Title: [Personal Expenditures, February–July 1780.]
From: Adams, John
To:

     The Dates of Receipts, by whom given and for what Sums.

      1780

      £
      s
      d

      Feby.
      13th.
      Joseph Stevens for three Month Wages. 30 Dolls.
      150:
      0:
      0

      15th.
      John Thaxter for thirty Louis D’Ors on Account
      720:
      0:
      0

      15th.
      Joseph Stevens for Sundries bo’t
      31:
      4:
      0

      14th.
      C. Hochereau for Books
      19:
      10:
      0

      16.
      Mr. Morbut for Bread & Butter
      10:
      16:
      0

      19.
      Auris for Hats
      63:
      0:
      0

      21st.
      De Montigny for Courier de L’Europe, & Hague Gazette
      84:
      0:
      0

      21st.
      Arnoux for Gazette de France
      12:
      0:
      0

      21st.
      Panckoucks, for Mercure de France
      30:
      0:
      0

      26th.
      Montagne for Cheese, Prunes &c.
      39:
      2:
      0

      March
      2
      Dinner at Versailles
      12:
      4:
      0

      6
      De Montigny for the Gazettes of Leide and Amsterdam
      78:
      0:
      0

      Books
      82:
      10:
      0

      8.
      Hill for Cloaths
      681:
      15:
      0

      Hochereau for Books
      17:
      6:
      0

      9.
      Madame Ruel the Traiteur for Provisions
      400:
      0:
      0

      Mademoiselle Carnu for Handkerfs. Ruffles & Stocks
      154:
      10:
      0

      Joseph Stevens for one Month’s Wages ending 13th. of March
      50:
      0:
      0

      Miston (Peruquier) for Wigs and dressing
      67:
      4:
      0

      St. Clair (Caffee) for Tea, Milk, Bread and Butter
      78:
      1:
      0

      Joseph Stevens for Sundries bo’t
      55:
      10:
      0

      Coquelle for Washing, Postage of Letters &c.
      27:
      10:
      0

      Parmentiers for Rent of his House, Wood & Wine
      542:
      14:
      0

      John Thaxter for ten Louis D’Ors on Acct.
      240:
      0:
      0

      Washerwoman
      2:
      10:
      0

      Pacquenot for Wine
      26:
      0:
      0

      John Thaxter for Tea and Sugar
      21:
      15:
      0

      Griffon For Books and Paper
      61:
      2:
      0

      Omitted, paid Mr. Dana for one Dozen of Tea Spoons
      95:
      6:
      8

      13th.
      Gouyot for Carriage and Horses one month
      360:
      0:
      0

      13th.
      Gerante for two Pieces of Wine
      250:
      0:
      0

      10.
      Paid for half a Dozen Stocks, @ 3:10:0
      21:
      0:
      0

      De la vals Rect for Tea, Sugar, Raisins Candles and Flambeau
      28:
      14:
      0

      Backelier Epicier for Dutch Cheese
      4:
      1:
      0

      11
      Paid Subscription for the Philosophicand politic History of the two Indies
      24:
      0:
      0

      12
      Paid for M. Moreaus Discourses on the History of France 9. Vol.
      41:
      0:
      0

      17.
      Paid Mazars for Shoes and Boots
      54:
      0:
      0

      Paid for Sewing Silk 6 Ozs.
      18:
      0:
      0

      Paid for the hire of a Carriage three Days & Coachman
      39:
      12:
      0

      19
      Hochereau for Books—Theatre D’Education 4 Vol. bound
      24:
      0:
      0

      Dto. for Postage of a Letter
      1:
      0:
      0

      Paid for the American Atlas, Pilot &c. in one Volume 4 1/2 Louis
      108:
      0:
      0

      Paid the Abbè Chalut’s Servt. for Corks, Shot & bottleing Wine
      7:
      10:
      0

      20
      Paid for four Quires of Cartridge Paper
      10:
      0:
      0

      Paid Piebot Epicier, for Tea, Sugar &c.
      21:
      10:
      6

      Paid Hochereau Bookseller, 30 Louis D’ors, towards the Payment for La Description des Arts et Metiers, in 18 Volumes in Folio, for which I was to  give him 750 Liv. and for the Encyclopedia in 39 Volumes in Quarto for which I was to give him 360 Livres
      720:
      0:
      0

      21
      Paid Pissot for a Grammar of french Verbs, and for Nugents Dictionary
      7:
      10:
      0

      Paid for two Pair of black Silk Stockings one Louis D’or.
      24:
      0:
      0

      Paid for a Purse
      3:
      0:
      0

      22d.
      Paid Pissot for another Grammar of French Verbs
      3:
      0:
      0

      Paid Dto. for The Abbè de Mablys Droits public L’Europe
      6:
      0:
      0

      Paid the Coachman for three day’s driving
      3:
      12:
      0

      23
      Paid Daniel, Engraver for two Seals
      42:
      0:
      0

      Paid Mr. Langlois for Carriage three Days
      36:
      0:
      0

      24
      Paid for 6 yds. Silk 6 Liv. each and 2 oz black sewing Silk, —Fleury
      42:
      0:
      0

      29
      Paid for the Works of Tacitus with a French Transn.
      21:
      0:
      0

      Paid for the Latin Dicty. of Robert Stephens
      48:
      0:
      0

      Paid for the Eulogium of M: Colbert by Mr. Neckar
      1:
      16:
      0

      Paid for the Journal of Paris
      24:
      0:
      0

      Paid for Domats civil Law 26. Liv. and the Voyage Pitoresque de Paris et des Environs 8
      34:
      0:
      0

