I have received your Favours of April the 5th and 16th upon Subjects of great moment.

The Instruction of Congress, which you mention to their Minister at Versailles I dont remember to have Seen. some Account of it and of the Comte de Vergennes’s Answer to it, I once had: but as both the Instruction and the Answer are perfectly known to the Secretary of State and consequently will be known to the President, I must be excused from relating from Memory Such a private Conversation at Such a distance of time. Indeed I think the Anecdote of no Consequence, except for the Purposes of mere Popularity. The great Questions of American Policy, respecting the Reception of Mr Genet and 199 the fulfillment of the Treaty may be determined upon Principles more Solid and indisputable.

The Question you bring into View concerning the Reception of Mr Genet, can be decided only by the President. I have no Constitutional Voice1 in it. I therefore protest against taking any side in it or having my name or Opinions quoted about it. Whatever I write must be in Confidence.

A Sovereign Nation, whether represented by an hereditary King or an Elective President, is not obliged to receive a public Minister from any, but another Sovereign Nation. The Question is whether the National Convention, when they appointed Mr Genet were entrusted by the Nation with its Sovereign Authority? Whether they were empowered to destroy the Monarchy and put to Death the Monarch? There is now at least a Pretender to the Throne in the Person of Louis the 17th, under the Regency of Monsieur; Is it certain that the Nation are on the Side of the assembly, or of Louis 17th? If this is certain in the Mind of the President, he will decide accordingly.

The American Ministers Franklin, Deane and Lee, waited from December 1776 to February 1778 unreceived, unacknowledged, in Obscurity. at Paris. The American Minister at the Hague, waited from the 19th of April 1781 to the 19th April 1782 before he was acknowledged.2 Where then is the Necessity of haste? To decide this question a Man should read over our Treaties with Holland, Prussia, and England as well as that with France, and consider that all these are belligerent Powers and that We have obligations to fulfill towards them all. He should also have before him all the Dispatches from Mr Morris, Mr Pinkney Mr short Mr Charmichael and Mr Humphries. None of these have I seen. The Reception or Delay of receiving Mr Genet, will lead to Political Consequences, of immense magnitude which no Man can pretend to foresee. Are We to go to War with Germany Prussia, Holland England Spain, Portugal and Italy added to Louis the 17th and his Regent Monsieur, because Monsieur Egalite or the Mountain, or Mr Paine or Mr Condorcet would have Us? Where is our Trade to go? all to France? and all be taken?

A Newtrality; absolute total Neutrality is our only hope. As to the Warranty of the West Indies, and the Articles excluding the Enemies of France from our Ports, reading is not necessary to instruct Us what to do. If you wish to read you may look into Vattell and the Abby de Mablys Principles of Negotiation: but it cannot be necessary to be very learned.

Treaties always Suppose, that the State of Things in both Nations will remain nearly the same, and the Interests of both Parties not essentially changed: not that one Party will turn the World upside down. any total Change of Interests made by the Act of God, or by the act of one of the Parties will discharge the other from all moral obligation to fulfill the Treaty. Was it Suspected by Mortal, when our Treaty was made with France that she could ever treat her Islands as she has done and declare War at once against all the Maritime Powers, and thereby render it impossible for Us to fulfill the Warranty or for her to preserve the Islands.

It is to me a mere Question of Fear: are We afraid to offend the Mountain? I own I am: but at the same time I confess I am afraid to offend Louis 17th and his Friends & allies.

These Ideas are committed to your inviolable Secrecy. I expect they will not be regarded, and that our imprudent Country must be Saved by Interpretations of Providence, against the Effects of her own Enthusiasm.

I am, sir with much Esteem

I enclose to You, Frederic Bull’s Account & Receipt.1 It was with difficulty, & not till I had called on him four or five times, that I could persuade him to exhibit it. He said he had no account against You, & did not want any of your money. He was irritated by the stories told him by Mr. Pease, the Post-rider, who called on You for Payment at Philadelphia. It seems that Pease thought You did not treat him with all that attention, deference & respect, which in these times of Equality, are certainly due from a Vice President to a Post-rider—and made his report accordingly. Bull’s Account is charged extravagantly high—but he insisted on receiving all or nothing— I thought it best to pay it, to avoid further altercation with a Man of so peculiar a temper.

