I advise the sending a minister to each; if he succeeds, well; if not, we shall have nothing to reproach ourselves. We shall have done our duty and all that was in our power. I wait with impatience for the ratification of my last loan in Holland and for orders what to do with near a million of guilders in the hands of your bankers at Amsterdam. You will remember I have run you in debt near seven hundred thousand pounds sterling, that you have received in dollars or drawn bills for it at an advantageous exchange. I hope you have spent it wisely; but whether you have or not you ought to take measures to pay the interest. My Dutch friends will throw me into one of their canals if you don't fulfil my engagements. My respects to your colleagues, and believe me your faithful friend and very humble servant, JOHN ADAMS. Hon. Elbridge Gerry, Esq. THE SAME TO THE SAME. BATH HOTEL, WESTMINSTERr, June 26, 1785. DEAR SIR, I have not time now to answer particularly two or three letters which I have received from you. You will give me great pleasure by persuading Mr. King to write to me. I have heard a great character of him, and what is more, a good one. I enclose you a pamphlet concerning the intercourse between North America and the sugar colonies. I have met with a public reception here as respectful and honourable as possible, but I am not deceived by all that into a belief that we shall soon obtain what we want. There is a reserve, which signifies more to me than many fine speeches and pompous ceremonies. I shall soon write more fully. Adieu. Mr. Gerry. JOHN ADAMS, THE SAME TO THE SAME. DEAR SIR, GROSVENOR SQUARE, AUG. 26, 1785. You will have seen by my public despatches what prospects we have of any sudden arrangement with this country. I may be more free in a letter to you than I have been in the public letters to Mr. Jay. There is a mysterious reserve among the ministers, which indicates either a want of unanimity among them or a dissatisfaction towards us, or a timidity arising from the prejudices and passions of the na I am really at a loss to conjecture whether I shall get any answer from them at all, or whether I shall have an answer full of complaints of departures from the treaty on our side, and insisting on a full compliance on our part, as a condition precedent to any further measures on theirs. There is nothing for me to do but to exercise patience, reminding them however from time to time that I expect an answer. If the answer comes loaded with complaints I shall answer them provisionally, as far as I am clear, but if there is any matter in which I am not fully informed, or of too grave a nature for me to take upon myself, I shall take time to obtain the instructions of congress. I have no hopes of their agreeing to a treaty of commerce or of their proposing one such as I can agree to. Every treaty of commerce proposed by them will be proposed only subject to the approbation of parliament, and I am afraid that all other parties would unite to defeat the present ministers in any treaty of commerce, in order to obtain another triumph like the vote against the peace in Shelburne's time, and like the late rejection in Ireland of the twenty resolutions. Mr. Pitt indeed declares to me that he does not wish merely to lessen our navigation, but the nation is not of his mind in my opinion. There is a national duplicity that is astonishing in their publications and speeches: they affect to think lightly of America, but they betray in many ways a dread of us; an I opinion that a great rival nation has risen up like a mushroom on the other side the Atlantic, against them. I don't believe that an equal treaty of commerce could be carried through parliament. may be mistaken, but in all events it is safest for the United States to persevere in their plans to do themselves justice. The Massachusetts never struck a deeper stroke than by their late navigation act. I hope it will be followed by all the other states, but if it should not be followed by any one I hope they will persist in it. They would become by means of it both manufacturers and carriers for others. I may be out in all my conjectures, but I am not without suspicions that the ministry will make me some propositions, or give, as of their own motion, some facilities in trade upon the old principle of divide et impera. They may flatter themselves, as their predecessors have so, often done, that by giving way a little they can divide us, and prevent the other states from making acts of navigation or agreeing in any other plan. I hope the Massachusetts, with all those who will join her, in her present system will stand firm. What do you think of granting a bounty by the Massachusetts upon oil equal to the British alien duty, and laying on imposts on British manufactures for the express purpose of paying it? My duty here will oblige me, most probably, to counteract as far as I can the prejudices of the nation and the views of the ministers so constantly that I shall neither have their trumpeters to support my reputation nor their candour to forgive my errours. They will never get any just ground of complaint against me. I will behave towards them in character, but I will do my duty to young Samson, and constantly advise him to preserve his locks. There will still be insinuations in con gress, I doubt not. Let me beg of you and your friend Mr. King to inform me, that I may not be ignorant of every thing that passes relative to myself as I have been heretofore for many years together. Mr. Jefferson and I are half distracted on account of Mr. Lambe, of whom we hear nothing. We have thought of sending Mr. Barclay to Barbary, but must wait a little longer for Lambe. Congress should send a commission to Mr. Barclay if he goes. I am, my dear sir, ever your's, Hon. Mr. Gerry. P. S. I hear of Gallicans and Anti-Gallicans, of British and Anti-British influence in America. I hope there are no such interests there. I think we should be impartial as far as our treaty with France will allow us, and no farther. But it would be very unwise to have any Anti-Gallican or Anti-British parties or partisans. We certainly |