Papers of John Adams, volume 18
I am unable to give you any Account, of the Reasons, which have prevented the Treaty with Morocco from reaching London.1 But it has not yet made its Appearance.2 The Tripoline Ambassador, Sent me a polite Message and desired a Conference. it was agreed to, and his Excellency was pleased to inform me, that he had received 536 repeated Letters to return home, and Should depart in a few Weeks. desired to be informed, whether any further Instructions had been received from Congress, relative to a Treaty with Tripoli, and being answered in the Negative, he Said the Decree was written in Heaven, and if a Peace was preordained between my Country and his, it would take Place.— He Should be happy, when he arrived in his own Country, to be Instrumental in so good a Work.3
The Chevalier De Pinto, with a great deal of real Anxiety has last Week, renewed his Apologies.— He has written to Mr De Melo that it is indecent, that he is ashamed to think how the Business has been delayed.— This worthy Minister Sent one of his own favourite Domesticks, who has called at the Ministers office every day: but has been detained, from the Month of May.— The Minister has been Sick. that is the Excuse.— In Short I Suppose there are Parties, and this late Negotiation between France & England, have Occasioned Divisions of Sentiment and the late Decease of the King of Portugal, and the Queens Retirement in the Country and the Ministers Sickness have prevented any determination of any Questions of Importance.
According to the Usages of the Diplomatick order I ought, before now to have mentioned, the Death of her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia, Aunt of his present Majesty the King of Great Britain, on the Evening of the last day of October last.4
on Thursday the Fourth day of this Month, I had the Honour of a private Audience of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, having been previously notified by the Master of the Ceremonies, and presented by him. all the foreign Ministers who had not been before presented to his Royal Highness were presented on that day.— The Same Ceremonies are used, as with the King.
inclosed is Copy of a Letter from the Marquis of Carmarthen dated the 11. of Decr. last.— His Lordship is mistaken or misinformed, in Supposing that the American Ministers admitted the Justness of the Claim. That was wholly out of their Power. all they could do, was to transmit it to Congress, as I now transmit his Lordships Letter, without any Concession, or Denyal of the Justice of it.— in my Answer to his Lordship I Shall Sett him right in this particular.5
Inclosed likewise is a Letter of 5. Jany. from Messrs Willinks and Van staphorsts, relative to the Hotel of the United States. There is Such a corrosive Dampness in the Air of that Country that without
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the continual Attention of an Inhabitant a Building falls to decay very fast.— I really think the best Thing that can be done is to order the House to be sold by Messrs Willinks & Vanstaphorsts as soon as possible. This is the best Advice to be given.— if it is not Sold, there will be constant Expences for Taxes and Repairs, without Saving the Building from Ruin.— As it is I dont believe any American Minister would now live in it. This subject deserves the immediate Attention of Congress.6
It is with great Pleasure, that I am able to inform Congress that the Credit of the United States in Holland has not suffered any material Shock, in Consequence of the Relations of Tumults and Seditions in the Massachusetts & New Hampshire.—
With great Regard I have the Honour / to be, dear sir, your most obedient / and humble servant
RC and enclosures (PCC, No. 84, VI, f. 363–390); internal address: “His Excellency John Jay. / Secretary of state &c &c &c.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 112.
JA’s response to Jay here regarding the Moroccan treaty and later in the letter concerning the Portuguese treaty do not stem from any comments made by Jay in his letters to JA. Rather JA is responding to Jay’s queries in his 27 Oct. 1786 letter to Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson, Papers
, 10:488–490). Jay enclosed that letter, leaving it open for JA to read, with his first letter to JA of 1 Nov., and JA then forwarded the 27 Oct. letter with his to Jefferson of 30 Nov., both above. That it took JA over a month to answer Jay’s questions was likely due to the fact that he was then finishing the first volume of the Defence of the Const. and readying it for publication.
For the arrival in London of the Moroccan-American treaty carried by Lt. Col. David S. Franks, see JA’s 25 Jan. 1787 letter to Jefferson, and note 1, below.
For JA’s previous conversations with Sidi Haji Abdrahaman, Tripoli’s ambassador, concerning a treaty, see his letters of 16 and 17 Feb. 1786 to Jay and Jefferson, respectively, both above. No such treaty was concluded, however, until 4 Nov. 1796 when it was signed by the pasha of Tripoli and then made official on 3 Jan. 1797 with the signatures of the dey of Algiers and the American negotiator Joel Barlow (Miller, Treaties
, 2:349–385).
With this letter JA enclosed the Marquis of Carmarthen’s 1 Nov. 1786 letter in which he acquainted JA “with the melancholy News of the Death of Her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia, His Majesty’s Aunt, Yesterday Evening, between five and six o’Clock” (PCC, No. 84, VI, f. 367–370). For AA’s comments on the princess’ death and the reaction to it at court and in the London press, see her 21 Nov. letter to Elizabeth Smith Shaw (
AFC
, 7:393).
Of 24 Jan. 1787, below.
For the enclosures concerning the legation at The Hague, see the consortium’s 5 Jan. letter, and note 2, above. Congress received JA’s letter on 11 April, but rather than act on JA’s recommendation that the building be sold, it acted in response to C. W. F. Dumas’ 17 Nov. 1786 letter in which he recommended that the legation be either repaired and inhabited or sold but noted that he was not authorized by Congress to occupy it. Reporting on Dumas’ letter, Jay indicated that the legation’s potential sale was “unseasonable at present, for it would look as if the United States intended either to have no resident minister there in future, or as if the present troubles of the Republic, or the present state of their own finances had in some degree influenced the measure.” Congress therefore resolved on 24 July 1787 that Dumas live at the legation until a new minister was appointed, and that JA undertake the repairs at the expense of the United States. Jay enclosed the resolution in his letter of 31 July
538
(Adams Papers), but unfortunately before repairs were complete, Dumas was forced by the political reaction against the Patriot Party to seek refuge in the French embassy (
JCC
, 32:174, 307, 332; 33:404–405; Nationaal Archief:Dumas Papers, Microfilm, Reel 2, f. 849–850; Schulte Nordholt, Dutch Republic and Amer. Independence
, p. 293–294).
