point--_Impressment!_--A cause for which we should not have
commenced a War, but without an arrangement of which our Government
now say they cannot make Peace. If ever there was a _just_
cause for War in the sight of Almighty God, this cause is on
our side just. The essence of this Cause is on the British side
_Oppression_, on our side _personal liberty_. We are fighting for
the _Sailor’s Cause_. The English Cause is the _Press-gang_. It
seems to me that in the very Nature of this Cause we ought to find
some resources for maintaining it, by operation upon the minds of
our own Seamen, and upon those of the Adversary’s. It is sometimes
customary for the Commanders of Ships to address their crews, on
going into action; and to inspirit them by motives drawn from
the cause they are called to support. In this War, when our Ships
go into action, their Commanders have the best possible materials
for cheering their men to extraordinary exertions of duty. How
the English Admirals and Captains will acquit themselves on such
occasions I can easily conjecture. But I fancy to myself a Captain
telling them honestly that they are fighting for the Cause of
Impressment. That having been most of them impressed themselves,
in the face of every principle of Freedom, of which their Country
boasted, they must all be sensible how _just_ and how _glorious_
the right of the Press-gang is, and how clear the right of
practising it upon American Sailors as well as upon themselves must
be. I think they will not very readily recur to such arguments....
The English talk of the _Seduction_ practiced by us upon their
Seamen. There is a Seduction in the very Nature of this Cause,
which it would be strange indeed if their Seamen were insensible
to. I have heard that many of their Seamen taken by us have shown
a reluctance at being exchanged, from an unwillingness to be sent
back to be impressed again. A more admirable comment upon the
character of the War could not be imagined. Prisoners who deem it
a hardship to be exchanged! With what heart can they fight for the
principle which is to rivet the chains of their own servitude?
“I have been reading a multitude of speculations in the English
Newspapers, about the capture of their two Frigates _Guerrière_ and
_Macedonian_. They have settled it that the American forty-fours
are line of battle-ships in disguise, and that henceforth all the
frigates in the British Navy are to have the privilege of running
away from them![8] This of itself is no despicable result of the
first half-year of War. Let it be once understood as a matter of
course that every single frigate in the British Navy is to shrink
from a contest with the large American frigates, and even this will
have its effect upon the Spirits of the Tars on both sides. It
differs a little from the time when the _Guerrière_ went out with
her name painted in Capitals on her fore-topsail, in search of our
disguised line of battle-ship _President_.[9]
“But the English Admiralty have further ordered the immediate
construction of seventeen new frigates, to be disguised line of
Battle ships too. Their particular destination is to be to fight
the Americans. Their numbers will be six to one against us,
unless we too taking the hint from one success can build frigate
for frigate and meet them on their own terms; in which case if
our new ships are commanded and officered, and manned like the
_Constitution_ and the _United States_ and _Wasp_,[10] I am
persuaded they will in process of time gain one step more upon the
maxims of the British Navy, and settle it as a principle that
single English ships are not to fight Americans of equal force.
Thus much I believe it will be in their power to do. And further I
wish them never to go. I hope they will never catch the indolent
affectation of seeking Battle against superior force. An English
pretension which has been so well chastised in the fate of their
two frigates.
“Our Navy, like all our other Institutions, is formed upon the
English model. With regard to the Navy at least the superiority
of that model to all others extant is incontestable. But in the
British Navy itself there are a multitude of abuses against which
we may guard, and there are many improvements of which it is
susceptible, and for which the field is open before us. Our three
44 gun ships were originally built not as the English pretend for
line of Battle ships, but to be a little more than a match in
force to the largest European Frigates, and the experience both of
our partial War with France, in 1798 and 1799 as well as of our
present War with England has proved the wisdom of the principle
upon which they were constructed. It has been a great and momentous
question among our Statesmen whether we should have any Navy or
not. It will probably still be a great question, but Great Britain
appears determined to solve all our doubts and difficulties upon
the subject. She blockades our Coast, and is resolved to crush us
instantly upon the Ocean. We must sink without a struggle, under
her hand, or we must have a Navy....”
