Papers of John Adams, volume 20
I have this moment received your favour of Nov. 30, and the Volume inclosed with it: an acceptable Present for which I thank you.1
I have not yet had the time to read it, and cannot therefore form
any Opinion of its merits. By a kind of [Sortes virgiane] I
Stumbled on the Anecdote of the Child drowning in [the Canal] at the Hague, which
brought strongly to my Recollection the feelings We both experienced in that
disstressing moment, which were abundantly compensated by the Joy at the unexpected
deliverance of the little Urchin.
If upon reading the Book, any remarks should occur to me worthy your Attention I may at some leisure moment, communic[ate them to you.]
I am obliged to you for informing me where you are situated: and I hope your Prospects are there agreable, and will answer to your Expectations.
My Rambles abroad appear to me like a Dream: and if your Book had not recalled the Scene of the drowning Babe I might never have thought of it more. My Imagination is always refreshed with the Recollection of my Walks and rides about the Hague which are charming: and with those in the Bois de Boulogne, more than with the more Splendid Scenes at Courts or in Cities.
I am sir with Sincere regard / Your most obedient sert
P.S. I remember now that you once told me at the Hague “That the American Tories and refugees [in England] dreaded me more than any other or than all other men in the World.” These Expressions, although they are very Strong are of ambiguous Signification.— there were some forged Letters printed in my Name in the London Newspapers breathing Vengeance against that description of People which was never in my feelings nor consistent with my Principles. from these Counterfeits they might be led to expect from me vindictive measures against them, which I never dream’d of.2
The Refugees moreover, might entertain hopes, however weak and visionary, of again Seeing the Domination of Britain reinstated in America, and might think me their most determined opponent.— in Such a Guess as this they would not have been much out. however as 450 you Said you knew their Sentiments from Conversations with them, I wish you would explain the matter to.
RC (N:Elkanah Watson Papers); internal address: “Mr
Elkanah Watson Junr / [. . .] Albany.” Text lost
due to a torn manuscript has been supplied from a FC (N:Elkanah Watson Papers).
Watson wrote to JA on 30 Nov. (Adams Papers), alerting him that he had resettled
in Albany, N.Y., and enclosing a copy of his Tour in Holland,
in MDCCLXXXIV. By an American, Worcester, Mass., 1790, Evans, No. 23039. There, Watson related
JA’s 1784 attempt to rescue a child drowning in a Delft canal, for
which see vol. 16:275.
The London Lloyd’s Evening Post, 11
July 1781, printed an extract of a 15 Dec. 1780 letter allegedly written by
JA to Massachusetts lieutenant governor Thomas Cushing and discovered
aboard a seized brigantine, the Cabot. In it,
JA reportedly recommended “to fine, imprison, and hang” all loyalists,
adding: “I would have hanged my own brother, if he had took a part with our enemy in
this contest.” Several Massachusetts newspapers reprinted the forged letter on 8 Nov.
1781, but the Boston Independent Ledger, 12 Nov., labeled
it “spurious,” noting that Cushing had not written to JA as the text
claimed; that JA could not have known of Cushing’s political appointment
as of the letter’s dateline; and, most significantly, that JA had
publicly denounced the document as fake. Loyalist propaganda bedeviled JA
during his diplomatic tenure in London, but the 1780 forgery remained a particular
burr in his thought for many years. Writing to John Marshall on 10 Feb. 1801 (Adams Papers), JA
reiterated that the views held therein were “inconsistent with the whole tenor of my
life & all the feelings of my nature” (vol. 9:318; Boston Independent
Chronicle, 8 Nov. 1781; Salem Gazette, 8 Nov.).