which they taught us to believe it unnecessary and beneath our dignity to make. France does not now think it beneath her dignity to propose a treaty with Russia, nor do French or English newspapers, under the direction of their Courts, think it beneath them to fill all Europe with reports of our disunion, and of the want of powers in Congress to make treaties, in order to keep us back.

The fatal policy of obstructing and delaying our treaties of commerce, especially with England, has thrown American merchants into their present distress, and not only prevented our acquiring fresh advantages in trade by the revolution, but taken from us many sources which we enjoyed before. Our countrymen, partly from penury and partly from fondness, have been too easily drawn into the snare.

J. A.

FROM JOHN ADAMS TO JOHN JAY.

Grosvenor Square, November 11, 1785.

Dear Sir,

There is no better advice to be given to the merchants of the United States than to push their commerce to the East Indies as fast and as far as it will go.

If information from persons who ought to know may be depended upon, the tobacco and peltries, as well as the ginseng of the United States, are proper articles for the China market, and have been found to answer very well, and many other of our commodities may be found in demand there. But there is another resource, which may prove of equal value at present. There are many persons in the European factories in India, particularly the English, who have accumulated large property which they wish to transmit to Europe, but have not been able to do it, on account of the distance and the scarcity of freights. These would be glad to sell us their commodities, and take our bills of exchange upon Europe or America, payable in twelve or eighteen months, possibly in longer periods.

These facts are known to individuals in America, but will probably be concealed from the public at large, lest the speculators and adventurers should be too numerous for the profit of a few.

The States may greatly encourage these enterprises by laying on duties upon the importation of all East India goods from Europe, and, indeed, by proceeding in time to prohibitions. This, however,

may never be necessary. Duties judiciously calculated, and made high enough to give a clear advantage to the direct importer from India, will answer the end as effectually as prohibitions, and are less odious, and less liable to exceptions.

We should attend to this intercourse with the East with the more ardor, because the stronger the footing we obtain in those countries, of more importance will our friendship be to the Powers of Europe who have large connexions there. The East Indies will probably be the object and the theatre of the next war, and the more familiar we are with every thing relative to that country, the more will the contending parties desire to win us to their side, or at least, what we ought to wish for most, to keep us neutral.

Much will depend upon the behavior of our people who may go into those countries. If they endeavor, by an irreproachable integrity, humanity, and civility, to conciliate the esteem of the natives, they may easily become the most favored nation, for the conduct of European nations, in general, heretofore, has given us a great advantage.

East India manufactures in silk and cotton, &c., are prohibited in England, and as we have no such prohibitions in America, because we have no such manufactures for them to interfere with, we may take them to a great advantage.

I am, &c.,

JOHN ADAMS.

Report of Secretary Jay on Mr. Adams's letter of 11th November,

1785.

Office for Foreign Affairs, May 8, 1786. The Secretary of the United States for the Department of Foreign Affairs, to whom was referred a letter from the honorable Mr. Adams of 11th November last, reports:

That the facts and observations contained in this letter appear to your Secretary to be well founded.

That Congress, for want of power to regulate trade by their own acts, can make no other use of this letter than to publish it or to refer it to the States.

That in his opinion it should not be published, lest it increase the jealousy with which our late adventures to the Indies have already inspired the nations trading thither.

That he also thinks it should not be referred to the States, because the clashing and unsystematical regulations which thirteen different States will naturally establish, must operate against national objects, and, therefore, that their interfering in national concerns, except in subordination to the Federal Government, should not be encouraged.

All which is submitted to the wisdom of Congress.

JOHN JAY.

Dear Sir,

FROM JOHN ADAMS TO JOHN JAY.

Grosvenor Square, November 24, 1785.

I was yesterday honored with your letter of the 14th of October, accompanied with the gazettes and the act of Congress of the 27th September.

You will learn from Mr. Dumas's letters, as well as by the public papers, that the treaty of defensive alliance between France and Holland was signed at Paris on the 10th of this month. The vain exertions of the Cabinet of St. James to prevent it are, so far from being a secret, that the English or Orange party, which is the same, have inserted them in their own Courier du Bas Rhin. The offers are there stated to have been the restitution of Negapatnam, the renunciation of the navigation of the Moluccas, the payment of the millions to the Emperor, the warranty of the new treaty with the Emperor, and the alteration of the navigation act in favor of Holland. Sir James Harris, with his Secretary of Legation and three clerks, are said to have been very busy, night and day; but all to no purpose. It is not at all to be wondered at that British Ministers should be alarmed; the only wonder is that they did notforesee and prevent the danger. Two years ago, by an honest settlement with America, and less costly offers to Holland, they might have maintained their rank among the Powers of Europe. It is now lost forever.

