Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
If the combined Powers are exhausted by their Exertions The French must be no less distressed by theirs, and each Party thinks it is contending for Existence.— My Calculation is that the other 151 Powers in Combination will hold out as long as England although Spain and Prussia may Slacken their Exertions: and that England will continue the War till the Three Per Cents Consolidated fall to fifty five or perhaps a little lower. This Campaign and next Winters Budget may reduce them from 68 where they now are to 60 and the Campain of 1795 and the Budget of 1796 will bring them down to 52 or 53— Then they must make Peace or become Bankrupt.—1 If America next Winter Should be forced into the War, the Stocks will fall more rapidly.
I congratulate the People of the Massachusetts upon the Discovery that they are not base and ungrateful enough to disgrace, in his last moments the Man to whom they are under the greatest Obligations. What a Tryumph it would have been to Despots through the World, to have Seen Sam. Adams forsaken by the People.!
I approve of your caution in political matters. These are times when Such Circumspection is as much a Duty as an Interest.
The Mediocrity of Fortune that you profess or affect ought not to content you.— You come into Life with Advantages which will disgrace you, if your success is médiocre.— And if you do not rise to the head not only of your Profession but of your Country it will be owing to your own Laziness Slovenliness and Obstinacy.
Is there Such a Book in Boston as Précis du Droit des Gens moderne De L’Europe, fondé Sur les Traités et L’Usage. Auquel on a joint la Liste des principaux Traités conclus depuis 1748 jusqu’à present avec l’indication des Ouovages ou ils Se trouvent.
Par Mr. Martens Professeur ordinaire en droit de la nature et des gens, et Assesseur de la Faculté des Droits en L’Universite de Gottinque. in two Vol. 12mo. It is somewhat like De Mablys Droit Publique de L’Europe fonde sur les Traites.
This Professor Martens, to be sure, has had three of King George’s sons, three British Princes under his Care, and his Work is dedicated to them Erneste Auguste, Auguste Frederic and Adolphe Frederic.2
This Creature of their own, who to flatter them might make what Law of Nations he pleased, they quote as Authority to justify their orders of June 1793 for capturing all Provisions bound to France. Have I adopted a Style too much like that of Genet concerning Grotius & Vatell:3 if I have I ask Pardon of Mr Professor Martens and recommend his Book as a valuable Manuel. It is worth your writing to Holland for.
I have no Faith in the Doctrine that England has a right to consider all France as blocked up and in a state of seige.— It is a very pernicious System and America ought to set her face against it.
The other Doctrine too that they have a Right to capture our Vessells which have Produce of french Islands bound to Europe, is as arbitrary as the former.
and the third that they have a right to consider all the West India Islands as in a State of Seige is as bad as the other two.
I wish We had a Minister to The Empress of Russia and the other Northern Powers— If Russia connives at this maritime Tyranny she will hereafter repent of it.
The Armed Neutrality ought to be revived.
The French and English I see are confiscating Debts, and so are the Spaniards attaching shares in the Bank of st Charles. I wish you would enquire and ascertain these facts with their Dates. Pitt calls it Robbery and our Tracey calls it an Outrage on common Honesty— But Yet Pitt scruples not to commit Robbery in Retaliation for Robbery.4
certain Americans will not forget to quote his Example and Authority. Adieu
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “J. Q. A.”; endorsed: “My Father / April 23. 1794.” and “My Father. 23. April 1794.” Tr (Adams Papers).
JA’s predictions were surprisingly accurate. The rates for 3 percent consolidated annuities fluctuated between 1794 and 1796 but began a steady decline that brought them down to 56 by Sept. 1796 and as low as 48 in May 1797. In other words, the cost to the British government of borrowing money to finance the war with France was steadily increasing and might eventually bankrupt the country (John Sinclair, The History of the Public Revenue of the British Empire, 3 vols., London, 1803–1804, 2:appendix 44–45).
G. F. de Martens, Précis du droit des gens moderne de l’Europe, fondé sur les traités et l’usage, 2 vols., Göttingen, 1789; Gabriel Bonnot, Abbé de Mably, Le droit public de l’Europe, 2 vols., The Hague, 1746. Copies of both are in JQA’s library at MQA.
Georg Friedrich de Martens (1756–1821) was a German legal expert and professor at Göttingen; he likely tutored the three British princes when they studied there in the late 1780s (
Cambridge Modern Hist.,
9:587;
DNB
).
In his 27 Oct. 1793 letter to Thomas Jefferson, for which see vol. 9:451, Edmond Genet described Hugo Grotius, Samuel Pufendorf, and Emmerich de Vattel as “hired jurisprudists” who produced “worm eaten writings” (New York Columbian Gazetteer, 31 Oct.). See also
AA to JA, 10 May 1794, and note 3, below.
