Papers of John Adams, volume 16
to the Baron von Thulemeier
ry.21
st.1785
We have received the letter you did us the honour to write us on the 10th day of December last.
We supposed that the principles contained in the project of a Treaty, which we had the honour to transmit you, were a virtual answer to the requisition in the last lines of your letter of the eighteenth of October. By the second & third Articles, the citizens & subjects of each power may frequent all the coasts & countries of the other and reside & trade there in all sorts of produce, manufactures or merchandises paying no greater duties than the most favoured nation. By the fourth Article each party shall have a right to carry their own produce, manufactures & merchandise in their own vessels to any parts of the dominions of the other where it shall be lawful for all the subjects or citizens of that other party to purchase them; and thence to take the produce, manufactures and merchandise of that other, which all the said citizens or subjects shall in like 492 manner be free to sell them, paying in both cases such duties, charges & fees only as are or shall be paid by the most favoured nation.
But if by a city for the commerce of exchange between the merchants of the two nations, be meant a port more free than any intended in the said second third or fourth Articles, that is to say a port absolutely free from all duties and charges, or a port, where merchandize may be landed & stored and afterwards reembarked & exported without paying any imposts or duties, we submit to your consideration whether it will not be for the interests of Prussia that both Emden & Stetten at least should be made such: however should it be thought otherwise and we be still desired to elect one of the two ports, we should ask for time to communicate the proposition to Congress and to receive their instructions thereon.
We have the honour to be / With great consideration / And esteem / Your Excellencys / Most obedient and / Most humble Servants
B Franklin
T Jefferson
FC in David Humphreys’ hand (PCC, No. 116, f. 145–147); internal address: “His Excellency / The Baron de Thulemeier / Exvoy Exty from His Prussian Majesty / at the Hague.”
e.Janv. 1785
L’honorée vôtre du 22 Dec. m’étant bien parvenue, dans le temps justement où ces Messieurs de l’Amirauté ont quitté La Haie pour une vacance de 3 semaines, je n’ai pas laissé d’aller parler à l’un & à l’autre, & d’en obtenir qu’ils me donneroient à leur retour ici les éclaircissements requis, & notam̃ent copie des Traités de la Republique avec les Barbaresques. Dans cette attente, où je suis encore, j’ai cru ne devoir plus différer de répondre provisionnellement à V. E., & de vous dire, que si l’on ne me fait rien remettre cette semaine, je retournerai la prochaine à la charge.
Ce qui peut avoir un peu distrait Mr. Bisdom, qui est celui des deux sur la bonne volonté duquel je compte le plus, c’est qu’il vient d’être nom̃é pour remplir l’importante Charge de Grand-Trésorier des Et. Genx., vacante par la demission qu’en a demandée, & obtenue facilement Mr. Gilles.1
Nous som̃es toujours ici dans l’incertitude de paix ou guerre. Il paroît, si ce n’est pas une comédie, que l’on voudroit faire acheter à la Rep. la renonciation à l’ouverture de l’Escaut, par d’autres sacrifices regardés ici com̃e également funestes & flétrissants.
Mr. Van Berckel m’apprend de Philadelphie, 13 Nov., qu’il n’y avoit à cette date que les Députés de quatre Etats à Trenton, & qu’il attendoit, pour s’y rendre, qu’il y eût le nombre requis pour une Assemblée du Congrès. On venoit de recevoir à Philadelphie la nouvelle, que les Com̃issaires du Congrès avoient conclu avec les six nations Iroquoises un Traité, dont on ignoroit encore les articles: mais on savoit en gros, qu’il étoit fort avantageux pour l’Amérique.
Un Mr. Wilson ayant passé ici le mois dernier, me pria, quand j’écrirois à V. E., de vous marquer, que si vous voulez l’honorer d’une Lettre, son addresse est, to Mr. Philip Wilson, at Mr. Robert Holmes’s Merch t. No. 37, St. Martins le Grand in London.
Agréez, Monsieur, les respects de ma famille pour Vous & pour la chere votre avec ceux de, Votre Excellence le très-humble & trèsobéissant serviteur,
Your esteemed letter of 22 December having indeed reached me just as the gentlemen of the admiralty left The Hague for a holiday of three weeks, I did not leave off talking to either and arranging for them to give me the requisite clarifications, notably a copy of the treaty between the republic and the Barbary States, on their return here. While I wait, as I still am, I thought that I ought not to delay any longer making a provisional response to your excellency to tell you that if they deliver up nothing to me this week, I will make a new attempt next week.
What might be a bit of a distraction to Mr. Bisdom, who is the one of the two on whose goodwill I count more, is that he has just been named to fill the important post of grand treasurer of the States General, vacant because of the resignation of Mr. Gillis who had requested and readily obtained a release.1
We here are still in a state of uncertainty regarding peace or war. It appears, if this is not a comedy, that they want to make the republic pay for them to give up the opening of the Scheldt, among other sacrifices regarded here as equally disastrous and dishonorable.
Mr. Van Berckel informs me from Philadelphia, 13 November, that at that date there were delegates from only four states at Trenton and that he was waiting, before going there, for the quorum required for Congress to convene. We just received news from Philadelphia that commissioners 495 from Congress concluded a treaty with the Six Nations of the Iroquois, the articles of which we are still ignorant of, but we know roughly that it was very advantageous for America.
A Mr. Wilson who passed through here last month asked me, when I wrote to your excellency, to mention to you that if you would like to honor him with a letter, his address is: to Mr. Philip Wilson, at Mr. Robert Holmes’s, Merch t. No. 37, St. Martins le Grand in London.
Please accept, sir, the respects of my family for you and for your dear one, along with those of your excellency’s very humble and very obedient servant
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Paris à son Excellence Mr. Adams”; endorsed: “M. Dumas / 21. Jan. 1785.”
On 14 Jan. the Gazette d’Amsterdam reported that on the 12th, “Mr. Paul-Abraham Gillis, Seigneur de Waveren, Waverveen, Botshol, Ruyge-Wilnis &c., Conseiller & Trésorier-Général de l’Union, a demandé & obtenu de L. H. P. la Démission de sa Place qu’il occupait depuis l’An 1769.” On 25 Jan. the paper indicated that “les Etats-Généraux ont le 20 de ce mois nommé à la place vacante de Conseiller & Trésorier de l’Union, Mr. Dirk-Rudolphe-Wykerheld Bisdom, ci-devant Conseiller & Advocat-Fiscal à l’Amirauté de la Meuse.”