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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

COUNT DE VERGENNES TO JOHN ADAMS. ( Translation. ) - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 7 (Letters and State Papers 1777-1782) [1852]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 7.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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COUNT DE VERGENNES TO JOHN ADAMS.

(Translation.)

Sir,

I have received the letter, which you did me the honor to write me on the 22d instant, on the subject of the resolution of congress, of the 18th of March last. I have already informed you, that it was by no means my intention to analyze this resolution, insofar as it respects the citizens of the United States, nor to examine whether circumstances authorize the arrangement or not. I had but one object in writing to you with the confidence I thought due to your knowledge and your attachment to the alliance, which was to convince you that the French ought not to be confounded with the Americans, and that there would be a manifest injustice in making them sustain the loss with which they are threatened.

The details into which you have thought proper to enter have not changed my sentiments; but I think that all further discussion between us on this subject will be needless, and I content myself to remark to you, that if the King’s council regards the resolution of congress in a false point of view, as you maintain, the Chevalier de la Luzerne, who is on the spot, will not fail to elucidate it; and that if congress on their part shall not adopt the representations, which that minister is charged to make to them, they will undoubtedly communicate to us the reasons upon which they will rest their refusal. Should these be well founded, the King will take them into consideration, his Majesty demanding nothing but the most exact justice. In the opposite case, he will renew his instances to the United States, and will confidently expect from their penetration and wisdom, a decision conformable to his demand. His Majesty is by so much the more persuaded that congress will give their whole attention to this business, that that assembly, to judge by their reiterated assurances of the fact, value differently from yourself, sir, the union which subsists between France and the United States, and that they will assuredly feel that the French may deserve some preference over the other nations, who have no treaty with America, and who have not even as yet acknowledged her Independence.

I have the honor to be, &c.

De Vergennes.