The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume IV Part 58

TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL, SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN EMBa.s.sY AT MADRID.

Paris, April 8th, 1780.

Sir,

I have this moment the honor of your letter from Madrid of the 29th of February, as I suppose, although the month is not mentioned. I thank you, Sir, for commencing a correspondence, which I have for some time wished to begin. I wrote to Mr Jay at Madrid, on the 22d of February, and wish to know if he has received the letter. It is certainly proper, that those who are intrusted abroad should maintain a correspondence and cultivate a good understanding with each other, because, although their departments are in some respects separate, yet in others they are intimately connected. From all that I heard in Spain, I expected, that you would meet with an agreeable reception at Madrid; and I am much pleased to learn from you, that I was not mistaken.

I have sometimes wondered at the slowness of Spain in making a treaty with us; but, when I reflected upon a certain secret article, my surprise ceased. We are already bound in a treaty to her, but she is not bound to us. It would be ungenerous in her, however, to hold us long in this situation. The treaty, notwithstanding all that has been justly said of the advantages to us, is not less advantageous to our allies. The single article, that binds us to exclude all armed vessels of the enemies, in all future wars, from our ports, is worth more millions to them than this war will cost; nay, it will be a severer loss to Great Britain, than all that she has spent in it. Whether Great Britain has considered this or not I do not know; but she will some time or other discover it, and feel the inconvenience of it.

You ask for news from America. A vessel from Baltimore is arrived at Bordeaux, but not a single letter to Dr Franklin or me. She brings two or three Baltimore newspapers, one as late as the 15th of February.

There has been a hard winter, deep snows, uncommon frosts, frozen over from Connecticut to Long Island, and from New Jersey to Staten Island.

Lord Sterling went over to Staten Island with a party on the ice, burnt a few vessels and a guard house, took a few prisoners, and brought off a few deserters. Some New Jersey people went over at the same time, and plundered without mercy. Finding the communication open with New York, which had been supposed to be obstructed by the ice, he returned. An article from a Fishkill paper says, that Clinton and Cornwallis sailed the 26th of December, with seven thousand men, for the West Indies, but that the storm, which happened soon after their departure, was supposed to have done him mischief. A s.h.i.+p, brig, and schooner were lost in the storm on Cape Cod, unknown who or whence, all perished. Congress had recommended to all the States to regulate prices at twenty for one, which, by the speculations in the papers, was not well liked. Governor Johnson is a delegate for Maryland, General Ward for Ma.s.sachusetts, in the room of Mr Dana, (who desires me to return you his compliments and respects.) The other delegates as last year. This is all the news I can recollect, having seen the papers only a few minutes in a large company.

The general state of affairs appears very well. I see no probability of England's obtaining an ally; on the contrary, there are many symptoms of an approaching combination of the maritime powers, to protect neutral s.h.i.+ps from searches and insults. Ireland is in the full career of independence. England seems determined to force Holland into a war against her, that she may have an opportunity to plunder her.

The correspondences and a.s.sociations in England distress the Ministry very much; and, if the war continues and they should not be very successful, it seems likely, that they would save us the trouble of despatching them. I wish, however, that France and Spain were more convinced of the advantages they have in America and the West Indies.

The more s.h.i.+ps they send into those seas, the more they will force England to send there; and the more she sends there, the weaker she is in Europe, and the less she is dreaded and respected. Holland, Ireland, the opposition in England, and the other maritime powers all feel a confidence rising in proportion to the diminution of the British naval force in Europe, besides the innumerable advantages the French and Spaniards have, in supporting the war in the American seas over the English, which they have not in Europe; but I am apprehensive of being tedious. My compliments to Mr Jay and his family.

I am, with much respect, your most obedient and humble servant,

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Paris, April 8th, 1780.

Sir,

It will not be disagreeable to Congress to see a list of the naval losses of the English, since the commencement of the war.

_Taken by the Americans and the French._

Guns. Guns.

Active, 82 Experiment, 50 Fox, 1st, 20 Montreal, 32 Fox, 2d, 20 Alert, cutter, 14 Lively, 20 Ceres, 18 h.e.l.lena, schooner, 16 Countess of Scarborough, 42 Ardent, 64 Liverpool, 28 Thorn, 16 Unicorn 20 Drake, 20 Ariel, 16 Minerva, 32 Folstone, cutter, 6 Serapis, 44 Holderness, destroyed, 4

_Lost, or cast away._

Guns. Guns.

Somerset, 64 Mermaid, 28 Arethusa, 32 Glasgow, burnt, 20 Speedwell, 14 Vestal, 20 Acteon, 32 Mercury, 20 Repulse, 32 Quebec, blown up, 32 Viper, 16 Grampus, Success, 24 Tortoise, Pomona, 18 Leviathan.

_Burnt, sunk, or otherwise destroyed, to prevent their falling into the Hands of their Enemies_.

Guns. Guns.

Augusta, 64 Cerberus, 28 Lark, 14 Syren, 28 Juno, 32 King Fisher, 14 Flora, 32 Falcon, 18 Orpheus, 32 Ess.e.x, 64

Making a total number of fortysix vessels.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Paris, April 10th, 1780.

Sir,

There are several miscellaneous articles of intelligence, which ought to be mentioned to Congress.

