WRITINGS
OF
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW VOBK • BOSTOM • CHICAGO • DALLAS
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., LmiTEO
tONDON • BOMBAY • CALCOTTA
UELBOCENE
THE ALACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
WRITINGS
OF
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
EDITED BY
WORTHINGTON CHAUNCEY FORD
VOL. V
1814-1816
THE MAC iMl LEAN COMPANY
1915
All rights reserved
E3 3 7
Copyright, igis
By MARY OGDEN ADAMS .^
Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1915.
JUN 3 1915 ^
Gl. A 4 G 1 4 1
CONTENTS
K?
^ 1814
PAGE
January 2. To John Adams ...... i
Gallatin about to leave St. Petersburg. Curious
situation of the commissioners. Offers to treat from
Great Britain.
January 4. To R. G. Beasley ..... 4
American intelligence. No expectation of peace.
January 17. To Abigail Adams ..... 5
Intentions of Gallatin and Bayard. American news
by way of England. Battle of Lake Erie. Prevost's
dispatches. Lesson of the war.
January 24. To Thomas Boylston Adams ... 9
The ruler of Holland. Notification to consuls and pos-
sible explanation. Napoleon's fall.
January 29. To Robert Fulton . . . .11
Issue of his patent subject to a specification and
model of boat.
February 5. To the Secretary of State ... 12
Interview with Count Romanzoff. Count Eleven's
dispatch. Romanzoff's desire to resign his office.
Character outlined. Relations with the Emperor.
Publications in the official gazette.
February 17. To John Adams ..... 18
A new peace commission. A new destination after
peace. The powers and France. Peace not remote in
Europe. Relations with Great Britain.
PAGE
vi CONTENTS
«
March 30. To Abigail Adams ..... 22
Has learned of the new peace commission. Hopes
to return to America before the end of the year. Opin-
ion of Gallatin's merits. Concessions. The allies
and France.
April 7. To THE Secretary of State .... 27
Reported check in Britain's desire to negotiate.
Reasons for pursuing his journey. Mr. Harris.
April 7. To Senator Weydemeyer .... 29
Negotiations with Great Britain to be at Gothenburg.
Reasons for accepting the proposal. Error of Lord Cath-
cart. Is about to leave for Gothenburg.
April 15. To the Secretary of State ... 34
Brief interview with Weydemeyer. Cathcart's state-
ment a surprise. Object of the British Cabinet and
measures taken on mediation. Position of Russia.
Impressment of seamen a European issue.
April 25. To the Secretary of State ... 39
Is about to leave for Gothenburg. Return of Harris.
Government of Sweden notified. Smith left as charge.
Need of a secretary.
May 12. To Abigail Adams ..... 42
Humiliation of France and Bonaparte. No confidence
in the allies except in Alexander. He will serve as
arbitrator.
M^y 13-June 2. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 44
War in Europe has ended in calm. No appointment
of British commissioners. The place of meeting. Com-
mercial stagnation in England.
May 28. To THE Secretary of State ... 47
Change in the place of meeting proposed, but will go
to Gothenburg. Sees little prospect of a favorable result.
CONTENTS vii
PAGE
June 12. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 48
Has lost his servant, but has a substitute. Desire of
a Frenchman to serve him. Officers of the ship and
naval strength.
June 25. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 50
First to arrive at Ghent. Change of destination and
his wishes. Impressions of Sweden and Holland. Rise
of Antwerp and fate of Belgium.
June 28. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 52
Changes in the old Stad-house at Amsterdam. Traces
of the Bonaparte family. Sober character of the people.
National airs.
July 2. To Louisa Catherine Adams • • • . 55
Popularity and moderation of the Emperor Alexander.
Wrangling over European sports.
July 3. To the Secretary of State .... 56
Ghent to have a British garrison. Journeyings of
the commissioners.
July 9. To Levett Harris ..... 57
His office announced to Russian government. Place
of meeting of no real importance.
July 12. To Louisa Catherine Adams • • • 59
Todd and Carroll. Opinions on the probability of
peace. His own plans. American visitors. Recollec-
tions of a Dutch school. His birthday toasted by
Bayard. Harmony.
July 15. To Louis.'V Catherine Adams ... 61
Distinguished visitors to Ghent. Marriage negotia-
tions for the hand of Princess Charlotte. Talk of a new
war.
viii CONTENTS
PAGE
July i6. To Alexander Hill Everett ... 62
Edward Everett's <f) fi K poem. An address to the
Charitable Fire Society and American principles.
July 19. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 64
Commissioners have taken a house. Obtained from
a French universalist. A question of wines.
July 22. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 65
Selection of Ghent meant delay. Clay, the attaches,
and Bayard. Will not get away as expected.
July 29. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 67
Debate in the House of Commons on the negotiation.
Lord Castlereagh's candor. Utterances of Vansittart
and Canning. Report of Madison's impeachment.
August I. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 69
Removal to house and its consequences. Hughes as
an entertainer. Todd at Paris. British commissioners
delayed and the cause. Peace in Europe.
August 5. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 71
British commissioners about to come. Entertain-
ments at St. Petersburg and the Emperor's title.
American news in the newspapers. Religious festival at
Boston. Massachusetts politics. Lannuyer.
August 9. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 74
Arrival of the British commissioners. The speech of
the Prince Regent. Negotiation will not be of long con-
tinuance.
August II. To the Secretary of St.^te • • • 75
Arrival of the commissioners and the first conference.
Assurances of peace exchanged. Indian pacification and
boundary. Reply of the American commissioners on
propositions. Attempt to pledge the American pleni-
potentiaries to results. Protocols of conferences.
CONTENTS
IX
PAGE
August i6. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 82
American prospects not promising. A dinner to
Americans in Ghent and Adams' toast. Lord tlill's ex-
pedition.
August 17. To THE Secretary of State ... 84
Cochrane's proclamation and British pretensions.
Gallatin and the Emperor Alexander. Europe de-
pendent upon Great Britain. Propositions from the
British commissioners. Probable rupture of the con-
ference and Lord Hill's expedition. Belgium and Hol-
land under one ruler.
August 19. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 88
Conferences suspended. Habits of living. Probable
stay at Ghent.
August 23. To Louisa Catherine Adams ... 90
Castlereagh at Ghent. A final exchange of notes.
Plans of the commissioners. Todd's interpretation of
his mother's wishes. Milligan's visit to Scotland.
Russell and de Cabre.
August 24. Answer to the British Commissioners 93
Lord Castlereagh's proposition. Disposition for peace
unchanged. Question on the Indians. Practice of Euro-
pean nations. The lands of the Indians. Peace with
the natives broken by the English. Too much asked.
Objections to the proposed boundary. Military com-
mand of the lakes. Cession of territory. An amicable
warning.
August 26. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . . 102
Expects to leave Ghent in a few days. Harmony
among the Americans. No news from America.
August 29. To William Harris Cr^vwford . . 104
Little prospect of a peace. Effect of a continuance of
the war on America. Preparations and coming dis-
asters. Cochrane's proclamation.
CONTENTS
PAGE
August 30. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . . 107
In hourly expectation of the final reply. A spat be-
tween Bayard and W. Adams.
August 31. To George Joy. ..... 109
Making a fortune from a peace. Relations with
William Adams.
September 5. To the Secretary of State . .110
Cause of delay on the part of the British Commis-
sioners. An interview with Goulburn. Conquest of
Canada. Disavowal of proclamations. The British
navy and slaves taken in America. Indian allies and ter-
ritories. Armed force on the lakes. Comments.
September 9. To Louisa Catherine Adams . .120
Believes the commission will not be dismissed as ex-
pected by all. An exchange of notes. Number of
British negotiators. Praise for Gallatin and Bayard.
Visitors and a compliment.
September 9. Answer to the British Commissioners 122
Reasons for not discussing propositions. Relations
with the Indians and armaments on the lakes. Practice
of the British government. The American system.
September 10. To Abigail Adams .... 130
Intentions of the Smiths. Clay and Russell not
against the success of the mission. Progress of the
negotiation. Situation of the American commissioners.
Milligan's visit to Scotland and its consequence.
September 11. To Lafayette ..... 134
On visiting Paris and Victor de Tracy. Prospects of
the mission.
September 13. To Louisa Catherine Adams . 136
Continuation of the interchange of notes probable.
Summary of what has passed. No concession.
CONTENTS xi
PAGE
September 13. To George Joy . . . .138
Will be happy to see him unless commercial specula-
tion be his object. Abuse of access and information.
September 14. To William Harris Crawford . 139
France and the rights of neutrality. The negotiation
has become arrant trifling. The United States to be a
great naval and military power.
September 16. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 141
Commission to part. Note sent to England. English
press on the situation. A rumored apology.
September 23. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 143
Last note in preparation, as is believed. Changes in
the British demands. News from England. His own
part in preparing papers. Doubt of the future.
September 27. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 145
Policy of the British government. Discussion has
been preliminary only. A suggestion of his own ac-
cepted. Real debate with the Privy Council. Manner
of preparing notes. Treatment of his matter. Gallatin's
influence.
October 4. To Louisa Catherine Adams 148
A reminder. Destruction by the British at Washing-
ton. Weakness of the defense. Must be prepared for
misfortunes. Sentiment of the Americans.
October 5. To William Harris Crawford . . 151
News from America. Clay optimistic on the outcome
of the negotiation. British misrepresentations.
October 7. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . -153
Destruction at Washington contrary to usages of civi-
lized nations. Cruelty in civil wars. Rejoicing in Eng-
land. Precipitate retreat of British.
xii CONTENTS
PAGE
October ii. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . . 155
Will remain some weeks longer. A new British note.
The Washington attack and European opinion. An at-
tempted defense.
October 14. To Louisa Catherine Adams . 158
The fourth British note. Has yielded to his colleagues.
Enemy not to be propitiated. Lawrence's last words.
Bayard on the vandalic attacks.
October 18. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 161
The Congress of Vienna and peace. Pamphlets by
Carnot and Chateaubriand. The Bourbon rule. The
French army.
October 18. To William Harris Crawford . 163
Object of British policy. No good reason for breaking
off the negotiation. Danger of delay.
October 25. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . . 164
Protracting the negotiation. New pretensions ad-
vanced and rejected. Trials to be endured.
October 25. To Abigail Adams ..... 166
Congratulations on jubilee year. How peace may be
secured. England at the Congress of Vienna. Memorial
of Tallyrand.
October 25. To the Secretary of State . . . 168
Detention of the Chauncey. Reported violation of the
cartel. Conduct of the agent. Delay the British policy.
Why no rupture has taken place. Basis of uti possidetis
rejected. Congress of Vienna and peace.
October 28. To Louisa Catherine Adams 174
Social activity at Ghent. Isolation of the British
Commissioners. Retreat of Prevost.
CONTENTS xiii
PAGE
November 4. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 176
Newspapers as a source of information. Conditions
on which peace will turn.
November 6. To William Harris Crawford . . 180
Negotiation spinning out. Question of etiquette on
exchange of projets.
November 8. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 178
Preparing a reply to the British note. Pakenham
sent to America. Wellington may go.
November 11. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 181
War will probably continue. Draft of treaty sent to
the British Commissioners. His own part in it. The
Regent's speech to Parliament.
November 14. To George Joy ..... 184
Nature of civil war. Is something of an optimist.
November 15. To Levett Harris . . .186
Why the negotiation has been kept open. Situation
in America. General issue of campaign yet to come.
A threat of retaliation.
November 15. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 188
Concert and ball. The theatrical entertainments.
Expects bad news from America. The Regent's speech
and the English policy. Prevost and retaliation.
November 17. To William Harris Crawford . . 192
The campaign in America. Debate on the Regent's
speech. What has been done in the negotiation. The
fisheries. Cruel conduct of the war. The European
press. Position of France at Vienna.
November 18. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 195
Little expectation of a peace. Success of Tallyrand
at Vienna. Predominance of Great Britain.
xiv CONTENTS
PAGE
November 20. To the Secretary of State . . 198
Passports and dispatches. The Transit and instruc-
tions. Course of the negotiation. Belief that the
United States will sink before Britain.
November 22. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 202
English newspapers on the negotiation. A rupture
anticipated. Conduct of the British commissioners.
As to a projet of a treaty. The destruction at Washing-
ton. Measure of W. Adams.
November 23. To Abigail Adams .... 205
An outline of the negotiation. British military
achievements. Boast of the Earl of Liverpool. The
Congress at Vienna. The situation at Ghent.
November 24. To Levett Harris .... 209
Opinion at St. Petersburg and of the British ministry.
Malice against America. Must be prepared for desola-
tion. Humiliating failures. Publication of the com-
mission's dispatches.
November 25. To Louisa Catherine Adams . .212
Good effect produced by the publication of dis-
patches. Change in the British position. Annoyance
shown and possible end of the mission. Approval of
the President and his own proposal validated by in-
structions. The Hartford Convention.
November 27. To Peter Paul Francis De Grand . 215
The progress of the negotiation. Triumph of Amer-
ican mariners. Withholding of reports in England. An
atrocious system of warfare.
November 29. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 21S
Recall of the Dutch minister to the United States.
Proceedings of the Massachusetts legislature. A reply
from the British Commissioners. Trifles and principles.
PAGE
CONTENTS
England inclined towards peace. Federal politics and
changes in the government.
December 2. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . . 221
More cheering news from the United States. His col-
leagues and concession. Language softened to ad-
vantage. Clinging to little things. Result of a confer-
ence. Threats met, and readiness for a treaty. Social
enjoyments.
December 6. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . . 225
His colleagues sanguine of a treaty. Why he doubts
the sincerity of the British. Change in tone of English
journals. The strolling players.
December 8. To Levett Harris ..... 227
Great Britain makes it a war of conquest. Maritime
questions not to be discussed at Vienna. Situation of
the negotiation.
December 9. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . . 229
The trying moment at hand. Mutual conciliation
among his colleagues.
December 12. Note to the British Commissioners . 231
Failure of conferences to produce an agreement.
Restoration of captured territory. Islands in Passa-
maquoddy Bay. Navigation of the Mississippi.
December 13. To Louisa Catherine Adams 235
The negotiation labors. Suppression of feeling. De-
pendence of the British Commissioners. The Duke of
Wellington at Paris.
December 16. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 237
His best friend. Character of his colleagues and irri-
tability. Greatest ditferences with Clay. Their position
not so favorable. Hail Columbia and the Hanoverian
officers.
xvi CONTENTS
PAGE
December 20. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 241
General belief in a peace. The London Times makes
charges against the American mission. Milligan's con-
duct.
December 23. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 243
Inquisitive visitors. An insistent correspondent. His
own state of peculiar anxiety. Treaty, if signed, will
give little satisfaction to either nation. England pre-
pares for a new campaign.
December 24. To Abigail Adams .... 247
A treaty of peace signed. Will go to Paris and await
orders. Character of the peace.
December 26. To John Adams ..... 248
Manner of sending the treaty to America. Informa-
tion wanted on the fisheries. Question of rights and
liberties. What passed in the negotiation. War and
treaties. Massachusetts' interests in the result. Har-
mony among the Americans has been constant.
December 27. To Louisa Catherine Adams . 253
The signing and dispatching of the treaty. Bentzon's
energy. Announcement at Ghent. Treaty sent to the
United States. Movements of the Commissioners.
May be appointed to England. She will join him in
Paris.
December 30. To Louisa Catherine Adams 256
Joy in share in restoring peace to the world. Publica-
tion of the treaty. Restoration of captures at sea.
1815
January 2. To James A. Bayard, Henry Clay and
Jonathan Russell ...... 258
Custody of the papers of the mission. Willingness to
surrender them under certain conditions. Cannot
comply with requisition.
CONTENTS xvii
PAGE
January 3. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 260
Terms in treaty are of perfect reciprocity, but no sub-
ject of dispute settled. Stock-jobbing in London.
Virulence of the Times. Music and celebrations. Tak-
ing leave of the Empress mother.
Januar)' 6. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . . 263
New-year's address on Vienna and Ghent. The ques-
tion of time.
January 13. To Levett Harris ..... 264
Courtesy of the Duke of Wellington to be imitated.
Has had no correspondence with Count Nesselrode.
January 10-17. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . 266
Party violence in Congress. The New England con-
federation. Employment of Gallatin. Sale of household
effects.
January 20. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . . 268
The treaty in America and Aiassachusetts. The
islands in Passamaquoddy Bay. The fishing right and
the navigation of the Mississippi. Position of the
Indians.
January 24. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . . 272
A portrait by Van Huffel. How Hail Columbia was
introduced. A fair lady and gallantry.
January 27. To Louisa Catherine Adams . . . 274
Has left Ghent. Inertia of matter. Kind treatment
received from the people of Ghent. Change in Sweden.
February 21. To Abigail Adams .... 277
Impressions of Paris after thirty years. Madame de
Stael and the Lafayettes. His colleagues of Ghent. Has
been presented to the king. The Louvre.
February 28. Commission ..... 276
xviii CONTENTS
PAGE
February 23. To the Secretary of State . . . 281
Manner of sending the treaty. A treaty of commerce
with Great Britain. The matter of maritime rights.
Supremacy of England. Questions to be negotiated.
March 2. To Levett Harris ..... 285
The Congress of Vienna and the treaty of Ghent.
Monument to the Queen of Prussia.
March 13. Instructions ...... 286
Execution of the treaty. Surrender of occupied terri-
tory, and boundary. Taking away of slaves. Discrimi-
nating duties. Order of signatures in treaties.
March 19. To Abigail Adams ..... 290
Treaty of Ghent ratified by the United States.
Peace on the ocean. Landing of Napoleon in France and
triumphant progress towards Paris. Defection of the
army. • Gallatin and Bayard. Mrs. Adams has left St.
Petersburg.
March 21. To John Adams ..... 294
Napoleon at Paris. Changes in name of the Journal.
Quiet entrance of Napoelon. The King set out for Lille.
Books desired.
April 22. To Abigail Adams ..... 299
Arrival of Mrs. Adams from St. Petersburg. In-
fluence of Napoleon. Little opposition to his progress.
The army and holders of national property. Action of
the allies. The Ghent commissioners.
April 24. To John Adams ...... 304
The English mission. A treaty of commerce with
Great Britain. The fisheries question. No pacific senti-
ments towards America. Dependence on England of
the Bourbons and their weakness. War against Napo-
leon. The French constitution.
CONTENTS XIX
PA3E
April 24, To THE Secretary of the Treasury . .310
Sale of American stock in Europe. Prices in America
and in Europe.
April 28. To Peter Paul Francis De Grand . .312
An unfinished letter. Effect of the war in raising esti-
mation of the United States. Navy to be cherished.
Faction and the treaty. The Hartford Convention.
Napoleon and Europe.
June 5. To George William Erving . . . -317
American newspapers. The elections in Massachu-
setts. Naval prints.
June 23. To the Secretary of State . . -3^9
Interview with Lord Castlereagh. Assurances of
peace. Question of seamen. The Dartmoor prison in-
quest. A boundary commission. Restoration of slaves
and a treaty of commerce. Appointment of Charles
Bagot.
July II. To WiLLEM AND Jan Willink . . -325
Prices of American stock and payment of interest on
loans.
July 18. To Christopher Hughes .... 326
The Ghent commissioners' plans. The treaty of com-
merce. Shaler's diplomacy.
July 25. To William Eustis 328
Peace and party politics in the United States. Part
played by New England.
July 27. To Alexander Hill Everett . . 33°
His entrance into the diplomatic career and his re-
quests. European seductions and corruptions. Recol-
lections of The Hague. Message to Veerman.
XX CONTENTS
*&^
PAGE
July 28. To Levett Harris . . . . -3^2
Fulton's steamboat privileges in Russia. Measures
to secure its advantages.
August 9. To Lord Castlereagh .... 334
Restoration of slaves under the treaty of Ghent.
Changes in propositions during negotiations. The fort
at Michillimackinac.
August 15. To THE Secretary of State 339
Treaty with Algiers, and protection of American
commerce.
August 15. To Francis Freeling .... 340
Question on the address of a letter.
August 17. To G. H. Freeling ..... 340
Explanation is accepted, but states his proper official
title and character.
August 20. To R. G. Beasley ..... 341
As to aid for Thomas Nelson. Real cases of distress.
August 22. To the Secretary of State . . 343
Abolition of discriminating duties. Time convention
operates. Orders of Council on American trade. Re-
strictions as to St. Helena. The Louisiana convention
as a precedent. Michillimackinac. Removal of slaves
and the treaty provisions. Intentions of the negotiators.
Charges against British naval officers. Little prospect
of satisfaction.
August 27. To Benjamin Waterhouse . 353
Travels of his letters. Boston federalist newspapers
and the Ghent treaty. Governor Strong's assertion.
The British navy and impressment. France and the
allies.
CONTENTS
ZXi
PAGE
August 29, To THE Secretary of State . . -357
Discriminating duties. An instance of impressments.
Distress of seamen. IMichillimackinac and naval arma-
ment on the lakes.
August 31. To John Adams ..... 360
The fisheries and New England's policy. The Trini-
tarian and Unitarian controversy. Persecution in Eu-
rope. Inchiquin's Letters. Situation of France.
August 31. To William Eustis ..... 365
Conquered France. The Algerian pirates. Dutch
commerce and prices of American stock. British per-
formance of the Ghent treaty. Paper constitutions.
September 5. To the Secretary of State . . 367
Compensation for slaves taken away after the peace.
Need of authenticated papers. Michillimackinac.
Peace in Europe. Hostile feelings against America.
September 9. To Joseph Hall ..... 372
Shortsightedness of the federalists. The Ghent
treaty and the sine qua non. American character in
Europe. Lessons of the war.
September 19. To the Secretary of State 377
Hostilities against the United States. Interview with
Lord Bathurst. Order on the fisheries. The question
of right under treaties. Western posts and Indian rela-
tions. NichoUs' treaty disavowed. Departure of Bagot.
Policy towards France.
September 20. To John Adams ..... 389
The fishery rights. Orders issued on the practice.
Lloyd and the British declaration at Ghent. Alassachu-
setts must assert itself.
September 30. To the Secretary of State 394
Services of a secretary, James Grubb. English inten-
tions in South America. Auguste Annoni.
xxii CONTENTS
PAGE
October 2. To Thomas Reilly 39^
Crew of the Monticello.
October 4. To Mitchel King 397
Copies of public records and publication of Ramsay's
history.
October 5. To William Plumer 39^
France has in turn become the victim. Prospects of
peace. Influence upon the United States. Need for
preparation. British spirit of commercial monopoly.
Historical works and periodicals. Tranquillity of
Europe.
October 7. To the Secretary of State . . -403
v/ Offtcial requests and Consul Fox. English criticism
of the commercial convention with the United States.
The Floridas.
October 7. To Earl Bathurst AoG
Restitution or compensation for slaves of Downman.
Peculiar circumstances of the transaction.
October 9. To John Adams ..... 407
His position and its prospects. Questions to be dis-
\/ cussed. Status of the fisheries. The commercial con-
vention. Economic situation of England. France not to
be feared. Religious controversy in Massachusetts.
October 10. To Jonathan Russell .412
Summary of incidents since parting. Negotiating a
commercial convention with Great Britain. Points of
difference. Gain of a formality in signing treaties. St.
Helena closed to American ships. Decatur and the
Barbary States. The Napoleon museum.
November 24. To John Adams ..... 418
Inability to write or to see friends. Uncertainty as to
expense allowances. The Massachusetts militia and
the navy.
CONTENTS xxiii
PAGE
November 28. To Sylvanus Bourne .... 420
Expenses of education at Harvard University. Books
for reading on international law.
November 29. To William Eustis .... 423
Prospects of peace between the United States and
Great Britain. The fisheries. The national finances.
November 29. To William Shaler .... 426
The treaty with Algiers. Europe will follow the ex-
ample. No more tribute.
November 30. To John Thornton Kirkland . . 428
Visit from the astronomer Bond. Books for the
University. Religious persecution in Europe. Treat-
ment of France by the powers.
December 5. To Abigail Adams . . -431
The Unitarian controversy and Channing's pamphlet.
His own conclusions. Priestley's position.
December 6. To Alexander Hill Everett . . . 436
Visit to Waterloo. St. Pierre's idea of perpetual peace.
Malthus and his theory of population.
December 14. To the Secretary of State . . 439
Claims against Great Britain for losses in the late war.
No hope of redress.
December 14. To Jonathan Russell .... 441
Criticism of the commercial convention. The fur
trade. Armaments on the lakes. Cheapness of the nec-
essaries of life in England an evil,
December 16. To John Adams ..... 445
The fishery clauses in treaties as interpreted by
Great Britain. Right must be maintained. Religious
intolerance in France. Conduct of the allies. Some
things to be gained.
xxiv CONTENTS
PAGE
December — . To Lord Castlereagh .... 448
As to American seamen in want. Provisions of the
law. Burden in cases raised should be on Great Britain,
Pensions.
December 24. To James Madison . . . -451
A pamphlet from one who desires to migrate to
America.
December 27. To Abigail Adams .... 453
Wishes to return to the United States. The com-
mercial convention. American influence in the Mediter-
ranean. Feeling against the United States.
December 29. To Rufus King ..... 455
Trusts no impairment of mutual confidence. Intro-
duces Pursh.
1816
January I. To George Joy ...... 456
Pay of American consuls. Money not the only re-
ward of service.
January 5. To George Joy ...... 458
Kirkland on federalists.
January 5. To John Adams ..... 458
Unity and Trinity and the Athanasian creed. Argu-
. ments of a Jesuit father. The President's message and
peace with Great Britain. Effect of low prices in Eng-
land. The Bank and the national debt.
January 8. To Lord Castlere.vgh .... 463
Undue discrimination on American ships in the ports
of Ireland. Asks for equal privilege with British vessels.
January 9. To Abigail Adams ..... 466
Departure of Bagot for America. Letter of John
Adams to Dr. Price. Position of the dissenters. Atti-
CONTENTS XXV
PAGE
tude towards the French Protestants. Origin of the
Lloyd letters. The Hallowells.
January 9. To the Secretary of State . . . 470
Vessels taken within the Spanish jurisdiction.
January 22. To Lord Castlereagh .... 472
Rights and liberties in the fisheries. Nature of the
treaty of 1783. Termination of treaties by war. Perma-
nent stipulations. Acknowledgment of independence.
The treaty of 1783 in the Ghent treaty. The fishing lib-
erties. Distinction between right and liberty. Effect of
independence. Natural conditions.
January 22. To the Secretary of State . . . 487^/
Europe and the South Americans. Importance as
something to be desired. Peace with the United States.
January 31. To the Secretary of State 491
New powers for further negotiations. The question
of seamen. Care for distressed sailors. Results of an
inquiry. Proposals submitted. Means of protecting
seamen.
February 8. To the Secretary of State . . . 497
Interview with Lord Castlereagh. Armaments on the
lakes. Sources of trouble. Specific examples. Nature
of the proposals. Cession of the Floridas. Relations
with Spain and South Americans. Downman's slaves.
Wishes of the government of the United States. Evi-
dence offered. Emigration from Ireland.
February 8. To Abigail Adams . . . . • S^i
A visit to the Copleys and to West.
February 17. To Lord Castlereagh • S^i
The treaty of Ghent on restoration of property cap-
tured. Action of British naval officers. Manner of
PAGE
n1'
xxvi CONTENTS
framing the stipulation. Lord Bathurst's statement.
Proper interpretation of the stipulation.
February 27. To William Plumer . . . .518
Possible connection between the Hartford Conven-
tion and a hurricane and influenza. Political and eco-
nomic relations of Great Britain. Taxes and agricultural
distress.
February 29. To John Adams ..... 520
Expulsion of the Jesuits from Russia. Reported diffi-
culties between the United States and Spain.
March 4. To Abigail Adams ..... 522
Impressions and experiences when last in Paris. Re-
ception of Napoleon at the theatre. The Napoleon
museum.
March 6. To the Secretary of State . . . 526
Discrimination in Ireland against American vessels.
Duties on cotton and light money. The renewal of the
property tax.
March 8. To Jonathan Russell .... 530
Cobbett and his paper. Distress in England. The
situation in the United States. Christopher Hughes and
Shaler.
March 12. To Lord Castlereagh . . . -533
Representation on Downman's slaves. Captain
Barrie's statement examined. Violation of flags of truce.
Possible sources of information.
March 16. To Alexander Hill Everett . . 537
Lessons to be drawn from the negotiation at Ghent.
Benefits to the United States. J. A. Smith, secretary of /
legation. Everett's future prospects. Qualities of secre-
taries and failures. Should not remain in Europe too
long.
CONTENTS xxvii
PACE
March 25. To Abigail Adams ..... 542
His health and handwriting. Extent of his corre-
spondence and demands upon his services. Samples of
applications.
March 27. To Joseph Pitcairn ..... 545
Order for books for Plarvard University.
March 29. To William Eustis 546
Rumored difficulties with Onis. American finance.
Distress and taxes in England.
March 30. To the Secretary of State . . 550 v
Deputies from South America. Relations between
the United States and Spain. Neutrality with South
America. Expeditions from Kentucky and Tennessee.
Conduct of Onis. Downman's slaves. Armaments on
the lakes.
March 31. To Henry Jackson ..... 556
American consuls in France.
WRITINGS
OF
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
WRITINGS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
TO JOHN ADAMS
St. Petersburg, 2 January, 1814.
My Dear Sir:
The last letters I have had the pleasure of receiving from
you are those of i and 2 July, and excepting them and others
of the same period from my mother and brother I have noth-
ing from America dated later than June. The communica-
tions are nearly annihilated, and but for the return of the
gentlemen who came out here on the extraordinary mission
and that of their companions, I should be deprived of all
means of transmitting a letter to my friends.
The Neptune^ the vessel in which these gentlemen came,
and which they ordered in the beginning of November to
go and wait for them at Gothenburg, has effected her passage
to that port. Mr. Gallatin, who to this day has received
information of the decision of the Senate upon his nomina-
tion to this mission only through the medium of a newspaper,
intends leaving this place in the course of eight or ten days.
He has received a letter from one of his relations in Geneva,
proposing to meet him in Switzerland, and I believe con-
templates commencing his journey in that direction. You
will easily judge from your intimate knowledge of the usual
course of official transactions of the situation in which he
personally and his colleagues have been placed, with the
certain information now nearly three months since received
of the vote in Senate upon the nomination, and without any
authentic communication of the fact. As neither Mr.
I
2 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
Bayard nor myself have received our commissions under the
appointment with advice and consent^ Mr. Gallatin's powers
to act are still precisely the same as our own; and if the media-
tion had been accepted and the negotiation in progress, we
should have been thrown into a dilemma not a little awkward
and embarrassing. The British government, however,
peremptorily refused to treat with the United States under
the mediation of Russia, or as they expressed it, under any
mediation. This determination they communicated to
the Emperor Alexander at his headquarters, and from the
nature of the occupations which have occupied his time and
absorbed his attention no official communication has yet
been made to us of this event. ^ Mr. Gallatin, on receiving
intelligence of the issue of his nomination in the Senate,
determined not to wait for official dispatches announcing
it; but as he has no other means of returning to the United
States than by the Neptune^ and as we have been daily ex-
pecting the information from this government which will
authorize the departure of Mr. Bayard, he has been waiting
hitherto, until the state of the roads and the advancement
of the season have induced him to conclude upon his de-
parture without longer delay.-
The British government through an indirect channel have
offered to treat with the American envoys directly, either
at Gothenburg or in England, and intimated to them an in-
vitation to London for that purpose. As we have no powers
to treat otherwise than under the mediation, we could not
accept this invitation, but Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard
propose to avail themselves of It to stop in England on their
' Cathcart communicated the refusal of the British government to the Russian
government September 25, 1813.
* On the next day, January 3, Gallatin proposed to go near the Emperor's head-
quarters at Toplitz, and ask his intentions on the British proposal, a measure dis-
couraged by Adams. See Adams, Memoirs, January 3, 1814.
.\
,8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 3
return home, and to ascertain in a manner involving no
responsibility what the views of the British government are
in relation to a peace with the United States. These views
have, indeed, been made known to us in a manner sufficiently
intelligible to leave me little expectation that my colleagues
will find a favorable opportunity for bringing an accommoda-
tion to a successful issue; but the desire of our country
and of our government is so strong for peace that no honor-
able opportunity for attempting to accomplish It ought to
be neglected.
As the military and political revolutions in the north
of Europe have now opened a communication from this
country to England by the way of Holland, Mr. Gallatin
and Ivlr. Bayard intend to take that course instead of going
to Gothenburg. They propose ordering the Neptune to
Falmouth, and going by land themselves to Amsterdam.
The packets already pass between Helvoetsluys and Har-
wich, and will furnish them the means of conveyance to
England. As Mr. Gallatin takes his departure first, he will
make his visit to Switzerland, and meet Mr. Bayard again
in Holland.
Mr. Payne Todd,^ Mrs. Madison's son, and Colonel Milli-
gan,- who came out with Mr. Bayard, are going through
Sweden to Gothenburg, there to embark for England, in-
tending to wait for the arrival of other gentlemen there,
and it is by them that I now have the opportunity of writing
to you.
• ••••••
* John Payne Todd, son of John Todd, of Philadelphia, and " Dolly " Payne.
- George Milligan.
4 THE WRITINGS OF I1814
TO R. G. BEASLEY
St. Petersburg, 4 January, 18 14.
Sir:
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of 22
October, 5 and 19 November, with their enclosures, and to
thank you for them. The intelligence contained in the last
is of a pleasing nature, though less favorable than re-
ports which had been for some days circulating here upon
the authority of later accounts in English newspapers.
We had been flattered with expectations that the issue of
General Proctor's campaign had been more decisive than
General Harrison's dispatch now warrants us in believing,
and that Sir James L. Yeo's insulting charge against his
enemy of want of spirit had been answered more effectually
than by his seeking refuge in port from the pursuit of that
same enemy, and suffering his transports of troops and
convoys to be taken almost before his face, without attempt-
ing to protect them.
I know not upon what foundation any expectation can
be entertained in England of a speedy peace with the United
States. There is nothing in the English mode of carrying
on the war, and certainly nothing in their mode of meeting
the pacific overtures on our part, that has any tendency to
promote the return of peace. If they think the battle of
Leipzig, or even the dismemberment or partition of France,
will settle our question with them, they will find themselves
mistaken. If they have convinced themselves, as they have
labored to convince others, that we wage this war as allies
of Napoleon, they must find time to awaken from their
delusion. One of their poets remarks that a man may repeat
a tale so often as at last to credit his own lie. Some such
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 5
operation must have taken place in their minds to make
them consider us at this day as alUes of Napoleon. . . .
I am, etc.
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
St. Petersburg, 17 January, 1814.
I expected that Mr. Gallatin or Mr. Bayard would have
been the bearer of the last letter that I wrote you, which was
the close of the last year; but it was taken by Mr. Todd,
who with Colonel Milligan, Mr. Bayard's private secretary,
left this city about ten days since bound to England by the
way of Sweden. Mr. Gallatin's intention now is to go in a
week or ten days, but he takes his direction through Ger-
many to Holland. Perhaps he may go by the way of the
Emperor Alexander's headquarters. He has already taken
leave at court ^ and has his passports. Mr. Bayard has not,
but they will probably go together. Mr. Gallatin goes
upon the information he has received of the vote of the Sen-
ate upon his nomination, although he is yet without any
official communication of the fact. Mr. Bayard waits, be-
cause we have not yet received from this government any
official notification that the Emperor's offer of mediation
has been rejected by the British cabinet. His patience is
however so nearly exhausted that he intends to ask an
audience to take leave of the Empress mother and for his
passports, in time to take his departure with Mr. Gallatin
in the course of the next week.^ It will be yet many months
before they can reach the United States. Their journey to
Holland will scarcely be performed in less than six weeks.
Their purpose is to go from thence to England where Mr.
* On the 13th — the Russian New Year.
* He took leave on the 23d.
6 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
Bayard at least will wait for advices from our government.
They will scarcely get home before midsummer, and it may
be as long before you will receive this letter. I have no pros-
pect, however, of a shorter or of so safe a means of convey-
ance, and as I learn the cartels between the United States
and England are entirely stopped, I know not how I shall
find opportunities of writing to you hereafter. Hitherto
the occasions for transmitting the monthly letter have
never failed, and I can but hope that some new opening will
present itself to accomplish the same effect in future.
Your letter of 14 July is still the latest date that I have
directly from the United States. The only intelligence that
we receive from home is that which comes to us in the Eng-
lish newspapers; and how much of that is falsehood or mis-
representation we infer not only from the general character
of all paragraph-news in the British prints, but from the
lies which they have told about ourselves. Some time ago
they stated that the American envoys had asked to go to the
Emperor Alexander's headquarters and had been refused —
the Emperor alleging that there were no suitable accommo-
dations for their Excellencies. Since then they have asserted
that Lord Walpole had declared to this government that
the British ministry, having rejected their mediation, would
be well pleased that the American envoys should be dis-
missed, and that he was instructed to say so. Both these
paragraphs are totally unfounded. We have good reason
to conclude that almost all their news from America is
equally distorted from the truth. They have not been able
however to suppress the event of the naval action upon
Lake Erie. I have not seen Commodore Perry's account of
that affair; but it has been published in the English papers
and Sir George Prevost's letter announcing it to his govern-
ment contains a circumstance certainly not intended by
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 7
him to honor his enemy, but to which the annals of English
naval glory will not readily furnish a parallel. He says that
he has the knowledge of the facts only from the American
Commodore's dispatch, published in the American papers;
that he himself has no official report of it and can expect
none for a very long time, the British commander and all
his officers having been either killed or so disabled that
there was not one left to tell the tale.
This same Sir G, Prevost and Sir James L. Yeo, the British
Commodore on Lake Ontario, in their official reports have
charged Commodore Chauncey's squadron with want of
spirit. I believe it to be a mere hectoring bravado on the
part of Yeo, and I pray as fervently as Sir George himself
that Yeo may have had his opportunity of meeting Chauncey,
and not the opportunity of running away from it. We have
the account of Proctor's retreat and a report that his whole
force, excepting himself and about fifty of his men, had been
destroyed or taken. But of this hitherto no official confirma-
tion.
From the style and tone of Sir G. Prevost's dispatches I
suspect he has very much exaggerated the forces of Generals
Wilkinson, Hampton, and Harrison opposed against him.
If he has not, they ought before this to have given a very
good account of him and his province. But experience has
taught me to distrust our land operations, and I wait with
an anxiety predominating over my hopes the further ac-
counts that must soon be received concerning them.
One of the advantages which we may derive from this
war (and from so great an evil we ought to extract all the
good we possibly can) is that of acquiring military skill,
discipline, and experience. No nation can enjoy freedom
and independence without being always prepared to defend
them by force of arms. Our military incapacity when this
8 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
war commenced was so great that a few more years of peace
would have extinguished every spark of martial ardor
among us. All our first attempts upon Canada were but
sources of humiliation to us.^ The performances of the year
just now elapsed so far as we know them have certainly been
less disgraceful and in some particulars have been highly
honorable, there is yet much room and much occasion for
improvement. God ^ant that it may not be lost.
If I fill the pages of my letters to you with American news
it will indicate to you the subject nearest to my heart.
The great scenes of action in Europe are now so remote
from this country that the knowledge of them will reach the
United States nearly as soon as we receive it here. After
all the bloody tragedies which have been acting on the face
of Europe these two and twenty years, France is to receive
the law and constitution from the most inveterate of her
enemies. She abused her power of prosperity to such excess
that she has not a friend left to support her In the reverse
of her fortune. What the present coalition will do with her
1 "I was really in hopes, and I do not yet despair of the object, that this war
would be the means of obtaining by conquest or cession the provinces of Canada.
Not that I am ambitious for the extension of territory, but of security. I believe
a permanent peace cannot be maintained with the northern savages so long as a
European power holds the possession and government of those provinces. That
was the opinion of Britain when we were colonists, and that was also then the
opinion of our ancestors. If we obtain the Canadas, they will afford a pledge on
the part of the British government to preserve peace with us, by subjecting their
West India islands to a greater degree of dependence on the United States for
breadstuffs and lumber than if they held those provinces. The annual exports of
Canada for several years in the single article of wheat averaged half a million of
bushels, a portion of which no doubt was raised in the United States. Whilst
Britain holds the Canadas, it will be difficult for the United States at any time,
however necessary, to enforce an embargo or non-importation law. I had therefore
rather purchase the Canadas of Britain than not have them. We want them and
sooner or later they must and will be annexed to us." William Plumer to John
Quincy Adams, January 24, 18 14. Ms.
,8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 9
is yet very uncertain, but there is no question in my mind
that they will do with her what they please.
TO THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS
St. Petersburg, 24 January, 1814.
• ••••• •
You will know long before this letter can reach you that
the Prince of Orange has returned to Holland, where instead
of resuming the title of Stadtholder, he has taken that of
" Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands." The old
constitution of States General, States of the Provinces, and
Sovereign Cities, has therefore been totally abandoned.
The Prince in one of his proclamations says they shall have
a constitution, and a previous proclamation by a sort of
Revolutionary Committee of his friends, says that it is to
be prescribed by him. The English government have sent
troops there to support him, and according to common
report his son, the Hereditary Prince of Orange, who has
distinguished himself in Portugal and Spain under Lord
Wellington, is to be the husband of the future Queen of
England. •
I am informed that one of the first acts of the government
formed under the Prince's authority was an informal notifi-
cation to Mr. Bourne that his functions as Consul General
of the United States had ceased. The same notification was
given to Mr. Forbes at Hamburg when that city was in-
corporated as a part of the French Empire, and it may be
principally a matter of form, or an expedient to obtain a
recognition of the new government. There is certainly
among the people of Holland no disposition unfriendly to
lo THE WRITINGS OF [1814
America, and I can suppose none in the Prince. But what
his engagements with England may be time only can dis-
close. All the other allies of England have remained neutral
to her war with America. There may be motives, and among
them the strongest will be the clear, manifest and important
interest of Holland to remain neutral, for prompting the
British government to deny the Hollanders the benefit
of neutrality. By the measures with which the Prince
commences his career connected with the proposed marriage,
it may be the project in England to make Holland hereafter
an appendage to the British Empire in form as well as sub-
stance. Perhaps they will discover that Holland Is an
alluvion of Hanover, a hint which they may take from their
friend the Ruler of France. To whatever disposition they
may adopt Holland must be, as she has been ever since the
first year of Bataviaji Liberty (with which you were so well
acquainted), altogether passive.
The events of the last two years opened a new prospect
to all Europe, and have discovered the glassy substance of
the colossal power of France. Had that power been acquired
by wisdom, it might have been consolidated by time and
the most ordinary portion of prudence. The Emperor Na-
poleon says that he was never seduced by prosperity; but
when he comes to be judged impartially by posterity that
will not be their sentence. His fortune will be among the
wonders of the age in which he has lived. His military talent
and genius will place him high in the rank of great captains;
but his intemperate passion, his presumptuous insolence,
and his Spanish and Russian wars, will reduce him veiy
nearly to the level of ordinary men. At all events he will
be one of the standing examples of human vicissitude,
ranged not among the Alexanders, Caesars, and Charle-
magnes, but among the Hannibals, Pompeys, and Charles
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ii
the I2th, I believe his romance is drawing towards its
close and that he will soon cease even to yield a pretext
for the war against France. England alone will be "afraid
of the gunpowder Percy though he should be dead."
By the return of Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard you will
have ascertained, what I suppose you have already sufficient
reason to expect, that we are to have no peace with England
by the means of a mediation.^ These gentlemen intend to
touch in England upon their return home. If there is any
prospect of obtaining peace by a direct negotiation they will
have the opportunity of promoting it; but the successes of
the British in their other wars have not been calculated to
prepare them for the termination of that with America. . . .
TO ROBERT FULTON
St. Petersburg, 29 January, 18 14.
Sir:
I have now the pleasure of inclosing to you a translation
of a rescript from the Emperor, addressed to the Minister
of the Interior, directing him to issue the patent for your
steam boats. It was sent me by Count RomanzoflF, with a
request that I would give him notice for the information of
the Minister of the Interior, of the person empowered by
you to carry the design into execution here. I answered the
Count that I was authorized by your letter of 19 June, 181 3,
to take out the patent in your behalf, and was ready upon
the delivery of it to me to pay on your account the 1500
rubles required conformably to the rescript; that I could not
>See Gallatin's letter to Count Romanzoff, 13/25 January, 1814, in Adams,
Writings of Gallatin, I. 598. He and Bayard left St. Petersburg January 25, and
reached Amsterdam March 4.
12
THE WRITINGS OF [1814
name the person who would be charged with the execution
of the plan here by you, as your letter had only mentioned
your intention of sending your chief engineer here for the
purpose; that if the Minister of the Interior thought a more
formal power than that in your letter to me Indispensable
for the delivery of the patent, he might keep it in his hands
until I could inform you of its being ready for delivery to
you or your agent duly authorized. I afterwards saw the
Minister of the Interior himself, who told me that he should
not hesitate to deliver the patent to me upon the authority
given by your letter to me to receive it, but that the patent
itself could not be completed without a specification and a
model of your boat. Of course it will remain with him until
you can furnish these, and I acquiesced the more readily in
this arrangement as it occasions no loss of time to you. In
sending here your engineer for the construction of the first
boat you will be enabled at the same time to transmit the
model and specification, as well as the regular power to take
out the patent in your name. I am etc.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 128. [James Monroe]
St. Petersburg, 5 February, 1814.
Sir:
In a separate letter I have informed you of the interview
which I had on the 1st instant with the Chancellor, Count
Romanzoff, at his request, of the dispatch from Count
Eleven ' which he showed me, of the note which I wrote him
^ No. 260, November 26/December 5, 18 13. See Adams, Memoirs, February i,
1814.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 13
the next morning, asking for a copy of that dispatch or a
particular statement of its contents, and of his answer to
my note which as you will observe complies with neither of
my requests, but refers me to you for the purport of Lord
Castlereagh's letter to you, of which I had not said a word
in my note to him. I think a more particular account of this
interview due to the President for his information; but must
request that it may not be made public for several considera-
tions, and chiefly for the consequences which its publicity
might draw personally upon the Chancellor in a country
where there is no shelter for the subject from the displeasure
of his sovereign.
The Count had requested me to call upon him at nine
o'clock in the evening and at his own private house, to
which he had removed at the close of the year from the
hotel belonging to the Emperor, and assigned by him for
the residence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He apolo-
gized to me for having sent to me to come to him at undue
hours, and observed to me that as he was on the point of
abdicating, he had thought it best to continue to the last in
his habits of frankness and confidence with me, and that he
could do no better than to show me the dispatch itself which
he had received the day before from Count Lieven, which
was brought with a multitude of other packets by a courier
from the Emperor's headquarters, but without a line upon
the subject either from the Emperor or from Count Nessel-
rode.
The dispatch contained a very distinct allusion to the re-
fusal by Great Britain of the Emperor's mediation. From
the long silence of the Emperor, and from the caution with
which the Count had avoided any written communication
of this fact to us, I suspected that he would neither give me
a copy of the dispatch, nor a statement of its contents in
14 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
writing. I therefore purposely forbore asking him verbally
for the copy, because it was only by asking it in writing that
I could have a written answer, which would better ascer-
tain whether the withholding of this communication by the
Russian government was the effect merely of neglect or
of design.-^
It was apparent from the tenor of the Count's conversa-
tion that a mere dismission from the Emperor's service was
not his principal apprehension. He had had recent and re-
peated assurances of the regard and affection of the Emperor
in his own hand, and which I have seen; but they have not
altogether tranquillized his mind. He told me that in send-
ing to the Emperor the treaty of peace with Persia, he had
taken that opportunity to renew the request which he had
already previously made that he might be permitted to re-
sign his office. That the Emperor in answering his letter
had expressed himself highly satisfied with the Persian
peace, and fully sensible of the importance of that trans-
action, and had concluded by saying that there was at the
close of the Count's letter an idea to which he, the Emperor,
could not reconcile himself.
Upon which, said the Count, I have replied and insisted upon
resigning. I have recalled to the Emperor's recollection that
when after the peace of Tilsit, with which I had nothing to do, he
laid his commands upon me to take the Department of Foreign
Affairs, I urged him to excuse me from a situation which I felt
to be above my powers. That he persisted in his commands, and
told me that he had already two wars upon his hands, with Turkey
and with Persia, and had just contracted the engagement of
commencing two others, with Sweden and with England. I have
observed that these four wars, being now all terminated, had
' For Lord Walpole's statement, see Adams, Memoirs, April 2, 1814; and that of
Romanzoff, in lb., April 23.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 15
brought my administration to a natural conclusion, and that the
peace with Persia, being the last transaction relating to them,
furnished him with a suitable occasion to dismiss me with kindness.
