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

No. 6.: WILLIAM VANS MURRAY TO JOHN ADAMS. 3 - 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. 6.

WILLIAM VANS MURRAY TO JOHN ADAMS.3

The Hague, 7 October, 1798.

Dear Sir,—

The inclosed is from M. Talleyrand to M. Pichon, who left this place the 24th September for Paris. In many interviews which this gentleman sought with me, with much solicitude, I had repelled the idea that “the assurances” declared by you, Sir, in your message in June, had been given in any of Mr. Talleyrand’s letters that I had seen. To this I added, among many other remarks, that nothing but a formal and explicit assurance of respectful reception, worthy the minister of a free, independent, and powerful nation, would, in my opinion, as an unauthorized individual, be considered by you, Sir, as “the assurances,” which you had spoken of; that I did not know any thing of the intentions of government in the future, but that it was an error in his government to flatter itself with the idea that you would accept assurances by implication, or any of any sort which were blended with any kind of indication of the political complexion of envoys, or any advice or hint upon the choice. That I did not know whether, if assurances were given, they would produce negotiation; but that, without them, there would be no negotiation certainly. That “the assurances,” if given, would not be a favor, but only an assurance that rights, which had been twice refused, should be enjoyed. That an explicit declaration could never be necessary upon such a point, except in cases where the right had been expressly refused. That this right, implied among all equal powers, had been twice expressly denied, and that, of course, an explicit declaration announcing it, became necessary to the dignity of the American government and nation.

He appeared, at last, to fall in with these ideas; and in the next interview, which was the second week in September, he told me he had stated my remarks to Mr. Talleyrand, but that he did not see how this declaration could be made, to whom, and through whom. I told him that I would communicate to you, Sir, any such declaration, if formally and officially made, though I was unauthorized to open my lips on the subject, and knew that it was taking on myself great hazard, and incurring a risk of being open to the imputation of meddling at such a crisis.

Before he went away from the Hague, it struck me I ought to guard myself by a written note on the point of being unauthorized. I therefore wrote the inclosed, with the remarks respecting “the assurances.” Unless the purity and disinterestedness of my motives are appreciated by you, Sir, I shall consider these informal endeavors to coöperate in what I thought to be your plan and consistent with your policy, as the greatest errors of my life! I thought that some point, honorable to the government over which you preside, might be gained, nothing hazarded.

Before Mr. Pichon went to Paris, he told me that he daily expected an answer upon the points of our conversation on the 7th and 8th instant (September); namely, on “the assurances.” To-night I received from the hands of the French military postmaster here the original of the inclosed, under cover from one signed by Mr. Pichon in which he says, this, from the Minister, Mr. Talleyrand, is the one which he waited some days for here, and which crossed him on the road, and was sent back to Paris, whence he sends it to me to be confidentially mentioned to you, Sir. The mysteriousness of concealing these conversations and communications even from the chargé des affaires here, is unaccountable to me, unless it has arisen from, first, the peculiar origin of these conversations and communications, and, secondly, from their pride. Mr. Pichon, I understood from himself, had these in view when he was sent here; for he told me at the Spanish minister’s, “that his being sent here, and Mr. la Forest’s being entirely given to Mr. Talleyrand, and the American dispute having been put altogether into Mr. Talleyrand’s management lately, were among the proofs of the intentions of his government to settle amicably.” He speaks English well; I speak French badly, and am thus not qualified for long and rapid conversations on important subjects in that language. He has more talents and knowledge, particularly on American affairs, than the present chargé, who speaks a little English, and who has the character of an enragé. Secondly, their pride is concerned in concealment, unless these indirect measures should procure what they aim at, a new negotiation. On the last idea I have urged that the declaration must be as public as the two former refusals, and as solemn as your message.

The inclosed, then, Sir, is sent to you such as it is! It is not the declaration; it is from the minister of exterior relations of France to the Secretary of French legation. Such as it is, I feel it my duty to inclose it, with this exposition, to you in a private letter. Taken with other things it may perhaps throw some light, it cannot throw any shade, I hope, over the present lustre of the public mind, warm, and burning as it does, with a holy flame. If it be at all useful, I shall rejoice. It does not strike me, on mature reflection, as being in any event, either in war or in negotiation, capable of doing mischief, because, Sir, to you only, and to Colonel Pickering, in private letters, have I stated these things, in America; and to Mr. Adams, at Berlin, pretty fully the substance of my informal proceedings, and to Mr. King, a few hints in strict confidence, in Europe. I enjoy great pleasure in having received from Mr. Adams a concurrence of opinions on the points which I have stated to him on this subject.

I am sensible that I run some hazard in thus communicating to you, Sir, such things; but I thought that you would on the whole wish to know all that I could collect, and in the manner that I have taken the liberty of privately communicating it.1

I have the honor to be, &c., &c.

W. V. Murray.

[3 ]There is no date of reception marked on this letter; but it must have been received by the early part of February, as the inclosure, which accompanied it, made the basis of the nomination of Mr. Murray to the Senate on the 18th of that month. Mr. Joel Barlow’s letter from Paris, dated five days earlier, is recorded as received by General Washington on the last day of January. With these lights, it is amusing to observe the extent to which party spirit drove Mr. Jefferson from the truth, in his conjectures as to the motives in making that nomination. See his letter to James Madison. Randolph’s Jefferson, vol. iii. p. 423. Sparks’s Washington, vol. xi. p. 398.

[1 ]It is due to Mr. Murray to say that the language of all these letters may suffer from imperfect and perhaps mistaken deciphering.