Papers of John Adams, volume 19
e.Aout 1788
C’est avec tout l’intérêt qui suit des sentimens que vous me connoissez, que j’appris il y a quelques semaines votre heureuse arrivée avec votre chere famille dans votre heureuse Patrie, & que je m’em-pressai de com̃uniquer à Mr. Luzac les détails de votre réception, que je tiens de la bonté de Mr. Jefferson. Les relations Suedoises, Russes, Impériales & Turques, ne lui ont permis que depuis peu de jours d’insérer la mienne, dont voici un Exemplaire.— J’ai observé que ce petit morceau, ainsi que d’autres insérés précédem̃ent de ma part, a été un cordial pour les Amis de nos Etats, & un cordolium pour leurs Ennemis, qui ne cessent de vouloir donner de fausses impressions contre eux.
Je vous félicite, Monsieur, & moi-même de la Majorité actuelle en faveur de la nouvelle Constitution fédérative, par l’accession de ceux de N. Hampshire & de Virginie aux huit qui s’étoient déjà déclarés. Je ne doute pas que les deux, & même les trois restants, ne se rangent enfin de bonne grace du même avis, & que tous ne continuent ainsi à donner le plus illustre, & depuis la création l’unique exemple de sagesse & de perfection progressive à tous les Gouvernemens, de félicité vraie à tous les Peuples du monde.
Je devrois, Monsieur, vous donner quelque détail sur la maniere d’être de—& dans—ce pays, mais malade, &c., je n’ai la force ni de l’ame ni du Corps, pour en esquisser le Tableau. Il est fort dangereux d’ailleurs de dire & sur-tout d’écrire sa pensée.— Dies, noctesque, ebriorum, prostibulorum, mendicorum, furum, stulticinum, pyrobolariorum ex infima plebe militiaque, viæ sunt plenæ.— Peu de société & de com̃unication, beaucoup de réserve & deméfiance, parmi les gens honnêtes.
Quant aux Systêmes publics, même de toute l’Europe, j’y vois moins clair de jour en jour; ils me paroissent approcher du Cahos: nihil simplex, nihil in politicis honestum, nihil illustre, nihil forte, nihil liberum. Cic. ad Att. I. 13.— Je me console ou plutôt désole actuellement avec cet Auteur, & vois avec douleur que ce siecle, si éclairé, si philosophe dit-on, ne reproduit de toute l’histoire que des Catilinas, des Clodius, &c. &c. &c.— Je ne parle que de notre Continent. Vous pouvez, Monsieur, Dieu merci, m’entretenir plus agréablement du vôtre. Soyez béni avec lui, avec Madame & tous les chers vôtres. Agréez avec eux, de ma famille, les témoignages des
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sentimens qui leur sont acquis de sa part, & du grand cas qu’elle fera toujours de votre bon souvenir.
Je suis avec grand respect, De Votre Exce. / Le très-humble & très obéisst / serviteur,
La Compe. des Indes ici, ayant, pour empêcher sa ruine totale, besoin de 15 millions de florins, & la Province ayant tenté pour cet Effet, sans succes un Emprunt à 2 ½ p%, on a eu recours à 5000 Lettres de Change de f1000 chacune, tirées par la Compe., acceptées par les Et. d’Hollde., payables dans 5 ans, à 4 p% d’Int. par an, affranchies de toute imposition ou charge quelconque. Ces 5000 Lettres, à un Int. & des Conditions si favorables, ont été promptement accaparées. Pour compléter les 15 millions dont on a besoin, on alloit lâcher encore 10,000 de ces Lettres; mais on s’est apperçu, que la premiere émission avoit fait tomber les obligations de 2 ½ (Masse du credit national) de 85 à 80 p%, & que cette nouvelle Emission les feroit baisser au moins de 10 p% de plus encore. On n’a pas osé passer outre. On va donc obliger la nation à un prêt forcé du 50me., peut-être même du 25e. denier, des biens meubles & im̃eubles d’un chacun.—1 Ceci, Monsieur, joint aux Alliances visiblement contradictoires où l’on se trouve aujourd’hui engagé, vous fera juger de la situation présente & future de ce pays mieux que tous les raisonnemens à perte de vue que je pourrois ajouter.
Mess. Willink & Staphorst ne m’ont pas encore envoye votre estimable Ouvrage Defence of the Constn. of the Un St que vous leur aviez ordonné de m’envoyer. Je ne sais a quoi celatient J’en suis fache. Privé de votre entretien personnel, je voudrois au moins m’en-tretenir avec vous dans votre Livre. Je leur en écrirai.
It was with my most affectionate interest, with which you are familiar, that I learned some weeks ago of your blissful arrival with your dear family in your blessed homeland, and that I hastened to relate the details of your welcome to Mr. Luzac, which I know thanks to the benevolence of Mr. Jefferson. The Swedish, Russian, Austrian, and Ottoman reports allowed him to include mine, of which I attach a copy here, only a few days ago. I have noticed that this little fragment, as well as others inserted earlier on my behalf, have been a source of elation for the friends of our states, and of heartache to their enemies, who endlessly wish to give false impressions of them.
