Papers of John Adams, volume 16
We duly receiv’d (Mr Jay & me) the Letters you did us the honour of writing to us the 27th of March1 & the 2d Instant. We shall transmit, as you desire, the Recommendation of Mr Browne to Congress; and enclos’d we send a Copy of the Treaty with Sweden.2
We expect Mr Hartley here very soon, to exchange the Ratifications of the Definitive Treaty; when we shall endeavour to obtain an Explanatory Article relating to the Limits & Term of Captures.3 The Form used in the last Treaty is precisely the same that has been used in all the Treaties of Peace since that of Nimeguen; and I therefore imagined that Cases must have arisen at the End of every War, in which it was necessary to decide on the Meaning of that Form of Words wherein the Canary Islands are mention’d; and I desir’d Mr Barclay when he went to London to procure from the Records of the Admiralty Court some of those Cases as decided there; but he tells me none are to be found. May there not be some in Holland? I should suppose they must have been adjudg’d by the Parallel of Latitude of those Islands; and I should be glad to have such a Decision to produce to Mr Hartley.
With great Respect, I have the honour to be / Sir, / Your Excellency’s most obedient / & most humble Servant
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excellency John Adams, Esqr”; endorsed: “Dr Franklin 16. Ap. / ansd. 20. 1784.”
For this letter, with which JA enclosed letters from Dennis DeBerdt and Edward Browne, see DeBerdt’s letter of 6 Feb., note 1, above.
Not found. There is no copy of the Swedish-American treaty in the Adams Papers.
For the controversy over the cessation of Anglo-American hostilities and thus the “Limits & Terms of Captures,” see JA’s 2 April letter to Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, and note 2, above.
on the 26 last, I have sent your Excell̃: pr the Marketboat, the Two Medals you desired, according to a letter rec̃: from the Gentleman your Son of the 23d: past and at the same time I sent a Box with five small Medals (to be used for counters at the game of Whist) Invented bÿ me and made at the desire of a Companÿ of good Friends.1 desire you to accept the same not so much for the Value as for the speculation and to se if the Defenition of the game is to be found therein.
This letter ought to have gone with the Said Packet if I had not flatter’d mÿself to rec̃: an answer from Mr. John Stockdale of London, at least to mÿ letter of the 5th: March. I have received no letters at all from that Man not even to Inform me that he rec̃: mÿ Packet which I sent him the 5th: December of last year nor answer to anÿ other letters sent him bÿ the post, which makes me a little uneasÿ, although your Excellency advised me to it bÿ your Letter from London dated
I Flatter mÿself that your Excellencÿ is convinced of mÿ good Intention, and will be so kind as to take the trouble in this affair to get it settled for it is to trifling to let it linger a long while
167I have the Honor’d to subscribe mÿself with Veneration and Respect / Your Exllency’s / Most Ob Humb servant
RC (Adams Papers).
JQA’s 23 March letter has not been found, and the medals to be used as whist counters sent by Holtzhey on the 26th have not been identified.
No request from JA for Holtzhey to send a medal to the Baron Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol has been found.
JA wrote to Holtzhey on 24 Nov. 1783 requesting that he send him, charged to his own account and for distribution to friends in England, the medals Holtzhey had struck commemorating Dutch recognition of the United States and the Dutch-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce. He also indicated that John Stockdale might be able to sell “a great Number of them” in London. Holtzhey replied on 5 Dec. that he had sent the medals that JA requested and had included others for Stockdale to sell. Stockdale indicated on 20 Jan. 1784 that the medals had arrived (vol. 15:376, 395, 465–466). On 8 May JA wrote to Holtzhey, thanking him for the whist counters and indicating that he would instruct the loan consortium to pay Holtzhey for the medals charged to JA and would endeavor to have Stockdale settle his account (LbC, APM Reel 107). For JA’s settlement of his account with Holtzhey, see his letter to the consortium of 8 May, below.