Papers of John Adams, volume 20
The last Evenings Post favoured me with yours of the 6th.1
Many Gentlemen are in favour of a national Excise: and Some would
have the nation take upon itself all the State Debts. Mr
Morris particularly: but I cannot say what will be done.
My Burthens are not very heavy: but my health is not very good.— I have been obliged to decide many questions on the Impost Bill, the Senate being equally divided.—2 I was obliged to reduce the Duty on Molasses from four Cents, and to prevent that on Salt from being raised from 6 to 9.— My Vote on Molasses I Suppose will displease the Southern Gentlemen: but that on Salt, ought to attone for it.— so the ballance is even.
Drawbacks on Exportation Seem to be necessary to Support infant manufactures and Some branches of commerce not fully established.— But whenever the Manufacture or the Trade will bear it, it Seems to be good Policy to make the foreign consumer, pay the Duty. The Senate has rejected the Drawback on Rum; and reduced the Duty on Molasses to 2 1/2 Cents. if the Rum trade will bear it, I shall be glad. if not, it is ill Policy. My Friends the Dutch have the Art to make Foreigners pay two thirds of the Duties to the State.3 They Suffer no Drawback when the trade will bear the Duty.
The Note inclosed in your Letter I burned as you desired as soon as I had read it: but not untill it had made too deep an Impression on my heart as well as Memory.— What Shall I do, with that tender hearted Fool?
When will Mrs A. come on? I Suffer,
very much for Want of her assistance.4
My Love to all our Connections / yours most Sincerely
RC (NHi:Gilder Lehrman Coll., on deposit); addressed: “Dr Tufts”; internal address: “Dr Tufts.”; endorsed:
“John Adams Esq / June 12. 1789.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 115.
Not found.
During the Senate’s long-running debate over the impost bill,
Richard Henry Lee recommended doubling the 6-cent duty on salt to 12 cents. William
Maclay opposed the idea, arguing that the price posed a hardship for new settlers who
lived far from the coast. JA broke the deadlock in the Senate by voting
against raising the duty. Faced with three motions for reducing the duty on molasses,
JA decided that the Senate should vote first on the proposal for
reducing the duty to the highest amount, 4 cents. After the senators voted in favor,
JA raised a point of order to continue 21 voting for the
lower amounts of 3 cents and 2 cents. The Senate further reduced the duty on molasses
to 2.5 cents per barrel, which the House carried without debate. George Washington
signed the bill into law on 4 July. Writing to his father on 28 June, JQA
reported that Boston merchants “have not . . . been so much pleased with any
Act of the President of the Senate, as his turning the vote for reducing the duty to 3
cents” (vol. 19:425, 468;
First Fed. Cong.
,
9:57, 59, 68;
AFC
, 8:383).
Since 1680, Dutch customs duties tended to be lower than those of
competitors, allowing merchants to import goods from China, India, and Japan and sell
them at a profit in foreign markets without the benefit of a drawback, or refund, of
the import duty (Marjolein ’t Hart, Joost Jonker, and Jan Luiten van Zanden, eds., A Financial History of the Netherlands, N.Y., 1997, p. 25;
Jan de Vries and Ad van der Woude, The First Modern Economy:
Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1800, Cambridge,
Eng., 1997, p. 387, 458, 459).
AA left Braintree on 17 June 1789. She was
accompanied by CA, Louisa Catharine Smith, and two servants, Polly Taylor
and Matilda. Arriving at Daggett’s Inn in Providence, R.I., on 19 June,
AA and her travel party were met by a welcoming crowd of Federalists.
After dining with John and Sarah Brown in a company of 22, AA toured the
town and drank tea with John Francis, Abby Brown Francis, Sarah Brown Bowen, and their
families. Reaching Newport, R.I., the next day via the packet Hancock, Capt. James N. Brown, AA stayed at the home of Henry
Marchant. She arrived in New York City on 25 June (
AFC
, 8:373–375, 377–380).
e.Juin
1789.
L’affection dont vous m’avez honoré pendant votre séjour en Europe, & les sentimens inaltérables de mon attachement pour Votre Excellence, m’engagent à vous présenter l’expression de ma joie, à l’agréable nouvelle de l’important Poste auquel le Peuple le plus libre du monde vient de vous élire, & que votre zele pour la patrie vous a fait accepter. Puisse ce zele trouver sa récompense dans le succès la plus complet de vos travaux pour la félicité publique, dans la prospérité de votre chere famille, dans l’estime & l’amour de vos Concitoyens, dans les bénédictions de cette vie & de celle qui attend la vertu dans l’autre.
