Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
The inclosed Letter from the sec. of state will go by the Way of England. In the paragraph quoted from me I wish you not to mistake. I dont mean that I have any aversion to a Treaty with Prussia or sweeden, upon Terms consistent with your Instructions. You may agree to such a Treaty as soon as you please.1 But in the present State of Things, if the Neutral Powers will not go to War with France and We are compelled to do so, I have no Scruple to say I will not bind the United states to let French Dutch & spanish Property pass, under Neutral Flaggs. I hope the Dutch & the Spaniards will not 261 force Us into a War with them. But if they do they must and shall take the Consequences.2
Your Mother has been sick of a Complication of Disorders, a chronic Diarrhea, an intermittent fever and almost a Diabetes sometimes for three Months. she is still very weak, but We think better, and hope will get well. We are in hopes of seeing your Brother in a few Weeks. Love to your best Friend and to your new sec. I am / your affectionate
Be pleased to make my best Compliments to Mr De Thulemeyer and thank him for his kind Remembrance of me: I recollect with
great Pleasure his kind & polite and even friendly Treatment of me for some Years,
when We resided at the Hague. I would go a Great Way to have the Pleasure of a few
Hours Conversation with him.— What Effect upon the World does he think our old Country
of Holland, and the Austrian Low Countries will have in the Hands of France?3
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr Adams.”
LbC (Adams Papers);
APM Reel 119. Tr
(Adams Papers).
The enclosure was Timothy Pickering to JQA of 24
Sept., in which Pickering responded to JQA’s proposal that in negotiating
a treaty with Sweden the United States should insist on a provision protecting neutral
navigation in the event of war, “provided the enemy of the
warring power admitted the same principle.” Pickering offered both his and
JA’s agreement to the suggestion, telling JQA that
insistence on such a provision in treaties with both Sweden and Prussia should
thereafter be considered part of his instructions (Adams Papers).
Tensions were high between the United States and Spain as Spain
continued to move closer to the political orbit of France and its client state the
Batavian Republic. A particular source of friction was Spain’s reluctance to turn over
forts in the Louisiana territory in compliance with the terms of Pinckney’s Treaty
(
Cambridge Modern Hist.
, 7:323–324).
JQA’s letters to JA frequently included
the greetings of Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Thulemeier, “a judge of the supreme
judicial tribunal” who served as the Prussian minister to the Netherlands during
JA’s years at The Hague (JQA to JA, 18 May, 25 Sept., both Adams Papers). For Thulemeier, see
vol. 7:307 and JA, Papers
, 16:ix.
I wrote you soon after my arrival here that I expected to take
passage with Captain Jenkins of the Ship America, bound to Newburypor[t.]1 I had in fact engaged to go with him, but as he
said much to me of the uncomfortableness of his vessel and refused any compensation for
taking me as a passenger, I thought best to look out for another opportunity, and upon
the recommendation of Captn:
262 Jenkins, took passage on board the Alexander
Hamilton, Captn Clarke bound to New York, and who then
expected to sail as soon as any other. We shall probably be off in the course of a week,
but as the America will out-sail us we cannot expect to arrive so soon.
The Alexander Hamilton is the same Ship which took out Genl: Marshall from Bordeaux; is well armed & manned and very
commodious. I write these particulars under the persuasion that the America will arrive
some time before us and to prevent any anxiety on my account.
Several very interesting events have lately taken place, as successors to the complete destruction or capture of the fleet, which escorted the french expedition into Egypt. The transports which were moored in the habour of Alexandria have since been totally destroyed by the English fleet, and one of the ships of war which escaped the first disaster, with two frigates are since taken or sunk.2
Nearly all the dispatches from & to Buonaparte since his taking possession of Alexandria & Cairo have been intercepted, and the only official details yet published are in the enclosed newspaper.3 His situation is thought to be desperate though he may yet maintain a long struggle against the natives of that Country, being in possession of their chief cities and commanding the neighborhood.
