Papers of John Adams, volume 17
I See by the publick Papers that Mr Hancock has resigned, and I Suppose you have just passed through the Bustle of a new Election. it is a question here among Us Americans Who? General Warren Mr
53Bowdoin Mr Cushing and General Lincoln are in nomination. But We cannot elect you know and therefore nobody Says who he would vote for. We all agree that there is danger of less Unanimity than in the last. I know so well the Influence of Boston that I believe it will be a Boston Man, but which of the two I know not.
But to something in which it is more proper for me to intermeddle. Temple your Friend is appointed Consul General, but whether he has yet embarked for N. York where I Suppose his Residence will be I know not. As much depends upon his Character and Conduct, both to Great Britain and America, it is a matter of Importance that he should be well advised, and I believe that no American has more regard for him than You have or more Influence with him. He is not without Knowledge in General and has had peculiar Opportunities for knowing the Commerce of America and has numerous Acquaintances, Some Friends and powerful Connections in America. I believe him to be in general a Well meaning Man, and if his Office depended upon a genteel Behaviour he would be very well qualified. But, he values himself much upon a Knowledge of Courts which he has not, and he looses himself too much in Ceremonies and Forms to be a great Master of Substance & Essence. He is not a prudent Man, and has the most confused Conceptions of the public Opinion and of the Reasonings upon which it is founded and of the real Springs and motives of Events of any Man of so much sense & Experience I ever saw.
Such a Character therefore in my Opinion if his Friends do not advise him, will be in danger of doing much Mischief to the publick altho he may be sure of making his own Career very short.— If he goes on with those Airs of Mystery, and suffers his own Conduct to be equivocal or liable to two Interpretations, if he enters into personal Disputes without a manifest necessity, or brings on needless questions with Congress or its Members, or the states or Governors, with French or Dutch or other foreign Consulls or Ministers, or subjects or Starts and presses too hastily, indiscreet Claims for his Master, he will soon destroy himself altho he may previously do great harm. He is now an Englishman, and a servant of his King. let him then make no Pretensions as an American, because they will not be admitted and will only expose him. He must proceed slowly Softly and smoothly. He must support the Rights of his Master and the English Nation, but he must allow the Rights of all others. He is now in the right Road. He was the servant of the King and should have always looked to him and him alone for Service unless he had 54renounced his Service more decidedly and engaged more clearly than he did against him.
My son will deliver you this.1 He has corresponded for sometime with yours at Lisbon and will give you the News of him.2 I have seen with Pleasure this Friendship forming, and hope there will be more formed in America between him and the sons of those Persons with whom I have passed my Life in Harmony, and acted in Concert for the Publick.
It is long Since I had a Letter from you, or Mrs Warren to whom I pray you to present my best Regards. Mrs Maccaulay and Mrs Warren I Suppose have compared Notes of the History of Liberty on both sides the Atlantic.3
By the last Letters from America, it appears probable that the Drs Resignation will be accepted; an Event which will make a great Change in our foreign Affairs.4 No Man that I know would be likely to conduct them better here than his successor Mr Jefferson
yours &c
RC (MHi:Warren-Adams Papers); internal address: “G. Warren.”; endorsed: “Mr J Adams / April 85.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 107.
JQA probably delivered this letter on 27 Aug. when he visited the Warren residence at Milton (JQA, Diary
, 1:313).
This is Winslow Warren. His letters to JQA are dated 13 July and 1 Sept. 1784, and 4 Jan., 1 March, and 29 June 1785 (all Adams Papers). None of JQA’s letters have been found.
The last letters from Mercy Otis and James Warren were of 1 June 1784 and 28 Jan. 1785, respectively (vol. 16:225–226, 498–500). For Catharine Macaulay Sawbridge Graham, see Mercy’s 27 April letter, and note 6, below.
At this point are two lines of heavily canceled text that cannot be read, probably referring to Benjamin Franklin. JA canceled the passage prior to giving the letter to JQA to be copied, for it does not appear in the Letterbook.
Le projet du Traité, que vous m’avéz fait l’honneur de m’adresser dans le mois de Decembre dernier, et que vous avéz proposé à Son Altesse Royale Msgr̃ L’Archiduc Grand Duc de Toscane mon Maitre etoit trop conformé à Ses principes pourqu’il ne fût pas agrée.
