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WRITINGS
OF
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
m S O
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK - BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., Limited
LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
*W
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%
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aZ/n+.LO * • b aAh i/v\mj^ <^L(fl Km* **
WRITINGS
OF
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
EDITED BY
WORTHINGTON CHAUNCEY FORD
VOL. II
1796-1801
Neto ffork
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
T 9*3
All rights reitrved
.8
op«<3
COPYWGHT, 1913,
By CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1913.
NortoooB ^twa
J. 8. Cashing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
CONTENTS
1796
PAGE
July 2. To the Secretary of State i
Discharge of sailors by American captains. The case
of Parish and United States citizens for consuls. Im-
portance of having responsible men.
July 21. To John Adams 3
Delivery of the Western posts. Prospects of war and
peace. Conduct of Dumas. Objections raised to the
Jay treaty. Paine's pamphlet against it. French treat-
ment of Sweden, Denmark and the Italian states.
Desires regarding the United States. British navigation
laws.
August 12. To Enoch Edwards ..... 14
Speculation on object of English journey. Relations
between France and the United States. Rivalry be-
tween France and Great Britain. Gaiety of Paris.
Universal peace.
August 13. To John Adams 17
His attitude on the presidential election. Corsica.
Activity of French agents in neutral states. Decree on
neutral ships. Rumored appointment of Mangourit as
minister to the United States. Paine and attacks upon
Washington. Foreign relations of France. Orders to
seize neutral ships. Aims to revolutionize the world.
Internal enemies. Minister to Denmark.
August 13. To Sylvanus Bourne 28
Employment of French soldiers on American ships.
v
vi CONTENTS
PAGE
August 21. To the Secretary of State ... 29
French plan to ruin Great Britain. English mission to
Berlin and Vienna. Cutting off British commerce.
October 2. To Joseph Pitcairn . . . . -32
French respect for neutral rights. Spain and France.
October 3. To Rufus King 33
Maritime law of Great Britain. Case of a German
vessel.
November 4. To the Secretary of State . . -35
Comments on letter from Committee of Foreign Affairs.
Dutch loans to America. Urged to war against Great
Britain. Interview with Van Leyden. United States
and a navy.
November 13. To Joseph Pitcairn .... 40
Reciprocal obligations between the United States and
France. Ignorance upon character and sentiments.
Jefferson's policy.
November 25. To John Adams ..... 43
His own position and prospects. Books for Harvard
College and American Academy. Washington's farewell
address. Noel on the Dutch constitution.
November 25. To Johan Luzac 49
Cause of Washington's retirement. Will send the
address.
November 29. To William Cranch . . . 51
Course of events in the Netherlands. Inconsistencies
in conduct of the French.
December 2. To Joseph Pitcairn 53
Jefferson's foreign policy. Neutrality the true one.
>J Monroe's recall and refusal of address.
CONTENTS vii
PAGE
December 15. To Sylvanus Bourne .... 56
Meaning misinterpreted. A question of commissions.
Hypothecation of United States debt.
December 22. To Sylvanus Bourne .... 59
Soothes fears on break in relations between France and
the United States. Faction and its corrective.
December 22. To Joseph Pitcairn 61
Refusal of French Directory to receive Pinckney.
Monroe's position. Recall of Adet.
December 22. To Willinck, Van Staphorst and Hub-
bard ......... 63
Prolongation of interest payment. Rumors and prices
of American stock.
December 24. To John Adams 64
Presidential election and Europe. American securities.
December 30. To John Adams 66
French policy towards the United States. Withdrawal
of Malmesbury.
1797
January 10. To Joseph Pitcairn 70
Monroe's address and reply of Barras. French aid to
the United States. Complaints of France.
January 13. To Joseph Pitcairn 74
Monroe's position. Trade with Great Britain. Power
of England. Pinckney's rejection.
January 14. To John Adams 77
American elections. Correspondence with State and
Treasury Departments. Advantage of reciprocal com-
munications. Speeches of Monroe and Barras. Policy
for the United States. Total want of provocation. The
Jay treaty. French intrigues in United States. Com-
viii CONTENTS
PAGE
position of the Directory. Political systems of Europe
and America.
January 20. To the Secretary of the Treasury . 89
Punctuality of remittances from the United States.
The Antwerp payments. Sale of bills proposed. Op-
position of bankers. March needs.
January 31. To Joseph Pitcairn 93
Intelligence from the United States. Temper of the
people. Senators and the Jay treaty. Washington's
address. Commerce with France and French maritime
power. A proposed pamphlet. Turgot's memorial.
February 1. To the Secretary of State ... 99
Efforts of France to reduce power of the United States.
February 3. To John Adams 101
Results of the election in the United States. Jefferson
in the second place. Americans in Europe. Maritime
weakness of France. Effect of an embargo.
February 7. To John Adams 107
Monroe in The Hague. Has returned to Paris.
French influence in the Netherlands.
February 8. To Abigail Adams 109
Pretended translations of Washington's address. At-
tacks upon his character. French influence in the elec-
tions. Election of Otis to Congress.
February 9. To Rufus King m
Neutral trade and French policy. The United States
must fight or submit. Movements of Monroe.
February 9. To Joseph Hall . . . . . . 113
Treatment of Pinckney by the French Directory.
Marine and colonies.
February 10. To Joseph Pitcairn . . . . .114
Supporting the national character. The West Indian
CONTENTS ix
PAGL
colonies. Embargo removed for France in 1794. Grati-
tude of the French Republic. Plundering commerce.
February II. To George Washington . . . .119
Sword made in Solingen. His address and appoint-
ments.
February 16. To John Adams 121
French secrecy and mystery. Determination to in-
tercept commerce with Great Britain. Lafayette and
his friends.
February 17. From the Secretary of State . . 123
Incloses commission to Portugal. Imports of flour.
Brazil and its commerce. Unwarranted consular fees.
Consulate at Lisbon. Negotiations with the Barbary
powers.
February 20. President Washington to John Adams 125
Merited promotion should not be withheld from his son.
High opinion of qualifications for service.
February 23. To John Adams 126
Treatment of Monroe and Pinckney . Policy of France
and Randolph's disclosure. Expeditions from the
United States against other powers. Colonel Fulham.
Suspending commerce with Great Britain. Want of
power in France. War with Great Britain.
March 3. To Joseph Pitcairn . . . . .132
France intends destruction of American government.
Paine's letter to Washington.
March 4. To John Adams 135
Rumored instructions to Adet. An appeal to the
people intended. What the opposition proposes to do.
March 9. To Joseph Pitcairn 137
Ministers under a party influence. Peace and renewal
of intercourse. Loyalists and the French party. Eng-
PACK
x CONTENTS
lish interests in the United States. Trade in the event
of war.
March 18. To John Adams 142
Time of the election. Taking American vessels from
British ports, and its meaning. Declaring war. Treat-
ment of Luzac.
March 24. To the Secretary of the Treasury . . 144
Opposition of bankers to sale of bills. Their political
connections. Personal interests. Pamphlet on Van
Staphorst.
March 26. To the Secretary of the Treasury . . 147
Decree of the French Directory. Price of United States
stock in London.
March 30. To John Adams 148
Election news from the United States. New decree of
France on American commerce. Its policy and source
of influence. Treaty articles not applicable. Monroe's
return. Theremin's pamphlet.
March 31. To Joseph Pitcairn 152
Conciliation with France and national dignity.
Plundering of the people. Basis of decree examined.
Not found in the treaty. Spanish policy.
April 3. To John Adams 155
Intentions of France upon the United States. Plan
of a western republic. Paine preparing to return to
America.
April 8. To the Secretary of State . . . 157
Message to Congress on France. Pickering's state-
ment of relations between the two countries.
April 30. To John Adams 159
Has received instructions to go to Lisbon. Speeches
at the inauguration. The Directory disallows pass-
CONTENTS xi
PAGE
ports. Monroe's relations with the Directory. Nego-
tiations with Spain and Pinckney's refusal to divulge
treaty.
May 2. To Joseph Pitcairn 163
Conduct of French consul at Algiers. Falsehoods in
government papers. The decree on commerce. Charge
of ingratitude. Madison as envoy extraordinary.
May 11. To John Adams ...... 165
Madison's mission. Pinckney ready to yield. Monroe
and Paine.
May 20. To John Adams ...... 167
Lying newspaper articles. Peace between France and
Austria. Abbe Arnoux. France apparently determined
to quarrel. Buonaparte. Abuse of private letters and
conversations.
May 23. To Joseph Pitcairn 170
Translation of Pickering's letter. As to union with
England. Segur's article and its omissions.
June 1. Commission to Prussia ..... 173
June 1. Power to negotiate Treaties with Sweden . 174
June 20. Address to National Assembly . . . 175
June 7-19. To John Adams ...... 177
His brother at Paris. Character of French legislative
Councils. Arrival of Murray. Intelligence from Lis-
bon. Desire to return to America.
July 2. To John Adams ....... 181
Pastoret's motion on French decrees. Parties in the
United States. Dislike of British treaty. His examina-
tion of complaints. Support to Pastoret's motion. The
Directory and Italy. Neutrality of small states.
July 6. To Abigail Adams ...... 184
Pinckney acting with prudence. Depredations on
xii CONTENTS
PAGE
commerce in the West Indies. Report of Barbe de Mar-
bois on expenses of foreign relations.
July 7. To William Vans Murray . . . .186
Barbe de Marbois' report. Voluntary! loan in the
Netherlands.
July 15. Instructions for Prussia . . . .188
July 29. To Abigail Adams 192
His transfer from Lisbon to Berlin. Bache's criticisms.
Jefferson's letter to Mazzei. Appointment of Gerry.
Portrait by Copley.
August 1. To Charles Adams 196
Publication of official papers. Comments of Bache and
Livingston.
August 31. To John Adams 198
Misconduct of Yrujo. - Letter, of Senator Blount.
Prussia ready to receive him.
September n. To John Adams 199
Events in France. Military government approach-
ing. Writers for the Directory. Theremin, Paine,
Madame de Stael and Constant. Preeminence of
Barrere. Comments on his pamphlets. Montesquieu
on confederations. Garat's Memoirs. Death of Burke.
Cicero and Burke compared.
September 19. To John Adams 207
Burke's pamphlet examined. Sovereignty of the
people and insurrection. French ambitions in America.
September 21. To John Adams 210
Rupture of negotiations with England. Sieyes and
Merlin de Douai. An English revolution. War on
mankind. Course of the French revolution. The
future.
CONTENTS xiii
PAGE
October 26. To William Vans Murray . . . 217
Conduct of Yrujo. Monroe and Pickering. Battle
of Camperdown.
October 31. To the Secretary of State . . . 218
Alterations in proposed treaty. Neutral rights. His
journey to Berlin. Release of Lafayette. w-
November 10. To the Secretary of State . . . 221
Prussian Ministers of Foreign Affairs. Question of
his reception by the King. The minister from Malta.
November 24. To William Vans Murray . . .223
The commission to France and its probable rejection.
War with that country. Citizen Hahn's complaints.
French influence over Holland.
December 6. To the Secretary of State . . . 229
Has been received by the King. Conditions under
which it occurred.
December 16. To John Adams 231
His journey to Berlin. Difficulty over his credentials.
Accession of a new king and the Ministers of Foreign
Affairs. Relations of Prussia with other countries.
1798
January 9. To Abigail Adams 234 -
French policy towards the United States.
January 15. To the Secretary of State . . . 236
Citizen Caillard on American policy. His explanation
of the Jay treaty. Hostile legislation of France.
January 27. To William Vans Murray . . . 240
Reasons urged for the French law. Inaction of the
northern powers. Relations with Caillard. Rumors from
Natchez and Charleston. Appointment of Thomas
Pinckney. Treachery from principle. Hamilton's vin-
dication. Peace with Holland. A loan to France.
xiv CONTENTS
PAGE
January 31. To John Adams 247
Former acquaintances among the diplomatists. Ad-
vances from Denmark. Caillard. Troubles of Prince
Reuss and the Austrian position. Maritime ambition of
France. Policy of the United States. Gouverneur
Morris and his mission.
February 5. To Abigail Adams ..... 253
Rejoices that he was not sent to France. Personal
y/ malignity shown by the Directory. Attacks upon per-
sonal character. Hostile laws against the United States.
February 17. To John Adams ...... 255
The French theo-philanthropists. Intrigues in politics.
Protests against the new law on neutral rights. Diplo-
matic appointments.
February 19. To the Secretary of State . . . 257
Count Haugwitz on the French law. Alternatives
presented. Agreement with position of the United States.
Expressions of respect.
February 20. To Elbridge Gerry ..... 260
Regrets probable failure of mission. An alliance with
England. Effect of the new attack on neutral com-
merce.
February 22. To Abigail Adams 261
Publications by Monroe and Fauchet. Porcupine's
criticisms. Falsity of Fauchet's certificate to Randolph.
Hamilton's defence and Monroe's conduct.
February 25. To John Adams ..... 263
The northern powers against the French law on
neutral rights. Prospects of a concerted action. Posi-
tion of Prussia. America may not be suffered to remain
a neutral power.
March 6. To William Vans Murray .... 265
Diplomatic relations of Holland to the United States.
CONTENTS xv
PAGE
Tallien's motion and its effect. Arming of merchant
vessels. A defensive policy the right one. Influence of
reason.
March 8. To the Secretary of State .... 267
Tallien's motion and speech. Possible influence of
Sonthonnax. French interpretation of the opposition
of the northern powers. Mutual want of confidence.
March 20. To William Vans Murray .... 270
Possibility of resisting the French. No confidence
among northern powers. Rivalry between France and \^
Great Britain. France anti-colonial and her colonies
ruined. Real power in armed force.
April 11. To William Vans Murray .... 273
Return of Commissioners. Measures of defence neces-
sary. Jealousy of a naval establishment. Debate in
Congress on the foreign missions. Charges against
Pinckney. Anarchy and royalism in France. The
Danish flag.
April 15. To John Adams ...... 275
Question of foreign missions. French party against \r
the President. Failure of the Commissioners to France.
Gerry's position. Uniform for ministers.
April 19. To William Vans Murray .... 278
Gerry's unfortunate position. Political views of a y
"grey." Matter of foreign missions.
April 27. To William Vans Murray .... 280
Division of the French commission. France not yet
ready for war with the United States. Gerry already
defeated.
May 4. To Abigail Adams 283
Gerry and the French policy towards the United
States. No settlement with France possible. What
has occurred in Europe.
xvi CONTENTS
May 17. To the Secretary of State ....
Swedish minister on the Jay treaty. Neutral property
and practice of the powers. Pretensions of Great Britain.
Combination of neutrals.
May 25. To the Secretary of State .... 288
Will comply with instructions on neutral commerce.
Authorities on the subject. Erroneous views held of the
Jay treaty. The negotiations with Sweden. Interview
with Count Haugwitz. The commission to France. No
combination of northern powers. Reasons for French
decree. Publicity and the danger.
May 25. To William Vans Murray .... 295
Gerry's dangerous position. Attitude of Congress.
May 30. To Abigail Adams . . . . : . . 296
Publication of the Commissioners' despatches. French
newspapers on the members. Letters to Priestley by
Stone and Williams. Change in the Directory.
June 7. To William Vans Murray .... 298
Publication of despatches and the cases of Araujo and
Malmesbury. Defensive policy the better. Pennsyl-
vania legislature. Embargo by France on packets.
Mountflorence.
• June 18. To the Secretary of State .... 303
Stipulation in treaty on neutral rights. The Swedish
approach. French press opinion. Fleet from Toulon.
Russia and Denmark. Congress at Rastadt. Mission
of Prince Repnin. Recall of Caillard. An offer of ser-
vice. Mountflorence.
June 19. To William Vans Murray .... 309
Talleyrand's reply a lame defence. Not ready for a
rupture.
June 22. To Abigail Adams .310
Attempted defence by Talleyrand. Charges against
CONTENTS xvii
PAGE
the Commissioners. Demands names of X, Y and Z.
Gerry's position. Questions raised by letter. Agency
of Talleyrand proved. Extraordinary mode of receiving
the Commissioners. The demand for a loan. Publica-
tion of the papers. Desire for peace asserted, but
doubted.
June 25. To the Secretary of State . . . . 321
Rage against the President. French intelligence.
June 27. To Abigail Adams 323
As to publishing the despatches. The French party in w-
the United States. An alliance against the existing
government. Monroe on intrigue. Treatment given to
Holland, Italy and Switzerland. Rumored appoint-
ment of Sotin.
July 3. To William Vans Murray 329
Dedem's letter. A publication by Bellamy. His in-
consistencies. French appointments to the United
States. Criticism of Murray's reply to Dutch.
July 7. To William Vans Murray .... 332
Has presented his new credentials with Sieyes and
others. Ceremony of taking homage. Private letters
disregarded.
July 14. To William Vans Murray .... 336
England's embargo on trade with France. The West
Indies and formal war.
July 16. To the Secretary of State .... 337
Presentation of his credentials. Memorial on treaty
with Prussia. Alterations proposed. American vessels
excluded from Havre.
July 17. To William Vans Murray . . . -339
Comment upon proposed line of conduct. A question
of morality. As to Gerry. Identity of Y and Z.
xviii CONTENTS
PAGE
July 22. To William Vans Murray .... 343
The fate of Europe and American participation. The
United States forced to become military. Internal
government and external relations.
August n. To William Vans Murray .... 345
Publications on the Commissioners. France no more
friendly. Objections to the members of commission.
Resolve of the President. Dr. Logan's arrival.
August 14. To William Vans Murray .... 349
Logan's mission. Privateering in the West Indies.
August 15. To William Vans Murray . . . . 350
Policy of French government. Logan and Hichborn.
August 22. To the Secretary of State . . . 352
Delay in commercial treaty. French decree on
neutral navigation. Reply to Prussian remonstrance.
August 31. To Sylvanus Bourne ..... 354
French dispositions for peace. Apparent concessions
and real aggressions. Talleyrand's change in language.
September 3. To the Secretary of State . . . 357
Sailing of Gerry. Logan's arrival and mission.
Pacific dispositions.
September 4. To William Vans Murray . . '359
Washington's acceptance of command. Capture of
French armed vessels authorized. French treaties dis-
solved. Challenge to war.
September 14. To Abigail Adams ..... 360
Proper spirit shown at home. Change of tone in
France. Dupont's assertion. System unaltered. Lo-
gan's progress and acts. French embargo on American
vessels raised. Privateering.
CONTENTS
xix
PAGE
September 18. To William Vans Murray . . . 365
Duplicity in Logan's reception. Schimmelpenninck's
conduct.
September 25. To John Adams 367
Pacific dispositions of France. No evidence of change
of purpose. Rights of neutrality still violated.
October 1. To the Secretary of State . . . 369
Note on the negotiations with Prussia.
October 2. To William Vans Murray . . . . 371
Attempt to dictate who shall be envoy to France.
American robbers born.
October 6. To the Secretary of State .... 372
Professions on the part of France. Murray's conduct.
October 6. To William Vans Murray .... 373
Tortuous policy of Talleyrand's negotiation. On re- ^^
fusing to hear ministers of peace.
October 20. To William Vans Murray .... 374
His negotiations with Pichon. Solemn mission should
come from France. Reasons for mystery and desire for
peace.
October 29. To George Washington .... 377
Sends letter from a relation. Expressions of respect
and gratitude.
December 8. To William Vans Murray . . . 379
Andrews and Hichborn. Attack of Eustace on Monroe.
Monroe's book.
December 24. To the Secretary of State . . . 380
Purchase of muskets denied. Reduction in Swiss
duties on American goods. Island of St. Bartholomew.
December 31. To the Secretary of State . . . 382
Points in the negotiations with Prussia on neutral
PAGE
xx CONTENTS
rights. Alternatives offered. Papers for ascertaining
neutrality" of vessel. Haugwitz on France.
1799
February 9. To William Vans Murray .... 386
War in Italy and its consequences. Hichborn's rec-
ommendation and views. Directory on privateering.
February 10. To John Adams ..... 388
Prospects of a general war. Mission of Thomas Gren-
ville. Directory and reconciliation with the United
States. Question of sea prizes. Opinion of Thule-
meyer. Letter from Blumenstein.
February 23. To William Vans Murray . . . 392
Treaty approaching completion. Hichborn.
March 2. To William Vans Murray . . . -393
Character of the French journals. The message and
strength of the opposition.
March 5. To William Vans Murray .... 394
A cousin Vans. Course of John Higginson.
March 26. To William Vans Murray .... 396
Lafayette's character and intentions. Elections and
Marshall on alien law.
March 30. To William Vans Murray .... 398
Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. Logan's narrative
and Lafayette.
April 2. To William Vans Murray .... 400
Joel Barlow's letter and past conduct. France swal-
lows the weak. Sieyes mentioned for the Directory.
April 9. To William Vans Murray .... 402
Pickering on Gerry. Decree on ships' papers. Vir-
ginia minority report on alien law.
CONTENTS xxi
PACE
April 10. To John Murray Forbes .... 404
French arrete on neutral rights. Enlarged powers of
Directory. Probability of reconciliation.
April 14. To the Secretary of State .... 406
The President's speech. An explanatory decree.
Decline of the privateering party.
April 15. To Rufus King 4°9
Nomination of a new commission to France. Signs of
a change in French policy. Prospects of a favorable
negotiation. Approves the new commission.
April 16. To William Vans Murray . . . .412
Nomination to France and its rejection. Capture of
a French frigate.
April 27. To William Vans Murray .... 414
The French press on the new commission. The
English interpretation. Henry and Ellsworth.
May 4. To William Vans Murray . . . • 4 X 5
Indemnities from France. Trade with the French
West Indies.
May 7. To Abigail Adams 4 J 6
Important news from America. The negotiation with
France and sea power. Pennsylvania insurrection.
Misrepresentations of the United States by English and
German writers. Larochefoucault-Liancourt.
May 14. To William Vans Murray .... 419
Coolness towards the mission to France. Cobbett's
abuse.
May 18. To William Vans Murray .... 420
Comments by the French press.
May 25. To Rufus King 4 21
Insurrection and national power. Success of the new
mission to France. Sieyes in the Directory.
xxii CONTENTS
PAGE
June 22. To William Vans Murray .... 423
Directory desires peace with America. Hahn and
Kant. Incorruptibility of Sieyes.
July 2. To Rufus King 425
An English peace embassy.
July 3. To Abigail Adams 426
The election in Virginia. Question of national defence.
McKean's candidacy in Pennsylvania. Cobbett's argu-
ment. Case of young Fenno. The new commission to
France. French defeats.
July 9. To Thomas Boylston Adams . . . .432
Cobbett's merits and errors. The mission to France.
Changes in government in that country.
July 15. To Rufus King 435
Men, not system, changed in France. Little confidence
in ruling party. As to sending Lafayette to the United
States.
November 19. To Joseph Hall ..... 438
Defence of the mission to France. On consulting the
cabinet. French military successes. New revolution
at Paris.
December 10. To William Vans Murray . . . 442
Cobbett's attack on the mission. Effect on Monroe's
election. Hopes for final approval.
December 15. To William Vans Murray . . . 444
Pickering's opposition to mission and censure of lan-
guage. Federal jacobinism.
December 20. To William Vans Murray . . . 445
Rochefoucault-Liancourt's dislike of Pickering. Mod-
eration of the President.
CONTENTS xxiit
PACK
l800
January 6. To William Vans Murray .... 446
No pretext for refusing to negotiate with France.
The new and old French constitution.
January 14. To the Secretary of State . . . 447
Proposal for frigates in the Mediterranean. Sug-
gested purchase of St. Bartholomew. Death of Count
Finckenstein.
January 25. To William Vans Murray . . . 448
Recall of Russian troops. Powers of President and
consul. Arrival of Beurnonville.
February 4. To William Vans Murray . . . 450
Progress of the Commissioners. English policy.
Death of Washington.
February 11. To William Vans Murray . . . 451
American intelligence on commission. Change of
opinion. Washington's death confirmed.
March 8. To the Secretary of State .... 454
Commissioners are in Europe. Prospects of success
flattering. French tribute to Washington.
May 25. To Abigail Adams 455
Has translated "Oberon." Dr. Priestley on French
revolution. His theoryon cause of prosperity. Rejec-
tion of his political ideas.
June 12. To Abigail Adams ...... 460
Orations on Washington. Webster's letter to Priestley.
Power of the consul. Better treatment of neutral nations.
A Council of Prizes.
June 16. To Friedrich Gentz . 463
Commends his account of the revolution in America.
xxiv CONTENTS
TAGE
July II. To Thomas Boylston Adams .... 464
Electioneering and party professions. Cooper's trial
and character. Cabinet changes and the French mission.
Napoleon as a hero.
September 15. To William Vans Murray . . . 468
His passage through Silesia. French project of an
armed neutrality. Politics and the Essex junto.
October 30. To William Vans Murray .... 471
Congratulation on issue of negotiation. As to publish-
ing account of tour. Effect of the success of the mission.
Has brought peace. His diplomatic grade.
November II. To the Secretary of State . . . 474
An armed neutrality. Position of Prussia.
November 15. To the Secretary of State . . . 476
Napoleon wishes not for war with the world at once.
Effects of this policy.
November 22. To Rufus King 477
England approves convention with France. General
dislike of Great Britain. Incident of a Prussian vessel.
November 25. To John Adams ..... 479
His approaching rejection by the people. Position
in retirement. Ignorance of opposition on Europe.
Indemnity from France. Changes in four years. An
honorable peace secured.
December 3. To Thomas Boylston Adams . . . 484
Division in the federalist party. Importance of neu-
trality. Faction and unlimited democracy.
December 20. To Thomas Boylston Adams . . . 486
Dissension in the President's cabinet. Confidence in
the President.
CONTENTS xxv
PACE
December 27. To Thomas Boylston Adams . . . 488
Approval of the President's course. Benefits returned
with injuries. Offers financial aid.
December 30. To Thomas Boylston Adams . . . 490
Pamphlets by Coxe and Hamilton. Both factions
against the President.
1 801
January 10. To William Vans Murray . . . 491
France and the armed neutrality. Publications by
Coxe and Hamilton. His profiles.
January 17. To William Vans Murray .... 494
Changes in Massachusetts politics.
January 27. To William Vans Murray .... 494
Hamilton's attack and ambitions. The French mis-
sion fully justified. Armed neutrality and territorial
compensation. Their first meeting.
January 31. John Adams to John Marshall . . 498
Recall of John Quincy Adams.
February 7. To Rufus King 498
America and the armed neutrality.
February 14. To Thomas Boylston Adams . . . 499
Condition of society in Europe. Need for armies.
Permanent army not necessary in the United States.
February 21. To the Secretary of State . . . 502
England and the armed neutrality. Policy of the
United States. Purposes of the leagued powers. Jeal-
ousy among them.
February 24. To William Vans Murray . . . 506
Attitude of Europe towards the United States. Burr's
possible election.
xxvi CONTENTS
PACK
March 7. To Thomas Boylston Adams . . . 509
Senate's rejection of a part of the convention with
France.
March 10. To Abigail Adams 510
Death of Charles Adams. Retirement of his father.
Policy of the new administration. Expects an early re-
call. Importance to America of northern Europe.
Prospects of war. Measure of Napoleon.
March 17. To William Vans Murray . . . 515
Consolation for treatment of the convention with
France. Restoration of public vessels. Situation of
the federal party.
March 21. To the Secretary of State . . 517
American sailors in Russia. Interview with the
Russian representative at Berlin.
March 21. To Thomas Boylston Adams . . . 520
Publication of Gentz's essay. Commends the Port-
folio. His own contributions and treatment. Poems.
The convention with France. Politics in the Port-
folio.
April 7. To William Vans Murray .... 525
Issue of the election. Jefferson or Burr. Question
of Louisiana and the Floridas.
April 14. To Abigail Adams ...... 527
Situation of his father. Hamilton's pamphlet. His
own recall. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
April 25. To John Adams 531
Sends a pamphlet. Mention of Louisiana and
Floridas.
WRITINGS
OF
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
WRITINGS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 72 [Timothy Pickering]
The Hague, July 2, 1796.
Sir :
In my letter to Mr. Randolph of April 2, 1795, 1 mentioned
a complaint of Mr. Bourne that several American captains
had in the midst of the preceding winter discharged their
sailors, and thereby thrown many of them upon the streets
to suffer the extreme severity of an unexampled season, or
to depend altogether upon the consul for relief. The dif-
ference in the current rate of mariners' wages between the
American and European prices was the temptation which
induced some captains to a conduct so inhuman and iniqui-
tous, and the sailors who suffered in consequence of it were
so numerous, that I then took the liberty to recommend
the subject to the attention of the Secretary of State, as
deserving the special provision of a remedy to the evil. I
have heard no further complaints against Mr. Parish, since
I had the honor to write you from London in answer to your
favor of November 23, 1795. 1 The occasion in which|T
presume the disposition to complain against him had orig-
inated is past, and it is probable that his character as a Brit-
ish subject and agent is the principal, if not the only objec-
tion against his continuing to hold the office of American
consul. The objection if resolved into this general one, that
he is not a native, nor even a citizen of the United States,
1 See Lodge, Life and Letters of George Cabot, lojn.
VOL. 11 — b 1
2 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
I freely confess in my mind is of great weight. Indeed the
consular office appears to me, in the particular situation of
the United States, to be of importance sufficient to deserve
the particular attention of the government. Our com-
mercial relations with all the maritime nations are already
very considerable, they must increase in due proportion
with the growing prosperity of the country. The admis-
sion of our navigation into the Mediterranean will soon en-
large its extent still more. As we have no political connec-
tions with the interest of Europe in many of its states, the
consul will be the only officer to protect and defend the inter-
ests of our citizens against the impositions and frauds, to
which strangers are everywhere peculiarly liable. In times
of maritime war the experience of the present time abun-
dantly proves, that an object no less interesting than the
peace itself of the United States may essentially depend
upon the conduct of their consuls. I believe I hazard
nothing in saying, that if the conduct of all the American
consuls during the last three years had been distinguished
for integrity, veracity, and impartiality, or even neutral-
ity towards the belligerent powers, our commerce would
have been much less harrassed by their depredations. /
am sure it would have been more favorably regarded in the
Courts of Admiralty, to which the laws of nations assign
the decisions in cases of neutral capture.
It is therefore important upon similar occasions, which we
may with confidence expect will often recur among the
nations of Europe, our consuls should be responsible men,
and as their temptations at such periods to depart from the
line of their duty prescribed by the neutrality of the nation
they represent, must necessarily be greater, it is alike im-
portant that they should be impartial men, of settled prin-
ciples and of strict integrity. These requisites are not easily
,796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 3
to be secured from strangers to our government and nation.
They cannot be hoped for from the subjects or citizens of a
belligerent power.
• ••••••
I have the honor &c.
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, July 21, 1796.
My Dear Sir :
Your favor of May 19th has lately been transmitted to
me from England, and relieved me from some anxiety I
had entertained for the fate of my letters written at London,
as it mentions the receipt of them all to the middle of Feb-
ruary. Since then I trust you have received three more
from England, and there are now on the passage two written
since my return here.
I have a letter from one of my friends at Boston, dated
June 7th, but it contains no politics, nor indeed a word
relative to any public affairs. The impatience of expecta-
tion, they say, always increases in proportion to the prox-
imity of the object to be attained. I now think almost
day and night upon the delivery of the Western posts. My
letters from England speak very confidently upon the sub-
ject, and I have been equally confident myself that they
would be delivered, if the House of Representatives did not
prevent it by first violating the treaty in the refusal to concur
for its execution. But I now hope for the event as anxiously
as it is dreaded by all the Gallo-Americans, and those who
direct their conduct and dictate their opinions.
Not that I consider this event as taking altogether away
the danger of our being yet involved in the war that still
rages in Europe; for I am apprehensive that the present
4 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
prevailing system of the French government is, that we
must be drawn into it at all events ; and as long as men who
court popularity in America, dare to speak openly of their
devotion to the interests of France as they have done for
years back, and lose none of their influence by the bare-
faced avowal of such a partial foreign attachment, I shall
always dread the danger of seeing the whole weight of that
influence directed towards an object pernicious to our best
interests.
Upon the occasion of the crisis produced by the proceed-
ings of the House of Representatives on the treaty with
Britain, the sentiments of the people on the question of
war or peace were again brought to a test, and again they
discovered their adherence to their true interest. But
varium et mutabile is the popular voice even in America.
What was its language, what its professions six months ago ?
What will they be six months hence ? While the people of
the United States suffer themselves to be made the instru-
ments of men acting under the impulse of a foreign power,
while they will be played upon by springs which lose not
their efficacy by detection, who shall answer for that per-
manency of wisdom and firmness which alone can preserve
them from the vortex of war, towards which they are con-
tinually impelled ?
The French government know perfectly well the aversion
to war which is so strongly felt by the American people, and
as they found their influence in that country upon their
popularity, they have never avowed the desire of involving
us in the war, but on the contrary have occasionally denied
it most explicitly. The conduct of Genet in this particular
must be fresh upon the mind of everyone ; but I have had
again and again the strongest assurances from members of
their government and persons connected with it, that they
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 5
were fully satisfied with our neutrality, and do not wish us
to depart from it. At the same time they omit no oppor-
tunity to stimulate our resentment against Britain, and the
other day, during the interval, while it was believed our
House of Representatives would annul the treaty with
Britain, the French Minister here, and his agents, as well
as the members of the present government here, all ap-
peared convinced that we must go to war with Britain, and
adapted all their conversations to that expectation. The
tone is totally changed since the resolve in the House on
the subject has been ascertained.
On this occasion I think it necessary to mention to you
that our old friend D[umas] appears to be retained in the
service of the French Republic as he was in that of the Mon-
archy. He is as much devoted, if not as useful, to the
Citizen Noel, as he ever was to the Duke de la Vauguyon, 1
or to the Marquis de Verac. The old man is extremely
miserable, and thinks he has no wish left but to die. But
his passions and his prejudices are as strong as they could
have been in the flower of youth, and the little judgment
that he ever had to control them has abandoned his old age.
He is acting a part between the French Minister and me
which he would find it difficult to justify, either as a pensioner
of the United States, or as an old personal friend of yours
and of myself. He imagines I am not aware of it, and I
must so far do his heart the justice to believe that he is not
altogether aware of it himself. I shall take care to let it
do no harm, and indeed I believe I have put an end to it
already.
The interval between the information of the several
resolutions in the House of Representatives on the 17th
of April against the treaty, and on the 30th of the same
1 Antoine Paul Jacques d« Quelen, Due de la Vauguyon (1706-1772).
6 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
month to execute it, give rise indeed to many observations
in my mind. The contents of the Treaty have been well
known here these nine or ten months. Its material stip-
ulations had been known from common report many months
before. The merchants had procured the information with
their usual industry by means of their English correspond-
ents, and the essential articles were often accordingly
mentioned by them as being fully understood. But never
until the period of the interval above mentioned was a
syllable of dissatisfaction at the treaty or any of its contents
uttered by any person in this government, though several
of them would certainly not have been backward to express
it had they felt any. Then however the lesson ready conned
was repeated, and intimations were conveyed to me that
umbrage was taken here at two of the stipulations. The
one that free ships should not make free goods, and the other
that prizes captured by Dutch vessels should not be sold
in the ports of the United States. 1 The objections are
curious, when their own allies have not observed the former
principle though specially bound by a previous treaty so
to do, and when the latter, if it had been expressly secured
to them as a right, could have been of no possible utility
to them; since so far from taking prizes on the coast of the
United States, they can get none but such as a tempest
occasionally drives upon their own. But the nature of the
complaints serves to show from whence they came, the liveries
indicated to whom they belonged. Since the resolution of
April 30 is known, all is silent again, and I have not heard
a word more of their hopeful objections. I may add one
circumstance more. One of the ablest men among them, a
1 Art. 25 applies to " any foreign privateers (not being subjects or citizens of either
of the said parties) who have commissions from any other Prince or State in enmity
with either nation."
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 7
man who has some independence in his spirit and whom I
believe to be a friend to the United States, has plainly hinted
to me that the expectation and hope of a war between the
United States and Britain was very sanguine among his
colleagues, and that they drew from it inferences* in which
he believed they would be mistaken. I have heretofore
written to you that Mr. Paine was writing a pamphlet
against the Treaty. It was announced with some emphasis
some months ago, but has not yet appeared. I have the
fact from the very best authority, from Mr. Pinckney im-
mediately after his return to London through Paris, where
he saw Paine. When he mentioned the circumstance I
did not disguise my feelings on the subject. I told him "I
thought it rather late in the day (it was after the ratifications
were known to have been exchanged) for Mr. Paine to publish
such a pamphlet, considering that he lived as an inmate in
Mr. Monroe 1 s house" Mr. Pinckney replied that he thought
so too, that he was sorry for the circumstance, and " that it
gave uneasiness to Mr. Monroe. But that when THOMAS
PAINE took a thing into his head, he did not know anybody
on earth that could dissuade him from it."
But the French government wish us to go to war, not for
them, but on our own account ; they wish to have the benefit
of our opposition to their enemy, without being clogged with
any stipulations to assist us ; to use us in the present war as
their Court used the Dutch in the last. This being very
decidedly the case, I shall now only relate to you the con-
duct they have recently held towards other neutral powers,
from which we may learn what course of policy we may expect
from them.
In Sweden the object was to produce a war with Russia,
which of course would, under the present alliance of the lat-
ter with Britain, become a war between Sweden and Britain.
8 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
The business had been conducted very far towards an issue,
and the appointment of General Pichegru as the Ambassa-
dor of the Republic in Sweden indicates that military talents
were the principal qualities considered as requisite for that
mission. But before the necessary preparations could be
made the Russian Cabinet assumed a tone and a conduct
which defeated them entirely. The Swedes for a day or
two talked of war, but the plain fact was it was coming upon
them sooner than they had expected, and before they were
ready. The gauntlet of war was thrown down by the
Empress, and thirty thousand men were on their march into
Finland. The terms prescribed as an indispensable con-
dition for the continuance of peace were imperious and hu-
miliating to the highest degree. But resistance was vain ;
the example of Poland was recent, before their eyes, and un-
qualified submission was the only means of averting a similar
fate. You doubtless saw among the English papers which
I sent you a note delivered by the Russian Charge des
Affaires, assigning the reasons for which his Court had re-
fused to receive the Swedish Minister sent to notify the in-
tended marriage of the King. The authenticity of that note
has been very formally denied by the Swedish Government,
but I believe it is not doubted by any body else. The King's
marriage is in fact broken off, though it had been notified
to all the Courts, and the usual congratulations had been
returned by some of them. 1 Pichegru after accepting the
French Embassy to Sweden resigned it a few days after, and
the Baron de Stael has leave to absent himself from Paris.
He was to present the Baron de Rehausen (a young man
who had been in disgrace at the Regent's Court for some
1 Gustavus IV (1778-1837) was about to be betrothed to the Grand Duchess
Alexandra, granddaughter of Catharine II, but was prevented by his refusal to
allow her to worship according to the rites of the Greek Orthodox Church.
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 9
concern real or supposed in the affair of Armfeldt *) to be the
charge des affaires during his absence. The Directory re-
fused to receive him as flatly as the Empress had refused the
Ambassador sent to notify the royal marriage. Here the
matter now rests, and the fairest prospect of Sweden is that
of having only to bear a public insult from France for having
been too weak to contend with Russia.
The Danish government hitherto has been more fortunate
by keeping itself more reserved from both parties. The
intrigues of both have been equally active there as in Sweden,
but the prevalence and firmness of the Count de Bernstorff
have hitherto happily steered between them. The Dutch
vessels that I mentioned in my last letter as having been cut
out of the port of Bergen have been restored by the orders
of the British Government, and upon this occasion there
are two observations that occur to me as worth mentioning.
The first is, that the justice so speedily, so completely, so
unusually, and I add upon very good authority, so unex-
pectedly rendered by the British government to the com-
plaints from that of Denmark affords a proof that they are
beginning to perceive the necessity of treating with some
decency the representations of the neutral powers, and gives
us good reason to expect that they will pay more regard to
ours than they have heretofore. In this instance the satis-
faction was complete, for the captain of the frigate who cut
out the Dutch vessels was obliged by the orders of his own
government to conduct them back to the place from which
he had taken them. The other observation is, that the
event of this affair has not given much satisfaction to the
present rulers here. The restoration of their vessels was
a thing about which they cared very little. But an oppor-
1 Gustaf Mauritz, Count Armfeldt (1757-1814), who plotted to overthrow the
regency in Sweden after the death of Gustavus III.
io THE WRITINGS OF [1796
tunity to hope for a war between Denmark and Britain was
a precious thing. They do not like to lose it. They valued
the pretext much more than the property.
But the principal subject deserving our reflections is the
treatment which the neutral Italian states are suffering from
the victorious general of a French army, which has pene-
trated into the heart of that country, and which they are as
unable to resist as Sweden was that of Russia. The manner
in which the Genoese and Venetian territory was occupied,
notwithstanding the opposition of their governments, has
been mentioned before, and Buonaparte's threat of burning
Verona. He has since imposed a contribution upon the
Republic of Lucca, and obliged it to furnish him with arms.
I observed to you in my last letter that the Tuscan govern-
ment would be very much under the French influence.
You will doubtless see in the public papers what has recently
taken place in that territory. It is not yet eighteen months
since the neutrality of the Grand Duke * was recognized and
confirmed by the French republic in a solemn treaty. But
Buonaparte has not only taken his march towards Rome
through the Tuscan territory; he has' taken possession of
Leghorn, and under his order the French Consul has laid
his hands upon all the property belonging to the subjects
of the sovereigns at war with France that was to be found
in the city. The English it seems had such intimations,
or such fears of this event, that they just made out to remove
a great part of their property by water before he surprised
the town. He arrested the Governor of Leghorn, and de-
mands his punishment of the Grand Duke, at the same time
affecting to assume great merit and complaisance in not
having himself ordered him to be tried by a military com-
mission. In short the whole of these proceedings, none of
1 Ferdinand III, son of Leopold II.
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS n
which have been disavowed by the Directory, deserve the
very attentive consideration of Americans as neutrals.
They shew in the clearest light how the French under their
present government are disposed to treat those of their
friends whom they have in their power. You know whether
my general sentiments are tinged with a partiality favorable
to Britain ; but I shall not disguise my opinion that in the
respect for neutral powers her late conduct in the instance
above related towards Denmark, is very much to her honor
when compared with these proceedings of France. For
this singular conduct in the Tuscan territory not the shadow
of a reason is offered. Buonaparte gives his accounts of
it to the Directory as a matter of course; he tells it even
with the same kind of exultation, that the exterminations
at Lyons, Nantes, and numberless other places within the
French Republic, used to be announced about two years
ago.
One great object doubtless intended by the seizure of
Leghorn was the acquisition of plunder. The spoils of
war have become a very serious and important concern to
France, for she has scarce any other means left of maintain-
ing her armies. But another point of essential consequence
is the pursuit of the plan which I mentioned to you in my last
letter, of excluding the British navigation, warlike and com-
mercial, from the Mediterranean. A third object which
they hoped to attain by these measures is to force the Italian
states into a war with Britain, and indeed it seems not easy
to see how the British Government can avoid one with
Tuscany, after having made war against their own allies the
Dutch for being under French influence, after they found
themselves unable to defend them against French invasion.
From all the circumstances I have related, and from the
general conduct of the French government in all its Protean
12 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
shapes from the days of Vergennes to the present, I am con-
vinced their influence will be indefatigable in fomenting all
the passions in America hostile to Britain. They are not
at present in a very good humor with us, and I suspect
would scruple very little to treat us as they have Tuscany,
Venice, Genoa and Lucca, if we were as much in their power.
They have it in their power to treat us as they have Sweden,
and I should not be much surprised to see them uncivil to
us, if an occasion should present itself. How far the temper
they now bear towards the American government has been
excited and is now stimulated by the conversation and con-
duct of Americans in Paris, I shall not undertake to say.
I have already more than once observed to you that there
are things fit for the relation of any voice but mine.
There are, however, in these same events some grounds
upon which to found the hope for the security of our neu-
trality during the remainder of the war. The exclusion of
the British from the Mediterranean, or at least from the
Italian ports, in all probability must continue as long as the
war will last. This is an object of great consequence, as
it will affect not only their commerce, but even their manu-
factures. It will certainly contribute to distress the nation,
and in proportion as they lose their friends (I mean the
nations with whom they maintain the intercourse of peace,)
those that remain to them must become the more valuable
in their estimation. They will therefore treat them with
more deference, and will at least abate their injuries if not
their insolence. It will be an advantageous opportunity
for our government to urge with peculiar force not only
justice for the future, but satisfaction for the past. I have
no doubt but if properly urged it will be with effect. The
British will I think be cautious not to repeat their offences,
and they will be more compliant in the reparation of those
I79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 13
already committed. The recent instance in the case of
Denmark affords a clear proof of fact to support what
appears so rational in speculation. If their navigation
should be excluded from Italy, as I think it must be, ours
having just obtained admittance there will naturally be-
come the carrier of the trade, which will probably continue,
because it is highly necessary for both parties. This will
perforce burst another thread of their navigation laws.
It will prepare them for that sort of liberality in their future
commercial negotiations with us which they have not yet
exhibited. They will feel the necessity of our friendship,
and will accordingly observe a more friendly line of conduct.
With all the attachment of my countrymen for France I
believe they have too much sense and virtue, as well as
knowledge of their own interest, to be either persuaded or
bullied by her into a war for her benefit, when it has certainly
become on her side a war merely of conquest and plunder,
provided no new cause of resentment and irritation be given
them by the future conduct of Britain.
In writing to you I never know when to finish. I have
now exhausted only a single subject, and there are others
both of a public and private nature upon which I intended
when I began this letter to make several observations. I
must now be content to postpone them for a future oppor-
tunity, having only time to add the usual assurances of
grateful affection from your son. 1
lu The intention of the president to retire at the expiration of his present term
of service, I fear is unquestionable from what is mentioned in your letter. I have
many reasons to regret the circumstance. I do not assent entirely to the opinion
very prevalent in Europe, that the destinies of the United States depend solely upon
that man, but I really deem his continuance in office, at present, of great importance
to their welfare. As long as our neutrality shall not be placed beyond all possible
danger, I shall always believe the weight of his character and influence very neces-
sary to secure it." To Christopher Gore, July 26, 1796. Ms.
"In one of the recent debates, Mr. Hahn, being then President of the Assembly
14 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
TO ENOCH EDWARDS 1 ]
The Hague, August 12th, 1796.
Dear Sir:
Since I wrote you last I have had the pleasure of receiving
your letter of June 20th. I duly estimate the prudential
motives which induced you to forbear writing me previous
to that date, and regret that so simple an errand as that upon
which I went to England, and upon which I had so repeatedly
and so frequently conversed with you, should have given
and one of the men who from the beginning of the revolution has been among the
most distinguished and influential characters, made a speech in which he said that a
federal government was an absurdity, a mere creature of imagination, a contradic-
tion in terms. That government implies a controling power, and federalism several
controling powers, which must be always different from and sometimes opposed to
it. That in the necessary conflict of equal powers, one or the other of them must
be destroyed, or both must be made ineffectual. He would not even allow that the
present government of the United States could be considered as exhibiting a ref-
utation of his opinion, but attributed the present state of their Union to the
personal character and influence of the President." To the Secretary of State, July
17, 1796. Ms.
" The Massachusetts choice of Senators is excellent [Theodore Sedgwick and
Benjamin Goodhue], but the loss of such a man as Mr. Cabot is very much to be
regretted. I presume that his not being rechosen must have been the consequence
of his own determination. I remember hearing his brother observe last winter,
that he was resolved to retire at the expiration of his term. Mr. Strong must have
resigned to make the second vacancy. These retreats and resignations may per-
haps prove the spirit and independence of the men, but they will encourage rather
than disappoint the malevolence of that factious spirit, which begins to steep itself
in so much bitterness in our country. You remember one of Fauchet's precious
confessions is, that the attack against Mr. Hamilton in the spring of 1794 was meant
to induce his retirement by disgusting him, if he could not be displaced, by a charge
of mal-administration, and you recollect with what sympathy of regret he mentions
the failure of both the intentions. It is a regular standing policy of the party, and
the number of resignations among the firmest and most valuable men, gives reason
to lament that it is in one particular successful." To Joseph Hall, August 7, 1796.
Ms.
'The quality of the "intelligence" given by Edwards may be seen in Life and
Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 79.
17961 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 15
the trouble of speculation to some, or should not have been
looked on goodnaturedly by others. As I have long since,
very much to my satisfaction, been relieved from all agency
whatever of a public nature in that country, I can have no
motive of public utility or of private curiosity, to inquire
who the some were that speculated, and the others that were
not good-natured. With you I conversed with great freedom
and sincerity on the subject, and I must do both you and
myself the justice to say that I have had no occasion to
regret my confidence. Where there is nothing to conceal,
candor is perhaps the best shield.
I learn with much concern that the residence of Paris is
not so pleasant for Americans as it has been. What the
ultimate effect that the agreement of the House of Repre-
sentatives to carry into effect the treaty will be, I am equally
with yourself unable to guess. I most sincerely hope that
not only the peace, but the cordial harmony between the
United States and France, will not be interrupted because
I am deeply convinced that its preservation is equally bene-
ficial to the people of both nations, as well as to the interests
of general humanity; and because I am equally persuaded,
that with prudence and that mutual spirit of patriotism
which you describe in such glowing colors as prevailing in
France, and which I hope prevails with equal ardor in every
part of America, it may be preserved.
That the war goes on with great spirit on the part of
France is, as you observe, known and felt by all Europe. I
do not thoroughly understand what you mean by the ex-
pression that she will not stop until she has materially
altered the condition of Great Britain. If it is only that she
will reduce her power, I do not see that such an event would
be displeasing to any part of Europe. It is indeed apparent
that the ancient national rivalry between the two nations
16 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
burns at the present moment with a vivid flame, but the
cool and sober part of mankind I think must wish as phi-
lanthropists, if not as politicians, that the rage of national
resentments may subside on either part, and the policy of
doing each other the greatest possible mischief give place to
that of living in peace and harmony.
The intelligence of the plenteous harvest and the prospect
of future abundance enjoyed by France is of a very pleasing
nature. Though it may possibly reduce the prices of some
productions of our country, I believe that even the American
farmer and merchant will heartily join with you and me in
rejoicing at the plenty which narrows his market and impairs
his profits.
The increasing gaiety of Paris, the appearance of recipro-
cal kindness and benevolence, the abundance of amiable
society, the augmentation of manufactures and the important
improvements and inventions that are daily adding to the
general stock of knowledge and of human enjoyment, are
all circumstances which indicate promising prospects, and
although they talk much of autrefois, the natural propensity
of mankind to admire past enjoyments will lead to the
anticipation that the present may become an autrefois in
its turn.
The prospects of general peace on the continent which are
daily becoming more apparent, are to me a great fund of
satisfaction. As a man and as an American, I consider even
universal peace as a consummation devoutly to be wished,
and therefore hail with pleasure every event that has a
tendency to procure it. When France and Britain shall be
left the only combatants, I hope that they too will soon con-
sider on both sides that the blessings of peace are preferable
to the glory of destruction.
I remain with great regard and consideration, dear Sir, &c.
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 17
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, August 13, 1796.
My Dear Sir:
A few days ago I received from England together your
favors of March 25, May 5, and June 10. The two first
were brought to London and forwarded from thence by
Mr. Cook, 1 whom as recommended by you I shall be happy
to see either here or in England, if his or my peregrinations
should at any time bring us within reach of each other. At
the same time I received with several other letters one from
the Secretary of State, dated June II, one day later than
the last from you. But various circumstances induce me
to believe the purport of its contents were then unknown
to you, and even unexpected. You will perhaps think
them rationally sufficient to induce a submission to the
ostracism a little longer.
Your indifference concerning the event of a possible
future competition; the determination to be altogether
passive, and the intrepidity with which the prospects of
either decision are contemplated, I readily believe ; and re-
joice in believing them, because I have no doubt but that
the transaction will call for the exercise of all those qualities
in an eminent degree. Besides the innumerable sources of
opposition all native Americans, and the principles of which
are so fully unfolded in your great political work, 2 you will
expect all the art and intrigue of France, and all its weight
and influence concerted with the American adverse party
in formal array displayed against you. Their talents at
political manoeuvre are well known and appreciated by you.
The range of their means, comprehending every thing that
can be achieved and limited by no scruple of general morality,
1 Richard Cook, of Annapolis, Maryland.
1 Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States.
vol. n — c
18 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
is understood. The popularity of their pretexts, the terror
of their brilliant success in war, and the natural disposition
among men of cringing before the insolence of victory, are
duly estimated. You will also be prepared, I presume, for
an opposition equally malignant though more concealed
and perhaps, during the first period altogether inactive,
from the rival influence of Great Britain ; nor are you
unaware of the dangers to which the station at the helm will
be exposed at the most tempestuous political season that
the world perhaps ever witnessed, when the elements of
civil society are rapidly and inevitably returning to chaos
in Europe, and at a moment when the fame of the prede-
cessor has heaped to such accumulation the burden of the
successor's task. All I am well convinced has been maturely
weighed. It remains for me as a man, as an American, and
as your son only to say quod felix faustumque sit! . . .
The British fleet in the Mediterranean has blockaded
Leghorn, and they have in their turn taken possession of
Porto Ferrajo in the island of Elba, which they say they hold
merely to prevent the French from taking it, in order to
direct from thence an expedition against Corsica. A num-
ber of privateers have been fitted out from Corsica to inter-
cept the French commerce in the Mediterranean, who are
said to have taken some neutral vessels bound to Leghorn.
This circumstance has furnished the French government
with an occasion to being forward another instrument of
their new system, of which I have no doubt but you will
hear much in America.
The political agents of France with all the neutral govern-
ments are directed to address to them with energy the voice
of their own interest, and after telling them that they are
upon the point of being made the victims of English ambi-
tion to declare, "that the French government are informed
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS *9
the English have issued new positive orders to their com-
manders of armed vessels to seize all cargoes destines aux
Francois in neutral vessels, and that the commanders of
the squadrons and privateers of the Republic are ordered
to treat the vessels of the neutral nations in the same man-
ner as their governments shall suffer the English to treat them."
This is to be stated as an act of reprisal against the British, 1
and is to be seasoned with proper encomiums upon the
honor and generosity of France, and upon her profound
respect for the laws of nations, the only tie and security of
civilized life, as well as with proper sallies against the perfidy
and Machiavelian policy of Britain. In connection with
this may be mentioned that Mr. Adet is recalled, and Man-
gourit, the former noted consul at Charleston, appointed to
succeed him. 2 Mangourit is now secretary to the French
Legation in Spain. You have doubtless heard that it has
1 " Soon after the publication of the letter from the French Minister of Foreign
Affairs to their ambassador at Basle, I applied here for information whether any-
new order had been issued respecting the commerce and navigation of the neutral
Powers, and was informed that no recent order had been issued, and that no such
order existed as was ascribed to this government in the letter to Barthelemi. By
an early opportunity I communicated this information to Mr. Monroe, who tells
me in a letter of the 28 ultimo, that on his application to be informed whether orders
were issued by the French government for the seizure of neutral vessels, he had been
answered that no such order was issued, and that none would be issued, in case the
British government did not authorise the seizure of our vessels. As I can only
conjecture the motives which have induced these proceedings, and as they may be
very wide of the truth, I will not trouble you with my suspicions. It would, how-
ever, have been serviceable to our trade with this country had Mr. Monroe's
communication been somewhat earlier. The fall goods have been shipped, and
principally insured here, under the disadvantages of an expected interruption of our
navigation by the French cruisers." Rufus King to John Quincy Adams, London,
September 10, 1796. Ms. King's letter to Monroe, August II, 1796, is in Life
and Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 78.
2 Michel-Ange-Bernard Mangourit (1752-1829). See note in Correspondence of
French Ministers (Turner), 930; Report of the American Historical Association,
1897, 569.
20
THE WRITINGS OF [1796
been in contemplation between France and Spain to exchange
the port of Saint Domingo, ceded to the former by the
late treaty of peace, for Louisiana upon our continent. There
is at present in Paris one if not more of the South Carolinians
who accepted the commissions of Genet, and drew upon
themselves the animadversions of the South Carolina
legislature. He has made himself very conspicuous among
the Americans by every species of censure upon the President
and the government of the United States. He has probably
too much encouragement for such conduct and conversation,
which by means of him and of other similar characters is so
industriously spread among the Americans in Paris, as to
make the French naturally conclude it must be the general
public opinion in America. Several facts are here mentioned
together, and you will probably be aware that they are not
grouped altogether at random. Their connection will
perhaps be much better understood by you, than it is com-
prehended by me. Our country must be upon its guard. I
must add, however, that I am informed it is probable an-
other person may be appointed instead of Mangourit.
Mr. Paine is said to be yet writing his pamphlet against
the President of the United States and his administration,
but he does not now live in the house of Mr. Monroe. He
has retired to Surenne, a village near Paris. There was much
threatening of this pamphlet and of this new mission last
winter, but the latter measure was suspended by the French
government, perhaps to give our House of Representatives
an opportunity to refuse their concurrence for the execution
of our treaty with Britain. 1 At present the threat at least
x The manuscript of Paine's letter had been brought to England as early as
August 19, by a young Virginian, who was charged to deliver it to Benjamin
Franklin Bache, in Philadelphia, by whom it was published. Monroe suspected
that Paine's influence had been exerted with the Directory and had produced a
change in the attitude of that body toward himself, making his position as the
i 79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 21
of both the measures is revived. The pamphlet war against
the character of the President was begun under the auspices
of the French government the last summer. If it is now to
be renewed it will be still under their auspices, but they may
perhaps discover that his personal feelings and fortunes are
as inaccessible to their attacks as his fame. But as pane-
gyric and calumny are equally among their means, and they
are perfectly indifferent which of them it is they employ, the
choice is decided by circumstances only, and they will at an
hour's warning be prepared to erect a statue to him whom
they find they cannot ruin.
American minister less eligible and useful. See the memorandum of conversations
with Dr. E. Edwards in Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 79.
"In the Directoire the foreign affairs department belongs to Rewbell. He was on
the committees of the convention at a time when much money was paid to the
Americans, and before our government had consented to pay the debt. His im-
pressions are unfavorable. He is honest, obstinate and sour. His impressions
are now first got from La Croix, who figured at the 4 July, and those of the
other members come through this doubly empoisoned channel. . . . Paine's
pamphlet is sent to Philadelphia about six weeks ago, to be published by Bache. . . .
I conversed with a person yesterday, who saw the manuscript. I begged him to
; get me a reading, as I have no connection and but slender acquaintance with the
author. He promised his endeavors, but in general informed me, it was a philip-
pic on the president's private life and public conduct from the year 1776, to the
present day. The reason of this rancor is, the president's not getting him out of
'■ gaol. This subject warms him so much that he sometimes turns orator, and in a
I coffee house frequented by Americans, he has twice pronounced a string of the
most virulent anathemas, concluding as proven that he was both a coward and a
scoundrel. All you men of some estimation may prepare your armor; he is coming
: your way. He began with his God, and now he vilifies the best of his
! works. . . . Talleyrand conversed much of America two days ago. He spoke in
I favor of Burr, appeared to think he would make a good minister here. We went
over several characters. I thought his ideas just. He then mentioned Hamilton,
and whether it was policy or opinion, spoke of him in the highest terms. He
said what every body says of his capacity, and that his political principles were
truly American, unmixed with either French or English, which he regretted was a
thing so prevalent." Joseph Pitcairn to John Quincy Adams, Paris, October 20,
1 1796. Ms.
22 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
But measures and not men is their maxim, and their only-
means of destroying a system is by attacking the person
upon whom they suppose its support to depend. It may there-
fore be expected that the French government and their
pamphleteers will from the same batteries only change
the direction of their artillery. The object will remain the
same, to force us out of our neutrality, to deprive us at least
of all connection with Britain, and to alter our Constitution
to such a form as shall give them a more certain and effectual
influence over our national Executive.
The energetic mode in which they purpose to show the
neutral governments their own interests, and the appoint-
ment of Mangourit, indicate that they mean to resume the
system of terror in their external relations ; and if I judge
from the letters I receive from some of their adherents,
they imagine that these new measures will throw the Ameri-
can government into such a profound consternation, that
they will think themselves fortunate to obtain forgiveness
by unqualified submission. They tell me of the rage of the
French government at our treaty with Britain, of their in-
flexible determination to resent it by some determined act,
of their raising their tone as they advance in victory, of the
dreadful consequences to be apprehended from their re-
sentments, and which nothing under Heaven can avert,
unless it be peradventure the extreme prudence of Mr.
Monroe in whom they have very great confidence. It is
from native Americans that I receive under hand and seal
this language, fit for the remorse of a worm of the dust in
the presence of offended omnipotence, from a man partic-
ularly from Pennsylvania, a deep speculator in the French
revolutionary funds and a confidential friend of Mr. Monroe
1 Probably Enoch Edwards. The recall of Monroe had been recommended by
the President's Cabinet July 2, and Pinckney received his appointment September
17963 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 23
together with Hichborn, whose conversation was of exactly
the same complexion more than a twelve month ago.
The Drawcansir style of those letters would divert you
if you should see them, because the intention with which they
were written would be discerned by you at once. They
profess to be confidential communications, but are so far
from really possessing that character that, while they are
all foaming with the froth of French indignation, they studi-
ously conceal the measures which the Directory had deter-
mined to pursue, and which must have been known to the
writer at the time when he wrote. Neither the orders to
take enemy's property in neutral vessels, nor the recall of
Adet, nor the appointment of Mangourit, were hinted to
me by him. My intelligence comes from other quarters.
If they really mean to confiscate only enemy's property
found in neutral vessels, that indeed will be an act violent
and unjust enough, considering it as a direct and positive
violation of the stipulation in our treaty ; yet considering
that our vessels will be like to have but little property to
carry belonging to their enemies, and also that they cannot
keep many armed vessels in any sea to infest our trade,
owing to the naval superior force of their antagonist, I think
they will not injure us much by this. If its eventual issue
should be such as to control in some degree the overflowings
of our commercial enterprise, a benefit may result from it
as will weaken the shock of a diminished trade that must
await us at the termination of a war, when all the parties
now contending will encourage, as much as possible, their
domestic navigation by the exclusion of that of strangers.
But from the very vague manner in which the orders inti-
mated to have been issued are expressed, they may design
9, 1796. Writings of Washington (Ford), XIII. 2i6n; Writings of James Monroe,
III. 6.
24 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
to extend the practice of depredation much further than the
British ever have. They probably do not intend to treat
us as the British have done this season, at least in these
European seas ; for they have not as I hear captured a single
vessel for months past. Though they have had an undis-
puted command of the seas, and board almost every neutral
vessel that floats upon them, they let them all pass, and there
are numbers of Americans arriving now every day in the
ports of this Republic, as well as in those of France.
If the admiralty courts of France are to condemn all the
property found on board neutral vessels destines aux ennemis
de la Republique Fran^aise, and the expression is to be under-
stood in all the latitude of which it is susceptible, it will be
a treatment much more injurious than ever we have ex-
perienced from the British, as it will assume the principle
of intercepting all our navigation whatsoever, destined to
the ports of the nations at enmity with France. And I
cannot believe this to be the intention. The manner in
which the orders are executed will soon discover the design.
I only give you conjectures which, with other circumstances
perceptible to you though unknown to me, may have a
tendency to prepare you for the explosion of the mine that
is working.
I am unwilling to believe that the French government
has been taught to found the support of their influence in
the United States upon a wretched distinction between the
policy and interest of one part of the Union, in opposition
to those of another ; or that they have been induced to sup-
pose they could gratify and promote its agricultural by
distressing its commercial power. I sometimes imagine
that this recent order is rather meant as a false attack, to
avert the attention of our government from another more
formidable which they keep in reserve. It has indeed been
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 25
hinted that they had thought of stopping their payment to
those of our citizens to whom they are indebted, until our
government shall have reclaimed the property taken from our
vessels belonging to the inhabitants of St. Domingo. That
they will catch at any pretext to stop their payments is
very probable, since they have in many instances already
stopped them without any pretext at all, except that of
their own necessity. They have so many of the beasts with
great bellies which must be fed, that plenteous as their
plunder has been during the present campaign, their finances
have become more and more irretrievable from day to day. (
But as this measure has [not] been formally announced, I £„-
question much whether it will be employed. ,_
It is proper, however, that you should be aware that to all 1
appearance they have seriously resumed the plan of revolu-
tionizing the whole world, so openly professed by the Bris-
sotine party in 1792, though at present they think proper
totally to deny such a design.^ ) I have reason to believe,
however, that they are stirring up the lees of democracy
among their friends the Danes, and even in the dominions
of their intended dear Prussian ally. In the states of all
the German princes they are indefatigable, and are working
upon materials which require scarce anything but the ac-
cidental spark to kindle a flame as devouring as that of France.
The Directory have persisted in their refusal to receive the
Baron de Rehausen as charge des affaires from Sweden, and
have ordered him to leave Paris. They have further or-
dered their charge des affaires in Sweden to leave Stock-
holm, after assuring the Swedish nation of the friendship of
the French Republic. There are some obscure symptoms
indicating their disposition at the present juncture to inflame
a political odium against the government of Venice, and in
Geneva there has been, it is said, a new insurrection, in
26 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
which the people deposed all their magistrates, and requested
the French President provisionally to supply their places.
In the midst of all these revolutionary projects the Di-
rectory is not itself without internal enemies, equally dis-
posed to overturn them and their constitution. It has been
openly avowed as the object of the conspiracy at the head
of which were Drouet and Babceuf. The trial of these
persons is not yet completed. 1 At the annual municipal
elections they were attended with tumult and massacre
at Marseilles, at Aix, and several other places in the Southern
Departments. At Paris the Directory were so apprehensive
of similar consequences, that they found it expedient to
address a proclamation to the people, warning them against
the designs of the terrorists ; and the renewal of one-third
of the legislative councils at this moment is a period of partic-
ular anxiety to them. The rebellion in the Vendee appears
to be finally quelled entirely, and the inhabitants are all
disarmed. Paris is yet nearly in the same state, and has
besides an army of sixty thousand men to secure its tran-
quility close at its gate. The government itself is said not
to be united. Sieyes is opposed to their prevailing system,
or at least preparing to abandon them in case of need. Their
Minister of Foreign Affairs, if not involved more or less in
the affair of Drouet, favors at least the terrorist party as
much as he can. It is intimated that he keeps secret agents
in foreign countries to act as spies upon the public acknowl-
edged ministers appointed by the Directory. One of the
Ministers from this Republic in France, and the Minister
of Geneva, have been removed, owing to some kind of con-
nection with the intrigues of Drouet. The General Buona-
1 Jean-Baptiste Drouet (1763-1814), a member of the corps Legislatif, escaped
from prison with the connivance of the Directory; Francois-Noel Babceuf (1760-
1797) was condemned to death.
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 27
parte in Italy is said to pay them but little respect, and
rumors with regard to him have circulated which the Direc-
tory have thought it necessary positively to contradict.
They employ the same pamphleteering engines to fix them-
selves that they use to unseat every other government ;
and while with one hand they are endeavoring to tear up
every root of confidence in settled establishments, with the
other they are imploring for themselves the confidence of
their own people and of foreign nations, without being able
to obtain it.
From repeated intimations which have been made to me
by the Danish Legation here, with which I have been upon
very friendly terms from my first acquaintance with the
Minister and the Secretary, 1 I find that the government of
Denmark would be pleased to have an exchange of Ministers
between the United States and them. They doubtless
expect the compliment of receiving the first as the eldest
party ; but if they were sure of a return, I know not but
they would overlook the mere point of sending first. It has
been hinted to me that, while the United States have Minis-
ters with almost all the commercial powers in Europe, it
looks something like an unpleasant distinction to see them
omit sending one to that which commands the passage of
the Sound, and with which the United States have already
a considerable direct commerce. I have never mentioned
these circumstances before for two reasons. The first,
because I had no inclination to promote the multiplication
of the American foreign missions unnecessarily; and the
second, because I thought it might tend to raise a suspicion
of a personal motive on my part founded upon the desire
to enlarge our diplomatic field. Under my present destina-
tion the latter cannot influence me, and I pretend not to
1 Baron de Schubart and Mr. Levsen.
28 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
judge of the necessity or propriety of the measure. I only
state a fact and an argument as it has been presented to me,
by persons who certainly did not use them without authority. 1
Your dutiful son.
P.S. Our old friend Dumas died suddenly on the nth
instant.
TO SYLVANUS BOURNE
The Hague, August 13, 1796.
Dear Sir :
The Minister Plenipotentiary from the French Republic
informs me that the consuls of France both at Amsterdam
and Rotterdam have violent suspicions that some of the
captains of American vessels engage or receive on board of
them soldiers belonging to the French army now in this
country. At his desire I have to request you to give notice
to all the American captains in both those ports, that it is
expected they will avoid altogether receiving or engaging
any such person, and that if in any instance they have al-
ready received persons of this description, they will immedi-
ately discharge them. Please to give notice of this circum-
stance to all the consular agents of the United States within
this Republic, and to request them to use all the means
within their competency to prevent every practice of this
nature. I am etc. 2
1 No minister to Denmark was appointed until January, 1811, when George W.
Erving was sent as "Special Minister."
2 Citizen Noel had further asked Adams to authorize French officers to visit the
American vessels to ascertain the presence of French soldiers on board ; but Adams
replied he had no power to authorize the visiting or examination of American vessels,
and were he to assume the pretence of such power, it would not be recognized by the
American captains.
i 79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 29
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 81 [Timothy Pickering]
The Hague, August 21, 1796.
• ••••••
It is generally reported that the Emperor still persists
in the continuation of the war, and that the French govern-
ment have determined to enter into no negotiations with him,
unless Great Britain be excluded from all interference or par-
ticipation in them. The plan to ruin totally Great Britain
is now professed by the French in general with a publicity
which seems to partake of ostentation ; it is perhaps un-
dertaken seriously from an opinion of its necessity to France.
The closing of all Europe against the British commerce is
now avowed as an object pursued by the Directory. With
regard to America the design is not said to be extended so
far; but you will easily judge whether the measures they
take towards the government of the United States indicate
the determination to draw them into the vortex of a political
system for Europe or not. It is a subject which in every
point of view deserves the most particular attention.
Mr. Hammond is gone upon a special mission to the Courts
of Berlin and Vienna. The purpose is supposed to be that
of commencing a negotiation of peace. Whether France and
Britain are like to agree upon their terms, even if they should
treat, is doubtful ; the ambition of conquest appears to
thrive upon oratory in France, and the design of destroying
totally the British power, which perhaps was at first con-
ceived as an idle though a pleasing fancy, from the successes
of the present campaign upon the continent, has gradually
varied to an hesitating wish, grown to an aspiring hope, and
ripened to a formal project. It offers a prospect equally
flattering to their national pride and to their native and
3°
THE WRITINGS OF [1796
habitual antipathies. Their resentment against the British
is inflamed by the constant reflection, that of all their enemies,
they have inflicted the most and suffered the least of the
miseries of war. They declare a determination to make
no peace, without insisting upon the restoration of all their
own islands, and all the Dutch possessions, both in the East
and West Indies, which have been taken by the British.
But as they do not appear to have any equivalent in con-
templation, and it is not easy to see what equivalent they
have to give, neither the present nor any other ministry
in Britain would consent to terms which France appears
determined to require. If known they come to treat seri-
ously, the necessity for peace, which is really felt by both
parties, and the desire for it, which is felt still more by the
people of every nation engaged in the war, may bring on
a spirit of concession which will facilitate the conclusion of
a short peace.
But the French Government are evidently making their
preparations to put in execution their singular plan of war
against Britain, the season ensuing. That they will succeed
in cutting off the communication between that island and all
the rest of Europe, is not at all impossible, for Spain is yet
balancing upon the edge of peace and war, and it is very
currently reported that the French Government have de-
manded, and will probably obtain, the passage of an army
through Spain to invade Portugal by land. This may be
a menace of France held up to frighten Portugal into their
terms of peace, but it may with equal probability be a
serious design to dispose of troops, which, in case of peace
with the Emperor, will remain upon their hands, and which
must be furnished with employment. The plan will be
most likely to fail in the countries upon the Baltic, but they
may compel Denmark as they have Sweden to take a side,
i 79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 31
and they may have large temptations to offer, if at the same
time they can provide for defence.
If the design should be carried fully into effect, it still
remains a question what the balance of its operation will be.
There is no doubt but that it will very much distress the
British commerce; but it will distress in like manner all
the commerce of Europe. The consequence must be an
universal stagnation, and if it should be continued for any
length of time, it must end in a commercial revolution from
Lisbon to Archangel, as complete as the political revolution
from which it will arise. It is to be hoped for the general
interests of humanity that the threatening appearance of
a more extensive war than the present will subside, and that
a peace of some sort will be arranged before the commence-
ment of the next season. 1 . . .
1 "It is not for me to conjecture, what has been at the same time their course of
negotiation with the United States. There is, I am well assured, in the present
French government a party whose opinions and dispositions are not unfavorable or
unfriendly to the interests of the United States ; whether there are others who
think that the American republic thrives too rapidly and suspect a danger that it
may be tempted to abuse its prosperity; or who believe that the ports of America
must at all events be shut against the British commerce, it may be useless
for me to enquire, as it is no doubt well known to you.
"Among the projects, which in the moment of victorious exultation were held
out, either with serious intention, or as a warning intimation, was said to be that of
obtaining Louisiana by cession from Spain, and Canada by conquest from Brit-
ain. A design to undertake seriously an expedition of this nature, and of
sending a powerful armament to New Orleans, has at least been under consideration
in the Directory, and may have had some influence in causing the recall of Mr.
Adet, without the substitution of a successor. It is probable however that this
plan will give way to objects of more urgency on this continent, and if so, the ap-
pointment of another minister may soon be expected." To the Secretary of State,
October 16, 1796. Ms.
32 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, October 2d, 1796.
Dear Sir :
The last post brought me your favor of the 22nd ultimo,
containing interesting information for which I am obliged
to you. The public declaration of the French government
by their Ambassador at Basle, with regard to their respect
for neutral rights and their determination to imitate the
examples of Britain, is not very explicit. 1 Perhaps it was so
intended. I hope that further reflection will induce the
Directory to take their national engagements, rather than
the example of the British, for the rule of their conduct.
If however they determine to take enemies' property where-
ever found, I suppose it is because they do not consider it as
a violation of the laws of nations. Their declaration at
Basle indeed seems to say to the neutrals, "we will insult
and injure you, because we see you are too weak to resent
the insults and injuries of others." The policy is not un-
common in practice, but I believe it has not before been
often avowed.
The treaty between France and Spain I have seen in the
papers. It contains nothing relative to the exchange. 2
Are you sure that the exchange has been made ? As to their
armament to New Orleans and their conquest of Canada,
I think it will end with their invasion of England, and the
joint march of their three armies to Vienna, together with
their march through Spain to take possession of Lisbon. All
1 See note from the Minister of Foreign Affairs to Barthelemy, August 7, 1796,
in Annual Register, 1796, 248. Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 89.
2 Florida and Louisiana were, rumor said, to be ceded by Spain to France, in
return for a restoration of the Spanish part of Santo Domingo, or some other
equivalent. The treaty between France and Spain, signed August 19, 1796, is in the
Annual Register, 1796, 231.
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 33
these things are easy to project, and I shall not say they are
of impossible execution ; but while they are in the serious
contemplation of the French government, it is not probable
that their wish or intention to make peace is very strong.
I am &c.
Dear Sir :
TO RUFUS KING
The Hague, October 3, 1796.
It gives me great pleasure to find that a satisfactory ter-
mination to the questions of our captured vessels and prop-
erty is to be expected. The principal difficulties I think
arise from a fundamental variance upon principles of national
law. The maritime law of nations recognized in Great
Britain is all comprised in one line of a popular song, "Rule
Britannia ! Britannia rule the waves !" I never could
find that their Admiralty courts were governed by any other
code. 1
I had some time since the honor to write you respecting
the capture of property to a considerable amount, belonging
to a certain German mercantile house, subject to the Elector
Palatine, on board of an American vessel. 2 The newspapers
1 "It has given me great pleasure to hear that Colonel [John] Trumbull was
drawn as the fifth Commissioner. You know how much I have supposed would
depend upon the chance of that appointment. I believe with you that all the Com-
missioners will be guided by wisdom, integrity, and what they think justice. But
British justice in questions of maritime law is a very different thing from natural
justice. The professed object of the nation is to domineer at sea, and they have
assumed for the accomplishment of this object a set of maxims which cannot be con-
formable to natural justice, because that is impartial and reciprocal, while they are
all promotive of British maritime domination." To Joseph Hall, October 9, 1796.
Ms.
2 The house was that of Jean and Gaspar Halbach & Sons, of Remscheid, near
Diisseldorf. The ship was the Congress, Captain Thomas Reid.
vol. 11 — D
34 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
here have announced that the cargo of that vessel has been
condemned at Halifax. I now take the liberty to inclose
another paper which I have received from the proprietors
of the goods. I know not upon what pretence this condemna-
tion has been founded, which appears to be a clear violation
of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain.
It may, perhaps, be a case proper for the determination
of the commissioners under the treaty, but I cannot disown
my surprise that the British government to this day con-
tinues to countenance such proceedings. I express this
sentiment to you with the more freedom, because I know
that this matter will be urged close upon our government
from another quarter, for purposes which I do not approve,
but the object of which is altogether hostile to Great Britain.
At the commencement of the present war the judge of an
admiralty court in London might distinguish between neu-
tral and non-belligerent powers, and declare his determina-
tion to force them out of their neutrality ; the government
has surely had time to think better of that design, and at
this day may not refuse to consider a neutral as a friendly
nation. But the design which they have abandoned may
have been taken up by their enemies, and I cannot think
them now desirous of contributing to the motives which
would tend towards a declaration against them. They have
not long since made a formal and ample satisfaction to the
Court of Denmark for an insult committed by one of their
officers, and I have seen the good effects of this measure to
their interests. Let them at least cease to encourage per-
petual insult and injury upon our navigation, and their
enemies will be deprived of the strongest argument with
which they would persuade us to join in the almost universal
league that is thickening against them.
I am &c.
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 35
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 86 [Timothy Pickering]
The Hague, November 4, 1796.
Sir :
In the letter from the Committee of Foreign Affairs, 1 a
copy of which was inclosed with my last, they have raised
pretensions and used expression upon which I have not
thought it necessary to anticipate the opinion you will
form, or the notice which you may think proper to take of
them. But as it is possible that the tone and ideas may
appear extraordinary, I think it necessary to add a few
observations and some particulars of information which will
make them more accountable.
The general disposition, even of the patriotic party in this
country, favors cordially the neutrality of the United States.
They have a very substantial reason for this disposition, as
they are continually receiving remittances of interests upon
their monies loaned to the United States ; and as these are
almost the only public funds upon which the payments are
still punctual, they apprehend that the difficulties and the
necessities of a war might produce a suspension or post-
ponements on the part of the United States, similar to those
of which many of the belligerent powers have given examples.
But at the same time, the patriotic party can have no avowed
will different from that which may give satisfaction to the
government of France. They feel a dependence so absolute
and irremovable upon their good will, that they sacrifice
every other inclination, and silence every other, when the
1 The members of this Committee were Jacobus Kantelaar, Jan Bernd Bicker,
P. Hartog, Albert Johan de Sitter, W. A. de Beveren, Hugo Gevers and Jacob
George Hieronymus Hahn.
36 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
pleasure of the French government is signified to them in
such a manner as makes an election necessary.
I received not long ago an intimation that one of the mem-
bers of the Committee of Foreign Affairs had confidentially
communicated to a friend a circumstance, which was in-
tended to be kept profoundly secret. It was that the French
government had determined to defeat, if possible, the treaty
lately concluded between the United States and Great Britain,
and had signified to the Committee of Foreign Affairs here
their expectation, that they would concur with all their
influence towards the same object. The tenor of their letter
strongly serves to show the accuracy of the information.
The object which the last paragraph of their letter aims at
is not at all equivocal, but in considering the manner in
which they urge their proposals, the address with which they
pursue their point may be ranged on a level with their logic.
After having undertaken formally to justify the condemna-
tion of the Wilmington Packet cargo, because they concluded
it to be French property, they make no difficulty to assume
a right to insist upon the protection of Batavian property
on board of American vessels. They call very loudly upon
the United States to go to war with Great Britain, and make
a common cause with the French and Batavian Republics.
The whole of this singular passage might have excited a
stronger sentiment than it did, had I not previously received
the intimation mentioned above. Considering their lan-
guage as dictated by an irresistible external impulse, an ex-
cuse for its singularity was derived from the necessities of
their situation. In the answer which I have given, therefore,
it was my endeavor to avoid every unnecessary discussion,
and as far as possible every unpleasant expression. But
the inconsistency of their pretensions with their own argu-
ment could not be passed without notice. Their oblique
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 37
insinuation of treaties formed by the United States militat-
ing with that before contracted with this Republic, I thought
it necessary to repel in the most decided and explicit man-
ner. Their assertion of numerous services rendered by their
Republic to the American nation authorized the reference
in the answer to the reciprocal services and common utility,
upon which I conceived the engagements between the two
nations to be founded. As they very clearly hint a wish
that the United States should violate some treaty con-
cluded after that with the Batavian Republic, and make a
common cause with them and France, I thought the honor
and dignity of my country and its government required an
explicit declaration in answer, that they would inviolably
maintain their engagements with all other nations as faith-
fully as with this. But I did not think it necessary, though
it might have been not unfair, to observe that their proposal
of a common cause to be made with the French Republic
could not be made by them without her concurrence, or that
the energy which they would insist upon for the protection
of their property in American vessels would be unnecessary,
if it were efficaciously employed in giving security to the
navigation of their own flag. It may be mentioned here,
that the American flag is not the only one for the honor of
which these gentlemen have taken so deep and so generous
a concern. They sometime since interested themselves
in a similar manner for the honor of the Danish neutrality,
until they were given to understand by the Count de Bern-
storff that the government of Denmark was the proper
judge of its own honor, and was not disposed to listen to
instigations upon its concerns with other nations.
When I delivered to Mr. van Leyden 1 my letter to the Com-
1 Frederik van Leyden, Secretary of the Committee for Foreign Affairs. See
Adams, Memoirs, July 5, 1796.
38 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
mittee, I asked him if he had any letters from Mr. van
Polanen since his reception by the President. He answered
that he had not. I observed that I had seen in the American
papers a paragraph announcing that he had been received.
"We have had no dispatches from him," said Mr. van
Leyden, "for some time. Probably he has written and sent
them, but there is so little regard paid to your flag, that the
English may have taken the dispatches from the vessels
on board of which they were. If the United States wish
sincerely to establish the principles of making neutral vessels
protect enemy's property, they have now a good opportunity
to insist upon it with Great Britain, now that Spain has
entered into the war." "The United States," I answered,
"are very sincerely desirous of establishing the principle,
and I have no doubt will readily use all pacific means to
promote it. But they think it not an object that warrants
going to war. They could contribute little towards putting
it into execution. They might in a war obtain possession of
Canada, but it would afford no gain at all to them, and a very
trifling loss to Great Britain. Since the delivery of the posts,
the British government probably set no great value them-
selves upon these possessions, and their governors, Lord
Dorchester and Simcoe, are both returning home. But at
sea what assistance could we give you without a navy?'
Why, that is true, replied he, but I am surprised that the
United States do not turn their attention to their marine;
they have certainly the means of a naval power, and they
must feel the necessity of having one for the protection of
their commerce. The object, said I, is not forgotten, but the
obligations contracted in the war which secured the inde-
pendence of the United States are in their eyes the first
and most imperious. In the course of that they neces-
sarily contracted a very heavy debt, the punctual payments
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 39
of which absorb all the revenues which can be raised upon
the convenience of the people. But, said Mr. van Leyden,
they have paid part of the capital of that debt, so that the
burthen is reduced. Part of the capital is paid, said I,
but larger sums of it become payable every year, so that the
present burthen continues to increase, although every pay-
ment serves to diminish the whole mass of the weight.
For instance, a very large proportion of this debt is due in
this country, and being paid with constant punctuality,
your citizens receive at this day several millions annually
paid by the government of the United States. There is
now a million of capital, also, that becomes payable every
year ; in the course of two or three years the capital annually
payable will increase to two or three millions. To these
demands successively rising the United States are liable
by their contracts, and you are sensible that they cannot
think of averting the sums destined for the punctual per-
formance of these engagements to any other object, however
desirable. They think it better, therefore, even to postpone
that of a marine. He said that to be sure, the sums ap-
propriated to the discharge of debts could not properly be
employed to another use, but that it was to be wished that
Great Britain might be compelled to consent to making
a peace, which should restore to this Republic all the pos-
sessions she had taken from it. He was afraid, however,
that it would not be for the present, as the conferences be-
tween the French minister of Foreign Affairs and Lord
Malmesbury were already suspended, though not absolutely
broken off. That the latter had written for further instruc-
:ions, but the settlement of the negotiations would be very
jncertain, and little was to be expected from them. 1
This opinion was doubtless well grounded, and concurs
1 See Malmesbury, Diaries and Correspondence, III. 259.
40
THE WRITINGS OF [1796
with the general opinion here. The official papers which
have passed upon the subject of the negotiation hitherto
have been published by the French Directory, and are con-
tained in the Gazette which I have the honor to inclose by
the present opportunity. 1
I have the honor &c.
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, November 13, 1796.
Dear Sir :
I have successively received at due time your favors of
the 20th and 28th ultimo, and of the 3rd instant, and renew
my thanks for the interesting information they contain.
If the French government have determined upon the cap-
ture of enemy property on board of neutral vessels, I do
not apprehend that we shall suffer materially from the resolu-
tion. It will, however, serve to show the degree of regard
in which they hold, not only the rights of neutral nations,
1 " I have already taken the liberty to suggest my idea of the inconveniences
which must naturally follow the publication of such letters as mine to you of 4
November last. That in this particular instance it will expose me personally to th^
strong resentment of the Batavian Committee for Foreign Affairs, and to the whole
party of the present government in that country, is very certain, and I sincerel)
regret the circumstance, as I had just parted from them leaving them perfectl)
good humored, and as they had always been very obliging to me, and hac
shown in every instance a disposition as friendly as they could venture to thij
United States. As far, however, as it only concerns myself the ill-will of the Dutcl
government will be less important now, than it would be were I still residing in tha
country ; and as I felt bound in duty to write the letters, I shall cheerfully acquiesc
in any consequence that must derive from them." To the Secretary of State, Jul
19. 1797- Ms.
"As to their complaint at Philadelphia, their assertion that they are independem
etc., it gives me much concern that they should have taken offence. I meant :,
not, nor was my letter to the Secretary written with an idea that it would ever II
published. Their note to me, however, which gave occasion to my comment, w£
in its tenor highly offensive to the American government. They knew perfectl
i 79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 41
but their own engagements. There are people in America
who to serve certain purposes are forever harping upon the
gratitude which they pretend the United States owe to
France, and the French themselves are not unfrequently
disposed to make a merit of what was certainly a very
interested policy. The present government are perhaps
disposed to cancel our supposed obligations by violating
the stipulations of their treaties. It is my opinion that
there is a strong debt of reciprocal obligations between the
United States and France, or rather, to speak the only
honest language upon a political concern, the relations be-
tween the two nations were formed upon a very important
common interest which still exists, and must continue long
to exist. That common interest prescribes a cordial har-
mony and a punctual performance of treaties on both sides.
The American government is unquestionably and sincerely
disposed to cultivate that harmony and faithfully to adhere
to its engagements, but it expects a similar return ; and I am
persuaded that if the French propose to themselves an in-
fluence in America by the assumption of a supercilious tone
of negotiation, or by disregarding their stipulations, they
will fail of success and lose much of the influence which they
actually possess.
The Minister Delacroix 1 means not well to the harmony
of the two countries, and there are prejudices and passions
of other individuals which will labor to interrupt the good
well that it was so, and in my answer to themselves at the time, I had not disguised
my opinion upon the subject. As I believed notwithstanding that their disposition
towards us was good, I attributed their offensive note to instigation from France.
I had express information that such was the fact. It has since then been confirmed
to me from unquestionable authority. The member knows it to be true. Perhaps
their resentment now is prompted by the same instigation." To William Vans
Murray, November 18, 1797. Ms. See also the letter to Murray, November 24,
1797. 1 Charles Delacroix de Constant (1741-1805).
42 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
understanding, which the interest of both requires. But
I am persuaded it will eventually be restored, because the
mutual interest is too strong and must prevail over all the
efforts of prejudice, passion, or intrigue.
There is a great ignorance of the character and sentiments
of the American people in France among those who imagine
that any manoeuvre of theirs could turn an election against
the President of the United States. Their invectives and
their calumnies may add a few more to the number of his
detractors, or take away some who admired him from fashion
or from personal motives ; but among the great mass of the
people he stands fixed as the foundations of the world, and
France will find it more easy to go through five and twenty
revolutions at home, than to root out that man's merits and
services from the memory of Americans, or a proper sense
of them from their hearts.
It is probable, however, that if the President persists in
his intention to retire, the French will soon forget their polit-
ical resentment against him. As to his system of policy they
will do well to acquiesce in that, for they will not overturn
it. You think they will endeavor to promote the election
of Mr. Jefferson, and you are probably right ; but if Jefferson
is elected, I speak with confidence in saying that he will
inflexibly pursue the same general system of policy which is
now established. Perhaps even you may smile and hesitate
in believing this prophecy. I may be mistaken, but have no
doubt myself upon the subject, and am willing to have my
conjectures judged by the test of events.
Our friends, therefore, must return upon their steps,
unless they are determined to cast off a sincere and faithful
and very useful friend. As to their being discovered, that is,
their motives and their views, I suppose they do not expect
to avoid that. They must know that they have been long
i 79 6] JOHN QUINCY ;ADAMS 43
since discovered. Their islands and their marine are strong
ties. The weariness of their people at the war which yet
burthens them, the total want even of a plausible pretext to
quarrel with America, and the very possible chance that
they may again be in want of our bread, will prolong our
peace, and if the Minister Delacroix is succeeded by an
abler or a wiser man, he will feel the advantage of preserving
influence by using it with moderation. 1
I am &c.
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, November 25, 1796.
My Dear Sir :
I received yesterday your favor of August 7, the first
time I have had the pleasure of a letter from you since the
same date. I have also to acknowledge an unusual interval
since my last to you was written. I shall not plead in excuse
that a very considerable American correspondence, which
I find myself obliged to furnish altogether on my part with
few returns of any kind, and those few containing little
more than acknowledgments of my letters having been
1 "I understand that Mr. Monroe has received his recall. General Pinckney
has not yet arrived. Mr. Adet also has probably his recall before this time. It
was sent more than two months ago, as you have doubtless been informed ere
this from France. A successor is not yet appointed. Various motives may be con-
jectured as the occasion of a measure, which implies a coolness of disposition, which
will not probably last any great length of time, and which may perhaps not be spon-
taneous in the minds of the Directory. The character of the French minister for
foreign affairs [Delacroix] is probably known to you. His conduct upon an occa-
sion which has been a subject of particular observation in Europe, and his avowed
preference of the minority in the American House of Representatives, discover his
purposes and what is to be expected from him. The policy of the French govern-
ment may be unfavorable to all neutral nations, but it may be safely concluded
that they do not wish to be at positive variance with the United States, and will
44 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
received, becomes gradually more burthensome, and that I
postpone insensibly from day to day the writing of those
which can admit of postponement. However justly I might
make this apology, I am sensible it would not be sufficient.
Continual attention to many inattentive correspondents
is possible; it is, therefore, a duty; and of all my inofficial
correspondents it is most inexcusable that I should have
occasion for an apology to you. I shall endeavor to avoid
the same fault in future. . . .
The inconveniences of a foreign mission which have been
mentioned in several of your late letters are certainly great.
I was not insensible of them when I left my country. There
is another, greater than all the rest, of which I am equally
sensible. It is that of losing the prospects of a profession,
and of being displaced from one's proper station in society.
A premature elevation renders a subsequent descent in-
evitable. All my prospects in America are that I shall have
the advantage of reflecting upon what I have been. There
is, however, one article of my philosophy, which I do not
apprehend will soon abandon me. It is an indifference to
the pursuits of ambition and fame, which even your solici-
tude for me does not altogether remove. I sought not the
station which I now hold. I sought not my late errand to
England, nor the new appointment to Portugal with which
return to their customary civility after they shall discover the issue of their present
experiment." To the Secretary of State, November 16, 1796. Ms.
It was held by the administration that Monroe had neglected to make a full and
proper use of the material sent to him to lessen or remove the great uneasiness of
the French government in its relations to the United States. This material had
reached him early in December, 1795 ; yet he remained silent and made no use of it
until the middle of February, 1796, when Delacroix announced the intention
of sending an envoy extraordinary to the United States. This Monroe sought to
prevent, and an interchange of complaint and reply resulting in nothing satis-
factory by May, the President in July, at which time the May despatches were re-
ceived, determined to recall Monroe.
17961 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 45
I have been honored. Did I ever wish for them ? Not for
the English business I think you will readily believe. No.
Nor for either of the others. When this service shall be
sufficiently discharged I can retire perfectly contented to
my books and to silent obscurity ; but to the tedious drudg-
ery of the bar, to an office without clients, or to invidious
labor and its wretched pittance of retribution, while my
juniors during my absence will not only have gained upon
me all my advancement, but left me far behind them, to
tug again at the oar while they enjoy the favors of the gale
and stream at once — I will not pretend that I shall readily
acquiesce in such a course as that. The first and most
strenuous of my endeavors will be to preserve my independ-
ence entire. Rather than surrender or impair that, I shall
submit to anything not dishonest or dishonorable; but that
preserved, I shall indulge my own inclinations, and adopt
a mode of life which will allow me leisure for my favorite
pursuits and literary studies. Such is at present my hope.
If I can return to leisure I am determined that it shall not be
to idleness. But the Americans have in Europe a sad rep-
utation on the article of literature, and I shall purpose to
render a service to my country by devoting to it the remain-
der of my life.
In one of your late letters you inquire, whether in my pere-
grinations I can find nothing for the University at Cam-
bridge, or for the Academy. 1 I do not mean to be forgetful
of either, especially the former, to which I am personally
indebted for much valuable instruction. Perhaps I might
have been more in haste to offer a tribute of my regard and
veneration to these institutions, but for a profound aversion
in my mind against ambitious donations and begging pres-
1 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which he was elected a member
August 23, 1797.
46 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
ents. If you will answer for it, that in case I should find
something for these institutions they will not .consider it as
a solicitation of their favors, and that they will not confer
them upon me, I shall be the more ready to indulge my in-
clination of showing the respect for them which I really feel.
You will perhaps think there is too much of pride in the com-
position of these scruples ; but having before me your ex-
ample of literary honors acquired, not by the little artifices
of courting notice, but by strong and substantial merits
commanding it, I am more disposed to follow that example
than depart from it for the sake of an academical degree or
fellowship.
Before this letter reaches you the elections for President
and Vice President will be completed, and it will doubtless
decide as to your continuance in the public service. The
President's address to the people of the United States of
September 17, arrived here some time since. I imagine it
will be translated and published in the papers of the country.
There are perhaps some characters here who do not per-
fectly relish it ; the observations upon the absurdity of
having any favorite foreign nation are applicable to other
countries, as well as to the United States. Their justice is
pointedly felt here, and several persons have mentioned to
me the address in terms of the highest satisfaction. But the
foreign nation here is something more than a favorite, and
it requires a degree of courage by no means universal even
to profess any sentiments of independence. Upon which
subject you may judge from the following anecdote. Some
days before the Constitution now before the National As-
sembly was reported by the Committee, I was witness to
a conversation which took place concerning it between the
French Minister Plenipotentiary, whose name is Noel, and
several members of the Assembly and of the Diplomatic
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 47
Committee. All declared themselves very anxious and
curious to know what it would be. Noel at length said he
had heard that it would not establish the principle of unity
and indivisibility. That there would only be nine departments
instead of nine provinces. That in his opinion that would
be a great and pernicious departure from the example which
France had shewn them, in totally dissolving every principle
of federalism, and for his part that he could not approve such
an heterogeneous system. He was proceeding to give fur-
ther tokens of his dissatisfaction in the same tone, when a
member of the Assembly and Committee, 1 one of the most
noted and influential men in the present government, in-
terrupts him with a smile, "Diable, comme vous y allez."
Noel then checking himself says : "Au reste, what I say is
only the opinion of the citizen Noel ; as to the Minister, to
be sure he will find everything that you choose to do excel-
lent. Remember it was only the Citizen Noel that was
speaking and not the Minister." ''Sans doute," replied the
honest Dutchman, "autrement vous sentez bien que je me
tairois." The subject of conversation was then changed.
But afterwards, since the Constitution has been reported, the
member who so candidly confessed that the voice of the
Minister would silence him, of course found his tongue to
declare that the Constitution is fundamentally bad, not fit
even to be made a subject of deliberation, a monster, a
federalism, just so far contrary to the rights of men and citi-
zens as it varies from the glorious precedent of France.
The Constitution is not yet published, nor have the As-
sembly determined as yet whether they will debate it at all.
This decision is to be made to-morrow. I will write you
■ more about it in the course of a few days. At present I can
; only say that it abandons in great measure, but without
1 Hahn. The incident is related in Adams, Memoirs, November 4, 1796.
4 8 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
sacrificing entirely, the federal principle. The legislature
is to be in two branches ; the executive, in a council of state
consisting of seven members ; the council of state to have
a qualified negative upon the laws, adopted from our Con-
stitution. In my next I shall also enter more largely upon
the political state of European affairs in general. The cam-
paign may soon close, and leave the parties nearly where
they were when it began. There will be during the winter
much negotiation, from which the only ground I have to
think it possible that a general pacification will ensue is,
that everybody says it will not. 1
I remain &c.