That I have in fact nothing to do. The Emperor when he left this
place chose to correspond with me, directly and exclusively. But
he has contracted new engagements. He not only commands his
own armies, but he oversees and superintends the interests of the
allies. All his time is absorbed; insensibly he has dropped the
habit of writing to me altogether, and I can get no answers from
headquarters upon business of any kind. The emperor is always
intending to write me tomorrow, or the next day, and here the
term fixed for exchanging the ratifications of the peace with
Persia is past, and I have not received them. Multitudes of letters
come from headquarters saying that on this, that and the other
aff"air the orders will be sent me in two or three days, and the orders
never come. In the meantime I am chained down here. I cannot
sleep out of St. Petersburg. I cannot give my time to my private
concerns; I cannot visit my estates, as I earnestly desire to do.
To be Chancellor of the Empire for the sake of signing passports
and giving answers about law suits is not worth while. I have
therefore left the hotel of the foreign department and removed
to my own house, expecting hourly the Emperor's answer to my
last request, which might indeed have been already here, but not
more than four or five days ago, and prepared as a kinswoman of
mine,^ turned of eighty, told me once she was determined to do
after two years more, to turn over a new leaf in my life. I am not
so old as she was, but I am more infirm in health, and at sixty shall
without waiting two years more turn over my new leaf. I can say
that my heart is American, and were it not for my age and infirm-
ities, I would now certainly go to that country; but as it is, I
wish only to retire to bless the Emperor for his past favors and
to wish him all future happiness and prosperity.
It was not the first time that the Count had suggested
* It was his grandmother.
i6 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
that the idea of going himself to America was floating in his
mind. He had mentioned it before, both to Mr. Gallatin
and Mr. Bayard, and, considered in connection with his
remark that he had solicited of the Emperor to dismiss him
with kindness, I have imagined that among his anticipa-
tions in his present situation he may expect that his dis-
mission may be accompanied with a per7nission to travel, in
which case there is not a spot in all Europe where he could
set his foot, with a hope of finding a friendly reception or a
comfortable residence. The Count is a sincere and genuine
Russian patriot. Of the statesmen with whom it has been
my fortune to have political relations, I never knew one
who carried into public life more of the principles and senti-
ments of spotless private honor. His integrity is irreproach-
able; but his enemies are numerous and inveterate in pro-
portion to the importance and elevation of the station he
has held. A powerful and implacable English influence,
political and commercial, has been incessantly working
against him, exasperated by the well-founded opinion that
he has been a steady and able adversary to the British mari-
time tyranny, and that he has been the principal instru-
ment in rescuing his country from the commercial servitude
to which the English had reduced the Russians in their own
cities. Among his own countrymen the very sunshine of
imperial favor, the very radiance of his own integrity, has
been brewing the tempest that now blackens over his head.
The connections of this country with France, although
completely formed before he came into ofiicc, are all as-
scribed to him; the compliances which were so long con-
tinued to avert the war are imputed solely to his counsels,
and the unfortunate issue of those connections and com-
pliances in the unjust and frantic war which France finally
waged against this country, have accumulated upon him a
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 17
degree of popular odium, like that which from precisely
similar sources burst upon the head of John De Witt in
Holland in 1672. From popular excesses the Count here has
nothing to fear. But he may know that about the person
of the Emperor efforts will not be wanting to deprive him
of more than his place. The advice to journey into a foreign
country may be a middle term upon which the Emperor's
will may settle, between a dismission with kindness and an
act of rigor more uncongenial to his personal character, but
to which he may be urged. All Europe is either in alliance
or at war with the Emperor. Into the countries of his
enemies the Count could not go; in those of his allies the
Count would find enmities and resentments against him as
bitter as those he would leave behind him at home. It is
only in America that he could hope to find an asylum from
the persecutions which will be the reward of his virtues and
of his services to his country.
In my letter to you, No. 118 of 8 September last, I men-
tioned to you the French, Russian and German translations
which I had procured to be made of the President's message
and the report of the Committee of Foreign Relations,
containing our manifesto on the declaration of war against
Great Britain, upon the Count's promise that they should be
published here in the same gazettes which had published
the English Regent's manifesto of 9 January, 18 13, and
that I had consented to the postponement of the publica-
tion at the Count's request on the arrival of Messrs. Gallatin
and Bayard here, and upon conciliatory principles. At this
interview I reminded the Count of his promise and claimed
its fulfilment. He said that he thought that upon this new
proposal from Lord Castlereagh for a direct negotiation the
same motive for avoiding any publication of an irritating
nature still continued. I answered that I had originally
i8 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
asked and he had promised this publication only as the coun-
terpart to that of the English manifesto in the same papers.
He said that if I absolutely insisted upon it, they should be
published; but that he knew it would be imputed entirely
to him. I replied that placing it upon the footing of a per-
sonal favor to him, I would press the subject no farther; but
that I hoped I should see no further publication of English
statements injurious to my country in the Russian gazettes.
He said he would accept my forbearance on the ground
upon which I placed it, of a personal favor to him, and the
more readily, because Lord Walpole had already reproached
him for a publication in the gazettes relative to the American
mission, and that there should be, so far as depended upon
him, no publication on the subject of our war which could be
offensive to us. In the Count's situation I could ask no
more of him. I have no doubt that the publication now of
those papers would aggravate the peril of his condition,
and it would probably be of no service to our cause. ^ I am
etc.
TO JOHN ADAMS
St. Petersburg, 17 February, 18 14.
My Dear Sir:
There are still here a small number of Americans who
came to this country upon commercial pursuits and who after
bringing their affairs to a conclusion successively take their
departure to return home, and thereby afford us opportuni-
ties of writing to our friends. One of them is Mr. Hurd -
' Cf. Adams, Memoirs, February i, 1814. On the 23d Adams received the cir-
cular letter from Count Romanzoff announcing his temporary inability to conduct
the duties of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
*John R. Hurd.
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 19
of Boston, who goes to Gothenburg there to embark directly
for the United States, and by whom I propose to send this
letter.
I wrote to you by ^Ir. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard, who left
this city the 25th of last month, and to my dear mother by
Mr. Harris, who followed them on the 9th instant. As they
intended to travel not very rapidly Mr. Harris expected to
overtake them by the time they reach Berlin. Their object
is to go to Amsterdam and thence to England, where they
expect to receive a new commission and powers to treat of
peace with the British government directly. Since their de-
parture I have additional reason for expecting that such new
powers will be transmitted to them, knowing that Lord
Castlereagh has written to the American Secretary of State
making the formal proposition of such a negotiation.-^
Whether I shall be associated in this new commission or not
is to me extremely doubtful. I have a multitude of very
substantial reasons for wishing I may not be, and only one
for an inclination to the contrary. My negative reasons are
not of a nature to be committed to paper. My positive
reason is, because the voyage to England would be just so
much performed of my voyage to the United States, and be-
cause it would make my return home as certain, as direct
and as early as I could desire. From your letters which were
brought me by Mr. Gallatin I perceived you had been in-
formed of a subsequent destination which was intended for
me had the mediation terminated in a peace. As however
it has scarcely resulted even in a negotiation, other circum-
' "Since 1 wrote you by Mr. Harris, Lord Walpole has told me that Lord Castle-
reagh's letter to Mr. Monroe, he believed, was written in consequence of what he
had communicated to Castlereagh, after his arrival here. If so, it must have been,
according to the information in Count Lieven's dispatch, about the beginning of
December, and not in October, as was supposed in London." To Albert Gallatin,
Februan,' i8, 1814. Ms.
20 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
stances will naturally lead to other views. That in the pres-
ent situation of Europe, or rather in that which must in-
fallibly and very shortly be the situation of Europe, a peace
between the United States and Great Britain may be con-
cluded, I have little doubt. A general peace, at least some-
thing which will pass under that name, is highly probable
in the course of a few months. According to all present
appearances the catastrophe of the French Revolution is at
hand. The Bourbons will at last be restored, not as the
Stuarts were in England by the spontaneous and irresistible
voice of the nation, but by the dictates of a foreign coalition.
But the allied powers in conferring this blessing upon France
will claim the reward of their generosity, and be specially
careful to reduce her within dimensions which will carry
with them what they may consider as a guaranty of future
tranquillity, and in their solicitude to effect this as well as
in the distribution of the spoils of conquest the seeds of
further wars will in every probability be thickly disseminated.
That a peace, however, of some kind will very soon take
place is not to be doubted, from the total inability now
manifested by France to resist the invasion of the allied
armies. The allies proclaim to the world that they are wag-
ing war not against France but against Napoleon Bonaparte,
and the French people are as willing to believe them as the
other nations of Europe were to believe the Jacobins when
they promised liberty, equality and fraternity to every
people, and declared war against individual kings and princes.
The throne of Napoleon was built upon his fields of battle.
Its only solid basis was victory. So long as he was victorious
the French nation was submissive, but with his fortune all
his ties upon them have dissolved. If it were possible for
any conqueror to possess a hold upon the affections of man-
kind, it would be an exception to a general rule, and of all
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 21
conquerors he is the last who would be entitled to it. In
the real moment of distress it was not to be expected that
the French people would make any effort or sacrifice for his
sake. That they will make none is perfectly ascertained,
and the wisdom of a woman may perhaps not be necessary
to persuade them to deal with him as the Israelites of Abel
dealt with Sheba the son of Bichri, and to propitiate their
invaders by throwing over to them his head. At the disso-
lution of his government France will be in the hands of the
allies, and their intention is undoubtedly to restore the
Bourbons, who must of course subscribe to any terms which
may be required of them. Peace therefore cannot be remote,
and a peace in Europe will leave the war between us and
England without any object but an abstract principle to
contend for. Neither of the parties will be disposed to con-
tinue the war upon such a point, and the predisposition to
peace which will really influence both I hope and believe
will make the peace not very difficult to be accomplished.
The object for which the war was declared was removed at
the very time when the declaration was made. I do not
believe it possible now to make a peace which shall settle
the point upon which the war has been continued. It seems
to me, and I indulge the idea with pleasure, that the new and
unexpected prospect opening to Europe will take away great
part of the interest which Great Britain has in the question.
She will neither have the need of such a navy, nor the means
of maintaining it, as will constantly supply the temptation
to recruit for it by such an odious practice as that of impress-
ment upon the seamen of a foreign power. But I see no
probability that she will yield the principle, and as to the
modifications to render it palatable to us, if the government
of the United States are of my opinion, they will not suffer
their negotiators to listen for a moment to any modification
22 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
whatsoever; because any modification, be it what it will,
must involve a concession of the principle on our part. I
would sooner look forward to the chance of ten successive
wars, to be carried on ten times more weakly than we have
the present one, than concede one particle of our principle
by a treaty stipulation. The only way of coming to terms
of peace with England therefore at this time, which I sup-
pose practicable and in any degree admissible, is to leave
the question just where it was, saying nothing about it.
But I know such a peace would not satisfy the people of
America, and I have no desire to be instrumental in con-
cluding it. If our land warriors had displayed a career of
glory, equal to that of our naval heroes, we should be war-
ranted in demanding more even after all the changes that
have happened in Europe. If we can obtain more by con-
tinuing the war, we are in duty bound to continue it. At
this distance, and with the communications interrupted as
they are, I am incompetent to decide this question. It must
be settled at home, and may the spirit of wisdom inspire
the determination! . . .
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
St. Petersburg, 30 March, 1814.
Since I wrote you last, i February, I have had no oppor-
tunity of putting a letter even on Its way to reach you when
it should please heaven. The ordinary Intercourse between
this country and England by the way of Gothenburg has
been suspended from the 24th of December until this day
by the freezing of the harbors, and there are now 22 mails
due from London. The same cause has prevented travellers
from hence going in that direction, and I now write you
isi+l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 23
without any immediate prospect of a conveyance for my
letter, but in adherence to the rule of suffering no month
to pass without renewing at least the token of my affection
and duty.
Your letter of 14 July, 18 13, is still the last date that I
have received from Quincy or from any part of the United
States, but by the means of newspapers we have some very
recent accounts from America. By private letters too from
England which have found their way through Holland, and
by others from Holland, we have learnt the acceptance by
the President of the United States of the proposal made by
the British government to treat for peace at Gothenburg,
and the appointment of four American commissioners for
the negotiation. I am informed that a Mr. Strong ^ has
arrived in England, charged with dispatches for the two of
the commissioners now in Europe, and that he was proceed-
ing as speedily as possible to Gothenburg, for which place
he has the appointment of consul. But I have not heard
from Mr. Strong himself, and Gothenburg will probably be
still for a week to come inaccessible on the waterside. Mr.
Bayard I trust will receive the dispatches in Holland and
from thence may communicate them to me.
I feel an inclination almost irresistible to give my father
the whole budget of my feelings and opinions upon this new
effort to reconcile two countries which seem incapable of
living either at peace or at war with each other. But mind-
ful of an admonition in one of his last letters, I must re-
serve my thoughts until they can be imparted without
restraint, in the freedom of direct conversation. I may
simply add that I expect to have this pleasure before the
close of the year. Whatever may be the issue of the in-
tended conferences at Gothenburg, I hope and believe they
' Nathaniel W. Strong.
24 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
will not spin out beyond the bounds of the ensuing summer;
and at all events I conclude it is not the President's inten-
tion that I should return to this place. If left to my own
option I certainly shall not. After five winters passed at
St. Petersburg, I have no wish to try in my own person, or
to expose my family to the experience of this climate any
longer. There is not at present nor is there likely to be in
future any object of public concernment which could oc-
cupy me here in a manner satisfactory to myself or useful
to my country. Many other considerations will combine
to draw me home, and if the negotiation at Gothenburg
terminates as I have every reason to believe it will, I flatter
myself that it will be the means of restoring us to our friends
and country before the next New Year's day.
We are given to understand that Mr. Gallatin Is not in-
cluded in the new commission, which to me is a subject of
regret. Before his arrival here my personal acquaintance
with him was so slight that I could scarcely say I knew him
otherwise than as a public man. From the relations in which
we were placed together here, his character, and especially
his talents, gained ground upon my opinion. His desire to
accomplish the peace was sincere and ardent. I had several
opportunities of observing his quickness of understanding,
his sagacity and penetration, and the soundness of his judg-
ment.^ I should have relied very much upon him had the
negotiation taken any serious effect, and shall be sorry not
to have the benefit of his assistance in that of which the
* "I will ever retain a grateful sense of yours and Mrs. Adams's civilities and
kindness at St. Petersburg; but I fear that bad health and worse spirits made me
still more dull than usual and prevented my showing what I felt on the occasion.
Permit me to add that I am happy to have made your acquaintance and to have
learned how to appreciate your merit. Present me affectionately to Mrs. Adams and
also to Mr. and Mrs. Smith; and accept the assurance of my sincere respect and
consideration." filbert Gallatin to John Quincy Adams, March 6, 1814. Ms.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 25
prospect is before us. Of the two new colleagues said to be
joined with us at present I know Mr. Clay by having served
with him one session in the Senate, and Mr. Russell ^ by a
frequent and very agreeable correspondence with him while
he was charge d'affaires in France and in England. With
what feelings, dispositions or instructions those gentlemen
will come, I can only infer from their sentiments as they
have been heretofore made public and from conjecture. Of
the three former commissioners I should probably have
been the first to stop in the career of concession to secure
the main object of the mission. The newcomers, if they have
had no change in their opinions since I had last an oppor-
tunity of knowing them, will be of sterner stuff than myself.^
' Jonathan Russell (1771-1832).
* "Mr. Clay, the late speaker of the House and Mr. Russell will be the bearers of
this letter. They will carry to you all the intelligence respecting the affairs of our
nation which may be necessary for you to know, and that with more accuracy than
I can relate them. The appointment of Mr. Clay in lieu of Mr. Gallatin is not a
more popular measure with a certain set in this quarter than that of Mr. Gallatin;
and the inviting of Mr. Russell in the commission is said by the croakers [to be] de-
signed to defeat the whole negotiation, which I have not a doubt many wish for."
Abigail Adams to John Ouincy Adams, February 5, 1814. Ms. "The last appoint-
ment of Mr. Clay and Russell gave much discontent to the federal party here, who
were sure it was done to defeat the negotiation, and in great urbanity towards you,
declared that the interests of the United States would be much safer in the single
hands of Mr. Adams than in all the rest of the ministers. I know the party well,
and with all their professions, they would make no scruple to sacrifice Mr. Adams,
as you have before experienced, and as your father before you has done, if any
measure you should agree to come in opposition to their views of interest or ambi-
tion. I forgive them. They have been amply rewarded for their blindness, their
ingratitude, and grasping ambition, and their unbounded thirst for gain. Their
humiliation has been manifest to the world by the loss of their consequence and
weight in the Union. Long, long will it be, if ever they recover again their former
consequence. And to this cause may be ascribed their wish to separate and dis-
solve the Union. I speak not of all those who style themselves federalists, but of
those designated by the Junto." lb.. May i, 18 14. Ms. In the Life and Corre-
spondence of Rufus King, V. 321, Armstrong is given as authority for the statement
that Daschkoff, Gallatin and Girard were intriguing to have Gallatin appointed
26 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
From the continual claim of unexpected and unexampled
success which has been attending the British cause both in
arms and in negotiation from the hour that their war with
us commenced, we have anything to anticipate but a spirit
of concession in them. They have little to boast of in the
progress of their war with us hitherto, but the chances of
war have all turned up prizes to them everywhere else.
France, after having been twenty years the dictatress of
Europe, has now in the course of two campaigns been brought
completely at the feet of those enemies whom she had so
often vanquished and so long oppressed. Six weeks ago an
allied army of at least three hundred thousand men was
within two days easy march of Paris, and by the latest ac-
counts received from thence was again within the same dis-
tance, or nearer. In the interval they had met with some
opposition which occasioned a momentary check upon their
operations and a short retreat to concentrate their forces.
There is little reason to doubt that they are at this moment
in possession of Paris, and that the Empire of Napoleon is
in the Paradise of Fools. While the allies were in the heart
of France, a negotiation as hypocritical and as fallacious as
the Congress of Prague, was affected to be opened at Chatil-
lon, without any intention perhaps on any side, certainly
not the side of the allies, that it should result in a peace.^
Their object is in giving peace to France to make her at the
same time a present of the Bourbons; but even in the ex-
tremity to which France is reduced there have been very
few and trifling manifestations of a disposition in any part
of her people to receive them.
to Russia; Russell for Sweden might give one vote in the Senate against Gallatin;
and Clay had been named as third commissioner, but was displaced for Gallatin.
On the influences at work for Russell's appointment, see lb., 328-330.
* A conference of the allied sovereigns opened at Chatillon-sur-Seine, February 5.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 27
As I am In daily expectation of receiving the order to re-
pair to Gothenburg, I may possibly be there as soon as this
letter, or be obliged to take it on there with me. It is now
of the whole year the worst time for undertaking the journey,
and the passage of the Gulf between this and Sweden will
probably for some weeks be impracticable. It is however
very doubtful whether I shall be able to go before the break-
ing up of the ice, in which case I shall endeavor to get a
passage directly by water. But the navigation from hence
is very seldom open before the first of June. . . .
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 131. [James Monroe]
St. Petersburg, 7 April, 1814.
Sir:
On the 31st ultimo Mr. Strong arrived in this city and
brought me your favor (triplicate) of 8 January last, and a
letter from Mr. Bayard at Amsterdam, enclosing a copy of
your joint dispatch of the same 8 January, sent to him and
me; and the printed message of the President of 6 January,
and documents relating to the proposal of a negotiation for
peace at Gothenburg. Mr. Strong informs me that he was
also charged with several packets of documents and news-
papers from the Department of State which by unavoidable
accident were left on board the packet in which he crossed
from England to Holland.
I received at the same time and from Mr. Strong a letter
from Mr. Beasley dated i March, in which there is the
following paragraph:
It has been rumored for some days past, but I have not been
able to trace it to any satisfactory source, that this government
28 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
has come to the determination not to enter upon any negotiation
until our government shall have restored to the ordinary state of
prisoners of war, all the British officers held in the United States
as hostages to answer in their persons for the safety and proper
treatment of those prisoners who have been sent to this country
for trial. I hope it may not be so, but I should not be surprised
at the adoption of any measure calculated to prolong the war with
us, especially if there should be an immediate peace on the con-
tinent of which there is a fair prospect at present.
A report of the same kind, that the British government
had determined not to enter upon this negotiation, had been
generally circulated here among the English merchants, and
derived some countenance from the fact that so late as the
first of March no appointment of British commissioners was
known to have been made, although they had been nearly
a month before apprized that the President had accepted
the Prince Regent's proposal for the negotiation. Under
these circumstances It might be questionable whether It was
not my duty to delay the execution of the Instructions to re-
pair to Gothenburg, until something more certain of the
intentions of the British Government should be known.
But in considering that the instructions themselves are
peremptory, that the wanton violation of good faith In the
refusal to carry into effect their own proposal was not to be
credited upon mere rumors and surmises, and that if such
could be the intention of the British government I might
furnish them with a pretext for it by not repairing to the
appointed place, I concluded to proceed upon the journey as
speedily as possible and by the road most likely to be the
shortest at this season of the year. I hope to leave this city
In the course of a fortnight, and to be at Gothenburg by the
loth of May.
You will have learnt probably ere this that Mr. Harris
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 29
left this place shortly after Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard,
and with the intention of accompanying them in their con-
templated visit to England.^ As Mr. Strong informs me
that he had no written dispatch for Mr. Harris, I know not
whether he has yet been informed that the charge of our
affairs here in my absence is to be committed to him. If
he has, his arrival here may be hourly expected. I have
already written to him under cover to Mr. Bourne to inform
him of this arrangement, and urging the expediency of his
return hither. He had left a power to transact the ordinary
official business of the consulate with Mr. Thomas W. Nor-
man, a citizen of the United States.- But Mr. Norman
himself is on the point of departing from this country and,
having no power of substitution in his authority from Mr.
Harris, both the legation and the consulate will be vacant
until that gentleman's return. I am etc.
TO SENATOR WEYDEMEYER '
The undersigned. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, deeply
regretting the indisposition of His Excellency Mr. Wcyde-
i"I scarcely know what authority to give to Mr. B[ayard] and G[allatin]'s
opinions concerning Peace. Without communication with those who only could
impart correct information concerning the views of the English government, they
could form no better opinion in England than in Russia. Neither of those gentle-
men, In the present situation of the two countries, had any business in England.
Had they felt upon this point as they ought, they would not have appeared in
England, where they are liable on mere suspicion to be confined, or to be sent with
ignominy out of the country." Rufus King to Christopher Gore, July ii, 1814.
Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, V. 396.
* See Adams, Memoirs, February i, 1814.
' Senator, member of the Council of His Imperial Majesty and of the College of
Foreign Affairs.
30 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
meyer, which deprives him of the honor of conferring with
him for the present as he had requested, has now that of
addressing to him this official note, to inform him of the
orders which he has just received from his government.
His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent of England, having
accompanied his refusal of the mediation offered by His
Imperial Majesty for terminating the war between the
United States and England with a proposal, transmitted to
the government of the United States by His Britannic
Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to open a
negotiation either at Gothenburg in Sweden or at London,
to treat directly of peace, the President of the United States
has accepted this proposal, and has fixed upon Gothenburg
as the place where the conferences are to be held.
The President could not see without strong regret the ob-
stacle to the commencement of a negotiation for peace inter-
posed by the resolutions of the English government, to
reject the mediation of a sovereign whose uprightness and
impartiality were known to the whole world, and whose offer
of mediation had been inspired by the sentiments of the
sincerest friendship for both the belligerent parties, of the
humanity which so eminently distinguishes the character of
His Imperial Majesty, and of attention to the interests of
his people which were suffering by this war, and could not
but derive advantage from the restoration of peace.
This refusal, having nevertheless taken place, the President
of the United States, always animated with the sincere
desire so constantly manifested of terminating this war
upon conditions of reciprocity consistent with the rights
of both parties as sovereign and independent nations, has
thought proper to accept the proposal for a direct negotiation.
In determining upon this measure it would have been the
more satisfactory to the President, if by the communications
,8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 31
from the Envoys Extraordinary of the United States then
at the court of His Imperial Majesty, he could have known
with certainty that it would be agreeable to the Emperor.
But to avoid all delay, and from the known character of the
Emperor and the benevolent views with which his mediation
had been offered, in no wise doubting that His Majesty
would see with satisfaction the concurrence of the United
States in an alternative which under existing circumstances
afforded the best prospect of obtaining the object for which
the Emperor's good offices had been offered, he acceded to
the Prince Regent's proposition, and immediately took the
measures on the part of the United States for carrying it into
effect.
The undersigned feels himself bound on this occasion to
observe that the proposal for this direct negotiation was
made by a note from His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador,
addressed to His Excellency Count Nesselrode at His Im-
perial Majesty's headquarters at Toplitz, dated the ist of
September of the last year,^ and that in transmitting to the
United States a copy of this note my Lord Castlereagh,
His Britannic Majesty's Secretary for Foreign Affairs, de-
clares that the Ambassador, Lord Cathcart, had acquainted
him "that the American Commissioners at St. Petersburg
had intimated in reply to that overture, that they had no
objection to a negotiation at London, and were equally de-
sirous as the British government had declared itself to be,
that this business should not be mixed with the affairs of the
continent of Europe, but that their powers were limited to
negotiate under the mediation of Russia." ^
1 Cathcart to Nesselrode, September i, 1813. American State Papers, Foreign
Relations, III. 622.
« Castlereagh to the Secretary of State, November 4, 18 13. American State Papers,
Foreign Relations, III. 621. "What does Lord Cathcart mean in saying that the
32 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
The undersigned remaining alone of the envoys of the
United States then at the; court of His Imperial Majesty
knows not whence the error of my lord Castlereagh upon this
subject can have proceeded; but he cannot abstain from de-
claring that the envoys of the United States never gave to
this overture the answer which he has attributed to them.
That they never could have given to it any answer whatso-
ever, inasmuch as it was never communicated to them, and
above all, that they never could have manifested the desire
that this business should not be mixed with the affairs of
the continent of Europe, because they had no knowledge of
this declaration of the British government that such was their
desire, and because there never had been an idea suggested,
either in His Imperial Majesty's offer of mediation, or in
its acceptance by the President of the United States, of
mixing this business with the affairs of the continent of
Europe. The undersigned, in his own name and in that of
his colleagues, requests that this formal disavowal of an
answer ascribed to them which they never gave, may be
made known to His Majesty the Emperor.
The President of the United States, having thought fit
to name the undersigned one of the envoys on the part of
the United States for the proposed negotiation, has directed
him to repair for that purpose as soon as possible to Gothen-
burg, and to leave during his absence from St. Petersburg
Mr. Levett Harris charged with the affairs of the United
States at His Imperial Majesty's court. Mr. Harris is at
this moment absent but his return may be daily expected.
The other envoys of the United States for this mission may
American plenipotentiaries in reply to an overture (which never was made to them)
expressed among other things their reluctance to have American affairs blended
with those of the continent? The subject was never to my knowledge even al-
luded to in conversation. Can you not obtain an explanation or a disavowal?"
Albert Gallatin to John Quincy Adams, March 6, 1 8 14. Ms.
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 33
have arrived already at Gothenburg/ and the undersigned
is obliged to hasten as much as possible his departure. He
will in a few days have the honor of asking of His Excellency
Mr. Weydemeyer the passports necessary for his journey,
and has now that of requesting him to solicit an audience for
him to take leave of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress
Mother. He also desires the honor of being presented to
Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Ann for the same
purpose.
In conclusion the undersigned has the honor to remark to
His Excellency Mr. Weydemeyer, that he has the express
orders of the President of the United States to make known
to the Emperor his sensibility to His Majesty's friendly dis-
position manifested by the offer of his mediation, his regret
at its rejection by the British government, and his desire
that in future the greatest confidence and cordiality, and
the best understanding may prevail between His Maj-
esty's government and that of the United States.
The undersigned requests his Excellency Mr. Weyde-
meyer to accept the assurance of his very distinguished
consideration.
St. Petersburg, March 26 / April 7, 18 14.
* Clay and Russell arrived at Gothenburg April I2, after a passage of fifty-six
days.
34 THE WRITINGS OF I1814
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 132. [James Monroe]
St. Petersburg, 15 April, 18 14.
Sir:
Immediately after receiving your favors of 8 January by
Mr. Strong, I requested an interview with Mr. Weydemeyer,
now the official organ of communication with the foreign
ministers at this court, with the intention of making known
to him the instructions I received, and of testifying to him
my surprise at the statement in Lord Castlereagh's letter
to you of a supposed answer given by the American envoys
at St. Petersburg to the overture for a negotiation at London
or Gothenburg, made by Lord Cathcart's note of i Septem-
ber to Count Nesselrode at the Emperor's headquarters at
Toplitz.
Mr. Weydemeyer was so unwell that he could not see me
for several days, and on the 7th instant I addressed to him
an official note, of which, and of its translation, I have the
honor herewith to enclose copies. After the note was written,
and before it was sent, I received notice from Mr. Weyde-
meyer that he would see me the next day; but he still was so
much indisposed that our conference was very short, and
consisted on my part chiefly in a recapitulation of the
contents of the note, and on his, in the promise that he would
immediately dispatch it to the Emperor, and in general
assurances of the satisfaction with which His Majesty would
receive the testimonials of the friendly dispositions of the
American government.
The answer ascribed to the American envoys will doubtless
occasion no less surprise to you than it did to my colleagues
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 35
and myself, when you are informed that, until after the
departure of Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard from this place,
we neither had nor could obtain any official information that
any such overture as that of Lord Cathcart's note had ever
been made. It had been intimated to us through indirect
channels that such an offer would be communicated to us;
and as early as the month of August, Count Romanzoff had
put the question to me, whether we could treat in London, if
such a proposal should be made by the British government.
In the same informal manner that government had received
notice that we had no objection to treat either at London or
Gothenburg, but that our powers were limited to treat under
the mediation. We also very well knew the aversion which
the British Cabinet felt to the idea of having their disputes
with America at all connected with the affairs of the conti-
nent of Europe; but we had certainly never expressed our
opinion upon the subject, and in all our transactions with
Russia relative to the mediation, nothing about the affairs
of Europe had ever been said. Nor did we know that the
British government had ever declared their sentiments in
relation to that point.
It was apparently the object of the British Cabinet, in
rejecting the Russian mediation, to withhold, if possible,
from the public eye all evidence, not only of that rejection
and of the motives upon which it was founded, but even
that the offer had been made. In the first instance they
gave no positive answer, but expressed doubts whether the
mediation would be accepted in America. In their labors
to persuade others they had succeeded to convince them-
selves that the American government was under French
influence, and calculating that the mediation of a sovereign
at war with France and in close alliance with them could not
be acceptable to the President, they trusted that a refusal
36 THE WRITINGS OF [181+
on his part would release them from the necessity of coming
to a decision upon the proposal. It was therefore not made
at that time formally and in written communications, but
merely in personal conferences between the Chancellor and
Lord Cathcart here, and between Count Lieven and Lord
Castlereagh at London. When it was found not only that
the mediation was accepted by the President, but that the
envoys from the United States were appointed for the mis-
sion, a positive answer to Russia became absolutely neces-
sary, and Count Lieven was told that the question with
America involved principles of internal government in Great
Britain which were not susceptible of being discussed under
any mediation. Lord Cathcart was instructed to explain
the matter verbally at the Emperor's headquarters, and had
a conversation with the Emperor himself upon the subject
at Bautzen, between the 12th and 20th of Alay. Still there
was nothing written to prove the refusal of the mediation,
nor would there perhaps ever have been anything, but for
the renewed proposal which the Emperor by Count Ro-
manzoff's advice directed to be made by Count Lieven, the
ofBcial note of which was sent from hence to Count Lieven,
and a copy of which has been transmitted to you by us.
Before this note was received by Count Lieven, Lord Castle-
reagh had learnt that it would come, and theii, that is about
the last of July, Lord Cathcart was instructed to decline
the mediation in a written note. This note he presented at
Toplitz on the 1st of September. So that when Count Lieven
received his instructions to renew the offer of mediation,
he was told by Lord Castlereagh that it had already been
refused, and all the grounds of refusal fully set forth to the
Emperor at headquarters. Count Lieven therefore did not
present the note according to his instructions, and whatever
Lord Cathcart's verbal elucidations of the motives of refusal
i8i4] JOHN QUIXCY ADAMS 37
may have been to the Emperor, he has only referred to,
without stating them in the written note. That they were
not satisfactory to the Emperor I well know, for I have seen
a letter in His Majesty's own hand writing, dated at
Toplitz, 8 September 0. S., that is twenty days after Lord
Cathcart's note, and in express terms approving completely
Count RomanzofF's instruction to Count Lieven for the
renewal of the offer of mediation.
In the policy of suppressing as much as possible, the evi-
dence of the refusal to accept the mediation, it cannot now
be questioned that the Russian government has either con-
curred with, or acquiesced in the views of the British. The
importance of preserving the reality of harmony between
them at the most eventful crisis of their great common
cause against France urged alike upon both parties the
necessity of preserving the appearances of it in regard to
all objects of minor concernment. The flat refusal of the
mediation of a prince whose partialities, if he could have
been susceptible of entertaining any while performing the
office of mediator, must have been all in favor of England,
could not but have upon the public opinion of the world an
operation in no wise advantageous to the British govern-
ment. The Emperor on his part might not incline to expose
to the world how very little consideration the British had
for him beyond the precise points in which his cause was
their own. He might be advised that in making public such
a signal and groundless mark of distrust on the part of his
ally, the sentiment of his dignity would require that he
should take some notice of it, which at this time would not
be expedient. It might also be admitted that the very
proposal in Lord Cathcart's note was of a nature which
would have assumed a singular appearance, if communicated
by the Russian government to the American envoys. Lord
38 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
Cathcart's language to Russia Is "We will not negotiate
with America under your mediation, but we ask your good
office to prevail upon America to negotiate with us with-
out It." The delicacy of this procedure towards Russia was
I suppose duly reflected upon before Lord Cathcart pre-
sented his note; but I acknowledge that when I first read It
among the printed documents with the President's message
of 6 January, I was not surprised that the Russian govern-
ment should have declined performing the office of mediator
merely to announce that her mediation was refused.
However this may be, certain It Is that the note never was
communicated to us. We never answered the overture con-
tained in it, because although we received Indirect intima-
tions that it would be made, yet it never was actually made.
And we never said anything about mixing the affair with
those of the continent of Europe, because nothing was ever
said to us about it. To the opinion of my colleagues upon
this subject I cannot speak; but for myself, I do not consider
the questions at Issue between the United States and Great
Britain as questions in which the continent of Europe has
no interest — not even the question of Impressment. In
every naval war waged by Great Britain, it is the interest
and the right of her adversary that she should not be per-
mitted to recruit her navy by man-stealing under the name
of impressment from neutral merchant vessels. Nor should
I have felt at all Inclined to indulge the pretension on the
part of Britain had It been disclosed to us in the shape of a
declaration that her contests with us were nothing to the
continent of Europe.
I thought It necessary, therefore, in my note to Mr. Weyde-
meyer pointedly to disavow the answer which Lord Castle-
reagh says he had been informed by Lord Cathcart that we
had given to the overture in his note of i September. It will
18 14] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 39
be for Lord Cathcart to explain whence he derived his in-
formation. I am etc.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 133. [James Monroe]
St. Petersburg, 25 April, 1814.
Sir:
• ••••••
I propose to leave this city in two or three days for Gothen-
burg. My intention is to go to Reval and there embark for
Stockholm. The passage by the way of Finland is now im-
practicable, and there are twenty-five English mails known
to be at Grislehamn waiting for the possibility of passing
the gulf. The harbor of Reval is itself not yet open, and by
information which I have obtained from thence will probably
not be so before this day week, by which time I hope to be
there. I have concluded upon this course as likely to be the
shortest to the place of my destination.
I have a letter from Mr. Harris dated 14 March at Amster-
dam. He did not then know that the charge of our affairs
here was to be left with him, and was expecting to go to
England with Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard. I wrote him
on the 4th instant under cover to Mr. Bourne, and have
since written again under cover to Mr. Beaslcy, informing
him of the President's order concerning him and urging his
return hither. It is not probable he can arrive before some
time in June.
In the uncertainty whether Mr. Clay or Mr. Russell might
arrive in Sweden before me, I thought it a proper mark of
respect to the Swedish government to give them notice of
40 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
the commission to Gothenburg, and of my intention in pur-
suance of my instructions to proceed thither. I therefore
wrote to Count Engestrom, the Swedish Minister of Foreign
Affairs, with whom I have been long personally acquainted
and had already been in correspondence. As my letter went
by the mail, and the passage of the Gulf is impracticable,
it may perhaps not arrive sooner than myself; but the
Swedish commercial agent here will furnish me a pass-
port. . .
I have continued to make the payment and the charge for
a Secretary of Legation. I shall do the same for the present
quarter, and Mr. Smith with whom I shall leave the papers
and seal of the Legation will continue to perform the office
of secretary until Mr. Harris's return. He will then embark
for Gothenburg, and thence return to the United States.
From the time of my own departure from this place I shall
be without the assistance of any secretary, upon which I
beg leave to submit to your candor and the President's con-
sideration some remarks which I deem not unimportant to
the public interest.
For a commission of three or four members, upon a trust
so momentous as that of a negotiation for peace between the
United States and Great Britain, it Is not only expedient,
but for the responsibility of each individual member of the
Commission Indispensable, that he should have a copy of
every document relating to the negotiation. There must
therefore be not only as many letter books as there are com-
missioners, but copies must be made in them of many papers
received as well as of all those which are dispatched. The
mere manual labor Is more than can be performed by one
secretary to the commission, and either he must employ
clerks for the work, or each commissioner must make the
copies for himself, or by the hand of a private secretary.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 41
In the case of the extraordinary mission here, both these
expedients were used. A4r. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard had at
first private secretaries, and afterwards Mr. Harris em-
ployed a clerk. The result of this is that all the papers of the
most confidential nature come to the knowledge of all the
persons thus employed.
The salary of an American Minister in Europe will not
admit of the expense of supporting a private secretary, in
any manner confidential. The employment of a common
clerk at daily or monthly wages Is not without strong in-
conveniences from the motives of a breach of trust to which
such persons would be accessible. There would be no diffi-
culty in obtaining all the assistance of this kind which could
be desired without any expense, and offers to this effect have
been made to me; but I know they were founded upon pro-
jects of commercial speculation in which use would be made
of the information thereby to be obtained, and I do not think
it ought to be so used. I shall therefore take no secretary
with me and shall do as much of the copying as I can myself.
But I may be compelled to employ a copying clerk at Gothen-
burg, and to take such a person for it as I may have the
fortune of finding there. I must also request, if I am to re-
turn here, that a secretary to this legation may be ap-
pointed. I am etc.^
» "The war in Europe at present appears to be at an end. The Bourbons are
restored to France and Spain, and the dreams of an universal republic or an uni-
versal monarchy have ended in the conquest of France by the allies, and the ab-
dication of Napoleon Bonaparte, against whom the allies have of late professed to
make war. It seems to me hardly credible that the allies should very soon discover
that there are other objects of contention besides Napoleon, but hitherto all has
gone on smoothly since they are in possession of Paris. Napoleon has not only been
constitutionally deposed; but he has formally abdicated and renounced all pre-
tensions to the throne of France and Italy. The Bourbons are to receive France,
and France is to receive the Bourbons, as presents from the allies; and the allies
must necessarily dictate the terms upon which these generous donations are to be
42 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Reval, 12 May, 1814.
• ••••• ■
The coalition of Europe against France has at length been
crowned with complete success. The annals of the world
do not, I believe, furnish an example of such a reverse of
fortune as that nation has experienced within the last two
years. The interposition of Providence to produce this
mighty change has been so signal, so peculiar, so distinct
from all human operation, that in ages less addicted to
superstition than the present it might have been considered
as miraculous. As a judgment of Heaven, it will undoubt-
edly be considered by all pious minds now and hereafter;
and I cannot but indulge the hope that it opens a prospect
of at least more tranquillity and security to the civilized
part of mankind than they have enjoyed the last half cen-
tury. France for the last twenty-five years has been the
scourge of Europe; in every change of her government she
has manifested the same ambitious, domineering, oppressive,
and rapacious spirit to all her neighbors. She has now
fallen a wretched and helpless victim Into their hands, de-
throning the sovereign she had chosen, and taking back the
granted. That all parties should ultimately be satisfied with the issue may reason-
ably be doubted. The allies have not yet declared how much of the guaranty
which they thought necessary to secure them against the unbridled ambition of
Bonaparte, they will hold it prudent to relax in favor of the pacific and unaspiring
house of Bourbon. If the paroxysm of generosity holds out to the end, they will
soon find another coalition necessary. If, as is far more probable, they finish by
availing themselves of their advantages, to impose severe and humiliating terms
upon France, besides forfeiting the pledge they have given to the world of modera-
tion and magnanimity, they will leave a germ of rancor and revenge which cannot
be long in shooting up again. But for the present the war in Europe is terminated."
To John Adams, May 8, 1814. Ms.
IS 14) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 43
family she had expelled, at their command; and ready to be
dismembered and parcelled out as the resentment or the
generosity of her conquerors shall determine. The final re-
sult is now universally and in a great degree justly im-
putable to one man. Had Napoleon Bonaparte, with his
extraordinary genius and transcendent military talents,
possessed an ordinary portion of judgment or common
sense, France might have been for ages the preponderating
power in Europe, and he might have transmitted to his
posterity the most powerful empire upon earth, and a name
to stand by the side of Alexander, Caesar and Charlemagne,
a name surrounded by such a blaze of glory as to blind the
eyes of all human kind to the baseness of its origin, and even
to the blood with which it would still have been polluted.
But if the catastrophe is the work of one man, it was the
spirit of the times and of the nation which brought forward
that man, and concentrated in his person and character the
whole issue of the revolution. "Oh ! it is the sport (says Shake-
speare) to see the engineer hoist by his own petar." The
sufferings of Europe are compensated and avenged in the
humiliation of France. It is now to be seen what use the
avengers will make of their victory. I place great reliance
upon the moderation, equity, and humanity of the Emperor
Alexander, and I freely confess I have confidence in nothing
else. The allies of the continent must be governed entirely
by him, and as his resentments must be sufficiently gratified
by the plenitude of his success, and the irretrievable down-
fall of his enemy, I hope and wish to believe that he has
discerned the true path of glory open before him, and that
he will prove inaccessible to all the interested views and
rancorous passions of his associates. The great danger at
the present moment appears to me to be that the policy of
crippling France, to guard against her future power, will be
44 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
carried too far. Of the dispositions of England there can be
no question; of those which will stimulate all the immediate
neighbors of France there can be as little doubt; and France
can have so little to say or to do for herself, that she begins
by taking the sovereign who is to seal her doom, from the
hands of her enemies. The real part for the Emperor Alex-
ander now to perform is that of the umpire and arbitrator of
Europe. To fill that part according to the exigency of the
times, he must forget that he has been the principal party
to the war; he must lay aside all his own passions and resist
all the instigations of his co-operators. He must discern
the true medium between the excess of liberality which
would hazard the advantages of the present opportunity to
circumscribe the power of France within bounds consistent
with the safety and tranquillity of her neighbors, and the
excess of caution which the jealousy of those neighbors, and
perhaps his own, would suggest, to secure them at all events,
by reducing France to a state of real impotence, and thus
leaving her future situation dependent upon their discre-
tion. I have no doubt that the Emperor will see all this in
the general principle, and I wait not without anxiety to ob-
serve its application to his measures. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Reval, May 1/13, 1814.
. . . The oracle of political news here is a Riga gazette,
called the Tushauer, that is, the Spectator. It comes twice
a week, and Mr. Rodde has the obliging attention of sending
it to me. I find in it news enough — as much as I am desirous
to know. The war in France has ended in such a singular
manner that I am perfectly at a loss what to think about it.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 45
They say that in the typhoons of the East India seas, there is
sometimes an instantaneous transition from a previous
hurricane to a total calm. It is the aptest emblem of the
present moment. But the calm is as dangerous as the
storm, and it is generally very quickly followed by a tempest
equally tremendous from the opposite quarter. In neither
of these respects do I apprehend that the parallel will hold;
but when Napoleon shall be fairly and completely out of
the way, and out of the question (which he is long before
this) we shall have the opportunity of ascertaining whether
the allies have really been thinking they had nothing to do
but to crush him, and whether the peace of the world is to
be secured by his removal. . . .
Stockholm, May 31, 18 14.
... It is not yet known here that there has been any
appointment in England of commissioners to meet those of
the United States. Mr. Gallatin and Bayard, instead of
coming to Gothenburg, have remained in England. The
proposal has been made, somewhere, to remove the seat
of the negotiations to Holland, and although I do not approve
of this step, it may have been carried so far that I shall be
under the necessity of acquiescing in it. If it should be so,
possibly Mr. Clay, Mr. Russell and myself will go by water
in the John Adams, from Gothenburg to Amsterdam. If
on the other hand, as is my earnest wish, we should finally
meet the British commissioners at Gothenburg, I fully expect
to return to you, by water from Gothenburg, and hope to
accomplish the voyage and be with you at latest by the
first of September. . . .
Stockholm, June 2, 1814.
. . . The English mail of May 13 arrived here yesterday.
The British government have appointed commissioners
46 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
to meet us — Admiral Lord Gambler, Mr. Adams, and Mr,
Goulbourn.^ It was expected that a proposition would be
made from the English side, to change the place of the con-
ferences, and meet in Holland. My colleagues were prepared
to accede to this proposal upon condition that it should be
made from the other side, and I expect that on arriving at
Gothenburg I shall find it all so settled as to have no alter-
native left but to go on.^ As it was all done without consult-
ing me, I trust I shall not be answerable for it. I dislike
It for a multitude of reasons, to speak in the New England
styles, too tedious to mention; but In matters of much more
Importance I shall cheerfully sacrifice any personal conven-
iences and any opinion as far as my sense of the public In-
terest will admit, to the accommodation and Inclinations of
my colleagues. ...
The letters from England say that there Is a most extraor-
dinary stagnation there of all commerce; no demand from
anywhere either of colonial produce or their manufactures;
exchanges all against them, and all going down. What will
perhaps surprise you is, that If we had asked to go to England
it would not have been allowed; because It was not wished
that we should be so near to certain visitors^ expected there.
This I believe is "more strange than true." . . .
^ Their instructions were not given until July 28, and are printed in Letters and
Despatches of Lord Castlereagh, X. 67.
* See Adams, Memoirs, June I, 1814.
* Emperor Alexander.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 47
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 134. [James Monroe]
Stockholm, 28 May, 1814.
Sir:
On the 28th of last month I left St. Petersburg and pro-
ceeded to Reval, where I embarked in a merchant vessel
bound to this place. After much detention by adverse
winds and bv the ice with which the Gulf of Finland is yet
obstructed, I landed here on Wednesday the 25th instant.^
Upon my arrival I found that of the five commissioners
Mr. Clay alone was at Gothenburg. That Mr. Gallatin and
Mr. Bayard have remained in England and have written to
propose a removal of the place of negotiation from Gothen-
burg to Holland or to London. That Mr. Clay and Mr.
Russell have conditionally consented to the removal to
Holland, and that the reply of Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard
has not yet been received here, but is expected by the first
mail from England. -
In reflecting upon the instructions to the mission and upon
the proposal of removing to Holland the seat of the confer-
ences, which has probably proceeded too far to be revoked,
I have concluded not without hesitation to go on to Gothen-
burg. For the motives to this hesitation I beg leave to refer
you to my letter of 22 November, 181 3, and to the evidence
upon which my opinion there expressed was founded, which
evidence was transmitted to you by the same conveyance
with my letter. As there is no alteration in the principle of
our instructions, and I have no reason to believe that there
^ The incidents of the journey are given in Adams, Memoirs,
^ See Adams, JVritings of Gallatin, I. 606, 608.
48 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
has been any alteration, at least any favorable alteration in
the dispositions of the British government, I cannot enter-
tain a doubt that our conferences, wherever held, will be
arrested at the threshold by an utter impossibility of agree-
ing upon the basis of negotiation. Under these circumstances
I should have thought it my duty to return forthwith to my
post at St. Petersburg, but for the hope that we shall receive
before the conferences can commence new instructions upon
which the conclusion of a peace may become possible.
Mr. Russell and myself intend leaving this place in two
or three days for Gothenburg, where I shall take the earliest
opportunity of writing you again. In the meantime I re-
main etc.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
United States Corvette John Adams
Below Mingo, Sunday, 12 June, 1814.
. . . The servant ^ whom I took with me from St. Peters-
burg has left me, and is a serious loss. I offered to take
him with me, but he had no inclination to go so far from
Sweden and Russia; and he objected that he could not be
very useful to me in a country where he would be a total
stranger, and ignorant of the language. This was very
true, and for the same reason I have deferred engaging an-
other man until we come to some landing. But Mr. Hughes,^
the Secretary of the Legation, had left a Norwegian boy, and
Mr. Shaler ^ (an attache) an Otaheitean, to go on the ship,
and they are to serve me instead of a valet de chambre until
1 Axel Gabriel Gahbroos.
^ Christopher Hughes (i 786-1 849.)
