and America, joined to the indubitable marks, that she has already
long since given, of the preference, that she feels for our
friendship, makes the undersigned not only suppose, but inspires them
with a confidence even, that our connexions with her will be as solid
as advantageous, and salutary to the interests of the two nations. The
well-being and the prosperity, which will very probably result from
them, the part which you, Noble, Great, Venerable, and Noble and
Venerable Lords, have had in the conclusion of a resolution so
remarkable; the conviction, that the Venerable Council of this city
already had of it, upon the proposition of the Noble, Great, and
Venerable Lords, almost consented to, before the request relative to
this project, presented not long since to you, Noble, Great, and
Venerable Lords, had come to the knowledge of the Council; finally,
the remembrance of that, which was done upon this matter in the year
1778, with the best intentions and most laudable views, finding itself
at present crowned with an approbation as public as general,
indispensably oblige the undersigned to approach you, Noble, Great,
Venerable, and Noble and Venerable Lords, with this address, not only
to congratulate them upon so remarkable an event, but to thank them at
the same time, with as much zeal as solemnity, for all those well
intentioned cares, and those well concerted measures, for that
inflexible attachment, and that faithful adherence to the true
interests of the country in general, and of this city in particular,
which manifest themselves in so striking a manner in all the
proceedings and resolutions of your Noble, Great, and Venerable
Lordships, and of the Venerable Council of this city, and which
certainly will attract the esteem and veneration of the latest
posterity, when, comparing the annals and events of the present, with
those of former times, it shall discover, that Amsterdam might still
boast itself of possessing patriots, who dare sacrifice generously all
views of private interest, of grandeur, and of consideration, to the
sacred obligations, that their country requires of them.
"We flatter ourselves, Noble, Great, and Venerable, Noble and
Venerable Lords, that the present public demonstration of our esteem
and attachment will be so much the more agreeable, as it is more rare
in our Republic, and perhaps even it is without example, and as it is
more proper to efface all the odious impressions that the calumny and
malignity of the English Ministry, not long ago so servilely adored by
many, but whose downfall is at present consummated, had endeavored to
spread, particularly a little before, and at the beginning of this
war, insinuations, which have since found partizans in the United
Provinces, among those who have not been ashamed to paint the Exchange
of Amsterdam, (that is to say, the most respectable and the most
useful part of the citizens of this city, and at the same time the
principal support of the well-being of the United Provinces,) as if it
consisted, in a great part, of a contemptible herd of vile interested
souls, having no other object than to give loose to their avidity and
to their desire of amassing treasures, in defrauding the public
revenues, and in transporting contraband articles against the faith of
treaties; calumniators, who have had at the same time, and have still,
the audacity to affront the most upright Regency of the most,
considerable city of the Republic, and to expose it to public
contempt, as if it participated by connivance and other ways, in so
shameful a commerce; insinuations and accusations, which have been
spread with as much falsehood as wickedness, and which ought to excite
so much the more the indignation of every sensible heart, when one
considers with all this, that not only the merchants of this city, but
also those of the whole Republic, have so inviolably respected the
faith of treaties, that, to the astonishment of every impartial man,
one cannot produce any proofs, at least no sufficient proofs, that
there has ever been transported from this country contraband
merchandises; whilst that the conjuncture, in which imputations of
this kind have been spread, rendered a like proceeding still more
odious, seeing that one has done it at an epoch, when the commerce and
navigation of Amsterdam, and of the whole Republic, would have
experienced the first and almost the only attack of an unjust and
perfidious ally, for want of necessary protection, upon which you,
Noble, Great, Venerable, and Noble and Venerable Lords, have so often
and so seriously insisted, even before the commencement of the
troubles between Great Britain and the United States of North America;
at an epoch, when the merchant, formed for enterprises, was obliged to
see the fruit of his labor and of his cares, the recompense of his
indefatigable industry, and the patrimony destined to his posterity,
ravished from his hands by foreign violence, and unbounded rapacity;
at an epoch, finally, when the wise and prudent politicians, who had
exhausted themselves, and spared no pains for the public good, saw
their patriotic views dissipate, and their projects vanish.
"Receive, then, Noble, Great, and Venerable, Noble and Venerable
Lords, this solemn testimony of our lively gratitude, as graciously
as it is sincere on our part; receive it as a proof of our attachment
to your persons; an attachment which is not founded upon fear, nor an
exterior representation of authority and grandeur, but which is
founded upon more noble and immovable principles, those of esteem and
respect, arising from a sentiment of true greatness and of generosity.
