Papers of John Adams, volume 19
Ik heb mij deeser dagen vereïrt gevonden met UWEd. Missive, gedateert uit Londen den 25 Januarÿ deezes Jaars, waarbij UWEd. mij toezend een Memorie aan Haar Hoog Mogende, en een andere aan zijne Doorl: Hoogheid, met verzoek van die over te leeveren. Ik heb altijd zoo veel blijken van UWEd. vriendschap en geneegendheid voor mij gehad, dat ik het mij een eer en plaisier soude hebben gereekent, immediatelijk aan UWEd. verlangen te voldoen; of schoon ik liever had gewenscht, UWEd. geen afscheid te zien neemen, en altijd in hoop heb geleest, UWEd. nog eens wederom hier te zien. Maar het zij mij gepermitteert, UWEd. voor te houden, dat, wanneer ik UWEd. Missive aan Haar Hoog Mogende geaddresseext, aan den Heer ter Vergaderinge Presideerende, en aan andere Leeden van de Vergadering heb gecommuniceert, deselve geen ongegronde reflexie daar op hebben gemaakt, (niet op de Memorie van afscheid zelfs, welke in allen deelen obligeant en voldoende is gevonden) maar daar op, dat daar bij niet gevonden is; een Missive van het Congres selfs aan Haar Hoog Mogende, om te dienen tot een Brief 271 van Rappel; terwijl tusschen alle Mogendheeden gebruikelijk is, dat gelijk een Minister geaccrediteert word door een brief van Credentie, (eeven soo een, als die van UWEd. van dato den 1: Januarij 1781, bij Haar Hoog Mogende den 22 April 1782 ontfangen) alsoo ook een Minister gerappelleert word door een Brief van Rappel, waar op dan een Brief van Recredentie wederom word geschreeven. Mogelijk zal dit door een versuim van den Secretaris van het Congres zijn veroorsaakt, maar dit verhindert mij gebruik te maken van UWEd. Memorie, welke dan behoord te worden overgegeeven, als een Brief van Rappel van het Congres daar bij komt: en dus zal UWEd. niet kwalijk neemen, dat ik verpligt ben de nevensgaande Missive met de inliggende Memorie aan UWEd. bij provisie te rug te zenden. UWEd. omstandigheeden niet toelatende, zelfs afscheid te komen neemen, zal het genoeg zijn, een Brief van Rappel van het Congres bij UWEd. Memorie te voegen.
Het zal mij altijd zeer aangenaam zijn den voorspoed en welstand van UWEd. en die UWEd. aangaan, te verneemen, en geleegendheid te vinden, om UWEd. blijken te geeven van de bijsondere hoogagting, waar meede de eer heb te zijn. / Mijn Heer! / UWel Edele / Zeer Onderdanige en Ge. / hoorzame Dienaar.
PS. Zijn Hoogheid, in het zelve geval zijnde, als Haar Hoog Mogende, kan niet anders doen, als een Brief van Rappel voor UWEd. van het Congres af te wagten.
I have this day been honored with your excellency’s letter, dated 25 January of the present year from London, in which you sent along a memorial to Their High Mightinesses, and another to His Majesty, with a request to deliver the same. I have always experienced so many proofs of your friendship and affection that I would have accounted it an honor and a pleasure to have complied immediately with your wishes, although I would have preferred that you had not taken leave and always hoped to have seen you here once more. But permit me to inform you that when I communicated your letter, addressed to Their High Mightinesses, to the president and other members, they did not have an unfavorable response to it (that is, to the memorial of taking leave, which in every respect was found obliging and sufficient) except that no letter of recall from Congress to Their High Mightinesses accompanied the same, such as is customary that a minister is credited by a letter of credence (such as yours, dated 1 January 1781, which was received by Their High Mightinesses on 22 April 1782) so in the 272 same way, a minister is recalled by a letter of recall, upon which a letter of recredence is returned. Perhaps this may have been caused by an omission of the secretary of Congress and this prevents me from making use of your memorial, which ought to be delivered with a letter of recall from Congress; your excellency will I trust not be displeased that I am obliged to return the enclosed letter and memorial. If your circumstances do not allow you to take leave in person, it will be satisfactory to enclose a letter of recall from Congress with your memorial.
It will always give me pleasure to learn of your prosperity and that of those connected with you, and to find opportunities to show you the special regard with which I have the honor to be, sir, your excellency’s most humble and obedient servant
P.S. His Majesty being in the same situation as Their High Mightinesses, nothing can be done but to wait for a letter of recall from Congress.
RC and enclosures (PCC, No. 84, VI, f. 603–609). LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 112.
