The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume VI Part 24

The Hague, March 4th, 1782.

Sir,

I have received the letter you did me the honor to address to me from Amsterdam, the 1st instant. I cannot answer it officially, in the capacity of King's Minister, not having any ulterior instructions on the subject to which it relates; but as you request my private opinion, I will give it to you with the greatest sincerity.

"After having seriously reflected on the views, which you have communicated to me, whatever inclination I may have to adopt your opinions, I cannot conceal from myself the inconveniences attending the plan, which you appear disposed to follow. I think and I believe, that I have sufficient reason to lead me to the conclusion, that it will r.e.t.a.r.d rather than accelerate the ultimate success. I shall have the honor of explaining myself more fully by word of mouth, if, as M.

Dumas gives me to hope, you visit the Hague in the course of a few days.

Receive, Sir, my renewed a.s.surances of inviolable attachment, and profound respect, &c.

DE LA VAUGUYON.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO JOHN ADAMS.

Philadelphia, March 6th, 1782.

Dear Sir,

I have now before me your letters of the 15th, 17th, and 18th of October last. I am sorry to find that your health has suffered by the climate, but hope that the setting in of the winter has ere this re-established it. I am not directed to return any answer to your request to come home. Should I obtain the sense of Congress upon it before this is closed, it will be transmitted by this conveyance.

The success of the allied arms in America, the recovery of the Dutch Islands, and the avowed superiority of the French in the West Indies, have so changed the face of affairs, that there is strong reason to believe negotiations will be set on foot this winter. Whether Britain is yet sufficiently humbled to desire peace is still doubtful; but whether she is or is not, she will probably negotiate, in which case your presence in Europe will be necessary; so that I believe you cannot at the most flatter yourself with anything more than a conditional leave to return.

Your statement of the decline of commerce in the United Provinces, agrees exactly with that which we have received from other hands. I lament that a nation, which has such important reasons for exertion, and such means in their power, should want vigor to call them forth.

They must and will, however, sooner or later, be brought to it. A separate peace with England is now impossible, without degrading the character of the nation, and exposing it to greater evils than they are threatened with from England. Besides, what advantages are to be derived from such a peace? Can Britain restore her conquests, now in the hands of the French? Can she give back the plunder of St Eustatia, or the cargoes of the Indiamen divided among the captors? Can she afford them a compensation for the loss of last year's commerce? Or can she draw from her exhausted purse sufficient sums to defend the barrier against the troops of France, who would certainly avenge herself for such ingrat.i.tude?

The distress of the nation, then, must in the end force them to exertions, and however reluctantly they may go into the war, they must still go into it with vigor. But, Sir, though your letters detail the politics of the country, though they very ably explain the nature and general principles of the government, they leave us in the dark with respect to more important facts. They have not led us into the dock yards or a.r.s.enals; they have not told us what s.h.i.+ps are prepared for sea, what are preparing, what the naval force will be this spring, or how it is to be applied. You have not yet introduced us to any of the leading members of the great council; you have not repeated your private conversations with them from which infinitely more is to be collected, than from all the pamphlets scattered about the streets of Amsterdam.

If they avoid your company and conversation, it is a more unfavorable symptom than any you have mentioned; and shows clearly that your public character should have been concealed till your address had paved the way for its being acknowledged. If you have formed connexions with any of these people, and I cannot but presume that you have attended to so important a point, it will be very interesting to us to have their most striking features delineated, their sentiments with respect to us and to our opponents detailed, and the influence of each in the a.s.sembly of the States. This will best acquaint us with the principles of the government, and direct our course towards them.

Among other things, I wish to know in what light they view our cause, as just or unjust? What influence they imagine our independence will have upon the general system of Europe, or their own States? What expectations they form from our commerce; whether the apprehension of its being altogether thrown into another channel, if infused with address, would not awaken them into action? What are their ideas of the comparative power of France and Britain, so far as it may affect them? Whether they have entered into any treaty with France since the war; if they have, what are its objects? If they have not, whether any such thing is in contemplation?

None of your letters takes the least notice of the French Amba.s.sador at the Hague; is there no intercourse between you? If not, to what is it to be attributed? It appears to me, that our interests in Holland are similar to those of France. They are interested with us in forwarding our loans; in procuring a public acknowledgment of our independence; in urging the States to exertion. They have considerable influence on the government, as appears from the success that the loan, opened under their guarantee met with.