Be assured, that when contemptible discord, with its odious
attendants, artifice and imposture, could effectuate nothing,
absolutely nothing, at the moment when the present war broke out, to
prejudice in the least the fidelity of the citizens of the Amstel, or
to shake them in the observation of their duties, the inconveniences
and the evils that a war naturally and necessarily draws after it,
will not produce the effect neither; yes, we will submit more
willingly to them, according as we shall perceive, that the means that
God and nature have put into our hands, are more and more employed to
reduce and humble a haughty enemy. Continue, then, Noble, Great, and
Venerable, Noble and Venerable Lords, to proceed with safety in the
road you follow, the only one, which in our opinion, can, under divine
benediction, tend to save the country from its present situation. Let
nothing divert or intimidate you from it; you have already surmounted
the greatest difficulties and most poignant cares. A more pleasing
perspective already opens.
"Great Britain, not long since so proud of its forces, that she feared
not to declare war against an ancient and faithful ally, already
repents of that unjust and rash proceeding; and succumbing under the
weight of a war, which becomes more and more burdensome, she sighs
after peace, whilst the harmony among the members of the supreme
government of this country increases with our arms, according as your
political system, whose necessity and salutary influence were
heretofore less acknowledged, gains every day more numerous imitators.
The resolution lately taken by the States of Friesland, and so
unanimously adopted by our Province, furnishes, among many others, one
incontestable proof of it, whilst that the naval combat, delivered
last year on the Doggerbank, has shown to astonished Europe that so
long a peace has not made the Republic forget the management of arms,
but that on the contrary, it nourishes in its bosom warriors, who
tread in the footsteps of the Tromps and Ruiters, from whose prudence
and intrepidity, after a beginning so glorious, we may promise
ourselves the most heroic actions; that their invincible courage,
little affected with an evident superiority, will procure one day to
our country an honorable and permanent peace, which, in eternizing
their military glory, will cause the wise policy of your Noble, Great,
and Venerable, Noble and Venerable Lordships to be blessed by the
latest posterity."
LEYDEN.
"To the Noble, Great and Venerable Lords, the Great Council of the
city of Leyden.
"The undersigned, manufacturers, merchants, and other traders,
interested in the manufactures and fabrics of this city, give
respectfully to understand; that a number of the undersigned, having
taken on the 18th of March, the liberty to present to your Noble and
Great Lordships a respectful request, 'to obtain the conclusion of
connexions of commerce with United America,' the petitioners judge,
that they ought to hold it for a duty, as agreeable as indispensable,
to testify their sincere gratitude, not only for the gracious manner
in which your Noble and Great Lordships have been pleased to accept
that request, but also for the patriotic resolution, that your Noble
and Great Lordships have taken upon its object; a resolution in virtue
of which the city of Leyden (as the petitioners have the best reasons
to suppose) has been one of the first cities of this province, from
whose unanimous co-operation has originated the resolution of their
Noble and Grand Mightinesses, of the date of the 28th of March last,
'to direct things on the part of their Noble and Grand Mightinesses in
the Assembly of the States-General, and to make there the strongest
instances, to the end that Mr Adams may be admitted and acknowledged,
as soon as possible, by their High Mightinesses, as Minister of the
United States of America.'
"That the petitioners regard, with all honest hearted citizens, the
present epoch as one of the most glorious in the annals of our dear
country, seeing that there has been manifested in a most signal
manner, on one hand, a confidence the most cordial of the good
citizens towards their Regents; on the other, a paternal attention and
deference of the Regents to the respectful, but well founded prayers
of their faithful citizens, and, in general, the most exemplary
unanimity throughout the whole nation, to the confusion of those, who,
having endeavored to sow the seeds of discord, would have rejoiced if
they could say with truth, that a dissension so fatal had rooted
itself to the ruin of the country and of the people.
"That the petitioners, feeling themselves penetrated with the most
pleasing emotions by a harmony so universal, cannot pass over in
silence the reflection, that your Noble and Great Lordships, taking a
resolution the most favorable upon the said request, have discovered
thereby, that they would not abandon the footsteps of their
ancestors, who found in the united sentiments of magistrates and
citizens, the resources necessary to resist a powerful oppressor, who
even would not have undertaken that difficult, but glorious task, if
they had not been supported by the voice of the most respectable part
of the nation.