Ce Prince après L’avoir pris en consideration est venu dans la determination d’y adherer, et c’est par son ordre, que j’ai L’honneur de vous comuniquer la traduction cy jointe.1 Il y a quelques additions, qui ne changent rien ala Substance dela convention, mais que les circonstances locales, et les reglements du pays, aux quels toutes Les nations sont soumises, rendent indispensables. Vous verrèz, 55Messieurs, que Les Sujèts des Etats unis del’Amerique seront traités dans tous Les cas à Livourne comme la nation la plus favorisée, et qu’ils jouiront par consequent de tous Les avantages, qui sont accordés aux autres Nous demandons Les mêmes conditions, et la même reciprocitè pour Les Toscane, ainsi la base de ce Traité ne sauroit etre fondée sur une egalité plus parfaite.
J’ai L’honneur d’etre avec Le plus grand / respect / Messieurs / Votre trés humble, et trés / Obeissant Serviteur
The draft of the treaty that you did me the honor of sending to me last December, and which you have proposed to his royal highness the archduke, grand duke of Tuscany, my lord, was too similar to his principles for him not to agree.
This prince, having taken it into consideration, has come to the decision to approve of it, and it is on his order that I have the honor of sending to you the attached translation.1 There are a few additions that change nothing of the substance of the agreement, but local circumstances and the regulations of the country, to which all nations are subject, render them indispensable. You will see, sirs, that the subjects of the United States of America will be treated in every case in Livorno just as the most favored nation, and that they will enjoy in consequence all the advantages that are granted to others. We ask for the same conditions, and the same reciprocity for Tuscany, so that the basis for the treaty is perfect equality.
I have the honor of being with the greatest respect, sirs, your very humble and obedient servant
RC and enclosure (PCC, No. 86, f. 251–254, 163–190); docketed: “Paris 26 April / 1785 / from / Mr Favi / with Italian translation of the / Treaty & observations”; notation: “N. 5. a.” The notation refers to the enclosure of Favi’s letter and the treaty in the commissioners’ 11 May letter to John Jay, below. FC of the Italian translation of the draft treaty in JA’s hand (Adams Papers).
The commissioners sent Favi, Tuscan chargé d’affaires to France, a draft Tuscan-American commercial treaty on 9 Dec. 1784 (vol. 16:448). No copy of that draft has been found, but except for references to Tuscany rather than Prussia it likely was identical to the draft Prussian-American treaty that the commissioners sent to the Baron von Thulemeier, Prussian minister to the Netherlands, on 10 Nov. 1784 (same, p. 377–398). With this letter of 26 April 1785, Favi enclosed an Italian translation of that draft that incorporated changes proposed by the government of Leopold I, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The commissioners’ 11 May letter to Jay, below, indicates that they initiated discussions with Favi regarding the changes, and at some point, probably before JA’s departure for London, Thomas Jefferson prepared a list of the “Alterations made in our propositions to Tuscany” that included the commissioners’ comments on those changes. Then, on 8 June, Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson wrote to Favi enclosing the commissioners’ “Observations on the alterations proposed on the part of His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of 56Tuscany in the articles of treaty offered by the Commissioners of the United States of America.” The Tuscan chargé replied on the 11th, thanking the Americans for their observations, promising to submit them to his government, and indicating that he would inform them of the Tuscan response upon receiving it. On 10 Nov. Favi wrote to Jefferson, enclosing a 46-page “Nuova Minuta del Trattato” (Jefferson, Papers
, 8:105–110, 187–195, 205; 9:26; PCC, No. 86, f. 325–367). According to Jefferson’s 19 Nov. letter to JA
, below, therein “the order of the articles is entirely deranged, & their diction almost totally changed.” At that point Jefferson and JA apparently decided that the new Tuscan revisions made the conclusion of a Tuscan-American treaty impractical, for no further negotiations took place and no treaty was concluded. There is no indication in JA’s papers as to what role he played in the commissioners’ discussions with Favi; his position regarding the specifics of their 8 June response to Favi; or, for that matter, his reaction to Favi’s “Nuova Minuta,” but see also Jefferson’s letter of 2 June, below.