Papers of John Adams, volume 18
r.15. 1785
There are mysterious Movements, of various kinds, that ought to be observed and reflected on, although We cannot draw any certain Conclusions from them.
General Faucett, is often at the Levee, not indeed, on Wednesdays, nor at the Drawing Room on Thursdays, on which occasions the Foreign Ministers attend, but on Frydays, when there are no Strangers, and when only the Ministers of State, and the Officers of the Army and Navy, and Some of their own foreign Ministers and other civil officers, appear.— from this Circumstance, certain warm 42 Imaginations, entertain Suspicions, that Faucett is to be Sent to Brunswick, Hesse, Anspack, &c, to inlist another Body of Mercenaries.— But it is more probable, it is to consult upon certain Points relative to the Pay, of the German Troops, for time And Services that are pass’d.1
General Arnold is gone out to America too. from this some Persons have conjectured, that War, is determined on, or at least thought not improbable.— He went to Hallifax in a Vessell of his own, with a Cargo of his own, upon a trading Voyage as it is given out.— This I can Scarcely believe.— it would hardly be permitted, A General Officer to go upon Such a Trade. He Said himself, he had a young Family, to provide for and could not bear an idle Life.— This is likely enough.— I rather think then that he has obtained leave to go out, and purchase himself a settlement in Nova Scotia or Canada, that he may be ready against the Possibility of a War, and that he may be out of the Way of feeling the Neglect and Contempt in which he is held by, not only the Army but the World in general.2
Joseph Brant, has lately arrived with Lt Governor Hamilton from Quebec, and the Indian has been presented to the King, at a Fryday Levee, I Suppose as a Colonel in the British service.—3 This confirms and increases the Reports of a general Confederation of the Indian Nations against the United States, which the Refugees propagate, partly from the Pleasure they take in the Thought and partly, to perswade Government to build ships and Forts upon the Lakes, Services in which they hope to get Employment under the Crown, and the Fingering of Some of its Money.— Brant has been heretofore in England and is probably sent for now to be consulted, as well as Hamilton.— But there are Such Disputes and Discontents in Canada, that the Ministry know not what course to Steer, and I Suppose, wish to have Carlton & Haldiman Hamilton4 and Brant, alltogether Face to Face, that they may determine what to do.— They will determine all at once, who shall be Governor, what Form the Government shall have; Whether to give up the frontier Posts, whether to Treat with the Indians, for Neutrality or Alliance, whether to build ships or Forts upon the Lakes &c. But as this Cabinet is extreamly undecided they cannot but be secret, untill they shall be forced to determine. We may learn something in the Winter session of Parliament, but shall not know the whole till next summer.
The Marquis de la Fayette and Coll Smith, have returned from Germany, somewhat allarmed at the Impression made in that Country, by the English News Papers to our disadvantage.5 When I first 43 became acquainted a little in Europe I was constantly chagrined by this perpetual Impudence of the public Prints, and have all along done as much as my time and means would admit of to detect it: But I have long Since found it an Augean Stable.
The Truth is, that these Misrepresentations, instead of being discountenanced are encouraged by every Court and Government in Europe.— The Secret Motive is, the Fear of Emigrations. America is popular. it is a Novelty.— There is an Abundance of Provisions, a plenty of Employment in Agriculture Handicrafts, Navigation and Commerce.— The Multitudes in every nation are poor, loaded with Taxes; the necessaries of Life dear, and Employment difficult to obtain, and very meanly paid. This occasions an Impatience and discontent at home, and an ardent desire to emigrate to the United States. Every Government in Europe is very sensible of this, and therefore, all the Scribblers in their Pay or under their Influence which are almost all that exist, are encouraged to collect every Circumstance, which can throw a damp, upon the Spirit of Emigration, and every Tale of the kind, every story which represents America disunited, in Confusion, Anarchy, poor, distressed miserable, is eagerly catched at, and true or false is industriously repeated by Setters and Runners and an ignorant People are thus deceived into a Belief that it is at least doubtfull whether they shall be more comfortable in America than at home.— if We look into the foreign Gazettes which circulate in France and are under French Influence, as the Gazette D’Avignon the Gazette de deux Ponts, the Brussells Gazette, & others We find as many political Inventions to this Purpose as in the English Newspapers. I say this from Knowledge, for I have examined those Publications with Attention with this very view, for a long time together. Even the French Mercury, published under the Inspection of Government, and avowed by it, is but little purer than the rest. for the French are averse to Emigrations, and much afraid of them.
