to respect the authority of the laws, and fully convinced that the
maintenance of the department of justice in all the integrity and
impartiality which are inseparable from it, ought to form one of the
firmest supports of the supreme Power; this Sovereign, constrained by
everything which is most sacred to defend, and to protect the rights
and the privileges of its subjects, could not forget itself to such a
degree as to subscribe to the will of his Britannic Majesty, by giving
a blow to these rights and privileges, and by overleaping the bounds
prescribed by the fundamental laws of the government. These laws
required the intervention of the judiciary department, and this was
accordingly the means which the said States resolved to employ, by
requiring upon this object the advice of the Court of Justice
established in their Province. It is by following this course that
they have displayed before the eyes of his Britannic Majesty, of the
English nation, and of all Europe, the unalterable principles of
justice and equity, which characterise the Batavian Constitution, and
which in a part so important of the public administration as is that
which regards the exercise of the judiciary power, ought forever to
serve as a buckler and a rampart against everything which could hurt
the safety and the independence of a free nation; it was also by this
means, and by following this course, that very far from shutting the
road of justice, or evading the demand of punishment, they have on the
contrary, left a free course to the way of regular proceeding, and
conformable to the constitutional principles of the Republic; and it
is finally by the same means, that by taking away from the Court of
London all pretence of being able to complain of a denial of justice,
they have prevented even to the smallest shadow or appearance of
reason, which could authorise this Court to use reprisals to which,
nevertheless, it has made no scruple to recur in a manner equally
odious and unjust.
"But while the State took measures so just and so proper to remove all
subject of complaint, the measure which was the epoch of the
commencement of the rupture had already been resolved and concluded in
the Council of the King. This Council had resolved to try all sorts of
means to traverse and hinder, if it had been possible, the accession
of the Republic to the convention of the Powers of the North, and the
event has clearly demonstrated, that it is in hatred and resentment of
this convention that the said Court has suffered itself to be drawn
into the part, which it has been pleased to take against the Republic.
For these causes, and since that after the repeated outrages and
immense losses, which the subjects of the Republic must have sustained
on the part of his Majesty, the King of Great Britain, their High
Mightinesses find themselves moreover provoked and attacked by his
said Majesty, and forced to employ the means which they have in hand,
to defend and avenge the precious rights of their liberty and
independence, they assure themselves with the firmest confidence, that
the God of armies, the God of their fathers, who by the visible
direction of his Providence sustained and delivered their Republic in
the midst of the greatest dangers, will bless the means, which they
have resolved to put in operation for their lawful defence, in
crowning the justice of their arms, by the succors always triumphant
of his Almighty protection, while that their High Mightinesses will
desire with ardor the moment, when they shall see their neighbor and
their ally, now their enemy, brought back to moderate and equitable
sentiments; and at this epoch, their High Mightinesses will seize with
earnestness all events, which, compatible with the honor and
independence of a free State, may tend to reconcile them with their
ancient friend and ally.
"Thus done and resolved at the Assembly of their High Mightinesses,
the Lords the States-General of the United Provinces of the Low
Countries, at the Hague, the 12th of March, 1781."
It is remarkable, that their High Mightinesses, after so many delays,
have chosen for the publication of this Manifesto, a time when the
mediation of the Empress is depending. This mediation appears in a
memorial, presented the 1st of March to the States-General, in these
words.
"High and Mighty Lords.--As soon as her Majesty, the Empress, was
informed of the sudden departure from the Hague of the Ambassador of
his Britannic Majesty to your High Mightinesses, guided by the
sentiments of friendship and benevolence, which she professes towards
the two powers, she did not wait for further explanations, concerning
the consequences, which might be produced by a procedure so alarming
for their reciprocal tranquillity and well-being, to make by her
Minister at the Court of London representations the most pressing, to
the end to divert it, if it were possible, from coming to violent
measures, and to induce it rather to prefer those of softness and
conciliation, offering herself to co-operate in everything which might
depend upon her. Although her Majesty has not yet had the time to
receive the answer of the Court of London, she has, nevertheless,
reason to presume, that her insinuations there will be received with
pleasure.
