Papers of John Adams, volume 12
1782-04-20
I received, to day the Letter you did me the honor to write to me yesterday, and am exceedingly obliged to you for your cordial congratulations, on the great Event which was yesterday finally concluded by their High Mightinesses. The Favour of Providence, has been remarkably manifested in the progress of this Negociation, hitherto, that I very sincerely join with you in imploring its continuance, to the mutual prosperity, and the permanent establishment of the liberties of both Nations.
I have small pretensions to an accurate Knowledge of the Commerce of either Country; but such general notions of it as have fallen to my share, I shall ever esteem it a pleasure and an honor to communicate.
I should be sorry however, to give the trouble of coming to the Hague to so respectable a number of the Merchants of your City; but as I do not propose to return to Amsterdam before Thursday, I shall be happy to receive them, or any of them at the Mareschall de Turenne at the Hague, on any day before that time; and if the hour of twelve on Wednesday next should suit your convenience none will be more agreeable to me.1
C. W. F. Dumas indicates in his letter of 10 May to Robert R. Livingston that the delegation led by Nolet met with JA on Monday, 22 April. In their address, the town’s merchants noted the common love of liberty in the Netherlands and the United States arising from their birth in revolutions against despotic powers. They expressed their joy at the States General’s providential decision to recognize American independence and ac-432knowledge JA as minister plenipotentiary. The address ended with a plea for the free admittance of their city’s produce into the United States. JA enclosed the address with a letter of 5 July to Livingston (Papers of John Adams, vol. 13; Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.
, 5:408–410, 595–597). For an invitation to dine with the merchants of Schiedam, see Dumas’ letter of 30 April to JA, below.