Papers of John Adams, volume 15
e.Oct. 1783
Ma derniere du 14e. étoit partie, lorsque celle de Mr. votre fils à mon Epouse nous apprit que vous avez été fort malade, &, heureusement, mieux à présent.1 Nous prenons la part que nous devons & à l’indisposition passée, & à votre convalescence, dont nous vous félicitons de grand coeur.
Mrs. Matthieu Van Arp & Co: m’écrivent ce qui suit d’Amst. 15e Oct.
“Le Vaisseau Américain l’Elisabeth, Patron Abraham Brun, 315destiné d’ici aux Indes oc[ciden]tales, a été acheté par le dit Patron ici, est [encore?] sans Papiers, & doit aller trafiquer en differen[tes] Places des Indes occidentales. Je vous prie de m’envoyer pour ce Vaisseau un Passeport, signé par Mr. Adams, ou par vous com̃e son Chargé d’Affaires.— Ce Vaisseau appartient au dit Capitaine seul en propriété; & il vous demande instamment, de faire toute la diligence possible pour lui envoyer le Passeport, & aussi réponse à celle-ci par la poste de demain, avec votre promptitude connue. Au cas que vous n’ayez pas des Passeport de Mr. Adams, je vous prie de me le marquer d’abord, & de faire ensorte que je puisse, sur votre parole, assurer, que vous avez écrit sur ce sujet par premiere poste à Mr. Adams: car ce Vaisseau est très pressé de partir incessam̃ent.”2
Je marque donc ce soir à Mrs. M. Van Arp & Co: que je vous écris en conséquence.
Agréez, Monsieur, les respects de ma famille & les miens, & permettez que j’embrasse ici Mr. votre fils. / De Votre Excellence / Le très humble & très-obéissant / serviteur,
P.S. La Garnison d’Utrecht en est sortie, selon les desirs de la Bourgeoisie, avant l’arrivée des troupes destinées à la remplacer; & il a fallu pour cela changer les Patentes; & moi en voyant tout ce que je vois, je m’écrie en stile oriental O Allah! qu’est-ce qu’un Prince sans Peuple? Et que n’est pas un Peuple sans Prince, dès qu’il le veut bien?
3
Translation
My last of the 14th had already left when that from your son to my wife apprised us that you had been seriously ill and, happily, are now better.1 We are as solicitous for your past indisposition as for your convalescence, which we congratulate you on wholeheartedly.
Messrs. Matheus van Arp & Company wrote the following to me from Amsterdam on 15 October:
“The American vessel Elisabeth, owner Abraham Brun, whose destination is the West Indies, was bought here by the abovementioned owner, is still without papers, and is to trade in various places in the West Indies. I ask you to send me a passport for this vessel, signed by Mr. Adams or by you as his chargé d’affaires. This vessel belongs to the aforementioned captain as the sole proprietor, and he asks you to immediately exercise all possible diligence to send him the passport and to respond to this by tomorrow’s post with your well-known promptness. In case you do not have 316passports from Mr. Adams, I ask you to make a note of that for me first and in such a way that I can make assurances that by your word of honor, you have written to Mr. Adams about this by the first post, since this vessel is in a great hurry to leave immediately.”2
I am sending a note this evening to Messrs. Matheus Van Arp & Company to let them know that I am writing you about this.
Please accept, sir, the respects of my family and of yours truly, and permit me to send warm greetings here to your son. Your excellency’s very humble and very obedient servant
P.S. The garrison at Utrecht has left, following the wishes of the burgesses, before the arrival of the troops assigned to replace them, and for that reason it was necessary to change the letters patent. And I, seeing all that I see, I express myself in the oriental style: Oh, Allah! What is a prince without a people? And what cannot a people do without a prince, once they desire it?
3
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Paris à S. E. Mr. Adams Min. Pl. des E. U.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
Dumas’ letter of the 14th (Adams Papers) enclosed a copy of his 10 Oct. letter to Congress for JA to forward to America. Congress’ dispatch book indicates that the letter, numbered 32, reached Congress on 5 March 1784, but neither it nor five other letters dated 28 Sept. 1783, 24 Oct., 7 and 15 Nov., and 1 Dec., are in the PCC (PCC, No. 185, III, f. 95). JQA’s letter to Marie Dumas has not been found.
There is no indication that JA did anything regarding the letter from Van Arp & Company on behalf of the Elisabeth, and nothing further is known of the vessel.