^ William Shaler, afterwards in the consular service.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 49
we come to the place of meeting. I had a very urgent and
even importunate solicitation yesterday morning from a
Frenchman, whose great desire was to go to America, and
I believe I should have taken him but for his extraordinary
talents. For he assured me that he was one of the greatest
coiffeurs that ever was bred at Paris; that he had dressed
the head of the Crown Prince and of all the royal family
at Stockholm; that he could make one a wig that it would
be a pleasure to wear; and besides that he had a most un-
common talent pour la danse. He had been four years in
this country, but the climate did not agree with his health,
and he must say, there was no encouragement or reward for
talents in Sweden. The man appeared really distressed, and
I was more than half inclined to take him upon trust, until
he disclosed his skill pour la danse, and menaced me with a
wig. . . .
The officers of this ship are by no means of this class
[non-combatants]. Captain Angus ^ was with Truxtun when
they took the Vengeance and distinguished himself last
summer in the war upon the Lakes of Canada. The first
lieutenant, Yarnall, was Perry's first lieutenant in the
glorious victory on Lake Erie; and the second lieutenant,
Cooper, was in the Hornet when she sunk the Peacock, and
on board that vessel at the time of the catastrophe. There
are on board the ship fourteen midshipmen. Captain Angus
assures me that we have now in the navy seventy officers,
regularly bred and perfectly competent to the command of
a ship; if they had the ships I have no doubt but that in
less than seven years they would form seven times seventy,
prepared to meet on equal terms any captain in the British
navy. . . .
' Samuel Angus (1784-1840), of the John Adams.
50 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAAIS
Ghent, June 25, 1814.
. . . You are sufficiently acquainted with my disposi-
tion to know that it was some, and not inconsiderable
gratification to my feelings to find myself the first here. It
was unavoidable that some of us should wait a few days for
the others; and I am very sure there was not one member of
the commission so anxious to avoid waiting as I was to
avoid being waited for. Even my detention at Reval, so
mortifying and vexatious to myself, has not for one hour
delayed the movements of my colleagues, nor retarded the
time of our meeting at this place. One consequence it has
however had, which I deeply regret. I have told you here-
tofore that Colonel Milligan was sent by Mr. Bayard as a
special messenger to Gothenburg to propose the alteration
of the place, and that Messrs. Clay and Russell consented to
it, upon condition that the proposition should come in form
from the English side. It was accordingly so made and
accepted, and I found myself destined to Ghent instead of
Gothenburg, without having had any voice in the question.
Had I not been so unfortunately detained at Reval, I should
have been at Gothenburg when Colonel Milligan arrived
there upon his embassy, and in that case none of us would
ever have come to Ghent. For myself, at least, I answer.
I never would have consented to come here. If a majority
of my colleagues had concluded upon the measure, I would
have returned immediately to St. Petersburg, and left them
to conclude the peace as they saw fit. At this hour I should
have been with you. If In consequence of my adhesion to
Gothenburg, the conclusion had been to meet there, I have
no doubt that at this moment the whole business would have
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 51
been finished. We could have been all assembled before
the first of this month, and what we have to do could not
have taken three weeks of time. I should now have been
on my way to join you. I still believe, as I wrote you from
Stockholm, that we shall not all be here sooner than the
middle of July. The change of plan has thus wasted nearly
two months, and in my full conviction, to no useful purpose
whatever. . . .
Aly aversion to this new arrangement arises, however,
from considerations solely and exclusively of the public
interest. For myself I must acknowledge that my second
voyage and journey has been far more agreeable than the
first. It was in the first place more expeditious. I received
the notification to come here, within thirty miles of Stock-
holm, and that day three weeks I was on the spot. I had
been nearly six weeks in going from St. Petersburg there,
certainly not half the distance. It was also in all its cir-
cumstances more pleasant. The voyage from Gothenburg
to the Texel was like a party of pleasure — a large, comfort-
able and fast sailing ship, excellent fare and agreeable com-
pany. From the Texel to this place the roads are all good,
and the country at this season is one continual garden. We
have all the time been approaching to the summer, while
the summer has been approaching us. The weather has
been exactly such as a traveller could wish for — not so cold
as to be uncomfortable, nor so warm as to be oppressive,
to the horses or to ourselves. I have revisited a country
endeared to me by many pleasing recollections of ail the
early stages of my life — of infancy, youth, and manhood.
I found it in all its charm precisely the same that I had first
seen it; precisely the same that I had last left it. Sweden
since I saw it before has changed, greatly changed; and by
no means for the better. It was then, though a poor, ap-
52 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
parently a happy country. It Is now a picture of misery.
But if there is anything upon earth that presents an image
of permanency, it is the face of Holland. The only change
that I could perceive in it is an improvement. The cities
and the country around them have, I think, an appearance
rather more animated and flourishing than I ever witnessed
heretofore. Their connection with France has infused into
them a small portion of the French activity and vivacity.
In this country the change has been much greater. Antwerp,
when I first saw it, was a desolation, a mournful monument
of opulence in the last stage of decay. It is now again what
it had once been, a beautiful and prospering city. But an
English garrison in possession of the place, and English
commissaries daily expected to carry away in triumph one-
third of the formidable fleet floating on the river, and to
demolish all the ships on the stocks, the precious hopes of
futurity, a present fearful foreboding of what Antwerp will
soon be again. The fate of Belgium is yet undecided. Aus-
tria, Prussia, Holland, France and England, all covet its
possession, and the prospect now is that the gold of England
will turn the scales. The Netherlands will be a British
province. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, June 28, 1814.
. . . When I told you in my last letter that I had found
nothing changed in Holland, I had forgotten the visit which
I made at Amsterdam to the venerable old Stad-house,
which has been metamorphosed first into a royal, and now
into a sovereign-princely palace. I took no pleasure in the
transformation, and wished they would turn it back again
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 53
into a Stad-house. The upper floor has become a formal
gallery of pictures, and has a number of excellent paintings
of the Dutch school. Some of the best are large historical
pieces which belonged to the city of Amsterdam, and have
always been there. The royal apartments are on the lower
floor, furnished with elegance, but with not much splendor.
They are now appropriated to the use of the Sovereign
Prince and his family, when at Amsterdam. Their residence
for the present, however, is at the Hague, and will doubtless
continue there. The traces of the Napoleon family have
been removed as fully as the convenience of the moment
would admit. There was a large full-length portrait of the
Emperor in one of the rooms : the place where it stood is yet
marked out by the different color of the damask wainscoting
which was covered by its frame, and thus protected from
fading. There is one of the fashionable timepieces with a
bronze figure of him standing by its side; but as his name was
not under it, and it could be recognized only by the re-
semblance, it was a good economical principle not to lose
a handsome piece of furniture for a trifle, and the spectator
is not bound to know that the figure is the image of Bona-
parte. A square of window-glass within the walls of the
palace still bears the inscription written with a diamond
"Vive Louis Napoleon Roi de Hollande"; but to remove it
would cost a new square of glass, and why should that ex-
pense be incurred.^ It is the happiness of that country, and
has saved them perhaps from many a calamity, that all
their political enthusiasm during the convulsions from which
Europe is emerging has been invariably kept subordinate
to the steady manners and national spirit of good husbandry.
I have heard them talk like their neighbors of liberty, of
equality, of fraternity, and of Independence. I have seen
them change the orange for the three-colored cockade, and
54 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
the three-colored again for the orange. They have had since
my remembrance a stadtholder and States General, a
National Convention, a Grand Pensionary, a king of the
Napoleon manufacture; have been travestied into a province
of France, and have lastly got a Sovereign Prince. All these
changes have been effected successively, without bloodshed,
without Internal convulsion, without violence. They have
stretched and have shrunk like the piece of India rubber that
you use in drawing; but throughout all their changes, the
sober, cautious, thrifty character of the nation has Invaria-
bly maintained Its ascendancy, and of all Europe they are
unquestionably the people who have suffered the least from
the hurricane of its late revolution. The willow has weath-
ered by bending to every gale as it shifted, the storm which
has prostrated the sturdiest oaks
dont la tete aux lleux etoient prochaine
et dont les pieds touchoient a rEmpire des morts.
The evening before we left Amsterdam I went to the
French theatre. In the interval between the plays, the
orchestra struck up a Dutch air. There was a gentleman
sitting by me, whose eyes brightened at the sound, and he
told me that It was a national air. Some few persons clapped
their hands, but he observed that the first enthusiasm had
somewhat cooled down. Immediately afterwards they
played "God Save the King." There was no clapping of
hands. I turned to my friend and asked him, if that too
was a national air? He hung his head and said, No! . . .^
* "Here we have listeners and lookers-on in abundance. Never in my life did I
find myself surrounded by so much curiosity." To Abigail Adams, June 30, 1814.
Ms.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 55
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, July 2, 18 14.
. . . The Emperor Alexander may now be truly called
the darling of the human race. Concerning him, and him
alone, I have heard but one voice since I left his capital; not
only in his own dominions, not only here and in Holland,
but even in Sweden, where it was least to be expected that
a Russian sovereign should be a favorite. In France, per-
haps, his popularity is at the highest. Even those who at
heart do not thank him for the present he has made them
cannot deny his moderation, his humanity, his magnanimity.
Of all the allies he was the one who had been the most
wantonly and cruelly outraged. Of all the allies he was the
only one who took no dishonorable revenge, who advanced
no extravagant pretensions.
It is well understood that he alone protected Paris from
the rapacity of those who had marched with Napoleon, and
shared the plunder of Moscow. He has redeemed his pledge
to the world. He has shown himself as great by his for-
bearance and modesty in prosperity as by his firmness in
the hour of his own trial. But the Ethiopians have not
changed their hue, nor the leopards their spots. They are
already wrangling about the spoils; and we hear people
talking as familiarly about the guerre de partage, as if it was
already commenced. . . .
56 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 135. [James Monroe]
Ghent, 3 July, 18 14.
Sir:
On the 2nd of June I left Stockholm, and on the 6th
arrived at Gothenburg. I met on the road Mr. Connell,
who had been dispatched by Mr. Clay to give Mr. Russell and
me information of the change of the place of negotiation
which had been proposed by the British government, and
assented to by Mr. Bayard and Mr. Gallatin on the part of
the American ministers. Instead of some place in Holland
which had been previously intimated as the wish of the
British government, they had finally fixed upon this city,
the effect of which as we have now reason to believe will be
to remove us from neutral territory to a place occupied by a
British garrison.
There are as yet no British troops here, but they are at
Antwerp and Brussels, and are expected here in the course
of a few days. In proposing this place as a substitute for
one unequivocally neutral, it appears to me it was incumbent
on the British government to give notice to the American
ministers of the change in the condition of the place, which
it must have been at that time contemplated by them to
make.
Mr. Clay had determined to come from Gothenburg by
land, and had left that city before I arrived there. Mr.
Russell was detained a few days longer at Stockholm, but
reached Gothenburg on the loth of June. The next day we
embarked on board of the John Adams, and on the i8th
landed at the Helder. From thence we came by land to this
iShJ JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 57
city, where we arrived on the 24th. ^ Mr. Bayard was here
on the 27th, and Mr. Clay on the 28th. Mr. Gallatin comes
from London by way of Paris and we expect him here to-
morrow. . . .
TO LEVETT HARRIS
Ghent, 9 July, 18 14.
Dear Sir:
Mr. Gallatin on his arrival ^ here delivered me your favor
from London of 21 June, and I had previously received in
Sweden that of 8 May. I had delayed answering this one
because I was not authorized to communicate officially with
Count Nesselrode, and because I knew the Emperor would
before his arrival in London have been apprised through the
regular channel, the Department of Foreign Affairs, of your
charge at St. Petersburg. I had notified it in an official
communication to Mr. Weydemeyer on the 7th of April,
and Mr. Weydemeyer had assured me that my note should
be immediately transmitted to the Emperor.
' I have been most unnaturally occupied; for I have accomplished two voyages
by sea, and two journies by land. Have crossed the Gulf of Finland and Baltic
from Reval to Stockholm, and the North Sea from Gothenburg to the Tcxel. Have
traversed the Kingdom of Sweden and the sovereign princedom of the Netherlands;
and here I am in the city of Charles the 5th waiting with my four colleagues, until
it shall please the mistress of the world, as she now fancies herself, to send her
deputies for the purpose, as she imagines, of receiving our submission.
"Submission, however, thus much I can assure you, is neither our temper, nor
that of our masters. The only question that can possibly arise among us is, how
far we can abandon the claim which we have upon our adversary' for concession
upon her part. And with this disposition on both sides at the very opening of con-
ferences, I am well assured the work to which we have been called, that of con-
ciliating British and American pretensions, will be found more unnatural than your
and my wandering life." To John Adams, July 7, 1814. Ms.
2 July 7.
58 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
I learnt with much pleasure that Mr. Gallatin and you
obtained of the Emperor a private audience in London/ and
that he retains unimpaired his friendly sentiments and dis-
positions towards the United States. I am not surprised
that the Emperor should inquire pourquoi Gand? et pourquoi
Gothenburg.? but these questions can be answered only by
the British government. Both the places were proposed by
them, and both barely acquiesced in on our part. We should
much have preferred treating at St. Petersburg. But our
own government, with good reason as I believe, determined
that it should not be at London. Not that I imagine that the
place of negotiation will have the weight of a straw upon its
result. The questions at issue between the United States
and Great Britain, my dear sir, and the temper prevailing.
on both sides, you may rely upon it, are not to be affected
by such insignificant incidents as the place where the con-
ferences are to be held, or the official documents interchanged.
Your information upon this subject, from authority however
high,^ must be erroneous. Queen Mab's thimble would have
been a fire-bucket to extinguish the flames of Moscow,
just as important as the place where we should meet the
British commissioners was to the issue of the negotiation.
But the President of the United States felt, and it was a
feeling worthy of the Chief Magistrate of an independent
and spirited people, that the metropolis of our enemy was
not a suitable place to be substituted for the capital of a
common friend and impartial mediator. Nor do I precisely
think with you that the selection of Ghent was a judicious
choice on the part of the British government. Their mo-
tives for the choice are indeed obvious enough. They mani-
1 June 18. See James Gallatin, Diary, 24.
* Harris had spoken of Count Munster, tiic friend and companion of the Prince
Regent.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 59
fest at once a fear of the American commissioners, and a
distrust of all their own allies, obviously excessive, and which
a profound policy would have been cautious not to disclose.
The Crown Prince of Sweden and the Sovereign Prince of
the Netherlands may say pourquoi Gand? as pointedly as
the Emperor Alexander, and the question conveys the
bitterest of sarcasms upon the selection made by the Re-
gent's ministers. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, July 12, 1814.
My Dear Wife,
When I told you in my last letter that the whole American
mission extraordinary was here, I ought to have excepted
Mr. Carroll and Mr. Todd, who are still lingering at Paris.
Mr. Carroll is attached to the mission as private secretary
to Mr. Clay, and Mr. Todd is of this legation, as he was of
the former, a gentilhomme d^ambassade, quite independent
in his movements, and very naturally thinking Paris a more
agreeable residence than Ghent; notwithstanding the bon
mot of Charles the 5th, which the good people of this city
delight to repeat, that he would put Paris into his glove.
We are all in perfect good understanding and good humor
with one another, and fully determined if we stay here long
enough to make a removal from the inn where we all lodge
expedient, to take one house and live together. All the
attaches are now upon such a footing of independence that
some of them may perhaps leave us and return home in the
John Adams. I think it more probable, however, that they
will await the issue, which I still think will not be long de-
layed. Scarcely an hour passes without accumulating cvi-
6o THE WRITINGS OF I1814
dence to my mind that our antagonists are fully resolved not
to make peace this time, notwithstanding which, I live in
hope, and trust in God. I must at the same time acknowl-
edge that none of my colleagues agree with me in opinion
that our stay here will be short. They calculate upon three
or four months at least, and incline even to the prospect of
passing the winter here, which I hold to be utterly impossi-
ble. I mention it to you now, because it was since I wrote
you last that the first idea has been suggested, and because
if upon the arrival of the British commissioners there should
be a rational ground for the belief that we shall pass the
winter here, I shall then propose to you to take your passage
in the first good vessel bound from Cronstadt to Amsterdam
or Rotterdam, to break up altogether our establishment at
St. Petersburg, and to come with Charles and join me here.
We should then have it at our option in the spring to return
to St. Petersburg or to America. I am, however, so far
from entertaining any expectation of wintering here, that I
only speak of it now, that if such should eventually be the
result, the notice may not come too suddenly upon you. I
shall not leave you an hour in suspense, after having any-
thing ascertained upon which I myself can depend.
We continue to have a constant supply of American
visitors, but as, after all, Ghent is not the most fascinating
place for a long residence, many of our countrymen seem to
come here only to see how we look, and take their departure
for elsewhere. Mr. Edwards and Mr. Howland are already
gone to Paris, but have been succeeded by two others,
whose names I have not discovered, but who are undoubt-
edly Yankeys. We have now here Captain Jones ^ of the
Neptune, with young Nicholson and Dr. Lawton. Mr. Rus-
sell's son George, too, found his school at Amsterdam so
^ Lloyd Jones.
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAiMS 6i
tiresome that he has prevailed upon his father to let him
come here. I remember what a Dutch school at Amsterdam
was thirty-four years ago enough to sympathize with George;
but he appears to me so fine a boy, and to be at an age when
time is so important, and instruction so vital to his hereafter,
that I think his danger is of finding his father too indul-
gent. . . .
Captains Angus and Jones, and the other commissioners
now here, dined with us yesterday, and to my no small
mortification Mr. Bayard remembered and toasted the day.^
It was however, done by him with so good a disposition that
I took it as kindly as it was meant. He has uniformly been
since our arrival here in the most friendly humor, and we
appear all to be animated with the same desire of harmo-
nizing together. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, July 15, 1814.
My Dear Wife,
The stream of high and mighty travellers from London
through this place has been incessant since the passage of
the Emperor Alexander. The two sons of the King of Prus-
sia, and his brothers, the Princes Henry and William, the
second son of the Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands,
Count Nesselrode, and lastly Field Marshal Prince Bliicher,
have all been successively here. Most of them have stopped
either to dine or to pass the night at the house where we
lodge, but I have not had the fortune to see any one of them.
The King of Prussia and the Duchess of Oldenburg went
directly from Calais to Paris. The Prince of Orange, who
' His birthday. He was forty-seven years of age.
62 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
was to have married the Princess Chariotte of Wales, landed
at Helvoetsluys and went on immediately to the Hague.
The marriage, you know, is broken off, and according to the
newspapers the Prince was treated in England with very
little respect. The rupture however is ascribed principally
to the lady herself, who is said to have been so averse to
going out of the Kingdom that she insisted upon making an
article of the contract of marriage that she should not. And
the Prince having consented to this, she then required that
he should also subject himself to the same interdiction. It
is probable that she was resolved to raise obstacles more
perseveringly than he was prepared to remove them. And
there were other considerations of a political nature, which
might contribute to the separation of these royal lovers. The
project of uniting this country with Holland, under the
authority of the Sovereign Prince was perhaps connected
with that of the marriage, and is likely to be dissolved with
it. In the new combinations of European politics arising
from the restoration of the Bourbons and the dismember-
ment of France, England Is apparently tending to the policy
of a close alliance with Austria, and will eventually restore
this country to her. The late allies are understood to be not
very cordially affected towards one another, and there Is
much talk of a new war, but I believe It to be without foun-
dation. . . .
TO ALEXANDER HILL EVERETT
Ghent, July 16, 1814.
... I mentioned In my last letter to you that I had re-
ceived and read with poetical pleasure your brother's [Ed-
ward] (^ /8 /c poem,^ though I had not been equally gratified by
^ American Poets, l8l2.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 63
its political complexion. I have learnt since then, from my
mother, that he has assumed the arduous and honorable
task of succeeding our lamented friend Buckminster; an
occasion upon which he might emphatically say " who is
sufficient for these things? " I have the satisfaction of being
one of the proprietors in that Church, and I look forward
with pleasure to the period when, with my family, I shall
be an habitual attendant upon his administration. I will
not promise to agree with him in politics, nor even in re-
ligious doctrine; but there is one, and that the most essential
point, upon which I am confident we shall never disagree —
I mean Christian charity.
I regret that with your letter I had not the pleasure of
receiving the copy of your address to the Charitable Fire
Society,^ and I have heard from other quarters of certain
political speculations of yours, which I have more than one
reason for wishing to see. As your design of entering upon
the field of public discussion has been carried into execution,
and as American principles are the foundation of the system
to which you have pledged your exertions, you will not
doubt the interest which I shall take in every step of your
career. Notwithstanding the inauspicious appearances
of the present moment, I humbly trust in God, that Ameri-
can principles will ultimately prevail in our country. But
should it be otherwise in the inscrutable decrees of divine
providence, should the greatness and prosperity to which
the continuance of the Union cannot possibly fail of exalting
our native country, be deemed too great for mortal man to
attain; should we be destined to crumble into the vile and
miserable fragments of a great power, petty, paltry prin-
cipalities or republics, the tools of a common enemy's
malice and envy, and drenching ourselves age after age in
' Delivered May 28, 1813, and printed for the Society.
64 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
one another's blood; far preferable should I deem it to fall
in the cause of Union and glory, than to triumph in that of
dismemberment, disgrace and impotence. As Christians,
whatever befalls us or our fellow men we must submit to
the will of heaven; but in that case I should be tempted to
say with Lucan, "Victrix causa dis placuit, sed victa
Catoni." . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, July 19, 1814.
. . . We have contracted to take a house, where the
five members of the mission, and the Secretary, Mr, Hughes,
will all reside together. We engage it for one month, and
it is to be furnished ready for us to go into next Saturday.
This has been a negotiation of some delicacy; for although,
as I wrote you, we had all agreed as it were par acclamation
to live together, yet when it came to the arrangement of
details, we soon found that one had one thing to which he
attached a particular interest, and another another, and it
was not so easy to find a contractor who would accommodate
himself to five distinct and separate humors. It is one of
your French universalists who has finally undertaken to
provide for us. He keeps a shop of perfumery, and of mil-
linery, and of prints and drawings; and he has on hand a
stock of handsome second hand furniture. But then he was
brought up a cook, and he is to supply our table to our
satisfaction; and he is a marchand de vin, and will serve us
with the best liquors that are to be found in the city. This
was the article that stuck hardest in the passage; for one
of us, and I know you will suspect it was I, was afraid that
he would pass off upon us bad wine, and make us pay for
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 65
it as If It was the best. The bargain was very nearly broken
off upon the question whether we should be obliged to take
wine from him, or, if we supply ourselves from elsewhere,
to pay him one franc a bottle for drawing the cork. We
finally came to a compromise, and are to begin by taking
wine from him. But they must be at his peril such as we
shall relish; for if not, we shall look further, and draw the
corks without paying him any tax or tribute for it at all. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, July 22, 1814.
... If the change of place of negotiation had been,
as was first suggested, to the Hague, it would certainly have
been personally to me, considering only the circumstance
of individual accommodation, far more agreeable than either
Gothenburg or Ghent. Ghent is to us all a more agreeable
residence than I think Gothenburg would have been. The
great and essential objection which there was in my mind
was the great and unnecessary delay, which I knew It must
occasion. I suppose this was really the precise object of the
enemy in proposing the change. He wanted a pretext for
delay, and I would not have allowed It. He began by talk-
ing of the Hague, and he finished by giving us Ghent. The
change of the place gave him two months, and now he still
delays without even offering a pretext. The hostility of the
Little Lord ' Is a mere sympathy. It is like the whispering
gallery at St. Paul's. You whisper on one side of the dome,
and the listener at the other side hears the sound. Lord
Castlereagh whispers at Paris or London, and more than
echoes talk along the walls of the maison Demidoff. If we
' Sir William Schaw Cathcart (1755-1853), the British ambassador to Russia.
66 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
had stuck to Gothenburg as I would have done, this paltry-
shuffling would long before this have been at an end. The
true negotiators, as his Lordship said, were the bayonets
from Bordeaux. It is with them that our country must treat,
and it is by disposing properly of them that she can alone
produce a pacific disposition in England.
What you have heard of the character and temper of
Mr. Clay coincides exactly with all the experience I have
had of them hitherto; ^ but the other report of a public
breach and misunderstanding between two other gentlemen
is altogether unfounded. So far from it that we now lodge
all together in one house, and have a common table among
ourselves; that we have engaged, as I wrote you before, a
house, where we shall still lodge and dine together, and that
there is on all sides a perfect good humor and understanding.
The junior attaches, who were last year in Russia, appear
to me both much improved. They are, I believe, both wholly
independent of their former patrons^ and can therefore have
no collisions with them. Their pretensions are not so saliant
as they were, and their deportment is consequently more
pleasing. The Colonel is not only reconciled to the Chevalier
[Bayard], but more assiduous to him than ever. The Cheva-
lier himself is entirely another man, with good health, good
spirits, good humor, always reasonable, and almost always
as you have seen him in his most amiable moments. Whether
there was something baleful in the waters of the Neva, I
know not; but our last year's visitors, all here, seem of an-
other and a much better world.
When I wrote you that I hoped to be with you by the first
of September, it was on the supposition that we should do
^ "Mr. Clay, I understand, is one of the most amiable and finest temper'd men
in the world, and I am told you will be delighted with him. Young Lewis is lavish
in his praise." Louisa Catherine Adams to John Quincy Adams, June lo, 1814. Ms.
iSh) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 67
our business at Gothenburg. I can no longer entertain such
a hope. You know the situation in which we are now here,
and the promise we had that the other party should be here
to meet us in the first days of this month. I am aware how
painful it will be to you to be left so long in suspense, whether
I can go to you, or you are to come to me, and only ask you
to recollect that sharing all your anxieties in this respect,
I have the further mortification of feeling the same tardiness
of our adversaries as a purposed insult upon our coun-
try. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, July 29, 18 14.
. . . There was last week, on the 20th, a debate in
the House of Commons, in which notice was taken of the
delays of the British government relating to the negotiation
with America. Mr. Whitbread asked Lord Castlereagh,
"Whether the persons sent to Gothenburg from the Amer-
ican government were quite forgotten by His Majesty's
Ministers, or whether any one had been appointed to treat
with them.^" His Lordship answered that persons had been
appointed to treat with them. The report of the rest of the
debate on the subject, whether purposely or by the blunders
of the reporter, is so expressed that it is impossible to make
sense of it. The substance however is, that Mr. Whitbread
stated as the general impression in public that there was
not that alacrity in the British government to meet the
overtures from America which he thought it important
should be manifested. Lord Castlereagh answered that
there was no disposition on the part of England to delay the
negotiations with America; that the departure of the British
68 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
commissioners had been regulated so that they might find
the American mission ail assembled here, but that by his
last advices from Paris, Mr. Gallatin was still there. Now, my
dear friend, we have the most substantial reason for know-
ing that besides all the London newspapers which had an-
nounced Mr. Gallatin's departure from Paris the 4th of this
month. Lord Castlereagh had special and precise informa-
tion that he had been here at Ghent, a full fortnight, on the
day of that debate. So much for Lord Castlereagh's candor.
But the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Vansittart, in the
same debate was more ingenuous; for he said "that the war
with America was not likely to terminate speedily, and might
lead to a considerable scale of expense." Mr. Canning
some time before in another debate had enjoined upon the
ministry not to make peace without depriving America of
her right to the fisheries; and one of the Lords of Admiralty
is reported to have said in the same House of Commons, that
the war with America would now be continued to accomplish
the deposition of Mr. Madison. An article in the Courier,
the ministerial paper, of the 22d, countenances the same
idea. It states that the federalists in America are about
taking a high tone; that they will address Congress for the
removal of Mr. Madison, preparatory to his impeachment;
on the ground that England will never make peace with
him. . . .^
' "Further communications from America inform us, that the Federal party as-
sume a very high and decided tone. Addresses to Congress are to be set on foot
throughout all the eastern states for the removal of Mr. Madison from office, pre-
paratory to his impeachment. It is represented that he has displayed the most
notorious incapacity; that he has deceived and misled his countrymen by gross mis-
representations; that he has abused their confidence by secret collusion with the
late Tyrant of France; and that no fair and honourable terms of peace can be ex-
pected from Great Britain, so long as she is to treat with a person from whom she
has received such unprovoked insults, and such deliberate proofs of injustice."
The Courier, July 22, 1814.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 69
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, August i, 18 14.
Yesterday was the day of our removal from the Hotel
des Pays-Bas, on the Place d'Armes, to our own house in
the Rue des Champs. Among the Important consequences
of this revolution, it has produced that of a state of separa-
tion between the primary members of the mission and the
attaches. Those gentlemen found they could accommodate
themselves with lodgings more to their taste, and as the
principle of their attachment is independence, they have
followed their humor without any interference or dissatis-
faction on our part. We should have been gratified to have
had Mr. Hughes with us, but his inclination did not pre-
cisely correspond with ours; or rather, after a choice of
apartments to accommodate five principals, the chambers
that were left were not so inviting as others that were to
be found in the city. I regret the loss of his society; for he
is lively and good-humored, smart at a repartee, and a
thorough punster, theory and practice. He has not for-
given us, and I have the most to answer for in the offense,
for calling him before he thinks it was necessary from Paris,
and he has a project of making another excursion, while
there is not much to do. He tells me that his brother-in-law,
our old friend, J. S. Smith, is to be married this summer to
Miss Nicholas.^
Mr. Dallas intended to have gone in the John Adams, and
still so intends, if another passport is obtained. Mr. Gal-
latin is very anxious that Mr. Todd should also return by the
same vessel; but Todd likes Paris, perhaps as much as
Mr. Hughes, and feels no obligation to yield obedience to
^ Caryanne, daughter of Wilson Cary Nicholas. She died in 1832.
70 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
the summons of departure from It. Hughes (and it is a good
sample of his wit) always calls him Monsieur Toad.
Mr. Hughes has this day a letter from Mr. Beasley men-
tioning that the departure of the British commissioners
would probably be postponed until after the great fete,
which takes place on this day.^ If we were but sure they
would come then, we should not have much longer to wait.
They are making and circulating all sorts of reports to ac-
count for these delays. Among the rest they pretend that
we ourselves had proposed that further time should be
taken, that we might receive new instructions from our
government. This is not true.
I believe I have suggested the true cause of their waiting.
They have taken measures to strike a great blow in America,
and they wish to have the advantage of the panic which they
suppose it will excite. Among the rumors of the time I have
heard that they intended not to treat with us, until the Con-
gress which is to meet at Vienna. That, you know, was to
have been on this day, and was afterwards postponed to the
first of October. Lord Castlereagh lately promised the
English nation a long, profound, unsuspicious peace in
Europe, which is certainly more than will be realized. The
peace will be neither profound nor unsuspicious, but it may
very possibly be long; that is, it may last several years. As
to the talk of a new war in October, I hold it to be perfectly
absurd. The Congress at Vienna will prevent a war if there
is now a prospect of one; and the policy of England now and
then will be to use all her influence to prevent it. . . .
1 The "grand jubilee," being the centenary of the accession of the House of
Brunswick to the English throne and the anniversary of the battle of the Nile.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 71
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAxMS
Ghent, August 5, 1814.
... I know not who it was who so positively assured
you that there were to be no British commissioners ap-
pointed to meet us; but it must have been somebody deep
in the secrets of the British Cabinet. I wrote you on the 2d
of June from Stockholm that British commissioners were
appointed and gave you their names. Lord Castlereagh on
the 20th of July told the House of Commons that commis-
sioners were appointed, though the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer gave at the same time a broad hint that it was not
intended they should make peace. Now for something
nearer at hand. We have a letter from Mr. Beasley, dated
29 July, this day week. He says he has just seen Air. Hamil-
ton, under secretary of state for foreign affairs, who in-
formed him that the British commissioners had kissed the
Prince Regent's hand the day before, and that they would
certainly leave London for Ghent in all this week. Mr. Ham-
ilton, to be sure, had before written to Mr. Irving that they
would leave London on or about the first of July; but the
ceremony of taking leave of the Regent looks more as if
they were in earnest. I now confidently expect them within
a week from this day.
I was almost as much gratified with your account of the
entertainment at Pavlowski as if I had been one of the party
myself. You do not mention the occasion of it, but I find
upon recurring to the calendar that it was the Grand Duke
Nicholas' birthday. I congratulate you upon your having
got so well through the day, and rejoice that you have had
that occasion for enlivening your summer. The Emperor
has, I presume, before this reached St. Petersburg, and now
72 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
will be the time for fetes and rejoicings. The newspapers
say that he has declined accepting the title that was offered
him of the Blessed, and has referred it to posterity to erect a
monument in honor of him, if he deserve it. This answer
is so conformable to his character that I believe it to be in
substance true, and it is among the strongest proofs that he
deserves both the title and the monument. It shows a mind
unsubdued by prosperity, as it had already proved itself
superior to adversity. It indicates a just estimate of the
honors that can be conferred upon an absolute sovereign by
his co-temporaries, and of those which may be conferred
by prosperity.
Mr. Beasley has sent us some of the latest American
papers that have been received; they are to the 20th of June,
and exhibit no indication of the intentions announced by the
British gazettes on the part of the federalists to address
Congress for the removal and impeachment of Mr. Madison.
Quite the contrary. The New York election has given a
great accession of strength to the government of the United
States; and the Massachusetts governor and legislature are
retreating and boast of their forbearance. There has been a
new religious festival in Boston ^ upon the fall of Bonaparte
and the restoration of the Bourbons. The State House and
a few private houses were illuminated, but the Chronicle says
it did not take; that it was only a solemn festival^ for they
could not get so much as a shout from the boys in the streets.
That they asked for what the State House was illuminated.^
and some said it was because Bonaparte had been bribed
with 6 millions to give up France to the English; and others
said it was because Governor Strong was chosen instead of
' June 15. The resolutions are given in Boston Gazette, June i6, but do not answer
to the description in this letter. The Chronicle did not print them, but the refer-
ence may be to the London Chronicle.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 73
Samuel Dexter. At this same religious festival several
resolutions were proposed by Mr. Gore, about as wise as the
festival itself. One of them is merely a lamentation that
on account of the war, they cannot express as they wish they
could their admiration of a certain hero who must be name-
less. There is a speech made in the Senate of Massachusetts
by a Mr. Holmes,^ in which he bears down upon the junto
as Perry did upon the British on Lake Erie. There has been
nothing like it for many years. The federal papers say that
Mr. Otis upheld to it with a torrent of eloquence, but they
have not yet published his speech. That of Holmes is entire
in the Chronicle of 20 June, and its main points are too
stubborn for Otis's torrent to overwhelm. It appears that
Otis must have resigned his seat as a judge, by his being
again in the Senate. , . .
We begin to be weary, not of one another, but of our bar-
gain for the house. You will not be surprised at this when
I tell you that our landlord Is Mr. Lannuyer. We find him
as tiresome as his name. I shall complain as little as possible,
but shall perhaps at the close of the month return to the
Hotel des Pays-Bas. . . .-
* John Holmes, of York.
* "We have the satisfaction of living in perfect harmony; the discontents of our
domestic arrangements are all with our landlord, and none with one another. Even
he gives us better satisfaction than he did. Mr. Hughes and the private secretaries
all dine with us every day. One of our troubles you must know was that this house
was haunted, and its ill-fame in this respect was so notorious, that the servants and
the children of our party were very seriously alarmed before, and when we first
came in. The perturbed spirits have all forsaken the house since we entered it,
and we hope they are laid for ever." To Louisa Catherine Adams, August 12, 1814.
Ms.
74 THE WRITINGS OF (1814
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, August 9, 18 14.
. . . The British commissioners arrived here on Satur-
day evening the 6th inst., and yesterday we had our first
conference with them. Their manner is poHte and conciHa-
tory. Their professions both with regard to their govern-
ment and themselves, Hberal, and highly pacific. But they
have not changed the opinion which I have constantly had
of the result. Of the prospects you may judge with more
certainty from the speech of the Speaker of the British
House of Commons, than from the professions of the com-
missioners. Last week the session of Parliament closed.
The Regent in his speech said that he regretted the contin-
uance of the war with the United States; that notwithstand-
ing the unprovoked oppression upon their part, he was
willing to make peace on terms honorable to both nations;
but that in the meantime the war would be carried on with
increased vigor. But the Speaker undertook to dictate
terms in his speech, and roundly declared that the House of
Commons could never consent to terminate the war hut by
the establishment of the maritime rights of Great Britain. You
will now receive in the most exclusive confidence whatever
I shall write you on this subject. Say not a word of it to
any human being, until the result shall be publicly knov/n.
At present I do not think that the negotiation will be of
long continuance. At the same time I cannot yet speak on
the subject with perfect certainty.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 75
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE '
No. 2. [James Monroe]
Ghent, August 11, 1814.
Sir,
The British Commissioners arrived in this city on Satur-
day evening the 6th inst. They are Admiral Lord Gambier,
Henry Goulburn, Esq., and Dr. William Adams.- The day
after their arrival Mr. Baker, the secretary to their com-
mission called upon one of us (Mr. Bayard) and notified to
us that event, with the proposal from them to meet us the
day succeeding at one o'clock afternoon, at their lodgings.
We were of opinion that unless they should think fit to hold
^ A draft by Adams of a dispatch to be signed by the commission. The
dispatch sent is dated August 12, and is printed in American State Papers, Foreign
Relations, III. 705. On August 9 Adams was charged to prepare the draft of a
dispatch to the Secretary of State on the two conferences with the British pleni-
potentiaries. This draft was taken by the other commissioners. Bayard prepared
an entire new draft, which was substituted for that of Adams, but was found to be
so imperfect that Gallatin drew up a new paper, finally accepted with some amend-
ments. Adams, Memoirs, August 9-17, 18 14. The words in italics were under-
scored probably by members of the commission questioning the propriety of using
them.
* "The British commissioners are said to be personally men of moderate princi-
ples and their deportment has hitherto been of a conciliatory character. Lord
Gambier was in Boston in the year 1770, when his uncle commanded there. He
was himself then a boy, but he recollected having seen my father at that time. Dr.
Adams is an admiralty lawyer. His family, he told me, some generations ago came
from Pembrokeshire in Wales; but has for many years been settled in the county
of Essex. I think we have neither Essex kindred, nor Welsh blood in our pedigree.
His arms are a red cross. Ours I think are no other than the stripes and stars."
To Abigail Adams, August 18, 18 14. Ms. Gallatin was not "impressed with the
British" commissioners, as "men who have not made any mark and have no in-
fluence or weight, . . . but puppets of Lords Castlereagh and Liverpool."
He "felt quite capable of dealing with them." Diary oj James Gallatin, 28.
76 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
the first conference at our dwelling house, it would be more
expedient to hold it at a third place. The option of either
was offered them, and they assented to the proposal of meet-
ing at a third place. We met accordingly at one o'clock on
Monday the 8th inst. and on the proposal of the British
commissioners agreed to hold the future conferences at each
other's houses alternately, and until they shall have taken
a house, entirely at ours.^
We have the honor to enclose herewith copies of the full
powers produced by them at the first conference, and of the
protocol of the first and second conferences as ultimately
agreed to by mutual consent. They opened the subject of
our meetings by assurance that the British government had
a sincere and earnest desire that the negotiation might
terminate in the conclusion of a solid and honorable peace;
and particularly that no events which had occurred since
the first proposal for this negotiation had produced the
slightest alteration either in the pacific dispositions of Great
Britain, or in the terms upon which she would be willing to
concur in restoring to both countries the blessings of peace.
These professions were answered by us, for our govern-
ment and ourselves, with expressions of reciprocal earnest-
ness and sincerity in the desire of accomplishing a peace,
and of the satisfaction with which we received those they
had addressed to us. With regard to the first point stated
by them as a proper subject for discussion, that of impress-
ment and allegiance, they intimated that the British govern-
ment did not propose this, as one which they were desirous
of discussing; but that in adverting to the origin of the war,
it was one which they could not overlook, among those which
they supposed likely to arise.^
* This paragraph, except the first sentence, was struck out.
2 " In submitting this as the first topic we stated that we had no intention of offer-
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ij
The principal stress of their instructions appeared to have
been concentrated upon the second point — the Indian paci-
fication and boundary. Their statement of it in the first
instance was in terms not conveying altogether the full im-
port of its meaning. The motive which they appeared to
impress upon our minds as that of the British government
in this proposal, was fidelity to the interests of their Indian
allies; a generous reluctance at concluding a peace with the
United States, leaving their auxiliaries unprotected from the
resentments of a more powerful enemy ^ and a desire by the
establishment of a definite boundary for the Indians to lay
the foundation of a permanent peace, not only to the In-
dians, but between the United States and Great Britain.
They expressly disclaimed any intention of Great Britain
to demand an acquisition of territory for herself. But upon
being questioned, whether it was understood as an effect of the
proposed Indian boundary that the United States and the
Indians would be precluded from the right they have hitherto
exercised of making amicable treaties between them, with-
out the consent of Great Britain; whether for example the
United States would be restricted from purchasing and they
from selling their lands; it was first answered by one ^ of the
commissioners that the Indians would not be restricted from
selling their lands, but the United States would be restricted
from purchasing them; and on reflection another ^ of the
commissioners observed that it was intended that the Indian
territories should be a barrier between the British posses-
sions and those of the United States; that both Great Britain
ing any specific proposition on this subject. We did it because the subject had
been put forward by the American government in such a manner as led us to sup-
pose that they would make it a principal topic of discussion." British Commis-
sioners to Lord CastUreagh, August 9, 18 14. Ms.
* Goulburn.
2 William Adams.
78 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
and the United States should be restricted from purchasing
their land, but that the Indians would not be restricted from
selling them to a third party.
On the point respecting the fisheries they stated that this
was regarded by their government as an object of minor
importance. That it was not intended to deny the right of
the Americans to the fisheries generally; but with regard to
the right of fishing within the limits of their jurisdiction, and
of landing and drying fish upon their territories, which had
been conceded by the treaties of peace heretofore, those
privileges would not be renewed without an equivalent.
They manifested some desire to be informed even at the
first meeting whether the American commissioners were in-
structed to treat with them upon these several points, and
they requested us to present to them such further points as
we might be instructed by our government to offer for dis-
cussion. They assented however to the desire expressed on
our part to consult together among ourselves, previous to
answering them in relation to the points presented by them,
or to stating those which we should offer on our part. This
was done at the second conference, and in the interval be-
tween the two we received the originals of your letters of
25 and 27 June, the duplicates of which have since then also
come to our hands.
At the second meeting ^ after answering that with re-
gard to the two points of the Indian pacification and bound-
ary, and the fisheries, we were not instructed to discuss them,
we observed that as they had not been objects of controversy
between the two governments heretofore, but were points
entirely new, to which no allusion had even been made by
Lord Castlereagh in his letter to you proposing this negotia-
tion, it could not be expected that they should have been
* August 9.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 79
anticipated by the government of the United States. That
it was a matter of course that our instructions should be con-
fined to the subjects of difference in which the war origi-
nated, and to the topics of discussion known by our govern-
ment to exist. That as to peace with the Indians, we con-
sidered that as an inevitable consequence of peace with
Great Britain; that the United States would have neither
interest nor motive for continuing the war against the Indians
separately. That commissioners had already been appointed
by the American government to treat of peace with them,
and that very possibly it might before this have been con-
cluded. That the policy of the United States towards the
Indians was the most liberal of that pursued by any nation.
That our laws interdicted the purchase of lands from them
by any individual, and that every precaution was taken to
prevent the frauds upon them which had heretofore been
practised by others. We remarked that this proposition to
give them a distinct boundary different from the boundary
already existing, a boundary to be defined by a treaty be-
tween the United States and Great Britain, was not only
new, It was unexampled. No such treaty had been made
by Great Britain, either before or since the American Revolu-
tion. No such treaty had to our knowledge ever been made
by any other European power.
In reply to the remark that no allusion had been made
to these new and extraordinary points in Lord Castlereagh's
letter to you, it was said that it could not be supposed that
Lord Castlereagh, In a letter merely proposing a negotiation,
should have enumerated the topics which might be proper
for discussion in the course, since those would naturally be
determined by the events which had subsequently occurred.
And this remark was made by the same gentleman,^ who
1 Goulburn.
8o THE WRITINGS OF [1814
had the day before assured us, zvith sufficient solemnity of
manner, that no events which had taken place since the
proposal of the negotiation had in the slightest degree altered
the pacific dispositions of the British government, or the
terms upon which she would be willing to conclude the peace.
Upon the observation from us that the proposition for an
Indian boundary was unexampled in the practice of civilized
nations, it was answered, that the Indians must in some
sort be considered as sovereigns, since treaties were concluded
with them both by Great Britain and the United States.
To which we replied by marking the obvious distinction be-
tween making treaties WITH them, and a treaty between two
civilized nations defining a boundary FOR them.
We informed the British commissioners, that we wished
to receive from them a statement of the views and objects
of Great Britain upon all the points, and expressed our readi-
ness to discuss them all. They inquired, whether, If they
should enter further upon discussion, and particularly on
the point respecting the Indian boundary, we could expect
that it would terminate by some provisional arrangement
which we could conclude subject to the ratification of our
government.
We said that as any arrangement to which we could agree
upon the subject must be without specific authority from
our government, it was not possible for us previous to dis-
cussion to decide whether an article on the subject could
be formed which would be mutually satisfactory, and to
which we should think ourselves, under our discretionary
powers, justified in acceding. [The difficulty that we felt we
stated in Its full force from a principle of perfect candour.
They would perceive that nothing could be easier for us
than to admit that an article might be formed which we
would provisionally sign, and yet to break off upon the
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 8i
details of any article which we might discuss.] ^ That our
motive in asking the discussion was, that even if no arrange-
ment could be agreed to upon this point which was pre-
scribed to them as the sine qua non of a treaty, the govern-
ment of the United States might be possessed of the entire
and precise intentions of that of Great Britain upon it; and
the British government be fully apprised of all the objec-
tions on the part of the United States to any such arrange-
ment. That if unfortunately the present negotiation must
be broken off upon this preliminary, the two governments
might be aware of each other's views, and enabled to judge
of the expediency of a renewal of the negotiation.
The British commissioners objected that it would be wast-
ing time upon an unprofitable discussion, unless we could
give them the expectation that we should ultimately agree
to an article on this subject. They proposed an adjourn-
ment of an hour that we might have an opportunity of con-
sulting between ourselves, whether we could give them this
pledge of a possible assent on our part to their proposal.
We needed no time for such consultation, as there was no
hesitation upon the mind of any one of us with regard to it,
and we declined the adjournment. They then proposed to
suspend the conferences until they could consult their own
government on the state of things. They sent off a special
messenger the same evening, and we are now waiting for
the result.^
^ The words in brackets were struck out.
* "Under these circumstances it would be satisfactory to us to be furnished with
instructions of the most specific kind how far His Majesty's Government would be
disposed to accept of a provisional article as to an Indian boundary, subject to [the]
very dubious contingency of its ratification by the President of the United States;
and also whether His Majesty's Government would wish the negotiations to pro-
ceed upon any and what points in the event of no provisional article of this kind
being agreed to, which latter contingency, unless specific Instructions are received
82 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
It was agreed upon their proposition that a report should
be drawn up of the proceedings at these two meetings, by
each party, and that we should meet the next day to com-
pare and collate them together, and from the two form a
final protocol agreed to on both sides. The paper marked
(C) ^ is a copy of the report thus drawn up on our part.
We inclose it to make known to you the passages, to the
introduction of which the British commissioners at this third
meeting objected. Their objections to some of the passages
were that they appeared rather to be argumentative, and
that the object of the protocol was to contain a mere state-
ment of facts. But they also objected to the insertion of
the fact, that they had declared the conferences suspended,
until they could obtain further instructions from their
government. Such was nevertheless the fact, and the re-
turn of their messenger may perhaps disclose the motive of
their reluctance to its appearing on the record.
We have the honor, etc.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, August 16, 1814.
American news presses upon us with an interest still in-
creasing and which will soon be but too powerful. It is im-
possible that the summer should pass over without bringing
intelligence which will make our hearts ache; though I hope
and trust that nothing will or can happen that will break the
from the United States, appear to us by no means unlikely to happen." British
Commissioners to Lord Castlereagh, August 9, 1814. Ms. See also Goulburn to Earl
Bathurst, August 9, 1814, in Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, Correspondence
and Memoranda, IX. 178. Castlereagh gave further instructions on August 14.
They are in Letters and Despatches of Lord Castlereagh, X. 86.
1 Printed in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, III. 708.
1814J JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 83
spirit of our nation. Wc are but just now receiving the ac-
counts of the arrival of the reinforcements sent out in the
spring. Those of their operations must soon follow. In
Canada we have done nothing, while the superiority of force
was unquestionably on our side! What are we to expect
when an overwhelming superiority will be on that of the
enemy.'' We are catching at the straws of such trifles as the
affairs of Sandy Creek and Niagara, while the blow hangs
over us which we are told is to lay us prostrate at the mercy
of our foe. God forbid 1 But either that, or a latent energy
must be brought forth, of which we have as yet manifested
no sign.
We had last Friday all the Americans In the city to dine
with us. We sat down to table twenty-two. The next
morning Captain Angus and Mr. Connell left the town.
