da-fe_. The Austrian Low Countries have them also. But could they augment them at the expense of other countries; especially at a time, when so many States pique themselves in having a warlike marine to maintain their commerce and their national industry?

"But, it will be said, is it not manifest that the navigation of Antwerp being opened, commerce, by reascending the river, would diffuse her benign influence throughout all the extent of an agreeable, and fertile territory, full of ca.n.a.ls and great roads, &c.?

I answer again, why would not the ports of Bruges, Ghent, Ostend, and Nieuport produce the same effect? It is even apparent, that these ports would lose by the new outlet of Antwerp, the little commerce which remained to them. In that case, Brabant would only raise itself on the ruins or at the expense of Flanders. The liberty of this river would enrich perhaps the interior of the country, but it would certainly impoverish the coasts of the sea. They say it is unjust to hold the Scheldt shut up; but would it not, on the contrary, be the height of injustice to open again a navigation, a.s.sured to the Hollanders by the natural consequence of a revolution universally ratified, and by a long possession? What man, what State, would be authorised to appropriate a thing to itself because it was for his convenience? This rule, it is true, has in our days effected the dismemberment of Poland, the invasion of Silesia, and the present war of England against Holland. But in taking away the property of the Dutch, with what right can one find fault with the violence of Russia?

"It will be said, that the restraint of a river dug by nature, for the use of the inhabitants who live upon the banks, is contrary to natural right, against which no prescription ever runs. But do not the turnpikes, or fall-stops, with which these rivers are thickset, contravene also the rights of nature? The house of my neighbor intercepts the light, of which I have great occasion; have I the right for this reason to pull it down?

"In one word, the mouth of the Scheldt is in the territory of the United Provinces. The Republic, according to received principles, may interdict the navigation of it to foreigners, as well as to its own subjects. She excludes only the former; because she finds her advantage in it, as the English find theirs in their famous act of navigation, much more tyrannical than the subjection of the Scheldt.

The Belgians will say, the waters of this river wash and fertilize our country in pa.s.sing through it. But have not the French still a better right to the same navigation, because this river takes its rise in France? The Swiss would have a good grace to wish to arrogate to themselves the free navigation of the whole course of the Rhone, the Po, the Danube, and the Rhine, because these rivers flow from the mountains of Helvetia. The subjection of the Scheldt was ratified in 1648, in the famous treaty of Munster, or Westphalia, whereof all the powers of Europe are warranties, and which still pa.s.ses for the basis of the political system of Europe, and for a fundamental law of the empire. We have seen in 1778, the Emperor himself obliged to renounce a succession supported upon authentic t.i.tles, because the powers, warranties of the peace of Westphalia, sustained, that this succession was contrary to that treaty. And yet it is wished, that in full peace, without t.i.tle, without pretence, the Emperor should wrest from the Dutch a property, the fruits of which will never indemnify them for the sacrifices they have made for his house.

"They would have the Emperor an ambitious Prince, rolling the vastest projects in his head. But with what eye will the other powers view an usurpation, which they ought to seek to prevent by all the motives of honor and of interest; even although it should be from the ambitious idea of acting their part in the affairs of Europe? How? Shall he expose himself in the present moment to spread the flames of a general war in Europe, and to lose perhaps the Low Countries, which would be from that moment surrounded by inimical powers. For what? To procure to the inhabitants of Antwerp, the facility of conducting a few s.h.i.+ps into the German ocean.

"Holland is in the last degree of weakness, embarra.s.sment, and disunion; she has fear. Oh! yes; but the King of Prussia, but the electors of Saxony and Palatine, but the King of France, would have fear also; fear would unite them; and when one has a great deal, he begins to have less fear.

"That which would make of Antwerp a new Sidon, or a new Carthage, which would render this city the rival of Bordeaux, of Rouen, of Amsterdam, and of London, would be infinitely prejudicial to the French and the Russians. Either this business would be a part detached from that of the ports of the channel, and of the Baltic sea, and, in that case, France and Russia would not consent to build up a place of commerce, which would flourish at their expense; they would oppose the opening of a port, which would draw away the inhabitants from those, which they are laboring to make flourish; or it would be composed of branches torn from that which is done at the Texel, upon the Meuse, and the Thames, and, in that case, they will refuse their consent to this transplantation. If it is necessary, that the commerce of the Dutch and the English should fall, Russia and France will choose to take advantage of its decay, to transport it into their harbors."