340I congratulate you, sir, and myself for the current majority in favor of the new federal Constitution, given the accession of New Hampshire and Virginia to the eight that have already come out in favor. I have no doubt that the two, and even the three remaining, will concede gracefully to majority opinion, and that all will thus continue to offer the most illustrious and, since the beginning of time, the most unique example of wisdom, of a perfection in advance of all governments, of true felicity for all nations of the world.
I should, sir, give you some details regarding the customs of—and in—this country, but as I am ill, etc., I do not have the energy of either spirit or body to sketch an impression. Besides, it is quite dangerous to speak and especially to write one’s thoughts. Day and night, the streets are full of drunks, prostitutes, beggars, thieves, madmen, arsonists drawn from the lowest levels of the populace and the army. Little interaction, little communication, plenty of reserve and suspicion among decent people.
As for the systems of governance in place, indeed even those of all Europe, I understand them less each day. They seem to me to be approaching a state of chaos: nothing in these politics is straightforward, nothing decent, nothing clear, nothing strong, nothing generous. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, I. 13.— I am comforted or indeed discomfited these days by reading this author, and observe with grief that this century, as enlightened and as rational as it is said to be, from all of history only replicates Catiline, Clodius, etc., etc., etc. I refer only to our continent. Thank God, you may, sir, tell me more agreeably of yours. With it, may you also be blessed, along with madam and all your dear ones. Please accept, too, tokens of my family’s affection which they send, and of the enthusiasm with which they will always hold their memory of you.
I am, with great respect, your excellency’s most humble and most obedient servant
The Company of the Indies here needed 15 million florins to avoid total ruin, and the province therefore attempted to secure a loan at an interest rate of 2.5 percent, but was unsuccessful. They resorted to 5,000 promissory notes of f1,ooo each, written by the Company, accepted by the States of Holland, payable in 5 years at 4 percent interest per year, and free of all fees or charges whatsoever. At such favorable conditions and interest rate, these 5,000 notes were promptly snatched up. To round out the 15 million needed, they were to release another 10,000 of these notes, but it was realized that the first issue had caused bonds at 2 ½ (of the gross national credit) to fall from 85 to 80 percent and that a new issue would cause them to fall at least another 10 percent. They did not dare to take this step. The nation will thus be obligated by a forced loan of the 50th, maybe even the 25th part of each cent, and of the movable and immovable assets of each.1 This, sir, in addition to the clearly contradictory alliances in which we find ourselves currently engaged, will allow you to assess the present and future situation of this country better than all of the endless reasoning that I might add.
Messrs. Willink and Staphorst have not yet sent me your commendable
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work, Defence of the Constitutions of the United States, which you ordered them to send to me. I do not know why this may be. I am dismayed by it. Deprived of your personal company, I would like, at the very least, to converse with you in your book. I will write to them about it.
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “A. S. E. Mr. Jn. Adams”; endorsed by AA: “Mr Dumas.”; notation by CFA: “August 27. 1788.”
The financial problems of the Dutch East India Company arose from several issues: the scale of corruption by employees defrauding the company, the system of patronage that appointed unqualified candidates to senior positions, the decline of the once-flourishing trade with Japan, and residual effects of the Anglo-Dutch War of 1780–1783, in which the company declined in India. By the late 1780s, the company’s expenses were far greater than its profits owing to the high cost of manning outposts in Asia and Africa, and the Dutch government began siphoning money to the company to prevent bankruptcy (C. R. Boxer, Jan Compagnie in War and Peace 1602–1799: A Short History of the Dutch East-India Company, Hong Kong, 1979, p. 73–74, 78, 89, 97, 101).