In the British House of Commons on 1 Feb., William Pitt reported that the French National Convention had promulgated a decree demanding that all French citizens “deliver to the Commissioners, as soon as possible, an account of the exact state of your property in merchandizes, bills of exchange or credit, in foreign countries; and you are required within two days to lodge the said bills of exchange in the public Treasury, which, after it shall have received the amount, will remit you the value in assignats, at par.” This measure, designed to raise funds for the French government, led Pitt to comment “that it was a complicated measure of oppression, of fraud, of necessity, and of robbery; and evidently demonstrated the miserable shifts to which the persons at
153
present exercising power in France were driven, for the purpose of providing supplies for the war.” Nonetheless, Pitt also announced that he would shortly be introducing a bill to prevent payment of any of these debts (European Magazine, 25:226–227 [March 1794]).
Uriah Tracy (1755–1807), a Connecticut lawyer, served as a Federalist in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1793 to 1796 and the Senate from 1796 until his death (
Biog. Dir. Cong.
).
th1794
I last Evening received your of the 15th and our son the Remittance, which he went directly to pay but mr smith Says the Sum is this currency, whereas mr Brisler expressly wrote me that it was Philadelphia currency and after nameing the sum in pounds, was so particular as to calculate the sum in Dollers. Captain Eames has saild for Philadelphia so that mr smith must wait unless he will credit mr Brislers Letter which I have now inclosed to mr Adams— I expected captain Eames would have come up from the vessel before he went to Boston, but the rain prevented him. I have no doubt however that mr Brisler who is generally accurate in Buisness did not leave this matter at an uncertainty. if captain Eames is in Philadelphia when this arrives, he had better Sign with Brisler the agreement.1 I shall do the best I can to make the sum I have last till June. I have delayd any further purchase of cows till May. they will do but poorly without English Hay after they have calvd, and what stock we have will empty our Barns of all but fresh Hay. one of the oxen you purchased last Summer has been Sick with the Yellows & horn distemper and unfit for Buisness this fortnight, so that the odd ox which Faxon left has been of use. Your Brother has a pr which after planting he talks of selling for 25 pounds, but will not take less I gave for those which I purchased sixteen pound ten but they were not in so good order, and older than his. I thought you would turn the yoke of to fat which you bought last year as they had been so over workd, that as the spring advances they fail. we have an ox calld the Twin ox which has a wen and tis supposed that it would be better to turn him off after the spring work is over, but tis probable cattle may be purchased lower after the Month of May. we have the appearence of a dry time, a little rain to day, cold foggy weather our Barlly and Grass Seed are sown. our Men are employd in plowing for planting, at both places—but we have many wheals to set in motion, and much more to look after than we had before. I have not
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been absent from home a single day Since you left me— at length the canker Worms have ceased and the catterpillar begins. I have had all the trees upon this place cleard oncce & I mean it shall be done once a week whilst they appear, but I can promise only for this place the work is so behind hand at the other place that we are driven with it. Shaw I knew to be a steady honest carefull Man his wife I knew to be active neat and clever. the other I took upon shaws recommendation. he is not bigger than Samll Curtis,2 but twice the spirit and activity of shaw, and it might have been more for our interest to have placed him here prhaps. he has a very likely woman for his wife to appearence, when he has workd here he has never faild being here by sun rise— I have got an other steady Soul who belongs to sandwick. I took him upon captain Beals recommendation for whom he workd two seasons & came up to let himself again to him, but the captain having let out Squantum to a French Gentleman for six hundred dollors pr Year, he did not want him. the captain says he is faithfull diligent & sober. I have no reason to think otherways of him
Would to Heaven you could retire from the Madness of Men to the Rural occupations of your own Farms—and shut out the din of war and all its fatal concequences— the voice of the landed interest is not for war and I dare say it will be found a sound maxim that the possessors of the soil are the best Judges of what is for the advantage of the country. if an Enemy invades our country, every Man will rise for its defence, but when only the mercantile property is struck at, tho it ultimately affects the landholder Yet the Body of the people had rather suffer than wage war and ways and means will be found more difficult than in any former war, or I see but little way. France will aveng our cause, & we might resent when we are able, or punish them if we can without suffering greater injuries than we can retaliate. Words are easy, but ways & means difficult to obtain. I am my dear sir / With every sentiment of affectionate / tenderness Your
I saw mrs Brisler yesterday She and Family are well
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs A. 25 April. / 1794.”
On this same day AA also wrote to JQA to clarify the situation regarding the payment of the bill for the shipment of the Adamses’ furniture, for which see JA to AA, 17 March, and note 1, above. In her letter, AA wrote, “Having found Brislers Letter which I had mislaid when you were here I inclose to you and if mr Smith will not believe it, he may wait for his money till he is better Satisfied, but Brisler is not used to do Buisness losely, the Bill of laiding filed in Philadelphia corresponds with the Sum mentiond in his Letter, 155 and agres with former Bills of laiding which used to be made out in the currency of the State where they were given” (Adams Papers). AA went on to insist that JQA not pay the bill to William Smith until JQA was satisfied that the amount was correct.
Possibly Samuel Curtis, a former Braintree resident and American prisoner of war whom JA assisted while in Europe (JA, Papers
, 11:483; vol. 4:257, 259–261).