Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. - The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799)

Return to Title Page for The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

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

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

London, 12 February, 1788.

Dear Sir,—

I have received your letter of the 6th, and had before received the same information from Amsterdam.

I know not how to express to you the sense I have of the disingenuousness of this plot. The difficulty of selling the obligations, I believe to be mere pretence; and, indeed, the whole appears to me to be a concerted fiction, in consequence of some contrivance or suggestion of Mr. Parker, the great speculator in American paper, who, though I love him very well, is too ingenious for me. I feel myself obliged to write this in confidence to you, and to put you on your guard against the ungovernable rage of speculation. I feel no vanity in saying that this project never would have been suggested, if it had not been known that I was recalled.

If I was to continue in Europe and in office, I would go to Amsterdam and open a new loan with John Hodshon before I would submit to it. The undertakers are bound, as I understand it, to furnish the money on the new loan. They agreed to this, upon condition that I would go to Amsterdam to sign the obligations. The truth is, that Messrs. Willink and Van Stap-horst have been purchasing immense quantities of American paper, and they now want to have it acknowledged and paid in Europe. It appears to me totally impossible that you or I should ever agree to it, or approve it; and, as far as I can comprehend, it is equally impossible for the Board of Treasury or congress to consent to it. You and I, however, cannot answer for them; but I think we cannot countenance any hopes that they will ever comply with it. The continental certificates and their interest are to be paid in America at the treasury of the United States. If a precedent is set of paying them in Europe, I pretend not to sufficient foresight to predict the consequences; they appear, however, to me to be horrid. If the interest of one million of dollars is paid this year in Europe, you will find the interest of ten millions demanded next year. I am very sorry to be obliged, at this moment of my retirement, to give opinions which may be misrepresented and imputed to motives that my soul despises; but I cannot advise you, by any means, to countenance this project. But it is my serious opinion that the judgment of congress, or the Board of Treasury, ought to be waited for, at all hazards. If the brokers, undertakers, and money-lenders will take such advantages of us, it is high time to have done with them, pay what is due as fast as we can, but never contract another farthing of debt with them.

If a little firmness is shown in adhering to the resolution of waiting the orders of congress, it is my opinion care will be taken in Amsterdam that our credit shall not suffer. The interest of our commissioners, of the brokers, undertakers, and money-lenders, all conspire to induce them to prevent a failure.

But, in my judgment, a failure had better take place than this project. I shall not write with the same frankness to Willinks, but I shall give them my opinion that the judgment of congress must be waited for.

My dear friend, farewell, I pity you. In your situation, dunned and teazed as you will be, all your philosophy will be wanting to support you. But be not discouraged. I have been constantly vexed with such terrible complaints, and frightened with such long faces, these ten years. Depend upon it, the Amsterdamers love money too well to execute their threats. They expect to get too much by American credit, to destroy it.

I am,

John Adams.