NAPOLEON’S RETREAT FROM MOSCOW
John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
“St. Petersburg, 30 November, 1812.
“ ... It may well be doubted whether in the compass of human
history since the Creation of the World, a greater, more sudden and
more total reverse of Fortune was ever experienced by man, than is
now exhibiting in the person of a man, whom Fortune for a previous
course of nearly twenty years had favored with a steadiness and
a prodigality equally unexampled in the annals of mankind. He
entered Russia at the head of three hundred thousand men, on the
24th of last June. On the 15th of September he took possession of
Moscow, the Russian armies having retreated before him almost as
fast as he could advance; not however without attempting to stop
him by two Battles, one of which [Borodino] was perhaps the most
bloody that had been fought for many ages. He appears really to
have concluded that all he had to do was to reach Moscow, and the
Russian Empire would be prostrate at his feet. Instead of that it
was precisely then that his serious difficulties began. Moscow
was destroyed; partly by his troops, and partly by the Russians
themselves. His Communications in his rear were continually
interrupted and harassed by separate small Detachments from the
Russian Army. His two flanks, one upon the Dvina, and the other
upon the frontier of Austria were both overpowered by superior
forces, which were drawing together and closing behind him; and
after having passed six weeks in total inaction at Moscow, he found
himself with a starving and almost naked army, eight hundred miles
from his frontier, exposed to all the rigour of a Russian Winter,
with an Army before him superior to his own and a Country behind
him already ravaged by himself, and where he had left scarcely a
possibility of any other sentiment than that of execration and
vengeance upon himself and his followers.
“He began his retreat on the 28th of October, scarcely a month
since, and at this moment, if he yet lives, he has scarcely the
ruins of an Army remaining with him. He has been pursued with all
the eagerness that could be felt by an exasperated and triumphant
Enemy. Thousands of his men have perished by famine,--thousands by
the extremity of the Season, and in the course of the last ten days
we have heard of more than thirty thousand who have laid down their
arms almost without resistance. His Cavalry is in a more dreadful
condition even than his Infantry. He has lost the greatest part
of his Artillery,--has abandoned most of the baggage of his army,
and has been even reduced to blow up his own stores of ammunition.
The two wings of the Russian Armies have formed their junction and
closed the passage to his retreat; and according to every human
probability within ten days the whole remnant of his host will be
compelled like the rest to lay down their arms and surrender at
discretion. If he has a soul capable of surviving such an Event, he
will probably be a prisoner himself.
“Should he by some extraordinary accident escape in his own person,
he has no longer a force nor the means of assembling one which can
in the slightest degree be formidable to Russia. Even before his
Career of victory had ceased, commotions against his Government
had manifested themselves in his own Capital, on a false rumour of
his death which had been circulated. Now, that if he returns at
all, it must be as a solitary fugitive, it is scarcely possible
that he should be safer at the Thuileries [_sic_], than he would
be in Russia. His allies, almost every one of whom was such upon
the bitterest compulsion, and upon whom he has brought the most
impending danger of ruin, may not content themselves merely with
deserting him. Revolutions in Germany, France, and Italy must be
the inevitable consequence of this state of things, and Russia,
whose influence in the political affairs of the World he expressly
threatened to destroy, will henceforth be the arbitress of Europe.
“It has pleased Heaven for many years to preserve this man, and
to make him prosper, as an instrument of divine wrath to scourge
mankind. His race is now run, and his own term of punishment has
commenced.--‘Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his
way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass--for
yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt
diligently consider his place and it shall not be.’ How often have
I thought of this Oracle of divine truth, with an application of
the Sentiment to this very man upon whom it is now so signally
fulfilling. And how ardently would I pray the supreme disposer of
Events that the other and more consolatory part of the same promise
may now be also near its accomplishment--‘But the _meek_ shall
inherit the Earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of
Peace.’”
John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
“St. Petersburg, 31 December, 1812.