The Captain returns to his ship, which is to sail on the 25th
inst. Connell could not obtain passage in her, nor any other
person, but those expressly named, or charged with dis-
patches. The morning they went away, Captain Angus said
to Mr. Shaler, "Well, I am going home and what shall I
say? The people will all be crowding about me for news —
what shall I tell them.'*" Says Shaler, tell them that the
day before you left Ghent you dined with the commissioners
and all the Americans In the place, and that at the dinner
Mr. A[dams] gave for a toast "Lawrence's last words."
Why, says Angus, "Do you think he meant anything by
it?" "Tell them the fact," says Shaler, "and leave them
to judge of that." It is true that Mr. A. did give the toast,
but It is very strange that Shaler should have noticed and
recollected it! If he had meant anything, was it not much
more probable that It would have been instantly felt by
Captain Angus, himself a naval ofiicer, than by a non-
combatant landsman? Angus did however finally sus-
84 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
pect that Mr. A. meant something. What is your opin-
ion? . . .
The ministerial English papers still tell us we are not to
have peace. An expedition said to be of 14,000 men is fitting
out, to sail hy the first of September, bound to America.
Lord Hill ^ has the command of it, and at a dinner last week
promised the company that he would humble the Yankees,
and reduce them immediately to submission. . . .
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 137. [James Monroe]
Ghent, 17 August, 1814.
Sir:
I have had the honor of receiving the duplicate of your
favor of 2 May, 18 14, and the original of that of 23 June,
the former purporting to inclose a copy of a proclamation of
Admiral Cochrane declaring the whole American coast to
be In a state of blockade. But the copy of the proclamation
was not Inclosed. I have transmitted to Mr. Harris a copy
of the letter, together with one of the proclamation as it
appeared in the American newspapers, requesting him to
present the subject to the attention of the Russian govern-
ment. Mr. Harris arrived at St. Petersburg on the 17th
of July.
It is no pleasing part of my duty to state to you my con-
viction that neither this nor any other remonstrance against
the maritime outrages of Great Britain will find, or be able
to rouse, either in Russia, or In any other European state, a
spirit of resistance against the British pretensions or prac-
^ Rowland Hill, first Viscount Hill (1772-1842).
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 85
tices. All the great powers of Europe are dependent upon
the good will of the British government for the attainment
of objects more important in their estimation than any thing
connected with the maritime questions. They have all
tacitly, if not formally, stipulated not to bring any of those
questions into the discussions at the Congress of Vienna
which is to be held in October, ultimately to settle the new
balance of Europe. Mr. Gallatin had an audience of the
Emperor Alexander at London, an account of which will be
transmitted to you, and from which you will perceive that,
although regretting the disregard unequivocally manifested
by the British government to his repeated offers of media-
tion, and to his wishes for peace between Great Britain and
the United States, he candidly expressed his intention to
take no further active part in urging the settlement of their
differences. Sweden is not only destitute of all means of
asserting any maritime or neutral rights against the preten-
sions of Britain, but it is by the assistance of Britain alone
that she can expect to accomplish the conquest of Norway.
Holland is so far from possessing the means even of remon-
strating against the British maritime code, that her mer-
chants without a murmur submit to purchase from the
British Ambassador at the Hague a license to send a ship to
any of their own colonies. Such is the ordinance prescribed
to them by their own sovereign prince, and with which they
think it no derogation to their national honor and independ-
ence to comply. France and Spain are yet equally dependent
upon the will of England for their Intercourse with their
colonies; none of those either of France or Holland have been
restored to them. There is even no immediate prospect of
their restoration. In the arrangements with Holland the
British government has explicitly avowed the policy of load-
ing the trade of the Dutch to their colonies with burthens
86 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
equal to those under which the English are obliged to carry
on the same commerce. It is probable that this principle,
of suffering no other nation to carry on commerce less bur-
thened with duties and charges than their own, will hence-
forth be an essential feature of the English policy, and I
consider it as one of their motives for continuing the war
with us upon which they are undoubtedly determined.
The dispatches from you to the joint mission which I had
been so long and so anxiously expecting, were received by
us on the day of our first conference with the British com-
missioners.^ They were of the utmost importance, inasmuch
as without them it would have been impossible for us to
proceed one step in the negotiation upon the points on which
the war originated. But you will see by our dispatches that
the British commissioners at the first conference formally
and in the most peremptory manner placed the war and the
negotiation upon a ground entirely new. They appeared
to mention the subject of impressment, with which they
connected their doctrine of unalienable allegiance, as a point
which they supposed we should be desirous of discussing,
but which their government would willingly pass over in
silence. They spoke of the fisheries also, rather to warn us
that we should want an article to secure us in the continuance
of the liberties we had enjoyed by the stipulations in the
treaties of 1782 and 1783, than to signify that they had any
wish to bring the subject into discussion. But from the first
moment they declared that the including of the Indians in
the peace, and the settling of an Indian boundary line, was
made by the British government a si7ie qua non to the con-
clusion of a treaty; and they attempted at the very first
meeting to entangle us in the alternative of conceding the
principle or of breaking off the negotiation. At the second,
1 August 8.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 87
after they were informed that we had no Instructions au-
thorizing us to treat with them on this point, they urged us
to the admission that we might agree to an article conceding
the principle, if they would open the discussion, and upon
our declining to make any such engagement, they Instantly
proposed a suspension of the conferences until they should
consult their government.
So far as the intentions of the British government can be
collected from the newspapers it would appear that they
calculate upon an immediate rupture of this negotiation.^
They have been taking up more than one hundred transports
for the conveyance of troops, and are stated to want more.
This object is a particular expedition, probably against
New Orleans, to be commanded by Lord Hill. They are to
be ready to sail from Cork on the first of September, and
their commander at a late dinner informed his table com-
panions that he was going to humble the Yankees, and re-
duce them Immediately to terms of peace glorious to Great
Britain.
* This was also Gallatin's view. James Gallatin, Diary, 29. "But upon the
practicability of prosecuting the negotiation with any utility in the present im-
perfect state of the instructions of which the American negotiators avow them-
selves to be in possession, the whole seems to turn upon the point you have so
properly suggested: viz. whether the Commissioners will or will not take upon
themselves to sign a provisional agreement upon the points on which they have no
instruction. If they decline this, the British government sees no advantage in
prosecuting the discussions further, until the American negotiators shall have re-
ceived instructions upon these points. If on the contrary upon a candid explana-
tion of the principles upon which Great Britain is prepared to treat on these sub-
jects, they are willing upon their own responsibility to sign a provisional agree-
ment, the negotiation may proceed, and the treaty when concluded may be sent
with the British ratification to America, to be at once exchanged, if the American
government shall think fit to confirm the act of their Commissioners. The British
government cannot better evince their cordial desire for peace than by placing the
negotiation upon this issue." CastUreagh to the British Commissioners, August 14,
1814.
88 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
The Sovereign Prince of the Netheriands has provision-
ally taken possession of the Belgic provinces, and by a proc-
lamation Issued at Bruxelles has signified to the people of
this country that they are ultimately to be united with
Holland under his government. In this arrangement the
Inclinations of the people have been as little consulted as In
the transfer of Norway to Sweden. There is no destination
which could be given to the Inhabitants of Belgium to which
they would be so averse as that of being annexed to Holland.
France Is also said to be strongly dissatisfied with this event,
and France begins to show symptoms of recovering her
voice in the general affairs of Europe. There are many
rumors of approaching war which. If not altogether un-
founded, will probably be dispelled by the negotiations at
the Congress of Vienna. The Interest of all the European
powers except France Is peace; and although France has a
strong interest and a stronger passion for an Immediate re-
newal of the Continental war, her fear of England with the
undoubted bias of the present government will at least for
some time control the spirit of the nation and especially of
the army.
I am etc.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, August 19, 1814.
. . . Since I wrote you last we have neither seen nor
heard from the British commissioners. After the second
conference they sent off a messenger to London, to Inquire
of their government whether they should have anything
more to say to us. Their messenger returned the evening
before last, but we have not a word from them yet. The
conferences have now been ten days suspended, and I may
isi4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 89
say to you it is by no means clear that they will be renewed.
On our part we have never occasioned or asked the delay of
an hour. Between the first and the second conference we
received dispatches from the Secretary of State, which
Mr. Gallatin, Air. Hughes and myself sal up until one the
next morning to decypher. This encroached something upon
my hour of retirement, which is now regularly at 9 o'clock.
Hitherto we have had no evenings. We dine all together at
four, and sit usually at table until six. We then disperse to
our several amusements and avocations. Mine is a solitary
walk of two or three hours — solitary, because I find none of
the other gentlemen disposed to join me in it, particularly
at that hour. They frequent the coffee houses, the Reading
Rooms, and the billiard tables. Between eight and nine I
return from my walk, and immediately betake myself to bed.
I rise usually about five in the morning, and from that time
until dinner am closely engaged in writing or in other busi-
ness. We breakfast separately, each in his own chamber,
and meet almost every day for an hour or two between
breakfast and dinner. We are not troublesome to one an-
other, and if our landlord was not quite so anxious as he is
to fatten upon us too fast, we should live with as much satis-
faction as I believe would be possible at Bachelor's Hall.
We pay him a very liberal and generous price; but he was
to furnish the house completely and elegantly, which he
has not done; and as for the boarding part we give him a
fixed price by the head and the day; he requires a scolding
once or twice a week to make him provide us with tolerable
fare.
If, as it would appear by the preparations for the Man
Mountain (Lord Hill)'s expedition, the British government
mean to break us up before the first of September, our resi-
dence here will not extend beyond the month for which we
90 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
positively" took the house, and which has already more than
half elapsed; but as the autumn advances and the nights
lengthen if we are to stay here we shall find changes in our
condition, which to me particularly will be no improvement
of it. I find myself already compelled to abridge my walk
after dinner, and shall soon be obliged to give it up al-
together. I hope we shall have no winter evenings to dis-
pose of . . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, August 23, 1814.
We had last Friday, after my letter of that day to you was
closed, a conference with the British commissioners at their
request, which will probably be the last. Lord Castlereagh
himself had arrived here the night before, and left this place
on his way to Bruxelles the day after. We did not see him,^
but at the conference it is scarcely a figure of speech to say
that we felt him. Our opponents were not only charged
fourfold with obnoxious substance, they threw off" much of
the suavity of form which they had observed before.^ After
they had opened upon us their new battery from England, and
answered some questions put on our part, I told them, and
we all agreed on our side that our proceedings were now suffi-
ciently matured for us to be ready to receive from them a
written communication. They promised it to us without
^ "During my stay of the greater part of two days at Ghent I did not see any
of the American Commissioners. They did not call upon or desire to see me, and
I thought my originating an interview would be considered objectionable and
awkward by our own Commissioners." Castlereagh to the Earl of Liverpool, Au-
gust 28, 1814. Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, IX. 192. Yet James Gal-
latin reports that Castlereagh saw Gallatin, and the son was present at the inter-
view. Diary, 30.
^ See Gallatin to Monroe, August 20, 18 14, in Adams, Writings of Gallatin, I. 637.
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 91
delay, and sent it the next morning.^ We shall send our
answer in a day or two, and I believe we shall need to wait
no longer than for their reply. That may be sent to us in
an hour, or it may be delayed a week; the difference of which
will depend upon its length or its laconism. Everything
here has proceeded precisely as I had expected. It is not
possible that we should be detained beyond the last of this
month, unless it be for the arrangement of our papers.
Messrs. Bayard, Clay and Gallatin expect to return this
autumn to America. But their project now is to order the
Neptune round to Cherburg, Brest, or L'Orient; and to go
there by land to embark. They will thus have the oppor-
tunity of visiting Paris again. They suppose that by this
arrangement they may yet sail as early as the first of Octo-
ber; but it is much more likely they will not get away before
the first of November. Then an American coast in Decem-
ber will be very disagreeable. Some of them will run a great
risk of passing another winter in Europe.
Messrs. Delprat and Todd arrived here together on Satur-
day. Todd was to have gone in the John Adams, but on
reaching this city he received a letter from his mother
[Mrs. Madison], urging him at all events not to stay longer
in Europe than Mr. Gallatin. Todd's argument is that in
compliance with his mother's request, he must stay in
Europe as long as Mr. Gallatin, so he has postponed his
voyage until the departure of the Neptune, and talks of
1 "We accordingly made on this subject also [a revision of the frontier] an
explicit communication to the American plenipotentiaries at a conference which
took place on the 19th inst., at which the American plenipotentiaries confined
themselves to requiring from us mere explanations upon some incidental points
connected with the subject of our verbal communications to them. In conformity
with a wish expressed by them to receive a written statement on the subject we
addressed to them the note of which a copy is inclosed." British Commissioners to
Lord CastUreagh, August 26, 18 14. Ms. The note was dated August 19.
92 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
returning Immediately to Paris. He has a very important
motive to this step, for an oculist there has promised him,
if he will put himself for a few weeks under his hands, he
will make him look straight. He had also after all the mis-
fortune to fail of being presented. Mr. Crawford had
an audience, and delivered his credentials last Tuesday.
Todd was to have been presented at the same time, but the
Introducteur des Ambassadeurs forgot to send him notice in
time, so that he was disappointed.
Colonel Milligan has just returned from an excursion of
two days with Mr. Hughes to Antwerp. The Colonel is
going upon a visit to his relations in Scotland, with the in-
tention however of returning wherever the Neptune may
be in time to go by her. This place continues to be the
thoroughfare of all the Americans in Europe. They come and
look at us, and are off in such rapid succession that sometimes
I hear nothing of them until they are gone. Mr. Joseph
Russell departs this day for Paris. He desires me to re-
member him with his most particular respects to you.
We are not confined exclusively to visitors from our
country. Last Friday our old friend de Cabre came and
spent the evening with us. He is going as Secretary of the
French legation to Copenhagen, and came round by this
city, twelve leagues out of his way, merely for the pleasure
of seeing us, and especially his intimate friend Hughes.
If besides that he came to reconnoitre, we know nothing of
it. I put him one or two prying questions, but he was as
ignorant as a simpleton. He knew nothing. . . .^
' On the 23d, the Commissioners met at a dinner given by the Intendant of the
city, and Goulburn reported on the same day: "It is evident from their conversa-
tion that they do not mean to continue the negotiations at present. Mr. Clay,
whom I sat next to at dinner, gave me clearly to understand that they had de-
cided upon a reference to America for instructions, and that they conceived our
propositions equivalent to a demand for the cession of Boston or New York; and
isi4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 93
ANSWER TO THE BRITISH COMMISSIONERS '
[August 24, 18 14.]
The undersigned Ministers plenipotentiary and extraor-
dinary from the United States of America have given to the
official note which they have had the honor of receiving
after dinner Mr. Bayard took me aside and requested that I would permit him to
have a little private and confidential conversation. Upon my expressing my readi-
ness to hear whatever he might like to say to me, he began a very long speech by
saying that the present negotiation could not end in peace, and that he was de-
sirous of privately stating (before we separated) what Great Britain did not appear
to understand, viz. that by proposing terms like those which had been offered we
were not only ruining all prospects of peace, but were sacrificing the party of which
he was a member to their political adversaries. He went into a long discussion upon
the views and objects of the several parties in America, the grounds upon which
they had hitherto proceeded, and the effect which a hostile or conciliatory disposi-
tion on our part might have upon them. He inculcated how much it was for our
interest to support the Federalists, and that to make peace was the only method of
supporting them effectually; that we had nothing to fear for Canada if peace were
made, be the terms what they might; that there would have been no difficulty
about allegiance, impressment, etc.; but that our present demands were what
America never could or would accede to. This was the general tenor of his conversa-
tion, to which I did not think it necessary to make much reply, and which I only
mention to you in order to let you know at the earliest moment that the negotia-
tion is not likely now to continue." Goulbum to Earl Bathurst, August 23, 18 14.
Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, IX. 190. Castlereagh found a difficulty in
making concessions "under present circumstances upon the chance of such a body
containing all the varieties of American party agreeing amongst themselves to any
measure of responsibility, and further, upon the imperfect security that if they did
so it would be approved at home." To the Earl of Liverpool, August 28, 1S14. lb.,
193.
' A draft by Adams. For the paper as sent see American State Papers, Foreign
Relations, HI. 711. This draft was considered on August 21. "I found, as
usual, that the draft was not satisfactory to my colleagues. On the general view
of the subject we are unanimous, but in my exposition of it, one objects to the form
and another to the substance of almost every paragraph. Mr. Gallatin is for strik-
ing out any expression that may be offensive to the feelings of the adverse party.
Mr. Clay is displeased with figurative language, which he thinks improper for a
94
THE WRITINGS OF [1814
from His Britannic Majesty's Commissioners, the deliberate
attention which the importance of the contents required,
and have now that of transmitting to them their answer on
the several points to which it refers.
They would present to the consideration of the British
Commissioners that in Lord Castlereagh's letter to the
American Secretary of State, dated on the 4th of November
last, and proposing the present negotiation, his Lordship
pledges the faith of the British government, that they were
"willing to enter into discussion with the government of
America, for the conciliatory adjustment of the differences
subsisting between the States, with an earnest desire on their
part to bring them to a favorable issue, upon principles of
perfect reciprocity not inconsistent with the established
maxims of public law, and with the maritime rights of the
British empire."
It will doubtless be within the recollection of His Britannic
Majesty's Commissioners, that at the first conference which
the undersigned had the honor of holding with them they
gave on the part of their government to the undersigned
the most explicit assurances that no events which have oc-
curred since the first proposal for this negotiation, had in
any manner varied either the disposition and desire of the
British government that it might terminate in a peace
state paper. Mr. Russell, agreeing in the objections of the two other gentlemen,
will be further for amending the construction of every sentence; and Mr. Bayard,
even when agreeing to say precisely the same thing, chooses to say it only in his
own language. It was considered by all the gentlemen that what I had written was
too long, and with too much argument about the Indians." On the 23d "about
one-half of my draft was agreed to be struck out;" and on the 24th, after hours of
"sifting, erasing, patching, and amending, until we were all wearied, though none
of us was yet satisfied with amendment," Adams believed his matter made one-
fifth of the accepted paper, and almost all he had written on the law of nations as
applied to the Indians and European settlements in America had been omitted.
Adams, Memoirs, August 21-24, 18 14.
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 95
honorable to both parties, or the terms upon which they
would be willing to conclude it.
These remarks the undersigned trust will suffice to relieve
the British government from the surprise which their Com-
missioners have been instructed to express that the American
government had not provided the undersigned with in-
structions, authorizing them to treat with British commis-
sioners for the interests or pretensions of Indians situated
within the boundaries of the United States.
The undersigned might justly ask in what established
maxim of public law the British government have found the
right of one civilized nation to interfere with the concerns
of the Indians included within the territories of another.**
If Great Britain considers the Indians as her subjects, what
established maxim of public law will warrant her in extend-
ing her claim to their allegiance to tribes inhabiting the
territory of the United States.'' If she considers them as
independent nations, where is her authority to treat for
them, or to bind them by her engagements.'* The Com-
missioners of His Britannic Majesty have produced to the
undersigned their full powers to treat on the part of Great
Britain. But they have not yet done them the honor to
communicate to them their Indian full powers.
The undersigned are persuaded that they will not be con-
tradicted in the assertion that no maxim of public law has
hitherto been more universally established among the powers
of Europe, possessing territories in America; and particularly
none to which Great Britain has more uniformly and Inflexibly
adhered, than that of suffering no interposition of a foreign
power, in the relations between the sovereign of the terri-
tory and the Indians situated upon it.
The proposition to constitute the Indian tribes into
neutral and independent nations to serve as a barrier be-
96 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
tween the dominions of two European powers is not in-
deed without example. It was proposed by France in the
abortive negotiation which preceded the peace of 1763,
and rejected by an administration to which the British
nation is accustomed to look back with pride and ven-
eration.
The undersigned deem it proper further to observe that
independent of the insuperable objections which may render
such a proposition inadmissible on the part of the United
States, they could not assent to it without injustice toward
the Indians themselves. In precluding perpetually the
Indians from the right of selling their lands, they would
deprive them of a privilege of the highest importance and
advantage to them. It cannot be unknown to the British
government that the principal if not the only value of lands
to the Indian state of society is their property as hunting
grounds. That in the unavoidable, and surely not to be
regretted, progress of a population increasing witli unex-
ampled rapidity, and of the civilized settlements conse-
quent upon it, the mere approximation of cultivated fields,
of villages and of cities, necessarily diminishes and by de-
grees annihilates the only quality of the adjoining deserts,
which makes them subject of Indian occupancy. The
unequivocal interest of the Indians there is to cede, for a
valuable consideration the remnant of that right, which
from the nature of things he must shortly cease to enjoy;
to retire from the forest which has already been deserted
by his prey, [into remote recesses of the wilderness where] ^
and to yield for a liberal compensation to the hand of tillage
the soil which can no longer yield to him, either the pleasures,
the profits, or the substance of the chase. Such a liberal
^ These words appear to have been added, but break the continuity of the sen-
tence.
i8.4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 97
compensation is provided for them by the system of legisla-
tion adopted by the United States in their relations with all
the Indian tribes within their territories. Under this system,
the undersigned have already had the honor of informing the
British Commissioners, that an uninterrupted peace had
subsisted between the people of the United States and all
the Indian tribes within their limits, for a longer period of
time than ever had been known since the first settlement of
North America. Nor would that peace have been inter-
rupted to this day, had not the British government drawn
some of the Indians, and compelled others, to take their
side in the war. With those Indians the United States, as
the undersigned have already declared, have neither in-
terest nor inclination to continue the war. They have
nothing to ask of them but peace. Commissioners on the
part of the United States have been appointed to conclude
it with them, and the pacification may before this have been
accomplished. To a provisional article, similar to what has
been stipulated in former treaties, engaging that the Indians
within the territories of either party shall be restrained from
committing hostilities against the citizens, subjects, domin-
ions, or Indians of the other, the undersigned might assent,
subject to the ratification of their government, as proposed
by the British Commissioners, but under the color of giving
to perhaps 20,000 Indians, and the tribes for which this
provision is proposed to be made cannot much exceed that
number, the rights of sovereignty, attributable only to
civilized nations, and a boundary not asked or consented to
by themselves, to surrender both the rights of sovereignty
and of soil, over nearly one-third of the territorial dominions
of the United States, the undersigned are so far from being
instructed or authorized by their government, that they
assure the British Commissioners it will never be conceded
98 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
by the United States, so long as they are in a condition to
contest the last badge of submission to a conqueror.
The undersigned may be permitted further to suggest in
reference to the motive assigned by the British government
for this proposal of a permanent Indian boundary, that
nothing could be so ill-adapted to the purpose which it would
be intended to accomplish. To place a number of wandering
Indian hunters, comparatively so small and insignificant, in
a state of nominal independence, on the borders of a free
and civilized nation, chiefly of British descent, whose settle-
ments must correspond with their increasing numbers, and
whose numbers must increase in proportions unknown be-
fore in human annals, would be not only to expose both the
parties to those incessant and fatal collisions, to which the
unsettled relations between men in the civilized and the
savage state must always be liable, but it must ultimately
be to produce the total destruction of that party which such
a project professes to protect. Were it possible for Great
Britain at this moment to extort from the United States a
concession so pernicious and so degrading, can she imagine
that the growing multitudes of the American people would
long endure the shackles which the humiliating condition
would impose upon them.^ Can she believe that the swarm-
ing myriads of her own children, in the process of converting
the western wilderness to a powerful empire, could long be
cramped or arrested by a treaty stipulation confining whole
regions of territory to a few scattered hordes of savages,
whose numbers to the end of ages would not amount to the
population of one considerable city? Were the boundary
to remain even inviolable on the part of the United States,
it is neither in the right nor in the power of Great Britain
to secure it from transgression by the Indians themselves.
Incessant wars between the Indians and the borderers would
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 99
be the inevitable result, and of these wars all former ex-
perience and all rational forecast concur to prove that cruel
and inhuman as their operations would be to the American
settlers, they could only terminate in the total destruction
of their savage foes.
As little are the undersigned instructed or empowered to
accede to the propositions of the British government in re-
lation to the military command of the western lakes. If
they have found the proposal of an Indian boundary
wholly incompatible with every established maxim of public
law, they are no less at a loss to discover by what rule of
perfect reciprocity the United States can be required to
renounce their equal right of maintaining a naval force upon
those lakes, and of fortifying their own shores, while Great
Britain reserves exclusively the corresponding rights to
herself. That in point of military preparation, the British
possessions in North America ever have been, or in any time
of peace are ever likely to be in a condition to be termed
with propriety the weaker power in comparison with the
United States, the undersigned believe to be incorrect in
point of fact. In regard to the fortification of the shore, and
to the forces actually kept on foot upon those frontiers, they
believe the superiority to have always been, and on the re-
turn of peace again likely to be on the side of Great Britain.
If the relative strength of the parties were a substantial
ground for requiring that the strongest should dismantle the
forts upon her shores, strike forever her military flag upon
the lakes, and lay her whole frontier bare and defenceless in
the presence of her armed and fortified neighbor, that pro-
posal should have come in due consistency with the fact,
not from Great Britain to the United States, but from the
United States to Great Britain. The undersigned may safely
appeal to the bosoms of His Britannic Majesty's Commis-
loo THE WRITINGS OF [1814
sloners for the feelings with which not only In regard to the
interests, but to the honor of their nation, they would have
received such a proposal.
The undersigned further perceive that under the alleged
purpose of opening a direct communication between two of
the British provinces in America, the British government
require a cession of territory forming a part of one of the
states of the American union, and that without purpose
specifically alleged, they propose to draw the future bound-
ary line westward, not like the present boundary from the
Lake of the Woods, but from Lake Superior. It must be
perfectly immaterial to the United States whether the object
of the British government In demanding the dismemberment
of the United States Is to acquire territory as such, or for
purposes less liable in the eyes of the world to be ascribed to
the rapacity of ambition.^ Whatever the motive may be,
and with whatever consistency views of conquest may be
disclaimed, while demanding a cession of territory more ex-
tensive than the whole island of Great Britain, the duty
marked out for the undersigned is the same. They have no
authority to cede one inch of the territory of the United
States, and to no stipulation to that effect will they subscribe.
The undersigned deem it proper here to notice an in-
timation apparently held out towards the close of the note
of the British Commissioners as an amicable warning to
themselves. They are informed that unless they will, with-
out even referring to their government, sign a provisional
article on a point concerning which they had expressly de-
clared they were not instructed, and to which they trust
they have proved It was impossible they should be impowered
to accede, the British government "cannot be precluded by
1 See Russell to Clay, October 15, 1815, in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, XLIV.
313-
i8i4l JOHN QUINCV ADAMS loi
anything that has passed from varying the terms at present
proposed, in such a manner as the state of the war at the
time of resuming the conferences may in their judgment
render advisable." The undersigned are well aware that
the British government cannot be precluded from varying
the terms proposed by themselves, whenever they think
proper; but they remind the British Commissioners that at
the very second day of their meetings with the undersigned,
they themselves found it advisable not to proceed in the
conferences, until they should have recurred for fresh in-
structions to their own government. That a reference of
plenipotentiaries to their government upon points which
could not have been foreseen, and in all respects of the most
extraordinary complexion, will justly warrant the other
party in varying the terms proposed by herself, the under-
signed can by no means admit. They believe it to be as
contrary to the usage of pacific negotiation as it is to the
spirit and purpose of peace. If by this admonition the
British government intended to disclose the suspicion that
the undersigned were seeking pretexts for delay, they trust
that the explicit nature of the present communication will
remove every such impression. If the object was to operate
upon the fears of the undersigned, to induce them b\- a
menace to sign in violation of their instructions the provi-
sional disgrace of their country, they flatter themselves the
British government will not be surprised to find them un-
prepared to purchase even the present moderation of Great
Britain by treachery to their liberty and their country'.
It is well known to Great Britain and to the world that
the present war owed neither its origin nor its continuance to
any desire of conquest on the part of the United vStates;
that on the contrary'' its causes were, etc'
* The Ms. ends thus abruptly. The British Commissioners drew up a propoted
I02 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, August 26, 1814.
. . . These embarrassments [irregularities in post office],
however, will not be much longer troublesome to either
of us. There is no prospect, I might almost say, no possi-
bility, that I should be here to receive your answer to
reply to the American note of August 24, and sent it to Castlereagh. It is printed
in Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, IX. 194. Castlereagh, however, be-
lieved the reply to be made of such importance that it should be made under the
instructions of the Cabinet, and sent the papers to the Earl of Liverpool, who wrote
to the Duke of Wellington, September 2: "We had prepared an answer to the note
of the American Commissioners before we received Castlereagh's letter, and very
much in the spirit of the memorandum which he sent us. Copies of these papers
shall be transmitted to you in a few days. Our Commissioners had certainly taken
an erroneous view of the line to be adopted. It is very material to throw the rup-
ture of the negotiation, if it is to take place, upon the Americans, and not to allow
them to say that we have brought forward points as ultimate which were only
brought forward for discussion, and at the desire of the American Commissioners
themselves.
"The American note is a most impudent one, and, as to all its reasoning, capable
of an irresistible answer, which, if it should be necessary to publish, will, I am per-
suaded, have its proper effect in America." lb., 212.
Liverpool also wrote to Castlereagh on the same date: "If the negotiation had
been allowed to break off upon the two notes already presented, or upon such an
answer as they were disposed to return, I am satisfied the war would have become
quite popular in America. I was the more surprised at this circumstance as I
never read a paper more easy to answer, as to its reasonings, than the paper of the
American Commissioners. . . . We have avoided as much as possible com-
mitting ourselves on anything which is likely to create embarrassment hereafter;
and our reasoning on the subject of the avowed intentions of the American govern-
ment to conquer and annex Canada can hardly fail to make a considerable im-
pression on the reasonable people in the United States.
"We cannot expect that the negotiation will proceed at present, but I think it
not unlikely, after our note has been delivered in, that the American Commis-
sioners will propose to refer the subject to their government. In that case the nego-
tiation may be adjourned till the answer is received, and we shall know the result
of the campaign before it can be resumed.
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 103
this letter, unless detained by accident or some other cause
not to be foreseen. I fully expect that the negotiation here
will be terminated before the first of next month. I believe
it to be substantially terminated already. . . .
With the house itself we are now so well satisfied that we
should certainly keep it for another month if we had any
prospect of staying so long here. Our landlord now gives
us tolerable satisfaction, and we continue to harmonize per-
fectly well with one another. This harmony most happily ex-
tends to our public concerns no less than to our private re-
lations. We have had much and free deliberation; but with
regard to the great principles of our proceedings have been
constantly unanimous. Yesterday we sent our answer to
the British note, and shall, as we expect, have nothing more
to write to our adverse party on the substance of our busi-
ness. The forms of parting will be all that remains after
their reply. Of this, however, I cannot speak positively
until their reply comes. We might have had that now, for
it might be a card pour prendre conge. But as they could not
well send us that until after the dinner to which they have
invited us tomorrow, they may perhaps be waiting to get
that over. As however we have given them some reasoning
to dispose of, they may perhaps furnish us with some of the
same commodity in return. In that case we shall find it
necessary to rejoin and may be kept here a week longer.
From what has already passed it is impossible that the
negotiation should succeed. . . .
We have no news from America of any importance since
the taking of Fort Erie and the affair at Niagara. That was
"If our commander does his duty, I am persuaded we shall have acquired by our
arms every point on the Canadian frontier which we ought to insist on keeping."
The Cabinet draft of a reply to the American Commissioners, dated September I,
is in Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, IX. 245.
I04 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
a brilliant action upon our side, but, as usual, not followed
up by any thing else. When our landsmen have struck one
lucky blow, they seem to think they have conquered the
world, and have nothing left to do but to slumber upon their
laurels. The English accounts from Halifax are to i Au-
gust — nothing worth telling. Could I but hope the same for
the next six months, how many heart-aches I should be
spared! It is a painful process that I am going through;
but it is some consolation that the part I am doomed to
perform in the prolongation of this tragedy has never re-
quired an instant of hesitation with respect to the path
pointed out by my duty, and that in this respect there has
not been a shadow of difference of opinion between any one
of my colleagues and me. . . .
TO WILLIAM HARRIS CRAWFORD
Ghent, 29 August, 18 14.
Dear Sir:
I scarcely know how to apologize to you for having yet
to reply to your favor of 12 July, which was received by me
on the 1 6th. The simple fact has been that being without
the assistance of a secretary, and having to dispatch by the
John Adams the return of nearly a year's correspondence
from our own country, I postponed from day to day the
reply due to you, merely because it could at any day be
transmitted, until several weeks have elapsed leaving the
duty still to be performed.
I have been the less scrupulous in performing it sooner,
because I have known that some of our colleagues were more
punctual, and particularly that our excellent friend Mr. Clay
had kept you well informed of the progress of our negotia-
tion. The result has been such as was to be expected.
isi4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 105
It is natural we should feel, and we do all feel, a deep dis-
appointment at the failure of this attempt to restore to our
country the blessings of peace; especially as by changing the
grounds upon which the war is to be continued, Great
Britain has opened to us the alternative of a long, expensive,
sanguinary war, or of submission to disgraceful conditions
and sacrifices little short of independence itself. It is the
crisis which must try the temper of our country. If the
dangers which now hang over our heads should intimidate
our people into the spirit of concession, if the temper of com-
pounding for sacrifices should manifest itself in any strength
there will be nothing left us worth defending. But if our
countrymen are not all bastards, if there is a drop of the
blood flowing in their veins that carried their fathers through
the Revolutionary war, the prolongation of hostilities will
only be to secure ultimately to us a more glorious triumph.
I have not so ill opinion of them as to believe they will suc-
cumb immediately in the struggle before them; but I wish
the real statesmen among us may form, what I fear few of
them have yet formed, a true estimate of our condition. I
wish them to look all our dangers in the face and to their
full extent. The rupture of this negotiation not only frus-
trates all hope of peace for the present year, but at least also
for the next. All the present preparations in England are
calculated for operation the next campaign. The forces
they have sent out already, and those they are about to dis-
patch are so large, and composed of such troops that they
must in the first instance make powerful impressions and
obtain brilliant successes. The actual state of things both
in Europe and America, as well as the experience of our
former war, prove this to as full demonstration as if the
official accounts were already published in the London
Gazette. The spirit that is prepared for disaster is least
io6 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
likely to be broken down by It when It comes. We must not
flatter ourselves with delusive estimates of our dangers, and
we must expect to pass through the career of British triumph
and exultation at our calamities, before we can lead them
to the result that they bring our enemy no nearer to his
object than his defeats.
Mr. Russell and myself have received an Instruction of the
same tenor from the Secretary of State, to make a repre-
sentation against Cochrane's proclamation of blockade of
25 April last. I suppose you must have received a similar
instruction. It would be gratifying and perhaps useful for
us to know, whether this is the case; and, If so, whether you
have done anything under the instruction; and generally
what are the views of this subject entertained at the present
court of France.
You are Informed that we have rejected the preliminary
sine qua non to which the adverse party has adhered. We
are only waiting for their official reply and shall not remain
here beyond a week or ten days. I am etc.^
* "I am inclined to thinlc that the calm which now prevails in Europe will be of
short duration. The existence of combustible materials has never been so general
as at the present moment. The result of the conferences at Vienna is more likely
to kindle than to extinguish the smothered flame. The deranged state of the finan-
ces of all the continental powers calls for peace, but the impulse which the turbu-
lent spirits of these nations have received with the last two years will strongly im-
pel them to war. The different pretensions of the parties to the territory recovered
by their joint efforts, from France and in Italy, will not be easily reconciled. The
provisional governments established in the most of those countries will, by the
time that the Congress at Vienna shall have finished its labors, have greatly con-
tributed to the discontents already existing there. Perhaps the best security for
the peace of Europe will be found in the disaffection of the French troops, and the
general apprehension or rather horror, of further revolutions. I believe the Em-
peror Napoleon is much more popular now, in France, than he has been for several
years past. The total extinction of the liberty of the press, which still continues to
exist, will prevent the monarch from knowing or even suspecting, the increasing
popularity of the late occupant of his throne." Crazvford to John Quincy Adams,
July 12, 1814. Ms.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 107
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, August 30, 1814.
I should therefore from the commencement of
the ensuing month write you only once a weelc, if I had the
prospect of remaining here; but we shall all have evacuated
this place by the 15th. We are in hourly expectation of re-
ceiving the reply of the British plenipotentiaries to our notes
in answer to them, and we already know that it will con-
tain a refusal to continue the negotiation.^ I have not yet
ultimately fixed either the manner of my return to St. Peters-
burg, whether by land or by water, or if by land the road
by which I shall travel. ... If I lengthen the journey
upon my return, it will assuredly not be for amusement, or
to gratify my personal curiosity. . . .
We dined last Saturday - with the British plenipoten-
tiaries, and were entertained as courteously as was to be
expected. There was no other company but ourselves.
Airs. Goulburn was the only lady present, and was agreeable;
1 " We have some days since [on the 31st] informed the Americans that we had
deemed it necessary to refer our answer to the government previous to sending it
to them; and although they pressed for the earliest possible answer, yet they had
nothing to say to this communication. Some one or other of them have called
daily since to know if we had got an answer. Indeed, their only anxiety appears
to get back to America. Whenever we meet them they always enter into unofficial
discussions, much of the same nature as the conversation with which Mr. Bayard
indulged me; but we have given no encouragement to such conversations, thinking
that they are liable to much misrepresentation; and cannot lead to any good pur-
pose. All that I think I have learnt from them is this: that Mr. Adams is a very
bad arguer, and that the Federalists are quite as inveterate enemies to us as the
Madisonians. Those who know anything of America or Americans probably knew
this before." Goulburn to Earl Bathurst, September 2, 1814. Wellington, Supple-
mentary Despatches, IX. 217. He had talked with Adams on the previous day.
Memoirs, III. 24.
* August 27.
io8 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
or, to speak more properly, very studious not to give offense.
I thought her handsomer than I had the day we had dined
at the Intendant's. There was a sufficient labor of attention
to us to show that they all meant to be well-bred, but the
success was not always equal to the effort. By some un-
accountable singularity, all the little occasional asperities
that have occurred in our intercourse with the other party
have been between the Chevalier [Bayard] and the Doctors
Commons lawyer [Adams]. This personage has pretensions
to wit, and wishes to pass himself off for a sayer of good
things. The Chevalier, who is a sportsman, was speaking of
a fowling piece on a new construction, price fifty guineas,
which was primed with one grain of fulminating powder.
The Doctor thought that no fowling price could be good for
any thing that cost more than five guineas. He hinted to
the Chevalier that his fifty guineas musket was a gimcrack —
a philosophical whimsey, better for shooting a problem than
a partridge; and he was [as] liberal of his sarcasms upon
philosophy as he could have been, if delivering a dissertation
upon gun-boats and dry-docks. The choice of the person
upon whom this blunderbuss of law discharged its volley of
ridicule against philosophy diverted us all, and you may
judge how much it delighted our colleague of the Treasury
[Gallatin.] The Chevalier pronounces our namesake to be
a man of no breeding. . . .
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 109
TO GEORGE JOY
Ghent, 31 August, 18 14.
Sir:
Your favors of 9, 12, and 26 August, have been duly re-
ceived by me, and although I am sensible that an intercourse
by which valuable information is communicated on one side
while nothing is given in return cannot with a good grace
be requested, I still reply to your letters in the hope that
your mundanism will overlook the disadvantages of the com-
pact, and make allowances for the reserve which official
duty may sometimes command, and official gravity some-
times affect. I know not anything that would give me
greater pleasure than your making a fortune by a peace,
unless it were to make the peace that should make your for-
tune; but for the prospects and adventures of the negotia-
tion I must yet refer my correspondents in England to the
Courier and the Morning Chronicle; or, if they are lovers of
neutrality, to the Times, which as Times go I seldom see,
but which may be none the worse informed for that.
The solicitude which I manifested in a former letter, that
your opinions might not be mistaken for ours, arose not
merely from the possibility that such an error might arise,
but from the fact that on a point to which you had referred,
they were not the same. I have now seen the gentleman
with whom you had the correspondence and the conversa-
tion prior to his departure, and have had the opportunity
of forming my own opinion of his suavity and of his rigor.^
If we should not ultimately part the best friends in the world,
I shall use my best endeavors that we may not part foes,
either politically or individually.
' Dr. William Adams.
no THE WRITINGS OF [1814
The rise of cottons and tobacco on the 26th doubtless had
a cause, and I am obliged to you for the information of the
effect. But you know the Royal Exchange is the very focus
of great effects from little causes. I am etc.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 139. [James Monroe]
Ghent, 5 September, 18 14.
Sir:
On the 25th ultimo we sent in to the British plenipoten-
tiaries an answer to their note, and have every reason to
expect that before this day the negotiation would have been
terminated. Two days afterwards Mr. Bayard was ex-
plicitly told in a conservation with Mr. Goulburn that their
reply would be sent to us without delay, and that they should
have no occasion previous to sending it for any further refer-
ence to their government. On Wednesday, the 31st, Mr.
Baker called upon Mr. Gallatin with an apology for a delay
of a very few days, the British Plenipotentiaries having
concluded, in consideration of the great importance of the
thing, to send their note to England for the approbation of
their government before they transmitted it to us. The
next morning I had a conversation with Mr. Goulburn which
convinced me that the sole object of this reference was to
give a greater appearance of deliberation and solemnity to
the rupture.^
• ' "I confess that I have little hopes of its producing any change in the decision
of the American plenipotentiaries. Many things have, ever since the commence-
ment of the negotiation, shown that their government had no real intention of
making peace, but had acceded to the proposal of negotiating with the sole view
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ni
Some of the particulars of this conversation render it in
my mind sufficiently interesting for the substance of it to
be reported to you.' I began it by expressing some satis-
faction at having learnt their reference to their government,
as it tended to encourage the hope that they would reconsider
some part of their proposals to the United States. He did
not think it probable, and in the whole tenor of his discourse
I perceived a spirit of inflexible adherence to the terms which
we have rejected; - but, under the cover of a personal de-
portment sufficiently courteous, a rancorous animosity
against America which disclosed there was nothing like
peace at the heart.
The great argument to which he continually recurred in
support of the Indian boundary and the exclusive military
possession of the Lakes by the British, was the necessity of
them for the security of Canada. The American govern-
ment, he said, had manifested the intention and the de-
termination of conquering Canada.
And excepting you (said he) I believe it was the astonishment of
the whole world that Canada had not been conquered at the very
outset of the war. Nothing could have saved it but the excellent
of deriving from the negotiations some means of reconciling the people of America
to the continuance of war. The Indian boundary appears to them calculated to
answer this object, and their desire of negotiating is therefore at an end." Goulburn
to Earl Balhurst, September 5, 18 14. Wellington, Supplementary Despatches,
IX. 221.
' See also Adams, Memoirs, September I, 1 8 14.
* "He gave me every reason to believe that it [the answer] would vary nothing
from their former communications. In that case the delay will only be until the
return of their messenger. To say the truth, we ought to wish there may be no
variation. Success is out of the question, and it is impossible that we should fail
in a more advantageous manner than as the matter now stands. And I have an
inexpressible reluctance at being kept, to be turned off with the news upon which
they are reckoning from America." To Louisa Catherine Adams, September 2,
1 8 14. Ms.
112 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
dispositions and military arrangements of the Governor who com-
manded there. We were then not prepared for an attack upon
that province with such an overwhelming force. But now we have
had time to send reinforcements, and I do not think you will
conquer it. In order, however, to guard against the same thing
in future it is necessary to make a barrier against the American
settlements, upon which neither party shall be permitted to en-
croach. The Indians are but a secondary object. As the allies
of Great Britain she must include them in the peace, as in making
peace with other powers she included Portugal as her ally. But
when the boundary is once defined it is immaterial whether the
Indians are upon it or not. Let it be a desert. But we shall know
that you cannot come upon us to attack us, without crossing it.
The stipulation to maintain no armed force on the Lakes is for
the same purpose — the security of Canada. I can see nothing dis-
honorable or humiliating in it. The United States can never be
in any danger of invasion from Canada. The disproportion of
force is too great. But Canada must always be in the most immi-
nent danger of invasion from the United States, unless guarded by
some such stipulations as are now demanded. It can be nothing
to the United States to agree not to arm upon the Lakes, since they
never had actually done it before the present war. Why should
they object to disarming there where they had never before had
a gun floating.
I answered that the conquest of Canada had never been
an object of the war on the part of the United States. It
has been invaded by us in consequence of the war, as they
themselves had Invaded many parts of the United States.
It was an effect and not a cause of the war. I thought with
him that we should not now conquer it. But I had no doubt
we should, and that at no very distant period, if any such
terms as they now required should ever be submitted to by
us. The American government, I said, never had declared
the intention of conquering Canada. He referred to General
1814) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 113
Hull's proclamation. I answered that the American govern-
ment was not responsible for that. It was no uncommon
thing for commanding officers to issue proclamations which
were disavowed by their government, of which a very recent
example had occurred in a proclamation of Admiral Coch-
rane. He said that the American government had not dis-
avowed Hull's proclamation, and that the British govern-
ment had not disavowed any proclamation of Admiral
Cochrane's. I replied that the American government had
never been called upon either to avow or disavow Hull's
proclamation, but I had seen in a printed statement of the
debates in the House of Commons that Lord Castlereagh
had been called upon to say whether Admiral Cochrane's
proclamation had been authorized or not, and had answered
that it was not. He said that Lord Castlereagh had been
asked whether a proclamation of Admiral Cochrane's, en-
couraging the negroes to revolt, had been authorized by the
government, and had answered in the negative; that is, that
no proclamation encouraging the negroes to revolt had been
authorized. But the proclamation of Admiral Cochrane
referred to gave no such encouragement, there was not a
word about negroes in it. It merely offered employment or
a settlement in the British colonies to such persons as might
be disposed to leave the United States. I asked him what
was the import of the t^rm free used in the proclamation in
connection with the offer of settlements.^ He answered the
question with some hesitation, but admitted that it might
be understood as having reference to slaves. I admitted on
my part that the word "negroes" was not in the proclama-
tion, but remarked that he must be as sensible as I was that
it could have reference only to them. That certainly no
person in America could mistake its meaning. It was un-
questionably intended for the negroes, and corresponded
114 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
sufficiently with the practice of others of their naval officers.
It was known that some of them, under similar inducements,
had taken away blacks who had afterwards been sold in the
West India islands. Upon this Mr. Goulburn, with an
evident struggle to suppress a feeling of strong irritation,
said, ^^that he could undertake to deny in the most unquali-
fied terms; the character of British naval officers was uni-
versally known, their generosity and humanity could never
be contested; and besides that since the act of Parliament
of 181 1, the act of selling any man for a slave, unless real
slaves, from one British island to another, was felony with-
out benefit of clergy. I replied that without contesting the
character of any class of people generally, it was certain
there would be in all classes individuals capable of commit-
ting actions of which others would be ashamed. That at a
great distance from the eye and control of the government,
acts were often done with impunity, which would be severely
punished nearer home. That the facts I had stated to him
were among the objects which we were instructed to present
for consideration, if the negotiation should proceed, and he
might in that case find it more susceptible of proof than he
was aware. He thought it impossible, but that it was one
of those charges against their officers, of which there were
many, originating only in the spirit of hostility and totally
destitute of foundation.
With respect to the Indian allies, I remarked that there
was no analogy between them and the case of Portugal.
The peace would of itself include all the Indians included
within the British limits; but the stipulation which might
be necessary for the protection of Indians situated within
the boundaries of the United States who had taken the
British side in the war, was rather in the nature of an am-
nesty than of a provision for allies. It resembled more the
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 115
case of subjects who in cases of invasion took part with the
invader, as had sometimes happened to Great Britain in
Ireland. He insisted that the Indians must be considered
as independent nations, for that we ourselves made treaties
with them and acknowledged boundaries of their territories.
I said that wherever they would form settlements and cul-
tivate lands, their possessions were undoubtedly to be
respected, and always were respected by the United States.
That some of them had become civilized in a considerable
degree; the Cherokees, for example, who had permanent
habitations and a state of property like our own. But the
greater part of the Indians never could be prevailed upon
to adopt this mode of life. Their habits, and attachments,
and prejudices were so averse to any settlement that they
could not reconcile themselves to any other condition than
that of wandering hunters. It was impossible for such
people ever to be said to have possessions. Their only right
upon land was a right to use it as hunting grounds; and when
those lands where they hunted became necessary or con-
venient for the purposes of settlement, the system adopted
by the United States was by amicable arrangement with
them to compensate them for renouncing the right of hunting
upon them, and for removing to remoter regions better
suited to their purposes and mode of life. This system of
the United States was an improvement upon the former
practice of all European nations, including the British. The
original settlers of New England had set the first example of
this liberality towards the Indians, which was afterwards
followed by the founder of Pennsylvania. Between it and
taking the lands for nothing, or exterminating the Indians
who had used them, there was no alternative. To condemn
vast regions of territory to perpetual barrenness and solitude,
that a few hundred savages might find wild beasts to hunt
il6 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
upon it, was a species of game law that a nation descended
from Britons would never endure. It was as incompatible
with the moral as with the physical nature of things. If
Great Britain meant to preclude forever the people of the
United States from settling and cultivating those territories,
she must not think of doing it by a treaty. She must form-
ally undertake and accomplish their utter extermination.