"That, encouraged by this reflection, the petitioners assure
themselves, that your Noble and Great Lordships will honor with the
same approbation the step, which they take to day, to recommend to
your Noble and Great Lordships, in a manner the most respectful, but
at the same time the most pressing, the prompt and efficacious
execution of the aforesaid resolution of their Noble and Grand
Mightinesses, of the 28th of March last, with everything which depends
thereon, a proceeding, which does not spring from a desire, on the
part of the petitioners, to raise themselves above the sphere of their
duties and vocations, or to interfere indiscreetly in the affairs of
government; but only from a conviction, that it cannot but be
agreeable to well-intentioned Regents (such as your Noble and Grand
Lordships have shown yourselves by deeds to the good citizens) to see
themselves applauded in their salutary efforts and patriotic designs,
and supported against the perverse views and secret machinations of
the ill disposed, who, however small their number, are always found in
a nation.
"That, although the petitioners may be convinced, that their Noble and
Grand Mightinesses, having taken a resolution so agreeable to all true
patriots, will not neglect to employ means to carry it to an
efficacious conclusion among the other confederates, and to procure to
the good citizens the real enjoyment of the commerce with United
America, they cannot, nevertheless, dissemble, that lately some new
reasons have arisen, which make them conceive some fears respecting
the prompt consummation of this desirable affair.
"That the probability of an offer of peace, on the part of Great
Britain, to United America, whereof the petitioners made mention in
their former request, having at present become a full certainty, by
the revolution arrived since in the British Ministry, they have not
learnt without uneasiness, the attempt made at the same time by the
new Ministers of the Court of London, to involve this State in a
negotiation for a separate peace, the immediate consequence of which
would be (as the petitioners fear) a cessation of all connexions with
the American Republic; whilst, that in the meantime, our Republic,
deprived on the one hand of the advantages, which it reasonably
promises itself from those connexions, might, on the other, be
detained by negotiations, spun out to a great length, and not effect
till late, perhaps after the other belligerent powers, a separate
peace with England.
"That, in effect, the difficulties which oppose themselves to a like
partial pacification, are too multiplied for one to promise himself to
see them suddenly removed; such as the restitution of the possessions
taken from the State, and retaken from the English by France, a
restitution, which thereby is become impracticable; the
indemnification of the immense losses, that the unexpected and
perfidious attack of England has caused to the Dutch nation in
general, to the petitioners in particular; the assurance of a free
navigation for the future, upon the principles of the armed
neutrality, and conformably to the law of nations, the dissolution of
the bonds, which, without being productive of any utility to the two
nations, have been a source of contestations always springing up, and
which in every war between Great Britain and any other power, have
threatened to involve our Republic in it, or have, in effect, done it;
the annihilation (if possible) of the act of navigation, an act, which
carries too evident marks of the supremacy affected by England over
all other maritime people, not to attract attention at the approaching
negotiation of peace; finally, the necessity of breaking the yoke,
that Great Britain would impose upon our flag, to make hers respected
in the Northern Ocean, as the seat of her maritime empire; and other
objects of this nature, which, as the petulant proceedings of the
Court of London even have given rise to them, with certainty furnish
matter for claims and negotiations.
"That, as by these considerations, even a speedy consummation of a
separate peace with England is out of all probability, especially when
one compares with them the dubious and limited manner in which it is
offered; on the other hand, a general peace appears not to be so far
distant, as that to obtain a more prompt reconciliation with England,
the Republic has occasion to abandon its interests relative to North
America, seeing that the British government has resolved, upon the
request of the National Assembly, even to discontinue offensive
hostilities against the new Republic, and that even under the present
administration of the Ministers, it appears ready to acknowledge
positively its independence; an acknowledgment, which, in removing the
principal stumbling block of a negotiation of a general peace, will
pave the way to a prompt explication of all the difficulties between
the belligerent powers.
"That the petitioners should exceed much the bounds of their plan, if
they entered into a more ample detail of the reasons, which might be
alleged upon this subject, and which certainly will not escape the
political penetration of your Noble and Great Lordships; among others,
the engagements recently entered into with the Court of France, and
which will not be violated by our Republic, which acknowledges the
sanctity of its engagements and respects them, but which will serve
much rather to convince the Empress of Russia of the impossibility of
entering, in the present juncture of affairs, into such a negotiation
as the Court of London proposes, when it will not be permitted to
presume, but that sovereign will feel herself the change of
circumstances, which have happened with regard to America, since the
offer of her mediation, by the revolution of the British Ministry; and
that she ought even to regard a separate peace between our States and
England, as the most proper mean to retard the general tranquillity,
that she has endeavored to procure to all the commercial nations now
at war.
"That, from these motives, the petitioners respectfully hope, that the
aforesaid offer of England will occasion no obstacle, which may
prevent, that the resolution of their Noble and Grand Mightinesses, to
acknowledge the independence of North America, and to conclude with
that power a treaty of commerce, may not have a prompt execution, nor
that even one only of the other confederates will suffer itself to be
diverted thereby, from the design of opening unanimously with this
Province and the others, which have declared themselves conformably to
Holland, negotiations with the United States, and of terminating them
as soon as may be.