In England, there is not one Newspaper but is full of such dismal and such false representations; one Paper in the City, under the Influence of an Irish Volunteer, has lately discovered some Inclination to be more impartial. But all the Writers in the rest, are busily employed in abusing Us, and it so far encouraged by all Parties, chiefly from this dread of Emigrations, that it is unpopular to insert any Thing to the contrary. It has even been refused to insert the Acts of Congress or the states the Speeches of Governors and other public Proceedings in the Knowledge of which this Nation is greatly
44
interested, without paying at the rate of Advertisements, and this even by a News Writer who piques himself upon his Impartiality And boasts that his Paper is open to all Parties. Dr Price, is continually abused for his Pamphlet, and sometimes expressly because it tends to encourage Emigrations.6
In this State of Things, I must be cautious.— I am not able to pay the Scribes, like an Exchequer, nor to promise them pay or Promotion like an opposition.— And indeed Paragraphs in our Favour Seem only to provoke, ten Inventions against Us. Something might be done in time however, by mixing in Conversation and explaining or contradicting the grossest and worst Abuses. But this can be done in these Countries only by the Civilities of the Table and by a liberal Hospitality, in which We are much Streightened.— House Rent, Furniture, Carriage, and a certain Number of servants, with the daily expences of Living, which cannot be avoided without becoming the scorn of the World and without being insulted by every Footman and Porter, consumes all and more than all our Allowance.— I feel for the Circumstances of my Country as much as any Man in it, but I am sure those Circumstances will not be mended, by extream Parcimony in the Support of her servants and Negotiations in Europe. Frugality in America is a great Virtue, and it ought to be attended to by all Employed in Europe, but We shall find that Hospitality and even Splendor and Magnificence, is essential to the support of our Reputation in every Country of Europe, even in Holland, and much more so in England, than even at Versailles, tho We cannot make a formal distinction between these two. When your Ministers are seen to take Rank of Nobles and Bishops at saint James’s, who Spend many Thousands a Year and are observed to live at home and appear, abroad, with what is called “la plus infame Æconomie,” which is the Expression every day in Vogue, you will find, that neither you nor they will be considered as of any Consequence. To talk of Republican Simplicity is to make it worse.— Every Republican Idea is detested, and they think themselves bound in duty, to ridicule it and beat it out of Countenance, in self Defence.
Your Ministers abroad, must keep a Table for the Entertainment of their Countrymen, for the Entertainment of strangers who are presented at Court and consequently to them, to return the Civilities that are shewn them by foreign Ministers, and by People of high Rank in the Country, they ought to keep a Table at Times for the Entertainment of Men of Letters and Eminence in Arts and sciences, by which they might remove the Prejudices of the World against 45 their Country & themselves, and attract some Attention and good Will to both.— How far any of these Things are in our Power to do, I chearfully submit to the Consideration and decision of Congress, being determined to do every Thing in My Power with the means I have, and to be happy myself whether I make a little Figure or a great one.
With great Esteem and Respect I have / the Honour to be, dear sir your most / obedient and most humble servant
RC (PCC, No. 84, VI, f. 31–37); internal address: “His Excellency John Jay / secretary of State.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 112.
Maj. Gen. Sir William Fawcett was the principal negotiator of agreements with the various German states to supply troops during the Revolution (vols. 9:69; 12:354).
JA’s account here of Benedict Arnold’s departure for Canada on a commercial venture is similar to that in his 1 Nov. letter to Thomas Jefferson (vol. 17:556–558). Arnold returned to London in 1792, his undertaking having failed.
