Papers of John Adams, volume 21
Mr: Pinckney has returned,
and of course my business here ceases. I am yet waiting however for orders
enabling me to return to the Hague.1 I expect them with a little
impatience, having many reasons to wish myself away from hence.
The newspapers sent herewith contain intelligence of two
important Events. The armistice concluded between the french and Austrian
armies on the Rhine; and the return into Port of the famous West India
expedition.2 It remains
as yet uncertain whether the former is a presage of speedy pacification, or
a mere agreement to take a breathing spell during the extremity of the
Season. As a neutral Nation deeply interested in the fate of the West
Indies, we I think may consider the failure of
the formidable apparatus of this Country, as a favourable Event. While
Britain weakens by War, and 443
America strengthens by Peace, every true American must feel a double
satisfaction.
I am with the most grateful affection, your Son.
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Vice-President.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 130.
JQA went to London to exchange
ratifications of the Jay Treaty while Thomas Pinckney, the U.S. minister
to Great Britain, was in Spain. JQA stepped into final
negotiations with the British ministry on the same topics that
JA dealt with during his diplomatic tenure there:
namely, the British impressment of American sailors and the evacuation
of the frontier posts. Like his father, JQA made little
headway, and he wrapped up his talks on Pinckney’s return.
JQA remained in London, making visits and courting
LCA, until his instructions to return to The Hague
arrived on 26 April; he departed on 28 May (
AFC
, 11:33).
A wintertime armistice, signed by France and Austria
on 15 Dec. 1795, paused hostilities until May 1796 when fighting resumed
in the Rhine Valley. On another front, by late 1795 the European war had
spread to the West Indies, where the French Navy still held Guadeloupe.
After a protracted delay caused by severe storms, the British Navy
launched a successful campaign in early 1796, capturing St. Lucia, St.
Vincent, and Grenada (
AFC
, 11:xxxiii, 57;
Alexander Mikaberidze, The Napoleonic Wars: A
Global History, N.Y., 2020, p. 60).
I thank you for your favour of the 25th Ult. and its Contents.
A Governor of a State in a Solemn Speech to both Houses, at the opening of a session, expressing a private Opinion only of a Treaty and that in the most rude insulting and unmeasured Language is such a Complication of Imbecility Hypocricy and Superannuation, As I never heard of.
I pray that my Country may take from me all temptation to
remain in office after the app before
the Approach of Dotage shall take from me the Capacity of doing any thing
but Mischief to the Public and dishonour to my Character.
Whatever Tenderness of Friendship I may feel for a Gadsden a Rutledge a Dickinson, a Warren or an Adams, with all of whom I have acted on the Public stage in earlier Life, I am Stunned and astonished at their Vanity Presumption and Ignorance— I cannot but ascribe it to the Imbecility and decrepitude of Age.
In their Solitudes, unable to read, to converse or to think, destitute of all the Information which Government possesses. do they think to dictate and to domineer, like Pædagogues over school boys?
I wish you would write me oftener and more in detail.—
444I am very happy to find that my Friend Dr Eustis has acquitted himself like a good
Citizen and a wise and Upright Man upon this occasion. His first Thoughts
and feelings on the Treaty I can easily account for, without the Smallest
Imputation on his Motives Conduct or Character. His Ultimate Determination
to leave the Thing where the Constitution has placed it does honour to his
Head and Heart.1
I wrote you about your and Mr
Codmans Clover seed and wait your answer.2 My Regards where due
RC (MHi:Adams-Welsh Coll.); internal address:
“Dr Welsh.”; endorsed: “Vice-President
of US / Feby 2: 1796.”
Boston physician William Eustis (1753–1825), Harvard
1772, was a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives from
1788 to 1794 and later served in the U.S. House as a
Democratic-Republican. Eustis and others spoke out against the proposed
Virginia resolutions, which suggested four constitutional amendments
intended to reshape federal power. Specifically, they called for the
House to approve all treaties; for the Senate to be stripped of the
right to hold impeachment trials; for senators’ terms to be shortened to
three years; and for judicial appointees to be banned from dual
office-holding (
Biog. Dir. Cong.
;
AFC
, 11:105, 169).
JA’s 23 Jan. 1796 letter to Welsh has
not been found. John Codman Jr. (1755–1803), a Boston merchant, was a
longtime friend of JA’s (
AFC
, 7:111).