A Century of American Diplomacy. John W. Foster
the Tower of London. John Adams, who had been commissioned to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain and was then in Paris awaiting a favorable time to discharge his mission, was substituted for Laurens. While waiting in Paris, Adams entered into correspondence with Vergennes, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which he criticised rather severely the
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"M, de Vergennes, who appears much offended, told me yesterday that he would enter into no further dis- cussions with Mr. Adams, nor answer any more of his letters. He is gone to Holland, to try, as he told me, whether something might not be done to render us a little less dependent on France. He says, the ideas of the court, and those of the people of America, are so totally different, as that it is impossible for any minister to please both. He ought to know America better than I do, having been there lately; and he may choose to do what he thinks will best please the people of America : but when I consider the expressions of Congress in many of their public acts, and particularly in their letter to the Chevalier de la Luzerne, of the 24th of May last, I cannot but imagine that he mistakes the sentiments of a few for a general opinion. It is my intention, while I stay here, to procure what advantages I can for our country by endeavoring to please this court." *
It is understood that the correspondence occasioned a violent discussion in Congress, and it is known the president of that body sent Mr. Adams a mild reproof; but it never withdrew its confidence from him, and he continued to hold the most important diplomatic posi- tions. He defended his diplomatic conduct to the president of Congress, 2 contrasting his course with " veterans in diplomatics " by referring to himself as "the militia" which "sometimes gain victories over regular troops even by departing from the rules. … I have long since learned that a man may give offense to a court to which he is sent and yet succeed." His
1 4 Dip. Cor. Rev. 22. 2 5 Ib. 196, 197.
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distorted view of his duty in this capacity is shown in this declaration, made sometime after the treaty of peace had been signed : " No man will ever be pleasing at a court in general who is not depraved in his morals or warped from your (his) country's interests." No wonder Vergennes should have been moved in his letter to Franklin to ask him to have Congress consider whether " he is endowed with that conciliating spirit which is necessary for the important and delicate business with which he is intrusted " to wit, negotiating peace with Great Britain. 1 Franklin suggested to Adams, in view of the great offense his letters had given Vergennes, that if the offensive remarks were the effects of inad- vertence he might write something effacing the impres- sions made by them; 2 but Adams declined to act on the suggestion. One may well conjecture what might have been the fate of the Revolutionary struggle if Adams had been our sole representative in Paris. It is due to him to say that when he became President he acted on different principles and his appointments to diplomatic posts were made with wisdom and care.
His usefulness was for the time being ended in Paris, and it was doubtless a relief to him, as it must have been to Vergennes and Franklin, soon to take his de- parture for Amsterdam. He found his task in Holland a difficult and tedious one, but he entered upon it with the zeal and devotedness which so marked his character; and after more than two years of effort his labors were crowned by a treaty of commerce, which was especially valuable as a recognition of the independence of the 1 4 Ib. 18. * 4 Ib. 87.
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Colonies, and made more easy the loans which were greatly needed. There were other reasons than the immediate political necessities which made the most friendly relations with the Dutch very welcome to the Colonies. Out of that country had sprung the most enlightened and liberal principles of international law, which found in America the most efficient champion. The Puritan forefathers brought with them to New England, not only a grateful memory of their refuge and hospitality, but of the lessons of liberty and govern- ment taught them; and various of the Colonies had received a most valuable contingent of its population from the Netherlands. For all these reasons the recog- nition of our independence by Holland, though tardy, was most welcome.
Mr. Adams was much elated with his success in Holland, and in his dispatches he did not conceal his satisfaction. He reports how one foreign minister told him: "Sir, you have struck the greatest blow of all Europe. It is the greatest blow that has been struck in the American cause, and the most decisive; " and how another said that " Mr. Adams was the Washing- ton of negotiation. A few of these compliments," he adds, " would kill Franklin if they should come to his ears." l By such glimpses of our early history we learn that the great founders of the Kepublic were not demigods, but men of like passions with ourselves.
The quotations just cited appeared in the diary which was transmitted by Mr. Adams to Congress with one of his dispatches, and according to custom they were being
i 3 J. Adams's Works, 309.
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read to that body, when his friends interposed and had the diary omitted. A delegate from Massachusetts, reporting to Adams the occurrence, wrote : " It was too minute for the delicacy of several of the gentlemen. They appeared very much disposed to make it appear ridiculous." l Hamilton, then a delegate, in giving an account of the event, said the reading of the diary " extremely embarrassed his friends, especially the dele- gates of Massachusetts, who more than once interrupted it, and at last succeeded in putting a stop to it, on the suggestion that it bore the marks of a private and confidential paper, … and never could have been designed as a public document for the inspection of Congress. The good-humor of that body yielded to the suggestion." 2 The editor of the " Works of John Adams " says the diary was sent to Congress by mistake, as it was Mr. Adams's intention to mail it to a Massachu- setts delegate for unofficial information. 3
Between the date of the Declaration of Independence and the opening of negotiations for peace with Great Britain, various American diplomatic agents had been sent by Congress to solicit recognition from European powers. Keference has been made 4 to the opposite views held in Congress, at the beginning of the struggle, as to the conduct of our foreign relations. Franklin had strongly advised against sending ministers to any European court until some intimation had been obtained that they would be received, but the contrary course had been pursued to the humiliation and injury, in some
1 1 Dip. Cor. Rev. 510. 2 6 Hamilton's Works (Lodge), 396.
3 J. Adams's Works, 349. Infra, p. 9.
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cases, of the cause of independence. Arthur Lee had made an ineffectual attempt to go to Madrid, as he had been turned back by the Spanish government; and he received little less civil treatment at Berlin. William Lee had been kept away from both Vienna and Berlin, to which places he was accredited, never having got nearer to either capital than Frankfort. Mr. Izard, who was appointed to Tuscany, was refused permission to go to Italy, and remained in Paris. Mr. Jay's unsuccessful mission to Spain has been already noticed. Mr. Dana spent two years in St. Petersburg, ignored by the court, living in obscurity and experiencing nothing but humiliation and failure. In Paris alone did the American representatives find a welcome, and there they congregated, waiting a more favorable turn of ^events. These idle ministers and their secretaries were a constant drain upon the scanty treasury, but a still more serious injury to the cause in their constant inter- ference with the duties of the accredited minister, Dr. Franklin.
The two Lees and Izard, especially chagrined at their own failure, seemed envious of Franklin and lost no opportunity to manifest their enmity to him, who eclipsed all of them in his fame and acceptability in political and social circles. A French writer of the day, in his description of the court, has this to say : " Frank- lin appeared at court in the dress of an American culti- vator. His straight, unpowdered hair, his round hat, his brown coat, formed a contrast with the laced and embroidered coats, and the powdered and perfumed heads of the courtiers of Versailles. This novelty
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turned the enthusiastic heads of the French women. Elegant entertainments were given to Dr. Franklin, who, to the reputation of a philosopher, added the patriotic virtues which had invested him with the noble character of an Apostle of Liberty. I was present at one of these entertainments, when the