The loss of the empire of the seas, which their ambition has long aspired to, and which their arrogance has long claimed, would be a benefit to mankind, and no real evil to them; but they will now find it difficult to defend their liberty upon the seas; and if the United States of America should accede to this defensive alliance upon any

reasonable terms, think of it as they will, their navigation, their possessions in the east and west, and their Empire, will be at our mercy.

I am not informed whether Congress have any such measure in contemplation; but if they have, they ought not to delay it from any expectation of anything that I can do here. So far from entertaining any sanguine hopes, I think there is scarcely a possibility that I should do anything; there are divisions in the Ministry. Thurlow, Gower, Dundas, and Jenkinson, are of the old leaven, and the King will have them, or some other of the same stamp, to govern. Pitt is but a tool and an ostensible pageant-a nose of tender virgin wax; he could not carry in Parliament, nor in the Cabinet, any honest system with America, if he meant to do it; but he is himself very far from being steady in his American politics, any more than Camden or Richmond; and Sidney and Caermarthen are cyphers. This is naked truth, but I should be unworthy of your confidence if I did not expose it to you, although your prudence and that of Congress will not proclaim it to the world.

This great event of the French and Dutch alliance must awaken the feelings of this nation, if they have any left, and affords the only opportunity which has yet presented for offering, with any propriety, a memorial concerning the evacuation of the frontier posts. It would have looked somewhat too emphatic to have gone with a memorial the first moment of the arrival of the news, and it would be imprudent to delay it till the whole impression is worn off. As a medium, then, I have concluded on the day of the next stated conferences of the foreign Ministers, which will be next Thursday, before the drawing room, to wait on Lord Caermarthen with a memorial requiring, in the name of the United States, the evacuation of all the posts. - It will not be done, however, and I shall have no answer. They have not the courage to refuse any more than to comply. I have no answer to any of my letters or memorials to the Ministry, nor do I expect any before next spring-perhaps not then.

There is no resource for me in this nation. The people are discouraged and dispirited, from the general profligacy and want of principle; from the want of confidence in any leaders; from the frequent disappointments and impositions they have experienced in turn from all parties. Patriotism is no more, nor is any hypocrite successful enough to make himself believed to be one.

Fox and his friends and patrons are ruined by the endless expenses of the last elections, and have no longer any spirit or any enterprise.

North and his friends are afraid of impeachments and vengeance, and therefore will avoid all hazardous experiments by which the popular cry might be excited.

I see nothing, therefore, to prevent the States from completing their measures for the encouragement of their own manufactures and navigation, or from deliberating upon a new treaty of commerce with France, or even a new alliance. You might probably purchase a market for your ready-built ships, and your oil, &c., in France, and the admission of your flour, and all other things, to their islands, by stipulating to lay greater duties upon British than French ships and goods, to lay duties upon English West India rum in favor of French brandies, &c. But in these things I think we need not be in 'haste.

Mr. Barclay and Mr. Franks are gone to Morocco, and Mr. Lamb and Mr. Randall to Algiers, as I suppose.

Russia, as well as Portugal, are piqued at present with this Court, and Count Warranzow has several times lately asked a friend of mine why the United States did not make advances to his mistress. Our commissions for treating with the Powers of Europe expire next June-long before we shall have completed the business. Congress will determine whether to renew them.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

JOHN ADAMS.

FROM JOHN ADAMS TO JOHN JAY.

Grosvenor Square, November 24, 1785.

Dear Sir,

I should have added in my letter of this day that Shelburne professes to be steady to the principle which he adopted at the peace; and if he were to come in, he would do something if he could; but as an Irishman, he is hated both by the English and Scotch nobility. As Marquis of Lansdown, he is envied for his elevation over older families, and he seems to have no sufficient connexions to support a vigorous administration, nor do I learn there is any probability of his coming in.