“ ... In my last letter I gave you a sketch of the situation at
that time of Napoleon the Great. There is no Account yet that he
has personally surrendered himself;[11] but he has only saved
himself by the swiftness of his flight, which on one occasion at
least he was obliged to pursue in disguise. Of the immense host
with which six months since he invaded Russia, nine tenths at least
are prisoners, or food for worms. They have been surrendering
by ten thousands at a time, and at this Moment there are at
least one hundred and fifty thousand of them in the power of the
Emperor Alexander. From Moscow to Prussia, eight hundred miles
of road have been strewed with his Artillery, Baggage-Waggons,
Ammunition-Chests, dead and dying men who he has been forced to
abandon to their fate. Pursued all the time by three large regular
armies of a most embittered and exasperated Enemy, and by an almost
numberless militia of peasants, stung by the destruction of their
harvests and cottages which he had carried before him, and spurr’d
to Revenge at once themselves, their Country and their Religion.
To complete his disasters, the Season itself during the greatest
part of his Retreat has been unusually rigorous even for this
Northern Climate. So that it has become a sort of bye-word among
the Common People here that the two Russian Generals who have
conquered Napoleon and all his Marshals are General _Famine_ and
General _Frost_. There may be and probably is some exaggeration
in the accounts which have been received and officially published
here of the late Events; but where the realities are so certain and
so momentous the temptation to exaggerate and misrepresent almost
vanishes.
“In all human probability the Career of Napoleon’s conquests is
at an end. France can no longer give the law to the Continent of
Europe. How he will make up his account with Germany, the victim
of his former successful rashness, and with France, who rewarded
it with an Imperial Crown is now to be seen. The transition
from the condition of France in June last to her present State
is much greater than would be from the present to her defensive
campaign against the Duke of Brunswick in 1792. A new Era is
dawning upon Europe. The possibility of a more propitious prospect
is discernible; but to the great disposer of Events only is it
known whether this new Revolution is to be an opening for some
alleviation to human misery or whether it is to be only a variation
of Calamities.
“ ... I have already mentioned that the season has been unusually
rigorous. In the course of this month of December, we have had
seventeen days in succession with Fahrenheit’s thermometer almost
invariably below 0. I now write you at that temperature, and
notwithstanding the stoves and double windows my fingers can hardly
hold the pen. The Sun rises at a quarter past 9 in the morning,
and sets a quarter before 3 in the afternoon; so that we must live
almost by Candlelight. We are all literally and really sick of the
Climate. It is certainly contrary to the course of Nature, for men
of the South to invade the Regions of the North. Napoleon should
have thought of that....”
John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
“St. Petersburg, 19 July, 1813.
“ ... The Battle of Lützen[12] was claimed by both parties as a
Victory, and was here celebrated as such by a Te Deum. But in
its consequences it was the most important Victory ever won by
Bonaparte--for it proved to all Europe that France was still able
to cope with her Enemies, and even to make head against them.
A second Battle[13] three weeks after had a similar and more
unequivocal result. Between the first and second Battles Napoleon
had proposed that a Congress should be assembled at Prague in
Bohemia, to which all the powers at War, including the United
States of America, should be invited to send Plenipotentiaries
for the purpose of concluding a general Peace; and he offered to
stipulate an Armistice, during the Negotiation. After the second
Battle, Russia and Prussia, with the concurrence of Austria,
accepted the proposition for an Armistice, limited however to the
term of six weeks, probably with a view to receive the answer
from England, whether she should choose to be represented at the
Congress or not. This Armistice is now on the point of expiring,
but is said to have been prolonged for six weeks more. In the
meantime Napoleon has quartered his army upon the Territory of his
Enemy in Silesia, is levying a contribution upon Hamburg of about
ten Millions of Dollars, is doubly fortifying all his positions
upon the Elbe, and receiving continual reinforcements to be
prepared for renewing an offensive campaign. He has made sure of
the aid and support of Denmark and Saxony, and strongly confirmed
Austria in her propensities to neutrality. If the War should be
renewed his prospects, though infinitely below those with which he
invaded Russia, last Summer, will be far above those with which
he entered upon the present Campaign in April. If the Congress
should meet he will not have it in his power to give the law to
Europe; but the Peace must be in effect of reciprocal and important
concessions.
