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

TO JAMES BOWDOIN. - 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 JAMES BOWDOIN.

London, 2 June, 1786.

Sir,—

Dr. Gordon yesterday called upon me with the letter which your Excellency did me the honor to write me on the 10th of April. I have long since transmitted to congress the answer of the Board of Admiralty to the representations relative to the conduct of Captain Stanhope, in which the letters of that officer are disapproved.

The representations of the encroachments on the territory of the United States have been laid before the British ministry; but I presume they will, like many others, be little attended to. In short, sir, I must be so free as to say to you, that, by every thing I have seen and heard in this country, nothing of any material consequence will ever be done, while there remains in force a law of any one State impeding the recovery of bonâ fide debts contracted before the 30th of November, 1782, or inconsistent with the article of the treaty of peace respecting the tories.

It is very true that Mitchell’s map governed the American and British plenipotentiaries in settling the line between the two nations. There is upon that map but one river which is marked with the name of St. Croix, and that was the object undoubtedly fixed upon. There is no river upon that map, that I remember, marked with the name of Schoodack or Megacadava. Next to the great river St. Johns, proceeding westward on that map, is a little river inscribed Mechior; next to that, is another stream running between the words Carriage harbor; next to that we come to a larger river, running from Kousaki lake into the bay Passamaquoddy, and inscribed with the name of river St. Croix; next to that, still proceeding westward, is Passamaquoddy river. But that inscribed, river St. Croix, running from the sea, or what I call Passamaquoddy bay, up to the Kousaki lake, was marked with the pencil for the boundary. It is impossible for me to say more. If the true St. Croix cannot be discovered by these marks, there is no remedy but by an ulterior agreement, or the law of the strongest. It is astonishing that, to this hour, no man can produce a map of all the bays, harbors, islands, and rivers in that neighborhood, that can be depended on. If the ministry will meet me in a fair discussion of the question, or in any of the methods pointed out to me by my superiors for a settlement, I shall be glad. They have it under consideration, and, as soon as they give me an answer, I shall transmit it to congress; but, as they do not love pains and trouble so well as you and I do, I fear they will leave it all to Sir Guy Carleton, who is no more of a friend to the United States than any other British knight, and will be guided by the royalists more than by maps or surveys. Why any of my countrymen should choose to give to these royalists so much importance as they do, I know not. We should recollect that all parties in this country are pledged to support them, and party faith is a stronger tie than national faith.

The paper relative to Alexander Gross of Truro, I must transmit to Mr. Jefferson, it being in his department. I may, nevertheless, previously communicate it to the Comte d’Adhemar, and request his friendly offices in the matter.

Yours,

John Adams.