1 On March 15, 1796, a committee of twenty -one was appointed to prepare and
report within six months after appointment the plan of a constitution. The de-
bates were long and developed a difference of interest on the matter of union. The
preponderance of Holland favored a dissolution of the federal union for the purpose
of consolidating all the provinces into one Republic. The French also favored this
issue, because it was easier to manage one body than eight or ten. The words and
phrases of the day came from France, and "unity" and "indivisibility " exercised a
spell in the proceedings of this Committee. Those who desired to preserve some part
of provincial sovereignty found themselves in a minority. The very name of
federalism was in disgrace, and the example of the United States went for nought
on the ground that the personal character and influence of Washington gave it the
appearance of success. After sitting for five months without producing the
expected Constitution the Assembly received a note from Noel, the French minis-
ter, urging them speedy adoption of a constitution founded upon the principle
of unity and indivisibility, evidently dictated by the Directory at Paris, and
intended to serve as an urgent intimation of what was expected by that body.
The Committee reported November 10, 1796, and a member of the Committee made
his protest against it, and declared his determination to oppose it at every stage,
because it was not founded upon a principle of unlimited unity and indivisibility.
To reject it at that time, as the Assembly wished, would under the law have led to
enlarging the Committee, reporting another constitution, and submitting both to the
people. To defeat that necessity the Assembly voted to accept the reported plan
as the groundwork of their debates, but refused to debate anything that was not
founded upon the indivisibility of the republic. A new committee was named to
make the necessary alterations in the paper thus condemned.
" I have informed you heretofore how cavalierly the constitution lately pro-
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 49
TO JOHAN LUZAC
The Hague, November 25, 1796.
My Dear Sir :
I have just read in the supplement to the Leyden Gazette
of this morning, under the extract of the news from London,
an article which says that General Washington had been
induced, from disgust at the ingratitude with which his
services have been recently paid, to retire from his eminent
station, and to request in a discourse pronounced on the
17th of September, that his fellow citizens would not continue
him in his high office at the next election.
I shall not examine the inducement which Englishmen
may have to impute motives to General Washington un-
worthy of his character, or to attribute ingratitude for public
services to the Americans. But my regard for my country
and for its brightest ornament makes me anxiously desirous
that no aspersion cast upon them should remain in the minds
of our friends.
duced here has been treated, and the appointment of a new committee to draw up
another. There was an inconsistency in the two decrees of the National Assembly,
the first, accepting the plan proposed as a groundwork for deliberation; and the
second passed six days afterwards, and setting it altogether aside, at which some
people have had the weakness to be surprised. But in order to remove all doubts,
not only of the cause but of the manner whereby the alteration was effected, two
members of the Assembly have published an address to the Batavian people, de-
claring that they were the persons who brought it to pass. That when they
found a constitution brought to light infected with the venom of federalism and
calculated only to call back the Stadtholder and slavery; that this constitution
was favored by a great majority of the Assembly; and that their hapless country was
upon the point of receiving the coup-de-grace, they united themselves with a very
small number of friends to liberty, and the next moment stepped into a carriage,
went to Paris, and deposited their well-grounded apprehensions in the bosom of the
French government. The consequences they add are apparent; federalism finds
its six months' labor fruitless, the haters of liberty, spite of the thousand masks
under which they strive to conceal their detested faces, will be crushed, and Nether-
land will be free. Such is the mode of debating constitutions here." To John
Adams, December 24, 1796. Ms.
VOL. II — E
50 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
I hope in the course of a few days to send you the address
of the President to the people of the United States, dated
and published (not pronounced) on the 17th of September.
You will judge from the paper itself whether the disgust
or the ingratitude, which some Englishmen are always ready
to discover, because they would be glad to find them in the
United States of America, were the motives for the retire-
ment from the Chief Magistracy of the American Union.
I flatter myself on the contrary, that you will find his induce-
ments more consistent with the dignity of his character,
and with the honor and justice of the American people.
At the same time I am sure you will concur in the opinion
that it is one of the most interesting papers as a public
document, and in every respect worthy of one whose life
has been one continued benefaction to his country. I know
not whether it can conveniently be inserted in a translation
at full length in the Ley den Gazette ; but I am persuaded
that your brother will have the goodness to correct the im-
pression which an imputation, injurious both to the President
and people of the United States, would leave on the public
mind in Europe. The reasons assigned by the President
himself for declining to be viewed as a candidate for the ap-
proaching election are his time of life, his strong inclinations
towards a retired life, and the peaceable, calm and prosper-
ous state of affairs in that country, which permit him to
retire without apprehending any essential detriment to the
public service. At the same time he bears a testimony
equally just and honorable to his fellow citizens, for the
steady, constant and invariable confidence with which they
have always supported him and rewarded his exertions in
their service. I mention these circumstances with the more
readiness, because I am sure you will be gratified to know
that the imputation of disgust to General Washington, and
79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 51
)f ingratitude to the Americans, is merely the calumny of
English spirits beholding the felicity of the Americans, as
Satan is represented beholding that of our first parents in
:he garden of Eden. 1
I am &c.
TO WILLIAM CRANCH
The Hague, November 29, 1796.
VIy Dear Friend :
• ••••••
In this country they are chiefly busied in preparing a
Constitution for the Batavian Republic. They appear to
De tired of Federalism, and insist upon having a government,
Dne and indivisible. Such at least is the clamor of those to
whom the privilege of speech is allowed. A great majority
Df the people are, however, in their hearts strongly attached
to the federal government under which they have always
lived. I have had an opportunity during my residence here
to observe the practice, as well as the theory, of the new
political religion, which for some years past has been every-
where preached with so much fanaticism. Very soon after
my arrival here a revolution was effected with the help of
the French army. The new comers, who seized under
their patronage the administration of affairs, began with
a formal and solemn declaration of the rights of man and
citizens, according to the most recent, amended, corrected,
1 " Mr. Monroe, I have been informed, is very much incensed at his recall. I
presume you have had occasion to observe the menacing tone which is attributed by
some to the intentions of the French government. I hope and persuade myself
that General Pinckney will be as far from encouraging or provoking any such dis-
position as his predecessor has been. I have been often assured, that Mr. Monroe
enjoyed very highly the confidence of the Directory; that he had great personal
influence with them, and was exceedingly beloved." To Rufus King, November
26, 1796. Ms.
S2 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
and purified French edition of that day. My honest Dutch
people, who had always enjoyed a great portion of habitual
freedom without thinking of its being rested upon mere
metaphysical abstraction, were perfectly astonished to hear
what an abundance more of their rights existed, of which
they had always been deprived, and had not even ever
thought. At the same time they were told that they had
always been taxed beyond all toleration, which was indeed
not far from the truth, and that they should soon find them-
selves relieved, and see how much cheaper a true rights-of-
man government is than a tyrannical, aristocratical, federal
despotism such as they had been used to. The declaration
of rights was not dry from the press, when two of the most
eminent and popular characters who had been concerned
in the preceding government, were arrested and imprisoned,
their papers seized and examined. From that day to this
no charge or accusation has ever been brought against them,
although they have repeatedly reclaimed either a trial or
their freedom. They are still confined, and if any one in-
quires why they are not tried, the rights-of-man gentry an-
swer with perfect coolness, that the reason is, because no
proofs can be produced against them of any crime whatever,
and that if they were tried they must be acquitted and dis-
charged. So much for the rights of man. The legislative
assembly of one of the provinces passes a law. A French
general, sword-by-side, marches into the Hall, accosts the
President of the Assembly, and tells him that the law must
be repealed, for that it shall not be executed. The Assembly
puts itself into a great passion, talks of liberty and equality,
federalism and indivisibility, rings all the commonplace
changes of patriotism and independence, bitterly complains,
inveighs, threatens, and last of all submits. So much for
the rights of citizens. An unlimited freedom of the press
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 53
is proclaimed as an unalienable right. The printer of a news-
paper inserts an article of news which does not perfectly
suit the taste of the ruling powers. By an executive order,
without further proof, he is silenced and his paper suspended
for six weeks, two months, or such other term as those who
signify the order deem proper. So much for the liberty of
the press. In the meantime the taxes have been accumu-
lated beyond all former example. Forced loans, delivery
of gold and silver plate, contributions proportioned now upon
the capital, now upon the income, of every individual,
soldiers quartered upon the citizens, &c, &c, &c, furnish com-
ment upon comment, to explain the true and substantial
meaning affixed to the new code of the rights of man, by
those who publish it with the loudest emphasis.
I remain &c.
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
Amsterdam, December 2, 1796.
Dear Sir :
On the 29th ultimo I received your favor of the 22nd,
which I have not answered before, as the next morning I left
the Hague intending to pass a few days here. In speaking
so confidently as I did in my last letter as to the policy which
Mr. Jefferson will pursue, if placed at the head of our Union,
I did not speak from any direct information, or indeed from
any other source than my general opinion of his character,
and my firm conviction that he could not pursue any other.
There is but one variation in the material policy of the Ameri-
can government which could be attempted, and that is a
variation from a neutral system to a warlike one. Our
friends, as you call them, will no doubt urge this as they have
done hitherto, or perhaps more incautiously still. But they
deceive themselves in imagining that there is a great part
S4 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
of the people in America inclined to become a party in the
war. The immense majority of the people is determined
upon the preservation of peace, and would very soon show the
most pointed disapprobation of any measure on the part of
the executive tending towards a different direction. If the
advisers whom you justly apprehend should prevail to the
adoption of any important change of system, the popular
voice and opinion would soon correct their influence. There
would therefore be a firmness of necessity, which would
prevent any essential evil consequences from a facility of
character, which I think with you is indubitable. As to
any little variations of detail or of parade, I do not take them
at all into the account. With respect to France, Mr.
Jefferson would undoubtedly do everything to conciliate
and harmonize, that the justice and honor of the United
States would permit. Has not the same thing been in-
variably practised by the present President ? If more is
expected, or required ; if the unquestionable rights and sub-
stantial interests of the American people are demanded as
a sacrifice to the humors or the ambitious purposes of whom- j
soever, Mr. Jefferson is not the man who will make himself
the instrument of any such designs. This is an opinion so
strongly fixed in my mind, that I have no doubt whatever
upon the subject. If I should ever find that this judgment is
erroneous, I shall be no less surprised than grieved at the proof.
I am glad to hear that Mr. Pinckney has arrived at Bordeaux
and am anxious to hear what his reception will be at Paris. 1
1 " Mr. Pinckney, our ambassador here, is arrived at Bordeaux after a fifty j
day passage. 1 have had some anxieties as to his manner of reception here. I have
been at no small pains to enlighten our friends here on the character and politics
of the man, on republican rotation, on their changes in America, and every other
argument to convince them, they neither had cause nor right for preferring the
present to the future, nor him to a successor. An address was set on foot here to I
Mr. Monroe, thanking him for services, and regretting his recall. It appeared to me
1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 55
I had heard before receiving your letter that Mr. Monroe
was highly incensed at his recall, and that the reception of
his successor was to be questioned. 1 Mr. Monroe's conduct
in refusing to receive an address, dictated not by regard for
him but by hostility to the government, is altogether honor-
able to him. 2 I most cordially hope that he has recognized
the character and views of those who have advised him with
sentiments so deeply hostile to the American government.
As to our friends I do not imagine that they will scruple
the right of our government to recall any of their ministers
abroad, whenever the executive thinks proper. If so clear
a right as that could be contested, what one attribute of in-
dependence would there be beyond the reach of similar
scruples ? I presume that the disposition of Mr. Pinckney
is not less friendly to the French Republic and its government
than that of his predecessor, and I hope that disposition will
meet with a return equally friendly. 3
I am &c.
made to injure Mr. P[inckney], and to censure our government. I therefore re-
fused. Mr. M[onroe] would not accept the address, and I think has been awakened
by that and some other circumstances, to reconnoitre the dangerous ground on which
he stood, and had been placed by people, less attached to him than hostile to the
members of our government. And I now have no doubt he will behave to Mr.
P[inckney] and to his mission as both demand of him, and as a virtuous American
will hurry to display, who from some prejudice and bad advice may have done
wrong by mistake, but who will repair it by good done with design." Joseph
Pitcairn to John Quincy Adams, Paris, November 22, 1796. Ms.
1 It was known at Paris late in the afternoon of December 12, that the Direc-
tory would not receive Pinckney.
2 "Some of the Americans at Paris drew up and signed an address to Mr. Mon-
roe, expressive of their thanks for his services and regret at his recall; others re-
fused to sign it, and Mr. Monroe himself, aware of the real design which was pro-
posed by this address, refused to receive it. He is, however, as I have heard, very
much offended at his recall." To David Humphreys, December 10, 1796. The
letters on the proposed address are in Monroe, View of the Conduct of the Executive, 399.
3 "I have since seen Mr. Pinckney. From what I can learn the motives are
6 the WRITINGS OF [1796
TO SYLVANUS BOURNE j
The Hague, December 15, 1796.
My Dear Sir :
It must have been from some inaccuracy of expression
on my part in my letter of the day before yesterday, that you
conceived as a symptom of distrust, what I really intended
as a mark of confidence. Nothing could be further from
my design, than to wound your sensibility, or to intimate the
most distant suspicion of your purest integrity. I con-
sidered that by far the most effectual and the only infallible
criterion of confidence shown or discovered, rests upon the
proof of fact, and thought that my former application to
you, and the repetition of it for my present occasion, was
a testimony of my confidence stronger than would result
from any declaration. It was my wish at the same time
to show the government the most reasonable terms upon
which their business could be transacted, and to give you a full
knowledge of this intention. The government do not wish
to have their business done gratis, nor is it my desire to
give any one trouble on their account without an adequate
compensation. I thought I had shown this disposition also
in agreeing at the first moment to every charge which you
that our treaty with England annulls the one with France; that considering no
minister useful in America they had recalled Adet, and consequently none could be
.. anted here. As the recall of Adet went from this in August, Mr. P[inckney] thinks
some step might be taken by our government which he ought to wait, as the delay
cannot be long. I think he judges wisely; had that not been the case he says he
would have instantly returned to America. He appears to me a very respectable
and well informed man." Joseph Pitcairn to John Quincy Adams, Paris, December
15, 1796. Ms. A correspondent wrote to Bourne : "Our minister is refused and
he [sent back ?] ; so you Aristocrats will have some cause to grumble. We
Jacobins — are as proud as peacocks about it." The intimation was given to
Monroe, no notice being taken of Pinckney's letter, lest it should be construed
int'.> Bomc sort of acknowledgment.
, 79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 57
mentioned to me as customary in transactions of this nature,
even to one which you afterwards retrenched, because there
are merchants, who are not in the habit of making it. In
the whole affair I thought my conduct would prove to you
at once my confidence in you, and my full determination
that you should be fairly and liberally paid for your pains.
As to the charge which you observe is no more than what
is customary for the receipt and payment of monies, I shall
not deny that I thought there was another. I did not imagine
that 6/10 per cent upon large sums of money was a customary
charge for merely receiving and paying monies. Indeed, I
had considered the guilder in the thousand as representing
that charge, and had supposed that it was the usual and reg-
ular per centum allowed on all large transactions, for the
special charge of receiving and paying. The idea was per-
haps the more strongly impressed in my mind from the com-
mon, habitual practice I am in of drawing for my own use
very small sums at a charge of one-fourth per cent. But
I have mentioned what I hope will apologize with you,
both for any want of information and for misinformation
upon the subject of commercial business, that I have never
had but little practical knowledge of it. It is for the cor-
rection of such inaccuracies in my own estimates, that I re-
quested the benefit of information from you, and I was the
more persuaded that you would always give it me, as you
had already given it in the relinquishment of one charge to
which I had consented, and when you were under no obliga-
tion to do it. I hope that this explanation will be satis-
factory to convince you that I did not feel or intend to ex-
press, either a want of proper confidence in you, or a desire
that you should do any business at my application gratis.
If Mr. Coster is disposed to supply the remainder of the
money at the former terms, I shall be content to take it;
; THE WRITINGS OF [1796
but at a time when the exchange in America upon this country
is several per cent below par, I have no idea of selling bills
upon the Treasury here at a discount. I had rather wait
or make an attempt elsewhere.
I do not thoroughly understand what is meant by an in-
tention to reimburse the capital of our public debt hypoth-
ecated to individuals, nor who is meant by certain capi-
talists. The United States have no debt hypothecated to
individuals in this country. As to the speculations between
individual and individual upon the hypothecation of our
stocks, it is a subject with which the government have no
concern. I trust that no person employed by the govern-
ment has ever intimated or encouraged an idea that a change
of administration in America would involve it in the Euro-
pean war; and as to what other capitalists may raise of
scarecrow stories, they will always rest upon such false and
flimsy foundations that I do not apprehend any material
ill effects from them, though I think it the duty of every true
American, and of every person well disposed towards the
United States, to counteract as far as he is able the evil
tendency of such designs. 1
I am &c.
1 "I thank you for the loan of the English paper containing the silly paragraph,
from which was taken the extract in the Rotterdam Gazette. Mere opinions
about American affairs, taken from English newspapers, are almost always false,
and always partial against America. In this instance your own intelligence of a
later date shows that the letter from New York, real or pretended, is an impu-
dent falsehood. All my accounts to the 25th of October agree that all was in pro-
found tranquility throughout America. I think the gazetteer at Rotterdam
ought to insert a paragraph to correct the false impression made by the former."
To J. Beeldemaker, December 21, 1796.
"By a letter which I have from Colonel Humphreys of November 14 I think it
most probable that you will not think proper to order my removal before the ensuing
summer, and I beg leave to suggest that the public interest will best be served if
the person, who may be appointed to take my place here, should come before my
i 79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 59
TO SYLVANUS BOURNE
The Hague, December 22, 1796.
My Dear Sir :
I hope you will forgive me when I acknowledge that I
could not read without smiling your letter of yesterday.
It discovers such a lively trepidation at an event very in-
ferior in point of importance to many others which have be-
fallen the American government and people, without proving
their total ruin. 1
That the measure and its intention are profoundly wicked,
profoundly hostile to the United States and their government,
I fully concur with you in opinion. That it calls for the
serious attention of their friends and citizens, that it may in
its consequences call for the exertion of their energetic
qualities, particularly for their fortitude, is very apparent.
But, my dear Sir, believe me, our country is not totally
destitute of such qualities; we have not shown ourselves
fools or cowards, when former occasions have tried our spirits,
nor have I the smallest suspicion that we shall on the present.
You dread the influence of frothy newspaper declamations,
and of party spirit and heats encouraged by this example
departure. Indeed I take the liberty of observing that this would be advantageous
as a general rule in all the changes of the persons employed in foreign missions.
It has two circumstances of weight to recommend it. The first that it serves very
much to facilitate the introduction of the new comer to the affairs of his mission,
and to the means of conducting them ; and the second, that it tends to preserve the
good will of the Government to which the minister is sent. I suffered many incon-
veniences upon my first arrival here on account of the interval which had elapsed since
the departure of my predecessor, both from the disposition that I found in the Gov-
ernment and from want of acquaintance with the persons and things with which I
was to be conversant. Yet I had in this respect the benefit of some former knowl-
edge of the country, and was therefore not entirely new to it." To the Secretary
of State, December 14, 1796. Ms.
1 The letter referred to the announcement that all relations between the Re-
public of France and the United States had ceased.
60 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
of foreign interference. I see their activity and their malig-
nancy no less clearly than yourself, but not with quite so
much apprehension. Suppose its effects should be to turn
the election ? This is probably one of its principal objects,
but should it succeed, what then ? Is the devil to be raised,
or are we to be set all by the ears for having a Virginian in-
stead of a New England man for President? One honest and
able man instead of another ? Indeed these ideas may pass
among Europeans, but they are not worthy of an American.
That the United States, and especially their government,
have many enemies, you are not at this day to be told.
That those enemies will do their worst, both in secret in-
trigue and open action, your own reflection will readily con-
vince you. But remember, that they have virtues too,
which have already defeated many an intrigue and suc-
cessfully resisted many an action ; and do not, with their
European detractors, think our country must upon every
momentous occurrence discover the improvidence or the
weakness of a child.
You have now as you requested the state of my hopes and
fears on this business. I fear (or rather I do not fear, I
know) that faction in America will make of its French pat-
ronage the most that it possibly can. I hope (or rather I
have no doubt), but that the justice, the virtue, and the
spirit of the American people and government will prove
triumphant over the patronage, as well as over the spirit
of faction ; and as to the decision upon the presidential
election, I am not alarmed about it at all, but have the most
unequivocal confidence, that in either of the probable
alternatives, the chief magistracy of the Union will be ad-
ministered with wisdom and integrity, with moderation and
spirit, equal to every exigency to which it may be ex-
posed. . . .
i 79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 61
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, December 22, 1796.
My Dear Sir:
I have been for several days expecting with much anxiety
to hear from you, when this morning I received at once your
two favors of the 13th and 15th instants. The refusal
of the French Directory to receive Mr. Pinckney has been
reported here in different ways, and some have pretended
that it was accompanied with a declaration personally
favorable to Mr. Monroe. I most sincerely regret that they
have taken this step, and hope and trust that it will be
received by the American people as you expect, perfectly
concurring in all your sentiments on the occasion. I have
long seen with pain that the good understanding between
the governments was affected by representations perfidious
to both nations in their origin and disguised in their design.
I still hope that candor and moderation, true patriotism and
a truly friendly spirit, will repair the breach that threatens.
I most cordially wish to France the just and rational benefits
of her contest. I wish with equal sincerity a cordial har-
mony between her government and that of the United States ;
but if it must be paid for at such terms as have been ex-
torted from some others, I believe that a change of the whole
American people as well as of its government must first be
effected.
I am glad to find that Mr. Pinckney determines to wait
for the measures of the government upon the recall of Mr.
Adet, and I perceive with much satisfaction the personal
opinion you entertain of him. His present situation no
doubt is unpleasant to him, but the mortification is that of
our government, it is that of our country; and I hope he
will be persuaded that every true American will share it
6 2 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
with him, and consider that he was subjected to it in the
cause common to all.
With regard to Mr. Monroe, it is my wish and hope, that
he too will not choose to place his dependence upon a state
of separation and opposition to the government which he has
represented ; that he has always been the Minister of
United America, and not the minister of particular interests
and opinions. The present circumstances make it impossible
not to consider this as a question, which is only to be decided
by his future conduct.
The motives which you mention to have been alleged by
the Directory for their refusal are, that the treaty with Great
Britain annuls that with France. But can you inform me
whether anything more specific is pretended, or whether any
instance is designated, in which the American government
has violated any stipulation of the French treaty ? In that
with Britain, you know there is an express stipulation that
nothing in it shall be construed to operate against the pre-
vious engagements of either party. Is it intimated that we
have ever given it a construction opposite to this special
provision ? That the Directory have recalled their Minister
Adet, and do not judge ituseful to sendorto receive a minister
from America, is an indication of their will, but it is not a
reason, nor a ground of complaint. My only anxiety is upon
this point. If France has any substantial cause to suspend
their diplomatic intercourse with the United States, it ought
to be clearly stated. If the proceedings of her government
rest merely upon her construction of a treaty made by them
with another power, upon a construction directly contrary
to the plain letter of that treaty, let it be known ; let the
American people judge for themselves, whether they will
suffer any power upon earth to interfere between them and
their solemn, lawful engagements.
i 79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 63
You will oblige me if you can with propriety let me know,
in what light this measure of the Directory appears to be
considered by the public opinion in Paris. Here, as far as I
can judge, it does by no means meet with general approba-
tion. I have understood that there are Americans in Paris
who receive it with much exultation. Our government has
indeed enemies enough, but for my own part I am fully con-
fident that the result of this, like that of former events, will
prove that it is not without true and resolute friends.
For the citizens of the United States and their property,
which happens to be in the power of the French government,
I feel indeed a considerable anxiety. But as I hope the hos-
tility of their intentions is confined to the government, with-
out extending to individual persons or property, I feel the
less apprehensive on this account.
TO W. & J. WILLINK AND N. & J. VAN STAPHORST
& HUBBARD
The Hague, December 22, 1796.
Gentlemen :
I have received in due time your letters of the 12th instant
and of yesterday, and perceive with regret that you have not
yet succeeded in obtaining the prolongation, for which I had
consented to terms so highly favorable to the creditors. If
your undertakings in the concerns of the United States are
subject to be defeated by every idle fabrication of an English
newspaper copied into a Rotterdam gazette, the American
government may indeed well conclude the necessity of
depending for their credit upon themselves. The paragraph
which you mention was in all probability invented in Eng-
land. The real intelligence from America of a later date
r, 4 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
countenances no such expectations of a dissolution of the
American union, and I trust, gentlemen, that the course of
>nts will soon show, that the American people can elect
a President without involving themselves either in a civil
or a foreign war. The apprehension of such consequences
indicates a very imperfect knowledge of the American char-
acter and history. Such is my opinion ; but if any of you
gentlemen participate in the panic, which you observe has
taken place with regard to the future prospects of the United
States, permit me to recommend to you, not to contribute
in spreading and augmenting it by divulging opinions which,
however speculative when proceeding from you, have a
tendency to impair the prices of the American funds in this
country.
I have seen the accounts of the French Directory's having
refused to receive Mr. Pinckney, but with no such declara-
tion concerning Mr. Monroe as that which you mention.
I believe that in this particular you have been misinformed.
It is not surprising that this circumstance should have
affected the prices of the American funds here, but as in all
probability it will not be followed by anything more im-
portant, I am persuaded the impression will be temporary,
and the stocks will soon rise to their former level. Such
fluctuations are to be regretted but cannot be prevented. . . .
I am Gentlemen, etc.
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, December 24, 1796.
I have mentioned that one of the motives of the French
Directory in their late proceeding * is to influence the Ameri-
1 The refusal to receive Pinckney.
i 79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 65
can election, or to embarrass the new administration. There
is an opinion propagated with great zeal and industry in
every part of Europe, that the union and prosperity of the
United States are dependent altogether upon the personal
character, merits, and popularity of the present President,
and that the moment he shall retire from the government we
shall fall into irreconcilable dissensions, which will soon be
followed by a separation of the northern from the southern
states. In England and France, perhaps among some people
in this country, these ideas are not simple opinions ; they
have ripened into hopes. For whatever affections our
countrymen may indulge in their hearts for this or that Euro-
pean nation, they may assure themselves that they are to all
objects of fear and envy. The prosperity of the American
people has become a reproach to the rulers of Europe,
whether monarchical or republican, and prosperity generates
envy among nations no less than among individuals. A
paragraph has appeared in one of the late English newspapers,
purporting to be founded on a letter from New York written
in October, and announcing that troubles and confusions were
expected to take place upon the approaching election for
President ; that the salutary advice of the present Presi-
dent's address to the people did not appear to have made
any impression upon them ; that in every State there was
some particular favorite but no union, no public spirit ; and
that the division of the States would be the probable con-
sequence of these symptoms. This account has been re-
peated in one of the gazette's here, and coming just at the
same time with the hostile declaration of the French Direc-
tory, has gratified or alarmed all those who from sentiment
or interest take any notice of our affairs. It has produced
an effect upon the stocks, though I have endeavored as far
as I have been able to counteract the impression. I have,
VOL. II — F
66 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
indeed, no letters from which I can form any opinion what-
ever upon the state of our public affairs, and all my authentic
intelligence is generally six weeks or two months older than
that which is current among the merchants. . . .
I am &c.
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, December 30, 1796.
My Dear Sir :
The inclosed extract of a letter from Paris which has been
communicated to me contains certain paragraphs from the
Redacteur, a newspaper used by the French Directory for
their official and non-official publications. It explicitly
denies, you will observe, that the Directory have determined
to suspend their intercourse with the government of the
United States. It is among those paragraphs ! which come
from an official source without being encumbered with
official responsibility. It serves to unfold more clearly the
1 The paragraphs continued thus : "The personal complaints which one govern-
ment may have to object against another cannot be a motive for a rupture between
nations essentially allies and friends, and who having in given times a necessary in-
fluence upon the acts of their representatives, cannot delay reuniting together at
the voice of a common interest.
"Assuredly the French are not insensible to the testimonies of affection and of
interest which the great majority of the citizens of a state in the prosperity of which
they cherish their own work, have given to their cause. They will never forget that
notwithstanding the unhappy suggestions, it passed only by a plurality of two votes,
that /a/a/ treaty which has placed the Americans under the tutelage of the English,
and which contrary to the faith of the Treaty of Alliance, which was to be the price
and guarantee of their liberty, has granted to the commerce of the latter and to
their military provisionings, advantages and facilities refused to France. They
appeal to time, which will destroy all calumnies, to the reason of a people already
fatigued with the new yoke of the English; they appeal in fine to their triumphs,
which ought to dissipate the terrors of a pusillanimous policy, and silence the cal-
culations of an interest ill-understood." This translation was sent in Adams'
letter to the Secretary of State, of December 28, 1796.
i 79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 67
motives and expectations of the French government, as well
as to corroborate the concert between them and the enemies
to the government of the United States, which I have long
seen forming, of which I have often given you my opinion,
and the completion of which, as discovering itself in this
transaction, was intimated to you in my last letter. How
this concert was effected, and how far its future projects ex-
tend, I can easily conjecture, but it is not at present neces-
sary to inquire. The present and immediate object of this
measure is evident ; to influence the choice of President in
the United States, and if it cannot turn the election, to em-
barrass the new administration, and rally all its opponents
under the standard of France. You see there is a pointed
address to the minority of the House of Representatives, and
an invitation to them whenever they can rise to a majority,
to usurp upon the executive functions, and be sure of the
support of France. The objections against "the fatal
treaty which passed only by a majority of two votes," are
all taken you see from the mouths of the American opposers
to the government. The pretence that the treaty gives the
British commercial advantages and facilities for their
military provisionment denied to France, though stated in
general terms for the sake if possible of eluding refutation,
is in such direct opposition to truth, that it only serves to
show that no scruple of morality can interpose an impediment
in the political conduct of those who advance it. Yet they
have not even the address or the countenance to dwell upon
this article ; it is the British tutelage, the British yoke, upon
which they lay their principal stress. They appeal to the
reason of our people and to their own triumphs, to dissipate
the terrors of a pusillanimous policy ; it is for our own sakes
that they take all this generous concern in our welfare, and
they contemplate their own work in our prosperity.
68 THE WRITINGS OF [1796
And thus the American government is to abandon the
solemn engagements of the United States, and involve them
in an inevitable war, which must ruin their commerce, and
check if not destroy their prosperity, because it suits the
good will and pleasure of the French Directory, and because
France, by sacrificing not only her commerce and prosperity,
hut millions of her own lives and all that can render life
valuable to the remainder, has obtained some triumphs
which are still very far from being secured.
The violation of the British treaty and a war with Britain,
therefore, are what the French government wish to provoke.
The House of Representatives is the instrument which they
intend to use, and the Comte d'Avaux's policy, fear, the fear
of their displeasure, the motive which they purpose to in-
spire. We shall see how they will succeed.
At the same time with this letter from Paris came the
account that the Directory ordered Lord Malmesbury to
withdraw within forty-eight hours. 1 They have not however
ventured to break up the negotiation entirely, every cir-
cumstance contributes to prove that they wish to continue
the war with Britain, but at the same time fear the wishes
of their own people for peace. I send you the papers con-
taining the last papers published in the course of the negotia-
tion. 2 You will plainly see that they are determined to
avoid a peace, if they can.
If when this and my late letters reach you, they find you
still in the service of the public, I hope they may contribute
1 December 19. Malmesbury was sent to Paris in October, with instructions
to insist on the restoration of Belgium to Austria as a preliminary of peace. This
condition was out of the question, and further, the Directory had on December 16
despatched a fleet from Brest to make a descent upon Ireland. To negotiate under
that condition was not likely to lead to results tending to peace.
1 See Official Copies of the Correspondence of Lord Malmesbury and the Directory
of France . . . relative to the Negotiations for Peace, London, 1796.
I79 6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 69
to give you some little information of utility. If you are
not, they can do no harm. France in that case will have
answered one purpose for herself and her party, though I
fondly cherish the hope that even then, the ultimate objects
of both will be disappointed.
Should you still hold a public station, it needs no obser-
vation on my part to convince you of the delicate situation
in which the Government will be placed to preserve the firm-
ness, the spirit, and the dignity, which must not be aban-
doned, and to avoid at the same time a rupture with France.
There is but too much reason to suppose that the opposition
party in America will provoke and negotiate such a rupture,
rather than abandon their designs ; they have acquired a
footing too firm with the French government, and much
caution, much prudence, much candor, and moderation will
be necessary to counteract prepossessions which have been
artfully instilled, and demonstrate interests which have been
misrepresented. The friendship of France may, I have no
doubt, be still recovered ; but not by submission to her
caprices, or by acquiescence in her exclusive preferences.
A full, clear, and explicit denial of any commercial advantages
or facilities of military provisionment to the British is indis-
pensable ; for, as this is the only color of a rational complaint
that they have exhibited, it is necessary as it is easy to take
it completely from them.
You will find by the papers that the expedition from Brest
has sailed. Its destination is yet unknown. 1 The amended
1 The expedition under Hoche, which left Brest December 16, to land troops in
Ireland. A part of the fleet reached Bantry Bay, but a storm dispersed them,
and they were forced to return without having accomplished anything.
"America is my country; there all my hopes and all my intentions center,
and I know not of any misfortune that could befal myself personally, which I
should consider more severe than that of being condemned to a constant residence
in any part of Europe. The inclinations of my friends are perfectly coincident with
yo THE WRITINGS OF [i797
Constitution was yesterday reported to the National As- I
sembly here. The discussion is to begin next week.
Your dutiful son.
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, January 10, 1797.
My Dear Sir :
The last post from Paris brought me your favor of the
31st ultimo. I think Mr. Pinckney's determination not
to leave the post of his designation without a formal order
perfectly proper. After what I have seen, there is no insult
from the French government that could in any manner sur-
prise or be unexpected. They are, indeed, determined to try
the temper of the American people, and I hope that convic-
tion will result from their experiment.
The address of Mr. Monroe to the President of the Direc-
tory and his answer have appeared in the French papers
since the date of your last. 1 If it is possible to raise a pre-
tension to national superiority on one part, and of national
dependence on the other, in any words that language can
my own, and they have more than once intimated to me a wish to have me return
home as speedily as possible. This is my own settled determination, which I shall
effect whenever my duty to the public, and to your interest, will permit." John
Quincy Adams to Miss Louisa C. Johnson, December 31, 1796. Ms.
1 See Monroe, View of the Conduct of the Executive, 397. Barras was then
President. "You will long ago have seen Mr. Monroe's address of leave, and the
Directories answer. The first has appeared to the Americans generally agreeable,
but the French say that no refusal of Mr. Pinckney discharged him of the duty
to mention his mission. The reply is as yet without an advocate, intentionally dark,
proud boastings, invidious assumptions, threats and offers of peace (without a war),
mark high pretentions, schemes unripe, and angry minds. Their personal com-
pliment to Mr. Monroe (if they wish him well) is equally misplaced; for it implies
that he has advocated principles his government denied, or censured measures it
has thought fit to pursue." Joseph Pitcairn to John Quincy Adams, Paris, Janu-
ary 6, 1797. Ms.
1797) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 71
use, it is raised in the Director's [Barras] speech. Accord-
ing to him France would abase herself in discussing with
America questions concerning the interest of both, and why ?
Because France is surrounded by a retinue of victories, and
rich with the opulence of her allies. Is this the language of
friendship ? Is it a proper language even for justly offended
friendship ? Is it the language that a member of one govern-
ment has a right to address to another independent govern-
ment ? Is it language that even in the bitterness and rancor
of a deadly war they have used to their most inveterate enemy's
government ? No, it is the language of an assumed pre-
tence of superiority, which the affectation of regard for the
good people of America poorly countervails. The Director
further pretends that the American people owe their liberty
to France. The pretence is false and unjust. It rests upon
a principle of dependence which the American people never
would have submitted to.
The American people carried on for three years their
struggle against Great Britain alone, and they were the
three most trying and most dangerous years of the war.
At the time when they solemnly declared their independence,
when their Representatives in Congress pledged their lives,
their fortunes, and their sacred honor in its support, France
was so far from giving them any assistance, that the policy
of her government was coolly settled to be, that the Americans
should be compelled to return to subjection. Does the
Directory think that the Americans have never seen the secret
memorial of Mr. Turgot, from which this fact is established
indisputably ? Does the Directory forget the declaration
of their own predecessors, the Executive Council ; have they
forgotten the declaration of their own national Convention,
to the President of the United States, of that very national
Convention from which they themselves have been selected,
72 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
that the support, which the ancient Court of France lent
them in the war for their independence, was merely the fruit
of a base speculation ("n'etait que le fruit d'une vile specu-
lation") ? Or have the Directory, with many other parts
of the system pursued by the French monarchy, pursued that
of Vergennes and Montmorin, "dans le terns meme ou ce
bon peuple nous exprimait de la maniere la plus touchante
son amitie et sa reconnaissance." The President of the Di-
rectory has done more ; for however mischievous the designs
of Vergennes and Montmorin were against the United States,
they never advanced a pretension that France abased her-
self in treating with them, or amicably discussing common
concerns with their government. They never pretended
that America owed her liberty to France. On the contrary,
they formally disclaimed every idea both of superiority and
dependence, and the Treaty of February 6, 1778, expressly
declares, that the basis of the arrangements established
between the two countries are the most perfect equality
and reciprocity, avoiding all burdensome preferences as a
source of dissensions, embarrassments, and discontents. The
date of that treaty, more than nineteen months after the
Americans had declared their independence, sufficiently
shows that we never did depend upon France for our liberty.
It was not until the Americans had proved, by compelling
a British army of ten thousand men to surrender as prisoners
of war, their ability to maintain their cause alone, that the
speculation at the French Court changed its views, and they
espoused a cause at the moment when they became convinced
that it would sooner or later prevail, whether they espoused it
or not.
I do not observe that the Paris papers, although they dis-
cuss most of the measures of the Directory, have taken th<
proper notice of this very strange speech of Barras. I wisl
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 73
that some opportunity might be found to introduce into some
accredited journal some observations, similar to those I have
here mentioned. The Directory affect to address themselves
to the American people, in contradistinction to the govern-
ment. I think that much good might be derived from a fair
and moderate discussion, to enlighten the public opinion of
France concerning the conduct of their Directory towards
the United States. I think it impossible that the French
people should be willing to support such conductor encourage
such language, if the plain and simple story of truth were
laid before them. As to the foundation of the tone of insult
and menace assumed by the Directory, it still remains a
secret to me, and I believe to the whole world. "The con-
descension of the American government for the suggestions
of their ancient tyrants," is as vague, as unintelligible (I
might say as artistement obscur), as the claim of superiority
is unjust, and the pretence of dependence unsupported.
You observe that the grievance must be, that the British
are now admitted by treaty to a participation of some of
the advantages possessed by the French. But our treaty
with France expressly stipulates, that both parties shall
reserve to themselves respectively the liberty to allow a
participation at its own choice of all commercial advantages
to other nations ; and the treaty with Britain as expressly
stipulates, that none of its articles shall be construed to
militate with any previous engagement of either party. As
for the right of selling prizes in our ports, without renewing
discussions which must be interminable, upon a construction
which, after all, each party must make within its own terri-
tories ; if a difference of construction on this article is the
substantial ground upon which a French Director under-
takes to menace us with the victories and the riches of France,
it should be publicly known.
74 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
The article of the treaty should be given, and the sub-
stantial reasons assigned on each side to support its con-
struction should be fairly stated. If those of the American
government have been weak or captious, evasive or insincere,
let them be shown to the world in their deformity, and then
let the French Directory without abasement declare the con-
sequences, and threaten the resentment of the rich and
victorious Republic of France. But if riches or victories
are considered as warranting the rejection of amicable dis-
cussion, the avowed claim of national superiority and the
pretence of fastening upon us the shackles of dependence,
I trust the Directory will in time discover that there are men
who will resist usurpation and spurn at encroachment no
less than themselves, and that the American government
will no more submit to a modern than it ever yielded to an
ancient tyrant.
I remain &c.
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, January 13, 1797.
Dear Sir :
Since I wrote you on the 10th instant I have received your
obliging favor of the 6th, and find our sentiments perfectly
concur upon the singular speech of the Director Barras to
Mr. Monroe. What Mr. Monroe's opinion may be of per-
sonal compliments to him, coupled with scorn and indignity
to his country and the Government which employed him,
is not my business to inquire. I have hoped he would re-
member above all that he was an American, and as he boasts
his military services against one nation, his hatred of which
I believe nobody doubts, that he would not contribute to
the servility of his own country towards another nation,
however ardent his own attachment to its interests, or his
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 75
inclination to gratify its will might be. It is very evident
that the French government will do for him all that it can.
I presume he is prepared to return the same for them. The
Frenchmen who, as you observe, think he ought to have men-
tioned Mr. Pinckney's mission, do not perhaps reflect that
it might have displeased the Directory. The reason is
indeed not sufficient, but it might in that instance be
effectual.
Your idea that the design is to produce a suspension of
our trade with Great Britain is extremely probable, and it
has been my settled opinion for many months ; but it is
not possible to convince France that, if the Americans must
choose, their interest will necessarily compel them to take
the British commerce with peace, in preference to the friend-
ship of France and war. Cannot the Directory see, that
if they will proceed in such a manner as they are now going
on, they may drive America into alliance with their enemies ;
or is it the intention of the Directory to lose all the friends
that France ever had ? Do they think of nothing but stretch-
ing a string, without recollecting that beyond a certain ten-
sion it must break ? Such indeed seem to be their pre-
possessions. I wish that time and further reflection may
remove them.
The absurdity and inconsistency which you notice in the
arguments for attacking Britain, now because she is too strong,
and now too weak ; at this moment, because her power is in
the agonies of death, and at the next, because nothing less
than a universal combination of the whole earth can resist it,
is indeed glaring, and equally destitute of foundation in both
extremes. The power of Britain is great, and deserves to
be counteracted by the general and concurring policy of all
commercial nations. I have no doubt of the universal dis-
position to promote this object, nor of the means which
7 6 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
this disposition would willingly concert; but it is not by
going to war for a freak of France to increase her territories
and extend her conquests, that any nation will pursue its
commercial interest; not by exposing commerce to imme-
diate destruction, that its future protection is to be secured.
France, it seems, wishes us to burn our barns, for fear of
being robbed of their corn. No, it will never do. But the
arguments which are used to prove the weakness of Britain
are so far founded, that they may really tend to diminish
the concern at her extraordinary naval power. The burthen
of debt, the internal discontents, the character of the ap-
parent successor to the Crown, and the state of society and
manners in England, all serve to encourage the expectation,
that if the island is left to itself, it will have other more
urgent objects of pursuit than that of engrossing the whole
commerce of the world. Let France undertake a general
concert of maritime power by treaties made in peace, with-
out intermingling the conquest of Belgium, and the frontier
of the Rhine in the project, and she will not find it difficult
to succeed. But then she must not insult those whom she
wishes to persuade, nor talk of abasing herself by discus-
sions with an independent nation.
Of Mr. Pinckney's reception for the present I have no
expectation whatever, but, after what has happened, I shall
not be surprised if the further indignity should be added of
ordering him away. But I do not believe that the American
government will appoint any other Minister. Mr. Pinckney's
personal character is universally respected and beloved, as
far as I have ever heard of it. His political sentiments are
known to be as friendly to the harmony between the United
States and France, as those of any man can be, as favorable
to the interests of France, as is possibly consistent with his
patriotism. If the Directory want more, it is not proper
i 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 77
that they should be gratified, and certainly they cannot wish
for less. I have not the most distant idea that Mr. Jeffer-
son will yield in this point, more than any other man. . . .
I have letters from America of October 28. I presume
that the recall of Adet had not then arrived. I observe that
it has been denied from authority by the Redacteur, that all
communication was suspended between the governments of
France and the United States. I feel a considerable con-
fidence that good would result, if a true statement of the
Directory's refusal of Mr. Pinckney and their total destitu-
tion of reasonable ground, or even pretext for it, were made
known to the public. For as so flagrant an insult as that,
with the speech of Barras, was scarcely ever offered to a free
and independent nation, so that world ought to know, that
there never was an insult more wanton or unprovoked. . . .
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, January 14, 1797.
My Dear Sir :
I received yesterday your favor of October 28, and it is
by several weeks the latest letter that I have from America.
It tells me that the elections were going on with as little
bitterness as could be expected, and this in the present
circumstances is grateful intelligence. But all my American
correspondents, public and private, as they appear to care
nothing about the affairs of Europe, seem alike to think us
indifferent to those of America. This inattention will even-
tually produce consequences very serious to our country and
its government.
There are others who feel the importance of European
intercourse and an incessant vigilance towards it more
forcibly, and cultivate it more assiduously. They have at
?8 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
least succeeded to make hard work for the government of
the United States. In my letters to you last summer will
be found as clear an anticipation as my observations could
discover and my reflections combine of the events which are
now taking place. I have not been silent on the subject to
the Secretary of State. Of nearly thirty letters which I have
written him since my return from England, I have an acknowl-
edgment that four have been received. In one of your late
letters it is intimated ( to me that the correspondence has
not been on my part sufficiently frequent with the Treasury
Department. I shall endeavor to avoid that complaint in
future, but I hope it will be considered just that some sug-
gestion should be made to me of the objects upon which in-
formation is desired, some instructions upon which a cor-
respondence can be founded, and some sort of returns to
the earnest solicitations which my letters have contained of
measures to direct my conduct, and to provide for the punctu-
ality of the United States in this country. To an urgent
letter from me to the Secretary of the Treasury, written on
the 13th of last June, I am still panting for an answer. The
provision which I so long since entreated to be made in season
has been now nearly two months defective. I am assaulted
by dunning creditors on one side, by impatient bankers on
the other, and month after month elapses in profound
silence of advices or remittances from America. While the
payments are failing, rumors of troubles and dissensions in
the United States spread abroad, the funds depreciate, I
am called upon from every quarter to know what the
real accounts from thence are, and have only to confess that
my accounts are two or three months in arrear of the current
course.
It is not for the pleasure of complaining that I mention
these circumstances ; but on the one hand, I regret that
,797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 79
a want of these reciprocal communications disenables me
from so useful a discharge of my duty as my own wishes would
dictate ; and on the other, that I sometimes take great pains
to compare and combine symptoms that occur in Europe
to announce what an attentive correspondence from America
would inform me to be an old story there, thoroughly under-
stood, and about which all my toils would be perfectly use-
less. An instance of the last kind, considerably important,
is that of the suspicions intimated in my letter to you N.
24. 1 When I wrote it I had not heard a syllable of the French
project upon our western territory. But the concurrence
of several circumstances which I then noticed to you con-
vinced me, that something very pernicious to the United
States was in agitation, though I could not precisely divine
what it was. Afterwards, from the American newspapers
when I received them, and especially from the President's
address to the people, I found that I might spare myself
the trouble of endeavoring to detect what was already
abundantly discovered, and that it would be needless to
lose myself in a chase of probabilities, to throw a new mite
of conjecture into the settled balance of demonstration.
I have already written you an account of the refusal of
the French Directory to receive Mr. Pinckney, and the
apparent alliance between them and the internal enemies of
the American government. But since my last letter Mr.
Monroe has delivered his letters of recall, and upon that oc-
casion made a speech which was answered by the President
of the Directory, Barras. Mr. Monroe's address indicates
what his language and conduct will be upon his return.
The same unqualified devotion to the French will, which
made him so confidential with Fauchet upon the parties
within the United States before he set out upon his mission,
1 August 13, 1796.
8o
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
has influenced him in this last transaction; and at the mo-
ment when a national indignity, outrageous as it was un-
provoked, was offered to his country, he still condescends to
flatter them, by an eulogy upon the generous services, which
they themselves have long since publicly and officially de-
clared to have been merely the fruit of a vile speculation;
by a declaration as false as it is dishonorable to America,
that the principles of their Revolution and of ours were the
same; by an exulting reference to his military services in
our war; and by an ostentatious avowal of his partiality for
the present cause of France, and all this without even hinting
the mission of Mr. Pinckney, whose personal and patriotic
merits are surely not inferior to his own. The answer of
Barras is such that I scarcely know which it inspires most,
of indignation at the design which it developes, or of con-
tempt for the mode of its execution. In comparison with
it the language of Genet was decency and modesty. The
public opinion concerning it in Europe appears unanimous.
I have not heard it mentioned by an individual but with
disgust at its thrasonical bombast, and ridicule at its bully-
ing menaces. This tone has been instigated by their Ameri-
can partisans, who have suggested to them that the American
government and people must be frightened into a violation
of their treaty with Britain and of their neutrality. The
affectation of parade which was made on this occasion, the
display of Ambassadors from Sardinia, from a Duke of
I'arma, and a Bey of Tunis, 1 the trophies from the battle
of Areola, and the commandant of the national guards, all
you may be sure were designed to look and sound very tre-
mendous. They really think the American people not only
1 Comtc Balbo was ambassador from Sardinia ; the Marquis del Campo was
ambassador from Spain and charge d'affaires of the Duke of Parma; and Mehemet
Coggca was envoy from Hamonde Pacha, Bey of Tunis.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 81
as ignorant of Europe as they themselves are of America, but
moreover idiots and cowards, upon whom tinsel can with the
utmost facility be palmed for bullion, and with whom a Bey
of Tunis or an Infant Duke of Parma would furnish as potent
a proof of the invincible prevalence of the French power,
as the Empires of Austria, Russia, or Great Britain. In
reality their selection of ambassadors to witness their triumph
over Mr. Monroe has in it something burlesque. Tremble,
O ye people of America, for at the moment when a French
Director announces the fury of France against your govern-
ment, his Republic, rich by her liberty, surrounded by a ret-
inue of victories, and strong by the esteem of her allies, dis-
plays before your eyes her dubious Italian trophies, and her
expiatory embassies from the Duke of Parma and the Bey
of Tunis ! All this in substance is perfectly ridiculous ; but
coupled with the insolence of Barras's speech, with his pro-
fessed distinction between the government and the people
of the United States, with his compliments to Mr. Monroe,
and his recommendation to him to go home and represent •**%
the American people there, it fully proves that'the design
of attack upon the government by a renewal of Genet's
appeal to the people is prepared and concerted, so as to open
upon the commencement of a new administration. They
very evidently expect great effects from this manoeuvre;
their American partisans in Europe already exult, as if our
rupture with Great Britain was completely effected,
the friends of our government are alarmed and fearful that
they will be intimidated into submission, or abandoned by
the people their only support ; that this patronage of France
will give such weight to the efforts of faction that they will \
be no longer resistible, and the system of neutrality will
necessarily be overturned. * To say that I myself am with-
out profound anxiety in this respect would be idle and false.
vol. n — G
: THE WRITINGS OF [1797
The character, temper and conduct of the two last Houses
of Representatives in Congress have made it impossible to
discard apprehensions for the future, and the measures which
the popular leaders of the antifederal party have adopted,
sanctioned and justified, remove every hope that any scruple
of independence, patriotism or justice will interfere between
the views of France and their active exertions to support them.
I presume, however, that there is in the American govern-
ment a spirit which will not tamely submit to be bullied out
of its system, even by the combined insolence of a French
Directory, with the utmost malignity of internal faction.
I presume also, that a great majority of the American people
will see through the object of this transaction, and despise
the insidious attempt to separate and discriminate them
from their government. I hope that to the future President
of the United States, whoever he may be, the peace of his
country, its honor, and its justice will be as dear as they are
to the present, and while every honest voice is uttering
admiration, and every humane heart ejaculating blessings
to the name of Washington, that his successor, by exhibit-
ing a continuance of the same wisdom, firmness and modera-
tion, will prove to the sceptics in political speculation, that
the American soil is fruitful of those virtues, and the Ameri-
can people determined to support them.
A rupture of our treaty with Great Britain is in a manner
the professed demand upon which the French Directory
have made these recent terrific demonstrations ; a suspen-
sion of our trade with Britain will perhaps be required, as
a condition for a restoration of their good-will. That this
is their clear design, I have long since written you. How
far they will go to obtain their end, it is impossible to
Bay. It will depend in a great measure upon the support
they meet from their party in America. If our government
,797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 83
discover a single symptom of a disposition to yield ; or if
the House of Representatives for the ensuing Congress
should from its complexion encourage the hopes of obtain-
ing a majority adverse to the system of the Executive, the
Directory will not scruple at any measure of hostility which
they may imagine, or be persuaded, will increase their in-
fluence by the arguments of fear. It is painful to say it,
but I am afraid it is true, that they will be instigated from
America to repeat and accumulate hostilities to promote the
purpose. But if the executive should maintain that dignified
firmness and moderation which has hitherto distinguished it,
and the Representatives more decidedly concur in the estab-
lished system of neutrality than they have done, the French
government will inevitably retreat, abandon their design of
driving us into the war, and be willing to resume their ami-
cable intercourse with that of the United States.
In forming this opinion, which is perfectly decided in my
mind, I draw the conclusion both from their present mode
of proceeding, and from their conduct hitherto with all
the other neutral nations. My letters of last summer have
given you a detail of their proceedings to defeat all the neu-
trality in Europe, and of their various success according as
the neutral state was or was not totally in their power.
In Florence, Venice, Genoa and Lucca they succeeded ;
but in Sweden, in Denmark, in Turkey, and even in Prussia,
they totally failed. Their experiment upon Sweden has
probably thrown that power permanently into the Russian
scale, and had they not desisted from their intrigues and
menaces against Denmark, they would have met with the
same disappointment there.
Notwithstanding their refusal to receive Mr. Pinckney,
they have authorized a public denial of the report that they
had suspended all intercourse with the government of the
8 4 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
United States ; at the same time their affectation of court-
ship to the people of the United States shows that their real
object is only to intimidate, and indeed in their present
situation, however they may bluster, they have no inclina-
tion to increase the number of their enemies.
In order to defeat the views of further hostility which
may be urged by the domestic enemies of the government,
and to deter the Directory from proceeding any further, it
appears to me a very important and very effectual measure
would be for the American government, by the means of
some official paper, to expose, in a clear and explicit manner,
the total want of provocation by them that would palliate
the injustice and insolence of the Directory ; to show beyond
the power of refutation, as might be done with perfect ease,
that France has not the smallest pretext for a rupture ; to
state the unquestionable right of the United States to con-
tract the engagements of the British treaty, and to disclaim
in the most explicit manner every idea of violating any of
the previous engagements with France; to prove that the
British treaty itself protects every former stipulation with
other powers, and at the same time decisively to repel every
pretence that the United States were ever dependent upon
France for anything more than obligations of reciprocal
and equal alliance. An official paper of this kind, written
with coolness and temper, like the letter demanding the re-
call of Genet, would have a very favorable effect upon the
public opinion of all Europe, and of France in particular,
where the people are already heartily sick of war, and where
upon the appearance of such a statement, the Directory
would not dare take any further violent measures. For
even now everybody inquires what the United States have
done, or what the occasion is of this conduct of the Directory ;
nothing is stated to the public, but a vague pretence of a more
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 85
favorable stipulation for military provisionings to the British
than to them, and an intimation of studied obscurity that
the American government had condescended to the sug-
gestions of their ancient tyrants. In the paper mentioned
in my last letter this word suggestions is likewise used, when
they say, that the "fatal treaty passed (in the House of
Representatives) only by a majority of two," notwithstand-
ing wretched suggestions. Perhaps you may not be aware
that they mean by this word to intimate bribery. This is
undoubtedly its meaning, and the obliquity of the expres-
sion is for the sake of eluding the repulse of a just indigna-
tion, which a direct assertion of the same thing would nat-
urally rouse. But in another paper from the same source,
and published alike in the Redacteur, they have produced
the lie in all its naked malignity and deformity. For they
charge Great Britain with endeavoring to overthrow the
balance of Europe by abandoning Poland to its fate, and by
enriching herself with the spoils of the French commerce,
by a treaty perfidiously purchased — "par un traite perfide-
ment achete."
Indeed, cruel and false as this intimation is, it cannot be
surprising not only that they should advance, but even that
they should believe it. During several months, if the con-
curring reports of many different persons may be believed,
Mr. Monroe made no scruple or hesitation to say in public
and mixed companies, that he had not the smallest doubt
but Mr. Jay was bribed to sign the treaty, and to one person
he added that to his certain knowledge, when Mr. Jay was
employed to negotiate for our navigation of the Mississippi,
he did in fact negotiate against it. 1 The French, alas ! have
1 This refers to the propositions made in 1786 to the Continental Congress when
Secretary for Foreign Affairs. See Sparks, Diplomatic Correspondence, 1783-1789,
III. 202 et seq.
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
but too clearly discovered that at least one man l high in the
American government was not only susceptible of bribery,
but capable of begging it; and where they had such satis-
factory proof of a readiness for prostitution to them, it
cannot be wondered that they should believe the imprudent
and iniquitous prejudices of Mr. Monroe's opinions, of a like
propensity in others, though towards a different direction.
You will however perceive in the present conduct of the
Directory what sort of a disposition they bear towards an
administration at the head of which you may be placed.
They know perfectly well how inflexibly you maintained the
honor and interest of America in former times against the
insidious policy of Vergennes, and they know equally the
consistency and firmness of character, which will alike main-
tain the same cause against their more pernicious designs.
Whatever, therefore, their artifices, working upon populai
passions and concerted with antifederal partisans, can effect,
you will take it for granted they will endeavor. Should the
suffrages of the American people impose upon you the bur-
then of the chief magistracy, it will be necessary to consider
this as a settled point, as a source of embarrassments anc
obstacles, against which every possible counteracting pro-
vision must be made. If the helm of our public affairs
should be committed to other hands, they will certainly be
more favored by the French Directory, so long as it shal
be under the government of Sieyes ; but I hope they wil
not be found more ready to sacrifice the welfare of America
to the humble pupil of Favier 2 and Franklin, than yours.
The Directory is composed of discordant materials, bui
they have divided their functions into several departments
1 F.dmund Randolph.
1 Jean Louis Favier (c. 1720-1784), author of an essay on the "Government oi
Holland" (1748), and another on the "Position of France in the Political Systen
of F.uropc."
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 87
and the transaction of all business relative to each particu-
lar department is left to one member. The department of
the foreign affairs is thus held by Rewbell, 1 a man of strong
nerves and weak brain, altogether under the direction of
Sieves, whose cool head, unfeeling heart, and cowardly dis-
position, have been noticed to you in former letters. He
dared not take himself a seat which was offered him in the
Directory, but he knew that the opinions of his old colleague
would be at his disposal, and has accordingly always governed
him. This circumstance is well known ; for Sieyes, having
among his other qualities some vanity, takes care to have it
understood that he is the manager of Rewbell. It seems to be a
sort of association, in which each supplies the qualities denied
to the other. One is the soul, and the other the body.
One enjoys the profit and parade with the personal dangers of
office, and the other has its management and conduct, but
without its responsibility. Sieyes bears a personal ill-will
to you, a political ill-will to the prosperity and union of the
United States, and a speculative ill-will to the principles of
our Constitution ; and with all these dispositions concurring
together, no proof of malevolence that may hereafter be
given will be unexpected to you. I have formerly suggested
that no scruple of morality will interfere, to prevent the use
of any means by which the French government may think
a desirable end attainable, and my opinion is founded, not
only upon their uniform conduct through all their Revolu-
tions, but upon the professed principles avowed by the publi-
cations of those who have been employed in the direction
of their public affairs. The memoirs of Dumouriez, of
Madame Roland, and of Garat, are full of proofs that this
idea is not without foundation.
A resolution not to be moved, a candor and moderation
1 Jean-Francis Rewbell (1747-1807).
88 THE WRITINGS OF [179?
not to be angered, a sincere regard for the welfare and wish
for the friendship of France, with a temper not to be intimi-
dated by menaces or forced by hostilities, unfolded clearly
to the sense and understanding of all the world, I am con-
vinced, would go far to disarm them of all the weapons upon
the efficacy of which they now place their dependence.
Something must be done, and I beg leave again to repeat the
solicitation, that a more steady and systematic attention
to the affairs of Europe in general may be paid by the govern-
ment. The President, indeed, has told us, and I am pro-
foundly convinced of the justice and importance of the advice,
that we ought not to involve ourselves at all in the political
systems of Europe, but to keep ourselves always distinct
and separate from it. But even to effect this, constant and
early information of the current events and of the political
projects in contemplation is no less necessary than if we were
directly concerned in them. It is necessary for the discovery
of the efforts made to draw us into the vortex, in season to
make preparations against them. From one of the quota-
tions in this letter, it is observable that France very formally
considers the United States as forming a weight in the balance
of Europe. France must, therefore, necessarily conduct
itself towards us upon this supposition. Britain will with
equal certainty do the same. It behooves us to be the more
cautious and vigilant to counteract all their intrigues and
exertions on either side to make us the instruments or the
victims of their conquering or plundering ambition. The
late king of Prussia always answered with his own hand every
dispatch from every one of his ministers abroad. If he had
no instructions to give, yet he never failed to acknowledge
the receipt of the dispatch, and recommend to the minister
a continuance of his zeal and industry. The mere effect of
such an example spreads in more than a geometrical ratio. .
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 89
Negligence on one side creates it on the other, and I know
from personal experience how readily indolence and careless-
ness will creep in upon the steadiest resolutions of industry,
with an apology derived from a reciprocal inattention. Un-
til Mr. Pickering was appointed to the State Department my
letters were scarcely ever answered, and of more than fifty
letters that I wrote the receipt not of five was ever acknowl-
edged. With regard to me and my mission, it might not
be of material consequence ; but the case was the same with
all the other ministers of the government in Europe; all
were neglected, and it would have been but natural if many
had been tempted thereby to inattention in return.
I am &c.
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
[Oliver Wolcott]
The Hague, January 20th, 1797.
Sir:
• ••••••
The great prevalence of easterly winds for the last three
months has been the occasion that all the vessels from
America have had long passages, and accounts for the ex-
traordinary time elapsed between the date and reception of
the present remittances. At the same time I beg leave to
suggest, that the common accidents of an Atlantic voyage
make it indispensable for the maintenance of punctuality,
that the remittances destined for the provision of any par-
ticular payment be dispatched from America at least two
months before the day when that payment becomes de-
mandable. And I cannot in terms too forcible urge the
importance of invariable punctuality in the European pay-
ments. I hope it will not be deemed impertinent, though
9o THE WRITINGS OF [1797
it may perhaps be superfluous, to observe that among the
favorite pursuits of the more inveterate enemies to the govern-
ment of the United States, that of perplexing the operations
of their finances, and depriving it of the credit of regularity,
is not the least persevering or inflexible. I may add, that
at the present moment and in this country credit is power.
It would not be surprising if a foreign power of very effica-
cious influence here should be now inclined, and should for
some time to come labor to procure the show of a political
variance between this Republic and the government of the
United States, and there is nothing that can so strongly
contribute to counteract such designs, if they really exist,
as the interest of payments continually accruing with the
idea that a serious variance might eventually impede them.
But to arguments of this nature effect can only be given by
constant and unremitted punctuality, for if one payment
after another is suffered to run in arrears, and the funds con-
sequently to depreciate, an opinion of irregularity insensibly
prevails, and the consequences of misunderstanding are no
longer viewed as so material.
On the first of next June an instalment of one million of
guilders will again be payable. With so many concurring
views and interests to multiply the instances of tardy pay-
ments as appear to me to be working, I cannot avoid an anx-
ious solicitation that the provision for that may be made in
due season. According to the rule which I have mentioned
above, it should be dispatched from the United States not
later than the first of April. I hope this letter may reach
you before that period. With respect to the Antwerp pay-
ments, I have before suggested to your consideration the
expediency of a different mode of provision for it in future,
which may not leave it at the discretion of a rivalship in
trade. Indeed, from the facility with which I might have
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 91
secured this payment by drawing bills upon the Treasury
had I thought expedient to use that resort at an earlier
period, I believe that it would not be difficult to make it in
that manner hereafter. At the same time it cannot be
given as a certain resource, especially as there can be no
doubt, but that every possible exertion will be made by the
bankers at Amsterdam to prevent the negotiation of bills
upon America. Of this I have at this moment a very strong
proof. They wrote me about a week since, stating their
great anxiety at not receiving either remittances or advices
from the Department of the Treasury, and the impossibility
they were under in such circumstances to advertise the usual
payments for the first of February, calling at the same time
upon me to provide them with means for facing that demand.
In answer to a previous call of the same kind, I had written
them that I could give them authority to draw upon the
Treasury to a certain amount in case of absolute necessity.
They reply that this is no resource at all, for that if bills
upon America could be negotiated they should draw of
course, depending upon due honor to their drafts, but that
scarcely ever would it be possible, and certainly not at pres-
ent, to raise money at Amsterdam by bills upon the United
States ; and indeed that there could be no possible induce-
ment to take such bills, money being of so high a value and
American stocks being 10 per cent lower in London than at
Philadelphia. This argument from the price of stocks in
London is the burthen of every song, and is repeated with
as much concern as if its fallacy had not long since been de-
tected. I am persuaded that you have often heard of it from
them, and presume you are perfectly aware that it is not
decisive. The fact is, that the pretended prices current of
our stocks in London are arbitrary estimates to which very
few purchases or sales are conformable, and that no consider-
92 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
able sum can be obtained at such a rate or anything near it.
Besides which a merchant at Amsterdam may have large
remittances to America to make, without authority or in-
clination to make then in American stocks from London.
But the fact of #20,000 so easily negotiated is better than
any reasoning, and I might have had the remainder at the
same time, had I chosen to give one per cent more for it,
which as the bills were at sixty days would have been an
exchange at par. I have heretofore alleged to you the reasons
which induced me not to take it. It may however be con-
sidered as certain that the bankers will never use this re-
source, and will make every effort in their power to prevent
its being used. Their aversion to it may be seen in their
declining to use it at the very moment when they are with-
out remittances to face a payment close at hand, and which
they declare themselves for want of such remittances com-
pelled to suspend. The delay of payment could affect only
the interests of the United States ; the negotiation of bills
on America would affect their own.
The arrival of the present remittances will prevent a failure
on the first of February, and I hope that further supplies
will arrive in time to provide for the first of March ; but in-
deed a postponement at this time would have a most un-
favorable effect upon the credit of the government. These
claims are so continually accruing, and every instance of the
payments delayed makes such impressions, that 'an earlier
dispatch of remittances is absolutely indispensable. The last
year the January interests were upon this very point of being
delayed. Those of the ensuing month are secured only by
a few days, and the usual time of advertising them has al-
ready elapsed. Those of Antwerp have been nearly two
months defective, and the bankers at Amsterdam yet are
heavily in advance. At this moment they think themselves
i 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 93
to discharge the premiums of the four per cent loan due on
the first of March by the emission of new bonds. This right
it seems is reserved to the United States by the contract,
but heretofore the payment has always been made in specie.
The new bonds thus thrown upon the market will still more
tend to depreciate the general price of the stocks, and to
render impracticable the prolongation of the instalment of
last June. The bankers have requested my opinion on this
subject, stating the necessity they are under to take this
measure for avoiding a greater increase of their advances.
I could not oppose it however sensible of its inconveniences,
and therefore informed them that I had no authority or in-
structions concerning it. 1
I have the honor &c.
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, January 31, 1797.
Dear Sir :
While an unusual pressure of occupation obliged me to
postpone for a few days a reply to your favor of the 17th
instant, I received also that of the 22. Since which the
notes and proceedings of the French Minister at Phila-
1 "I have this morning received the honor of your letters of November 25 and
28 and December 6. . . . These letters give notice of remittances to the bankers,
which, together with these the receipt of which was mentioned in my last letter,
will I think amply provide for all the demands upon the United States here, until
the first of March inclusively. They have very much relieved me after a long ex-
pectation, at a moment when various circumstances contribute to render the punct-
uality of our public payments highly important. At the same time they perhaps
make an apology necessary for the strong urgencies in my late letters. The neces-
sity, however, of expediting the sums demandable at particular days, earlier than
has hitherto been done, still remains, and you will perceive by a letter from the
bankers, dated the 21st, and of which they have sent me a copy, as they express it,
for my information and government, that they shall never consider themselves obliged
94 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
delphia, 1 as well as the President's speech at the opening of
Congress, have reached me directly from America. The
attempt of the French government to separate the American
people from their government is very unequivocal, and will
undoubtedly bring to a test the feelings of our countrymen.
If I can place any dependence upon the accounts which I
receive, the effect of these measures upon the people has been
such as you and I have anticipated. There are undoubtedly
individuals, who will follow the standards of France even
into the heat of a struggle. After the last war the British
to make an advance for the supply of Antwerp payment, be it upon orders however
peremptory. Their reflections upon Mr. De Wolf, and his upon them, serve to
show the several reasonings of rivals in trade without much impartiality on either
side. He has no future expectations of profit to induce him. The gentlemen at
Amsterdam, from the benefits they have already enjoyed, and the continual ac-
cruing advantages of their business are amply compensated for their advances ;
and yet when they are to make one, they ring the peals of obligation and service,
as if the public salvation were dependent upon them." To the Secretary of the
Treasury, January 23, 1797. Ms.
1 Adet's letters of October 27 and November 17, 1796. American State Papers,
Foreign Relations, I. 576, 579. The minister published them in the newspapers
at the moment they were sent to the Secretary of State. They were also issued as a
pamphlet, printed with the general view of influencing the measures of adminis-
tration. The publication was timed for producing some influence on the choice of
a President.
"I inclose a pamphlet containing two notes from the French minister here, Mr.
Adct, and my answer to the first. It would have been very desirable to have
avoided appearing in this form before the public; but the tenor of his first note,
officiously published by himself and the actual state of things here, rendered the
publication of my answer indispensable. The second and long note of Mr. Adet
was sent by him to the press of the Aurora for publication, as was announced by Mr.
Bachc the morning after I had received the original. He promised, and in a day or
two gave a sketch of it : but it was impossible for the public to form a tolerable
idea of the note from that sketch, which was only calculated to do mischief. Hence
a translation from the original was deemed necessary, and it was published without
delay. The interests of the French Republic, whatever might be the expectations
of its minister and its Government, will not be promoted by these notes: as far as
I can learn, they have been read but with one sentiment, and that of indignation."
From the Secretary of State, November 26, 1796.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 95
government and nation had to provide at an immense ex-
pense for individuals, who had followed their standards, for
individuals whose counsels had contributed to lure Great
Britain into the contest, and who hung upon her after
it was ended, the victims and the burdens of her defeat.
I hope that France will judge she has enough of her own
citizens to provide for. But with the great body of the
American people France will only lose influence by persisting
in her present system, and while she is endeavoring to break
our commercial connections with Britain, my greatest ap-
prehension is, that she will rivet them the more closely.
There is indeed a curious sort of political speculation in
the affectation of rage against a government with affection
for its people, when that government is the mere creature
of the people, established upon and preserved by the frequent
repetition of the freest and most unbiassed popular elections
upon earth.
It seems to me that the French government might infer
something from a circumstance to which, however, they do
not perhaps fully attend. Of the twenty Senators who con-
curred to ratify our treaty with Britain, scarcely one now
remains in that body ; almost all have voluntarily resigned.
New elections have taken place to substitute others in their
stead, and in every instance of which I have yet heard, their
places have been supplied by men equally determined in
support of the same system. Sedgwick and Goodhue in-
stead of Cabot and Strong, Lawrence instead of King, Stock-
ton instead of Frelinghuysen, are specimens.
The reception of the President's address to the people
might serve as another indicative to France of the temper
of our people. From that let them judge of the success that
has attended all their endeavors to tear our benefactor from
our hearts ; let them see the issue of all their manoeuvres
96 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
and all their libels ; of their Baches and Randolphs in America,
as well as their Theremins and their Paines in Europe.
The legislatures of the several states which have been in
session since the address have resolved unanimously to record
it at full length upon their journals ; those of Massachusetts
and Maryland have ordered that it be printed and published
with their laws. I see a proposal in the House of Delegates of
Virginia unanimously adopted, to address the President with
a declaration of their profound regret at his determination to
retire from the public service. Can France possibly believe
that Mr. Jefferson, or any other man, would dare to start away
from that system of administration which Washington has thus
sanctioned, not only by his example, but by his retirement ?
Nay, in my mind I have no doubt but that if, instead of
Jefferson, the ex-Vicomte de Barras himself were President
of the United States, he could not stagger the system.
But they wish to interrupt or suspend our commerce with
Great Britain ; and are they ignorant that this would be
impossible, even if they could produce a war between the
two nations ? Can France purchase of us, and pay for the
articles which we sell to Britain ? Certainly not. Yet they
are articles which must be bought and must be sold. France
herself at this moment can not exist without British manu-
factures, and in spite of all her prohibitions is daily re-
ceiving them. The longer she continues the war, the more
she will sink into this kind of dependence. It rests upon a
law of nature that laughs at all human legislation. It is
zvant on one side, and the means of supply on the other.
The case would be the same in America to a greater extent,
because to the want of buying would be added in great force
the want of selling; for France cannot give us a market for
the articles, which a suspension of our trade to Britain would
nail down to our floors, or leave to perish on our hands.
,797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 97
It is conjectured by some, that the plunder expected to be
procured by depredations upon our commerce is one of the
objects of the French government in their present proceed-
ings. I would hope this opinion is unfounded, but if the want
of a sea letter such as never existed, is a reason for taking
a vessel, it is vain to argue upon principles of justice and
equity. I do not think it wise or judicious in France to
compel the Americans to look out for all their means of de-
fence against her. Her reputation of power is of more service
to her than in this instance its actual exertion would be. A
contest forced upon us will discover her weakness as well as
her strength, and between ourselves her effective power is
by no means formidable to us. Her late expedition against
Ireland and its issue have unfolded some of her naval im-
becility, which it would have been her interest to keep as much
as possible concealed. Let her triumph upon the continent.
Let her take Mantua and even Rome. 1 Let her renew, if
she thinks fit, her incursions into Germany, or march her
armies through Spain. Between us and her, thank Heaven,
there is a great gulf. She may [harass ?] our trade until it
shall obtain effectual protection. She may deny us the friend-
ship which we wish, and lose our's, which has been sincere
and beneficial to her, but she cannot do us any great and
essential injury.
The idea which you mention of printing a small pamphlet,
stating our true sentiments and situation towards France,
the reciprocal and mutual interests upon which our connec-
tion with her was originally founded and ought still to be
continued, the strong and earnest desire we have of harmoniz-
ing with her, and the spirit of independence which charac-
terizes the great mass of the American people, strikes me
very agreeably. I hope you will put it into execution, and
1 Rome was occupied by French troops in February, 1798.
vol. n — H
9 8
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
shall with great pleasure furnish you with the ideas that occur
to me upon these topics. I shall wish to be supplied with
a number of copies of it, because it will have its utility here
as well as in France. Some of the views I have upon these
points are suggested in this and in my last letter, though
both written in such hurry that they are huddled in without
order or arrangement. I shall return to the subject again.
With respect to the original connection, it is well known
to those who were then in the secret of our affairs, that the
terms of equality and reciprocity upon which our alliance
and treaties with France rest, were the result of a system
adopted by Congress after deliberation. Had we meant to
be dependent upon France for our liberty, the situation would
doubtless have been for some special favor secured to France.
It was because the American nation did not choose to change
one dependence for another that, in forming its contract with
France, provision was so expressly made for equality and
reciprocity, and the power of making commercial arrange-
ments with other nations was so expressly reserved in the
most unlimited manner.
The memorial of Mr. Turgot, which I mentioned to you
in my last letter, is dated April, 1776, and serves as a key
to the policy of France at that time. It shows at the same
time Turgot's opinion, that the Americans would prevail
in their contest without the assistance of France. Indeed
in considering the subject this memorial of Mr. Turgot de-
serves a profound meditation. I presume you have seen
it, but if not you will find it at the close of a book published
at Paris from the manuscripts found in the famous iron box
of the late King, and entitled Politique de tous les cabinets
de V Europe sous Louis 15^16. Burgoyne's army, you know,
capitulated in October, 1777. The account of that event
arrived in Europe in December of the same year, and our
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 99
treaties with France were signed on the 6th of February,
1778.
I find myself at the end of my paper, and the post is on the
point of departure. I have only therefore to assure you of
the cordial friendship and esteem of your's.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 93 [Timothy Pickering]
The Hague, February 1, 1797.
Sir :
• ••••••
The proceedings of the French Minister at Philadelphia
have been such as I had expected. The counterpart of the
same system has taken place in Europe by the refusal to
receive Mr. Pinckney, by the speech of the Director Barras
to Mr. Monroe, when he presented his letters of recall, and
probably by the issuing of orders to the armed vessels of
France to intercept all the American navigation to or from
the ports of Great Britain.
It is certain that the project of alienating the people of
the United States from their executive government, of nego-
tiating with what has hitherto been the minority of the House
of Representatives, and of compelling a suspension of com-
merce between the United States and Great Britain, has
been seriously undertaken by the present administrators
of the French government. Their principal object in this
pursuit is to injure their most powerful enemy, by depriving
her of the benefits of the American trade, and in this respect
it is only the extension of the system which has during the
last season been pursued throughout Europe. But at the
same time it is impossible to resist the belief that a sentiment
of fear and jealousy towards the United States themselves
concurs among the motives for this policy.
IOO THE WRITINGS OF [1797
Since the establishment of this French Republic it has
been officially announced by one of their ministers for foreign
affairs, that the policy of his predecessors, Vergennes and
Montmorin, towards the United States, and their consequent
instructions to the French Ambassadors in America were
founded upon their opinion "that it did not suit France to
give the United States the degree of vigor of which they were
susceptible, because they would thereby acquire a strength
of which they would -probably be tempted to make a bad use"
The National Convention too, in their address to the
United States of December 22, 1792, have told us that the
ambassadors of the former Court of France in America had
"the criminal order to arrest the course of our prosperity."
These declarations were made at a time when France ap-
peared to have abandoned altogether the policy prevalent
under their monarchy with respect to their foreign concerns,
when they were at war with most of their former allies, and
when they deemed the friendship of the United States highly
important to them. Since that time, however, they have in
almost every other respect returned to the same external
policy which had been followed under their monarchy.
Spain is again in close alliance with them. Prussia har-
monizes with them, by the common enmity against the House
of Austria and against Russia. They have taken great
pains to renew their former influence over Turkey and Swe-
den. The principle of aggrandizing their own territories is
now the sole object, for which they persist in a most destruc-
tive war, and every act of their government indicative of
their foreign policy testifies the resumption of the opinions
entertained by Vergennes. In addition to this the very ad-
vantages, which the people of the United States have derived
from their neutrality during the present war, occasion senti-
ments not perfectly cordial in the minds of those who have
i 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 101
surrounded themselves with ruins, and induce them perhaps
to think that their interests require an exertion to check the
rapid growth of our prosperity. To effect this purpose, they
consider the division of sentiment and opinion which exist
within the United States as one of their most powerful
means, and I have reason to believe that they place great
dependence upon finding the late measures of the Minister
Adet supported and encouraged by a large portion of the
American people.
I have the honor &c.
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, February 3, 1797.
My Dear Sir:
A few days ago I received at once your letters of Novem-
ber 11, from Quincy, and of December 5, from Philadelphia.
In the course of three or four days, indeed, I had a flood of
American letters pouring upon me, and can no longer com-
plain of that inattention and neglect, which an interval of
three or four months had occasioned me to mention in my
last letter.
Very soon after you wrote the elections of President and
Vice President were completed. They have excited in
England and France, and in this country, a degree of inter-
est and attention which proves the rising importance of the
United States. The event has been expected with a degree
of feeling, of trepidation, of ardent wishes in favor of one
or the other candidate, which has afforded one more melan-
choly proof of the profoundly rooted principle of animosity,
which at this moment arms one half of the human race against
the other. All the friends and partisans of ancient estab-
lishments, good or bad, throughout Europe, all the adherents
102
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
of Great Britain, all the people who have property yet left
in their hands, all the peaceable, moderate and humane, and
all the enemies to the present French administration, a
motley mixture, whose sentiments one would imagine never
to concur in any one point, agree in their wishes for the suc-
cess of one of the persons considered as candidates ; while
all the adherents to the present French government, all
those who pant for revolutions, all who are by anticipation
feasting upon the plunder of the present proprietors, all who
are fattening upon war and raising fortunes upon the misery
of nations, all the remaining enthusiasts of democracy, and
all who desire to see the United States at war with Britain,
are equally zealous in favor of another. They seem on
both sides to fancy that the destiny, not only of America
but of Europe, is in a manner suspended upon the decision,
and both have already indulged in the exultation of an-
nouncing that the choice has fallen upon him whom they
respectively favor.
From the returns of the most recent date, the accuracy of
which must however be considered as very questionable, it
would seem that a bare majority of the suffrages has called
you to the post of the highest eminence and danger, while
that which you now hold will in the terms of the Constitu-
tion be assigned to Mr. Jefferson ; and the difference of
numbers amounts to not more than two or three votes.
Whether Mr. Jefferson will choose to serve the public in the
second station, or if he should refuse, what measures will
be taken in a case for which no special provision seems to
have been hitherto made either by the Constitution or the
laws, it is useless for me to anticipate. What other ques-
tions or difficulties may arise or be started, it were equally
needless to conjecture. As I presume you will not reject
this call of your country, the time for observations upon the
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 103
evils of the situation is past, and my duty henceforth will
only be to transmit the most accurate information that I can
collect of the state of our affairs in this country particularly,
and in Europe generally, as well as of the general complexion
of European affairs from time to time.
The first object of our attention at this time is the pre-
dicament in which we stand towards France. I have writ-
ten to you largely and repeatedly upon this subject. Noth-
ing new has turned up since my last, except rumors and re-
ports propagated by the usual French mechanism to operate
upon the public opinion. Our American letters generally
say, that the late conduct of the French government has
not occasioned any alarm in the United States. I cannot
say the same of the Americans in Europe. Many of the
friends of our government are frightened, and the impres-
sion produced upon our stocks here is considerable. Every
artifice of France is at work, and there is scarcely anything
operating to counteract it. As far as my means extend I am
not idle ; but they are feeble and solitary, and my American
intelligence is always old. In general the alarm is heightened
by Americans themselves. I have in a former letter given
you a statement of the interests and motives which concur
to bias the minds of our country men now in Europe, and in-
formed you that Paris has long been the resort of many
individuals, to whom the destruction of our government and
a civil war in the United States are objects of desire and
pursuit.
It cannot be too strenuously repeated, because the final
event depends altogether upon this single point of fact. The
French government have been led to believe, that the
people of the United States have but a feeble attachment to
their government, and will not support them in a contest
with that of France. It is upon the idea of this internal
104
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
weakness and division alone, that the French have hitherto
ventured upon their late measures, and as they are still
flattered with the same hope, it is impossible to ascertain
how far it will lead them. The event of the Presidential
election as now announced has exceedingly mortified them.
Upon a train which they had so long been concerting and
laying, they had founded and been encouraged in the most
sanguine expectation of settling the choice. The effect
which they certainly did produce, that of throwing thirteen
or fourteen votes into one scale, which but for them would
have been in the other, and their approximation to success,
have rather stimulated further exertions, than deterred them
from repeating their experiment. Their ill success has pro-
voked without discouraging them, and they are assured
that by persevering and bearing harder upon us, they shall
compel the American government to submit, or succeed in
overturning it. I speak not from simple conjecture, but
from inferences, confirmed by personal observation and by
intelligence tolerably direct.
They know perfectly well that if the matter should be
brought to an hostile issue, and the American people sup-
port the measures of their government, France must give
up the contest. They know that France by doing her worst
cannot essentially hurt us externally. As to her sending
an army against us they have not the most distant idea of
it, and you may judge from the issue of their expedition
against Ireland, in what a condition their naval power is.
Ships it is indeed possible for them to build and rig, but
sailors and marine officers they cannot make, and they have
them not. The famous Irish expedition, besides all its
preparatory expenses, has cost them three ships of the line,
three flutes, two frigates, two cutters, several transports,
four or five thousand men, and a great deal of damage to all
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 105
their vessels returned. From the first moment of their
sailing until the return of the last transport, every circum-
stance that has been related of them, or that they relate
themselves, shows their total destitution of naval skill or
experience. One would imagine from the accounts that they
had not on board the whole fleet a man capable of managing
a sail boat. The French papers announce still very pom-
pously, that great preparations are making for a second ex-
pedition ; but the General Hoche is appointed to another
command, and if they venture out with their fleet again,
it will only be to meet with a more disastrous fate. As to
their allies, Spain and Holland, nothing is to be expected
from any concert of operations between them. The his-
tory of the late Dutch expedition against the Cape of Good
Hope affords two important incidents, from which the con-
clusions are inevitable. That expedition was planned in
concert with the French, and at three several stations on the
passage they had engaged to furnish a reinforcement of
troops. At every one of them they totally failed. On the
very first appearance of the English squadron, the Dutch
sailors almost unanimously stripped off their three-colored
cockades, substituted the Orange badges in their stead,
rose upon their officers, would not suffer the Admiral to em-
ploy the sad resource of burning or injuring his ships, but
compelled him to surrender them up at discretion, and seven-
eighths of them immediately entered into the British service.
The same temper prevails among the seamen here in the
Texel, and it is but a few days since I heard a marine officer
say in answer to General Rewbell, a brother of the French
Director, who was inquiring why their maritime exertions
here were so feeble, — "you know that almost all our sailors
are against us"
What sort of harmony of operations at sea between France
IQ 6 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
and Spain is to be anticipated may be judged from the well
known circumstance, that many of the Spanish ships are
commanded by French emigrants, and when a Spanish squad-
ron lately put into the harbor of Toulon, some of these officers
were arrested, imprisoned, and with difficulty rescued by
the Spanish Admiral from the municipal administration of
the place.
In this country the conviction, as far as I can judge, is
universal, that they have much to lose and nothing to gain
by a difference with the United States. Our commerce and
our payments are almost the only resources, the enjoyment
of which is yet left them. In my conversations with their
merchants, and even with members of their government,
they freely acknowledge this, though they as freely say they
fear that they should be forced to follow whatever France
should dictate to them, and this is unquestionably true.
An intelligent and considerable merchant of Rotterdam told
me a few days ago, that he was glad the French government
had determined to intercept our trade with England, be-
cause it would essentially injure Great Britain and must be
excused by reasons of state. I asked him what he thought
would be the consequence of an embargo of six months laid
by the American government. "It would bring us all,"
said he, "English, French and ourselves to your terms, but
the American government cannot carry it through."
I shall for the future send you constantly a Paris news-
paper of considerable reputation, as well as the Leyden
Gazette. I hope they may sometimes give you valuable
information.
I am &c.
,797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 107
My Dear Sir :
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, February 7, 1797.
A circumstance which cannot escape observation is the
treatment at this time experienced from the same quarter
[the Directory] by Mr. Monroe. He has been upon a tour
through this country, and spent a week here. He came
strongly recommended to an influential member of the com-
mittee of Foreign Affairs, and to the Secretary of that com-
mittee, who as well as the French Minister here paid him
the greatest attentions.
This member of the committee is devoted totally to France.
He is the same of whom I related an anecdote in my No. 25
[November 25, 1796], which will give at once an idea of his
character and his politics. He gave a splendid entertain-
ment to Mr. Monroe, at which were present other members
and the Secretary of the Committee, and to which he like-
wise invited me. 1 After dinner, while we were sitting at
table, he accosted Mr. Monroe and myself by name and gave
for toast "The people of America." The Secretary, upon
whom I instantaneously turned my eye, was apparently
confused, and instead of repeating the toast as given, sub-
stituted in its stead "The United States." Mr. Monroe
said neither the one nor the other. This anecdote may
appear very trivial, but is a clear indication of things far
otherwise.
I saw Mr. Monroe almost every day while he was here.
He conversed with me but little upon public affairs, and with
great reserve particularly concerning our situation with
1 "January 24. Dined at Mr. Hahn's, with Mr. and Mrs Monroe, Messrs.
[P.] Hartogh, [L. E.] Van Eck and Van Leyden." Ms. Diary.
Io8 THE WRITINGS OF I1797
France. His deportment evidently discovered an exas-
perated and strongly agitated mind, though his conversation
was in every particular extremely guarded. He went from
this place to Amsterdam, where he stayed only a few days,
and from whence he very suddenly set out for Utrecht on
his return to Paris, on the same day when the news arrived
here of the order to depart given to Mr. Pinckney. 1
It would be very needless for me to tell you, that in this
country your name is remembered with respect and attach-
ment by the people of all parties. The proofs of it which I
have observed ever since I have been in the country, are
innumerable, and most particularly since the recent Ameri-
can elections have become an object of immediate notice and
attention. There is, however, a power extant in this country
which overrules all attachments, and will either silence re-
spect, or render its voice unavailing. To an order signi-
fied from the French Directory, be it what it may, no resist-
ance can be made, and never is attempted. If, therefore,
they should require of this government to suspend all in-
tercourse, commercial or political, or both, with the United
States, they could not refuse the demand, although fully
sensible that it would be a measure extremely odious to
the people, and that in consequence of such a difference they
would suffer much more injury than the Americans. If,
therefore, I should be ordered away from hence, as Mr.
Pinckney has been from Paris, you will not be surprised.
I have not indeed at present any reason to expect it ; but
how soon the Directory may exact it, is impossible for me to
say, and if executed it cannot be refused. This opinion is
1 " General Pinckney has been ordered away; from what cause we cannot dis-
cover. Whether the elation of victory, or some news or intercepted letters, or all the
things have influenced, is here unknown. He sets off tomorrow for Amsterdam."
Joseph Pitcairn to John Quincy Adams, February I, 1797. Ms.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 109
supported by an example which has already taken place with
regard to Portugal. 1
• ••••••
I am &c.
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
The Hague, February 8, 1797.
My Dear Mother :
The address of the President declaring his intention to
retire from the public service has been republished, trans-
lated, and admired all over Europe. But in France the
usual arts of French intrigue in all their impudence and all
their falsehood have been used against it. The most bare-
faced forgeries have been palmed upon the public in France
under the name of translations and extracts of this address,
and I know not whether one faithful French translation of it
1 "To serve my country at her call, is not merely an ambition, but a duty; I can-
not therefore refuse to perform it, especially at a moment when there is danger and
inconvenience attending it. I am certainly making at this moment a sacrifice
to my sense of duty. ... At the same time I know it is a sacrifice which no other
person will impute to me as a merit, and for which there is no other compensa-
tion than the consciousness of doing right. I have repeatedly talked to you of my
country; of my unlimited attachment and devotion to it. The sentiment, like
that of all other virtues, ought not to be displayed with ostentation, and therefore I
seldom say anything of it, except where my free confidence allows and requires me
to make a profession of principles, which at other times and with other persons,
I hold it sufficient to keep in silence as the guides of my conduct. I may, therefore,
own to you that my duty to my country is in my mind the first and most imperious
of all obligations; before which every interest and every feeling inconsistent with
it must forever disappear. It is that which requires my present continuance in
Europe. For as to my personal advantage I am persuaded it would be more pro-
moted by my immediate return to America, and by the direction of all my attention
to my own concerns ; and as an object of ambition, it is not at a distance like this
from America, out of sight and out of hearing of his countrymen, that an ambitious
American is to rise." John Quincy Adams to Miss Louisa C. Johnson, February 7,
1797- Ms.
no
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
C
has appeared in that country. The Leyden Gazette has given
one here, together with such encomiums upon the piece itself
and its author, as both deserve and obtain from every
virtuous mind, and has noticed the infidelity of the pretended
translations published in the Paris papers. The French
Directory, or their guide, have taken a dislike to the prin-
ciples and fame of Washington, and have, among other of
their little projects, undertaken to run him down. They
have been at work two years upon it, and are now in a per-
fect frenzy at the thought that he has placed himself be-
yond the reach of their weapons. Yet they have been un-
able to succeed generally, even in France, where at the mo-
ment the generality of the nation revere his character, and
where his name will be remembered with veneration, when
they will escape detestation only inasmuch as they shall
sink in oblivion. . . .
The election of President and Vice President, which was
preparing with so much bustle, manoeuvre, and intrigue
when you wrote me, is now concluded, and on this day I
presume the choice will be ascertained and declared. From
the success of French influence in settling the votes of Penn-
sylvania, which was the first part of the transaction trans-
mitted to France, the revolutionizes of the world had al-
ready announced the success of their candidate with a degree
of exultation proportionate to the importance of the event.
At present the accounts received lead to a belief among the
public of a different issue, and ithe French Directory are
accordingly mortified and provoked. Their vexation at
this proof that they were not able to make a President of
the United States enraged them to such a degree, that they
immediately ordered Mr. Pinckney, whom they had before
refused to receive, to quit France, and I expect every day to
see him here.^ I am anxious to hear in what manner the
i 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS in
feelings of my countrymen will receive these accumulated
indignities and injuries, with which their too sincere and
cordial friendship for France is returned. How they will
bear to be informed, that the French Directory have re-
solved to force all the maritime and commercial nations
out of their neutrality. They calculate upon such a party
within the United States, totally devoted to them, as will at
least disable the government from any means of defence,
if not compel a submission to their most unjust dictates. . . .
My friend Otis, 1 I see, succeeds Mr. Ames as Representa-
tive in Congress for the district of Boston. While I lament
that the public should be deprived of Mr. Ames's services
at this early period of his life, and from so melancholy an
occasion, I rejoice in the hopes that the talents and energy
of Otis will be substituted in their stead. His eloquence,
his activity and his firmness will be exerted, I am confident,
in a good cause, and while he rises to eminence and fame
himself, he will promote at the same time the honor, and
dignity, and the true interests of his country. I am, &c.
TO RUFUS KING
The Hague, February 9, 1797.
Dear Sir
It is not probable that the Directory are instigated to
this last violent measure merely by mortification upon find-
ing their influence inefficacious, though they probably be-
lieve they have not succeeded ; but they combine with
motives of this kind others proceeding from the determina-
tion to stop the intercourse of all the neutral commercial
nations with Great Britain. The suspension of our com-
1 Harrison Gray Otis.
I 12
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
mercc will perhaps be required as the price of reconciliation,
and should the proposal be firmly rejected, they will proceed
to intercept it as much as they can by force. The same
proposition has very recently been made to Hamburg and
Bremen, though as yet without success. The French
minister at Hamburg is recalled. The demand has been
repeated also at Copenhagen, and the refusal to comply has
produced a diplomatic altercation perhaps as sharp as that
between the American Secretary of State and Adet. The
result is yet unknown. These proceedings are undoubtedly
the effects of weakness, not of strength ; of desperation, not
of prudence. They know that they can effect nothing against
Great Britain by their maritime exertions, and therefore
they adopt the policy of depredations upon all commerce
carried on with her. It has been so constantly the British
policy that they conclude themselves justified by the
example.
The system will be pursued in France to the utmost extent
of the experiment. I firmly believe that the Directory care
as little for its consequences, as their President professed
in his speech to Mr. Monroe. For their colonies they care
scarcely anything, nor is it probable that any change of
their government will effect at present a change of their
system. Our government and people must find and use all
their means of defence, or submit to the dictates of the
Directory. There is no other alternative left. They cal-
culate much upon our internal divisions, and upon a party
prepared rather to assist than oppose their projects of plun-
der.
I mentioned to you in my last letter that Mr. Monroe was
here. He went soon after to Amsterdam, where he stayed
a few days, and which he left very suddenly on his return
to Paris, upon the same day that the account was received
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 113
here of Mr. Pinckney's being ordered to leave France. I
had some little conversation with Mr. Monroe upon the situa-
tion of our concerns with France after I wrote you. His
conversation was extremely guarded. I asked him, upon
what grounds the French government justified the system
they had now adopted with regard to our commerce. He
said that in his opinion they did not justify it at all, but their
arguments were such as are "contained in Mr. Adet's note
to the Secretary of State." He said nothing to me upon the
subject of his recall, but it was easy to perceive that it was
the idea constantly predominant in his mind.
I am &c.
TO JOSEPH HALL
The Hague, February 9, 1797-
Dear Sir :
I have many thanks to give you for your obliging favor
of the 15th ultimo, which I received some days ago, together
with some papers. I am glad you had an opportunity to
visit Paris, while it was yet allowable for a Federal American
to go there. The Directory suffered Mr. Pinckney to stay
only until the result of the American elections was known
to them. They have at length received their dispatches,
and immediately after ordered Mr. Pinckney to leave France.
I am hourly in expectation of seeing him here. It appears
that they have determined we shall not any longer preserve
our neutrality, and to force us upon taking a side in the war.
They place great dependence upon the favor which they
suppose the people of America bear to them and their cause,
and suppose that, as their contest will be only with the
government of the United States, they shall easily prevail
in the struggle. It is true that the property, the commerce,
VOL. II I
ii 4 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
the rights of the people, will be the victims of their depre-
dations ; but they persuade themselves the American
people will charge all the fault of this only upon their own
government, will abandon that to the resentment of France,
submit to the will of the Directory, put up with the losses
of their trade, and perhaps, like the Batavian, stipulate
to pay forty or fifty millions of dollars for restoring them in
such a fraternal manner to their liberty.
If they should find some part of their calculation errone-
ous, and that the people of the United States are not dis-
posed to deliver up their government at discretion, they are
determined in all probability to try their strength against
us. Their maritime force is not, indeed, at this moment
extremely formidable, and the success of their Irish expedi-
tion has not shown any remarkable improvement in the
mode of invasions by descent. Their West India possessions
depend in a considerable degree upon their intercourse
with us, and may be lost by its suspension and a concert be-
tween us and Great Britain. But the result of all this will
in their opinion only be to protract the war, and war is what
they think they must have. With such people as these
it is of little avail to be innocent or friendly ; all mankind
they are resolved shall, as their allies or their foes, become
their prey.
Dear Sir:
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, 10 February, 1797.
As your favor of the 1st instant, which I received yester-
day, mentions that General Pinckney intended to leave
Paris the next day, I am in constant expectation of seeing
him here. This last measure of ordering him away is so
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 115
violent, that I take it for granted the Directory have de-
termined to carry their experiment of terror through, cost
what it will. My sincere and anxious desire that our
country might have continued upon terms of good harmony
with France, makes this circumstance a subject of deep
concern and regret to me. For compliance on our part
is impossible. The speech of the President as you observe
has traced a course from which we cannot depart. 1 We
know the value of the friendship of France, but we also
know what is due to our own character and national in-
dependence, and as we once resisted alone and unsupported
the whole power of Great Britain, to support it we shall deem
every sacrifice cheap that may be necessary to maintain it,
even against France.
Your opinions and arguments upon this subject as I should
think must have weight, if reason and justice could be heard
with impartial ears, and I am happy to find that you con-
tinue in the use of them. Coolness, candor and moderation
should never despair, however discouraging their prospects
of success ; and when a struggle must take place, it is im-
portant to secure the advantage of having tried every honest
expedient to avoid it.
