Papers of John Adams, volume 13

From John Thaxter, 30 June 1782 Thaxter, John JA From John Thaxter, 30 June 1782 Thaxter, John Adams, John

From John Thaxter

Amsterdam 30th June 1782 Sir

Between 6 and 7 this morning Capt. Trowbridge came and delivered me the five Letters and News Papers inclosed.1

Every thing in a quiet state on the other side the Water—Provissions plenty and cheap—hard Money not scarce. He has brought Tobacco, and Sugar and Coffee from Boston. Sugar and Coffee from Boston to Amsterdam, is a Phenomenon in the mercantile World, and ought not to be forgotten.

If there are any Letters for me, please to inclose them to Messs. Ingraham and Bromfield, they may come by the Chariot de Poste at six o. Clock tomorrow Morning.

I have the Honor to be &ca.

J. T.

RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “His Excellency Mr. Adams”; endorsed: “Thaxter 30. June 1782”; notation by JA: “Pestel de Republica batavar Janiçon. chez de tune libraire pres le marechal de turenne.” JA's notation has nothing to do with Thaxter's letter but presumably is an instance where JA used an available piece of paper to jot down a note to himself. The note indicates that Frederik Willem von Pestel's Commentarii de Republica Batava (Leyden, 1782) and François Michel Janiçon's Etat présent de la république des Provinces-Unies, et des païs qui en dépendent (4th ed., 2 vols., The Hague, 1755) were at the bookseller near the Mare-140schall de Turenne, an inn at The Hague. The Catalogue of JA's Library indicates that he acquired both volumes.

JA wrote to AA on 1 July and indicated that two of the letters were hers of 10 and 22 April, with a third likely being Isaac Smith Sr.'s of 6 May ( AFC , 4:337, 305–308, 313–317). A fourth letter may have been Richard Cranch's of 31 Jan. (same, 4:281–282), for which see the letter of 1 July from Jan van Heukelom & Zoon, below.

From Francis Dana, 1 July 1782 Dana, Francis JA From Francis Dana, 1 July 1782 Dana, Francis Adams, John

From Francis Dana

St: Petersbourg June 21st. 1782 O.S. 1 July N.S. My Dear Sir

My last to you was of the 12/23 of May. I have not received any from you since yours of the 28th. of April.1 Enclosed you will receive the latter part of my letter to Mr: Livingston, which I pray you to forward with a proper direction.2 I send them open to you for your private Information. The matter these mentioned is what is alluded to in my last. Since the new British Ministry have consented upon the intercession of Her Imperial Majesty, to treat with the Dutch upon the basis of their old Marine Treaty, and the principles of the Armed Neutrality, She seems to press the business of Mediation with greater vigour. Whether a particular peace between Britain and Holland can be now brought about by Her Majesty's exertions, you are better able to say than I am, and I shou'd be glad of your sentiments upon this subject. I am inclined to think it cannot be, and that the whole may issue in a general Mediation on the part of Her Majesty and the Emperor, whenever the English can be brot to consent to the Admission of our Ministers into the Congress, and not before. This is certainly upon the whole the most just, and I think the only rational method which remains to be adapted, with any prospect of Success, in the present state of affairs. If you were to hear the Anglomanes of this Country speak of the late successes of the British, you wou'd think they imagined the power of the whole House of Bourbon beaten down so as never to rise again, and that the British had gained a complete and lasting Triumph over all their Enemies: So ignorant are they of the real relative force of the Belligerent Powers. Time, I presume will destroy these absurdities and their momentaneous effects. The war, if it shou'd not be closed in the course of the next winter by a general pacification, may rage with new vigour on all parts. The late emancipation of Ireland may give some additional force to our Enemies, and we ought to be pre-141pared to meet it.3 Abating this circumstance, I rejoice in the recovered liberty of that long and cruelly oppressed Country. This great event, as well as those of the freedom of the Commerce and of the Navigation of all the Nations of Europe, are undoubtedly consequences of our Revolution; and the latter most certainly must depend upon the establishment of our Independence. This truth I think, is so obvious to all of them that it cannot be overlooked. If they are not therefore absolutely blind to their own essential Interests, or so corrupt as to disregard them, they must openly or secretly favour and support it. But, my dear Friend, I am almost weary of this pitiful existence; in waiting for what is called “the proper moment;” and I may suddenly put in execution what I have before told you I have seriously contemplated, and return to America by the first opportunity which may offer.

I beg you to present my regards to Mr: T. and to tell him tho' I have not wrote him for so long a time, yet I have not forgot him, or my obligations to him for his former favours.

I am, Dear Sir, your much obliged Friend & obedient humble Servt:

FRA DANA

RC (Adams Papers). Filmed at 21 June, Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 357.

Vol. 12:467–468.

Probably Dana's letter of 28 June to Robert R. Livingston (Wharton, Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. , 5:528–532).

On 17 May both houses of the British Parliament voted to repeal the Declaratory Act of 1720, which had permitted it “to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the kingdom and the people of Ireland.” This resolved a longstanding grievance and finally established Irish legislative independence (Gerard O'Brien, Anglo-Irish Politics in the Age of Grattan and Pitt, Dublin, 1987, p. 59). For the texts of the Declaratory Act of 1720 and of the 1782 act repealing it, see same, p. 176.