Papers of John Adams, volume 16

John Adams to Benjamin Franklin, 19 July 1784 Adams, John Franklin, Benjamin

To Benjamin Franklin

Sir The Hague July 19. 1784

I have the Honour of your Letters of the 27 of June and 4. July, and Should advise your Excellency to present the C. de Mercy, a Copy of the Instruction as you propose.1

By the Length of Time, We have been left without Information respecting foreign Affairs, and by other Circumstances, there are greater Divisions among our Countrymen, respecting these as well as their Finances, than are Salutary. it is now near two Years that I have led the Life of a Spider after having led that of a Toad under an Harrow for four Years before. But I Swear I will not lead one nor the other much longer.

I cant recollect that I have had a Letter from Congress, Since the Peace.2

I read Somewhere, when I was young “Tis Expectation makes the Blessing dear Heaven were not Heaven, if We knew what it were.”3 But this Expectation must not be disappointed continually.

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Mr Hartley will wait too, I apprehend, as long as We, and for my Part I humbly propose that We Should banish all Thoughts of Politicks, and begin a Course of Experiments in Physicks or mechanicks, of telescopical or miscroscopical Observations. Bertholon and Spalanzani, and Needham have so entertained me of late, that I think to devote myself to similar Researches.4

With great Respect, I have the Honour / to be, Sir your Excellencys most / obedient humble servant

John Adams

RC (DLC:Franklin Papers); internal address: “His Excellency Dr Franklin.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 107.

For Franklin’s presentation of the 29 Oct. 1783 instruction to the Austrian ambassador, the Comte Mercy d’Argenteau, see William Temple Franklin’s letter of 1 Aug. 1784, and note 1, below.

The last letters from the president of Congress to JA as an individual were of 1 Nov. 1783, which enclosed Congress’ instructions of 29 Oct. (vol. 15:329, 331–334, 335–336), and 20 March 1784, which enclosed congressional resolutions of 16 March (Adams Papers), for which see JA’s 15 June letter to Jonathan Jackson, and note 3, above.

Sir John Suckling, “Against Fruition,” lines 23–24.

The men mentioned by JA were prolific authors of scientific works, so it is impossible to know to which of their publications he refers. However, the Abbé Pierre Bertholon de Saint Lazare, a French electrical experimenter and friend of Benjamin Franklin, had recently published De l’électricité des végétaux, Paris, 1783. The Abbé Lazzaro Spallanzani, an Italian naturalist and physiologist, published among other works Nouvelles recherches sur les découvertes microscopiques, et la génération des corps organisés, Paris, 1769. Finally, the most famous work of John Turberville Needham, an English priest and naturalist who championed spontaneous generation, was Nouvelles observations microscopiques, avec des découvertes intéressantes sur la composition et la décomposition des corps organisés, Paris, 1750 (Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale ; DNB ).

John Adams to William Smith, 19 July 1784 Adams, John Smith, William

To William Smith

Dear Sir The Hague July 19. 1784.

I have rec’d your’s of the 13th and 16th: the last contains the most agreeable News I have heard a long time.—1 If Mrs: Adams should arrive, I believe it will be the most prudent thing she can do, to purchase as strong and decent a Coach of four Places, as can be had for 150 Guineas, in this she may come to the Hague, and go in it with me to Paris if I should have occasion to go there—I would not have it purchased untill she arrives. can you make Enquiry about it and get a Friend to make the Purchase, who is a Judge and will be sure, to have a strong one, capable of performing long Journeys upon paved Roads, with an Imperial upon the Top, for carrying Ladies Baggage &c. on as reasonable Terms as may be.

I cannot write untill Lyde arrives, to my Friends in America, because I know not what to write. if my Girls dont come, I will go to 283 them. But then they must let me know it by the French & English Packet and by every opportunity that I may not sail west while they are sailing East. My kindest Regards to all friends in America.

LbC in JQA’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr: Smith.”; APM Reel 107.

Neither letter from Smith, son of Isaac Smith Sr., has been found, but that of the 16th reported that AA would be arriving on the Active, Capt. Nathaniel Byfield Lyde. AA and AA2 landed at Deal on 20 July and by the 23d were in London, where William Smith and Charles Storer had secured them lodgings at Osborne’s Hotel, from whence AA wrote to JA to announce their arrival. JA replied on the 26th, declaring that “your letter of the 23d. has made me the happiest Man upon Earth. I am twenty Years younger than I was Yesterday.” For “a Variety of Reasons” he could not come to London, but instead was sending her “a son who is the greatest Traveller, of his Age, and without Partiality, I think as promising and manly a youth as is in the World” ( AFC , 5:371, 384, 397–400). But the younger Adams probably did not leave until 27 July, the date of JA’s letter to the London bankers Richard & Charles Puller directing them to supply his son with money (LbC, APM Reel 107). On 30 July AA wrote to JA that “I was this day made very happy by the arrival of a son” ( AFC , 5:408). JA soon reconsidered his decision to remain at The Hague and set off for London on 4 August. For his trip to London, reunion with AA and AA2, and subsequent journey to Paris, see his 3 Aug. letter to the loan consortium, and note 2, below.