I am afraid that the dependence of the West Indies upon
us has not its due weight in the national councils. The me-
morial of Mr. Turgot, which I have often mentioned to you,
laid it down as a settled point, that all the European na-
tions must soon lose their American colonies, that such
would be the event borne down by the irresistible nature of
things, and that it was vain to think of avoiding it; at the
same time it contends very strenuously to prove, that the
colonies of France are a burthen and not a benefit, and that
1 Washington's last annual message to Congress. See Messages and Papers of
tlie Presidents, I. 203.
„6 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
the sooner she loses them, provided Great Britain loses hers
too, the better it will be. From the manner in which the
French government have conducted and still conduct to-
wards their colonies, it would seem probable that this opinion
of Turgot has become a ruling idea of their policy, or rather,
that it has been extended further, and that they wish to see
all the European colonies in America, not only lost to their
owners, but totally ruined and destroyed. To say that this
is a systematic folly and cruelty too extravagant to be be-
lieved, would be natural, but might not be just. Many of
the proceedings during the Revolution were professedly de-
fended upon the philosophical argument, that the population
of France was too great by three or four millions. The rea-
son of state has no feelings, and when the system is prevalent
that the colonies must be sacrificed, the fate of their inhabit-
ants is an object of very little concern.
Your other argument will naturally be more powerful.
But in the wantonness of present plenty they do not con-
template the possible chance of a scarcity, at the very
moment when they shall have compelled a suspension of our
commerce with them. It is, indeed, very certain that a
difference between the United States and France may have
the most important and injurious operation upon the well-
being of the French people; but, according to Barras, the
Directory do not abase themselves to calculations of this
kind. An embargo would undoubtedly be among our most
natural defensive measures. It was tried for the short space
of two months three years ago against Great Britain. 1
The French are frequently enough reminding us of our obliga-
tions to them. You and I know that upon the occasion of
1 The resolution of Congress imposing the embargo bore date March 26, 1794.
It continued in force for sixty days. McMaster, History of the People of the United
States, II. 173.
1797) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 117
the former embargo it was taken off, because the Minister of
France had intimated that its operation would prove in-
jurious to that Republic. It was at the very moment when
the greatest distress for want of our provisions was impend-
ing upon France, and this consideration induced us to desist
from the use of our most powerful defensive weapon against
the British depredations. If arguments of generosity can
move the French, they ought not to forget this indisputable
fact, and they ought also to be reminded of it, when they tell
us, as one of the reasons to justify their present system of
depredation upon our commerce, that we have not used all
our means efficaciously to prevent similar conduct from
Great Britain.
While I am upon the subject of arguments addressed to
French generosity, I transcribe a passage from an address
of the National Convention to the President of the United
States, adopted in December, 1792:
lis (la ligue des despotes) ont surcite des tempetes contre nous
jusques dans votre hemisphere ; ils y ont souleve nos iles, mais nos
principes et nos armees vont achever d'y ramener le calme et la
prosperite. Les Etats Unis y ont contribue, par les secours actifs
qu'ils ont verse dans nos colonies au moment ou la France, trop
eloignee, ne pouvait leur preter son appui. Graces vous soient
rendues genereux Americains, c'est une dette que la reconnaissance
de la Republique Francaise acquitte avec une douce satisfaction.
Thus the National Convention then pledged to us the
gratitude of the French Republic, and if the promise now
proves to have been vain, it is at least a very substantial
remaining proof of the obligation. We know very well that
this is one instance which they have formally recognized
among innumerable others, that have been constantly
given of the disposition universally friendly and obliging
towards France of our government, as well as our people.
n8 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
And are we now in return to be insulted, plundered, menaced
with war, because we have had but small means to avenge
the injuries of Great Britain, and because of these small
means, we ceased the employment of the most powerful, upon
finding that it would bear hard upon France, and under the
express intimations to that effect from her minister ?
They tell us that Great Britain is a nation piratical upon
principle, that her maxims are contrary to the rights of all
neutral nations, and that she must be compelled to abandon
them ; but are they not sensible that by adopting the same
practices they give a sort of sanction to the very principles
which they reprobate, and put into the hands of their enemies
the justification of their own example. Great Britain,
whose naval superiority suffices for the general protection
of her own commerce, will rejoice to see that of neutrals
harassed, even by her enemy, and will be pleased to see
France promoting British views, while she is losing all the
good will and friendship of the neutrals to herself. Are
these considerations, too, which the Directory will not con-
descend to calculate ?
It is apprehended by some, that all the Americans in
Paris will soon be ordered away, and indeed from the course
which things appear to be taking, our country must be pre-
pared for everything. As long as you are permitted to
remain, I shall hope to hear from you as frequently as shall
suit your convenience. Your information is always in-
teresting, and may become at present peculiarly important.
I observe that Mr. Skipwith yet retains the title of Consul
General. Do you know whether he still has any official in-
tercourse with the French government ? . . .
I remain &c.
1797) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 119
TO GEORGE WASHINGTON
The Hague, February nth, 1797.
Dear Sir :
Since I had the honor of writing you I have been informed
that about a year ago a workman in the sword manu-
factories at Sohlingen, a hilt founder by the name of Alte, 1
was induced in consequence of the unsettled and distressed
situation of that part of Germany to go to America, and
before he went had the sword made according to his own
fancy, with the intention, as I understand, of presenting it
to you upon his arrival in America, with the hopes that it
might serve him as a recommendation of himself. His
father is living, and received a letter from him last May
informing him of his arrival at Philadelphia. But since
that time he has had no further accounts from him. He
professes not to remember particularly the tenor of the in-
scription upon the sword. Its value might be from four to
five pounds sterling.
As this letter will not come to your hands until after the
period which you have fixed upon for retiring from the Chief
Magistracy of the Union, I cannot omit the opportunity of
expressing the deep concern which, in common with every
virtuous American citizen, I have felt upon being informed
of your resolution, and the veneration and gratitude with
which, as one of the people of the United States, I received
your address to them, dated on the 17th of September last.
I fervently pray that they may not only impress all its
admonitions upon their hearts, but that it may serve as the
foundation upon which the whole system of their future
policy may rise, the admiration and example of future time;
that your warning voice may upon every great emergency
1 Theophilus Alte. Ford, Wills of George Washington and his Immediate Ances-
tors, 108.
120
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
recur to their remembrance with an influence equal to the oc-
casion ; that it may control the fury of domestic factions
and check the encroachments of foreign influence; that it
may cement with indissoluble force our national Union, and
secure at once our dignity and our peace.
I beg leave at the same time to offer you, Sir, the tribute
of my grateful acknowledgment for the distinguished
notice which, in the course of your public administration,
you were pleased to bestow on me, by the repeated nomina-
tion to places of honor and trust under the government of
the United States, to places so far beyond any pretensions or
expectations of mine, that they had never been even the sub-
ject of a wish, until your favorable opinion called me to them.
I cannot deem it improper at this moment to express the
gratitude which I must ever feel, and as I know that the
only acceptable return for favors of this nature will in your
mind consist in the zealous and faithful discharge of the
public service which you were pleased to assign, I shall
always consider my personal obligations to you among the
strongest motives to animate my industry and invigorate
my exertions in the service of my country.
With the most ardent wishes and prayers that the remain-
der of your life may be as replete with personal and domestic
happiness to yourself, as it has hitherto been with benefits
to your native land, with usefulness to the world, and dignity
to the human character, I have the honor to be most re-
spectfully, &c l
1 "For the kind expressions which you have extended to me, and the approbation
of those sentiments I took the liberty of submitting to my countrymen, in my late
valedictory, I have a grateful sense, and thank you for communicating them ; as
the approbation of good and virtuous men is the most pleasing reward my mind is
susceptible of, for any service it has been in my power to render my country."
Washington to John Quincy Adams, June 25, 1797. Ms.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 121
My Dear Sir :
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, February 16, 1797.
I have formerly noticed that, when a report had spread in
Paris that the Directory had resolved to suspend all inter-
course with the government of the United States until their
causes of complaint should be removed, the fact was denied
from authority in their official newspaper. This new order
to General Pinckney has not been announced in any of the
Paris daily prints, and the French Minister here has declared
in answer to inquiries upon the subject, that it cannot have
taken place, for that he has had no notice of it, as he cer-
tainly should have were the account true. Of the fact I have
not the least doubt; but I mention the secrecy and mystery
which is observed on this occasion as a remarkable circum-
stance, which ought to be known to you.
It seems to be understood that the French government
have determined to arrest and intercept all our commerce
to and from the ports under the dominion of Great Britain.
I have conversed with several intelligent men here, engaged
in the public affairs at this time upon the subject. They do
not hesitate in conversation with me to avow that they
approve this policy ; they say that the loss of the American
commerce will compel Great Britain to make peace. As to
the injustice of the thing towards us, they tell me with the
utmost coolness imaginable that rigorous justice is not al-
ways practicable among nations, and that when policy pre-
scribes a certain system, it cannot be expected that great
regard will be paid to the rights and interests of a neutral
nation which has no force to resist an attack upon them.
Upon the point of justice I have not yet met a single man who
,22 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
after discussion has not abandoned entirely the argument.
But I have scarcely met one who scrupled at avowing his
opinion that the plan contemplated by the French govern-
ment is expedient. . . .
I have ever since my residence in Europe had applications
of various kinds from the friends of M. de la Fayette. 1
They have been extremely desirous that the American govern-
ment should make a formal and public application for his
liberation, either directly to the Imperial government, or
through that of Great Britain. As it was a subject upon
which I never had any instructions from the President, or
the Department of State, and as I have always been fully
convinced that the measures solicited would not be expedi-
ent, and could not be of any service, I have always avoided
an interference in the matter. Unfortunately many of M.
de la Fayette's friends have proceeded with much more zeal
and vehemence than discretion, judgment, or delicacy, in
the endeavors to procure his liberty. The conduct in par-
ticular of Lally towards Mr. Pinckney was such as certainly
could not serve the cause of his friend. For my own part
I have been disposed to make every allowance for indis-
cretion in consideration of the purpose which has always had
my most cordial wishes in its favor. I have very recently re-
ceived from Hamburg a letter, 2 wherein I am again requested
to suggest and urge the propriety of an ostensible measure,
that is a public application from the government of the
United States to that of Great Britain, to solicit the libera-
tion from the Emperor. The reason now alleged is, that
if the United States do not claim the prisoner now, France
very soon will, for that a surprising alteration has taken
1 For a petition on this subject sent to Adams by the Americans in the Nether-
lands, 1796, sec Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, XLVI. 237.
* From Rene Pillet.
1797) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 123
place in the public opinion of France with regard to M. de
la Fayette, and that it is now highly in his favor; and that
the Emperor by giving him up now to the application of the
American government, will only be spared the mortification
of being compelled to yield him to the claims of France. I
have engaged to transmit this idea and its reasons to America ;
but I have expressed my unequivocal conviction that what
is desired cannot and ought not to be done.
I am &c.
FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE
[Timothy Pickering]
Department of State,
Philadelphia, February 17, 1797.
Sir:
I have the honor to inclose your Commission as Minister
Plenipotentiary from the United States to the Court of Portugal,
together with your letter of credence to that Court, your letter of
recreance to the Government of the United Netherlands, and copies
of both. Your successor at the Hague will be forthwith appointed,
and he may be expected to proceed thither as soon as he can get
ready for the voyage. This you will be pleased to make known
to the Government of the United Netherlands, of which the Presi-
dent desires you to take leave in the most friendly manner.
It has ever been a desideratum to gain admission for our flour
into the ports of Portugal : but it seems there are too many in-
terested in its exclusion by the advantages they derive from manu-
facturing our grain, to authorize the hope of a speedy change : it is
nevertheless an object meriting your attention.
Colo. Humphreys was desired to gain, if practicable, some cer-
tain information of Brazil. Although the usual policy of European
nations, and particularly of Spain and Portugal, tends to the ex-
clusion of foreign vessels from their American colonies, yet so far
i2 4 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
as they depend on the United States for supplies of the articles
most necessary to the planters and other inhabitants, either for
food, for building, or for the exportation of their produce, a direct
trade with us would evidently be most beneficial to them as well as
to us. Spain, for instance, excludes our vessels unless furnished
with licenses from her public agents here : the consequence is,
that the colonists pay nearly two prices for their flour. At other
times our flour is carried to Cadiz, and thence in Spanish vessels to
the colonies. In both cases the general interests of the colonists
and of the mother country are sacrificed to the emolument of a
few agents and monopolists.
I do not know whether any thing similar exists in the colonial
regulations of Portugal. There has never been, as I have heard,
any intercourse between the United States and Brazil : yet the
climate and produce of at least a very large portion of that exten-
sive country must be such as to render supplies of some species of
provisions, particularly bread, as necessary to the inhabitants, as
to those of the West India islands. And hence I presume that
those provisions, particularly flour, are transported thither from
Portugal — flour made of American wheat. But we are too little
acquainted with the trade, culture, and wants of Brazil to form any
just conclusions. The subject will merit your attention.
There have been complaints of unwarrantable fees taken by our
consuls in Portugal and her European islands. The consular law
prescribes no fees except for making out and authenticating cer-
tain papers. At Lisbon, Madeira and Fayal, the consuls have been
in the practice of taking fees for other objects which they are willing
to have understood as necessary or very useful to the masters and
supercargoes of our vessels, and for which they demand of each
eight or ten dollars. We have not heard of similar claims else-
where : nor are we well informed of the nature of the services re-
ferred to. You will be pleased to investigate the matter and com-
municate the result.
The consulate at Lisbon is in a very unpleasant situation. Mr.
Church has been long absent, and the management of the office
, 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 125
does not appear to be in very fit hands. Col. Humphreys has been
written to on the subject, and it is hoped the mischiefs complained
of have been remedied or put in a train of removal. This matter
also will claim your attention.
I have only one thing more to mention at this time. The
President desires that while you attend generally to the objects
which interest the United States in relation to Portugal, you will
particularly inquire into those by which our commercial inter-
course may be extended. The condition and circumstances of
Portugal and of the United States naturally incline them to cul-
tivate peace with all the world : they therefore seem well adapted
to form friendly and useful connections with each other, unembar-
rassed by fears or jealousies on either side. Perhaps this disposition
may be cultivated to our mutual advantage, especially in extending
our commercial relations. . . - 1
The negotiations with the powers of Barbary having been under
the direction of Colo. Humphreys, who was duly instructed for the
purpose, he will continue of course to conduct them. It is hoped
they are drawing to a close. Should he at any time need your aid
in any respect, you will have the goodness to render it : and un-
asked communicate to him any information that you receive which
you may deem useful. I am, etc.
Timothy Pickering.
PRESIDENT WASHINGTON TO JOHN ADAMS
Monday, 20 February, 1797.
Dear Sir :
I thank you for giving me the perusal of the inclosed. The
sentiments do honor to the head and heart of the writer ; and if my
wishes would be of any avail, they should go to you in a strong hope,
that you will not withhold merited promotion from Mr. John
Adams because he is your son. For without intending to compli-
ment the father or the mother, or to censure any others, I give it as
1 The omitted paragraphs relate to outfit and salary.
126 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
my decided opinion that Mr. Adams is the most valuable public
character we have abroad, and that there remains no doubt in my
mind that he will prove himself to be the ablest of all our diplo-
matic corps.
If he was now to be brought into that line, or into any other
public walk, I could not, upon the principle which has regulated
my own conduct, disapprove of the caution which is hinted at in
the letter. But he is already entered ; the public more and more,
as he is known, are appreciating his talents and worth ; and his
country would sustain a loss, if these were to be checked by over
delicacy on your part. With sincere esteem and affectionate re-
gard, I am, ever yours,
Geo. Washington. 1
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, February 23, 1797.
Dear Sir:
General Pinckney and his family have arrived at Amster-
dam, but as I have not seen him I presume he did not pass
through this place. On the other hand Mr. Monroe has
arrived in Paris, upon his return from his tour through this
country. What was the cause of Mr. Pinckney's being
ordered to leave France is yet unknown. But the conduct
of the French government and its dependents at the same
time towards Mr. Monroe, and his conduct towards them,
give me serious uneasiness. The views and designs which
these circumstances seem to indicate are of a nature so im-
portant to the Constitution and even to the union of our
country, that I cannot but feel anxious to discover how far
they really extend, and cannot but observe with concern
the apparent concert of an internal American party with the
1 This letter, reproduced in facsimile, is in Writings of John Adams, VIII. 529.
Washington's letter was called out by the despatch of November 14, 1796.
I797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 127
present government of France to overthrow that of the
United States.
You will doubtless before this reaches you be informed of
official communications made to me from this government
in the course of the last autumn, which I then transmitted
to the Secretary of State, wherein they formally, without
disguise or hesitation, call upon the United States to violate
their treaty with Great Britain, go to war with her and make
a common cause with the French and Batavian Republics.
Such probably is still the intention of the French Directory.
But as at present they totally despair of effecting their
purpose by negotiating with our executive government,
they will probably turn all their efforts towards the House
of Representatives. The act of June 5, 1794/ against which
Adet complains so indecently, expires with the present
session of Congress. This is the law of which Fauchet in
his dispatch No. 3 says, that Randolph told him "A bill
had passed the House of Representatives which wounded
liberty.'" An indisputable proof of it is the next clause of
the dispatch, which represents Randolph as adding, "They
have at least taken away the article which prevents the sale
of the French prizes in our ports." Fauchet in his plaster-
ing certificate pretends that this passage of his No. 3 refers
to a conversation which he had with Randolph in April,
1794, and that it related to the political divisions in different
parts of the United States, and to a bill which gave the
executive powers that might be abused and wound liberty.
The impudence with which this story is told, when the clause
about the taking away the article relating to the sale of
prizes comes so immediately after in the dispatch, is not one
of the least curious particulars in the strange publication
1 "An act in addition to the act for the punishment of certain crimes against
the United States."
I2 8 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
of Randolph. The clause about the sale of prizes was struck
out on the 2nd of June, 1794, and Fauchet certifies that the
conversation was the April before. In fact from the inter-
nal evidence of Fauchet's dispatch, compared with Adet's
last note, it is clearly the seventh section of the Act of June
5, 1794, which was so extremely obnoxious to Mr. Randolph,
and at the same time is so to the French government. Under
these circumstances the attempt to pass an imposition upon
the public as to the object of their conversation, is itself
deserving of attention. Why was there any desire of dis-
guise in this particular ? Why, but because Mr. Randolph's
confidences with Mr. Fauchet upon subjects to which the
same seventh section naturally leads the contemplation,
were such as it was judged unfit to disclose. This seventh
section is indeed an important thing, and I am not a little
curious to see how it will be treated in the House of Repre-
sentatives, when the law is to be continued, that is in the
course of the present session.
What expedition or enterprise there may be views of carry-
ing on from the territories of the United States against the
dominion of another sovereign, I am not qualified to say.
France is at this time not only at peace, but in close alliance,
with Spain. But neither peace nor alliance are complete or
effectual guards against projects of invasion or revolution.
There is no doubt but that the French in their negotiation
for peace with Spain endeavored long to obtain a cession of
Louisiana, and have since the peace been equally solicitous
to receive it in exchange for the part of St. Domingo, which
was ceded to them. You will observe, both in one of the Paris
papers which I have lately sent, and in the Leyden Gazette,
an article of news published at Paris as coming from Madrid,
that an inevitable revolution is upon the point of taking place
in Mexico, and that the people there will soon shake off
1797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 129
the yoke of Spain. The pretence that this disposition is
fomented by the English may be true or false, the material
object of observation is the paragraph itself, and the quarter
from whence it comes. You best will know whether I am
merely fanciful in combining it with Genet's arrival at
Charleston, and his intended expedition at that period, to-
gether with the various other symptoms that have appeared
down to a certain letter to Col. Thomas Fulham, a North
Carolinian, which I find in the American newspapers of the
last summer, and to the return of the same Colonel Fulham
to France, immediately after the ratification of the treaty
with Great Britain. He called to see me as he went through
this place, and told me that he was the bearer of many let-
ters for Mr. Monroe from Mr. Madison and his other friends.
The part of the President's address to the people applying
particularly to the inhabitants of our western states and
territory, indicates the evidence of a plan advanced to
considerable maturity. An obscure outline of a vast plan
calculated exactly for the French meridian, suitable at once
to their ambition and their jealousy, discovers itself in these
various incidents. If this plan really exists in the extent
which may be rationally suspected, the seventh section of
the act of June 5, 1794, is a very important obstacle to views
for conducting expeditions against the territories of a foreign
power with which we are at peace.
But however that may be, it is certain there is another
plan, with the success of which the other part of this section
is totally incompatible, and that is, the plan for suspending
totally the commerce between the United States and Great
Britain. This design, which ever since the middle of the last
summer there has been strong and increasing reason for
suspecting, is now in a manner openly avowed, notwith-
standing the ambiguity which pervades all their official
VOL. II K
, 30 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
papers on the subject, and which indicates nothing more
than the view of retreating from the system in case they
should find it impracticable, with a pretence that they never
adopted it.
To carry it into effect they have two different modes of
proceeding, the one by producing a war between us and
Britain, and the other by making a sort of war upon us
themselves, and forcibly intercepting all our navigation to
and from British ports, at least as far as they can. But this
seventh section is an impediment equally to both their pro-
cesses. It prevents them from carrying on a privateering
trade by means of our own citizens, which would be al-
together inconsistent with neutrality, and which, if not sup-
pressed, would at once harass the commerce and provoke
a state of hostilities; and at the same time it takes from
them the means of intercepting forcibly the navigation to
and from British ports, by depriving them of the means of
keeping a line of privateers along the whole extent of our
own coast, which should be ready to meet every vessel
which they should choose to stop, upon its entering into or
issuing from the several ports. To them this is an essential
object; for our navigation with British ports could not be
forcibly interrupted to a very material degree, but by arrest-
ing the vessels at the moment of departure or of arrival.
This they cannot do in the European seas, because the British
naval superiority keeps them generally clear, and a privateer
or frigate seldom has a choice of picking up more than a single
vessel or two before it is itself taken. Neither can they do it
upon the American coast while they are prevented from fitting
out their privateers in our own ports, and while our citizens
find their property protected by the jurisdiction of our own
tribunals. The consequences, therefore, of an unrenewed
expiration of this law are in every point of view so momen-
, 7 97] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 131
tous, that I consider it as one of the principal purposes for
which they are now undertaking to negotiate with the House
of Representatives against the Executive of the United States.
At present, I am told here, that it is not desired that we
should go to war with England, that it would even not be for
the interest of France that we should. I have conversed
repeatedly with the persons upon whom the principal ex-
ecutive functions of the foreign affairs rest, and have urged
to them the obvious and inevitable consequences to this
country of a war between the United States, and either France
or Great Britain. Some of them I have reason to believe
are alarmed. The merchants, the renters, have already
perceived the effects of the mere prospect which is threatened,
and I know that they are alarmed. The disposition there-
fore here is right. I am even told that the French Directory
will not pursue their system to an absolute rupture, and a
hint has been given me that Adet's powers will be renewed,
to discuss the differences which have arisen, or rather that
the suspension of his functions will be removed. But all this
may be intended as merely a cloak to conceal designs of
hostility, and prevent a state of preparation to guard against
them. The measure of ordering Mr. Pinckney away is so
violent in its nature, that it is absolutely necessary to con-
sider the Directory as determined upon proceeding to every
extremity for the purpose of carrying their points in America.
As it is unquestionable that the ruin of our commerce and
a war with Britain are involved in these points, I cannot
suppose that the government of the United States will sub-
mit, and I must, therefore, recur to an idea which I have here-
tofore suggested, that is, the importance of a cool, moderate,
and candid statement to the world of the real situation of
our differences with France. The notes of Adet, and most
especially the speech of Barras to Mr. Monroe when he
I32 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
delivered his letters of recall, start pretensions of superiority
on the part of France and of dependence on that of the United
States, which must be resisted and refuted. Instead of
which, it is painful to say it, Mr. Monroe himself in his
speech gives them countenance and encouragement, by
talking of generous assistance which never was given, and
which their own official documents have long since dis-
proved.
I am &c.
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, March 3, 1797.
Dear Sir :
Mr. Pinckney is at Amsterdam, but has not yet been here.
I hope to see him however before long. The reasons for
which he was ordered away are still to me perfectly mys-
terious. You mention that nothing further is to be done
against the country and people, and that perhaps Adet may
be charged with having exceeded both in manner and sub-
stance his instructions. Adet's language is indeed such as
could not fail to rouse resentment, and deeply wound spirits
of obtuser sensibility than ours ; but it is much less offensive
than that of Barras, the President of the Directory, and more
remote from positive hostility than an order to depart the
territory given to a public minister.
The only manner in which the various measures of the
French government can be accounted for is, upon the sup-
position that they have vowed the destruction of the Ameri-
can government, and are desirous to ascertain whether the
American people will assist them in the laudable work. If
not, the people will share their animosity with the govern-
ment, and both will be forced into a war. I cannot ex-
I797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 133
press how much concerned I am at the prospect that such
is the determined policy of France. But my concern is for
my country, and for the interests of humanity. As for the
American government, it is perhaps best that the attachment
of the people to it should be brought to the test, for as it
rests upon no other foundation, if that can be taken away
by any other cause than its own misconduct, it is not the
government proper for the people, and ought to fall. It will
indeed be a crisis. But that is what in the present state of
the world we must all be prepared for, and it often terminates
in a manner very different from that intended.
The western insurrection two or three years ago was one
of these experiments. Its issue was far from favoring the
party that conducted it, and even the minister of France
was reduced to the necessity of lamenting its ill success. If
France will compel the people of America to choose between
her and their own government, she may succeed it is true;
but if she fails, as I believe she will, the result of the experi-
ment will be similar to that of the insurrection. It will fix
many a changeable man, and unfold to the face of day many
a pretender to patriotism. The American government will
not shrink from the necessary contest.
Paine's letter to the President I have not yet seen. 1
His sort of intermediate station, between the French govern-
1 A Letter to George Washington, President of the United States of America. On
Affairs Public and Private, 1796.
"There is something singular in the similarity between a great part of Paine's
letter to the President and Adet's protest, and I really cannot help thinking that
that high priest of calumny has had an influence in jaundicing the eyes of the French
representation. How Mr. Monroe could be ignorant of his resentments, or how,
knowing them, he could harbor the poisonous animal that was stinging our common
benefactor and propagating by words and writings doctrines calculated to bring
our government into contempt, our property into arrestation, and finally our coun-
try into a war, are things curious, and I hope that will one day see the light."
Joseph Pitcairn to John Quincy Adams, Havre, February 18, 1797. Ms.
134
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
ment and Mr. Monroe, has long since been a subject of
animadversion. It has, in the course of Heaven's ways to
man, been God's pleasure sometimes to create human beings
with mischievous powers more extensive than those of Paine,
but none more malignant. Even Madam Roland thought
him fit for nothing but destruction. In former publications
he has acknowledged that Washington had been his personal
friend and patron. This is doubtless the reason why he now
reviles him. It was fit that he who, by all his servile adu-
lation of Robespierre could only mitigate his measure of
punishment from the guillotine to imprisonment, should now
abuse his own benefactor, who uses neither Luxemburgs nor
guillotines. There has been a school of philosophers who
pretended that private vices were public benefits, but the
school of Paine teaches something more. It makes the
highest public virtue to consist in the most detestable private
vices.
I shall be happy to hear from you as soon as may be con-
cerning the result of the elections which are to take place
in the course of a few days ; but I confess I have not very
sanguine expectations from them. Were it not for the hopes
which all your late letters intimate upon this subject, re-
specting which you have means of information so much su-
perior to mine, I should have no sort of confidence in the
prospect of a change from that event. I am apprehensive
in the first place, that a very unjust and ill-founded prej-
udice against the American government prevails through-
out France. Mr. Paine is not the only man, who has been
employed for years in raising and spreading such a prej-
udice. The work has been industriously and systematically
pursued by deeper men than Paine, and he has only been one
of their instruments. It has not been counteracted (I will
not say it has been promoted) from quarters, whence it
i797l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 135
ought to have been most vigorously and strenuously op-
posed, and unless some circumstances should occur to remove
it, I do not expect any system more favorable to us from a
change of their men. In the next place, they all are of
opinion that the Americans, who are always ready to sacrifice
even the interests of their own country to the will of France,
are those whom they must both support and believe, and all
are perhaps too much convinced that it is their interest to
connect their influence with the opposition to our govern-
ment. These opinions have already lost them a great deal
of their real influence in America, and they have made me the
more desirous to see something done to show them in their
real erroneous light. 1
I am &c.
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, March 4, 1797.
My Dear Sir :
I mentioned in my last letter, an intimation I had re-
ceived that Adet's powers would be renewed, to commence
again the discussion of the differences between the French
and American governments. Since then my suggestions
from Paris are, that the Directory will for the present take
1 "The opinion is here in general that the elections will be good ; but I sincerely
agree with you in the observation that most of the men in France have no regard to
our country. But I think the new elections will bring forward wise and moderate
men, who will be glad to fence round the Republique with a chain of treaties, both
for their own fame and their love of country. Under the principle of our usefulness
I expect their moderation, not from motives of our right, or their love of general
liberty. We can hardly find an affectionate friend among the people of conse-
quence : if of the old regime, they tremble at our example, and think we have done
too much; if republicans, they think we did too little, and perhaps can grudge us
liberty and laws, unmixed with sorrow for the means by which they were attained."
Joseph Piicairn to John Quincy Adams, Paris, March 10, 1797. Ms.
, 3 6 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
no further step detrimental to the American people, and that
Adct will be charged with having a little exceeded his in-
structions, both in substance and manner. I feel it some-
what ridiculous to give you these little transient, accidental
indications upon points which are perhaps perfectly clear
from the information before you. Yet at worst I hope it
will only be my loss of labor and time, without injury any-
where.
The most unaccountable circumstance to me, in the pres-
ent state of affairs, is the refusal to receive Mr. Pinckney,
and the order given him to leave France, if as they pretend
they do not mean an absolute rupture. The only manner
in which I can explain it is by the supposition that they are
trying to force the American government upon a reap-
pointment of Mr. Monroe.
The appeal to the people, though not formally declared
as in the time of Genet, who found it necessary in that in-
stance to deny his own words, is, however, very clearly and
systematically undertaken. No further violent measures are
to be pursued, until it shall appear whether the people will
support their government under the menaces of French
resentment or not. Will you forgive me for intimating it
again as an object of increasing conviction upon my mind,
that all these measures are concerted with a very powerful
and influential party among ourselves, and that there are
symptoms which make me very uneasy both as to the ex-
tent of the views which this concert embraces, and the per-
sons engaged in it. When the passions of men have con-
ducted them to such a point that they negotiate a war against
their own country, I cannot imagine any boundaries at which
they will stop.
The immediate system which will be pursued by this com-
bination seems clearly to be this, to set the House of Rep-
I797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 137
resentatives in Congress at opposition with the Executive
government. It has already been pursued with considerable
success. It appears that the present House will be com-
posed in a great measure of the same members as the last.
The attempt to assume executive powers does not appear to
have met with general approbation on the former occasion.
I hope it will not be renewed.
I am &c.
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, March 9, 1797.
Dear Sir :
That there has been a vast deal of error and misrepre-
sentation, with regard to the opinion of the American people,
is beyond a doubt, and unfortunately the reports and state-
ments to the French government have all come from biassed
sources. All their ministers, from the time of Genet, have
been misled by connecting themselves with a party opposed,
either to the Constitution, or to the administration of our
government, and who had interests of their own to answer,
by instilling prejudices in the minds of the French ministers.
Listening to leaders of Jacobin clubs, and catching at every
paltry paragraph in a newspaper which combined abuse
upon the government with a parade of enthusiasm for France,
they have never sufficiently attended to that cool and de-
liberate public opinion, which has never yet failed to de-
termine eventually the American measures, and to defeat
which, every expedient has been repeatedly tried, and as
constantly has failed. Whether the accredited minister of
the United States in France, or other officers, have not been
themselves too much under the influence of a party spirit
I3 8 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
opposed to their own government, to make their representa-
tions in the name and behalf of that government zealous
and active, as it might and should have been, may at least
be a subject of doubt, and if their conduct, instead of ex-
hibiting the ardent desire to justify their government, and
to maintain its harmony with that to which they were sent,
has on the contrary been a continued series of censure upon
the measures of their own employers, it is not to be supposed
that they have contributed, in any degree, to remove prej-
udices, which they so fully participated. Indeed I know not
of a single opportunity that the French executive have had
to hear the truth stated to them with candor respecting
American affairs. The dispositions which some of our own
countrymen have manifested, to buccaneer and plunder
upon the property of their fellow citizens, is indeed a dis-
grace to the nation. But that such men, despised and de-
tested by their own countrymen as much as they deserve,
should be listened to as designating the public opinion of
that very country which they have renounced, and which
has renounced them, is much to be regretted, though I much
fear that it has been and yet is the case.
You mention an opinion that they begin to take into their
calculation some of these things in the councils, if not in the
Directory. But how is it intended to renew a discussion with
our government, which has been so thoroughly cut off by
the suspension of their minister's functions at Philadelphia,
and their refusal to receive the American minister at Paris.
It is impossible for the proceedings of one nation towards
another, to be more offensive than those of the French
government have been for the last five months towards us ;
it is impossible that they should mean a continuance of
peace, unless they mean also to renew the intercourse, which
they have violently stopped, and which I cannot possibly
i 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 139
think the American government will first renew. Do you
know, therefore, whether they mean to restore the powers of
Adet ? Or to send any other person in his stead ? If you
have any indication for an opinion upon this point, I shall
be obliged to you to let me know it.
It is true, as you observe, that the Americans, who in case
of a rupture between the two countries, would take the
French side, would not have the same chance of payment in
case of failure as our refugees had from Britain. But it
may be a subject of consideration to the French, that there
would in such case be many and many a claim of indemnity
for sacrifices made in their cause, and that every encourage-
ment now given to such people will be turned into an obliga-
tion for supporting such claims. Our Loyalists, as they were
called in the contest with Great Britain, were very much like
the party which France now countenances and believes.
They affected a superior, or rather an exclusive, attachment
to the British government; they labored constantly to
inspire prejudices against the rest of their countrymen
in the minds of their patrons ; flattered and irritated all
their resentments, spurred them on to the war, and
after it was over, called for compensation as having sac-
rificed everything in the British cause. The claim was
found so equitable that they obtained it: not that the
British government thought themselves bound to make
good the losses of their subjects in the war ; no such prin-
ciple was ever admitted or pretended. No : but because
they had encouraged these people in their opposition to the
general interests and measures of their countrymen ; be-
cause they had allowed and confirmed their pretensions of
being their friends, and had thereby led them to make such
sacrifices unavoidable. It is far from impossible but that
France may conduct in the same way, and the example is
i 4 o THE WRITINGS OF [1797
worthy of consideration by those who are at the head of
affairs.
There is an opinion, which has been very artfully and
industriously circulated by our most inveterate antifederal-
ists and Jacobins, that there are persons in our government
inclined towards the English interests, an English party.
You know with how much perseverance such a partiality
was attributed to Mr. Hamilton, and has since been to
President Washington himself. To him alone could Barras
intend to make the application of his insulting innuendo,
about the condescension of the American government to
the suggestions of their ancient tyrants. It is, I am thor-
oughly convinced, all a party manoeuvre, a trick perfectly
understood by all French public men; a tactique, as they
call it, to make their adversaries unpopular by fixing upon
them odious imputations. There is not one man in the
American government that has any partialities towards
Great Britain, but there is a great English influence acting
among the people of America, an influence, which by wise and
prudent measures may be diminished, but which cannot,
and will not, be violently rooted out, because deeply involved
and indissolubly connected with our own interests. This
influence it has doubtless been the policy of the American
government to check, to control, and to weaken ; it will still
be their policy, unless France by her rashness, and insolence,
and impetuosity make it absolutely necessary to sacrifice
that object, and to encourage the British influence. But
indeed if we are compelled to look upon France as an enemy,
we shall not find it difficult to obtain a much closer friend-
ship with Britain than we have ever had, much closer than I,
or any American friendly to France, desires. By forcing
a rupture upon us, France necessarily assimilates and unites
the interests of America with those of Great Britain; an
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 141
union of interests inevitably produces intimacy of connec-
tion, and after discharging us from all the obligations of our
treaty with her, by the formal renunciation of its stipulations
on her part, France may finally discover what a difference
there is in a treaty between us and Britain, securing all the
preferences which we had before stipulated for France, and
a treaty in which the same or similar preferences would be
secured to her rival.
We are all fully sensible how important it is for us to
preserve the friendship of France, but if France, presuming
upon the disposition which is universally prevalent among
us, should think us ready to give up everything to her good-
will and pleasure, she will find to her cost, as well as to ours,
that we do not depend upon her either for our liberty or our
independence. The result of her measures will be to cast
away a valuable friend, a faithful ally, and to strengthen
her own enemy by so powerful an accession.
Your arguments and calculations that we could subsist
without any navigation of our own are certainly just, and
I hope will be properly weighed. But a war with France
would by no means suspend our navigation ; it would not
even to a considerable degree diminish it. The only con-
sequence would be, that instead of its trading directly with
all Europe, it would principally center in the trade with
England. French privateers might infest it more or less,
and it would be burdened with a heavier load of insurance
than it is at present. But Great Britain would be prompted
by every possible inducement to protect it, and the result
would only be to promote her object of grasping all com-
merce into her own hands or within her own dominions.
I am &c.
I4 2 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, March 18, 1797.
My Dear Sir :
We have not yet any authentic account concerning the
issue of the American elections. That which is current and
which I gather from the public newspapers states the choice
of President as being ascertained, and that Mr. Jefferson is
Vice President. A report prevails that he will serve in that
office, which I cordially hope to be true, because I still con-
fidently trust that the purposes which may exist in such a case,
to divide and set in opposition against each other the two
first officers of the Union will be disappointed. The welfare,
the dearest interests of a common country are at a stake.
I am sure that their benefit and security will be your only
object. I firmly hope and believe they will also be that of
your old friend and fellow patriot. This harmony, and that
of the American people in general, is becoming as necessary
as it was at the period of our Revolution. The French
government at present evidently design to go to war with
the United States, unless the Americans will submit to
sacrifice their interest, their honor, and their independence.
To effect this design, their great expectation is founded upon
the hope of our internal disunion, a hope which is very much
encouraged by the Americans who are conversant with the
ruling men in France.
The determination for the present is to take, and perhaps
to condemn, all American vessels and merchandise bound
to or from any ports under the dominion of Great Britain.
This system has long been discoverable, but is now openly
avowed. Upon this principle they already have taken and
condemned several vessels going from England. The
privateers which took them have generally been fitted out
i797l JOHX QUINCY ADAMS 143
by Americans, and it is from such specimens that the Di-
rectory judge of the dispositions and characters of the Ameri-
can people.
One of the objects to which this system is destined is
plunder. They consider the American commerce as a
beneficial prey, and they are desirous for a pretext to refuse
the payment of about forty millions of livres, which as I
understand they owe to citizens of the United States.
That they are seeking pretexts for a quarrel is plain from
every circumstance that has happened since the notes of
Mr. Adet in October of the last year. But they gradually
proceed from one step to another, because the Directory
have not by the Constitution the right of declaring war,
and they do not think the nation, or the Legislative As-
sembly, yet sufficiently exasperated against us, to make
a proposal to declare war for the present pass. In order
to produce such an animosity they are daily using every
means of misrepresentation and falsehood against the
American government ; at the same time they are offering
every provocation of insult, indignity and injury in their
power, depending either that no power exists on our part
to resent them, or if they are resented that our measures
will furnish them pretexts for further insolence, and perhaps
for proposing to the legislature a declaration of war. . . .
I expect to receive in a few days an official paper from
the Committee of Foreign Affairs. It will be formed al-
together upon a French model, and consequently cannot be
satisfactory to the American government. I have already
intimated to you what would be the inclination and what is
the necessity of the governing party here. In private con-
versation with me they freely confess that they are obliged
to follow the pleasure of France, though fully sensible of its
being highly detrimental to their own interests.
144
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
The temper of the times may be judged of from the treat-
ment experienced by your old friend at Leyden. 1 His
principles being those of genuine liberty, tempered with
the love of order, of religion and morality, without which
it cannot exist, and his spirit possessing that independence
which they cannot subdue, they have not only neglected to
employ his talents, which they would have found so useful,
but they have harassed him with every sort of persecution
in their power, dismissed him from his professorship, and en-
deavored to suppress the freedom of his paper. They are
still watching every opportunity for a pretext to silence it
entirely. The public opinion, which they use every possible
exertion to pervert, but which strengthens against them in
proportion to their efforts to subdue it, is at present his only
protection. The press here is in fact under a rigorous in-
quisition. In France it is much more free ; but the Directory
are indefatigable in their endeavors to obtain a law which
shall surrender it to their discretion. Hitherto they have not
succeeded. . . .
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
[Oliver Wolcott]
The Hague, March 24, 1797.
Sir :
• *•••••
I have had in the course of it, abundant proofs of the aver-
sion which the gentlemen at Amsterdam bear to the intro-
duction of any course of exchange from this country directly
to America. They have often assured me that such bills
could not be negotiated, and I have reason to believe that
they endeavored in this instance, though in such a guarded
manner as to secure themselves from every imputation, to
1 Johan Luzac.
m7 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 145
discredit my bills. Indeed, Sir, it is a subject worthy the
serious consideration of the government, how far the in-
terests of these gentlemen now tend to make every species
of embarrassment in the administration of the American
Treasury a desirable object to them. The time has un-
doubtedly been when their interests had a contrary ten-
dency, when all the motives of personal impulse concurred
with the sense of duty, to make them use every exertion to
facilitate the operation of our finances. But at present
there are many things that point towards a different direc-
tion. I have heretofore mentioned that they have always
been dissatisfied with the law for discharging the principal
of thesixpercent stocks. Every dischargeof capital upon the
debt of the United States here is a diminution of profits to
them. Any mode of payment which takes away the charges
of their commissions cannot be favored by them. There
is another fact which I presume is known to you, but which
I shall mention, leaving to your reflection the consequences
which it easily may involve. Mr. N. van Staphorst is a
member of the Batavian National Assembly and of the
Committee of Finance. He is understood generally to be the
efficient member for the administration of the finances of
this country. Mr. J. van Staphorst constantly resides at
Paris, and as I understand has some considerable connection
with the administration of the French finances. Mr.
Hubbard resides at Amsterdam and manages the business
of the House, which is frequently and profoundly speculating
in the funds of the three nations.
It may be added because the circumstances at the pres-
ent moment is of weight that both the Messrs. van Staphorst
are by their situation, as well as by their political opinions,
impressed with dispositions conformable to the views and
policy of the French government.
VOL. II — L
146 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
It is not without considerable reluctance and long hesita-
tion that I mention to you, Sir, circumstances of this nature.
Motives of personal interest may exist in great force without
having any improper sway, and it is possible that the ca-
pacity of deep speculators in every sort of public funds may
be in the same persons left altogether distinct from that of
agents to the government. The laws of the United States
have viewed it as proper to make the two characters in-
compatible in the administration of the Treasury at home,
and as it has not been judged necessary to extend the rule
to their commissioners abroad, a sense of indispensable
duty obliges me to give you notice of facts which indicate
very powerful interests different from those of the United
States, and the natural tendency of which is to produce
a bias upon the mind and the conduct.
As a member of this government Mr. van Staphorst has
been attacked by a pamphleteer for this combination of the
two characters, as an individual merchant and administra-
tor of the public finances, and his administration has been
very severely censured as being founded as much upon the
state of his private affairs as upon those of the nation. The
pamphlet is indeed circulated secretly, and is said to be
libellous ; but it proves an opinion of incongruity to exist
here concerning this particular, and however inaccessible
in this instance the individual may be to any improper in-
fluence, it appears to me that upon general principles such
a concurrence is attended with peculiar danger.
I have &c.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 147
TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
[Oliver Wolcott]
The Hague, March 26, 1797.
Sir :
I have the honor to inclose herewith a paper containing
a late decree of the French Executive Directory highly in-
teresting to the United States. 1 It will undoubtedly reach
you from other quarters earlier, but I am particularly in-
duced to send it in this paper, because it is noticed in the
letter from the bankers at Amsterdam of the 24th instant,
among the copies likewise inclosed.
You will remark the anxiety of these gentlemen now to sell
the 6 per cent in London as low as 89 per cent or lower. Their
intimation in their last letter, that many of their fellow citi-
zens here will send their American stocks to be sold in London,
which will reduce the prices again there, and their allusion to
an article in the Redacteur, the official newspaper employed
by the French Directory for their publications. I have not
seen this article of the Redacteur but I presume they consider
it as proving the truth of a report spread about in public,
that the Directory have determined to demand of the Ameri-
can government a loan of thirty or sixty millions of livres.
Whether the object of the French Directory is at all events
to force the United States into a war with France, or to
intimidate the government by an appearance of that kind,
I am not able to determine ; the one or the other is unques-
tionable.
But the sudden rise of our stock at the London market,
1 An arret of March 2, 1797, which purported to modify the treaty of 1778 be-
tween the United States and France in a manner to conform to the stipulations con-
tained in the Jay treaty. By requiring a certain form of ship's paper (role
d'equipage) upon a model not hitherto in use, no American ship would be exempt
from capture and condemnation.
I4 8 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
as well as here, is also very remarkable. They attribute
it altogether to the run upon the Bank of England and the
fall of the British stocks, but heretofore they have argued,
that a decline in the prices of English funds, instead of raising,
had a tendency to lower those of the United States, and the
fact has hitherto turned out favorably to their argument.
If, however, the stock of confidence in the British credit,
occasioned naturally by the establishment of a compulsive
circulation for bank notes, has produced the effect of raising
the value of American paper, I have some other reason to
believe that stock jobbing speculations of individuals con-
curred with it. I send you herewith several of the late
papers containing the prices current at Amsterdam, that you
may observe the periods of progressive appreciation by
which our paper there has lately risen. In the last paper
you will observe them fallen again about one-half per cent,
owing probably to the effect of this publication in the news-
paper inclosed. . . .
I have the honor &c.
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, March 30, 1797.
My Dear Sir :
From a Boston Centinel of the 15th of last month one of
my friends here has collected the information and communi-
cated it to me, that a few days before the President and Vice
President of the United States for the ensuing four years
were proclaimed in form. I have myself from America
neither letters nor papers later than the beginning of
December.
I have sent both to the Secretary of State and the Secre-
tary of the Treasury the Rotterdam Dutch newspaper of the
i797l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 149
24th instant, of which I likewise inclose one with this letter.
You may remark that it is a French publication in a Dutch
print. Such a kind of publication is not usual in these
papers. In this instance it was probably inserted for the
purpose of depressing the price of our funds and raising that
of insurance upon our vessels ; the last effect it has produced
to the amount of more than two per cent. 1
But the principal subject of remark is the arrete of the
Directory itself. This contains nothing to surprise us,
nothing but what we have long expected ; but it will prove
in a clearer light that concert with an American party which
has so long been apparent to everyone that has had eyes and
would see.
The objects of this arrete are perfectly discernible, and
indeed it appears to suggest the means of counteracting them
by setting forth in the broad light of which it is susceptible
both the pretext and the motive to the world in general.
The first object is to plunder the American commerce in
general, and to suspend as much as they can that in partic-
ular which we have with Great Britain. The second is to
throw the odium of these depredations upon the American
government and upon the treaty between the United States
and Britain. This last part of the policy they have certainly
learnt from their American auxiliaries ; even the first part was
also instigated probably by Americans. There is a man who
has been long and steadily busy in fomenting the animosities
which would lead to this issue ; who has effectually contrived
to remove some of the ties of interest which:kept the French
if not within the bounds of moderation, at least within some
bounds ; who had the confidential ear and a sort of magic
influence over the mind of our late Minister in France ;
1 When the intelligence of Pinckney's rebuff became known in the United States,
insurance on American vessels sailing for France could not be obtained.
, so THE WRITINGS OF [1797
who has since returned to America where I have no doubt
but he is making himself busy and mischievous as usual,
and whose stepson is now notoriously the nominal owner and
fitter out of privateers from French ports which are preying
upon the American commerce, under French colors, and under
this system of the French Directory which they at this mo-
ment avow to the world.
What measures of defence and protection against the
plundering project can be adopted I am very anxious to see.
It is with the deepest concern that I observe such a con-
spiracy of robbery against our own countrymen carried on
at the instigation of some of our own citizens. At the same
time it appears to me that in the execution of the second
object, that of deluding the minds and averting the resent-
ment of the Americans, there is a want of address of which
advantage may be taken to demonstrate the falsehood of the
pretence and the reality of the purpose.
The Directory for instance quote three articles of our
treaty with Britain, the 17th, 18th and 21st, which they
say by virtue of the stipulation in the 2nd article in the
treaty of February, 1778, have modified this treaty and must
be understood as established equally between the United
States and France.
In the third article of the arret'e therefore they say that
the 1st regulation is founded upon the 17th, the 2nd upon
the 18th, and the third upon the 21st of the articles quoted
by them. But upon comparing the regulation with the
article upon which it pretends to rest we find in the first
instance the words "ou non sujfjisamment constate e neutre" ;
in the second the words "ou indire dement" ; and in the third
the whole rule in its generality and in particular the second
clause of it have not the remotest connection with the stip-
ulations upon which they would fain erect their basis. And
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 151
proceeding one step further it appears very plain that those
very words, those very deviations from the articles which
they quote, contain the essence of the system upon which
they intend to pursue the other object of plunder, so that
for all the injurious and obnoxious part of the arrete they
might as well quote the treaty of Westphalia or of Utrecht,
as the treaty of November 19, 1794. This attempt therefore
to amalgamate their two distinct purposes is so awkward
that I hope it will furnish the most effectual materials for
its own defeat ; that it will be pointed out and unfolded so
indisputably and so simply to the judgment of our country-
men, as will tend to give that concert and union upon the
want of which the present French system altogether is
founded.
It is said Mr. Monroe is upon the point of his departure
to return home, and I understand that he has frequent in-
terviews with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. 1
The report adds that he will charge himself with the terms
which the Directory think proper to prescribe to the Ameri-
can government, and that among other proposals will be
that of a loan by the United States to pay the debts of France
to American citizens. I saw in a Philadelphia paper some
time ago a piece of evidently Gallic composition and saying
that there was nothing but water and milk in the veins of
Americans ! The Directory seem to entertain the same
opinion.
The periodical journal which I send at present for the
months of January and February will show that the conduct
of France towards us is understood in Europe, and that it is
seen in its true light. The pamphlet of Theremin I send not
only as a curiosity but to show you how infamously they
require their hirelings to lie. You see how he speaks of
1 Monroe had taken formal leave of the Directory, January I, 1797.
I52 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
Washington. This Theremin must be always considered as
one of their drudges whom they employ for any of their
filthy work ; his miserable crudities are more interesting than
they may at first sight appear, because they give the earliest
indications of many future views of the ruling men. They
take great pains to circulate his pamphlets through Europe,
and I have found many of their threads of circulation in
quarters where they are but little suspected.
I remain &c.
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, 31st March, 1797.
My Dear Sir :
I have at once to thank you for your favors of the 10th,
19th and 21st instants, and for the last work of Necker,
which you had the goodness to send by Mr. Prince. Since
receiving your letter of the latest date, I shall be very im-
patient to hear from you again. Conciliation between our
government and that of France is, indeed, an important
object, but important as it is I hope and depend, that it will
never be sought or obtained but with honor and dignity.
Experience however has fully proved that the most sincere
and cordial disposition to harmonize on our part has been
ineffectual, and after the returns which it has suffered, I can-
not readily imagine any dispatches from America will be
like to produce a favorable change.
The French government have indeed professed to make
a distinction between our government and our people.
This distinction is in truth equally offensive to both, and I
am strongly confident that its result will be to unite the closer
those whom it meant to divide.
I believe our countrymen have sense and sagacity enough
I797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 153
to perceive, that the only party in this contest liable to be
plundered is the people, and that by consenting to separate
themselves from their government the only consequence to
them will be to be more plundered.
Merlin de Douai ! then is the man upon whose report the
arrete of the 1 2th Ventose was taken. The Minister for
Foreign Affairs, too, gives a juster construction to the treaty.
But is it not perfectly clear that in reality the treaty was out
of the question when this arrete was adopted ?
It tells us that the treaty of 1778 was modified by the treaty
of 1794. It quotes the 17th, 18th and 21st articles of the
latter ; declares that they are considered as binding between
France and the United States, and then prescribes three
regulations as resulting from them. But only take the pains
to compare the regulations with the respective articles, and
you will see what a prodigious difference there is between
them in every instance ; then by one single step further, ob-
serve that in this very difference consists the essence of the
system declared by this arrete.
For instance, the words "just suspicion" in the 17th article
throw the burden of proof that captured property is not
neutral upon the captor, and it expressly declares that none
but property belonging to the enemy shall be confiscated.
But in the 1st regulation the words "non suffisamment
constatee neutre" throw the burden of proof upon the
proprietor, that it is not an enemy's, and makes even neutral
property subject to be confiscated, unless proved neutral
by special forms.
Again the 18th article makes articles serving directly to
the equipment of vessels contraband. The second regula-
tion proscribes as such, whatever is used directly or in-
directly for arming and equipping vessels. Lastly the 21st
1 Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai (1754-1828).
1S4 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
article says, a person accepting a foreign commission or
letter of marque for arming a vessel to act as a privateer, he
may, if taken, be considered and treated as a pirate.
The 3d regulation is, that every known American bearing
a commission (of any kind) given by the enemies of France,
and not only so, but every American sailor making part of
the crew of enemies vessels, shall be treated as a pirate, and
not even be allowed the plea of violence, menaces, or other-
wise. The last part of this rule, so far from being warranted
by the article of the treaty, is even a step beyond the decree
of the Convention commanding their armies to make no
prisoners.
The pretence, therefore, that the rules of the arrete are
founded upon the articles of the treaty, reminds one of
Crevier's representing the spirit of laws as originating in
the bull unigenitus. But if you consider that the rules are
to answer one purpose, and the quotation of the articles
another, that the rules are to be the foundation for plunder,
and the articles quoted for the sake of making the British
treaty and the government of the United States odious to our
people by charging upon them the blame of the depredations
contemplated, all is at once explained. The artifice is very
well conceived, but I think it awkwardly executed. The
unpopularity of the treaty of 1794 was once a good weapon,
and most prodigally was it employed. The present use
of it seems more calculated to shiver the weapon itself, than
to inflict the wounds it intends.
Your conjectures with regard to the Spanish policy may
be well founded ; but I do not believe that Spain approves
or favors the present violent course pursued against us.
There is not one nation in Europe, but what mixes a little
envy and a little fear in their sentiments and opinions con-
cerning us and our present affairs. All of them have that
I797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 155
sort of feeling with which under the ancient regime an old
nobleman looked upon a parvenu. This sort of jealousy it is
our interest and our duty to soften and lenify by our mod-
eration in prosperity, and especially by a rigorous regard
to justice with all nations. But we must not hope entirely
to remove it, and shall find ourselves sooner or later com-
pelled to meet its worst. . . .
My Dear Sir:
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, April 3, 1797.
But there appears to prevail at present a design still
more pernicious as it strikes directly at our national Union. 1
From the present conduct of the Directory it cannot be
questioned but that they are determined upon a war with the
government of the United States. There are also numerous
proofs that in the prosecution of this war they are preparing
to derive support from a part of the American people. The
policy upon which they proceed appears to be this : that the
Atlantic, or at least the eastern states, cannot be governed
by the influence of France, and therefore that a southern
republic must be formed in alliance with France to serve
as a balance against the others. But in order to form this
republic France must make war against the present govern-
ment of the United States, in the progress of which she can
send an army to support and assist her allies of the new
republic, and hereby they will effect two purposes at once;
that of weakening by division a rising power which they be-
hold with suspicion and jealousy ; and that of disencumber-
ing themselves from a considerable portion of the army,
1 He had called attention to Necker's De la Revolution Fran^oise, Section I of the
first volume, and the possible indication of projects interesting to the United States.
i 5 6 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
the return of which into France they already dread. They
wish to form a republic in America as they are now forming
a republic in Italy, to provide for the subsistence of their
troops, or at least to be themselves rid of them ; and thus
you will observe that they step towards war with America
regularly, as they step towards peace with the House of
Austria. They are constantly in expectation of this peace,
and it will probably be made in the course of this spring or
the following summer.
In one of my late letters I wrote that they had no idea of
sending an army to America, and I formed my opinion from
the state of their marine and the impossibility they are under
of restoring it for a long time. But various circumstances
now lead me to a different opinion, and with respect to the
marine, they are preparing to turn all their exertions towards
it, as may be collected clearly from the pamphlet of Theremin
which I sent you a few days ago.
You will find in the newspapers which I send at this time,
that Thomas Paine has left Paris, and is going to America.
Another of the French papers says that he is going with Mr.
Monroe "to repair the mischief done by the administration of
Washington."
The plan of the Western Republic in alliance with France,
to oppose against the rising Republic of the United States,
must have been formed as early as the time of Genet's
instructions. How much earlier it was formed it is perhaps
not necessary to conjecture. That Paine was in the secret
originally seems very probable. That he is now going to
America to promote the design, I firmly believe. I see in
some late American papers that he wrote to Bache last
summer the necessity which the French government found
themselves under to distinguish between the American govern-
ment and the people. His pamphlet against the late President
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 157
I have not seen, but am told that it is another edition of
Adet's appeal to the people. What his conduct will be is
easily foreseen. The French government calculate that in
the war they intend, the eastern states will side with their
government, but that our western country and perhaps the
southern states will side with them. Paine therefore is
going " pour semer ses Hincelles tPembrasement" for which
Madame Roland judged him so proper. Paine indeed is
pursuing his vocation. He has no country; no affections
that constitute the pillars of patriotism. But going with
Air. Monroe — where can the imagination stop in reflecting
upon these things ? Can Monroe ? Can — I have done.
I remember the late President's advice not to admit hastily
suspicions against the designs of citizens in distant parts of
the Union, and I will yet hope that a formal purpose to
sever the Union into two parts, by the help of a French war
against the whole, is at least not extensively intended or
known ; and that it will never meet with encouragement or
support from men, who ought to consider the Union as the
principle paramount to all others in the policy of every
American.
I am &c.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 97 [Timothy Pickering]
The Hague, April 8, 1797.
Sir :
* • • • * • •
The message of the President to the House of Rep-
resentatives accompanying the documents relative to the
state of our public affairs with France, mentioned in your
last letter as then intended, is by the public papers here
in France and in England announced as having been sent
i S 8 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
on the 19th of January; and in a couple of Boston news-
papers, which have arrived here of a later date, I have
found fragments of your letter to Mr. Pinckney answering
the numerous complaints of Mr. Adet as minister of the
French Republic. 1
I am impatient to receive a copy of that very interesting
publication, the need of which has long been impressed upon
my mind. Every circumstance that has for several months
occurred indicates a settled determination in the French
Directory to produce a state of war between France and the
United States. They have probably calculated how far the
American government in such case will be supported by the
people, and depend upon having as their auxiliaries and allies
a certain part of the citizens of the Union. Their ultimate
views, though not to be precisely conjectured, are discernible
in their general outline. But it appears, that the Directory
are restrained by the public opinion throughout Europe,
which would unequivocally censure an immediate rupture
with the United States by them. They keep, therefore, out
of the public view their own offensive measures, and at the
same time are using all possible means to give an erroneous
direction to the public opinion concerning the American
government. It seems important that some means should
be used to counteract this policy, for if proper measures were
taken to correct the falsehoods which are thus constantly
publishing to the world, the most effectual control, perhaps
the only one, over the warlike intentions of the Directory
would not be lost.
I have the honor, &c. 2
1 American State Papers, Foreign Relations, I. 559.
2 "A rumor that the Directoire had laid an opposition on the treasury to all
payments either to the American government or people, made me delay until the
truth should be known. I went myself, and from Mr. De Clarck fils, the chief of
the Comptability, received the assurance of its reality; and that it was grounded
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS i 59
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, April 30, 1797.
My Dear Sir :
A few days after the date of my last letter I received orders
from the Secretary of State to take leave of this government
and proceed upon the mission to Lisbon, and am now wait-
ing only for an opportunity to go directly by a neutral vessel
from Amsterdam. It was my earnest desire from motives
of peculiar concern to myself to have taken my passage by
the way of England, but various circumstances concur to
make it necessary for me to abandon that design, and to
postpone my domestic arrangements to a more remote and
a more tranquil period.
One of my friends at Paris has sent me an extract from a
Philadelphia newspaper of March 6, containing an account
of the commencement of the new administration, and the
speeches of the President and Vice President upon their
installation in their respective offices. 1 It was impossible
that anything should give me a more soothing hope, a more
pleasing consolation, than the prospect of union and har-
on the law of reprisal. What we have taken or detained from them is not men-
tioned." Joseph Pitcairn to John Quincy Adams, Paris, April 8, 1797. Ms.
"The opposition to the payment of any sums to America or Americans is founded
on a claim made by the Vengeur's captain, for injuries sustained by a trial at New
York. The Commissaries of the Treasury did not think the demand founded
against individuals who never had seen the Vengeur or her prizes, and suggested
their scruples. The Minister of Foreign Affairs upon this wrote them an official
letter, supporting the ideas of the Directoire and the force of the opposition. Some
of our countrymen are going to try the cause. The thing will make some noise."
Ibid., Paris, April 10, 1787. Ms.
"The opposition to American payments affects only sums coming from govern-
ment, and is rather an angry than a hurtful measure. The dissatisfaction to Amer-
ica does not subside ; the evil will not cure whilst the same people rule ; but France
sighs for peace." Ibid., April 22, 1787. Ms.
1 Life and Works of John Adams, IX. 105.
^o THE WRITINGS OF [1797
mony between the two first officers of the government.
Of your sentiments, indeed, I could need no formal declara-
tion. I know them very well ; but the solemn assurance
given by Mr. Jefferson of his attachment to the Constitution,
of his conviction concerning the importance of the Union,
and of his esteem for you, gave me a satisfaction the more
pointed, because I had seen all the attempts which have been
so long and so variously pursued to set at variance and op-
position two characters who have so often been united in
rendering the most important services to the common coun-
try ; and because, I am profoundly convinced that there
never was a time, or occasion, which more imperiously
called for a concert of the talents, and virtues, and influence,
of the most respected citizens throughout the Union, to meet
the trials that are preparing for us, or rather that are at this
moment bearing upon us.
The French Directory have followed up their arrete of
the 1 2th Ventose by others in a similar spirit, and among
the latest is one forbidding any authority to recognize pass-
ports given by ministers of the United States. 1 Several
captures and condemnations of vessels and cargoes, un-
questionably American, have taken place. All the cir-
cumstances will without doubt be stated to you from the
proper quarter. In the inclosed newspaper of the 24th
there are several very important observations upon the sub-
ject, which I hope will not escape the notice of our only
remaining public character at Paris.
General Pinckney has been here about ten days, and has
freely communicated with me upon the state of affairs. The
reason of the refusal to receive him is yet unaccounted for,
and it is very plain that it was by some manoeuvre which
took place subsequent to his arrival. To trace that ma-
1 Dated 21 Germinal, and notified to Adams by Noel, 29 Germinal [April 18].
1797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 161
nceuvre to its probable origin is not difficult. I believe it was
not French. Personalities of some kind or other were cer-
tainly concerned in it. Mr. Monroe has indeed enjoyed the
favor of the French government constantly and to a very high
degree. I have indeed been a little surprised to hear as
coming from himself since his recall, that he had been treated
for a long time with extraordinary coolness by them. This
account is so different from all the unanimous accounts of
the last summer, stating how highly he possessed their con-
fidence ; so different from all that I have constantly heard
and seen, from the very direct evidence that has been dis-
played to me of their benevolence towards him and patron-
age of him, that I could not help supposing the coolness about
which we are now told, to be represented as strongly as the
reality could warrant. The Director Barras has indeed in
a very formal manner declared their sense of Mr. Monroe's
merits, and very explicitly shown what care had been taken
by him to convince them' how much he disapproved the
measures and general policy of the government which he
represented.
If I am not misinformed there was in this transaction, not
only a favoring but also an opposing personal disposition.
When Mr. Thomas Pinckney passed through Paris on his
way to Madrid Mr. Monroe proposed to him to communicate
the treaty with Great Britain (which was not then ratified
and was agreed to be kept secret until ratified) to the Com-
mittee of Public Safety. Mr. Pinckney very properly de-
clined making such a communication of what had been com-
mitted to himself in confidence. The Committee of Public
Safety were at that time negotiating their peace with Spain.
After that peace was concluded, and before Mr. Pinckney's
treaty was signed, one of Mr. Monroe's intimate friends told
me that Mr. Monroe had assured him from his certain knowl-
VOL. II M
j6 2 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
edge, that the Committee of Public Safety, in their negotia-
tion with Spain, had insisted upon the free navigation of
the Mississippi for us as one of the conditions, until Mr.
Pinckney passed through Paris without communicating to
them the English Treaty; after which they immediately
gave up that point and concluded their peace without it.
I shall remark further, that at that time this story was told
with some sort of ostentation : it was one of the most
powerful means used to make the British Treaty odious to
Americans in Europe. No slight pains were taken to impress
this idea, that the British Treaty had lost us the navigation
of the Mississippi, which would otherwise have been stipu-
lated for us as a new benefit of France, and all this to the
certain knowledge of Mr. Monroe. It so happened, how-
ever, that Mr. Pinckney made his treaty securing the said
navigation of the Mississippi, not as a charitable donation
from France, but as a fair bargain in our own right. But
ever since that time Mr. Pinckney has been disliked by the
French ruling men of the day, as some of his diplomatic
predecessors were disliked for a similar fidelity to the in-
terests of their country, by the ministers of the French mon-
archy. The Secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs
here said to me the other day in conversation, that he had
never heard anything indicating an opinion that General
Pinckney's dispositions were unfriendly to France, but that
his brother was said to be anti-franc ais.
• ••••••
I am &c.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 163
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, May 2, 1797.
Dear Sir :
§••••••
The conduct of the French consul at Algiers does not at
all surprise me. 1 It is indeed true that there was abundance
of declamation against England on this subject, though I
never saw any sort of proof that England did interfere
against us. But the worst treatment we have ever received
from England since the peace of 1783 has been delicate
friendship, in comparison with the conduct of the French
governments. But there are upon the face of the earth a
set of people, who may be called the bawlers and yellers.
These have been employed since the commencement of
this war, in everything relating to America, to sound their
loudest peal, to swell every American complaint against
England, and to drown every American complaint against
France. Our countrymen will sooner or later learn that a
peace with Algiers, or any other boon that they may enjoy
under such a tenor as either French or English good will,
is not worth the having.
The bankers and people in general (you observe) say the
worst is over. They are probably themselves of that opinion.
I am not.
I observe that the government papers are continually
stuffed with falsehoods, to mislead the public mind and irri-
tate it against the Americans. I wish I could see some such
observations as must occur to every one acquainted with
1 "One thing, however, is certain, that the French consul at Algiers is doing all
in his power to break the treaty made with that Regency. We once with much
reason loudly complained of England for something similar; the French govern-
ment, who forever have the haughtiness and the crimes of that country on their
lips, ought hardly to imitate them in one of their blackest deeds." Joseph Pitcairn
to John Quincy Adams, Paris, April 22, 1797. Ms.
164 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
facts appear in other papers, to counteract such false and
pernicious impressions.
With respect for instance to the arrete of the 12th Ven-
tose the observations, which I barely hinted at in one of my
former letters, seem to be such as ought to be made to the
public : under that arrete they are taking, condemning, con-
fiscating our vessels and cargoes, and if the Directory will
not hear the voice of reason and justice, it can surely do no
harm that the public should.
That arrete is equivalent to a declaration of war, which the
Directory cannot constitutionally make. It violates in the
most flagrant manner not only the treaty of February 6,
1778, but even the very articles of the treaty of igth November ',
1794, which it quotes for its justification. . . .
It is a remarkable circumstance, that while the French
republican rulers are accusing the American government of
ingratitude for what they have not done, the emigrants and
partisans of the House of Bourbon are reproaching them with
the same crime for what they have done. "A Republic"
(says Burke in one of his last pamphlets) "erected under his
auspices " (speaking of Louis 16) " and dependenton his power
became fatal to his throne, the very money which he lent to
support this Republic, by a good faith, which to him operated
as perfidy, was punctually paid to his enemies," etc.
Since I began this letter I have some of the Paris papers
by the last post, in which I see some remarks upon the pros-
pect of a rupture between the United States and France.
They touch upon the matter of the flag very properly. 1
Some of the French papers have announced positively the
arrival of Mr. Madison at Paris as Envoy Extraordinary to
settle the differences. I think it is impossible that this should
1 Complaint was made that the French flag had not been hung in the hall of
Congress.
i 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 165
be true, especially as I have this day a letter from my brother
of the 26th which mentions nothing of it. I should like to
know how and where the report originated. It has long been
whispered about that such an appointment had been made.
Perhaps it is spread abroad as a hint. Perhaps as a delusion,
to keep up an expectation of accommodation, until it shall
be too late to retreat, or to examine into the conduct of those
who are driving into war. There appear to me to be many
symptoms of such a system and such a policy. I think good
advantage may be made of the disposition which it so mani-
festly dreads. 1 Excuse the length of my letter, and believe
me, &c.
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, May 1 1, 1797.
My Dear Sir :
■ ••••••
I have before mentioned to you the accounts circulated,
that Mr. Madison was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to
France, and sent you the papers which announced his arrival
at Paris. The present papers contradict that article, but
repeat that he has been appointed. I suppose it is meant
as a hint.
General Pinckney is still here, and has done me the honor
to communicate with me in the most unreserved and con-
fidential manner upon the state of our affairs with France.
1 "I have not been able to divine the ultimate policy of this government with
regard to us, for it surely makes war in every manner but the open declaration. I
hear no mention of Mr. Madison's coming here as was once suggested, in order to
•open the door for negotiation and the establishing General Pinckney in his
place." Joseph Pitcairn to John Quincy Adams, April 22, 1797. Ms. Hamilton
had suggested to Washington, as early as January 22, 1797, the nomination of an
extraordinary commission to France to consist of Madison, Pinckney, and Cabot.
Writings of Alexander Hamilton (Lodge), VIII. 445.
l66 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
He has also desired me to say to you, that it is his wish that
no scruple whatever as it regards him may impede the ap-
pointment of Mr. Madison, or of any other person, who may
be more like to succeed in arranging the differences with
France. That his only motive in entering upon this mission
was the service of his country, and that the same motive will
induce him to acquiesce cheerfully in any other arrangement
that may be thought expedient. He has written in similar
terms to the Secretary of State, and would write in like man-
ner to you, but that he has not the pleasure of a personal
acquaintance with you. I have been much gratified by his
confidence, and from this conduct and sentiments have
formed an high opinion of his character and personal
merit.
Mr. Monroe is at length gone from Bordeaux. Whether
he is really charged with the pleasure of the Directory, you
will soon know. It is now said that Paine is not gone with
him, but is going out by himself. Mr. Monroe has, indeed,
long been ashamed of his ally, even while he has been using
his services. I remember that while he was feeding him at
his table, and lodging him under his roof, his friends were
circulating all over Europe that it was sorely against his
will, that he wanted much to get rid of him, but could not,
and that Mrs. M[onroe] especially could not endure such a
filthy beast in the house. In the meantime, there he stayed ;
there he wrote his infamous, lying libel against Washington,
which he took care to intersperse with a parasitical eulogy
of his host ; there he completed the expedient worthy of
himself, whereby he hoped at once to vent all his abuse,
and to give Monroe the credit of having suppressed it.
There he wrote his second part of his Age of Reason, and
used to entertain Monroe's visitors with his facetiousness
at the expense of religion. Monroe had given him an
1797) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 167
apartment in a building separated from his principal house,
and which was an upper story over his stables ; and Paine
used to tell a company that the Christian religion came
into the world by a stable, and by a stable it should go out
of it.
It is with extreme reluctance that I have given you, though
in the most intimate confidence, my sentiments upon Mr.
Monroe's conduct during his mission to France. A most
unfortunate mission it has been for his country, and where
its consequences will lead, I am more able to conjecture than
willing to foretell. I hope he was not aware of them himself,
because I had rather consider him as prejudiced and im-
provident, but honest, than something worse. . . .
I am &c.
TO JOHN ADAMS
The Hague, 20 May, 1797.
My Dear Sir :
Among the papers enclosed there is one (that of the 10th)
containing a pretended extract of a letter from Philadelphia,
giving an account of the manner in which the anniversary
of the treaty with France was celebrated, and also of the
opening and counting the votes for President and Vice Pres-
ident at the late election. You will see with what effrontery
it lies in speaking of you, and with how much malignity
it states first an equality of force between two factions in
America, and next your attachment to one that is for an
union with England. It is to be observed that this paper
is published by persons who are said to be friendly towards
America, and who have expressly disapproved the violent
and insolent proceedings of their government towards us.
I have already repeatedly suggested it to you, and I wish I
could not have continual occasion to renew the observation,
1 68 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
you have everything to expect from France but justice and
good-will. 1
The preliminaries of peace between France and the Em-
peror have not yet been published. Mr. Hammond, who
was sent from England upon the business of negotiation,
found the peace made on his arrival at Vienna. 2 It does not
appear probable that any peace between France and Eng-
land will be made. The French government are determined
to try a descent. They are prompted at once by the hopes
of plunder, of producing a Revolution, and of disburthening
themselves of their own troops.
I expected my brother to return from Paris not later than
this day week, and I shall immediately after complete my
preparations for departure. Whether I shall go by the way
of England, or direct from Amsterdam, is not yet determined.
When my brother went to Paris I gave him a letter for
your old friend Arnoux, 3 who was very glad to see him and
happy to hear from our family. Mr. Arnoux has answered
my letter and desires particularly to be remembered to you ;
the old gentleman passed a year in prison, during the time
which they call the reign of terror. . . .
Since I began this letter General Pinckney has called upon
me, and I find by letters which he has received and by some
English newspapers, that Congress were called together for
the 15th of this month. I hope their measures will show a
1 "There is in the Nouvelles Politique* of 21 Floreal an infamous aspersion upon
your father, as false as if it had come in a straight line from Hell. I am surprised to
see it in that paper, because it is generally moderate and impartial." To Thomas
B. Adams, May 17, 1797. Ms.
! The preliminaries of peace were signed at Leoben, April l8, by which Austria
relinquished all claims to the Belgic provinces, and recognized the limits of France
as decreed by the laws of the French Republic. For this the Emperor was to re-
ceive an "equitable indemnity," to determine which the public Congress of Rastadt
sat for sixteen months.
5 Abbe Arnoux. See Works of John Adams, III. 135.
I797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 169
spirit of union, and a temper at once of firmness and modera-
tion. I am much afraid that at all events the French are
determined to quarrel with our government, though at present
they say they are not. Our treaty with Britain is a stalking-
horse, the use of which they were taught from our own side
of the water. But the real prospects, I believe, are two :
the Western, or Southern Republic ; and the change in our
Constitution, which I wrote you was concerted, in my letter
from London of December 24, 1795.
In order to effect their purpose they are committing every
possible provocation that can rouse our resentment and
indignation. They are hunting for pretexts of offence, and
for want of others use such as are perfectly ridiculous. But
they are ready to seize with avidity every mark of resent-
ment which their insolence and injustice provoke, and repre-
sent as an offence from us. The art of picking a quarrel is
one of those which they have so constantly been exercising
both at home and abroad, that they have become very ex-
pert at it. It is thus that they fabricate almost all their
conspiracies, and thus that they have ruined Geneva, as they
soon will do all the Italian States. The dissolution of the
Venetian government is already completed, and the Senate
have finished by requesting General Buonaparte to give the
Republic a new Constitution. 1 Buonaparte is the corrus-
cation or the comet of the day. He is certainly not an ordi-
nary man. It is not easy to see what the French Republic
will do with him. I think they will not treat him quite so
cavalierly as they have Pichegru.
I have no late letters from you. I expect none relating to
public affairs. I am fully sensible how many spies there
will be upon every word you write, and every word you say,
as well as the base constructions and misrepresentations
1 Venice adopted a new constitution, upon French models, in May.
l 7°
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
which will be studiously put upon them. I have seen a
private letter of the late President, intercepted as is said,
betrayed as I believe, and can easily guess how. Like every-
thing else proceeding from that truly great man it carries
not only its justification but its eulogy within itself. Yet an
abominable use has been made of it. I have good reason to
think also that his private conversations have been betrayed in
the same manner, and for the same purposes. While I was
in England I had an opportunity to reconnoiter the enemy's
camp. I saw their perfidy and penetrated (ho penetrado)
their designs. If I could without ridiculous presumption
venture a word of advice to a President of the United States,
it would be to fasten an eternal seal upon his lips, and burn
his pen of private correspondence with regard to public
affairs.
I am &c.
TO JOSEPH PITCAIRN
The Hague, 23 May, 1797.
I am happy to find that a translation of Mr. Pickering's
letter to General Pinckney will be published, and that some
paragraphs in the papers have at length taken our defence,
against the scandalous misrepresentations, which have so
long been making against us.
There was, however, in the Nouvelles Politiques of the
21st Floreal a very malignant and very false account of
American affairs and parties. Nothing can be falser than
an idea, that there is any party in America desirous for an
union with England. There are not in my opinion five thou-
sand human beings in the United States, but what would
shed the last drop of their blood rather than consent to such
an union. It is true that the late conduct of France will
reconcile great numbers of our countrymen to a more friendly
I797 l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 171
and cordial disposition towards the English. Our people
hold by a commercial interest to peace with England, and by
a political and moral principle to peace with all the world.
But no man who knows anything of the American people
can say, that any number of them large enough to form a
faction or a party, wish for an union with England. Who-
ever asserts it must know that he lies to his own heart, as well
as to the most unequivocal and unvaried testimony of
things.
In the same paper of 28 Floreal there are some judicious
and moderate observations, signed L. P. Segur l'aine, 1 in
reply to others of a different description in the Moniteur and
Redacteur. I know not Mr. Segur, but as an American feel
obliged to him for making the voice of reason be heard in a
manner certainly beneficial both to his country and ours.
But I observe with some concern, that the author even of
these observations for want of accurate information does not
state the conduct of the American government in so fair and
advantageous a light as it really deserves. He docs not,
for instance, deny that Mr. Talon was ever admitted by the
late President as the agent of the emigrant princes. 2 He
might have denied it in the most positive manner, for such
is the fact. There is no sort of evidence that these princes
ever sent an agent to America. It is certain that none was
received. He might have remarked that the Danish govern-
ment did not receive a minister from the French Republic
for years after its establishment. That the Count de
BernstorfT formally disavowed in the face of all Europe
having recognized M. Grouvelle, 3 who was then at Copen-
1 Louis-Philippe Segur (1753-1830).
2 Antoine-Omer Talon (1760-1811). Writings of George Washington (Ford),
XII. 285; XIII. 440.
3 Philippe-Antoine Grouvelle (1757-1806). See Masson, Le Departement des
Affaires Etrangeres, 215/1.
1 72 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
hagen with that capacity. That no Danish Minister was
sent to Paris, avowed as such, until since the death of the
Empress of Russia, and that the French government have
never made this a subject of complaint against that of Den-
mark. The first minister of the French Republic to America
was received without a moment of delay or hesitation.
Upon the subject of the treaty of 19 November, 1794, 1 Mr.
Segur does not sufficiently consider that it did not in one
tittle vary from the ordinary law of nations in favor of Great
Britain. That in the points, which the Directory have made
subjects of complaint, it left everything exactly as it would
have been without any treaty at all. That in providing for
the payment of provisions captured under the existing laws
of nations, it secured a stipulation advantageous not only to
ourselves but to France, since it must operate as an encourage-
ment to the exportation of those articles from America to
France. That it expressly discards everything that could
militate with the previous treaties of either party, and there-
fore reserves its full operation to that which we had made
with France. That it shows by the clearest inference the
disposition of the American government to establish univer-
sally the principle, that free ships shall make free goods,
and that the arrete of 12 Ventose, by pretending to appro-
priate to France the 17, 18 and 21 articles of the treaty,
could not give them an obnoxious operation, but by regula-
tions in flagrant violation of the articles themselves. 2
I remain, etc.
1 The Jay treaty.
" France has asked of Holland to send away our Minister from them and to
treat our commerce on the plan of their late decree. The Batavian government
answered after due consideration that their commerce with us was now their
chief commerce, that their money was in our funds, that if they broke off correspon-
dence with us they should be without resources for themselves, for their own public
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 173
COMMISSION TO PRUSSIA
John Adams, President of the United States of America
To John Quincy Adams — Greeting
Reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your Integrity Pru-
dence and Ability, I have nominated and by and with the Advice
and Consent of the Senate, do appoint you the said John Quincy
Adams Minister Plenipotentiary for the United States of America
at the Court of His Majesty the King of Prussia, authorizing you
hereby to do and perform all such Matters and things as to the
said Place or Office doth appertain, or as may be duly given you in
charge hereafter, and the said office to hold and exercise during
the pleasure of the President of the United States for the time be-
ing. IN TESTIMONY whereof I have caused the seal of the
United States to be hereunto affixed. Given under my hand at the
City of Philadelphia, the First day of June, in the year of our Lord
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Inde-
pendence of the United States of America the Twenty-first.
John Adams.
By the President of the United States,
(Seal) Timothy Pickering,
Secretary of State. 1
and for France, and therefore declined doing it. France acquiesced. I have this
from the President, who had it from his son still at [the] Hague." Jefferson to
Madison, May 28, 1797. Writings of Jefferson (Ford), VII. 126.
1 The instructions were not prepared until July 15, 1797.
"When I nominated you to Berlin, your mother had not received the letter in
which you mentioned your aversion to holding an office under my nomination.
If I had known you had formed such a resolution, I should not have made any
alteration in your destination, till I had written you on the subject.
"I think, however, that resolution was not well considered. It is the worst
founded opinion I ever knew you conceive. I. In the present case you have no
greater emolument nor higher rank than you would have had, if you had gone to
Lisbon under the nomination of President Washington. 2. You will not occasion
one farthing more expense to your country. 3. You are not more dependent upon me
now than you would have been, because I should have had the power to recall you
at my pleasure from Lisbon, and I have no greater power to recall you from Berlin.
I74 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
POWER TO NEGOTIATE TREATIES WITH SWEDEN
John Adams, President of the United States of America
To all whom these Presents shall concern — Greeting. KNOW
YE, That reposing a special Trust and Confidence in the Integrity,
Prudence and Abilities of John Quincy Adams, a Citizen of the
United States of America, late their Minister Plenipotentiary to
the Court of Portugal, I have given and granted and do hereby
give and grant to the said John Quincy Adams full Power and
Authority, and also a general and special Command, to meet and
confer with the Ministers Commissioners or Deputies of his Maj-
esty the King of Sweden, or any or more of them, being furnished
with the like full powers, and with them or any one or more of
them, to treat, consult and negotiate of and concerning the re-
newal of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United
"Your reasons will not bear examination. Your own disqualifications, if they
had existed, would have been the same at Lisbon as at Berlin. The superior title
of many other American citizens, if that had existed, would have been the same in
Portugal as in Prussia. But if there is any authority in the opinion of Washington
and all his ministers, with which mine concurs, and it is supported by the opinions
of all men I know or hear of, and by the general sense of America, your qualifications
and title to the mission either to Portugal or Prussia, are equal to those of any one
of your fellow citizens, be he who he may. Your disapprobation of a nomination
by the President of his own son, is founded on a principle which will not bear the
test. It is a false principle. It is an unjust principle. The sons of Presidents
have the same claim to liberty, equality, and the benefit of the laws with all other
citizens. It is downright injustice to them to prescribe a law of proscription
against them. The law considers it as one of the severest punishments to declare a
man incapable of serving in any office under the government. Shall an infamous
disqualification to serve their country, the punishment of the highest crimes, be
arbitrarily inflicted on the sons of a President, merely because they are his sons ?
Why has not the Constitution, or the Legislature, made such a law of exclusion ?
Upon my honor, if such a law had existed, I would not have accepted the office at
my time of life, at least that is my present feeling and judgment.
"It gives no color of reason to those who represent you (if any such there are,
which I do not believe, because it is well understood that Mr. Washington appointed
you not only without my solicitation, but without my desire) as the creature of
favor : because you stand exactly as you did, and there is no favor in it." John
Adams to John Quincy Adams, November 3, 1797. Ms.
, 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 175
States of America and His Majesty the King of Sweden, 1 with such
alterations as shall be mutually agreed on; and to conclude and
sign a treaty touching the premises ; transmitting the same to the
President of the United States of America for his final ratification
by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate of the United
States, if such advice and consent shall be given. IN TESTI-
MONY whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
hereunto affixed. GIVEN under my hand at the City of Phil-
adelphia, the First day of June, in the year of, our Lord one thou-
sand seven hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the Twenty-first.
John Adams.
By the President of the United States,
(Seal) Timothy Pickering,
Secretary of State.
ADDRESS TO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY 2
A L'Assemblee Nationale Representante le peuple Batave.
Citoyens Representants :
Le President des Etats Unis, ayant trouve bon de me rap-
peller de la mission que j'ai l'honneur depuis plusiers annees
de remplir pres de cette Republique, m'a donne l'ordre de
prendre conge de l'Assemblee Nationale Batave, et de lui
reiterer les assurances sinceres de l'amitie du gouvernement
des Etats Unis, et de son desir de perpetuer l'harmonie et la
bonne intelligence, qui ont toujours si heureusement sub-
sists entre les deux Republiques.
Quelque penible que soit pour moi, Citoyens Representants,
le moment qui doit terminer mon sejour chez une nation si
vraiment respectable, si digne de l'estime et de l'admiration
1 Concluded in 1783, to be in force for fifteen years from the exchange of the
ratifications.
2 Adams received his letters of recall April 9, but having then no opportunity to
go to Lisbon delayed the presentation until June.
I7 6 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
de tout observateur, et mes relations avec un gouvernement
dont les procedes ont toujours eu droite a toute ma reconnais-
sance, il m'estcependant bien doux d'etre encore l'organeentre
deux peuples libres, de leurs sentimens d'amitie, d'harmonie
et de bonne intelligence, de vous exprimer la bienviellance
cordiale que ma patrie porte a la votre, et de vous le temoigner
au nom d'un President des Etats Unis, dont le caractere,
les talents, et les vertus ainsi que les services a la cause de la
liberte, vous sont connus, et que depuis l'epoque auquel il
me charge des ordres que j'execute en ce moment a terminer
par une retraite volontaire une carriere politique dont la
patrie s'honorera toujours.
Pour renouveller les assurances et les preuves d'amitie de
la part des Etats Unis pour la Republique Batave, un des
derniers actes de son administration fut de nommer, avec le
concours du Senat des Etats Unis, pour resider aupres de
cette Republique avec le merae caractere que j'ai eu l'honneur
de porter, William Vans Murray, un de nos citoyens dis-
tingues, qui apres avoir ete pendant six ans un des Repre-
sentans du peuple Americain dans le Congres des Etats
Unis, et jouissant par consequent depuis long terns de sa
confiance, connait parfaitement ses dispositions amicales,
et ses vceux sinceres pour le bonheur et la prosperite du
peuple Batave. II se fera toujours un plaisir de vous les ex-
primer. Puissent-t-ils durer a jamais. Puisse l'union d'in-
terets et de sentimens qui caracterise nos deux nations,
cimentee par l'amour et la jouissance commune de la liberte
etre ardente et vive comme elle et comme la justice eternelle
et inalterable.
A la Haye, ce 20 Juin 1797.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 177
TO JOHN ADAMS
Amsterdam, 7 June, 1797.
My Dear Sir :
My brother has returned from Paris and is now at the
Hague. I am here making the necessary arrangements for my
departure. I propose to go by the way of London and to
take a companion there. I am now only waiting to see Mr.
Murray who has arrived at the Texel ! but has not yet come
up here.
Our old friend Arnoux was very civil to my brother and
appeared extremely desirous that the difference between the
United States and France should be amicably settled. He
introduced him to the Director Carnot, with whom he dined
the day before he left Paris. The first thing Carnot said to
him was an invective against our treaty with England.
Carnot most probably does not know what it contains. He
has taken his ideas of it from Merlin de Douai and Charles
Delacroix who took theirs from . 2 There is in the whole
of this business a mystery of iniquity which I would hope
some future day will unfold.
This character which the Legislative Councils have as-
sumed since the entrance of the new third part, and the choice
of Barthelemi as a member of the Directory, 3 fully convince
me that much might be done at this time by way of con-
ciliation. But it must be done by persons really desirous
to produce it. The greatest enemies of America in France
are Americans themselves. General Pinckney is as active as
possible at this distance ; whether his directions are observed
I am unable to say. There is incapacity if not worse in the
1 On June 7.
1 A blank in the Ms. ; probably Monroe is intended.
1 May 27, to succeed Letourneur.
vol. n — N
i 7 8 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
only American official character that has access to the
French government. 1
■ ■ • • • • •
The Hague, June 19, 1797. While I was writing as above
Mr. Murray arrived at Amsterdam, and from that day to the
present I have been so much engaged that I hope it will
serve as an excuse for not having finished this letter. 2 As I
have determined to go by the way of England, you will
perhaps be the more readily disposed to accept my apology.
Mr. Murray delivered me your kind letter of 21 March.
It gives me great pleasure to have a person for whom I have
so great a regard and esteem to succeed me here. He will
find the dispositions of the persons in government as friendly
and well disposed towards America as they dare to be ; and
they will continue so long as they shall not find an absolute
necessity to manifest the contrary. This they will never do
without extreme reluctance ; but the example which they
have given with regard to Portugal proves that what is
positively required they cannot refuse.
The approbation with which my mission here has been hon-
1 Skipwith, whose bias is shown in his letter to Jefferson, March 17, 1798,
printed in Gibbs, Administrations of Washington and Adams, II. 158.
2 "Fortunately Mr. Adams was not gone, and I had the pleasure of meeting him
at Amsterdam. This was lucky for me, both because to meet so amiable and in-
telligent a man at all is desirable, and that the conversations I have had with him
are to prove the only chance and resource of knowledge upon any of the foreign
affairs connected with the United States that I am to enjoy and draw from, inde-
pendent of my own apprenticeship and experience. For the United States have
never had a single book, paper, register, or archive kept at this court that I can hear
of, and each successor is to take up business which may have been left unfinished —
unless he has a copy of a memorial or two, either at the right or wrong end, or
according to the light which doubtful intelligence on the spot may enable him."
William Vans Murray to James McHenry, June 22, 1797. Steiner, Life and Corre-
spondence of James McHenry, 227. On June 16 Murray was presented to Mr.
Van Leyden, secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs, and on the 20th he
met the President of the National Assembly. Adams left the Hague June 28.
i 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 179
ored very far exceeds not only my deserts, but even my wishes.
Sincere and honest good intentions are indeed of themselves
so valuable, that I can easily conceive how they have been
overrated upon this occasion. You require from me as
good intelligence from Lisbon as I have given from this place.
I hope not to remit of my industry ; but I have had several
important advantages here, which have arisen from acci-
dent or good fortune, which I cannot promise myself there.
My chain of correspondence too in Europe must be broken
up, and in that remote situation will not easily be repaired.
Books, pamphlets, newspapers, reviews, every one of these
articles so necessary to form an accurate opinion of current
events, are not so easily accessible there as in this country ;
and besides all I would if possible lead you to expect less
than I fear you will, because that is more than I fear I shall
ever be able to perform.
With regard to my return to America it is true that I
constantly feel such an inclination strongly bearing upon
me. "I feel the bond of nature draw me to my own." I
cherish and encourage this sentiment because I fear the opera-
tion of habit and new acquaintances and connections, to
bind me by the attachments other than those of my country.
Yet I shall reconcile myself to continue my residence in
Europe as long as circumstances will permit, or as will be in
any manner proper ; remembering that even were it possible
for me to recede from a rigorous principle of exclusion for
me (which I never can believe), it is at least my duty never
to accept any public office whatever under your nomination.
From that duty I shall not swerve. But I should not have re-
newed a subject upon which I have heretofore expressed my
sentiments, but for an intimation that the late President has
expressed a wish that you would not withhold promotion
from me if I should deserve it. His approbation and good
180 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
opinion are indeed more precious to me than any promotion
whatever. The distinction by which he thinks my promo-
tion by you reconcileable with his own practise while he
held the office, may as it respects any other person be just.
I cannot admit it for myself.
Tomorrow I am to deliver my letters of recall and Mr.
Murray his credentials to the President of the Batavian
National Assembly. Of this circumstance I shall give an
account to the Secretary of State. 1
I am &c.
1 "It is an usual practice with this government, as with most others in Europe,
upon the departure of a foreign minister, to make him a present of a gold chain and
medal. As I had reason to expect that such a present would be offered to me, and as
I did not consider myself at liberty conformably to the Constitution of the United
States to accept it, I mentioned the circumstance to Mr. van Leyden. He said that
a similar rule existed in this country but that permission was always given upon
application to the government to receive these presents ; he proposed to me there-
fore to request the permission of Congress in this instance, and observed that the
affair might remain in such a state, that if the permission be obtained, the medal
may afterwards be sent to me. As he intimated to me that a positive refusal might
be thought to wear an unpleasant appearance, and as I have since been again urged
by the Committee upon the subject, I have agreed to write you a statement of the
matter, but shall mention it as doubtful, whether the permission of Congress will be
given. In truth as it respects myself, I do not wish to ask it. The mere sollicita-
tion of liberty to receive a present from a foreign power, seems an approximation to
what the Constitution has by a rule forbidden, and I shall not certainly set the ex-
ample." To the Secretary of State, June 20, 1797. Ms. The subject is controlled
by § 9, Art. 1 of the Constitution of the United States. The first European state
to oppose the practice of making presents to ambassadors was the Netherlands,
which adopted in 165 1 a regulation prohibiting its ministers in foreign parts "to
take any presents, directly or indirectly, in any manner or way whatever." Moore,
Digest of International Law, IV. 576 et seq.
I797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 181
TO JOHN ADAMS
Maassluys, 2 July, 1797.
My Dear Sir :
I wrote you two or three days ago from Rotterdam, which
I left the next day 1 and am still detained here by contrary
winds. I then mentioned that Pastoret 2 has made a motion
in the French Council of Five Hundred tending to annul
the arretes of the Directory relative to America, particularly
that of 12 Ventose, which he truly represented as contrary
to the Constitution. It was referred to a Committee of five
to report upon it. You will have a more circumstantial
account of the whole matter from another quarter ; but there
are some observations which will not occur elsewhere, and
which may perhaps in some degree contribute to give you a
just idea of the state of our affairs in France.
Infinite pains have been taken there to spread universally
the idea that there are in America only two parties, the one
entirely devoted to France and the other to England. You
have been in the Paris newspapers expressly represented as
at the head of the latter, and Mr. Jefferson of the former.
The English too have been much disposed to countenance
the same idea. The artifice of the French party in America,
to throw the odium of partiality to the English upon every
man who would not sacrifice his country to France, has been
very industriously pursued, and in a very considerable
degree successful. It is one instance of their denomination
giving system which Fauchet so much extols. In France
everything has contributed to give prevalence to this false-
hood. Pastoret therefore himself in making his motion said
that the American government had indeed given some reason
to doubt of the loyalty of its intentions, by their treaty with
Great Britain, but that this was not sufficient for a rupture, etc.
1 June 30. 2 Claude-Emmanuel-Joseph-Pierre Pastoret (1755-1840).
1 82 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
This universal dislike of that treaty by all the parties in
France, while none of them can give one substantial reason
for their dislike, is for us its highest panegyric. It shows
that it interferes with views which they dare not avow.
The objections that they have ever made against it are per-
fectly futile. The arrete of 12 Ventose bears internal evi-
dence that the reasons assigned are not the real ones. I
drew up at General Pinckney's request about two months
ago some observations concerning that arrete. I particu-
larly dwelt upon the point of the British Treaty, and showed
that the Directory, by resting the rules of their arrete upon
certain articles of the treaty, merely sought a pretext : that
it was totally destitute of foundation, since every one of the
rules was not only variant from, but in direct violation of
the articles cited for its justification. In order to show this
in its clearest and most striking light, I placed in opposite
columns the several rules and articles, so that their incom-
patibility might appear at a single glance, adding at the close
of each some observations of my own. This paper was seen
by Pastoret before he made his motion, and he concurred in
the opinion that the arrete was unconstitutional. But as to
the opposite columns, General Pinckney's correspondent at
Paris only wrote to him, that in these discussions all long
quotations should be avoided, because they would not read them.
Whether Pastoret read them or not, I shall not say ; but
what sort of discussion can be carried on with persons who
will not read the very state of the question in debate ?
Whether that part of my paper was read, or was offered for
reading or not, Pastoret did not the less complain of the
British Treaty, and complain of it as an act of the American
government unfriendly to France.
Pastoret is one of the most distinguished members of the
Council of Five Hundred. He came in at the first Constitu-
i 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 183
tional election in October, 1795, and was not a member of
the Convention. He has all along supported with eloquence
and firmness the cause of moderation and justice against the
revolutionary violence and wickedness which has so often
prevailed even since the establishment of the Constitution.
Dumolard 1 is another member of the same description, and
these two are certainly the most conspicuous characters that
have arisen in that third part of the legislature. Barbe-
Marbois 2 our old acquaintance came in at the same time,
and appears to have the same system in the Council of
Elders. This party, since the introduction of the new third
part, have an unquestionable and strong majority in both
Councils ; but the old remaining third of the Convention,
with their four-fifths of the Directory, are reviving the
Jacobin clubs, preparing for insurrections, and endeavoring
to secure the armies on their side.
