Papers of John Adams, volume 18
Your favors of the 13th. & 20th. were put into my hands today. this will be delivered you by mr̃ Dalrymple, secretary to the legation of mr̃ Craufurd. I do not know whether you were acquainted with him here. he is a young man of learning & candor, and exhibits a phaenomenon I never before met with, that is, a republican born on the North side of the Tweed.
You have been consulted in the case of the Chevalr. de Mezieres nephew to Genl. Oglethorpe, and are understood to have given an opinion derogatory of our treaty with France.1 I was also consulted, and understood in the same way. I was of opinion the Chevalier had no right to the estate, & as he had determined the treaty gave him a right, I suppose he made the inference for me that the treaty was of no weight. the Count de Vergennes mentioned it to me in such a manner that I found it was necessary to explain the case to him, & shew him that the treaty had nothing to do with it. I inclose you a copy of the explanation I delivered him.2
Mr. Boylston sold his cargo to an Agent of Monsieur Sangrain. he got for it 55. livres the hundred weight. I do not think that his being joined to a company here would contribute to it’s success. his capital is not wanting. Le Couteux has agreed that the Merchants of Boston sending whale oil here, may draw on him for a certain proportion of money, only giving such a time in their draughts as will admit the actual arrival of the oil into a port of France for his security. upon these draughts mr̃ Barrett is satisfied they will be able to raise money to make their purchases in America.— the duty is 7₶–10 on the barrel of 520lb French, and 10. sous on every livre, which raises it to 11₶–5, the sum I mentioned to you.3 France uses between 5. & 6. millions of pounds weight French, which is between 3. & 4000 tons English. their own fisheries do not furnish one million & there is no probability of their improving. Sangrain purchases himself upwards of a million. he tells me our oil is better than the Dutch or English, because we make it fresh, whereas they cut up the whale & bring it home to be made, so that it is by that time entered into fermentation. mr̃ Barrett says that 50. livres the hundred weight will pay the prime cost & duties & leave a profit of 16. per cent to the merchant. I hope that England will within a year or two be obliged to come here to buy whale oil for her lamps.
I like as little as you do to have the gift of appointments. I hope Congress will not transfer the appointment of their Consuls to their ministers. but if they do, Portugal is more naturally under the superintendance of the minister at Madrid, & still more naturally under the minister at Lisbon, where it is clear they ought to have one. if all my hopes fail, the letters of Govr. Bowdoin & Cushing, in favor of young mr̃ Warren, & your more detailed testimony in his favor, are not likely to be opposed by evidence of equal weight in favor of any other.4 I think with you too that it is for the public interest to encourage sacrifices & services by rewarding them, and that they should weigh to a certain point in the decision between candidates.
I am sorry for the illness of the Chevalr. Pinto. I think that treaty important: & the moment to urge it is that of a treaty between France & England.
Lamb, who left this place the 6th. of Nov. was at Madrid the 10th. of this month. since his departure mr̃ Barclay has discovered that no copies of the full powers were furnished to himself, nor of course to Lamb. Colo. Franks has prepared copies which I will endeavor to get to send by this conveiance for your attestation: which you will be so good as to send back by the first safe conveiance & I will forward them.5 mr̃ Barclay & Franks being at this moment at St. Germain’s, I am not sure of getting the papers in time to go by mr̃ Dalrymple. in that case I will send them by mr̃ Bingham.
Be so good as to present me affectionately to mrs̃ & miss Adams, to Colos. Smith & Humphries & accept assurances of the esteem with which I am Dear Sir / Your friend & servt.
P. S. be pleased to forward the inclosed, sealing that to Congress after you have read it.6
RC and enclosure (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr̃ Adams”; docketed by JQA: “T. Jefferson. 27. Decr: 1785.”; notation by CFA: “T. Jefferson. / Decr 27th 1785. / published in his Writings / Vol 1. p 376.”; enclosure endorsed: “[Mr] Jefferson / Decr. 27. ansd. Jan. / 19. 1786.” CFA refers to Jefferson, Correspondence, ed. Randolph, 1:376–377. For the enclosure, see note 2.
This came as a surprise to JA, for which see his 19 Jan. 1786 reply, below.
Jefferson enclosed a press copy of the first half of his [ca. 20 Dec. 1785] memorandum that he gave to the Comte de Vergennes’ secretary, Gérard de Rayneval, when he met with the foreign minister on 20 Dec. (Jefferson, Papers
, 9:112–113). For the full memorandum, see same, 9:107–112. On 9 Dec. Vergennes had apparently complained to Jefferson about the Chevalier de Mézières’ treatment by the American legal system. Mézières was a French subject and nephew of Georgia founder Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe, who died on 1 July. The chevalier claimed Oglethorpe’s Georgia and South Carolina properties as his heir but faced obstacles in pressing his claim. Vergennes asserted that the difficulties encountered by Mézières were violations of Art. 11 (13 as originally
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numbered) of the 1778 Franco-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce, which prohibited either country from interfering with the right of citizens or subjects of either nation to dispose of property by testament or to receive property by inheritance (Miller, Treaties
, 2:11–12).
In the portion of the memorandum sent to JA, Jefferson argued first that since neither Oglethorpe nor his wife were French subjects, Art. 11 did not apply. He then launched into a legal analysis of the issue, assuring Vergennes that the American legal system could be depended on to settle the matter in an equitable manner. Jefferson returned to the issue in a report on his meetings with Vergennes that he enclosed with his 2 Jan. 1786 letter to John Jay. There he stated only that he and JA had advised Mézières that, notwithstanding Art. 11, his “Right of Succession to the General’s Estate in Georgia was doubtful.” Responding to Vergennes’ complaints about the tardiness of justice in the United States, specifically in Georgia, Jefferson stated that the issue was whether the Declaration of Independence made Oglethorpe an alien, and then to forestall further discussion he presented Rayneval with the memorandum of [ca. 20 Dec. 1785] (Jefferson, Papers
, 9:136, 143–144).
