Papers of John Adams, volume 18
r.11. 1786
On my Return from Holland, on the Sixth instant I found your Favours of the 8. and 13. Aug.—1 on my Arrival at the Hague The Exchange of Ratifications was made on the 8 of August with The Baron De Thulemeier, and I had it Printed. it is only in French.— Copies Shall be Sent you as Soon as I can find an Opportunity.2 We were present at Utrecht at the august Ceremony of Swearing in their new Magistrates. in no Instance, of ancient or modern History, have the People ever asserted more unequivocally their own inheerent and unalienable Sovereignty.—3 But whatever Pleasure I might have in enlarging upon this Subject, I must forbear.
The Affair of Oil has taken a turn here. The Whalemen both at Greenland and the southward, have been unsuccessful and the Price of Spermacæti Oil, has risen above fifty Pounds a Ton. Boyston’s ship arrived with two or three hundred Ton, and finding he could pay the Duties and make a Profit of five and twenty Per Cent, he sold his Cargo here, instead going again to France as he intended.— This Circumstance will oblige the French Court, or the French Merchants or both to take other Measures, or they will loose this Trade. The Price of Oil will rise in Boston, so much that I am afraid Mr Barrett’s Contract must be fullfilled at an immense Loss.4
As to Mr Lambs Settlement, I still think he had better embark forthwith for New York from Spain. if he cannot he may transmit to you and me his Account, and remit to Us the Ballance in favour of U.S.
Mr Barclays Proposal, of going to Tunis and Tripoli, I Suppose appears to you as it does to me, from what We learned from the Ambassador from Tripoli in London, to be unnecessary at least till We hear farther from Congress. It Seems to me too, very unlikely that any Benefit will be had from a Journey to Algiers.— I wish to See the Treaty with Morocco, and to know the Particulars of that Affair, first.— At present I believe We are taken in, and that We shall be plagued with Demands for annual Presents. I confess, I have no
451
Faith in the Supposition that Spanish Interference has counted for Money, or at least that it will pass long for it.
If however you are clearly in favour of Sending Mr Barclay to Algiers, I will make out a Commission, and send it to you, for your Signature Signed by myself, because I would not set up my own Judgment against yours, Mr Charmichaels and Mr Barclays: but I confess, at present I cannot See any Advantage in it, but on the contrary Several Disadvantages. Mr Randal is gone to Congress, and We may expect their further orders, e’er long.
With Sincere Affection I am, dear sir, your / Friend and servant
inclosed is a Project of an Answer to Mr Lamb, if you approve it, you will Sign and Send it.5
RC (DLC:Jefferson Papers); internal address: “E. Mr Jefferson.”; docketed: “Adams John.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 112.
For the 8 Aug. letter (Adams Papers), see Jefferson’s of the 13th, note 1, above.
Jefferson acknowledged receiving the printed copy of the Prussian-American treaty in his 23 Oct. letter, and JA sent him additional copies with his 30 Nov. letter, both below. But the version JA had printed while in the Netherlands has not been identified. The French text of the treaty, however, was printed serially in the Gazette de Leyde of 25 and 29 Aug. and 5, 8, and 12 September.
See also AA’s more effusive account of the 29 Aug. oath-taking at Utrecht in her 10 Oct. letter to Cotton Tufts (
AFC
, 7:362–363).
Although JA had not received Stephen Higginson’s letter, his comments here regarding Nathaniel Barrett’s whale oil contract mirror those of Higginson in his undated July letter, above.
JA enclosed a fair copy of the American commissioners’ [11–ca. 19 Sept.] letter to John Lamb, below.
11–ca. 19 September 1786
We have received your two Letters, of the 15 & 18. July2 from Alicant and are sorry to learn that your indisposition discourages you from travelling by Land or sea
We still think it most adviseable, both for your own interest & that of the United states, that you should return to Congress, for their further Instructions, as soon as possible, & we again propose to you, to embark from spain, by the first oppertunity.
Congress have never informed us, of any Promise made, or Encouragement given you, that you should be settled with in Europe, and we think it best you should settle with their Board of treasury. Nevertheless if you transmit to us, your account we will adjust it, as far as lies in Us, subject to the revision of Congress. Your Letter of 452 Credit we wish you to return to one of us, by the first oppertunity, as you will not have occasion to draw again by Virtue of it.3
Mr. Randall is gone to N. York & it is our wish that you might be there with him that Congress might have an oppertunity of receiving from both together, as much information as possible, that you might mutually aid each other in settling your account—
We are
LbC in WSS’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “J. Lamb Esqr. Allicant”; APM Reel 113.
The LbC presumably was taken from the signed fair copy of the RC, not found, that JA enclosed with his 11 Sept. letter to Thomas Jefferson, above. In his 26 Sept. reply, below, Jefferson indicates that upon receiving the 11 Sept. letter he immediately signed and forwarded the enclosed letter to Lamb. Jefferson received JA’s letter on the 19th, the probable date of his signature, and then most likely sent it off as an enclosure in his 22 Sept. letter to William Carmichael. Note that in the Papers of Thomas Jefferson the commissioners’ letter is dated “[26 Sep. 1786].” That date was probably derived from Jefferson’s 26 Sept. letter to John Jay wherein an undated copy was enclosed (Jefferson, Papers
, 10:349, 396–397, 405, 407, 427).
Jefferson enclosed Lamb’s 18 July letter to him, and possibly also that of the 15th, with his 8 Aug. letter to JA, for which see that of 13 Aug., and note 1, above. In the 15 July letter, Lamb wrote that he was quarantined at Alicante, Spain, and that poor health prevented him from continuing to Paris and New York City to deliver a report of the failed mission. He reported that “no more of our Vessels were Taken” and that he had supplied the American captives in Algiers with eight hundred dollars, and he promised to return the commissioners’ letter of credit. On the 18th he wrote that he had sent Congress a “full account” of the mission and sought “a Settlement of my Reasonable Accounts” (Jefferson, Papers
, 10:139, 151–152).
For the letters of credit issued to Lamb and Thomas Barclay in Oct. 1785, see vol. 17:451–452.