Since the motion of Pastoret, Dumolard has brought for-
ward one of a like nature against the measures conducted or
permitted by the Directory in Italy. It occasioned some
debate, and finally was adjourned until the report of the Com-
mittee upon the motion of Pastoret should be made. This
circumstance deserves notice, for the adjournment was upon
an observation of Thibaudeau, "that it was improper, and
might be dangerous to investigate these transactions in
Italy, since they might be deeply connected with the negotiations
for a general Peace." So you see, Genoa, Venice, and perhaps
Switzerland, are to be not only revolutionized but plundered,
dismembered, divided, torn to pieces, in every way, to make
an arrangement for a general peace. And as the subject is
adjourned until the report upon the differences with America
shall be made, it looks very much as if some arrangement
1 Jacques-Vincent Dumolard (i 7 66-l8i9).
2 Francois Barbe de Marbois (1745-1837).
i8 4 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
relative to us too was in contemplation, as connected with
the negotiations for a general peace. 1
There is an observation of Montesquieu, that it is some-
times bad policy in a small state to remain neutral in the wars
between two great powers, its neighbors, because neither of
them being bound to it by the force of obligation or interest,
they may finally settle their difference by sacrificing the small
power between them. The truth of this remark is strongly
exemplified by the present fate of the Italian Republics, i
though it is far from being clear that they could have escaped
it by taking part in the war. However that may be, it is
important for us to take care not to be made ourselves the
victims of any such agreement. If France has any such
designs, it must be in the plan of severing the United States
into two Republics, one of which she would take under her
protection and mould to her will, leaving the other to the
influence and management of Britain. I am far from being
certain that the British government would be averse to such
a division.
• ••••••
I am &c.
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
My Dear Mother : Maassluys, 6 July, 1797.
• ••••••
Our situation with that country is equivocal and danger-
ous. General Pinckney acts great prudence and wisdom,
and I am persuaded will do everything possible in the dis-
advantageous situation in which he still remains. But
there are very many wicked agents, and many very bad
passions at work against the interest and the friendship of
the two nations.
1 See Murray to Mc Henry, September 22, 1797, in Steiner, Life and Correspond-
ence of James McHenry, 276.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 185
With regard to the West India depredations, the Directory-
have published a letter from Sonthonax and his brother
robbers, 1 their agents, in which they freely declare, that
they had employed cruisers against American vessels with-
out authority, but because they wanted provisions, because
the Americans were ill-disposed, and because after the elec-
tion of John Adams as President of the United States they
concluded there would be a war between the two countries.
The Directory have recalled those Commissioners, and their
infamous piracies have not been unnoticed even in Paris.
An investigation and scrutiny have already been called for
into the other hostile measures of the Directory ; there is no
doubt a strong party in France who disapprove of them,
but they are afraid of nothing so much as of being too much
in the right.
Among those who call and think themselves our friends,
and who are indeed sensible how unjustly the Directory has
treated us, is Barbe-Marbois, a man well-known in America,
and now a very distinguished member of the Council of
Ancients. He has lately made a report relative to the ex-
penses in the department of foreign affairs. It appears
they are four or five times as great as they were in the most
extravagant periods of the old government. And for all
this augmentation of charges, they have, according to
Marbois, got but a very contemptible set of negotiators
abroad, among whom he has with equal justice and severity
included their late minister to the United States.
One of them, (says Marbois,) sent to a friendly nation, will
imagine he serves his country by sowing distrust and suspicion
between the government and the people. In order to acquire the
reputation of being active and influential, he will expose two na-
1 Leblanc, Leger-Felicite Sonthonnax (1763-1813), and Raimond, commis-
sioners sent to the Windward Islands.
i86 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
tions, united by their reciprocal interests, by benefits, and by
gratitude, to a fatal rupture; he will exert himself to sully the
splendor of the fairest life, the eminent qualities of the greatest
man, that our country can offer to history, and present to posterity ;
and even though he should not attain the end proposed, the mind
of men will nevertheless be alienated, and a double portion of
wisdom will be necessary to bring them together again.
So you see that even in the capital of France, even in the
sanctuary of their legislation, a public and an eloquent voice
is yet found, ready to pay the tribute of justice to the charac-
ter of Washington, and to reward with richly deserved con-
tempt the reptile that would have shed its filth and venom
upon such brightness. . . .
I remain &c.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
Maassluys, 7 July, 1797.
• ••••••
I find by the French papers, which you were so kind as to
leave with me, that the report of Barbe-Marbois to the
Council of Elders, relative to the expenses in the French de-
partment of foreign affairs, has been printed in a pamphlet
at full length. It would perhaps be worth while to send for
one or two copies of it, and forward them to the Secretary of
State. I wish to see a translation of it appear in our public
prints. The eulogium upon Washington, so just and so well
expressed, will do honor to the speaker, and will have a
conciliatory effect upon the minds of our countrymen to-
wards France. It contains, besides, many curious details
proper for our information. There is yet in our country a
great deal of enthusiasm in favor of the French, founded upon
an idea of their regeneration and republicanism. Every
authentic document, which tends to show that such opinions
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 187
are founded upon delusion, and are spread abroad by im-
posture, becomes precious, and should not I think be with-
held from our people. Whatever tends at once to reconcile
the two nations, and to prove the true character of the pres-
ent French administration, will answer two excellent pur-
poses at the same time. These ideas, however, I am well
persuaded, have occurred to General Pinckney, and it is very
probable that he may have received already the pamphlet
from Paris. If you concur with me in opinion astoMarbois's
report, it may be worth suggesting to him.
There is another thing in this country, which I forgot
mentioning to you when you were here, which I find in the
Dutch newspapers, and of which you have heard perhaps
much at the Hague. The provincial assembly of Holland
have opened what they call a voluntary loan of 12 million
of guilders, but I imagine the loan will in the end turn out to
be a tax. The unexpected taxation to which this country
has submitted since its alliance with the terrible Republic,
is one of the objects upon which our government at least,
should be possessed of information upon indisputable author-
ity. The features of such fraternity are sufficiently ghastly,
and well deserve to be exposed.
I shall once more solicit the last Paris and Leyden papers ;
they will in all probability reach me by the post. 1
With my respects &c.
1 "July 12. By the regulations prescribed here in consequence of the war, no
passenger is allowed to go up beyond Gravesend in the vessel himself, or to take
out any of his baggage, all of which must go to London. We landed in the morning,
and were employed most of the forenoon in obtaining the expedition of our pass-
ports. They are all examined here by a Mr. Mazzinghi, and sent to the Duke
of Portland's (Secretary of State) office, whence they must be returned with permis-
sion for the holder to go up to London. In the meantime the passengers are de-
tained, with a guard placed over them. Mr. Mazzinghi, however, dispensed with
this circumstance in our behalf, in consideration of my public character; and with
that of Mr. Aguiar, as he was charged with dispatches from the Portuguese minister
188 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
INSTRUCTIONS
To John Quincy Adams, Esquire
Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America
to His Majesty the King of Prussia
Sir :
By inspecting the Treaty of Amity and Commerce concluded
in the year 1785, between the United States and the late Frederick
the second, King of Prussia, you will observe that it was to be in
force during the term of ten years from the exchange of the ratifi-
cations. This exchange took place about the month of September,
in the year 1786, and of course the treaty has expired.
You will receive herewith a commission containing full powers to
renew this treaty, in its present form, for another term of ten years ;
but with the following exceptions, if the same shall be assented to
on the part of the King.
1. It will be expedient to omit that part of the sixteenth article
which exempts the vessels of each party from embargo, and to
render them liable to a general embargo. There is a like clause of
exemption in our treaty with Sweden, which occasioned disagree-
able comparisons and real inconveniences, when by a general
embargo in 1794, the vessels of all other nations and of our own
citizens were detained in port.
2. The twenty-third article of our treaty with Prussia forbids
the commissioning of privateers to take or destroy the trading
vessels, or to interrupt the commerce of the contracting parties
in case a war should arise between them. And considering the
abuses too often committed by privateers and the spirit in which
privateering is commenced and prosecuted, it has sometimes ap-
peared desirable to abolish the practice altogether. But the policy
of this principle, as it respects the United States, may well be
doubted. We are weak at present in public vessels of war, and
our actual revenues are not adequate to the equipping of powerful
in Holland to his government. We all left Gravesend therefore with a coach and
four, between twelve and one o'clock, and arrived in London at Osborne's Hotel in
the Adelphi at about five in the afternoon." Ms. Diary.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 189
fleets : but we are strong in the number of our seamen, in private
wealth, and in the uncommon enterprise of our citizens. Our
chief means therefore, of annoying and distressing a maritime en-
emy would be our privateers. For these reasons you will propose
and endeavor to effect an alteration in this 23rd article, and to
leave commerce, in case of a war between us and Prussia, to the
attacks of privateers.
The principle that free ships make free goods is also found in
the treaty with Prussia (Article 12.) It is a principle that the
United States have adopted in all their treaties (except that with
Great Britain), and which they sincerely desire might become
universal: but treaties formed for this object they find to be of
little or no avail, because the principle is not universally admitted
among the maritime nations. It has not been regarded in respect
to the United States when it would operate to their benefit ; and
may be insisted on only when it will prove injurious to their inter-
ests. You will therefore propose to abandon it, in the new treaty
which you are empowered to renew and negotiate with Prussia. 1
On the like ground you are to propose to admit of articles con-
traband of war, and among them to enumerate timber for ship-
1 "In the instructions dated the 15th instant, relative to your renewing our
treaties with Prussia and Sweden, you see expressed the earnest wishes of the United
States that the principle that free ships should make free goods, should become
universal. This principle is peculiarly interesting to us, because our naval con-
cerns are mercantile and not warlike. And you will readily perceive that the
abandonment of that principle was suggested by the measures of the belligerent
powers during the present war, in which we have found that neither its obligation
by the pretended modern law of nations, nor the solemn stipulations of treaties,
secured its observation. On the contrary it has been made the sport of events.
Under such circumstances it appeared to the President desirable to avoid renewing
an obligation which would probably be enforced when our interest should require
its dissolution, and be continued when we could derive some advantage from its
observance.
" But it is possible that in the pending negotiations for peace this principle of free
ships making free goods may be adopted by all the great maritime powers ; in which
case the United States will be among the first of the other powers to accede to it,
and to observe it as an universal rule." From the Secretary of State, July 17, 1797.
Ms.
I9 o THE WRITINGS OF [1797
building, tar, pitch, turpentine and rosin, copper in sheets, sails,
hemp and cordage, and generally whatever may serve directly to
the equipment of vessels, unwrought iron and fir planks only ex-
cepted.
But although these alterations appear desirable, yet if the
state of things shall in your judgment render it expedient not to
propose them ; or if proposed not to insist on them ; you will act
accordingly. In another period of ten years, it will probably not
occasion any material embarrassment between the United States
and Prussia, to renew the treaty precisely in its present form. And
at this time it is peculiarly interesting to us to conciliate the good-
will of that and other European nations.
Another and the principal design of the President in this ap-
pointment was to place at Berlin a Minister of your abilities and
knowledge in diplomatic affairs, from whom in the existing situ-
ation of Europe correct intelligence and information highly inter-
esting to the United States might be derived ; and who by his
vigilance and sagacity might find and embrace opportunities
to promote their security and welfare.
A third object will be to renew the Treaty of Amity and Com-
merce between the United States and Sweden ; for which also full
powers are herewith transmitted. By the Swedish Minister at
Berlin or otherwise, you will make known to the Court of Sweden
that you are invested with such powers.
The ratifications of the Swedish treaty it is supposed were ex-
changed in the beginning of the year 1784, as on the 9th of March
of that year Dr. Franklin wrote from Paris to the Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, that he had made the exchange. 1 In like manner
Mr. Adams wrote from London on the 27th of October, 1786, that
he had been in Holland and exchanged the ratifications of the
Prussian treaty. 2 No documents are found to show the day when
the exchange took place.
For the reasons above assigned in respect to the Prussian treaty,
1 It was a letter addresssed to Charles Thomson, and is printed in Writings of
Franklin (Smyth), IX. 176.
2 Works of John Adams, VIII. 415.
i 7 97l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 191
that with Sweden should be altered in the 17th article so as to
subject the vessels of Sweden as well as those of other nations to
the effects of a general embargo — enemies property found on
board them to capture and confiscation as good prize — and ship
timber and naval stores (as before enumerated) to be deemed
contraband of war. The right of privateering is to remain as
already fixed in the treaty with Sweden.
I have the honor to be with great respect, Sir, your obt. servant,
Timothy Pickering,
Department of State, Secretary of State. 1
Philadelphia, July 15, 1797.
1 "The President has nominated his son, John Quincy Adams, as minister in
Prussia. The subject is not yet acted upon in the Senate; there will be opposition
to it. My own conjecture is that it will pass. The king of Prussia, although a
great villain, has obtained already, and may probably obtain, a preponderancy in
the north of Europe. Whether he may not get at the sea, and become a maritime
prince; or, rather, the nation become a maritime people, is problematical, it is true,
but rather probable than otherwise. Our treaty with that nation has expired ;
and he has, it is said, wondered why we did not offer a renewal of it; but the most
important consideration is, that the intrigues and intentions of the French can now
better be learnt there than at the Hague, or any other court. In our present
situation with France, it has become an object of consequence to keep a steady
eye on that intriguing, insidious, and convulsed government and people. It is
believed that John Q. Adams, placed at Berlin, can do us much service, as he is
unquestionably the most intelligent, and at the same time most industrious man, we
have ever employed in a diplomatic capacity." Uriah Tracy to Oliver Wolcott, Sr.,
May 27, 1797. Gibbs, Administrations of Washington and Adams,!. 538. "Yester-
day they put up the nomination of J. Q. Adams to Berlin, which had been objected
to as extending our diplomatic establishment. It was approved by 18 to 14."
Jefferson to Madison, June 1, 1797. Writings of Jefferson (Ford), VII. 132. "The
Senate concurred in the appointment, 19 to 9. Those who were opposed said it
was not the person, but the mission ; it was contended that the constitution
gave them no right to judge of that, that the power lay wholly with the Executive.
The Jacobins endeavored to make use of it, as though it was an advancement from
the Residentship at the Hague, to a Plenipotentiaryship, and being the first
nomination, was held up by communications in Bache's papers as a proof of the
aspiring views of the President. But this could only impose on a few." Abigail
Adams to John Quincy Adams, June 15, 1797. Ms.
I92 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
London, 29 July, 1797.
My Dear Mother :
§••■••••
You observe that the reason for changing my mission
from Lisbon to Berlin was that I might be more useful to my
country in the latter situation. 1 I have, notwithstanding
my formal declaration both to you and to my father made a
short time ago, submitted to take this appointment. I have
broken a resolution that I had deliberately formed, and that
I still think was right and proper; but I must say that I
never acted more reluctantly, and that the tenure by which
I am hereafter to hold an office is of such a nature as will
take from me all the satisfaction, which I have enjoyed
hitherto in considering myself as a public servant. It has
indeed totally disconcerted all my arrangements taken in
consequence of my previous appointment to Lisbon, and will
be very inconvenient to me personally ; but these are not
1 July 26, 1797. "At nine this morning I went accompanied by my brother, to
Air. Johnson's, and thence to the Church of the parish of All Hallows Barking,
where I was married to Louisa Catherine Johnson, the second daughter of Joshua
and Catherine Johnson, by Mr. [John] Hewlett. Mr. Johnson's family, Mr.
[James] Brooks, my brother, and Mr. Jfoseph] Hall were present." Adams, Memoirs.
"Young John Adams' Negotiations, have terminated in a Marriage Treaty
with an English lady, the daughter of one Mr. Johnson, on Tower-Hill. It is a
happy circumstance that he has made no other Treaty." Independent Chronicle,
September 14, 1797. The Columbian Centinel, September 20, replied: "This is
an imposition on the public, who ought to be informed, without derogating from the
merits of the ladies of England, that Mrs. A. is an American lady; that her father
is a citizen of Maryland, and brother to His Excellency Thomas Johnson,
Esq. Late Governor of that state. All who know Mrs. A. speak of her as a lady
of distinguished worth, and if every negotiation Mr. A. makes in Europe, terminates
as happily for his country, as this will for him, we shall have additional cause to
praise the wisdom of that illustrious character, who selected him from his fellow-
citizens as one of the representatives of the United States, in the Eastern hemi-
sphere."
,797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 193
circumstances of the slightest objection. On the contrary
they have been among the most powerful motives to induce
the sacrifice of my resolution, and the determination to go
upon the new mission. I am now waiting here only for the
necessary papers, which I shall expect from day to day. I
beg at the same time to be understood that it is not the
animadversions of my old schoolmate Bache, nor those of any
of his party, that I dread, or that can raise the shadow of a
scruple in my mind. I know them and their purposes toler-
ably well, and they may rest perfectly assured, that if instead
of concluding to go to Berlin I had on this occasion requested
to be recalled, and had returned to America, as I had serious
thoughts of doing, it would not have been for their benefit or
advantage, nor would they have had any reason to be
gratified by it. They should find me at least as hard an
antagonist at home as I have been abroad, and as I perceive
I have had the advantage of giving them some dissatisfac-
tion that they have expressed and a great deal more that they
have betrayed, I promise them faithfully that upon my re-
turn to America, whenever it may be, I will not suffer their
malevolence to cool at all ; but will feed and nourish it by
much more frequent and copious doses of mortification than
I have been able at this distance to administer.
The letter to the Florentine, 1 which you mention, and
1 Jefferson's letter to Mazzei, April 24, 1796. See Writings of Jefferson (Ford),
VII. 72. "I see that the letter to that precious Professor, call him Matzei, is con-
sidered by [Noah] Webster as genuine, and he says he has authority so to consider
it ! But you have faith; I am inclined to superstition, but not to faith, and almost
believe in the personal agency of the Devil. His influence, not the last gentleman's
but yours, does I am convinced immense mischief in the Senate, I know several
genteel men, with about as much of science as I have, that is just enough to make
them wonder that any mortal should have more, who I am sure are the dupes of
his philosophising dinners, in which the almost reasonable theories of universal
benevolence and philanthropy blend themselves easily with *he politics of the day,
vol. 11 — o
194
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
which was undoubtedly published by way of justification
for the violence with which the Directory have conducted
towards us, was something more than impudent. It shows
a mind full of error or an heart full of falsehood. I cannot
yet believe this last to be the case. My old sentiments of
respect veneration and attachment still hang about me with
regard to that man. Yet if he really believed what the
letter to M[azzei] affirms, he must be a very weak man. If
he did not believe it, what can be said of his principles.
Neither can I reconcile the letter with the public and solemn
professions made on a recent occasion, and indeed nearly at
the same moment while the letter was published in France.
However, it maybe, there could not be a stronger proof of the
misrepresentations and calumnies which have contributed
to produce the late and present conduct of France towards
us. Nor could any possible evidence appear more unequivo-
cally to show, how much the French depend upon an inter-
nal party in America to support and justify their treatment
of us.
I was, for my own part, much pleased with the appoint-
ment of Mr. Gerry, after finding that Mr. Dana did not
accept. But I find opinions of him here, similar to those
which you mention as having been objected against him by
the opposing members of the Senate. I sincerely hope,
however, that he will raise no captious difficulties, and that
he will both bring with him and meet a cordial disposition
and are promoted by the satisfactions of the table. These are then connected, as
they are unfolded over a generous glass, with the grand and enlightened views of
France, with touches upon the brilliance of her victories, and her gorgeous strength ;
and the country gentleman who went well enough inclined to give a vote for plain
measures of defense and preparation, gets his head turned, and comes away a
philosopher, and would not for worlds interrupt such grand designs, or longer feel
sentiments that evince low prejudice and narrow views." William Vans Murray
to John Quincy Adams, The Hague, August 23, 1797. Ms.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 195
for reconciliation. Of this however I cannot at present well
judge. . . - 1
The history of the portrait, which you received last March,
was this. 2 While I was here the last time, Mr. Copley told
me that Mrs. Copley had long been wishing to send you
some token of her remembrance and regard, and thinking
that a likeness of your son would answer the purpose, re-
quested me to sit to him, which I did accordingly, and he
produced a very excellent picture as you see. I had it
framed in a manner which might correspond to the merit
of the painting, and after I left this country it was sent out
by Mr. Copley in the manner in which you received it. I
never mentioned it to you in any of my former letters, be-
cause I knew not exactly when it would be sent out, and I
wished to reserve to you what I thought would be the pleas-
ure of an agreeable surprise. It seems that Mr. Copley's
letter to you by its enigmatical style was written in the same
spirit, and the portrait served really as its own introduction.
It is, therefore, to the delicate politeness of Mr. and Mrs.
1 On the day after his inauguration, President Adams received a visit from Fisher
Ames, then about to retire from the Senate. Mr. Ames advised a new commission
to France, and recommended George Cabot for the appointment. The President
wished to send Jefferson, but recognized the doubts which could be urged against
such a nomination, and he made an offer to Madison, who declined. On consult-
ing Wolcott, he found him opposed to Madison and to any commission; but Hamil-
ton wrote (March 30) Wolcott approvingly, and named Madison, Pinckney and
Cabot as members. Wolcott reluctantly accepted the idea of a commission, but
asked "what will be the objection against sending Mr. Ingersoll of this city, or some
such character, to be united with Gen. Pinckney and John Q. Adams, or with Mr.
Murray, to rendezvous at Amsterdam to await developments ? " To the President,
Wolcott wrote about joining two of the ministers then in Europe to Pinckney,
and believed Rufus King and John Q. Adams the most proper characters. The
President sent to the Senate the names of Pinckney, John Marshall and Francis
Dana. Dana declined and Elbridge Gerry was nominated to be the third member of \
the commission. He was supported by the republican vote.
* This portrait is reproduced as the frontispiece to Vol. I.
I9 6 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
Copley that we are indebted for a present so flattering to
me, and in your maternal kindness so acceptable to you.
They are well with all their family, and continue to remem-
ber you with affection.
I am &c.
TO CHARLES ADAMS
London, i August, 1797.
My Dear Brother :
The Jacobins, you tell me, are not pleased with my official
communications that have been published, 1 and Mr. Livings-
ton 2 can compare them to nothing but the speech of the
Director Barras to Mr. Monroe.
My old schoolfellow Bache has become too thoroughbred
a democrat to suffer any regard for ancient friendship, or any
sense of generosity for an absent enemy to suspend his
patriotic scurrility. These people have improved upon the
doctrine of Mandeville. He only contended that private
vices were public benefits ; but their theories, and still more
their practice, makes public virtue essentially consist of the
most detestable private vices. As for Mr. Livingston's
1 On May 19, the Secretary of State, by direction of the President, sent to Con-
gress papers relating to the refusal by France to receive Pinckney. Among them
were extracts of two letter from Adams to the Secretary of State, dated September
27, 1796, and February 17, 1797. The papers communicated are printed in
American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II. 1. "The publication of Mr. Adams'
letter respecting this country does us mischief. It has excited considerable heat,
and is thought an insult. They would certainly have demanded his recall had he
been here. ... I have not been spoken to nor written to formally, and have,
when I saw it would be convenient, attempted to soften the affair. The violence
is pretty much against Mr. Adams, who is out of the reach of their anger." Murray
to McIIenry, September 22, 1797, in Steiner, Life and Correspondence of James
McIIenry, 283, 286.
- Edward Livingston.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 197
comparison, from whom it would have given me severe
mortification to have heard it made ; but those men would
not have made it, however they might have disapproved the
tenor of my communications. Had they meant a violent
attack upon a man, who never gave them, nor intended
them, any provocation, they would have waited until he
could be present to defend himself. Sentiments of this
description, however, Mr. Livingston does not admit, per-
haps does not understand, and, therefore, he cannot mortify
me by comparing my letters to any speeches whatsoever,
unless it be to his own. I never intended, nor expected, that
those letters of mine would have been published. It is not
my wish unnecessarily to give offence to anyone, much less
to offer an insult to persons for whom I have a real regard ;
but it was my duty to give the true state of facts to my
government, as well as to reply firmly to the inadmissible
proposals of the Dutch Committee. Had I imagined the
documents would have been brought before the public eye,
perhaps I should have altered in some few passages the
phraseology ; but the substantial truth of facts, and the
reasoning upon them would have been exactly the same, in
defiance of all the teeth of Livingston and all the slaver of
Bache.
1
I am &c.
1 In a speech in Committee of the Whole, on the reported answer to the President's
Speech, May 24, 1797, Livingston read extracts of Adams' dispatch of November
4, 1796, and added : "When a Minister of ours writes, and our Executive publishes
such a letter, and such insinuations as these, it would seem a most extraordinary
example of inconsistency in us to take offence at the opinions of an agent of the
Republic for a similar licentiousness; can we wonder when our Minister speaks
thus contemptuously of a nation, that others should make use of a similar free-
dom with us ?" Annals of Congress, 5th Congress, I. 133.
" I have seen an American gentleman lately returned from Paris ; he says the new
minister for foreign affairs [Talleyrand] is well disposed towards us, and I believe he
198 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
TO JOHN ADAMS
London, 31 August 1797.
My Dear Sir :
A vessel, arrived a few days ago from Philadelphia, brought
letters and papers to the 13th of the last month, and in them
the letter of Mr. Blount, 1 the proceedings of both Houses of
Congress upon it, the arrestation of Dr. Romayne, 2 the notes
to the Secretary of State from the British Minister, and the
letter from the Spanish Minister Yrujo, 3 which it is easier to
qualify in my own mind than to designate in terms correspond-
ent to its merits. It is painful to every true American to
see one foreign minister after another using such language as
those of powers, professing friendship towards us, have em-
ployed since the time of Genet. To degrade our govern-
ment in the eyes of the world by showing that it may be
insulted and reviled with impunity, is a part of that system
which our foreign and domestic Jacobins pursue with con-
certed exertions for the dissolution of our Union and the
overthrow of our Constitution. The figure of a Spanish
Minister acting as an instrument to promote such views,
however incongruous, cannot be surprising. It does us no
honor in the eyes of the world where they see such conduct
is. No report was made upon Pastoret's motion, an unpleasant circumstance.
They say it was thought best by our friends there to wait for the report until the
arrival of the commissioners. In the mean time, the captures and condemnations
continue as frequent and unprincipled as ever." To William Vans Murray, August
13, 1797-
'To James Carey, April 21, 1797. American State Papers, Foreign Relations
II. 76; McMaster, History of the People of the United States, II. 339; Turner, in
American Historical Review, X. 574.
- Dr. Nicholas Romayne appears to have been engaged in some land specula-
tions. Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 236.
3 Yrujo's letter, dated July 11, 1797, was issued in a pamphlet, Letter to 7\
Pickering, 1797. Pickering's reply, dated August 8, was also issued in a pamphlet..
American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II. 87, 89.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 199
pass without marks of resentment: but the national charac-
ter suffers still more from instances of such transactions as
are unfolded in Blount's letter. A Senator of the United
States ! and write such a paper ! and act such a part ! We
have enemies and enviers enough in every part of Europe to
seize hold of such circumstances, and blazon them forth as
proofs of our depravity and corruption. I wish that some
more pleasing intelligence may soon succeed, though my
expectations are far from sanguine. Such as this is, I am
obliged to gather it from the letters and papers which I can
borrow, my own letters from America being scanty and
deficient as usual.
I am still anxiously waiting here for my commission and
instructions. Mr. King at my desire spoke to the Prussian
Charge des Affaires here upon the probability of a mission
from the United States for the renewal of the Treaty, and
expressed a wish to know in what manner it would be viewed
by his government. The answer from the Prussian depart-
ment of foreign affairs is: "Quant a M. King, vous lui
repondrez en mon nom que je renouvellerai avec plaisir avec
les Etats Unis de l'Amerique le traite de commerce conclu
entre nous, et que la mission de M. Adams, que le President
du Congres se propose d'envoyer pour cet effet a Berlin, ne
pourra que m'etre tres agreable."
• ••••••
I am &c.
TO JOHN ADAMS
London, ii September, 1797.
My Dear Sir:
I intended to have given you some further account of the
events that are occurring in France, but for want of authentic
information shall wait a few days longer. The two parties
200
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
which have been approaching each other in hostile array for
several months past have at length come to action according
to the usual revolutionary custom, and the victory remains
as was to be expected on the side which had secured the
argument of the bayonet in its favor. French republicanism
will not belie itself. The circumstances of the present period
betoken an approach toward a simple, unqualified military
government, which seems to be the only possible issue to this
portentous Revolution, but which few persons perhaps none
would have expected to advance with such rapid strides.
I shall give you the result of my observations upon the re-
cent struggle of factions, as soon as the course of its catas-
trophe shall be clearly marked ; but at present I can only
leave you to such information as may be gathered from the
newspapers. I send you, however, herewith two pamphlets
lately published by Barere, a man who has been at one time
very conspicuous upon the great theatre of French affairs,
and whose talents the party now predominant have engaged
on their side, as you will perceive by the contents of these
works themselves.
It has been the policy of the French Directory to secure
by all the means in their power the assistance of literary
men ; a policy natural and obvious enough, but which from
the position in which they stood they could not carry into
effect to any great degree. The authors who would consent
to become the apologists or panegyrists of such men and
such measures could not be very scrupulous or conscientious.
They took up therefore with what they could get.
I have heretofore sent you one or two pamphlets of There-
min, 1 the most contemptible of all their scribblers. He is a
Prussian, and has been in a subaltern office in the diplomatic
department of that government. Whether he retired from
1 Charles Theremin.
i 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 201
that station dissatisfied, or was dismissed from it, I know not,
but it was probably while he was secretary to the Prussian
legation in London that he formed his attachments to the
French revolutionary leaders. He has now been two or three
years in Paris, and is constantly writing pamphlets for the
Directory as he did before for the Committee of Public
Safety. Paine is employed by them in like manner, and in
the style for which Madame Roland judged him peculiarly
fitted, that is, to wind up the drunkenness of a club or a
tavern into frenzy. Madame de Stael and her friend Ben-
jamin Constant 1 are enlisted in the same ranks, and labor in
concert with all their energies to strengthen their old enemies
now their new friends. I sent you the treatise upon the
influence of the passions, and intimated to you the passions
which produced it, and those which it was destined to gratify.
Constant is Swiss, (for it is remarkable that all these courtiers
of the Directory are foreigners to France,) and in pursuing
the variations of Madame de StaePs destiny has written on
both sides, for and against the prevailing system of measures
since the adoption of the Constitution of the third year. I
will send you one of his last productions. 2
Amidst this literary constellation Barere 3 is a star of the
first magnitude. He is indeed a Frenchman, the only one
among them ; but in every other respect was well qualified
for the purposes for which he is employed. Part of his
history is well known to you. The accident by which he
escaped the sentence which was passed upon him, together
with Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varennes, and which was
executed upon them ; the accident by which he afterwards
1 Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque (i 7 6 7 -i83o).
2 Probably Observations on the Strength of the French Government, of which Adams
says in his Diary (Ms.), "wild and detestable principles."
3 Bertrand Barere de Vieuzac (1755-1841).
202
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
escaped from his prison, and that by which he has ever since
remained at liberty, are explained and accounted for by these
two publications. The practice of England sometimes
commutes a capital penalty for transportation. They seem
in France to have inverted the principle, and to have com-
muted transportation for the severer penance (to a liberal
and independent spirit it would be so) of writing encomiums
upon the Directory and the Constitution of the third
year.
It is almost an universal and almost an unavoidable cus-
tom to connect controversial writings with the real character
and principles of their authors : a natural and perhaps an
useful prejudice leads us generally to reject as false and
absurd whatever is told us by a man whom we know to be
depraved. Yet the experience of all ages has shown exam-
ples of very bad men who have written and said very good
things. In cases of this kind, the only sound rule of judg-
ment is to consider the facts of such a writer as without a
voucher, and his sentiments as without a warranty. Of
themselves they cannot serve either as foundation of belief
or as a source of moral conclusions. But they may stand
upon their own ground, or be supported by any power other
than that of confidence in the author. He may, therefore,
be believed whenever he pronounces his own condemnation,
or furnishes you with the materials of his own conviction.
In this point of view both these works of Barere are objects
of considerable curiosity. They may be viewed also as
containing such doctrines as the French government wished
to spread abroad at the time when they were written. And
it is certain that they thought this man a valuable auxiliary.
For at the late election for the members of the Legislative
Councils, he was (without doubt by the influence of the
government) chosen at some little village near the Pyrenees,
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 203
though the Legislature at their first meeting declared the
choice illegal, and never admitted him to a seat. I am fully
persuaded, however, that if the party which is now victori-
ous should be able to maintain its triumph, he will soon be
brought forward again.
I have marked several passages, particularly in the work
entitled " De la Pensee du Gouvernement" Some of them,
as remarkable for the ingenuousness, or rather the blushless
impudence, with which he characterizes as the worst of
tyrannies that very dominion of Robespierre under which
he was so active and so obsequious an instrument ; others as
deserving notice for the address with which he courts the
favor of the Directory for himself, and that of the armies
for the Directory ; and two or three which speak of the
United States, and of the theory of balanced governments.
You will be at no loss to guess whence he derived his asser-
tion that in the United States, "England has caused to be
introduced by adroit speculators, establishments invented
with views of political corruption and degeneracy" and you
will easily discover the connection between this doctrine and
the advice to the Directory, to "rally to the interest, and to
the commerce of the French Republic, the fruitful branches
of the commerce of the United States which England has
ravished from her."
The eulogium upon Montesquieu is a very ingenious and
amusing thing. 1 It shows like the other work the partial
return of the opinion publique to sense and wisdom. At the
same time it indicates the points upon which the revolu-
tionary prejudices and follies are still predominant. Turgot's
dogma of rallying all authority to one center has been washed
out of vogue in the blood of millions, and as it "has lived,"
Barere thunders with all his eloquence at the extreme im-
1 Montesquieu feint d'apres ses Ouvrages. (1797.)
204 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
portance of the division of powers. He like so many
others can flatter no madness but that which is armed with
power ; can bow to none but reigning errors, and pledge his
faith to none but accredited lies. But if Montesquieu says
a word in approbation of confederations ; if he says they are
the only means by which Republican government can be
adapted to a large territory ; if he speaks in other terms than
those of anathema, concerning any other government than
that of la bonne Democratic, the government that is to force
people to be free ; if his opinions clash with any of the stupid-
ities that have not yet sunk by their own weight from the
stormy surface of the Revolution, Barere is no longer the
admirer of Montesquieu. On the contrary he joins the full
cry of anarchy and robbery against him. An old philosopher
said that truth was to be preferred even to his favorite Plato;
so Barere must think falsehood preferable even to his favorite
Montesquieu. In general, there may be observed through
both these books many wise, liberal and spirited sentiments
of liberty, together with an apparent discouragement to
views of conquest and military aggrandizement. Yet in
one of them plainly transpires the Jacobin system of prose-
lytism, where he mentions the new and powerful means of
covering all Europe with great Republics ; and in the other,
when he say that "republican armies' have been at all
times and in all countries the last ramparts and the extreme
asylum of liberty;" it may be clearly seen how well prepared
he and his employers are for a Pretorian Prefect, or a Pro-
tector of French liberties.
As a short comment upon the purity of Barere's repub-
licanism and attachment to the modern philosophy, I have
taken from a recent work of Madame de Genlis an anecdote
concerning him, and you will find it at the close of one of
these pamphlets.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 205
I send likewise an English translation of Garat's memoirs, 1
which I have not hitherto had a good opportunity of for-
warding to you, and am uncertain therefore whether you
have ever seen them. They are among the most curious and
interesting publications that have appeared from the pens
of persons who have acted in distinguished situations in
France. Garat tells his own story and endeavors to justify
or apologize for himself. He was in fact one of those equiv-
ocal characters who endeavored to steer between the Gironde
and the Jacobin parties so as to fall in with the triumph
of either. He met with the usual fate of such personages,
and was detested by both parties. By his own account he
was in heart on one side and acted on the other, or at least
made none of those exertions which his station required of
him to counteract their proceedings, which however he is
now willing to brand with all the horror and execration they
deserve. But this book contains some very valuable de-
tails of the different views and purposes of the two great
Republican factions, their modes of intrigue and perfidy
for the destruction of each other, and the false and erroneous
principles upon which their theories of liberty were respec-
tively grounded. The author appears to great advantage
in comparison with many of his cooperators in the Revolu-
tion, and there is in his manner of writing an apparent con-
sciousness of integrity, moderation, and humanity, well
calculated to obtain confidence had they not been so often
assumed, and with equal assurance, by the most ferocious
tigers that the circumstances of these days have let loose
upon the human race. Crude, undigested ideas upon the
very foundations both of moral and of political economy
mark this man, as they do all the other apologists of them-
1 Dominique- Joseph Garat (1749-183 3), Memoirs of the Revolution, translated
by R. Heron, and published at Edinburgh, 1797-
2 o6 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
selves upon the affairs of France. He is a man of letters,
writes with spirit and elegance, and appears familiarly
versed in the literature as well as the history of antiquity.
Yet acquainted as he was with the uniform history of popu-
lar governments and democracies, and far from deficient as
he shows himself to be in sagacity and knowledge of human
nature, he talks of the divisions and animosities between the
leaders of the parties as accidental misfortunes which might
have been avoided, and seriously speaks of proposals to lay
aside those dissensions and rancors for the purpose of uniting
to support the Republic. Although this book was published
more than two years ago, it contains information peculiarly
interesting at the present time, when the very same parties
after all their calamities and defeats are pursuing the same
game, with nearly the same cry of liberty in their mouths,
and the same practices of tyranny in their conduct.
You will have seen by the public prints that Edmund
Burke died in the course of the month of July. 1 His execu-
tors have within these few days published three memorials
upon French affairs written by him in the years 1791, 1792
and 1793. 2 I have sent you a copy of them.
If the several states and governments which are spread
over the face of Europe are considered as composing a sort of
confederated whole, their situation and circumstances ap-
pear to resemble in an extraordinary degree those in which
the same portion of the earth were placed at the period when
the Roman Republic fell under the ambition and talents of
Caesar. There is at this time, as there was then, one simple
fundamental principle upon which the whole fabric of Eu-
ropean policy stands. A revolution is taking place which
must entirely overthrow that principle; such was the case
then. The ultimate consequence in that instance was the
1 July 9. - Letters on the Regicide Peace, 1796, 1797.
i 797 ] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 207
total dissolution of the system by which Europe was gov-
erned, and centuries of barbarism; the novelties of this
day are calculated to produce with much greater rapidity
the same effect. If there be any accuracy in this view of
things, the similarity between the character and genius of
Burke and those of Cicero will appear wonderfully striking.
It is one of the most remarkable circumstances common to
both, that rising from an obscure origin, or as Paine expresses
it, upon the democratic floor, they were the most strenuous
and energetic defenders of the aristocracies, that is of the
institutions upon which alone the protection of property
subsisted. In one respect the modern philosopher, orator
and statesman, was more fortunate than the ancient ; he
did not live to see the final and irretrievable ruin of his
cause, nor did he perish the martyr of it.
I am &c.
TO JOHN ADAMS
London, 19 September, 1797.
• ••••••
The object of this memorial 1 undoubtedly was to prove,
that the Constitution of 1791 just established in France,
ought not to be acknowledged by this government ; nor the
minister then sent by the reigning party (at that time I
think it was Chauvelin, 2 with the private mission of Talley-
rand) received ; but that the emigrant princes, and the
party of France opposed to that Constitution and adhering
to the monarchy, should be considered as the state and
acknowledged as such.
It did not however meet the ideas of the ministers here.
The causes which are unfolded in the course of the work, or
1 Burke's Letters on the Regicide Peace.
2 Bernard-Francois Chauvelin (1766-1832).
2 o8 THE WRITINGS OF [i 797
at least some of them, defeated all its efficacy, and the author, i
in that instance, as in almost all the others of his political d
life, met the fate of Cassandra, his prophesies were true but a
they were not believed, and singular as it seems, they were fl
not believed precisely because they were true.
I am afraid that this minute analysis of the first memorial
has been tedious, but I have thought it necessary, in order
to compare the present state of affairs with the statement of
them at that time, and to draw from them such inferences as
appear natural, and of importance sufficient to require
serious consideration.
The perpetual, unalienable sovereignty of the people still
remains professedly the fundamental principle of the ruling
power in France. But an explanation has been given,
which totally destroys all the consequences which they de-
duced from it at that time ; and which, once admitted, re-
duces the question itself to an idle speculation, fit only for
discussion in the schools. It is in the whole mass of the
citizens, they say, and not in any majority however great,
that they consider that sovereignty as residing. There were
in truth two distinct principles involved in that which the
French regenerators then professed : the unalienable
sovereignty of the people ; and the right of the taxable ma-
jority at all times to exercise that sovereignty, governed only
by their pleasure. The artifice of the day was to blend the
two together to produce the inference desired, insurrection.
The first could do neither good nor harm, unless coupled
with the other ; the poison was in the mixture, and accord-
ingly they have now carefully separated in the Constitution
°f !795j tne noxious from the innocent ingredient, and re-
taining the one have expressly disclaimed the other.
As they have made this and other important changes in
their principles, they have also materially varied their
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 209
means. They no longer prate about uniting the whole
delegated sovereignty in a single assembly. They have
abandoned the system of frittering up sovereignty into
municipalities, indeed there is only one principle to which
they still adhere of all those with which they have kindled
the world into this awful conflagration ; even to that they
adhere only as a theory, for they have upon two great oc-
casions violated it most outrageously in practice, and the
only excuse, which they pretend to advance for themselves,
is that without such extreme measures, the Republic itself
would inevitably have fallen. They have retained, however,
inflexibly their deadly animosity against all ancient govern-
ments and ancient establishments, as well as their disposi-
tion to foment the divisions and cabals in all other countries.
They have realized their designs of aggrandizement, both
on the side of Italy and of the Netherlands, and they have
overthrown the governments of four ancient Republics, to
substitute for them such governments as they think most
suitable for the interest of France.
But the views of French ambition are not confined to the
limits of Europe. They have been playing, and will con-
tinue to play, in the United States the same game which Mr.
Burke foretells they will in all countries. We have, indeed,
no ancient and abusive establishments to abolish. Our
constitutions are all formed upon the principles of repre-
sentative government ; their friendship cannot communicate
to us, nor their hostility force upon us their system of the
rights of men. But it is their uniform and constant policy,
adopted from the monarchy under which they were bred, to
weaken foreign nations by divisions. Their designs upon our
Constitution have long since been known to you. Paine in
his letter to General Washington has let them out by pledg-
ing himself to attempt to effect a change. Necker dis-
VOL. II — P
My Dear Sir
TO JOHN ADAMS
London, September 21, 1797.
One of the first consequences, which have followed this
event, 1 has been the rupture of the negotiations at Lille.
1 The coup d'etat of 18 Fructidor (September 4), carried out by Bonaparte's
lieutenant, Augereau, drove into exile Carnot and Barthelemy, who had leaned on
the side of more moderate measures, and led to a purging of the Corps Legislatif.
King, from London wrote: "If I do not forget names, a majority of the Com-
mittee to whom Pastoret's speech on our affairs was referred, are among the members
210 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
covers himself to have the same disposition, as I have hereto-
fore mentioned. The motive is obvious ; the only strength
of the American government is in the attachment of the
people to it, and in the constitution of the executive and
Senate. By attacking, therefore, that part of the Con-
stitution, they hope to render those branches of the govern-
ment odious, and if they succeed, to give the finishing blow
by assimilating them to their own Directory and Council of
Elders.
We must not imagine that these pernicious purposes are
entertained only by the present prevailing party. They
will soon get sick of popular elections themselves, and of a
plural executive too. They have long been sliding their
system of adulation from the people, and bringing it to bear
upon the armies. They cannot much longer escape the
substance of a military government; perhaps they will even
disdain the forms of their present Constitution. But be
that as it may, they will always have some pretext for
distinguishing, as Necker has done in his book, between us
and themselves ; and the more convinced they may become
of the imbecility inseparable from their present system, the
more desirous they will be to recommend it to us. . . .
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 211
Lord Malmesbury has been ordered to quit France a second
time, and has arrived here yesterday. What the fate of the
negotiations with the Emperor will be, does not yet appear ;
but the prospects of peace, which have never been bright,
seem now to disappear entirely. You will observe that at
the head of the committee for concerting measures of safety
in the Council of Five Hundred, after the purge, the name
of Sieyes creeps out again, from the dark hole in which it has
long been burrowing. It was seen, however, but for an in-
stant, and then slunk back again to its lurking place. But
Merlin de Douai, that burlesque upon the name and func-
tions of justice, who wrote to the American consul, 1 that if
we would break our treaty with Britain, the French tribunals
would cease their unjust condemnations of our property;
Merlin, the man mentioned in the letter of Colonel Fulton, 2
which was published in some of our newspapers, and who
from that may be inferred to have entered long since into
an organized plan for dismembering our union, has been
placed in the station from which Carnot has been thus for-
cibly expelled. From the councils of such men as Sieyes and
Merlin de Douai we are to expect nothing but the most
unqualified injustice, under the Machiavelian mockery with
which they have so long duped the world. Everything that
envy and malice, both against our country and against you
personally, can suggest, they will attempt. I speak it now
without hesitation, because I am convinced that all the
preparation possible to meet such conduct on their part
must be made. But if our House of Representatives and our
now arrested. You will readily see how mischievous to us this success of the Direc-
tory may and probably will be." To Alexander Hamilton, September 9, 1797. Life
and Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 228.
1 Fulwar Skipwith.
2 Samuel Fulton, an agent of Genet and in close touch with the French govern-
ment. See American Historical Review, X. 270.
2I2 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
executive do not harmonize together for the protection and
defence of our citizens and their property, better than they
have done for the last two or three years, we may boast of
our government and Constitution as much as we will, the
plain, unequivocal and lamentable fact will be, that neither
of them will be adequate to the purposes for which all govern-
ment ought to exist, and we shall be plundered and insulted
at the pleasure of every foreign robber or bully, who may
find a profit or a pleasure in attacking us.
Your observations with respect to the consequences of a
revolution in England are undoubtedly just; should it be
produced by the violence or the intrigues of France, it would
never remove the deadly national hatred that burns at this
moment with more violence than ever; but the French
politicians are of opinion, and perhaps justly, that as a state,
England will be much less formidable after a revolution than
she now is, or than she has been for many years. A revolu-
tion they believe would draw as its inevitable attendant a
long, bloody, and desolating civil war, which neither the
population nor the wealth of this country can bear as France
has done. They suppose that it would lead to the destruc-
tion of the British colonies in the West Indies, as it has to
those of France, and from the same causes. That it would
soon annihilate the British Empire in India, which at this
moment hangs by the thread of a spider's web ; and as the
commerce and manufactures of this country lean entirely
on those two frail crutches, a revolution, in the opinion of
the Frenchmen, would snatch these supporters from the
tottering hands of their rival, and down she would tumble
with all her dropsical bulkiness, never to rise again. It is,
therefore, as the profoundly inveterate enemies of this na-
tion, that the French statesmen, who now rule, are desirous
of producing a revolution here. It is true that Cromwell
, 7 97l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 213
was much more powerful than either of the Charles's, and a
revolution at this day would call forth the operations of an-
other sort of energy, than that with which France has had
hitherto to contend. But they have abundant confidence
in themselves, and they have openly avowed a maxim suffi-
cient to make them easy. It is, that their superiority of
population and territory must always prove too strong for
the mere ships of England. As to the miseries of war, they
feel no sort of concern on their account. It is one of their
opinions, that some foreign war will always be necessary to
secure them their existence. They are thoroughly con-
vinced that their own nation will never forgive them for the
irreparable calamities, which they have brought upon their
country, and would soon call them to the most rigorous
account, if once relieved from the pressure of external war.
These men have declared themselves in a state of implacable,
unrelenting war with all the rest of mankind. They have
advanced so far in the career of their hostilities, that they
know their retreat is forever cut off, and their only hopes of
life are in the violence of desperation. I am not exaggerat-
ing the statement of their views ; you will see them exposed
in all their depravity in the pamphlet of Benjamin Constant,
one of their court writers, which I now send for your perusal.
There you will find the people of France urged to submission
to their rulers, because the atrocious crimes of these rulers are
beyond the reach of punishment; there you will find laid
down as a principle in so many words that, "when the wicked
are powerful, far from unmasking them, we ought rather to
add to their disguise." There he tells the French govern-
ment and their adherents, that there is for them no amnesty
but victory, and threatens all their opponents with an associa-
tion of the Directory and the terrorists, to grind their ad-
versaries to dust.
2 i 4 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
The French revolution was commenced in the name of the
people. In their name all its horrors have been palliated
and excused ; in their name the guillotine has mowed its
thousands, and the grapeshot have swept off their tens of
thousands. In their name, in that of their liberty, their
equality, their fraternity, have the sublime inventions of
the noyades and of the Republican nuptials shed a new
gleamof light upon the brilliant illumination of the eighteenth
century. For them, for their unlimited and unalienable
sovereignty, have these deeds without a name, which make
an humane mind ready to deny its own nature, and shrink
from the name of man, been almost justified, always palli-
ated as the unpleasant but necessary means for the attain-
ment of a glorious end — the supreme dominion of the people
exercised by a representative government.
They have got their representative government, but even
at the moment of establishing it, they discovered their
dread and jealousy of that very people who had been the
perpetual burden of their whoop. They dared not go out
of power at once, and contrary to the tenor of their boasted
constitution, forcibly continued two-thirds of themselves in
the legislative body, allowing the people only the choice of
one-third new members. When the sovereign people re-
sisted the provision, and insisted upon the exercise of their
whole right, their arguments were answered by cannon balls,
and between five and ten thousand of the sovereign people
were slaughtered in the very streets of Paris, as a propitia-
tory sacrifice to the genius of the dying Convention. The
subsequent election was protracted to the period of eighteen
months, though the constitution had directed an annual
choice. One third more of the legislature is renewed, and no
sooner have the conventional leaders lost their majority by
the succession of the two new thirds, than the representa-
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 215
tives of the people express in every act their abhorrence and
detestation of the revolution and its conductors. The
counter-revolution was advancing with such rapidity, that
nothing could prevent it but a new revolution, a revolution
annulling all the choices of two-thirds of the sovereign
people.
It is therefore unquestionably the merciless policy of
fear, that dictates all the measures of the French govern-
ment, both external and internal. It is with necessity,
the tyrants' plea, that they would excuse their devilish
deeds. As they are more and more sensible that they have
offended beyond all hopes of forgiveness the people, they now
fly for a refuge and succor to the armies. The armies show
themselves willing enough to follow their trade of oppres-
sion, and in the late transactions have made no scruple of
discovering their contempt for the people and their repre-
sentatives. All this while they are using the names of liberty
and equality, and the Republican constitution of the 3d
year, with as much assurance and probably as much efficacy
as if they had never been abused.
I have stated to you fully my opinion upon this state of
things, because I am persuaded it will require the most
serious consideration in our own country. All the nations of
the earth must be prepared to see France, under a military
government, by turns anarchical and despotic, and perhaps
with all the democratical forms ; with a country ruined, des-
olated, incapable of supporting a large part of its popula-
tion ; with an immense army inured to every danger, habitu-
ated to consider life as the cheapest of all human possessions,
at once poor and prodigal, rapacious and dissolute, elated
by extraordinary victories, and considering itself as the cham-
pion for the liberties of the human race; with a corps of
officers partaking of all these qualities, and with generals
216 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
of the first rate talents, unrestrained by any principle, human
or divine. I believe, (and this opinion, though necessarily
conjectural, is founded upon long reflection, and the most
attentive observation of which I am capable,) that nothing
in Europe will stand before them; it is a grapple for life
and death between all the ancient establishments, and a new
single military government of which France is to be the head,
as Italy was that of the Roman Empire. But Europe at
this time enjoys scarcely any liberties worth fighting for.
The change will be for the worse but probably not much.
Our case is widely different. Our laws, our liberties, every-
thing that has ever been dear to our hearts will be brought
in question. That we must contend for them, I have little
doubt ; that we shall eventually secure them, rescued from
all the disgraceful fetters of foreign influence, I most firmly
believe. The cause is substantially the same with that for
which we have once fought and triumphed. It is the first
and dearest of our earthly interests, the possession of our
rights ; our means are great, and only require to be brought
into operation, and I have an undoubted confidence in the
protection and favor of Providence, to support the real
cause of justice and virtue. 1
I remain &c.
1 "On the presumption that you continue in town I have taken the liberty to
direct Mr. Monro, whom I have left in my office, to apply to you for your advice
and decision in any affair that may occur concerning which he may feel himself at a
loss how to act." Rufus King to John Quincy Adams, Cardiff (Wales), September
22, 1797. Ms. On this day Adams received his commission and instructions for
Berlin. They had been taken to Holland by General Marshall. Leaving Graves-
end on October 18, he reached Hamburg at noon on the 26th. Memoirs.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 217
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
Hamburg, 26 October, 1797.
Dear Sir :
The Spanish Minister Yrujo has been playing the little
Genet or Adet ; like them he has been very insolent and very
absurd, while our government appears to take it with a cool-
ness and forbearance, which at least proves its extreme
respect for the privileged character of an ambassador,
scandalously as it has been abused. This moderation may
be carried too far. The howling of a wolf may be silenced
only by powder and ball, but when lap dogs set themselves
up to howl, they should be turned out of doors. Our treaty
with Spain was a pretty thing upon parchment. But there
is a certain salvo, by means of which liberality of contract is
the easiest thing in the world. Spain has promised like
a Castilian — she performs not even like a Jew ; she does not
perform at all. You see she will not give up the stipulated
forts as territories, until we have settled with France, or
until we take them.
Mr. Monroe has called upon the Secretary of State for the
reasons of his recall ; he seems to think that the tenure of
the President's pleasure, expressed in his commission meant
the pleasure of Mr. Monroe. 1 He is trying to make a noise,
and add one more puff to the bellows of faction, but his breath
happens to be weak. He talks about liberty, and enlightened
principles, and despotism, and coalition, as much as Moliere's
Tartuffe talks of piety, devotion, the love of God and sin.
Mr. Pickering has answered him by plainly referring to the
constitutional principles, which made an assignment of the
reasons demanded improper ; but at the same time gives
him to understand what the reasons were, and offers in his
1 See Writings of Monroe, III. 73 , r< seq.
218 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
individual character to tell him the reasons why he advised
to it. This however, Mr. Monroe chooses to decline, and
the offer appears to have vexed him. He is going to publish
a pamphlet ; for you know with us everything ends in a pam-
phlet, as in France all ends in a song.
I suppose the late naval action was almost or quite within
your hearing. 1 I witnessed the rejoicings at its issue in
England, but was far from participating in them. I felt
for the peculiarly hard fate of our Batavian friends, crushed
as they are between their allies and their enemies, as between
the wheel and the wall. It gives me pleasure to observe
that their minister in our country has continued prudent and
discreet. I hope he will yet remain so, and at all events
that we shall still be friends.
Your obedient servant &c.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 108 [Timothy Pickering]
Hamburg, 31st October, 1797.
Sir :
A few days after I had the honor of writing you last from
London, I received a duplicate of your instructions dated
July 15, together with a copy of those bearing date the 17th.
I shall pay all the attention to them which their importance
requires and the circumstances will admit. It is, however,
to my mind very questionable whether it will be expedient
to propose the alterations suggested in your letters, except
1 The battle of Camperdown, in which Admiral Duncan defeated the Dutch
fleet, destroyed the power of the Dutch navy and dispelled any fear of an invasion
of England from Holland. It was fought October II. Murray describes the re-
sult. Steiner, Life and Correspondence of James McIIenry, 285.
i797l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 219
that relative to the embargo. The principle of making free
ships protect enemy's property has always been cherished
by the maritime powers who have not had large navies,
though stipulations to that effect have in all wars been more
or less violated. In the present war indeed they have been
less respected than usual, because Great Britain has held
more uncontrolled the command of the sea, and has been
therefore less disposed than ever to concede the principle;
and because France has disclaimed most of the received and
established ideas upon the laws of nations and considered her-
self as liberated from all the obligations towards other states
which interfered with her present objects or the interests
of the moment. Yet even during this war several decrees
of the French Convention, passed at times when the force
of solemn national engagements was felt, have recognized
the promise in the treaty of 1778, and at times it has been
in a great degree observed. France is still attached to the
principles of the armed neutrality, and yet more attached
to the idea of compelling Great Britain to assent to them.
Indeed every naval state is interested in the maintenance
of liberal maxims in maritime affairs against the domineering
policy of Britain. Every instance, therefore, in which these
principles are abandoned by neutral powers which favor the
rights of neutrality, is to be regretted as furnishing argument,
or at least example, to support the British doctrines. These
observations apply with more weight with regard to the
Swedish treaty than to the other, as I believe Sweden is
peculiarly attached to the liberal system, and entertains hope
that it may finally prevail by the concurrence of all the mari-
time powers, excepting only Britain.
I left London on the 18th instant in a Hamburg ship and
arrived here on the 26th. Tomorrow I purpose to proceed
upon my journey to Berlin. Whether I shall find the King
220 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
of Prussia, to whom I was accredited, yet alive is very doubt-
ful, as he is unquestionably reduced to the last extremity,
and for some time has not drawn a breath but by the assist-
ance of some mechanical operation. I suppose there would
be no difficulty at my reception should a new reign take
place before my arrival ; but of this I cannot speak with
certainty. The time will, however, from this circumstance
become peculiarly critical as it regards the north of Europe,
especially as this event will combine with that of the de-
finitive peace which is undoubtedly concluded between the
Emperor and France. It was signed at Udine on the 17th
instant.
Mr. Parish will inform you of his correspondence with the
Imperial Ministers relative to the liberation of the prisoners
at Olmiitz. 1 Mr. Parish had heretofore taken several steps
in behalf of M. La Fayette, and it appears that the Baron
de Thugut 2 supposed he still held the office of American
Consul here. In his letter to the Imperial Minister at this
place, communicated to Mr. Parish, he says that the Emperor
had made no engagement to liberate the prisoners upon the
application of the French Directory, and that a principal
motive inducing him to it was a wish to give a token of his
regard for the United States of America, by a compliance
with the application made on their part in behalf of La
Fayette ; and he adds that the Emperor will always be happy
to give proofs of his disposition to cultivate the friendship
of the United States.
An application had really been made on the part of the
French Directory, but in a singular manner, since it was
connected with a condition that the prisoners in whose
favor it was made should not return to France. Since
1 See Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 223-232.
1 Franz von Thugut.
i797l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 221
the expulsion of Carnot and Barthelemi from the Directory
there is less hope than before that any mitigation of this
rigor will be shown.
It was required also by the Imperial Government that
they should not remain longer than ten days at Hamburg,
and an obligation was required that they should embark
immediately for America. This however was dispensed with,
and as the health of Madame La Fayette was too infirm to
undertake a voyage over the Atlantic at this season, they
are gone to pass the winter in Holstein, about fifty miles
distant from this place. 1
I have the honor &c.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 109 [Timothy Pickering]
Sir : Berlin, 10 November, 1797.
In my last letter, written at Hamburg, I informed you
of my voyage from London to that place. I left it on the
2nd instant, and arrived here on the 7th. 2
In this country the department of foreign affairs is com-
mitted to several ministers of state. The number is indefi-
nite, and has been varied at different periods according to
the pleasure of the sovereign. There are at present three :
the Count de Finckenstein, 3 the Baron d'Alvensleben 4
1 It was at Wittmold, near Ploen. "He expresses his great regret at the dif-
ferences between the United States and France. I am told that the decree proposed
by Boullay de la Meurthe against the ci-devant nobles was specially directed
against him; but it seems Barras and Buonaparte saw what use might in due time
be made of it against them, notwithstanding exceptions in their favour for the
present." To Rufus King, January 2, 1798. Ms.
* See Adams, Memoirs, November 2-10, 1797.
1 Count Finck zu Finckenstein.
* Count Philip Charles von Alvensleben.
222 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
and the Count de Haugwitz. 1 I have seen them all, and de-
livered to the first according to the usual custom a copy of
my credential letter to the king, and also of the full power
for the renewal of the treaty.
They all assured me that the king receives with great
satisfaction this mark of attention from the United States
shown by this mission, and that it will give him pleasure to
continue the friendly and commercial connection subsisting
between the two powers ; but expressed their regret that his
extreme illness renders it impossible for him at present to
give audience to foreign ministers, so that I cannot deliver
my credential letter. The Count de Haugwitz, particularly,
whom I saw this afternoon, and who was yesterday at Pots-
dam with the king, informed him of my arrival and was wit-
ness to the regret expressed by him at being deprived of the
pleasure of granting me the first audience. (I use the
Count's own terms.) They further add a hope that in
the course of a few days a favorable interval at least may
occur, which will enable the king to give this audience. It
is however extremely doubtful to me, whether such an in-
terval will occur. The King's principal disorder is the
dropsy, which is gaining upon him every day. He has lost
the use of his limbs, so as even to be unable to sign his name ;
a succession to the throne may, therefore, be expected from
day to day, and is so universally. 2 In that case, the cre-
dential letter which I have will not serve, and I cannot enter
upon the business of the treaty without first receiving a new
one. The perspective is far from being pleasant to me, but
the case is irremediable.
1 Christian August Heinrich Kurt, Count von Haugwitz (1752-1831).
* The King, Frederick William II, died at Potsdam, November 16, 1797, and
was succeeded on the throne by his son, Frederick William III.
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 223
There is here another minister ' (from Malta) just arrived
and under the same circumstance of being unable to deliver
his credentials. He was charged with a letter from the
Grand Master of the order of Malta to the President, which
he requested me to transmit, together with a letter from him-
self to you. There has already been some correspondence
between the two governments upon the subject to which
the letters refer. The commerce of the Mediterranean in
which we have hitherto scarcely participated at all, will
undoubtedly become an important object both to the mer-
chants and to the government of the United States. My
information upon this article is so scanty that I can scarcely
speak of it with propriety, but the negotiations for the treaties
with the Barbary powers have undoubtedly procured to the
government a knowledge of the circumstances, which require
a particular and constant attention to everything that may
contribute to the security of our navigation.
I am &c.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
Berlin, 24 November, 1797.
Dear Sir :
• ••••• •
I fully concur with your opinion upon the probable issue
of the negotiation, upon which our Commissioners were
sent to Paris. Tit is indeed likely that by this time their
1 Mons. de Maisonneuve. "The order of Malta has itself suffered severely by
the consequences of the revolution in France, and at this time is threatened by the
French government, as are most of the weaker states in Europe. Its constitution,
being founded altogether upon the principles prevailing in the days of chivalry, is
especially obnoxious to the new principles which France is endeavoring to spread
through the world." To Secretary of State, December 15, 1797- Ms. France
objected to Maisonneuvc's being received at Berlin, on the ground of his being a
Frenchman and an "emigrant."
<
r
224 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
business has been brought to a point, and I am in constant
expectation of hearing they have been treated as General
Pinckney was before. > I have expressed myself upon this
subject in my letters to America before I left London in
terms as strong as I could use. Since the affair of 4 Septem-
ber, and the apathy with which it was submitted to through-
out France, I have lost all hopes of any possible accommo-
dation ; and since Merlin of Douai, the man with whom
the intrigue from our Western territory was carried on more
than two years ago, the man who wrote to Skipwith, that if
we would break our treaty with Britain, France would cease
to treat us with injustice, since such a man has taken the
place of Barthelemi, it would be blindness and worse than
blindness for us to calculate upon anything but our force,
our means of defence and annoyance.
It has been long my opinion, and I see no reason for
changing it, that if we were openly and unequivocally at
war with them, they could not injure us externally in our
commerce so much as they do, while they retain the name
of peace, and plunder our commerce in its defenceless con-
dition. In this point of view they are by no means for-
midable enemies. The danger from them is of another
nature. It is not the fury of the tusks, but the venom of
I the sting that we have to dread from them. J No man knows
this better than you, and I can only express my entire
conviction of the justice of your observations upon this
point, in your two last letters.
I have not ventured to write to either of the Commissioners
since their arrival at Paris, for two reasons ; the one has
been my own wandering unsettled condition, and the other
a strong apprehension, that before my letter could reach
its destination the correspondent would be gone. I pre-
sume it is already too late to urge the opinion which you
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 225
suggest, of accelerating the decision of affairs, though I am
persuaded with you that the affectation of giving out to
the world, that all the differences would be settled easily
and amicably, was the result of perfidious designs. That
system did not, however, long continue ; the characteristic
insolence and vanity soon overpowered the intentions of
cool malignity, and our countrymen will not long be left
in suspense upon the part which they have to act and the
resolutions they must take.
I am at length possessed of the complaints, which the
member 1 has thought proper to entertain you with, against
me, and which it seems the Committee have concluded to
address also to our government. These personalities, com-
bining with those of the French Directory against another
man, I suppose you will have no difficulty in understanding.
For hunting up offences these people are as ingenious as
the wolf of the fable, but I hope and trust they will not find
us disposed to perform the part of the lamb.
If the citizen H[ahn] has forgotten the letter from the
committee to me which he signed, and which was so offensive
that I could not possibly forward a copy of it to our govern-
ment without adding some observations to account for it,
he can undoubtedly find it by recurring to the Registers
of the committee. It is that letter and that alone, which
is the justification of mine, and which made it my duty to
write as I did. 2 I never wrote that the Batavian Republic
1 Hahn, of whom Adams said in his Diary (Ms.) September 7, 1796: "Hahn is
paralytic, and cannot stand or move himself. He is carried about from place to
place in a chair by two persons. Yet he is very active, does a great deal of business,
and appears to have a very cheerful temper."
2 "September 29, [1796]. Answer at length from the Committee of External
Relations upon the subject of my former memorials. It is, take it for all in all, as
curious a piece of diplomatic composition as I have met with. From its defiance of
facts and contempt of argument, I shall be tempted to suspect it to be the com-
vol. n — Q
226 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
was nothing more than a province of France. I wrote that
the members of the Batavian government could not refuse
anything which the French government peremptorily and
inflexibly required, whatever their reluctance might be at
complying. I wrote that the dispositions of the Batavian
government towards the United States were sincerely and
honestly friendly, and as that assurance must appear alto-
gether incompatible with the irritating and offensive style
of the letter from the committee, I imputed that style to
an unwilling acquiescence to the will of France, expressed
to them upon the subject. I knew from precise information
that France had required such a measure from them, and
I believed and hoped they had taken it unwillingly ; I had
no idea that the letter would be published, and regret very
much that it was. The circumstances which you noticed
to H[ahn] are clear and indelible proofs of the fact as the
power of France. He was one of the men who signed the
treaty to give the hundred millions, and surrender all their
frontier, and the port of Flushing, etc. He thinks me unfit
to serve the United States for having written such a letter.
I have no malice against him for entertaining this opinion,
nor for his wish to have had an opportunity of demanding
my recall ; but I would ask him to lay his hand upon his heart
and say, whether any man who signed such a treaty could
be fit to serve the Batavian Republic, unless a clear, un-
equivocal, and uncontrollable necessity to acquiesce in such
conditions were to serve him as justification ? I have too
good an opinion of the citizen's patriotism to believe he
would ever have subscribed to such terms with a willing
hand.
position of Noel. It behooves me now to be cool. The provocation of such a piece
is so strong, that it is probably designed as such, and may be a French perfidy."
Memoirs.
i797l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 227
But there is another circumstance still more applicable
to the point of my statement, as tending to show the in-
fluence of France over the Batavian government in directing
their conduct towards other powers. A few months before
my letter to the Secretary of State was written, the Batavian
government had at the positive and inflexible requisition of
the French broken off" all communication with Portugal,
without even the pretence of a provocation. I have had
good reason to believe that this measure was most specially
disagreeable to the citizen H[ahn], and would tell him,
could I see him, that he did unfeignedly lament the necessity,
which dictated their compliance with this demand. He
imputed it to that necessity, apologized for it from that
necessity, and did not disguise his own regret at the com-
pulsion, which exacted this determination. There was not
so much as a hint that Portugal had given offence to them.
The intercourse was suspended until Portugal should make
peace with France. Having such a fact as this, flagrant
before me while I wrote, could I possibly tell my govern-
ment otherwise than that the Batavians must do the same
with us, if France should positively require it. I should
indeed have been a faithless and a treacherous public servant,
if I had omitted to give such information, and it would have
been certainly less kind to the Batavian government had I
imputed their unfriendly language to ill-will, than it was to
mention it as proceeding from necessity.
The citizen H[ahn] thinks I should have applied to him
for the removal of the unpleasant impressions, which the
letter of the committee occasioned, and, indeed, I had at
the time serious thoughts of taking some such step to obtain
a retraction of that part of the letter. I hesitated upon it
for a considerable time, and finally concluded not to take it,
because I despaired of success upon the consideration that
228 THE WRITINGS OF [1797
their offensive intimations had been dictated by France,
and that the letter was signed by six or seven persons. I
knew that if I made the application without success, the
consequence would only be to heap the measure of bitterness,
and therefore as a minister of peace, desirous rather to ex-
tinguish than to kindle resentments, I preferred replying
to them in such a manner that they might perceive what my
sentiments upon their letter were, and apologizing for them
in my report to my government.
There is however one good use which you can make of
this affair. France it appears will quarrel with us. You
can tell the citizen H[ahn] and the committee that they have
hereby an opportunity to prove in the face of the world
that they are not so totally at the mercy of France, and to
refute my statement which has been so offensive to them.
At any rate our government will wish to live in peace and
amity with them. But we expect that they will not inter-
fere in word or deed upon a difference with which they have
no concern. If France, as the citizen hinted, should stimu-
late their pride against us, they may resist her instigations by
pleading their interest, and surely the best proof they could
give of their independence would be by one unequivocal
instance, in which they should pursue the line of their in-
terest in opposition to her will.
Till the next mail, farewell. 1
1 "In my last letter I made you some observations upon the Citizen Hahn's
denunciation against me. But I did not tell you then what I have no doubt of,
and it is, that in this instance the Citizen has poorly submitted to make himself
the tool of French animosity, and has furnished another proof of that very sub-
serviency, which he is so very angry with me for having intimated to my govern-
ment as existing. He is himself responsible for that subserviency more than any
other man in the Batavian Republic, and if the support of France was for a moment
withdrawn from him, he would not dare to shew himself within the territory. I
know this as well as he does, and have known it nearly as long. The real Batavian
patriots have not forgiven the Citizen Hahn his share in paying an hundred millions
X7971 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 229
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. in [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 6 December, 1797.
Sir :
Soon after the date of my last letter, I applied to the Count
Finckenstein, the eldest minister in the department of foreign
affairs, to ascertain whether my reception here must neces-
sarily be delayed until the credential letter to his present
Majesty can be received from the United States. The Count
said, that according to the common usage the credentials
addressed to the late king could not serve for the present,
and that all the foreign ministers resident here were obliged
alike to wait for new credentials ; but that, in consideration
of the great distance of the United States, and the length of
time which must necessarily elapse before a new credential
letter can be received from thence, the ministers of the de-
partment for foreign affairs had proposed to his Majesty to
give me an audience, in which I might express to him my
own persuasion that the government of the United States
would immediately, upon being informed of his Majesty's
accession to the throne, send a new credential letter ad-
dressed to him, and that as soon as the king should make
of guilders to France, and the other oppressive and ruinous articles of his treaty with
Sieves ; his share in Lucas's expedition to the Cape of Good Hope, and the conse-
quent sacrifice without striking a blow to the English, and you best know whether I
can add, his share in the sacrifice of poor de Winter and his fleet. The Committee
of foreign affairs chuse to be silent upon some of the motives which impelled (I do
not say compelled) them to send that fleet out, but those motives are no secret in
Europe, and as Hahn was an influential member of the Committee at the time, he
must answer for his part (more than a common part) of the obsequiousness, which
made the only remaining Batavian bulwark a victim to the will of the French
Directory, in opposition to his own better judgment, and to the clear, unequivocal
and most important interest of his country." To William Vans Murray, December
23, 1797-
230
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
known his determination upon this proposal, he, the Count,
would give me notice of it. In the 3rd instant he sent again
for me, and informed me that the king would readily grant
me an audience, and that I should be informed in due time
of the day upon which his Majesty should fix for the pur-
pose ; at the same time he delivered to me the letter, in the
German language, from the king, addressed to the President,
Vice President and members of the Congress of the United
States, which I have the honor of enclosing herewith, and
of which he gave me likewise an open copy, together with
an annexed French translation. I inclose also copies of these
papers.
The letter is the notification of the King's accession to
the throne. It is in German, because my credential letter
was in the language of the United States ; and a French
translation is annexed, as I had annexed a French translation
to the copies of my credentials and full powers, which I
communicated to the Count upon my arrival here. The
next day being the 4th the Count informed me that the King
had fixed upon the succeeding day, the 5th, at half past ten
in the morning, for the audience. I went accordingly yes-
terday morning and was presented to his Majesty by the
Count. I stated the circumstances which had prevented me
from delivering my credential to the late king, and my belief
that a new credential would be sent me as soon as possible
from the United States, adding that I had no doubt but I
should be warranted by my government, in assuring him of
the interest which the United States take in his welfare and
prosperity, and in reiterating to him the sentiments of friend-
ship and good will, which I had in charge to express to his
royal Father and predecessor. I mentioned at the same
time the full power of which I am possessed for the renewal
of the treaty. He answered, that he was much gratified
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 231
by the marks of attention which the United States had shown
to this government, and wished to assure them of his recip-
rocal good will and good wishes for their happiness and
prosperity. That the similarity of the commercial interests
of the two countries rendered the connection between them
important, and might be productive of mutual benefit ; and
with regard to the renewal of the treaty, he should be happy
in due time and place to give all proper attention to the sub-
ject, and to take the measures for the purpose. His Majesty
then passed to some observations upon common topics, and
made some inquiries concerning the United States and the
late President, after which I retired. This evening I had an
audience from the Queen mother, widow of the late king,
and have requested others of the princes and princesses of
the royal family conformably to the common usage at this
court. 1
I have the honor &c.
TO JOHN ADAMS
Berlin, 16 December, 1797.
My Dear Sir
Upon receiving in London my commission to this court
and credential letter to the late King I proposed immediately
for the shortest and least expensive possible conveyance
hither. A particular circumstance rendered the time pe-
culiarly critical as related to my domestic convenience.
It was, however, what I could not regard, and I lost not
a moment of time on that account. We embarked on board
an Hamburg merchant ship directly from London to Ham-
burg on the 1 8th of October. Our passage was extremely
1 See Adams, Memoirs, December 4-6, 1797.
232
THE WRITINGS OF [1797
rough and stormy, but not very long, since we landed at
Hamburg on the 26th of the same month. We remained
there but a very few days, left it on the 2nd and arrived at
Berlin on the 7th of November. Immediately upon my
arrival I applied to the ministers in the department of
foreign affairs, and proceeded both with regard to the busi-
ness here, and that of Sweden, as I have related in several
short letters to the Secretary of State, the only ones which
nothing could warrant me to postpone, and which therefore
I snatched every possible moment to write. What they con-
tained it were needless to repeat to you.
The journey at land from the badness of the roads and of
the drivers was worse than the voyage at sea ; yet as we had
all borne it tolerably well, I began to flatter myself that we
should suffer nothing further from it beyond the fatigue
and continual anxiety on the way. But the third day after
our arrival my wife was taken violently ill ; for ten days I
could scarcely leave her bedside for a moment. Her illness,
from which Heaven be praised she appears now to be in
a great measure recovered, has only left us to hope that it has
not been materially and permanently injurious to her con-
stitution. She was scarcely risen from bed when my brother
was seized with an alarming inflammatory sore throat ac-
companied with an high fever, and many symptoms threaten-
ing an attack of the rheumatism which has heretofore afflicted
him. He too however most happily escaped that evil, and
after an illness of eight or ten days recovered to a better
state of health I think than he has before enjoyed these
eight months.
As there has been no minister from the United States re-
ceived before me, and as I came without having any ac-
quaintance here, I have found my introduction at the court
and to the princes embarrassing enough. I have been,
1797] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 233
however, perfectly well received everywhere. The govern-
ment is very apparently pleased with the mission as a mark
of attention from the government of the United States, and
probably specially gratified that they should have sent a
minister here, not having already one at Vienna.
The difficulty which arose with regard to my credentials,
which were addressed to the late King and which it was im-
possible for me to deliver, as he was actually dying at the
time of my arrival and expired within ten days after, has
been related to the Secretary of State. The new King has
however by giving me a private audience 1 recognized me as
minister accredited to his predecessor, and I now stand in the
same predicament with the other foreign ministers who have
not yet received the renewal of their credentials.
The accession of the present king has been a period of
much expectation, as it has been supposed that it would
be followed by important changes in the system of the cabinet.
The internal changes may possibly be considerable but they
will not I think be immediate, nor perhaps very rapid. As
to the external policy, there is hitherto no appearance of any
probable alteration. The ministers in the department of
foreign affairs remain the same. They are three : Count
Finckenstein, who has held the place nearly fifty years ; the
Baron d'Alvensleben, whom you may have seen as Prussian
Minister at the Hague, where he succeeded the Baron de
Thulemayer; 2 and the Count Haugwitz, a Silesian, the
principal acting minister in the office, though and it may be
because the youngest. The two former of these gentlemen
are characterized in a book of considerable celebrity, both
on account of its author and the nature of its highly libellous
and often slanderous contents. 3
1 December 5. a See Adams, Memoirs, November 10, 1797.
* Mirabeau, Histoire Secrete de la Cour de Berlin, 1789.
234
THE WRITINGS OF [1798
There is an apparent coolness between this court and those
of Vienna and of London. The House of Austria seems in-
deed the perpetual rival of that of Brandenburg. The
English alliance seems to have been barely temporary and
to be altogether dissolved. The situation with France is
a distant and suspicious amity without cordiality, but with-
out the least probability of renewed hostility. With Russia
there seems to be a better understanding than there was before
the death of the late Empress. The King though quite
a young man is not without some experience, and is said
to have a very military turn. This indeed can hardly be
otherwise here, in a country the only basis of whose power
is military and which is little more than a nation of soldiery.
His habits of life are domestic, distinguished by great sim-
plicity, and a laborious activity. There is in his manners
a gravity approaching to harshness, but nothing that be-
tokens weakness, indolence or dissipation, the most danger-
ous of all qualities to a sovereign, and especially at the pres-
ent time.
• ••••••
I am your affectionate son.
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Berlin, 9 January, 1798.
• ••••••
The antifederalism and servile devotion to a foreign power
still prevalent in the style of some of our newspapers is a fact
that true Americans must deplore. The proposal for estab-
lishing a Directory in America, like that of France, is no new
thing. They have given one to their Cisalpine Republic,
prepared one which they still destine for their Batavian
Republic, and are upon the point of forcing one upon Switzer-
1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 235
land. They purpose even to make the same present to the
Republic of Albion, as was honestly confessed recently by
a member of the Council of 500, who in a debate upon the
intended expedition, kindling into the most fervid enthusiasm
of prophesy, declared himself fully convinced that England
is now upon the very verge of the precipice, that her total
and irretrievable ruin is at hand, and that in a few months
she will have a Directory. But they are tired themselves
of that very constitution, which their tools so warmly rec-
ommended to others. They pay, indeed, very little regard
to it. By means of the armed force the Directory have re-
duced the two legislative councils to a subserviency nearly
absolute to their will ; they have no more liberty of the press
than at Constantinople. They declaim against the Con-
stitution on the very bosom of the legislature, and after
having exercised all the powers of despotism to annul most
of the popular elections of the last year, they are about to
exercise them again to confine the votes of the next elections
to their own creatures.
» You will be fully convinced before you receive this that
we have nothing but evil to expect at their hands. Their
newspapers have lately been proclaiming that the Kas-
kaskias and another peuplade, both of whom they represent
as citizens of the United States and forming part of the Ameri-
can confederacy, had revolted, assumed the three-colored
cockade, and determined to live only under the laws of the
French Republic. They tell this with much exultation,
and announce that these facts together with the obstinacy
of the American government in favor of England, betoken
an approaching political convulsion in the United States. 1
They know full well the aversion of our government against
1 "Parlez Americains, dites quels sont directement ou indirectement vos vrais
dominateurs." From a declaration of the Directory, November 22, 1797.
V
236 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
war, and therefore even now, although they levy it, they
do not proclaim it against us. The Directory propose to
take and confiscate as lawful prize every vessel and cargo,
any part of which shall be the produce of British manufac-
tures or of British dominions, without any regard whatso-
ever to neutral property.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 113 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 15 January, 1798.
Sir:
• •••••«
I have frequently met here in company their Minister at
this Court, the citizen Caillard, 1 whom I had formerly known
as secretary of the French legation at St. Petersburg. He
has been remarkably civil and obliging to me, but apparently
anxious to discover what I am here for, and what I am doing.
His curiosity sometimes amuses me, upon considering how
little all the pains he can take will discover. Some days ago
he began of his own accord a conversation with me upon
the subject of the difficulties between our governments,
by observing that he hoped they would come to an amicable
adjustment, as the interest of both nations so clearly and
unequivocably recommended harmony and a good under-
standing to both. I assured him of my most cordial con-
currence in this sentiment, and that it was my most fervent
wish, as I was fully persuaded it was that of my government,
to see all the mutual causes or ideas of complaint removed,
and a perfect friendship restored. He then said that he
1 Antoine-Bernard Caillard (1737-1807).
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 237
supposed our treaty with Great Britain was the only thing
in the way, and that if we would deal frankly and candidly
with them upon the subject, 1 the matter might easily be
settled. "If," said he, "the American government would
freely acknowledge, that for a moment they despaired of our
Republic, and upon observing the numerous foreign enemies
we had upon our hands, and that most abominable and horrid
reign of terror, that was prevailing in our internal administra-
tion, concluded it was impossible we should stand it out
long, and then consented to make the treaty with Britain, we
might easily come to an understanding, and should acknowl-
edge that such opinions and conduct had strong motives
and reasons for support ; but if you will inflexibly maintain
against all opposers that the treaty was not contrary to the
interests of France and your engagements with us, what can
we say to you ? v " Indeed" said I, "whether the operation
of the treaty has in any particular been unfriendly to the
interests of France is what I am not prepared to discuss, but
of this I am certain, that nothing of that nature was tn-
tended by the American government ; and as to our engage-
ments, they are specially and expressly preserved inviolate
by a formal stipulation in the British treaty." "But," said
he, "a general proviso protecting former engagements in
a treaty has very little weight, when specific articles in
the same treaty are contradictory to the tenor of such pre-
vious engagements. In the year 1785 the Dutch made a
treaty with France, and in the year 1787 they made a treaty
in direct opposition to it with England. In the latter of
these treaties there was a provision, like that which you
mention, reserving all former engagements, but everybody
1 Caillard "delivered a panegyric in favor of candor and frankness ; said he had
no finesse, but always went to work roundly and plainly. ' I am no orator as Brutus
is,' etc." Ms. Diary. January 15, 1798.
23 8 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
knew that it meant nothing at all, for the two treaties were
utterly irreconcileable together." "Give me leave," I
replied, "to decline a discussion of the two Dutch treaties,
and to observe, that if there is any such article in our treaty
with Britain contradictory to our previous engagements
with France, the government of the United States may reason-
ably expect that the individual article, and the specific
contradiction, should be pointed out to them, and I have no
doubt but that in such case they will do everything that
France can require to remove the cause of complaint."
"Why," said he, "the subject is not within my province.
I have only a general view of it, and therefore cannot now
indicate the particular articles; but I have a general idea
that the treaties are not consistent with each other." Here
the conversation terminated, and I have thought it expedient
to give you an account of it as accurate as possible, because
it is a specimen of a style of argument and complaint very
common among the French upon our treaty with Great
Britain. The idea of attributing that treaty to the distressed
and calamitous situation of France at the time when it was
made, is a favorite one with those Frenchmen who advocate
moderation and kindness towards us ; but it is an idea which,
in my opinion, we ought never to concede, first because I am
fully persuaded that it is unfounded, and secondly because if
it were once granted their next pretence would be, that we
ought in reason and equity to make therein compensation and
indemnity for having entertained a mistaken opinion of their
affairs, which in its consequences operated to their injury. 1
1 "i
'I have had some conversation with the French minister here [Caillard] con-
cerning the new law against neutral navigation, which he admitted as contrary to the
law of nations, if it were a permanent measure. But he says it is only a necessary
retaliation against the English, and if the neutral nations will suffer the English to
take all their vessels, the French must do the same. I told him, that without
being disposed to justify or apologize for the predatory practices of England, which
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 239
Just about the time when the French Minister here was
holding this conversation with me, the Directory was pro-
posing to the legislature a law, which I presume before this
has been passed, declaring that a neutral flag shall no longer
protect enemy's property, and that every vessel, laden wholly
or in part with articles of British produce or manufacture,
shall with its cargo be lawful prize, be the property whose
It may. 1 This measure requires no comment. Its character
In reference to the laws of nations cannot be mistaken. Its
effect must place us at least in a state of passive war with
France — but of war unproclaimed. For they know that
by an open declaration of war, they must lose some of that
influence in their favor, which they depend upon to palliate
all their aggressions, and to palsy every nerve of our defence.
The effect of this proposed law must in a considerable
degree interrupt our commerce with Great Britain, as it will
subject all our importations from that country to capture
and condemnation. Whether its ultimate consequences
I utterly detested, I must say that they never had been carried to an extent any-
thing resembling this regulation. That besides, England was now making indemni-
fication for many of the depredations committed under color of her authority.
That if the principle of retaliation alleged as a warrant for this new measure on the
part of France were founded, there could never be any such thing as neutrality in
any maritime war; for that it would require every neutral power to make war upon
the first instance of improper capture of a vessel under her flag. 'No,' said he,
"that is not necessary, but the neutral power should show a firm countenance and
determined resolution to maintain its rights, and send all its commerce under
convoys.' I asked him, what a power was to do that had no ships of war to give as
convoys ? He said they must raise sufficient for the purpose." To the Secretary
of State, January 30, 1798. Ms.
1 The message of the Directory to the Council of Five Hundred was dated 15
Nivose (January 4, 1798), and was printed in the Redacteur, January 6. Two days
later the American Commissioners in France sent a copy of this message to the
Secretary of State, adding that "We can only report that there exists no hopes of
our being officially received by this government, or that the objects of our mission
will be in any way accomplished." See American State Papers, Foreign Relations,
II. 151.
2 4 o THE WRITINGS OF [1798
will be more extensive or not, whether the measures of a just
defence, which I most cordially hope will be taken, shall ter-
minate in a state of open and unequivocal war or otherwise,
it becomes peculiarly important to redouble our attention
to the means of extending our commerce with other nations
besides either France or Britain. 1
• ••••••
I am &c.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
Berlin, 27 January, 1798.
Dear Sir :
• ••••••
The proposal of the Directory, to make prize and con-
fiscate every vessel and cargo infected by a single parcel of
goods of British produce, has been adopted by the Five
Hundred without discussion. 2 Villers the reporter took the
1 "I mentioned in my last letter the new law proposed by the French Directory
to the legislature, declaring all goods or merchandise of English produce or manu-
facture lawful prize, together with every vessel on board of which they are laden
and its cargo, be the proprietors who they may; and forbidding the entrance into
French ports of any vessel that may have touched at a British port excepting only
in cases of stress of weather. The Council of 500 adopted this law without dis-
cussion upon a report made by Villers, in which he asserts that the President of the
United State in full Senate makes the same speeches that Pitt makes in the Parlia-
ment of England. Villers also declares that since the war there has not been a
merchant vessel under English colors floating upon the ocean, and therefore that all
American vessels, having English goods on board must be considered as English in
disguise." To the Secretary of State, January 30, 1798. Ms.
2 This proposal, and the message from the 500 are in American State Papers,
Foreign Relations, II. 151. They were adopted by the Ancients, January 18, 1798,
and were communicated to Congress by the President, March 5.
'This is carrying the principles of maritime war to an extent to which no country
ever thought of carrying them, and which must render the existence of a neutral
trade, particularly in the case of the United States absolutely impossible." Grenville
to Rufus King, January 13, 1798.
"As the war continues and as it now seems scarcely possible for the United States
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 241
occasion to affirm, that the President of the United States
made in full Senate the same speeches that Pitt makes in
the Parliament of England, and full of outrages against
France. This Villers, with about as much foundation, asserts
that there is not a single merchant vessel under English
colors floating upon the ocean. Judge of the situation of
to avoid becoming a party in it, you will doubtless be determined by your instruc-
tions of the 15th and 17th of July last in renewing our treaties with Prussia and
Sweden, to reject the article in each which stipulates that free ships shall make free
goods. With this prospect before us no considerations occur which should induce its
admission but the reasons suggested. Instructions are now strongly enforced by the
law of the French Republic before cited, if, as Mr. Fenwick supposes, though general
in its expressions, it is really and exclusively intended to operate against Americans.
In this case a renewal of that stipulation is positively to be refused. The Swedish
and Prussian commerce will then be only on the footing of the commerce of Den-
mark, with whom we have no treaty; and if we must be involved in the war, it will
be desirable that the commerce of those three powers in relation to the United
States should rest on one and the same principle. But if this iniquitous French
law exists, (and we have no room to doubt it,) will all the northern Powers submit
to it? We hope not; we hope that the inordinate ambition of France and her
avowed design to subjugate all Europe (of which she already calls herself 'the
Great Nation, the Conqueror,') will excite the resistance of all the powers, whom her
arms have not reached and rouse anew those whom the course of events have in-
duced to submit. At present Britain appears to be the only bulwark against the
universal domination of France by sea, as well as by land. It is plain that those
powers who have avoided becoming parties in the present, and have congratulated
themselves on their superior policy and good fortune, will finally have no reason to
rejoice. They were only reserved for future plunder and oppression. This is now
strikingly verified in respect to the United States. Her exertions have been as un-
expected, as her victories have been unexampled. Instead of stipulating for even
future compensation for the many millions of which she has authorised her cruisers
to rob us, she demands immediate contributions to the enormous amount of her
depredations, making these the measure not of rendering justice, but of increasing
her oppression. A full knowledge of her treatment of our envoys and of the propo-
sitions made to them, would confound her partisans among us, convince our citizens
in general of the impossibility of preserving their property and independence but by
resistance, and produce general unanimity in the measures requisite for that end;
or if I am mistaken in this opinion, we are already under the yoke of foreign domina-
tion." Secretary of State [Pickering] to John Quincy Adams, Philadelphia, March 17,
1798. Ms. (in cipher).
VOL. II R
242 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
a country in the legislature of which the most important
measures are taken without discussion, upon reports of such
a description as this.
The northern powers cannot but consider this regulation
as contrary to their rights, but they will do nothing. They
are all, except Russia, so afraid of the great nation, that they
will only shrink back from every stab she aims at them, and
vainly hope to escape from that which will finally be pointed
at the heart. Sweden, indeed, as you know, is upon terms
as bad with the terrible Republic as we are, but as long as
she can keep her commerce in the Baltic protected, she will
abandon the rest to the chances of depredation. Denmark,
though not openly at variance is by no means well with the
French, but she dreads above all things a war, and her in-
ternal weakness, infused by the spirit of Jacobinism, is per-
haps greater than in any other part of the North. Here,
though the French are thoroughly detested, yet the policy
of the government is most decisively pacific. They will
not be allowed however to come into Hanover, nor as I be-
lieve to levy more contributions on Hamburg ; very explicit
declarations upon this subject have been made on both sides.
I feel very much obliged to you for the hints in your letter,
of which I shall endeavor to make some use if possible. I
am apprehensive, however, that the prospect of extending
their colonial territories is an object too remote from the
views of either northern power, to make any project for
the purpose allure them with hopes of its practicability.
You will, perhaps, not be surprised to hear that I have
not met with civilities and kindness from any of the foreign
ministers here more than from those of France and Spain ;
both of them are very friendly and obliging. The former 1
has shown a real disposition to do me kind offices, and the
1 Caillard.
i 79 3] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 243
little services which are so useful to a total stranger in a new
situation. We have conversed, too, very freely upon the
subject of the differences between our governments. I be-
lieve him very well intentioned for their settlement, but I
suppose that since the fructidorian affair, he himself hangs
to his office by a slender thread. He is very generally
esteemed and liked here. He complains, like the rest, of our
treaty with Great Britain, and would have us aplogize for
it, by saying that we were frightened from our French alli-
ance by the gorgon terrors of Robespierre's government,
and the multitudes of external enemies, who then assailed
the French Republic. He says the treaty is inconsistent
with our previous treaty with France. I ask him to specify
the inconsistent article, which he declines, alleging that as
the matter does not properly belong to his province, he has
only a general idea of the subject.
The Spanish minister : appears to be alarmed at the news
published in the gazettes that the Natchez and Kaskaskias
have assumed the three-colored cockade. He has inquired
of me concerning the fact, of which my letters, though later
than the account in the public prints, say nothing. Of course
I could neither confirm nor refute the story, but I have given
him to understand that beyond all doubt, his and our allies
have profound designs in that quarter, and have been tam-
pering with the Indians there to secure their assistance. By
a letter from London I hear they have equally been tamper-
ing with the slaves in Carolina, and it is further added that
two Frenchmen have been convicted and executed at
Charleston as incendiaries.
I am very glad that Mr. Thomas Pinckney takes the place
of Mr. Smith, 2 because upon the whole I hope he will be
1 Marquis de Musquitz.
2 William Smith, United States minister to Spain.
244
THE WRITINGS OF [1798
right, though I doubt whether he will altogether fill the
vacancy. Smith you know was in the very first line. Mr.
P[inckney] means perfectly well, but of his political firmness
I have some doubts, and he holds certain tenets in my opin-
ion of very dangerous tendency. He introduced a very
good amendment in the answer to the President's speech,
substituting an expression of less energy, at a place where
there was perhaps more than enough. 1
"The Douglass and the Percy," aye, my dear Sir, if your
prognostications are not rather too sanguine, they may well
be confident against the world in arms. 2 If we can only have
that union of sentiment, which supported us through one
glorious struggle, we may smile at all the vaporing of the
grand nation, and bid defiance to all the fire, and sword,
and pestilence, and what is worse than all, to the pestilential
principles of the terrible Republic. I will hope it ; but the
Blounts and the Randolphs are too thickly sown in the fields
of our legislation, not to choke and smother the growth of
much fair and honest patriotism among us. In these times
the traitors from bribery are nothing in comparison with
the traitors from principle. Treachery is organized into
a system, rooted into every passion that actuates the species,
1 Mr. Pinckney "instead of saying 'we shall insist upon the same justice from
others,' etc., thought it would have the same effect, and the terms would be less
objectionable, if the passage read thus: 'Nothing shall be wanting on our part to
obtain the same justice from others,' etc. The expression used, he said, might be
perfectly justifiable, but, if we could obtain what we wished without the possibility
of giving offence, he thought that mode ought to be preferred." Annals of
Congress, 5 th Congress, 645.
2 "By a French paper I see Mr. Thos. Pinckney is in for Charlestown. This,
if he is perfectly of the right sort, will break that phalanx which has brought us to
the brink of war, and I believe that the late events of France will open his eyes com-
pletely. This is a good symptom, and let it console you, for rely on it, the South
will get right, first from division, and at length from general conviction. Then with
New England, we are 'the Percy and the Douglass.'" William Vans Murray to
John Quincy Adams, January 15, 1798. Ms.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 245
and preached into the conscience as a moral and political
obligation. Take up the lists of the present House of Rep-
resentatives, and count over the members who, next to
France and French doctrines, love their country better
than anything, and tell me whether the people must not
choose again, before we can expect a clear unequivocal
majority, who love their country better than France. When
people choose again, will anything better result from the
election ? The same treachery to their own interests runs
through them, and every third man is at the bottom of his
heart at war with every two others. In that war his country-
men are his enemies, and France is his ally. Notwithstand-
ing all this, I am confident we shall finally be victorious in
the struggle. Nature has given us the most effectual
security against any permanent French domination. By
attempting to establish it, France can only provide for her-
self a defeat. She can never hold us as she can the Batavians,
or the Cisalpines, or even the poor Helvetians, whose turn
to be devoured is now come.
Have you seen Hamilton's vindication of himself against
a charge of speculation ? This affair must injure him with
the rigid moralists, and makes him liable to a sort of censure,
which he acknowledges and which I cannot but consider as
just. 1 But in the conduct of those who compelled him to
uncover his nakedness to the public, there is something much
worse than his offence. There is a skulking, cowardly,
malignant wish to stigmatize him with corruption, without
daring to assert it. Monroe especially has shown himself
at this time, what he was when he set Tom Paine to howl
at his benefactor Washington, silencing him in word, while
1 Hamilton's pamphlet, Observations on certain Documents contained in Nos. V
and VI of "The History of the United States for the year 1796." See Works of
Hamilton (Lodge), VI. 449.
246 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
he instigated him in deed. There is no distinction of weapons
in the modern philosophy; poison is just as freely used as
the sword.
This war, I imagine, will be every war in which France
shall be engaged, as long as she holds the control of Batavian
affairs, and she thinks the cooperation of the Dutch can do
them any good. Your endeavors to preserve our peace
with Holland at all events, are highly meritorious, and the
desire of our government to that effect, is a strong proof
that they wish to harmonize with all the world. For if
the Batavians will insist upon quarreling with us, we have
no reason to dread the issue of the contest with them. They
surely can do us very little harm, and they know very well
that we can do not a little to them. Whatever the event
may be, I am sure the enmity of France can never be so fatal
to us as her friendship has proved to them.
/* The proposal of a loan from the United States to France
is not a new idea ; they have long flattered themselves with
the expectation of such a sop as that. I dare say those of our
own people, who instruct them in the measures to take with
v us, have advised them to keep it out of sight. 1
1 General Pinckney thus described the situation of the Commissioners in a letter
to Rufus King, December 14, 1797: "We are not yet received, and I think it very
probable we shall not be. It is said Barras and Neufchateau are for receiving us, and
attempting to obtain money from us by negotiation. Merlin and Rewbell think
it will be in vain, and are for sending us away immediately. La Revelliere is un-
decided ; but the whole of them are undoubtedly hostile to our government, and
are determined, if possible, to effectuate a change in our administration, and to
oblige our present President to resign. . . . Attempts are made to divide the en-
voys, and with that view some civilities are shown to Mr. G[erry] and none to the
two others. I am in hopes such attempts will be without success. The American
Jacobins here pay him great court. Since writing the above, we have received an-
other unofficial message from Mr. Talleyrand to meet the same persons as had for-
merly conversed with us, without their being officially authorized. This we have
pointedly and unanimously refused; declaring we would have no communication
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 247
I have been hoping to see them bring it forward openly,
from the belief that it would operate well, as you conjecture,
in America. Yet the argument is close at hand, why not
pay tribute to France as well as to Algiers ?
Most faithfully yours.