If the government of the United States should ever submit
to such a stipulation, which I hoped they would not, all its
force, and all that of Britain combined with it, would not
suffice to carry it long into execution. It was opposing a
feather to a torrent. The population of the United States
in 1810 passed seven millions. At this hour it undoubtedly
passed eight. As it continued to increase in such proportions,
was it in human experience or in human power to check its
progress by a bond of paper, purporting to exclude posterity
from the natural means of subsistence which they would
derive from the cultivation of the soil.^ Such a treaty, in-
stead of closing the old sources of dissension, would only
open new ones. A war thus finished would immediately be
followed by another, and Great Britain would ultimately
find that she must substitute the project of exterminating
the whole American people, to that of opposing against them
her barrier of savages. The proposal of dooming a large
extent of lands, naturally fertile, to be forever desert by
compact, would be a violation of the laws of nature and of
nations, as recognized by the most distinguished writers on
public law. It would be an outrage upon Providence, which
gave the earth to man for cultivation, and made the tillage
of the ground the condition of his nature and the law of his
existence. "What (said Mr. Goulburn), is it then in the
inevitable nature of things that the United States must con-
quer Canada ? " " No. " " But what security then can Great
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 117
Britain have for her possession of it?" "If Great Britain
does not think a liberal and amicable course of policy towards
America would be the best security, as it certainly would,
she must rely upon her general strength, upon the superiority
of her power in other parts of her relations with America,
upon the power which she has upon another element to
indemnify herself by sudden impression upon American in-
terests, more defenceless against her superiority than Canada
against ours, and in their amount far more valuable than
Canada ever was or ever will be." He said that Great
Britain had no intention to carry on a war either of exter-
mination or of conquest, but recurred again to our superior
force, and to the necessity of providing against it. He added
that in Canada they never took any of the Indian lands, and
even the government (meaning the provincial government)
was prohibited from granting them. That there were among
the Indians very civilized people; there was particularly
one man whom he knew, Norton, who commanded some of
the Indians engaged on the British side in the war, and who
was a very intelligent and well informed man. But the
removing the Indians from their lands to others was one of
the very things of which Great Britain complained. That
it drove them over into their provinces, and made them
annoy and encroach upon the Indians within their limits.
This was a new idea to me. I told him I had never heard
any complaint of that kind before, and I supposed that a
remedy for it would very easily be found. He made no re-
ply, and seemed as if in the pressure for an argument he had
advanced more than he was inclined to maintain. It was
the same with regard to the proposal that we should keep
no armed force on or near the lakes of Canada. He did not
admit that there was anything humiliating to the United
States or unusual in it, but he evaded repeatedly answering
ii8 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
the question how he or the English nation would feel if the
proposition were made to them of binding themselves by
such a stipulation. I finally said that if he did not feel that
there was anything dishonorable to the party submitting
to such terms, it was not a subject susceptible of argument.
I could assure him that we and our nation would feel it to be
such. That such stipulations were indeed often extorted
from the weakness of a vanquished enemy; but they were
always felt to be dishonorable and had certainly occasioned
more wars than they had ever prevented. It was true, as
he had said, the United States had never prior to the war
had an armed naval force upon the Lakes. I thought it
infinitely probable that if Great Britain had said nothing
upon the subject in the negotiation, the United States would
not have retained a naval force there after the restoration
of the peace. It was more than I could say that this anxiety
manifested by Great Britain to disarm them would not
operate as a warning to them to keep a competent portion
of the force now created, even during peace, and whether
his government, by advancing the proposal to dismantle,
will not eventually fix the purpose of the United States to
remain always armed even upon the lakes.
The whole of this conversation was on both sides perfectly
cool and temperate in the manner, though sometimes very
earnest on mine, and sometimes with a hurry of reply and
an embarrassment of expression on his, indicating an effort
to control the disclosure of feelings under strong excitement.
The most remarkable instance of this was upon the intima-
tion from me, that some of their naval officers had enticed
away numbers of our black people, who had afterwards been
sold in the West India islands. I stated the fact on the
authority of your instructions to the present joint mission
of 28 January last, and persisted in asserting it, on the as-
I8I4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 119
surance that there is proof of it in possession of the Depart-
ment of State. In the present state of public opinion in
England respecting the traffic of slaves, I was well aware of
the impression which the mere statement would make upon
Mr. Goulburn. The rupture of this negotiation will render
it unnecessary for us to possess the proof which it was your
intention at the date of your instructions of 28th January to
furnish us, but at any future attempt to treat for peace it
will be important to produce it, and I would even suggest
the expediency of giving as much publicity as possible to
It In Europe, while the war continues.
The avowal of Admiral Cochrane's proclamation, and the
explanation of Lord Castlereagh's disavowal of it in the
House of Commons, were remarkable as examples of the
kind of reasoning to which the British government is willing
to resort. Whether the distinction taken in this case really
belonged to Lord Castlereagh, or whether erroneously as-
scribed to him by Mr. Goulburn, I cannot say; but Mr. Goul-
burn was present in the House of Commons when the debate
referred to took place.
The strangest feature in the general complexion of his
discourse was the inflexible adherence to the proposed
Indian boundary line. But the pretext upon which this
proposition had in the first instance been placed, the pacifica-
tion with the Indians and their future security, was almost
abandoned — avowed to be a secondary and very subordinate
object. The security of Canada was now substituted as
the prominent motive. But the great and real one, though
not of a nature ever to be acknowledged, was occasionally
discernible through all its veils. This was no other than a
profound and rankling jealousy at the rapid increase of
population and of settlements in the United States, an Im-
potent longing to thwart their progress and to stunt their
120 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
growth. With this temper prevailing in the British councils,
it is not in the hour of their success that we can expect to
obtain a peace upon terms of equal justice or of reciprocity.
I am etc.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, September 9, 18 14.
. . . We this day send in to the other party our second
note, which places us precisely where we were at the first.
If they hold to their original ground, they may dismiss
themselves and us from all further official intercourse to-
morrow morning. My only reason for doubting whether
they will do so now is that they did not take that step before.
W^e certainly not only considered the whole business at an
end then, but none of us had an idea of being here at this
day. I wrote you that after what passed, what we had
reason to expect from them was a card P. P. C. Instead of
that they sent us a note of sixteen folio pages, still hammer-
ing upon the old anvil, and putting it upon us to take leave
of them. As we are inclined not to be behindhand with
them either in civility or in prolixity, we return them a note
of equal dimensions, and still leaving the "to be or not to
be" at their option. If they choose to play this game of
chicanery they may, I know not how long. But if they will
take no for an answer, we shall be released in two or three
days.
W^e are still perfectly unanimous, and if we had not the
run of luck so infernally against us, I should not despair of
ultimate success. As it is we shall unquestionably make a
better case for the public, on both sides of the Atlantic,
than our adversaries. We are in the first place severe judges
upon one another, and setting aside your correspondent,
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 121
every one of his four associates is, to say the least, a match
for the brightest of our opponents. You wrote me at one
time a current English report that there was to be but one
commissioner appointed to meet us — one British negotiator
being fully competent to meet five Americans. I wished
the report might be true; for whether the result was to be
success or failure, the lower the rate at which the adversary
estimated our talents, the greater advantage he would give
us in the argument over himself. His contempt, however,
was a mere bravado. Instead of one commissioner he ap-
pointed three, and I believe in such cases as this, supposing
the average of talents to be the same, a commission of three
members will always be able to meet with at least equal ad-
vantage a commission of five. They are certainly not mean
men, who have been opposed to us; but for extent and
copiousness of information, for sagacity and shrewdness of
comprehension, for vivacity of intellect, and fertility of re-
source, there is certainly not among them a man equal to
Mr. Gallatin. I doubt whether there is among them a man
of the powers of the Chevalier. In all our transactions
hitherto we have been much indebted to the ability of both
these gentlemen for the ascendency in point of argument
which we have constantly maintained over our antag-
onists. . . .
We had here the other day a Mr. Van Havert, a son-in-
law of Mr. Stier, and brother-in-law to Mrs. Calvert, of
whom you have heard, and whom you perhaps know.
Air. Van Havert lived some years at Alexandria, and he told
me that if he had met me in the street he should have known
me from my resemblance to my father. On the other hand
the ex-gardener, of whom I wrote you the other day, said to
me of our sons, "George, Sir, is di fine, tall, stout boy; but as
for John, Sir, he is the very picture of you."
122 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
ANSWER TO THE BRITISH COMMISSIONERS '
[September 9, 18 14.]
The undersigned Ministers plenipotentiary and extraor-
dinary from the United States of America have had the
honor of receiving the note of his Britannic Majesty's pleni-
potentiaries of the 4th inst.
If in the tone or the substance of the former note of the
undersigned the British Commissioners have perceived no ^
disposition on the part of the American government for a
discussion of some of the propositions advanced in the first
note which the undersigned had the honor of receiving from
them, they will please to ascribe it to the nature of the
^ A draft by Adams. The note sent is in American StaU Papers, Foreign Rela-
tions, III. 715. The British note, dated September 4, was delivered to the Amer-
ican Commissioners on the 5th. "Mr. Bayard pronounced it a very stupid pro-
duction. Mr. Clay was for answering it by a note of half a page. I neither thought
it stupid nor proper to be answered in half a page." Gallatin proposed to make
an analysis of the contents and note what required an answer. On the following
day (6th) Gallatin produced his notes and it was agreed he should draft a reply con-
formably. Bayard appeared willing to concede something on the Indian question,
but Clay and Adams were for admitting no stipulations about the Indians in a
treaty with England. Adams wished to show that the floating commerce of the
United States, subject to seizure by the naval superiority of Great Britain, was a
sufficient pledge for the security of Canada against sudden invasion; and also that
the employment of Indians was contrary to the laws of war. This latter point was
rejected, but on the 7th was again urged, and Adams prepared a statement of it for
consideration. Receiving Gallatin's draft, with the suggestions of Bayard and
Clay, Adams "struck out the greatest part of my own previous draft, preferring
that of Mr. Gallatin upon the same points. On the main question, relative to the
Indian boundary, I made a new draft of several paragraphs, comprising the princi-
pal ideas of them all, and introducing an additional view of the subject of my own.
I had also prepared a paragraph concerning the employment of savages. . . .
My new paragraph respecting Indian rights was adopted without much alteration.
That against the employment of savages was fully adopted in substance, but with
a multitude of amendments." Adams, Memoirs, September 5-8, 1814.
^ For the word " no " Gallatin inserted " little proof of any."
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 123
propositions themselves; to their incompatibility with the
assurances in Lord Castlereagh's letter to the American
Secretary of State, proposing their negotiation, and with
the solemn assurances of the British plenipotentiaries them-
selves to the undersigned, at their first conference with them.
Of the frankness with which the British plenipotentiaries
now represent themselves to have disclosed all the objects
of their government while those of the American govern-
ment are stated to have been withheld, a sufficient elucida-
tion may be formed in the facts, that the British pleni-
potentiaries have hitherto declined all discussion even of
the points proposed by themselves, unless the undersigned
would be prepared to sign a provisional article upon a sub-
ject concerning which they had from the first declared them-
selves to be without instructions and upon a basis unex-
ampled in the negotiations of civilized states, and which
they have shown to be inadmissible. That one of the most
objectionable demands of the British government was never
disclosed until the third conference, after the points sug-
gested for discussion on both sides had been reciprocally
submitted for consideration. That upon the inquiry whether
this new proposition was considered also as a sine qua non
of a treaty, the undersigned were answered that one sine
qua non at a time was enough, and when they had disposed
of that already given them, it would be time enough to
talk of another.^
If the undersigned had proposed to the British plenipo-
tentiaries, as an indispensable preliminary to all discussion,
the admission of a principle contrary to the most established
maxims of public law, and with which the United States
under the pretence of including Indian allies in the peace,
would have annexed entire provinces to their dominions,
* This paragraph has been struck oui.
124 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
the reproach of being actuated by a spirit of aggrandizement
might justly have been advanced against them; to the
assertion that the declared policy of the American govern-
ment has been to make the war a part of a system of con-
quest and aggrandizement the undersigned oppose the most
pointed denial of its truth; and they are willing to leave it
to the judgment of an impartial world to decide with what
propriety the charge proceeds from a state demanding an
extensive cession of territory, to a state making no such
demand.^
The undersigned repeat what they have already had the
honor explicitly to declare to the British plenipotentiaries;
that they have no authority to treat with them for the in-
terests of Indians inhabiting within the boundaries of the
United States. That the question of their boundary is a
question exclusively between the United States and them-
selves, with which Great Britain has no concern. That the
undersigned will therefore subscribe to no provisional article
upon the subject. That they will not refer it to the con-
sideration of their government; first, because the British
Commissioners have warned them that if they do, the
British government will not hold itself bound to abide by
the terms which they now offer, but will vary them at their
pleasure; and secondly because they know that their govern-
ment would instantaneously reject the proposal. That they
will subscribe to no article renouncing the right of the
United States to maintain fortifications on their own shores,
or that of maintaining a naval force on those lakes, where
such a force has been during the war so efficaciously felt.
And finally that they have no authority to cede any part of
the territory of the United States.^
If the Governor General of Canada has made to the In-
1 This paragraph has been struck out.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 125
dians under the protection of the United States, to seduce
them to betray the duties of their obHgations, and to violate
their treaties, any promises of British protection, it is for
his government to fulfil those promises at their own expense,
and not at that of the United States.^ But the employ-
ment of savages, whose known rule of warfare is the in-
discriminate torture and butchery of women, children, and
prisoners, is itself a departure from the principles of human-
ity observed between all civilized and Christian nations even
in war. [Great Britain herself employs them only in her
wars against the United States and] - the United States have
constantly protested and still protest against it as an un-
justifiable aggravation of the barbarities and horrors of war.
Of the peculiar atrocities of the Indian warfare, the allies
of Great Britain in whose behalf she now demands sacrifices
from the United States have during the present war shown
many deplorable examples; among them, the massacre of
wounded prisoners in cold blood, and the refusal of the rites
of burial to the dead, under the eyes of British officers, who
could only plead their inability to control those savage
auxiliaries, have been repeated and are notorious to the
world. The United States have with extreme reluctance
been compelled to resort on their part to the same mode of
warfare thus practiced against them.^ The United States
might at all times have employed the same kind of force
against Great Britain, and to a greater extent than it was
in her power to employ it against them; but from their reluc-
tance to resort to means so abhorrent to the natural feelings
of humanity, they abstained from the use of them, until
* This sentence was altered in arrangement without changing the sense, but the
whole was finally struck out.
* Words in brackets were struck out.
' This sentence was struck out, and the sentence following substituted for it.
126 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
compelled to the alternative of employing themselves In-
dians who would otherwise have been drawn into the ranks
of their enemies. But the undersigned, in suggesting to the
British Commissioners the propriety of an article by which
Great Britain and the United States should reciprocally
stipulate, never hereafter, if they should again be at war, to
employ savages in it believe [that it would readily meet the
approbation and ratification of their government, and] ^
that it would be infinitely more honorable to the humanity
and Christian temper of both parties, more advantageous
to the Indians themselves, and more adapted to secure the
permanent peace, tranquillity, and progress of civiliza-
tion, than the boundary proposed by the British Com-
missioners.
If the United States had now asserted that the Indians
within their boundaries who have acknowledged the United
States as their only protectors, were their subjects, living
only at sufi"erance on their lands, far from being the first in
making that assertion they would only have followed the
example of the principles, uniformly and Invariably asserted
In substance, and frequently avowed In express terms by the
British government itself. What was the meaning of all
the colonial charters granted by the British monarchs from
that of Virginia by Elizabeth to that of Georgia by the im-
mediate predecessor of the present king, if the Indians were
the sovereigns and possessors ^ of the lands bestowed by
those charters.'' What was the meaning of that article in
the treaty of Utrecht, by which the Five Nations were de-
scribed in terms, as subject to the dominion of Great Britain.^
Or of that treaty with the Cherokees, by which It was de-
clared that the king of Great Britain granted them the
' This clause was struck out.
* For this word Gallatin substituted "proprietors."
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 127
privilege to live where they pleased, if those subjects were
independent sovereigns, and these tenants at the license of
the British King were the rightful lords of the lands where
he granted them permission to live? What was the meaning
of that proclamation of his present Britannic Majesty,
issued in 1763, declaring all purchases of lands from Indians
null and void unless made by treaties held under the sanction
of his Majesty's government, if the Indians had the right
to sell their lands to whom they pleased? In formally pro-
testing against this system, it is not against a novel preten-
sion of the American government, it is against the most
solemn acts of their own sovereigns, against the royal proc-
lamations, charters and treaties of Great Britain for more
than two centuries, from the first settlement of North
America to the present day, that the British plenipotentiaries
protest. What is the meaning of the boundary lines of
American territory in all the treaties of Great Britain with
other European powers having American possessions, in her
treaty of peace with the United States of 1785: nay, what
is the meaning of the northwestern boundary line now pro-
posed by the British Commissioners themselves, if it is the
rightful possession and sovereignty of independent Indians,
of which those boundaries dispose? ^
From the rigor of this system, however, as practised by
Great Britain and all the other European powers in America,
the humane and liberal policy of the United States has vol-
untarily relaxed. A celebrated writer on the laws of nations,
to whose authority British jurists have taken particular
satisfaction in appealing, after stating in the most explicit
'Gallatin added the following: "Is it indeed necessary to ask whether Great
Britain ever has permitted, or would permit, any foreign nation, or without her
consent any of her subjects, to acquire lands from the Indians, in the territories of
the Hudson Bay Company, or in Canada ? "
128 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
manner the legitimacy of colonial settlements in America,
to the exclusion of all rights of uncivilized Indian tribes,
has taken occasion to praise the moderation of the first
settlers of New England, and of the founder of Pennsylvania,
in having purchased of the Indians the lands they resolved
to cultivate, notwithstanding their being furnished with a
charter from their sovereign. It is this example which the
United States, since they became by their independence the
sovereigns of the territory, have adopted and organized into
a political system. Under that system the Indians residing
within the United States are so far independent that they
live under their own customs and not under the laws of the
United States; that their rights upon the lands where they
inhabit or hunt, are secured to them by boundaries defined
in amicable treaties between the United States and them-
selves, and that whenever those boundaries are varied It is
also by amicable ^ treaties, by which they receive from the
United States ample compensation for every right they have
to the lands ceded by them. They are so far dependent as
not to have the right to dispose of their lands to any private
persons, nor to any power other than the United States, and
to be under their protection alone, and not under that of
any other power. Whether called subjects, or by whatever
name designated, such Is the relation between them and
the United States. [These principles have been uniformly
recognized by the Indians themselves, not only by the
treaty of Greenville, but by all the other treaties between
the United States and the Indian tribes.] ^ Is it Indeed
necessary, etc.
* Gallatin inserted the words "and voluntary."
*This sentence was struck out, and Gallatin substituted the following: "That
relation is neither asserted now for the first time; nor did it originate with the treaty
of Greenville. These principles have been uniformly recognized by the Indians
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 129
These stipulations by the Indians to sell their lands only
to the United States do not prove that without them they
would have the right to sell them to others. The utmost
that they can contend to show would be a claim by them to
such a right, never acknowledged by the United States. It
is indeed a novel process of reasoning to consider [the re-
nunciation of a claim as a proof of a right] ^ a disclaimer as
the proof of a right. ^
An Indian boundary and the exclusive military posses-
sion of the lakes could after all prove but futile and ineffect-
ual securities to Great Britain for the permanent defense of
Canada against the great and growing preponderancy of the
United States, on that particular point of her possessions.
But no sudden invasion of Canada by the United States
could be made without leaving on their Atlantic shores and
on the ocean, exposed to the great superiority of British
force, a mass of American property tenfold ^ more valuable
than Canada [ever was or ever can be.] In her relative
superior force [over all the rest of the globe] '^ to that of the
United States, ^ Great Britain may find a pledge infinitely ^
more efficacious for the safety of a single vulnerable point,
than in stipulations, ruinous to the interests and degrading
to the honor of America.^
themselves, not only by that treaty, but in all the other previous as well as subse-
quent treaties between them and the United States."
* The words were set aside for what follows.
^ The whole paragraph was struck out.
' The word "far" is substituted for "tenfold."
* Words in brackets were struck out.
* Gallatin added "in every other quarter."
° Gallatin substituted the word "much" for "infinitely."
^ Bathurst and Liverpool exchanged opinions on the American note of Septem-
ber 9, and agreed in the absolute necessity of including the Indians in the treaty of
peace, and insisting that they be restored to all the rights and privileges which they
had enjoyed before the war. They also believed in the expediency of giving in an
I30 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO ABIGAIL ADAxMS
Ghent, 10 September, 18 14.
When I wrote you my last letter, a press copy of which is
inclosed, I had little or no expectation that I should at this
day still be here. The John Adams sailed from the Texel
with Mr. Dallas ^ on board, the 28th of August, and has, I
hope, by this time half performed her passage. It is one of
those singular incidents which occurs occasionally in real
life, and which would be thought too improbable for a
fictitious narrative, that while she was going out by one
passage, Mr. Smith ^ and his family were entering from
Cronstadt by another. They are now at Amsterdam, and
I have written to him to come with them here. They will
be near the Neptune^ now at Antwerp, in which they must
embark if they return to America, which will in my opinion
be the most advisable for them. We are still expecting
every day, and indeed every hour, the formal notice of the
termination of our business here; but while we do remain
Mr. Smith's assistance will be most useful to me; for at the
very moment of all my life when I most needed the service
of a secretary, I have been deprived of it, and since the
British plenipotentiaries have been here, my whole time
ultimatum respecting the boundary before ascertaining that the American Com-
missioners would agree to the British propositions respecting the Indians. Liver-
pool wrote, September li: "I confess I cannot believe that with the prospect of
bankruptcy before them, the American government would not wish to make peace,
if they can make it upon terms which would not give a triumph to their enemies.
I am strongly Inclined from all I hear to believe that a bankruptcy would be the
result of their continuing the war for another year; but we must recollect that if the
ground upon which the negotiation terminated were popular, a bankruptcy would,
for a time at least, greatly add to their military means. The war would then be
rendered a war of despair, in which all private rights and interests would be sacri-
ficed to the public cause." Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, IX. 240.
' George Mifflin Dallas.
2 William Steuben Smith.
1814) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 131
has been altogether inadequate to the writing and copying
which was and will be indispensable. If Mr. Smith con-
cludes to go back to Russia, they must return as they came,
by water. There is a vessel at Amsterdam to sail between
the i6th and 30th of this month for Cronstadt, in which we
may perhaps all embark. But it is already very late for a
passage up the Baltic, and if we should be detained here
three weeks longer it will be impossible.
It would appear that the failure of the negotiations here
will be unexpected to all parties in the United States, and a
disappointment particularly to the friends of the govern-
ment. But whoever imagined that it would be defeated by
the appointment of Mr. Clay and Mr. Russell mistook al-
together the views and wishes of those gentlemen. We have
all been equally anxious for the success of the mission, and all
equally determined to reject the bases proposed to us by the
British ministers. They have entirely changed the objects
of the war, and begun by requiring of us, as a preliminary
to all discussion of what had been the points in controversy,
concessions which with one voice and without hesitation we
refused. In the course to be pursued by us there has not
been the slightest diversity of opinion between us, and as
the unfortunate circumstances under which we were called
to treat have rendered it impossible that the peace should be
made, we have had the only satisfaction which could be
found in missing the great object, that of having constantly
harmonized among ourselves.
Before the John Adams sailed we had explicitly rejected
in writing the proposal, without the admission of which the
British ministers had declared that their government was
resolved not to conclude a peace. We supposed therefore
that in reply they would have notified to us that the con-
ferences and the negotiation were at an end. They chose,
132
THE WRITINGS OF [1814
however, after taking time to send a message to London,
to reply in a long note so ambiguous in its tenor, as to leave
it doubtful whether they meant to abandon their indispen-
sable preliminary, or to adhere to it, and attempting to put
upon us in this state of equivocation the responsibility of
breaking off the conferences. We have answered this by a
note equally long, adhering to our rejection of their pre-
liminary, but renewing the offer and repeating the wish to
negotiate upon all the differences which had existed between
the two countries before they had brought their new pre-
tensions. This note we sent them yfesterday, and left them
again to declare the negotiation at an end. I should have
expected this declaration in the course of this day, had not
their last note evidently shown that, although determined
not to conclude the peace, they are not indifferent to the
object of putting upon us the responsibility of the rupture.
This being their policy, they may, if they think proper, pro-
tract the discussion some time longer. Their government
have been studiously procrastinating the whole negotiation
with the view to avail themselves of the great successes
which are to follow the operations of their reinforcements in
America. It is already known that those destined for Canada
have arrived, and they have been some time expecting news
of the effect of their offensive operations. They may possibly
reserve their dismission of us for the first intelligence of a
victory in America.
We have not only had the happiness of harmonizing to-
gether among ourselves upon the objects of our public min-
istry, but we have lived together on the most friendly social
footing. When we first assembled we all had lodgings at the
same hotel and had a common table among ourselves. After
we had been there a few weeks we engaged by the month a
large house, in which we are all accommodated with apart-
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAIvlS 133
ments, and where we compose only one family. The secre-
taries connected with the mission have apartments in the
neighborhood and dine with us every day. We have a con-
siderable acquaintance and as much society as we wish with
the principal inhabitants of the city, and we have been
visited by numbers of our countrymen attracted hither by
purposes of interest or of curiosity. This last circumstance
has been the occasion however of some inconvenience to us
and of rumors in England which, if they were well founded,
would not be to our advantage.
At the time when Mr. Dallas was dispatched, some meas-
ures, which it became necessary to some of my colleagues
to take preparatory to their return to America, indicated
their immediate departure. Colonel Milligan, who had been
Mr. Bayard's private secretary, took that moment to go to
visit some relations in Scotland, and was accompanied by
one of our American visitors, named Creighton, to London
and Liverpool. On their arrival very large speculations in
cotton and tobacco were made, founded on reports that the
negotiation at Ghent was broken off, and many particulars
with a mixture of truth and of misstatement appeared in the
English newspapers of what had passed between the British
and American plenipotentiaries. The report which arose
from all this in England was that the American ministers were
speculating for themselves on the event of the negotiation. I
hope that Milligan has not descended to such a despicable
practice himself. I am fully convinced that not one of my
colleagues has sullied his fair fame by participation in such
a sordid transaction; but at all events I am sure you will
need no protestation or denial from me to "show there was
one who held it in disdain. "^
• ••••••
' "1 dare say you will recollect the conversation which I once had with you, in
134 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO LAFAYETTE
Ghent, ii September, 18 14.
My Dear Sir:
Mr. Connell brought me your very obliging favor of the
loth instant. I beg you to accept my thanks for the kind
which I expressed to you my sense of the extreme impropriety of connecting any
commercial speculation of private interest with the business of this negotiation.
An incident has recently occurred very strongly confirming me in the sentiments I
had entertained on that subject. Immediately after the departure of Mr. Dallas,
Colonel [George] Milligan very suddenly went off to Scotland, accompanied, as far
as London and Liverpool, by an American named Creighton, who had been some
time here, and had received from the mission the usual attentions of civility. Their
arrival at London and at Liverpool was the signal for universal speculations in
American articles, on the reported rupture of the negotiations, and of statements
in the newspapers, not altogether correct, but with a mixture of facts which could
only have been divulged by them. Creighton is known to have been very deep in
those speculations; and if Milligan was not, the indiscretion of his conduct, by
thus going to England, even without a passport, has not only involved him in the
suspicion of participation in them himself, but has implicated the whole American
mission in the same suspicion, a procedure for which so far as concerns myself, I
do not thank him." To Levett Harris, September 1 1, 1814. Ms.
"There has been a considerable sensation on Change today owing to a report
that the Conferences at Ghent are broken off. Whether true or not can be no news
to you, tho' the effect may be. There were strong buyers and large purchasers of
cotton and tobacco, ten per cent above yesterday's prices, so that the knowing ones
suspect that if there be nothing fresh from Ghent, there must have been some un-
favorable decision here on something received before." George Joy to John Quincy
Adams, August 26, 1 8 14. Ms.
"There have indeed been many extraordinary reports here within the last few
days which have occasioned an extraordinary rise on tobacco and cotton, both m
this market and that of Liverpool. Besides what was stated to have come from
Ghent, it was said last week that persons applying at the Foreign OfHce to have
letters sent to the British Commissioners had been told that they were expected in
London early this week; and that Mr. Vansittart had told a mutual friend of his
and Lord Gambler, that his lordship was expected to return to England immedi-
ately. These reports, while they served to advance the prices of American produce,
have had the effect of lowering the funds. Today, however, they arc a little better,
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 135
expression of your wish to have seen me at Paris before my
return to St. Petersburg. The pleasure of meeting you once
more, after so long and so eventful an interval since I had
last the happiness of seeing you, is the greatest among many
strong inducements I should have for visiting that city, could
it accord with other views which will probably render a more
direct return to Russia necessary to me. I shall also par-
ticularly regret missing the opportunity of seeing again my
very worthy friend, Air. Victor de Tracy, and of forming a
personal acquaintance with his respectable family. I shall
always feel myself under obligations to his father and to you,
for having furnished me the occasion of rendering him the
feeble service that was in my power, and which I lamented
not having been able to make more effectual, as they
themselves would have wished. Will you please to pre-
sent my most particular regards to Mr. Victor de Tracy,
for whose personal character I entertain the highest
esteem ?
Our prospects here have varied only by the postponement
of a termination which a fair, not to say a generous, enemy
would have notified to us more than a fortnight since. Our
country must now rekindle in defence of her rights with that
ardor which you witnessed and shared In the days of our
Revolution. If the spirit of genuine liberty and of youthful
heroism which then sympathized with us in Europe Is ex-
tinct, we must maintain our cause self-supported, until the
selfish statesmen of the European continent shall discover
that our cause is their own, and the most crafty shall join
us to share with us the honor of a defence which we shall
otherwise have exclusively to ourselves.
Mr. Smith whom I expect here In one or two days will be
and on the other hand the prices of American produce are on the decline." R. G.
Beasley to John Quincy Adams, September 6, 1814. Ms.
136 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
much flattered by your obliging regards. He will probably
return with my colleagues to America.
Accept etc.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, September 13, 18 14.
... I cannot yet revoke the advice to you, not to
direct any more letters to me here. We are still in precisely
the same predicament as when I wrote you last. We have
no reply to the note we sent on Friday; so I suppose they
mean to give us another dissertation of sixteen pages, and
I am now not without suspicions that it will be like the last,
giving up in one sentence what they adhere to in another,
scolding like an old woman, insulting in one paragraph and
compliant in another, and as to everything in the shape of
argument battant la campagne}
Never was anything more explicit than their conference
with us the day Lord Castlereagh was here, and their note
dated on the same day. "Will you, or will you not.?" was
the word. Never was anything more explicit than our
answer, "We will not," and off we sent Mr. Dallas. If there
had been anything in them like fair dealing, they ought to
have dismissed us the next day. The second day after,
Mr. Goulburn told Mr. Bayard that we should have their
reply without delay, and they should have no occasion to
consult their government. Four days later they sent Mr.
Baker to tell us they had thought best upon reflection to
» The American note of September 9 was sent to London, where the draft of a
reply was prepared and dispatched to Ghent September 16. This draft, printed
in Wellington Supplementary Despatches, IX. 263, will be found in the form sent
to the American Commissioners, in American State Papers, Foreign Relations,
111.717-
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 137
send a messenger to London. Eleven days after our note
had been sent came their reply, such as I have described it,
abandoning and at the same time adhering to the terms
which we had rejected with disdain; with a conclusion asking
if we choose to take it upon ourselves to break off. We have
rejoined, that we do not wish to break off, but we say no to
their terms, without which they began by telling us that
they would break off. As they have been five days deliberat-
ing upon what they shall now say, I conclude that they will
finally give us the ball back again, and still contrive to make
delay. For we have no reason to hope they will retreat an
inch from their ground, and we shall never concede one of
Air. Hynam's measures, the thirty-six thousandth part
of an inch of it to them. . . . The delay since our first
answer has been according to all appearances an after-
thought of their government, unexpected to themselves.
I say all this to you chiefly for the purpose of showing you
as precisely as it is seen by myself, the prospect with regard
to the time of my departure. If the British government
intend to make delay, it is in their power. By their proceed-
ings for the last fortnight we are warranted in suspecting
that they do intend delay. The next note from their min-
isters must either terminate our business or more clearly dis-
close their views. . . .^
' "There is, however, too much reason to apprehend, notwithstanding the hope
expressed to you in my last, that the maritime question will for the present be suf-
fered to repose: for as you justly observe the contracting parties at Vienna, with
the exception of the one which pays the pots cassh, are likely to be too much occu-
pied with the division of their spoils to think for the present of new wars. And
there is evidently at this moment no sovereign in Europe on whom we can count, or
whose professions rather are in the least encouraging to us, except the Emperor of
Russia. And in relation to His I. M. it is lamentable to add that all my late con-
versations with the Chancellor have left me little hope that in the conferences at
Vienna the question of the maritime abuses of our enemy would be agitated."
Levett Harris to John Quincy Adams, September 9/21, 1814. Ms.
138 THE WRITINGS OF (1814
TO GEORGE JOY
Ghent, 13th September, 1814.
Sir:
If your affairs should call you to this place previous to
my departure from it, I shall be very happy to see you. If
the motive of conversing with me would be inducement
sufficient for you to take this city in your way to or from
elsewhere, it would afford me much gratification; but to be
perfectly candid with you, if any views of commercial specu-
lation or private interest should be mingled in any manner
with the purpose of your visit, I should prefer waiting for a
moment more propitious to the opportunity of an inter-
view.
For one I can speak but for myself. I do not scruple to
say that I have been annoyed, not by the numbers of our
countrymen, but by the abuse some of them have made of
the access which their characters as our countrymen gave
them to our house. The principle upon which I declined
communicating information even of an indifferent nature to
you has prescribed to me the same reserve towards all others.
If it has not prevented stock jobbing and Jew-brokering
tricks upon the Royal Exchange, it has at least preserved
me from being in any manner accessory to them. By in-
forming you of the time of my departure from this place I
"I do most cordially wish that your anticipations of the probable restoration to
influence of a great statesman [RomanzoflP], the friend of his country and of ours,
may be realized. But whether in or out of power, I beg you whenever you may
have the occasion to see him, to offer him the assurance of my respectful remem-
brance. Of all confidants of princes with whom I have ever been in official or per-
sonal relations, he is the man who has left upon my mind the deepest impression
of sound judgment, of honorable principles, and of truly courteous deportment.
Whatever his future destiny or my own may be, these will be the sentiments that
I shall ever retain of him." To Levett Harris, September 1 1, 1814. Ms.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 139
should not disclose a state secret, but I should not even de-
serve the compliment which Hotspur makes to his wife's
powers of retention in expressing his belief that
she will not utter what she does not know.
I do most heartily rejoice at seeing the Canadian general
order declaring the release of all the hostages on both sides
who had been the victims of the lex talionis. And would to
God that all other objections would be removed as success-
fully as those to that convention have been! I trust we
shall see no embowelling for the encouragement of Patriotism.
I am etc.
TO WILLIAM HARRIS CRAWFORD
Ghent, 14 September, 1814.
Dear Sir:
Your favor of the 6th instant was received by me on the
nth. Mine of the 29th ultimo had been the same length
of time reaching you. I know not how it happens that the
post takes five days in passing between this place and Paris.
Travellers come and go easily in two days.
I tender you many thanks for the copy of your note. If
it be the leading policy of the French government to main-
tain a system of neutrality in the war between the United
States and Great Britain,^ it might naturally be expected
that France would manifest some appearance of adhering
1 "The leading policy of this government is to preserve a strict neutrality, if it is
possible; if this cannot be done the departure /rom that policy will be against us. The
national feeling is decidedly in our favor. It is impossible to foresee what influence
this fact will have upon the government. The arrogance of our enemy will operate
powerfully in aid of this national feeling." William II. Crawford to John Quincy
Adams, September 6, 1814. Ms. The italics represent cypher.
I40 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
to the rights of neutrality. In exacting that France and all
the allies should abandon all retrospective consideration of
the British practices upon the ocean during the late war, I
cannot imagine that the British government has bespoken
the acquiescence of them all to her future operations. If
France is prepared to adopt as the ruling maxim of her policy
that she is never again to have war with England, she may
now look on coolly while the British paper blockade cuts off
all her commerce as a neutral state with us. But if she and
Russia now formally abandon all pretension to maritime
rights, they will certainly give us a very substantial reason
for not being very solicitous about them hereafter, when the
violations of them may be not so convenient to themselves.
We have not yet the cards to take leave from the British
plenipotentiaries. There is some reason for expecting they
will come next week. I trust you will duly appreciate the
paragraphs in the English newspapers which ascribe delay
to us, and prate about their demanding answers from us
within twenty-four hours. The rupture in fact took place
on the 25th ultimo, when we sent them our answer to their
first note. Everything that they have done since (and how
long they may thus amuse themselves and the world, I
know not) has been arrant trifling, or to use a vulgar phrase
of your neighborhood de la poudre aux moineaux. . . .
I am highly gratified at the view taken by you of our
future prospects in the struggle which we are called upon to
pass through, and if your spirit animates the general mass of
our countrymen, we have nothing to fear with respect to
the final issue of the war. For my own part I cannot Imagine
a possible state of the world for futurity in which the United
States shall not be a great naval and military power. Be-
tween that and the dissolution of the Union there is no
alternative. I fear it is also certain that we never shall lay
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 141
the foundation of a great military power but in a time of war.
It must be forced upon us. And as we have begun and made
some progress in it already, I doubt whether we shall ever
have again so favorable an opportunity for accommodating
our permanent political system to it as the present. If we
could even now make a peace eligible in itself, we should
come out of the war with a tarnished military reputation
upon the land, which would Injure our national character
more than years of war. The only temper that honors a
nation is that which rises in proportion to the pressure upon
it. It is to their conduct in the crisis now impending that
our posterity hereafter will look back with pride or with
shame, and I trust our enemies will find our country in the
day of trial true to herself.
I take the liberty of inclosing a letter for General La-
fayette, and remain etc.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, September 16, 18 14.
. . . Mr. Goulburn was still more explicit with Mr.
Clay. He told him that they had sent our last note to
England the same evening that they had received it, and
expected the answer on Monday or Tuesday next, which he
had no doubt would be that we must fight it out. Now as they
will not give us our dismission until they have given us
their dinner, I calculate upon Tuesday as the day when we
shall agree to part. . . .
It is remarkable that the British plenipotentiaries, who in
the case of our former note had first answered it, and then
sent their answer to England for approbation, have now
sent our note itself, without undertaking to answer It them-
142 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
selves. If the British government wish further delay, it is
in their power to make it as they did before. In that case
their next note will require another answer from us, and
perhaps another messenger to England before the conclu-
sion. So that I cannot yet predict with perfect certainty
the day of my departure.
There has been in the English ministerial and opposition
papers some sparring upon the question whether the negotia-
tion at Ghent was or was not broken off. The Times says
that nobody knows, and nobody but the traders cares any-
thing about it. Our British friends appear to be a little
nettled at certain hints in the Morning Chro7iicle, that
irritating language had been used at one of our conferences,
and that their former dinner to us was for the purpose of
making it up. The last part of this statement is not cor-
rect, and there is a mistake of the day with regard to the
first part. Irritating things were one day said by them,
and our notes have undoubtedly contained expressions
irritating to them; but ours were necessary and theirs were
not. On neither side has there been, or will there be, any
apology for them. . . .^
' "From what I have seen of the American ministers and what has passed be-
tween us, I do not believe that they will, under the present circumstances of the
war (they say they will not under any circumstances), consent to the definition of
a permanent boundary to the Indian territory within their limits. I believe that
our proposition to this effect is even more offensive to them than that for the
military occupation of the Lakes. They have sought opportunities of stating it as
inadmissible; and it was only yesterday [at a dinner given by the Americans. See
Adams, Memoirs, III. 35] that Mr. Clay stated his belief that even if America
were to accede to our proposition, and if the Eastern States were cordially to unite
with Great Britain in endeavouring to enforce it, their united efforts would be in-
adequate to restrain that part of the American population which is to the westward
of the Alleghany from encroaching upon the Indian territory and gradually expel-
ling the aboriginal inhabitants. Their objection to our proposition is not founded
upon its requiring a cession of territory already settled by American citizens, but
upon its invading the right which they claim to extend their population over the
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 143
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, September 23, 1814.
. . . Since Tuesday we have been most assiduously en-
gaged in preparing a reply to the last note we have re-
ceived,^ which I think will not be sent before next Monday.
It is the opinion of Mr. Gallatin that this will be our last
communication, and I should expect so myself, if I had not
been twice before disappointed in the same expectation.
Hitherto all the proceedings of the other party have been
calculated to make delay, and to avoid the rupture of the
negotiation for the present. They first assumed the tone
of dictating a preliminary which we immediately rejected.
Then they sent us sixteen pages revoking their first proposal
and at the same time insisting upon it. Now they have
changed its form, absolutely departed from one portion of it,
and expressly declared they will not depart from the other.
In every change of their position, we are obliged to change,
that we may still front them. We have yielded nothing,
whole of the unsettled country. Under these circumstances, I do not deem it
possible to conclude a good peace now, as I cannot consider that a good peace
which would leave the Indians to a dependence on the liberal policy of the United
States. . . .
"In the conversations which I have had with Mr. Clay and Mr. Bayard . .
I have been fortunate enough to state to them what you think might have been
stated with advantage; but as they proceed upon the principle that Canada never
has been in any danger and can never be endangered by the United States unless
we force them to become a military nation; they consider the mere conclusion of a
peace to be the only security which is necessary. Our national feeling respecting
the abandonment of the Indians and the aggrandizing spirit of America draws
nothing from them but an expression of regret at the existence of such a feeling,
and a statement of the much stronger countervailing feeling on the part of Amer-
ica." Goulburn to Earl Bathurst, September l6, 1814. Wellington, Supplementary
Despatches, IX. 266.
^ Adams, Memoirs, September 20, 1814.
144 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
but every new attack we are obliged to meet with a new
defence. From the first instant we saw (most of us at least)
that there was nothing to be done, but I did not see that
they might keep us here as long as they pleased, and that
they felt a wish to keep us here. Although Mr. Gallatin
may therefore judge more correctly than I do, I incline to
the belief that this will not be our last note; that when we
send it, there will be another reference to England, and that
at the end of ten days more we shall have another note to
answer.
There are letters from England saying that one of the
clerks in the British department of foreign affairs has been
dismissed from office, for having divulged some facts respect-
ing the proposals made by the British government at the
Ghent negotiation. That it was further reported that the
note in answer to the first written communication from the
British to the American ministers was very different from
what had been expected; that it was a very able and spirited
state paper, and that the Privy Council had been assembled
two successive days to deliberate upon its contents. I give
you this news as I received it, even with the mention of the
able and spirited state paper, because so small a part of it
was of my composition, that I can draw no vanity for any
credit to which it may be considered as entitled. I should
in fact have presented a very different paper, and I am con-
scious with all due humihty that the paper sent was much
more able than the one I had drawn; perhaps too it was
more spirited, for it had not so much of the irritating lan-
guage, which the Morning Chronicle pretends has been used
on both sides, and for which it asserts we had a special meet-
ing mutually to apologize. ...
I now despair of getting away from this place before we
shall be overwhelmed with these humiliations. They may,
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 145
however, determine the British government to break us up
a Httle sooner. Thus we really now stand. We may be dis-
missed in twenty-four hours after we send our next note,
and we may be kept here three months longer, I cannot say
amused, but insulted with one insolent and insidious pro-
posal after another, without having it in our power to break
off with the indignation which we feel. . . .^
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, September 27, 18 14.
... It appears to me to be the policy of the British
government to keep the American war as an object to con-
tinue or to close, according to the events which may occur
in Europe or in America. If so they will neither make peace,
nor break off the negotiation, and the circumstances may be
such as to detain us here the whole winter. Yesterday we
sent the answer to the third note of the British plenipoten-
tiaries, as I wrote you last Friday I expected we should.^
Observe that our conferences have been suspended ever
since the 19th of last month — nearly six weeks; and that all
we have during that interval been discussing is merely pre-
liminary, whether we shall or shall not treat at all upon the
former differences between the two nations. We have not
' Bathurst intimated to Goulburn the very strong opinion which prevailed in
England against an unsatisfactory peace with America. In using this intimation
Goulburn found Gallatin alone of the American Commissioners "in any degree
sensible, and this perhaps arises from his being less like an American than any of
his colleagues." What pleased Goulburn more was the discovery of an alleged
falsehood on the part of the Americans. The point is immaterial save as it con-
firmed Goulburn that the real object of the war was not maritime rights, but the
conquest of Canada. Goulburn to Bathurst, September 23, 1814. Wellington,
Supplementary Despatches, IX. 278.
* Printed in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, III. 719.
146 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
yet come to the real objects of negotiation. Mr. Gallatin
now inclines to the opinion that this will not be our last
communication. I have suggested a proposal to which my
colleagues have assented, and in our present note it has been
made.^ They think it will be accepted, and if it is, the nego-
tiation will proceed, and the conferences probably be re-
sumed. If it is not accepted, I hope it will at least bring
us to a point which will prevent further dilatory proceedings.
We are still unanimous in the grounds we take. Our ad-
versaries have hitherto taken ten days to answer each of our
notes, and we have answered each of theirs in five. But in
truth we have to deal not only with the three plenipoten-
tiaries, one of whom was amply sufficient for five American
negotiators, but with the whole British Privy Council, who
have taken cognizance of every one of our communications,
and have prescribed the answer to them. Our joint notes
have hitherto been principally composed by Mr. Gallatin
and myself, the other gentlemen altering, erasing, amending,
and adding to what we write, as they think proper. We
then in a general meeting adapt together the several parts
of each draft to be retained, discard what is thought proper
to be rejected, criticise and retouch until we are all weary of
our conduct, and then have the fair copy drawn off to be
sent to the Chartreux, the residence of the British plenipo-
tentiaries.
In this process about seven-eighths of what I write, and
one-half of what Mr. Gallatin writes is struck out. The
reason of the difference Is that his composition is argumenta-
tive, and mine is declamatory. He is always perfectly cool,
' "I also made the proposal of offering to the British an article including the
Indians in the nature of an amnesty; for which I thought we should be warranted
by our instruction to endeavor to obtain an amnesty for the Canadians who have
taken part with us." Adams, Memoirs, September 20 and 23, 18 14.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 147
and I, in the judgment of my colleagues, am often more than
temperately warm. The style of the papers we receive is
bitter as the quintessence of wormwood — arrogant, dicta-
torial, insulting — and we pocket it all with the composure of
the Athenian who said to his adversary, "Strike, but hear!"
Now in all this tranquillity of endurance I fully acquiesce,
because it may be more politic to suppress than to exhibit
our just indignation. But when I first write I indulge my
own feelings, well knowing that the castigatlon my draft
has to pass through will strip it of all its inflammable matter.
It happens sometimes also that I have views of the subject
in discussion not acceptable to some of my colleagues, and
not deemed important by others. There is much more
verbal criticism used with me too, than with any other mem-
ber of the mission, and even if you had been inclined to
gratify me with a compliment upon my talent at writing,
I have it too continually disproved by the successive dem-
olition of almost every sentence I write here, to permit
myself to be elated by your partiality. The result of all this
is, that the tone of all our papers is much more tame than I
should make It, If I were alone, and yet the English gazettes
pretend that we have taken It high and spirited. On the
other hand I am thought sometimes to go too far in conces-
sion; to give the adversary advantages in the argument
which might be inconvenient, and to speak of the British
nation In terms which might gratify their pride. All such
passages are inexorably excluded. All this winnowing and
sifting would be of the highest advantage to myself, if I was
at the improving period of life. At present I consider its
principal advantage to be that it effectually guards against
the Ill-effect of my indiscretions.' Mr. Gallatin keeps and
increases his influence over us all. It would have been an
* Adams, Memoirs, September 23, 1814.
148 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
irreparable loss if our country had been deprived of the
benefit of his talents in this negotiation. . . .^
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, October 4, 18 14.
. . . When this comes to your hands the contents of
my letter of 16 August will probably be no longer in your
recollection, but as you keep the file, turn to it, with the
remembrance that on that very day, 16 August, the whole
of Cochrane's fleet assembled in the Chesapeake for the
expedition against Washington; and that on the ninth day
afterwards, the Capitol, the President's House, the public
offices, and the navy yard were destroyed.^ Remember too
1 "The British plenipotentiaries have again sent our note to England, as we
supposed they would. They expect the answer next Monday or Tuesday. Their
tour of duty appears to be much easier than ours. For since the conference of
9 August they have had little or nothing else to do than to seal up and open dis-
patches. The extent of their authority is to perform the service of a post-office
between us and the British Privy Council. If they get the news of their troops
having taken Washington or Baltimore before they transmit to us their next note
they may perhaps undertake to dismiss us. If not they may prepare for us ma-
terials for another note. I wrote you that they did not accept our invitation for a
tea party last evening, but went to Antwerp, I suppose purposely to avoid it."
