Papers of John Adams, volume 21
I have received from our old Acquaintance D’Ivernois the inclosed Volume for you in the Course of the last Week.1
I consider all Reasoning upon French affairs of little moment. The Fates must determine hereafter as they have done heretofore. 442 Reasoning has been all lost—Passion, Prejudice, Interest, Necessity has governed and will govern; and a Century must roll away before any permanent and quiet system will be established. An Amelioration of human affairs I hope and believe will be the Result, but you and I must look down from the Battlements of Heaven if We ever have the Pleasure of seeing it
The Treaty is not arrived and Congress seems averse to engage in Business with spirit till that is considered.
I envy you the society of your Family but another Year and one Month may make me the object of Envy.2 Mean time / I am, with Esteem & Affection / your
RC (DLC:Jefferson Papers); internal address:
“Mr Jefferson.”; endorsed: “Adams John.
Phila. Jan. 31. 96. / recd. Feb. 20.”
JA sent a copy of Francois d’Ivernois’
La Révolution Française à Genève . . .
depuis le mois d’Octobre 1792, jusqu’au mois de Juillet 1795,
3d edn., London, 1795.
By the first week of January, JA and the
Adams family circle knew of George Washington’s secret intention to
retire at the end of his second term, but JA’s comments
here regarding his own political prospects—addressed to his future
presidential rival—are notably benign. While JA hinted that
rural retirement was on his mind, privately he perceived of his
candidacy as a way to keep Federalist ideology afloat. “Either We must
enter upon Ardours more trying than any ever yet experienced; or retire
to Quincy Farmers for Life. I am at least as determined not to serve
under Jefferson. . . . I will not be frightened out of the public
service nor will I be disgraced in it,” JA wrote to
AA three weeks earlier, as rumors of Washington’s exit
hardened into fact. Modern campaigning was not yet the political mode,
but by late spring, four men led in the race to succeed Washington:
JA, Jefferson, Thomas Pinckney, and Aaron Burr (
AFC
, 11:122–123).
Mr: Pinckney has returned,
and of course my business here ceases. I am yet waiting however for orders
enabling me to return to the Hague.1 I expect them with a little
impatience, having many reasons to wish myself away from hence.
The newspapers sent herewith contain intelligence of two
important Events. The armistice concluded between the french and Austrian
armies on the Rhine; and the return into Port of the famous West India
expedition.2 It remains
as yet uncertain whether the former is a presage of speedy pacification, or
a mere agreement to take a breathing spell during the extremity of the
Season. As a neutral Nation deeply interested in the fate of the West
Indies, we I think may consider the failure of
the formidable apparatus of this Country, as a favourable Event. While
Britain weakens by War, and 443
America strengthens by Peace, every true American must feel a double
satisfaction.
I am with the most grateful affection, your Son.
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Vice-President.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 130.
JQA went to London to exchange
ratifications of the Jay Treaty while Thomas Pinckney, the U.S. minister
to Great Britain, was in Spain. JQA stepped into final
negotiations with the British ministry on the same topics that
JA dealt with during his diplomatic tenure there:
namely, the British impressment of American sailors and the evacuation
of the frontier posts. Like his father, JQA made little
headway, and he wrapped up his talks on Pinckney’s return.
JQA remained in London, making visits and courting
LCA, until his instructions to return to The Hague
arrived on 26 April; he departed on 28 May (
AFC
, 11:33).
A wintertime armistice, signed by France and Austria
on 15 Dec. 1795, paused hostilities until May 1796 when fighting resumed
in the Rhine Valley. On another front, by late 1795 the European war had
spread to the West Indies, where the French Navy still held Guadeloupe.
After a protracted delay caused by severe storms, the British Navy
launched a successful campaign in early 1796, capturing St. Lucia, St.
Vincent, and Grenada (
AFC
, 11:xxxiii, 57;
Alexander Mikaberidze, The Napoleonic Wars: A
Global History, N.Y., 2020, p. 60).