TO JOHN ADAMS
Berlin, 31 January, 1798.
My Dear Sir :
• ••••••
I have met here several gentlemen in the diplomatic line
who claim an acquaintance with you during your residence
in Europe. The Baron d'Alvensleben, now one of the minis-
ters in the department of foreign affairs, and the Baron
Schultz von Ascherade, now minister from Sweden here,
represented their respective courts at the Hague when you
were there in 1788 just before your return to America. Upon
my arrival here I found the Baron de Rosenkrantz, Minister
from Denmark. He was either secretary of the Danish
legation or charge des affaires in Holland at the period of
on the subject of our missions with persons not officially authorized to treat with
us. Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 260.
The American commissioners were not alone in suffering this approach from
the Directory or some of its members. "Portugal gave money as a preliminary to
the negotiation of the late treaty with France, by a secret article of which she also
stipulated a loan, part of which was actually paid at the signature of the treaty.
This money enabled the Directory to march the army who effected the Revolution
of the 1 8th Fructidor." Rufus King to the American Commissioners, November
24, 1797. The British Cabinet "gave a decided negative to a proposal of peace
made by the Directory thro' Talleyrand; the project was in detail, and the terms
more favorable to England than those demanded by Lord Malmesbury at Lisle;
the price was a bribe of a million sterling to be divided among Directors, ministers,
and others. Talleyrand's department was to share one hundred thousand pounds
sterling. I could name the persons employed, the stages and every circumstance
of the overture." King to the Secretary of State, December 23, 1797. Life and \
Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 245, 261.
248 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
your reception there. All these gentlemen have desired
me to present them to your remembrance. The Baron de
Rosenkrantz was peculiarly obliging to me upon my first
arrival, sought me out and rendered me many of the kind
services which are necessary to a total stranger in a novel
situation. He has since been appointed by the Danish cabinet
to attend the Congress at Rastadt, where he now is, though to
return here after the Congress. In the meantime there is left
here only a charge des affaires. I met him in company last
evening. He inquired of me whether the United States had a
minister at Copenhagen. You remember what I wrote you
from the Hague of similar intimations given me there. This
gentleman, upon my answering, that we had not, repeated the
same topics which had been urged by the Danish legation
at the Hague, of the commercial relations between the two
countries and the similarity of their maritime interests.
There have been so many of these advances from Denmark
that it seems to me they deserve some attention ; consider-
ing especially that the pass of the Sound is theirs, and that
the whole Baltic trade, that of Russia, Sweden, and most of
the direct commerce that we can ever have with Prussia,
will thus depend much upon their control.
The French minister here, Caillard, remembered me as an
old acquaintance and interpreter for Mr. Dana at St. Peters-
burg, where he was at that time secretary of the French
legation. He has been very civil and obliging to me, and
I believe wishes for a conciliation between our countries. I
have related to the Secretary of State the substance of con-
versations I have had with him relative to our affairs.
The only ministers of foreign powers with whom I have
had no communication, other than an exchange of cards,
are the Prince Reuss the Austrian and Count Panin l the
1 Nikita Petrovitch Panin.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 249
Russian envoys. The former seldom appears except when
the indispensable etiquette requires his attendance at court.
The Emperor's Ambassador you can imagine will not readily
be a favorite at Berlin. The King is now ill with the measles ;
when he first was taken and before the nature of his dis-
order was ascertained, a report was freely circulated that
he had caught the scarlet fever by infection carried to him
by Prince Reuss at an audience which he had just after
visiting a person x sick of that distemper. Since the measles
have become unequivocal the rumor has dropped, and only
leaves evidence of a disposition somewhere to fasten odious
imputations upon the Imperial minister. The King is at-
tended by an English physician, 2 who first spread the idea trac-
ing the royal illness to Prince Reuss. I believe he was honest
in the opinion. I have had in my own family too good rea-
son to be satisfied with his skill and goodness of disposition,
to suspect him of designing an unfounded report so neces-
sarily prejudicial to an innocent man. But when conjecture
looks round for the origin of an unpleasant effect, we may
fairly conclude that cause upon which it most readily fixes
not to be a remarkably pleasant one. I believe that I have
already intimated to you that I have had reason to think
the mission from the United States here peculiarly agree-
able from the circumstance that they had sent none yet to
Vienna. It is a sort of precedency of compliment with which
they feel themselves flattered. But the sentiments at
Vienna from the same circumstance will naturally be dif-
ferent and opposite. This may perhaps account for the
distance which Prince Reuss observes towards me, which
I should not perhaps have remarked but for its strong con-
1 Prince of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
2 A Dr. Brown, an Englishman, who had been one of the court physicians to
Frederick William II.
25 o THE WRITINGS OF [1798
trast with the apparent earnestness of notice that I have
received from all the court here, and from all the foreign
ministers excepting him and Count Panin. There may be
something of the same kind in his motives, and I must also
add that in both cases it may be the mere effect of personal
character, or of accident. You know that when Lafayette
was liberated the Austrian Cabinet at least endeavored to
make merit of it towards the United States, by saying that
the Emperor consented to it in consequence of the applica-
tion from America, and expressing his goodwill towards us ;
and perhaps you may have noticed that this happened just
at the time when the European prints announced the Ameri-
can mission to Berlin. Since the House of Austria has
become mistress of the state of Venice, the prospect of its
becoming a maritime power of importance has very much
increased, and if we get fully into the Mediterranean, we
shall certainly have considerable commercial relation with
her dominions.
I mention these things to you because I am persuaded
you will attribute them to their true and proper motives.
It is the interest both of Britain and France to contract
and narrow our connections with all the other European
powers. No one better than you knows how inflexibly that
policy was always pursued by France under her monarchical
government ; she has not now abandoned it. The writers
of the Directory even now exultingly threaten that if we do
not appease their wrath, we shall make no more treaties
unless with the Indians ; and the citizen Caillard the other
day told me that if France should succeed in this expedition
against England, (of which he was far, he said, from being
sure) she would then proclaim the universal and unlimited
liberty of the seas, and there should thenceforth be no more
treaties of commerce.
i 79 81 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 251
The partisans of Great Britain in our country have favored
the very same system from the same principles, though of
opposite application. As England wants to keep all our
commerce to herself, she very naturally is averse to the means
which are calculated to extend it elsewhere. Both these
descriptions of people have known very well how to take
advantage of the popular arguments which promote their
views. They have told us that we have nothing to do with
the affairs and quarrels of Europe, and that a diplomatic
intercourse with its governments would tend to involve
us unnecessarily in its wars, and they have alarmed us with
calculations of the expense to which every additional minister
in Europe would subject the people of the United States.
The experience of the last six years has abundantly shown
how impossible it is to keep us disconnected with the affairs
of Europe, while we have such essential mercantile connec-
tions with the great maritime states ; and the numerous in-
juries we have suffered alternately from both parties amply
prove how essential it is to our interests to have other friends
than either. In every naval war it must be the interest of
Britain and of France to draw or to force us into it as parties,
while it must always be our unequivocal interest to remain
neutral. In the present war I am confident we have suffered
more for want of a free intercourse, communication and con-
cert, with the neutral states in Europe, than would discharge
five times the expense of maintaining ministers with them,
and if we should finally be forced out of the system which
the government has had so much at heart and compelled
to engage in hostilities for our own defence, it may be in
some measure attributed to the neglect of a good understand-
ing with the nations which have had an interest similar to
ours, that is a neutral interest. . . .
Some of the newspapers have intimated that Mr. Morris
252 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
(Gouverneur) was charged by the British Ministry with such
a negotiation here, and Prince Ferdinand (brother of the
Great Frederick) assured me that it was so, adding that it was
thought a very strange proposal for an American to make. 1
Baron Alvensleben the first time that I saw him asked me
several questions about Mr. Morris, who he aid had given
much dissatisfaction here. I told him that Morris had long
ceased to be in any sort of employ under the American
government, and hinted that I had seen a newspaper para-
graph pretending that he was now in the English service,
of which however I was altogether ignorant. "Pour vous
parler franchement" (said he) "je crois que c'est un volon-
taire en politique, qui ne tient ses pourvoirs que de lui meme."
From the two anecdotes I conclude either that the British
government did employ Morris and afterwards disavowed
him, or that he pretended to have authority from them, when
in truth he had none. This at least is certain, that he has
made himself very obnoxious both here and at Vienna,
where he received an express order to quit the Austrian terri-
tory. The same intimation was given him at Berlin, though
not in so formal a manner. His conduct has nowhere been
such as to do honor or credit to his country, if it may be
judged by its effects. He is yet wandering about at some
of the small German Courts, and had left Hamburg but a short
time before I came through it in October. 2
• ••••••
I remain &c.
1 Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, II. 170, et seq.; Hist. Mss. Commission^
Fortesque Mss., I— III.
2 Morris was at this time at Ratisbon.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 253
j TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Berlin, 5 February, 1798.
.......
I am very glad that I was not sent to France, 1 for there '
is so much personal malignity among the men in power in
that country against my father, that they would have felt
a special satisfaction in treating me with more than common
indignity, and in defeating every attempt by me for a rec- \
onciliation between the two governments.^ Since the 4th
of September all hopes of justice from France must vanish
until some further revolution ; and although I think those
gentlemen, who have submitted to every sort of contumely
and ill treatment for the sake of preserving peace, deserve
as highly of their country as if their negotiation had been
successful, I am pleased that no part of their failure can be
imputed to the appointment of a person in any degree ob-
noxious to the ruling persons in France.
Of the personal malignity which I have above noticed,
there has been for years past incessant proofs many of which
I have heretofore noticed ; it continues still indefatigable.
You will have the plainest evidence of the arts used by the
Directory and their creatures, to give the color of a per-
sonal quarrel to the differences between the governments.
They do not only make personal complaints against the
1 "It has given me real pain to find that the change in your embassy does not
meet your ready assent; or that it should be personally so inconvenient to you as
you represent. I cannot but flatter myself you will find it more agreeable than you
anticipate. Your father has written you so fully upon the subject, and in my mind
obviated every objection, that I think you will feel more satisfied. That you would
not have been sent to Berlin at this time, if Mr. Washington had continued in office,
I fully believe. But I can tell you where you would have been employed — as one
of the envoys to France. This was the desire and opinion of all the ministers, and
nothing but your near connection with the chief Magistrate prevented your being
nominated. He had a delicacy upon the subject, and declined it." Abigail Adams
to John Quincy Adams, November 3, 1797. Ms.
254 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
President, but they have made their creatures in Holland
(creatures which since then they have without ceremony
kicked out of doors themselves,) complain against me
simply because they bear a personal malice against him, and
of course against anyone connected with him. "Principles
and not men," is their motto, (it used to be that of our last
Minister in France, until from some secret stings of conscience
or other cause he changed it to that of "Dread God,") by
which they mean that no sentiment of honor, truth, justice,
or generosity is to be admitted to protect the feelings, or
character, or reputation, or person, or property, of any man
whose principles happen to differ from theirs. Consequently
they are in their animosities the most personal and malicious
of mankind. They always affect even to attack particular
persons, as the French have done in all their declarations of
war, and as all their writers and most of their partisans have
invariably done ever since, by fixing upon individual men
upon whom to pour the perpetual torrent of their invective.
The consequence of this system is, by unavoidable necessity,
a state of inextinguishable war between man and man, as
long as there exist two human beings together ; for no sooner
has one set of persons been swept away by the pestilence of
these doctrines, than their destroyers immediately divide
against each other, with the same system of destroying men
to establish principles.
The French government have at length crowned the
measure of their injustice and violence towards neutral
nations, by a decree declaring all goods of British produce
to be the worst sort of contraband. They have not yet de-
clared war against us, but by this measure they will do us all
the mischief that they could by a state of open war. In my
opinion the United States have long enough tried "a tame
beseeching of rejected peace." It does not appear to me nee-
I79 8] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 255
essary to declare or even to make war against France, but
I most sincerely hope our commerce will be allowed to arm
in its own defence. I am not prepared for unresisting sub-
mission to robbery, even though all the rest of the world
should be.
TO JOHN ADAMS
Berlin, February 17, 1798.
There is no doubt but that the French are indefatigably
working to raise an insurrection at Hamburg against the
present government. 1 Among the means they are using for
the purpose I shall particularly notice at present only the
establishment of a theo-philanthropical society here. Per-
haps you know what the theo-philanthropists are better than I
do. It is a theological and political mixture of deism,
morality, anti-christianity, and revolution, that their doctrine
preaches. It is under the special encouragement and pro-
tection of the French Directory. Larevelliere-Lepaux is
one of its founders. 2 Larevelliere is a professed and bitter
1 The Directory sent as the agent for this purpose, Lou is- Jean-Joseph Bourbon
de la Crosniere.
2 "Owing to the fact that Larevellicre-Lepeaux was its patron if not its apostle,
the curious creed and worship of the Theo-philanthropists obtained a momentary-
notoriety during the Directory. This was a form of natural religion founded by
David Williams, an English Deist, in 1766, which failed in England, but found in
France a certain number of eminent disciples, such as Bernardin de Saint-Pierre,
Marie-Joseph Chenier, Creuze-Latouche, David the painter, and Dupont of
Nemours. Its tenets consisted of elegant extracts from the teaching of the English
Deists, and from Zoroaster, Socrates, Seneca, Fenelon, Voltaire, and above all
Rousseau. Its ritual, celebrated on the decadi, was composed of an invocation to
the God of Nature, an examination of conscience, hymns, sermons, and readings
from the sages named above, together with special services for baptisms, marriages,
and funerals. The Directors appropriated eighteen churches in Paris to its use;
256 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
enemy of Christianity, against which he has read a long and
tedious dissertation to the National Institute. I shall
further remark here that the Paris prints have lately as-
serted that Dupont de Nemours l is going to America, with
the intention of setting up there a theo-philanthropical
society, and that he has been to the Society at Paris to re-
quest of them a copy of the books containing their doctrines
and constitution. Dupont de Nemours you remember was
one of the unfortunate members of the Legislative Assembly
upon whom the Fructidorian revolution fell. He was not,
however, like the others condemned to transportation, or
even expelled ; he was suffered to resign his seat, and by
yielding to the torrent escaped its most destructive fury.
He is the man who, while a member of the Legislature, was
so anxious to have France pursue a system of conciliation
towards the Americans, so as to induce them to choose for
their President a man devoted to France. If Dupont is going
to America with the design mentioned above, he has made
his peace with the Directory, and will be a diligent servant
to them on the other side of the Atlantic.
The Danish and Prussian ministers at Paris are ordered
to make united remonstrances against the late law, so con-
trary to the rights of neutral navigation ; perhaps the effect
of them may be to procure exemptions in favor of these two
powers; but if not, they will make the best of it ; they cannot
go to war for that. Let me remark to you that this is the
universal and final argument of all Europe in submitting to
the unceasing insults and injuries they receive. We cannot
go to war for that. All, it cannot be denied, bow before the
but, as soon as the novelty wore off, it dwindled to a handful of supporters who were
finally excluded from the 'national edifices' in 1801." Cambridge Modern History,
VIII. soi.
1 Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817).
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 257
power of France, while all have at heart the most utter de-
testation of the conduct she pursues. Sweden after all the
indignity she has suffered finally appoints again the Baron
de Stael, and it is only questionable whether the Directory
will condescend to receive him. This reappointment of the
Baron de Stael, after the choice of Count Fersen as the
Swedish Minister at the Congress of Rastadt, 1 indicated a
vacillating political system at Stockholm. The French
papers are full of the King's discontent with his late mar-
riage, 2 his ill humor, &c, and intimate that Sweden is afraid
France will give the King's domain in Pomerania to Prussia.
That neither insults nor injuries can break off the courtship
of Sweden to France is now apparent. The endeavors for
bringing about a reconciliation between France and Russia
are renewed. Russia still hangs back a little but may come
to terms. The soul of Catherine is no longer there.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 116 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 19 February, 1798.
Sir :
I mentioned in my last letter my intention of calling soon
upon the Minister Count Haugwitz for the purpose of con-
versing with him upon the subject of the late French decree
against neutral navigation. 3 I have accordingly been with
him this afternoon and take the first moment after my re-
turn to give you the substance of the conversation. He said
1 Hans Axel von Fersen (1755-1810). The French authorities objected to his
having a place in the Congress of Rastadt.
1 Gustavus IV (1778-1837), who had married, October 31, 1797, Frederica
Dorothea, daughter of Charles Frederick, grand duke of Baden.
1 Italics represent what was in cipher.
vol. 11 — s
258 THE WRITINGS OF [179s
that he could not conceive the motives upon which this decree
was founded, as its inevitable operation must be advantageous
to England alone. That orders have been given to the Minister
of this Court at Paris to make the most serious representations
against it, that to these no answer has yet been given, but as soon
as it should come he would let me know and have some further
conversation with me upon the subject.
That if, however, the French government should persist in it, he
could think of only three alternatives upon which the neutral
powers could determine: either tamely to submit and receive
the law from France by the sacrifice of their most unquestionable
commercial rights, which he hoped they would not do ; ! or to
throw themselves into the arms of England; or to concert be-
tween themselves a system of measures grounded upon their
common interests, which would enable them to assert their
rights in a tone to make them be respected both by France and
England. That this last appeared to him to be the most expe-
dient.
I told him that although the decree cannot yet be known in the
United States, I was sure it would be viewed there in the same
light as it appears to him. That it is impossible the United
States should acquiesce in a measure so hostile to their rights,
and so ruinous as it must prove to their commerce, and that I
am fully persuaded the American government would prefer
concerting measures of defence against this attack upon the
common rights of nations, rather than either of the other alter-
natives which he had mentioned.
The Count expressed himself in terms of the highest re-
spect and esteem of the government of the United States, and
said that their conduct had uniformly and invariably dis-
covered such a regard for the rights of other nations and
such a firm and impartial neutrality towards the belligerent
1 These seven words were underlined in the Ms.
1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 259
powers, as gave them a fair and honorable claim to universal
approbation and applause. 1
I have the honor &c.
1 "Your conversation with the Prussian minister, as detailed in your letter of the
19th of February, is very interesting. The third of the alternatives mentioned by
him, to maintain the dignity of the rights of neutral commerce, would, as you assured
him, be most agreeable to the United States in reference to France. Both the
others we should certainly reject. But at present how is the small maritime force of
the northern neutral powers of Europe, with or without the inconsiderable armed ships
of the United States, to control the British marine ? The arming by Sweden and Den-
mark for this purpose in 1794. we know was perfectly futile. And in the existing state
of things it would be highly impolitic to embarrass Great Britain by any maritime
combination. For however much reason the neutral nations have to complain of her
measures, the little finger of France in maritime depredations is thicker than the loins of
Britain, and the safety of the portion of the civilized world not yet subjugated by France
greatly depends on the barrier opposed to her boundless ambition and rapacity by the
navy of England. If this navy were crushed or subjected to the power of France she
would instantly become the tyrant of the seas, as she is already of the European con-
tinent. At present her rapacity is confined by the inferiority of her naval force which
therefore exerts itself chiefly in acts of piracy on neutral commerce. But were the
English navy subdued, France would insultingly prescribe law to the whole maritime
world. If British cruisers commit aggressions, there is a well-founded expectation
of redress, at least, in the supreme courts; but those of France, from the lowest to the
highest, are generally corrupt and prompt to establish violence in the forms of law, and
where the judges felt any compunction (a most rare occurrence) the terror of the govern-
ment enforces the execution of its iniquitous decrees. I refer to their practice in
France. In their consular courts in Spain, and their West Indian tribunals, it is, if
possible, still worse. Yet from the decisions of the consuls in Spain, although a num-
ber of appeals have been made to the courts in France, I do not recollect a single
instance that has proved successful. In the West Indies nobody thinks of entering an
appeal.
" If there were to be a combination of the neutral powers to protect their commerce, it
is against France that their force should be directed. But this is scarcely to be hoped
for in respect to any of the powers to whose territories her armies can march, until her
monstrous tyranny becoming still more insupportable at home as well as abroad, all
Europe shall rise to overturn the execrable government that wields her immense force"
From the Secretary of State, May 26, 1798. Ms. (Cipher in italics.)
r
i
260 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY
Berlin, 20 February, 1798.
Dear Sir :
• ••••••
I have felt, as every true American must feel, very keenly,
the situation and the treatment which you and your respect-
able colleagues have experienced since your arrival in France,
and I regret most forcibly and cordially with you the little
prospect of a successful termination to your mission. A war
with France must be one of the most unfortunate events
that can befall our country. All the consequences which
you mention must be expected from it, and perhaps others
yet more distressing. At the same time we must remember,
there is a point beyond which every sacrifice to preserve
peace only serves to defeat its own purpose, and that perfidy
or dishonor are too high a price to pay even for the first of
national blessings.
That the system of rejecting reconcilement upon any
practicable terms is formed upon a mistaken view of the
interests of France I have no doubt. That it must lead us
to a close alliance with England is obvious enough, and if it
has not already produced this effect it has not been owing
to the want of opportunity or offers for the purpose. 1
A few days after the date of your letter the new decree
against all neutral navigation and commerce took place.
The tendency of it is to force the neutral nations into a sys-
tem conformable to the views of Great Britain, and to secure
to the English navigation advantages over that of all others.
The reporter of this extraordinary decree to the Council of
Five Hundred asserted that the English have no merchant
vessels employed at all at present. It is well known they
1 See Pickering to Rufus King, April 2, 1 798, in Life and Correspondence of
Rufus King, II. 296.
17981 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 261
have upwards of twenty thousand ; yet upon such a declara-
tion the report was adopted without discussion. It is cer-
tainly extremely offensive to the commercial neutral powers
of Europe. How pernicious it is to us, I need not say.
• ••••••
I am &c.
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Berlin, 22 February, 1798.
My Dear Mother :
• ••••••
I have some curiosity to see Mr. Monroe's book, 1 and also
that of Fauchet. These men were very confidential from
the beginning, as appears by Fauchet's intercepted letter.
Monroe was one of Fauchet's virtuous Republicans, who
even before he went to France betrayed to him as many
secrets as he could. Fauchet expressly designates him as
"a patriot of whom he delights to entertain an idea worthy
of that imposing title." 2 An imposing title, indeed, if con-
duct is the proper test of patriotism. I hope, however, that
some notice will be taken of these books, which I dare say
will furnish materials for the refutation of their authors. I
think there has not been that advantage taken of Randolph's
pamphlet, which it was susceptible of. In this respect
Porcupine's observations, 3 as far as they went, were very
well. But Porcupine is professedly an Englishman, and our
1 A View of the Conduct of the Executive in the Foreign Affairs of the United States.
It was published late in December, 1797-
1 "II y a encore des Patriotes dont j'aime a avoir une idee digne de ce titre
imposant. Consulte Monroe, il est de ce nombre; il m'avait prevenue sur les
hommes que le courant des evenemens a entraines comme des corps denues de
substance." Fauchet to the Commissioner of Foreign Relations, October 3 1, 1 794.
Correspondence of French Ministers (Turner), 451.
3 William Cobbett, New Year's Gift to the Democrats; or Observations on 'A vin-
dication of Randolph's Resignation,' 1796.
262 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
own friends of the government should not have left the ex-
posure of Randolph and his party altogether to him. I have
in a former letter to my father mentioned one observation that
occurred to me as particularly striking, and which is not
noticed by Porcupine. It is that the falsehood of Fauchet's
certificates to Randolph, with regard to the essential point
upon which Randolph's guilt depends, is completely dem-
onstrated by the internal evidence of a passage in the in-
tercepted letter. This fact appears to me of some conse-
quence, for if it appears beyond a contradiction that
Fauchet solemnly certified a falsehood for the purpose of
washing Randolph white, what credit can be given to any-
thing that he may afterwards publish to sully the fair splen-
dor of Washington's fame ? If I were in America, with my
books at hand and a little leisure at my command, these
things should be properly unfolded to the public notice.
I have seen the other pamphlet to which you allude. 1
The solicitude to escape from a charge of speculation has
compelled a reluctant disclosure of a different sort of error.
It might be unnecessary. But we must remark the extreme
industry with which Monroe labored to foster and preserve a
malversation which at the same time he dared not avow.
His correspondence upon this subject amounts to this. "I
do not believe you guilty, but I wish the world to think you
so; I cannot accuse you, but I will not disculpate you.'*
He used his benefactor the late President, no better. For
he fed and boarded Tom Paine to abuse him in the most
false and scurrilous manner, and made Tom at the same
time certify that he had checked his malicious effusions.
Monroe justly says that speculation in our funds would have
been criminal in a Secretary of the Treasury, but he does not
tell us what he thinks of an American Minister in France
1 That of Hamilton.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 263
speculating in assignats and confiscated property. Of the
policy or morality of this he could not properly decide. No
man is a judge in his own cause.
TO JOHN ADAMS
Berlin, 25 February, 1798.
• ••••••
The decree against neutral navigation, it is said, will meet
with spirited resistance from the northern powers. The
Danish and Prussian ministers at Paris have orders to make
joint and very serious remonstrances against it. You will
see some particulars of an interesting conversation upon
this subject. 1 Would it not be possible to send full powers
and proper instructions to concert and conclude upon a gen-
eral system of maritime neutrality similar to that which
took place during the American war ? If this decree should
be maintained, I am confident that the moment would be
peculiarly favorable for such a concert. The proposal in-
timated in the conversation referred to opens the way to a
large and extensive discussion of the means for combining
together the scattered strength which might be made to
maintain the neutral interest, an interest essentially different
from that of either belligerent party. The polar star to the
system of the Prussian cabinet since its peace with France
has been the neutrality of the north of Germany. It was
concerted with the other German states within the line of
demarcation, and has been strenuously and successfully
maintained hitherto. It has been attended by great ad-
vantages to the parties concerned, and raised high the con-
sideration of the Prussian power. I believe the present
1 That given in the letter to the Secretary of State, February 19, 1798.
264 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
King would not be insensible to the honor of extending the
benefits of this neutral system, and of declaring himself at
the commencement of his reign a protector of neutral com-
mercial rights. Such was the tenor of the conversation of
which only the essence was given in the letter which you will
have seen before receiving this.
There may be some doubt indeed whether the United
States will be suffered to remain a neutral power. Their
present situation exposes them already to almost all the
evils of war. The Commissioners at Paris have called for a
decisive answer, and will in all probability soon return
home. 1 There is in one of the last Redacteurs a long specu-
lative essay, calling upon the emigrants to go to America and
conquer Canada, which it says the British government stole
from France. It adds that by adopting this expedient they
may secure pardon, goodwill, and perhaps assistance from
the present French rulers. I am persuaded you will have
direct accounts of this curious publication which proves at
least there are thoughts of reconquering Canada.
1 "I am very glad that the Commissioners have determined to bring the event of
their mission to some issue. They have been long enough suffering indignities and
deprecating hostilities, which accumulate in proportion to the desire which our
government and country have manifested to avert them. I hope and am persuaded
that after taking their decisive measure, they will not be amused by any attempt
to detain them in such a state of humiliation for our government as that in which
they have hitherto acquiesced for the sake of peace.
"Their time for calling forth a determination was in my judgment extremely
well chosen; for if any consideration of prudence has weight upon the French
councils, no moment could be more favorable than this, when their late decrees
have given extreme offence to all the neutral powers, and when their various projects
in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and against Great Britain and Portugal,
engross their attention, and require some temporary management of the nations,
with whom they are not at professed war." To William. Vans Murray, Febru-
ary 23, 1798. Ms.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 265
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
Berlin, 6 March, 1798.
Dear Sir :
Your favor of 20th and 24th ultimo reached me last even-
ing. They have been too long on the road, the regular
term of passage between this and the Hague is not more
than seven days.
When I mentioned on a former occasion their American
diplomacy, I meant theirs with us, not ours with them. I
hope that if we should end by war with France, and the
Batavians should be so regardless of their own interest as to
side with our enemies, there will be such occasion for you
elsewhere in Europe as to render a second voyage so soon
unnecessary.
Tallien's motion 1 I had already noticed. I think it should
serve as an indication of our proper point of defence. If they
take and confiscate everything of British produce, the
neutral vessels may as well arm as not, since even if unarmed,
they will be treated as enemies. If the laws of nations were
not outrageously violated by the piratical decree, then in-
deed might there be some pretence for Tallien's argument
that the neutrals should navigate unarmed upon the faith
of that law ; but for a highwayman to pretend that a travel-
ler should not carry pistols with him, but rest upon the pro-
tection of the municipal laws, has not yet been heard of.
These measures combined amount to this, that the terrible
republic will not only rob the neutrals without shame, but
will not even allow them to defend themselves against her
robbery.
I hope Congress will by law authorize merchant vessels
under proper restrictions to arm and defend themselves, and
1 Jean-Lambert Tallien (1767-1S20).
266 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
give this decree for the motive. 1 At this point it appears to
me fit and even necessary, that an avowed and unequivocal
resistance to united insult and oppression should commence.
Let us keep upon the defensive, and trust to God for the
consequences. I mean to say as much in writing home, and
if you think with me, shall be obliged to you to give the same
idea. The terrible Republic can hurt us little by sea, if we
will but resist her, and I am sick, heartily sick, of the servile
acquiescence with which we have so long received from her
buffetings and indignities, and returned her thanks.
It is very possible the design of Tallien and his party,
who brought forward these measures, that they should
produce a war. If it is, no tameness, no obsequiousness, no
submission, will preserve us from it; if it is not, then it be-
comes indispensable for us to prove that we will not, without
a struggle, abandon our most unquestionable commercial
rights to the violent injustice of any nation.
Though I have no better opinion than yourself of the in-
fluence of reason in any European political discussion, I feel a
great satisfaction and confidence in the circumstance that
our commissioners are powerful reasoners ; it will as you say
1 "Under these circumstances I cannot forbear to reiterate the recommenda-
tions which have been formerly made, and to exhort you to adopt, with promptitude,
decision, and unanimity, such measures as the ample resources of the country
afford, for the protection of our seafaring and commercial citizens; for the defence
oi any exposed portions of our territory; for replenishing our arsenals, establishing
foundries, and military manufactures; and to provide such efficient revenue as
will be necessary to defray extraordinary expenses, and supply the deficiencies
which may be occasioned by depredations on our commerce.
"The present state of things is so essentially different from that in which instruc-
tions were given to the collectors to restrain vessels of the United States from sailing
in an armed condition, that the principle on which those orders were issued has
ceased to exist. I therefore deem it proper to inform Congress that I no longer
conceive myself justifiable in continuing them, unless in particular cases, where
there may be reasonable ground of suspicion, that such vessels are intended to be
employed contrary to law." Message of John Adams to Congress, March 19, 1798.
i 79 8] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 267
have a great effect in our country, and what is yet of more
importance, it will be a strong hold to prove the justice of
our cause in future times. 1 For my own part I hold the
right as so much more important and essential in any con-
test than the issue, that I heartily join in the sentiment of
Lucan, and prefer the decision of Cato to that of the gods.
There is yet no answer to the remonstrances against the
anti-neutral decree, made conjointly by the Danish and
Prussian Ministers at Paris. . . .
Ever truly yours.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 118 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 8 March, 1798.
• ••••••
The French government have not been content with the
late decree for confiscating every neutral vessel and cargo,
any part of which should consist of goods the produce of the
British dominions. A motion of Tallien in the Council of
Five Hundred which will probably soon be passed into a
law, declares that every merchant vessel under a neutral
flag that shall be found armed, shall from that fact alone be
deemed an enemy, and with its cargo be condemned as
lawful prize; and for the purpose of carrying the measure
into more effectual execution, he proposes the establishment
1 "I have not seen much of General P[inckney]'s or G[erry]'s, or Marshall's
writing, but I consider Marshall, whom I have heard speak on a great subject, as
one of the most powerful reasoners I ever met with in public or in print. Reason-
ing in such cases will have a fine effect in America ; but to depend upon it in Europe
is really to place Quixote with Genes de Passamente and among the men of the
world whom he reasoned with so sublimely on their way to the gallies. They an-
swer him, you know, with stones and blows, though the knight is an armed, as
well as an eloquent knight." William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams, The
Hague, February 20, 1798. Ms.
268 THE WRITINGS OF [i 79 8
of a special tribunal different from the ordinary Courts of
Admiralty, and subject to the instructions of the Directory.
In the speech which Tallien made upon bringing forth this
proposal he states, that by the customary law of nations
neutral vessels have no right to go armed as if they were at
war, but are always bound to navigate upon the faith of
the laws of nations. This maxim I take to be correct ; but if a
belligerent power in violation of the most unequivocal rights of
neutral commerce avows the purpose of capturing and confiscat-
ing neutral property, in every instance of merchandise originally
the produce of her antagonist, the neutral governments not only
acquire the right, but, as it appears to me, are bound in duty to
their own citizens, to permit the arming of their vessels for the
purposes of self defence. 1
The whole speech of Tallien upon this occasion deserves
particular attention, but I presume you will receive it from a
more direct source. I shall only observe further, that one of
the professed motives upon which he founds his proposition
is to encourage the ardor of the Republican privateers by
extending the field of their plunder. He says, that numerous
as they have been, they have met but very indifferent suc-
cess in the number of their prizes. The reasons of this are
obvious, because the British have had the complete mastery
of the seas, and have always protected their immensely
numerous merchant vessels by strong convoys. As the
privateers, therefore, cannot prey upon the enemies of France,
this measure and the preceding decree are adopted to let
them loose upon neutral commerce, because it is defenceless
and the object is to keep it so.
It may be also remarked that Sonthonnax is upon the com-
mittee appointed on this motion of Tallien to report upon it,
and, it is not improbable, that the idea of the motion itself origin-
1 In cipher.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 269
ated with him. The pains which are so early taken to prevent
the arming of neutral vessels sufficiently indicate what is con-
sidered as their best security, and I cannot forbear expressing
my hopes that our fellow-citizens will be authorized by law to
arm their merchant vessels, but under such regulations and re-
strictions as shall best answer to keep them within the limits
of a just defence, and check the natural tendency of such an au-
thority to offensive hostilities.
There is yet no answer received here to the remonstrances
which have been made by the northern powers against the decree
for the annihilation of neutral commerce, but I have seen an
anonymous speculation in one of the last Redacteurs which, if it
may be considered as emanating from an official source, proves
that there is no disposition to recede from that regulation. It
attributes the opposition of the neutral powers to the intrigues
of the British government, threatens them with the open enmity
of France, if they should persist in their resistance ; affirms
that the decree is calculated to promote the neutral interests
and the liberty of the seas, and concludes by menacing the north-
ern powers with rebellion by their own subjects. I know not
how far they may be intimidated by arguments of this kind. En-
deavors have been made to operate a conciliatory system between
the cabinets of Vienna, Petersburg, and Berlin, for arresting the
progress of a domineering influence which is alike dangerous to
them all. These attempts, however, it is apprehended will not
be successful. There is a mutual want of confidence that frus-
trates every design of cooperation, though there is beyond all
doubt a similarity of sentiment prevailing at the three courts
as to the common danger, and upon a most important point, the
common interest. I have intimations that the suspicions and
jealousies of the two imperial courts fasten chiefly upon the min-
ister with whom I lately conversed, 1 and who is held to be par-
1 Haugwitz.
27 o THE WRITINGS OF [1798
tially favorable to the views of France. His conversation
with me did not discover such a temper, but there was no witness
present and nothing has passed between us in writing. . . .
I am &c.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
20 March, 1798.
Dear Sir :
Last evening I received your favor of the 12th instant,
which I have read with great attention, and which opens un-
doubtedly a boundless field for speculation. Your idea of
15 January, upon which you have been kind enough to en-
large, is grand and comprehensive ; at the same time I doubt
whether it will be possible to make any advantageous use of it
for the present. If any occasion should present here, I will
not let it perish upon my hands. The disposition to oppose
is good, but the power is small. 1
1 "The French Directory mean to extend their fingers to every vessel that they
can touch, and to plunder her and her cargo. If you have not seen the message of
the 4th instant, you will not comprehend the full extent of their piratical mode of
liberating the seas. They recommend a law which shall decide the character of all
vessels met at sea, as to their state of neutral or enemy, not by their flag or the
ownership of the cargo, but by the single fact, if the whole or any part of the cargo
be of the fabric of England or her possessions ! And that no vessel, unless in storms,
enter the port of the Republic, if she have touched at an English port in her voyage !
"How the northern powers will act, you know better than I do. It would be
possible, if they mean to resist, to hold up a project which would be attractive and
feasible, if they are in earnest ; and should the United States be driven into the war.
our strength is in the use we may make of South America and the W. I. Islands,
In any cooperation with an European strong marine, these I consider within
our power, and these are the handles of the commerce and marine of Europe.
Were there a hearty marine cooperation, backed by a German (north) military
force for the frontier of France, between the forces of America, Great Britain,
Sweden and Denmark, it would be possible to give the northern powers a larger
participation in the West Indian possessions. Since the discovery of Amercia there
never has been such an opportunity of altering the commercial relations of Europe.
In such a project, America is the pivot. Success on our side without this would
i 79 3] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 271
I told you in my last that unsuccessful recent endeavors
have been made to combine Austria, Russia and Prussia}
Until some material change at one or the other of them, I un-
derstand no sort of confidence or cooperation is to be ex-
pected between the three, but mutual jealousy and suspicion
readier to blaze out into hostilities against each other than
against the common enemy.
All are expecting the event of the great expedition. If
that fails, we shall have numerous and great resources. The
decree will in that case soon be repealed. To maintain it
effectually will be impossible. We shall have a long respite
at least, and perhaps even be courted back to friendship.
If it succeeds you have pronounced the doom of Europe and
of all commerce, and I hold your sentence irrevocable. If it
be a drawn game between France and Great Britain, all the
dangers now impending will continue to threaten until the
rivals begin again. The battle between them must be for
life or death. Both cannot live together, and both know
full well this to be the truth. Spain and Portugal you say
will certainly fall, of which I have with you very little doubt.
But it is not to me so clear that their colonies will necessarily
fall with them. If they should for a time, France cannot
possibly keep them long. She can do nothing with colonies.
Nothing can be more anti-colonial than her whole system
at this day — no slaves, no commerce, no property. She
aggrandise Great Britain too much for us ; with this, success would produce a new
maritime balance which we want. Prussia might also enlarge her base of com-
merce, and she has made a good use of her small means and would eagerly enlarge
them. Unfortunately for us, our real strength, both from internal means and from
our local position, is not known to the continental powers at all ! Were they studi-
ously developed, we must appear in a degree the arbiter of the sources of European
marine strength, and a desirable ally to any power (other things cooperating) that
finds itself under a necessity of undermining an enemy, or of enlarging its own base."
William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams, The Hague, January 15, 1798. Ms.
1 In cipher.
272 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
may very easily conquer colonies, but how can she possibly
keep them ? Turgot, one of the fathers of the Revolution,
saw this so clearly more than twenty years ago, that he
wrote a long memorial to prove that all the powers of Europe
must lose their colonies, and the sooner they reconciled them-
selves to it the better. Upon this view of things speculation
may be founded with some degree of certainty.
The colonies of France are already ruined, I believe irre-
trievably so ; that is, they are possessed by a mere banditti,
who can subsist themselves only by plunder ; they can never
furnish the great storehouses of commerce and navigation
to the parent country again. They can never even make
the West Indies themselves flourish with culture. Those of
Great Britain must fall, were it only by catching the conta-
gion ; in that case no other power can retain any colonies.
What the consequences of an universal dissolution of the
connections between Europe and the other quarters of the
world in this respect will be, I have not imagination to con-
jecture, but the event itself approaches rapidly. . . .
It is of little consequence how long the forms of Republi-
canism and the name of representative democracy may be
retained, the real power must essentially remain in the
armed force.
This being once established as a given point from whence
to trace a course of argument, the reflections which it sug-
gests with respect to the necessary influence of this system
upon our country are important. I cannot enter into the
detail of them here, but in the progress from one proposi-
tion to another, I can see no conclusion for us other than one
of these ; either to receive constitutions, armies, and frater-
nity, at the usual price and submit like the rest to the will of
France; or at least to engraft a military spirit upon our
national character and become a warlike people. This
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 273
result is in either case not pleasant in prospect, but can we
help it ? If this last must be done we need not offer the
West Indies to any one. We can take care of them our-
selves. They, and the heirlooms of Spain and Portugal
would furnish us ample means to excite and to feed the
martial spirit, which is supposed above to be necessary.
But you have enough of this castle building in Spain. . . .
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
Berlin, ii April, 1798.
Dear Sir :
I am glad to find by your favor of the 3rd instant that our
friends at Paris have determined to return immediately. 1
They can do nothing, and surely no further time is needed to
ascertain this fact. The distinction and preference given to
one of the Commissioners is in the same spirit and principle
of dividing, which is everywhere and invariably pursued.
I hope this state of things will induce our government to
take some effective measures of defence. The French are
not now at least, and certainly will not be for some time,
ready to come to us ; they can do nothing but infest our
trade, which with the protection that a very little exertion
will insure to it, will be much safer than it has been the last
eighteen months.
The greatest difficulty will arise from the circumstance
that our anti's do not wish to have our trade protected, and
will strain every nerve to leave it altogether defenceless as it
has been hitherto. A naval establishment they fear will
strengthen the Executive, an object of great terror to them.
With the present house I know not how they will get over
1 See Rufus King to William Vans Murray, March 31, 1798. Life and Corre-
spondence of Rufus King, II. 294.
vol. 11 — T
274 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
this. If they can, the utmost malice of France will do us
much more good than harm.
I see by the late French papers that a motion was made in
the House of Representatives towards the last of January,
and very strenuously debated to provide for no ministers
abroad except at Paris and London. 1 This is, and always
has been, the policy both of the English and French influ-
ence among us. It is a point upon which the rivals concur,
because they would gladly have us to bandy about exclu-
sively between themselves. I know not what the decision
was, and if your advices inform you, I shall be obliged to
you for the intelligence.
So it seems General P[inckney] turned France' s elections last
year upon Royalists, and this year upon Anarchists. 2 What a
scarcity of materials in the hands of calumny. I rather think
that Dupont de N[emours] was playing the eavesdropper, or
trying to pick up some opinion of the Generals which he
might carry to France as a propitiative for himself.
1 Annals of Congress, 5th Congress, 850 et seq. The Berlin legation came in for
much criticism.
2 "General Pinckney tells me that they have had an answer to their long me-
morial of 31 January, ' weak in argument, but irritating and insulting in its style ; '
and that the Directoire (or Mr. T.) say that though the United States have not shown
in the choice of their envoys as amicable a disposition as they did in the appointment
of a minister to Great Britain, yet they will treat with one of the envoys whose pre-
sumed disposition promises the most confidence in the French government ! ! ! ! This
one is your old neighbor. General Pinckney says they unanimously agree not to
accede to (so impertinent) an offer of this sort. Dupont de Nemours came in
afterwards and said, the Directoire, he believed, meant to send away Pinckney
and Marshall, but there would be no rupture, because they meant to keep Gerry ! ! !
That they accused General Pinckney of having exerted himself last year in getting
the Royalists elected, and that this year he had but too successfully done the
same in favor of the Anarchists as electors, with the choice of whom the Directoire
are much enraged. The General speaks of it as a calumny, as if any man believes
it. So I suppose will end this negotiation." William Vans Murray to John Quincy
Adams, The Hague, April 3, 1798. Ms.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 275
They are enraged at the choice of Anarchists. But how-
could it be otherwise when they had taken care to exclude
every man of sense and principle, under the pretence of
royalism ? The Directory begin already to complain of the
primary assemblies, and have made a proclamation declar-
ing that the Fructidorian energy is as good and will be as
useful against Anarchy as against Royalism. Thus a
precedent of this kind becomes an apology for perpetual
deviations. France swears that there is but one good
government upon earth, viz. a representative democracy;
yet France swears that as often as her people choose, they
invariably give their suffrage to the greatest scoundrels
among them. The Frenchman was plausible who said that
the whole system of Revolution was comprised in these
words, "Get out of your place and let me get in it."
The French Minister at Copenhagen has declared officially
that the Danish flag would be treated by the French armed
vessels as heretofore. Perhaps the same assurance has been
given here. So that the new decree is not to be enforced
against them. I have expected this and suppose it will
produce its effect. . . .
TO JOHN ADAMS
15 April, 1798.
I have no late letters from America. The most recent
accounts relative to public affairs are in the French news-
papers, which give an extract of a debate in the House of
Representatives of the United States, on a motion to refuse
appropriations for keeping any ministers abroad excepting
at Paris and London. The same French papers do not fail
to insert the declamation, equally ingenious in argument
276 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
and new in form, which a certain patriotic member, whose
patriotism is said to have begun by a fraudulent bank-
ruptcy, indulged himself in against the President. The
tools of the French Directory take from this circumstance
occasion to say throughout Europe, that the party in the
United States against the President pronounces itself more
strongly from day to day, and they add that there have been
violent commotions in the states of New York and of Ver-
mont against the authority of the Union.
The Commissioners at Paris are doubtless before this upon
their return home. 1 Their negotiation has issued as there
has been every reason since the 4th of September 2 to expect
it would. This issue was clearly seen at that time by every
American of common sense and understanding in Europe.
It was announced by me before the close of that same month
of September, in a letter, in my own opinion important by
its contents, but of which I am still ignorant whether it has
ever been received. The system of dividing to conquer is
pursued as usual by the Directory, and amidst all the proofs
of malevolence, of perfidy, and of overbearing insolence,
which their whole conduct towards the United States ex-
hibits, they have at length intimated a disposition to negoti-
ate with one of the three Commissioners, whose dispositions
they consider as more entitled than those of the others to
their confidence. That' one is your particular friend and
acquaintance; the special object of your choice, against
whom even the warmest promoters of the American cause
objected at the time of his appointment. I have too high an
opinion of his honor and integrity to believe that he pur-
chased by any improper indications of a temper to acquiesce
1 Marshall and Pinckney left Paris April 16.
2 The coup d'etat of 18 Fructidor. See letter of September 21, 1797.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 277
in anything dishonorable to his country a preference which
I hope he did not deserve. 1
1 "My very great respect for the understandings and character of our envoys
compels me to believe that their conduct is governed by motives that they consider
as perfectly sound and sufficient; but I have some times apprehended that a
residence of many months at Paris operates to impair the soundest and firmest
minds. The force of sympathy is greater than we are aware of; and I fear very
few of our countrymen have been some time in France without having been in
some degree infected with the contagion that prevails there. I can safely say, that
I think our envoys, or at least two out of three of them are as little likely to feel the
influence which at Paris reigns over, and subjects the minds of men to the will of
the Great Nation, as any of our countrymen." Rufus King to John Quincy Adams,
London, March 26, 1798. Ms.
In his first moment of disappointment Pinckney was severe upon his colleague.
"I have made great sacrifice of my feelings to preserve union, but in vain. I never
met with a man of less candor and so much duplicity as Mr. Gerry. General
Marshall is a man of extensive ability, of manly candor and an honest heart."
Charles C. Pinckney to Rufus King, Paris, April 4, 1798. Murray was angered
even to sickness, and wrote to Adams a denunciation of Gerry's conduct, conclud-
ing with these words : "Though I know that he is a very well informed one upon
Congress business, and of a most friendly turn of heart, good husband, father
and neighbor, yet I know him so well as to say that of all men I know in Amer-
ica he is perhaps the least qualified to play a part in Paris, either among the men
or the women. He is too virtuous for the last, too little acquainted with the
world and with himself for the first, and could do no possible good but in a relative
character as one of three envoys." To John Quincy Adams, The Hague, April 13,
1798. Ms. And later, June 8, on Gerry's inexplicable conduct in remaining,
Murray wrote : "I do fear a little that man's more than infantine weakness. Of it
you can not have an idea, unless you had seen him here or at Paris. Erase all
the two lines above. It is true, but it is cruel. If they get hold of him they will
convert him into an innocent-baby-engine against the government, and to his
utter ruin."
"In all probability before this letter shall reach you the Commissioners of the
United States to France will be returned from a mission which could not succeed.
A valuable object is often lost by too apparent an eagerness to secure it. The
French government are convinced that there is no sacrifice which that of the United
States would refuse to gain their favor, and are probably for that reason determined
upon no condition to grant it. The example of all Europe is before us. All Eu-
rope proclaims more loudly than in words that if the resentment of France is in-
jurious, her friendship and fraternity in her present conditions are utter ruin and
destruction." To the Secretary of State, April 12, 1798. Ms.
278
THE WRITINGS OF [1798
The government of the United States have authorized
their consuls abroad to wear a particular uniform. It would
be a convenience to give a similar authority to their diplo-
matic agents. It would save them much useless expense,
which they can very ill afford, and enable them to appear
without censure in a manner more conformable to republican
simplicity, than in the court dresses which they are now
obliged to use. It is practised by almost all other nations,
and is specially prescribed by the French. Their diplomatic
varies from the military uniform. It has no facings to the
coat ; instead of which they wear a three-colored scarf and
a feather in the hat. The American government might
direct the use of an uniform more simple and differing only
by an appropriate color from a common daily dress. The
substitution of common broadcloth instead of silks and
velvets, and lace embroidery, and all the finery of children,
which a necessary attendance at courts requires, would I
presume be agreeable to every American who now under-
goes these metamorphoses, and an appropriate dress would
have the advantage of designating a character which should
not be confounded with every tribe of courtly butterflies in
Europe.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
19 April, 1798.
Dear Sir :
I am very sorry to find my neighbor 1 will stay without his
colleagues. With you, I can see nothing but mischief to
proceed from such a measure. It is utterly impossible that
he should obtain any arrangement without degrading and
1 Gerry.
I79 8] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 279
disgracing our country. If he acceded to such a one, it will
only foment and increase the divisions upon which the re-
liance of France is altogether rested. If he fails, he con-
demns himself for remaining alone. I am afraid, besides,
that he is fundamentally wrong in his opinions of their dis-
positions. He thinks them misinformed and angry, but not
deeply designing and perfidious against us. By separating
from the other commissioners he has thrown himself into
the hands of the Directory, and must take their will as the
basis of all negotiation. I cannot even conjecture the mo-
tives for his receding from his first determination to reject
the insidious proposal. I can scarcely imagine any that
would justify it.
I am not at all surprised that the grey livery is not yet
abandoned by the gentleman 1 who loves it so well. My
dear sir, it will be his color all the days of his life, and if he
ever is forced to vary from it, I fear he will incline rather to
the black than the white. It is the case of almost all such
people, when they must choose they generally choose wrong.
What can you hope from a man who says that "all the civil
discords and wars among mankind have been contests be-
tween debtor and creditor, that he thinks every dissension of
this kind ought to be stopped at its source, by such an or-
ganization of society, that all contracts should be left upon the
footing of private honor and honesty, and the government and
laws never be allowed to interfere to compel their perform-
ances." I have heard him give this as his decided opinion.
Remember that when he said it he was over the ears in debt,
as I presume he is yet. When a man speculates thus in
theory, and has such strong inducements to the same system
in practise, do you think he will ever exhibit the complexion
of political innocence ?
1 Hichborn ?
2 8o THE WRITINGS OF [1798
As to the point in question, it appears to me that those who
are for maintaining ministers only at Paris and London are
for delivering us up to be bandied exclusively between
France and Britain ; and those who imagine that by having
no ministers in Europe we should have less connection there,
pay little attention to the example of the Turks. Their
principle till very lately has been to keep no ministers in
Europe. The consequence has been that no power was so
subservient to external influence.
I do believe that it would not be worth the cost to keep a
minister plenipotentiary constantly at Berlin ; but in Spain,
and Portugal, and Holland too, I am without a doubt that
the public interest requires it. The discussion is what I have
long been expecting, and if it should fail in its object now, I
am persuaded that it will be regularly renewed every year
until it succeeds, or until the places shall be filled by the
party. As it concerns myself I care not how soon the point
is carried after the present time, when it would certainly
bear very hard upon me.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
27 April, 1798.
Dear Sir :
There is no circumstance that has for many months
given me so much anxiety, as that strange and unaccount-
able abandonment of his colleagues by one of our commis-
sioners, mentioned in yours of the 17th yesterday received.
I have expected from the beginning that the object of the
mission as aiming at conciliation would fail, but I did not
foresee that such a worse than failure would happen, much
less did I imagine that such a poor and paltry as well as
i 79 8] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 281
palpable attempt to divide would succeed with either of the
envoys.
It is a miserable justification for my neighbor to say that
he was scared into a consent to remain alone and see his col-
leagues insultingly rejected, and it gives a wretched prog-
nostic of the progress which the negotiation will take to
hear him own that he suffered himself to be bullied into %
acquiescence, thus at the very threshold. 1
It is no doubt very apparent that at present they prefer
this mongrel condition between peace and war, in which
they plunder us as enemies and we continue defenceless as
friends, to a state of direct and open hostility, in which they
could injure us very little more, perhaps not so much, and in
which we could do some harm to them. The reasons why
they wish not now to go to war with us are equally clearj
especially since the adventure of Bernadotte at Vienna and
his subsequent departure. \They have yet many things to
settle in Europe (at least) before they can develop their whole
system relative to our country, and it is impossible to be
more advantageously situated for negotiation than this
manoeuvre has placed them. 1st. They are now sure of
having a man to deal with who dreads a rupture more than
dishonor, disgrace, and vile indignity. 2dly. They have
ascertained that they can drive him to any terms by threaten-
ing a rupture as the alternative. 3rdly. They know they
can amuse him and keep him at bay as long as they think
1 Murray received a letter from Pinckney and gave this summary of a part of it
to Adams. "It appears that very decided explanations must have taken place after
this between General Pinckney and Mr. Gerry, as he tells me he has explicitly
charged him with 'his duplicity' and 'stated to him the evil consequences which it
would produce to his country.' Mr. Gerry (he says) as his reason for staying has
told them that Mr. Talleyrand officially assured him 'that if he (Mr. G.) did not
stay, a rupture would be the immediate consequence.'' " To John Quincy Adams, April
17, 1798. Ms.
282 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
proper, and turn him off just when they please. 4thly.
They have acquired but too strong reasons to hope that they
can make him consent to conditions of settlement which
they know will not be ratified at home, but which will serve
to foment the divisions upon which they rest their expecta-
tions, and to give them the appearance of being the injured
party.
Such is their vantage ground, while he on our side is in
the position of a person already defeated and confessing his
defeat, by consenting upon a menace to a measure which he
had rejected. He stands as a convicted culprit bound hand
and foot with naked back and shivering shoulders, while
Mulciber 1 T[alleyrand] stands over him, brandishing the
scourge, and forbidding him upon pain of the lash to move
either to the right hand or the left. "It is not and it cannot
come to good.". . .
1 Vulcan. "The refusal to deliver your despatches to you is nothing extra-
ordinary. For this and every other indignity we must learn to be patient, until the
representatives of our country at home shall have some feeling for its wrongs from
that quarter, and some spirit to resent them. But there is a God in heaven, strong
as the reasons of the present time against it may seem ; and if there is, the day of
retribution for these things will come. Our merchant vessels must be permitted to
arm. If the permission is not soon granted they will take it. They can at worst
only be treated as they are. We must consider that there is only one conclusion
to be drawn with regard to France. She is no more an object of reasoning than an
hurricane, a thunderbolt, or an earthquake. Talk of justice to a boiling lava, talk
of faith and honor to a pestilence, and you shall sooner meet with success than in
urging them as motives to France. We must look upon the wickedness of man as we
look upon the destructive agents of nature, and we must deal with them in the
same manner too. If we do not, we shall soon find they will deal so with us." To
William Vans Murray, April 30, 1798. Ms. Some of Murray's official despatches
were found on a ship, the Farmer, brought into Helvoet by a one-gun privateer. In
spite of his remonstrances, these papers were held and sent to Paris.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 283
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Berlin, 4 May, 1798.
• •*••••
It is probable that before this letter can reach you Mr.
Marshall will have returned home. General Pinckney would
have done the same but for the illness of his daughter, which
has induced him to go to the south of France, where he has a
permission to remain only one hundred days. Mr. Gerry
stays behind alone/ 1 It would not perhaps become me to
give all my sentiments upon this extraordinary measure, as I
have not heard from himself upon what grounds he thought
it justifiable. Of this, however, I am confident. He will
gain nothing for his country by staying. There is not a
nation upon earth with which France has chosen to differ,
but she has degraded and oppressed in making arrangements
of settlement. She has indeed deeply injured her enemies,
but she has utterly and irretrievably ruined her friends.
1 "Mr. Dandridge [Secretary to Rufus King] has just returned from ParisTi
He says Mr. G[erry] is the most uneasy man alive. He knows nothing of their
intentions (and has not even seen the person of a Director), except that they wish
to receive him, but he refuses, and says he will not stay long. He has written to me
in answer to my letter of 15 April, and vindicates his measure on the merit of pre-
venting a rupture, which was officially threatened, if he went. This is his plea
— the very reason for an opposite course. He certainly means well, but he has
some substantial errors of opinion at bottom, which will forever lead him into
hesitation and error of decision. He is in a thick fog of his own conjuration, and J
now cannot step to right or left. i
"By letters from Paris as late as the 6th from an intelligent man intimate with
Mr. G[erry], Mr. S[kipwith], and known to many members of government, it seems
they wish to prevail on G[erry] to go home, provided he will pledge himself to draw
our government into their views; but the writer says, G[erry] will not do so. In
fact G[erry]'s character puzzles them. They can make nothing of him. Frightened
him they have. The same turn of mind that made him stay now operates against
their further views on him. The great view will, however, be but too fully attained
— a division of opinion." William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams, The
Hague, May 14, 1798.
284 THE WRITINGS OF [i 79 8
If Mr. G[erry] stays to put his hand to such a treaty as was
forced upon the Batavian and Cisalpine Republics, or to
subscribe to such terms as the unhappy Swiss have been
compelled to submit to, he stays to the unspeakable mis-
fortune of the American union ; if it is only to protract an
unavoidable rupture, until the time shall exactly suit the
Directory, and to keep the United States in that state of
listless impotence which will soon make them the fable of
Europe, they will have little reason to be satisfied with his
obsequiousness to their implacable enemies. One thing in
my own mind is clear as a midday sun. Under the present
rulers of France no settlement of our affairs there, consistent
with our national honor and safety, can be made. Mr.
G[erry] ought long since to have been unequivocally certain
of the same thing ; and if he was, he is much to blame for
such a desertion of his colleagues, and for throwing out such
a new apple of discord in the midst of his countrymen, the
people of America. The policy of temporizing will not an-
swer with men of such character as those with whom he has
to deal. It was tried by Venice, by Genoa, by Geneva, but
most especially by the Swiss Republics. They trusted to
professions of friendship, and gave up one point of con-
troversy after another, without making adequate prepara-
tions for defence, until the enemy was at their very gates.
What has been the consequence ? They were left only the
option of accepting a constitution made for them at Paris
simply without alteration or amendment, or of defending
their independence by force of arms. They fought but it
was too late ; their antagonists had palsied all their strength
by division, and to complete the conquest had only to
butcher some thousands of their people. The victory has
been followed by every species of tyranny, of depredation,
and oppression. The only free and happy country in Europe
1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 285
has been turned into a field of desolation, wretchedness, and
slavery, forced to take the mockery of a constitution made for
them at Paris, and to hymn the deadly gloom of their servi-
tude as the new dawn of their freedom. After such an ex-
ample as this, a citizen of a free Republic, who places any
sort of dependence upon the generosity or justice of France,
must be the veriest dupe on earth, and cannot even claim
the privilege of ignorance or stupidity.
• •••••«
I am &c.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 121 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 17 May, 1798.
Sir :
I have the honor to inclose herewith a copy of a letter
which I have written to the Baron d'Engestrom, the Swedish
minister at this Court ; 1 he told me last evening that he had
forwarded to his government a copy of it, accompanied with
such reflections of his own as he thought best calculated to
give weight to the observations contained in it.
He said he had also some questions to propose to me on
the part of the Swedish government, and requested me to
furnish him with a copy of our last treaty with Great Britain,
which I promised him accordingly. He intimated that he
thought that treaty contained an article inconsistent with
our treaty with France, which however he added was not at
all his concern, or that of his government; but he added
further that there was likewise an article which had in some
measure abandoned or sacrificed, the rights of neutrality,
1 Baron Schultz von Ascheraden died March 23, and was succeeded by Laurent
d'Engestrom.
2 86 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
and that was not entirely conformable to our existing treaty
with Sweden. I asked him what was the substance of the
articles to which he alluded ? He said he had only a general
idea of them, but that they conferred upon the British favors
which we granted to no other nation. I told him that a
clause in the British treaty expressly reserved in full force
all previous treaties contracted by the parties, and that our
treaties both with France and Sweden contained articles
stipulating the communication to those nations of any favor
that should be granted after their conclusion to any other
power. That if, therefore, we had granted any favor to the
British in the treaty of November, 1794, it was in the power
both of France and Sweden to make that favor common to
themselves upon the same conditions. To this he made no
reply.
Some part of the observation contained in the inclosed
letter may be considered as not absolutely comprised within
the purview of my instructions, but I have ventured them
from the persuasion that they are not contrary to those
instructions, that they are objects of great importance and
concern to Sweden and of no less to the United States, and
that the time is favorable for suggesting them.
For the same reasons I deem it highly inexpedient to pro-
pose any alteration in the principle agreed upon in our
present treaty, neutralizing enemies property on board of
neutral vessels. It is indeed true that this stipulation has
not in the course of the present war been observed by France.
But she has uniformly professed her attachment to the princi-
ple, and attributed her violation of it to the example and
previous practice of her enemy. There is certainly a great
inconvenience when two maritime states are at war, for a
neutral nation to be bound by one principle to one of the
parties, and by its opposite to the other; and in such cases
i 79 8] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 287
it is never to be expected that an engagement favorable to
the rights of neutrality will be scrupulously observed by
either of the warring states. It appears to me, therefore,
that the stipulations ought properly to be made contingent,
and the contracting parties to a commercial treaty should
agree that in all cases, when one of the parties should be at
war and the other neutral, the bottom should cover the prop-
erty, provided the enemy of the warring power admitted the
same principles and practised upon it in their Courts of
Admiralty ; but if not, that the rigorous rule of the ordinary
law of nations should be observed. 1
In truth I am fully convinced that there is only one power
in Europe averse to the general establishment of the princi-
ple favorable to neutrality, a power which does not even
disguise the pretension of domineering upon the ocean, and
whose naval force is almost equal to that of all the world
besides. It must be admitted that so long as she rejects the
liberal principle, every agreement of other nations between
themselves admitting it, excepting contingently as above
stated, must if it have any operation, operate altogether in
1 "This proposition of yours appeared to me wholly unexceptionable, and having
transmitted your letter to the President, he has returned it with his approbation,
and a direction that it should be given you as an instruction by which you should be
governed in renewing our treaty with Sweden, and consequently in renewing that
with Prussia. The United States will then manifest their attachment to the princi-
ple, that free ships should make free goods, and at the same time we should secure
ourselves against the injuries which would result from our enemy's not adhering to
the same principle. But this contingent stipulation must comprehend all neutral
nations, as well as the contracting party remaining neutral ; that is, in case of war
between the United States and France, for instance, France must respect the prin-
ciple, not only in regard to Swedish and Prussian ships, but towards all other
nations remaining neutral ; for while the vicinity of those two powers to France
might enable them to be carriers of her goods, they would afford to us little aid ;
altho' by making the rule apply to all neutrals, our commerce might in some of
their vessels find equal protection with that of France in the vessels of Sweden and
Prussia." From the Secretary of State, September 24, 1798. Ms.
288 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
her favor and to her advantage. For while it gives her the
benefit of a safe and protected neutral conveyance of her
goods, it refuses the same to her enemy.
She will not readily agree to it, but she has once been com-
pelled by the united resolution of neutral states tacitly to
admit it in practice. The naval power at the close of the
present war, (unless she should sink under the blow prepar-
ing against her,) will make a concert of mutual protection
and defence absolutely necessary for the security of other
maritime states ; and as she will probably again never begin
a war with such a general weight of alliances to support her,
a combination of neutral interests will in future be much
more likely to compel the admission of equitable principles
than it was or could be at the commencement of her present
contest.
• ••••••
I am &c.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 122 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 25 May, 1798.
Sir :
I received on the 19th instant your two favors of 17 March
and that of the 19th of the same month, inclosing a credential
letter for the present King of Prussia 1 and a commission to
renew the treaty with Sweden, together with several packets
containing newspapers and pamphlets. They were for-
warded to me directly from the post office at Hamburg, as
the postmaster will readily do with any packets which may
be directed to me for the future. 2
1 The letter was presented to the king, July 5.
2 "The President] has nominated J. Q. Adams commissioner plenipotentiary
to renew the treaty with Sweden. Tazewell made a great stand against it, on the
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 289
I shall be guided by your instructions relative to the
stipulations upon the subject of neutral commerce, 1 though I
have very recently written that in my own opinion the pro-
posal of an alteration would be inexpedient. The reasons
for my opinion are given in my last letter. Sweden and
Prussia are both strongly attached to the principle of making
the ship protect the cargo. They have more than once con-
tended that such is the rule even by the ordinary laws of
nations.
A Danish author of some reputation, in a treatise upon the
commerce of neutrals in time of war, lays it down as a rule and
argues formally that by the law of nature free ships make free
goods. Lampredi, 2 a recent Florentine author upon the
same topic, has discussed the question at length and contends,
that by the natural law in this case there is a collision of two
general ground that we should let our treaties drop, and remain without any. He
could only get 8 votes against 20. A trial will be made to-day in another form,
which he thinks will give 10 or 1 1 against 16 or 17, declaring the renewal inexpedient.
In this case, notwithstanding the nomination has been confirmed, it is supposed the
President would perhaps not act under it, on the probability that more than a third
would be against the ratification. I believe, however, that he would act, and that
a third could not be got to oppose the ratification." Jefferson to Madison, March
J S> l 79$- Writings of Jefferson (Ford), VII. 218. Madison's reply is not known,
but Monroe wrote, February 25 : "Mr. Adams's appointment of his son to the mis-
sion was a most reprehensible act. . . . The inattention which the enemies of
such a mission, enemies from principle too, have previously shown to the measure,
is proof of their extreme supineness, in cases where they ought to be active, and
might be active with effect." Writings of Monroe (Hamilton), III. 106. "Your
former powers to renew the commercial treaty with Sweden rested on the sole
authority of the President, but he having deemed it proper to have your appoint-
ment for that service sanctioned by the Senate, a new patent has been issued con-
stituting you a Commissioner for that object. If the new treaty should have been
negotiated under the former powers, or is in proper train to be accomplished, it will
of course be unnecessary to present the new letters patent. You will use them at
your discretion." From the Secretary of State, March 17, 1798. Ms.
1 Words in cipher.
2 Giovanni Maria Lampredi (1732-1793).
vol. H — u
2 9 o THE WRITINGS OF [1798
rights equally valid ; that the belligerent has a right to
detain, but the neutral an equal right to refuse to be detained.
This reduces the thing to a mere question of force, in which
the belligerent, being ready armed, naturally enjoys the best
advantage. / confess the reasoning of Lampredi has in my
mind great weight, and he appears to have stated the question
in its true light.
An opinion has been industriously circulated throughout
Europe, by the partisans France and of French policy, (how-
numerous they are everywhere I need not say,) that the
neutral interests and rights have been abandoned and even
sacrificed by the United States in their treaty with Great Britain.
This idea has forced its way at least into Sweden, as you will
perceive by my conversation with the Swedish Minister here
mentioned in my last. He could not, indeed, produce any
proof, and upon being requested to cite the article, had re-
course to more general terms. Still the idea was prevalent
in his mind, and I am far from being certain of having con-
vinced him that he was in error. A proposal to leave out of the
renewed treaty an article so essential will strongly contribute
to fix the prejudice in his mind, and in that of his government.
From the long and repeated delay of an answer from
Sweden to the proposal for renewing the treaty, which I made
upon my first arrival here, and from the manner in which
Mr. Engestrom's letter to me, of which I have forwarded you a
copy is expressed, there is reason to suppose that there is
some motive for backwardness and hesitation on this score
at Stockholm. There is a great deference for the will of
France at that court. The Directory have treated it very
much as they have our own government, in some instances
worse ; and very recently they withdrew by public declara-
tion the exequatur from almost every Swedish consul in
France, upon the ground of their being Frenchmen born.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 291
They refused to receive two persons appointed one after the
other as charge des affaires at Paris, the first because they
did not like the sentiments of the man, and the second be-
cause they would not admit a diplomatic character of that
grade. The Baron de Stael had been recalled, because his
court thought him too much devoted to France. He is after all
appointed again, though with only the rank of a minister
plenipotentiary. The Directory after taking three months to
consider whether they would receive anything less than a
formal ambassador, at length admitted M. de Stael in the
secondary character, but claimed a merit for this condescen-
sion, and imputed it to their personal regard for the man.
You may judge from all this how important an object
Sweden considers it to conciliate France, and perhaps to this
motive may be imputed her hesitation to renew her treaty with
us. To ascertain whether my suspicion be well founded or
not / wrote the letter to Baron d'Engestrom, of which you have
a copy. If after this the delays continue, and we should be-
come involved in unavoidable war, the United States will be
amply justified in considering enemy's property on board
Swedish vessels as prize, according to the customary laws of
nations. My letter must certainly serve as a full and fair
warning, and I meant it should. If in answer to it a more
expeditious disposition be exhibited than / have seen hitherto,
/ intend to propose a conditional article, putting the principle
upon a footing of reciprocity, and agreeing that the principle
with regard to bottom and cargo shall depend upon the prin-
ciple guiding the Admiralty Courts of the enemy. This will
at once discover our own inclination and attachment to the
liberal rule, and yet not make us the victims of our adherence
to it, while violated by our adversaries. Whether the other
party will in either instance accede to this I cannot undertake
to say, but you may be assured that after your last instruc-
292 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
tions I shall not accede to the renewal of the articles under their
form in the previous treaties. I inclose herewith a copy of
another letter which I have received from Baron Engestrom.
When I called upon Count Haugwitz to notify the receipt
of my new credential letter, I told him, I had likewise re-
ceived a letter from you upon the subject of the French
decree of 4. January last. That your letter contained upon
the subject the same sentiments as those which he had ex-
pressed to me with regard to the attack upon neutral rights ;
a hope that the neutral powers would not suffer it to be
carried into execution without resistance. He said, that
although I had letters from so far distant as America con-
cerning this decree, he could not say this government had
received answers about it even from Paris. That a sort of
inofficial declaration had come to them at second-hand from
Copenhagen, (the same I have noticed in a former letter,)
that this decree would not be executed, and he had heard
only of one instance in which a Prussian vessel had been
taken under it, and carried into Amsterdam ; but the
Prussian agent there had made a proper application for its
restitution, and he believed that affair would be arranged
without difficulty. I told him that it was intimated in private
communications which had reached the American government,
that the northern neutral powers had been induced to ac-
quiesce in, or overlook this regulation, and that it was des-
tined in fact solely against the United States. He declared
that as far as related to this country, there was certainly no
foundation for this report.
He inquired whether it was true that the American Com-
missioners had left, or were about to leave Paris ? I
answered that I had no direct intelligence from them, but
from other quarters in which I could confide, I was assured
that two of them had left Paris and the third yet remained.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 293
He asked whether their departure was on account of this
decree. I said that as to the two Commissioners who are
gone it was not the immediate cause, but I presumed that the
third would very soon receive instructions to withdraw likewise,
as the President of the United States had by a message in-
formed Congress, that no hope was left of an amicable
arrangement with France of the subsisting difficulties, and
as the prohibitions against the arming of our merchant
vessels had been withdrawn. That this was undoubtedly-
done in consequence of the French decree of 4 January.
That the American government had taken all possible means
and used every exertion to preserve its neutrality during the
present war, that even yet it would not commence hostilities,
and retained its desire to be neutral unimpaired ; but it
could not behold its commerce and navigation plundered as
if at war, without either means of defence, or prospect of
redress ; that the merchants therefore would arm, and if the
consequences produced hostility and a state of war, the
United States certainly would not be chargeable with the
blame of that event. Certainly not, he said, since it would
only be exercising the natural right of self defence.
I believe the Count's declaration was perfectly true, and
that the report mentioned by Mr. Fenwick, of the northern
powers having consented to the decree was without founda-
tion. Sweden and Denmark, I know, both made strong
representations against it, though the former had then no
recognized minister at Paris. I sent you some time since a
translation of an almost official 1 paper, published in the
Redacteur, relating to this very opposition from the northern
governments, and professing that if they persist in it, France
will go to war with them without scruple. Notwithstand-
ing this however they have made a sort of promise to Den-
1 Italics in Ms.
294 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
mark that the law should not be executed against her. They
have in fact not executed it against Prussia, as appears from
Count Haugwitz's conversation at this time, and this for-
bearance will probably prevent any formidable exertion on the
part of these courts against it.
There were, I do not doubt, three reasons which led to this
decree ; the first to distress England, the second to injure and
terrify the United States, the third to encourage their own
privateers by the prospect of neutral plunder. In the first
they have totally failed, for the operation of the decree has
been altogether in favor of British vessels. By placing the
neutral flag in as unsafe a state as the English, it has secured
to the latter the preference resulting from the stronger pro-
tection of the navy, and accordingly English vessels are now
preferred to any neutrals for the carriage of goods from all
the north of Europe. 1
In relating to you my conversation with the ministers of
state here, as well as with the Swedish minister, I place the
fullest confidence in their not being made public in America.
Such publications produce the worst effects. It is impossible
for a man in office to say anything confidential to an American
minister, if he is led to believe that his words may return in six
month's time open to the knowledge of all Europe. Nor can
we ourselves freely and fully communicate with you under
such an apprehension. A cipher in this instance is of no
avail. The danger is not of detection, but of publicity." 1
• •*••••
I am &c.
1 "As to their plan of annihilating British commerce by excluding their produce
from its markets, I have no belief in its practicability. Their last piratical decree
has not hurt England the value of a straw. It does not appear to have affected the
course of exchange between London and the continent a farthing." To William
Vans Murray, May 8, 1798. Ms.
2 "Ministers who are faithful to their country give a true account of their mission,
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 295
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
May 25, 1798.
Dear Sir :
I am very much afraid our friend G[erry] will have leisure
to repent his determination to remain alone. 1 Our House
of Representatives have unbound all the bags of Aeolus,
and God knows what and whom the hurricane will sweep
away. Before this reaches you the whole scene of corrup-
tion will be unfolded to you. The publication might be of
some service to rouse our countrymen at home, but why
should the Commissioners be exposed to the unbridled fury
of the worst of mankind ?
Benjamin Constant, one of the literary courtiers of the
great Directory, says in a late publication that "when the
wicked are in power we ought by no means to strip them of
their mask, but on the contrary should endeavor to thicken
Congress publishes their despatches, and as, according to the new order of things,
ambassadors are without protection, they may lose their heads, or at least their
liberty, for doing their duty !" Rufus King to John Quincy Adams, London, May
15, 1798. Ms.
"He [Count Panin] said he had just heard that an account of the negotia-
tions of the American Commissioners at Paris had been published, and appeared
desirous to see it. I have not yet seen it myself as published in some of the latest
English papers. I cannot help regretting this publication. It discloses certain
facts which are no secrets to any government having negotiations at Paris, but it
contains no proof of them. All may and undoubtedly will be disavowed. But it
will exasperate even to rage men with power in their hands, and capable of such
transactions as those thus unfolded. They will use every expedient to do what was
threatened, to throw the blame of the rupture upon the American government, and
whatever of justice or truth may be deficient will be supplied by address and vio-
lence." To the Secretary of State, May 28, 1798. Ms.
1 Mountflorence reported to Murray that Gerry's "confidants and particulars
have been a Mr. Codman, who though not dyed in grain, is deep dyed ; Mr. [Na-
thaniel] Cutting, who openly reviles government; and dear, amiable, clean, and
sweet Tom Paine." Murray to John Quincy Adams, June 5, 1795. Ms.
296 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
their disguise." This is one of the fundamental axioms of
the new doctrines of morality. I am not prepared with my
assent to this adage, but I yet adhere to an old one, that
"the truth is not to be told at all times." Certainly the
House ought to have waited until they knew our Commis-
sioners had got out of the Augean stables.
At least this will bring things to a point. But it will
leave many of our citizens and much of their property at the
mercy of France, which a little more caution might have
saved. My letters talk of unanimity in Congress, a meeting
of the opposition members agreeing to support government,
etc., but upon condition of a defensive war. Only a majority
of four to permit the arming of merchant vessels.
• ••••••
Farewell — ever faithfully yours.
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
30 May, 1798.
• ••••••
Mr. King, to whom I am much indebted for the kindness
with which he constantly forwards to me the most recent in-
telligence from home, has sent me a pamphlet republished
in England ! from the communications made to Congress on
the 3rd of April. It is equally surprising to me, as to you,
that our Envoys continued at Paris so long after the trans-
actions unfolded in their dispatches, and it redoubles the
mortification which I felt upon hearing that one of them con-
sented to remain alone, after all the indignities, to which
they had been exposed and had submitted, were crowned by
an order commanding two of them to quit the Republic.
1 On May 15. It was immediately translated into French, and through a
variety of channels sent into France.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 297
I rejoice to find that they have been formally recalled, be-
cause I believe firmly that the one left could have done by re-
maining any longer nothing but mischief. I know not how
the Directory will conduct upon the publication of the dis-
patches in France ; probably they will exhibit a complica-
tion of perfidy and violence, attempting to cast upon the
American government, and especially the President by name,
the blame of the rupture. Their newspapers before the
arrival of the last accounts announced that Messrs. Pinckney
and Marshall had shown surliness and an affectation of
dignity in their proceedings ; appeared ignorant of the cir-
cumstances of the government with which they were sent to
treat, and had upon rejecting the proposals made to them by
the Directory received passports to return home ; while
Mr. Gerry, who was more accommodating, remained to con-
tinue the negotiation.
There has been lately published in England some inter-
cepted letters written by one Stone x and Helen M. Williams
at Paris to Dr. Priestley and B. Vaughan in America. I dare
say you will see the pamphlet before this letter reaches you.
It is interesting on many accounts, and among other things
you will find the writer telling his friends that the Directory
will hear of no reconciliation with America in John Adams's
time. He urgently invites the Doctor back to Europe, and
I most heartily wish he may accept the invitation. 2 If such
are his intimate correspondents, he is indeed misplaced in his
present situation. There is another fact disclosed in these
letters, which contributes to discover the real state of the
French government. The writer says that Francois de
Neuf chateau 3 was to go out of the Directory at the next
1 J. H. Stone.
2 See some letters from Priestley in z Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, III. 21, 26.
3 Nicolas-Louis, comte Francois de Neufchateau (1 750-1828).
298 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
election. The letters were written in February. It is but
a fortnight since they met with great solemnity and drew
their lots with numerous precautions tending to show their
extreme caution to preserve the Constitutional decision of
chance. 1 The member that went out was Franqois de
Neuf chateau. The very same circumstance took place last
year, when it was announced several days before the lots
were drawn that Letourneur would go out, as he accord-
ingly did. Such is the French constitutional rotation by
lot.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
7 June, 1798.
Dear Sir :
Yours of the 1st instant has just come to hand. I do not
apprehend from present appearances that either of the Com-
missioners remaining in France will be arrested, or prevented
from returning home. They have not the purchase upon
them that they had in the two instances you mention. I
wish that the affair of Araujo could be made public, and I
think it would be politic for his court and for his reputation
to make it so. The operation of our publication is already
very strong, and though the German newspapers have not
dared to state the facts, they are pretty well known here at
present, and have been seized and circulated with as much
avidity as they were with you. Do you know what Araujo's
case exactly was ? 2 He will not venture to publish it,
1 The result of a coup d'etat, known as that of 22 Floreal, An VI, which passed
off peaceably for the moment. Neufchateau was succeeded as Director by Treil-
hard, who had taken a prominent part in the coup d'etat of September, 1797.
2 "They threatened by the diplomatic skill of France and the French party in
America to throw the blame of the rupture upon the American government, and
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 299
though the danger would be so much less than it was to set
the first example, and which I cannot help thinking was ill-
timed. The English have indeed told of the proposals made
they are apparently now preparing to carry this threat into execution. The
Moniteur, a Paris newspaper under the influence and control of the government, in a
pretended article from New York, dated 12 April, says that the French party gains
strength every day, both within Congress and out of it. The same paper has
published a translation of the President's message of 19 March. At the passage
where he says that the powers of the Envoys were extensive, as a liberal and pacific
policy required, they have printed the word liberal in italics, meaning to imply
that the President thereby insinuates the Envoys had powers to use bribery. You
have doubtless heard how the Portuguese Minister d'Araujo was treated upon a
similar occasion. The same indirect proposals for the payment of money were
made to him, and as his government was in extreme need of peace, he complied
with them, and paid. They took the money, but being through all their intermedi-
ates safe from detection, they were not a whit the more favorable to the minister
than they had been before. He being provoked to find himself not only plundered,
but cheated, told of his having paid money, and they instantly shut him up in the
Temple to teach him discretion. As to the universal venality prevalent at Paris,
it has long been perfectly well known and often a subject of complaints, which have,
however, invariably been suppressed and generally severely punished. Such com-
plaints were among the principal causes for the transportation of many persons
involved in the 4th of September proscriptions." To Abigail Adams, June 11,
1798. Ms.
"Talleyrand would doubtless be made responsible for all, if he had it not in his
power to expose his superiors, but I think it probable they must support him to
save themselves. All negotiators are not so nice as ours fortunately were. Araujo
paid, and then told of it, which occasioned his imprisonment; and if Lord Malmes-
bury could publish what he spent in the same way, it would amount to no small
sum. The system apparently superadds swindling to common corruption. They
are to be bribed for effecting nothing." To Rufus King, June 1, 1798. Ms.
Jefferson interpreted the Araujo incident in another way. Talleyrand's corruption
was known and it was likely he did participate in the demands made on the
American Commissioners. "But that the Directory knew anything of it is neither
proved nor probable. On the contrary, when the Portuguese ambassador yielded to
like attempts of swindlers, the conduct of the Directory in imprisoning him for an
attempt at corruption, as well as their conduct, really magnanimous, places them
above suspicion." Jefferson to Peter Carr, April 12, 1798. Writings of Jefferson
(Ford), VII. 238. On the corruption of the Directory in the conduct of foreign
affairs see Cambridge Modern History, VIII. 494.
3 oo THE WRITINGS OF [i 79 8
through the medium of Beckford for £50,000 to the Direc-
tors, but they have not told of all that Malmesbury did give,
to be finally turned away and told he must begin anew in
another quarter. 1 The history of all the sums that have been
swindled away by the great Directory in this manner from
foreign negotiators would be a relation as edifying as the
great fast ordered by John Adams is stated to be by the
Redacteur.
It is evident from the complexion of that paper and of the
Moniteur since the published dispatches have reached Paris,
that the Directory are enraged as was to be expected, but
that they still rely upon their diplomatic skill to throw the
blame of the rupture upon us, and still depend upon their
party in America, which the Moniteur tells us was, on the
1 2th of April, daily increasing, both within Congress and
out of it. We on the contrary are told of unanimity in
Congress, of opposition Caucuses resolving not to oppose,
and other flattering accounts of the same kind, upon which
very little dependence is to be placed. Those men are not
so easily turned ; you know them better than I, and you
do not suppose that such men as the present leaders of the
French faction there, can be reconciled to the present govern-
ment or to the present Constitution of the United States.
I have no hopes of them, being fully convinced that they
themselves first called for the aid of France to support their
factious views, and I have no idea that men capable of that
will scruple to sacrifice their country to their allies. There
is a moral depravity seated in the minds of these people.
Their principle of future amelioration to the condition of
mankind destroys every trace of present principle. See
1 Barras is stated to have approached the English commission through one
Melville, of Boston, with an offer of peace for a large sum of money. Malmesbury
took no notice of the offer. Diaries and Correspondence, III. 492.
, 79 8] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 301
how Stone talks to Priestley about the events of 18 Fructidor
and 22 January. Stone, in all probability with many others
who profess these doctrines, are plain hypocritical rascals ;
but Priestley and many more of them are sincere, fanatical
dupes, who as Hume observes are worse men than the
others. It is possible that the dispatches and their effect
out of doors will bring over some small number of the grays,
but as to unanimity it were folly to expect it from the
present men.
In this point of view I have some little hesitation at assent-
ing entirely to your opinion, that active hostilities should
be urged on our side. That our vessels should be permitted
to arm was, I think, perfectly right, but it seems to me that
you ought still to keep the defensive. Let us put on the shield
and the helmet, and even draw the sword, but never cease
to hold out the olive branch, and carefully keep the odium
of aggression upon the enemy's shoulders. We shall need
only a little patience to come to the same result, for they
feel themselves so strong, so invulnerable, and so formidable,
that they will increase their provocations, without needing
any occasion for them on our part. Special letters of re-
prisal must soon be given, but at every step I hope our govern-
ment will declare and prove their earnest inclination for
peace. You think the war passions must be engaged; but
is it not better that they should be engaged by the irritations
of the enemy, than by the instigation of the government ?
For my own part I believe that in our country the govern-
ment can never carry through any war, unless the strong,
unequivocal and decided voice of the people leads them
into it. The impulse must go from the circumference to
the center. I have seen hitherto no such spirit, notwith-
standing all the provocations indignities and injuries we
have received.
3 o2 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
In Congress, one half of the House of Representatives
have to the last moment contested every measure, even of
the defensive kind. In the Pennsylvania House of Repre-
sentatives, but a few days before the publication of the last
dispatches and after the message of 19 March, a resolution
was proposed to instruct their members in Congress against
every measure that could lead to war, and it was lost only
by three or four votes. Even now the most indefatigable
pains are taken to throw the blame of a rupture upon our
government, or rather upon the President personally, and
there are men enough among us of consequence and in-
fluence most heartily disposed to second this purpose.
Let events be what they will, the idea will be maintained
by many, and even a shadow of foundation would be suffi-
cient to make it generally prevalent. I rather wish, there-
fore, that the present exertions may be limited to arming for
defence and collecting force in case of future need.
The Directory have laid an embargo upon all packets,
letters and papers coming from England. The English
newspapers you know just at that time contained the famous
dispatches of our commissioners. The Redacteur has a very
angry article about the newspapers, " with which the English
government overflow the Continent with the design of
separating if possible the patriots from the Directory," etc.,
etc., and adds that their miserable cajoleries upon John
Adams will not mislead the enlightened Americans, who
" comme nous" desire the liberty of the seas.
I could easily have the pamphlet translated here, but not
so easily printed, especially just at this time. The press
here is professedly in leading strings, and of course very
respectful to the great Directory. I strongly suspect that
the inherent interest of the thing will make it find its way
without any help of mine.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 303
As to any shaking of sceptered hands upon principle, do
not expect it. The sentiment deepest in the heart is mutual
hatred and jealousy, artfully fostered by the common enemy.
If the parties can be kept merely at peace with each other,
it is all that can be hoped.
I wish it were in my power to be of any service to Mr.
Mountflorence, who has indeed been found faithful among
the faithless ; but I have no power to appoint consuls,
and if I had, a consular place here would be nothing, or much
worse than nothing. I will recommend him at home, but
I must own I have not succeeded in any one recommenda-
tion of that kind since I have been in Europe. I never get
so much as an answer to them. 1
Ever yours.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 125 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 18 June, 1798.
Sir :
I received this morning, under cover from the consul at
Bremen, your favor of 20th April No. 4, together with a
duplicate of No. 3, and a triplicate of No. 2. I have already
assured you that I should act in conformity to my instruc-
tions of 15 and 17 July, renewed by your orders of 17 March,
though I am fully persuaded that the proposal will in both
instances be unacceptable, and may probably occasion a
refusal to renew the treaties.
I had determined, as I have mentioned in former letters,
to propose upon the subject a conditional stipulation,
which under the present circumstances would have been
1 Murray had spoken of Mountflorence as "the Ariel among the consuls in
France."
3°4
THE WRITINGS OF [1798
equivalent to an adoption of the ordinary rules of the law of
nations, and at the same time have avoided an abandon-
ment of the principle contained in the former treaties. But
I find in perusing the published instructions to the late Com-
missioners in France, that they were ordered to endeavor
for a positive stipulation to the contrary, so that the conduct
of one belligerent party towards the neutral should never
be alleged as the justification of similar measures by the
other. It would, I apprehend, be easy to stipulate such
a condition as this last here, but an engagement of this
kind is not easily carried into execution.
As to the decision of the question with Great Britain when
the war is over, I think it will be to no purpose, as I presume
Great Britain will then adhere to her own principle more firmly
than ever.
The present Swedish minister here is the person who, in
the year 1793, delivered to Mr. Pinckney certain propositions
which he then forwarded to our own government, the object of
which was a concert for the support of neutral rights. He has
mentioned this fact to me, and added that no answer had ever
been received to those proposals. I have heard at various
times the same observation from other Swedish diplomatic
characters, and I find the thing noticed in Mr. Monroe's book.
The omission of an answer, I am confident, was felt, and I
fear still is felt by the Swedish government. As I was alto-
gether unacquainted with the transaction, I have more than
once been embarrassed what to say, when the remarks above
mentioned have been made to me.
I have lately inclosed to you some extracts from the Paris
newspapers relative to the United States, containing indi-
cations of the temper of the French government towards us,,
and showing their reliance still upon what they call the
French party in America. One of my motives for making
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 305
these extracts has been the supposition that Mr. Gerry was
before this upon his return home. 1
In the Redacteur of the 19 Prairial (9 June) are some ob-
servations upon the documents published by order of the
American Senate on the 5th of April. 2 They are apparently
from the office of the minister of foreign relations, though
not signed by him. As the paper itself will doubtless be
received in America before this letter, it were needless for
me to specify its contents.
The fleet from Toulon which sailed on the 22nd of last
month is said to have arrived in Corsica, and the report is
very prevalent, that its destination is for Alexandria in
Egypt. It is added that possession will be taken of the
island of Malta on the passage, to prevent its being a place
of refuge for an English fleet.
In conversation the other day with the Danish charge des
affaires he told me, that by his last accounts from Copenhagen
they were expecting the arrival of the Russian fleet. I hear
since that it sailed from Cronstadt, about the 1st of this
month. I mentioned to him the recent French decree relative
to neutral navigation, which appears especially pointed against
Denmark. He said that as jar as regards their commerce, they
were substantially in a state of war with France, at least of
passive war; and as long as the French had nothing to lose,
he saw no likelihood that it would end. I observed to him that
France had something to lose, and that if the neutral powers,
whose rights she tramples thus wantonly under foot, would
1 "The Moniteur has some pleasant paragraphs upon the subject. In a pre-
tended paragraph from New York of 12 April it says, that the debates In Congress
are 'tres orageux'; that the French party is daily increasing in Congress and out
of it, and that the war party and stock-jobbers are pale and disconcerted." To
William Vans Murray, June 5, 1798. Ms.
2 American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II. 153. As the American document
reached the hands of the Directory on May 28, the reply was well considered.
vol. u — x
306 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
combine and concert together some common system of opposi-
tion to her injustice, they would very soon bring her councils to
a greater conformity with the laws of nations, or deprive her
of all benefit from her colonies, and, if they please, of the colonies
themselves. He assented to these remarks, and said it was to be
lamented that the great distance of the neutral countries from
each other rendered such a concert difficult, because so much
depended upon taking advantage of particular moments ; but
before they could consult each other many months elapse, new
occurrences dictated new expedients, and the vigor of harmony
insensibly perished in the lapse of time.
The negotiations at Rastadt, since the appointment of the
French plenipotentiary Treilhard J as member of the Direc-
tory, have been at a stand. Jean de Bry, 2 late a member
of the Council of Five Hundred, has been appointed to take
his place, but it seems probable that the proceedings of the
Congress will in future be subordinate to another negotiation
just commenced in its neighborhood. The late Director,
Francois de Neufchateau, was immediately after going out
of office appointed ostensibly to negotiate a settlement of
the affair which happened at Vienna on the 13th of April
and the insult then offered to the French ambassador
Bernadotte ; 3 but the general report is that he is further
empowered to make such arrangements as may accelerate
the slow progress of the Congress. 4 As by an article of the
1 Jean-Baptiste Treilhard (1742-1810).
2 Jean-Antoine Joseph de Bry (1760-1834).
8 Jean-Baptiste-Jules Bernadotte (1764-1844), then French ambassador at
Vienna, acting under an injunction of the French Foreign Office, displayed the
tricolor flag over the gate of the embassy on the eve of a patriotic festival. The
Viennese tore it down, and this act brought the two countries to the brink of war;
but the affair was settled by Cobenzl and Neufchateau, at Selz, May 30 — July 6.
4 The Congress opened December 16, 1797, and remained in existence for fifteen
months. In that time it was a field for every form of futile and mischievous
schemes and activities, and ended in a tragedy — the murder of two of the French
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 307
French Constitution, an ex-Director is forbidden to quit
within two years the territories of the Republic, the place
chosen for the negotiation of Francois is Selz, a small town
not far distant from Rastadt, where the Austrian Minister
at the Congress, Count Cobenzl, has already held several
conferences with him and where it is said one of the Prussian
Plenipotentiaries will also be empowered to meet him.
I have heretofore mentioned the arrival of Prince Repnin
here without any formal diplomatic character, but charged
to negotiate an arrangement between the Emperor of Ger-
many and the King of Prussia, relative to their respective
claims of indemnity for their cessions to France beyond the
Rhine. The Prince commenced by two demands, which he
obtained. The first, that the conferences should be with
the three ministers in the department of foreign affairs, and
the other, that the registers of the conferences should be
kept in the German and not as usual in the French language.
The motive for these demands is said to be a distrust of the
minister in the department who has of late conducted all the
diplomatic affairs of this country, and is considered as in a great
measure devoted to the French interest. To facilitate and
shorten the business, the King of Prussia offered on his part
to renounce all claim of indemnity, provided the Emperor
would do the same, and this proposal has been acceded to.
There has hitherto been made no proposal in this affair for
a common defensive system between the three powers in
opposition to the views of France as was expected, and if
there should be made one hereafter, it will not probably
succeed. The French government however have recalled
envoys, as they left the town without protection. Jean de Bry was left for dead,
but escaped; Bonnier and Roberjot were killed outright. "In its defiance of
the law of nations for the attainment of petty ends, as in its mysterious ineffective-
ness, the outrage stands without a parallel in the modern history of civilised nations."
Cambridge Modern History, VIII. 656.
3 o8 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
their present Minister Plenipotentiary at this Court, Caillard,
and appointed Sieyes to take his place, with whom Otto is
to come as secretary of legation. The French government
wished to give Sieyes the character of Ambassador, but this
I understand was declined by the King, who did not choose
to run the risk of perpetual controversies of etiquette and
precedency to which the rank of an Ambassador is liable to
give rise.
I received a few days ago a letter from a person styling
himself Lieutenant of the Royal Marine and knight of the
order of St. Louis, offering his services to the United States
in the war, which he says he is informed they have with
France. For various reasons I have not answered this letter.
// a war should take place I have no doubt but numerous offers
and solicitations of the same kind would be made, but as the
Directory have just declared their desire to live at peace
with the Americans, and shown that they are not altogether
insensible of the fate which must befall their colonies in
case of a different event, I have yet some feeble hope that
a war may be avoided, which I know will be the most
earnest and anxious desire of the American government,
however offensive and unjust the imputations, and however
unfriendly the language used in the defence attempted by
the minister of foreign relations, against the documents
published by order of the Senate.
I suppose that before the receipt of this letter Mr. Mount-
florence will have arrived in America ; his conduct has been
uniformly honorable, and his zeal and activity in the real
service of his country, exemplary and deserving of better
success. Such at least is the opinion I have formed as far
as his transactions have come within my knowledge, and I
am persuaded he will have a suffrage equally favorable from
those who have been more intimately conversant with them.
i 79 8] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 30;
I think him highly deserving of the notice of government,
for any employment in a line similar to that in which he was
placed that may be deemed expedient.
I am &c.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
19 June, 1798.
Dear Sir :
• •••••• ^
At length Talleyrand, the incorrupt, has come forth foam-
ing and snarling with all the symptoms of mania that were
to be expected. He denies none of the facts stated by the
Commissioners, but vents all his rage 6pon them personally
and upon the President. Bestows a very liberal portion
of abuse upon Gerry, but at the same time natters him with
a pointed and odious discrimination from his colleagues.
Accuses the Commissioners of keeping themselves studiously
distant from the government to which they were sent, (as if
they had not been denied a reception,) and of listening to
foreign adventurers, who have now wisely withdrawn from
the French territories. He lays all proper stress upon the
fact that no proposal from an official source for the £50,000
was made, 1 and freely avows the demand of a loan upon the
Batavian rescriptions.
Our Jacobins, therefore, must change their batteries, and
instead of denouncing Talleyrand as a royalist, fight under
his banners against our government upon the same charge
of propensity to royalism. For he has introduced much
matter of this kind in his Philippic, which is apparently
written to suit our meridian. But this error of our Jacobins
as to their best post of attack and defence, they must lay
1 It was true that no one of the then agents concerned in this a flair was con-
nected officially with the Department of Foreign Affairs.
r
3IO THE WRITINGS OF [1798
altogether to the charge of Gerry ; for in his account of his
interview with Talleyrand, on the 28th of October, he ex-
pressly states, that Talleyrand himself made two distinct
demands for money : one to remove the demand of recanta-
tion with respect to the President's speech, and the other
for a loan in case that difficulty should be adjusted. Now
they never dreamt, that after this G[erry] would certify that
no proposal from an official source for hush-money was made,
and could not discover that they must admire Talleyrand's
democratic ardor, instead of stigmatizing him as a royalist.
It is, however, impossible for a defence to be more lame,
more feeble, more destitute of reasonable argument, than that
which Talleyrand has now published. Such is the opinion
of it here. You, I am sure, will find it so. Yet it is amply
sufficient for the logic of faction, and will have its effect
upon our Frenchified patriots.
There is one point that it discloses with overflowing evi-
dence. That they do not wish an open rupture now, and that
they are alarmed at the spirit which the publication roused
in our country. Amidst numerous proofs of the most in-
veterate hostility against our government it contains great
professions of friendship for the American people, and an
assurance that notwithstanding this great provocation,
France will not declare war against us. I wonder whether
G[erry] believes the professions of friendship ?
Ever faithfully yours.