I must again, therefore, request you to spend much of your time at the Hague, that great centre of politics, to cultivate the acquaintance and friends.h.i.+p of the French Amba.s.sador, to confer with him freely and candidly upon the state of our affairs; and by his means, to extend your acquaintance to the other representatives of crowned heads at the Hague. Your having no public character, together with our avowed contempt for rank and idle ceremony, will greatly facilitate your intercourse with them, and enable you to efface the ill impressions they daily receive of us from our enemies.

You see, Sir, I rely so much upon your good sense, as to write with freedom to you, and to mark out that line, which I conceive will best tend to render your mission useful. Should I suggest anything, which you may not approve, I should be happy to be informed of it, and the reasons upon which you act; so that I may be able fully to justify your measures, if, at any time, they should not be entirely approved on this side of the water. I communicated to Congress the letter of Dr Franklin, relative to your salary, in consequence of which, they have directed the superintendent of the finances to make provision for it in future.

We have no intelligence of importance at this time, but have our eyes fixed with anxious expectation on the West Indies, whence we hourly expect to hear the particulars of the engagement between the Count de Gra.s.se and Hood; and the issue of the attack upon St Christopher's.

To the southward, things remain in the state they were, though we have some reason to believe the enemy entertain serious thoughts of withdrawing their troops from Charleston. Thirty empty transports have sailed from New York, with a view, as is said, to fetch them to that place, which will be the last they quit on the Continent. This we ought not to lament, since there is no situation better adapted to concentre our force, and no part of America so easily defended with inferior force, as the ridge of hills which shut it in, at the same time that it is totally indefensible against a combined attack by land and water. So that we may reasonably hope, that York will again be fatal to the British arms. Every preparation is making to render it so.

I write nothing to you on the subject of a negotiation, conveyances to Dr Franklin being more easily obtained, as well as more secure. Every instruction on that head is sent to him, and will, of course, be communicated to you by the time you need it.

Nothing can be more pleasing, after the chaos into which our affairs were plunged, than the order which begins now to be established in every department. Paper ceases to be a medium, except the bank paper, which is in equal credit with specie; gold and silver have found their pa.s.sage into the country; restrictions on commerce are removed; it flows in a thousand new channels, and has introduced the greatest plenty of every necessary, and even every luxury of life. Our harvests have been so abundant, that provisions are in the utmost plenty. All the supplies of the army are procured by contracts, and the heavy load of purchasing and issuing commissaries is discharged. In short, our affairs wear such a face here, at present, that if we are only supported this year by foreign loans, we shall not be under the necessity of calling for them again. Would to heaven, that the present aspect of affairs might render your endeavors on this head successful.

The use it would be of to the community, would amply compensate you for all the pain and distress, which your fruitless endeavors have occasioned you.

Among other articles of intelligence, I ought to inform you, that Burgoyne is exchanged, and that an exchange is now on foot for Cornwallis, in which it is designed that Mr Laurens shall be included.

The British seem extremely anxious to have him, and to give him the command of their army in America. We, who know him best, have no objection to the measure. If they wish to carry on an active war, his precipitation will lead them into new difficulties. If to defend particular posts, they cannot put them into the hands of a man who knows less about the matter. His defence of York was a most contemptible series of blunders. We shall, besides these, derive two decisive advantages from his command; while a detestation of his cruelty has united the whigs, the tenth article of the capitulation at York has destroyed the confidence of the tories.

I have the honor to be, &c.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

Amsterdam, March 10th, 1782.

Sir,

By the address of the House of Commons to the King, his Majesty's answer, and the resolution of the House in consequence of it, "that he would be highly criminal and an enemy to his country, who should attempt to carry on an offensive war in America against the sense of the House;" by the surrender of Minorca, and the disastrous face of British affairs in Ireland, as well as in the East and West Indies, and by the uncommon difficulties which my Lord North finds in raising the loan, I think we may fairly conclude that the United States are not to expect those horrid scenes of fire and sword in future, which they have so often seen heretofore.