The Mohawk chief Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), who visited England in 1775–1776, sailed from Quebec on 6 Nov. 1785 with the recalled lieutenant governor of Quebec, Henry Hamilton. Arriving in London by 7 Dec., he was presented to the king and queen on the 22d. Brant met with the home secretary, Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, and other British officials on 4 Jan. 1786 to discuss his petition for a half-pay pension for his military service, compensation for Mohawk losses during the war, and assurances of support for Brant’s nascent Native American confederacy if American encroachments forced its members to fight to protect their lands (London Morning Herald and Daily Advertiser, 23 Dec. 1785; Isabel Thompson Kelsay, Joseph Brant, 1743–1807: Man of Two Worlds, Syracuse, N.Y., 1984, p. 161–175, 379–381;
ANB
).
Sir Guy Carleton, later 1st Baron Dorchester, was commander in chief in North America at the end of the Revolutionary War and returned to England in 1783. In 1786 he returned to Canada, carrying with him commissions, as governor of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick (London Morning Herald and Daily Advertiser, 17 April 1786;
DNB
). Frederic Haldimand, the governor of Quebec from 1778 until he was succeeded by Carleton in 1786, had been on leave in England since late 1784 (
DNB
).
For the Marquis de Lafayette’s comments on “lies & exagerations” spread about America that he had observed during his visits to Austria and Germany, see his 4 Sept. 1785 letter to Jefferson (Jefferson, Papers
, 8:478), and Philip Mazzei’s 29 Oct. letter to JA (vol. 17:552), and
JA’s 15 Dec. reply to Mazzei, below. For WSS’s comments, see his 6 Dec. letter to Jay (
Dipl. Corr., 1783–1789
, 3:12–14).
Richard Price, Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution, London, 1784. Compare JA’s comments in this and the previous two paragraphs with those in his letter to Mazzei of this date, below.
r.15. 1785
In your favour of Octr. 29, You inform me that The Marquis has observed in Germany, that the Lies which are Spread to our disadvantage, must be injurious to our national honour, if We neglect
46
to contradict them.—1 When I came first to Europe now approaching to Eight Years ago, my Indignation was roused, at the Shameless Falshoods which were continually propagated, and I took a great deal of Pains to have them contradicted but I have long Since found it an Augean Stable.—
The Truth is, that this Impudence is encouraged in France, almost as much, and in Germany Still more, than in England.— The real Motive is to discourage Emigrations. One half of Germany and more than half of England Scotland & Ireland and no inconsiderable Part of France would be Soon on Tiptoe, to fly to America for relief from that intollerable Load which they now carry on their shoulders, if they knew the true State of Facts in America.
The English Ministers, and the whole Hierarchy of their Dependents are aware of this, and there is an incredible Number of Persons constantly employed in preparing Paragraphs to represent The United States to be in a state of Anarchy and Misery, exposed to ruin by the Algerines and Indians &c.— if you read the Gazettes of Brussells Avignon, Deux Ponts and several others, under the Influence of French Correspondents, nay if you read the Mercure de France itself, you will see, that all these Paragraphs are borrowed from the English Papers, and others quite as modest fabricated, for the Same Purposes. The German Gazettes, are encouraged by their Licencers to insert every Thing of this kind, from the Same Motives. you may contradict then to Eternity to no Purpose. Every Paragraph you insert will only occasion ten more lies to be made: and your Truths will be disbelieved & all the Lies credited: because you may depend upon it the Influence of Government, and of all their Runners and Sitters are against You, and these it is too manifest all over Europe, have the Faith of the Multitude at their Disposal.— In England there is not a Gazette nor a Writer, who inclines to publish freely in favour of America.— if any one Attempts any Thing he is instantly attacked as an Encourager of Emigrations, as you may have lately seen in the Case of Dr Price.—
If I were to meddle in the Newspapers directly or indirectly in this Country, at present it must be with Caution and Delicacy.— And I dont think it would be discreet to lay out Money in this Way.— If I had Money to Spare from Purposes more essential, much might be done, by forming Acquaintances and communicating by their Assistance, true Information. But even in the Influence of the Table and of generous Hospitality, the Policy of our Country has restrained Us, within very narrow Bounds.2
47I dont believe you will do any good by entering into the Fracasseries of the Men of Letters in France. De Mably was as honest as a Man and as independent a Spirit, as you will find in France among them.—3 In the Letter I wrote the Abby De Mably, which convinced him, as he told me in his Answer that he would be in his Grave long before he could collect the Materials for an History of the Revolution you know I told him, I was glad that he intended to write for that I knew his Principles so well that I had no doubt he would produce a Work, which would be worth attending to. I have no Remembrance that I ever desired him to write at any other Time, or in any other manner, untill I was informed that he was writing Letters to me.