The events at Utrecht are indicative of the rise of the Free Corps, Patriot military units independent of the stadholder. It was part of the Patriot Revolt and evidence of the growing ascendency of the Patriots over the Orangist forces of William V that would end with the 1787 expulsion of the stadholder and his subsequent restoration when Prussian forces occupied the Netherlands (Schama, Patriots and Liberators
, p. 80–88, 103–106, 131–132). For accounts of the events at Utrecht, see the Gazette d’Amsterdam, 3, 10, 14, and 17 October. Dumas’ appeal to Allah touches directly on this conflict between William V and the people (i.e., Patriots).
th:Oct
b.1783.
Some time having elapsed since we had the honor of addressing your Excellency we now take the liberty of informing you Sir, of our having received Letters from Mr. Morris giving us Intelligence of certain Drafts, which he had partly already made on us and which he Should yet make, tho’ the total Amount together was much more than we now have in Cash for the United States of America.
His Excellency is in the Idea, that before this Time we Should 317have provided for that which Mr. Grand may have occasion, tho’ not exactly knowing what that may be, we have given the necessary advice to Mr. Grand, that he must place no Reliance upon being furnished by us and we thought it advisable also to give your Excellency the Same notice.
It is exceedingly painfull for us in being obliged to Say, that the Success of the Loan Since the month of August is not Such as we had reason to expect, when in the Summer we had the honor of conversing with your Excellency. Besides the uncommon Scarcity of money, a principle cause of the Loans not Succeeding is the great Number of Accounts received of Disputes in America between the particular States & Congress. It is true this Intelligence is mostly communicated by the English News papers and is worthy of little or no Credit, even as we our selves look upon it, but it makes more impression upon the money Lenders, who always incline to mistrust without cause, especially at a time when thro’ a great concurrence of Loans they are not at a loss with their money. We are constantly hoping we Shall be able by receiving direct Intelligence from America to evince the Falshood of the English Accounts, or that your Excellency or the other ministers would do it, but to this time is this Hope not realized. If your Excellency was in possession of Authentic Intelligence upon this matter, we think the Publication of it would do much Service in procuring a better Success to our continual Endeavours for Selling of the Bonds.1
In Sentiments of the greatest Respect we have the honor to be / Sir! / Your Excellency’s / most obedt & hble. Servs:
s.& Jacob van Staphorst
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Messrs Willinks & Co. / 16. Oct. 1783.”
The letters from Robert Morris to the consortium cannot be identified with certainty, but by October virtually any demand from the “financier” for funds was viewed by the bankers as excessive and necessarily brought an appeal to JA. The consortium’s letter, its only extant communication to JA since [ca. 19] Aug., above, was also the first substantive report that JA had received on the progress of the Dutch-American loan since his visit to the Netherlands in late July and early August. At that time, after visiting the bankers, he observed “that there is not one foreign Loan, open in this Republick which is in so good Credit, or goes so quick as mine” (to Robert R. Livingston, 28 July, above). JA’s confidence seemed justified because from the opening of the loan in 1782 through July 1783, f3,137,000 had been raised, although most of that sum had been remitted to bankers in Paris, leaving the consortium with very little cash with which to meet any new demands. The problem was that as late as 5 Nov. Morris was apparently using the consortium’s success through July as the basis for estimating how much would 318be raised in the future. However, during the next three months the situation changed drastically, with only f105,000 being subscribed: f70,000 in Aug., f25,000 in Sept., and only f10,000 in Oct. (DNA:RG 39, Foreign Ledgers, Public Agents in Europe, 1776–1787, Microfilm, Reel 1, f. 293; vol. 14:72; Morris, Papers
, 8:735; to Robert Morris, 10 July, above). The consortium ascribed this decline, probably with justification, to the appearance in Dutch newspapers of troubling reports from America concerning dissension in the army, the impost and commutation controversies, and the June mutiny at Philadelphia that resulted in Congress’ flight from the city (Gazette d’Amsterdam, 11, 18, and 22 July, 22, 26, and 29 Aug., and 19 Sept.). No response by JA has been found. Certainly he would have been troubled by the discouraging news. It provided him with his first inkling of the deteriorating situation in the Netherlands. For JA’s decision to journey to the Netherlands in early 1784 after receiving even more dire reports, see the letters from the consortium of 2 and 23 Dec., Benjamin Franklin of 10 Dec., and Nicolaas & Jacob van Staphorst of 26 Dec., all below.