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Amsterdam, June 12th, 1781.

Sir,

The States of Holland and West Friesland are adjourned to the 27th. In their last session, they consented to the augmentation of seventeen thousand six hundred and eightysix land forces, according to the plan, which the Council of State, in concert with the Stadtholder, had formed, on the 18th of April, and which had been carried on the 19th of the same month, to the a.s.sembly of the States of the Province. They have also taken the resolution to lend to the East India Company the sum of one million two hundred thousand florins, at three per cent interest, to be reimbursed in thirtythree years, in payments of thirtysix thousand florins. The affairs of the Colony of Surinam are about to engage the attention of government, according to a pet.i.tion, which the Deputies of the merchants of Dort, Haerlem, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, presented on the 6th, to the States of Holland and West Friesland, and for which the merchants have demanded, in an audience, which they have had of the Stadtholder, the support of His Most Serene Highness. This pet.i.tion was conceived in these terms.

PEt.i.tION FROM THE DEPUTIES OF DORT, HAERLEM, AMSTERDAM, AND ROTTERDAM, TO HOLLAND AND WEST FRIESLAND.

"The merchants, deputies of the cities of Dort, Haerlem, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, represent in the most respectful manner, that the mortal stagnation of navigation and of commerce, which cannot preserve their well-being but by continual activity, has forced the pet.i.tioners not to disguise any longer the fatal effects, and in circ.u.mstances, when the naval force of the Republic is not yet in a state to procure them a sufficient protection, to seek for themselves a succor, which, in the extreme danger in which the colonies, which yet remain to the State, and even the State itself, are found at this day, may serve apparently to advance in more than one manner, the general interest of this Republic; that the supplicants, both for themselves, and speaking in favor and in the name of several thousands of their fellow-citizens, have taken the part to present to their High Mightinesses the States-General of the United Provinces, the pet.i.tion, a copy of which is here joined, and to which they respectfully refer, as follows.

_Pet.i.tion._

"That as your n.o.ble and Grand Mightinesses, have always testified, that the well-being of your fellow-citizens in general, and that of merchants in particular, ought to be supported in every manner, the pet.i.tioners a.s.sure themselves, that the more the danger becomes imminent, the more the zeal of your n.o.ble and Grand Mightinesses will animate itself to prevent, under the divine blessing, the total ruin of the essential sources of the existence of the country; so that this danger being at present so great, and becoming from day to day more pressing, the pet.i.tioners dare to promise themselves, on the part of your n.o.ble and Grand Mightinesses, all the succor and a.s.sistance requisite, and to hope, that they shall not invoke in vain their powerful support, relative to the prayer beforementioned. It is for this, that the pet.i.tioners address themselves to this Sovereign a.s.sembly, in the manner the most respectful, and in a confidence the most entire in the inclination of your n.o.ble and Grand Mightinesses for the protection of the citizens of the Republic, seriously praying, that it may please your n.o.ble and Grand Mightinesses, to authorise your Deputies in the a.s.sembly of the States-General to concur in directing, with all the earnestness possible, things in such a manner, that there be given to the pet.i.tion aforesaid a prompt and favorable answer, and that measures be taken, to the end that the pet.i.tioners and those who are otherwise interested with them, may enjoy without delay the effect of a definitive determination, &c.

"To their High Mightinesses, the States-General of the United Provinces give respectfully to understand, the undersigned proprietors, and owners of vessels navigating to the Colony of Surinam, owners of plantations, situated there, merchants and others interested in the commerce of the said colony;

"That this Colony, independently of the interest, which the undersigned, and a great number of others equally interested, take in it, may be regarded as of the greatest importance for the Republic itself, by reason of the very considerable revenues, which, for a long course of years, it has procured, not only to the direction privileged by grant, but also to the Republic itself, and which become every day more lucrative, by the enormous expenses, which the proprietors of plantations have made to cultivate new lands, and to improve the culture of several territorial productions.