In this confidence, the Empress does not hesitate to give a new proof
of her salutary intentions in favor of the reunion of two States, for
whom she has an equal affection, and whom she has seen for so long a
time live together in an intelligence the most perfect, and the most
natural to their respective interests, by proposing to them formally
her good offices and her mediation, to interrupt and put an entire end
to the discord and the war, which has broken out between them. While
M. Simolin, the Minister of the Empress at the Court of London,
acquits himself of the orders, which she has given him concerning this
object, the undersigned has the honor to fulfil the same task, on his
part, towards your High Mightinesses, and to assure you of the zeal
and earnestness with which he should desire to labor at the precious
work of the re-establishment of the repose and the tranquillity of
your State. The disinterestedness, the impartiality, and the views of
general beneficence, which have instamped their seal upon all the
actions of her Imperial Majesty, preside equally in this. The wisdom
and the prudence of your High Mightinesses will know how to
acknowledge in her these august characters, and will dictate the
answer, which the subscriber will have to transmit to her, concerning
the execution of his orders.
"The Hague, March 1st, 1781.
THE PRINCE DE GALLITZIN."
The offer of mediation was accepted by their High Mightinesses with
gratitude.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
* * * * *
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Leyden, March 19th, 1781.
Sir,
I have received your Excellency's letter of the 1st of January, with
the commission and instructions enclosed.[14] I am very sensible of
this fresh instance of the confidence of Congress, and shall do
everything in my power to discharge the duties of this new trust; but
I am obliged to say, that no commission that ever was given, required
more patience, fortitude, and circumspection than this, virtues which
I much fear have not fallen in sufficient quantities to my share.
[14] Appointing him Minister Plenipotentiary to the States-General of
Holland and the Prince of Orange. See the Commission, Instructions,
and Letters of Credence, in the _Secret Journals of Congress_. Vol.
II. pp. 376, 377, 391.
I have experienced since my residence in this Republic, a great change
in the external behavior of several persons of rank, who upon my first
arrival received me with distinction, but from the moment of the
publication of the papers taken with Mr Laurens, have been afraid to
see me. The nation has indeed been in a violent fermentation and
crisis. It is divided in sentiments. There are Stadtholderians and
Republicans; there are proprietors in English funds, and persons
immediately engaged in commerce; there are enthusiasts for peace and
alliance with England; and there are advocates for an alliance with
France, Spain, and America; and there is a third sort who are for
adhering in all things to Russia, Sweden, and Denmark; some are for
acknowledging American independence, and entering into treaties of
commerce and alliance with her; others start at the idea with horror,
as an everlasting impediment to a return to the friendship and
alliance with England; some will not augment the navy without
increasing the army; others will let the navy be neglected rather than
augment the army.
In this perfect chaos of sentiments and systems, principles and
interests, it is no wonder there is languor, a weakness and
irresolution, that is vastly dangerous in the present circumstances of
affairs. The danger lies not more in the hostile designs and exertions
of the English, than in the prospect of seditions and commotions among
the people, which are every day dreaded and expected. If it were not
for a standing army, and troops posted about in several cities, it is
probable there would have been popular tumults before now; but
everybody that I see, appears to me to live in constant fear of mobs,
and in a great degree of uncertainty whether they will rise in favor
of war or against it; in favor of England or against it; in favor of
the Prince or of the city of Amsterdam; in favor of America or against
it. I have ventured in the midst of these critical circumstances,
pressed as I am to get money to discharge the bills of exchange, which
Congress have drawn and I have accepted, to open a loan; but this is
looked upon as a very hardy and dangerous measure, which nobody but an
American would have risked, and I am obliged to assure Congress, that
people are as yet so much afraid of being pointed out by the mob or
the soldiery, as favorers of this loan, that I have no hopes at all of
succeeding for several months, if ever.
