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Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 13
Antoine Marie Cerisier to John Adams: A Translation
Docno: PJA13d183
Recipient: JA
Date: 1782-08-18
[dateline] Amsterdam, 18 August 1782
[salute] Excellency
I had the honor of a visit from Mr. Sarsfield here. He spoke to me about a manuscript that he sent to you, and he seemed to want me to see a copy of it also.1 He deferred giving me a copy until after his trip, which, he said, he was only making to put final touches on this work. I doubt that he had the least bit of difficulty in getting it for me for a few days while he was at The Hague. There are some things in it that I would like to look at closely. If you have no objections, send it to me by way of Mr. Guild. I will soon be plunging into the great subject of general pacification. I saw your thoughts in the Courier du Bas-Rhin and the Gazette de Leyde, to which I could add my own.2 I would really like to have a copy of the commercial treaty as it stands now. I ask you to be persuaded of my entire devotion and deep veneration, with which I have the honor to be, your very humble and very obedient servant
[signed] A M. Cerisier
If you need to write to me confidentially, please use this address, at Mr. Lainé, watchmaker, opposite the mint tower,3 to be delivered to Mr. Robert.
{p. 252}
1. For Guy Claude, Comte de Sarsfield, see vol. 9:228–229. The manuscript that he sent to JA cannot be identified from Cerisier's description. Sarsfield wrote to JA on 10 Sept. (Adams Papers), indicating that he had sent JA a manuscript that morning that touched on events in the Swiss canton of Bern, but that cannot be otherwise identified. At breakfast on 8 Oct., Sarsfield gave JA his essay on slavery dated 27 Sept. and entitled “Quelques Considérations sur L'Esclavage, La Servitude De La Glebe, L'Etat de Liberté qui leur a succedé Et les Effects qui Resultent des uns Et des autres.” That essay is included in a 280-page collection of Sarsfield's writings in the Adams Papers that included pieces on the constitution of the Netherlands; the provincial constitutions of Utrecht, Gelderland, Friesland, Zeeland, Groningen, Drenthe, and Overijssel; the banks of Holland; the dikes of the Netherlands; the development of civilization; economics; and women (filmed at [ca. 1782–1783], Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 359).
2. This is JA's A Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe,
[ca. 5–8 July]
, above, that appeared in the two papers on 10 and 13 Aug., respectively. It appeared in Cerisier's Le politique hollandais of 26 August.
Cite web page as: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2007.
http://www.masshist.org/ff/
http://www.masshist.org/ff/