“There has nothing occurred since the commencement of the French
Revolution which has occasioned such astonishment throughout Europe
as this state of things. There are many examples in History of the
extraordinary defeat and annihilation of immensely powerful armies.
But the reappearance of a second overpowering host, within five
Months after the dissolution of the first, is I believe without a
parallel....”[14]
John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
“St. Petersburg, 19 November, 1813.
“ ... Since the renewal of the War in Germany the odds of force
have been too decisive against the French, and the catastrophe
of their Army [at Dresden and Leipsic] has been nearly equal to
that of the last year.[15] Napoleon himself has been defeated
and overpowered by the four combined armies of Austria, Russia,
Prussia and Sweden, and on the 19th of October escaped from Leipsic
leaving his ally the king of Saxony a Prisoner, more than twenty
of his Generals, and forty thousand men also prisoners, and 400
pieces of Cannon, Ammunition, baggage, etc., in proportion to the
conquerors. All his other German Allies have deserted him and taken
side against him; the Austrians are advancing in Italy, and Lord
Wellington with his English, Spaniards and Portuguese, are invading
France from the Pyrenees....”
John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams
“St. Petersburg, 24 January, 1814.
“ ... The Events of the last two years have opened a new prospect
to all Europe, and have discovered the glassy substance of the
Colossal Power of France. Had that power been acquired by Wisdom,
it might have been consolidated by Time and the most ordinary
portion of Prudence. The Emperor Napoleon says that he was
never _seduced_ by Prosperity; but when he comes to be judged
impartially by Posterity, that will not be their sentence. His
Fortune will be among the wonders of the age in which he has lived.
His Military Talent and Genius will place him high in the Rank
of Great Captains; but his intemperate Passion, his presumptuous
Insolence, and his Spanish and Russian Wars, will reduce him very
nearly to the level of ordinary Men. At all Events he will be one
of the standing examples of human Vicissitude--ranged, not among
the Alexanders, Cæsars and Charlemagnes, but among the Hannibals,
Pompeys and Charles the 12ths. I believe his Romance is drawing
towards its close; and that he will soon cease even to yield a
pretext for the War against France. England alone will be ‘afraid
of the Gunpowder Percy, though he should be dead.’”[16]
John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
“Reval, 12 May, 1814.
“ ... The Coalition of all Europe against France has at length
been crowned with complete success. The annals of the World do
not I believe furnish an example of such a reverse of Fortune as
that Nation has experienced within the last two years.[17] The
interposition of Providence to produce this mighty change has been
so signal, so peculiar, so distinct from all human co-operation,
that in ages less addicted to superstition than the present
it might have been considered as miraculous. As a Judgment of
Heaven, it will undoubtedly be considered by all pious Minds now
and hereafter, and I cannot but indulge the Hope that it opens a
Prospect of at least more Tranquility and Security to the civilized
part of Mankind than they have enjoyed the last half Century.
France for the last twenty-five Years has been the scourge of
Europe; in every change of her Government she has manifested the
same ambitious, domineering, oppressive and rapacious Spirit to
all her Neighbours. She has now fallen a wretched and helpless
victim into their hands--dethroning the Sovereign she had chosen,
and taking back the family she had expelled, at their command;
and ready to be dismembered and parceled out as the Resentment
or the Generosity of her Conquerors shall determine. The final
Result is now universally, and in a great degree justly imputable
to one Man. Had Napoleon Bonaparte, with his extraordinary Genius,
and transcendent military talents, possessed an ordinary portion
of Judgment or common Sense, France might have been for ages the
preponderating Power in Europe, and he might have transmitted to
his Posterity the most powerful Empire upon Earth, and a name
to stand by the side of Alexander, Cæsar and Charlemagne--A name
surrounded by such a blaze of Glory as to blind the eyes of all
humankind to the baseness of its origin and even to the blood with
which it would still have been polluted. But if the Catastrophe
is the work of one Man, it was the Spirit of the Times and of the
Nation, which brought forward that Man, and concentrated in his
person and character the whole issue of the Revolution. ‘Oh! it
is the Sport (says Shakespear) to see the Engineer hoist by his
own petard.’ The sufferings of Europe are compensated and avenged
in the humiliation of France.... The great danger of the present
moment appears to me to be that the policy of crippling France to
guard against her future power will be carried too far....”