I have been advised to do nothing, in consequence of my commission, to
the States at present, for fear of throwing before the people new
objects of division and dissension. I have, however, communicated to
their High Mightinesses, and to the Ministers of Russia, Denmark,
Sweden, and France, the resolution of Congress, of the 5th of October,
relative to the principles of the neutral confederation. The memorial
and letters I have transmitted to Congress.[15]
[15] See the Memorial and these Letters above, pp. 448, 449, 450.
Whenever I shall communicate to their High Mightinesses the full
powers of Congress, the course will be this. They will lie long upon
the table, then taken _ad referendum_, that is, sent to the several
Provinces, cities, and bodies of nobles, who compose the sovereignty,
or as some say, the deputies of the sovereignty; these will
deliberate, and deliberate, and deliberate, and probably some will be
for, and some against making a treaty, at least it is supposed that
Zealand and one or two other Provinces will be against it. But in the
meantime, there will be much communication and negotiation among
individuals at least, between this country and Russia, Sweden and
Denmark upon the subject; and if it is true, as I am informed in a
letter from Mr Gerry, that a Minister is appointed to the Court of
Petersburg, as I hope it is, and that the same Minister, or some
other, is empowered to treat with Sweden and Denmark, it is not
impossible, I think it indeed probable, that we may succeed with these
four nations at once; for let me add, there is not in my apprehension
the least prospect of a general peace. England is at her old game of
seduction and division, and is laboring under the pretence of
employing the Emperor of Germany and the Empress of Russia in
mediations for peace, insidiously to embroil all Europe in the war.
From motives of philanthropy, I hope she will not succeed, unless the
same feelings of humanity should prompt me to wish all mankind at war
with that nation, for her humiliation, which is at this time, if ever
one was, _Hostis humani generis_.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
* * * * *
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Leyden, March 29th, 1781.
Sir,
The Baron de Lynden, Envoy Extraordinary from their High Mightinesses
at the Court of Stockholm, had, about the 28th of February, a
conference with the Count Ulrich Scheffer, to whom he presented, on
the part of his masters, a Memorial too important to be omitted. It is
as follows.
"The subscriber, Minister Extraordinary of their High Mightinesses,
the States-General of the United Provinces, to his Majesty, the King
of Sweden, by express orders received from his masters, has the honor
to propose to his Majesty,
"That their High Mightinesses, by their resolution of the 20th of
November, having acceded to the confederation of the armed neutrality,
according to the invitation given by the powers of the North, placing
the most perfect confidence in the power, the magnanimity, and the
fidelity of their Imperial and Royal Majesties, for fulfilling their
engagements, and maintaining their dignity, by completing a work so
gloriously undertaken, to wit, the liberty of the seas for neutral
nations, did not suffer themselves to be diverted by the consideration
of the consequences, which this accession and this declaration might
draw upon the Republic from the part of the belligerent powers; but
their High Mightinesses declared themselves for this accession and
this declaration, relying, without reserve, upon the sentiments of
their Imperial and Royal Majesties, which they manifested in the
season, by the steps taken in this respect.
"That the event has entirely justified the instances of their High
Mightinesses in regard to the British Court, since its Minister, after
several vain attempts tending to impede the accession to the alliance
in question, resolved, from the time when he had the first intimation
of it, to speak a language altogether unheard of, and such as is
scarcely agreeable to those respects, which sovereigns respectively
owe each other, without allowing to the Republic the time necessary to
take the affair into deliberation, conformably to a political system,
which his Britannic Majesty fully understands; the Minister,
nevertheless, insisting on a prompt and immediate satisfaction, and
the punishment of a pretended offence, occasioned by the discovery of
a negotiation with North America, without being satisfied by the
provisional answer, or by the formal disavowal of their High
Mightinesses touching the said negotiation, in which, as his Britannic
Majesty has acknowledged, they had in nowise participated, nor had any
knowledge of it; a negotiation relative to a pretended treaty, which,
at the first glance of the eye, indicates sufficiently by its proper
terms, to be nothing more than a project of an eventual treaty made by
certain individuals, without being formally authorised thereto by the
magistrates of Amsterdam, as a body, nor by the States of the
Provinces of Holland, and still less by the States-General, who alone
are authorised to contract engagements in the name of the Republic.