To Louisa Catherine Adams, September 30, 1814. Ms.
2 On the 23d, Liverpool could write to Castlereagh: "The forces under Sir Alex-
ander Cochrane and General Ross were most actively employed upon the coast of
the United States, creating the greatest degree of alarm and rendering the govern-
ment very unpopular. We may hope, therefore, that if the American government
should prove themselves so unreasonable as to reject our proposals as they have
been now modified, they will not long be permitted to administer the affairs of the
country, particularly as their military efforts have in no way corresponded with the
high tone in which they attempt to negotiate." Wellington, Supplementary Des-
patches, IX. 279. On September 27 Bathurst gave intelligence of "a signal suc-
cess" — the "destruction of the American flotilla, and the capture and occupa-
tion for a time of the city of Washington." An "Extraordinary Gazette" was
issued on the same day.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 149
that this was only the beginning of sorrows; the lightest of
a succession of calamities through which our country must
pass, and by which all the infirmities and all the energies of
its character will be brought to light.
In itself the misfortune at Washington is a trifle. The loss
of lives amounts scarcely to the numbers every day sacrificed
in a skirmish between two regiments of soldiers. The loss
of property cannot exceed the expenses of one month of war.
The removal of the seat of government necessitated by the
event may prove a great benefit rather than a disadvantage
to the nation. The weakness manifested in the defense of
Washington is the circumstance calculated to excite the
greatest concern, and is the more to be lamented as its
causes may be expected to operate on other occasions, and
"I can assure you that these considerations will make no difference in our anx-
ious desire to put an end to the war if it can be done consistently with our honour,
and upon such terms as we are fairly entitled to expect. The notes of our commis-
sioners at Ghent will, I think, sufficiently prove the moderation of our views. I
am satisfied that if peace is made on the conditions we have proposed, we shall be
very much abused for it in this country; but I feel too strongly the inconvenience
of a continuance of the war not to make me desirous of concluding it at the ex-
pense of some popularity; and it is a satisfaction to reflect that our military success
will at least divest the peace of anything which could affect our national charac-
ter. ... In any conversation which you may have with the King of France
or with his Ministers, you will not fail to advert to this circumstance, and to do
justice to the moderation with which we are disposed to act towards them [the
United States]." Liverpool to the Duke of fVellington, September 27, 1 8 14. Welling-
ton, Supplementary Despatches, IX. 290. To Castlereagh he added, "I fear the
Emperor of Russia is half an American; and it would be very desirable to do away
any prejudice which may exist in his mind, or in that of Count Nesselrode, on this
subject." lb., 291. Wellington, finding that the military successes of the British
in the United States "were canvassed in a very unfair manner in the public news-
papers, and had increased the ill temper and rudeness" shown to British in Paris,
did inform the French Minister of the state of the negotiation at Ghent. "Mon-
sieur de Jaucourt expressed great disgust at the state of the daily press at Paris at
present; and assured me that what had been published on the subject of our opera-
tions in America had made no impression on the King's mind." fVellington to
Castlereagh, October 4, 1814. lb., 314.
I50 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
to produce other effects still more disastrous. There is
perhaps no use in foreseeing calamities which it is not in our
power either to prevent or to remedy; but on this occasion
I find myself less affected by what has happened in conse-
quence of the state of preparation to which I had formed
my mind in looking forward to what it was but too obvious
must happen . . .
In the present state of things the only circumstance within
our power is to have our minds generally prepared for any-
thing that may happen. But the misfortune that may befall
us will probably not be that which we foresee. Let me how-
ever say, because it may afford you some relief and consola-
tion, that the personal dangers of our particular friends and
relations are much less than they were before this last event.
Washington may be henceforth considered as the place of
the United States the most secure from an attack of the
enemy. Boston is still exposed and our property there may
share the fate of the Capitol.^ But in the perils of the coun-
try I scarcely think it worth a thought what may befall my
individual interests. Our children and other relations near
Boston are in no danger but that which menaces the whole
country; and Cochrane's proclamation will not I imagine
produce any other effect against us than to tempt perhaps
some hundreds of negroes to run away from their masters.
If I could correctly judge of the effect upon the feelings
of our nation of this transaction by those which it has pro-
duced among the Americans we have here, I should look
upon it as a blessing rather than a calamity. The sentiment
1 "Our old friend, Mr. R. B. Forbes, has just been to visit me. He is come to
Petersburg on his way to Ghent, and expects to return to America. He says Boston
is become intolerable to live in; that his family are most of them high Essex Junto,
and that it is hardly possible to walk in the streets without petting into quarrels.
This is a delightful picture of our town!" Louisa Catherine Adams to John Quincy
.(^</awjj, September 13, 1814. Ms.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAiMS 151
is the same among us all. It is profound, anxious, and true
to the honor and interest of our country. It is a sentiment
which if generally felt by the people of the United States
will rouse them to exertion. Let that effect be produced
and they have as a people nothing to fear from the power of
Great Britain. If it cannot be produced they are not fit to
bear the character of an independent nation, and have
nothing better to do than to take the oath of allegiance to
the maniac [George III]. Congress were to assemble on the
19th of September. From this time until mid-winter every
breeze will bring us tidings fraught with the deepest interest
to our hearts. In the severe visitation of a chastening provi-
dence I will not abandon the hope that its mercies will be
mingled with its judgments.
We have not yet received the reply of the British pleni-
potentiaries, or rather of the British Privy Council, to our
last note. As the time has now come for which they have
been trifling and equivocating those six months to keep up
what one of their own newspapers calls the idle and hopeless
farce of this negotiation, I wish that the impression of their
success upon them may be to fix the determination of break-
ing it up. There can be no possible advantage to us in con-
tinuing it any longer. . . .
TO WILLIAM IL\RRIS CRAWFORD
Ghent, 5 October, 18 14.
My Dear Sir:
Mr. Boyd arrived here on the 29th ultimo with his dis-
patches, and with your letters of the 25th to the mission,
and to Mr. Gallatin and myself. After his arrival I received
your two favors of the 24th by the post.
152 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
The important news from America is just beginning to
come in. Since Mr. Boyd's arrival, we have had successively
the accounts of the abortive attack on Fort Erie of 15th Au-
gust, and of the too successful attack on Washington of the
24th and 25th. The trial of our national spirit anticipated
in my letter of 29 August had even then commenced by that
vandalic exploit. Its result has illustrated in colors much
too glaring the remark I then made, that our statesmen ap-
peared not to have formed a just estimate of our condition.
I have never for an instant believed that peace would be
practicable by the negotiation here. Mr. Clay is the only
one among us who has occasionally entertained hopes that
it might be. The proceedings of the British government
since the delivery of their first sine qua non have sometimes
strongly countenanced Mr. Clay's opinion, and the deference
I have for his judgment leads me to distrust in this case my
own. I believe the sole object of Britain in protracting our
stay here is to impose both upon America and upon Europe,
while she may glut all her vindictive passions and bring us
to terms of unconditional submission.
We shall probably in the course of a few days make you a
joint and confidential communication upon this subject.
The purposes of our enemy have undoubtedly a relation to
France and to other European powers, and it may be ex-
pedient to put them upon their guard against the British
misrepresentations, of which they make this "idle and
hopeless farce" the instrument for views not less hostile to
them than to us. ^ I am etc.
' "I have in some of my letters said, that if any reliance could be placed upon the
sincerity of the British ministry, a peace is not impracticable. This declaration
was made before I knew their last ultimatum. That paper strengthens this con-
jectural opinion; but still I agree with you that peace is an improbable result. I
have no confidence in their sincerity. If they make peace upon the basis now pro-
posed, it will be because they have been wholly disappointed in the result of the
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 153
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, October 7, 1814.
. . . The newspapers contain a great variety of details
respecting the fall of Washington and the destruction of
buildings and of property, public and private, effected by
the enemy. The whole transaction is much more disgrace-
ful to the British than it is injurious to us. The destruction
of the Capitol, the President's house, the pubHc offices, and
many private houses is contrary to all the usages of civilized
nations, and is without example even in the wars that have
been waged during the French Revolution. There is scarcely
a metropolis in Europe that has not been taken in the course
of the last twenty years. There is not a single instance in
all that time of pubHc buildings like those being destroyed.
The army of Napoleon did indeed blow up the Kremlin at
Moscow, but that was a fortified castle, and even thus the
campaign. It has afforded me the most heartfelt satisfaction to find myself mis-
taken. The campaign has been much more successful than I had anticipated.
The aspect of affairs now is highly consolatory and encouraging. . . . Ad-
mitting that the objects for which the war is to be prosecuted may embrace con-
cessions which will be gratifying to the [British] national pride and beneficial to
their naval superiority, yet it cannot fail to occur to the thinking part of the nation
that these concessions, if obtained, must be temporary in their enjoyment. They
must be sensible that the moment is rapidly approaching when the shackles which
force may have imposed, will by force be broken. That it is indeed possible that
this period may arrive even before they have derived any benefit from it. For it
is only when she is belligerent that these concessions will be useful to her. Should
she therefore remain twenty years at peace, she will have prosecuted this war for
the advancement of objects, which the greatest possible success could alone give
her, and eventually derive no benefit from them. In that time we shall be able in
conjunction with her adversary to shake off the unequal and hard conditions which
she may have imposed upon us. For myself, I agree entirely with you, that we
shall have a good peace, if the war is prosecuted a year or two longer." William
H. Crawford to John Quincy Adams, October 26, 1814. Ms.
154 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
act has ever been and ever will be stigmatized as one of the
most infamous of his deeds.
It has indeed been conformable to the uniform experience
of mankind that no wars are so cruel and unrelenting as
civil wars; and unfortunately every war between Britain
and America must and will be a civil war, or at least will
bear most of its peculiar characters. The ties of society
between the two nations are far more numerous than be-
tween any two other nations upon earth. They are almost
as numerous as if they continued to be what even in our day
they have been, under the same government. But whenever
these ties are burst asunder by war, the conflicting passions
of the parties are multiplied and exasperated in the same
proportion. In the moral as well as the physical world the
principles of repulsion are exactly proportioned to those of
attraction. We must therefore expect that the excesses of
war committed by the British against us will be more out-
rageous than those they are guilty of against any other peo-
ple, and we must be neither surprised nor dejected at finding
them to be so. The same British officers who boast in their
dispatches of having blown up the legislative hall of Congress
and the dwelling house of the President, would have been
ashamed of the act instead of glorying in it, had it been done
in any European city. The exultation at this event in
England is just such as to prove that the passions of malice
and envy and revenge, which prompted their military and
naval officers to this exploit are prevailing universally
throughout the nation. The Times and the Courier rave
and foam at the mouth about it. The Morning Chronicle,
to justify the destruction of the Capitol and other public
buildings, calls it a mitigated retaliation for some private
houses burnt by our troops in Canada. But Lewiston,
Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, Hampton, and many other
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 155
scenes of British barbarism and brutality preceded any ir-
regular act of that nature on our part. The first example of
every savage feature in the war has been shown by the
British. The feelings excited by such atrocities among our
people could not be restrained: they retaliated, and now the
British retaliate upon retaliation. In this contest of fero-
cious and relentless fury we shall ultimately fall short of the
British, because we have not so much of the tiger in our
composition. A very strong evidence of this has been shown
in the history of the destruction of Washington. It seems
that after having effected their purpose, the terror of the
British was so great of being cut off in their retreat, and their
flight was so precipitate, that they left their own dead un-
buried on the fields, and their own wounded as prisoners at
the mercy of the very people whose public edifices and
private habitations they had been consuming by fire. If
those wounded prisoners have not been gibbeted on the trees
between Bladensburg and Washington, to fatten the region
kites, and to swing as memorials of British valor and human-
ity, it has not been because the provocation to such treat-
ment was insufficient, but because it belongs to our national
character to relent into mercy towards a vanquished and
defenceless enemy. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, October 11, 18 14.
. . . And now, the chances are of our being confined
here, if not the whole winter, at least several weeks and
probably months longer. On Saturday [8] evening came a
note of fifteen pages again, hot from the British Privy Coun-
cil; for the plenipotentiaries have no other duty as it would
156 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
seem to perform than that of engrossing clerks. This note
is in the same domineering and insulting style as all those
that have preceded it, but it contains much more show of
argument, falsehoods less liable to immediate and glaring
exposure, misrepresentations more sheltered from instant
detection, and sophistry generally more plausible than they
had thought it worth while to take the trouble of putting
into the former notes. The essential part of it is, however,
that they have abandoned almost every thing of their pre-
vious demands which made it impossible for us to listen to
them, and have now offered as their ultimatum an article of
a totally different description.^ You can conceive with what
kind of grace they retreat from nine-tenths of their ground
when you know that they take care to hint that at this stage
of the war^ their concession must be taken for magnanimity.
What we shall do with this article I cannot yet pronounce;
but the prospect is that we shall have many other points to
discuss, and as their object of wasting time has now be-
come manifest beyond all possible doubt, there is less ap-
pearance than at any former period of the immediate and
abrupt termination of our business. The accounts from
America and the progress of affairs in Europe have hitherto
flowed in a copious and uninterrupted stream favorable to
their policy in the conduct of this negotiation. That such
would be the course of events it was impossible to foresee.
My own expectation was that in the exultation and insolence
of their success they would have broken it off upon the
grounds first taken by them in such a peremptory manner,
and which we decisively rejected. It appears, however, that
' Bathurst sent to the British Commissioners, October 5, a "projet" of an
article on Indian pacification. His accompanying instructions are in Letters and
Despatclus of Lord Castlereagh, X. 148. See American State Papers, Foreign Rela-
tions, III. 721.
,8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 157
the British ministers have not shared in all the delusions of
their populace in regard to their late achievement at Wash-
ington. They are perfectly aware that as injury to us it
scarcely deserves to be named as an important occurrence
of war; that as national humiliation its tendency Is to unite
all parties in our country against them, to exasperate all the
passions of our people, and to create that very energy of
defence which it so effectually proved to be wanting. They
were so much elated by the event that they had their Gazette
accounts of it translated Into all the principal languages and
transmitted to every part of Europe; but the sensation pro-
duced by it upon the continent, so far as we have had the
opportunity of remarking It, has been by no means creditable
to them — the destruction of public buildings of no character
connected with war, that of private dwelling houses, the
robbery of private property, and the precipitate flight of
their troops leaving their wounded officers and men at the
mercy of the people whom they had so cruelly outraged,
tells by no means to their glory. Here we have heard but
one sentiment expressed upon the subject — that of unquali-
fied detestation. But here the English are universally
hated; the people dare not indeed openly avow their senti-
ments, but we hear them — "curses not loud but deep."
In France the public sentiment has been more openly ex-
pressed. In two of the daily journals of Paris ^ remarks
equally forcible and just upon the atrocious character of
this transaction have been published, and even in some of
the London newspapers and magazines a feeble and timid
expostulation has appeared against deeds paralleled only
by the most execrable barbarities of the French revolution-
SLvy fury, or by the Goths and Vandals of antiquity. A de-
^ Journal des Debats, reprinted in the Courier, October 6, and the Journal de
Paris, reprinted in the Courier, October lo.
158 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
fence as despicable as the actions it attempts to justify has
been brought forward in one of the English newspapers; ^
and its only artifice is to diminish the infamy by depreciating
the importance of this vaunted exploit. They are com-
pelled to urge how small and insignificant the distinction
was which they could accomplish to ward off the shame of
having destroyed everything in their power. The Capitol,
they now say was only an unfinished building; the President's
house was properly demolished because the scoundrel Madi-
son had lived in it, and to be sure they could not be blamed
for having destroyed a navy yard. Let them lay this flatter-
ing unction to their soul. The ruins of the Capitol and other
public buildings at Washington will remain monuments of
British barbarism, beyond the reach of British destruction,
when nothing of their oppressive power will be left but the
memory of how much it was abused. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, October 14, 1814.
. . . We this day send our answer to the fourth note
from the British plenipotentiaries: the note, as I have told
you, is by far the most labored, the best written, and the
most deserving of a complete and solid answer, of any one
that we have received from them. The peculiarity of its
character is, that in giving up almost every thing for which
they have contended as a preHminary, they finally insist
upon some thing that I am very unwilling to yield, and they
dwell with bitterness and at great length upon unfounded
and most insidious charges against the American govern-
ment. I have acquiesced in the determination of my col-
1 The Courier, October 6, 1 8 14.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 159
leagues to yield on the particular point now required by the
British as their ultimatum.'^ They think we concede by it
little or nothing. I think the concession so great that I
should have been prepared to break off rather than give it
up. But the ground upon which I differ from them the most
is, that they are for giving the go-by to all the offensive and
insulting part of the British note; for not replying at all to
much of it, and for giving a feeble and hesitating answer to
the remainder. My principle would have been to meet
every one of their charges directly in the face; to report upon
them without hesitation, both of which we might do with
the strictest truth and justice; and to maintain as we have
done hitherto a tone as peremptory as theirs. All this we
might have done, and yet finally have conceded the point
upon which the continuation of the negotiation now hinges.
But the other policy has been thought more advisable.
In making the concession It Is thought best to consider and
represent it as a trifle, or Indeed as nothing at all; and that
It may have Its full effect of conciliation, it is concluded to
say very little upon the other topics in the note, to decline
all discussion that would lengthen our answer, and above all
to avoid every thing having a tendency to irritate. I sub-
mit to this decision; but I think it will not be long before we
discover that our enemy is not of a temper to be propitiated
cither by yielding or by shrinking; and my greatest concern
is that when we have once began to yield and to shrink,
there is no knowing where and when we shall be again pre-
pared to make a stand. I sacrifice however the more readily
my opinion to that of my colleagues In this case, because
they are unanimous in theirs, and because they promise me
not only that they will not yield anything of essential Im-
portance hereafter, but that they will both parry and
* The pacification of the Indians.
i6o THE WRITINGS OF [1814
thrust, if it finally comes to a rupture, with as much earnest-
ness, and with more vigor than I should wish them to do
now.
It must indeed have been for some of my own sins or for
those of my country, that I have been placed here to treat
with the injustice and insolence of Britain, under a succes-
sion of such news as every breeze is wafting from America.
When Napoleon took Moscow Alexander declared to the
world, that he would drain the last dregs of the cup of bitter-
ness, rather than subscribe to a peace dishonorable to his
Empire. We have told the British government that we will,
if necessary, imitate this illustrious example. They have
taken our Capitol. They have destroyed its public, and
many of its private buildings, and the information is brought
to us at one of the critical moments of the negotiation. This
is the point of time at which we are required to bind or to
break. We have chosen to bind. Not so did Alexander.
May we be more fortunate in our imitation of his example
hereafter.
The taking of Washington, to use an expression of Boyd's,
has started our timbers. Lawrence's last words, which you
tell me you did not know, were '^ Don't give up the ship.'' The
ship was given up, not by him, but in consequence of his
mortal wound. It was in the agony of death, when all
sense and sentiment of the fatal reality were fled, that his
heroic soul took wing for eternity, still dwelling on the image
of his duty to his country, still cheering his companions to
the defence of their trust. Now you can judge whether
there was any meaning in the toast, when It was given.
Oh! if every American were a Lawrence; what should we
have to fear from all the malice backed by all the power of
Britain.'*
The feeling of the outrage upon the laws of war at Wash-
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS i6i
ington will be deep and lasting. The Chevalier says it ought
never to be forgotten. That it should make every American
take his children to the altar, and swear them to eternal
hatred of England. I do not go so far in the theory as the
Chevalier; but I am charmed to find him on this occasion
American to the quick. The day before yesterday we had
a tete-a-tete after dinner over a bottle of Chambertin, till
ten o'clock at night. He was perfectly friendly and confi-
dential. He reasoned with all the clearness and all the en-
ergy of his mind. I heartily concurred with all his principles.
I could not resist his persuasions with regard to the point
upon which we were laboring. I finally came down to the
prevailing sentiment of the mission. God grant that its
result may be an honorable peace.
At all events it will probably detain us several weeks
longer, for you know that we are in substance yet to begin
the negotiation. Hitherto we have only been discussing
whether we should treat at all. May it please God to forgive
our enemies, and to turn their hearts!
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, October i8, 1814.
... In the meantime we continue to be watching the
movements of the political weathercock in the British
Cabinet. Our note, which as I wrote you, was sent to the
plenipotentiaries last Friday, was dispatched by them the
next day to England. We cannot expect a reply to it before
next Monday, and I have now no hopes that it will finish
our business. We must drink the cup of bitterness to the
dregs. The chances are about even that we shall pass half
the winter here, or at least until all the great arrangements
i62 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
at Vienna shall be completed. The Congress of Vienna I
have no doubt will prolong the general peace in Europe, but
if it is to finish in six weeks all its business, it may be ques-
tioned whether it will settle this continent very firmly on its
new foundations. There is some fermentation yet in France,
where in the midst of grave deliberations about the liberty
of the press, half a dozen printers of pamphlets have just
been arrested. The author of one of those pamphlets is
Carnot,^ who would also have been arrested, but for the
fear of producing too strong a sensation. On the other
hand, Mr. Chateaubriand has become a government writer,
and there is a long article composed by him published in the
Journal des Dehats, and now circulating over Europe,^ on
the happiness of France since the restoration of the Bour-
bons. He proposes that Louis le Desire should be called
Louis le Sage. It is rather early to pronounce him so em-
phatically wise, but in the acts of his government hitherto
there has generally been a character of discretion well suited
to his situation. Bonaparte had made a strong and ener-
getic government so odious by the excess to which he carried
it, that Louis has only to discern how far It may be relaxed,
and where he must stop, that it may not degenerate into
the opposite vice of weakness. This appears to be precisely
the object of his endeavors, and although many of his meas-
ures must under this system be experimental, and many of
his experiments unsuccessful, he has yet undertaken nothing
which could have a serious effect in shaking the stability of
his authority; and when he has found himself running foul
of the public opinion, he has always prudently and season-
ably yielded to it.
The great difficulty for him will be to manage the army,
^ Memoir ( addresse au Roi, 1814.
' De Buonaparte et des Bourbons, 18 14.
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 163
and to check their martial propensity. They have been
deeply humiliated without being humbled. They have all
the pride of their former successes, with the galling sensation
of their late disasters. They look with a longing eye to their
former chief, who is now but a shadow; and unfortunately
for the Bourbons there is no other leader who has any as-
cendancy over them, and who could draw their tottering
allegiance to himself. The king has pursued the policy of
his own interest, by showering his favors upon the marshals,
without suffering himself to be infected by their passion
for war. . . .
TO WILLIAM PL\RRIS CRAWFORD
Ghent, 18 October, 18 14.
Dear Sir:
I had the pleasure of writing to you on the 5th instant,
since which Mr. Gallatin has received your favor of the 6th,
forwarded from Lille by Mr. Baker, who was detained there
by illness. Mr. Boyd will be the bearer of this.
Since I wrote you last, the negotiation here has apparently
taken a turn which induces a postponement of the joint com-
munication which I then gave you reason to expect. I am
convinced with you that Great Britain keeps this negotia-
tion open to further views of policy which she is promoting
at Vienna; but I think she has the further object of availing
herself of the impression she expects to make in America
during the present campaign, and of the terrors she is hold-
ing out for the next.^ As our remaining here must have a
tendency to countenance weakness and indecision on the
' See Bathurst to the British Commissioners, October l8, 1814, in Letters and
Despatches of Lord Castlereagh, X. 168.
i64 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
other side of the Atlantic, I sincerely regret that the negotia-
tion has not yet been brought to a close. But to close it has
not been in our power. That is to say, there has never been
a moment when we should have been justified in breaking
it off, or could have shown to the world the real policy of
Great Britain. By referring every communication from us
to their government before they replied to it the British
plenipotentiaries have done their part to consume time, and
by varying their propositions upon every answer from us
their government have done the same. We have at length
accepted their article, and asked them for their projet of a
treaty. We expect their reply on Monday or Tuesday next.
The present aspect is of a continuance of the negotiation,
and we are not warranted in saying to France or Russia,
that we believe nothing will come of it. We are all ready
enough to indulge hopes, but I see no reason for changing
the belief that we have constantly entertained. My only
apprehension from delay is that the firmness of our councils
at home may not be kept up to the tone which has charac-
terized them heretofore. If they stand the test we shall have
no peace now, but a very good one hereafter. I am etc.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, October 25, 18 14.
. . . On Saturday last [22] we received from the Brit-
ish Commissioners a note ^ more distinctly marked than
any of those that had preceded it, with the intention 01
wasting time, without coming to any result. We sent them
our answer to It yesterday.^ We have again endeavored to
1 Printed in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, III. 724.
^ lb., 725.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 165
bring them to a serious discussion of the objects in contro-
versy between the two countries; but their government (for
they do nothing themselves but sign and transmit papers)
have apparently no other aim but to protract the negotia-
tion. Since the late news from America they have totally
changed their grounds; they now come forward with new
inadmissible pretensions. We have rejected them as ex-
plicitly as we did those they first advanced, and we have
told them that further negotiation will be useless if they
persist in them. Our note of yesterday, I suppose like all the
rest, will go to England for an answer,^ but I do not expect
that it will yet produce any thing decisive. The chance of
peace is in my opinion more desperate than ever, for it is now
ascertained that they will raise their demands upon every
petty success that they obtain in America, and it is but too
certain that they must yet obtain many, far greater and more
important than those hitherto known. While they are
sporting with us here, they are continually sending rein-
forcements and new expeditions to America. I do not and
will not believe that the spirit of my countrymen will be
subdued by anything that the British forces can accomplish;
but they must go through the trial, and be prepared at least
for another year of desolating war. . . .
^ It was sent to London on the day of receipt, "for the information of His Majes-
ty's Government, requesting at the same time their directions for our future pro-
ceedings." British Commissioners to Castlereagh, October 24, 18 14. Ms.
i66 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Ghent, 25 October, 1814. Tuesday
My Beloved Mother:
This is the day of jubilee! the fiftieth year since your
marriage is completed! By the blessing of Heaven my dear
father can look back to all the succession of years since that
time with the conscious recollection that it was a happy day.
The same pleasing remembrance I flatter myself is yours;
and may that gracious being who has hitherto conducted
you together through all the vicissitudes of an eventful life
still watch over you! Still reserve for you many years of
health and comfort and of mutual happiness! . . .
It is much to be lamented that such earnest and sanguine
expectations of peace have been entertained in America
from the present negotiation. The desire of peace, though
in itself proper and laudable, was unfortunately in the cir-
cumstances of our country and of the times the greatest
obstacle to its own object. It has been considered by our
enemies that we were or should be prepared to make any
sacrifice, even of our Union and independence, to obtain it.
This is not the spirit that will secure peace to us. Peace Is
to be obtained only as it was after the war of our Revolu-
tion, by manifesting the determination to defend ourselves
to the last extremity. It Is not by capitulations like those
of Nantucket and of Washington county in the state of
Massachusetts, and of Alexandria, that we shall obtain
peace. The capitulation of Alexandria Is so inexpressibly
shameful, that people here who would gladly be friends of
our country ask us whether it is not a forgery of our enemies,
and whether there really existed Americans base enough to
subscribe to such terms.'' They say that the infamy of sub-
mitting to them was greater than that of exacting them.
1614] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 167
Of peace there Is at present no prospect whatever. The
British government have sufficiently disclosed their inten-
tion of reducing again to subjection as large a portion of the
United States as they can occupy. They have taken posses-
sion of our territory as far as Penobscot river, and now they
make no scruple of demanding it.
But it does not appear to be their intention to break up
this negotiation. They keep us here, raising one extravagant
and insulting pretension after another, ready to insist upon
or to recede from it according as they may find their interest
to dictate, or the circumstances to warrant; and here we are
reasoning and expostulating with them, entreating them to
consent to a peace, and above all dreading to break off the
negotiation, because Peace, Peace, is the cry of our country,
and because we cannot endure the idea of disappointing it.
While we have the miniature of a Congress here for the
affairs of England with the United States, there is a great
one at Vienna which is to settle the future destinies of Europe.
There, too, England appears inclined to take the lead and
direction of all affairs; but it is probable that France also
will have something to say in those arrangements. The
Prince of Talleyrand, the French Ambassador there, has
stated in a memorial, that as France has consented to be re-
duced to her dimensions of 1792, it is but justice on her part
to expect that the other great European powers will follow
her example. This declaration appears to have been quite
unexpected, and to have given rise to so many new ideas
among the assembled potentates and ambassadors that it
has been agreed to postpone the opening of the Congress until
the first of November.^
> In commenting upon a letter of John Quincy Adams to his father, of October 27,
Madison wrote: "Our enemy knowing that he has peace in his own hands, specu-
i68 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 142. [James Monroe]
Ghent, 25 October, 18 14.
Sir:
Since the departure of the John Adams, we have had no
safe opportunity for transmitting dispatches to you, and
this has probably been owing to the detention of the Chaun-
cey by the agent, and as he states under the instruction of
her owner.
It will probably be known to you that on the outward pas-
sage of this vessel from the United States to Gothenburg,
one of her passengers was sent on board a vessel upon the
coast of Scotland who did not return, but was shortly after-
wards landed in Great Britain. There is reason to believe
that after the arrival of the Chauncey at Gothenburg, the
British consul at that place received an anonymous letter
lates on the fortune of events. Should those be unfavorable, he can at any moment,
as he supposes, come to our terms. Should they correspond with his hopes, his
demands may be insisted on, or even extended. The point to be decided by our
ministers is, whether during the uncertainty of events, a categorical alternative of
immediate peace, or a rupture of the negotiation, would not be preferable to a
longer acquiescence in the gambling procrastinations of the other party. It may
be presumed that they will before this have pushed the negotiations to this point.
"It is very agreeable to find that the superior ability which distinguishes the
notes of our Envoys extorts commendation from the most obdurate of their politi-
cal enemies. And we have the further satisfaction to learn that the cause they are
pleading is beginning to overcome the prejudice which misrepresentations had
spread over the continent of Europe against it. The British government is neither
inattentive to this approaching revolution in the public opinion there, nor blmd
to its tendency. If it does not find in it a motive to immediate peace, it will infer
the necessity of shortening the war by bringing us, the ensuing campaign, what it
will consider as a force not to be resisted by us." Madison to John Adams, Decem-
ber 7, 1814. Writings of Madison (Hunt), VIII. 322.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 169
representing this transaction and circumstances attending
it as a violation of the cartel, of which information was of
course given by the consul to the British Admiralty. Early
in August application was made to the joint mission by a
letter from the captain to Mr. Clay, requesting that we
would obtain a passport for the vessel to return to the United
States. We accordingly asked for the passport by a note
to the British plenipotentiaries, desiring that it might be
transmitted to the captain of the vessel at Gothenburg, and
might include permission to touch at any port of Europe for
our dispatches. The passport was immediately granted,
though I have heard that a previous solicitation to the same
effect through other channels had been rejected.
The vessel arrived at Ostend in the beginning of Septem-
ber, and the captain immediately came here, together with
the person who had been landed in England on the passage
to Gothenburg. The owner's agent had already come on
from Gothenburg, I believe by land. We expected that the
vessel would have immediately proceeded to the United
States, but found the owner's agent was under instructions
which left it doubtful whether she would go at all. After
waiting about five weeks and receiving no answer to our ap-
plications for passports for other vessels to convey our dis-
patches, we thought it necessary to ask the agent for the
Chauncey to return the passport, unless he chose to dispatch
the vessel. He then wrote us a letter stating that it would
be contrary to his instructions from the owner founded on
the agreement with you to send her away, but that being
under the necessity to do that, or to return the passport,
he placed her at our disposal, and she would be ready to
sail at the time mentioned by us which was about this day.
The object of this doubtless is to lay a claim for remunera-
tion from the government. But we could have more op-
lyo THE WRITINGS OF [1814
portunities than we would want to send dispatches without
any expense to the government, and should probably have
met with no difficulty in obtaining cartels for the purpose,
had it not been known that this vessel after being furnished
with a passport was detained for objects of individual in-
terest to the owner.
We now send you copies of all our official correspondence
with the British plenipotentiaries since the departure of
Mr. Dallas. From their first vote of 19 August, transmitted
by Mr. Dallas to you, and from our conference with them
on the same day which had preceded it, we had supposed it
to be the intention of the British government to break off
the negotiation immediately. The conversation of their
ministers after receiving our answer to that note tended at
first to confirm that opinion; but they concluded eventually
to refer to their government before they sent us their reply;
and when that finally came, it afforded a presumption which
everything since has confirmed, that the real object of the
British government was neither to conclude peace nor to
break off the negotiation, but to delay. Of this policy the
advantage was all on their side. They knew that whatever
might happen, a peace honorable and advantageous to them
might be concluded in one week, should the course of events
in Europe or in America render it in their estimate advisable
to terminate the war, and they chose to avail themselves of
the advantages which the successes of this campaign in
America would give them, and of the chances either of
permanent tranquillity, or of new troubles in Europe, which
might result from the Congress at Vienna.
Although this policy was sufficiently disclosed to us from
the time when we received the second note of the British
Ministers, we have at the same time perceived that our only
practicable expedient for counteracting it would be to break
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 171
off the negotiation on our part. We have deemed this un-
advisable, because we thought the rupture should not pro-
ceed from us, as long as a possibility remained that a just
and honorable peace might be concluded, and because it was
barely possible that the course of events might fix the in-
tentions of the British government in favor of peace. It
will be observed that the sine qua non, upon the admission
of which they at first placed the continuance of the negotia-
tion was already varied in their second note, most essentially
altered in the third, and finally melted down in the fourth
into an article which we have agreed in substance to accept.^
It is also to be noticed that the British plenipotentiaries have
not replied to any one of our notes without a previous refer-
ence to their government, so that there has been always an
interval of eight or ten days between their receipt of a note
from us and our receipt of their answer.
After the consumption of so much time upon mere pre-
liminary discussion, when we accepted the articles we
' "We owed the acceptance of our Article respecting the Indians to the capture
of Washington; and if we had either burnt Baltimore or held Plattsburgh, I believe
we should have had peace on the terms which you have sent to us in a month at
latest. As things appear to be going on in America, the result of our negotiation
may be very different. Indeed if it were not for the want of fuel in Boston, I should
be quite in despair." Goulburn to Earl Bathurst, October 21, 1814. Wellington,
Supplementary Despatches, IX. 366. "The American plenipotentiaries have agreed
to our Article relative to the Indians. The negotiation is therefore proceeding,
and with more prospect of success than has hitherto existed. We shall probably
be able to form some decisive judgment on the subject in the course of the next ten
days. The capture and destruction of Washington has not united the Americans:
quite the contrary. We have gained more credit with them by saving private
property than we have lost by the destruction of public works and buildings.
Madison clings to office, and I am strongly inclined to think that the best thing for
us is that he should remain there. His government must be a weak one, and feeling
that it has not the confidence of a great part of the nation, will perhaps be ready to
make peace for the purpose of getting out of its difficulties." Liverpool to CastU'
reagk, October 21, 1814. lb., 367.
172
THE WRITINGS OF [1814
thought it proper to ask for their projet of a treaty, offering
immediately afterwards to deliver them ours in return. By
their last note, dated on the 21st and delivered to us on the
22nd instant, they not only evade that request, but after
having repeatedly disclaimed any views to the acquisition
of territory to Great Britain, they now propose to treat upon
the basis of uti possidetis^ And this proposition is made
immediately after receiving the accounts of the capture of
Washington, and of their having taken possession of all
that part of the state of Massachusetts beyond Penobscot
River. As we have already declared that we would subscribe
no article importing a cession of territory, they must have
been aware that we should reject this basis, and can have
brought it forward for no other purpose than that of wasting
time. In our answer to this note, which was sent yesterday,
we have endeavored to bring them to a point, not only by
explicitly rejecting the basis of uti possidetis, but by remind-
ing them of its inconsistency with their own professions
hitherto, and by stating to them that the utility of continuing
the negotiation must depend upon their adherence to their
principles avowed by those professions. We also renewed
the request for an exchange of projets, and as they intimated
the idea that there might be an advantage in receiving in-
stead of giving the first draft of a treaty, we have offered to
exchange the respective drafts at the same time.^
1 Authorized by Bathurst, October 20, 1814. Letters and Despatches of Lord
Castlereagh, X. 172.
^ On the American note of the 24th Liverpool wrote to the Duke of Wellington:
"The last note of the American Plenipotentiaries puts an end, I think, to any hopes
we might have entertained of our being able to bring the war with America at this
time to a conclusion.
"We proposed the uti possidetis to be the basis of the treaty as to territory, sub-
ject, however, to such modifications as might be found on discussion reciprocally
advantageous. They are disposed to advance the extravagant doctrine of some
of the revolutionary governments of France, viz., that they never will cede any
/
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 173
It is now the general opinion that the Congress at Vienna
will terminate in a settlement of the general affairs In Europe,
if not to the satisfaction of all the great powers, at least with-
out opposition from any of them. Such is the opinion that
I have myself uniformly entertained. All the principal
governments, and all the great nations, except France, are
most anxiously desirous of peace; and as there is little else
to arrange between them besides a distribution of spoils,
each one, however eager to grasp at the most it can get, will
finally content itself with what it can obtain. In France
itself the warlike spirit appears to be gradually subsiding,
and will In all probability yield itself to the continual and
increasing Influence and authority of the government. There
is, therefore, little prospect that anything occurring in
Europe will Inspire the British ministry with a pacific dis-
position towards America. They are, in fact, continuing to
embark troops and to send reinforcements of all kinds for
another campaign. It is not for me to judge what may be
the effect of the events now so rapidly succeeding one another
in our own hemisphere; but our country cannot be too pro-
foundly Impressed with the sentiment that It is, under God,
upon her own native energies alone that she must rely for
peace, Union, and Independence. I am etc.
part of their dominions, even though they shall have been conquered by their
enemies. This principle they bring forward during a war in which one of their chief
efforts has been to conquer and annex Canada to the United States.
"The doctrine of the American government is a very convenient one: that they
will always be ready to keep what they acquire, but never to give up what they
lose. I cannot, however, believe that such a doctrine would receive any counte-
nance (especially after all that has passed) in Europe.
"We still think it desirable to gain a little more time before the negotiation is
brought to a close; and we shall therefore call upon them to deliver in a full project
of all the conditions on which they are ready to make peace, before we enter into
discussion on any of the points contained in our last note." Wellington, Supple-
mentary Despatches, IX. 385.
174 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, October 28, 18 14.
We have been very much occupied since I wrote you last
in dispatching Mr. Connell, who goes off this morning to
Ostend, there to embark in the Chauncey for New York.
During the same time we have been undergoing another sort
of fatigue, which is more tedious and wearisome to me, that
of banqueting. On Wednesday ^ we dined with the British
plenipotentiaries. No other company than ourselves, but a
Mr. Van Aken, a gentleman of this place, whom we met there
once before. Our acquaintance here in consequence of the
ball we gave, and of the manner in which we have mingled
in society, has become extensive, and as we have associated
indiscriminately with all the respectable classes, now as the
winter approaches we have the prospect of partaking as
much as the gayest of us can wish, in what are called the
pleasures of society. The inhabitants of the place of all
descriptions show us every civility and attention in their
power, and we have not now to learn how much more we.
enjoy of their favor than our adversaries. We have not
like them two sentinels clad in scarlet at our doors. Our
guard of honor is the good will of the people. We do not
quarter upon them the scarlet coats by the thousands; we
levy no contributions of monthly millions upon them to feed
the lobsters; and we do not crush their manufactures by
crowding upon their markets the competition of ours. The
hatred of the English is so universal, and so bitter, that we
may attribute no small part of the kindness shown to us to
the mere fact of our being the representatives of our enemies.
The English ministers live as secluded as if they were monks
» October 26. See Adams, Memoirs, October 26, 1814.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 175
of the old convent of Chartreux where they reside. Lord
Gambler, who appears to me to be an excellent and well
meaning man, asked me the day before yesterday, whether
we had made any acquaintances here. I said we had. He
replied that theirs was confined to the Intendant's family.
This however is altogether owing to themselves. Little as
the people here love their nation, they would be ready enough
to associate with them, and to show them civility, if they
sought it. But Lord Gambler himself is an elderly man not
much suited to shine or to delight in mixed societies. Mr.
Goulburn is a very young one, but he has his wife with him,
and has so much of my humor, as to think his own family
the best company. Both he and Dr. Adams have the English
prejudice of disliking everything that is not English, and
of taking no pains to conceal their taste. . . . None of
them would find much to please them in the companies of
this place, nor is there much in any or all of them to give
more pleasure than they would receive. . . .
We have no further news since Tuesday from America,
excepting the confirmation of the destruction of the British
fleet on Lake Champlain, and the consequent retreat of
Sir George Prevost. ... Sir George Prevost, it seems,
was advancing to take possession of the new line of boundary
which they intend to demand at the peace, and since his
defeat the Courier says one more eflPort may be necessary,
but that will be the last. All the accounts from England
since this affair has been known concur in saying that there
will be no peace; but if they do not secure their object by
the effort of this campaign they will not be so likely to obtain
it by the next. May he in whose hands is the spirit as well
as the destiny of nations support us in the struggle we have
to go through! . . .^
' "I sec little prospect of our negotiations at Ghent ending in peace, and I am
176 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, November 4, 1814.
. . . Since that time,^ facts, more or less material to
the issue of the negotiation, have occasionally transpired,
but in the English newspapers they are so blended with other
statements given with equal confidence and totally destitute
of foundation, that the public in England have no real knowl-
edge of the true state of things. You will accordingly find
that the accounts both by the newspapers and by the private
letters from England will be altogether different from the
information you have received and will continue to receive
from me. Our occupations and our amusements still furnish
a daily paragraph to every gazette, but there is a mixture
of truth and of fiction in their narrative, even of particulars
which are in their nature of public notoriety. They have
not only noted down our excursions of pleasure, and our
shipping of baggage on board the Neptune, but they have
sent me to Bruxelles, while I have not slept out of Ghent
since my first arrival in it. They have dispatched Mr. Bay-
apprehensive that they may be brought to a conclusion under circumstances which
will render it necessary to lay the papers before Parliament, and to call for a vote
upon them previous to the Christmas recess. Of this, however, I shall probably
be enabled to speak more positively some days hence. The continuance of the
American war will entail upon us a prodigious expense, much more than we had
any idea of. . . . If we had been at peace with all the world, and the arrange-
ments to be made at Vienna were likely to contain anything very gratifying to the
feelings of this country, we might have met the question with some degree of con-
fidence; but as matters now stand, everything that is really valuable will be con-
sidered as having been gained before, and we shall be asked whether we can really
meet such a charge in addition to all the burthens which the American war will
bring upon us." Liverpool to CastUreagh, November 2, 18 14. Wellington, Supple-
mentary Despatches, IX. 401. See Adams, Memoirs, May 12, 1815, for the state-
ment of the Duke de Vicence on Castlereagh's desire for peace.
1 When Creighton and Milligan visited England, and the consequent charges of
speculating in cotton and tobacco.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 177
ard to Paris to take the court of France by storm, when he
was only gone to Bergen op Zoom, to look at the walls which
General Graham intended to storm, and failed. They have
sent us, or dreamt of our being sent, like fire-ships loaded
with combustibles, to Vienna, to blow up the Congress there,
and spread a conflagration of universal war again all over
Europe. One day they have prostrated us at the feet of the
British plenipotentiaries, repenting in the dust, and crying
for mercy; and the next they have seated us on a car of
triumpli, showering gold around us, and bribing Talleyrand
with beaucoup d'argent to arm the universe against the
maritime rights of old England. All this time we have been
proceeding exactly as I have told you: once a fortnight, or
thereabouts, receiving from the British Privy Council a note
signed by their plenipotentiaries, full of arrogant language
and inadmissible demands, which in three or four days we
have answered, sometimes with elaborate argument, always
with extreme moderation, occasionally with firmness and
spirit, and never with unsuitable concession; much less with
the port of suitors or the attitude of asking for indulgence.
We have attempted neither to storm the court of France,
nor to blow up the Congress at Vienna. We have left the
powers of the European continent to their own reflections
concerning the maritime rights of the British empire, and
have been as far from asking of them as they have been
from offering us any of their assistance. We see plainly
enough that we shall have no peace but by the failure of the
British forces in America to accomplish the objects for which
they were sent, and by the failure of the British govern-
ment to give the law to all Europe at Vienna. Should they
succeed in America, we shall have no peace, because our
country will never submit to the terms they would dictate.
Should they succeed in Vienna, wc shall have no peace, be-
178 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
cause they will prefer war with us, to peace upon any terms.
In the meantime they are merely multiplying discussions
to keep the negotiation alive, until they shall find it their
interest to break off or to conclude. In answer to their last
note we shall send them in two or three days, the draft of a
treaty. There is little chance of our finishing in any manner
within a month, and not much probability before the close
of the year. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, November 8, 18 14.
. . . We have not yet sent our reply to the note which
we received on the 31st ulto. from the British plenipoten-
tiaries.^ We had never before taken so much time to reply;
the reason of which delay is that we have been preparing the
draft of a treaty to send with the note. This has brought us
upon the whole field of this negotiation, and has made it
necessary to deliberate and agree among ourselves upon
many thorny points of discussion. It has not in this state
of things been perfectly easy to bring our own minds to the
point of cordial unanimity; but our deliberations have been
cool, moderate, mutually conciliatory, and I think will result
in full harmony. We shall not be ready with the project
before Thursday — perhaps not even so soon. While it shall
continue to be the policy of the British government to tem-
porize, we cannot force them to decision. Since their last
disgraces in America, the spirit of the English nation is evi-
dently more fiercely bent upon the prosecution of the war
than it was before. The negotiators from Bordeaux ^ upon
1 American State Papers, Foreign Relations, III. 726.
* The bayonets of the seasoned troops sent to America from the continent of
Europe.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 179
whose success so much rcHance was placed having failed,
the only conclusion that Mr, Bull's pride will allow him to
draw from his disappointment is that there were not enough
of them. So he insists upon making another trial and sending
more. General Pakenham ^ goes out with a staff to succeed
Ross. Prevost and most of the old commanding officers are
recalled. A man of high rank is to be sent as commander-
in-chief of all the forces. Wellington will, I think, not go
yet; but unless he is wiser than I believe him, he will go be-
fore the war ends, and then — God speed the monument of
the women of Great Britain and Ireland! As Wellington
began where Cornwallis ended, his American expedition, if
he undertakes it, I hope will end him where Cornwallis began
— at Yorktown. . . .^
* Edward Michael Pakenham (1778-1815). Sec C. F. Adams, Studies, Military
and Diplomatic, 1775-1865, 176.
2 In expressing a wish that the Duke of Wellington should take command of the
British forces in America, Liverpool wrote to Castlereagh, November 4, 18 14:
"I know he is very anxious for the restoration of peace with America if it can be
made upon terms at all honourable. It is a material consideration, likewise, that
if we shall be disposed for the sake of peace to give up something of our just pre-
tensions, we can do this more creditably through him than through any other
person." Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, IX. 405. And to the Duke of
Wellington, on the same date: "We cannot, however, conceal from you that great
public advantage would arise from your accepting this [American] command. The
more we contemplate the character of the American war, the more satisfied we are
of the many inconveniences which may grow out of the continuance of it. We
desire to bring it to an honourable conclusion; and this object would, in our judg-
ment, be more likely to be attained by vesting you with double powers than by
any other arrangement which could be suggested." Ih., 406. Wellington believed
that under the existing circumstances the Ministry "cannot at this moment allow
me to quit Europe." lb., 422, 425. On the question hindering the conclusion of a
peace he wrote: "In regard to your present negotiations, I confess that I think
you have no right from the state of the war to demand any concession from Amer-
ica. Considering everything, it is my opinion that the war has been a most suc-
cessful one, and highly honourable to the British arms; but from particular cir-
cumstances, such as the want of the naval superiority on the Lakes, you have not
been able to carry it into the enemy's territory, notwithstanding your military
i8o THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO WILLIAM HARRIS CRAWFORD
Ghent, 6th November, 18 14.
Dear Sir:
Mr. Gallatin and myself have received your favor of
25th ultimo, and I have also to acknowledge that of the
26th addressed separately to me. We shall reply jointly to
the former, but that gentleman thinks there is no occasion
for immediate urgency on the subject, and I rely upon his
judgment.
Our negotiation is spinning out, and unless our govern-
ment brings it to a close, will be a mere chancery suit. Last
Monday we received a note eluding for the second time our
request for an exchange of projets. They talk of etiquette^
and of the advantage of receiving the first projet instead of
giving it. We shall therefore send them the first projet. But
success, and now undoubted military superiority, and have not even cleared your
own territory of the enemy on the point of attack. You cannot then, on any prin-
ciple of equality in negotiation, claim a cession of territory excepting in exchange
for other advantages which you have in your power. . . . Then, if all this
reasoning be true, why stipulate for the uti possidetis? You can get no territory;
indeed the state of your military operations, however creditable, does not entitle
you to demand any; and you only afford the Americans a popular and creditable
ground which, I believe, their government are looking for, not to break off the
negotiations, but to avoid to make peace. If you had territory, as I hope you soon
will have New Orleans, I should prefer to insist upon the cession of that province
as a separate article than upon the uti possidetis as a principle of negotiation."
lb., 426. On the i8th Liverpool could inform Castlereagh: "I think we have de-
termined, if all other points can be satisfactorily settled, not to continue the war
for the purpose of obtaining or securing any acquisition of territory. We have been
led to this determination by the consideration of the unsatisfactory state of the
negotiations at Vienna, and by that of the alarming situation of the interior of
France. We have also been obliged to pay serious attention to the state of our
finances, and to the difficulties we shall have in continuing the property tax. . . .