A more recent naval engagement happend on the coast of Ireland,
between a small squadron out of Brest & that under the command of Sir J. B Warren,
in which four ships of the line were taken with one or two frigates and the rest of the
vessels so much shattered that the English Admiral thought it not likely they could
reach the ports of France even should they escape the british cruizers. The french
squadron was destined to land troops in Ireland, and had very nearly reached its
destination when the English fleet fell in with it.4 The English have lately lost a frigate which ran
a-shore upon the french coast, and it is supposed that the Leander a 50 gun ship
dispatched by Admiral Nelson after his victory, with the first intelligence of it, to
Lord St Vincent, has fallen into the hands of the french. On
board this vessel was Admiral Nelson’s own Captain (Berry.)5
It was reported here a few days since that the Embargo upon
American vessels in the ports of France had been laid on afresh, but the intelligence
proves to be unfounded as there are seamen here who were detained by the embargo and
left Bordeaux three weeks since. They say, but one vessel, (the Sampson of New York)
remained 263 when they came off, but that many of our Countrymen
are yet imprisoned in the interior, where they were first sent.6 The papers have said that an envoy has gone out
from Paris to Philada:—7
I hear from my brother frequently and shall bring with me his most recent letters if my passage should be fortunate. We have dreadful accounts of the prevalence of the yellow fever in three of our principal cities.
Present me kindly to my mother & accept the best assurances of / attachment & respect from—
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “The President of the U.S.A.” Some loss of text due to wear at the edge.
TBA wrote to JA on 15 Oct., reporting his departure from Berlin, arrival in Hamburg, and the travel plans repeated here (MHi:Smith-Townsend Family Papers).
In the days that followed the French defeat at the Battle of the
Nile, the British commandeered or destroyed all French warships and transports
remaining in Aboukir Bay, with the exception of four French vessels that escaped: the
ships of the line Guillaume Tell and Généreux and the frigates Diane and Justice. All eluded capture until the
British took the Généreux on 18 Feb. 1800, the Guillaume Tell on 30 March, the Diane on 24 Aug., and the Justice on 2 Sept. 1801
(Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt
, p. 168–169, 418; Cooper
Willyams, A Voyage Up the Mediterranean in His Majesty’s Ship
the Swiftsure, London, 1802, p. 308).
The enclosure has not been found, but the Paris Gazette nationale ou le moniteur universel, 20 Oct. 1798,
followed by the London Times, 24 Oct., reported that a
French vessel had evaded British cruisers and landed a courier in Ancona, Italy, who
carried the first direct dispatches to France from Napoleon in Egypt. The dispatches
dated 1 to 6 July described the arrival of the fleet in Egypt and the taking of
Alexandria. The Times added that if Turkish forces
reinforced local troops as expected, Napoleon’s “situation must necessarily become
extremely critical.”
A British squadron under Rear Adm. John Borlase Warren met a
French landing force under Como. Jean Bompard off the Irish coast in the Battle of
Donegal on 12 October. Ten French vessels had departed Brest in September carrying
3,000 French troops and Irish leader Theobold Wolfe Tone to an anticipated landing at
Lough Swilly in support of Irish revolutionaries. Warren’s squadron of three ships of
the line and five frigates captured the flagship and chased down all but two of the
French vessels, resulting in a severe setback to the Irish rebellion (Anthony Bruce
and William Cogar, An Encyclopedia of Naval History,
Chicago, 1998).
Rear Adm. Edward Berry (1768–1831) was captain of Rear Adm.
Horatio Nelson’s flagship, the Vanguard, during the
Battle of the Nile. Berry was captured by the French as he carried dispatches home on
the Leander, but he was released before the end of the
year (Bruce and Cogar, Encyclopedia of Naval
History).
The French Directory’s 16 Aug. decree lifting the embargo against
American vessels coincided with an order from the French minister of marine liberating
seamen seized from American ships and imprisoned in France. While in Bordeaux awaiting
passage home in late August, Dr. George Logan was presented with an address of thanks
from liberated masters of American vessels. The ship Sampson, Capt. Rooke, was one of several American vessels detained at
Bordeaux. The ship departed by late October and reached New York on 25 Jan. 1799 (
Amer. State
Papers, Foreign Relations
, 2:229, 236; Tolles, George Logan
,
p. 167, 169; Philadelphia Porcupine’s Gazette, 26 Oct.
1798; New York Commercial Advertiser, 25 Jan. 1799).
The London Times, 15 Oct. 1798,
reported that the Directory “some time ago dispatched a swift-sailing vessel to the
United States with an accredited Agent to adjust all differences between the
Governments of France and America.”