His first design of writing was announced to the world by himself in his Book “Sur le maniere d ecrire L’Histoire,[”] which was written and printed while I was at the Hague, and before I went to Paris to the Conferences about the Peace, as you may see by looking into that Pamphlet near the End.4 When I read his Design, it was with Pleasure, because I expected something worth reading from what I had seen of his other Writings, tho I had at this time nothing like an intimate acquaintance with him.— I am now glad he has written because, although there are many Things in which I am not of his opinion, there are many others that deserve the Serious Consideration of our Countrymen.— And I am under no Fears at all that Americans will be mislead by his Errors, the most material of which relate to The Freedom of Conscience and the Press, Points in which all America is so well grounded, that the greatest Writer in the World, or who has been in it, would not be able to shake them, much less a Philosopher born & educated living and dying, in the Midst of Principles of Intollerance in Religion and Government.
If you refute Ranall5 & De Mably as you easily may in the Points in which they are wrong, you would do well to begin by confounding the insolent Nonsence, of De Peau and Buffon, who began earlier to abuse Us, and laid the Foundation for a great Part of the Impertinence which has followed.6
I have taken as much Pains as my Business would admit to find the Paper You enquire for, but without success.— I enquired after the Petition, Memorial or Remonstrance of the Merchants in a Company of Men of Letters, but none of them could tell me where to find it.— I have looked over a Collection of Petitions and Remonstrances of the City, but it is not there.7 The other Points you enquire about I can give you no Account of.
48again as to my Desire to the Abby, to write.— I might Say to him or his Friends, that I thought, instead of attempting an History, he was wholly unprovided of Materials for composing, I wished he would read over our Constitutions and give the World his Thoughts upon them. This is very natural and probable, but I have no distinct Remembrance of it, nor when nor where it was.— His design to write was conceived and determined, without any Request, Desire or Knowledge of mine, as you will see in his Work upon Writing History. knowing his fixed Intention to write, I thought it better that he should write upon a subject which I supposed he might understand, rather than undertake a Work which I was certain he knew little about, and for which from his great Age, it was impossible he should ever be qualified for.
When I was told by his Friends that he was writing, and intended to make me the Compliment to address his Work to me, it was very natural for me to say that I should be “bien flatté,” as I was; but I have no remembrance about it.— I can neither contradict it nor confirm it. and it can be of no Consequence to any body.
The Beginning of my Connection in the Business was this.— Soon after my Arrival in Paris in October 1782, upon the Negotiation for the Peace, the Abby De Mablys Book upon writing History was put into my hands. I read in the Close of it, his Declaration of his Design to write the Hystory of the American Revolution. at Dinner Sometime afterwards at Mr De Chaluts the Farmer General, in Company with the Abby de Mably, his Friends & mine the Abbys De Chalut and Arnoux, mentioned to me the Abbys Design and asked me if I would furnish him with any Memorials. I then turned to De Mably himself and asked him, of what Part of the Revolution he intended to write the History? He answered of the whole? I asked him, if he had considered the Extent of the Subject? He Said perhaps it might be more extensive than he was aware of, but he thought he could write it from the Memorials, which were publick together with such Enquiries as he might make among Gentlemen who had been concerned in it. I asked him if he had reflected, that the Question was of thirteen established Governments Subverted, and as many new ones erected, of a confederation of them, of a War of Eight Years conducted by them, by an Army formed anew, that it comprehended at least Twenty Odd Years of Time, and involved at last, almost all Europe And much of Asia & Africa? Upon this the three Abbys desired me to put down in Writing in English what I
49
had then Said, for I spoke with difficulty as you know in French, and give it to the Abby who would get it translated into French.— I agreed: and accordingly wrote the Letter which you have Seen.— The Abby answered me, that I had convinced him he should be dead before he could collect a quarter Part of the Materials necessary to write Such an History.— in that Letter I told him that I was glad he intended to write his Thoughts. He afterwards changed his Mind about writing the History And determined to write Observations. This might or might not be by my Advice. I dont remember that it was or was not. He determined to address his Observations to me. This was not most certainly, by my Advice nor Desire, nor Expectation untill I was told he was writing to me. As this was merely a Compliment, it is very probably I returned the Compliment, by Saying as I could very sincerely say, I was much obliged to him.
