Papers of John Adams, volume 20

To John Adams from John Brown Cutting, 14 June 1790 Cutting, John Brown Adams, John

From John Brown Cutting

Dear Sir London 14 June 1790

By a vessel that sails for Boston tomorrow I inclose You the british king’s speech on the adjournment prior to the late dissolution of parliament—for which dissolution the next day a royal proclamation issued. From the tenor of this speech a general european war is expected.1 Meanwhile the most extensive naval armaments are preparing in the ports adjacent to all the great dockyards of this kingdom—and the most vigourous measures are pursuing to mann upwards of thirty sail of the line which are already put in commission with the usual proportion of frigates and sloops of war. Parliament will assemble on the tenth of august. Before that time it is said the answer of the Court of Spain to the demand of that of St James’s will be had. But in the interval the monarch and minister of this nation have the whole game of war in their hands and will probably play it The affair of Nootka Sound afforded the minister a good pretext for arming but no well informed person can believe that an attack of the spanish nation or a determination to exact satisfaction for the seizure of those fur ships cou’d alone have given occasion to the efforts that are now making here. More especially when it is considered that the courts of Berlin Warsaw Constantinople Stockholm and the Hague are linked with that of St James’s in a hostile confederacy against the sovereigns of Russia Germany Spain Portugal and Denmark. In fine it is expected and I think on rational grounds that a british squadron or a dutch or perhaps both will enter the Baltic within a very few weeks. shou’d another be detach’d into the mediterranean and a third towards the west india’s before September it woud not surprize me.

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It is my intention to put this note with some newspapers into the ship’s bag immediately—and write You a seperate letter via Gravesend tomorrow.

With the greatest respect & esteem / Yours

J B. Cutting.

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “John Adams Esquire V. P. U. S.”

Cutting sent this letter via the Marietta, Capt. Fitzwilliam Sargent (Sergeant), which sailed from Gravesend, England, on 17 June and reached Boston on 23 August. Addressing Parliament on 10 June, George III alluded to the Nootka Sound negotiations with Spain, hoping for “Peace on just and honourable grounds” but advising that preparation for war was “indispensably necessary.” The next day he signed a proclamation dissolving Parliament and calling for the first round of national elections since 1784 (London Public Advertiser, 11, 12, 19 June 1790; London Diary, 11, 12 June; Boston Herald of Freedom, 24 Aug.; Jefferson, Papers , 18:328).

To John Adams from John Brown Cutting, 16 June 1790 Cutting, John Brown Adams, John

From John Brown Cutting

Dear Sir, London 16 June 1790

I write this note just to inclose you a couple of newspapers.1

Such is the variable & distracted state of affairs at present here and all over Europe that it is impossible to form an opinion one day that events of the next will not overturn.

The cabinet of St Jame’s having involved this nation in the fortunes of Prussia—it is next to impossible that a general war shou’d not ensue.2 France has offered to mediate between Spain and Britain . . .3 and since the credit of the paper money begins to be establish’d on the sale of the ecclesiastical territory which the national assembly have ordered she is again respectable here.—

Our country will be equally courted by both sides . . . and will I trust profit from the present crisis.—4

With the greatest esteem & respect / I have the honor to be / Your Most Obedt Sert:

John Brown Cutting

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “John Adams Esq V. P. U. S.”

Enclosure not found.

Cutting referred to the Triple Alliance with Prussia and the Netherlands, which committed Great Britain to aiding Prussian diplomatic efforts with both Austria and the Ottoman Empire. On 20 June Frederick William II, king of Prussia, ratified a Prusso-Turkish treaty. On 27 July Prussia and Austria negotiated the Convention of Reichenbach, resolving their conflicts with the Ottoman Empire and the Austrian Netherlands (vol. 19:309; Black, British Foreign Policy , p. 261, 262).

Ellipses here and below in MS.

The Gazette d’Amsterdam, 8 June, projected that an Anglo-Spanish war would significantly benefit the United States, because either European power would assist Americans in obtaining free navigation of the Mississippi River (William Ray Manning, The Nootka Sound Controversy, Washington, D.C., 1905, p. 421).

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