Among the causes, which have operated to this effect, may be reckoned the late ordinance of Congress against British manufactures, and the prospect which has been opened to them, in Holland, of a sudden revival of the Dutch manufactures of Delft, Leyden, Utrecht, and indeed all the other cities of the Republic. The English have found all their artifices to raise mobs in their favor, in the Republic, to be vain; they found that there began to be an appearance of danger of popular tumults against them; they have seen their friends in this country driven out of all their strong holds, and forced to combat on the retreat; they have found that the American cause gained ground upon them every day, and that serious indications were given of a disposition to acknowledge our independence, for the sake of reviving their manufactures and extending their commerce, all which together has raised a kind of panic in the nation, and such a fermentation in Parliament, as has produced a formal renunciation of the principles of the American war.

The question now arises, what measures will the Cabinet of St James pursue? Will they agree to the Congress at Vienna? I believe not. Will they treat with the American peace Ministers now in Europe? I fancy not. They will more probably send agents to America, to propose some bad plan of American viceroys, and American n.o.bility, and what not, except common sense and common utility.

I presume, with submission, however, that Congress will enter into no treaty or conference with them, but refer them to their Ministers in Europe.

France and Spain, I think, cannot mistake their interest and duty upon this occasion, which is, to strike the most decided strokes, to take the British armies in New York and Charleston prisoners. Without this, in all probability, before another revolution of the seasons, all the United States will be evacuated, the British forces sent to Quebec, Halifax and the West India Islands, where it will cost France and Spain more time, blood, and treasure to dispose of them than it will this campaign to capture them in New York and Charleston.

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

JOHN ADAMS.

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

Amsterdam, March 11th, 1782.

Sir,

The promise, which was made me by M. Bergsma, that I should have an answer from the Province of Friesland in three weeks, has been literally fulfilled. This gentleman, who, as well as his Province, deserves to be remembered in America, sent me a copy of the resolution in Dutch as soon as it pa.s.sed. It is now public in all the gazettes, and is conceived in these terms;

"The requisition of Mr Adams, for presenting his letters of credence from the United States of North America to their High Mightinesses, having been brought into the a.s.sembly and put into deliberation, as also the ulterior Address to the same purpose, with a demand of a categorical answer made by him, as is more amply mentioned in the minutes of their High Mightinesses of the 4th of May, 1781, and the 9th of January, 1782, whereupon, it having been taken into consideration, that the said Mr Adams would probably have some propositions to make to their High Mightinesses, and to present to them the princ.i.p.al articles and foundations upon which the Congress, on their part, would enter into a treaty of commerce and friends.h.i.+p, or other affairs to propose, in regard to which despatch would be requisite;

"It has been thought fit and resolved, to authorise the gentlemen, the Deputies of this Province at the generality, and to instruct them to direct things at the table of their High Mightinesses in such a manner, that the said Mr Adams be admitted forthwith as Minister of the Congress of North America, with further order to the said Deputies, that if there should be made, moreover, any similar propositions by the same, to inform immediately their n.o.ble Mightinesses of them. And an extract of the present resolution shall be sent them for their information, that they may conduct themselves conformably.

"Thus resolved at the Province House, the 26th of February, 1782.

A. I. V. SMINIA."

This resolution has, by the Deputies of Friesland, been laid before their High Mightinesses at the Hague, and after deliberation, the Deputies of the Provinces of Guelderland, Zealand, Utrecht, and Groningen, have taken copies of it, to be communicated more amply to their const.i.tuents. In the States of the Province of Holland and West Friesland, the requisition of the 9th of January had been committed to the Committee of Grand Affairs, and taken into deliberation by the body of n.o.bles, and _ad referendum_ by all the eighteen cities.

The sovereignty of the United States of America would undoubtedly be acknowledged by the Seven United Provinces, and their Minister received to an audience in state in the course of a few weeks, if the Regency of the city of Amsterdam had not visibly altered its sentiments, but all things are embroiled. The opposition to M. Van Berckel, and the glittering charms of an emba.s.sy to Petersburg or Vienna, which have been artfully displayed, as it is said, before the eyes of one man, and many secret reasonings of similar kind with others, have placed the last hopes of the English and Dutch Courts in a city, which had long been firm in opposition to the desires of both.