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
22 June, 1798.
Since the date of my last letter I have received your favor
of the 8 April, with the pamphlets mentioned in it. The
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 311
communications of the American Commissioners have re-
sounded through every part of Europe, and produced a very
sensible impression in the public opinion with regard to
the characters exposed in them. An attempt at defence
has been made by a publication in the official newspaper of
the Directory, but which, as far as I have heard, has only
corroborated and confirmed the suspicions, which naturally
resulted from the proceedings developed in the dispatches of
the Commissioners. 1
The paper of which I speak is not signed, but has every
other appearance of proceeding from the hand of Talleyrand
himself, and is accompanied by several letters between him
and Mr. Gerry, and one to him from Hauteval, acknowl-
edging that he is the person designated by the letter Z. 2
As this paper will doubtless be public in America before the
arrival of this letter, I shall only mention a few remarks
which it suggested to me, and which I doubt not will occur
to others and be properly unfolded to the American public.
It is throughout in a very angry style of crimination against
the American government, against the President, against
all the three Commissioners, but intermixed with compliments
and flattery for Mr. Gerry ; under the bitterness of its in-
vective, it seems as if it expected to pass imperceptibly
over the real point of its own defence, for it does not deny
one fact alleged in the reports of the Commissioners.
It charges them with having kept themselves distant from
the government to which they were sent, and listened at the
same time to foreign intriguers who only wished to dupe
them. As if they had not been denied reception. As if
they had not for a long time been informed from Talleyrand
that he could not see them at all.
1 American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II. 224.
2 Ibid., 226.
3 i2 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
As to the proposal relative to the purchase of Batavian
inscriptions, he freely acknowledges it ; as well as the demand
that the President's speech of 16 May [1797] should be
retracted and explained. It appears to be very much dis-
concerted at the prospect that the publication of these
papers will weaken the effect, which Talleyrand meant to
produce by his official communications to the envoys, where
all the diplomatic skill of France was employed to throw
the blame of aggression upon the American government, and
to improve the dispositions of the French party in America
for the benefit of the Directory. It abuses the American
government for not publishing the official documents, while
it was so anxious to display the others. The Bishop-Noble-
Emigrant Citizen Minister knew very well that on the 3rd
of April, when the published dispatches were communicated
to Congress, his skillful official letters could not possibly
have been received in America, and of course could not be
published with the rest ; but through his whole publication
he appears to think a confusion of dates is a very easy mode
of passing impositions upon the public.
He demands finally who W X Y and Z are of Mr. Gerry,
who finally gives him the names of X and Y, but answers
that he knows of W only by hearsay, and Z means himself.
But in truth the only person whom it could be necessary for
Talleyrand to know for his defence upon the imputation of
corruptibility was Y, and why should he ask Mr. Gerry to
name him ? The papers themselves designated to Talleyrand
who Mr. Y was as well as Mr. Gerry could do, since they
detailed a conversation between these two ministers at
which Y is stated to have been present and in which Talley-
rand told Mr. Gerry that the information Y had given him,
"was just and might always be relied on." This fact proves
that Y was at that time and for that purpose an agent of
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 313
Talleyrand, and as the latter could not but recollect the inter-
view related in the dispatch, he could have no occasion to
inquire of Mr. Gerry who Y was.
But it is to be remembered that the American Commis-
sioners had promised X and Y that their names should not
be published. This promise was not obligatory to Talley-
rand, whom it would be natural to expect Y's conduct,
if unauthorized, had greatly injured and offended, and whom
one would suppose anxious to proclaim him by name in the
face of the world as a cheat and impostor. The circum-
stances indeed seemed to call for such an exposure ; for after
Talleyrand had expressly told Mr. Gerry that he might rely
upon Y's information, and after numerous other demon-
strations that Y had acted in this business under authority
from Talleyrand, such corrupt proposals as Y made, if with-
out authority, were more offensive and injurious to Tal-
leyrand and the Directory, than to the American envoys
and government. Their tendency was only to plunder the
latter, but to disgrace the former. To steal from these only
their purse, but to filch from those their good name.
By calling upon Mr. Gerry for the names, Mr. Talleyrand
probably expected that he would give those of X and Y, only
upon condition that they should not be made public ; a con-
dition which would have been readily complied with, and
might have relieved the French minister from some embar-
rassment, by furnishing him with an apology for keeping
them secret. Mr. Gerry was aware of this, and therefore
in his answer besides intimating to Talleyrand that he knew
as well as himself who Y was, he only stipulates that the
names shall not be published as coming from him, and thereby
leaves Talleyrand at full liberty to publish them from his
own knowledge. This, however, he has not done ; he tells
the world that they are foreigners, and have quitted the
3 1 4 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
territories of the Republic. That X had no acquaintance
with him, and that Y had been recommended to him but
never had his confidence ; and he intimates the necessary
condition of every minister holding his department, which
obliges him to see and listen to many persons with whom
he has no connection.
I In reply to this it is not necessary to inquire how Y be-
came acquainted with all the proposals which Talleyrand
intended officially to make to the Commissioners, and was
the first to announce them; or how he became possessed
of copies of his official letters before they were sent. More
direct proof renders presumptive evidence needless. In the
interview between Talleyrand, Mr. Gerry and Y, on the
17th of December, Mr. Gerry tells us that "he observed to
Mr. Talleyrand in English, slowly, that Mr. Y had stated
to him that morning some propositions as coming from
Mr. Talleyrand, respecting which Mr. Gerry could give
no opinion." It is in answer to this that Mr. Talleyrand
tells Mr. Gerry, that " Y — 's information was just and might
always be relied on."
Mr. Gerry certifies indeed that X and Y never produced
any authority for negotiating, and that fact was already
clearly and unequivocally established by the dispatches
themselves. Yet Talleyrand lays as much stress upon this
admission, as if the imputation he was called upon to repel
had really been a charge of official proposals for corruption.
This extreme anxiety to disprove what was never as-
serted, leaves the real ground of suspicion undisputed,
and adds a strong presumption that it was not susceptible
of refutation.
Indeed the extreme caution in keeping the appearances
of official purity is apparent through all the transactions,
and is peculiarly evident in an incident related in the account
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 315
of the abovementioned interview on the 17th of December.
Mr. Gerry told Talleyrand that upon his propositions made
through M. Y that morning, he could give no opinion. Now
one of these propositions not only regarded the £50,000
gratuity, but even suggested a mode whereby they might
be raised.
Talleyrand answers that Y's information then and always
might be relied upon as just, "but that he would reduce to
writing his propositions, which he accordingly did." In this
writing not a syllable was said about the £50,000, but the
other proposition made that morning by Y was formally
made in it. This writing Talleyrand showed to Mr. Gerry,
and then immediately burnt it. The object in writing it,
therefore, is easily divined. Mr. Talleyrand wished Mr.
Gerry to give full credit to Y's propositions, and therefore
verbally confirmed them generally. But at the same time
the possible necessity of a future disavowal might occur,
especially as Mr. Gerry said he could give no opinion upon
the proposals. The writing, therefore, contained only that
which might officially be maintained, and all the appearances
of official decorum were preserved against the effects which
might proceed from the general confirmation, verbally
made of Y's proposals.
The demand for £50,000 gratuity was very often repeated,
and once stated by Y as coming from Talleyrand himself,
and Talleyrand had told Mr. Gerry that the difficulty with
regard to the President's speech might be removed by the
offer of money ; but that if it should, an application for a
loan would nevertheless be made.
It is certainly possible that Y had no authority from Tal-
leyrand to make the proposals to pay money for pur-
poses of corruption ; but if this were the case, would Talley-
rand now pretend in contradiction to his own words, in
316 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
contradiction to a long series of irresistible proofs, that Y
had none of his confidence, that he was merely an intriguing
foreigner with whom he had scarcely any acquaintance, and
that the American envoys in listening to him at all, had only
shown their deplorable credulity. Would he now accuse the
American Commissioners of keeping themselves distant from
a government, which had refused to receive them ? Would
he shrink from the investigation of the real suspicions aris-
ing against him, and endeavor to drown them in a flood of
invective against the Commissioners, against the American
government, against the President, against the British govern-
ment ? Would he have taken refuge in odious insinuations,
or have hoped to find a shield in calumniating speculative
opinions ? No ! He would have boldly named the man
whose conduct had disgraced and betrayed his confidence.
He would have acknowledged the authority and agency that
he did really give him to confer with the American Com-
missioners informally, and denied ever having hinted to
him anything like the proposals for private hushmoney.
There is no evidence that the corrupt propositions were
known to any member of the Directory. But it is somewhat
surprising that they should have deemed such a defence as
Talleyrand has published a sufficient justification, so as to
continue him in the department of foreign affairs.
It may further be remarked that the mode of proceeding
with regard to the American envoys was extraordinary, and
must be supposed to be founded upon some motive. The
Directory had previously refused to receive one of them, and
ordered him to quit the territories of the Republic. The
reason then alleged by their writers was, that his powers
were not sufficiently extensive. They now permitted the
Commissioners to come to Paris, and furnished them with
cards of hospitality. But they would not receive them, and
1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 317
for a long time the minister of foreign relations refused to have
any direct communication with them.
Their consent to the several payments of money was made
a preliminary to their reception. What other motive could
occasion this conduct than the desire of extorting money from
the personal considerations of the Commissioners ? Two
of them very decidedly declare themselves against this
demand of tribute. The third appeared more disposed to
comply with it. "France lent money to the United States,
why should not they in return lend money to France ?"
This, he says, would have been repeated to the envoys from
one end of France to the other. The answer to this argument
made by the Commissioners he does not notice. That when
France lent money, the act was perfectly voluntary, an op-
tion of her own, which she was at liberty to refuse, and that
her demand now is made as an indispensable preliminary to
negotiation, and made in the midst of accumulating hostili-
ties and depredations upon those from whom she would
thus borrow. The envoys might have added, that when
France lent money it was during a war in which she and the
United States were making a common cause. That she was
under no obligations of neutrality forbidding the loan as the
United States are now. That the loan was made upon fair
and equal conditions, upon a well founded expectation that
she would be repaid. That she had the obligation of the
United States for repayment, and knew by her own superi-
ority of force that she should possess if necessary the means
of compelling it. That the consideration was equal and
reciprocal, as she gave no more than she would receive with
good interest. But in selling the Batavian rescriptions she
contracted no obligation for their payment. She insisted
upon their purchase at par, when they were confessedly de-
preciated to half their nominal value ; so that under the name
3 i8 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
of a loan she exacted a real gift of one half its amount, and
meant to be under no sort of obligation for the repayment
of the remainder. That the whole amount of the sums lent
by France (not more I think than half a million sterling,)
was to a nation of her wealth and population an object
scarcely perceptible, while the sums she now demanded, if
granted, would bear upon the United States as a burthen
altogether intolerable. That with twenty-five millions of
people and thirty millions sterling of revenue, he had lent
us about half a million, and now asked of us, with one-fifth
of those numbers and less than one-fifteenth of that revenues
to lend her nearly three times as much, and in truth to give
her more than the whole of what she had never loaned.
The citizen Talleyrand says that the publication of the
dispatches from the Commissioners was a deplorable provoca-
tion on the part of the American government. I hope, indeed,
the time will come when the people of the United States will
be thoroughly convinced that their executive government
ought to be fully entrusted with all their foreign negotiations,
and that such publications must necessarily be extremely
dangerous to their interests. But as long as the legislature
of the Union will insist upon knowing everything, and the
spirit of the people supports them in this pretension, there
is no remedy ; the evil is inevitable. The publication is
a necessary consequence of the communication. We saw
three years ago that an injunction of secrecy was ineffectual
even in so small a body as the Senate, when its members are
divided in their political opinions and inflamed by the spirit
of party. 1 How much more certainly must this occur, when
the secret is divulged to yet another body, three or four
times as numerous.
1 Referring to the publication of Jay's Treaty by Stephen Thomson Mason, a
Senator from Virginia.
i 79 3] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 319
In the present instance there was certainly no provocation
on the part of the President, for he gave a caution against
the publication at the time when he sent the papers. Yet
the French Minister, with all the diplomatic skill of his
country, vents his resentment against the President, by
slanderous insinuations and false assertions, calculated to
foment the prejudices and inflame the jealousies of the
American people against their chief magistrate. In doing
this he is very careful to pursue the track of the party in the
United States supposed to be devoted to France and op-
posed to the measures of the President. His performance
in this part is almost a repetition of a speech made last win-
ter by a member of the House of Representatives upon the
foreign intercourse bill, which speech was the only one upon
that occasion that has appeared translated in the Paris
newspapers.
At the close of this sort of manifesto, full as it is of the
most determined though insidious hostility against the Ameri-
can government and its President, there is a declaration that
the French Directory ardently and sincerely desires to be at
peace with America. But there is also evidence contained
in it, that they begin to perceive that in case of a war,
America would not be so impotent and despicable an enemy
as they have long affected to consider her. They appear
sensible how dependent their colonies are upon the United
States, and are willing to debase themselves to a calculation of
the consequences which a war would produce to France at
this time. Nothing can more forcibly prove, that if they
saw firmness and union on the part of America, they would
shrink from their extravagant demands and cease at least
some part of their excessive and unjust depredations. All
their efforts, therefore, are while they continue their hostilities
to weaken and divide us. jThey pursued their game (my
320 THE WRITINGS OF [i 79 s
heart bleeds to acknowledge it,) but too successfully with
the Commissioners, one of whom will, I fear, never justify-
to his country his abandonment of his colleagues, under
an impression of terror and under a menace of rupture which
he could have no reasonable hope of preventing. The same
artifice is eminently conspicuous through the whole of the
publication of which I now speak. Its weakness of argu-
ment, its disregard or inaccuracy of fact, has been amply ex-
posed above. As a defence of Talleyrand against strong
presumptive evidence of corruptibility, it is nothing — less
than nothing; but as an artful and insidious declamation,
provoking war amidst professions of peace, courting every
passion, enlisting every prejudice to set the Americans at
opposition with their own government and at enmity among
themselves, it is written with great ability. It is no less
than might be expected from the bosom friend of Mirabeau,
one of the ablest and most corrupt of men.
You wish to live at peace with America, and in answer to
her complaints of violence and rapine, after rejecting her
ministers of peace, you tell the Americans that the men in
their highest offices are the blind and servile tools of Great
Britain ; that they wish to make them adopt the British
Constitution, and are rushing into war to force it upon the
people. Is this language pacific ? Is it friendly towards
the American government ? Could inveteracy the most
deadly say more ? But your friendship is for the people,
not for the government. Have not all your injuries, all
your depredations, been committed upon the people ? Have
the government even complained of any personal injury done
to them, however great their occasion ? Have the long
series of executive arretes and legislative decrees contrary
to the solemn stipulations of your treaties, contrary to the
universally recognized laws of nations, contrary to the com-
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 321
mon principles of humanity ; have the numberless depre-
dations committed without any arrete or decree, but under
color of your authority, and to a representation of which you
refuse to listen, have not all these been acts of hostility to
the people ? Are you now more ready to redress these
wrongs ? Have you repealed those arretes or decrees ?
Have you ever ceased to execute them ? If on the contrary
they are all continued and increasing, what is your declara-
tion of peace and friendship but a smile upon the face, while
you plunge the stiletto to the heart ?
Such it appears to me would be the natural and just reply
•of every true American. If, however, the Directory really
felt any disposition of peace or friendship towards us, I most
ardently desire that every just disposition may be met with
a similar spirit of conciliation, not by base and degrading
submission to injustice unrepaired and unremoved ; not by
humiliating and oppressive contributions under the name of
loans ; not by bribes through channels formal or informal,
through native Frenchmen or foreign intriguers, but by an
unaltered, an unalterable system of truth and justice, and an
honest determination even after all that has happened to do
for the friendship of France everything consistent with the
duties of a neutral, and the rights and honor of a free and in-
dependent nation.
I remain &c.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 125 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 25 June, 1798.
Dear Sir :
• ••••••
An extract from the Moniteur, which you will find in-
closed, threatens the United States with a speedy revolution ;
VOL. II Y
322 THE WRITINGS OF [i 79 8
says that the friends of liberty are furious against the Pres-
ident and Senate, and loudly disavow their conduct. That
the House of Representatives, in a great measure, share this
indignation, and that even the next elections, to take place
in October, may probably not be waited for to destroy the
fatal influence of the President and Senate.
Such, Sir, is the nature of the accounts from America,
which alone find their way to the French newspapers^ I
mentioned in my last a long publication upon the communica-
tions of the President to Congress, which has appeared in the
Redacteur. But neither these communications themselves,
nor any statement of them conformable to truth, has to this
day been seen in any one of the French public prints, and an
embargo was laid by the Directory upon all papers and pack-
ages from England, just at the time when the English prints
were full of the dispatches from our Envoys.
By the latest papers from Paris it is said that Mr. Gerry
is not gone, and probably will not go. If this be the case,
I presume he has very substantial proofs of a disposition in
that government more conciliatory than they have long dis-
covered, or than the publication in the Redacteur would lead
to expect. For as he has received his letter of recall, he will
certainly stay upon no other alternatives than those al-
lowed him in them. The French papers likewise mention
that Gamier de Saintes, 1 late a member of the Convention,
is appointed consul at Wilmington in the United States.
• •••••«
I am &c.
1 Jacques Gamier de Saintes (1755-1817). He sought safety in the United
States in 1816, and was drowned with others in attempting to cross the Ohio River.
1798] JOHN.QUINCY ADAMS 323
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
27 June, 1798.
I have now received your letter of 21 April, not however
by the way of Bremen, but from Hamburg, though I had
just received another packet from the State Department of
the same date from the consul at Bremen. With your last
came likewise other letters of a date as recent as 7 May, one
of them from you to my brother. For your pamphlets and
newspapers likewise I have to renew my thanks.
I am satisfied from a view of the newspapers and the situa-
tion of the public mind which they represent, that the publi-
cation of the dispatches called for by Congress was necessary,
though I am still convinced it was dangerous, and am far
from being sure that it will not produce mischievous effects. 1
I have sent you some observations upon the late official
though unsigned paper, which closes with a declaration that
the Directory ardently wish to live at peace with America. I
have there noticed that nothing can be more avowedly hostile
to the American government, than the whole tenor of the
very publication which terminates with such pacific promises.
A paragraph in the Moniteur may serve to explain this
apparent inconsistency. It says that the friends of liberty
in the United States, supported by a great part of the House
of Representatives, will probably not wait for the next elec-
tions, but in the mean time will destroy the fatal influence
of the President and Senate by a Revolution. This being
the expectation of the French government, it is easy to per-
ceive that their promises of peace and friendship are meant
only for those friends of liberty who are to effect the Revolu-
tion ; that they are the pledges of alliance between France
and the party opposed to the government of the United States.
1 American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II. 153-
3 2 4 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
This alliance has long since been well understood to exist.
On the part of France it was the result of a system of policy
much more ancient than their Revolution — the system of
connecting the French influence with the party in that coun-
try opposed to the existing government. This system was
not always followed from a pure and disinterested love of
liberty, for if it was constantly employed in Holland to
reduce the influence and power of the Stadtholder, it was
equally energetic in Sweden to enlarge the prerogatives of
the King. This policy was not even peculiar to the French
monarchy. It is the policy natural between a great state
and a small free one ; it is founded deep in the human char-
acter, and all history is full of it, in ancient as well as modern
times. This fact ought to be well considered by every genuine
and impartial American. In our country many people dis-
believe it on the present occasion, and others seem to con-
sider it as an extraordinary if not incredible thing. Many
who believe in it imagine, that the connection will soon de-
cline and disappear, in which opinion they will certainly find
themselves deceived.
It is curious to observe the manner in which Mr. Monroe
speaks of this combination. "We have heard much of in-
trigues between the people of these states and the govern-
ment of France. But free people seldom intrigue together." l
Where Mr. Monroe ever heard much of such intrigues I
know not, and I doubt much whether any one besides him-
self ever heard of them. Of intrigues between the French
government and certain individuals of these states holding
offices of importance most people have heard, and if they
had never been heard of before, Mr. Monroe's book would
have brought them sufficiently to light ; and if it be true
that free people have no motive to intrigue, there are motives
1 Monroe, View of the Conduct of the Executive, Ixv.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 325
enough apparent to influence some of their leaders (as Mr.
Monroe calls them) to it, and proofs enough to show them
not to be so scrupulous as Mr. Monroe would have us be-
lieve, in their choice of a party with whom to intrigue. He
tells us that none but monarchs intrigue with the leaders
of a free people, and appeals to the Grecian history at a
period when the only power that could have any influence
over them, and of course with whom the leaders could in-
trigue, was a king. But if Mr. Monroe had chosen another
period when the Greek Republics received a nominal res-
toration of their liberty by a Roman consul, or had he chosen
to recollect any part of the Roman history, he would have
found that the government of a Republic was as capable of
intriguing with the leaders of a free people as neighboring
monarchs.
There is one point, however, in which the practice of the
French government at present is essentially different from
that of their former monarchy or that of the ancient Romans.
It is in their treatment of their own partisans in foreign
countries, after they have once obtained the object for which
they employed them. This is a very serious object of con-
sideration to those leaders of a free people, who call in the
help of France to effect a revolution in their government.
In Holland, France declared war against the Stadtholder
only, and her troops entered the country amidst the most
solemn protestations of friendship for the people. The party
within the Batavian Republic opposed to the government
either believed those protestations, or preferred to be con-
quered rather than miss the Revolution. They treated with
France while her troops were advancing; they met with
every encouragement from France, and in proportion as the
French armies entered every town, that party took the nomi-
nal government into its hands. But when 70,000 armed
326 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
Frenchmen were once possessed of the whole country, then
the French government considered the very people to whom
they had been all the while swearing peace and friendship
as a conquest. Then came requisitions, quartering of soldiers
passing of assignats, with innumerable other burthens and
vexations, and finally a treaty of alliance, surrendering up
the barrier towns, the only possible defence against future
invasion, and stipulating the payment of 100 millions of
florins by the people. Since then France has kept an
Army of 25,000 men constantly in Holland, to be paid by the
Batavian people, but always under the supreme control and
direction of the French government. Under her patronage
the Revolutionary party have totally destroyed the ancient
constitution of the country, and introduced another in its
stead. But almost every individual of the party has been
forcibly expelled from the government, and the most dis-
tinguished have all been thrown into prisons and dungeons
by proceedings under the immediate direction of the French
government. The legislative and executive authorities
have been twice dissolved by military force within the space
of six months. Holland, a country whose existence is com-
merce, has been three years forced to take part in a war,
which had proved almost a total suspension of her trade, and
in which she has lost her most valuable colonies, and now re-
mains totally dependent upon France for any hopes of recov-
ering them.
In Italy, France has been no less ardent and zealous in her
professions of friendship for the people of its various nations.
There, too, in the name of this friendship, she has everywhere
conquered. At Venice she destroyed the government,
seized and appropriated all the public property, and then gave
up the people, the dear objects of her friendship, to the Em-
peror. The Cisalpine and Roman Republics could tell a tale
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 327
no less edifying of French friendship, as well as Genoa and
Geneva.
But the most recent and perhaps most instructive ex-
ample of all is that of Switzerland. You have seen how
France began to show her enmity to the governments and
friendship to the people of that country, by taking under her
special protection certain insurgents against the govern-
ment of Berne, and declaring that she would hold every in-
dividual member of that government responsible for every
act in opposition to those insurgents. From that time you
have seen her overthrow every government of Switzerland,
and at the point of the bayonet force down upon the people,
her friends, a constitution made for them at Paris, and in
which they had not the smallest participation. Thousands
of these people have been butchered by her armies, and at
length a legislative and executive power conformable to the
prescribed constitution have been assembled. The only
business of these authorities is to complain against the cruel
distresses and intolerable oppressions of the people, proceed-
ing from the French army.
Such contributions have been required of all the families
connected with the governments destroyed as utterly to
ruin them. But as to them not a word is to be said. They
were Oligarchs. Besides this, almost all the Cantons possessed
public treasures from which the small expenses of their
governments were supported. It was public property,
and the members of the government never dreamt it was
theirs. A French commissary {Rapinat by name) has seized
upon the treasures for the benefit of France. The Helvetic
executive and legislature interposed and claimed the prop-
erty ; even Mengaud the French agent supports them, but
Rapinat proceeds with numerous tokens of insult and mock-
ery, carries off the treasures ; the French government
328 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
openly approve and ratify his conduct, and immediately
recall and dismiss Mengaud with public reproaches for his
pusillanimity. In their own country the French have al-
ways declared every species of public as well as much private
property to belong to the nation. But whenever they go
with their arms among their friends of other countries, they
consider all their public property as belonging not to the
nation, but to the government, and accordingly seize it for
themselves by right of conquest. Such has proved uniformly
and invariably the friendship of the French Republic for
the people, wherever her troops have penetrated. An Ameri-
can, therefore, may well be alarmed when he finds her declar-
ing peace and friendship for the Americans, in connection with
violent and slanderous invectives against their government.
Mr. Gerry remains yet at Paris, and the newspapers say
he is not going away. They further announce that the
Directory have appointed two new consuls, one to Wilming-
ton, and the other to New York. The latter, a man by the
name of Sottin. 1 He was for some months after the last
4th of September Minister of Police, and upon resigning that
office was appointed Minister with the Ligurian Republic
[Genoa]. The Moniteur says that he was recalled for having
invited the Ligurian government (in writing) to support
an insurrection in Piedmont against the King of Sardinia,
and assured them that in so doing they would please the
French Directory. It happened, however, that just at that
time the French Directory were declaring to the world, that
they were supporting their ally the King of Sardinia against
these very insurgents. They have therefore punished Sot-
tin's written indiscretion by recalling him, but send him
as consul to New York, where they think perhaps that he
may freely indulge his partiality in favor of insurgents. . . .
1 Pierre-Jean-Marie Sotin de la Coindiere (i 764-1810).
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 329
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
[Berlin,] 3 July, 1798.
Dear Sir :
• ••••••
I regret very much that you could not procure the letter
from young D[edem], published in Gosse's paper, but I hope
you got one for our side of the water; every circumstance
of this kind well attested is precious, because the effect of
our documents which let in the first light under France's
mask amply proves that deep as she is in guilt, she dreads
detection and hopes to escape it. 1
Mr. Y has come forward with a publication in which he
takes his cue from Talleyrand. Like him he undertakes
to prove what he has not the face to assert. Like him he
abuses all the Commissioners, and at the same time courts
Gerry, the only one who may be charged with some little
injustice towards him. He pretends to prove by the ac-
counts of the Commissioners themselves that he, Mr. Y,
otherwise called Bellamy 2 of Hamburg, never lisped a
1 "Dedem's vindication of his letter has nothing in it to surprize. In such a
school as he has for the last three years frequented, youth and inexperience will
naturally give the most striking examples of depravity. I knew him before he was
introduced into the diplomatic career. Bred at Constantinople and tutored by
France, no wonder he shows such proficiency in the practice, which accompanies
the new doctrines." To William Vans Murray, July 22, 1798. Dedem intimated
that while at Paris Talleyrand had begged that no money should be put into the
hands of Mr. Buys, the Dutch agent, or himself, as the government would avoid
any of "those appearances," but the young man added, "you must understand
that to mean that whatever money is used, must not be so freely used." Dedem
explained the letter by asserting that he was deceiving the Directory in Holland
and accelerating the change that was to overset them.
2 "This Bellamy was originally a Genevan, a great intriguer on what was there
called the aristocratic party; tried by a revolutionary tribunal, and by a miracle
escaped shooting under its sentence, fled his country and got into some sort of
commercial business at Hamburg. The Genevans here were as much astonished
at finding him doing the filthy business of French democracy, as if tliey should
33°
THE WRITINGS OF [1798
syllable about the 1,200,000 livres. His proofs are about
as strong as those of Talleyrand. They rest upon two facts :
1. that neither of the Commissioners understood French,
and he Bellamy understands no English ; 2. that Mr.
Marshall says he understood the proposal concerning Beau-
marchais's suit differently from the manner in which it is
related in the public letter. But if you turn to the dis-
patches, you will find that it is Gerry who bears the most
decisively and unequivocally upon poor Mr. Y. It is, there-
fore, not a little amusing to see how Y now labors to revile
all the Commissioners, and yet to flatter Gerry.
There is one thing, however, which he asserts in the most
positive terms, and which no doubt is true. That in the
whole course of the business he neither said, nor did, nor
wrote, anything, without the express direction and authority
of Talleyrand. This to be sure is totally inconsistent with
Talleyrand's pretension that Y was a person almost a stran-
ger to him, and in whom he had no confidence. In short,
my dear sir, the arrow sticks in the side, and the more they
try to pull it out the larger they make the wound. If they
can only procure a declaration from Mr. X likewise, arguing
from the Commissioners themselves, that they never heard
a word about the diplomatic gratification, the fact will
appear clear as day, that their refusal to give it was the only
ground for all those insinuations that they were not disposed
to conciliate and not desiring of peace. This Mr. X, says Y,
was a citizen of the United States.
They have now shut up the port of Havre against Ameri-
cans, but they are desirous to live at peace with us. 1 They
are sending to New York a man whom they recalled from
Genoa for stimulating the Ligurians in support of insurgents ;
hear it of d'lvernois, Mallet du Pan, or du Rouveray." To Rufus King, July n,
1798. Ms. l Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 357.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 331
but they intend nothing hostile. They are sending a consul
and vice consul where Mr. Grove x [in] Congress lately said
there might be 5000 men ready to receive them, and to take
arms from them to Wilmington ; but they mean us nothing
but friendship. They are exulting in the distress of our
commerce, and boast that our vessels at Hamburg can get
no freights. And will all this go unavenged ? No ! It can-
not, it will not. There is a God to punish, if there is none
to protect. . . .
I am very sorry that your answer to the address of 22
January has been so disapproved as to give you pain. The
situation was delicate, and upon such occasions it is extremely
difficult to settle upon the exact point between the too much
and the too little. The only part of your paper which then
struck me as objectionable was the approbation expressed,
when it was not felt. For there appears to me to be the line
of discrimination. We are not bound to utter what we think,
but we are to think what we utter. It was empty compli-
ment. But there was a probability that it would not be
so considered, either by the party then prevailing or by those
whom they had overthrown, if they should recover their
power. As to the rest, I for my part thought you noticed
very properly the omission of the United States in the general
assurance of friendship for the powers of Europe. I am
aware that by avoiding those expressions of approbation
there is a risk of offending, and a great probability of exciting
coolness ; but this cannot be helped, and must be incurred
I think rather than a suspicion of insincerity. 2
1 William Barry Grove, a member of Congress from North Carolina. Annals
of Congress, 5th Congress, 1 397.
2 "My language of empty compliment, empty I meant it, is contrasted with my
real sentiments which I gave in my account of that affair. ... I believe I ought
not to have answered without an explanation. I see that this was an error."
William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams, The Hague, June 25, 1799. M*.
332 THE WRITINGS OF [i 79 8
It is an uncomfortable dilemma, from both horns of which
it is in these times impossible to escape. You remember how
Genet abused the late President for not declaring himself
for the French revolution, which overthrew the constitu-
tion of 1791. On the presentation of the flag he did declare
himself, and you know how much they have since abused
him for insincerity in that declaration.
Ever faithfully yours.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
[Berlin,] 7 July, 1798.
Dear Sir :
I received my new credential letter for the present king,
just as he was upon the point of departure for Prussia, so
that I could not have an audience to deliver it until after his
return. A minister from Malta, a Frenchman by the name
of M. de Maisonneuve was in the same predicament. While
the king was absent, arrived a Count Schall, with a com-
mission from the Elector of Bavaria, and lastly the citizen
Sieyes. The King received us all four, the day before yester-
day at Charlottenburg, a country residence about three
miles from Berlin. Maisonneuve had been here longer than
I waiting for a reception. He had not only to receive a re-
newal of credentials, but the French government had for-
mally interfered and objected against his reception at all,
on the ground of his being an emigrant. You know the
character of Sieyes, and his vote upon the trial of Louis. The
minister who introduced us successively to the King has been
fifty years in office. We were all appointed for the same hour,
and accordingly met all together in the ante-chamber. 1
Now don't you think there must have been something
1 See Adams, Memoirs, July 3-6, 1798.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 333
dramatic in such an assemblage ? For my own part I felt
just enough at my ease to enjoy it. The king had given
me a private audience last winter, and I had since often
seen him in public, so that I felt no embarrassment on this
occasion. I had seen Sieyes in May, 1795, at the Hague,
once, and that circumstance gave me an opportunity to
accost him and remind him of it. He did not recollect it,
but was more civil now than I found him then.
Yesterday presented a scene more public, and yet more
full of contrast — the ceremony of taking the homage. It
was performed first in a large hall of the royal palace, by
the deputies from the several provincial states, and after-
wards by the deputies from the citizens in a large square in
front of the palace, while the king stood in a balcony under
a canopy of state prepared for the occasion. The foreign min-
isters were all invited, and present at the ceremony in the
hall ; a particular box was appropriated for them where they
were all assembled together. Sieyes and Caillard were
both there, and you will readily believe that the former
attracted no small part of the public attention. 1 The Aus-
trian, Russian and British ministers were in the box, but
1 "His [Sieyes] appointment was not agreeable. The king, it is said, intimated
that Caillard was very agreeable to him and he wished for no change. But the
Directory insisted upon it, because no motive was assigned against the successor.
These are the people who tell us that mutual confidence is essential in the choice
of a negotiator. Otto made the observation to me the first time I saw him, ac-
companied with the further remark, that, on this account, Gerry was a very good
choice. It was in the Palace, at this ceremony. Sieyes and Caillard were both
near us when he said it. I was violently tempted to answer him, but controlled
myself, as I knew it was what he wanted. Caillard is universally esteemed and
regretted." To William Vans Murray, July 10, 1798. Ms.
"The new French minister, Sieyes, was present in the diplomatic box. He asked
me whether we had many public ceremonies in the United States. I told him,
many; that we were quite a ceremonious people, and instanced particularly the
solemnities with which our State legislatures annually meet. He said it was very
334
THE WRITINGS OF [1798
Prince Repnin, having no formal diplomatic character, was
in another.
Otto talked to me some time about the situation of our
affairs with them, and professed very ardently to desire a
reconciliation. He, too, was an old acquaintance of mine, and
he too had forgotten it. He first went to America with the
Chevalier de la Luzerne, and I went then in the same vessel
with them; but as this was nearly twenty years ago, and
I was then a boy, it is not surprising that he had lost the
recollection of me. He says he did not see Mr. Gerry at
Paris. He was there however but a very short time, having
been for the last two years altogether retired from affairs,
and living in the country.
This ceremony of taking the homage would be very inter-
esting, if it were performed with such a spirit of enthusiasm
as we are used to in our public solemnities. There were
assembled, in and about the square fronting the palace, not
less I think than fifty thousand people. The proceedings
within the hall and without were exactly the same. One
of the king's ministers began by a speech, which was answered
by the Presidents of the respective deputations. Then a
Secretary read at length the oath of allegiance ; then all the
deputies holding up their hands repeated it word by word
after him. Another minister then read the list of promo-
tions and royal favors, and the whole closed with three
cheers, accompanied by a flourish of martial music and firing
of cannon. In the square the immense collection of people
were perfectly sober and orderly, and five hundred of our
people would have made the air ring with another sort of
shout than those which arose from the whole of this multi-
proper; that it was a great error in France not to have adopted such a custom;
as it was necessary to command the respect of the people by such representations
as strike the senses." To Abigail Adams, July 25, 1798. Ms.
i 79 8] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 335
tude. The king himself has no taste for these shows, and
does not appear to bear with pleasure his part on them. His
dress was an uniform with a small border of silver lace upon
the facings, and boots, with the ribband of his highest order
over the coat. I never saw him before wear the lace or the
ribband. His usual dress is a plain blue uniform with red
facings, and without any other ornament than a star.
The day before the ceremony I dined in company with a
lady, who said amidst a large collection of persons, that she
had come from Leipzig to see it, because we live in an age
when such sights were like to become great scarcities ; she
seemed to speak it with satisfaction, and was applauded by
a general smile.
The circumstance which you mention, proving that your
private letters in cypher to the Secretary of State cannot
escape the inspection of persons [not] entitled to them, is
provoking. Our government (I am ashamed to say it, but
it is a lamentable truth), our government has in fact no
more retention than a sieve. Everything leaks out, either
through treachery, or ungovernable curiosity, or misplaced
confidence. There is not the least safety for a man to tell
them anything that he is not willing to have proclaimed upon
the housetops. I have complained again and again upon
the subject, but to no purpose. I now give up the point,
take it for granted that secrecy is not understood to be a
property of good government with us, and mean to act
accordingly.
I am &c.
336 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
Dear Sir
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
[Berlin,] 14 July, 1798.
The English papers last arrived here announced another
measure, as of the 1st or 2nd of June, more decisive and
more effectual yet than any of the former ; a suspension
of commercial intercourse with all French territories until
the settlement of the differences. I wish it may be true, but
neither my letters nor the papers mention such a measure
as contemplated.
I hope that their West India Islands will not be forgotten. 1
We can and must do something there. Our newspapers say,
that their generals of color are decidedly with us and in case
of war will declare for us. Yes, my dear sir, free and in-
dependent, in close alliance and under guarantee of United
States. With the navy which our enemies are forcing upon
us, we can in my opinion unquestionably maintain such a
state of things. Those islands will not be English if they
can help it, and we ought not to give them away. The
natural connection of the West Indies is with the American
and not with the European continent, and such a connection
as I have in my mind, a more natural connection than that
of metropolis and colony, or in other words master and ser-
vant. In close alliance, leaving them as to their government
totally to themselves, we can protect their independence,
furnish them with necessaries, and stipulate for the ex-
clusive carriage of their produce. Think upon this idea
which is yet crude and undigested in my mind, and may be
unsolid. I know not whether France will declare formal war
1 See Washington to Timothy Pickering, July II, 1798. Writings of Washington
(Ford), XIV. 34.
1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 337
against the government of United States, very probably she
may. But she has been making war this year and a half,
and will certainly not cease it until she has completely ruined
us, or until we formally resist. Until she can send her Ra-
pinats to plunder all our property at home, public and pri-
vate, to place, and displace and replace, at pleasure our
future directors and legislators, or until we prove to her that
the spirit of freedom and independence is not with us totally
extinct, as it is in every part of Europe excepting England.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 128 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 16 July, 1798.
Sir :
On the 5th instant I had a private audience of the king
and delivered to him my credential letter, which he received
with the strongest assurances of satisfaction and his friendly
disposition towards the United States. In presenting the
letter I took notice, agreeable to your orders, in the usual
manner of the decease of the late king and of the accession of
his present Majesty to the throne, and in his answer he ex-
pressed his sensibility at this mark of attention from the
American government.
At the same hour he gave a similar audience to the citizen
Sieyes, Envoy Extraordinary from the French Republic,
to a minister from the Elector of Bavaria, and to M. de
Maisonneuve as minister from Malta, all of whom had been
waiting in like manner as myself a longer or shorter time.
At the moment when the last was received the government
which sent him was no more. You will find by the public
prints that on the 12th of last month the Grand Master and
VOL. II — Z
338 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
Island of Malta capitulated to the French force under the
command of General Buonaparte. 1
On the eleventh I delivered to Count Finckenstein, first
minister in the department of foreign affairs, a memorial of
which I herewith inclose a translation. 2 I would send at the
same time a copy of the original in French, but I do not think
it would be prudent to send uncyphered and I have no French
cypher with me. You will not judge it material. I hope you
will find it exactly conformable to your instructions and in-
tentions. The proposal for abandoning the principle of mak-
ing free ships cover enemies'' property I have repeatedly in-
formed you will not be acceptable ; still less will that of a large
list of contraband, especially comprehending many of the most
material articles of Prussian exports. I have said, however,
all that occurs to me as calculated to show that these would be
but equitable alterations.
If these proposals should be accepted, I have mentioned the
necessity of some additional articles designating the papers
that shall be deemed necessary to prove the neutrality of ves-
sels and their cargoes, and to abuses by the armed vessels of the
warring powers. The former treaty mentions the necessity of
passports, but leaves their forms unsettled.
I proposed an alteration of the nineteenth article, which
appeared to me necessary to render it conformable to the twenty-
fifth article of our treaty with Great Britain; a modification of
the twentieth, which might otherwise be liable to a collision with
the guarantee in our treaty with France. Although this treaty
1 Count Finckenstein and M. de Maisonneuve expressed their "wonder" that
England had not prevented this capture. "England is left alone to fight every
battle with a superior enemy. Not a finger is stretched out by any one to assist
her, and when the common enemy takes a new stride towards his purpose, all fold
their hands in lamentation and wonder that England did not hinder it." Ms.
Diary, July 13, 1798.
2 Printed in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II. 252.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 339
has in numberless instances been violated by the French govern-
ment, as it has not been declared by our government jormally
dissolved, but as they have on the contrary invariably respected
it, I thought the stipulation deserved attention.
The tzcenty-fifth article referred to a future arrangement at the
time zvhen consuls should be named. As this nomination had
taken place, and no arrangement was made, an alteration of
this article became necessary.
I found in our treaty with Spain a precedent for what I
proposed, and I believe it is what on our part is conceded alike
to all foreign consuls by law. . . .
The French Directory have excluded all American vessels
from the port of Havre. They have also passed an arrete
ordering all letters found on board of either enemy or neutral
vessels captured to be sent to the Minister of Marine and
Colonies, who is to lay their contents before them. It is
what they had already done with some dispatches for Mr.
Murfey [Murray ?]. Mr. Gerry was on the twenty-ninth
ultimo still at Paris.
I am &c.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
[Berlin,] 17 July, 1798.
Dear Sir :
The principle upon which your favor of the 10th argues is,
I believe, just, though dangerous in practice; it requires
extreme caution in its management, and ought to be used at
all only by persons of the soundest judgment, the deepest
penetration, and the most rigorous self correction. 1 In say-
1 "Not long since I had the honor of writing to the President, and laid down this
idea, which I know perfectly well may be mistaken, viz: that in these times good
men must not only exert themselves openly, but must work in the dark, because
the Jacobins do so; that good means must be combined and worked in the same
34 o THE WRITINGS OF [1798
ing this I need not add, that I feel myself altogether incom-
petent to act upon it. I am afraid of the first step out of the
straight line, afraid of my own resolution to take that step
without advancing others, afraid even of reasoning with
myself to justify to my own conscience, what I disapprove in
the enemies of my cause. Garat tells us that it has been a
misfortune of the French revolution that virtuous men have
always been obliged to plot good, as people plot evil. No
wonder, therefore, that they had plotted so much evil under
the name of good. Thus far I will agree with you, and it is
certainly all that you assert. There are exceptions to every
rule of morality, and men may be in situations necessary to
act upon such exceptions. But it is not given to every one to
judge of these exceptions. Brutus did right in killing Caesar.
Yet the act was against the most forcible moral obligations.
I approve the conduct of Brutus, but I believe I should not
imitate him.
I have written home too upon the subject of Sottin. 1 As
to G[erry] I have no idea that he will write anything of the
kind. What can you expect from a man who believes that
the great Directory were prejudiced against the American
government, and that the Commissioners if they could
manner as the bad means are, otherwise the last will prevail. . . . Open force
might be fairly said to have effected little or nothing for the last three years ! The
peculiar character of these times is plotting by principles, by bribes, by secret com-
binations, by letters and books, and by words. Ingenuity is not enough exerted to
find out these. Except the two last, all is profoundly secret. The second article
cannot be defended on the principles of self-defence even ; but unless the men of
honor will go into the dark they cannot uncover the villains who work in it."
William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams, The Hague, July 10, 1798. Ms.
1 "Of Sottin I had pretty early intelligence and knew from excellent authority
that he was the principal contriver of the insurrections in Piedmont, and of the
conduct of Liguria. Of course, as soon as I heard of his appointment, which was I
think the last week in June, I wrote immediately to the Secretary of State a short
letter solely on him and on Garnier's appointment." Ibid.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 341
obtain a hearing would remove their prejudices. I do not
think G[erry] would tell them as Monroe did, that they might
kick and cuff us ad libitum, and we would take it with plea-
sure if it were of any advantage to them ; but he would have
us take the kicking and cuffing, and tell them we were sorry
to see them so angry. ,-^1
I think you must be mistaken about Y. 1 Bellamy must be *
the man; his defence itself seems irresistibly to prove him so,
for it fixed irremovably upon him an odium which he wishes
apparently to escape. What he acknowledges demonstrates
what he denies, and why should he gratuitously concede
what is tantamount to his own conviction, when he might
truly deny all ?
Z, or Hauteval, I knew very well when long since the
establishment of the French Republic he called himself
Monsieur le Comte d'Hauteval. I was present at the per-
formance of Mass after the head of Louis 16 was cut off, at
which the said Hauteval thundered out the "Domine salvum
fac regem" with as much devotion and enthusiasm, as if he
had been ready to suffer martyrdom for the cause. I know
not how many million of livres he assured us he had lost by
the revolt of the blacks at St. Domingo. He had been a
member of the Colonial Assembly at St. Marc in that island,
when there was a double assembly. For the same system
he had been obliged to fly the island. Such I knew him in
1793. The next I heard of him was in Paris, at the close of
the year 1796, when and where he told an American gentle-
man, who told me, that he, Hauteval, had been trying to
make interest to get appointed Minister of France to the
1 "Y is Haudville, I think; living with Talleyrand, his known man of confidence,
and his reputed natural son. Never was a triumph more complete than ours in
this whole affair. ... X, entre nous, is a Mr. Hottinger, a Swiss, naturalized, and
no more an American than Talleyrand is, who was naturalized and took the oath."
William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams, The Hague, July io, 1798. Ms.
342 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
United States, and that shortly before he should have been
appointed to succeed Adet, if he could have raised the sum of
money necessary for distribution to the ministers of external
relations and of marine and colonies. This is the gentleman
who is now so tenderly alive to the suspicion of being an
intriguerj Perhaps you know the man yourself, but if you
• do not, these anecdotes may account for his concern in the
great negotiation. Probably he had not abandoned his
project of going as Minister to America, and he might think
himself in the line of procuring the necessary distribution
money. There was indeed nothing material against him in
the dispatches, but his explanatory letter to Talleyrand is
nearly as mean, though more cautious than the defence of
Bellamy. He too is a citizen of United States, and first
ventured into France only as such. Of X, or Hottinger,
I know nothing. But I do not think our triumph in this
business yet complete enough. X ought to tell us his story.
And the Chevalier cTA[rauj6\ should let us into some partic-
ulars of his acquaintance with Bellamy. I cannot get here
the Chronique Universelle containing young Dedem's letter.
The Moniteur entirely changes its complexion by an artful
etc. Meyer I see has complained against it, and the Secre-
tary of the Directory answers that it was published to prove
the incorruptibility of the French government. 1 . . .
Always yours.
1 On July 9 intelligence was sent to Murray that Dupont de Nemours, who had
left America with Volney and others because of the passage of the alien act, had
landed at Bordeaux on the 3d, twenty-eight days from New York, bringing intelli-
gence that American armed public ships had been despatched with orders to take
and bring in all French cruisers near the coast, and that a measure had passed the
House of Representatives for suspending all intercourse with France and her posses-
sions. Warnings, premature but wise, were at once given to American vessels
then in the Dutch ports, and the authorities sounded upon the extent to which they
would act upon the embargo that the French government had declared. The reply
was pacific, but not wholly reassuring, as the Dutch were completely under the
17931 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 343
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
[Berlin,] 22 July, 1798.
Dear Sir :
• ••••••
I have so often given you my opinion as to the fate of
Europe, all Europe without any exception, that to repeat it
would only be to disgust you. The precise term of its agony
I shall not undertake to designate, but I think it cannot last
many years.
We shall undoubtedly to a certain degree be involved in
its fate. I see great events and great suffering preparing
for our country. Of this, however, I have no doubt. We
shall live through them. We shall never be vanquished.
We may be, we probably shall be, for a time humbled. We
may be made partially subservient, and worse than all we
may be divided. But we must, there is no alternative, we
must become a warlike people. France is forcing upon us a
navy, and I wish that all or nearly all our regular public
force may take that direction. Our people have many
prejudices and much ignorance which must be removed and
that speedily. If they once take a deep root, they will tear
thumb of the French. Rufus King wrote to Murray: "One of my friends writes
to me thus. 'No public officer ever stood higher in the confidence and affections of his
country than the President does, whose firm and manly tone of conduct has regenerated
all our revolutionary character and placed us on an eminence from whence we can be-
hold with safety the machinations of France.' So irresistible has been the current of
public opinion that within a fortnight past it has broken down the opposition in
Congress. An important bill, which authorizes the seizing of French privateers
found upon our coasts, passed a few days since without opposition ! and yesterday
wc received accounts from Philadelphia that a bill suspending all intercourse with
France and her dependencies until the adjustment of our differences, passed the com-
mittee of the whole in the House of Representatives without debate ! and no doubt
is entertained that it will become a law!" Murray thought this latter measure
would throw the French West Indies into chaos and negroism.
It was this embargo that was suspended, as some said, as a present to Logan.
344
THE WRITINGS OF [1798
from us every weapon of defence, and leave us forever the
helpless victims of any nation that would please to conquer
us.
There is one point upon which we have committed many
great errors, and concerning which we are yet perpetually
committing them. It is in confounding the principles of
internal government with those of external relations. We
have given a great portion of what Mr. Locke calls the
federative power to the legislative department, though he
and all the great writers upon government down even to
Rousseau say that it belongs properly to the executive. We
suppose the principles adopted for the establishment of our
civil liberty extend to our political concerns. We dread the
force of the executive power at home, and leave it therefore
without any power to withstand force from abroad. It is
not many years since a member of Congress, and a very good
man too, told me that he rejoiced at the French revolution,
because it would prove to the world that men were suscepti-
ble of being governed by reason alone. He has changed his
mind, and so have many others, but the change must be more
general. There must be force for the government of man-
kind, and whoever in this world does not choose to fight for
his freedom, must turn Quaker or look out for a master. 1
1 «'
'The Redacteur, the Directory's official paper, says that the bill for suspending
intercourse with France is astonishing even to those who know the great and secret
motive, which actuated the majority of the House of Representatives in passing it.
An insinuation of bribery. It says that they hereby deprive their fellow citizens
of a commerce which constituted thirty-six out of fifty-one millions of their exports
in the year 1797. This calculation you know is ridiculous, but they take it from a
speech of Mr. Giles. But nothing could be more dreaded than this regulation.
For the love of independence, of liberty, of virtue, of every thing dear to American
hearts, let it be carried into strict and vigorous execution. It is their only part
deeply vulnerable by us. It is the only spring by which we can bring them to rea-
son or justice." To Abigail Adams, 25 July, 1798. "I hope and trust in God that
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 345
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
[Berlin,] ii August, 1798.
Dear Sir :
On my return from Potsdam, where I made a tour of four
days, I found your favors of the 2nd and 3rd instants. On
the same day I found in the Redacteur Talleyrand's letter of
24th Messidor [July 12] and the postscript to Gferry], 1 and in
the Hamburg papers a translation of the message upon
General Marshall's arrival, with the letters that accompanied
it. 2 Talleyrand's letter to Gerry, intimating with such in-
effable insolence the propriety and utility of Pinckney's and
Marshall's departure from the French territories, is dated
the third of April. On that very day they were amply
avenged. Oh ! The thought was soothing to my soul. At
the very moment when he was tracing the insulting lines
and exulting in the idea of pouring humiliation upon honor
and virtue, the irrefragable proofs of his own corruption and
venality were unfolding to the world from the letters of those
same persons, and burning into the grain of public opinion
in characters that never will perish but with his own worth-
less name.
I have not seen nor heard otherwise than from you of
G[erry']s answer to the letter of 24 Messidor, or Talleyrand's
their surprise (which I believe real and sincere) at our resistance will be very much
increased; that it will lead them to the conclusion that they have been mistaken
in the opinion, that we are a base pusillanimous people, stupid enough to be
duped by the shallowest artifice, and mean enough to yield to the vilest extortion.
The transition is natural from surprise to a sense of error. If they will take this
second step and one more not less necessary from the sense of error to its reparation,
all will yet be well, and we shall again be friends. If not — ." To William Vans
Murray, July 28, 1798. Ms.
1 The Talleyrand-Gerry letters are in American State Papers, Foreign Relations,
III. 218.
1 Ibid., 199. The message was dated May 21, 1798.
346 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
reply. But I agree entirely with you in opinion of the views
they now have relative to us. They see and are convinced,
that by holding the tone which they have done hitherto,
they weaken their own cause in America and strengthen that
of the government. They see that our people are not yet
prepared to hear of loans and contributions with temper
and patience. They feel that unless they can disarm our
government, they must see all their West India colonies fall
to England, or at least from them, and they begin to perceive
that neither their bullying nor their violence tends to disarm
our government. But they have not a sentiment more
amicably disposed than before. They are still determined
upon making a revolution in our government, and upon
making it by a war. Their present conduct is nothing but a
specimen of their diplomatic skill to throw the blame of the
rupture upon our government.
A proof of this is apparent in the very ground that Talley-
rand takes with Gerry, and in insisting to negotiate with
him when he had no powers, and did not even consider him-
self as having any. The commission was joint and several.
But to suppose that it implied thereby the right of the
Directory to reject and send away two of its members, to
concenter the whole powers in the third, is absurd. The
argument carries perfidy as well as insult in its face.
Pichon l tells you that the objection to the two Commis-
1 A full account of the interviews with Pichon is given in Murray's letters to
John Adams, printed in Works of John Adams, VIII. 680.
"In my long conference with P[ichon] he avoided crimination. I had a fort-
night before checked him on that score. I used none except as far as an absolutely
free exposure of the injustice, insults, etc., etc., offered us amounted to it. I stated
my own disapprobation of the sojourning of our Envoys, told him I had urged them
to be decisive in the autumn. He recurred to the President's speech as a very griev-
ous thing. I laughed at it as sheer pretence, and quoted Le Peau's speech 4
November. He admitted it was wrong. I told him that that had contributed
much to rouse the people of America, and that I had felt it so strongly that I wrote a
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 347
sioners was personal, because Pinckney had been before re-
jected by an intrigue, and Marshall was considered as un-
friendly. The objection to Pinckney is curious. "We will
not have him because we have treated him ill." Our laws
tell us that no one can avail himself of his own wrong. In
the case of Mr. Marshall it is equally unfounded. France
acknowledges no such reasoning towards herself. The
other day she sent Sieyes here. This government objected
to him as an unfriendly and obnoxious man. The Directory
insisted, because no specific objection was made, and Sieyes
was received.
Upon this subject you will find the President has declared
his determination never to send another minister to France
without assurances that he will be received and respected as
he ought to be. This resolution I am convinced will not be
broken by him. However, as France after rejecting all
negotiation for two years has all of a sudden become so zeal-
ous for it, I believe there will be no objection to it on our
part. Everything possible to avoid a war. We shall
always be ready, therefore, to negotiate, but God forbid that
we should relax one particle of our defensive exertions
while we treat.
The person arrived at Hamburg with letters from Mr.
Jefferson, etc., is a Dr. Logan, a Philadelphia Jacobin. 1 He
small pamphlet against Le Peau, but could not get it published. I had done so,
and went to Leyden and read it to Mr. Luzac, whose patience was so satisfied that
he said he could not publish it. Indeed he could not, and no one I believe in this
country would have done it." William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams, The
Hague, August 3, 1798. Ms.
1 "One circumstance I will tell you in confidence, I mean not strict, which has
appeared so important to me that I have written it to Colonel P[ickering] in a
private letter. I was a few days since shown a confidental letter (official) from
Hamburgh. In it it was said as a matter of great pleasure 'a Mr. Droghan has just
arrived here from the U. S. on his way to Paris, lie brings letters to M. de La
Fayette to Merlin and Talleyrand, from Mr. Jefferson and others, with the hope of
348 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
pretended to have dispatches from the government, but
would not see Pitcairn. He was at first refused a passport
to Paris by the French agent at Hamburg, but upon showing
certain letters immediately received one. 1 Hichborn too has
arrived at Hamburg, and I suppose gone on to Paris. A
correspondence of our Jacobins with France has been de-
nounced by Messrs. Thatcher and Harper.
The speech of Lepeaux which you mention (of 4 Novem-
ber), I have never seen, and know not what it is. The
period was while I travelled in coming here, and I saw no
newspapers. But the speech of Barras is enough — and the
refusal to receive General Pinckney at the same time. 'Twas
an intrigue, was it ? And because all these things were the
result of intrigue, a free and spirited nation must submit to
them all without a murmur, and be told that every provoca-
tion comes from her part. . . .
Faithfully yours.
averting war between France and the U. S.' ! So \ it is you see. This Mr. D.
of whom I never heard, is thus, if this intelligence be ^correct, a Deputy from the
United Americans, who brings his 'Erin go brah' and his calumet to be offered at
the shrine of the Directory. I have thought it possible that the name may be D.
Rohan, the Irish Patriot, if he is D. R. ; as it was spelt, it was Drohan or Droghan.
If this be so, their tone will rise, unless Mr. J. and others have been reduced, and
consider peace as the only means of the salvation of their party." William Vans
Murray to John Quincy Adams, The Hague, August 2, 1798. Ms. Dr. Logan car-
ried certificates of his citizenship from Chief Justice McKean and Jefferson, and
letters from the F ro nch consul, Letombe, to Merlin and Talleyrand. Jefferson's
account of his relations with Logan are given in a letter to Gerry, January 26, 1799,
printed in Writings of Jefferson (Ford), VII. 326.
1 Logan applied to Lafayette, who used his influence with the French agent at
Hamburg and obtained a passport. Logan left Hamburg July 28, and arrived in
Paris August 7, only to find that Gerry had left the city.
i79§] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 349
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
14 August, 1798.
Dear Sir :
Logan is the man to whom Monroe used to write his
narratives for publication in Bache's paper. 1 His mission
at this time is curious, but perhaps not so very important as
our anxiety would naturally conjecture. His letters to
La Fayette would be of little avail, or rather would tend to
injure him with the others.
I think it probable with you that he is to urge arguments
against a war. Dupont has already given the cue. The
patriots of America fear that a war would increase the British
influence, and Talleyrand's last letter shows that this is the
system adopted.
But the negotiations of Logan, or of any other under
Jefferson or McKean, 2 must all tend to prevent our obtain-
ing satisfaction ; to prevent any arrangement which can
give credit to our government, of course, they negotiate
against their country, and the man of the people would
lament the day of restitution or indemnity to our plundered
merchants as the day of his ruin.
Old fashioned moralists would pronounce harshly upon this
species of treason. But principia non homines — what sig-
nify some hundreds of merchants ruined to preserve the
union of all representative democratic principles.
There is an arrete of the Directory annulling the commis-
sions of privateers in the West Indies, and restraining the
1 Monroe occasionally sent copies of his letters to a number of friends, such as
Dr. Logan, Aaron Burr, John Beckley, and R. R. Livingston, but not necessarily
for publication. A curious note on Logan's "mission" by Monroe, prepared early
in 1799, is in Writings of Monroe, III. 155*1.
J Thomas McKean (1734-1817), chief justice of Pennsylvania, and governor of
the state, 1799 to 1808.
350 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
power of granting such commissions for the future. It
contains some precious confessions relative to past plun-
derings. 1
A firm and steady hand ; an undaunted and persevering
spirit; we want nothing else, and we shall issue victorious
from the struggle. All must depend upon our next House of
Representatives, but if the negro keepers will have French
democracy — I say let them have it. 2
Most heartily yours.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
August 15, 1798.
Dear Sir :
I do not expect that your advice to P[ichon] about
L[ogan] will have much effect. The French government will
never abandon the system of combining with oppositions in
foreign countries. It is not a system of particular time or
place, it was always pursued by France as a monarchy in
Holland, in Sweden, in England, when she could ; in short
everywhere with governments where there was faction.
Since France has become a republic she has continued the
practice everywhere, and by it overthrown every republic in
Europe. It is founded much in the nature of things. I
hope your mentioning the matter to P[ichon] will have the
effect you intended, and not that of putting them more on
their guard. L[ogan] has, if I am rightly informed, (and you
know it still better,) been very indiscreet, and conducted
1 See American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II. 222.
"If after what has happened Virginia and all south hang still as a dead weight
upon the union, and retain their predilections for French democracy and fraternity,
I am afraid they too will be cured only by having the druggist's shop pass through
them. It will work them more harshly than it has the Batavians." To William
Vans Murray, August 4, 1798. Ms.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 351
in a manner calculated to blow himself up. 1 I hope he will
not get advice to be more prudent. But I look upon
H[ichborn] as a man ten times more dangerous than L.,
because he is cool, deliberate and thorough-paced. He
gives out at Hamburg that he has business in Holland, where
I suppose you may soon see him. I know not whether you
have any acquaintance with him, but at all events beware of
him. He is no fanatic, for in his heart the circle of nature
can produce no object other than himself. He has always
been hostile to the Federal government, though pretending
in general to be its friend. . . .
1 Murray sought to have Logan "summoned" before the municipality, to state
who he was, whence he came, whither going, and on what business. The machinery
of administration worked too slow to effect this purpose, but Murray learned from
Logan by an intermediary much that he wished to know : that he was upon a
party mission, to inform Talleyrand that a war between America and France
would destroy republicanism in the United States; that the government was
British in sympathy, but he did not think the British party would long continue
to be powerful; that he was anxious to get to Paris and recall Gerry. Murray
did not succeed in securing the arrest of the Doctor, but he told Pichon of this in-
formal envoy, of his former denunciation of Talleyrand, and of the folly of looking
to Logan's party for any healing of the breach, instead of to the government.
"No, I think I was right. I foresaw that Logan's mission would be soon so
notorious that P[ichon] would know that I knew it. By telling him I told him of
the vengeance of the American government if Logan were treated with, and also of
the opinions of that party of Talleyrand to whom he is devoted. It has failed.
They do secretly receive him, and Logan abuses our government, and says the
nations art against it! because of the severities of Mr. A[dams]. Here is a traitor
without legal treason. Such language ought to be treason, if held in any foreign
country." William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams, The Hague, August 24,
J 798. Ms.
352 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
[Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 22 August, 1798.
Sir :
As nearly six weeks have elapsed since I delivered to Count
Finckenstein the memorial relative to the renewal of the
commercial treaty, of which I have heretofore sent you a
copy, and I had received no answer, I called yesterday upon
Count Haugwitz, the only minister of the department now
in town, to inquire of him when I might expect it. He told
me that upon objects of this nature, the usual course of
affairs in this government required a reference to the de-
partments of Finance and Commerce and to the great
Directory, a sort of council composed of all the principal
ministers of all the great departments. That this reference
of my memorial had been made, and he hoped in the course
of a short time to send me an answer. That the observa-
tions in the memorial in support of the alterations proposed
had great weight, and so far concurred with the sentiments
and dispositions of this government, that I might be as-
sured there would be little difficulty in coming to an agree-
ment upon these points. This declaration was very ex-
plicit. But I still believe when it comes to the drawing up
of the articles, difficulties will be started of which there is
nothing now hinted.
I then told him that I had received an answer from you,
concerning the subject of the first conversation I had held
with him, relative to the decree of the French legislature
against all neutral navigation. That the decree was viewed
by the American government in the same light as he had
considered it at that time, and that it was one of the principal
causes that had contributed to produce the situation in
17981 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 353
which the United States and France stand towards each
other, which, though not yet a state of positive war, was very
near it. That the last letters of the French minister of
external relations to Mr. Gerry before his departure were
full of professions of a disposition and desire for conciliation.
That as mere professions they would have no influence at all
upon the American government. But if they were accom-
panied by any act proving their sincerity, they would still
meet with a most cordial wish for peace on our part. But
that unless that decree was repealed it appeared to me
that every pretence of a disposition for conciliation must be
considered as groundless and intended to deceive. I asked
him whether this government had received any answer to
the representation which they had ordered to be made
against that decree ? He said they had ; that they were
assured it would not be carried into execution against their
vessels, and that it had in fact not been ; that at present they
had no reason to complain of the French upon this point,
and he had hoped they were coming in general to a system
more consistent with the rights of neutral nations, and
particularly with regard to the United States. That Sieyes
had within these few days communicated to this govern-
ment a copy of the late arrete of the Directory, recalling the
commissions of the privateers in the West Indies, and pre-
scribing for the future to them to confine themselves within
the bounds of the laws. That he had accompanied this
communication with a note in which he gave as a reason for
making it, the desire of the Directory to convince his Majesty
of their moderation. That the United States whose interests
this measure principally concerned were the best judges how
far the measure was really evincive of the Directory's moder-
ation, but as the subject did not immediately concern the
Prussian interests, he presumed the communication was
VOL. II — 2 A
354 THE WRITINGS OF [i 79 8
made because the Directory did justice to the sentiments of
friendship which this country bears to that of the United
States. He added that the whole conduct of the American
government was such as must command the esteem and
ought to obtain the friendship of all other nations, and he
heartily wished that of France would take it for their
model, as it would be happier for themselves and make them
much better neighbors. 1
• ••••••
I am &c.
TO SYLVANUS BOURNE
Berlin, 31 August, 1798.
Dear Sir :
I have received your favor of the 24th instant, with the
letter inclosed from Paris, and am much obliged to you for
both, as well as for your kind inquiries concerning Mrs.
Adams's health. It is now pretty well restored, and I beg
you to accept my cordial congratulations upon the recovery
of Mrs. Bourne.
I wish I could perceive in the conduct of the French gov-
ernment any proofs of that disposition for peace and con-
1 "The arrival of Kosciuszko at Paris (in violation of his parole) has alarmed the
Russian cabinet. Here it is said to be a thing of no consequence. It is a little
singular that Kosciuszko should have left America under the disguise of a fictitious
name, and unknown to the public. A Philadelphia newspaper of 16th June speaks
of him as then in Virginia taking the benefit of the springs. La Marque's letter
from Bayonne announces his arrival there the ioth Messidor, or 28 June, so that on
the 16th he could not have been in the United States. His disguise was I suppose
to serve him in case of capture by the English, in which case he might have been
delivered up. I suppose that according to the new doctrines, a word of honor
given to a tyrant and under duress of imprisonment is not binding; yet he was
ashamed to avow his own act, and denies that he gave his parole. A lie, to cover a
breach of honor. Poor Kosciuszko !" To William Vans Murray, August 28, 1798.
Ms.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 355
ciliation which they with so much apparent earnestness now
profess. The renunciation of demands for loans and apolo-
gies, if it has been really made, may be considered so far as
an advance towards justice. But the pretension still main-
tained by implication even in Talleyrand's last letter to
Mr. Gerry, of receiving or refusing any future envoy from
the United States, according to the opinion of the French
government as to his advantages, is inadmissible, and an
effectual bar to any such mission from America. Talleyrand
knew this perfectly well when he wrote the letter. It is a
pretension totally inconsistent with our rights as an independ-
ent nation ; a pretension in substance to choose our minis-
ters to France ; a pretension full of insolence as well as of
injustice. This is not the conduct of conciliation. Still
less so is the reception of Dr. Logan, an avowed enemy of the
American government, sent by others of its avowed enemies,
and who publicly declares that the American people are
against their own government, and feeds the hopes of the
Directory upon that division in the United States, which
has so long been their chief dependence. I believe the
American government and people will be not more easily
duped by fawning artifice than they were terrified by hector-
ing menaces. Let them make the most of their Dr. Logan
and his constituents ; I thank God there is a spirit in our
country that will not sink under domestic treachery any
more than under foreign hostility. 1
1 "About a fortnight since Doctor Logan, the great apostle of democratic liberty
in Pennsylvania, called on me on his way to Paris as the minister plenipotentiary
of that party to the Great Nation. It seems I am indebted for the honor of this
visit to Mr. Porcupine [William Cobbett], who (as you know) undertook to dub me
with the title of Democrat, and which the good Doctor believing came to me and
stated to me without reserve the secrets of the cabinet, informing me of his having
certificates and letters from J[effcrson], McKcan and La Tombc to Talleyrand,
Merlin, Fayette and others; and I carried my duplicity so far (tho' the first
356 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
Your observations upon the other apparent concessions
and real new aggressions are all perfectly just. The truth
is, that the French government have hitherto felt a great
contempt for us as a nation. They have disdained our
friendship and despised our enmity. In the first underhand
negotiations with our commissioners these sentiments ap-
pear in the most unequivocal colors. Yet these negotiations
failed, and their exposure has fixed a stain too deep for the
wretched chalk-rubbing of Talleyrand or his tools to take
out.
This intrigue has recoiled upon its authors with such vio-
lence that even Talleyrand has been compelled to sacrifice
his own agents, and call an odious intrigue proceedings dic-
tated by himself and conducted under his express direction.
This is not the only instance in which they have begun to
think us not quite so contemptible as they had imagined.
Yet they still heartily despise us, and think to treat us like a
parcel of idiots or children. Great Britain once despised
us too. Her contempt cost her dear. It will not be per-
fectly gratuitous to France. . . .
With best respect &c.
time in my life I ever wore a Janus face,) that he promised to write me from Paris,
what progress our plan made, and what prospects of peace might present thro his
agency in our cause, etc., etc. But I suspect that on enquiring at Paris he has
found reasons to believe that Porcupine has deceived him, for notwithstanding his
cordial promises, I have not a line from him. ... I had almost forgot to men-
tion that another envoy from the North in B. Hichborn (of noted memory), has
arrived at Hambro, on his way to Paris. I think we may soon look for General
{James] Jackson from Georgia, and the mission will be complete from north, south
and middle States." Sylvanus Bourne to John Quincy Adams, Amsterdam, August
24, 1798. Ms.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 357
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
[Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 3 September, 1798.
Sir :
I received last evening your favor of July 9, inclosing a
copy of your letter dated 25 June to Mr. Gerry. I presume
he did not receive it previous to his sailing from Havre on
the 8th of last month. He was chased into Spithead by a
British armed vessel, and sailed again from that place about
the 1 8th. Doubtless before this letter can reach you he will
have arrived in America, and given an account of the ter-
mination of his negotiations.
Within a very few days after his departure arrived at
Hamburg a Dr. Logan, who as I hear gave himself out as
sent with a pacific mission to the French government from
the United States. He proceeded through Amsterdam to
Paris, where he has had several interviews with the minister
Talleyrand, and, it is added, with the Director Merlin. He
was the bearer of letters recommendatory from Mr. Jefferson
and Mr. M'Kean.
The Moniteur states this business thus :
That notwithstanding the hostile proceedings of the American
government, the patriotic party in that country, with Mr. Jeffer-
son at their head, sensible that a rupture between the two Repub-
lics would only turn to the benefit of England, had sent a citizen
equally attached to his country and grateful towards France; that
this messenger of peace has already had several conferences with
the minister of external relations, and that it is reported the Di-
rectory have as a pledge of their pacific dispositions raised the em-
bargo, which they had laid upon American vessels in the French
ports.
Doctor Logan openly declares that the recent measures
of the American government are the work only of the
358 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
English party, and that they are much disapproved by the
people. 1
I have a letter from Mr. Gerry, dated on the day of his
departure from Havre, in which he says that the aspect of
affairs on this side the Atlantic is now very pacific, and he
hopes to find it so on the other. The reception of Dr.
Logan is the best comment upon the pacific dispositions of
the Directory. In this, as in every other of their late acts,
I can see nothing pacific, but on the contrary an hostility
more and more inveterate, thinly disguised under pro-
fessions of moderation and friendship. 2
• ••••••
I have the honor &c.
1 See Logan to Merlin, September 9, 1798, in Memoir of Dr. George Logan, 129.
In the same volume (p. 89) will be found Logan's defence, printed in January, 1799.
2 "P[ichon] goes to Paris in a few days. I understood as much from him the
other night as that he had been sent here to work with me ; that La Forest, late
joint commissioner with Fauchet, (vid. Fauchet's No. 10) being given to the Minister
of Foreign Affairs, his being sent here, and the whole of the American affair being
entirely surrendered since the middle of June to Mr. Tjalleyrand], are all evidences
that they are sincere, and that things will be brought to a friendly conclusion, if we
will but enter upon negotiation. I told him, on his telling me this, to wit, that all
the papers which he had lent to me, and all that he had said upon the intentions of
the French government, he had said by order of his government; that as I had
often told him, I had no authority to speak with him or any one on this subject,
but that I had seized the opportunity which his correspondence with the Minister
afforded of incessantly and candidly displaying the only principles upon which the
peace could be secured and war averted; that I had wished to open the eyes of his
government by convincing him of certain truths respecting America before it
was too late, but had done this without order or suggestion from any one. He said
that a great change had taken place in the mind of his government on American
affairs, that it was now clear to them that they had been deceived by men who med-
dled on both sides of the water. . . . He stated over and over as he had often done,
the interests which France had in not going to war with us, — loss of colonies,
junction with England, future fortune of America as a powerful nation, in fact
the sweetest flattery to my ears in developing the power and fortunes of America !
urging, pressing a negotiation." William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams \
The Hague, August 31, 1798. Ms.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 3S9
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
4 September, 1798.
Dear Sir :
You will undoubtedly have seen before this the letter of
General Washington accepting the command of the army,
and been charmed, though not surprised, at the firmness with
which the hero comes forward again in the cause of his
country. 1
I have a letter from the Secretary of State of 9 July, with
a copy of his last letter of recall to Gerry. The Secretary
mentions an act passed on the day when he wrote, authoriz-
ing our public armed vessels to capture "armed French
vessels, which shall be found within the jurisdictional limits
of the United States or elsewhere on the high seas." He adds,
the same powers are now extended to private armed vessels,
which the President is authorized to commission for that
purpose, and that a number were waiting for such commis-
sions which would be issued the next day.
The rest of his intelligence I shall not mention, because
you will certainly hear it from other quarters. The treaties
with France are dissolved forever. 2 The poor fools, who
proposed last winter that in the new treaty France should
be put exactly upon the same footing with England, may now
discover at their leisure how much they would thereby have
resigned of advantage to themselves. The temper of our
people continues excellent, and G[erry']s dishwater pacifies
will not arrive in season to suit the public palate.
The penalties of treason will very soon make Mr. Logan
and his employers more considerate, or dispose of them and
their negotiations. I know not how far their present conduct
is grounded upon expectation of support in our country.
1 Writings of Washington (Ford), XIV. 37.
2 Act approved by the President, July 7, 1798.
360 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
If they have any ground for strong support, the mission of
Logan is the gauntlet of civil war. I have been endeavoring
as coolly as possible to consider it in this point of view, and
have made up my mind upon the subject. If it be so —
the gauntlet must be taken up. 1
Yours.
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
14 September, 1798.
. . . The accounts from home continue to discover a
spirit truly worthy of the American name, a spirit which I
earnestly hope may support itself in all its vigor through the
severe trial which it must undergo, and which if thus sup-
ported will beyond all doubt carry us triumphantly through
all the dangers and difficulties, which weak and wicked men
have brought upon us.
You cannot well imagine how much the attitude which our
government and people have taken has raised them in the
opinion of the European world. Out of France and the
circle of French fanaticism, the clear and unequivocal voice
of Europe declares that in this contest we are right and
France is wrong. Our forbearance and long suffering under
1 "The regulation relative to prizes, and the spirit which appeared in it, had
already occurred to me as extraordinary. It is evident from your account that it
will end only in redoubled mortification to our Batavian friends.
"Pichon may tell you what he will about a change in the minds of his govern-
ment. They receive and treat with Logan. As you have a copy of the arrhi
raising the embargo upon American vessels in their ports, it has probably taken
place. Their public papers all impute it as a compliment to Logan's mission, and
we know that all their papers, anarchical or otherwise, (if others there be,) are
under the controul of the Directory. These facts compared with Pichon's asser-
tions, prove that no change of system has taken place. By the last accounts I
have from Philadelphia (to 17 July) it appears that Pichon himself carries on a very
suspicious correspondence with Bache." To William Fans Murray, September 8,
1798. Ms.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 361
accumulated injuries and insults were well known, and had
in some degree countenanced an idea that was gaining
ground, that we should sink unresisting and submissive to
that yoke of tyranny and oppression, which bears so heavily
upon the greatest part of Europe. That we too should
receive constitutions ready made from Paris under the name
of the rights of man ; should have the members of our Di-
rectory prescribed to us, and appointed, dismissed, replaced,
and again turned off, as the paroxysms of RewbelFs in-
firmities should increase or abate ; should have French
generals to dictate our laws, and French agents to dispose of
our public treasures, and amidst the most burthensome
contributions and insupportable depredations, sing paeans
of gratitude to the great nation and her glorious warriors.
The French newspapers made no scruple of announcing that
a revolution would soon overthrow the American govern-
ment, and place the affairs of the United States in the hands
of patriots devoted to France ; and it was freely intimated
that the influence of France would be liberally employed to
promote this desirable effect, the arguments were doubtless
preparing, which have been publicly avowed to justify the
robbery of the public treasures of Switzerland for application
in America. But the tone is now totally changed, and the
signal of the change was the first show of firmness and a
determination to resist on the part of our government.
Dupont, the ex-consul, arrived at Paris. The newspapers
not having yet received their cue announced that Dupont
had said, the American people were as decided in favor of
France as the American government was against her, and
that this government would fall at the first instant of hostil-
ity against it. Dupont soon contradicted this paragraph, and
gave it as his opinion, that a rupture would only strengthen
the English party and English influence in America, and
362 THE WRITINGS OF [ I79 8
that the true patriots, French and American, wished rather
for conciliatory measures on the part of France. From that
moment the French government have affected a friendly
disposition towards the United States ; as long as Mr.
Gerry continued in France every letter of Talleyrand to
him sunk more and more of its pretensions, and since his
departure every opportunity has been seized to spread the
opinion that the differences between the United States would
soon be amicably settled. At the same time it is true the
strongest proofs have appeared that the system is not changed,
but only the course of manoeuvre ; that the deadliest enmity
still rages, but only involved in a deeper mask of dissimula-
tion and perfidy. These proofs, however, are not immedi-
ately discerned by the world. The public here only per-
ceive the immense alteration of Talleyrand's notes from
brutal insolence and rapacious extortion, to courtly com-
plaisance and even humble solicitations ; they generally
believe that France will now yield every point of controversy,
and court a reconciliation as strongly as she before rejected it.
I have said that all this is dissimulation and perfidy, not
only because these characters appear evident even in Talley-
rand's last letter to Gerry, but because they are yet more
unequivocal in the reception and treatment of Dr. Logan, a
man who publicly gives himself out as an envoy from the
party in America opposed to its government. Logan ar-
rived at Hamburg and applied for a passport to the French
consul. The passport was at first refused, but afterwards
upon his exhibiting his letters from certain American charac-
ters was granted. He went through Holland announcing
himself everywhere as bearing a public mission from the
United States, but avoided seeing Mr. Pitcairn at Hamburg,
and Mr. Murray at the Hague. After arriving at Paris he
had several interviews with Talleyrand, and with Merlin,
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 363
then President of the Directory. He dined with Merlin,
and all these circumstances were formally published in the
newspapers, which added that at his request the Directory
had raised the embargo upon almost all the American vessels
in the ports of France. But at the same time Talleyrand in
an underhand manner intimated to an American public
character not far from France, and known to be warmly
attached to his own government, that he (Talleyrand) was
sorry for Logan's mission and had given no encouragement
to it. That he wished him to return to America, and was
disposed to negotiate only with the American government.
The embargo is certainly raised upon all the American
vessels, for the arrete of the Directory raising it is published
in the Redacteur 1 ; but even this measure still proceeds from
the old system of dividing the people from the government,
and the arrete itself, while it professes friendship for the
people of the United States, is grossly insulting to the
government.
But this raising of the embargo and all Mr. Gerry's ano-
dynes with which he will probably soon reach home, are
nothing satisfactory to us. The demand of tribute is aban-
doned ; that for an explanation or recantation of the Presi-
dent's speeches is given up. Those insolent preliminaries to
negotiation are renounced, and Talleyrand tells Mr. Gerry
that any person uniting his advantages will be well received
from the United States which is reserving the pretence to
dismiss and reject again any person who may not exactly suit
the Directory. The decree for restraining their privateers
in the West Indies within the limits of the laws is, in fact,
tantamount to nothing; if it means anything, it must be a
confession that heretofore they have countenanced those
1 It was dated August 16. See American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II.
229.
364 THE WRITINGS OF [179S
privateers in depredations contrary to the laws, which I
have no doubt is true, but which is among the smallest of
our numerous injuries. The laws themselves and the
decrees of the Directory, which have the force of laws, are
the greatest of those injuries, and that of 18th January, or
29 Nivose last, is altogether incompatible with a state of
peace between France and America.
A very recent attempt has been made in the Council of
Five Hundred to obtain the repeal of this law. It was on
the 31st of last month, of 14 Fructidor. A member of the
Council * stated at great length its injustice, its impolicy, and
its pernicious tendency, even to France itself. He stated as
a certain fact that of the whole number of captures made by
the French privateers seven-eighths at least were neutral
property. He complained that it was contrary to the most
indisputable laws of nations, that it far exceeded anything
that England had ever done, and that its consequences could
only enrich a few privateersmen by the plunder of inoffensive
neutrals, while it drew down upon France the universal
detestation of all nations. He added that it was upon the
point of producing a rupture with America, and that Den-
mark had declared she would protect her commerce against
it by military naval force. Nothing of all this was denied,
but one or two members answered, that the repeal of the
law would discourage privateering, and the English purchased
neutral papers by the bale, and upon such arguments as
these, the Council passed to the order of the day and left the
law in full force.
The situation of the Directory in Europe is at this period
such as makes dissimulation and delay with regard to their
differences with the United States highly politic. They are
threatened with a new combination against them of Austria,
1 Denis Couzard.
i 79 8] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 365
Russia, Turkey, and Naples, which together with the war
they have now upon their hands will furnish them as much
employment as they wish.
I am &c.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
18 September, 1798.
Dear Sir :
Since my last (of the 15th), N. B (not copied), I have yours
of the nth, and I have seen some paragraphs from the
French papers stating that Logan's business was rather scien-
tific than political, but that the Directory, in order to prevent
any misunderstanding which could arise from it, had intimated
to him the wish that he would return home. You have observed
how ambiguous all this conduct is. There seems to me to be
in it something more than ambiguity, there is duplicity and
perfidy. If they do not mean to treat with the party, why
did they say unequivocally that Logan could have no politi-
cal business, because he had no authority from his govern-
ment, and that he was advised to go home to avoid the ap-
pearance of an illicit negotiation ? Their object now is plain
enough, to hang with all their weight to the party, and to
make our government believe that they do not, a policy per-
fectly agreeable to Logan and his constituents. But pray
to whom does he carry out propositions ? As to his altera-
tion of opinions upon his view of Holland, Belgium and Paris,
I have no faith in it at all. I have often heard of these al-
leged opinions, but seldom perceived them attended by
alteration of conduct. Logan is too far gone to alter his
opinions. To such people evidence is nothing. The public
opinion and the constables, as you say, they understand no
other argument.
366 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
Schimmelpenninck I have always considered as our friend,
and a very valuable friend. His first address to Logan was
an instance of that open honest candor which peculiarly
belongs to him. But it gave L[ogan] his cue. "He did not
come to gain the influence of France to a party, but to pre-
vent war." Just as the Irish patriots contended for Parlia-
mentary reform and Catholic emancipation. You saw how
the English leaders of opposition swore. Mr. O'Connor 1 !
No man in the British dominions could abhor a party's
calling in the French to its assistance more than he. No !
No ! Mr. O'Connor's only object was rational reform. An
open hearted honest artless man ! His principles were the
same as those of the English opposition. My dear sir, the
treachery of these times carries the impudence of hypocrisy
to such a length, as to persist in belying its natural face long
after its mask has been torn off in the eyes of all the world.
Neither you nor I have believed from the first that Logan
came to urge war at the present moment, and it has appeared
to me not very material what the point which he was to press
might be. It is the mission from a party in our country
opposed to the government, and his reception as such, that
I consider as important. A regular organized faction negoti-
ating with a foreign power, whether for peace or war, is the
mischief. That it should act thus openly, avowedly, and
even with an affectation of publicity, is in my mind truly
lamentable.
I think with you that now we can with propriety negotiate
upon their giving those positive assurances, which Schimmel-
penninck thinks them so ready to give. We now stand fully
upon the defensive, and can proceed in our measures until
the issue of the negotiation, a circumstance which would
undoubtedly shorten and facilitate it very much. But
1 Arthur O'Connor, a United-Irishman.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 367
while negotiating, we must not slacken for a single moment
until the law of 29 Nivose shall be repealed, and our rights of
neutrality are completely restored.
• ••*•••
Yours most faithfully.
TO JOHN ADAMS
25 September, 1798.
My Dear Sir :
The present situation of the affairs of France, however,
combining with the spirit which she at length finds roused in
the United States, have produced a great and important
change in her conduct towards us. It is no longer an over-
bearing and insolent minister of external relations, who keeps
three ministers waiting five months without reception, and,
after attempting to dupe and swindle them by his pimping
spies, insults us by a discrimination injurious to the rights of
an independent nation, and disgraceful to the objects of his
choice. No longer a self-imagined conqueror, dictating
apologies and prescribing tribute as the preliminaries to
hearing for claims of justice. In proportion as our spirit of
resistance has become manifest, theirs of oppression and
extortion has shrunk back. Even Mr. Gerry returned home
with a full persuasion that the dispositions in France towards
us were altogether pacific. J That gentleman unfortunately
was not qualified for negotiation with such men as now govern
France. He was charmed with words ; he was duped by
professions ; he had neither the spirit nor the penetration
absolutely necessary for dealing with adversaries at once so
bold, so cunning, and so false. Since his departure they have
redoubled their pretences of moderation and peaceable dis-
positions. They have totally changed their system of con-
368 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
duct but their purposes remain the same. The manner in
which they received Doctor Logan, who made no scruple to
give himself out as the envoy of the French party in America ;
and the manner in which they wished to blind our govern-
ment by a pretence of not having received him, will be known
to you more directly than from hence. You will judge from
what motives such a species of duplicity could proceed.
They are at present very industrious in spreading abroad the
idea that they wish reconciliation with the United States,
and are extremely desirous of a new negotiation. All this
for the present is probably nothing more than a design to
lull us into security, and especially to divide the people of
the United States from their government. They have dis-
covered by their arrogance, and indignities, and pretended
contempt of our friendship, they have only weakened their
own party in America, and given strength and vigor to the
friends of government. But at the same time they have
seen our people grasp at every shadow of conciliation, and
cling to every transient semblance of peace, with such ardor
and anxiety, that they now think it sufficient to damp all
that energy which has surprised them by its unexpected
appearance, if they affect a desire of returning friendship.
All this, however, will be deemed mere artifice while they
continue to violate the rights of neutrality; a mere lullaby
to keep us inactive and defenceless, until they shall have
more leisure to point their whole force against us. As long
as there is no offer of indemnity for past depredations or
security against the future, we should be worse than idiots
to trust their professions at a time when we know them
contradicted by their conduct. The law of 29 Nivose re-
mains yet in full force. A recent attempt was made in the
Council of Five Hundred to obtain its repeal. Its injustice
and pernicious tendency were demonstrated in their full
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 369
extent. But it was answered that the repeal would dis-
courage the privateers, and that the English could purchase
neutral papers by the load. The Council passed to the order
[of the] day, and refused the common advantage of publica-
tion to the speech of the member who moved the repeal
(Couzard). The Moniteur 1 gave this speech in such a muti-
lated manner that its author openly declared the misrepre-
sentation, and nothing further was done upon a subject in
which Couzard himself proved in his speech France was
violating the most sacred laws of nations and making her-
self enemies of every people. -J
• ••••••
I am &c.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 136 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, i October, 1798.
Sir :
I have the honor to inclose herewith a copy of a note from
the Department of Foreign Affairs here in answer to mine of
1 1 July, with proposals for the renewal of the treaty which
has heretofore been forwarded to you. 2
1 In suggesting to Murray that he send to America the French journals Adams
writes of the Moniteur: "It is the most uniformly lying paper that I ever met with.
It should make a small change in its title, and call itself the Menteur. For the last
six months I have not met with a paragraph in it, with the subject matter of which
I had any knowledge, but it contained a lie or a misrepresentation. All its state-
ments concerning the United States are ridiculously false, and I know almost every
one of its accounts under the date of Berlin to be false. Most of them in both
cases are malicious." September 18, 1798. Ms.
1 Printed in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II. 253. The reply of the
American minister, dated October 29, is in the same volume, p. 256.
"Mr. Asp, the Swedish envoy, told me yesterday, as he said in confidence, that
our treaty would not be renewed, but that Sweden would regulate the duties on
our trade by those imposed by us on theirs. As I know nothing respecting your
vol. 11 — 2 B
370 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
The objections to the changes which conformably to your
instructions, I proposed, are those which I have constantly
expected and frequently announced. But from the closing
sentence it is apparent they wish for delay. Their motives
are undoubtedly the same with those which have hitherto
suspended, and will continue to suspend, an answer from
Sweden. The fear of giving offence to France.
I shall reply to this note as soon as possible ; but if you do
not think it advisable to renew the stipulation for making
the bottom cover the property, and for excepting at least
ship timber from the list of contraband, I have no sort of ex-
pectation that either treaty will be renewed. At present I
consider myself as expressly forbidden from acceding to their
proposal for renewing the 12th article as it is, and have no
idea that they will consent to leave it out.
I have the honor &c.
progress in this negotiation, I cannot judge whether this measure is in conse-
quence of mutual arrangement, or is likely to impede your negotiation." Rujus
King to John Ouincy Adams, London, October 26, 1798. Ms.
"It may not be amiss to observe to Mr. Adams, that he need not be solicitous
about his success in making treaties with Prussia and Sweden at present; that I
am fully convinced, as he is, that both will affect to refuse any treaty upon the
terms in his instructions. This will not alarm me at all, and if both powers finally
refuse to agree to any stipulations without the articles in contemplation, we shall
not be very uneasy. Our commerce is of more consequence to them, than theirs
to us; and with or without treaties we shall have all we want. But we should be
very improvident, at the moment of being forced into a war, to bind ourselves to
permit France and her colonies to be supplied with every thing, even our own prod-
uce, in Prussian and Swedish or Danish ships." John Adams to Timothy Pickering,
September 30, 1798. Works of John Adams, VIII. 598.
i79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 371
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
Berlin, 2 October, 1798.
Dear Sir :
I have your favor of 25th ultimo. My brother left me the
day before yesterday. 1 He will probably be at Hamburg by
the 7th or 8th, and will then embark for America as soon as
possible. I mention this, because you may perhaps be dis-
posed to write to him. I am very much obliged to you for
the extracts from Mulciber's [Talleyrand] letters, and fully
agree with your opinions expressed to Pichon concerning
them. But the reply to your objections at the qualifications
hinted as necessary to secure a good reception to a new envoy
is very far from satisfactory. We must have no more either
of prescription or advice on this point. The caution against
any person pronounced in favor of the English government or
of royalty, if they are to be applied by France, will exclude
every man of whom there is any probability that he will
be appointed. If upon such an application Pinckney and
Marshall were rejected, pray who would be admitted ?
T[alleyrand] himself represents all the chiefs of our govern-
ment, and even you, as receiving impressions from the Eng-
lish government. He has very lately insinuated in an in-
sulting manner, that the President was a friend of royalty.
All the writers of the Directory have represented the late
President both as a tool of the English government, and a
friend to royalty. If men like these holding their opinions
and acting in their support are meant as the ecueils to be
avoided, who would be left ? None but decided enemies to
our government, or mawkish, equivocal, neutral characters,
fit in these times for the confidence of no man under the sun.
T[alleyrand], indeed, gives intimations that he should will-
1 His position as Secretary of Legation was filled by Thomas Welsh, son of Dr.
Thomas Welsh.
372 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
ingly treat with you upon the matter, and I heartily wish the
government may authorize you for the purpose. They will
see at least that you had not been gulled by fair professions,
or charmed by unmeaning decrees against unauthorized
pirates. But how can we believe in conciliation, when we
see in the Redacteur of 21 September, an insolent and threaten-
ing piece calling the Americans robbers born, because de-
scended from Englishmen ; saying that France will treat us as
an English colony, and will not permit our flag to appear
upon the European seas ? Ridiculous bombast, if you please ;
but in the official paper where all papers are under executive
control, it is at least evidence of intention.
Yours ever.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 137 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 6th October, 1798.
Sir:
• ••••••
You will hear from Mr. Murray more immediately and
earlier than from hence the present proceedings and profes-
sions of the French government towards ourselves. From
him you will learn that they have received and treated with
Dr. Logan, while at the same time they denied it to him,
and pretended that they were displeased at Logan's mission.
You will perceive what warm and repeated professions they
make of pacific and conciliatory dispositions, and will com-
pare their assertions with the indisputable facts so con-
tradictory to them. The minister Talleyrand appears after
all not very well satisfied with Mr. Gerry, and intimates
plainly that he should have no objection that the negotia-
tion should be renewed by Mr. Murray himself. I know
not what may be at present the views of our government,
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
373
but if I might be permitted to give my opinion in the case, I
should urgently recommend that Mr. Murray might be
authorized to continue these communications and this
intercourse, because if there be really a disposition for con-
ciliation on the part of France, there are several points upon
which an understanding is essential before any renewal of
the ordinary diplomatic relations can be accomplished. Mr.
Murray's conduct through all these interviews and corre-
spondencies has, as far as I can judge, been at once spirited
and prudent, properly supporting the dignity of our nation
and government, and at the same time improving all the
possible means of yet preserving peace. He has amply and
constantly communicated to me all that has past between
him and the confidential agent [Pichon] of M. Talleyrand
concerning our affairs, and I have as freely given him my
sentiments upon it. . . .
I am &c.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
6th October, 1798.
Dear Sir :
I have received your favor of 28th ultimo, and in some
degree regret the departure of P[ichon], because, though
there are evident traces in his transactions with you of that
tortuous double and perfidious policy which is inseparable
from all Talleyrand's negotiations, there was real informa-
tion to be obtained through him. He told you that he was
convinced that the positive assurances ought to be given.
Schimmelpenninck thought they would have been given be-
fore. I much doubt whether they will yet. TfalleyrandJ's
explanation of the qualification with which he gave the
assurances to Gerry was as bad as the qualification it-
self — if anything worse. In one of the last Menteurs is
374
THE WRITINGS OF [1798
given a part of General Washington's letter to the President,
with comments upon the astonishing partiality of the General
for the English government, which it says is well known.
I doubt even whether it can be admitted that a suspicion
of insincerity is a lawful ground for refusing to hear ministers
of peace. By the laws of nations the right of refusal must
rest upon substantial and specific objections, not upon suspi-
cions. Negotiations for peace between nations at war must
always be conducted with mutual suspicions of insincerity.
And one fact I hope is indubitable. That no negotiation
with France will again in any part be entrusted to a man,
either belonging to the French faction like Mun[roe], or an
admirer of the French revolution like G[erry]. Now as
every man of both these descriptions will be most inflexibly
excluded, if the Directory mean to negotiate, they must be
content to do it with a man of different character and senti-
ments, with a man at least as partial to the English govern-
ment as General Washington, and at least as pronounced in
favor of royalty as the President. To tell us that the choice
of such a man would be a rock in the way, is to shut the
door against any negotiation, and to belie every previous
profession of a disposition for peace.
. • • • •
Always yours.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
20th October, 1798.
Dear Sir :
I have duly received your favors of the 9 and 12 instants,
with the copy of the letter from Talleyrand. 1 It is certainly
unnecessary for me to tell you that no explanation of your
1 That of 7 Vendemiaire, or September 28, printed in American State Papers,
Foreign Relations, II. 239.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 37S
motives in the transactions with P[ichon] could be necessary
for me. I have never in any corner of the mind imputed to
you any others than the obvious ones, which the proceedings
of themselves show, and which you mention. I trust the
government will do the same.
I know not what the judgment or determination will be
upon the papers which you have now transmitted ; but my
own opinion would be, to renew the negotiation, and I have
so expressed it in my letters. Not, however, immediately
by sending a Minister to France. 1 The proper assurances
are not given explicitly enough for this, and unless the decree
of 29th Nivose be repealed, there is no foundation for a fair
negotiation. The course that I should advise would be,
that you should receive authority to confer with any person
properly authorized by the French government, and agree
upon some basis for a negotiation. You could very soon
thus discover, whether their intention is sincerely recon-
ciliation and compensation, or merely to amuse and delay.
Upon the result of this should depend the formal restora-
tion of diplomatic intercourse.
This, I say, would be my opinion, founded upon an extreme
regard and deference for the wishes of a part of our Union,
not upon what I myself think ought to be. After the treat-
ment which we have experienced from France, if my senti-
ments prevailed, the only negotiation which I should admit
would be, a public and solemn mission from them to us.
Gerry hinted at it in his correspondence with Talleyrand,
who half promised and half declined it, just as he does about
1 "Whether these overtures . . . should have been accepted, or encouraged, or
neglected, are questions not free from doubts. I am inclined to think that immedi-
ate attention to them was neither necessary not advisable, and that they had not as
yet acquired such a degree of maturity as to call for any formal, national act."
John Jay to Benjamin Goodhue, March 29, 1799. Correspondence and Public Papers
of John Jay (Johnston), IV. 257.
37 6 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
giving the assurances; haggled, and quibbled, and equivo-
cated, as he does in all his official transactions that we know
of. Such very possibly may be the determination of our
government, who love the plain downright way of things ;
but at any rate it is impossible they should mistake your
views, or disapprove your conduct in this affair.
The reasons which you conjecture as inducing them to
make so much mystery of these proceedings are probably
the true ones. 1 But there may be another. They may
wish to conceal from the party in our country their advances
towards peace with the government, because they are
treating with the party upon the basis of hostility to the
government. We know perfectly well that the party will
consider as an abandonment of them any terms of peace
between France and our government, and they fear that
if their overtures to that effect should be known, their ten-
dency would be to detach their devotees from their interest,
and weaken the influence of their creatures.
That their object now seriously is negotiation, I can readily
believe ; for notwithstanding all their conquests within the
last twelve months, their situation upon the whole is not so
good, and their prospects are more threatening, than they
were a year ago. A most formidable league is concerting
against them, to the completion of which nothing is wanting
but resolution at Vienna, for there, you may depend upon it,
is the point where resolution is doubtful, and where a failure
of it will give the fatal blow to the combination now attempt-
ing. Here take it for certain nothing will be done. Sieves
is coldly regarded, and generally disliked. But he is feared,
v.,.