"That the favorable resolutions already taken for this effect in
Zealand, Utrecht, Overyssel, and at present (as the petitioners learn)
in the Province of Groningen, after the example of Holland and
Friesland, confirm them in that hope, and seem to render entirely
superfluous a request, that in every other case the petitioners would
have found themselves obliged to make with the commercial citizens of
the other cities, to the end, that by the resistance of one Province,
not immediately interested in commerce and navigation, they might not
be deprived of the advantages and of the protection, that the
Sovereign Assembly of their proper Province had been disposed to
procure them without that; but that to the end to provide for it,
their Noble and Grand Mightinesses, and the States of the other
Provinces, in this respect unanimous with them, should make use of the
power, which belongs to each free State of our Federative Republic, at
least in regard to treaties of commerce, of which there exists an
example in 1649, not only in a treaty of redemption of the toll of the
Sound, but also in a defensive treaty, concluded with the Crown of
Denmark by the three Provinces of Guelderland, Holland, and Friesland.
"But as every apprehension of a similar dissension among the members
of the confederation appears at present absolutely unseasonable, the
petitioners will confine themselves rather to another request, to wit,
that after the formation of connexions of commerce with North America,
the effectual enjoyment of it may be assured to the commercial
citizens of this country by a sufficient protection of the navigation,
seeing, that without the protection of the navigation, the conclusion
even of such a treaty of commerce would be absolutely illusory; that
since a long time, especially last year, the petitioners have tasted
the bitter fruits of the defenceless state in which the Dutch flag has
been incessantly found, as they have already said, conformably to the
truth, in their first request, 'that by the total stagnation of the
navigation and of expeditions, they have felt in the most painful
manner the effects of the hostile and unforeseen attack of Great
Britain, and that they feel them still every day;' that in the
meantime this stagnation of commerce, absolutely abandoned to the
rapacity of an enemy, greedy of pillage, and destitute of all
protection whatsoever, has appeared to the petitioners, as well as to
all the other commercial inhabitants, yes, even to all true citizens,
so much the more hard and afflicting, as they not only have constantly
contributed with a good heart all the public imposts, but that, at the
time even that commerce was absolutely abandoned to itself, and
deprived of all safeguard, it supported a double charge to obtain that
protection, which it has never enjoyed, seeing that the hope of such a
protection, (the Republic not being entirely without maritime force)
has appeared indeed more than once, but has always vanished in the
most unexpected manner, by accidents and impediments, which if they
have given rise, perhaps wrongfully, to discontent and to distrust
among the good citizens, will not, nevertheless, be read and meditated
by posterity, without surprise.
"That, without intention to legitimate in any fashion the suspicions
arising from this failure of protection, the petitioners believe
themselves, nevertheless, with all proper respect, warranted in
addressing their complaints on this head to the bosoms of your Great
and Noble Lordships, and (seeing the commerce with North America
cannot subsist without navigation, no more than navigation without a
safeguard) of reckoning upon the active direction, the useful
employment, and prompt augmentation of our naval forces, in proportion
to the means, which shall be the most proper effectually to secure,
to the commerce of this Republic, the fruits of its connexions with
United North America.
"For which reasons, the petitioners, returning to your Noble and Great
Lordships their solemn thanks for the favorable resolution taken upon
their request, the 18th of March last, address themselves anew to them
on this occasion, with the respectful prayer, that it may graciously
please your Noble and Great Lordships to be willing to effectuate, by
your powerful influence, whether in the illustrious Assembly of their
Noble and Grand Mightinesses, whether among the other confederates, or
elsewhere, there, and in such manner as your Noble and Great Lordships
shall judge the most proper, that the resolution of their Noble and
Grand Mightinesses, of the date of the 28th of March last, for the
admission of Mr Adams in quality of Minister of the United States of
America, be promptly executed, and that the petitioners, with the
other commercial citizens, obtain the effectual enjoyment of a treaty
of commerce with the said Republic, as well by the activity of the
marine of the State, and the protection of the commerce and of the
navigation, as well as by all other measures, that your Noble and
Great Lordships, with the other members of the sovereign government of
the Republic, shall judge to tend to the public good, and to serve to
the prosperity of the dear country, as well as to the maintenance of
its precious liberty."
UTRECHT, APRIL 28TH, 1782.
Wednesday last, was presented to their Noble Mightinesses, the Lords
the States of this Province, the following address of thanks, signed
by a considerable number of merchants, &c. of this city.
"To their Noble Mightinesses, the Lords the States of the country of
Utrecht.