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

12 April 1783: TO ARTHUR LEE. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811) [1854]

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. 9.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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TO ARTHUR LEE.

Paris, 12 April, 1783.

Congress forced us into a situation, which obliged us to venture upon a piece of indiscipline, in order to secure a tolerable peace, so that you may well suppose we are anxious to know how it is received among you, and what is to be our fate; whether we are to be approved, excused, justified, or censured. The most curious and inexplicable part of the history is Franklin’s joining in the mutiny. You who know him will not be at a loss to account for it. In truth, the necessity was too obvious and glaring, and the cod, and bucks, and beavers were animals too dearly beloved in our country for a man to take upon himself to be responsible for the loss of them.

We have had a very dull pause since the peace. No news from America, and a stagnation in England, which has left us in a painful state of uncertainty. Now, indeed, the ministry is arranged for a little while, and Mr. Hartley is expected over to finish the negotiation. You know him; he is talkative and disputatious, and not always intelligible, so that I expect we shall be longer about the business than is necessary.

I am not able to conceive how a ministry, composed of parts so heterogeneous, can go on with business. It cannot be expected to be solid and durable. Mr. Fox professes to mean to finish soon and liberally; but I know not what opposition and contradiction he may meet in the cabinet. I confess I do not like the change at all. Shelburne and his set would have gone through well. Mr. Laurens, who is in London, seems pleased with the change, at least he was with the prospect a few days before it took place, and he seems to think that the tories are not so much regarded as we feared.

Shelburne did the best thing of his whole life when he made peace, and the vote against him does no honor to his opponents. The peace is really much better for England than she had a right to expect, and the continuance of the war would have been ruin. This the present set are sensible of, but truth is a small sacrifice to faction. The vote of dissatisfaction with the peace is a disagreeable event, and one knows not what effects it may have. I do not believe it could ever have been carried, if a treaty of commerce had been signed on the 30th of November. Why the commission for making such a treaty was revoked without issuing another, you must ask Mr. Marbois. I know not. I think, however, you cannot too soon send a minister to London to arrange finally a system of commerce, and to watch over all your interests in that country. French politics are now incessantly at work in England, and we may depend upon it they labor less for our good than their own. If our interests were the same with theirs, we might better trust them; yet not entirely, for they do not understand their own interests so well as we do ours.

Congress will never adopt a right system of foreign affairs until they consider their interests as distinct, and keep them separate, from those of all other nations. One essential part of the business and duty of their ministers is to watch French politicians as well as English, to coöperate with them where they coincide with our system, and to counteract them where they interfere with it. At least, this has ever been my opinion. It was so when I was in Congress in 1775, 1776, and 1777, and every day’s experience in Europe, in every country, in every department, has afforded something in confirmation of it. I have acted in conformity to it, at every risk, and, considering the furious wrath it has occasioned, and the violent efforts to demolish me, with wonderful success. But the success would have been much more complete, if Congress had adhered to the system as steadily as I did.

SAMUEL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS.

Boston, 4 November, 1783.

Colonel John Trumbull, the son of the worthy Governor of Connecticut, is the bearer of this letter. I give the Governor this epithet, because I think his faithful services to our country entitle him to it. Yet even he has undergone the suspicions of some, unsupported by any solid reasons that I have heard of. We live in an age of jealousy, and it is well enough. I was led to believe in early life that jealousy is a political virtue. It has long been an aphorism with me, that it is one of the greatest securities of public liberty. Let the people keep a watchful eye over the conduct of their rulers, for we are told that great men are not at all times wise. It would be indeed a wonder, if in any age or country they were always honest. There are, however, some men among us, who, under the guise of watchful patriots, are finding fault with every public measure, with a design to destroy that just confidence in government, which is necessary for the support of those liberties, which we have so dearly purchased. Many of your countrymen, besides myself, feel very grateful to you, and those of our negotiators who joined you, in preventing the tory refugees from being obtruded upon us. These would certainly have increased the number of such kind of patriots as I have mentioned, and, besides, their return would have been attended with other mischievous effects. Mutual hatred and revenge would have occasioned perpetual quarrels between them and the people, and perhaps frequent bloodshed. Some of them, by art and address, might gradually recover a character, and, in time, an influence, and so become the fittest instruments in forming factions either for one foreign nation or another. We may be in danger of such factions, and should prudently expect them. One might venture to predict that they will, sooner or later, happen. We should therefore guard against the evil effects of them. I deprecate the most favored nation predominating in the councils of America, for I do not believe there is a nation on earth that wishes we should be more free or more powerful than is consistent with their ideas of their own interest. Such a disinterested spirit is not to be found in national bodies; the world would be more happy if it prevailed more in individual persons. I will say it for my countrymen, they are, or seem to be, very grateful. All are ready freely to acknowledge our obligations to France, for the part she took in our late contest. There are a few who consider the advantage derived to her by a total separation of Britain and the colonies, which so sagacious a court doubtless foresaw and probably never lost sight of. This advantage was so glaring, in the first stages of our controversy, that those who then ran the risk of exciting even an appeal to Heaven rather than a submission to British tyranny, were well persuaded that the prospect of such a separation would induce France to interpose, and do more than she has done, if necessary. America, with the assistance of her faithful ally, has secured and established her liberty and independence. God be praised! And some would think it too bold to assert that France has thereby saved the being of her great importance. But if it be true, why may we not assert it? A punctual fulfilment of engagements solemnly entered into by treaty, is the justice, the honor, and policy of nations. If we, who have contracted debts, were influenced only by motives of sound policy, we should pay them as soon as possible, and provide sure and adequate funds for the payment of interest in the mean time. When we have done this, we shall have the sense of independence impressed on our minds, no longer feeling that state of inferiority which a wise king tells us the borrower stands in to the lender.

Your negotiation with Holland, as “my old friend” observed, is all your own. The faithful historian will do justice to your merits, perhaps not till you are dead. I would have you reconcile yourself to this thought. While you live, you will probably be the object of envy. The leading characters in this great revolution will not be fairly marked in the present age. It will be well if the leading principles are remembered long. You, I am sure, have not the vanity which Cicero betrayed, when he even urged his friend Licinius to publish the history of the detection of Catiline in his lifetime, that he might enjoy it. I am far from thinking that part of history redounds so much to the honor of the Roman consul, as the treaty of Holland does to its American negotiator.

December 4th. I intended to have committed the care of the foregoing letter to Mr. Trumbull; but when he called on me I was confined to my chamber by severe bodily indisposition, unable to attend even to the lightest business. I am still kept at home, but hope soon to be abroad. Mr. Jonathan Jackson will deliver this to you, if he meets you in London; otherwise he will convey it by some safe hand. When I shall be certain of your being appointed for London, I will write to you as often as I can. May Heaven bless you, my friend, as I am affectionately yours,

S. Adams.