The Minister in question refused even to accept the resolution, which
enjoined on the Court of Holland, (the Province, which alone this
affair concerns,) to deliberate, whether the laws of the country could
authorise to pursue in justice the persons accused, and to punish
them? A formality, without which no punishment can be inflicted,
either in England, in this Republic, or in any other country. This
Minister added menaces, that his Sovereign would procure for himself
the satisfaction demanded; he was, at the same time, determined to
attack the Republic by surprise, and to precipitate so violently the
measures taken to commence hostilities, that my Lord Stormont, making
use of vain pretences, would not even accept, on the part of the Count
de Welderen, the said declaration, and answered him in writing, that
he could not consider him any longer as the Minister of a friendly
power, after having announced to him officially the manifesto of the
King; while the same manifesto, which is remarkable, was sent to the
Count do Welderen one hour before the time fixed the evening before by
Lord Stormont, after repeated requests to have a conversation with
him.
"Besides, although in the manifesto in question, they make no mention
of the accession of the Republic to the armed confederacy, (which it
was necessary most carefully to pass over in silence,) it appears,
however, distinctly to the penetrating eye of your Majesty, as well as
to that of all Europe, if they will compare together the whole
progress of this action, the time and the manner, in which the
Manifesto was published, that the hatred occasioned by the accession
of the Republic to the armed neutrality, is the true motive of the
resentment of his Britannic Majesty, and has prompted him to a
manifest aggression against the Republic, by capturing immediately a
great number of merchant vessels belonging to her subjects, as well as
some vessels of war. Besides, that this same Manifesto, known to your
Majesty, discovers sufficiently the original of this hatred;
considering, that among the pretended causes of offence serving to
justify the hostile measures against the Republic, they there allege,
that she has declared herself neuter. The Cabinet of St James,
disdaining to observe, that this answer ought to offend the Powers of
the North, to whom the treaties subsisting between England and the
Republic are perfectly known, and that these powers could not be taxed
with concluding a treaty of neutrality with a power, which they had
not judged to be lawfully neuter in the present war, and without
observing, that this liberty of negotiating has been by England
herself put out of all doubt, since by her suspension of the treaty
of 1674, made the 17th of April, 1780, she has declared, that she
would hereafter regard the Republic as a neutral power, not advantaged
by any treaty.
"That in virtue of the reasons alleged, the hatred of Great Britain
pierces, still more visibly, through the reproach inserted in the said
Manifesto against the Republic, that she has advanced and favored the
transportation of naval stores to France, by the suspension of duties
upon those effects; at the same time, that it appears, that this
suspension has never taken place, and that the Republic has a well
founded right to make this transportation, not only during the
continuance of the treaty of 1674, but also according to the principle
prescribed to the neutral powers by the convention of the
confederation; that a further examination of this manifesto should be
superfluous, since his Majesty may himself estimate its value, and
must, moreover, be convinced, that the conduct of their High
Mightinesses, observed from the commencement of the troubles in regard
to America, has evidently proved, that they have in nowise favored the
revolted Colonies of America; witness the condescension in favor of
England, to which the Republic was not obliged by the shackles imposed
upon the commerce of her Colonies, by the prohibition to take under
convoy vessels loaded with ship-timber, and by the recall of the
Governor of St Eustatia, upon the ill founded complaints of the
British Ministry; condescensions, which have been rewarded by the
attack and capture of the convoy sailing under the command of Count de
Byland, by a violation of the territory of the Republic, and by the
capture of American ships under the cannon of St Martins. That since
their High Mightinesses have faithfully observed this system of
moderation, it is manifest, that the resentment of his Britannic
Majesty cannot be regarded, but as an effect of a resentment
occasioned by the engagement taken for the neutrality, and to this
effect their High Mightinesses are well founded to claim the tenor and
the sense of the articles seventh, eighth, and ninth of that alliance,
which forms the basis of the union of the neutrality contracted with
their Imperial and Royal Majesties; that thus, there ought not to
exist any further difficulty in fulfilling towards their High
Mightinesses, become allies, the engagements, which are contracted in
virtue of the known convention, of which they ought to be regarded as
members, at the very moment even when this convention has been formed
and concluded by their High Mightinesses at the Hague, and when their
declaration has been despatched to the belligerent powers, conformably
to the said accession and convention.
