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

No. 4.: 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. 4.

WILLIAM VANS MURRAY TO JOHN ADAMS.1

The Hague, 3 August, 1798.

Dear Sir,—

I have the honor to inclose you a duplicate, and to inform you that the same language has been held to me since, and that this government have assured me of their conviction that the letter inclosed in this Leyden paper, marked x, may be considered as evidence of an amicable disposition,1 as they say they have taken pains to ascertain that point from motives of self-interest. These motives I believe, Sir, 574. 1570. them. I do not believe in 536 since 539. 1175 of this letter. Mr. Gerry’s answer I have not yet seen. Mr. Talleyrand’s reply to it I have in manuscript, in the same way, as the inclosed may show. The answer, I hear, demanded a retraction of the arrêtés against our trade. The reply avoids all of that irritating language which is scattered with a supercilious air in the letter, though in a degree and manner more humble, and it announces an amicable spirit, a determination to remain tranquil, and that orders had been given to the privateers in the West Indies to act within the limits of the laws. This order Mr. T. considers as a pledge of amity, without saying any thing of the laws themselves. It renounces all demands of loans, and assures Mr. Gerry of a disposition to treat on fair terms, in a manner the most direct, and in a tone infinitely below any thing which they have used to any nation. All this I 526 as merely arts hoping to 709. 240. negotiation to 759. 977. your 1152. 659. 924 and 839. 955. with England. Their privateers in the mean time are, I understand, to act as usual in Europe against us, because they do so against the vessels of other nations.

I hear that Mr. Gerry has left Paris for America. From the tenor of these letters, I presume that the French consider him as charged to deliver them and perhaps more. It is because I presume that he does not so consider himself, that I trouble you, Sir, with this communication, that you may be as early as possible apprised of these letters which I 526. 1467. as a public mode of 948. 712. 1182. Pichon admits that, as a proof of their sincerity, an American war would be highly unpopular in France; and that the colonies are in danger, if it come on. I stated the preference which you would give to great and solid acts of justice rather than to promises of amity, and a course of proceeding in which they twice had the offer of the hand of amity.

Letters will come from Paris to America, as they do hither, full of absolute falsities, of demands by Mr. G. and concessions on their part. Happening to have seen the 1137. 600. of M. Talleyrand, I have been enabled to contradict part of the misstatements.

The haste in which I am obliged to write I beg you, Sir, to accept as some apology for the very great freedom in blots, &c.

W. V. Murray.

[1 ]A portion of this letter has never been deciphered. Neither is there any record of its date of reception. Probably it was about the middle of November, before Mr. Adams left Quincy.

[1 ]Inclosed with this came a number of the Nouvelles Politiques, of the 3d of August, published at Leyden, containing the letter of M. Talleyrand to Mr. Gerry, of the 24 Messidor (12 July), which had been published at Paris on the 28th, with introductory remarks betraying a sense that the French government had gone too far in permitting the negotiation to be-broken off. The following passage is underlined in ink;—

“Il est certain, que notre gouvernement paroît avoir mis autant d’empressement à ouvrir des négociations amicales avec le troisième Envoyé Américain, qu’il a témoigné d’indifference, ou même de froideur, avant le départ de ses deux collègues, Messrs. Pinckney et Marshall.”