One from Copenhagen, of the 25th of March. "The Count de Lucchese, Minister of the King of the Two Sicilies, and charged at the same time with the affairs of the Court of Madrid, has received orders to declare to ours, that the King of Spain had it in contemplation to make arrangements relative to merchant s.h.i.+ps of neutral powers, and with which we should have cause to be very well pleased. However this may be, we have not any news that the Danish s.h.i.+ps detained, to the number of twenty, at Cadiz and Malaga, have been as yet released, which is a great damage to those who are interested in those vessels.

"There is arrived in this city a courier coming from St Petersburg, who has also pa.s.sed through Stockholm, who after having delivered his despatches to the Envoy Extraordinary of her Majesty, the Empress of all the Russias, at this Court, immediately continued his journey for Hamburg."

Another is from Madrid, the 13th of March. "It is said that our Court will soon publish a new regulation relative to the Dutch navigation.

In the meantime, they have released two s.h.i.+ps of this nation, viz. the Griffin and the Zandam, which were detained at Algeziras.

"The register s.h.i.+ps destined for the Havana and Vera Cruz, which are ready at Cadiz, are to sail immediately; these s.h.i.+ps will be convoyed by twelve s.h.i.+ps of the line and two frigates, as far as the Canary Islands. It is a.s.sured, that there will be embarked on board of this fleet, twelve thousand men, who are to be transported to America under the command of Don Victa de Nava, Lieutenant General. The last letters from the Havana import, that there were in that port fourteen s.h.i.+ps of the line, as well as four thousand men ready to embark for an expedition, the object of which is yet unknown. Two of our cruisers have entered Barcelona with five very rich prizes, among which, one had on board eighteen thousand guineas, destined for Mahon."

Another from Paris. "Letters from Malta of the 11th of February inform, that the King's frigate, the Syracuse, commanded by M. Clavel, off Candia, has taken the English cutter, the Buck, of twentyfour guns, twelve swivels, and two hundred and three men, commanded by Captain George Flagg, and that the bad condition to which the engagement had reduced her, had induced him to sink her."

Another from Francfort, of the 1st of April. "They write from Hesse, that they continued to raise many recruits, and that there were at Ziagenham six hundred and eight volunteers, who were to set off in a little time with eleven hundred and twenty men for America."

Another from Amsterdam, of the 6th of March. "We learn from Dort, that they expected there the English vessels destined to transport the German troops for the service of England, which were still at Nimeguen; and they write from the Hague, that General Faucet had arrived there a few days since."

Another from London, of the 31st of March. "The despatches, which the Court has last received from Sir Joseph Yorke, excite the particular attention of the Ministry. Although the contents of them have not yet been made public, it is said, nevertheless, that in consequence of the memorial, presented on the 21st to the States-General by the British Minister, their High Mightinesses have taken the _Pre-avis_, relative to the succors demanded by Great Britain, which, although conceived in very moderate terms, contains, nevertheless, a refusal to furnish the succors demanded. The Republic, as it is pretended, founding its inability to comply with this demand princ.i.p.ally upon the non-existence of the case of invasion of the British States, as a case, which alone could lay them under obligation to accede to the requisition of the King of England, the Count de Welderen, Envoy Extraordinary of the States-General, has been on the 29th in conference with Lord Stormont, and communicated to him the _Pre-avis_ of their High Mightinesses, relative to the requisition of his Britannic Majesty, upon the subject of which the States-General will soon take a formal resolution. It is reported also, that his Excellency has likewise imparted to our Ministry the sentence of a court martial, which has adjudged, that Count Byland was not the aggressor in the affair of the seizure of the Dutch s.h.i.+ps by Commodore Fielding. However, it is a.s.serted, that the Court of St James has declared afresh, 'That if the States-General refuse to furnish to England the succors demanded in virtue of the treaties, she will give orders to search, without distinction, all Dutch s.h.i.+ps under convoy and without convoy, and that all the merchandises and effects destined for the French and Spaniards, which shall be found loaded on board of these vessels, shall be seized and confiscated; adding, that it is neither just nor reasonable, that the Republic should be excused, on her part, from the observation of the treaties, while England should be held on hers to fulfil the conditions, and that thus, in consequence of her former declaration, the Republic should be no more considered but on the footing of other neutral powers.'

"They say, moreover, that the reasons alleged by their High Mightinesses in justification of their refusal to acquiesce in the demand of England, are of a nature to convince our Ministry, that such an acquiescence would produce consequences equally hurtful to the respective interests of the two powers in the present conjuncture.

"We are a.s.sured, that each man of the crews of the squadron of Commodore Fielding, will receive more than nine pounds sterling, for his share of the proceeds of the captures made of the Dutch convoy, and that there will be two hundred pounds sterling paid to the King's s.h.i.+ps at Spithead, for their part of the prizes which they have made.

"The Court has received, within a few days, a great number of despatches from its Ministers at foreign Courts, the contents of which have given occasion to several cabinet councils. Those of Sir Joseph Yorke have excited a particular attention.

"The officers of all the vessels of war destined for sea, have received orders to repair on board as soon as possible, and be ready to sail on the first notice. The officers of the regiments of regular troops, and of the militia, must also join their respective corps without delay, that they may be ready to march by the middle of April.

The forces will encamp nearly in the same place as last year; and there will be some detached corps ready to join the different camps according to circ.u.mstances."

I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect and esteem, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Paris, April 10th, 1780.