"That if their High Mightinesses had occasion to complain of a single
act of offence, or attack committed against them, and liable to be
redressed upon general representations to their allies, they would
have demanded their intervention for the redress of such a grievance,
rather than to have recourse to arms; but as at present their High
Mightinesses see themselves positively attacked by his Britannic
Majesty, on occasion and in resentment of the aforesaid alliance, they
find themselves obliged to defend themselves, and to repel the attack
in the same manner in which it has been made, by returning hostilities
for hostilities; being moreover persuaded, that the allied powers will
not make any difficulty to make common cause with them, to procure to
the Republic the satisfaction and indemnification of the losses
sustained, by an attack as unjust as it is violent, and that the
allies will concur with their High Mightinesses, in taking such
further arrangements as the present circumstances require. This is
what their High Mightinesses solicit earnestly, expecting it with so
much more confidence, as they are intimately convinced that the
generous and equitable sentiments which animate their Imperial and
Royal Majesties will prevent them from suffering the Republic to
become the victim of a political system as glorious as it is
equitable, conceived for the maintenance of the safety and the right
of neuters, while the Republic alone exposed to all the violence of
this unjust attack of England, might with difficulty make head against
it, and thereby run the risk of becoming entirely useless to the
confederation.
"For these causes, the undersigned insisted upon the motives alleged
above, fully convinced that the ratifications of the treaty signed at
Petersburg will be made as soon as possible, and he has the honor, in
the name and by the express order of his masters to demand the
accomplishment of the articles seventh, eighth, and ninth of the said
treaty, and to require in virtue of it a prompt and sufficient succor
of his Majesty, whose equitable and magnanimous sentiments, known to
all Europe, will not permit him to abandon a work worthy of all
praise.
"The friendship and affection of your Majesty towards their High
Mightinesses, appear to assure them beforehand of the succors which
they expect from his Majesty, and to promise to the subscriber an
answer as prompt as satisfactory, which he ought to press with so much
the more zeal, as every moment of delay occasions great and
irreparable losses to the Republic.
D. W. VAN LYNDEN."
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
* * * * *
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Leyden, March 29th, 1781.
Sir,
It is of importance to the people of America to observe how much
lighter their own burthens are than those of their enemies, and for
this reason I have every year since I have been in Europe taken notice
of the new taxes laid, annually, in perpetuity upon the people of
Great Britain by Parliament, in support of tyranny, in addition to all
former debts and taxes. One sixth part of the new taxes of this year
would be more than sufficient to pay the interest of the whole sum
which America will expend this year in support of liberty. The new
taxes consist in an additional duty of five per cent upon all articles
subject to the duty of excise, except malt, soap, and candles, and
green leather,
valued at £150,000 sterling.
Seven per cent upon the drawbacks
at the custom-house, 167,000
An additional duty of one penny three
farthings upon each pound of tobacco, 61,000
A duty of a halfpenny upon each pound
of sugar, 326,000
-------
704,000