I have received, Your Favour of October the 22d. and am Sorry to find you so true a Prophet.— Yet I am happy to perceive that Government arrouses itself with some degree of Dignity, and is likely to prevail.— It is apparent however that Discontents, and a restless Temper, have taken a deep root and will require much Prudence as well as firmness, to guard against their Tendency.— When We find ourselves disposed to think there is a total Change of manners and Principles We Should recollect, what the manners and Principles were before the War.— if you recollect the War of 1755, or even the War of 1745, you must remember, very Signal Proofs of a disposition in our People, to run eagerly after foreign manners and Fashions.—if you begin at 1760, and recollect, how many Persons satt out with Us, on the Same Side of the political question, and were warped off, Some by little Marks of distinction, Some by little Offices and some by great ones, some by their avarice, others by their ambition, some by their Vanity, others by their fears, some by Envy and others by Revenge, how much difficulty there was to keep the People Steady, but especially those who flattered themselves they were Leaders, You will be very Sensible that our Countrymen have never merited the Character of very exalted Virtue.— it is not to be expected that they should have grown much better.— I find myself very much averse to believe that they are grown much worse.— Yet this is very possible and your Situation affords you opportunities to know, which I have not.— if it is indeed true, that there is a general Degeneracy, it is an allarming Consideration.—1 The great Question is what can be done to check its further Grouth, or to restore Things to their former State?— When at home in 1779 I remarked a general Caution, and I thought timidity among the leading Characters, which made me apprehensive of disagreable Consequences.— If the People are upon the Watch, and are laying hold of every unpopular Idea or Expression, to propagate it, to exagerate it and to misrepresent it, this will naturally make Men afraid to pursue their own Judgments. Symptoms of this I thought appeared.— and I Should not wonder if the best Men became unpopular.— There is no Remedy,
539
but a general Conviction of the danger, and a general Agreement against it.— My own Sentiments differ very widely from many of the best Characters, even from Mr Adams & General Warren.— I think the first Magistrate must be sett up very high in real Power as well as in the Opinion of the People.2 Without this We may lament Disorders but never cure them. The appearance of County Conventions and their Resolutions, sett me upon throwing together, Some Disquisitions concerning our Governments, which are now printed. I will send you a Copy of it.3 Popularity was never my Mistress, nor was I ever, or shall I ever be a popular Man.— This Book will make me unpopular. But one Thing I know a Man must be Sensible of the Errors of the People, and upon his Guard against them, and must run the risque of their Displeasure sometimes, or he will never do them any good in the long run. I deliver the Book up, to the Mercy of a World, that will never show me much Mercy, as my Confession of political Faith.— Unpopular as it may be at present, the time will come, after I am dead, when the System of it in general must be adopted, with bitter Repentance that it was not heeder sooner.— It is much easier to pull down a Government, in Such a Conjuncture of affairs as We have Seen, than to build up, at such a Season as the present.— if the Massachusetts can be governed without a total Seperation of the Executive Power from the Senate, the House & the People, I am Altogether ignorant of the Character of that People, and have not made one Sound Observation upon the History of Nations.— My Situation here is mournfull and unpleasant enough.— and it would not be more gay, any where else.— You and I have not had an easy task in Life hitherto, and I at least have no Cause to hope that mine will become easier.— But I will be as chearful and contented under it, as I can, let it be what it will.
My Family joins me, in affectionate Respects to yours, and I / remain with unalterable Esteem, your friend / and humble servant
inclosed is a Letter of Mr Hartleys. it contains Knowledge of Iron, that may be useful in America.4
RC (MHi:Warren-Adams Coll.); internal address: “General Warren / at Milton Hill.”; endorsed: “M J Adams / Jany. 87.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 113.
By the date of this letter JA had received letters, including Warren’s, above, and newspapers describing the increasingly violent nature of Shays’ Rebellion. It is interesting, therefore, that his comparison of the current unrest and economic dislocation to the situation following earlier wars is remarkably similar to his comments contained in his letters to Richard Cranch of 12 Dec. 1785 and to Warren of 4 July 1786, both above.
This marks JA’s first major expression of the need for a strong, national executive power. It is in line with his long-held views concerning the executive; in his draft of the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution he had given the governor an absolute veto, a provision that the convention later removed (vol. 8:242, 265). Significantly, he mentions Samuel Adams and Warren as disagreeing with him on that subject, for both later joined the Antifederalist opposition to the 1787 U.S. Constitution. JA’s statement is also interesting because his earlier, related comments on the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and the need for changes thereto centered on the capacity of the nation to make treaties and to fund the national debt.
This is JA’s first mention in any extant letter of the publication, origins, and effect of his Defence of the Constitutions. For his expansive comments on its origins and content, see his 15 Jan. 1787 letter to Cranch, below.
Although the enclosure has not been found, it was a copy of David Hartley’s 19 June 1786 letter to the commissioners of the British Navy. Warren had it printed in the 21 April 1787 Massachusetts Centinel, acknowledging there its transmission by his “very valuable friend, Mr. ADAMS, who embraces every occasion to promote the interest, as well as the honour of his country.” Hartley described in detail Henry Cort’s newly patented technique of “puddling,” which used coal to fuel the decarbonization of pig iron and thereby transform it into malleable metal (
DNB
).