Papers of John Adams, volume 17
th.June 1785
We are in the disagreable necessity to acquaint the Honble. Commissioners of the Board of Treasury of the United States of America, that Mess. De La Lande & fynje who at the present moment are debtors to them for the Amount of ƒ112,000, have Stopt payment, and we take the Liberty to Send your Excellency inclosed the Letter to Said Gentlemen, which we left open in order you may peruse it for your Government, time not permitting to write you more fully on the Subject.1
Further we beg your Excellency will seal up the letter, and forward it by the July Packet. If in the interim your Excellency Should have some advice in the matter, you may depend that we are disposed to do every thing in behalf of Congress, which is consistent with the present circumstances of the House.
We remain very respectfully / Sir! / Your most obt. hble. Servts.
Nich
s.& Jacob van Staphorst
We send copies by other opportunities
RC (Adams Papers).
For JA’s reaction to the news of De la Lande & Fynje’s bankruptcy, see his 2 July letter to the Board of Treasury, below. The enclosed 28 June letter to the Board from the 213Willinks and the Staphorsts has not been found, but the Board received it on or about 11 Sept., and a copy was enclosed with its letter to the president of Congress of that date (PCC, No. 140, II, f. 79). By that time, however, the Board had already taken action, for which see note 1 to JA’s 2 July letter to the Board. For De la Lande & Fynje’s account of the firm’s situation, see its letter of 1 July, below.
st:1785
Messrs: Willink and van Staphorst have acquainted your Excellency last post, with the calamity that hath befallen our House.1 We now make free to inclose to your Excellency our Letter to the Honorable the Commissioners of the Board of Treasury, in which we advise them ourselves, of this for us so grievous news, begging your Excellency after perusal to forward it to those Gentlemen.2
May we intreat your Excellency to make use of your influence in our favour, that no vigorous prosecutions may be used against us, but that Congress may be favorably pleased to allow us time to settle our affairs We flatter ourselves we shall then be enabled to Satisfy the pretentions against us.
In our present disagreeable circumstances, it is the more mortifying to us, that we cannot disown, we have launched with too much imprudence in the American Trade, but ought to have had more foresight, yet we have the Satisfaction, that we shall not be found guilty of any fraudulent designs, and we hope we may flatter ourselves, our Character has never stood in an unfavorable light with your Excellency.
Give us leave therefore to beg your Excellency again, to interest you in our behalf, and to allow us the honour to subscribe ourselves with the profoundest regard / Your Excellencies most / humble & Obedient Servants.
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excellency John Adams Esqr: Minister Plenipoten- / tiary of the United States of America, at the Court of / Great Brittain.”
Of 28 June, above.
No copy of De la Lande & Fynje’s letter to the Board of Treasury, probably dated 1 July, has been found, but the board received it on 7 Sept., and a copy was enclosed with the board’s letter to the president of Congress of that date (PCC, No. 140, II, f. 67–68). For action taken by the board previous to receiving that letter, see JA’s 2 July letter to the board, and note 1, below. In a letter of 8 July, JA notified the board that De la Lande & Fynje had failed and enclosed the firm’s explanatory letter to the board and its letter to him requesting that he use his influence with Congress “to spare them for a time as they hope to be enabled by the Amity of their Creditors to do them ample Justice” (LbC, APM Reel 111).