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

TO THE MARQUIS OF CARMARTHEN. - 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 THE MARQUIS OF CARMARTHEN.

My Lord,

I have the honor of transmitting to your Lordship a copy of a letter of the 21st of December last, from his Majesty’s consul-general in the United States to their secretary of state for the department of foreign affairs, which has been laid before congress,1 who have been pleased to direct me to communicate it to his Majesty, with this information, that the complaint stated in it being in general terms, and unsupported by any particular facts or evidence, they do not think it necessary or proper to take any measures in consequence of it; and, with this assurance, that, as it is their determination the treaty of peace shall be punctually observed by their citizens, and that his Majesty’s subjects shall enjoy in the United States all the rights which friendly and civilized nations claim from each other, so they will always be ready to hear every complaint which may appear to be well founded, and to redress such of them as, on investigation, shall prove to be so. Let me request the favor of your Lordship to lay this communication before his Majesty.

Your Lordship will permit me to avail myself of this opportunity of remarking, that the office of consul-general does not extend to matters of this kind; neither the rights of commerce nor of navigation being in question; and, therefore, that it was delicacy towards his Majesty, rather than a sense of the propriety of such an application from a consul-general, which induced congress to treat it with this mark of attention.

As the United States, my Lord, have a minister plenipotentiary residing at this Court, in consequence of a proposition to that purpose, made by his Britannic Majesty’s minister, through his Grace, the Duke of Dorset, his ambassador at Paris, your Lordship will permit me to propose to the consideration of his Majesty’s ministers the expediency, as well as propriety, of sending a minister plenipotentiary from his Majesty to the United States of America. I am authorized, my Lord, to give assurances that congress expect such a minister, and are ready to receive and treat him in a manner consistent with the respect due to his sovereign.

With great respect, &c.

John Adams.

[1 ]Sir John Temple’s complaint that copies of public records were refused to the loyalists in the United States. It is omitted in this collection. See the Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States from 1783 to 1789. Vol. vi. pp. 8, 9.