I am sure by this time You must think as I do, that I have written much more upon this subject than it is Worth and thank me for subscribing myself your / humble servant
I have made your Compliments to Madam, as you desire and she also is “bien flateé.”— I assure you, I would not live another Ten Years without her, for the first Dukedom, no nor the first Kingdom in Europe nor for any Thing less than the Independence of America.— I read this to Madam, and she Says “bien flateé,” again.
RC (DLC:Philip Mazzei Papers); internal address: “Mr Mazzei.”; endorsed: “Adams 15. xbre 1785. / rispto. 23. Genn. 1786.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 113.
Vol. 17:552–555.
Compare JA’s comments here and in the previous two paragraphs with those in his letter to John Jay of this date, above.
At this point is a heavily canceled sentence that is illegible. The remainder of this letter relates to Mazzei’s preparation of his four-volume Recherches historiques et politiques. There Mazzei intended to refute misrepresentations contained in European writings about America and was particularly concerned with the Abbé Guillaume Thomas François Raynal’s Revolution de l’Amérique, London, 1781, which had first appeared in a revised edition of Raynal’s Histoire philosophique et politique, des établissemens et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes, 5 vols., Geneva, 1780 (vol. 10:405); and the Abbé Gabriel Bonnot de Mably’s Observations sur le gouvernement et les loix des États-Unis d’Amérique, Amsterdam, 1784. Mazzei’s 29 Oct. letter focused on JA’s relationship with the Abbé de Mably and the role that he played in Mably’s decision to abandon a history of the American Revolution in favor of an examination of American constitutions. JA’s account of his efforts to dissuade Mably and other Europeans from writing histories of the American Revolution in the absence of the documentary evidence, available only in America, is largely accurate despite some lapses in memory. It should be compared, however, with the material contained in John Adams and the Writing of the History of the American Revolution, 9 Jan. – 8 March 1783, vol. 14:165–185. In particular see JA’s 15 Jan. letter to Mably, the Abbé’s [post 15 Jan.] reply, JA’s unsent 17 Jan. letter to Mably, and one
50
of 14 Jan. to Antoine Marie Cerisier. What JA fails to indicate is the crucial role he played, despite his reservations about Mably’s conclusions, in the publication of Mably’s Observations, which took the form of four letters addressed to JA (vols. 15:312–314; 16:xiii, 51–52).
This is Mably’s De la manière d’écrire l’histoire, Paris, 1783. Since JA left The Hague on 17 Oct. 1782 it is unlikely that he encountered the book there, but he apparently did see it at Paris as early as 19 Dec. 1782 (vol. 13:531; JA, D&A
, 3:97).
For JA’s opinion of Raynal’s Revolution de l’Amérique, see his four letters originally intended for publication in Cerisier’s Le politique hollandais (vol. 12:204–213). They were never published, however, probably because JA had second thoughts about criticizing a noted French historian who supported the American Revolution.
JA refers to the works of Cornelius de Pauw and Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. Both, particularly de Pauw, were noted for their theories about the degeneracy of New World species, including humans. For Thomas Jefferson’s comments on the two authors and others holding similar views, see his 7 June 1785 letter to the Chevalier de Chastellux (Jefferson, Papers
, 8:184–186), but see also Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, [Paris, 1785], which had been published in May (vol. 17:117). Two editions of de Pauw’s Recherches philosophiques sur les Américains, ou mémoires intéressants pour servir à l’histoire de l’espèce humaine are in JA’s library at MB, as are the collected works of Buffon (
Catalogue of JA’s Library
).
For JA’s further research on the petition requested by Mazzei, see his 29 Dec. letter to Mazzei, below.