Papers of John Adams, volume 21

John Adams to John Trumbull, 24 January 1795 Adams, John Trumbull, John

To John Trumbull

My dear Sir Philadelphia January 24. 1795

In one of your Letters you once expressed a Wish to know some Circumstances of the Negotiation of Peace, which might serve to shew whether Mr Jay brought me over to his opinion that We ought not to treat with Mr Oswald, without a Commission to treat with The United states, or whether I brought him over to mine. The inclosed Copies of Letters to Congress, to Vergennes and to Mr Jay himself will throw some light upon that Question.1

Ld Bacon once Said that a Man and his office were never better united than Ld Coke, and the office of C. J. in a certain Cause.2 I say too that a Man and his office were never better matched, than Mr Jay and the Commission for Peace. No Man did or could behave 362 better but he had not the honour if it could be any to bring me over to that Opinion, which I had strenuously contended for while I was alone in the Commission, and before he was united with me in it.

The Passage inclosed in Crochetts in the Letter to Livingston, must be kept a secret. it was not sent.— upon Reflection I thought I ought not to resign—and that although I had Information that convinced me, that Mr Alexander, an Intimate of Dr Franklin had told in England, that a Commission acknowledging our Independence would not be insisted on, I had not proof that I could produce of the fact, without doing Mischief and there might possibly be some misrepresentation. You will in it the Anxiety and Agitation of my mind at that time, on that subject.

I wrote in August 1782 and thereabouts to many other Persons upon the same subject, who I thought might have some Influence on My Colleagues to animate them to Stand out—3 But it is too much to trouble you with these, on a Point at present of so little Importance. Be so good as to acknowledge the Rect, of this Letter as soon as convenient, and keep the Passage in Crotchetts secret.

I am with much Affection and / great Esteem

John Adams

RC (NjP:Andre De Coppet Coll.); internal address: “John Trumbull Esqr”; endorsed: “Jany 24 1795.”

Five years earlier, JA and Trumbull had exchanged letters analyzing the negotiation of the definitive Anglo-American peace treaty. Here, JA enclosed a copy of his 31 Oct. 1782 Dft of a letter to Robert R. Livingston, no longer extant, threatening resignation unless the American commissioners pursued a separate peace with Great Britain (vols. 14:2–6; 20:300–301, 331).

This was Francis Bacon’s assessment of jurist Edward Coke (1552–1634), who served as lord chief justice of England ( DNB ).

JA echoed his long-held belief that negotiations for the Anglo-American peace should not begin until U.S. independence was recognized. John Jay agreed, and he wrote to JA on 1 Sept. 1782 explaining that he had communicated that information to the British commissioners. For JA’s further efforts to broadcast news of a forthcoming Anglo-American peace treaty throughout the summer of 1782 and link it to American independence, see, especially, his Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe (vol. 13:160–164, 236, 238–239, 412–413).

Jeremy Belknap to John Adams, 24 January 1795 Belknap, Jeremy Adams, John

From Jeremy Belknap

Dear sir Boston Jany 24 1795

I thank you for your favour of the 16th recd this day It is a great pleasure to me to find that none of the Gentn of Congress in the years 1779 & 80 remember any such thing as Dr K has asserted. Our present Govr who was then a delegate says the same— I shall ask Mr Gerry when I see him—& shall wait with as much patience as the nature of the subject will admit for your further communications.

363

Since I wrote to you on this subject I have been again wounded by an unmerited reflection on our Country from the pen of the late Secy of War; & have tho’t it my duty by the advice of 2 or 3 judicious friends, publickly to detect his mistake. In the Centinel of this date you may see my address signed with my initials. It is certainly well intended & I hope will be well received. I mean to be a fair antagonist & therefore beg you to deliver him the enclosed (if he should be at Phila) after you have read & sealed it.1

I thank you for the memoir on weights & measures—one Copy shall be delivered to the Secy of the Academy. It is not improbable that some of our dablers in the Apocalype may set down the new standard of weights & measures as “the mark of the beast” if “no man is to buy or sell” but by that standard. But how they will contrive a decimal division of 666 I know not.

I should not think it strange if the French in their rage for decimals should make a reform in the Zodiac as well as in the Calendar & reduce the signs to ten, corresponding to their ten months.2 in that case the Lion must be rejected as an emblem of monarchy— The ram & the bull will be deemed aristocrates—& possibly the Goat unless he should serve as an emblem of Liberty— The scales will probably be retained for their equality, & the twins & fishes for the sake of Fraternity. The virgin I suppose will be united with the Waterer to make her prolific & the motley figure of the Archer may with some propriety be called Marat3 or represent the Jacobins

Will you be so good as to tell me whether the President when he sent a proclamation for Thanksgiving to one Governor expected that it would be reinforced by his authority & that of the Council? We have now 2 proclamations handed to us to be read in public—one is distributed by the Marshal of the district—the other having the order of Govr & Council at the top by the Sheriff! the latter is printed by Adams & Larkin at the Expense (I suppose) of the state!4

I am, Dear Sir, with great Esteem & respect / Your obliged friend & hble servt

Jeremy Belknap

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Hoñ Dr Adams.”

Belknap’s enclosure, not found, was his response to Secretary of War Henry Knox’s public criticism of the federal policy toward Native Americans and western expansion in his final report to the president of 29 Dec. 1794. “The desires of too many frontier white people to seize by force or fraud upon the neighbouring Indian lands has been and still continues to be an unceasing cause of Jealousy and hatred on the part of the Indians,” Knox wrote, adding suggestions to improve U.S.-Native American relations. Belknap defended the Washington administration’s efforts, pointing out that Native customs and forms of subsistence differed from those of American settlers, factors that complicated 364 the prospect of peace on the frontier. “Husbandmen and Hunters, civilized and uncivilized people, cannot generally, live within the same limits; or if there be an attempt to incorporate them into the same society, the former will always rise superior, and the latter will sink into a state of dependence,” he wrote (Washington, Papers, Presidential Series , 17:328–332; Boston Columbian Centinel, 24 Jan. 1795).

In the autumn of 1793, the French National Convention abolished the use of regnal years and the Gregorian calendar, declaring it to be the first year of the French republic. This system divided the month into three “décades” of ten-day weeks and began in September, or vendémiaire, when the autumnal equinox was marked in Paris. The final five days of the year were reserved for festivals. It remained in place until 1805 (Matthew Shaw, Time and the French Revolution: The Republican Calendar, 1789–Year XIV, Woodbridge, Eng., 2011 p. 3).

French revolutionary Jean Paul Marat, assassinated by Charlotte Corday in July 1793, attained new heights of cultural popularity in the United States after his death ( AFC , 10:74).

On 1 Jan. 1795 George Washington issued a proclamation calling for Americans to spend 19 Feb. in a national day of thanksgiving and prayer, which appeared in Boston newspapers beginning on 8 Jan. Some clergy balked at the president’s timing, since Lent began on 18 Feb. ( AFC , 10:330, 350).