Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 10

This pamphlet, signed by John Adams at the top and assigned the erroneous publication date of 1781, is Adams' copy of Pensées, now {p. R9} among his books at the Boston Public Library. The pamphlet was published by Jean Luzac in Amsterdam and is the French translation of John Adams' A Translation of the Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe upon the Present State of Affairs Between the Old and New World into Common Sense and Intelligible English, which would be published in London in early 1781. The two pamphlets comprise Adams' redaction of Thomas Pownall's A Memorial, Most Humbly Addressed to the Sovereigns of Europe, on the Present State of Affairs, Between the Old and New World, London, 1780, and are identical except for Luzac's preface to Pensées (see A Translation of Thomas Pownall's Memorial, 19 April — [ca. 14 July] , above). The preface was suggested by Luzac as a means of assuring Dutch merchants that the United States would not threaten their economic well-being. John Adams distributed Pensées in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe as part of his effort to combat ignorance of the United States and its struggle for independence. For critiques of Pensées, as well as of Thomas Pownall's Memorial, see letters from Luzac of 14 September and Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol of 28 November (both below).