It has appeared to us desirable to bring the American war if possible to a conclu-
sion." lb., 438.
,814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 181
what are we to expect from plenipotentiaries who are ob-
Hged to send to the Privy Council for objections of etiquette
and question who shall give or receive the first draft?
I thought they were waiting for the issue of the campaign
in America. But success and defeat there produce the same
result upon them. The instant they knew of their achieve-
ments at Washington and Penobscot they shifted their
ground, rose in their demands, and proposed the basis of
uti possidetis. When they heard of their defeats at Baltimore
and on Lake Champlain, it became indispensable to wipe
ofT the disgrace upon their arms and to prosecute the war
upon a larger scale. It is from Vienna and not from America
that the balance of peace or of war will preponderate. ^
I heartily share in all your exultation at our late successes
and in all your wishes for the future. If I am lagging in the
rear of some of your hopes, it is from a sluggishness in the
anticipation of good, for which I have no reason to thank the
character of my imagination. Certainly, what you foresee is
more probable than what has actually happened. May all
your hopes be realized!
We have received a passport for the Transit. The Chaun-
cey sailed on the first instant. I am etc.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, November 11, 1814.
... If we were to credit the present reports from
England, our mission here would have the prospect of
termination within a very few days. The Morning Chronicle
of the 2d instant announces that the total rupture of the
negotiation at Ghent will be made public within a fortnight
from that time. Sir Edward Pakenham, General Gibbs,
i82 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
and many other officers have embarked and sailed for Amer-
ica in the Statira frigate from Portsmouth. All the letters
from England concur in stating that the popular sentiment
for continuing the war is a perfect frenzy. The Times
blubbers that all the laurels of Portugal, Spain, and France,
have withered at Plattsburg, and threatens damnation to
the ministry if they dare to make peace with Madison and
his faction. We are even told that Master Bull calls for a
more vigorous administration to put down the Yankees, and
that that model of public and private virtue, Wellesley, is
to replace such sneaking prodigals of the nation's blood and
treasures as Castlereagh and Liverpool. . . .
Last evening we sent to the British commissioners the
answer to their last note, and with it an entire draft of a
treaty.^ As notwithstanding all the news from England, I
» Printed in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, III. 733. Of this draft
of a treaty Goulburn wrote: "The greater part of their project is by far too ex-
travagant to leave any doubt upon our minds as to the mode in which it could be
combated; but there is some doubt whether it would be useful to comply with the
request of the American Commissioners, and state specifically the reasons which
induce us to object more or less to all the articles proposed by them. Such a state-
ment, though not difficult, would be voluminous." Goulburn to Earl Bathurst,
November 10, 18 14. Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, IX. 427.
Bathurst wrote to Goulburn of the change of feeling and desire for a treaty, who
replied on the 2Sth: "I need not trouble you with the expression of my sincere
regret at the alternative which the government feels itself compelled by the present
- .state of affairs in Europe to adopt with respect to America. You know that I was
never much inclined to give way to the Americans; and I am still less Inclined to
do so after the statement of our demands with which the negotiation opened, and
which has in every point of view proved most unfortunate. Believing, however. In
the necessity of the measures, you may rely upon our doing our utmost to bring
the negotiation to a speedy issue; but I confess I shall be much surprised if the
Americans do not, by cavilling and long debate upon every alteration proposed by
us, contrive to keep us in suspense for a longer time than under present circum-
stances is desirable. ... I had till I came here no idea of the fixed determina-
tion which prevails in the breast of every American to extirpate the Indians and
appropriate their territory; but I am now sure that there is nothing which the people
,8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 183
do not think their government yet prepared to break off the
negotiation, I expect it will be ten days before they send us
their reply. We are not aware of anything either in our
note or in the treaty we propose, that they may seize upon
as the pretext for breaking; but there is enough in both for
that object, if they think the time arrived for proclaiming
the rupture. We have in the note made a proposal more com-
prehensive, more liberal, more adapted to ensure peace (in
my opinion) than anything that has yet passed in the cor-
respondence on either side. This proposal has been made
at my suggestion, and there has been great difficulty in
coming to unanimity upon it.^ My belief is that it is the
only principle upon which there is any possibility of peace,
and in my view it is calculated to be of great advantage to us,
if it should fail, because in the event of a rupture it will be
our strongest justification in the eyes of the world. But so
different are the views of others, that many ill consequences
are expected from it, and if they should ensue, the whole
responsibility of the measure will be brought to bear directly
upon me. Of this I was fully assured when I presented the
proposal, and I am prepared to take all the blame that
may ultimately attach to it upon myself. It was, however,
readily adopted, and strenuously supported by both my
colleagues of the former mission.
As Parliament was to meet on the 8th we may now expect
the Regent's speech in a day or two. Lord Castlereagh has
not yet returned from Vienna, and we have not yet heard of
the opening of the Congress. It was, as you know, post-
of America would so reluctantly abandon as what they are pleased to call their
natural right to do so." Goulburn to Earl Balhurst, November 25, 1814. Wellington,
Supplementary Despatches, IX., 452, 454.
'A proposal to conclude the peace on the footing of the state before the war,
applied to all the subjects of dispute between the two countries, leaving all the rest
for future and pacific discussion. See Adams, Memoirs, November 10, 18 14.
1 84 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
poned to the first of this month. The speech will probably
give some indication of the aspect of things both at Vienna
and at Ghent. If the determination to continue the war in
America is settled, it will be disclosed in the speech, and we
have rumors that not only the Regent but the Queen have
manifested their concurrence with the popular passion for
war. It is therefore to be expected that the answer to our
draft of a treaty, whether in the shape of a counter-project
as we have requested, or by the refusal to send us one, will
bring us to some point on which the rupture will turn. They
have no hopes of reducing the Yankees to unconditional
submission by the events of this campaign. But the news
still to come will give them encouragement, and when fully
prepared with the ways and means for the next year, they
will have no motive to keep us longer lingering here. . . .
TO GEORGE JOY
Ghent, 14 November, 18 14.
Sir:
After receiving your favor of 30 September I have been
waiting in expectation of the pleasure of seeing you here
until yesterday, when yours of the 4th instant was put into
my hands. I have a double motive for regretting the delay
of your journey upon learning that it has been occasioned
by a serious indisposition.
The sentiments expressed by your two correspondents
from whose letters you are kind enough to send me extracts
are just, in part. Disgusting, however, as the aspect which
the war has (not so very lately) assumed must be to every
liberal and candid mind, I believe we must consider it as
the aspect which all wars between those two parties always
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 185
will assume. It Is "fraternal rage" — it is civil war. The
Capitol, a legislative and judicial palace, a public library
and a chapel were blown up, we are told, by way of retalia-
tion. What was Lewiston bombarded for.-* What was
Georgetown, Frederickstown, Frenchtown and Havre de
Grace destroyed for.'' What were the wounded prisoners
at the river Raisin butchered in cold blood for.'' Was it for
retaliation? Those things were not indeed translated into
all the languages of Europe, and sent by special messengers
to every court, and therefore the indignation of mankind
has not marked so strongly their feelings as it did to greet
the messengers who come to proclaim the destruction of the
Capitol — I forbear.
If the full length picture presents the same features as
your miniature, the ruin of the Capitol will be a public
blessing. But it was once said that they who believed not
Moses and the prophets would neither believe one from the
dead. My faith is unshaken in the result. Whether the
test of the process is to be more or less severe depends not
upon us, but upon an overruling power, in whose hands our
enemies are but instruments. You see I am something of
an optimist, and as such permit me to express the earnest
hope that this may find you well.
Remaining in the meantime your very humble servant.
1 86 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO LEVETT HARRIS
Ghent, 15 November, 18 14.
Dear Sir:
I have just now the pleasure of receiving your favor of
14/26 October, and am happy to learn from yourself the con-
firmation of your recovery, of which and of your Illness I had
a few days since been informed by a letter from my wife.
Near the close of the month of August it was our expecta-
tion that the negotiation here would have terminated in a
very few days. It soon after became apparent that the in-
tention of the British government was to keep it open, and
to shape its demands according to the course of events In
Europe and In America. This policy still continues to per-
vade the British Cabinet. Nothing decisive Is yet known
to them to have occurred either at Vienna, or In the other
hemisphere, and accordingly they temporize still. Unless
something should happen to fix their wavering pretensions
and purposes it will belong to the American government alone
to bring our business to a point. This on their part would
certainly be an honorable and spirited course of conduct,
and I should have no doubt of its being pursued, if the desire
of peace were not paramount to every other consideration.
The occurrences of the war in America have been of a
diversified nature. Success and defeat have alternately
attended the arms of both belligerents, and hitherto have
left them nearly where they were at the commencement of
the campaign. It has been on our part merely defensive,
with the single exception of the taking of Fort Eric with
which it began. The battles of Chippewa and of Bridge-
water, the defence of Fort Erie on the 15th of August, and
the naval action upon Lake Champlain on the nth of Sep-
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 187
tember have redounded to our glory, as much as to our ad-
vantage; while the loss of Washington, the capitulations of
Alexandria, and of Washington County, Massachusetts, and
of Nantucket, have been more disgraceful to us than in-
jurious.
The defence of Baltimore has given us little more to be
proud of, than the demonstration against it has afforded to
our enemy. Prevost's retreat from Plattsburg has been more
disgraceful to them, than honorable to us, and Wellington's
veterans, the fire-eater Brisbane ^ and the firebrand Cock-
burn, have kept the rawest of our militia in countenance by
their expertness in the art of running away.
The general issue of the campaign is yet to come, and
there is too much reason to apprehend that it will be un-
favorable to our side. Left by a concurrence of circumstances
unexampled in the annals of the world to struggle alone and
friendless against the whole colossal power of Great Britain,
fighting in reality against her for the cause of all Europe,
with all Europe coldly looking on, basely bound not to raise
in our favor a helping hand, secretly wishing us success, and
not daring so much as to cheer us in the strife — what could
be expected from the first furies of this unequal conflict but
disaster and discomfiture to us.- Divided among ourselves,
more in passions than interest, with half the nation sold by
their prejudice and their ignorance to our enemy, with a
feeble and penurious government, with five frigates for a
navy and scarcely five efficient regiments for an army, how
can it be expected that we should resist the mass of force
1 Sir Thomas Makdougall-Brisbane (1773-1860).
* "There is a report here that the maritime question was brought forward at the
Congress at Vienna by the French plenipotentiaries, but the opposition of the
British agents was so pointed and imperious that it was not persisted in nor sup-
ported by the other powers." Lnett Harris to John Quincy Adams, 31 October
12 November, 18 14. Ms.
i88 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
which that gigantic power has collected to crush us at a
blow? This too is the moment which she has chosen to break
through all the laws of war, acknowledged and respected by
civilized nations. Under the false pretence of retaliation
Cochrane has formerly declared the determination to destroy
and lay waste all the towns on the sea coast which may be
assailable. The ordinary horrors of war are mildness and
mercy in comparison with what British vengeance and malice
have denounced upon us. We must go through It all. I
trust In God we shall rise in triumph over it all; but the first
shock Is the most terrible part of the process, and It Is that
which we are now enduring. . . .
I am etc.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, 15 November, 18 14.
. . . There was a concert and redoute (meaning thereby
a ball) in the evening, which the younger part of our com-
pany attended. It Is by subscription once a week, on Mon-
days; alternately a simple concert, and this mixed enter-
tainment of last evening, half concert, and half ball. It
began last week with a concert, which I attended and found
rather tedious, though it was over about eight o'clock. It
consisted almost entirely of the scarlet coated gentry from
Hanover and England, who are not more favorites of ours
than they are of the Inhabitants of the country. They are
scarcely ever admitted into the good company of the place
in private society, and so they have taken almost exclusive
possession of the public places where the only condition of
admittance is the payment of money.
The theatrical season has also commenced from the first
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 189
of this month. All the boxes of the first and second row
arc taken by the season; but as a particular consideration
in our favor we were admitted to take a box by the month.
I say we, though I am not personally included in the arrange-
ment. The regular performances are alternately three and
four times a week, and once or twice with the abonnement
suspendu. The company is, for French players, without
exception the worst I ever saw. There is but one tolerable
actor, and not one actress in the whole troop. Occasionally
they have had one good singer, male, but he had a figure
like Sancho Panza, and one female, but she was sixty years
old and had lost her teeth. Sometimes they bring out rope
dancers and sometimes dancers without ropes, who are
rambling about the country, and half fill the houses two or
three nights; but the standards of the stage are the veriest
histrionic rabble that my eyes ever beheld. Yet they have
a very good orchestra of instrumental performers, very de-
cent scenery, and a sufficient variety of it; and a wardrobe
of elegant and even magnificent dresses. The only days when
they give anything which I think fit to be seen or heard are
those when the abonnement is suspended. Some of us are
very constant attendants. Mr. Gallatin and James never
miss. They have become intimately acquainted with the
whole troop. All our family have become in a manner do-
mesticated behind the scenes, with a single exception. Who
that is you may conjecture. I go to the theatre about once
a week, and have found no temptation to go oftener. My
evenings, although they are drawing to the season of their
greatest length, have as yet seldom hung heavy upon my
hands.
We have usually, after sending a note to the British pleni-
potentiaries, from a week to ten days of leisure. Such has
been our state since last Thursday, when we transmitted to
I90 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
them our project of a treaty. We shall probably not have
the reply sooner than next Monday. . . .
The English newspapers to the loth bring nothing further
from America. One great reason that I have for believing
that the next news will be bad — very bad — is that most of
us are sanguine in the hope that it will be very good. We
have had many and signal unexpected favors of Providence;
but I do not recollect a single instance since the commence-
ment of the war, when we have indulged hopes founded on
flattering prospects, that they have not issued in bitter dis-
appointment.
The Regent's speech talks as usual about the unprovoked
aggression of America, and her siding with the oppressor of
Europe, but says he is negotiating with her for peace; that
his disposition is pacific, and that the success will depend on
his meeting a similar disposition in the American govern-
ment.^ These, as Lord Grenville in the debate observes, are
words of course, and he calls upon the ministers to say what
the war is continued for.^* Lord Liverpool brings it out in
terms which, equivocal as they are, explain sufficiently to
us the policy which I have so often told you they were pur-
suing. He said, according to the report of the Courier^
"that particular circumstances might prescribe conditions
which in a different situation of affairs it would be impolitic
and improper to propose." That is to say, that the terms
they intend to prescribe will depend upon the circumstances
of the campaign in America, and of their success at the Con-
gress of Vienna. The Regent has therefore mistaken his
own disposition. It is not to make peace, but to vary his
proposals according to circumstances. This is what his
government has done with us. They have changed their
grounds in almost every note they have sent us, and have
* See Annual Register, 1814, 353.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 191
been steady to nothing but the principle of avoiding to
pledge themselves to anything — to pledge themselves effect-
ually, I mean, — for they have repeatedly slunk in one note
from a demand which they had declared to be indispensable
In another, and on the first encouragement of success they
brought forward demands totally inadmissible, which they
had before solemnly disclaimed.
Lord Grenville and Mr. Whitbread censured the destruc-
tion of the Capitol and President's house at Washington.
They were told that it was done by way of retaliation. But
Admiral Cochrane has made a formal declaration that he
shall destroy and lay waste such towns as he may find as-
sailable on the sea coast, having been required by Sir George
Prevost to do so, to retaliate for similar destruction com-
mitted by the Americans in Canada. Prevost himself at the
same time in his expedition to Plattsburg issued a proclama-
tion forbidding every such excess, and declaring that they
were not making war upon the American people, but only
against their government. Whitbread called upon the
ministers to account for the inconsistency between Prevost's
proclamation and his alleged requisition to Cochrane; but
they gave him no answer. The real cause was that Prevost
was entering that part of the country to conquer it, and the
government Intended to keep it. So they tried there the
system of coaxing the people. On the sea coast, which they
do not expect to keep, they meant merely to plunder and
destroy. The retaliation was nothing but a pretext. . . .
192 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO WILLIAM HARRIS CRAWFORD
Ghent, 17 November, 18 14.
Dear Sir:
I received yesterday your favor of the loth instant, which
was brought by Mr. Storrow. My expectations with re-
gard to the issue of the campaign in America are colored
perhaps more by general reasoning than by reference to the
particular state of facts. I cannot suppose it possible that
Izard's object was an attack upon Kingston. I take it for
granted it was to relieve and reinforce our army at Fort Erie,
which by our most recent accounts was in a situation more
critical than that of Drummond, and still beseiged by him.
Among the last rumors from Halifax is that of a successful
sortie from Fort Erie, and if that report was well founded
we might rely more upon the issue of Izard's expedition.
My distrust of it arises from the necessity of exact corre-
spondence in the execution of combined operations, and a
want of confidence in our military manoeuvres upon the
land. We have not yet learnt to play the game.
The debates in Parliament upon the Regent's speech have
disclosed the system pursued by his government in the nego-
tiation at this place. Lord Liverpool avows without scruple
that their demands and propositions are to be regulated by
circumstances, and of course while that policy prevails
nothing can be concluded. Even when all the preparations
are made, and all the funds provided for another campaign.
it is not clear that they will find it expedient to break off
this negotiation, and it is certain that we shall not break it
off without orders from our government. We sent on the
loth instant the projet of a treaty, assuming the basis of
status a7ite helium with regard to the territory, and have
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 193
offered In the note sent with it to extend the same principle
to all other objects in dispute between the two countries.
We have presented articles on the subjects of impressment,
blockades, indemnities, exclusion of savage cooperation In
future wars, and amnesty. But we have declared ourselves
willing to sign a peace placing the two nations precisely as
they were at the commencement of the war, and leaving all
controversial matter for future and pacific negotiation. I
was earnestly desirous that this offer should be made, not
from a hope that it would be accepted, for I entertained none;
but with the hope that It would take from them the advan-
tage of cavilling at any of our proposed articles, as manifest-
ing no disposition for peace, and compel them to avow for
what object they intend to continue the war. We have
offered no equivalent for the fisheries. We have considered
the rights and liberties connected with them as having
formed essential parts of the acknowledgement of our inde-
pendence. They need no additional stipulation to secure us
in the enjoyment of them, and that our government upon
these principles had Instructed us not to bring them into
discussion. This was originally my view of the subject, and
the principle on which I thought the rights to the fisheries
must be defended, from the moment when we were Informed
in the first conference they would be contested. The offer
of an equivalent was afterwards suggested from a doubt
whether the ground I had proposed to take was tenable,
and with the Intention of relieving it from all contention.
I was prepared for either alternative, but I held the one or
the other to be Indispensable. We finally assumed the prin-
ciple on which I had originally rested the cause. It is urged,
that the principle, if correct. Includes the equivalent which
It had been contemplated to offer, and I admit that it may.
The general basis of the state before the war includes in
194 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
substance both, to my mind beyond all doubt. And although
I have no hope that this offer will be now accepted, yet if it
should, I am not only ready to adhere to it and abide by it
in all its consequences, but to sign the treaty with a degree
of pleasure which has not yet fallen to my lot in this life.
I am very certain that after seven years of war we shall not
obtain more, and what heart would continue the war another
day, finally to obtain less?
You will have observed that the atrocious manner in
which the British are carrying on the war in our country has
been a subject of animadversion in Parliament. The minis-
ters placed it on the footing of retaliation. Lord Grenville
and Mr. Whitbread censure in the style which Burke de-
scribed as "above all things afraid of being too much in the
right". They are evidently not in possession of the facts
which shed the foulest infamy upon the British name in these
transactions. We have seen several interesting specula-
tions in the Paris papers on the same subject. Would it not
be possible through the same channel to show the falsehood
of the pretext of retaliation, or to make the principle recoil
upon themselves.'* You have no doubt the report of the
committee made 31 July, 1813, on the spirit and manner in
which the war had been waged against us even then. It has
occurred to me that a short abstract from that might be pre-
sented to the public in Europe, with a reference to dates,
which would point the argument of retaliation, such as it is,
directly against the enemy. In general, the British have
had ever since the commencement of the war such entire
possession of all the printing presses in Europe, that its
public opinion has been almost exclusively under their guid-
ance. From the access which truth and humanity have ob-
tained in several of the public journals in France in relation
to our affairs, it may be inferred that no control unfavorable
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 195
to them will be exercised, however unwelcome the real ex-
position of facts may be across the channel.
It appears that the principles asserted by the French
plenipotentiaries at Vienna have made a profound impres-
sion, that they have already disconcerted some of the proj-
ects of Lord Castlereagh, and that without offering any
pretext for hostility from any quarter, they have laid the
foundation for the restoration to France of that influence in
the affairs of Europe without which this continent would be
little more than a British colony. The Issue of the Congress
at Vienna will undoubtedly be pacific; but if France has
taken the attitude ascribed to her by the rumored contents
of Talleyrand's memorial, her rival will not long enjoy the
dream of dictating her laws to the civilized world. France
had lost her place In the family of nations. It was at Vienna
that It became her to resume It. We have reason to hope
that she did resume it exactly where she ought, and as the
place she took was marked at once with dignity and modera-
tion, it is to be presumed it will be maintained with firmness.
I am etc.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, 18 November, 18 14.
... It Is the eighth day since we sent our last note to
the British plenipotentiaries. Their reply to our communica-
tions has not hitherto been delayed beyond ten days, and if
no unusual time should be taken for the consideration of
our project for a treaty, we may expect their note next
Monday. If their government seriously Intended to make
peace at present, by the proposal which we have made them,
and to which I referred in my last letter, it might be con-
196 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
eluded in twenty-four hours; but as It will certainly not be
accepted, there can as certainly be no peace at this time.
Had there been any doubt on this point left upon my mind
it would have been removed by the avowal of Lord Liverpool
in the debate on the Regent's speech, that their demands
and proposals were to rise and fall according to circum-
stances.
The Congress of Vienna has not exactly corresponded in
its arrangements with their intentions, but they have suc-
ceeded at it in some of their most important purposes. They
will conclude these without any disturbance of a general
peace, but probably France will be left dissatisfied with the
arrangements, and formally protesting against them. Such
is at least said to be the present state of affairs. The great
effort of Lord Castlereagh has been to exclude France totally
from all influence in the general distribution of spoils of
Europe, and even from all interference in the affairs of
Germany. The great effort of Talleyrand has been to exer-
cise influence without provoking hostility, to counteract the
views of the British government without directly confront-
ing them, and finally to dissolve the league against France
under which the Congress first assembled. If the public
reports from Vienna may be credited, the address of Talley-
rand has hitherto gained ground upon that of his antagonist.
There has been undoubtedly a clashing of purposes between
them which at one time amounted to a personal misunder-
standing. The English story from Vienna is that Talleyrand
has shrunk from his pretensions, and smoothed away the
difficulties he had raised. The reports here are that the
Emperor Alexander has declared himself in favor of the
principles asserted by Talleyrand in his famous memorial;
that the memorial has produced a profound impression; that
Talleyrand distinguishes himself by his activity and talents;
,8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 197
tliat he has availed himself of the opposition of interests, and
has even obtained a reconsideration of certain decisions
which had already been agreed to by the other great powers.
The first object of France necessarily must have been to
untie the knot of all Europe combined against her. This
she could not more effectually do than by declaring that she
demanded nothing for herself. The next declaration that
it was not her intention to oppose by force any of the arrange-
ments which should be made, took from the other powers
all pretext for measures of hostility against her; and under
the shelter of these two preliminaries, it was impossible that
her voice should be heard without effect in the subsequent
deliberations of those whose principal object was to share
the general plunder among themselves.
Notwithstanding this it is apparent that the affairs of
Europe will be settled at Vienna, so much according to
English views, and so far against the interests of France, that
she will never cordially acquiesce in the settlement. She may
perhaps have prevented the projected aggrandizement of
the kingdom of Hanover; but the fate of Saxony, of Belgium,
and perhaps of Italy, has been fixed without regard to her
remonstrances. Britain is engaged in a war which must em-
ploy a considerable part of her forces, and increase the em-
barrassment of her finances. France will be well pleased to
see the continuation of this war, and will be watching the
favorable moment to redeem herself from the humiliation
she is now enduring as well as to recover the relative posi-
tion from which she has just now been degraded. England
must be kept in a continual state of jealousy and alarm,
even in the midst of peace, having the constant danger im-
pending over her of war. It is impossible that the Congress
of Vienna should settle a permanent basis for the balance of
Europe. They will merely distribute the spoils of France,
198 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
and open the source of future combinations against their
own measures, of which France will be the natural centre and
support. . . .
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 143. [James Monroe]
Ghent, 20 November, 18 14.
Sir:
The Chauncey sailed on the first of this month from Ostend,
and by her we transmitted to you copies of all the official
papers which had passed between the British plenipoten-
tiaries and us. The interval that had elapsed since the de-
parture of the John Adams was so long that I am apprehen-
sive you may have thought it unnecessarily protracted. It
was owing to the reluctance with which the supercargo of
the Chauncey came to the determination of proceeding to
America, and to the dilatory proceedings of the British
Admiralty upon our applications for passports for vessels
to convey our dispatches. On the 7th of September we had
by a note to the British plenipotentiaries requested them to
obtain such a passport for the schooner Herald, lying at
Amsterdam. There were a number of persons citizens of the
United States ^ who were desirous of returning in that vessel
as passengers, and we gave their names with the intimation
of a wish that they might be inserted as passengers on the
passport. We have not to this day received any answer from
the Admiralty upon this application.
When Mr. Boyd arrived here, we immediately addressed
a note to the (British) plenipotentiaries asking a passport
^ Moffaft, Gray, Gookin, Price, Bly, and Williams.
,8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 199
for the Transit to return to the United States with our dis-
patches; at the same time we informed them that you had
been obliged to dispatch her without any passport, and sent
them copies of your note to Lord Castlereagh, enclosing the
duplicates of your letters of 25 and 27 June to us, and of
Admiral Cockburn's letter to you, alleging his commander's
orders for refusing a passport for a vessel in July, because
he judged it sufficient to have given one for another vessel
the preceding March; and we intimated to them that their
officers had thus to the utmost extent of their power pre-
cluded our government from transmitting to us any instruc-
tions subsequent to their knowledge of the important changes
in the affairs of Europe which had so essential a bearing
upon the objects of our negotiation. The circumstance was
the more remarkable, because the British plenipotentiaries
had in one of their notes made it a subject of reproach to the
government of the United States, that they had not furnished
us with instructions after being informed of the pacification
of Europe. We had, indeed, told them at the conference of
the 9th of August that we had then received instructions
dated at the close of June. But this had altogether escaped
their recollection; so that while Admiral Cockburn was
writing you that his superior officer had decided that there
was no further occasion for our government to instruct us
until they should receive dispatches from us, the British
government was taking it for granted that we had received
no instructions and was charging it as an indication that
the American government was not sincerely disposed to
peace.
It was nearly five months after we made this communica-
tion asking a passport for the Transit, when we received it.
The passport requires that she should go in ballast, and with
no other passenger than a bearer of dispatches from us. No
200 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
answer has been given us, either in relation to Admiral Cock-
burn's letter to you refusing a cartel, or to your note to
Lord Castlereagh, inclosing the duplicates. We received
the passport for the Transit only the day before the Chauncey
sailed, so that the length of time between the dispatching of
Mr. Dallas and that of Mr. Connell, and of course the long
period which you will probably be without advices from
us, will have been owing to obstacles independent of our
control.
From the nature of the British pretensions and demands
as disclosed in the first note from their plenipotentiaries to
us, and from the tone with which they were brought forward,
both in that note and in the conference of the day on which
it is dated, we had concluded that the rupture of the negotia-
tion would immediately ensue, and expected to have been
discharged from our attendance at this place before the
first of September. The British plenipotentiaries, after re-
ceiving our answer to their first note, appeared to entertain
the same expectation, and if the sincerity of their conversa-
tion can be implicitly trusted, they were not altogether in
the secret of their government. It soon became apparent
from the course pursued by them, that the intention of the
British Cabinet was neither to break off the negotiation nor
to conclude the peace. They expected that a powerful im-
pression would be made in America by the armaments,
naval and military, which they had sent and were continuing
to send. At the same time the result of the Congress at
Vienna was a subject of some uncertainty. The expediency
of another campaign in America might depend upon its issue.
Success in either hemisphere would warrant them in raising
their demands at their own discretion. Failure on either,
or even on both sides, would still leave them with a certainty
of a peace as favorable as they could have any reasonable
,814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 201
pretence to require. They have accordingly confined their
plenipotentiaries to the task of wasting time. After spend-
ing more than two months upon a preliminary article, which
ultimately bore scarcely a feature of its original aspect, they
twice successively evaded our request for an interchange of
the projet of a treaty. They have at least started it as a
point of etiquette, and appear to consider it as an advantage
to receive the first draft instead of giving it. We have now
endeavored to gratify them in both respects. We have sent
them our projet and are now waiting for theirs. In the
meantime Lord Liverpool has avowed in the debates on the
Regent's speech that their demands and proposals are to be
regulated by circumstances, which implies that they are
not yet prepared to conclude. One of the latest ministerial
papers announces that the negotiation is not to succeed, and
that their plenipotentiaries are very shortly to return to
England. Of the latter part of their information I much
doubt; for although the progress of the negotiations at
Vienna daily strengthens the expectation that it will end
without any immediate disturbance of the peace of Europe,
it does not yet promise a state of permanent tranquillity
which would make the policy of continuing at all events the
war with America unquestionable.
I have received and shall forward by the Transit a packet
of dispatches for you from Mr. Harris at St. Petersburg. It
doubtless contains copies of the note which he addressed to
the Imperial Department of Foreign Affairs in relation to
Admiral Cockburn's proclamation of blockade of 25 April
last. I know not whether it is to be regretted that Mr. Har-
ris's note was not presented until after the Emperor's de-
parture for Vienna. He writes me that Mr. Weydemeyer at
his suggestion had written to Count Nesselrode, requesting
him to communicate directly to me the Emperor's answer
202 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
on the subject of the note. But I have not heard from the
Count.
The popular sentiment throughout Europe has been, and
still is, that the United States must sink in the present
struggle against the whole power of Great Britain. And
such is the British ascendancy over all the governments of
Europe, that even where the feelings of the people incline to
favor us, they dare not yet unequivocally express them.
The late events in America, as far as they are known here,
tended to produce some change in this respect. The de-
struction of the public buildings at Washington has been
publicly reprobated in some of the French gazettes, but it
has been defended in others. The general effect upon the
public opinion has been unfavorable to the English, but the
impression of their defeat at Baltimore, and especially of
the retreat from Plattsburg, has been much deeper. We shall
have no valuable friends in Europe until we have proved
that we can defend ourselves without them. There will be
friends enough, if we can maintain our own cause by our
own resources. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, 22 November, 1814.
We have not yet received from the British plenipoten-
tiaries a reply to the note which we sent them on Thursday
the loth inst., but we find some notice of it in the English
newspapers. The Courier, an evening and ministerial paper,
on Monday the 14th, after referring to a paragraph in the
gazette of this country, which had stated that nothing was
known of the state of the negotiation at Ghent, added that
enough however was known in England to ascertain that it
isi4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 203
would not succeed, and that the British plenipotentiaries
might soon be expected home. The Morning Chronicle, an
opposition paper, on Tuesday, the 15th, stated that the
American ministers had in the course of the preceding week
delivered in a long note, which had been received at London
on Sunday morning, and that a Cabinet council had im-
mediately been held upon it at the foreign office. It mentions
also that there had been reports on Monday that we had
received instructions from America by the way of France;
but we had rejected the project offered by the British govern-
ment, and proposed another. The meeting of the Cabinet
council on Sunday the 13th has been confirmed by the sub-
sequent papers, and it is probable that a hint was given to
the editor of the Courier to prepare the expectation of the
public for the rupture. It is not true that we have rejected
the British project, for we have not yet been able to prevail
upon the British Cabinet council to produce any project at
all. They have made and retracted, and renewed and varied,
distinct propositions upon particular points, but have taken
special care to give us no project of a treaty. Nearly three
months ago they informed us that on one of the points upon
which we had rejected their demands, they should, as soon
as we had agreed upon another, have a proposal to make, so
fair and moderate and generous, that we could not possibly
reject it. We did finally agree a month since upon the other
point, since which we have not heard of the fair and generous
proposal. They have on the contrary told us in substance
that they had no proposal to make about it; and yet I fully
expect that if they do give us at least a project of a treaty,
we shall find it there. We have now asked them three times
for their project. The first time we offered to return them
ours immediately after receiving theirs. As they shuffled
in their answer, but hinted in a manner as if they were
204
THE WRITINGS OF I1814
ashamed of the suggestion, that there was an advantage in
receiving the first draft of a treaty instead of giving it, we
next oifered to exchange the two projects at the same time.
They repHed by a pretension that they had partly furnished
a project because they had told us in substance all they meant
to demand; and then again they squinted at the advantage
of receiving the first offer, and at some question of etiquette
which might be in the case. It was too plain that their ad-
vantage and their etiquette were nothing but devices for wast-
ing time; and so we sent them a complete project drawn up
in form, with nothing but blanks of time and place to fill to
make it a treaty. Had the British plenipotentiaries been
sent here honestly to make peace, this is what might and
should have been done before the twentieth of August on
both sides. The pretended etiquette Is an absurdity. The
negotiation was proposed by the British government. It
was the business of the British government to present first,
in form as well as in substance, the terms upon which they
were willing to conclude the peace. When we were at Berlin,
you remember there was a treaty of commerce concluded
between the United States and Prussia. The first thing the
Prussian ministers did after they were appointed to treat
with me was to send me the project of a treaty In form. They
never hinted at any question of etiquette, and I am very
sure this Is the first time that such a pretension was ever
applied to such an occasion. Some of us expect that we
shall now at least bring them to a point; but of this, not-
withstanding the threat in the Courier, I strongly doubt.
They have as yet no information from America decisive as
to the issue of the campaign. . . .
I am not surprised that you should have been so much
affected by the vandalism at Washington. The disgust which
}'ou observe that the course of the British there gave at
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 205
St. Petersburg, has been generally felt throughout Europe.
The whole transaction has done more injury to them than
to us, especially as Baltimore, Plattsburg, Lake Champlain,
and Fort Erie have since retrieved part of our loss of char-
acter, v/hile they have tended to aggravate their disgrace.
By this time I believe that even your compassionating friends
in Russia begin to suspect that all America is not yet con-
quered. We have yet much to endure and go through; but
I trust we shall triumph at the last.
Our dinner to the British plenipotentiaries and Americans
on Friday was not remarkably gay, but it passed off with
all suitable decorum. Bentzon was extremely diverted with
my namesake the Doctor,^ who told us that he had not been
to the play in England these ten years, and described with
ecstacies of astonishment and delight the tricks that he had
seen performed by an Indian juggler, and the amazing ad-
dress with which he balanced straws upon his nose. Bentzon
declares that these two things taken together have given
him the exact measure of the man. . . .
TO ABIGAIL ADAiMS
Ghent, 23 November, 18 14.
While the eyes and expectations of our country have been
so anxiously and so fruitlessly turning towards us for the
restoration of that peace for which she so earnestly longs,
ours are turned with anxiety equally deep towards her, for
those exertions and energies by which alone she will find
peace to be obtained. The British government, after ex-
hausting every expedient and every pretext to delay, sent
' William Adams.
2o6 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
at last plenipotentiaries to meet us here, with formal full
powers to conclude a peace and with orders, as appears by
their proceedings, to do nothing more than to transmit our
communications to the Cabinet Council in England, and the
answers of the Cabinet Council to us. This at least is all
that they have done hitherto. They began by making pro-
fessions the most pacific and conciliatory, together with
demands the most extravagant and inadmissible. After
contesting two months and more upon mere preliminaries,
and abandoning so much of their demands that we found it
possible to agree to the rest, they came out with a proposal
entirely new, inconsistent with repeated declarations pre-
viously made by them, and which we could only reject in
the most pointed terms. The principle which the ministry
and their adherents in England had assumed was, that the
only peace to be made with America was one which should
be on the basis of unconditional submission by the Amer-
icans. They knew that we were not prepared to subscribe
to such terms, but they probably expected we should be at
the close of the campaign which they had prepared in Amer-
ica; or at least that their present successes would be suffi-
ciently great to keep the spirits and passions of their people
up to the tone of supporting another campaign to secure
their triumph. Hitherto the successes, as far as they are
known, have been too much balanced to have answered
their expectations. That of their attack upon Washington
intoxicated them to such a degree that they translated their
Gazette account of it into all the principal languages and sent
it by special messengers all over Europe. That of Sir John
Sherbrook's expedition followed immediately after, and in
more than one way flattered their dreams of conquest. Their
conduct at Washington, however, excited throughout Europe
a sentiment very different from that which they had ex-
i8i4l JOPIN QUINCY ADAMS 207
pected, a sentiment of disgust at the Gothic barbarism of
their proceedings; and since then, their failure at Baltimore,
their defeat on Lake Champlain, their retreat from Platts-
burg, and the sortie of 17 September from Fort Erie, have
redeemed some of our disgraces, have aggravated theirs, and
now lead them to the anticipation of an issue to the campaign
more disastrous to them than I fear the event will realize.
My own greatest apprehensions during the whole summer
have been for Sackett's Harbor and our naval force on
Lake Ontario. There is where I have dreaded the severest
blow to us and the misfortune of the most Important con-
sequences. My anxiety Is far from being removed by the
accounts last receiv^ed. Should the British succeed there,
or In any Important enterprise In other quarters there will
be no possibility of obtaining peace. They have hitherto
met with no check of sufficient magnitude to discourage
them, and at present much slighter advantages than those
upon which they have calculated will satisfy them with
regard to the issue of the campaign.
It Is a mortifying circumstance to one who feels for the
honor and interest of our country to find a British Prime
Minister boasting in Parliament, as the Earl of Liverpool
has done, that the infamous outrages of their troops in
America has been much more vindicated and justified by
Americans in American newspapers, than they have in
England itself. Still more of humiliation did I feel at his
assertion that the people of the district of which they have
taken possession, people of the state of Massachusetts, had
manifested a disposition to become British subjects. I
still indulge the hope that he has magnified into an expres-
sion of popular sentiment the baseness and servility of a
few individual sycophants, who may have intended merely
to save their property from plunder by paying court to the
2o8 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
British commander. Deeply as the sordid spirit of faction
has degraded my native state, I will not yet believe that the
lofty sentiment of independence has been extinguished in
the souls of any considerable portion of my countrymen, or
that they have sunk low enough in the scale of creation will-
ingly to become subjects of Great Britain.
The European continent, after having presented for more
than twenty years a continual scene of bloodshed, horror and
devastation, has by a metamorphosis almost miraculous,
been suddenly transformed into a scene of universal peace,
though not yet of absolute tranquillity. The Congress as-
sembled at Vienna to distribute the plunder taken from
France, to settle the basis of a new balance for Europe, after
having twice been postponed, was to have been opened
formally on the first of this month. It does not, however,
yet appear what sort of a body this Congress will be, or what
will be their powers or duties. Several of the sovereigns en-
gaged in the late war, and the principal ministers of others,
have been at Vienna concerting their arrangements together
these two months. They have formed the real Congress for
the dispatch of business, and when they break up there will
be nothing of importance left for the other to do. It is al-
ready apparent enough that they will settle no permanent
system for the future repose of Europe, and perhaps the
attempt itself to accomplish such a plan would be chimerical.
It is equally evident that they will distribute their spoils
without immediately quarrelling among themselves. But
as England will be left in undisturbed possession of her
dominion of the seas, and as France will be left humiliated,
dissatisfied and yet formidable, there can be no doubt that
the peace of Europe will be neither solid nor permanent.
There will probably be no war during the next year and we
shall, of course, according to all present appearances have
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 209
again to contend single handed against the whole force of
Great Britain through the campaign of 181 5. But if we de-
fend ourselves manfully, Britain will at the close of the en-
suing year be glad to make peace with us upon terms to
which we can subscribe, or she will again have her hands full
in Europe,
As to the end of our present negotiation, I perceive no pros-
pect of it until our own government shall think proper to
bring it to a close. Hitherto it has been the purpose of the
British government to keep it open, and while they have con-
stantly avoided an approach to such conditions as we could
agree to, they have with equal care guarded against giving us
any solid ground upon which we would have been justified in
breaking it off. How far it may suit your policy to keep a
sort of permanent Congress together, waiting for the chapter
of accidents to bring the two parties to terms upon which
they can agree, it is not for me to determine. It is however
possible that the British Ministry may adopt a more deci-
sive course when their fiscal arrangements for the next year
are completed, or when they have more fully ascertained
the issue of the Congress at Vienna.
TO LEVETT HARRIS
Ghent, 24 November, 18 14.
Dear Sir:
I received yesterday your favor of the 2nd instant, and am
gratified in learning that the public sentiment at St. Peters-
burg so generally and decisively reprobated the conduct of
the Vandals at Washington. The same sentiment, so far
as I have had the opportunity of being informed, has been
2IO THE WRITINGS OF [1814
universal throughout Europe, insomuch that even the opposi-
tion in both Houses of the British Parhament have avowed
their participation in it. The Ministry, like their representa-
tive in Russia, attempted to defend it on the pretence of
retaliation; but the real cause is the spirit of inveteracy and
rancor generally felt by the British nation against America.
They never have observed, and never will observe, towards
us the ordinary laws of war which they respect in their
quarrels with other nations. When the French National
Convention issued a decree forbidding their troops to give
quarter to British and Hanoverian soldiers, the Duke of York
published a proclamation declaring that he would not re-
taliate by the like barbarity. But the Duke of York was
then fighting against Frenchmen. The hatred and revenge
rankling in the hearts of Britons against the French is deep
and deadly, but it is mercy and compassion when compared
with their malice against America. As to their pretence of
retaliation, if Lewiston, Georgetown, Frederick, Hampton,
and numberless minor instances of their atrocities did not
give it the lie, a test of its falsehood might be seen in their
application of it to their bombardment of the village of
Stonington. The officer who executed that act of barbarism
was not ashamed to allege as the occasion of it, that it was
in retaliation for the torpedoes that the town of Stonington
had been active in sending out against his Majesty's ships.
It appears, however, that the indignation of mankind at this
last brutal outrage at Washington has found its way even
to the sense of shame yet remaining in the British govern-
ment; for the ministers In Parliament have declared that
orders had been sent to Cochrane no longer to carry into
effect his proclamation threatening to destroy and lay waste
all the towns on the sea coast that he should find assailable.
Notwithstanding this, I have no expectation that the war
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 211
will be waged by them with more humanity than it has been.
We must expect and be prepared for more cruel and desolat-
ing war from them than from any other portion of mankind.
It is by no reliance upon good principles or passions In them
that we must defend ourselves against their enmity; It is
by energies of every kind on our own part that we must
achieve the triumph over It. Their success at Washington
and Alexandria Is almost as disgraceful to us, I blush to say,
as to them. Since then, some events have occurred not less
ignominious to them, and which throw a veil over some of
our shame. We have Indeed little to boast of in the defence
of Baltimore, or in the repulse of Prevost at Plattsburg.
The battle on Lake Champlain has maintained our naval
reputation, and added a new wreath to the glories of our
mariners. The sortie at Fort Erie, though less decisive in
its character, Is distinguished as a military coup de main, and
the whole campaign on the Niagara frontier has been so
creditable to us that we have only to hope It may be termi-
nated with a perseverance of valor and good conduct, and
a continuation of good fortune adequate to crown it with
complete success.
By Mr. Mllligan, who arrived here last evening from
London, we are informed that the Fingal had arrived there,
having left New York the 22nd of October.^ The John
Adams arrived at New York the 5th of that month. The
dispatches which we sent by Mr. Dallas have been all pub-
lished by our government, and I suppose you will see them
In the English newspapers by the time you receive this
letter. This circumstance may perhaps abridge the period
of our continuance here.^
1 Purviance came in this vessel with dispatches for the commissioners from
Washington.
2 Adams, Memoirs, November 24, 1814. "The English newspapers will have
212 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
I will be obliged to you to obtain and forward to me a
passport for my return to St. Petersburg, as I presume it
will be necessary for me on entering Russia. I am not sure
that I shall remain here long enough to receive it, but I
must take the chance. I am etc.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, 25 November, 18 14.
. . . The John Adams arrived at New York on the 5th of
October. Our dispatches by that vessel were communicated
to Congress, and immediately published, together with the
instructions of the government to us. Mr. Monroe writes
that they were producing the best effects, by uniting the
sentiments of all parties in support of the war. De Grand
writes me the same thing. The Ajax, the Dutch vessel that
given you full information of the publications which have taken place in America
of the first conferences at Ghent. Mr. Madison has acted most scandalously in
making this communication at the time he did; and his letter to the Congress,
which conveys the papers, contains a gross falsehood. We have no means of know-
ing what are the instructions which have been transmitted to the American Com-
missioners by the Fingal, but we sent an answer to their last note and projet on
Monday [the 2ist], and a few days will therefore inform us whether we are likely
to have peace, or whether the American government will have advanced new pre-
tensions in consequence of the clamour which they have excited throughout the
country on account of the demands brought forward by us in the month of August.'*
Liverpool to the Duke of Wellington, November 26, 18 14. Wellington, Supplementary
Despatches, IX. 456. Wellington had written on the same day or even on the 2Sth,
a private note to Gallatin which was delivered on the 28th. The son describes it as
"couched in the most friendly terms, assuring father he has brought all his weight
to bear to ensure peace. He goes on to say, 'as I gather Mr. Madison as well as
Mr. Monroe gave you full power to act, without even consulting your colleagues
on points you considered of importance, I now feel that peace is shortly in view.
Mr. Goulburn has made grave errors and Lord Castlereagh has read him a sharp les-
son.* " Diary of James Gallatin, 34.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 213
I have mentioned to you in several former letters, arrived
on Monday last, the 21st, after a passage of thirty-four days
from Boston, at the Texel. Mr. Bourne at Amsterdam
writes me that the accounts brought by her are of the same
nature; that there was but one voice upon the British pro-
posals, and that was to spurn them with indignation. What
those proposals were I dare say you will have seen when
this reaches you, for our letters to the government, and the
first note of the British plenipotentiaries to us, the note of
which I gave you an account in my letter of 23 August, are
now republished at full length in the English newspapers.
You will judge after reading it whether I had reason to
write you that it was impossible we should be detained here
beyond the first of September, unless it were for the arrange-
ment of our papers. The situation of things since then has
changed more in appearance than in reality. The British
government have withdrawn just so much of their inadmissi-
ble demands as would avoid the immediate rupture of the
negotiation. They have varied their terms at every com-
munication that has passed between their plenipotentiaries
and us. They have abandoned the claims which they had
declared indispensable preliminaries, only to bring them for-
ward again, whenever the circumstances of the war might
encourage them to insolence, and in my belief they are now
delaying their reply to our last note, which they have had
upwards of a fortnight, only to receive accounts of success
from America, which will countenance them in rejecting our
proposal, and assuming to dictate to us new terms of dis-
honor and submission.
That they will be highly exasperated by the publication
of the dispatches we have every reason to expect, from the
manner in which it has affected their plenipotentiaries. We
met them last evening at the redoute, and gave them the
214 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
first information of this event. They had not received their
papers of Saturday last, and expected their messenger this
day. They expressed much astonishment at the publica-
tion of dispatches pending a negotiation, and Mr. Goulburn,
who is of an irritable nature, could not contain his temper.
I knew too well the character of the American government
and people to doubt that such dispatches as Dallas carried
out would be immediately published, and assuredly the
British government have no right to complain of it. Mr.
Gallatin thinks they will break off the negotiation upon it,
and if they do, it will only relieve us from the humiliation
of being kept here in attendance upon their insulting caprices,
and insidious tergiversations. We have been here five
months, enduring everything, rather than break off while
a possibility of peace remained. If they choose to break for
an act of our government in which we had no share, the
blame will be none of ours, and if that act was merely dis-
closing to the world the degradation and infamy which
under professions of moderation and magnanimity they of-
fered us as their terms of peace, our government will stand
justified before heaven and earth for having done it. In
our dispatches from the Secretary of State there are two
things that have given me the highest gratification. The
first is, that we have the entire approbation of the President
for the determination we had declared, that we should reject
the British proposals. The second is this. You will recol-
lect that in my letter to you of the i ith of this month I in-
formed you that I had obtained, not without difficulty, the
unanimous consent of my colleagues to insert in our last
note to the British plenipotentiaries a proposal, the only
one upon which, as I believed, there was the remotest pos-
sibility that we should ultimately obtain peace, and from
which we should, as I also hoped, derive great advantage,
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 215
even if it should be rejected. The principal objection against
it was that it was not authorized, but was even forbidden by
our instructions. This I admitted, but urged that we ought
to take upon ourselves the responsibility of making it on
the full conviction that our government would now approve
of it. I told you that I was strenuously supported by both
my original colleagues, and finally obtained the acquiescence
of the others to make the proposal. In the instructions that
we have now received, dated 19 October, we are expressly
authorized to make the same identical offer. The heaviest
responsibility therefore, that of having trespassed upon our
instructions, is already removed. The effects of the measure
are yet to be seen. I trust they will, under either issue of
the negotiation, be good. . . .
