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

No. 3.: WILLIAM VANS MURRAY TO JOHN ADAMS. 1 - 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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No. 3.

WILLIAM VANS MURRAY TO JOHN ADAMS.1

The Hague, 22 July, 1798.

Dear Sir,—

I had this evening a visit from (the name is on a loose paper* ). After informing me of the exertions of Mr. Schimmelpenninck and Admiral de Winter at Paris, the agents of this government, to recall France to a just respect for the commercial interests of this country, he told me, from a letter from the latter, which he showed me, that France had not commanded the commissary of Marine at Flushing to embargo our ships at that port, (there are none, I think, there,) though the embargo is certain all through the French ports; that this intelligence would please our government, because it promised some respect to trade in this country. He asked my opinion of some parts of the letter, which he read in French, as it was in Dutch, in which the Admiral mentions Mr. Talleyrand’s solicitude to conciliate the United States. I told him not to rely a moment upon these professions, begging him on the contrary to bend all his force to show France that it is her interest to let Holland be at peace with the United States. He said that should be done, and had been endeavored; that they were absolutely ruined, if they should be in the war. I told him that I had written a few sheets on that question, which I would send him; which I shall do privately. Were it known to come from me, though not a treatise, it would work the other way with France.

The reason of my caution in folding up the name is because of what I shall now mention. He gradually led me to the subject of my letter to you, Sir, of 17th July,2 in which I mention that a personage had called on me and proposed to me to write to Mr. King on the following proposition; namely, that if Great Britain would declare that she would not interfere with the internal government here, they (his party) would drive the French out of the country, provided that the war that was probable were renewed and any chance presented itself. He spoke explicitly of the name which I mentioned, connected with the interview in May, and which I find certainly that I have not overrated in mentioning it, Sir, to you. After some time he told me I need not conceal any thing on that subject, that he knew all, and was a party to the plan, and then named one other, a man of the very first talents, I think, in this country, and a man of high and excellent principles, and said, we all are of the same views. I then spoke with absolute freedom to him, and told him what I had written to Mr. King, and that I had communicated to you, Sir, in confidence, even the name. He seemed a little alarmed. I told him it would be perfectly safe with you, and that it was on a loose paper, and that in case of accidents, as death, it would still be sacred. He avowed the highest respect for you, and mentioned that his friends (the moderates, many of whom had the pleasure of knowing you personally) were much attached to you. I told him that not having seen the person with whom I had the interview in May since, I could not communicate the result of my correspondence, but that I now would, to him; and told him that I suspected that Great Britain would not give the pledge required. He at last said he thought she might yet, if a fair occasion offered. In fact, Sir, I now know that the men who overturned the Directory on the 12th June, did it partly with this view, and principally. They have, with some hazard, liberated the arrested members of 22d January, in doing which they risked the suspicions of France; but they have so managed as to have her consent and yet her confidence. Tremendous will be the blow, if she discover a thread of this affair!

I hear nothing more from Mr. Pichon. Mr. Gerry is yet at Paris, and great pains are taken to circulate into merchants’ counting houses here information pretended to be drawn from him, that if he had power he could treat to advantage. In the mean time no act on their part assures us of sincerity; on the contrary, every act of government is a contradiction to this sort of news, namely, a very strict embargo on our vessels in all the French ports, since about the 10th instant, when from private intelligence I heard of it, by letters of the 9th from Paris.

I would pray, Sir, for every gentleness towards this nation, consistent with the honor of the American government. They are, government and all, charmed with our spirit and energy, and, in fact, consider it secretly as a common cause, in which they are interested that we should succeed.

I have requested Mr. Bourne to give notice of the law for suspending intercourse, though I am not officially informed. If I find that my intelligence, that the bill passed 1st June, is not a law, and it came to me through various channels that it is a law, I shall take on myself the mistake by publishing notice that the unofficial intelligence (which I now believe still to be true) is premature, so as to prevent any consequences from Mr. Bourne’s notice.

I have the honor to be, &c.

W. V. Murray.

P. S. 23 July. I have just received letters from several correspondents, which lead me to doubt whether the bill for suspending intercourse be passed into a law; and have written to Mr. Bourne to stop the notice. That measure I resolved on, after a belief that it had passed, because of the endeavors made here and from Paris to lead our trade into a disbelief of the Embargo, which I knew had taken place in the French ports, and because some vessels here of the United States wished to go both to France and her islands.

[1 ]This letter was transmitted by Mr. Pickering in a letter dated 19th October, two days after Nos. 1 and 2 had been sent deciphered.

[* ]Spoors, President of the Directory.

[2 ]Mr. Murray mistakes the date. It was his letter of the 1st.