Two separate documents are presented here. The first is derived from the printed Dutch
translation of John Adams’ English draft of a treaty of amity and commerce, accompanied
by “Remarques en nadere Propositie” (Remarks and Further Propositions), that was officially
presented to Adams on 22 August. The Dutch translation of the draft appears in the
left column. In the right column are the “Remarques,” which are (with one notable
exception, for which see
note 1) keyed to numbered italicized passages in the draft on the left. Most of these proposals,
even those regarding a single word, are substantive; however, some are merely textual,
intended to correct errors in the translation (see, for example,
note 10). Note also that in some instances there are unnumbered italicized words or passages
that were intended for deletion with no revision or replacement indicated. The second
document consists of the reconstructed English text of Adams’ draft in the left column
and an English translation of the Dutch remarks in the right column. For the editors’
decision to reconstruct the draft rather than translate it from the Dutch, see the
editorial note to the group document, above.
The reconstruction was possible because by comparing the Dutch text of the draft and
the language of the final treaty (
No. VIII, below), it was clear that Adams used two sources when he drafted the treaty. He
began
{ 263 } with Congress’
29 December 1780 plan for a Dutch-American treaty (vol. 10:451–458). Articles 1 through 22 of the
draft correspond to Articles 1 through 21 of the treaty plan, the numbering discrepancy
owing to one article being the reciprocal of another, for which see
note 20. For matters not covered in the treaty plan, Adams then turned to the Lee-Neufville
Treaty of 4 September 1778 (
Adams Papers; printed:
Wharton, Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev., 2:789–798). From this source he took Articles 10, 29, 30, 31, and 32, which correspond
to Articles 24 through 28 of the draft treaty, as well as the passport and certificate
to be given to American merchant ships. Only Articles 23, 29, and 30 were Adams’ own
work. Article 23 does not appear in the final treaty and is translated directly from
the Dutch. Articles 29 and 30 do appear in the final treaty, and the text for them
there has been used here.
With regard to the English translation of the “Remarques en nadere Propositie” appearing
in the right column, it should be noted that the printed Dutch text that Adams received
on 22 August, which served as the basis for negotiations, included remarks, proposals,
and deletions in an unknown hand, all stemming from proposals adopted by Amsterdam
on 9 August (
Adams Papers). Those handwritten passages, in both Dutch and English, have been underlined to
differentiate them from the rest of the text. The English text of the remarks and
proposals is derived from two sources. When a proposal was rejected, or for some other
reason was not included in the final treaty, it has been translated directly from
the Dutch, but when a Dutch proposal was incorporated more or less verbatim into the
treaty, the English text of the passage as it appears in the final treaty has been
used, with such instances being indicated in the annotation (but see also John Adams’
responses to the Dutch proposals in
No. III, below).