Papers of John Adams, volume 20
I write this note just to inclose you a couple of newspapers.1
Such is the variable & distracted state of affairs at present here and all over Europe that it is impossible to form an opinion one day that events of the next will not overturn.
The cabinet of St Jame’s having involved this nation in the fortunes of Prussia—it is next to impossible that a general war shou’d not ensue.2 France has offered to mediate between Spain and Britain . . .3 and since the credit of the paper money begins to be establish’d on the sale of the ecclesiastical territory which the national assembly have ordered she is again respectable here.—
Our country will be equally courted by both sides . . . and will I trust profit from the present crisis.—4
With the greatest esteem & respect / I have the honor to be /
Your Most Obedt Sert:
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “John Adams Esq
V. P. U. S.”
Enclosure not found.
Cutting referred to the Triple Alliance with Prussia and the
Netherlands, which committed Great Britain to aiding Prussian diplomatic efforts with
both Austria and the Ottoman Empire. On 20 June Frederick William II, king of Prussia,
ratified a Prusso-Turkish treaty. On 27 July Prussia and Austria negotiated the
Convention of Reichenbach, resolving their conflicts with the Ottoman Empire and the
Austrian Netherlands (vol. 19:309; Black, British Foreign Policy
, p. 261, 262).
Ellipses here and below in MS.
The Gazette d’Amsterdam, 8 June,
projected that an Anglo-Spanish war would significantly benefit the United States,
because either European power would assist Americans in obtaining free navigation of
the Mississippi River (William Ray Manning, The Nootka Sound
Controversy, Washington, D.C., 1905, p. 421).