Papers of John Adams, volume 19
I wrote a few Days Since by Col Franks who embarks in the French Packet from Havre De Grace, with the Morocco Treaty. There is no further Intelligence of the Portugal Business, nor any better Prospect, or more agreable Disposition in this Country, whatever Artifices may be employed in America to keep up delusive hopes.1
Parliament opened with an uncommon Gloom, and has been Sitting in a mournful Silence. Nobody dares oppose the French Treaty, Yet nobody Seems to have any Confidence in it. it seems truly a forced Plant.— Some thing to Appease France and amuse the People.— The Revenue is found to be greatly deficient. a new Loan and fresh Taxes are expected.— a dead Taciturnity prevails about America.2
The Gazettes are employed, and every Coffee House and Booksellers shop filled with Talkers to keep Up the Spirits of the People at any Expence of Truth.— The Holding of our Frontier Posts is found to cost Government more money annually than the whole Trade is worth nay than the whole Capital employed in it.
Mr Pitts Plan for the Session is not yet develloped. They are Skirmishing about Hastings and Rodney, who I Suppose have nearly all the Scribblers inlisting for or against them.— Yet Hastings must be acquitted,3 and I suppose Rodney remunerated right or wrong.4 Such is the State of this Nation.—
inclosed is a Copy of the Convention between France and England which was sent me yesterday by Lord Carmarthen and a Letter from Mr. Hales relative to the East India ship which it is supposed was made an American Bottom,5 a Practice which Congress will no doubt judge proper to discountenance. As the Politicks of Parliament shall open to View I shall do my self the Honour to transmit you still further Accounts of them.
By Col Franks I had the Honour to convey to Congress my Intention to return home at the Expiration of my Commission to this Court. a Duplicate will go by this opportunity. a Life so useless to the public and so insipid to myself as mine is in Europe, has become a burthen to me, as well as to my Countrymen. By the first Packet or convenient Merchant ship in the Spring of 1788, I shall embark with my Family, if my Life, and Health enough to make the Voyage remains to me, unless Congress should see fit to recall me sooner which would be so much the more agreable. It will be necessary that arrangements should be made as early as possible, and the Pleasure of Congress signified whether, the Secretary of Legation is to return with me, or remain longer here.6 With great Respect and Esteem / I have the Honour to be, dear sir, your / most obedient and most humble ser / vant
RC and enclosure (PCC, No. 84, VI, f. 419–426); internal address: “His Excellency John Jay / Secretary of State for / the Department of foreign / affairs.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 112.
In early Oct. 1786, Thomas Barclay, the U.S. agent in Morocco, dispatched his secretary, Lt. Col. David Salisbury Franks, to deliver a copy of the Moroccan-American Treaty of Peace and Friendship and supporting documents to the commissioners, JA and Thomas Jefferson. Franks reached Paris in late December; Jefferson signed it and drafted a provisional ratification for Congress. Franks traveled on to London, where JA signed the treaty and, under cover of the commissioners’ 27 Jan. 1787 letter to Jay, sent it to Congress (vol. 18:360–367, 469–470, 527–528, 560, 567–568).
Matters were less settled with the proposed Portuguese-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce, which had been delayed by a tardy courier, and then by the Lisbon court’s inattention. Jefferson alone signed it, and it was never submitted to Congress (vol. 18:256–271, 373, 393). When Congress instructed WSS to conduct a goodwill mission to Queen Maria I in February, JA directed him to inquire discreetly about the agreement’s status, for which see WSS’s [11 April] commission and instructions for his mission to Portugal, both below.
In 1786 British prime minister William Pitt the younger, who also served as chancellor of the exchequer, implemented widespread financial reforms to fund the national debt, through the creation of a sinking fund, a new commercial treaty with France, and an increase in domestic taxes. A year into the new economic regime, however, Pitt faced popular resistance to many of these measures. In response, in Feb. 1787 he introduced 2,537 separate resolutions into the House of Commons, all meant to abolish the old system of multiple duties in favor of a new, consolidated treasury fund (vol. 18:115; Hague, Pitt
, p. 201).
Merchant Warren Hastings (1732–1818), of Oxfordshire Co., England, was the first governor-general of Bengal, India. He returned to England in mid-June 1785. His triumphant return, however, soon soured when he was indicted on charges of corruption, bribery, and fraud. Brought before Parliament to explain his dealings with the Rohillas, an Afghan tribe, and his excessive imposition of taxes on Indian prince Chait Singh during the First Anglo-Maratha War of 1775–1782, Hastings responded with a lengthy speech in his own defense that won few allies in the House of Commons. Shrewdly, Pitt distanced himself from Hastings and ultimately joined those in Parliament calling for Hastings’ impeachment, which followed on 10 May 1787. Allegations of corruption continued to mount, and Hastings’ prosecutors did not rest until 30 May 1791. By then, popular sentiment had shifted in Hastings’ favor, and he was finally
3
acquitted in 1795 (Hague, Pitt
, p. 120, 197–199;
DNB
).
The trial became pure political theater, and the Adamses followed it closely. On 12 Feb. 1788 an opportunity to observe the proceedings up close arrived when JA received a formal invitation to view the trial from the “Ambassador’s Box,” along with tickets designated for AA, AA2, and WSS (Adams Papers). AA, who attended several sessions, described the audience as packed daily with “Two thousand persons half of whom are Ladies” (
AFC
, 8:xii–xiii, 235).
British admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney (ca. 1718–1792) was created 1st Baron of Stoke-Rodney and received an annual pension of £2,000 following his victory at the 1782 Battle of the Saints. However, since his 1781 capture of the Dutch island of St. Eustatius and confiscation of property there, Rodney had been beset by lawsuits by merchants seeking compensation for their losses. Their success in the British courts resulted in Rodney’s financial ruin, and there is no record of his being indemnified for his losses (vol. 11:221;
DNB
).
The first enclosure has not been found, but it was a copy of the Anglo-French Convention signed by William Eden and the Comte de Vergennes at Versailles on 15 Jan. 1787. It was intended to clarify certain points in the Anglo-French Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 26 Sept. 1786 (vol. 18:472). For an English translation, possibly the version sent to JA by the Marquis of Carmarthen, the British foreign minister, see
Parliamentary Hist.
, 26:268–272. For the second enclosure, a 2 Feb. 1787 letter from John Hales, a victualler soliciting aid for the crew of a metamorphosed ship, see vol. 18:561–562.
JA renewed an attempt to resign his commissions in letters to Jay of 24 and 25 January. JA recommended that WSS act as the American chargé d’affaires in London, but Congress took no action (vol. 18:553–557). Throughout 1787, family speculation swirled around WSS’s potential diplomatic appointments—either replacing JA in London or relocating to Lisbon to serve in a similar capacity. WSS and AA2 returned to New York City in spring 1788, and took up residence at Beaver Hall, Jamaica, Long Island (
AFC
, 8:250–251, 462–463).