MADAME DE STAËL
John Q. Adams to Thomas B. Adams
“St. Petersburg, 22d November, 1812.
“ ... Toward the close of the last summer arrived here as a sort of
semi official appendage to the British embassy an old acquaintance
of yours, Sir Francis D’Ivernois, who as you know has been for many
years a distinguished political writer in the French language and
in the Interest of the British Government. He came not I believe
with, but very soon after, the Embassador Lord Cathcart.[18] just
at the same time a lady of celebrated fame, Madame de Staël, the
daughter of Mr. Necker, was also here on a transient visit.[19]
As I had not the honor of being personally known to Madame de
Staël and as we had just received information of the American
Declaration of war against Britain, I had no expectation of having
any communication or intercourse either with the Embassador or the
lady. And I regretted this the less as my whole soul was at that
period absorbed in the distressed situation of my family.... Early
one morning I received a note from Madame de Staël, requesting me
to call on her at her lodgings that same day at noon as she wished
to speak to me on a subject respecting America.
“I went accordingly at the hour appointed and upon entering the
lady’s _salon_ found there a company of some fifteen or twenty
persons, not a soul of whom I had ever seen before. An elderly
gentleman in the full uniform of an English General was seated on
a sofa and the lady whom I immediately perceived to be Madame de
Staël was complimenting him with equal elegance and fluency upon
the glories of his nation, his countryman, Lord Wellington, and
his own. The Battle of Salamanca and the bombardment of Copenhagen
were themes upon which much was to be said and upon which she said
much.[20]
“When I went in she intermitted her discourse for a moment to
receive me and offer me a seat which I immediately took and for
about half an hour had the opportunity to admire the brilliancy of
her genius as it sparkled incessantly in her conversation. There
was something a little too broad and direct in the substance of
the panegyrics which she pronounced to allow them the claim of
refinement. There was neither disguise nor veil to cover their
naked beauties, but they were expressed with so much variety and
vivacity that the hearers had not time to examine the thread of
their texture. Lord Cathcart received the compliments pointed at
himself with becoming modesty; those to his nation with apparent
satisfaction and those to the conquest of Salamanca with silent
acquiescence. The lady insisted that the British was the most
astonishing nation of antient or modern times, the only preservers
of social order, the defenders exclusively of the liberties of
mankind, to which his lordship added that their glory was in
being a moral nation, a character which he was sure they would
always preserve. The glittering sprightliness of the Lady and
the stately gravity of the Embassador were as well contrasted as
their respective topics of praise, and if my mind had been at cast
to relish anything in the nature of an exhibition I should have
been much amused at hearing a Frenchwoman’s celebration of the
generosity of the English towards other nations and a lecture upon
national morality from the commander of the expedition Copenhagen.
[Illustration: Owned by the Century Association, New York.
Half-tone plate engraved by H. Davidson
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
FROM THE PORTRAIT, PAINTED IN 1835, BY ASHER B. DURAND]
“During this sentimental duet between the ambassador and the
Embassadress, kept my seat, merely an auditor. The rest of the
company were equally silent. Among them was an English Naval
Officer, Admiral Bentinck, since deceased. He was then quite the
chevalier d’honneur to Madame de Staël but whether the scene did
not strike him precisely as it did me or whether his feelings
resulting from it were of a more serious nature than mine the
moment it was finished he drew a very long breath and sighed it
out as if relieved from an offensive burden saying only ‘thank God
that’s over.’ He and all the rest of the company immediately after
that retired and left me tête-à-tête with Madame de Staël.
“The subject respecting America was to tell me that she had a
large sum in the American funds and to enquire whether I knew how
she could contrive to receive the interest which she had hitherto
received from England. I gave her such information as I possessed.
She had also some lands in the State of New York of which she
wished to know the value. I answered her as well as I could but her
lands and her funds did not appear to occupy much of her thoughts.