That is, France imposed a surcharge on the base duty on whale oil, which was not indicated when the Marquis de Lafayette informed JA of the reduction in duty, for which see JA’s 12 Dec. letter to Richard Cranch, and note 3, above.
For James Bowdoin’s 10 Oct. letter to Jefferson recommending Winslow Warren to be the U.S. consul at Lisbon, see Jefferson, Papers
, 8:601. Thomas Cushing’s letter has not been found, but Jefferson also received a 9 Oct. letter from James Warren recommending his son that was similar to Warren’s to JA of 6 Oct. (vol. 17:499–500; Jefferson, Papers
, 8:599–600).
Jefferson presumably refers to Thomas Barclay’s commission to negotiate with Morocco and John Lamb’s commissions for negotiations with Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis that JA drafted in late September or early October. He signed fair copies of the commissions on 5 Oct. and sent them to Jefferson, who signed them on the 11th (vol. 17:449–451). On 27 Dec., David Franks wrote to William Short that he was sending him “the four Copies of the full Powers which His Excelley. desired me to make out” (DLC:Jefferson Papers). This seems to indicate that Franks copied the commissions to Algiers, Morocco, Tripoli, an Tunis, but JA did not mention either receiving or signing them in his 19 Jan. 1786 reply (below), nor does Jefferson mention them again in any of his letters to JA.
Jefferson most likely refers here to the account of his conversations with Vergennes, but he sent an expanded version of that to Jay with his 2 Jan. letter (Jefferson, Papers
, 9:136–146).
r.29. 1785
I have found in the Remembrancer of the Year 1775, page 309, that a Petition was presented to his Majesty on Wednesday the 11th. of September, from the City of Bristol by Mr Burke, one of the Representatives of that City, in which are the following Words.1
“We owe a Testimony of Justice to your Colonies, which is, that in the midst of the present distractions, We have received many unequivocal Proofs, that our Fellow Subjects in that part of the World are very far from having lost their ancient Affection and regard to their mother Country, or departed from the Principles of commercial honour and private Justice. Notwithstanding the Cessation of the Powers of Government throughout that vast continent, We have 73 Reason to think, judging by the Imports into this City, and by our extensive correspondencies, that the Commodities of American Grouth, enumerated by Acts of Parliament, have been as regularly brought to Great Britain, as in the most quiet times. We assure your Majesty that the Trade of this Port, and the Subsistence of a great part of your Kingdom, have depended very much on the Honourable, and, in this Instance, amicable Behaviour of your American Subjects. We have in this Single City received, within one Year, from the first of September 1774 more than one million bushells of Wheat, to Say nothing of the great quantity of other valuable Commodities essential to our navigation and commerce.”
Perhaps the foregoing is the Paragraph you are looking for.— I had an Idea that there was Something to the Same purpose, in a Petition of the Merchants of London but as I have not yet been able to find it, I might be mistaken.—2 If I Should, Stumble upon any thing like it, I will send it you.
After all, you must put an End to the Temptations to Emigration before you will Succeed in your Attempt to Silence Obloquy, against America, in the publick Prints.— The Mercure de France, the Gazettes de Deux Ponts, D’Avignon, De Bruxells which circulate in Paris, and all the Gazettes of Germany teem with Lies to our Disadvantage no less than the English Prints. The Strongest Motive to them all, is the Danger of Emigration and as long as Men prefer eating to starving Cloaths to Nakedness, and warm lodgings to the cold Air, this danger will not cease, nor the Fictions invented against it.
Yours as usual
RC (Archivio Filippo Mazzei, Pisa, Italy); internal address: “Phillip Mazzei Esq / at Mr. Jeffersons.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 113.
The information that JA provides here about the 1775 Bristol petition was likely taken from a source that cited John Almon’s Remembrancer but not from the Remembrancer itself (see also note 2). In John Almon’s Remembrancer for 1775 (London, 1775), the petition signed by 979 “Merchants, Traders, Manufacturers, and others Citizens of Bristol” appears on p. 243–247, and the quotation provided by JA is on p. 244. A letter from Edmund Burke of 11 Oct. (p. 256–257) indicates that he presented the petition that day rather than 11 September. In his Recherches historiques et politiques (1:150–151), Mazzei used the information about the petition and a French translation of the quotation contained in this letter.
JA does not further identify the London petition, but it may be the one signed by 1,102 “Gentlemen, Merchants, and Traders” and presented to King George III on the same day as the Bristol petition. It appears immediately following Bristol’s appeal in the Remembrancer (p. 247–250). The petition was highly critical of British policy toward the colonies and condemned those who had misled the king and Parliament. Regarding trade the petition declared that “by the operation of divers Acts of the British Parliament, we behold with deep affliction, that happy
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communion of interests and good offices which had so long subsisted between this country and America suspended, and an intercourse, (which, augmenting, as it grew, the strength and dignity of your Majesty dominions, hath enabled your Majesty to defeat the natural rivals of your greatness in every quarter of the world) threatened with irretrievable ruin. “We should humbly represent to your Majesty, if they had not already been represented, the deadly wounds which the commerce of this country must feel from these unfortunate measures; that it has not yet more deeply felt them, is owing to temporary and accidental causes which cannot long continue.”