The Massachusetts legislature have appointed twelve
delegates to meet others from the rest of the New England
states, on the 15th of December, at Hartford in Connecticut,
to organize a separate system of defense, and a new con-
federacy of their own. This is a dangerous measure, but I
hope it will not have all the pernicious effects to be appre-
hended from it. . . .
TO PETER PAUL FRANCIS DE GRAND
Ghent, 27 November, 18 14.
• ••••••
I wrote you on the 23rd of July that we had then been
here a full month waiting for the appearance of the British
commissioners who were to meet us. More than another
fortnight passed before they came. Yet this negotiation
had been invited by the British government, and I had been
by extraordinary circumstances two months in coming from
2i6 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
St. Petersburg while it could not have taken the British
plenipotentiaries to arrive here from London at any time
more than four days. When they arrived, you are now in-
formed with what professions and with what propositions
they commenced the negotiation with us. Since then, and
until this day, they have been changing their proposals at
every official note they have sent us, without any other ap-
parent object for the present than to avoid both the conclu-
sion of a peace and the rupture of the negotiation. They
have been every month sending out to America reinforce-
ments of troops and supplies of every description, and there
is every reason to believe that they have calculated, and
still calculate, upon crushing all resistance on the part of the
United States, and upon reducing them to unconditional sub-
mission. These are the terms upon which alone the minis-
terial partisans and gazettes have insisted that peace can
be granted to America.
They have been hitherto disappointed in their expecta-
tions. Their defeat upon Lake Champlain, though impor-
tant in its consequences, and though one of the most bril-
liant achievements that have covered our naval heroes with
glory, has produced less sensation in England and upon the
continent of Europe than might have been expected. The
cause of this Is that our reputation for sea-iighting Is fully
established. It has henceforth only to be maintained. It
is perfectly understood throughout Europe that upon the
water, with equal forces the American flag will generally
be victorious over the British. No surprise has anywhere
been manifested at this new triumph of American mariners.
The British nation has become so familiarized with this kind
of reverse, as the Regent calls it in his speech, that they no
longer feel it as a mortification. Their government, too, In
order that the people may have less occasion to reflect upon
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 217
disasters, have resorted, I believe for the first time in British
annals, to the expedient of withholding from publication
their own official accounts of the event. Not a word has to
this day appeared in the Gazette about the action of the Wasp
with the Reindeer, or with the Jvon. And although the
Ministers have acknowledged in Parliament that they
had received dispatches from Sir G. Prevost, dated in Octo-
ber, a month after his retreat from Plattsburg, yet they de-
clared they should publish nothing but the list of killed and
wounded, because the official report from their naval com-
mander on the lake had not been received.
The atrocious system of warfare which they have adopted
has been one of the means upon which they have relied for
breaking down the spirit of the American people. They
pretend that they were provoked to it and practised it on
the principle of retaliation. But we know that Admiral Coch-
rane went out with Instructions for it from England. But
such an universal sentiment of disgust has been manifested
at it throughout Europe, that they now say they have sent
out new Instructions to their Admiral not to persist in it
any longer. The great effect of the present campaign, so far
as it is yet known, has been to raise our military reputation
upon the land. The events on the Niagara frontier have
redeemed much of the character which we had lost by the
issue of the preceding campaign, and Prevost's retreat from
Plattsburg has at least taken from the British all right of
deriding us for any of our former discomfitures.
21 8 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, 29 November, 18 14.
My letter of Friday last informed you of the arrival of
the Fingal at Havre, and of the dispatches from the govern-
ment brought by her that we had received. I should at the
same time have told you that the Ajax, the Dutch vessel in
which Mr. Changuion went to America, arrived on the 21st
inst. at the Texel, after a passage of thirty-four days from
Boston. I now add by way of episode that the Dutch govern-
ment have already concluded to recall the said Mr. Chan-
guion, with the intention, as we hear, of sending him to
Constantinople. This incident is of no great importance to
us, and perhaps it may be accounted for without recurring
to the supposition of any foreign influence upon the councils
of the Sovereign Prince. The measure of sending him out
was a manifestation of a friendly disposition towards us at
a critical moment, and as such was estimated by our country.
His recall before the crisis has passed may perhaps cancel
some part of the obligation which a mere act of national
courtesy might be supposed to confer by the circumstances
of the moment at which it was performed. But as in the
actual state of things our country has the most decisive proof
at what value she is to estimate the friendship of Europe,
so I trust that with the blessing of God she will prove her-
self competent to her own defense, without needing the aid
of that friendship for any part of her support. . . .
The proceedings of the legislature of Massachusetts are
the worst feature in our public transactions. I am not sur-
prised at them, because I have known more than ten years
the views of the party by which they have been carried, and
because I have been nearly as long convinced that this in-
iSu] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 219
ternal ulcer in our body-politic must and would sooner or
later come to its head and break. I have been also fully
prepared to see the demon of disunion show himself in his
hideous shape, and gradually throw off his disguise in propor-
tion as the dangers and distresses of the country should
become imminent and severe. But at this moment how
fearfully does this mad and wicked project of national suicide
bear upon my heart and mind, when I have the profoundest
conviction that if we now fail to obtain peace, it will be
owing entirely to this act of the Massachusetts legislature.
On Sunday we received a note from the British plenipoten-
tiaries, together with our own project of a treaty, with their
remarks and proposals upon it. They have rejected without
exception everything that we had demanded on the part of
the United States; but they have abandoned everything
important that was inadmissible of their own demands.
The objects upon which they still insist, and which we cannot
yield, are in themselves so trifling and insignificant that
neither of the two nations would tolerate a war for them.
We have everything but peace in our hands. But in these
trifles, in the simple consideration of interest, they have left
involved principles to which we cannot accede. They have
given up without qualification all demand for a cession of
territory, either for the Indians, or for themselves; but they
have attempted to secure by an article ambiguously drawn,
the possession of perhaps a few hundred acres of land, which
we can no more give up, than we could a whole state In our
union. There are other points totally unimportant, but
implicating our national honor, to which they still adhere.
We cannot agree to them, and if they finally persist in re-
quiring It of us, the negotiation must break off. By reducing
the controversy between us to points so infinitely small In
themselves, but upon which we cannot yield without dis-
220 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
grace, it is evident that the British government are now-
sensible of the difficulty and danger to themselves of con-
tinuing the war; and that nothing could induce them to it
but the encouragement held out to them by this prospect of
the dissolution of our Union. It is remarkable that these
remnants of inadmissible claims are pointed against the
state of Massachusetts alone, and that we have at present
nothing to contend for, but rights peculiarly enjoyed by her
and her citizens. We shall maintain them with firmness,
and may the great disposer of events and Ruler of Hearts
grant that we may maintain them effectually! For the first
time I now entertain hope that the British government is
inclined to conclude the peace. W^hether they have found
that the Congress of Vienna has not been so propitious to
their supreme ascendancy in Europe as they had expected;
or that the prospects of their campaign in America wall prob-
ably terminate in disappointment; or that on the disclosure
of their original demands, their own people are not prepared
to squander their blood and treasure for a war of conquest
in North America, I cannot determine; but certain it is as
the Chancellor of the Exchequer has very significantly said
In the Flouse of Commons, that the state of the negotiation
in November is quite a different thing from the state of the
negotiation In August. We are now in sight of port. Oh!
that we may reach it in safety! . . .
On the publication of our dispatches the federalists in
Congress came out in the most explicit and decisive manner,
declaring their determination to support the war at all
hazards and every sacrifice against the new British demands
and pretensions. The speeches of Mr. Hanson ^ and Mr.
Oakley - are reprinted in the English papers. The gov-
' Alexander Contee Hanson, of Maryland (1786-18 19).
' Thomas Jackson Oakley, of New York (1783-1857).
i8i4l JOHN QUIN'CY ADAMS 221
ernor of Vermont had already published a proclamation In
the same spirit. Even the report to the Massachusetts leg-
islature recommending their New England delegation whln-
Ingly complains that the enemy did not discriminate in his
hostility between the supporters and the opponents of the war.
The state of our finances is very bad. Mr. G. W. Camp-
bell has resigned the office of Secretary- of the Treasur>', and
Mr. Dallas has taken his place. ^ Mr. Monroe has been ap-
pointed Secretary of War. The Department of State is not
yet filled. The elections for Congress are taking place in
several of the states. The changes are, as far as they are
known, about equal on both sides. I indulge a hope that
the extremities of the times will produce a coalition of parties
and an administration combining all the respectable interests
of the country. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE .\D.AMS
Ghent, 2 December, 1814.
. . . The news from America which you must have re-
ceived since writing this letter of the 6th [November] has
been more cheering than the preceding accounts. We have
had a series of very important successes, and they have to-
tally changed the face of the war, the expectations of all
Europe with regard to its issue, and above all the tone of the
British government in the negotiation here. The latest in-
cident, the taking of Sackett's Harbor and of Chauncey's
fleet, was not officially confirmed in London last Saturday.
There is a bare possibility that It may not be true. If It Is,
our prospects of peace will be as desperate as ever.
By the observations which you make upon the dispositions
of my colleagues, I apprehend I may have expressed myself
1 Dallas took office, October 6, 18 14.
222 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
too strongly upon the spirit of concession and the language
of conciliation, which I wrote you they carried a little beyond
the point where I would have stopped. In the concession to
which I finally and most reluctantly agreed, my ideas, as I
wrote you, did not exactly correspond with theirs with re-
gard to its extent. We accepted an article presented to us
by the British plenipotentiaries as the last word of the British
government on the subject. Two of my colleagues at least,
perhaps all of them, give to that article a construction much
more limited than I do. They were therefore not so averse
to accepting it as I was. They thought it amounted to little
or nothing. I thought it meant so much that I offered then
to reject it even at the hazard of breaking off the negotia-
tion upon it, if they would concur with me. They preferred
accepting the article, because they understood the meaning
differently from me. Though I have no doubt the British
government understand it as I do, yet as my colleagues are
all intelligent men, their construction of the article may be
the right one, and if so the concession was certainly a mere
trifle, and it would have been wrong to risk a rupture by
rejecting it. I finally agreed with them in accepting the
article, with adopting their opinion of its meaning. It was
therefore natural that I should think the concession much
greater than they did, and by concurring with them I ac-
quiesced in their judgment rather than adhere inflexibly to
my own. As to the notice which it was proper to take of the
acrimonious language used in all the British notes, I incline
upon cool consideration to the belief that they have acted
prudently in retrenching almost all the manifestations of
temper which I have inserted in my drafts of papers to be
sent as answers to the British plenipotentiaries. Even as it
was, the tone as well as the substance of our first note was
quite unexpected to the British government, and there has
1S14] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 223
been no occasion since In which we have faltered from It,
excepting In that note accepting the article. I was then for
speaking In bolder terms and for a stronger expression of
feeling than was thought advisable. My colleagues shared
in all my feelings, but thought It best to suppress them.
Perhaps if we had yielded to the irritation excited by the
British note, we should have only produced irritation in
return, and the chance of peace would have been still more
unpromising than it is. We are at this moment in the great-
est and most trying crisis of the negotiation. Until the note
we received from the British plenipotentiaries last Sunday,
I never indulged a hope of peace. It was impossible, with
the demands which they had successively advanced, and
none of which they had explicitly abandoned before. Now
they have removed every Insuperable obstacle. Important
in itself, and have hung the issue upon a hair. Yet even while
surrendering their great principle upon everything of value,
they cling to it upon a grain of sand, and they have attempted
by ambiguities of expression to filch from us crumbs and
atoms of that which they had first endeavored to extort from
us entire. We answered the day before yesterday their note,
and asked a conference at their own time and place. ^ They
Immediately appointed yesterday, noon, at their own house.
We went and were with them about three hours. We con-
sented to give up almost everything of what they had ob-
jected to, in our proposals; but there were left some points
upon which we insisted. They removed one of the greatest
remaining difficulties. They definitely rejected one claim
upon which we had Invited further discussion, and there are
still three upon which we could come to no agreement.^ It
* American State Papers, Foreign Relations, III. 741.
* See Adams, Memoirs, December i, 1814; Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, XLVIII.
151-
224 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
was apparent that they were very desirous of signing the
treaty upon the terms they have now offered, but they man-
ifested it in their usual manner by airs of arrogance and
Intimated threats. In the first note they sent us, which is
now pubHshed, they gave us notice that if we did not agree
without even a reference to our government to their terms,
they would not hold themselves bound by their own offers,
but would vary their demands according to circumstances.
Our answer to that threat was the rejection of their terms,
with the information that we had no need of referring to
our government concerning them. Their last note contains
the same threat — that if we did not accept their offers now,
they would not be bound by them hereafter. And yesterday
two of the plenipotentiaries told us time after time that they
must refer again to their government upon our objections,
and that if new pretensions should be raised, they could only
say they were now authorized to sign a treaty on the terms
they had offered us. Mr. Clay at last told them that we
did not doubt but they were ready to sign upon their own
terms. I must do Lord Gambler the justice to say that he
has never in conference practised this resort to the argument
of a bully. We know very well that they will not hold them-
selves bound by their offers at any time, if they have the
least encouragement to increase their demands after they
are made. We are sure that nothing less than great dis-
appointment both in Europe and America could have
brought them down to their present terms, and we are suffi-
ciently apprized that the smallest turn of affairs would make
them immediately renew all their most insolent demands,
and advance others still more extravagant. We, however,
are not altogether such creatures of sunshine and of rain.
We must adhere to our principles through good and evil
fortune. If the British government really Intend to make
isi4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 225
peace when their next messenger arrives from Ghent, we
may have it upon his return; if not, we shall have in all
probability the certainty of a rupture.^
I shall not have time to answer my dear Charles's letter
this day. We are as much oppressed with occupation as we
have been at any period since our arrival here. We have
nevertheless as much dissipation as we can wish. We have
redoutes and concerts twice a week, and the French theatre
four times. A company of strolling English players came
last week, and perform this evening for the fourth and last
time. They solicited our permission to advertise themselves
as performing under the patronage of the American ministers.
They were advised that it would be their best expedient to
fill the house. We did not, however, comply with their
request. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, 6 December, 18 14.
... It is the opinion of all my colleagues that we shall
finish here before the close of the year. I think that however
doubtful. They are at the same time much more sanguine
than I am that we shall sign a peace. The last step of the
' "As to the disputed phrase in the ist Article, I think the Americans mean to
yield; but we should be equally obliged to you to tell us whether you think it worth
insisting upon, as we may be mistaken in our opinion of the intentions of the Amer-
icans. They certainly evinced no anxiety to sign the treaty now. We told them
that if they would concede the disputed Article, we were ready tosign immediately;
but that if by declining they compelled us to refer home upon that point, we must
be understood as not being bound to accede to the Articles already agreed on. This,
however, produced no effect, and we therefore await your final instructions."
Goulburn to Earl Bathurst, December i, 1814. Wellington, Supplementary Des-
patches, IX. 460. On the same day Liverpool wrote to Castlereagh of the "favour-
able turn of the negotiations at Ghent."
226 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
British government has brought us so near, that if it was
made in sincerity we cannot fail to conclude. But independ-
ent of the distrust which we ought to have for every act of
an enemy who has been carrying on at the same time such a
war and such a negotiation, there is something insidious in
their last proposals which forbids all confidence in them.
They appear to abandon the whole of their former inadmis-
sible demands, and under the artifice of ambiguous expres-
sions and of passing over without notice an important part
of our preceding note, they cling to objects of no value, but
involving principles which we cannot yield with honor. They
were so far from being fairly disclosed on the face of their
note, that it was only at the conference that we brought out
the avowal of them. At the same time the temper of two
of the British commissioners ^ was as acrimonious and in-
veterate as it has been at any period of the negotiation. It
is therefore impossible for me to confide in the smooth
promises of the present state of things. An adversary who,
after demanding empires as an indispensable preliminary,
falls to playing pushpin for straws, deserves anything but
confidence. They have also adhered to their professed
policy of varying their proposals according to circumstances,
and have told us now, as they did when they demanded a
surrender of about one-third part of our territory, that if
we do not give them what they ask at present, they will
hereafter claim more if they dare.
If, upon the return of the messenger they have now dis-
patched, we have to deal with the same quibbling, equivocat-
ing, pettifogging spirit that we have found in all their trans-
actions hitherto, we shall not finish without more references
to England, and probably not in the course of the present
year. The report of a probability that peace will be made
^ Goulburn and Adams.
T8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 227
Is now much circulated all over England. The prospect at
Vienna is certainly not so flattering as had been anticipated.
The issue of the campaign in America is yet not ascertained.
If the confirmation of the taking of Sacketts Harbor and
Chauncey's fleet reaches London before the answer is dis-
patched to us, we may still have to linger here for months
without coming to any conclusion. . . .
The tone of all the English newspapers has changed so
much in their notices of American affairs, that the Times,
the most rancorous and abusive of them all, has published
a letter from Canada, saying that if England intends to
maintain her dominions in America, she must send out troops
not by thousands or tens of thousands, but by hundreds of
thousands. . . .
The English strolling Jews are not yet gone. After being
refused our patronage, they obtained that of Lord Gambier,
and play three times again this week. They took our five
Napoleons for five tickets, and then to show their loyalty,
concluded their play by singing God save the King on the
stage. The joke was not so good as it would have been if we
had granted them our patronage.
TO LEVETT HARRIS
Ghent, 8 December, 18 14.
Dear Sir:
The popular sentiment throughout Europe is favorable
to us in our present contest with Great Britain; and since
the publication in America of the instructions to the mission
at this place, and of our dispatches that were transmitted by
Mr. Dallas, it is manifest to the world that Great Britain
228 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
has entirely changed the objects of the war, and carries it
on henceforth for purposes of conquest in North America.
The maritime questions make no figure in our negotiation,
whatever they may do at the Congress of Vienna. I do not
credit the report that any of them have been brought for-
ward by the French plenipotentiaries. I suppose you are
not ignorant of the stipulation which Great Britain exacted
last spring, and to which France was required to accede,
and did accede before Louis XVIII left England, that no
maritime question should be discussed at Vienna. France
therefore has upon that question been tongue tied; and not-
withstanding all the newspaper rumors it appears that very
little respect or regard has been shown by the other powers
at Vienna to anything that the French plenipotentiaries have
said or written upon other subjects. England openly and
avowedly makes the Congress at Vienna a league against
France, and at the same time exacts of the French govern-
ment measures of subserviency which they have not the
fortitude to refuse.
We have received instructions from our government, in
answer to the dispatches which we had sent by the John
Adams. You will see in the English newspapers what those
dispatches were. The President has entirely approved our
determination unanimously to reject the demands upon
which alone the British government had declared that they
would negotiate. We did reject them, and yet Great Britain
did negotiate. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has very
truly stated in Parliament that the negotiation in November
was a very different thing from the negotiation in August;
but you must not lightly credit the rumors now circulated
in England that there is a fair prospect of a successful issue
to the conferences. Many of the insurmountable obstacles
to the conclusion of a peace have been removed; there still
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 229
remain, however, enough to disappoint any hopes that we
could have derived from the removal of the rest, and we have
no reason for confiding that others will not yet be raised; for
one of the circumstances under which we have been all along
compelled to treat has been a notification, frequently re-
peated, that our antagonists will hold themselves bound to
abide by none of their own terms, unless immediately ac-
cepted; and that they will rise in their demands whenever
encouraged so to do by success in the war. Nor has this
been an empty menace held up in terrorem. It has on one
occasion been carried into effect, and a new pretension
advanced upon the first appearance of success In America,
which was again abandoned when the subsequent accounts
of disaster had been received.
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, 9 December, 1814.
... I speak of It as doubtful whether we shall finish here
before the spring, because notwithstanding the present com-
plexion of the rumors and prevailing opinions in England,
the prospect of peace Is very little brighter than It has been
at our gloomiest hours. We may now from day to day re-
ceive the answer from England to our last proposals and the
result of the conference we had with the plenipotentiaries
on the first of this month. My belief is that the trying
moment will be then. But you have drawn Inferences from
some of my former letters which make some explanation nec-
essary. There has never been one moment of unnecessary
delay on our part. I did upon one occasion ofi'cr to my col-
leagues to stand out upon a point where the British told us
230 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
they had spoken their last word. No one of my colleagues
concurred with me at that time, and I have told you the
reason. They differed from me as to the extent and meaning
of the concession. I acquiesced in their judgment. On
another occasion we altered a measure upon which a majority
had agreed, because one gentleman ^ refused to sign the
paper upon the substance of which we had taken a deter-
mination. On a third occasion a proposal of my own which
had been rejected by my colleagues when first presented,
was renewed by me from a deep conviction of its importance,
and was finally agreed to by them. It was, as I have written
you, not then authorized by our instructions, though fully
warranted by those we have since received. In all these
transactions you will perceive that the great principle which
has prevailed among us all has been that of mutual concilia-
tion and deference to the opinions of one another. If my
colleagues had concurred with me in the first instance to
which I refer, probably the negotiation would then have
broken off. If we are finally to break, it would certainly
have been better for us to have broken then. If we finally
get a good peace, it will as certainly be better than it would
have been to have broken upon that point. As to the second
instance, we have now, at a later period, made the proposal
to which our colleague then refused to subscribe, and he has
now assented to it. With regard to the third I am still per-
suaded that if we do obtain peace, it will be the effect of
that proposal. I ought therefore gratefully to acknowledge
that if I have occasionally been under the necessity of sacri-
ficing my opinions to those of my colleagues, they have been
equally liberal and indulgent to me. ...
1 Clay.
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 231
NOTE TO THE BRITISH COMMISSIONERS '
*
December 12, 18 14.
The undersigned had flattered themselves that the objects
In discussion between his Britannic Majesty's Plenipoten-
tiaries and them had been so far reduced by the principles
which had in the course of the negotiation been agreed upon,
and by the comparative minuteness of the few remaining
interests to be adjusted, that a mutual accommodation upon
those few subjects would be facilitated by the means of
verbal conferences, rather than by the more formal inter-
change of official notes. They were induced by this con-
sideration to request the conference of the first instant which
led to those of last Saturday and of yesterday. Perceiving,
however, that the result of them has been to leave those
points unsettled, and that the British plenipotentiaries still
require of the undersigned on them concessions which the
undersigned are not authorized to yield, they find themselves
again reluctantly compelled to state in writing their objec-
tions to the only parts of the projected treaty, proposed to
them by the British plenipotentiaries, and to which the
undersigned have declared their inability to accede.
While they express their deep regret that upon these points
the views of the British plenipotentiaries appear to be yet
so widely variant from their own, they cannot but indulge
the hope that objects of so trivial comparative interest will
not be permitted to defeat the important purpose of peace
which both governments have so earnestly at heart.
The first of these points relates to the mutual restoration
of territory taken by either party from the other during the
' The note sent, dated December 14, is in American StaU Papers, Foreign Rela-
tions, III. 743. See Adams, Memoirs, December 12, 1S14.
232 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
war. In admitting this principle, which the undersigned
had repeatedly declared to be the only one upon which they
were authorised to treat, the British plenipotentiaries have
proposed an alteration in the article offered by the under-
signed, and the effect of which is avowed by the British
plenipotentiaries to be, to except from its operation the
islands in Passamaquoddy Bay — islands taken by military
force since the commencement of this negotiation, and of
which contrary to the general principle adopted as the basis
of the negotiation it is now professed to be intended by the
British government to retain possession.
It was stated by one of the British plenipotentiaries in
conference, that this would be no deviation from the ad-
mitted principles of the status ante helium; but the under-
signed have been unable to comprehend upon what grounds
this position was assumed. That the right to those Islands
is claimed by Great Britain can be no reason for refusing to
restore them to the situation in which they were previous
to the commencement of the war, since by the mutual agree-
ment of the parties a method Is provided for the final adjust-
ment of that claim.
In requiring that these islands should, like all other terri-
tory taken during the war, be returned at the peace, the
undersigned have no wish to prejudge the question concern-
ing the title to them. They are willing expressly to provide
that the restoration shall not be understood to Impair or In
any manner affect any right which the party restoring may
have to the territory restored. But the consent by them that
territory taken by military force during the war should be
retained after the peace would be equivalent to the admis-
sion of a title to that possession in Great Britain which they
are not and cannot be authorised by the government of the
United States to make. They are authorised to agree to a
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 233
suitable provision for the settlement of a disputed right, and
the possession will of course follow the decision upon that
question. But they cannot agree that possession taken by
force during the war should be sanctioned by their consent
previous to the decision upon the right.
The objection of the undersigned to the words originally
proposed by the British plenipotentiaries, limiting the prom-
ise of restoring territory taken during the war to territory be-
longing to the party from which it was taken, was that they
left it in the power of one party to judge whether any por-
tion of territory taken by itself did or did not belong to the
other; and that it thereby opened a new door to dispute in
the very execution of an article intended to close an old one.
This objection having been removed by the oflFer of the
British plenipotentiaries to confine the operation of the ex-
ception to the islands above mentioned, the undersigned
deem it unnecessary further to notice it.
Should the British government finally adhere to the de-
termination of excepting those Islands from the general
principle of a mutual restoration of captured territory, the
undersigned will be reduced to the alternative of subscribing
to a condition without authority from their government, or
of terminating the negotiation by their refusal.
The stipulation now proposed by Great Britain as a sub-
stitute for the last paragraph of the eighth article as pre-
viously proposed by the British plenipotentiaries, appears
equally objectionable; as a stipulation merely that the parties
will hereafter negotiate concerning the rights in question,
It appears unnecessary. Should the parties both be hereafter
disposed to such a negotiation, no stipulation can be needed
for the purpose. Should either of them be averse to nego-
tiating, the stipulation would be unavailing to the other.
The undersigned are not aware what claim Great Britain
234 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
can have to the navigation of the Mississippi, unless she
found that claim on the article in the peace of 1783. If she
founds it on that article, she must admit the claim of the
United States to the fisheries within British jurisdiction
secured by the same treaty. The United States asks no new
article on the subject. The undersigned have offered to
accede to a new article confirming both the rights. They
have offered to be silent with regard to both. To any stipu-
lation abandoning the right as claimed by the United States
they cannot subscribe. The undersigned must here repeat
an observation already made by them in conference. That
the demand by the British plenipotentiaries for an article
to secure to British subjects the navigation of the Mississippi
has been made since the undersigned had been assured that
the note from the British plenipotentiaries of 21 October
contained all the demands of Great Britain; and that no
trace of it is to be found in that note.
The undersigned have the same remark to make with
respect to the two new articles proposed by the British pleni-
potentiaries. They are both liable to considerable objec-
tions. From an earnest desire to comply with any proposi-
tion which may be acceptable to the British government,
and to which they can accede, the undersigned will agree to
the substance of the article to promote the abolition of the
slave-trade. The other article appears to the undersigned
unnecessary. The courts of the United States will without
it be equally open to British subjects; and they reply that
without it the British courts will be equally open to citizens
of the United States.
i8i4J JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 235
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, 13 December, 1814.
. . . Last Friday the messenger of the British plenipo-
tentiaries returned from London, and they requested a con-
ference for the next morning.^ It was held at our house and
lasted three hours.- We had yesterday another of equal
length at theirs; and the result has been as I wrote you on
Friday that I expected it would be.^ The negotiation labors
at this moment more than it ever has done before. I distrust
more and more the sincerity of the British government, who
after having formally abandoned everything of the value of
a nut-shell in their demands, hold out inflexibly upon the
paltriest trifles directly in the face of their general conces-
sions, and seemingly for the purpose of preventing our ac-
ceptance of them. You are not mistaken in your conjectures
^ For the instructions brought by him see Letters and Despatches of Lord Castle-
reagh, X. 214. They favored a peace.
' American State Papers, Foreign Relations, III. 743; Adams, Memoirs, Decem-
ber 10, 1814. "At a conference today we did our utmost to give effect to your
wishes as conveyed to us in the last despatch. What the result will be cannot be
known until the Americans have finished their deliberations. They certainly re-
ceived our propositions with a better grace than usual, and if any judgment can be
formed as to their future intentions from their manner at this day's conference, I
should conclude that they were not prepared to make a very serious resistance,
except perhaps upon that part of the new Article which states the right to the
fishery to be derived from the treaty of 1783." Goulburn to Earl Bathurst, Decem-
ber 10, 1 8 14. Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, IX. 471. Again Wellington
wrote about the lOth to Gallatin giving assurance of his support for peace. " Pray
do not take offence at what I say. In you I have the greatest confidence.
I hear on all sides that your moderation and sense of justice together with your
good common sense place you above all the other delegates, not excepting ours.
The Emperor Alexander has assured me of this. He says he can place absolute
reliance in your word. I have always had the greatest admiration for the country
of your birth. You are a foreigner, with all the traditions of one fighting for the
peace and welfare of the country of your adoption." Diary of James Gallatin, 34.
'Adams, Memoirs, December 12, 1814; Mass. /list. Soc. Proceedings, XLVIII.
157.
236 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
that I have suffered much in mind — very little however,
from any disagreement with my colleagues. Our harmony
has been as cordial as perhaps ever existed between five
persons charged with so important and so difficult a trust.
But it is the temper in the British notes and in the confer-
ences on the part of two of the British plenipotentiaries
which brings mine to the severest of trials. You know all
the good and all the evil of my disposition; but you cannot
know the violence of the struggle to suppress emotions pro-
duced by the provocations of overbearing insolence and
narrow understandings. They have, however, been sup-
pressed. But after the last two conferences we are apparently
farther from the conclusion than we were before them. The
British plenipotentiaries present to us articles sent to them
ready drawn from England, and when we ask what they
mean, what the object of them is, they answer they cannot
tell; the article was sent them from England, we must con-
strue it for ourselves. If we propose the alteration of a word,
they must refer It to their government. If we ask for an
explanation, they must refer it to their government. It is
precisely the French caricature of Lord Malmesbury. "My
Lord, I hope your Lordship is well this morning." . . .
"Indeed, Sir, I do not know, but I will send a courier to my
Court and inquire." And thus all we have obtained from
the two conferences of three hours each is, another courier
to the Court to Inquire. We are to send them a note, and
they are to dispatch it by a messenger for fresh instructions.
I hope the note will go this day; perhaps not until tomorrow.
There can be no answer sooner than the 21st, and even then
it may be merely matter for more discussion, and more mes-
sengers. In the meantime we still keep personally upon eat-
ing and drinking terms with them. We are to dine with them
this day.
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 237
Speaking of English ambassadors in France reminds me
of his Grace the Duke of Wellington. It appears that he
does not trouble himself to use much ceremony with the
French noblesse. He goes to gala dinners in frock and boots,
and makes the company wait for him by the hour. Then
to apologize for delay he says he has been making a prom-
enade in the Bois de Boulogne. The story goes that Marshal
Macdonald told him that if he was fond of that walk, he
should be happy to meet him there. But the ladies have
given him the best chastisement; they call him Monsieur le
Due de Vilain ton. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, 16 December, 18 14.
My Best Friend,
This appellation reminds me of an occurrence on Monday
last, which I may tell you exactly as it happened, and which
will show you the sort of tone which my colleagues observe
with me, and I with them. We had been three hours in
conference with the British plenipotentiaries, and it had
been perhaps the most unpleasant one that we have held
with them. We had returned home, and were in session
conversing together upon what had been passing in the con-
ference, when Mr. Clay remarked that Mr. Goulburn was a
man of much irritation. Irritability, said I, is the word,
Mr. Clay, irritability; and then fixing him with an earnest
look, and the tone of voice between seriousness and jest, I
added "like somebody else that I know." Clay laughed,
and said "Aye, that wc do; all know him, and none better
than yourself." And Mr. Gallatin, fixing me exactly as I
had done Mr. Clay, said emphatically, "that is your best
238 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
friend^ "Agreed," said I, ''^but one'^ — and we passed on
in perfect good humor to another topic. There was, however,
truth in the joking on all sides. Of the five members of the
American mission the Chevalier has the most perfect control
of his temper, the most deliberate coolness; and it is the
more meritorious because It is real self-command. His feel-
ings are as quick, and his spirit as high as those of anyone
among us; but he certainly has them more under govern-
ment. I can scarcely express to you how much both he and
Mr. Gallatin have risen In my esteem since we have been
here, living together. Mr. Gallatin has not quite so constant
a supremacy over his own emotions; yet he seldom yields
to an ebullition of temper, and recovers from it Immediately.
He has a faculty, when discussion grows too warm of turning
off Its edge by a joke, which I envy him more than all his
other talents, and he has In his character one of the most
extraordinary combinations of stubbornness and of flexibility
that I ever met within man. His greatest fault I think to
be an ingenuity sometimes Intrenching upon Ingenuousness.
Our next personage in the sensitive scale is Mr. Russell.
As the youngest member of the mission he has taken the
least active part in the business, and scarcely any at the
conferences with the British plenipotentiaries. He is more
solitary and less social in his disposition than the rest of us,
and after living with us two months, left us and took separate
lodgings for some trifling personal convenience or saving of
expense. He nevertheless bears his proportion of all the
entertainments that we give. But he has a high sense of his
personal dignity, and sometimes takes offense where none
is intended to be given. This has never happened upon any
circumstance connected with the business of the mission,
for he has never entered into the discussions which we have
had among ourselves; but we have seen the manifestations
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 239
of his temper In the occurrences of social intercourse, as well
in our particular circle, as in our relations with the people
of the country. There has, however, never been anything
like a misunderstanding between him and any of us. In
the conduct of our business he has the greatest deference for
the opinions of Mr. Clay. The greatest diversities of senti-
ment and the most animated mutual oppositions have been
between this last gentlemen and your best friend. They
are unquestionably the two members of the mission most
under the influence of that irritability which we Impute to
Mr. Goulburn; and perhaps it would be difhcult to say which
of them gives way to it the most. Whether Mr. Clay Is as
conscious of this infirmity as your friend, whether he has
made It as much the study of his life to acquire a victory
over it, and whether he feels with as much regret after it has
passed every occasion when It proves too strong for him; he
knows better than I do. There Is the same dogmatical, over-
bearing manner, the same harshness of look and expression,
and the same forgetfulness of the courtesies of society In both.
An impartial person judging between them I think would say
that one has the strongest, and the other the most cultivated
understanding; that one has the most ardency, and the other
the most experience of mankind; that one has a mind more
gifted by nature, and the other a mind less cankered by
prejudice. Mr. Clay is by ten years the younger man of the
two, and as such has perhaps more claim to Indulgence for
Irritability. Nothing of this weakness has been shown In
our conferences with the British plenipotentiaries. From
two of them, and particularly from Mr. Goulburn, we have
endured much; but I do not recollect that one expression
has escaped the lips of anyone of us that we would wish to
be recalled.
We dined with them on Tuesday and had a party more
240 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
stiff and reserved than on any former occasion. There was
at the same time more studious politeness on the part of
Mr. Goulburn; as if he too was conscious of his trespass upon
decorum in the conference of the preceding day. On Wednes-
day we sent them our note, in which we have made a step
towards the conclusion, to which we have all acceded with
the most extreme reluctance. My belief is that it will be
lost upon the British government, and that our concession
will be of no effect. Our position is now far more painful
that it was when we had the immediate prospect of a rupture
in August. Then we were sure of the support nearly unani-
mous of our own country in rejecting demands the most ex-
travagant and absurd. Now we have the appearance of fight-
ing for feathers; and are sure of disapprobation whether we
yield them, or prolong the war by persisting in our refusal.
From the moment when the British government sunk in
their most obnoxious demands and held out upon these rags
and tatters of contention, I suspected that they were playing
a game of duplicity, and that they struck upon points which
they knew we must reject, merely to have the pretext for
continuing the war, and for putting upon us the blame of its
continuation. Everything that has since happened cor-
roborates this suspicion. Our last note, like all the rest, has
been referred to the British government. We shall have the
answer about the 21st of this month, and I hope it will be
the last occasion for a reference. We are told that there has
been a settlement to the satisfaction of all the great powers
of the principal objects in discussion at Vienna, and that
the armies on the continent are all to be placed Immediately
on the peace establishment. If this arrangement had been
delayed a month longer, it might have made our peace cer-
tain. At this moment it may have an unfavorable effect
upon the issue of our negotiation.
isul JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 241
In the meantime we partake of balls, concerts and plays,
as often as we desire. Last Monday evening was one of the
mixed entertainments of concert and ball. At the concert
they performed "Hail Columbia! Air americain a grand
orchestre." So it was announced in the bill of performance.
Would you believe, that all the Hanoverian officers, forming
no small part of the company, received an order, from au-
thority, to leave the hall when that air should be played.''
This order was probably given to intimidate the managers,
and prevent the performance of the air; but not producing
that eflfect, the order was revoked after the concert was be-
gun, and the officers while at the ball received permission
to stay and hear the air, which they did. It is singular
enough that their general ^ had sent us his cards but ten days
before.
• • •
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, 20 December, 18 14.
Our interval of leisure still continues. The British mes-
senger who took our last note to England has not yet re-
turned, but may now be expected from day to day. The
policy of protracting and avoiding a conclusion of any kind
cannot be much longer continued. If, as we have too much
reason to apprehend there has been no sincerity in the late
advances from that government towards conciliation, we
must by the next instructions to their plenipotentiaries have
it ascertained beyond a doubt. In the meantime, whether
the leaky vessels are on their side or on ours, so much is
known of the apparent state of the negotiation that an
opinion has become prevalent in England, France, and Hol-
' Baron Charles Altea.
242 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
land, that peace will be made. There is In the Times news-
paper of last Tuesday, the 13 th, an editorial article as violent
as usual against America, arguing plausibly at least that the
British ministry cannot possibly intend to conclude the
peace, but stating that the policies in the City had the day
before been 30 guineas to return 100 if peace should be
signed before the end of the year. Then follows a paragraph
which I give you word for word from the paper:
It was even asserted, though without foundation, that the pre-
liminaries had been already digested, and received the signatures
of the Commissioners on the 3d Instant. We have however some
reason to believe that the speculations on this subject are influenced,
in some measure^ by secret information, issued for the most unworthy
purposes, from the hotel of the American Legation at Ghent. After
what has been seen of the total want of principle in American states-
men of the J efersonian school, the world would not be much astonished
to learn that one of the American negotiators had turned his situation
to a profitable account by speculating both at Paris and London on
the result of the negotiation. Certain it is that letters received yes-
terday from the French capital, relative to the proceedings at
Ghent, contain intimations like those which have been circulated
here on American authority, viz. that the new proposals of the
British will be acceded to, on or before the beginning of the new
year, provided that no better terms can ere then be obtained.
It is impossible for me to pronounce against which of the
American negotiators this insinuation is pointed; but I have
no doubt it was Milligan's return to London that gave rise
to the paragraph, and after what has happened it is not un-
charitable to suspect that he himself has again been spread-
ing reports of the state of the negotiation, and speculating
upon them himself. I do not believe that his principal has
debased himself by sharing in this shameful traffic; but the
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 243
charge in the Times probably refers to him. Mllligan's
movements have generally been noticed in the newspapers,
and he has always passed under the denomination of Mr.
Bayard's private secretary. I felt so indignant at Milligan's
first expedition to England, and his conduct there, that I
expressed my sentiments about it openly and without re-
serve. Some of his friends thought I had suspected him un-
justly; and after his return here assured me how deeply he
was mortified at the surmises which had gone abroad con-
cerning him. ... I hope he will not show his face here
again; for if he does, I shall be strongly inclined to treat him
according to his deserts. It is to be sure curious enough to
see the Chevalier put down as a statesman of the JeiTersonian
school, but that is not more unjust than it is to charge upon
the Jeffersonian school the baseness of allying private stock-
jobbing with public office. That is the vice of the Hamil-
tonian school; and the most devoted partisans of the British
in the United States are those who have always been most
deeply stained with that pollution. . . .
TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS
Ghent, 23 December, 1814.
. . . The Englishman who so directly put the question to
you at the ball, whether we were likely to make peace, must
have had a small opinion of your discretion, or, what is more
probable, a very small store of his own. Of such inquiries,
however, we have had many — some from total strangers,
who came to our house merely to ask the question, and others
from acquaintances, friends, and even relations. One of the
most amusing inquiries I have had was a very good corre-
spondent of mine, who on our first arrival here wrote me,
244 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
offering all the important information that he could collect,
and asking of me such information concerning the state of
the negotiation as was not of a nature to be kept secret, point-
ing out to me at the same time a channel of conveyance by
which it could be transmitted to him with the utmost pos-
sible dispatch. Reasonable as this request was, I gave my
correspondent to understand that he must get his public
news concerning this negotiation from the public journals,
and must expect none from me. As he is a man of argument
he argued the point in his reply and intimated, though not
in an offensive manner, that an affectation of mystery upon
subjects which needed no mystery was no mark of diplomatic
skill, and no part of diplomatic duty. I knew the observa-
tion to be just, understood its application, and was diverted
with its ingenuity. But I was inflexible. I insisted upon
having all the benefit of the correspondence on my side; that
he should give me what information he pleased, and when
he should think proper, with the full understanding that he
should receive nothing respecting the negotiation from me
in return. I have now on file a letter from him containing
a number of questions and remarks, to which I shall at my
leisure return an answer as mysterious as ever. He flattered
me at one time with the prospect of seeing him here in person;
but I wrote him, if he had any commercial speculation in
view, I should prefer seeing him at some other time and place.
Notwithstanding this we may still be favored with a visit
from him; but I shall have as little difficulty with himself
as I have had with his correspondence.^
The case is not precisely the same with the inquisitiveness
of a particular friend of ours now at Paris. He has assailed
Smith and me with questions which neither of us can with
propriety answer, and for purposes of his own, for which he
^ George Joy was the inquirer.
i8i4l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 245
ought not to have expected or asked any sort of communica-
tion from us. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than
to render him any service in my power consistent with my
duty, but I am not pleased to find him have so little regard,
or take so little heed to the delicacy of my situation, and to
the duties of his own, and it is not without a struggle that I
have forborne to express to him my full sense of his indiscre-
tion.
The British messenger returned yesterday morning, and
the plenipotentiaries sent us their answer to our last note.^
We are to have a conference with them at our house this day
at noon, and the result of it will ascertain whether they must
refer again to their government, or whether we may at last
discover a prospect of agreeing upon terms of peace. I have
told you candidly our situation since the abandonment by
the British government of all the demands which we could
have no hesitation in rejecting. They have made it impos-
sible (and therein consists all the skill they have shown in
this negotiation) for us to give satisfaction to our country,
either by concluding the peace, or by continuing the war.
I have been since our last note in a state of peculiar anxiety;
for the difference between us and our opponents hinged
upon a point on which I had determined not to sign the
treaty, even if it should be acceded to by my colleagues. I
am not without hopes that the difficulty will be removed
this day; and if it is, that we may at least have the consola-
tion of restoring to our country the blessings of peace.
We shall on this supposition all sign the treaty, and I be-
lieve it will be ratified in America. But you must expect
that we shall all be censured and reproached for it, and none
with more bitterness than your nearest friend. We shall,
'The instructions, dated December 19, 1814, are in Letters and Despatches of
Lord Castlereagh, X. 221.
246 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
however have the conscious satisfaction of having sur-
rendered no right of the nation, of having secured every
important interest; of having yielded nothing which could
possibly have been maintained, and of redeeming our union
from a situation of unparalleled danger and deep distress.
I am also well assured that our enemies, whom peace will
I fear not make sincerely our friends, will give as little satis-
faction to their nation by the treaty, as we shall to ours.
When the terms to which they must at last subscribe are
compared with their demands, they will show a falling off,
which will leave them less to boast of than to excuse. In-
deed, neither party will have cause to exult in the issue, and
after the peace is made the sources of dissension will yet be
so numerous that it will be hardly less difficult to preserve
than it was to obtain. Of the event, however, we must speak
as still extremely doubtful. Mr. Bentzon has returned here
again from London. He left Dover on the 20th and there
saw in the newspapers a proclamation offering a high bounty
both for soldiers and for seamen. Every preparation for
another campaign continues to be made in England, with as
much activity as it could be if there was no negotiation
pending, and with such indications how is it possible to be-
lieve that the British government sincerely intend to con-
clude the peace .^ My next letter will, I hope, give you in-
formation upon which more reliance can be placed. . . .^
* The agitation on the property tax increased so far that the ministry feared it
would be impossible to carry it in Parliament without an engagement to give it up
should the war not be renewed. Liverpool informed Castlereagh, December 23,
1814: "This, as well as other considerations, makes us most anxious to get rid of
the American war. I trust our last communication will enable the Commissioners
to bring the negotiation to a close. But even if peace is signed, I shall not be sur-
prised if Madison endeavours to play us some trick in the ratification of it. . . .
The disposition to separate on the part of the Eastern States may likewise frighten
Madison; for if he should refuse to ratify the treaty, we must immediately propose
i8i4] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 247
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Ghent, 24th December, 18 14.
My dear and honored Mother:
A treaty of peace between the United States and Great
Britain has this day been signed by the British and American
plenipotentiaries at this place. It is to be dispatched to-
morrow by Mr. Hughes, the Secretary of the American
mission, who is to sail in the Transit from Bordeaux. I have
not time to write a single private letter excepting this; but
I request you to Inform my brother that I have received his
letter of the 2nd October, brought by Mr. William Wyer to
France. I was much disappointed In not receiving either by
him, or by the Ajax^ the second Dutch vessel arrived from
Boston, any letter from you. I have none later than that of
1st May.
You know doubtless that heretofore the President In-
tended In case of peace to send me to England. If the treaty
should be ratified, I am uncertain whether he will still retain
the same intention or not. I have requested to be recalled
at all events from the mission to Russia. I shall proceed
from this place In a few days to Paris, to be there In readiness
to receive the President's orders, and I shall write Immedi-
ately to my wife requesting her to come and join me there.
If we go to England, I beg you to send my sons George and
John there to me. After the peace there can be no want of
good opportunities for them, and I wish them to embark at
the most favorable season for a safe passage. If any other
person should be sent to England, I intend to return as soon
to make a separate peace with them, and we have gcxxl reason to believe that they
would not be indisposed to listen to such a proposal." Wellington, Supplementary
Despatches, IX. 495.
248 THE WRITINGS OF [1814
as possible to America and shall hope before midsummer to
see once more my beloved parents.
Of the peace which we have at length concluded it is for
our government, our country and the world to judge, It Is
not such as under more propitious circumstances might have
been expected, and to be fairly estimated must be compared
not with our desires, but with what the situation of the
parties and of the world at and during the negotiation made
attainable. We have abandoned no essential right, and If
we have left everything open for future controversy, we
have at least secured to our country the power at her own
option to extinguish the war.^ I remain etc.
TO JOHN ADAMS
Ghent, 26 December, 18 14.
My Dear Sir:
Mr. Hughes, the Secretary to the American mission for
negotiating peace, was dispatched early this morning with
one copy of the treaty signed by the British and American
plenipotentiaries the evening before last. It was executed
^ Liverpool gave to Canning the reasons for desiring peace: the opinion of the
Duke of Wellington that there was no vulnerable point in the United States to
take and to keep; a better frontier for Canada would be found to be impracticable;
the clamor raised over the property tax. "The question, therefore, was whether,
under all these circumstances, it was not better to conclude the peace at the present
moment, before the impatience of the country on the subject had been manifested
at public meetings or by motions in Parliament, provided we could conclude it by
obliging the American Commissioners to waive all stipulations whatever on the
subject of maritime rights, by fulfilling our engagements to the Indians who were
abandoned by the treaty of 1783, and by declining to revive in favour of the United
States any of the commercial advantages which they enjoyed under former treaties.
As far as I have any means of judging, our decision is generally approved." De-
cember 28, 1814. Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, IX. 513.
1814] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 249
in triplicate to provide against the accidents which might
befall any single copy on the passage. Mr. Clay's private
secretary, Mr. Carroll, is to go this day with another copy
to England, there to embark as speedily as possible. We
shall send the third copy by a dispatch vessel which we have
ready at Amsterdam, unless she should be locked in by the
ice, as from the present severity of the weather we have some
reason to apprehend. Mr. Hughes goes to Bordeaux, there
to take passage in the Transit, the vessel in which Mr. Boyd
came to Europe. Mr. Carroll may perhaps go in company
with Mr. Baker, ^ the Secretary to the English mission, who
is to be the bearer of the treaty with the English ratifica-
tion. In the hurry of dispatching Mr. Hughes I found it
possible to write only one short private letter to my dear
mother, and I shall probably have only time to write this
one to send by Mr. Carroll. I transmitted, however, by Mr.
Hughes a duplicate of my last letter to you dated 27 Octo-
ber, which I still intreat you to answer, if I am destined to
a longer continuance in Europe, and upon which I ask all the
advice and information which it may be in your power to
bestow. It relates principally to the subject