st1788
The time once was when I had the pleasure of being often in your company, & hearing from your mouth entertaining conversation upon interesting subjects; on men & manners, on arts and sciences, on government & politicks &c. But now these pleasing scenes are over. Providence has separated us, & denied all intercourse except by letters. When you was a member of Congress I transmitted to you one or two, and received answers highly grateful.1 But when you passed the seas, in the service of your country, the distance was so great & the conveyance to me in an inland Town, so precarious, that not a single line has been written by me to you. But now you have returned to your native land, I am led to welcome your arrival with every mark of sincere and consobrinial affection. Your proximity has revived those sensations in my breast which formerly attached me to you by the strongest ties.—
Sir— I rejoice that you have lived to be the ornament & glory of the family from which you sprung; and what is infinitely more, that you have, under God, been honoured as a signal instrumet in bringing about a revolution in this country, in its nature great, and in its consequences very important; from which unborn millions will, I doubt not, receive the most substantial fruits.—
In your embassy to the courts of France & Holland, tho’ a thousand difficulties arose, yet piercing thro’ them all, you acted a part which will immortalize your name in the annals of America, and
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endear you to its best friends. As plenipotentiary for the settlement of the peace, your unwearied efforts and superior address, by playing one nation off against another, have contributed to give us an honourable and advantageous one. As far as my knowledge extends, all America views you the principal agent in that negotiation, and hails you the political saviour of its country. When appointd to the court of Britain, circumstances numerous & very untoward arose, which in spite of all your exertions, rendered your embassy in a great measure ineffectual. But possessd of a spirit of fidelity, your enterprizeng genius led you to prosecute & finish a work which does at once evince the extent of your knowledge, the depths of your penetration and the excellency of the american constitutions. To eat the bread of your country, and at the same time to do thus no service, was abhorrent to your mind. Pereciving therefore that the American constitutives of Governmet were by many slighted & condemnd, you embraced an opportunty which heaven granted, to write a defence of them. Superior to all local & national prejudices, you have, like the great Montesquieu passed encomiums on the British Govemet, & yet justly given the preferrence to those which have been establishd with us. But in saying this, I am guided principaly by report. The information of others, a cursory view of your Volumes, taken in the book-sellers stores, en passant; and the account of the reviewers are the sole foundations of my present declaration. I wish to be better acquaintd with your late publications. But res angusta domi
2 prevents my purchasing them. Ten children, a parish impoverishd by taxes & luxury, & some what low health describe my present situation. But tho under these embarrassments I read every theng that relates to this country as far as I meet with them. O save my country, is my constant Cry; in its troubles have had a large share; & for its future welfare are very anxious. I rejoice in the prospect that the industry of one part of the community will be encouragd by the government that is likely soon to take place; and the sloth & dissipation of the other repressed, or made subservient to the publick welfare. But the general government tho’ admirable in the main is not in all points agreable to the people, and from your publishd sentimets, I suppose not entirely agreeable to your own mind. For it, even as it now stands, I have been an hearty advocate; the certain amendments are devoutly to be wished. If your sentiments accord with mine, you will doubtless have an opportunity to discover them in a manner very efficatious. As you were elected by the suffrages of the general Court to attend the Congress in its present form, even before your
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arrival; we may thence presume you will have a seat in the new Congress, unless you decline it. And if you should be deputed to that august body, I have pleasing apprehensions that your abilities will be exerted, in conjunction with other worthy patriots, to put our trade on a more respectable footeng, to frame a code of Laws friendly to the rights of the citizens of the united states; to promote a system of education among our youth that shall produce a succession of learned men, qualifd to fill the most important places in Govmet; to encourage industry & suppress every species of licentiousness, dissipation & folly.—
As you have been absent many years from this country, you will permit me to say that from the embarrassments of our trade and navigation; the greatness of our taxes, and an unbounded licence in purchasing forreign commodities, appearing in all the sumptuousness of dress and luxury of living, the people in general, especially in the interior parts of the state are drained of their money; & find it impossible to pay their debts. A general government if energetick and wisely administred, will operate a remedy for these evils, will unfetter our trade, promote manufactures, & find vent at advantageous markets for the surplus of our own produce. This in time will augment the quantity of our money sufficiently for every purpose. In the mean time it is to be hoped that direct taxes will be as small as possible: For if the people of this commonwealth should be oppressed by taxes as they have been, they will either be discouraged, or driven to the extreme of madness. The general Government we suppose will be attended with great expence; but if wise and good men are at helm, care will be taken that the stipends of the servants of Governmet be as moderate as possible, till the country emerges from its present exhausted state. A sutable attention to this matter, will be followed with the happiest effects; will conciliate the minds of those who have been opposed to the new system, & diffuse satisfaction and content thro all ranks of people. We have suffered amazingly in this state from want of an efficient government, & wise men to administer it, in these perplexing times. Almost ever since the war began, even to the present time, we have been in most wretched circumstances. Being absent you have escaped a scene of confusion that is not easily described. Quorum pars magna fui; quæque ipse miserrima Vidi.
3 I hope we have almost gotten to the end of our political troubles. The prospect brightens up. Having exhausted all error, I trust we are verging to truth & right.
From the establishment of the new federal Government I 344 anticipate much happier times; and am persuaded I shall not be disappointed, if the people discreetly give their suffrages, & by their elections call forth wise & faithful men to organize the constitution.
Pardon, worthy sir, the intrusion of this letter, excuse the impertinency of its contents, & do me the justice to believe that with every sentiment of respect I subscribe myself your sincere friend & very humble Servant
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “The / Honourable John Adams Esquire / Braintree—”; internal address: “Honourable Mr Adams.”; endorsed by AA: “Mr Zebdial / Adams Sepbr / 1. 1788” notation: “Honoured by Mr Billings.”
Rev. Zabdiel Adams (1739–1801), Harvard 1759, was JA’s first cousin. In 1764 he accepted a call to be minister at the First Congregational Society in Lunenburg, Mass., and served that parish for the rest of his life. He and JA corresponded in June 1776 regarding American independence, and again in April 1777, when Adams commented on the depreciation of currency and military recruiting efforts in Massachusetts (vol. 1:97;
AFC
, 2:6–8, 20–21, 214–216).
The severe pressure of poverty.
Adams reversed lines 5 and 6 of Virgil’s Aeneid, Book 2: “I saw these terrible things, and took great part in them.”