Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
As I am informed there is a vessel soon to sail from Amsterdam for
Boston, I now forward to Mr. Bourne to go by her, this
letter enclosing copies of my numbers 2 and 3. upon the Etat de
la France &c. The book itself will go with the copy of my first letter
concerning it, from Hamburg— Hauterive has generally been given out as its author; but
Talleyrand himself is now understood to have had the principal hand in writing it— I
think you will perceive in it the discovery of a system pursued by the present french government, of most imminent danger to the
political liberties of all Europe, and even of the United States—1 It is high time for us to be aware that mere resolves of Congress, or proclamations of the Executive, not to engage in the quarrels and dissensions of
Europe, will not alone suffice to keep us out of them— Here is a french minister of
foreign affairs, who tells the world that Europe must have a new Law of Nations; that
France must make it; and that in the system of Europe, France includes the United States—2 At
the same time a report is circulating all over Europe, that Spain has ceded the
Florida’s and Louisiana to France— At least in the peace of Luneville they have realized
in favour of the duke of Parma, the plan which Carnot has publicly declared he urged for
the peace of Campo Formio, as the price of Louisiana, in order
to obtain a powerful influence over the United States.—3 We must be upon our guard.
My box of books, which I mentioned in a former letter, sailed from
Holland the 15th: instt: in a
vessel of Mr: Smith’s—Captain Atkins— 61 and address’d to him— I have already requested you would permit them to be lodg’d
with the rest of my books.4
My wife continues to be recovering.— Ever faithfully.
RC (Adams
Papers); addressed: “John Adams Esqr / Quincy /
near / Boston. / United States of America.”; internal address: “J. Adams Esqr.”; endorsed by TBA: “J Q Adams / 25th: April 1801 / 4th: Augst: Recd:”; notation: “Per Cap n Ingham” and “Per
Capn Ingham.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 134.
As the notations on this letter indicate, after it was forwarded
to U.S. consul at Amsterdam Sylvanus Bourne it was carried on the brig Jane Maria, Capt. Joseph Ingham, which docked on 30 July at
New York rather than Boston. JQA enclosed copies of his letters to
JA of 21 and 25 April, first letter, which constituted second and third
installments of a four-part review of Alexandre Maurice Blanc de Hauterive, De l’état de la France, a la fin de l’an VIII, Paris, 1800.
The first installment was sent by JQA to JA on 11 April and
the fourth on the 28th (all LbC’s, APM Reel 134). In the letter of the 11th, JQA called Hauterive’s
book “a work of considerable ability, written with much elegance of style” in which he
argued that the French Revolution was a necessary catalyst leading to “the
establishment of a perfect & unrivalled preponderance of France in the affairs of
Europe.” The book itself, which is in JA’s library at MB, and the copy of the 11 April
installment were likely carried aboard the schooner Betsy, Capt. Lovett, which arrived at Beverly, Mass., from Hamburg on 16 June.
The review was printed in Port Folio, 1:201–203, 220–221,
227–228, 234–236 (27 June; 11, 18, 25 July) from the recipient copies, which reached
TBA earlier (New York Commercial
Advertiser, 30 July; New York American Citizen, 12
April 1802; Boston Columbian Centinel, 17 June 1801;
JQA to TBA, 11
April, above, 21 April, Adams
Papers;
Catalogue of JA’s Library
).
Thomas Jefferson in his 4 March inaugural address espoused a
foreign policy of neutrality that eclipsed those of George Washington and
JA to border on isolationism. The United States, he claimed, was
“kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one
quarter of the globe,” and his administration would strive for “peace, commerce, and
honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.” Hauterive’s book,
which JQA believed was influenced by French foreign minister Charles
Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, presented a counterview calling for a revised Law of
Nations and characterizing the United States as an active player in European politics
(p. 14, 67, 73, 154–155). JQA derided these ideas as “a pretension on the
part of France to give an all comprehensive Law of nations to the world” by “summoning
all Europe, & the United States, to acquiesce in a
new system of public law, commenced and to be completed by France” (Jefferson, Papers
, 33:150; David J. Lorenzo, Debating War:
Why Arguments Opposing American Wars and Interventions Fail, N.Y., 2016, p.
25–27; JQA to JA, 25, 28 April, LbC’s, APM Reel 134; Port
Folio, 1:228, 235 [18, 25 July]).
In April 1799 JQA noted that French revolutionary
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot in his Réponse de L. N. M.
Carnot, citoyen François, London, 1799, advocated for France’s reacquisition of
Louisiana from Spain as a means to gain influence over the United States. The two
nations pursued such a course on 7 Oct. 1800 when they negotiated the secret
Convention of San Ildefonso, in which France promised Tuscany to Don Louis, Duke of
Parma, in return for the Spanish cession of Louisiana, a transaction that was
finalized with the signing of the Treaty of Lunéville on 9 Feb. 1801. The London Morning Post and Gazetteer, 7 March, accurately reported
the exchange. William Vans Murray wrote to JQA on 30 March that the
transaction was complete, and JQA responded on 7 April that “natural
antipathies” would blunt France’s ability “to debauch our southern planters,”
declaring: “Let them take Louisiana” (vol. 13:456–457, 459; Roberts, Napoleon
, p. 286, 290–291; Madison, Papers, Secretary of State
Series
, 1:56; Murray to JQA, 30 March, Adams Papers; JQA to Murray, 7 April,
LbC, APM Reel 134).
The shipment of books that JQA mentioned in his letter of 24 March, above, was 62 carried in William Smith’s schooner Nancy, Capt. John W. Atkins, which arrived in Boston on 22
May after a voyage of 37 days from Rotterdam. JQA kept a “Catalogue of
Books Sent from Europe” (M/JQA/52, APM Reel 248) that listed books sent from The Hague to
Lisbon in 1797 and on to the United States in 1799. On the final page with text he
added a list titled “From Berlin. 1801.” that included 35 titles in 60 volumes of
literature, biography, and philosophy (vol. 10:434; Boston Columbian Centinel,
23 May 1801; Boston Independent Chronicle, 3 Nov. 1800).
For the storage of JQA’s library at the John Quincy Adams Birthplace and
then at the home of Moses Black, see vol. 14:172, 209.