Je me suis pressé de publier votre beau Discours, com̃e V. E verra par la Gazette ci-jointe de notre ami à Leide.
Je ne puis rien vous dire, Monsieur, de la vie politique de ce
lieu, étant nul pour elle, com̃e V.E. pourra voir par mes Lettres au Département
des Affaires Etr., sur-tout depuis 7bre. dernier.—1 Quant à la vie sociale, quoique moins agitée
par les com̃otions extérieures, elle n’en est pas moins disgracieuse pour tous
ceux qui ne peuvent se croire heureux non seulement en dissimulant, mais en simulant:
car il faut pouvoir faire l’un & l’autre. Il n’en est pas de-même, à ce que
j’apprends, dans les villes: mais ici, jusqu’aux plus proches, on se méconnoît, hait,
calomnie, trahit, &c. &c. impitoyablement; & 22 les plus vertueux en souffrent le plus.
Quelques-uns succombent au chagrin, & meurent: D’autres, un peu plus vivaces,
végetent tristement.— J’ai pris la Liberté de solliciter dans mes Dépeches, pour être
accrédité com̃e Chargé d’Affaires auprès de la Cour de Bruxelles, & être
porteur de deux Lettres du Congrès, l’une pour la dite Cour, l’autre, à lui remettre
en même temps, pour la faire passer à la Cour de Vienne, dans lesquelles on
suppléeroit à l’Omission anterieure, d’avoir donné connoissance directe & formelle
de l’Indépendance & de la Majesté de la Confédération Américaine.— Je pourrois
aussi minuter avec la dite Cour un Traité de Com̃erce & d’Amitié, à conclure
finalement par S.E. Mr. Jefferson avec le Ministre Impérial à Paris.—2 Ainsi accrédité une fois pour toutes, sans
avoir besoin de résider à la continue à Bruxelles, je serois plus sous la protection
du Droit des Gens, & moins déprécié en ce pays. Par la même raison il seroit bon
pour moi de pouvoir remettre officiellement de pareilles Lettres de notification aux
Ministres Danois, Suedois, Russe, Prussien & Sarde à Lahaie, pour les faire passer
à leurs Cours. Il n’y auroit même aucun Inconvénient que je remisse à Mr. Fagel une
Lettre pour Leurs H.P. où connoissance leur seroit donnée directe &
im̃édiate, de la nouvelle Constitution fédérative des Etats-unis. Cela m’y
rendroit une certaine contenance & considération dans la socialité, dont on
travaille sourdement à me priver tant qu’on peut. Cela désole ma famille, & me
prive de toutes les douceurs & consolations que j’ai
droit d’en attendre.— Son Exc. Mr. Jay me fait espérer, que dès que le Congrès aura
terminé les affaires majeures, il voudra bien, entre les mineures donner attention à
celle-ci, & faire quelque chose qui doñe à connoître, que quoique réprouvé du
Systême aujourd’hui dominant en ce pays, je ne le suis pas pour cela, & pour lui
faire plaisir, de mes maîtres; & je me recom̃ande à cet égard, com̃e à
tout autre à l’amitié & à la bonté de votre Exce. pour
moi, qui suis avec le plus respectueux attachement, De Votre Excellce. / Le très-humble & très-obeissant / serviteur
Je viens de recevoir le noble & touchant discours de S.E. Mr. le Président. Il l’envoie à Leide pour être inséré dans la Gazette.3
J’eus l’honneur d’écrire à V.E. au mois d’Août de l’année passée, une Lettre adressée à Boston.4 J’espere qu’elle Lui est parvenue, & que je serai favorisé du souvenir de V.E., pour avoir des nouvelles de sa santé & de celle de Madame, à qui je présente l’hom̃age de mes respects.
TRANSLATION
1789
The affection with which you honored me during your time in Europe, and my steadfast sentiments of devotion for your excellency, move me to offer my expressions of joy at the pleasant news of the important post to which the freest people in the world have elected you, and your patriotic zeal led you to accept. May this zeal find its reward in the total success of your efforts for the public good, in the prosperity of your dear family, in the esteem and love of your fellow citizens, in the blessings of this life and of the one that awaits virtue in the other.