*• l Pichon gave Talleyrand's letter to Murray to be communicated only to the
President. Even the French charge at The Hague was ignorant of the negotiation.
Murray suggested two reasons : I, because Pichon spoke English, and 2, to save
their pride if nothing came of it.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 377
and is neither gone nor likely to go. Peace and neutrality
are the watchwords of the government, and are so conform-
able to the popular sentiments that they are the constant
theme of flattery and adulation to the royal ears and eyes.
As to forcing down a different system, it will not be at-
tempted ; and if it should, it would arm this country against
the force, and of course connect it with France. 1
• ••••••
Yours &c.
TO GEORGE WASHINGTON
Berlin, 29th October, 1798.
Sir :
I have the honor to inclose herewith a letter from a young
gentleman who bears your name, and who flatters himself
with being (though distantly) related to you. 2 He is by
birth an Hollander, but of a family originally English,
which went over from England and settled in the United
Netherlands, sometime near the beginning of the present
century.
At the commencement of the present war he served in the
Dutch troops, and was for some months a prisoner in France;
but at the period of the revolution which made his country
an ally to France he resigned his commission, and is now
desirous, if an opportunity of service should present itself in
America, to go there. His superior officers, several of
1 " Since my last I have your favor of the 18th inst. As to the renewal of
'ancient ties,' meaning thereby the old treaty of 1778, it is no longer in our own
power. The great and important advantages of having her prizes admitted into
our ports, and those of her enemies with their capturing vessels excluded, must be
dissolved irrevocably, for we have stipulated you know not to grant these advantages
by any future treaty, of which France had fair and ample warning. She chose,
thus warned, to throw away the advantage, and must abide by the consequences."
To William Vans Murray, October 27, 1798. Ms.
2 James Washington. See Writings of Washington (Sparks), XI. 392, 393.
378 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
whom are here, bear honorable testimony to his character
and conduct. His rank was that of an ensign. He ex-
pects to spend the winter here in the further pursuit of mili-
tary knowledge. From the favorable account I have had of
him I have not hesitated to comply with his request in trans-
mitting the inclosed letter, and in promising to deliver to
him such answer as you may think proper to make to his
application.
I am happy in having this opportunity to express my warm
and cordial participation in the joy, which all true Americans
have felt, upon finding again secured to our country the bene-
fit of your important services, by your acceptance of the
command of her armies. However much to be regretted is
the occasion which has again summoned you from your be-
loved retirement, there is every reason to hope, that the
spirit of firmness and dignity which your example has so
powerfully contributed to inspire and maintain, will either
obviate the necessity of another struggle for our independ-
ence, or once more carry us victoriously and gloriously
through it.
I received in London the letter which you did me the honor
to write me at Mount Vernon, on the 25th of June of the
last year, and beg leave to offer you my grateful thanks for
the favorable sentiments which you were pleased to express
in it relative to myself, and my continuance in that line of
public service to which I had the honor of being introduced
by your choice, a circumstance which I shall always cherish
as one of the most flattering and honorable events of my life.
Renewing the most ardent wishes for your health and
happiness, I remain with perfect respect, Sir, your very
humble and obedient servant. 1
1 "Your communications with P[ichon] have not been kept secret on their part,
for the Spanish Minister here a few days since told me that France had been male-
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 379
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
8 December, 1798.
Dear Sir :
• *"•••.
The Mr. A 1 (son of Colonel H.), who so easily procured a
passport for Paris, is probably one of those worthy characters
who got himself naturalized as a Frenchman to privateer
with a clear conscience upon Americans two or three years
ago. Neither the treaty offensive and defensive nor the
independence of St. Domingo would suit his politics, any
more than those of his uncle-father. The treaty, I imagine,
was concluded upon the English stock exchange. As to
St. Domingo, Pitcairn writes me that an American captain
from New York, 5th October, gives it as positive that its
independence was declared ; but Mr. King says nothing of it
on the 27th ultimo. . . .
I am surprised that Eustace should attack Munroe, though
he never appeared much to like him. E. has all the qualities
you mention, together with the fluency and flash of a French-
man. But he is so turbulent, so captious, and bombastic,
he has such an instinct of perverseness, and withal so little
moderation and prudence, that he cannot be a formidable
though a very troublesome enemy. Monroe's greatest en-
emy is himself, and his own book. The most malignant foe
ing propositions to us in Holland. The truth is, they are now particularly anxious
to have it believed that the differences with us will be settled. I too have witnessed
the delight which the apparent change of France's conduct towards us has given to
her enemies, have often been complimented as an American, that my country was
the only one which had made her change her insolence to fawning. This credit,
which we have so unequivocally acquired, I hope we shall retain." To H xllxam
Vans Murray, November 3, 1798. Murray had written, October 26: "In truth
all the world chuckles, believe me, at what they believe to be the humiliation of
France respecting the United States."
1 Samuel Andrews, son-in-law of Hichborn.
3 8o THE WRITINGS OF [1798
could not pronounce so complete a sentence of damnation
both upon his head and heart as that work. It is so un-
answerably bad that you see even faction is ashamed of
it. . . .
I am &c.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 140 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 24 December, 1798.
Dear Sir:
I received a few days since your favor No. 10, dated 24
September. With my next I shall inclose copies of the
answer from the Cabinet Ministry to my last note, concern-
ing the renewal of the treaty with Prussia and of my reply,
whereby you will perceive the present situation of that
negotiation.
Some time since Mr. King wrote to me desiring me to
procure 10,000 muskets of the manufacture of this country,
if I could obtain permission from the government for their
exportation. I accordingly applied immediately to Count
Haugwitz to know whether such a permission could be ob-
tained. After some time, which was necessary to consult
the military department upon the subject, he gave me for
answer :
That there is but one manufacture of small arms in this country,,
which supplies the muskets for the king's own troops, and that the
number which the manufacture can annually produce is very
limited. That within the last twelve months permission had been
granted for the exportation of 30,000, the greatest part of which
were alleged, and by his Majesty's government fully believed,
to be for the United States. That owing to this large exporta-
tion, and to some recent alterations in the form of the muskets
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 381
used by the king's troops, all the produce of the manufactory for
a year to come, would be necessary for them, and that it was there-
fore impossible to grant the permission desired.
He added that the king very seriously regretted the
circumstances which prevented a compliance with the re-
quest, which I might be assured nothing else could have
done ; as in any other case the king would not only have
given the permission, but would have felt great pleasure in
having an opportunity to give thereby a proof of his friend-
ship for the United States, and his disposition to oblige them.
The arms which have been exported under the allegation
of being for the United States, I have some reason to believe
are really destined for Switzerland.
I inquired of the Swedish minister whether he knew any-
thing of the history of the deduction from the duties upon
goods imported into Sweden in American vessels, and men-
tioned the claim which Mr. Backman 1 had made for com-
pensation on account of his having obtained it. He an-
swered that he did not know the particular history of the
affair, and did not wish to bar any claim to which that gentle-
man might think himself entitled ; that the alteration was
certainly considerably advantageous in favor of American
vessels, but he did not imagine there could have been much
pains or expense necessary to obtain it.
He asked me likewise whether the United States would be
disposed to purchase the Island of St. Baitholomezv, which
Sweden 2 would be very glad to sell to them. I told him that it
was contrary to the political system of the United States to
wish for the possession of colonies, that I doubted very much
whether they would accept as a gift any island in the West
1 Elias Backman, United States consul at Gothenburg.
2 In cipher. The island had been ceded by France to Sweden in 1784, and was
restored to France in 1877.
382 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
Indies. He said that perhaps it might be made of some use
to the United States for other purposes than as a colony, and
wished me to write you an account of the proposal. If it
should meet with acceptance, he said, the arrangement
might be comprehended in the treaty at its renewal, and
Sweden would ask no more for the island than what it had cost
her to maintain it since it was ceded to her by France. I have,
therefore, to request of you a formal answer upon this matter,
that I may communicate to the Swedish minister, though I
have little doubt upon my mind what it will be. . . .
I have the honor, &c.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 141 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 31 December, 1798.
Sir :
I have now the honor to inclose copies of the answer of
the Cabinet Ministry to my note of 29 October, concerning
the renewal of the commercial treaty between the United
States and Prussia, and of my reply, which I presented to
Count Finckenstein on the 25th instant. 1 During the inter-
val from the time when I received the answer, I had repeated
conversations with Count Haugwitz upon the subject and
the substance of my reply was founded upon the result of
those conversations.
You will observe by these papers how tenaciously this
government adheres to the principle of making neutral bot-
toms cover enemy's property in time of war, and to the very
limited list of contraband contained in the treaty of 1766
between Russia and Great Britain. At the time when
1 Both documents are printed in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II.
260, 262.
1798] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 383
Frederick II acceded to the armed neutrality, having no com-
mercial treaty with any of the then belligerent powers, he
adopted this list as that which was most favorable to t la-
neutral interests, and it has ever since been considered here
as the criterion of contraband. After having given up in
my last note the article of timber for shipbuilding, I should
most probably have abandoned the other naval stores in the
present had not your letters of 24 September expressed so
much indifference whether the treaty should be renewed at all, and
I shall yet abandon them, if this government should persist in
rejecting them. 1
Upon the other point, the stipulation proposed instead
of the 1 2th article of the old treaty expressly holds out the
question concerning neutral bottoms and goods as a con-
tested point, and it is preceded by a labored argument to
prove, that by the present laws of nations the principle of
the old treaty is prescribed. But in conformity to your in-
structions, I did not think myself authorized even to
admit by any implication, that the principle prescribed by
the law of nations can be a subject of controversy, and hence
in objecting to the words which present it as such as was
necessary to answer the arguments in maintenance of the
position.
I have in my reply offered two alternatives for avoid-
ing in the new treaty any mention of the point, and if a
positive inference could be drawn from what Count Haug-
witz assured me was his opinion, I might conclude that one
or the other of them will be accepted. I shall not be sur-
prised, however, if the difficulty in this case should still
recur, for I judge from what has hitherto passed, that
they are apprehensive an alteration of the express agree-
ment in the treaty of 1785 might be construed into an
1 In cipher.
384 THE WRITINGS OF [1798
abandonment of the principle, unless the substantial article
should contain some expression which should evidently reserve
it ; and it is perfectly clear that they are extremely averse
to abandon the principle. Their own convention with Great
Britain in 1798 is, to be sure, an argument against them, so
strong in itself that I have not thought it necessary to dwell
much upon it, and therefore barely alluded to it in my second
note. You will see how they explain it in the inclosed an-
swer, and consider it as compatible with the system which,
at other times, Prussia has maintained, and now again wishes
to support.
In the discussion concerning the papers to be specified for
the purpose of ascertaining the neutrality of merchant
vessels and their cargoes in time of war, as I had not the
benefit of your instructions, I was obliged to proceed upon
such principles as occurred to my mind as best calculated to
answer the object intended by these papers. The sea letter,
the muster roll and the invoices, appeared indispensable
in a treaty which does not adopt the principle of allowing
the bottom to protect both persons and goods ; but the other
paper for which they so strenuously contend seemed to me
unnecessary, as tending to prove nothing but what the sea
letter alone suffices to show, and as binding the parties to
certain forms of documents which their internal commercial
regulations might require to be altered. In my last con-
versation with Count Haugwitz he concurred with me fully
in the opinion, and I hope, therefore, that the additional
paper will not be insisted upon. I have felt the more em-
barrassment upon this subject, because I have not with
me the latest laws of the United States prescribing the papers
with which vessels of the United States must be provided.
The case of the Wilmington Packet, upon- which so many
fruitless applications have been made to the government in
1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 385
Holland for indemnity, suggested to me the idea of allowing
time after the breaking out of a war, for the neutral nation
to furnish its vessels with the proper papers.
Since receiving your letter of 24 September I have felt
much less anxious about the speedy conclusion of the treaty
than I was before. In one of my last conversations with
Count Haugwitz I told him that if the Prussian government
had the smallest scruple or hesitation about the renewal
of the treaty on account of the situation of our affairs with
France, I know enough of the sentiments of my government
to assure him, that they were by no means desirous that
Prussia should take any step, at which she should feel the
smallest reluctance ; and that if she thought it most ex-
pedient, would postpone the conclusion of the treaty until
a time which should be perfectly suitable to both parties.
He said he was very glad I had given him an opportunity
to assure me in the most positive and unequivocal manner,
that the situation of our affairs with France had not entered
into the consideration of his Majesty's government in regard
to the renewal of the treaty, and that it certainly never would.
That the friendly sentiments of the king towards the United
States rested upon grounds, which could not be affected by
the changes in the political views of other European powers,
and that the transactions between the American and French
governments were of a nature which could not induce any
impartial and honest third party to favor the latter. He
then expressed himself with great bitterness and severity
concerning the conduct of the French government in general,
and especially upon its present treatment of the King of
Sardinia.
I have the honor &c.
VOL. 11 — 2 c
386 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
9 February, 1799.
Dear Sir :
Your No. 7, of 31st ultimo, was not only welcome as all
your letters are, but had the additional merit of relieving me
from the anxiety that I felt on account of your health. The
same uncertainty with regard to the events in Italy yet con-
tinues here, as was the case with you when you wrote last.
It proves, however, only an uncertainty upon what day
the French took possession of Naples. I have for several
weeks had no other uncertainty upon my mind in this case.
Of the result of the war I can have no more doubt, than I
should of a war between the hens and the hawks. I ought
to ask your pardon for this perpetual repetition of the same
idea, but the truth is that in contemplating the affairs of
this continent I am always irresistibly brought to it, and
every new occurrence serves only to confirm it. That the
course of events will produce that state of anarchy which
you describe, and all the countries of Europe be desolated
by hordes of half insurgents, half robbers, appears highly
probable. The general maxims which the experience of the
last seven years have established as I think beyond a con-
troversy are these. That there exists in France a power
able and determined to overthrow all the governments in
Europe, and the whole system, religious and political, which
has for some centuries governed that quarter of the earth.
But that this power is either not able or not desirous, perhaps,
either to establish any political or religious system instead
of that which it means to overturn. The principle of destruc-
tion is certain of its effect. But with regard to what will
succeed it is not easy to foresee how long the anarchy which
you anticipate, will prevail, or how soon it will subside into
i799l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 3R7
one or more military despotisms. These alternatives are
both horrible in prospect, but I can see no other upon any
rational calculation of probabilities.
If H[ichborn] and his friends really wrote home to recom-
mend that you should be appointed to settle our affairs
with France, it is a proof that they wish an arrangement to
take place, of which however I still have my doubts. Their
recommendation I am persuaded will not injure you there,
as it does not in my mind, because my confidence in you
is unbounded. 1
As to H's having changed his opinion about the views
of France since September, and his being very angry against
his quondam friends, you know what all his slang is worth.
Three years ago he cursed them with a mouth quite as foul
as now. I had it from a person to whom he then uttered all
that his power of language could express against them. He
then went home, and soon after wrote a letter to Mr. King
which I have seen, in which he said, that as the partisans
of General Washington imputed to him all the prosperity
our country enjoyed, it was but just to impute also to him
all that we were suffering, and especially from the resentment
of France.
The message of the Directory 2 upon privateering only
proves that they wish to possess the power of settling every-
thing of that nature in their own hands. Their reasoning
upon the subject is very good, though founded upon
principles which the short sighted self sufficiency of their
political reformers exploded. The power which they solicit
1 See Murray to McHenry, January 30, 1799, in Steincr, Life and Correspondence
of James McHenry, 373.
2 Delivered January 13, recommending a revision of the prize laws, and a transfer
of the power to decide prize questions in the last resort from the ordinary tribunals
to the Directory.
388 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
in its nature belongs to the executive department, like all
other relations of a state with other states. So we have
been taught by sound reason, by Locke, Montesquieu, and
even Rousseau. But the wise men of French regeneration,
and the sublime Constitution de Tan III [1795] have settled
it otherwise. They, like the profound philosophers of the
Mock Doctor, have changed the positions of the heart and
liver, and placed on the right side what used to be on the
left, and now the Directory come with a finger in the mouth
to the councils and tell them they find it won't do, and hope
they will put back things as they were before. However
there is little reason to confide more in the equity of the Di-
rectory, than of this or that tribunal of commerce. Their
object is manifestly not to do justice to neutrals, but to in-
crease their own power, and their message on this occasion
is like that in answer to the question of the councils con-
cerning the rebellion in Belgium. Then they asked for
money, now for power. The habit seems to grow upon
them and succeeds so well, that it may be expected they
will soon like prudent lawyers make it a rule never, never,
to give an opinion without having first pocketed the fee.
Ever yours.
TO JOHN ADAMS
10 February, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I received a few days ago your letter of 16th October last,
written from Quincy. With respect to the renewal of the
treaties with Sweden and Prussia I have kept the Secretary
of State regularly informed of my proceedings and the answers
given by the respective courts, which, therefore, there is no
occasion of repeating to you. I have likewise given him a
general sketch of the occurrences of the moment in this quar-
i799l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 389
ter of the world. Since I wrote him last the most important
event that has happened is the surrender of Ehrenbreitstein
to the French on the 25th of last month. They have also
made themselves masters of Naples, though as yet no official
account has ascertained the day upon which they took
possession of it. These events, together with their assump-
tion of Piedmont, have been seen by the two great German
powers, without inducing them to take any step for prevent-
ing the progress of the conquerors. There is every probability
that neither of them will engage in the war until directly
attacked. This court has been indeed alarmed, more per-
haps at the quietness which Austria has preserved, than at
the successive crumbling of the ruins of Italy. For a moment
it appeared probable that Prussia would engage in new hostili-
ties, but that moment is past, and now there is little doubt
but the system of standing merely upon the defensive will
continue to prevail. Mr. Thomas Grenville, an elder brother
of the English Secretary of State, has been appointed upon
a special mission to this court and that of Vienna. 1 He
has been expected here these two months, but has been
prevented from reaching the continent by the severity of the
season which has been unusually great. 2 The object of his
mission is reported to be to effect a concert between Austria
and Prussia in some system to withstand the encroaching
power of France. Britain is indefatigable in the pursuit
of this object, in which it appears impossible that she should
succeed. At present a degree of distrust more than common
exists between the two rivals, and England is far from being
upon terms of harmony with Austria. The cabinet of Vienna
is making continual protestations to those of London and
St. Petersburg, that it is determined upon a renewal of the
1 Historical Mss. Com., Fortescue Mss., IV, V.
1 "Was introduced to Mr. Grenville." Ms. Diary, February 23, 1799.
390 THE WRITINGS OF [i 799
war, and notwithstanding all the appearances to the con-
trary they believe these professions. That the war will
sooner or later commence is beyond doubt, but I am per-
suaded it will be only when France had determined upon it.
The Directory will keep the election of peace or war con-
stantly in their own hands, and at the very moment when
they find themselves ready will strike. This state of sus-
pense itself is, for the remaining monarchies of this continent,
of the same benefit as medicines which postpone the issue of
an incurable disease, for it is extremely probable that not one
of them will survive another war against them waged by
France.
The Directory continue, however, their professions of
a disposition for reconciliation with the United States. And
they have lately sent to the Council of Five Hundred a
message upon the subject of sea prizes, which has every
semblance of a determination to discourage privateering,
especially against the trade of neutral powers. But its
real object is to obtain a discretionary power, by virtue of
which they might make and alter their maritime regulations
at their pleasure. They ask of the councils to decree that
all prize causes shall finally be settled " administrativement" ;
that is they require not merely an united executive and legis-
lative, but something more comprehensive still, an arbitrary
power. Their argument is more ingenious than ingenuous.
They say "your laws concerning prizes are bad. Therefore
you must change them, that is you must give us the power
of dispensation from them." Whether the Council will
notice that in this case the explanation is in direct opposition
to the thing explained, and that under the pretence of asking
an alteration in the laws the Directory ask for a power above
the laws, is yet to be seen. But to every eye it must be
plain, that they are less concerned for a reformation of the
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 391
laws, than for an addition to their own powers. It is how-
ever evident from the facts alleged in this document that
the system which they have hitherto pursued has been as
pernicious, as it has been disagreeable to France. They
tell us the fate of all privateers fitted out is to fall sooner
or later into the hands of the English ; that there is not a
single merchant vessel under French colors sailing upon the
ocean ; that by privateering alone they have within the last
three years lost a balance of twenty thousand sailors, cap-
tured by the enemy, and that under their present marine
laws neutral vessels laden for the account of the French
government have been taken by French cruisers, and con-
demned by French courts of admiralty. This circumstance
serves to characterize in a perfect manner the wisdom and
justice of their regulations. Probably if the Directory could
settle all such cases administrativement, they would find a
remedy for this special case. But if the loss should fall upon
a neutral merchant or government instead of themselves,
there is no reason to suppose they would be so equitable.
I showed to the Baron de Thulemeyer the passage in your
letter concerning him, with which he was very much delighted,
and requested me to express his gratitude for your kind re-
membrance. As to your political question he did not ven-
ture to answer it, but considered it as answering itself, and
only said you were perfectly right. In truth upon this sub-
ject, not only his individual sentiments but those which
prevail in this cabinet, are accurate. They see the mischief
plainly enough, and only lament their insufficiency to find
remedy. The Prussian monarchy itself has contributed its
share in the sacrifice which gives the Rhine to France as a
boundary. It has given its limb for a few more years of
lingering life, and while it trembles for its existence, it has
scarce leisure to regret the loss which it cannot repair.
392 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
I inclose herewith a letter for you which I lately received
from Baron de Blumenstein, at Breslau, a captain in the
Prussian service, and a lover of chemical studies it seems.
I have no personal acquaintance with him or further knowl-
edge of him than what he gives of himself in his letter, and
in one to me inclosing it and requesting me to forward it
together with the memoir to you. Though I have not
much confidence in the success of the remedy which he
proposes for the prevention or extirpation of the yellow fever,
I consider it as proceeding from a most laudable intention,
and have thanked him in answer to his letter for the interest
which he takes in the welfare of my country, as well as
expressed my esteem for his ardor in the cause of humanity.
I am &c.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
23 February, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I did not write you by the last post presuming that the
same floods which deprived me of the pleasure of receiving
your letters would in like manner arrest the passage of mine.
Since then I have received at once your Nos. 8, 9 and encore
9, and later yet 10, to which I can now reply only in a few
words, being at length very much busied upon a project for
a treaty just sent me. You will perhaps inquire what I have
been doing these fifteen months, that it is now but come to
this, and I scarcely know how to answer the question.
Very little, if any, of the delay has been owing to me. 1 I
will tell you more of it when the business is concluded, or
before. In the meantime this information is only for
yourself.
1 "March I, 1799. Making out the last fair copy of my note to the Cabinet
Ministry. I have uniformly made it a rule thus to write them off three times
before presenting them." Ms. Diary.
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 393
I could give you several reasons why H[ichborn] is an ir-
recoverable man, though I have no doubt of his endeavoring
to convince you that he has altered his opinions. You are
right as to the sources of his party spirit. They are all
personal. But his pretexts and his associates hold him by
too many ties for him to break loose from them, if he were
even so disposed ; his mode of conversation with you is not
new, it is habitual to him. He was always in his talk grey,
and in his actions black.
• ••••••
P.S. 26th February. I was too late for the last post
before I could finish the within. Since then the Batavian
mails fail again, and I have nothing further from you. I
am still occupied as on Saturday. I hear from Hamburg
that H[ichborn] was ordered out of France for making free
with his tongue. This may possibly have touched his pride
so much as to make him seem more ready from conversation.
But I hold him, as I said within, for an irrecoverable man.
Yours.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
2 March, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I received two days ago your No. 11 of 18th ultimo. I
have lately been very negligent about reading the French
papers. For, as where I am situated, I can gather nothing
from them worth writing home, I have no incentive to
peruse them adequate to compensate the ineffable disgust
of wading through such heaps of bombast and falsehood, as
fills them all. I have, therefore, not seen the piece in the
Publiciste of which you speak, relative to the speech. 1
1 Of President Adams to Congress. The article attributed its modcr.it i< in to the
influence of the opposition. Jefferson thought it "so like himself in point of moder-
ation," and attributed it to "military conclave, and particularly Hamilton."
394
THE WRITINGS OF [1799
But of this I am very sure that from France or French ad-
herents no credit will ever be allowed for moderation, or
anything else on the part of the President. And in the pres-
ent instance I suppose there is some foundation for the
opinion that the influence of the opposition is discernible
in the temper of the speech. You told H[ichborn] it was not
up to your mark, and most assuredly it was not up to mine.
It is in the nature of our government to be too much shackled
by an opposition too strong to be slighted. The modera-
tion was necessary, and so much the worse for our country
that it was. We get used, however, to everything. There
has been so much noise and so much heat expended by our
opposition upon measures, which have been carried through
with success in spite of it, that it must become less important
upon every new cry that it raises. Hard struggling we shall
always have to effect any good, but the continued habit of
labor accommodates in time the disposition.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
5 March, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I should envy you much more the advantage of seeing
and conversing so frequently with our countrymen, if I
could think more charitably of those who favor us with their
visits. But they are almost without exception men whom,
cold and phlegmatic as I am, I could not see without feel-
ing the blood of indignation boil within me. Of H[ichborn]
you have at length a good riddance. As to your cousin
Vans, 1 I shall say little. He told you a good story, which
1 Described as of Salem. William Vans, Junior, was a signer of the address
made to Monroe on his recall.
1799) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 395
seems to be a faculty belonging to the family. I wish he had
some other qualities yet more valuable, which as belonging
to the family he ought certainly by the same rule to possess.
One of them is candor. At this day an American is, I think,
ill justified in having owned a French privateer, by alleging
that he had been robbed by the English, or that he did not
rob his countrymen. For nine times in ten what they call
English robbery, was the fair capture and condemnation
of property justly liable to confiscation by the universal
laws of nations. And the owner of a privateer cannot pre-
scribe to his captain whom he shall plunder, and whom spare.
The captain must obey the instructions of the government
under whose authority he cruises. Mr. V's apologies there-
fore seem to me poor palliatives. I am glad I am not his
judge. For as he bears a name and some blood in common
with you, I should be fearful of suffering myself to be swayed
in my decision by the respect of persons.
Young H[igginson] the son of an excellent father, has been
himself according to all accounts as bad as possible. Has
not only renounced his country, but openly and without
hesitation declared himself its enemy in word and deed.
No wonder that he found the climate of Boston too warm.
All his relations are among the most decisive friends of
the government among us, and if I mistake not the late
Senator, Mr. Cabot, is his uncle. He himself has always
borne the character of an eccentric and very wild young
man, with extremely violent passions. He married a French
woman about [ years ago, but I know not what he has
done with her. 1
• ••••••
1 John Higginson, son of Stephen Higginson, married, in 1796 or 1797,
Josephine, daughter of Etienne-Francois, Comte de la Porte. George Cabot married
Elizabeth Higginson, a sister of Stephen. Sec Higginson, Descendants of the Rev.
Francis Higginson, 24.
396 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
26 March, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I have received your No. 18 of the 19th instant. I am
glad you have seen La F[ayette], and not surprised that you
found him full of the same fanaticism from which he has
already suffered so much, a great part of which, however,
with him is what it always was, ungovernable ambition in
disguise. He is willing to look upon himself as a martyr
of liberty, because five years of imprisonment lose almost
all their credit and reputation, when they are considered as
having been the result of folly or wickedness. There is
therefore more address and subtlety in his enthusiasm, than
you think. His character, at least as far as judgment com-
bined with honesty is concerned, has long since been irre-
trievable with thinking men. By recanting he would gain
nothing in their opinion, and he would lose most of his per-
sonal partisans. I believe he thinks his intentions as good
as you allow them to be, but he is a man extremely apt to
mistake the operations of his heart as well as those of his
head. You will very probably discover before he quits
your neighborhood, that he deals largely in a sort of minute
intrigue not calculated to inspire confidence. If he goes
to America, his project will probably be to keep well with all
parties there, and of course avoid as much as possible every
thing obnoxious to any. As to his being sounded about
undertaking business for the Directory there, I suspect that
however it has been represented to you, in real truth the
sounding has been on the other side, by him or his friends.
I have seen heretofore somewhat of the tactics peculiar to
his sect, and can trace the same manner in Barlow and Fen-
1799) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
397
wick's applications which you lately mentioned, and sundry
other recent appearances. 1
I have some American papers to late in January. Your
friend Logan is chosen a member of the Pennsylvania House
of Representatives, and W. Blount member and speaker of
the State Senate in Tennessee. I would send you Marshall's
published declaration against the Alien and Sedition Laws,
but you will doubtless have it before this reaches you. 2 I
suppose this is the way of putting the foot into the stirrup
of opposition, and if he goes to Congress we shall soon find
him full mounted galloping with the best of them.
1 " Entre nous he was written to to be sounded by Dupont de N[emours], rec-
ommending him to go to U. S., and incline us to terms. He answered that as
an honest man and real friend of the U. S. he could do nothing if there, be-
cause he saw no solid ground for the fulfilment of any promises they might make
to U. S. I had abundance of talk with him on this point, stating the
odium which would be brought on him if he interfered. I stated various things
to disincline him from going to U. S., but he is fixed; he will go in June. I then
told him of the arts that would be used to entangle him against Government, by a
set of men who had not been his friends when he was seized, but who considered
him as having deserted the cause of Republicanism, etc., etc. He loves General
Washington, and Hamilton, and my friend McHenry." William Vans Murray to
John Quincy Adams, The Hague, March 19, 1799. Ms. For some warnings
against the possible mission of Lafayette, written by George Cabot, see Life and
Correspondence of Rufus King, III. 38M.
2 "I am ready to join you as well as Ames in reprobating the publication of
Marshall's sentiments on the Sedition and Alien Acts, but I still adhere to my first
opinion that Marshall ought not to be attacked in the newspapers, nor too severely
condemned anywhere, because Marshall has not yet learned his whole lesson, but
has a mind and disposition which can hardly fail to make him presently an ac-
complished political scholar and a very useful man. Some allowance too should be
made for the influence of the atmosphere of Virginia, which doubtless makes every
one who breathes it visionary and, upon the subject of free government, incredibly
credulous; but it is certain that Marshall at Philadelphia would become a most
powerful auxiliary to the cause of order and good government, and therefore we
ought not to diminish his fame, which would ultimately be a loss to oursclv
Cabot to Rufus King, April 26, 1799. Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, [II. 9.
398 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
30 March, 1799.
Dear Sir :
You were right respecting the nature of Taylor's 1 motion
in the Virginia House of Delegates and their consequent
resolutions, which with those of Kentucky have not met
with success in any of the other states. 2 They are certainly
meant as the tocsin of insurrection. The same Virginia
legislature have since passed other resolves, intimating an
intention to arm their militia against the general govern-
ment, and I understand from Mr. K[ing], in London, that
the expectations in the United States are that an armed
opposition from the disaffected quarters will take place.
Mr. K[ing] himself does not think Virginia will attempt it
for the present, but appears persuaded that an appeal to
arms will before long be made. I am not altogether of this
opinion ; riots on the part of the malcontents and forbear-
ance on that of the government there may and very
probably will be. But things appear to me very far from
being ripe for the serious struggle which must, indeed, some
day happen between the Ancient Dominion and the Union.
The very threat of recurring to arms argues a timidity that
would fain intimidate, rather than a serious danger to carry
the menace into execution. Desperate men indeed some-
times fly to violent measures, impelled by passion rather
than policy, and Logan's mission, together with those threats
of Virginia, are strong symptoms of desperation in the party.
They are the first samples of formal tampering with a foreign
power and of defiance to civil war. Both the examples once
made will be the more readily renewed. Both are in direct
1 John Taylor of Caroline.
2 See Writings of Jefferson (Ford), VII. 289.
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
399
opposition to the fundamental principles of our Constitution,
and lead directly to that state in which laws are silent, a state
for which as for death, however we may dread it, we ought
at that time to be constantly prepared.
I sent you two or three posts ago a choice morsel in the
letter from Citizen Barlow. 1 I now send you L[ogan]'s
account of his tour to Paris, 2 in which there arc doubtless
numerous mistakes in point of fact, among which I rather
wish than believe the assertion, that La F[ayette] procured
him the means of proceeding from Hamburg to Paris, to be
one. I am now more confirmed in the suspicion con-
cerning La F[ayette], which I intimated to you in my last,
than I was when I wrote you. He himself, my dear sir,
or his friends for him, are the soliciting and intriguing per-
sons to get the means of interfering in those affairs, and what
with his double allegiance, his rights-of-man fanaticism, and
his loose political morality, I expect he will give us no small
trouble, though I do not apprehend from him much eventual
injury. Your concern lest he should, if he went to the Hague,
be arrested was perhaps unnecessary; nor should I give much
credit either to his own discourse, nor to that of his pre-
tended enemies at the Hague on this subject. 3 I could tell
1 Barlow's letter to his brother-in-law, Abraham Baldwin, member of Congress
from Georgia. It was dated March I, 1798. See Writings of John Adams, \ III.
625.
2 "Address to the Citizens of the United States," January 12, 1799.
1 "I have had a hint that Lafayette had a sort of permission to go to Holland,
and can scarcely think he would venture there without it. I have no doubt but
his attachment to America is sincere, but he would feel it as bitter an exile to go
and live there as he thought that of Ploen. I think exactly as you do of him.
Since his liberation, his conduct, as far as I know it, has all proved his hankering for
the leeks and onions. He has licked the hand raised to shed his blood too much to
be of a truly spirited breed. He has not quite descended to the level of K.osciuszko,
but neither does he prove himself much above it." To William \ ans Murray,
March 9, 1799. Ms.
4 oo THE WRITINGS OF [1799
you an anecdote nearly sixteen years old and of course an-
terior to the French revolution, from which I gathered the
propriety of suspending my absolute confidence in the tenor
of his assertions relating to his own conduct or opinions in
public affairs.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
2 April, 1799.
Dear Sir :
And I too felt no small satisfaction to find that Joel Bar-
low had unfolded himself so fully. One of the Jacobin
English reviewers compares Tom Paine to Luther, and if
there be any resemblance between them, Joel must be
Tom's Melancthon. Joel has nothing of his own, he takes
his whole political creed from Tom, but having had a learned
education and being a man of rhymes, he has sometimes
given a grace of expression to Tom's specious doctrines,
with which he was not able to clothe them himself. I re-
member the time when Joel most humbly supplicated the
permission of his Most Christian Majesty Louis 16, King
of France and Navarre, to dedicate to him the Vision of
Columbus. His Majesty not only accepted the dedication,
but paid very bounteously for it by subscribing for fifty
or one hundred copies of the book. 1 The dedication and
the poem itself abundantly show Joel's manner of thinking
with regard to kings at the zenith of their power. But Joel
has no abstract attachment to monarchy. With him the
true Amphitryon is the man that gives the dinner. His
maxim is that of Falstaff, "He that rewards me, Heaven
1 The king subscribed for twenty-five copies, Washington for twenty, and
Lafayette for ten. In 1807 the work was reprinted as The Columbiad, and was
dedicated to Robert Fulton, at whose expense it was issued.
1799) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 401
reward him"; and he can accommodate himself to become
the parasite of a Director, as readily as he was that of a
Bourbon in his glory. I have heard from pretty good au-
thority that Joel is a man of weak nerves too, and that dur-
ing the reign of Robespierre especially he had a most trem-
bling horror of the Guillotine. From the tone of his letter
one would imagine he thought all his former countrymen
as tremulous as himself, as all his arguments are appeals to
cowardice. Analyze the whole letter and you will find it one
prescription, "Cringe to these rascals, because they are
strong," a system which, however conformable to Joel's
temper, principles and practice, most fortunately our country-
men did not think proper to pursue.
Strong they are, it is true too, and they find but too many
Joel Barlows in Europe ready to sacrifice honor and safety
to the fear of offending them. But this weakness has saved
not one of their enemies ; they devour the submissive with
as little compunction as the proud. The turn of Austria
is now come, and I wish I could hope like you that either
the Archduke or the Russians will save her. But you need
not fear that Prussia will join with France. She will remain
neutral. Count Haugwitz has not retired from office, nor
is there any present prospect of such an event.
We are told that Sieyes will probably be chosen to fill
the vacancy in the Directory, and that Talleyrand will come
here in his stead. S[ieyes] is an indifferent negotiator,
wherever he cannot dictate all the conditions. His manners
and temper are extremely repulsive, and excepting the atten-
tion that fear has extorted towards him here, he has been
treated with universal neglect. Caillard was treated with
as universal respect. Talleyrand if he comes will be a much
more dangerous man than Sieyes.
• ••••••
VOL. II 2D
4 o2 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
9 April, 1799.
Dear Sir :
You have before this the Secretary of State's report upon
Mr. Gerry's Nantasket road communication, and have been
doubtless much pleased with it. 1 I should have liked it
better had some of the expressions been moderated, and some
extrinsic observations omitted. He has indeed demonstrated
the baseness and futility of those measures, which the
Directory adopted with so much ostentation as proofs of
their conciliatory disposition, and as Gerry in his last report
showed himself the dupe of their flimsy professions, and had
made himself the instrument of duping others, it was neces-
sary to expose to our countrymen how false and hollow were
all these pretences to kindness upon which so much stress
was laid.
The late decree about the role d? equipage is a chip of the
same block. 2 But among the ingenious devices of imposture,
the springs to catch wood-cocks which have been laid with so
little art of concealment, that of introducing the American
flag again in their feast of the sovereign People is not the
least amusing. It made me laugh heartily. But I should
not be surprised if this profound expedient should have been
contrived by such sagacious peacemakers as Skipwith and
Joel Barlow, or Codman, 3 whose nerves will be put once more
to the test by Mr. Pickering's report. I believe it will
verily make Joel's hair stand on end to see, notwithstanding
1 American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II. 229.
2 The Directory issued a decree March 2, 1797, requiring a crew list (role
d'' equipage). Its bearing is explained in Moore, Digest of International Law, V. 559.
A decree of March 18, 1799, did not relieve the burden of complaint. Life and
Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 594.
3 Richard Codman.
1799) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 403
all his cautions, how cavalierly and with what desperate
plunges of madness the Secretary yet handles his sharking
friends, Barras, and Merlin, and Talleyrand, and the whole
pandemonium of pigmies.
I have likewise, in a paper of 5 February, an excellent ad-
dress from the minority in the Virginia House of Delegates
to the people of the State, 1 upon the resolutions of the ma-
jority against the Alien and Sedition Laws. A sober,
temperate and unanswerable argument, signed by fifty-
eight members, which proves that good sense and honesty
have not wholly abandoned the Ancient Dominion, however
they may be out of favor.
I hear that both Skipwith and Bourne believe and say that
the late decree is meant to exempt ourselves altogether from
the claim of a role cTequipage. That Skipwith should say
so is easy to conceive ; but that Bourne should believe it,
surprises me. He saw through the Tartuffe arretc of last
summer. The present one is of the very same description.
"They did not mean to rob the Americans more than all
other neutral nations by the arrete of 12 Ventose." My
correspondent at Paris, who is full sanguine enough, says
that it goes but a very little way to settle the great point
in dispute, but will prevent condemnations upon absurd
misconstructions of the Treaty of 1778. I think with you,
however, that the spirit of privateering is evidently upon the
decline at Paris, and the policy of keeping us at bay, while
they have Austria and Russia upon their hands, is not diffi-
cult to trace.
• •••••*
Ever yours &c.
1 Prepared by John Marshall.
4 04 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
TO JOHN MURRAY FORBES
Berlin, 10 April, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I received a few days ago your favor of 22nd ultimo from
Paris, and am much obliged to you for the information con-
tained in it, and the late arrete of the French Directory ex-
plaining an article of a former arrete. It gives me great
pleasure that any disposition towards a better system of
policy relative to the United States should manifest itself
in France. At the same time it would be more satisfactory,
and tend to inspire a greater sincerity in the alleged con-
ciliatory disposition, if measures so very insignificant in
themselves were not held forth as the substantial proofs
of an essential change of conduct. This arrete in its purport
is nothing. It pretends to guard against a construction
which common sense and common honesty never could
have made without it. Yet, as you observe, such construc-
tions had been made, and as it will make a favorable change
in the administration of the law, though none in the law
itself, I am willing to allow it whatever credit it deserves.
The English gentleman of the road not unfrequently after
taking a purse of guineas returns to the traveller a shilling
or a half crown, to enable him to pay the turnpike.
I have seen the message of 22 Nivose [January 12] on the
legislation of maritime prizes which you mention, and re-
marked a want of coincidence between the argument and the
inference which it contains. The argument complains of
bad laws. The inference is merely a request of power. The
argument says, "your laws are unjust and impolitic." The
inference does not say, "therefore repeal those laws," but
" therefore give us the power to inforce them or dispense
from them as we may think proper." Here is proof enough
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 405
that the Directory wish to have their powers enlarged, but
how much they felt concerned to have justice done to the
neutrals outraged and ruined by the opposition of those laws,
may be seen by their eulogium in this very message upon
their own arrete, directing their cruisers and tribunals to
treat neutrals as the English treated them. This arrete
the message says was followed by very happy effects. That
is, every cruiser under French colors at sea, and every pri-
vateering tribunal on shore, had only to assume as a datum
any given rule that imagination could form or wickedness
contrive, allege that the English condemned neutral vessels
by such a rule, and then take, condemn and pocket all the
neutral property that came within their reach. The same
message says that one of the happy effects above mentioned
was that the English ceased to capture indiscriminately all
neutral vessels bound to French ports, thus asserting that
the English had before that time made such indiscriminate
captures. Now I know as well as the writer of the message
that this assertion is utterly and unequivocally false, and
what encouragement have all the commercial tribunals to
assume as the rules of the English Admiralty any pretext
whatever for condemnation, when they have the example
of the Directory itself for the allegation of a barefaced un-
truth for the same purpose ?
You will perceive that I am far from feeling much con-
fidence in the probability of a reconciliation between the
United States and France, such as may give occasion to an
appointment like that which you have in contemplation.
I believe that such very partial and trifling improvements in
policy as the late arrete, so ostentatiously displayed like
similar measures taken last summer, will have a tendency
rather to widen than to close the breach, by confirming the
opinion that such demonstrations are insincere and hypo-
406 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
critical ; and as to the mission of Bournonville, or young Du-
pont, or any other person from the Directory, I might trust
more in it, if I had not heard so much last autumn of great
offers sent out by Mr. Gerry, and Dr. Logan, and Mr.
Woodward, 1 and I know not whom, all which in the result
have proved to signify nothing.
• ••••««
Believe me &c.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 145 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 14 April, 1799.
Sir :
Since my last I have received a triplicate of your favor N.
12, dated December, with a quadruplicate of N. II, the
Journal of the House of Representatives, containing the
President's speech at the opening of the session, and the
1 Works of John Adams, VIII. 615. "One pamphlet has lately been circulated
with an avidity proportioned to the unusual exertions made for its suppression. It
is an answer by your acquaintance Carnot, to the report of Bailleul upon the Rev-
olution of 18 Fructidor. Carnot means it no doubt as a vindication of himself, but
it contains numerous anecdotes and characters of his quondam colleagues in the
Directory, which they may well endeavor by all means in their power to smother.
This pamphlet has been published in English as well as French, and will certainly
be known in America before this letter can reach you. A single passage in it
deserves particular attention from Americans. He says that those who negotiated
the treaty of peace with Spain were fools or traitors for not obtaining by it the
cession of Louisiana, which would have been perfectly easy, and that afterwards he
proposed in the Directory to give the possessions of the Duke of Modena to the
Duke of Parma upon condition that Spain should cede the same province of Louis-
iana, which then, instead of languishing under a kingly government, would have
been republicanized, and become the means of procuring to France a vast influence
over the United States of America." To Thomas Boylston Adams, April 17, 1799.
Ms.
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 407
answer of the House, and a copy of the message of 21 January,
with your report on the transactions relating to the United
States and France. When the President's speech was pub-
lished in France the newspapers under the eye of the Direc-
tory observed, that it discovered more moderation than pre-
ceding speeches, and imputed this to the fear of the French
party in the United States, which, it was added, gained
strength from day to day. At the same time the idea was
assiduously spread abroad, that all the differences between
the two countries were upon the point of an amicable settle-
ment, and a perfect good understanding between them about
to be restored.
The Directory pursuing still the same system of policy
which induced them last summer to pass an arrete concern-
ing their cruisers in the West Indies, and the futility of which
is so fully exposed in your report, have very recently passed
another, explanatory of the 4th article in that of 12 Ventose ;
by this they declare that they never intended to subject
American vessels to any other exhibition of papers than are
required of all other neutrals. In substance this declaration
signifies nothing, for the article explained could not with
common sense be construed to require more of Americans,
than other neutrals were bound to by the ordinances of 1744
and 1778. But under a different construction it is said to
have been often made, what it was probably meant to be,
a pretext, for condemnation ; and a friend writes me from
Paris that the explanation will doubtless contribute to the
acquittal of many American vessels, which would without
it be condemned by the commercial tribunals.
This is not the first measure since the beginning of the
year, which has been held forth as a proof of the regard
which the Directory entertain for the rights of neutral navi-
gation. Nearly three months ago they sent a message to
4 o8 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
the councils upon the subject of the laws relating to prizes.
The purport of this message was to show that the laws were
altogether unjust, and it terminated with a request, not that
the councils should repeal them, but that they should for-
mally give an unlimited dispensing power to the Directory.
You have proved that they did actually exercise this power
to a certain degree, though without any authority from the
legislature. Perhaps they thought further dispensations
expedient, which might draw their power of dispensing into
question, and therefore they asked for a decree, that all
prize causes should be decided administrativement.
But this same message says that the arrete of the Directory,
ordering their cruisers and tribunals to treat neutrals as the
English treated them, was attended with happy effects,
particularly, that in consequence of it, the English ceased
to capture indiscriminately all neutral vessels bound to
French ports, and it cautiously avoids mentioning the law
of 18 January, 1798, though it complains bitterly of the dere-
liction of the French ports by all neutral vessels. Some time
after this message the Council of Elders passed a resolution
to repeal the law of 18 January, but when the subject came
before the 500, one of the members, Boulay-Paty, 1 from
Nantes, who has long been a great patron of the privateers,
moved and obtained that a message should be sent to the
Directory to inquire what the operation of this law had been.
The answer of the Directory has not yet appeared, but the
address of the privateersman member to prevent the re-
peal of the law is easy to perceive. He knew that the Direc-
tory either did not wish it repealed, or if they did, that they
would be ashamed to confess the pernicious operation of it,
because they themselves had loudly and ostentatiously
called for it scarce a single year before. By calling for their
1 Pierre Sebastien Boulay-Paty (1 763-1 830).
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
409
report, therefore, upon the effects of the law, he knew that
a pretext for leaving it in force would be given. 1
It is apparent, however, that the privateering party loses
ground in France, and I am told that after the present
elections it will yet be weaker, as the want of some commerce
is sensibly felt throughout the country, and it is equally
known that nothing can procure it until some check is given
to the privateers. The want of seamen for the service of the
nation is another urgent motive with the Directory, and
they have lately forbidden the departure of any further
privateers after the 4th of this month. . . .
TO RUFUS KING
Berlin, 15th April, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I have now to thank you for your favor of 26 and 29 ul-
timo and 2 instant, which I received last evening as well as
those of 12 and 22 ultimo, which reached me a few days ago,
together with the packet from Philadelphia sent with the
letter of the 12th of March.
I am much obliged to you for the information contained
in all these letters, and yet much more for the confidence
with which you express your sentiments respecting the nom-
ination of a new commission to treat with France. I
sincerely and deeply regret with you that any measure of tin-
President upon that subject should tend either to damp tin-
ardor of our military preparations, or to increase the divi-
sions of the public opinion. The nomination I understood
by an account in the English papers was rejected by the
Senate, I presume upon the same ground as rendered the
1 See Rufus King to the Secretary of State, January 14, 1799, in Life and Correspon-
dence of Rufus King, II. 509.
4 io THE WRITINGS OF [1799
measure objectionable to you. This negative will, I hope,
counteract any check the step may have given to the zeal
of preparation, and I would fain hope also, that between this
time and the next meeting of the Senate, circumstances will
occur to prove that a further attempt to obtain an arrange-
ment of our differences with France may be made with at
least such reasonable hopes of success as justify the measure.
There are, I confess, numerous circumstances which appear
to me as indications that the French policy with regard to
neutral navigation in general, and to the United States in
particular, has undergone an essential change. I know that
the assurances given by Talleyrand that any minister who
should be sent would be properly received, were as strong
and unlimited as we could wish, and when coupled with the
anxious solicitude that he manifested for the renewal of
negotiation, they appeared to me a foundation sufficient to
authorize one effort more on our part to restore peace. I
did hope that some further preliminary discussions would
take place, to precede a formal nomination of a new mission
to France ; yet by the limited powers of our executive I
doubt whether such an informal negotiation could be carried
on, or whether there was any other alternative than appoint-
ing a formal commission, or doing nothing.
The assurances were given I think in October, and since
then the message of the Directory upon the subject of mari-
time legislation, the repeal of the law of 18 January, 1798, by
the Council of Ancients (though not sanctioned by the 500),
the arrete explaining the former one concerning the requi-
site of a role d'equipage, the recall of the privateers in the
European seas, and the decisions in the French admiralty
courts, which have recently acquitted several valuable
American vessels, and have admitted common shipping
papers to answer for a role d'equipage, all these things have
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 411
concurred to convince me, that a new negotiation for an
arrangement would be expedient, and would have at this
time prospects of success much more favorable than have
offered at any previous period.
My great reliance upon a negotiation at this time would
be, that in the present situation of affairs a restoration of
peace and friendly intercourse with the United States is
beyond all doubt the clear and unequivocal interest, not
only of France but of the Directory itself, and all the measu re i
which I have just mentioned as evidences that they them-
selves feel it. This interest will of itself soon compel a
repeal of the laws which constitute the great bars to a rec-
onciliation with us, so far as respects the future. I believe
they would be heartily glad to have the pretext of giving up
these laws by a negotiation, I think our government might
derive great benefit by taking advantage of this critical
moment. I am likewise of opinion that the negotiation
would be more advantageously for us carried on in Europe
than at Philadelphia, and if scruples of pride dissuade the
Directory from sending a minister to America, we may let
them indulge those scruples without urging them much to
send us a man, who would intrigue with individuals, and
manoeuvre with parties, so as to embarrass again the course
of the government.
From this view of things you will perceive that I consider
the appointment of the new commission as an useful
measure, and that I regret the negative put on it by the
Senate. If, however, the judgment I have formed be just.
I hope that no material inconvenience will happen from the
delay until the nomination can be renewed, or some other
measure to the same effect adopted. The capture of the frig-
ate in the West Indies will not I presume make any essential
alteration in the prospect. I hope, on the contrary, that it
412 THE WRITINGS OF u 799
will tend to complete the conviction of the Directory that
our spirit of resistance is serious, though we are still disposed
to peace.
Their dispositions, which I suppose to have the same ten-
dency, will doubtless depend much upon the fate of the war
now renewed with so much bitterness. . . .
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
16th April, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I have nothing from you by the last post, but since Satur-
day I hear by letters from Mr. K[ing] and English news-
papers two pieces of news of no small importance, as they
relate to the state of affairs between United States and
France, and one of them especially concerning you.
On the 1 8th of February the President nominated you
Minister Plenipotentiary to France. 1 The Senate appointed
a committee of five to confer with him on the subject. 2
On the 26th he sent a new message nominating in addition
Mr. Ellsworth and P. Henry with you, to constitute a com-
mission to treat with France. This nomination was re-
jected by the Senate. The motive of this negative must
1 American State Papers, Foreign Relations, II. 239.
2 "The nomination to negotiate with the French Government was exceedingly
regretted by every friend to the President and to the United States. I do not know
an exception. A committee of the Senate (Sedgwick, Stockton, Read, Bingham and
Ross) were prepared to report against the nomination of Mr. Murray on the morn-
ing of the 25th ulto., when the President sent in his second message, putting the
negotiation in commission, and postponing its commencement until the receipt of
the assurances required by his message of the 21st of June last. This palliated
the evil in the only possible way in which it could be lessened. This latter nomina-
tion was readily approved." Pickering to Rufus King, March 6, 1799. Ms. See
Writings of John Adams, VIII. 625; Gibbs, Administrations of Washington and
Adams, II. 203.
i799l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 413
have been, that the Senate did not give sufficient credit to
the assurances of Talleyrand, and did not believe the Direc-
tory sincerely desirous for a reconciliation with United States.
You will not impute it solely or even principally to my
friendship for you, that I deeply regret the proceeding of the
Senate in this case. Independent of that, and even of the
mortification to find the Senate in opposition with the Pres-
ident, I am fully convinced that such a commission was
expedient, and might at this time succeed in making such an
arrangement with France, as would at least secure to us peace
and safety for the future. I believe the present moment so
favorable for negotiation, that I fear some of its advantages
must be lost by delay.
If however the Directory seriously mean any compromise
with us, they will perceive by this nomination, how strong the
same intention is on our part, and by the non-concurrence of
the Senate they will see that they must give further proofs
of their sincerity before we can advance again to meet them.
The means of negotiation are fully put into their power, and
upon them alone depends their improvement.
The other news is the capture of the French frigate Vln-
surgente of 44, by the American frigate Constellation of 36,
after an action in which the French had 75 killed and
wounded, and the American 2 killed and 1 wounded.
It is not difficult to see what the state of the public mind
in our country must be, when even a nomination by tin-
President of commissioners to negotiate with France is non-
concurred by the Senate. They may judge how the French
party as they pretended is gaining ground.
4H THE WRITINGS OF [1799
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
27 April, 1799.
Dear Sir :
Since the information from America respecting the new
commission to treat with France, a certain curiosity to know
how the measure would be taken and represented at Paris
has renewed my acquaintance with the newspapers of that
city, which I had for some time abandoned. I had noticed
the manner in which the Publiciste announced the new mis-
sion, and that in which the Moniteur speaks of it is alike
deserving of attention. It begins by observing that at
length the American government has returned to the policy
dictated by its own interests and by those of France, and in
spite of the intrigues and machinations of the English,
appointed, etc. — which leaves no doubt but that the differ-
ences between the two Republics will be immediately settled
to mutual satisfaction.
At the same time the English newspapers impute the ap-
pointment of the commission to the increasing influence of
the French party. Thus it is, my dear sir, these two mortal
antagonists to each other are perfectly agreed in one point,
that is, that we are of course parcelled out entirely between
them ; that we are all English tools or French tools, and that
every measure of our government must be instigated by one
or the other of these parties. . . .
I must hope that P. Henry will not be the G[erry] of the
new commission, though it is very evidently intended to
make him so. I hardly think it will be attempted upon you,
and I have an equal confidence in the Chief Justice.
1799) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 4I5
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
^ c 4 May, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I believe with you, that the great obstacle to an arrange-
ment with France will be the subject of indemnity for her
immense depredations upon our property. What the ideas
and expectations of our government upon it will be I cannot
anticipate. The instructions to the former commissioners
expressly forbad their consent to any settlement, by which
the government should charge itself with the payment.
This would, however, be necessary, if the indemnity should
be by a free and exclusive trade to the West Indies. Such a
trade besides would be extremely precarious in the present
state of the world. St. Domingo, if not yet formally assert-
ing independence, shows a disposition that will probably
soon ripen to it, and as to all the other colonies a century of
free trade to them, such as France could either give or take
away, would not be an indemnity for our losses. If, how-
ever, such a grant could be taken as a substitute for repay-
ment, the reasoning of the sufferers would certainly be good,
and the profits of the privilege ought to be applied to in-
demnify them. It would perhaps be possible to stipulate-,
that none of our vessels should enjoy the privilege, but
such as should be provided with a license from our govern-
ment, for which license a payment should be made to con-
stitute a fund appropriated solely to the indemnity of the
sufferers. But then the consequence would be to restrain
instead of enlarging the trade. Indeed we have all that
Pichon offers, and though a formal stipulation might secure
us against a possible recall of the privilege, it would appear
to our merchants to be no favor at all, or at most a very
slight one.
4 i6 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
7 May, 1799.
My Dear Mother :
• ••••••
The latest accounts we have from America announce three
circumstances of no small importance — the appointment of
a new commission to treat with France, the capture of the
French frigate Vlnsurgente by our frigate Constellation, and
the symptoms of a new insurrection against the national
government in the western part of Pennsylvania. Though
we are informed that the appointment of the new commis-
sion was attended with great divisions in the public opinion
concerning the expediency of the step, I trust that in the
course of a few months it will be generally seen and acknowl-
edged that the measure was proper and wise. The situa-
tion in which we stood before, halfway between peace and
war, could not continue, and as the legislative body had
thought proper not to declare war, I can see no substantial
reason why the large advances made towards a new negotia-
tion and the solicitations to that effect of the French govern-
ment should be rejected. I have not indeed for my own part
any opinion of the sincerity of their professions, and expect
very little from their justice ; nor do I suppose they have
ability, if they had the inclination, to restore the prop-
erty they have plundered from our merchants, or an in-
demnity for it. But I believe that negotiation at present
may put a stop to further depredation, and that a more ad-
vantageous arrangement may be obtained than after a longer
delay. After the close of ever so long a war we should have
still less prospects of compensation for still greater losses,
and there is no probability that there will be ever a period,
when the desire of accommodation with us will be stronger
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 4 , 7
than at present. This disposition will be confirmed by
the capture of their frigate, which will tend to convince them
that our naval power is not so contemptible as they have rep-
resented to the world and to themselves. Two years ago
they published in a pamphlet, written undoubtedly at the
command of the Directory, that all our sea captains were
ignorant sots, and that since the death of Mr. Gillon ' we
could not call a single good sea officer into our service. I
wish that the captains of all our frigates would give them
proofs equally substantial, that our marine can furnish very
good officers yet with that given by Commodore Truxtun.
There is one in whom I have not the same confidence, and I
am sorry he commands the Boston frigate. I have had oc-
casion to know that he was utterly unfit for the station. I
have lately heard that he has been dismissed. They have
related the affair between the Constellation and Vlnsurgente
in the Paris papers with unusual modesty. They say that
the frigate had 44 guns, but the American had 18-pounders
and the French only twelves, so that the capture of the
French ship was the necessary result of her inferiority. This
circumstance is much less satisfactory to them, than the
prospect of a new rebellion, which has manifested itself in
Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. There is in that
part of our country a spirit which I believe will never be sup-
pressed but by force. "Though brutal that contest and
foul," I very much fear we shall be forced to come to it, and
when we do, have no doubt but the good cause will prove
itself as superior to its opposers in it, as it always has in that
of reason. Such things as these insurrections, however,
injure very much the estimation of our country with the rest
of the world, and give cause of exultation to our enemies in
Europe, who are deficient neither in numbers nor virulence.
1 Alexander Gillon (1741-1794)-
VOL. II — 2E
4 i8 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
The spirit of party has indeed done so much injury among
us in various shapes, that it has given our very national char-
acter an odious aspect in the eyes of many observing
foreigners. The English newspapers last spring gave an
account of the transactions of our national House of Repre-
sentatives in the affairs between Lyon and Griswold, head-
ing the relation in large characters with "American Man-
ners." Porcupine's pamphlet exposing Judge M'Kean's
conduct towards him was republished in England, and com-
mented on under a title altered from the "Democratic" to
the "Republican Judge." 1 His charge to the grand jury
upon that occasion has been represented as a specimen of our
judiciary proceedings, and it has been said with truth, that
there is not a country in Europe, unless it be France, where a
judge could so act and so speak, without condemning him-
self not only to universal infamy, but to forfeit his place.
It is not however alone in England, where we may expect
that everything to our disadvantage will find busy tongues
and willing ears, that such things are circulated. Here in
Germany a man by the name of Biilow, 2 after travelling
twice in the United States has published two volumes en-
titled, "The Republic of North America in its present Con-
dition." It is one continued libel upon the character and
manners of the American people, written with considerable
ingenuity. It contains beyond all doubt a vast deal of
falsehood, but every American who feels for the honor of his
country must confess with shame that it also contains too
much of truth. The author's mode of collecting facts ap-
pears generally to have been, to gather from the newspapers
1 Relating to the trial of Cobbett on a charge of libel against the King of
Spain and his ambassador, Marquis d'Yrujo.
2 Dietrich Heinrich, Freiher von Buelow, Der Freistaat von Nordamerika in
seinem neusten Zustand, Berlin, 1797.
1799) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 4 i 9
and from private malignity all the abuse which the most
inveterate partisans of opposite political sentiments have
imputed reciprocally to each other, and to deal it out all as
equally true and equally stigmatizing to the national charac-
ter. The book has been a good deal read in Germany, and,
as it has been two years published, would have been long
since translated and published in England, did not the writer
show himself as inimical to the English government as to the
American people. I think it very probable that the work
will some day or other find its way to the English press.
There has also been published within these few months, in
English, in French, and in German, the travels of La Roche-
foucault-Liancourt in the United States. He writes with the
feelings of a Frenchman, and probably with a wish so far to
recommend himself to the governing party in France as to
obtain a permission to return. He discovers a proportionate
degree of asperity against the English and their government,
which appears to be somewhat embittered by an order from
Lord Dorchester forbidding him to go into lower Canada.
But with respect to Americans he discovers much candor,
and speaks well of almost everybody. I inclose a transla-
tion of what he says about a person of our acquaintance
which will perhaps amuse you. 1
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
Berlin, 14 May, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I am not surprised that the federal party should be cool
upon the subject of the appointment of a new commission.
It was, and yet is, a measure of very doubtful success in any
1 The visit to Quincy and John Adams, to be found in the London edition of 1 799,
I. 407. The character of Lord Dorchester is omitted.
4 2o THE WRITINGS OF [1799
point of view. There are very great obstacles to its success
in procuring a satisfactory settlement with France, and if it
should fail, it is questionable whether it will make our people
more willing for war than they were. I for my part view it
as justifiable only in the consideration that the legislature
would not at once come to plain and decisive war, and that
the House of Representatives, without any necessity or oc-
casion, had made a formal declaration against an alliance
with England. To hang for months and years together
upon the mere chapter of accidents, to ascertain whether we
shall be at peace or war; and while we are suffering all that
war can inflict, without using all its means of defence ; to
refuse obstinately every expedient that can settle us either
on one side or the other, appears not to me the summit of
political wisdom. I must hope, however, that your success
will silence all clamors against either the measure or the
man.
Porcupine's abuse I think you need not much heed.
What there is of English influence among us will certainly be
against you, and against our preserving peace. But I do
not by any means consider that influence as formidable. No
man of common sense and common candor will fasten upon
you the suspicion which you seem to apprehend. The
situation is by no means desirable, and I should have much
more difficulty to believe you if you had assured me you were
desirous of it, than I have when you tell me contrary.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
18 May, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I think you were perfectly right in writing to Tjalleyrand]
by the post. Much anxiety upon the subject is not now nee-
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 421
essary on our part, and I hope the solicitude for an arran,
ment on the other side will have occasion constantly to
increase. I have observed some late paragraphs in the Paris
papers, much less insolent in their turn than has been usual
heretofore. One signed An American, contradicting the
report that the second nomination was rejected, pretending
it was fabricated in England, and urging that such stories
tend to discourage the French nation at a moment, when
they comfort themselves under the check they receive in
Europe with the hope of returning friendship with America.
Another in the Moniteur, purporting to be an extract of a
letter from Philadelphia, and saying that the friends of our
government are gaining strength, and that the parties among
us are much less heated than heretofore. . . .
TO RUFUS KING
Berlin, 25 May, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I have received your favor of the 8th instant, and hear
with satisfaction that the disturbances within the state of
Pennsylvania ! are not [as] serious in their nature, as from the
accounts in the English papers, the only ones through which
I had heard of them, there was reason to apprehend. An
opposition to the laws must, however, be alarming, and this
circumstance with many others proves the justness of your
principle, that it is necessary for us to extend and consolidate
the foundation of a national power. Upon this subject,
however, experience seems to warrant the conclusion, that
every step towards the attainment of an object so wise and
patriotic, must be impelled by the pressure of an immediate
1 Against the collection of the direct tax of 1798. McMastcr, History
People of the United States, II. 434.
422 THE WRITINGS OF [i 799
and urgent necessity. It is not generally in the character
of nations to provide by present sacrifices against distant
and contingent, however probable evils ; we have proved to
our very heavy cost that we are not entitled to consider our-
selves as making an exception to this rule, and the proceed-
ings on the part of France, which could alone have produced
even the exertions which have been made with us, had so
manifestly changed, that it would have been perhaps im-
possible to obtain any more extensive efforts from a legisla-
ture so extremely reluctant even at everything they have
done, from a body of men, who under all the pressure of that
time not only shrunk back from explicit war, but made a
formal declaration against an alliance which, in case of war,
as appears to me, it would have been unequivocal madness
to reject.
Of the success of a new commission I am far from being
sanguine in my expectations. Though the same difficulties
will not prevent their admission, as their predecessors met
with, there are others not less essential which will not be so
easily superable. The course of events, so powerful in its
influence upon the conduct of the French government, may
swell into insolence, or sink into complaisance and accom-
modation their pretensions and their treatment of the
ministers ; but every possible change of fortune must be alike
adverse to the satisfaction of our just claims of indemnity,
since success will as inevitably take away the will, as defeat
will deprive of the power to satisfy them. I do not appre-
hend any other important obstacle.
The removal of Rewbell from the Directory and the ap-
pointment of Sieyes I find are considered here, more than I
consider them myself, as presages of a disposition towards
peace. Sieyes has often told persons here, that he never
would sit with Rewbell in the Directory, but has now ac-
i799l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 423
cepted, and left this place yesterday morning for Paris.
When he was first chosen he gave as the reason of his refusal
that a member of the Directory ought to have the confidence
of all parties, whereas he had always been the antagonist of
every party. He now accepts, though he had a bare ma-
jority of the votes in the Council of Five Hundred, and more
than an hundred less than General Lefevre. He has pro-
fessed here all along an ardent desire for peace, and has
often disapproved the proceedings of the Directory. 1
1 TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
22 June, 1799.
Dear Sir :
The reason why I said nothing to you concerning your
correspondence with Paris was, because there occurred
nothing to me to observe. Upon that peculiar point, the
assurance of proper reception, I presumed there would be
1 " I believe you mistake the character of Sieves. He is not the man for the meas-
ures which you anticipate, neither do I believe him to be the deep man you have
heard him pronounced. I have seen very little of him, while he was here, and have
not heard much more. But all I have seen or heard concurs to prove that the bad
passions have exclusive possession of his heart. I never heard him open his mouth
but to utter ill nature. You will probably see and hear much more of him. But
at the first sight, in the gloomy asperity of his features, and the deadly livid com-
plexion of his countenance, you will trace the vultures that are incessantly gnawing
at his breast." To William Vans Murray, June I, 1799. Ms.
"I presume you have not had the happiness to witness the passage of the new-
Director. He took a more direct flight to his destination. But you will have op-
portunities to see more than enough of him, and to convince yourself thit he is no
Warwick on one side, whatever he may be on the other. The great court has
never been upon good terms with him. He possessed nothing of the suaviur in
modo, and was always as harsh in his forms as his mission, and any French re-
publican mission to a monarchy is in substance. He professes to be very pacific in
his disposition, and used to complain here that the Directory did not sufficiently
adhere to the constitution. Yet you know he was the real father of the iSih
Fructidor." To William Vans Murray, June 8, 1799. Ms.
424
THE WRITINGS OF [1799
no difficulty. If T[alleyrand] made the speech which you
have heard of, I believe he was very near the truth. That
the Directory do not sincerely desire peace with us is beyond
a doubt, and I know that if our government think as I do,
and the public mind were firm, and united, and decisive, as
it ought to be, war the Directory should have, until they
did most sincerely wish peace and give the proofs of it. If
our public mind were properly toned, I have no more doubt
that war would be our true policy, than that it would be glo-
rious to us in the event.
I am happy to hear again from my friend Hahn, and, by
the way, can you tell what has become of his formal com-
plaint at Philadelphia, and that of his colleagues against
your predecessor at the Hague, for hinting that France had
some small influence over their conduct as Batavian states-
men ? I have never heard of this complaint from home, but
I still regret that they had ever occasion to make it. 1 I did
not know that H[ahn] was a disciple of the ingenious professor
1 "As to H[ahn] and the dust about your dispatch. I had the whole benefit of
it, so I beg you to take the brunt of some such thing for me, particularly if you can
find a revolutionary state of things anywhere to give activity to impertinence, and
some great nation to play the part of brother Bruin behind poor Jerry Sneak, who
each moment looks around with a 'stand by me brother Bruin,' and is exceedingly
warm and dignified. In fact I had orders to soften off the edges without yielding
substance — words, mere words. I waited till they sent their letter to me. It
was less absolute than I had expected from H[ahn]'s bow-wow talk. I then
assured them of respect, amity, etc., and necessity of publishing, etc., etc., and then
demanded of them if they could possibly justify to our Government certain ex-
pressions in their letter to you, which must have excited much feeling — 'advise
your Government to assert its flag from the daily insults it receives from England.'
Whether it was not unfit language to a Government, or even to an individual to pre-
tend to awaken a sense of honor against daily insults. In fact I made as good a
battle in the retreat as I could by attacking them in turn, and never have I heard of
it. Alas ! In a little time Charles Le Croix justified and new painted every line
you had written by packing them off to the House in the Wood, and other places."
William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams, June 28, 1799. Ms.
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 425
of Konigsberg, who preaches atheism and revolution in such
hard words that the honest Germans imagine they do not
understand him. 1 They are in a predicament something
like Cromwell's gentry, who thought he was seeking the
Lord, when he was only seeking a corkscrew. The professor
of the royal university seeks to spread atheism and revolu-
tion, and at the same time to keep his place. I believe this
is the true glossary to his hard words.
Notwithstanding your excellent story of the parson and
the wreck I believe with H[ahn] that the new director
[Sieyes] is incorruptible, that is, that his passion is not
money. The same credit was due to Robespierre. But
our king tamer has not the most delicate ideas upon the sub-
ject of money, since he presented an hundred ducats to an
officer sent by this government to attend him to the frontiers.
The officer was much mortified and perplexed whether to
refuse or accept it. He concluded, however, to take it;
whether from the philosophical consideration that after all an
hundred ducats were an acceptable thing, or that he did not
dare refuse a present from the great Director, I shall not
determine.
Adieu. No news of any consequence.
TO RUFUS KING
Berlin, 2 July, 1799.
Dear Sir :
The result of the elections in Virginia and at New York is
the more agreeable, after the ill-portending measures of tin-
Virginia legislature last winter. I find by the newspapers,
which I have seen to the 8th of May, that the measure of
sending a new commission to France was strongly disap-
1 Immanucl Kant.
426 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
proved by many friends of the government, and see by some
English very ministerial papers that it is likewise much
censured in England. Just at this time, to be sure, Mr.
Pitt feels himself strong and sanguine enough, to avow his
satisfaction at the failure of Lord Malmesbury's two em-
bassies ; but his writers have not the best grace in finding
fault with another government, for sending a new mission
before reparation was made for indignities to a former one.
When Lord Malmesbury went to Lille the Directory had
made no apologies for sending him away from Paris ; nor
had they manifested any disposition to reduce their demands,
or to indemnify England for any of their injuries. Mr.
Pitt says he was then obliged by the strong desire of the peo-
ple for peace to open those negotiations ; but the desire of
our people for peace, and their aversion against a war with
France, are much stronger than they ever could be in Eng-
land. And although both the empires are seriously engaged
in war against France, and have commenced it with an un-
commonly splendid career of success, there are few persons
who would be surprised if, within no very distant time, Mr.
Pitt should again find it expedient to send a minister, and
solicit peace without insisting upon either preliminary
indemnities or apologies. . . .
I am &c.
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Berlin, 3 July, 1799.
My Dear Mother :
I received not until last evening your kind favor of Febru-
ary 10, which however is the latest date I have from you, and
this circumstance is of itself sufficient to give me great con-
cern respecting the state of your health. The Boston news-
papers in April mention likewise, that you were again ill ;
1799) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 427
but I have some comfort in hearing by a letter from Dr. Welsh
to his son, that you were again tolerably well at the last of
April. I have likewise a few lines from my brother Thomas,
dated May II, at Baltimore.
From the accounts we receive of the turn which the elec-
tions have taken in Virginia, we are induced to hope that the
politics of that state are becoming more correct, than they
have been for some time past. I have seen, however, a
publication by Mr. Giles, in which he avows the opinion that
a separation from the Union would be better, than submis-
sion to the alien and sedition laws, the navy and army. 1
Such an opinion acknowledged by any citizens of the United
States is alarming. The example of talking about a separa-
tion rather than submit to this, that or the other law, which
may be obnoxious in particular districts or states, is danger-
ous. A separation is the greatest calamity that can befall
us, and is alike to be deprecated by us all. Nothing could
make it excusable, and we can never be safe so long as any
attempt for it shall not be considered as treason. But of all
follies, that would be the weakest which should withdraw
from the union, to avoid taking a share in a navy and an
army. For in such case the union would be divided into
two nations, the one having a considerable armed force, and
the other none. The shallowest understanding must Bee,
that the existence of the weak party would be forever at the
mercy of the strong one, and that it would instantly and
forcibly be perceived. Such a condition would so little suit
a Virginian spirit, that they would infallibly raise very shortly
army against army, navy against navy, and the separated
1 "The real object of the leading Jacobins has been declared. Giles, at the house
of Mr. Burwell at Richmond, said expressly that he desired that the union of the
States might be severed. He has attempted a denial; but Mr. Burwell, a man of
veracity and fair reputation, positively confirms the charge." Picketing to Rufus
King, May 4, 1799. Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, 111. 13.
428 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
part alone would be oppressed with a burthen heavier than
the whole of that, which it would now refuse to share. So
that the question for Virginia and every other state or parcel
of the union is not, whether they shall choose an army and
navy, or a separation without them, but whether they shall
maintain an army and navy, in common with the rest of the
union, or by themselves apart and alone ; whether they shall
bear in common the burthen of a common defensive protec-
tion against foreign nations, or the same burthen wholly to
themselves, and for protection not only against foreigners,
but against that part of the union from which they shall have
withdrawn.
I find, likewise, that there was brought forward as a
candidate for the office of Governor of Pennsylvania a man *
whose name, if it should ever reach future times, will only
be quoted with those of Jeffreys 2 and Page. 3 Jeffreys, the
independent spirited chancellor of James the second, and
Page the no less independent spirited judge, who treated the
poet Savage much as the candidate treated Peter Porcupine.
Peter 4 has chastised the candidate more severely still than
the poet chastised Page. Yet such is the purity of some of
our elections (as the annals of Pennsylvania at least as much
as those of any other state can show) that I shall not be sur-
prised at all to hear that the independent spirited candidate
was chosen.
Peter himself is indeed not always correct, either in his
facts, his opinions, or his principles, and I am sorry to observe
that with all his good qualities he is rather intolerant, and
not sufficient careful to confine his censure within the limits
1 Thomas McKean (1734-1817), governor of Pennsylvania, 1799-1808.
2 George Jeffreys (1 648-1 689).
3 Sir Francis Page (1661-1741). Richard Savage was brought before him for
the murder of James Sinclair. Johnson, Works, X. 307.
4 Cobbett.
i799l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 429
of justice. Peter says and swears that a century consists of
ninety-nine years. Now although Peter may, if he thinks
proper, square all his chronological calculations upon this
system, I think it rather hard that every man must be set
down irrevocably for a fool or a knave, who prefers the round
number for the amount of a century. Peter tells us further,
that when he commenced newspaper editor, in order to
avoid prosecution the principle that he adopted was, that he
might go as great lengths in attacking the enemies of the
government, as certain other editors went in attacking its
friends. A learned casuist of the last century says :
For if the devil to serve his turn
Can tell truth ; why the saints should scorn
When it serves theirs to swear and lye,
I think there's little reason why.
But Peter's argument is an improvement even upon this
ingenious logic. His reasoning is, that the saints may swear
and lye to serve their turn, not because the devil sometimes
tells truth, but because he generally swears and lies to serve
his. He is for imitating the devil's general rules, rather than
his exceptions, and of course claims a much larger and more
liberal privilege of falsehood and profanity, than the saints
of Butler's. Peter has found that his principles would not
even answer to protect him from prosecution ; but what
ought to be a much more useful discovery to him is, that the
principle itself is bad; that however the Aurora or Argus
may have poured forth streams of filth and calumny against
the cause of order and the friends of virtue, he should not
have thought himself therefore justified, in uttering tilth or
calumny, even against the worst of causes or of nun, much
less against every measure and every person thai happened
to vary in single points from Peter's opinion of good policy.
430 THE WRITINGS OF [i 799
I am convinced that his publications have done much good in
our country, and I heartily wish that many of our well
meaning printers, instead of engaging themselves in silly and
unequal contests with him, would catch a little of his wit and
humor. Young Fenno 1 appears to have taken him for his
model, but not being blessed with so strong nerves he gets
discouraged at the first public measure which happens not to
coincide with his ideas, and I observe has given up his paper,
with an address discovering very considerable abilities, as
well as some useless peevishness and some youthful petulance.
I have seen this performance in the English Anti-Jacobin
Reviews at full length under the title of " Fenno's View of the
United States of America." The English editor seized it
with avidity, because it contained a libel upon our country
and its government. To such things from the pen of Peter
Porcupine I know not what can be objected, while he avows
himself an Englishman and keeps within the bounds of
law. We ought to derive benefit from being told of our
faults, and we know what allowance to make for the prej-
udices of a foreigner. But an American ought to treat his
country with more delicacy and respect. He may censure
with seventy, whenever he thinks he can contribute to re-
form, but his censure should always be attended by the
tenderness of friendship. He may be a satirist but not a
lampooner. 2
1 John Ward Fenno, son of and successor to John Fenno, founder of the Gazette
of the United States. The son's manifesto was reprinted as Desultory Reflections on
the New Political Aspects of Public Affairs in the United States of America, since the
Commencement of the Year 1799. New York, printed : Philadelphia, reprinted :
1800.
* "The new mission was at first received with more than coolness. Cobbett
abused it with all his characteristic virulence, and young Fenno gives it as a reason
for throwing up his paper. He published a long piece, a vindication of his resignation
written with much fire and animation, though with some boyish turgidness, in
which he utters many bold truths, but where he employs the gloomiest colors to
i799l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 4 ;,
The new commission appointed to treat with France ap-
pears not to have had at first the approbation of many per-
sons in America, the most friendly to the government.
Although there is much reason to doubt whether it will be
successful in making such an arrangement as [we] could wish,
and as we should in justice be entitled to, I am satisfied
that the measure was wise and conformable to the best
interests of our country. The commission will find a change
almost total of the men at the head of the French govern-
ment since the former negotiation. One of the Directors,
Rewbell, is gone out by the constitutional yearly rotation;
one (Treilhard) has been dismissed as unconstitutionally
elected, and two (Merlin and Larevelliere) have resigned to
avoid being turned out, or used still more harshly. The legis-
lative councils have just discovered that these Directors have
been for eighteen months the tyrants of France, and have
supplied their places with four new directors (Sieyes, Roger
Ducos, Gohier and Moulins), who are to repair all the mis-
chief done by their predecessors, and to bring forth golden
days fruitful of golden deeds, to help them in which work the
Director Barras is the only one deemed sufficiently vir-
tuous to keep his place.
This new cast of characters for performing the tragical
farce of French revolutions took place on the 17th or 18th of
the last month, and on the same three days a succession of
battles was fought in Italy by the Austrian and Russian
armies under Suwarrow, against the French forces under
Macdonald, in the result of which the French were defeated,
and lost in killed, wounded and prisoners, about 8000 nun.
paint the errors and frailties of this country. His language may possibly be justi-
fied by the necessity of the case, but there is nothing else can excuse it. To dis-
cover the nakedness of a parent for any other purpose than that of healing his
-wounds, is abominable." To William Vans Murray, June 25, 17</;. Ms.
432 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
TO THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS
9 July, 1799-
To your long letter of March 4-12, I ought to say some-
thing more than is merely contained in mine of the 1st in-
stant in answer, without waiting for your letter by way of
England written in the beginning of May, which I have not
yet received. Yesterday a couple of small packets of news-
papers and cuttings, dated February and March, came to
hand, which I suppose you sent with your letter from Quincy.
I am glad to see at last, what I had before heard of, Por-
cupine's abuse upon the appointment of a new commission to
negotiate with France ; he seems to have taken it very
much in dudgeon and seriously threatens the government,
and especially the President, to withdraw from them his
powerful patronage and not very gracious protection. 1
He has a good hand at ribaldry, and having in general sup-
ported honest and honorable principles, has been useful in
lashing with his coarse scourge men who would have been
insensible to more delicate punishment. Poor Webster
owns and complains that Peter's Gazette is the most popu-
lar newspaper in the Union, and it is not difficult to perceive
the reason why. Let the other papers assume as much
vivacity, as much wit, and as much decision, and they will
soon get into greater vogue themselves.
1 " I have likewise now seen Porcupine's abuse of you, but he abuses the Presi-
dent yet more, tells him he will lose all his friends, and threatens if he does not
behave better, no longer to support a government that is forever recoiling. What he
most laughs at you for is, for having said in a debate upon the old alien law, that
you feared the great influx of foreigners would corrupt the purity and the simplicity
of the American character. Thus this fellow sneers at our national character as
much as at individuals, has done so boldly and openly for years with impunity, and
yet complains that our press is not free." To William Vans Murray, July 9, 1799.
Ms.
1799) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
433
Peter is certainly wrong when he complains that the lib-
erty of the press is not enjoyed in America, in so high a
degree as in England. If an American should go to London
and set up a daily newspaper, and fill it from one week's end
to another with abuse however ingenious and witty upon the
English king, Parliament, judges and people, upon their
friends and allies, upon every man and measure which
should cross his own ideas of right, or his national partiali'
as an American, Lord Kenyon would very shortly send him
to muse upon the liberty of the press in the king's bench
prison, or a cockney mob would spare the courts of justice all
trouble about him, by breaking his head and pulling down his
printing shop about his ears.
The impression which the new commission first made upon
many of our federalists at home, I cannot very easily account
for. At the last session of Congress, amidst all the indig-
nities heaped upon the former negotiators, and all the
injuries practised in their utmost extremes upon our com-
merce, Congress did not choose to go to war; and yet
when negotiation was solicited on the part of France, was it
to be rejected ? As to those who talk of making France
pay for all her plunder, and ask pardon upon her knees for
her robberies, they should at least show how we could have
effected such a purpose by war. What the result of this
mission will be I know not; but it will certainly be better
than we could have hoped from the most favorable issue of
a war that could have happened. The only harm that the
negotiation could produce, would be a relaxation of our prep-
arations for war, which would indeed be the most extreme
bad policy. For it would be the most infallible means of
defeating the success of the commission. All negotiation
with France, that is not supported by a real ami visible
force, must be mockery. The more of her frigates we take,
vol. n — 2 F
434 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
the more likely our ministers will be to succeed in their
mission.
Before the two gentlemen who are to come from America
shall arrive, a complete change of men may perhaps have
taken place in the French government. Four of the five
directors have already been displaced within these two
months. They are now universally called at Paris the
tyrants of France. The operation of their removal is called
a cisalpinade. It was done by the legislative councils, who
thus give a counterpart to the 18th Fructidor. According
to all appearances the time is not far distant, when the
rubber game between those two powers will be decided. The
general charge upon the ex-directors is for dilapidations, and
the virtuous Barras is the only one of them left in his place.
Rewbell went out by lot at the time of the annual election.
He carried off from the Luxembourg 1200 livres worth of
furniture belonging to the public, which he has since been
obliged to restore, and his sons appropriated to themselves
the horses of the nation. 1 The new directors, besides Sieves,
are three Jacobins as virtuous as Barras. Two of the minis-
ters (of the police 2 and interior) have likewise been changed,
but the virtuous Talleyrand remains, and the report that he
is to come as minister to this court is not yet confirmed.
1 " The French papers say that Rapinat is the positive, Forfait, the comparative,
and Rewbell the superlative in everything relative to robbery." To William Fans
Murray, July 16, 1799. Ms.
2 Joseph Fouche came into this office.
1799) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 435
TO RUFUS KING 1
Berlin, 15 July, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I received last evening your favor of the 2nd instant, with
some inclosed letters from America, for transmitting which I
am obliged to you. The late change at Paris is, I believe,
merely a change of men ; whatever change of principles, or
rather of practice, has yet appeared is, if anything, a change
for the worse. Forced loans within and a renovation of
piracy without signalize the virtuous regeneration of councils
this time. The plunderings of the old directors were ob-
noxious only as they stood in the way of other plunderers, who
being leaner were more voracious, as the famished wolf is
more dangerous than the one already gorged with blood.
I believe that the assurances of a proper reception for
our new commissioners are made through Mr. Murray to
our own executive, who will judge of their validity, and I
have no doubt, but they will be as full and ample as can be
desired. But I am not without some doubts, whether the
result of the late change of actors at Paris will not be un-
propitious, and after seeing the Council of Five Hundred
ten days ago repeal the ratification of a treaty, I see little
encouragement to place much dependence upon the public
faith of the present ruling party. 1
1 In May instructions were prepared for Mr. King for a treaty with Russia, and
laid before the President, who wrote to Pickering; "I pray you to send a copy of
these instructions to Mr. Adams at Berlin, and give him fresh instructions to agree
with Prussia and Sweden both, in this instruction relative to the article of contra-
band of war, or to agree to the old article of contraband in our former treaties with
those powers. I am determined to make no further difficulty with cither of these
powers about the article of contraband, provided they will agree to the old one."
May 13, 1799. Works of John Adams, VIII. 647.
On July 11 was signed a treaty of amity and commerce between Prussia and the
United States, thus accomplishing the object of Adams' mission. "The treaty
436 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
I have not seen either of the letters of Barlow or Skip-
with which you mention, but I know that they have been
trying to intrigue a little with the ex-Directory to get L. F. 1
sent to America. I suppose they worked in concert with
L. F.'s friends at Paris, and I believe that he himself would
have been glad if they had succeeded. He says the mission
was offered him, but he refused to go without knowing what
they meant to do by way of reparation towards us. But
Dr. Logan says that L. F. procured for him the permission
to go to Paris.
L. F. talks about universal liberty and the rights of man,
just as he did in 1789. Whether his understanding or his
heart must answer for this, I am unable to say. 2 La Roche-
with Prussia was at length signed on the nth instant, and though we have been so
long about it, most of the articles are copied verbatim from the old treaty. The
principal difficulty was in the alteration of the twelfth article. I was ordered to
propose a change in it, and the old article was very strenuously adhered to here.
The rule at length agreed upon is, to observe the acknowledged Law of Nations,
instead of the former stipulation. The other changes are a list of contraband, (the
same as that of the treaties between Great Britain and Russia,) a variation of the
salvage for recaptures ; a specification of the papers necessary for the vessels of the
neutral party in time of war; a provision against such a transaction as occurred
in the Wilmington Packet, a removal of the exemption of merchant vessels from
•capture in time of war, a subjection to general embargoes, and the omission of the
clause in the former treaty in favor of France, instead of which a clause is intro-
duced conformable to the engagements of our late treaty with England." To
William Vans Murray, July 13, 1799. Ms.
"I ought to tell you that in the last Publiciste your treaty is spoken of as very
favorable to Prussian interests in respect to Silesia linens, as they would like doubt-
less to aid their party by hints against your treaty, for anything to divide suits
them. I mention this that you may know that some one at Paris has got hold of
that point, and of course you will take care of your details if any may be necessary
to be sent to our friends on that point." William Vans Murray to John Quincy
Adams, August 2, 1799. Ms.
1 Lafayette.
2 "And first with respect to General Fairfax [Lafayette] and his projects, you
know what I think of him and them. If the choice depended upon me, I should
rather, both for his sake and ours, that he should not go. But yet, the man is not
1799) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 437
foucault-Lliancourt is such another. He has been publish-
ing his travels in the United States, in which out of pure
philanthropy and tender hearted benevolence, he has be-
trayed General Simcoe's confidence to reward his hospitality ; '
has returned the numerous obligations conferred upon him
by Englishmen with continual marks of bitterness and malice
against the English nation; and has paid his unwearied
obeisances to the French tyrants, who had robbed him of
everything but life, and from whom he saved that only by
flight. These people are lambs to every butcher, and vipers
to every benefactor. 2
• • • • • • •
so important in the scale of being, as he imagines himself, or as the superficial popu-
larity, which he has not yet lost in America, makes him appear to us. It is almost
indifferent whether he stay or go, and if he should go, not very material whether he
adhere to his present system of American politics, or plunge again into the filth of
Jacobinism. The difference is but of a little more, or a little less turbulence and
folly exhibited to the world. I should not think it worth while very earnestly to
dissuade him from going, more especially as you may be sure that if he does go, it
will be with extreme reluctance. All his hopes, such as they are, and indeed all his
powerful and active passions draw him back. If he possibly can, I am sure he will
stay." To William Vans Murray, August 31, 1799. Ms.
1 See Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, III. 230.
2 On July 17 Adams and his wife left Berlin for Dresden and Toplitz. They
returned to Berlin October 12. In the summer victory seemed to be with the
Allies, for the French armies were everywhere receiving checks and defeats. When
he again reached Berlin the conditions had changed in a startling manner, and
the French had won on every side.
"I was sure that the new commission was not intended to be a mere form, not to
be followed up. Such a measure, with such a design, would be as repugnant t 1
the President's character as light to darkness. He meant the thing to have all 1
effect it could, but if at the time it were possible that it could have been successful,
I know not what influence the late changes of men in France will have there, e
daily as Talleyrand's going out may probably produce an alteration in th
towards America. I hear from Mr. King, that P. Henry is dead." T< ■■
Vans Murray, August 13, 1799. Ms.
Not until September 4 did Pickering write to Murray that the assurances tra
mitted from Talleyrand were considered as a substantial compliance with the I'
dent's requisitions; and that the envoys, Ellsworth and Davie, were din
prepare for their voyage. This intelligence reached Murray <>n N
438 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
TO JOSEPH HALL
Berlin, 19 November, 1799.
My Dear Sir :
I received with great pleasure a few days ago your favor of
24 September. Having been absent from this place during
three months of the summer, it was but very lately I had seen
in Boston papers your election to represent that town in
the General Court, and that of our friend Frazier, a circum-
stance which in an high degree gratified my feelings both of
friendship and patriotism.
I am highly obliged to you for the view of public affairs
contained in your letter, and for the candid observations of
your own with which it is accompanied. 1 In our internal
situation there are many parts of the prospect, which have
very much improved since last I had the pleasure of seeing
you, and although our foreign concerns still remain com-
plicated and entangled with many difficulties and some dan-
gers, we have yet ample reason to rely upon the bounties of
providence and our own united prudence and energies, to
1 "The information, experience, observation and judgment of our Executive are
recognized by all. Yet his nomination of the envoy to France last session pro-
duced a wonderful ferment in the minds of the best men among us. His independ-
ence in originating the measure without consulting those around him not only
piqued the pride of individuals, but was softly censured by other persons of some
weight and unconnected with those individuals. It was observed that however
competent the present magistrate was to act independently of the other officers of
the government, yet the precedent was a pernicious one, and might deduce at a
future period consequences fatal to the repose and happiness of the people. The
conscious rectitude and just self-respect of the man have, however, I believe, in-
duced him still to follow the dictates of his pure enlightened mind, but has I fear
engendered a want of confidence and a degree of coolness that ought not to exist
among the great officers of any government. Still from the known talents and
patriotism of each and all of them, the mischief will not, I presume, be serious, nor
the commonwealth suffer in her important interest." Joseph Hall to John Quincy
Adams, Boston, September 24, 1799. Ms.
i799l JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 439
extricate us from them. I was not surprised to find that the
measure of sending a new mission to France had appeared
to you, as to many other true and intelligent Americans, at
least of questionable policy. Its ultimate effect is yet very
uncertain, and the course of events alone can show whether
it was really advisable or not. I have perhaps no title to
the credit of an impartial judgment in the case, but the step
appeared to me from the first expedient upon the following
grounds. First, because there was, both on our part and
that of the French government, a clear and unequivocal
aversion to a formally declared war, and because that aver-
sion, founded upon the unquestionable interests and loudly
pronounced sentiments of both nations, was of itself a sub-
stantial ground for hope that peace might be restored by
negotiation, and at least such terms of good understanding
as would be consistent with our spirit and character as a per-
fectly independent nation. Secondly, because the expedi-
ency of treating at all being admitted, I believed on many
accounts it would be more advantageous to us to treat by an
American mission in France, than by a French mission in
America. And as from a paltry scruple of pride and shame
alone the Directory were restrained from sending a minister
to Philadelphia, it seemed to me our policy to let them enjoy
the humor as long as they pleased, and esteem ourselves
fortunate that it would save us from the danger of having
in the midst of us that universal firebrand, called a French
minister. Thirdly, because the internal revolutions of men
at the head of affairs in France are so frequent, that it seemed
prudent to have ministers there to be at hand, in case any
more favorable chance for a successful negotiation should be
occasionally produced. There is, for instance, at this mo-
ment, not one man in the Directory who was a member of that
body, when our former commission was so shamefully
44°
THE WRITINGS OF [1799
treated. An entirely new set of men are in action, and they
are the first to cry down the conduct of their predecessors.
A mission to France even now would doubtless meet with
many great obstacles to a satisfactory negotiation, but at
least all the foul and dirty passions and personalities of
Merlin, Larevelliere and Barras will have disappeared.
These men have all been ignominiously driven from office,
and the unanimous voice of France proclaims them to be
just what we found them when at the zenith of their power.
Fourthly, I considered the measure as wise in respect to its
effects upon our relations towards England, who will cer-
tainly think us in her power, and treat us accordingly, in
proportion as she sees the door of reconciliation between us
and France shut. Accordingly, the new mission from Amer-
ica has been nowhere so severely censured as by the creatures
and dependants of the English ministry. The very beings
who had seen with applause Lord Malmesbury go to sup-
plicate peace at Paris, and after being spurned from thence,
return to kiss the rod and be spurned again from Lille, tell
us forsooth, that it was disgraceful for America to send a new
embassy, until the injuries and insults to the former had been
atoned and repaired. The motives of these gentlemen are
apparent, and the very reasons why they look at the em-
bassy with aversion and jealousy are among the strongest to
prove its expediency to minds and hearts truly American.
The objection that the measure ought not to have been
taken without consulting the officers of government, I can-
not be prepared to answer, because it is only from your letter
and the public prints, that I have been informed the fact
was so. But if it be contended as a principle, that the Presi-
dent ought not to take any important step without consult-
ing the other officers of government, (by which I suppose
you mean the heads of departments,) I cannot admit it as
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 44 i
conformable either to the spirit or to the letter of the Con-
stitution. Such a system in effect would make our execu-
tive a Directory of five or six persons, and the President of
the United States would be merely the President of a Coun-
cil. Now if there be any case in which the President ought
to omit the consultation, it must be surely in cases when he
knows that the advice of the persons to be consulted would
be against the measure which he proposes, and this the same
public papers which have spoken of the transaction in-
timate was the case in the present instance. That the omis-
sion should have occasioned a want of confidence or a cool-
ness on the part of the officers of government, is a matter of
very serious regret. But probably the same or a greater
coolness must have arisen, had they been consulted and the
measure adopted against their advice. For after all the
President must have decided according to his own convic-
tion of expediency, which was as it appears decidedly in
favor of the new mission.
The extraordinary career of success with which the allies
were favored during the greatest part of the campaign now-
closing, and the series of defeats suffered by the French,
might tend more than ever to render questionable this
measure, if it were wise at all to calculate our political meas-
ures upon the unstable fortune of war. The great defeat of
the Austrians and Russians in Switzerland towards the close
of September, and their subsequent expulsion from that
country, together with the more than shameful issue of tin-
expedition under the Duke of York against Holland, have
in a great measure restored the balance of affairs ; and al-
though the event of the campaign hitherto has been to rescue
Italy for the moment from the hands of France, jrel the
vital spirit of the coalition has already been so weakened,
that it may very probably expire before the end of the win-
442 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
ter, or offer an easy prey to the superior energy of the French
at the opening of the ensuing season. It is, indeed, not
yet certain, whether a winter campaign will not anticipate
the events which may properly be expected in the course of
the next year.
I shall not attempt to give you an account of the new
revolution which has taken place at Paris, because we have
yet only confused accounts of it here, and because you will
have a detail of it by the way of England earlier than my
letter can reach you. Hitherto it only appears that the
Directory have again recovered by the means of an armed
force that supreme control over the legislative councils,
which their predecessors lost in May last, and that in order
to remove the councils from the influence and protection of
the Parisian Jacobins, they have made them transfer the place
of their meetings to St. Cloud ; that Barras has resigned and
taken himself away, and that Buonaparte and Sieves are to
be lords of the ascendant. . . .
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
10 December, 1799.
Dear Sir :
The example first set by the Jacobins with us, and after-
wards adopted openly and professedly by Porcupine, of
pouring forth personal abuse without any measure of de-
cency or of truth, has so totally degraded the character of
our newspaper speculations in the mind of every man, who
has any remains either of taste or of delicacy, that I am some-
what surprised you should take so much to heart anything
which appears in those kennels of pollution. Porcupine de-
clares that it was his principle from the first to go as great
lengths against the Jacobins, as their prints went against
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
443
honest men. His practice has gone further even than his
professions. For, as he has made his own passions the test
of political honesty in other men, and his own ignorance and
prejudices the measure of their information and candor, he
has repeatedly let loose all his coarse virulence against men
and measures which were most subservient to his own cause.
His example and its success have been the stumbling stone of
young Fenno, who from an ingenious schoolboy was by the
unhappy death of his father suddenly turned into the editor
of a newspaper, and now with all the ignorance, and presump-
tion, and peevish impatience of infancy waxing into manhood,
decides upon public transactions of the deepest interest and
most intricate complication. 1
That the new mission to France had any effect whatever in
favor of McKean's or Monroe's election (if the last has taken
place) I do not believe. Surely the elections of Pennsylvania
have been for several years past conducted in such a manner
as requires no extraordinary circumstance to account for
the issue in this case. And surely the Virginia Legislature
which passed the famous resolutions of last winter could
neither be stimulated to, nor deterred from such a choice as
Monroe by the proposal for a new negotiation with France.