I have not yet been able to procure a set of the Echos— The Printer 201 keeps only one set of his News-papers, which he binds in a most unportable Volume. However I imagine You must have seen most of those, that related to Political subjects—for the Writers have often echoed the most trivial & insignificant productions.

You have probably seen in Hudson & Goodwin’s Paper, a poetical Essay, entitled, The Versifier. This is written by my Friend, the Doctor, who accompanied me in my Journey to Philadelphia.2 He is a Writer of a most excentric Genius, but many of his political productions have had very important effects on the policy of this State. If you have received Fenno’s Gazette regularly, You must have seen what use has been made of the hint, concerning a certain extraordinary kind of Chickens. The piece must, I think, have some effect, as it has attracted so much notice, as to be reprinted in other Papers.

We boast that Mankind are governed by reason—but I consider it as the greatest of all possible mistakes. Men chuse their Party & form their resolutions, by the influence of their Passions, their feelings, their Interests, or their Connections. After this, they employ their reasoning powers in inventing arguments to vindicate their conduct, & justify their choice. Statesmen, Orators, & poets, all address themselves to the passions of mankind—to their irritability, their pride, their fears, & their superstition. An affecting incident will often be of more consequence, than forty laboured Essays. The Death of Louis, the most humane & benevolent tho’ far enough from being the greatest or wisest of the Kings of France (for had he been either he would have avoided his fate) will for a time have more effect to prevent Americans from adopting the whims of Democratic distraction, than all your Volumes of mathematical demonstration on the subject of Government— And it will be some time before you have another civic feast at Boston.

Satirists apply to the feelings of Indignation & contempt—which last might without impropriety be called a passion, as its effects are as sudden, as violent, & more permanent than those of fear or anger. Shall I own to You, that when I could divest myself of the vanity of an Author, & consider myself only as one of the human race, & so liable to my average of general degradation in the scale of Beings, I have been mortified & ashamed at the success of some of my own satirical productions, as well as those written by others. I have often seen, that a well-timed stroke of humour against a measure proposed, or a lucky burlesque nickname fixed on an influential man, have had more effect in destroying the influence of the Man, or 202 preventing the success of the measure, than if all the reason ever bestowed on mankind had been distilled in an alembic into Alchohol, & given in proper doses to the Legislature, or the People.

I had the pleasure of seeing Your Son, on his return from Europe, when he called on me at Hartford.3 I was much pleased with his observations on the policy & literature of the countries, in which he had travelled, & thought him a Son, altogether worthy of such a Father. If you have half as good an opinion of Yourself, as you Great Folks commonly have, You will know how to appreciate the value of this Compliment. The Poem addressed to the Authors of the Echo, was noticed by us all, as composed in a style & taste, very much superior to the general cast of American, & especially Bostonian Poetry.4 For if we may judge from their publications, a fondness for the most inflated Bombast, both in prose & poetry, distinguishes the taste of your Citizens, from those of any other populous Town, in the United States. I am sure no Editor of a Magazine or News-paper, in Connecticut, New York, or Philadelphia, would disgrace his press, by the publication of such frothy nonsense, as at Boston, is often printed & applauded. Your Son may do very great service among them, not only by correcting their false opinions in Politics, but by altering their ridiculous taste in Literature. I shall be happy in improving any future opportunities of cultivating his acquaintance, and continuing what I may call an Hereditary Friendship, to which You will please to inform him, that I conceive I have a legal Title.

I have been very much out of health for several weeks, from turns of a bilious Cholic, attended by a low, irregular fever, which for a great part of the time, has confined me to my house. But I have no right to complain of being an Invalid. A Boy who had no more sense than to learn to read at two years of age, began to make rhymes at four, study Virgil, Tully, Horace, Homer, the Greek Testament, & enter as a Member of the University at seven, & spend all his days afterwards in a studious & sedentary way, employing all the intervals from his professional business in reading or scribbling Poetry & Politics, must expect to be an Old Man at Forty. I am rather better at present, & mean next week to set out on a Journey to the Springs at New Lebanon. If I find riding of service, I shall probably continue it thro’ the Summer—& I wish to pay a Visit to my Friends in & near Boston, where I have not been Since the Year 1781— But in the present state of my health, I can promise nothing, & must depend on future contingences.

I hope Mrs: Adams has recovered from her illness, & request You 203 to present to her my best wishes & Compliment— I need not assure You with what Respect I am / Your most Obedt: Servant