I hastened to publish your fine speech, as your excellency will
see by the enclosed Gazette from our friend at
Leiden.
I can say nothing, sir, about the political life of this place,
not knowing anything about it, as your excellency may see in my letters to the
department of foreign affairs, especially since last September.1 As for social life, though less perturbed by
foreign agitation, it is no less a disgrace for all of those who cannot count
themselves happy having not only to dissemble, but to pretend: for one must needs do
one and the other. It is not the same, from what I gather, in the cities. But here,
and even among intimates, we misapprehend each other, we hate, slander, betray each
other, etc., etc., mercilessly. And the most virtuous are made to suffer the most. A
few succumb to sorrow and die. Others, a little more lively, languish in sadness. I
have taken the liberty in my dispatches to request that I be recognized as chargé
d’affaires at the court of Brussels, and that I carry two letters from Congress, one
for the said court, and the other, to hand them at the same time to be forwarded to
the court in Vienna, which would amend the former omission to have given direct and
formal notice of the independence and sovereignty of the American confederation. For
that court, I could also compose a draft of a treaty of commerce and friendship,
ultimately to be concluded by his excellency Mr. Jefferson with the imperial minister
in Paris.2 Thus recognized once and for
all, and without needing to continually reside in Brussels, I would be protected under
the law of nations, and not be so disparaged in this country. For the same reason, it
would be good for me to be able to officially remit similar letters of notice to the
Danish, Swedish, Russian, Prussian, and Sardinian ministers at The Hague so that they
can forward them to their respective courts. It would be of no inconvenience to
address a letter to Mr. Fagel for Their High Mightinesses, giving them direct and
immediate notice of the new federal Constitution of the United States. This would lend
me a certain status and consideration in social interactions, which is being secretly
undermined as much as possible. This saddens my family, and deprives me of all of the domestic comforts and consolation that I have
the right to expect. His excellency Mr. Jay gives me hope that, as soon as Congress
has finished with major duties, he will be pleased to attend to this one among the
minor 24 affairs, and to do something that gives credence
to the fact that, while disgraced by the system in place today in this country, I am
not for all that, by my masters. And I entrust myself in this regard, as in all
others, to the friendship and goodness of your excellency for myself, who am, with the
most respectful devotion, your excellency’s most humble and most obedient servant
I have just received his excellency the President’s noble and touching address. He sends it to Leiden to have it included in the Gazette.3
I had the honor of writing a letter addressed to your excellency at Boston last August.4 I hope that it reached you, and that I will be graced by a memento from your excellency with news of your health and of Madam’s, to whom I present the token of my respects.
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “A Son Exce. Mr.
Jn. Adams, Vice Présidt. du
Congrès des Ets unis”; endorsed: “Mr Dumas. 13 June /
1789.”
Between 22 Jan. 1788 and 15 June 1789, as the Dutch political
crisis made Dumas’ unofficial role as the U.S. agent at The Hague increasingly more
precarious, he wrote at least 32 letters to John Jay assessing the situation. Dumas’
ten letters to Jay from 4 Sept. 1788 to 11 Dec. have not been found, but they were
summarized in the journal of the department for foreign affairs, and drafts appear in
his letterbook. Dumas reported that anti-Patriot mobs daubed Orangist colors on the
door of the American legation and city officials harassed him, adding that Patriot
leader Robert Jasper van der Capellen van de Marsch had fled to Paris (
Dipl. Corr.,
1783–1789
, 3:605–642; Jefferson, Papers
,
16:551; Schama, Patriots and Liberators
, p. 144, 146).
The Continental Congress commissioned William Lee on 9 May 1777
to arrange an Austro-American commercial treaty, but his 1778 mission failed. A decade
later, Dumas proposed that JA and Thomas Jefferson send him to Brussels
to take up the task, but, as Jefferson explained, the joint commissioners lacked the
authority to do so. Dumas repeatedly presented this plan to John Jay and to George
Washington but met with no success (vol. 6:125, 126, 215; Jefferson, Papers
, 12:257–258, 359–360;
Dipl. Corr.,
1783–1789
, 3:601–603, 637–639, 644–645; Washington, Papers, Presidential
Series
, 2:482–483).
Editor Jean Luzac printed a two-part French translation of
Washington’s 30 April 1789 inaugural address in the Gazette de
Leyde, 19, 26 June.
For Dumas’ letter to JA of 27 Aug. 1788, see vol. 19:338–339.