Fagel returned JA’s [25 Jan.] memorials to the States General and to William V, both above. For JA’s [1 Jan. 1781] letters of credence, which Fagel cited here, see vol. 11:1, 2. JA either read or had Fagel’s letter translated in London, as is evident from his 16 Feb. 1788 letter to John Jay, below. While JA’s congressional recall was widely printed in American newspapers the previous autumn (see, for example, the New-York Packet, 26 Oct. 1787), his repeated requests for a formal letter of recall went unanswered. The Dutch refusal to accept these memorials as a substitute led a frustrated JA to travel to The Hague, where he presented a memorial of [6 March 1788] to the States General and one of [7 March] to William V, both below.
I Yesterday received Mr Remsens Letter of the 14. of December, with the Journals and Gazettes inclosed.
At the last Conferences at Whitehall which were last Thursday, Lord Carmarthen thought proper to express a Wish that this Country had Some Sort of Treaty of Commerce with the United States of America, that it might be no longer necessary to take new Measures from time to time, which looked hard. This observation his Lordship made alluding to Mr Grenvilles Motion in the House of Commons. for making the Regulation of the Intercourse between America and the West India Islands, perpetual. His Lordship then, immediately Said “I presume Mr Adams that the States will all immediately adopt the new Constitution. I have read it with Pleasure. it is very well drawn up.”1 All this Oracular Utterance, was to Signify to me what has all along been insinuated, that there is not as yet any national Government; but that as soon as there shall be one, the British
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Court will vouchsafe to treat with it.— You will see, by the Morning Chronicle of the 12 of Feb. inclosed that Mr Grenville’s Speech is in the Same Strain: so that We may conclude it to be the concerted Language of the Cabinet.— it is unnecessary for me to make any Reflections upon it. The Argument that arises out of it, in favour of the new Constitution and a prompt Acceptance of it is but one among many.— France and Holland furnish as many Reasons as England. Mr Jefferson must soon follow my Example and return to America, if that Constitution is not accepted by all the States: and what will be the Consequence of the Clamours of all the officers in France, who are Creditors,; of all the Notables who may be pleased to cast Reflections,; and of all our Creditors in Holland; for Want of Payment of Interest and Principal as they become due, must be left to every American Citizen Seriously to consider.
In preparing for my departure, I have been personally treated with the Same uniform Tenour of dry Decency and cold Civility, which appears to have been their premeditated Plan from the beginning: and A Opposition as well as Administration appear to have adopted the Same Spirit. Mr Fox and Mr Burke, Lord Cambden and the Duke of Richmond, Lord Hawkesbury and Lord North and Lord Stormont, have all behaved alike. If this Country can make Such arrangements that the King of Prussia may make a Diversion of the French Forces by Land, and the native Indians or discontented Subjects, another, of those of Spain in South America, You may easily believe that England will be eager for War. Let not our Countrymen flatter themselves that they shall be able to maintain Peace. Lord Carmarthen indeed Said to me that he did not see a possibility of a Misunderstanding in Europe, and that he even hoped that Peace would be made between Russia and the Porte. His Lordship is in profound Ignorance of it, I presume, if there is really any Probability of an Alliance of France with the Emperor or Empress. Mr Jefferson has informed you, of his Conjectures as well as his Intelligence on that Point.
The Marquis De la Luzerne is now Ambassador at this Court from France, and has already met with Humiliations, not easily born by Ambassadors. Monsieur De Calonne, appears at the Levee and Drawing Room, and even at the Table of the Marquis of Carmarthen on the Queens Birth Day, with the French Ambassador. The Chevalier De Terna[nt] was presented by the French Ambassador, to the King and Queen, and treated with the most marked Disgust by both.2 These Things are hard to bear. I have had Some Conversations with this Minister, with whom I made a Voyage in 1779 from 274 L’Orient to Boston in the Sensible, and could wish to have resided longer with him for he will Certainly be attentive and able: But my Embarkation is fixed to the Month of March, and I hope to be in Boston in May.
With great Esteem and Regard / I have the Honour to be, dear sir / your most obedient and most / humble servant
RC (PCC, No. 84, VI, f. 595–598); internal address: “His Excellency John Jay / Secretary of State &c &c.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 112. Text lost due to a tight binding has been supplied from the LbC.
For the circulation and reception of the U.S. Constitution in the British press, see Elbridge Gerry’s 20 Sept. 1787 letter, and note 1, above.
Jean, Chevalier de Ternant (1751–1833), served in the French Army during the Revolutionary War and was named minister to the United States in 1791 (Frank Whitney, Jean Ternant and the Age of Revolutions: A Soldier and Diplomat (1751–1833) in the American, French, Dutch, and Belgian Uprisings, Jefferson, N.C., 2015, p. 1, 11;
AFC
, 9:308).