Had this mission not been determined on I, for my own part,
am convinced, not only that those two elections would have
turned out in the same manner, but that the men would
have been much more dangerous in their stations than
they will be now.
I have not seen any critique upon your communications
with the French government; but there are so many people
among us who mistake insolence for dignity that I should
pay very little regard to censure upon the ground of too much
1 Refers to a severe attack on the mission in Fenno's newspaper of October 19,
1799-
444 THE WRITINGS OF [1799
supposed civility in your expressions. You remember with
what violence the same charge was sounded against Mr.
Jay's correspondence with Lord Grenville. Upon the whole
I still cherish the hope that time and events will bring back
all the good men and true to the expediency of this measure.
But if not, if one part of the federal party will split from the
other upon the system of driving at all events for war with
France because there was a time when war would have been
perfectly justifiable, I shall have no hesitation in quitting
them, be the consequences what they may. I have never
considered the cause of honor and virtue in our country as
standing upon so rotten a basis as concealed, much less
disguised, motives. Nor do I believe now.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
15 December, 1799.
Dear Sir :
I had understood that the Colonel [Pickering] disapproved
altogether of the new mission to France, and he has even
intimated in a letter to me that he thought there was a
kind of infatuation in the mere idea of treating with those
people. It is therefore possible, and I hope is the case, that
his letter censuring the expressions of your letter to T[alley-
rand] was not anything more than his own sentiments. For
my part I must consider objections against the "humble
servant" at the bottom of a letter, as the cavils of a captious,
or at least of an angry mind. It seems to me that you were
sufficiently known to the French Government for all the
purposes of the measure which you took. It was, I think, to
all intents and purposes an official act, so performed by you —
so received by them. But the close of the letter was in
1799] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
445
words of mere form, and the assurance of your pleasure in
transmitting the message of your government mere civilitj .
I am convinced that much of the federal Jacobinism which
you mention is the operation among us of English influence.
For there is among us a great deal of it, as we see upon every
occasion when our government adopts measures not con-
curring with English policy. It extends often to persons
who, though pure and honest Americans at heart, are misled
by too much faith in English statements of public affairs
and English ministerial arguments. This is the case of
young Fenno, who believes through thick and thin in the
gospel of Porcupine and the "true Briton," and, being at a
time of life when he doubts of nothing, undertakes to give
his wise lessoning to the executive of the United States. . . .
Dear Sir
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
20 December, 1799.
I had been told here that La F[ayette] went to Paris, not
only without invitation, but without leave, and that he had
been ordered by the Consuls to remove at least to the dis-
tance of twelve leagues from the capital. I think with
L[liancourt], that by discovering his longings for power again
he will only make himself ridiculous.
There is probably another reason why Lfliancourt] hates
Colonel P[ickering] besides that which he told you. 1 It is
because the Colonel is not enough of a Frenchman. The
same motives would defeat all the eloquence you could be-
stow to convince him or any Frenchman in office of the Presi-
1 Because Pickering had "justified the murder of Louis XVI to the Indians after
the reign of terror was known in 1794, and now is bitter against the French for
cruelty."
446 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
dent's moderation towards France. They all hate the man,
and have done so ever since the days of Vergennes, who never
forgave him his independent spirit, while old Franklin was
crouching like a spaniel at his feet. In one of the latest
Redacteurs I see that a paragraph, under the date of New
York, pretends that several States had sent remonstrances
to Congress against the President's partial measures re-
specting the French.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
6 January, 1800.
Dear Sir :
I am much obliged to you for a copy of your letter to the
President. I do not imagine that the explanation was neces-
sary for him, and I cannot believe that he partook of the Colo-
nel's l dissatisfaction concerning the manner of address in your
letter to Talleyrand. Your style in that case probably dis-
pleased only those who disapproved of the mission itself.
Now I have had an intimation that some of our federalists
thought the quarrel with France ought upon motives of
policy to be kept open ; but as we do not concur in that
opinion, and heartily wish for an honorable accommodation,
we must be content to differ in the detail from those who are
already at variance with us upon the principle. The French
newspapers assure us that the piratical law of January, 1798,
has been repealed, and that privateering affairs have been
placed upon the footing of the ordinance of July, 1778.
After this I know not even upon what pretext we could con-
tinue to refuse negotiation.
I have not written home anything speculative upon the
new French constitution. With respect to theories it seems
1 Pickering.
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 447
to me that whoever is not settled by a mere perusal of this
new code is far beyond the reach of all comment or argument.
The government of Turkey or China might be introduced
tomorrow to France, and provided it were ushered in with
a proper seasoning of the words liberty, equality, republic,
and representative system, it would serve the purpose of our
Jacobins as well, and perhaps better than the constitution
of 1793. The popular elections in France will for the future,
to be sure, be less than the shadow of a shade. But the
permanency of this establishment is yet very questionable.
It is impossible it should be really satisfactory to the nation
although they will adopt it almost unanimously. But as
mere force must carry it on, it is yet too weak as a govern-
ment, and must fall like its predecessors. As to the old
constitution of the French monarchy, I know as little about
it as you, perhaps less. I only remember the answer of
a Frenchman of wit and learning to my father, who inquired
what was the best book upon the French constitution :
"Monsieur, e'est l'Almanach Royal." . . .
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No 160 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 14 January, 1800.
Sir :
I have the honor to inclose the copy of a note which I
received a few days ago from Baron Engestrom, the Swedish
Minister at this court, containing a proposal for the em-
ployment of a number of frigates in the Mediterranean in
concert between the United States, Sweden and Denmark,
an object, which he assured me, the King of Sweden had
peculiarly at heart. As all the security which our navigation
can enjoy in the Mediterranean by virtue of any treaty
448 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
with the Barbary powers must be precarious, and as even
to obtain that security we have submitted to an expense so
much more considerable than had ever before been applied
to that purpose by any European power, this proposal ap-
pears to deserve the peculiar attention of the government. 1
The Swedish Minister inquired at the same time, whether
I had received any answer to another proposal which I
transmitted about a year ago, relative to the island of St.
Bartholomew. I told him that I had not, but that I pre-
sumed the answer would be such as I anticipated at the time
when the proposal was communicated.
On the 3rd instant died here very suddenly, at the age of
eighty-five, Count Finckenstein, first minister in the de-
partment of foreign affairs, a station which he had held up-
wards of half a century. He was undoubtedly the oldest
diplomatic character in Europe, having entered the career
in the year 1735, when he was sent as Minister to Sweden
by the predecessor of Frederick the Great. He had signed
several dispatches to the ministers abroad on the day of his
death. There will probably be for the future only two minis-
ters in the department, at the head of which will be the
late Baron Alvensleben, whom the King has now made a
Count.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
January 25, 1800.
Dear Sir :
• ••••••
The Russian troops 2 are finally and decidedly recalled,
excepting those in Italy, and those in the Island of Guernsey.
This is owing partly to the misunderstandings between the
1 See Works of John Adams, IX. 63.
2 These latter were intended for a descent upon Holland.
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 44 ,,
two imperial courts, which is greater than ever; and partly
to the situation of the troops themselves, who are in a state
of almost total dissolution from all discipline. So that
Vienna will now have its hands entirely free to cut up Italv
with France just as it pleases.
There is no more comparison between the powers of a
President of the United States and a premier consul, than
between the character of Washington and Buonaparte.
It is satisfactory to see them returning to their vencrat.
for our venerable patriot and hero, whose fame stands upon
too durable foundations for them to shake. But it is truly
sickening to hear the first voice of utterance from the
tribunal to be mere declamatory adulation to the idol of
fourteen days, which would have been worthy of a Roman
Senator in the days of Tiberius. Riouffe 1 was a fanatic
Girondist, and to see him turn to a parasite is no wonder.
But why Benjamin Constant, who in one of his pamphlets
lays down as a serious maxim that when impious men bear
sway it is a duty to flatter them, — why he should be the first
to break a lance against the demi-god, is not so easily ac-
countable. You must however allow me, notwithstanding
the change of bon ton, to make some account not only of the
suicide Cato, but of the parricide Brutus. I despise and
abhor every application of the principles upon which they
acted to modern times and French affairs as much as any one
— the cases must stand by themselves. But the inalienable
right of individual virtue to withdraw itself from the power
of an usurping tyrant, or of removing the tyrant himself
when there is no other resource left, I have not yet in the
resigned.
Beurnonville arrived here a few days ago with his two
adjutants. His two secretaries had arrived here before him.
1 Honore-Jean Riouffe (1764-18 13).
vol. n — 2 G
450 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
Adieu, my dear sir, I hope you will find at Paris a better
climate than you have yet known in Europe ; at least you
will meet a less repulsive national character than you have
lately been accustomed to.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
4 February, 1800.
Dear Sir :
I did not write you by the last post, relying upon Count
Byland's information that he had crossed in the packet
from England to Cuxhaven in company with your colleagues.
But I find by a letter from Mr. King of 24th ultimo that
the Count must have been mistaken, for he tells me that
Messrs. E[llsworth] and D[avie] reimbarked at Lisbon for
L'Orient. Mr. Pitcairn tells me the same thing, and men-
tions 29th November 1 as the date of their reimbarkation.
But if this account be accurate, there is reason for concern
and alarm that we have not heard of their arrival in France.
The repetition of the proposal for negotiation on the part
of France, and the shyness which England shows in the second
answer, are both circumstances of considerable seeming
importance. It is true that when these answers were given
they did not know in England the final determination of
Russia to withdraw her troops. As to the odium of another
campaign, it seems to me that England has now taken it
very formally upon her shoulders, and, therefore, the British
government must be extremely confident that it will be
successful. They are apt to be over sanguine ; but if the
interior of France be as many people suppose, the policy is
good. Rcederer 2 to be sure says that before the 18th of
1 December 21st they sailed from Lisbon.
2 Pierre Louis, Comte de Rcederer (1754-1835).
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 451
Brumaire ninety-nine out of one hundred of the whole French
people wished for a king as well as himself. Now if this be
true, though he by the place of councillor of state has been
converted, that cannot be the case with the rest.
General Washington we learn from the latest accounts by
the way of England died after a very short illness on the
15th of December. He is gone to a better world, very few
of whose inhabitants were while sojourners in this so de-
serving of it. If there be in that state room for the exercise
of virtue, its powers must be more extensive and less clogged
than on this wretched globe. But where all are glorious
he will shine with more than a common luster. The world
needs some consolation for the loss of such a man. 1
I am &c.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
11 February, 1800.
Dear Sir :
• ••••••
With respect to the mission itself I have a letter from my
brother, dated 31st December, in which he says:
We presume our envoys to France who sailed early in November
have ere this safely arrived somewhere. They had an absolute con-
trol over the destination of the frigate in which they embarked,
and nobody knows whence we may hear from them first. Their
departure was at a fortunate moment, when the tide of prosperity
had materially turned against the republican armies, and when
1 " I was very much affected with the account of General Washington's death.
He is now beyond the reach of all bad passions which have attempted to shed
some of their venom even upon him, and his character will remain to all apes a
model of human virtue, untarnished with a single vice. The loss of such a man it a
misfortune to mankind. To our country it is a heavy calamity." To Joseph
Pitcairn, February 4, 1800. Ms.
452 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
rumors prevailed, though destitute of foundation, that the coali-
tion had resolved to compel an universal combination against the
French republic. The story was circulated with great zeal that,
previous to the sailing of the frigate United States, the British
minister had strenuously remonstrated against the departure of the
Commissioners for France. This was untrue, though there is
room to believe that the mission was regarded with a jealous eye
by the British cabinet. Since the affairs upon the continent have
reassumed a more favorable aspect for France ; the total failure,
and we apprehend the disastrous issue of the expedition to Hol-
land ; our advances to meet any disposition that may discover its-
self on the part of the French republic towards an adjustment of
difficulties, are viewed with much greater approbation than at any
period since the envoys were appointed. The strains of invective
in which some people had indulged against the measure have, in
many instances, been converted into applause, and, except Fenno's
Gazette, there is not to my knowledge a newspaper in the country
that does not speak of it in the style of encomium which I thought
it deserved.
I have given you this long extract because it so fully
confirms what we had both anticipated as to the effects upon
the public mind in our country of the events at the close of
the last campaign. The new revolution in France was not
known at Philadelphia at the date of my brother's letter,
and must necessarily have contributed further to the same
effect. The course of events has indeed been a most eloquent
apologist for this measure, and I believe will continue so.
The British government by the repeated refusal to treat
with France have shown themselves very sanguine indeed
to their future success ; but when their last answer was given,
they knew nothing of the Vendee pacification, nor of the
final recall of the Russian troops. A campaign of various
and alternate success seems since these events highly prob-
able, and I believe is the best thing that can happen.
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 453
The report of General Washington's death was but too
true. Nothing of him now remains but his immortal spirit,
and [one] of the greatest names that ever appeared upon
earth for the pride and consolation of the human race. I
feel it as an inestimable happiness to have been the cotem-
porary and countryman of that man. "Praise enough for
a common mind" says Cowper,
That Chatham's language was his mother tongue,
And Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own.
The sentiment is good; but how much more forcibly can
we apply it to the name of Washington than it appears in
the names chosen by the poet himself to express his idea. 1 . . .
Yours faithfully,
1 "On the 21 we communicated the death of the illustrious Washington] in the
great hall of the Society of F. M. which was hung in deep mourning on the occasion,
and upon the orchestra was placed an obelisk representing the bust of W. on his
tomb; on one side the emblem of the society crowning it with laurels, on the other
the genius of Humanity weeping for his loss. On the front of the figure was in-
scribed the following words : 'The Society honors the merits of that man whose
death Humanity mourns.'
The ceremony was composed of a funeral hymn, set to plaintive music, and exe-
cuted by a numerous band of musicians in a manner which impressed every heart
of a very crowded audience; and an elegant elegy pronounced by Mr. I. Kinkcr,
a celebrated lawyer of this city, and delivered with an animation due to the inter-
esting occasion. All the Americans here assisted at the ceremony, and esteeming
it to be my duty to take public notice of such an honorable mark of attention to
our country, I addressed the Society in behalf of my fellow citizens in the words of
which the enclosed is the copy." Sylvanus Bourne to John Quincy Adams, Amster-
dam, March 25, 1800. Ms.
454 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 161 [Timothy Pickering]
Berlin, 8 March, 1800.
Sir :
Since my last letter I have received duplicates of your
favors N. 18 and 19, the latter dated October 4th. I have
nothing from your department more recent than the 14th
of the same month.
You may perhaps have heard ere this that Messrs.
Ellsworth and Davie, after reembarking at Lisbon, and
being a month at sea, were obliged to put in again at Corunna
from which place they concluded to proceed by land to Paris.
Mr. Murray left the Hague on the 17th of last month, and
probably all three Commissioners will in the course of a few
days reach the place of their destination. 1 The prospect
that their mission will have a successful issue appears to be
more flattering from day to day. The formal and public
tribute of respect, which the first consul Buonaparte has
paid to the memory of our great and ever lamented fellow
citizen, Washington, is honorable to himself and I presume
will give much pleasure to our country. He has ordered
black crapes to be suspended to the flags and colors of the
French armies throughout the whole Republic for ten days,
and that the bust of Washington shall be placed in the Tuile-
ries, with those of many other illustrious military characters
of ancient and modern times. And a funeral eulogium, at
his desire, was delivered at the Hotel des Invalides, in honor
of our great patriot and statesman. Upon this occasion
the French minister at this court, General Beurnonville,
with his whole legation, paid me a visit a few days since to
1 Ellsworth and Davie reached Paris on March 4, and found Murray there.
Joseph Bonaparte, Fleurieu, and Rcederer were the French commissioners.
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
testify their sorrow at the loss which the United States
have experienced by the death of their most illustrious
citizen. 1
I am &c.
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Berlin, 25 May, 1800.
The latest accounts I have had the pleasure of receiving
from you are of January 5 and February 8. But Mr.
Paleske has arrived at London on his way hither, and I ex-
pect to see him in a few days. He informs me that he has
letters from you for me. 2
1 "Le General Beurnonville, ses deux aides de camp et les deux secretaires de la
Legation Francaise se sont presentes chez Monsieur Adams, Ministre des Etats-
Unis pres sa Majeste le Roi de Prusse, pour avoir l'honneur de lui faire leurs com-
plimens de condoleance sur la perte que sa Republique vient de faire par la mort de
l'illustre Washington, et lui temoigner toute la part qu'ils y prennent.
"Berlin 5 Ventose an 8 de la Republique Francaise (24 Fevrier, 1S00)."
"Le General Beurnonville, envoy extraordinaire de la Republique Francaise
pres sa majeste le Roi de Prusse, a l'honneur de presenter le bonjour a Monsieur
Adams, ministre plenipotentiaire des Etats-Unis d'Amerique, et de lui adresser
un exemplaire de l'eloge funebre de Washington; il desire qu'il y trouvc l'exprcs-
sion des sentimens de sa nation pour ce grand homme pour sa nation meme : le
general assure Monsieur Adams personellement de sa haute consideration.
"Berlin le 6 Vento e an 8 Rep'ue. 26 Fevrier 1800." Ms. Compare Rufus
King's account of the conduct of the English court, in Life and Correspondence of
Rufus King, III. 202.
2 "He [Paleske, the Prussian Consul] carries with him the ratification of the
treaty between the United States and Prussia, which received the sanction of
twenty out of twenty-six members of the Senate. Whilst the treaty WU under
consideration, an anti-member proposed a resolution that the President should 1
requested to lay before them the instructions and correspondence 1- Mr.
A[dams] and the Secretary of State. This was done, no doubt, with a new to find
something to cavil at, and to serve as an electioneering project. No movement 1
that party now, which does not keep that in view. P[inckne]y of C|arolin]a
he was desirous of seeing the correspondence, because he had heard that Mr.
A[dams], in some of his letters, had censured, or did not approve of, the measures
456 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
A longer time has elapsed since I wrote you last than I
can apologize for with propriety. It is possible that at some
future day I may send you the result of an occupation
which, almost in spite of myself, I have suffered to engross
for several months past, not only every moment of my
leisure, but even much time which ought to have been de-
voted to other pursuits. For the present I can only tell
you, that it is the translation of a popular German poem,
which is so far completed that I promise you it shall not
henceforth interrupt the frequency of my correspondence
with you. 1 The stagnation of political events during the
winter months, together with various other motives, in-
duced me at first to undertake the work as an amusement
for myself and a few friends ; but what I had taken as a
pleasant companion soon mastered me so completely, that
for months together I could scarcely snatch from it here and
there an hour for any other purpose whatsoever. What is
worst of all is that, now I may consider the thing as in a man-
ner finished, I am so ashamed of it in every sense that I
hesitate even at promising you a sight of it, and should not
now mention it to you, but that the long interval since I
wrote you required some excuse on my part, and in this case,
as in all others where excuses are necessary, I know of none
better than the statement of the naked truth.
I am sorry that the President should have expected from
me a narrative of the revolution in France, which brought
of government. How that, had it been true, could have anything to do with this
treaty, I leave the mover to find out. The resolution came; the President was
very wroth ; but ordered the papers sent. The result was, to the great mortifica-
tion of the party, and a declaration from some members who opposed the treaty
that it was ably conducted, and it passed without a word more of opposition."
Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, February 28, 1800. Ms.
1 Wieland's "Oberon." The Ms. translation is in the Adams Mss. After
making it he found an English translation, made and published by William Sotheby.
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 457
forward another constitution, and placed Buonaparte at
the head of affairs in that country, with powers superior to
those of any limited monarch in Europe. That hideous
monster of democracy, begotten by madness upon corruption,
which produced such infinite mischief in Europe, is now so
thoroughly exploded from the country where it originated,
that I could not imagine it necessary to send any comment
upon the transactions at Paris upon the commencement of
the last winter. The character and tendency of the pres-
ent French constitution is so very obvious, that I scarcely
thought it susceptible of elucidation. But it has afforded
me some amusement upon perusing Dr. Priestley's letters
to the inhabitants of Northumberland, 1 to see him cry up
the French directorial constitution as superior to that of the
United States, for the very articles which the French have
been the first to abolish. Poor Doctor ! whatever his gifts
are he has not the happiness of being gifted with the second
sight. He shared the misfortune of all those, who for the
last ten years have in America ventured in their panegyrics
: upon French affairs to descend into particulars. I have
' scarcely known an instance of the kind, of a person applauded,
but he was banished or guillotined; of a thing admired, but
it was overthrown as detestable at the very moment when
the encomiastic pen was in motion.
But Dr. Priestley loves the French revolution, and so large
is the swallow, so ostrich-like the digestion of every man of
that description, that I have no doubt he will be as read;.
admire its present result, as he was any of the former;
unless his self love should take offence at their having
contemptuously thrown away what he pronounced to be the
supreme excellence of their constitution. The D
: that pure patriotism exists only in Utopia, which may be
» Letters to the Inhabitants of Northumberland and its Neighborhood, 1799
458 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
admitted as a justly candid confession though, as a sar-
casm upon human nature, I believe, it is not true. The Doc-
tor looks through a concave glass at mankind, and affirms
upon his honor that it is the nature of man to walk upon
his head.
He is remarkably tender in his letters of the feelings and
characters of the late French government, that is, of the
five worthy Directors, who have since been with so little
ceremony kicked out of office by the French themselves, as
utterly unfit for the places they had held. He disapproves
the President's incessant, unnecessary, not to say unjust, in-
vectives against those worthy friends of Liberty. And I
have heard the present French minister at this court,
General Beurnonville, utter invectives against those same
persons, in comparison with which all that the President
ever said of them was panegyric.
The Doctor tells us about his speculative turn, and that he
speculates upon everything. But if he had limited the sub-
jects of his speculations, he might have been more successful
in them. If he had reasoned much less through his life, he
would have reasoned better. He recommends to the United
States with respect to foreign nations the policy of China.
China, says he, though a commercial country, carries on no
commerce itself ; has no resident Ambassadors in any coun-
try; and what country has flourished more than China?
Suppose a political writer in America should advise the
United States to adopt an absolute and unlimited monarchy,
and should add, such is and has been from time immemorial
the government of China ; and what country has flourished
more?
Absurd as the argument would appear to Doctor Priestley,
it is his own. The flourishing state of China is no more to be
attributed to its commercial or diplomatic system than to
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
its despotism. But an undoubted effect of the Chin<
system is, that they are in respect of literature, the arts and
sciences, many centuries in the rear of Europe, and th
to this day, they are ignorant of the circulation of the blood.
His encomium upon Stone's intercepted letter to himself
affords another specimen, if it be sincere, of his acutem
in reasoning. He, as well as Mr. Stone, wishes for a total
revolution of the government in England, but that it may
be effected peaceably, and without the interference of any
foreign power. Which is just as if he should say to his
neighbor, I wish I could see a man run a sword through your
heart, though being very tender souled, I hope it would not
hurt you.
I am sick of such reasoners as Dr. Priestley, and the
French nation are heartily sick of them too. Instead of
his five Directors removable by fragments annually, they
have got a first Consul for ten years, with powers as much
greater than those of an American President, as the com-
mand of a lieutenant-general exceeds the command of a
lieutenant. Instead of jealous exclusions from office of
every man who has learnt by experience to fill an office
they have made re-elections possible in all cases. Instead of
elections for short periods, they have extended them to
long ones, and the most important body of men in their con-
stitution, their Senate, the electors both of their legislative,
their executive, and their tribunate, are for life and self
elected. How far all this may be an advancement towards the
millenium which Dr. Priestley expects to flow from the French
revolution, I pretend not to say ; but it departs as much from
all his favorite principles at least as much as it approaches
to that happy consummation.
.
Yours &c.
460 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Berlin, 12 June, 1800.
Mr. Paleske arrived here a few days after I wrote you last,
and delivered me your letter and pamphlets, together with
the dispatches from the Secretary of State, and the letters to
my wife, which were extremely acceptable to her, as she had
been so long without hearing from her parents.
I was much gratified by your anecdotes respecting the pro-
ceedings in the Senate upon the treaty. The opposition
gentlemen must indeed be at a loss for the materials of
censure upon the government, when they are willing to
make use of such disapprobation as I ever expressed or felt
concerning any part of its administration.
The orations in honor of that honorable man, who only
lived in memory as a model for later statesmen and heroes,
gave me likewise great pleasure, though not all worthy of
the illustrious character they commemorate. Poor as our
country unfortunately is in the most elegant departments
of literature, I cannot but hope that some native unsophis-
ticated American will be found to give the world a speci-
men of biography, which may be in its way as useful and as
honorable as the life it will record. A subject in every
respect so admirable ought to be treated by the wisest head
and the most excellent heart in the union.
Webster's letters to Dr. Priestley ! are sensible and tem-
perate — perhaps too temperate, a virtue which is apt to
degenerate into frigidity. He has treated with less severity
than it deserved the insidious and hypocritical attempt of
the Doctor to attack our government and constitution
upon the pretence of defending himself. The Doctor seems
1 Ten letters to J. Priestley in Answer to his Letters to the Inhabitants of North-
umberland. By Noah Webster, 1800.
,8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 461
to have felt peculiar sensibility at Porcupine's calling him
an hypocrite, for the sting of satire is never so sharp as when
pointed by truth. Now if there were no other instance to
give than one I mentioned in my last, the Doctor's assertion
that he wishes for a total revolution of government in Eng-
land, but that it may be effected peaceably, this alone would
suffice to stamp him for an hypocrite; that is, a man who
pretends to virtues which he does not possess. Shallow as
Dr. Priestley's political opinions are, he is not fool enough
to believe this possible, or to wish sincerely what he knows
to be impossible. The real wish therefore is for revolution,
and the added proviso, that it may be peaceably effected,
is a mere pretence to sentiments of humanity, which he
did not feel, and therefore pure genuine hypocrisy.
It is not at all surprising that the American Jacobins
should be dissatisfied with the late changes in France, and
the new constitution there, which has so formally abjured
all their favorite tenets. The French Jacobins are as little
pleased with it, but as long as the first Consul shall be a
victorious general they dare not stir. The state of France
has been very much ameliorated in every respect by us
change. Internally a dangerous rebellion has been sup-
pressed, and external victory has returned in every quarter
to their banners. A power greater than that of any limited
monarch in Europe has, indeed, been committed to the first
Consul ; but his character improves by success ; he lias done
very few improper things since he attained his present sta-
tion and many wise things. His fate now depends again
upon the chance of war, and as every present prospect
promises him a career of victory calculated to in<
higher his military reputation, it is probable that hi
may acquire a consistency that could not be expecte<
he ventured upon the bold attempt which seated him at the
462 THE WRITINGS OF [i8o|
head of the French nation. It is indeed yet impossible to
consider him as a principled man. His ambition, like that
of other conquerors, scruples little what means it uses ; but
it has certainly great and noble views, and the prospects
of France in case of his failure are in every particular so
much worse, than what she may hope from seeing him es-
tablished firmly, that I believe this is really to be wished.
There is nothing in which the French policy has been so
much improved and amended under the present administra-
tion as in their treatment of other nations, and especially
of the neutral states. All their plundering and barbarous
decrees against neutral navigation have been rescinded,
and they have established as a court of final appeal in ad-
miralty causes, a tribunal which they call the Council of
Prizes. They have commenced their sessions, and their
first decision was an act of signal justice to citizens of the
United States. The ship Pigeon of Philadelphia had been
taken by two national frigates, and condemned by the two
inferior courts of admiralty — in the second instance both
vessel and cargo — for the want of a role cT equipage. But
as it appeared the want of this paper was owing to the yel-
low fever's being at Philadelphia when the vessel sailed,
the Council of Prizes have reversed the sentences of the lower
courts, decreed the restoration of the ship and cargo, and
costs and damages to the appellants. Such at least is the
account I find in the last Paris papers, though I have not
[heard] from either of our Commissioners. If the fact be
so, as I believe it is, and the Council of Prizes proceed to
act with the same equity and regard for the laws of nations
in other cases, the negotiations of our Commissioners will
be greatly facilitated, and the issue will show how really
prudent and politic the appointment of this mission to
France was. Yet this incident serves to show how little
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
we can calculate upon the effects of public measures upon
the public mind. From most of our accounts it should
seem that this very measure has weakened the influence of
the person at the head of the American government; that
it alienated many of the friends to the government, without
gaining any of its enemies. The next election will doubt-
less show how far these surmises are well grounded. But
neither our age nor country has been the first to discover that
An habitation giddy and unsure,
Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
• ••••*
Ever affectionately yours.
TO FRIEDRICH GENTZ
Berlin, June 16, 1800.
Sir :
I had already perused with great pleasure the comparison
between the origin and principles of the French and American
revolutions contained in the Historic Journal for the two
last months, before receiving the copies which you had the
goodness to send me yesterday. It cannot but afford a
gratification to every American attached to the honor of
his country to see its revolution so ably vindicated from the
imputation of having originated, or been conducted upon
the same principles as that of France, and I feel myseH
an American citizen highly obliged to you for the considera-
tion you have bestowed upon the subject, as well as for the
honorable manner in which you have born.- testimi
the purity of principle upon which the revolution of my coun-
try was founded. I beg you, sir, to accept my best thai
for your very acceptable present and to be assured that
shall take much satisfaction in transmitting and mak
464 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
known the treatise to persons in the United States capable
of estimating its merits. 1
TO THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS
11 July, 1800.
• •••••
I see the electioneering campaign has begun at a very
early period indeed, and with equal inveteracy and ability
on the part of the opposition. That very pimping to the
popular passions upon which all the Jacobin cabals are
founded is but too well calculated to succeed in a country
like ours. I despise it from the bottom of my soul, but I
have too long witnessed its efficiency not to be conscious of
it. When I see Governor M'Kean and Edward Livingston
become the panegyrists of Washington, I cannot help think-
ing of Boileau's lines :
Je crois voir le diable
Que Dieu force a louer les Saints.
You tell me in one of your former letters that it is surprising
to see how pliable the tempers of people are, and how gen-
erally they follow the torrent of political success. But such
is the nature of the human heart. When Governor M'Kean
turns out of office old meritorious sufferers in the cause of our
revolution, to make way for his own sons and creatures, his
party care not a fig about inconsistency of such conduct with
his professions of republican purity, or rather they feel there
is no inconsistency in it. The object in both instances is
1 In pursuance of this assurance Adams made a translation of Gentz's essay,
Origin and Principles of the American Revolution, compared with the French Revolu-
tion, which was published in Philadelphia, in 1800. He also prepared a review of a
later work by the same author, On the Origin and Character of the War against the
French Revolution, which was printed in The Portfolio, August 22, September 19 and
26, 1801.
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS .,:
the same. The professions are made to strengthen his party.
The offices are taken from his opponents and given to his
friends to strengthen his party. The professions are like
Hodge's razors, made not for use but for sale, and when
they have answered their purpose it is ridiculous to think
of returning them upon the seller's hands. He has got hia
money, and may boldly laugh at the dupes who took his
razors upon the presumption that they would shave.
The fair mask of public spirit has so often and so long been
worn to cover the foul visage of private interests and ma-
lignant passions that if it were susceptible of decay, it would
long since have been worn out. But as it has always been
used successfully, so it will continue to succeed as long as
there shall be on earth men to cheat and be cheated. Nor
is it of much consequence how thin the disguise is, since a
Cooper * can assume it with as bold a face as a M'Kcan.
To a man of the philosophical school of Timon a pamphlet
like that of Cooper's trial must be a valuable feast. Here
is an expatriated English patriot, who turns to a flaming
American patriot; who begs for an office to which he could
have not the least pretension, of a man whose political
opponent he owns he had been, as holding him unfit for his
station from want of capacity; who, upon meeting the re-
fusal which in every respect he deserved, lays up his re-
sentments carefully for two years, until the time approaches
when a new election is to designate the dispenser of ofru
and then seizes the only moment when he thinks he can
harm to libel a man of whom he had begged in vain for
office. And now talks of his sacrifice for the public with as
bold a face as if he were a real Decius. Boasts of his manli-
ness, because the tone in which he begged for office was surly
and not servile, the growling of a mastiff and not the fawn-
1 Thomas Cooper.
VOL. H — 2H
466 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
ing of a spaniel for the sop ; and of his purity from vindictive
motives, because he waited two years to exhale his venom,
knowing that the object against which he meant to dart it
would then be most within his reach. Holds out his appli-
cation to the President of the United States for an office,
and his friend Priestley's application for him, as confidential
communications from friend to friend, which the President
could not honorably divulge, and publishes extracts of real
private letters written by the President before he held that
office, and entirely as from and to a private person. What
a comment all these transactions contain too upon Priest-
leian republicanism and virtue. Mr. Adams had written
letters to Dr. Priestley, containing assurances of respect and
esteem for his personal character. Upon these, no sooner is
Mr. Adams become President of the United States, than Dr.
Priestley grounds an application for official appointment to
a man notoriously improper for it, and upon being refused
commences libeller of the same man, whose private friend-
ship he abused by improper solicitation. 1
With respect to the changes you mention of the heads of
departments I lament them, whatever the occasion which
gave rise to them may have been ; and as I am entirely left
to conjecture, with very few data upon which to ground
an opinion concerning them, I cannot but wish you had been
less reserved in speaking of them. 2 It has been suggested
that the last mission to France was sent against the opinion
of the two Secretaries who are no longer in place. It can
no longer be a question whether this measure was for the
benefit of the United States. The ministerial writers in
1 Works of John Adams, IX. 13.
2 McHenry, Secretary of War, resigned May 6, and Pickering, Secretary of State,
was dismissed from office May 12. On the same day (May 12) Marshall was named
Secretary of State.
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 467
England, to be sure, found great fault with it, and talked
about the degradation of dignity in negotiating before the
injuries and insults of the French government had been
repaired and atoned for. Such too was in a transient
moment of success the system pursued by the same English
ministry, which had twice sent Lord Malmesbury to implore
peace in vain. They soon after rejected repeated offers of
peace with the same arrogance. Now what are the con-
sequences of this dignified conduct ? Why, those same
English ministers, after spending fifty millions sterling more,
will in a moment of defeat and humiliation be compelled
again to entreat for peace, and take the terms prescribed
by an insulted and exulting enemy, instead of those which
they might have had by fair agreement and without humilia-
tion on either side. Should the consequences of the mission
to France be ever so unpropitious to the personal influence
of the person at the head of the American government, I
bless my God that he had the firmness and the wisdom to
propose and to persist in that measure, even against the
opinion of his friends and supporters. At least I consider
our country now as out of the danger of a formal war with
France. And surely in point of dignity it was infinitely more
generous to send a mission to France at a time when she
appeared in adversity, than it would have been to wait
for the moment of her triumph.
Such at present is her situation in a very eminent degree.
You will undoubtedly before this reaches you hear of the
battle of Marengo, the most decisive engagement, perhaj
that has been fought within a century. The Corsican ruffian
is beyond all doubt a hero in the common accept alien of the
word, and I suppose in other respects as good a man as the
rest of his class. If you look into the twenty-first book of
Livy at the fourth chapter, you will find the character of an
4 68 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
ancient hero, and one of the greatest that ever lived. Buona-
parte's military excellence is in all probability equal to his,
and the remainder of his character is perhaps not so bad. 1
• ••••••
Yours invariably.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
Dresden, 15 September, 1800.
Dear Sir :
You will not be surprised, after having learned by my
letters from this place last year what attractions it possesses
for the lover of something more than landscapes, to find
by the date of this that I have renewed my visit here. But
I am obliged this time to content myself with a very tran-
sient view of those masterpieces of art which had then so
much of my admiration that it could not be staggered even
by the heaviest batteries of your eloquence. I am here only
1 On July 17, 1800, Adams started on an excursion to Silesia, mainly for the
benefit of Mrs. Adams, whose health had never been good at Berlin. He wrote an
account of this journey of more than three months in a series of letters to his brother,
Thomas Boylston Adams, who had just returned to the United States. In January,
1 801, Joseph Dennie started a literary periodical at Philadelphia, The Portfolio,
and knowing of these Silesian letters he obtained permission from the receiver to
print. The first letter, dated July 21, 1800, appeared in the first issue of The Port'
folio, January 3, 1801, and the series of forty-two letters ran in the journal to Novem-
ber 7, 1 80 1. In 1804 an individual, without the knowledge or consent of the author,
republished the letters in London, and from this copy they were translated into
German, and published at Breslau, with notes, by Friederich Albert Zimmerman.
Three years later a French translation by J. Dupuy, was printed in Paris. As
the letters had been written in full and free confidence, without any intention to
publish, and had not been edited for publication, a few statements might have
caused embarrassment had the persons affected complained or taken notice of
them. So far as is known no such result followed, and the volume is still interesting
as an early account of Silesia. See the note by Charles Francis Adams in the
Memoirs, I. 240. It has not been thought necessary to include any of those letters
in these volumes.
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
for a few days and that accidentally, upon my return from a
tour of two months through Silesia and the country of
Glatz. A period during which I have lived in a blissful
ignorance of politics and news, which I can only sigh to think
must so soon terminate. The interruptions of this felicity
have been few and seldom. But when they have come, it
was to grate like scrannel pipes of wretched straw amidst a
concert of such harmony as might create a soul under the
ribs of death.
There is not, I believe, in all Europe a province so little
visited by foreign travellers as Silesia ; yet there are very
few, if any, which contain such a multiplicity of objects
calculated to afford both amusement and instruction ; cer-
tainly none where a soul susceptible of enjoyment from the
contemplation of the beauties of nature, or a mind curious
to investigate the world of human industry, can find greater
and more varied satisfaction. It is likewise as a manufactur-
ing province the only part of the Prussian dominions, the
commerce of which is important to the United States, and
might furnish us with linens and broadcloths upon more
advantageous terms than we receive them from England and
Ireland.
Since my arrival here I have been delighted to receive
after a long interval another letter from you, and thank j
for the copy of your letter to Dexter and for the paper. I
had seen in an extract from a London paper the Btat<
respecting the negotiation at Paris, which it seems was very
little worse, if so bad as the reality.
As to France's project of an armed neutrality in the North,
and her persuading the maritime powers t< blisl
principle of making the ship clear the goods, I could not re
those paragraphs of the statement without laughil
northern maritime powers have wit enough to know
470 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
their great danger is from France, not from England ; and
they likewise know that for the establishment of maritime
principles France is as impotent as she is preponderant upon
firm ground. Russia might indeed go far towards forcing
England into an acquiescence of such a principle ; but I be-
lieve the French politicians just now overrate their influence
upon Russia. The late affair of the Danish convoy has in-
contestably proved that as yet there is no concert of the
northern powers against England, and that any attempt of
a single third rate power to resist by force the system of the
admiralty must end in defeat and mortification. 1 It is not
while France has her jaws open to swallow the whole Eu-
ropean continent that she can persuade others to set up a
different maritime code.
Upon the subject of your letter to Mr. Dexter, and the
divisions of which it speaks, I have had more than one
uncomfortable hour, but I know scarcely anything more
than the facts which are public. My friends in writing to me
upon the subject observe a degree of circumspection which
they may think necessary, but which keeps me very much in
the dark. Of the Essex junto I heard formerly relative to
state affairs, and as Colonel P[ickering] was an Essex man,
it is possible his conduct and opinions may have been in-
fluenced by those persons who were said to compose it.
They are men of the first abilities we have, and some of
them may perhaps incline rather too much towards English
politics. It is highly probable they may have disapproved
the last mission to France, and as to that systematic spirit of
subordination which you think necessary, it is entirely out
of the question with them. For this reason although their
influence has always been great in Massachusetts they have
always been considered as bad party men, and they are
1 Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, III. 282, 287.
boo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 471
generally unpopular men. I do not believe that the- 1
Secretary of State withheld intentionally any papers of im-
portance from the President; but he was unquestionably
averse to the last mission to France, and has never been n
onciled to it. From various circumstances I think it prob-
able even that his opposition against it was not merely
speculative, and he may perhaps have delayed the departure
of your colleagues. But I suppose you know from themseh
what I certainly do not, the cause of the frigate's putting
in to Lisbon. I do not deem it of any consequence. Had
the negotiation commenced nine months sooner than it did,
the result in my opinion would have been the same. . . .
Yours truly.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
Berlin, 30 October, 1800.
My Dear Sir :
You have every reason to believe that some of your late
letters did not reach me in due season, as at this moment I
am to acknowledge at once the receipt of three dated &
tember 27, and October 5 and 10. The first of which espe-
cially, as the messenger of the happiest tidings I had heard
for years, the successful issue of your negotiation with Fran
ought not to have remained an hour without an answer to
give you that hearty congratulation, which the warmth and
strength of my feelings upon that occasion tly
dictated. My only apology is that I was prevented from
writing by illness. . . .
I readily believe that my summer has been spent in I n
agreeable manner than yours ; but as an amp!- 1 «
you have the pleasure of reflecting that you havt
same space of time rendered an important service to jroui
472
THE WRITINGS OF [1800
country. While my time has been given to sloth and en-
joyment, yours has been employed in toil and usefulness. I
should take great shame to myself from the comparison,
were I not fully conscious that I could not have spent those
months in a more beneficial manner to anyone ; and as my
post itself was a place of almost total inactivity, the best use
I could make of the summer was to obtain a particular and
intimate acquaintance with the most important and valuable
province of the Prussian dominions. This purpose I partly
effected, though from being obliged to hasten back some weeks
earlier and more rapidly than I intended, I could not accom-
plish it to the extent I desired. Your advice with respect
to the publication of my tour has, as all advice from you
must have, great weight in my mind. Numerous as the
accounts of travels have been of late years, there has been
no work either in English or French comprehending a tour
into Silesia, and the subject would have, therefore, in some
sort the advantage of novelty. Yet if handled by a writer
properly qualified for it, a richer subject could not be de-
sired ; but it is from this very point that my greatest ob-
jections to your friendly design arise. I shall not dilate
upon this idea, which is far from being pleasant to myself,
and which may have an air of affectation to you. But
when I tell you that in my opinion a traveller who presumes
to give the result of his observations to the public, ought to be
versed in every art and every science, as much as Cicero
requires of an orator, I may without scruple add that this
judgment, of course, is a sentence of silence upon myself.
As, however, such information as I could collect concerning
a very interesting province, the very name of which was
scarcely known in our country, appeared to me worthy of
being communicated, I wrote a series of letters to my brother,
which, without aspiring to the pretensions of a printed type,
iSoo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
will give to my most particular friends in America
knowledge at least of a country which by no means ti-
the neglect it has experienced.
To return to a subject of greater importance, I rq
my felicitations upon the happy issue of your emba
Paris. As this mission was the origin of that very strange
division of the federal party, which will probably transfer
the office of President at the impending election into the
hands of their opponents, I confess I have felt more than
ordinary solicitude that it might terminate successfully.
It is so essential to the nature of mankind to judge of thil
merely from events, that I could not have seen without
degree of mortification the defection of so many j of
abilities and influence from their party and their chief, .
parently justified by the results of events. As things ha
terminated it seems to me that no man of common
will henceforth dispute the wisdom of a measure which pro.
so injurious to the personal influence of the man at the h
of our government. Under this conviction I feel myself
now perfectly at ease with regard to the issue of the elect i
The President may now go out of office with at 1«
much honor and dignity as he could desire from being con-
tinued in office, and if the same measure which has given an
honorable peace to his country should deprive him of his re-
election, it will but prove the more victoriously tl
acted in his station, not as the man of a party, but
man of the whole nation.
By this event too it appears to me that the quest* I
cerning the presidency loses much of its import.,
respects the interests of the country. In our «
being at peace with all the world, I cannot believe
party, possessing the reins of government amoi
wantonly involve us in any further dangerous qui
474 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
will indeed require great prudence and coolness to keep hence-
forth upon tolerable terms with England, who is evidently
dissatisfied with the reconciliation between us and France,
and who will be captious, troublesome, and provoking. But
she has such a weight of odium bearing upon her from all the
northern powers of Europe, that I question whether she will
venture upon extremities with us while she remains at war,
and there is no present probability of her obtaining peace.
Besides the motives which induce me to rejoice at your
success from patriotic and from personal, or rather family,
considerations, my friendship has derived a warm and hearty
gratification from the circumstance that the negotiation was
at first commenced solely and in so great a degree conducted
to its end by you. What the diplomatic corps may think of
your returning to the rank and character of Minister Res-
ident at the Hague, after having been Envoy Extraordinary,
is of little consequence. In the eyes of a reasonable man it
will give you a new title to respect. But if after what you
have done, your country and its government should leave you
still in the character of Minister Resident, it would be a deg-
radation in them which they would not easily answer for.
I have too much confidence in their justice and sense of
propriety to believe they will. . . .
Yours.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 171 [John Marshall]
Berlin, ii November, 1800.
Sir :
I have now the honor to inclose copies of the declaration
delivered by the Russian ministry to the envoys of Sweden,
Denmark and Prussia, proposing the revival of the armed
i tool JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 475
neutrality, and of the answer given by the Swedish govern-
ment to the complaint of Spain, on account of the seizure of a
Swedish vessel in the harbor of Barcelona, by certain Engli
naval officers who, by that means, effected the capture of
two Spanish armed vessels lying there.
The answer of Count Haugwitz to the Russian declaration is
dated October nth, and purports the King's full concurr^
with the Emperor of Russia in the declaration, and his heu
disposition to join in adopting measures for the security of
navigation; but intimates that perhaps the system of the am
neutrality will require at present some modification, and ex-
presses a desire to know what measures are contemplated for the
purpose of enforcing the new system in case it should be neces-
sary. It likezvise referred to the convention between Gt
Britain and Denmark of August 29th, and suspecting tha:
was not known at St. Petersburg at the time when the declara:
was made, represented the necessity of waiting to see if it •
not produced any change in the intentions of the Emper,
this subject.
Baron Krudener in his reply, dated October 13th.
an immediate entrance upon the negotiation, giving his assur-
ance that he had received dispatches from his court since the co
vention of August, (saying) that it was known then thai i
this respect it had produced no alteration whatsoever in the
Emperor's intentions.
Count Haugwitz' s second answer declared, that he has
king's orders to enter into conference with Baron A
live to this affair, and is ready to receive w)
lions the Emperor may direct to be made. It is
17th. . .
The plan proposed by the Russian cabinet ha, within these
■very few days arrived here, but I have not yet seen it.
I am &c.
476 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 172 [John Marshall]
Berlin, 15 November, 1800.
Sir :
• ••••••
Whether the disposition and wishes of the present French
government are so absolutely and unequivocally pacific as
their professions indicate, may admit of a doubt, but a cir-
cumstance that entirely distinguishes the first Consul's
policy from that of all his recent predecessors at the head of
the French administration, is a desire not to be at war with
all the world at once, and of improving every opportunity to
obtain peace with such enemies as France is least able to
injure, and whose friendship is beyond all question the more
valuable to her than the issue of any possible hostilities on
her part against them could be. Hence the late convention
with the United States ; hence the pacific arrangements
concluded with the Barbary powers ; and hence the address
which has been used to effect a peace with Russia, to whom
France has made every possible advance, insomuch as to
offer a restitution without equivalent of all the prisoners
taken in the campaign of 1799, and of all the Russian stand-
ards which fell into the hands of the French. This has in-
troduced a negotiation in which France has requested to
know what further Russia required for peace ; to which the
answer was, that the Elector of Bavaria should be restored
to his dominions, that Piedmont should be restored to the
King of Sardinia, and that the King of Naples and the Duke
of Wurtemberg should be left unmolested. These condi-
tions indeed require sacrifices of more consequence than a few
thousand prisoners, whose detention is useless expense, or
of standards, the mere memorials of victories of small
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 477
account, amidst the numbers obtained by the first Consul
himself. It is questionable whether he will think it expedient
to comply with all or any of these demands. The negotia-
tion is at least commenced, and every day the prospect of
approaching peace with the great northern potentate be-
comes more apparent.
I am &c.
TO RUFUS KING
Berlin, 22 November, 1800.
Dear Sir :
I learn with great pleasure that the British government
have given you an official assurance that they see no cause of
complaint or dissatisfaction on our Convention lately con-
cluded with France ; the more so because it has been indus-
triously circulated upon the continent that they were very
much displeased with it, and even inclined to a rupture with
us for it. This opinion has been countenanced by the man-
ner in which some of the English newspapers have spoken of
that negotiation and its issue, and has derived further credit
from the recall of Mr. Liston, 1 on account of the disagreeable
situation, say the Gazettes, in which he has long found him-
self at Philadelphia.
I know not whether the cabinet of London are aware of the
thousand stories of this kind, which are now constantly
spread abroad in the north of Europe, and have at least the
tacit encouragement of these governments themselves, which
have all strong resentments against England chiefly on ac-
count of her principles of maritime laws and the unchecked
1 Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836), who was minister to the United States from
I 796- 1 804.
478 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
and unpunished practices of her navy. The universality and
bitterness of odium against the English name throughout
all this part of Europe are incredible. Much of it is un-
doubtedly derived from the intrigues of her enemies, and
much from the lurking spirit of jacobinism. But far the
greater part is owing to Britain herself, to the domineering
principles avowed in her admiralty courts and the insulting
excesses of her naval officers. All the transactions relative
to the capture of the Danish convoy; the proceedings in
the affair of the Swedish vessel seized at Barcelona and used
to take the two Spanish ships ; a similar circumstance which
took place nearly about the same time at Embden, have
contributed to exasperate the nations and the governments
of the north. The Emperor of Russia, who has now, in
addition to his ill humor and his passions, a strong interest
of his own to bear hard upon England in order to compel the
delivery of Malta into his possession, spurs and instigates all
the other northern powers to violent measures against her,
and if his impetuosity should not break out into immediate
war, he will at least use all his influence for the revival
of the armed neutrality. Even the temper of this country
has grown angry and testy towards England, as a very re-
cent occurrence has proved. A Prussian vessel was lately
taken at the mouth of the Texel by a British ship-of-war and
sent for adjudication; but from stress of weather, before it
could reach an English port, was obliged to put into
Cuxhaven. The master of the Prussian vessel came on
shore and claimed the protection of his minister at Hamburg.
He immediately demanded of the Senate that the vessel be
delivered up, on the ground that the entrance of a prize into
a port within the line of demarcation was a violation of the
neutrality, of which the King of Prussia is the head and pro-
tector. The Senate demurred ; said the vessel being an
iSooj JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
English prize, they had no control over her, nor even the
means to compel her delivery. Upon which the ki: .
Prussia, as protector of the neutrality, ordered a detachment
troops to go and take possession of Cuxhaven. In the mean-
time the English prize master by the order of his sui
officer delivered up the vessel. Lord Carysfort presented
here a very temperate and soundly argued note again
the occupation of Cuxhaven by Prussian troops, and t In-
orders to that effect have been countermanded ; here this
affair perhaps may end, but the course of it has shown the
temper of Prussia in a light, as I think, not to be mistaken. . . .
Yours faithfully.
TO JOHN ADAMS
Berlin, 25 November, 1800.
My Dear Sir :
Many months have passed since I received a line from J
or from my dear mother. From my brother Thomas I have
no letter of a later date than July, and from the Department
of State I have but one dated since last February. Perha
I am to impute the greater part of this seeming oblivion of
my American correspondents to my own remissness during
the last winter. For six months, however, I have scarcely
suffered a week to pass without writing, and unless my lev
should have been unfortunate beyond the common prop*
tion of failures, many of them must before this hav ed
the United States. I have not written, indeed, dire
you since July, but I suppose most of mv letters
brother, written upon my tour into Silesia, have been ,
by you, and have given you frequent information of our
situation.
I have, therefore, been obliged to depend upon the ao-
4 8o THE WRITINGS OF [1800
counts from America contained in the public newspapers
and the private intelligence of some Americans in Europe.
All these concur in representing the state of parties and the
temper of the public mind in such a state, as to leave scarce a
doubt but that a change will take place at the ensuing elec-
tion, which will leave you at your own disposal, and furnish
one more example to the world, how the most important
services to the public and a long laborious life, anxiously and
successfully devoted to their welfare, are rewarded in popu-
lar governments.
As I know that from the earliest period of your political
life you have always made up your account to meet sooner or
later such treatment in return for every sacrifice and every
toil, I hope and confidently believe that you will be prepared
to bear this event with calmness and composure, if not with
indifference ; that you will not suffer it to prey upon your
mind, or affect your health ; nor even to think more hardly
of your country than she deserves. Her truest friends I am
persuaded will more keenly feel your removal from the head
of her administration than yourself. Your long settled and
favorite pursuits of literature and of farming will give you
full employment, and prevent that craving void of the mind
which is so apt to afflict statesmen out of place ; which con-
jures up a spectre to haunt them, or embitters them against
their own species in a degree that renders their own lives
miserable.
In your retirement you will have not only the consolation
of a consciousness that you have discharged all the duties
of a virtuous citizen, but the genuine pleasure of reflecting,
that by the wisdom and firmness of your administration you
left that very country in safe and honorable peace, which at
the period of your entrance into office was involved in dan-
gerous and complicated disputes with more than one formi-
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 481
dable foreign power. That without the smallest sacrifu
national honor and dignity you have succeeded in settli
a quarrel with France which, under any other system of
conduct than that which you pursued, would at this moment
have burst into a most ruinous and fatal war, or could only
be pacified by disgraceful and burthensome humiliatii
The merit of this system, too, is so entirely and exclusively
your own, that we are told it was disapproved by almost all
the principal leaders of the party friendly to the constitution
and the union, the great supporters of your last election.
Nay, the general opinion is, that to this defection <>t y-ur
friends, originating solely in your adherence to the syst
you had adopted against their opinions, must be ascribed
your removal from the chair at this time. Indeed, my dear
sir, if this be the case, it is not your fame or honor that will
suffer by the result. The common and vulgar herd of stat
men and warriors are so wont to promote on every <>c\.
their private and personal interest at the expense of their
country, that it will be a great and glorious preeminence
for you to have exhibited an example of the contrary, of a
statesman who made the sacrifice of his own interest and
influence to the real and unquestionable benefit of his
•country.
I am fully convinced that the gentlemen who were so much
dissatisfied with your determination to send the last mist
to France acted from motives of pure patriotism at fin
however they may have suffered wounded pride- and
passions to influence their conduct since. But in their ave
sion to the last embassy they certainly proceeded u
curate information as to the general state of th
rope, and upon judgments into which there entered m
temper than of consideration. Had tl
been eventually unsuccessful, it would still have been a me
VOL. II — 2 1
482 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
ure grounded upon the soundest policy ; but if ever the
wisdom of a questionable plan was justified to the utmost by
the event, it has been so on this occasion. The convention
with France has not indeed given us everything we could
have wished ; but it has secured us more than we ever could
have obtained without it, and has entirely removed the dan-
ger of a war which must probably have ended in a disso-
lution of our union. And this arrangement will not even
occasion a difference between us and England, since the Brit-
ish government have given a formal assurance that they
see nothing in the Convention of which they have reason to
complain.
Probably the individual sufferers under the French depre-
dations, and the party who declared themselves so strongly
against the late negotiation, will think the want of a stipula-
tion for complete indemnity a sufficient objection against
the conclusion of the treaty. But those who know how
impossible any stipulation of indemnity is to obtain
where it cannot be compelled, or how illusive and nuga-
tory it would be if made, will be convinced, as I think
the people of the United States in general will be con-
vinced, that the convention taken altogether is highly ad-
vantageous to us.
Let then a thinking and impartial man compare the situa-
tion of the United States on the 4th of March, 1797, when
you assumed the functions of their first Executive magistrate,
with their situation on the same day 1801, when I here sup-
pose they will cease. Let him observe them at the first
period, at the point of war to every appearance inevitable
with France and Spain, yet at the same time having the
highest reason to complain against the treatment of Great
Britain. At the last period in full and, as far as human fore-
sight can judge, in safe and permanent peace with all these
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
powers. And let him ask himself how much of this {... ble
change ought justly to be ascribed to you ; the answer will
flash with the light of demonstration; had you been tin-
man of one great party which divides the people of the United
States, you might have purchased peace by tribute under
the name of loans and bribes, under that of presents, by
sacrificing with pleasure, as one of the leaders of that
formally avowed his disposition to do, the rights of the Uni
to the pleasure of France by answering her injuries with
submission and her insults with crouching. Had you been
the man of the other party, you would have lost the only
favorable moment for negotiating peace to the best advan-
tage, and at this moment would have seen the United S
at open war with an enemy in the highest exultation of vic-
tory, without an ally and, in the general opinion of the world
if not in real truth, little better than once more a colon \
Great Britain. In resisting, therefore, with all the enerj
which your constitutional power enabled you to c.\
and all your personal influence could excite among your
countrymen, the violence of France, you saved the honor
the American name from disgrace and prepared the way for
obtaining fair terms of reconciliation. By sending tl.
mission you restored an honorable peace to the nation, with-
out tribute, without bribes, without violating any pn
engagement, without the abandonment of any claim it,
and without even exciting the resentment of the great enemy
of France. You have, therefore, given the most de
proof that in your administration you wen- the man
party, but of the whole nation, and if the eyes of faction will
shut themselves against the value of such a ch "
the legal and constitutional judgment of your country U
expressed by their suffrages at an election will be il
to it, you can safely and confidently appeal from the
484 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
of heated and unjust passions, to that of cool and equitable
reason, from the prejudices of the present to the sober deci-
sion of posterity.
■ ■•••• a
Ever devotedly yours.
TO THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS
Berlin, 3 December, 1800.
You speak of it as a problematical point, whether the fed-
eralists will divide at the new election ; by all the accounts
from America it appears unquestionable that they will, and
I consider already the result as perfectly ascertained. You
are so extremely discreet about the original cause of the
difference which has ended in a scission of the friends to
government and order, that I know not even to this day what
it is imputable to. But if the last mission to France was
the point, every real friend of the President and of our country
will rejoice that he adopted and persisted in that measure,
though it should be at the expense of his election. There
has been no one period since the commencement of our
present national government, when the aspect of our affairs
with relation to foreign states has been so favorable as at the
present moment. We have indeed suffered injustice from
both the great warring powers, and in settling our contro-
versies with them have made our sacrifices for the benefit of
preserving peace. But compare our losses and sufferings,
I will not say with those of any nation which has been en-
gaged in the war, but with those of any other neutral nation,
and we shall have reason to esteem ourselves perfectly
fortunate. Whoever considers how essentially weak our
government is, and with what a violent and powerful inter-
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 4 -
nal opposition it has had to contend, in carrying through
every measure, with the immense importance of establishing
as a precedent the system of neutrality in all the wars of Eu-
rope in which they have no concern, will do ample justice- \<>
the wisdom and firmness of that policy which the first Pn
dent of the Union adopted, and which his successor ha
happily accomplished, that whatever the future < in
Europe may be, we at least have a fair and rational hope of
escaping the calamities of war. With respect to our internal
concerns they still appear to have their dark and gloomy sk:
The spirit of faction reigns with unabated virulence, and
even the sense of the indispensable necessity of the national
union for the welfare of all, seems rather to be weakening
than gaining strength in the minds of the people. Those
absurd principles of unlimited democracy which the people
of our Southern states, by the most extraordinary of all in-
fatuations have so much countenanced and encouraged, are
producing their natural fruits, and if the planters have not
discovered the inconsistency of holding in one hand the rights
of man, and in the other a scourge for the back of slavi
their negroes have proved themselves better logicians than
their masters. I hope, however, that the dreadful cat.
trophe which befell the French islands of the West Indies
will yet be avoided in every part of our country, and ..
all that any insurrection of the blacks will, far from meeting
any encouragement in the eastern states, have every exer-
tion of their energy employed for its suppression. 1
.
I am ever yours.
* See Writings of John Adams, IX. 92. " With respect to the ne K ro insurrr
in South Carolina and Virginia, I hear from my brother (October 19), the! it i.
no longer alarming for the present moment. Hut whether it will mAc the dem-*--
ratisers of the old Dominion feel the tie that should boM then itVMfetl (• ■ ■
Union, I am far from being sure. They have acted and talked su lung in d
486 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
TO THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS
Berlin, 20 December, 1800.
• ••••••
I am much obliged to you for giving me at length some
clue to the causes from which the division of the party,
which had been hitherto friendly to the government, has
proceeded. Though I deeply lament these dissensions, and
consider them as highly dangerous to the welfare of the
country, I am pleased, cordially pleased, that the articles
of crimination against the President are all tantamount to a
complaint, that he has acted as the head of the nation, and
not as the head of a party. Mr. Gerry's appointment upon
the second mission to France was not a successful measure,
and the President certainly did not approve of his conduct
there. Yet as that mission eventually turned, it was I
believe for the best that a person of Mr. Gerry's sentiments
and principles was a member of it. Had the most federal
man in the union been appointed in his stead, the issue at
that time would have been essentially the same. What
is meant by the non-renunciation of him after his return I
do not precisely know. He was not employed again, his
intentions were upright, however erroneous his judgment
had been, and his former services to his country were such
as entitled him to respect. The third mission to France has
position to their own plain interests, that there is little reason to believe they will
allow them more weight for this incident. The conduct of men is much more gov-
erned by their passions than by their interests ; the whole history of mankind is one
continued demonstration of this axiom. Fear, you will say, is a passion too, and
so it is; but the influence of fear is merely instinctive, and never founded on argu-
ment. It seldom survives the pressure of actual danger, and, therefore, seldom in-
terferes with the operation of active violent passions. So long as the slaves shall
not break out in formal rebellion, the Virginians will not feel their need of assist-
ance from their sister states, nor the importance of the Union to them." To-
William Vans Murray, December 16, 1800. Ms.
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
been so completely justified by the event, that it cannot }
sibly be now a subject of discussion. The English govern-
ment, whose example in refusing to treat at the mosl U\
able moment for negotiation our flaming Essex men would
have imitated, now most heartily repent that they did DOt
then consent to treat themselves. The pardon of the
Pennsylvanian traitors 1 was not only sanctioned by the
example of the former President, but was conformable to
the true principles of policy which should prevail in a popular
government. Montesquieu affirms that the crime of treason
should be treated in Republics with greater lenity than in
any other formal polity, and gives substantial reasons for
this maxim. With respect to the dismission of the Secre-
taries, I must place that confidence in the discretion of the
President which the Constitution has placed there. It :
made their removal entirely dependent upon him, and if
these officers become the enemies and opponents, instead of
being the assistants and promoters, of the system which he
deems most advisable, it cannot be expected they should
retained. It is however quite natural that their dismission
should be censured by those who concurred in their opinions.
To ascribe the dissolution of the army to the President is
ridiculous; but to whomsoever it is due, the measure was a
good one, as such a number of troops could now be of no
service, and would only have served to burthen the union
with additional debt. If a President of the United States
to secure his reelection must sacrifice his country's un-
to his party's passions and prejudices, Heaven In- thanked
that the present chief magistrate disdained to set the
example.
Yours truly.
1 John Fries, Frederic Heyney, and John Getman. Works of John 44
IX. 60.
488 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
TO THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS
Berlin, 27 December, 1800.
Just as I inclosed my last letter to you I had yet the op-
portunity to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 21 dated
October 25. But its contents claimed further notice from
me which I had then neither time nor room to bestow.
I am sensible that by being removed from the turbulent
and disgusting scene of perpetual electioneering I am spared
many a detail of vexation, which I should otherwise be
obliged to suffer, and probably none will ever again take
place, in which I shall feel so near and strong an interest, as
in that which at this moment is decided. Its result is not
equivocal, and in my opinion (which on this occasion cannot
well be impartial) is far from doing honor to the discernment,
or to the gratitude of the people, upon whose voice the issue
depended. The administration of the present President, how-
ever hurtful to his personal interest and influence, has been
in the highest degree useful and honorable to his country.
Whether that of his successor will be equally distinguished
for its wisdom and firmness, as little influenced by party men
and party measures, and as much devoted to the welfare of
the whole nation, it is for time to determine. Never since
the period of our revolution has there been a moment of more
imminent danger, and more complicated embarrassment for
the United States than that when the President entered
upon his office. Never have they enjoyed a moment of
tranquility and safety, so strongly grounded and so probably
permanent. The danger and embarrassment had been only
the consequences of unfortunate circumstances. More
fortunate circumstances have contributed a share to produce
the safety and tranquility. But these themselves would not
have sufficed. His merit in effecting them, however it may
1 8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 489
be disputed or disregarded now, I am confident will one day
be acknowledged and duly appreciated.
Perhaps the severest of all the trials of virtue- is thai of
finding benefits returned with injuries, and her devotion with
ingratitude. Were I therefore not acquainted with the
genuine energy of your father's character, and the pure-
magnanimity of his soul, my keenest feelings at this time
would arise from concern at what the effect of this event
would be upon his mind. I fondly hope he will meet il
far as human nature will admit with real indifference, that
he will sincerely pardon the infatuation of his countrymen,
and consider it with compassion rather than with resent-
ment. This temper of mind, of extremest difficulty in such
a case to attain, is however so essentially necessary for his
own happiness and that of his family and friends, that the
bare possibility of his feeling uncontrolled that irritation so
natural to a generous spirit under such treatment, gives me
more anxiety than every other consideration.
I am not without some apprehensions on this occasion
arising from another source. Although his principles of
economy are as rigorous as can consist with a mind which
appreciates money at its true value, and his practice has
always been sufficiently conformable to his theory, to keep
his estate free from serious and permanent embarrassment,
yet he has been so far from growing rich in the Bervice of the
public, that it is not improbable he may in his retirement
have occasion for money. I therefore authorize and direct
you to consider all and every part of my property in jrour
hands, whether of principal or interest, as Bubj< all
times to his disposal for his own use. If you are certain
you have means of information which I cannot at
tance possess) that he will have no occasion for tl >u wi
not mention to him that I have given you this instruction, for
490 THE WRITINGS OF [1800
I wish not to make a show of offering service where it is
not wanted ; but unless you are thus sure, let him know I
have given you this order, and that it is my most urgent
request he would use it whenever it may suit his convenience.
TO THOMAS. BOYLSTON ADAMS
30 December, 1800.
• ••••••
When I received your last letter (of October 25) I did not
understand altogether its last paragraph, because I had heard
no circumstance to which I supposed it specially alluded.
Since then an article in the German Berlin Gazette (such
must be my source of information from America) has partly
explained to me your meaning. It mentions that Tench
Coxe had published a private letter which your father wrote
to him eight years ago, and containing something (I am yet
ignorant what) to the disadvantage of General Pinckney. 1
Likewise that Mr. Hamilton had published a pamphlet
against your father and highly recommending General
Pinckney as President. 2 Now if these are the instances
which you thought would surprise me, your conjecture was
natural but not accurate. Coxe and Hamilton I knew had
both become political enemies of the President. That their
enmity was bitter I had no doubt, because it was unjust, and
I had no reason to suppose that either of the men would
scruple at such a mode of manifesting his enmity. It is an
old maxim of prudence always to treat an enemy as if he
1 John Adams to Tench Coxe, May, 1792. It is given in Gibbes, Administra-
tions of Washington and Adams, II. 424. Adams's letter to Pinckney, explaining the
circumstances, is in the same work, 425.
2 The Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esquire, President of the
United States. See Writings of Hamilton (Lodge), VI. 391 ; Works of John Adams,
IX. 239.
i8oo] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
might one day become your friend; and a knowledge in-
kind will too often prescribe an alteration of the rule, and
direct us always to treat a friend as if he might one day I
come your enemy. From the newspapers 1 likewise learn
that the convention with France was known in tin- United
States before the election took place, but in the state
parties and passions prevailing in our country, that event
certainly did not change a single vote.
With the scanty information I can collect I distrust my
own opinions upon American affairs. But from what I ,!< i
see, it is impossible for me to avoid the supposition that the
ultimate necessary consequence, if not the ultimate object of
both the extreme parties which divide us, will be a dissolu-
tion of the Union and a civil war. Your father's policy v.
certainly to steer between the shoals on one Bide, and the
rocks on the other. But as both factions have turned their
arms against him, and the people themselves have aban-
doned him, there is too much reason to expect that the pur-
pose common to the two opposite factions will be effected.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
io January, 1801.
Among the other proceedings of fortune to France this
armed neutrality, actually signed at St. Petersburg the
16th of last month, is of peculiar value. Whether England
will bid defiance to it as you suppose, I am inclined I
I know very well that such is her language now, but
think she will not rush at once into a war with th«
northern powers. If she consults her itOertsl in pref<
to her passions, she certainly will not. The nation 3
would stand by the government upon such a question, Si
492 THE WRITINGS OF [1801
sink or swim with their flag. Perhaps they would, but in
all probability it would be their fate to sink. I do not be-
lieve England is able in her present state to stand a contest
against all Europe at once. Now none of the four leagued
powers, unless it be Prussia, really wishes for a war with
England. But they wish to avenge the insolence and in-
juries they have suffered from her navy, to secure some re-
spect to their flags for the future, and to curb that supremacy
upon the seas which it must be acknowledged she enjoys not
with the most exemplary moderation. Russia cares least
about this, but she has another object to answer by it, and
although she appears at the head of the league, the others
place but little dependence upon her to support it. Sweden
and Denmark are the most interested in its success and will
certainly suffer the most by its failure. They are playing
a hazardous and not a very voluntary game. But they hope
England will yield in the fact, however stubbornly she may
stand it out in words, and probably they will not be mistaken.
I was very much obliged to you for the cuttings from news-
papers inclosed in your letter. I had before heard of the
publications of Tench Coxe and Mr. Hamilton, though I
have not yet seen either of them. I believe they had given
me more pain than they ought to have done, but as their
object seemed merely to convey political personalities, I
thought it best not to mention them. From Coxe's known
character there is no reason to be surprised that he betrayed
ancient confidence and private friendship to answer the pur-
pose of his faction and his own malice. It is one of the mis-
fortunes inseparable from public life, that the best of men
must often act in concert with bad ones ; for be a great
public cause ever so wise and virtuous, many of its partisans
must support it without being actuated either by pure
motives or by durable principles. When changes of this
isoi] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
world separate this necessary though unnatural cooperation
between a knave and an honest man, and place them in their
proper opposition to each other, we cannot wonder to
base weapons resorted to for expressing the enmity of a k
mind. To complain against the use of a poisoned weapon
you must have some other than a savage for your foe.
What Mr. Hamilton's provocation has been I know not.
Probably it originated in his aversion to the last mission
to France. Against this he not only expressed himself very
openly, but acted and intrigued. His weight and influence
probably formed the principal nerve of the party which
broke off from the federalists to defeat that measure. A
foreign quarrel was necessary as a pretext for keeping the
army. And an army was necessary for Mr. Hamilton to be
commander-in-chief. He thought it was necessary for various
other important purposes, and could not forgive the IV
ident for persisting in a plan the result of which was to
disband the army. After the removal of the Secretaries he
perhaps considered them as the victims of a system which
he had originated and conducted, therefore entitled to ln-
avenged by his hands; so he boldly sallied forth, willing
run the risk of a President he hated worse than the man in
place for the chance of setting up one he liked better. I do
not believe he will get anything by the change, not even an
army with him as commander-in-chief.
I am extremely obliged to you for the profile which, with-
out pretending to be over sentimental, I assure jrou I often
look at with great pleasure. The frailty of political friend-
ships so frequently and so forcibly brought to my view gi
an additional value to those which preceded in point of tim
all the revolutions or kingdoms and empires which D
divide the hearts and souls of men, and which I ide
myself will always be unalterable by them.
I am, Dear Sir, yours truly.
494 THE WRITINGS OF [1801
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
Berlin, 17 January, 1801.
Dear Sir :
• ••••••
Doctor Eustis l instead of Otis is not the only change for
the worse in our representation to Congress. Otis declined
being re-elected, and I hope Eustis will in general vote right.
But the division of the federal party has produced its natural
effect in Massachusetts, and thrown the whole weight of the
election into the hands of the others. So much for General
Hamilton and the Essex junto. A composition of great
talents and little souls, which will do no small mischief in the
end.
If the schisms do not produce a counterbalancing coalition
between the most moderate men of the two original parties
to support the government of our country, it will soon sink
into the regions once visited by the paladin Astolphus.
Yours faithfully.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
27 January, 1801.
Dear Sir :
I have not seen the pamphlet of General Hamilton, but
am much gratified or rather consoled that it is such as you
describe in your favor of the 20th instant. From the title
I had heard of it before I supposed it consisted of personali-
ties rather than censures upon public measures. As to
objections against your mission, I have long been at perfect
ease on that account. Had Hamilton, or any of his friends,
even dared to avow publicly the only strong and real argu-
ment they had, I considered it as no longer formidable. An
1 William Eustis (1753-1825).
i8oi] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
external wound must sometimes be kept open to prevent
the internal humors from destroying the body. Without
a quarrel abroad the government would not have an army
at hand to check projects of disunion and rebellion. This
is their only solid ground, but I very much doubted whether
Hamilton himself would have the courage to confess it.
Now although the strength of the antifederal party and their
evident designs to dissolve the Union give this argum<
great plausibility, there seems to be a plausible answer to
it. Our Constitution professedly rests upon the good sense
and attachment of the people. This basis, weak as it may
appear, has not yet been found to fail. To support it the
aid of military force must indeed occasionally be called in,
but ought not to be substituted as the permanent foundation
in its stead. To make a foreign war the motive for keeping
an army on foot, the evidence must be plain and unequivocal
that it was inevitable, not only in its origin, but in it >
continuance. For if the people once discover (and jrou
could not conceal it from them long) that you maintain
the war for the army, while you tell them you maintain the
army for the war, you lose their attachment forever, and
their good sense will immediately side against you. Then
your army will be the sole support you have. You will have
effected in substance if not in forms a total revolution in
government. Your internal enemies will then have tin-
hearts of the people in their favor, will very soon be abl<
raise and bring force against your force, and the chaos of civil
war will ensue. No, if the attachment of the people musl
desert us, let it at least be altogether in their own wrong.
Let us knit our system of policy so closely with thcirint-
that they cannot tear one without rending the other. 'I hen.
if after all we must come to disunion and civil war, the con-
sciousness of pure unalloyed justice and right will be the
496 THE WRITINGS OF [1801
highest ornament of our victory, or the most impregnable
refuge of our defeat.
So far am I then from having any concern in future about
the French negotiation, that I confidently believe it will be
considered as one of the President's most distinguished ser-
vices, and the greater the opposition against it by those who,
under the name of his friends, would have been his leaders,
the more honorable I am persuaded the result will prove to
him. What the true point of my anxiety has in this case
been I will candidly tell you, when I shall have seen Hamil-
ton's publication. As for the man, I too have always had
a very high opinion of his talents and of his services. His
system of finance I did consider as more complicated than
was necessary, and the purity of his principles from frailties
of ambition as not absolutely unquestionable. The rancor
and the baseness of the means exerted against him by his
enemies and rivals gave his merit an additional value and
a stronger claim to support. Perhaps these rivals hurt in
a way even unexpected to themselves. Perhaps by using
infamous weapons against him they habituated his mind
to consider the employment of them as warrantable. This
degradation of soul, which you so justly describe in one of
your late letters as the too natural result of our newspaper
electioneering altercations, is to such a character as Hamil-
ton's a greater injury, than all the charges that envy or
malice under the mask of public spirit were ever able to
conjure against him.
I am persuaded with you that if the armed neutrality ends
in war, Great Britain will at sea be constantly triumphant.
Nor do I suppose this is doubted by the Powers forming the
league themselves. But there is Constantinople to comfort
Russia, and there is Hanover to indemnify Prussia. If the
principles of the armed neutrality be to these powers any
i8oi] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
■i >7
object at all, it is but a very minor and secondary one indeed.
Sweden and Denmark were coaxed and dragged and pushed
into the measure, which they will pay for at a tremend
price. Upon them it was what in the old French law u
to be called a rape by seduction, and you see that no sooner
has Paul had his will of the poor frail ones than he casts one
of them off with the most ineffable contempt. Though I
somewhat scruple whether we can supply England with hemp,
and tar, and iron, quite so soon and to such an extent as you
anticipate, I have not the smallest doubt but that she will
get these articles. She will get them indirectly from her
enemies themselves. The sale of the goods is at least as
necessary to them as their purchase is to her, and as you say
of her manufactures, mutual want will burst through the very
strongest barriers of war. When this plan of a new armed
neutrality was first in agitation I was inclined to think we
might take a part in it as far as could be consistent with our
engagements, and so wrote home. The principles are more
liberal than those of England and if generally adopted would
prove a real benefit to humanity. But from the moment
when the drift of the two great parties to this league was evi-
dent, I have been convinced that our policy is to have
nothing to do with it, and all my dispatches have been cal-
culated to impress as much as possible that opinion.
Your recollections as to the first place of our meeting
form such a doubly pleasing association of ideas that 1 am
unwilling to believe them not exactly accurate. Mr. W.
Vaughan's house has in my remembrance the advantage i i
being the spot where our acquaintance commenced. W e
dined there together. Had an interesting conversation
upon the merits of the Christian and the Mahometan Para-
dise, and went in the evening to hear a debate at Coach-
maker's hall. But whenever our friendship began I hope
VOL. n — 2 K
498 THE WRITINGS OF [1801
and trust, that no spot on this earth is destined to witness its
end, but that I shall ever as at this moment be invariably
yours.
JOHN ADAMS TO JOHN MARSHALL
Washington, January 31, 1801.
I request you would cause to be prepared letters for me to sign,
to the King of Prussia, recalling Mr. John Quincy Adams, as minis-
ter plenipotentiary from his court. You may express the thanks
of the President to his Majesty for the obliging reception and kind
treatment this minister has met with at his court, and may throw
the letter into the form of leave to return to the United States.
You will look into the forms, in your office, of former instances of
recall. I wish you to make out one letter to go by the way of
Hamburg, another by Holland, a third by France, a fourth through
Mr. King in England, a fifth, if you please, by the way of Bremen
or Stettin, or any other channel most likely to convey it soon.
It is my opinion this minister ought to be recalled from Prussia.
Justice would require that he should be sent to France or England,
if he should be continued in Europe. The mission to St. James is
perfectly well filled by Mr. King ; that to France is no doubt des-
tined for some other character. Besides, it is my opinion that it
is my duty to call him home. 1
Dear Sir
TO RUFUS KING
Berlin, 7 February, 1801.
I hope and trust that our new administration will not
join in the general combination forming against England,
because it would neither be politic nor honorable. But
there is a high probability, if not more, that Europe will be
1 The letter of recall, dated February 3, reached Adams in Berlin, April 26, 1801.
isoi] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 499
joined in it, and in my opinion if any neutrality is suffered
in this quarrel, it will be a neutrality strong enough to pro-
tect itself. 1 The league of armed neutrality has been rati-
fied by all the four northern powers, and doubtless France
and Russia wish no better than that England should persist
in her determination to make war against them for it. Envy
is as strong and active a principle of national conduct as
pride, or rather it is the same principle. It has had too
great an influence on both parties to produce this new flame
of discord in Europe. England has not enjoyed her naval
superiority with moderation. And the others hate her at
once for her prosperity and her elation under it. To indulge
their passions they are all running to their ruin, while
the Frenchman claps his wings and crows.
I am &c.
TO THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS
14 February, 1801.
• ••••••
It is impossible for an American to contemplate this accu-
mulated load of taxes and services which are the inseparable
attendants of a military government without a sigh over the
condition of human society in Europe, and an ejaculation
of gratitude to Heaven for that in his own country. In
imputing these evils to the European condition of society. I
am sensible the opinion is not conformable to that which
1 «
'I doubt not but many where you are wish tin- l'nr uld join the
armed neutrality, because they wish us at war with Great Britain. Armed neu-
trality there will be none, unless it be one of our own. which you and I most warr
wish too. With you I am afraid France will urpc us too much upon thii point. !
I hope we shall stand firm. Heaven preserve us from all war. bill illy f
an unjust war. We are bound by treaty upon the only principle of any c-n^uni
in this league. So were Sweden and Denmark. Hut if m-..- ijokeinEu
let them not be so with us." To William Vans Murray, February 10, 1801.
500 THE WRITINGS OF [1801
faction so delights to prattle, and knowing ignorance to
repeat ; but I believe it to be the truth. Europe being
divided into a number of wholly independent states, it is
by their armies alone that they can defend themselves
against the encroachments of each other. This spirit of
encroachment is so far from being extinguished by the flood
of philosophy which poured upon that self-conceited dupe,
the eighteenth century, that it never burnt with a more
consuming blaze than at the birth of this her daughter.
This system of partitions was a contrivance of the greatest
of the good old Lady's royal favorites, and she has left it as
a precious inheritance to her child. What a number of
sovereign states have been swallowed up in the vortex of the
last ten years, for the crime of being weak and unable to
resist an invading army ! What a number more are upon
the point of suffering the same fate ! The tendency of
Europe is so manifestly towards consolidation that, unless
it should suddenly and unexpectedly take a different turn,
in a few years there will be not more than four or five sover-
eign states left of the hundreds which covered the surface
of this quarter of the globe. An army, therefore, is as nec-
essary to every European power which has any hope of
long existence as air to the motion of the lungs, and France
through the whole course of the revolution has been so
convinced of this, that she has not only kept on foot such
armed myriads hitherto, but has settled for her peace estab-
lishment one of the largest armies in Europe. Now it is
impossible that such armies should be levied, recruited, and
maintained, without principles and measures of continual
compulsion upon the people. Hence France in her re-
publican state has continued to practice them under the
name of conscription, and requisition, and loan, more than
the most despotic of enemies. Hence England, a country
isoi] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
501
justly renowned for its liberty, has always been obliged to
adopt the system as her insular situation modifies it with
regard to her — by the impressment of seamen for her
navy. And if she has hitherto avoided the other part of it,
requisition or the compulsive raising of stores, provisions,
labor, etc., it has only been by draining the pockets of pos-
terity and loading their shoulders with debts which will end
in bankruptcy.
It is from the consideration of these things more than from
any others that I look to the Union of our country as to
the sheet anchor of our hopes, and to its dissolution as to the
most dreadful of our dangers. So long as we remained united,
a large permanent army can never be necessary among us.
The only occasion which can require a great military force
will be to withstand external invasion, a danger to which
we shall become daily less exposed as our population and
strength increase. If once we divide, our exposure to foreign
assault will at once be multiplied in proportion to the num-
ber of states into which we shall split, and aggravated in
proportion to the weakness of every single part compared
with the strength of the whole. The temptations of foreign
powers to invade us will increase with the prospect of success
which our division will present them, and fortresses and
armies will be then the only security upon which the disunited
states can rely for defence against enemies from abroad. This
is not the worst. Each of the separate states will from the
moment of disunion become with regard to the others a
foreign power. Quarrels, of which the seeds are too thickly
sown, will shoot up like weeds in a rank soil between them.
Wars will soon ensue. These must end either in the con-
quest of one party by the other, or in frail, precarious,
jealous compromises and momentary truces under the name
of peace, leaving on both sides the burden of its army as the
5 02 THE WRITINGS OF [1801
only guarantee for its security. Then must the surface
of our country be bristled over with double and treble ranges
of rock hewn fortresses for barriers, and our cities turned
into gaols by a circumference of impenetrable walls. Then
will the great problem of our statesmen, too, be what pro-
portion of the people's sweat and blood can be squeezed
from them to maintain an army without producing absolute
death. I speak in the sincerity and conviction of my soul
in declaring that I look upon standing armies, intolerable
taxes, forced levies, contributions, conscriptions, and requi-
sitions, as the unavoidable and fatal chain of which dis-
union is but the first link.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
No. 182 [John Marshall]
Berlin, 21 February, 1801.
Sir :
In addition to the papers which I had the honor of sending
you with my last letter, I now inclose a translation of the
ordinance annexed to the convention for an armed neutrality,
and referred to in its third article.
It is yet possible that England may discover some means
of avoiding the issue of a war with almost all Europe on this
occasion ; but I know not by what other expedient than that
of conforming herself to the principles prescribed by the
northern powers.
But if she should persist in her refusal to recognize them,
a war will inevitably be the consequence ; and as there is
some reason to apprehend that endeavors will be made on
the part of the coalition to draw the United States into it, I
take the liberty of stating to you, as briefly as possible, the
i8oi] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
503
considerations upon which it appears to me, that it would be
neither just, nor expedient for us to take any part in this
quarrel.
It would not be just, because the government of the United
States have long since declared their opinion, that by the
law of nations, independent of the stipulations of treaties,
an enemy's cargo cannot be protected by a neutral bottom ;
and though always anxious to establish the contrary In
voluntary agreement, they have ever disavowed all pre-
tence of a right to force its adoption upon other powers, and
by the positive engagement of a treaty are bound to ac-
quiesce in the practice of the rule as it originally stood. It
is true, that Sweden and Denmark are bound by the stipu-
lations of their treaties with England in the same manner,
nor do I know upon what grounds these powers can reconcile
their ancient with their modern stipulations. But even if
the question was considered as doubtful, the fundamental
principles of this league seem unjust; it has itself the radi-
cal defect against which it professes to contend. It assumes
a right of legislation upon the sea. It is an enactment by
the nations, of laws upon objects of common concern to all,
with a declaration, that if other nations will not consent to
them peaceably, they shall be forced upon them at the mouth
of the cannon. It is impossible to assume the supremacy
of the seas more plainly and arrogantly than this. The in-
consistency of the league with the liberty which it profe
to support, is striking in the very expression of the third
article. The two sovereigns say, that to prevent the liberty
of trade and navigation from depending upon arbitrary con-
struction, dictated by a partial and momentary interest, they
understand and will (what else is that but that arbitrary con-
struction ?) that in time of war all neutral ships shall neutral-
ize all property on board, except a specific list of contraband.
5 o 4 THE WRITINGS OF [1801
It is well known that this idea of being the legislatrix of the
ocean and giving the world a code of naval laws, was the
lure of flattery by which the Empress Catherine was first
drawn into the original armed neutrality, the nature and
tendency of which she so little understood, that she thought
it pointed against Spain and much to the advantage of
England.
In expressing thus unequivocally my opinion, that this
league is not founded upon a basis of justice, I beg not to be
understood as approving the practices towards neutrals
of the British navy, or all the principles avowed by the British
admiralty courts. There is too much reason for the com-
plaints of neutral powers against these, and I should con-
sider a real armed neutrality, a concert of neutral powers to
maintain if necessary by force their common rights against
violation, as perfectly justifiable, as a desirable object. Had
this new league even been such as the newspapers in Holland
and Germany have represented it, had it left the litigious bel-
ligerent and neutral claims respecting the character of a ship
and her cargo to be stipulated by treaty, engaging at the
same time to conclude no treaty for the future with any
power which should refuse to recognize the predominance
of the neutral right, no objection of injustice could be made
against it. I have often avowed the hope that some such
concert might take place, but there appears less chance
for it now than ever.
To those who think that any measure on the part of a
nation can be expedient which is at the same time unjust,
it may be much more questionable what the conduct of the
United States on this occasion should be. While Britain
is at war with all Europe, it is probable, to say the least, that
she will sink under the contest. To join in the number of
her enemies may be considered as advisable as to avoid
i8oi] JOHN QUINCV ADAMS 505
their resentment and to share in her spoils. By joining
them we should make the common triumph more certain,
and we should establish forever the most liberal principles
for the benefit of neutral navigation. We should obtain
satisfaction for the long complaints of our commerce, and
security against the repetition of such abuses for the
future. Some of these motives, perhaps, no one would avow,
yet if the consideration of justice is to be set aside, they are
the strongest that can be urged. But the triumph of the
coalition, even if we should join in it, is very far from being
certain. Should it be obtained, it will only be after a strug-
gle, in which all the powers concerned in the league, who
have any considerable interest in the principles of maritime
law, would have sacrificed more of blood and treasure, than
centuries of undisturbed enjoyment of their principles could
repair. England has the advantage of standing alone, and
of having her forces applied by a single interest of contending
upon her own element, and in a defensive cause. Her
enemies are divided in interests. The only two formidable
powers of the league entered in for the purpose of securing
objects entirely distinct from the rights of navigation.
Should they succeed in obtaining their real purposes, they
will very soon abandon the pretexts, when once they haw-
secured their own interests, they will drop one by one from
the league, and leave their feeble allies to be the victims of
the contest. Should they fail, they will be still readier to
forsake an unsuccessful cause. The experience of the lasl
ten years has abundantly proved, that success and de!
are alike efficacious in dissolving enormous coalitions agail
a single great power. Thus probable as it may be that Eng-
land will be ruined by this war, the probability is much
greater that the inferior maritime states leagued agail
her will meet the same fate. As a mere question of 1
506 THE WRITINGS OF [1801
between two evils, if we must choose between the resent-
ments of the whole coalition and a war with England,
we should probably receive the greatest damage from the
last. I am likewise convinced that a fixed resolution to
persevere through this new contest in that neutrality, which
was established as our true system of policy at the com-
mencement of the maritime war, will carry us through all the
inconveniences, embarrassments, and vexations, to which
the coolness and even the resentment of the coalition may
subject us.
To the government of the United States I am persuaded
that the last of these considerations will be unnecessary.
They will inquire only what conduct the national honor and
dignity, the laws of nations and the engagements of treaties,
dictate, and to those they will faithfully adhere. But to
ensure the respect of both parties, this system must be sup-
ported by a respectable armed naval force, and a force which,
in case of war would be scarcely better than none at all,
will amply suffice for the support of neutrality.
I am &c.
TO WILLIAM VANS MURRAY
24 February, 1801.
Dear Sir :
• ••••••
I am altogether of your opinion that this northern coali-
tion contains the seeds of very baneful weeds, which there
may be an attempt to try upon our soil. But in the north
I do not think there is any design to compel our accession
to it. The north of Europe (excepting Denmark) think
very little about us, and in my opinion the longer this in-
attention continues the better it will be for us. I would
rather contribute to increase than remove it.
i8oi] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
507
The maritime states, and most especially the English,
French, and Batavians, do certainly remark our growing
strength with the feelings natural to the human mind at
the sight of a rival's prosperity. This will be one of the
reasons why your friends at the Hague will wish us involved
somehow or other in this contest. But I do not imagine we
need be very anxious on this score. A very strong appre-
hension of a design sometimes contributes to inspire it where
it would not else have been formed. We know it is against
the interest of the coalition to push us hard upon this point.
We know they have no right to push us. And we know that we
could not comply without violating our engagements. I f upon
such ground we do not stand firm it will be our own fault.
To say the truth I do not believe France will press it upon
our new administration. She might have pressed it upon
the old one. Then her object would have been to embarrass.
Now it will be to favor.
Your extraordinary concern at the possibility that the
election should fall upon Mr. B[urr] is, perhaps, founded upon
some knowledge of his personal character which I do not
possess. For supposing the merits of the two men equal, do
you not think some essential benefits for the country might
result from that very circumstance ? If anything hurtful
is to be apprehended from the administration of either, can
it be effected otherwise than by the firm, compact, and unil
influence of both, and of all their respective partisans ?
Now if B[urr] should be placed at the first post, would
J[efferson] remain at the second ? And if he did. would th<
be for four years together a cordial union of sentiments and
of measures between them and the friends of both : I
design of their party was to place J[efTerson] ; rid B[urr]
second. If the order should be inverted, neither of them
could change it back; and if acquiescing in it the party
5 o8 THE WRITINGS OF [1801
should afterwards continue to harmonize, I should really
begin to believe that human nature is turning over a new
leaf. If they once divided, it seems to me that whatever
Mr. B[urr]'s dispositions are, he could not do any essential
harm, and the principal evil that would flow from the choice
would be to see a man President of the United States whom
not one citizen of the whole Union would have wished to see
in that station. This would, indeed, demonstrate a fla-
grant defect in the mode of election prescribed by the Con-
stitution ; and as all evils must be felt before they can be
remedied, this might produce an alteration evidently nec-
essary in that instrument. 1
• ••••••
1 "I should not be surprised that the party vote in case of a second election were to
fall upon B[urr], because it seems to me that party motives would all lead to that
issue. But as the opposite party vote will be unanimous for J[efferson], and all the
greys, together with some of the purest and best men will join them, I have scarce
a doubt but that the last will be chosen. My personal feelings are all for Jefferson],
because I know him, know he has long esteemed me beyond my deserts, and I have
reason to believe contributed much by his testimony, if not by his recommendation
to the first President, to introduce me into the public service. The other I never
saw. But upon substantial public grounds I am not certain which vote would be
most eligible. If great mischief is really the system of the party, B[urr] would be
the man, because his being at their head would be the most likely mean to split
them up.
"Our Senate it seems only ratified the treaty conditionally — to negotiate again,
a measure which I hope will do no essential harm, but which I do not expect will do
any good. If they have determined at once to negotiate further and to disarm too,
their policy will be still more objectionable." To William Vans Murray, March 10,
1801. Ms.
i8oi] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 509
TO THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS
7 March, 1801.
•••••• .
^Since the date of my last I have received one piece of im-
portant news from America (at second hand, as usual), and
one from England. The former, that the Senate of Un-
united States has refused to ratify two articles of the Con-
vention with France; and the latter, that the King of El
land is ill of a fever, and perhaps with a return of the melan-
choly disorder which afflicted him once before.
The veneration I feel for the Senate of the Union, a b
whose proceedings have always been marked with patriot;
and wisdom, forbids me to doubt but that they had
strong and overpowering reasons for the measure they have
adopted on this occasion. As I understand, a further nego-
tiation is to be attempted. As I really believe the tempei
the French government is at this time not hostile to us, and
as under our new administration France will perhaps feel
yet more inclined to show us favor, I am less alarmed at
this rejection of terms once agreed upon than I should have
been under other circumstances. Yet I do not indulge a
hope that we shall ever obtain a settlement of our differeo
with France upon terms more advantageous to us than thow
of that treaty. The terms were not such as in perfect justice
we were entitled, but when negotiation cannot be BUp]
by compulsion, the rigorous question of right must in
sort yield to that practicability. The fair parceller ol
mation is not between what was and what ought tt) ha
been agreed to by the other contracting power, but betweej
what was and what could be obtained from her. or betW»
what she agreed to and war. Now, indemnities for
property of our citizens plundered by French decrees am
5 io THE WRITINGS OF [1801
confiscated by French courts I believe it impossible ever to
obtain. Even if promised they will never be realized, and
as long as our claim was not abandoned, the mere unaccom-
plished promise in a treaty would for us be worse than noth-
ing. Objects of small importance or of impossible attainment
should not be suffered to defeat a conclusion of differences,
which the longer they are kept open may prove the harder
to close.
TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Berlin, 10 March, 1801.
My Dear Mother :
I am almost ashamed to acknowledge how long it has been
since I wrote you last, and can only hope you will consider
my numerous letters to my brother, most of which I intended
as much for you as for him, to be a sufficient apology. I
have not received a line from you or from my father since
last June, though I think it impossible but that you should
have written more than once. My last letter to my father
was of November 25.
My mind has deeply shared in all the anxieties, and dis-
appointments, and afflictions, both of a public and private
nature which have befallen you, crowded into so short a
space of time. The loss of my brother Charles, 1 the illness
of my father, and the manner in which his country rewarded
a life of labors devoted to their service, were all events
which I know must call forth the fortitude and energy of
his soul and of yours. The death of my brother affected me
greatly. I first learned it by a letter from my kind friend,
Mr. Murray, who had seen it mentioned in a newspaper.
1 He died November 30, 1800. He was born May 29, 1770, graduated at Harvard
College, 1789, and married, in 1795, Sarah Smith. He resided at New York.
i8oi] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 5,1
Two days after it was confirmed in a letter I received fr<>m
my brother Thomas. The illness of my father and the result
of the election I was informed of at the same time by the
English and German newspapers. Five weeks have si:
elapsed, during which I have not had a single line from
America. Mr. Murray, my constant and valuable corre-
spondent, has informed me very lately that he had seen in
a New York paper a paragraph stating my father's having
recovered from his fever, which it was a great consolation
for me to hear from any quarter, and which I hope will
be made certain to me by more direct intelligence. The issue
of the election I could not suppose would be an object of in-
difference to him ; but I knew he had always been imp:
fully with the sentiment that every man who serves the public
must look upon the injustice of men, so far as it concerns
himself, in the same light as upon the ills of nature; the
shocks that flesh is heir to — a fever or a clap of thunder
which are neither to be denied for real evils, nor to K
plained of as avoidable. Political disappointment is perh.
one of the occasions in human life which requires the grea:
portion of philosophy, and although philosophy has ver>
little power to assuage the keenness of our feelings, Bhe has
at least the power to silence the voice of complaint. I
relieved from the labors and responsibility of such a station
as that of an American President, is a great consolation for
all the pain of being removed from it, and will 1 hope h.
its full weight as such.
What the influence of the change in our administration
upon the reputation and fortunes of our country ma] be, I
do not think it necessary to inquire, and am all ier un-
able to foresee. For the past alone my father has anytl
on this score to answer. For the future the wh
bility rests upon the people themselves. If they find their.
Si2 THE WRITINGS OF [1801
selves after the experience of their new system more pros-
perous than they have been under the old, the pure and
generous spirit of patriotism will rejoice in their prosperity,
and forget their injustice. But if the principles to which
they have thought proper to transfer their trust should prove
delusive, and bring upon them the miseries of broken public
faith, of disunion, or of war, deeply will their sufferings be
lamented by the pure and virtuous friend of his country;
but he will find comfort in the reflection that he had done
all in his power to ward off these calamities, and that the
people would not have composed themselves to their effects
but by first abandoning him.
I have hitherto for the last four years written seldom to
my father, because I knew that all my public correspondence
will be laid before him. For the future, however, (while
I remain in Europe) I shall write oftener to inform him of the
principal political events which may occur. I say while
I remain in Europe, because I am in expectation of my recall
immediately upon the new President's coming into office.
He will doubtless have nothing personal against me, but my
mission here has been one of the most powerful objections
made against the policy of his predecessor, and I presume,
therefore, will be one of the first objects that he will think
it expedient to reform. The use and advantage of having
some public character in the north of Europe is, indeed, at
this moment more immediate and nearer the surface of
evidence, than it has been at any former period since I have
resided here ; but those who deemed the mission inexpedi-
ent at first will probably find motives, if not reasons, equally
strong for thinking it so still.
The north of Europe, and the views, interests and relations
of the several states it contains, are, indeed, becoming ob-
jects of no small concern to our commerce. Russia, Sweden,
iSoi] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 5,3
Denmark and Prussia, while I write this are upon the- brink
of war with Great Britain upon one common point of issue :
but each separately 
