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

TO SECRETARY JAY. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799) [1853]

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. 8.

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

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TO SECRETARY JAY.

Grosvenor Square, 24 November, 1785.

Dear Sir,—

I was yesterday honored with your letter of the 14th of October, accompanied with the gazettes and the act of congress of the 27th September.

You will learn from Mr. Dumas’s letters, as well as by the public papers, that the treaty of defensive alliance between France and Holland was signed at Paris on the 10th of this month. The vain exertions of the cabinet of St. James to prevent it, are so far from being a secret, that the English, or Orange party, which is the same, have inserted them in their own Courier du Bas Rhin. The offers are there stated to have been, the restitution of Negapatnam, the renunciation of the navigation of the Moluccas, the payment of the millions to the Emperor, the warranty of the new treaty with the Emperor, and the alteration of the navigation act in favor of Holland.

Sir James Harris, with his secretary of legation and three clerks, are said to have been very busy night and day, but all to no purpose. It is not at all to be wondered at, that British ministers should be alarmed; the only wonder is, that they did not foresee and prevent the danger. Two years ago, by an honest settlement with America, and less costly offers to Holland, they might have maintained their rank among the powers of Europe. It is now lost forever.

The loss of the empire of the seas, which their ambition has long aspired to, and which their arrogance has long claimed, would be a benefit to mankind, and no real evil to them; but they will now find it difficult to defend their liberty upon the seas; and, if the United States of America should accede to this defensive alliance upon any reasonable terms, think of it as they will, their navigation, their possessions in the east and the west, and their empire, will be at mercy.

I am not informed whether congress have any such measure in contemplation; but, if they have, they ought not to delay it from any expectation of any thing that I can do here. So far from entertaining any sanguine hopes, I think there is scarcely a possibility that I should do any thing. There are divisions in the ministry. Thurlow, Gower, Dundas, and Jenkinson are of the old leaven, and the King will have them or some other of the same stamp to govern. Pitt is but a tool and an ostensible pageant, a nose of tender virgin wax; he could not carry in parliament, nor in the cabinet, any honest system with America, if he meant to do it; but he is himself very far from being steady in his American politics, any more than Camden or Richmond; and Sidney and Carmarthen are ciphers. This is naked truth; but I should be unworthy of your confidence, if I did not expose it to you, although your prudence and that of congress will not proclaim it to the world.

This great event of the French and Dutch alliance, must awaken the feelings of this nation, if they have any left; and it affords the only opportunity which has yet presented for offering, with any propriety, a memorial concerning the evacuation of the frontier posts. It would have looked somewhat too emphatic, to have gone with a memorial the first moment of the arrival of the news; and it would be imprudent to delay it till the whole impression is worn off. As a medium, then, I have concluded, on the day of the next stated conferences of the foreign ministers, which will be next Thursday, before the drawing room, to wait on Lord Carmarthen with a memorial requiring, in the name of the United States, the evacuation of all the posts.

It will not be done, however, and I shall have no answer. They have not the courage to refuse, any more than to comply. I have no answer to any of my letters or memorials to the ministry, nor do I expect any before next spring; perhaps not then.

There is no resource for me in this nation. The people are discouraged and dispirited, from the general profligacy and want of principle, from the want of confidence in any leaders, from the frequent disappointments and impositions they have experienced in turn from all parties. Patriotism is no more; nor is any hypocrite successful enough to make himself believed to be one. Fox, and his friends and patrons, are ruined by the endless expenses of the last elections, and have no longer any spirit or any enterprise. North and his friends are afraid of impeachments and vengeance, and, therefore, will avoid all hazardous experiments, by which the popular cry might be excited.

I see nothing, therefore, to prevent the States from completing their measures for the encouragement of their own manufactures and navigation, or from deliberating upon a new treaty of commerce with France, or even a new alliance. You might probably purchase a market for your ready built ships and your oil, &c., in France, and the admission of your flour and all other things to their islands, by stipulating to lay greater duties upon British than French ships and goods, to lay duties upon English West India rum, in favor of French brandies, &c. But in these things I think we need not be in haste.

Mr. Barclay and Mr. Franks are gone to Morocco; and Mr. Lamb and Mr. Randall to Algiers, as I suppose.

Russia, as well as Portugal, are piqued at present with this Court; and Count Woronzow has several times lately asked a friend of mine, why the United States did not make advances to his mistress. Our commissions for treating with the powers of Europe expire next June, long before we shall have completed the business. Congress will determine whether to renew them.

I have the honor to be, &c.

John Adams.