Papers of John Adams, volume 18
th.July 1786.
I wrote you the 26th. of last Month and expected to have followed my Letter in a Week, but several unforeseen Matters have hitherto detained us; however I expect we shall set out tomorrow or the day following. The 13th. Instant the Treaty was sent to me by the Effendi1 since which some important alterations have been made which the Villainy & carelessness of the Talbe Houdrani2 (to whom the drawing was committed) made necessary; and yesterday it was again delevered from Tahar Fennish, to whose hands the King committed the arrangement of the Matter.3 It still wants an additional Article, or rather a Declaration which His Majesty has permitted to be made in his Name, but which he desired might not make a Part of the Treaty: when this is done, it will stand as I described it in my last Letter Vizt. “there is only one Article more I wish to see inserted & that I think will never prove of any
395
Consequence”. …4 When I send you the Treaty it will be necessary to accompany it with some Remarks with which I will not now trouble you, & the only one I shall make is, that the King throughout the whole has acted in a Manner the most gracious and condescending, and I really believe the Americans possess as much of his Respect & Regard as does any Christian Nation whatever.5 If you should think my services at Algiers, Tunis or Tripoli necessary, I hope your Commands will meet me in the South of Spain, for after returning to Paris it will be utterly impossible for me to engage further in the Business. A Peace with the Barbary Powers is absolutely essential to the Commerce of our Country, and I think a general one might be made notwithstanding the impediments that appear. The Emperor has ordered five Frigates on a Cruize in the Atlantic Ocean; He is now at Peace with all the World except Russia, Malta, Hamburg and Dantzick— A Treaty with the first of these Powers was concluded on, and the Articles drawn, but it was afterwards broke off. The Emperor complains much of the Treatment he receives from England, & Mr. Duff who came here some time ago as Pro-Consul, returned the day before we arrived, highly offended at His Reception,6 the Emperor having refused to receive the Letter which Lord Sydney wrote, saying he would read no Letters from England but such as were written by the King. I had a Letter yesterday from Mr. Carmichael and was in great hopes it would have covered one from you, but I am hitherto without the Pleasure of hearing from you;
I am allways, / Gentlemen / Your most obet. humble / Servant.
sBarclay
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “His Excellency / John Adams Esqre. / Minister Plenipotentiary from / the United States of America / London”; internal address: “The Honb. John Adams / and / Thomas Jefferson Esquires.”; endorsed by WSS: “Morrocco July 16th. 86. / Rec’d 1st. Septr., Copies / forwarded to America & / France of the same date”; notation: “Rece’d & forwarded 31st August 1786 / for Forrest & Stoddert / Wm Pratt.” Dupl (Adams Papers). WSS’s endorsement refers to his 1 Sept. letters to John Jay and Thomas Jefferson with which he enclosed the copies (
Dipl. Corr., 1783–1789
, 3:44–45; Jefferson, Papers
, 9:315–316). The Dupl was presumably the copy Barclay intended should go to Jefferson since it is addressed to him at Paris.
According to Barclay, the “Effendi,” who cannot be further identified, was the “chief Officer at Court” and proved to be an obstacle to the successful conclusion of the negotiations (to the commissioners, 18 Sept., below).
A talbe was a “doctor of Mahometan law,” frequently consulted by the emperor on legal affairs (Louis de Chénier, The Present State of the Empire of Morocco, 2 vols., London, 1788, 1:370).
See Sidi Haj Tahar Ben Abdulhaq Fennish’s [28 June] letter, above.
Ellipsis in MS.
For Barclay’s much longer and more detailed account of the negotiations, see his 18 Sept. letter to the commissioners, below.
This is Charles Adam Duff, who visited the emperor in May. He replaced the previous consul, George Payne, who had been recalled in Aug. 1785 for neglect of duty (R. Lambert Playfair and Robert Brown, “A Bibliography of Morocco, From the Earliest Times to the End of 1891,” Royal Geographical Society, Supplementary Papers, ed. John Murray, 4 vols., London, 1886–1893, 3:347).
I have received the Letter you did me the honour to write me, on the 10th. of this month, and embrace the oppertunity by Colonel Trumbull to answer it, The Comte de Reventlow, complaisantly enough, inclosed my Letter to the Baron De. Waltersdorf, in his dispatch to the Danish Ministry, and informed him that it related to a public affair so that there is no room to doubt, that the Letter went safe, and that that Court are acquainted with its contents— But no answer has been received—1
I am told that the Baron De. Waltersdorf has been at Paris and the Hague, long since the Date of my Letter to him, and I was told he was coming to London where I should see him— But he has not yet been here As there is a Danish Minister now in Paris, I should advise you to apply to him: for the foreign Ministers in general at the Court of Versailles, have less timdity upon their Spirits, in all things relating to America, than those at London,2 Cash I fancy, is not an abundant Article in Denmark, and Your Claim has probably delayed and suspended all negotiations with Mr. Jefferson, and me respecting a Commercial Treaty, for which 3 Years ago, there was no3 little Zeal,4 This however is only Conjecture in Confidence.—
LbC in WSS’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Commodore Jones—”; APM Reel 113.
No letter from JA to the Baron von Walterstorff has been found, but for the reason JA received no response from Walterstorff, see Jones’ 7 Jan. letter, note 2, above.
Jones received this letter on or about 9 Aug., the day on which he wrote to Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson, Papers
, 10:208–210). With his letter to Jefferson, Jones enclosed the RC of JA’s letter from which William Short made a copy (DLC:Jefferson Papers). Jones noted JA’s advice to begin negotiations with the Danish representative at Paris and asked for Jefferson’s “advice and assistance” in the undertaking. He also enclosed extracts of letters received from Benjamin Franklin regarding his negotiations with Denmark over the Alliance’s prizes. No reply by Jefferson to Jones’ letter has been found, but on 18 Aug. Jefferson wrote to the Baron Otto von Blome, Danish envoy extraordinary at Paris. Jefferson summarized the negotiations between Franklin and Walterstorff over the Alliance’s prizes and indicated that Jones was now authorized to resume and complete the negotiations (Jefferson, Papers
, 10:270–271).
In the copy made by Short this word appears to be “so,” but it is clearly “no” in WSS’s LbC.
Walterstorff approached Franklin in April 1783 with a proposal for a Danish-American commercial treaty and in June offered a draft agreement. After some changes, the draft was sent to Congress, but no action was taken on it. Since Franklin failed to inform his fellow commissioners, JA and John Jay, of his negotiations with the baron, JA considered the entire business as another example of Franklin’s assumption of powers that he did not have, accomplished at the expense of his colleagues and to the detriment of the United States (vols. 15:223–226, 280; 16:426).
When, in May 1784, Congress created the third joint commission to negotiate commercial treaties with the nations of Europe and North Africa, it included a commission to negotiate a treaty with Denmark, and Jefferson’s model treaty of 1784 was designed to serve as its basis. At a meeting with Walterstorff in Nov. 1784, the commissioners notified him of their new powers, but no negotiations ensued, and a Danish-American Convention of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation was not concluded until 1826 (vol. 16:374, 421–422, 590; Miller, Treaties
, 3:239–248).