      April
      1.
      Paid for two Trunks £ 40 for a large one and 12 for the Small
      52:
      0:
      0

      2
      Paid for Duties and Waggonage of a Cask of old red wine of Tonnere. Feuillette de vieux vin rouge de Tonnere.
      39:
      16:

      4
      Paid for Chocolat Wine &c.
      20:
      9:
      0

      5.
      Paid for Tea, Almonds &c.
      23:
      3:
      9

      6.
      Paid Hochereau for Books. D’Aguesseau, Cochin and Dictionaire D’Histoire naturell.
      647:
      0:
      0

      Paid Hill the Tayler one Bill
      144:
      10:
      0

      another
      223:
      0:
      0

      7.
      Paid Chevr. O’Gormon for a Piece of Wine
      150:
      0:
      0

      Paid for Raynals Works and a Voyage thro France
      24:
      0:
      0

      7.
      Paid for 2 Pieces d’Indien and for Ruffles Necks &c.
      153:
      0:
      0

      9
      Paid for Dictionaire de l’orthographie
      7:
      0:
      0

      10
      Paid for Caffees Account for the last Month
      18:
      13:
      0

      Paid Hochereaus Account for Books
      188:
      0:
      0

      12.
      Paid for the House Rent and furniture, Bottles, Wine &c.
      576:
      17:
      0

      Paid Pacquenot for Wine
      10:
      0:
      0

      Paid Dalley the Baker
      15:
      0:
      0

      Paid Coquelle the Washerwoman
      9:
      0:
      0

      Paid Do. for Postage of Letters
      23:
      18:
      0

      Paid J. Thaxter on Account
      240:
      0:
      0

      Paid Do. for Money lent
      26:
      8:
      0

      Paid Joseph Stevens one Months Wages ending the 13th. of April
      52:
      10:
      0

      Paid Do. for Sundries bo’t by him
      60:
      1:
      6

      Paid Ruelle Traiteur
      428:
      0:
      0

      13
      Paid Hochereau for the Corps diplomatique &c.
      940:
      0:
      0

      15
      Paid Piebot for Cheese & Tea
      56:
      13:
      6

      20
      Paid for two Pair of Black Silk Stockings
      24:
      0:
      0

      26
      Paid for 30 days hire of the Coach, Horses, Coachman &. 15 Louis
      360:
      0:
      0

      Sent by Captn. C. to Mr. D. in London to pay for Pamphlets &c. 4 Louis
      096:
      0:
      0

      Gave my Son to pay for La Fontaines Fables and for his Brother & S. Cooper at the Comedy
      6:
      0:
      0

      Paid for La Fontaines Fables for Charles
      2:
      10:
      0

      28
      Paid for Singing Birds and Cages
      35:
      10:
      0

      May
      1
      Gave at Biçetre, the bedlam of Paris
      9:
      0:
      0

      2
      Paid for a Pound of black sealing Wax, a Pound of red, and a blank Letter Book
      22:
      0:
      0

      Paid Subscription for the Journal des Scavans
      16:
      0:
      0

      5
      Paid Dt. for Annales Politiques, Civiles, et literaires
      48:
      0:
      0

      Paid the Garçon
      1:
      4:
      0

      Paid for 6 Bottles of white Wine
      4:
      10:
      0

      15
      Paid Ruel Traiteur to 10 May
      423:
      15:
      0

      House
      432:
      0:
      0

      Joseph Stevens
      171:
      12:
      0

      Denis Wages and Dinners
      68:
      8:
      0

      Bread
      15:
      0:
      0

      Postage &c.
      44:
      9:
      0

      Mr. Thaxter
      240:
      0:
      0

      Stephens’s Wages ending 13 May
      52:
      10:
      0

      Marchande de Vin, Garante
      180:
      0:
      0

      To Caffees Account
      2:
      9:
      0

      Settled with Mr. Dana so far.

      17
      Paid Mr. Pechini’s Account for my Sons John and Charles,
      980:
      10:
      0

      19
      Paid Mr. Court de Gebelin, for Subscription for his Greek Dictionary and the Seventh Volume of his Monde primitif and a Thermometer of Raumur
      31:
      10:
      0

      20
      Paid the Coach Hire for a Month ending the 17th. 15 Louis and for a pair of additional Horses to go to Versailles on the Day of Pentecote 18 liv.
      378:
      0:
      0

      27
      Paid for the Carriage of a Box of Newspapers and pamphlets from London
      9:
      6:
      0

      Paid for the Cariage of an hoghead and Case of Bordeaux Wine, and the Duties on the Road
      99:
      10:
      0

      30
      Paid the Duties for the Entry into Paris
      57:
      13:
      0

      June
      1
      Paid Cabaret for three Reams of Paper and two Ivory Knives
      52:
      0:
      0

      9
      Paid for Spoons &c—Mr. Taillepied
      823:
      0:
      0

      19
      Paid for the Waggonage of three Trunks from Brest
      72:
      0:
      0

      21
      Paid for the Coach to the 16 June 15 Louis
      360:
      0:
      0

      26
      Paid for Washing
      8:
      12:
      0

      28
      Paid Paule Tailors Account
      644:
      0:
      0

      Paid Mr. Tyler a Bill of Exchange drawn upon me by Mrs. Adams in favour of Thomas Bumstead & by him inclosed to Mr. John Tyler—100 dollars
      535:
      0:
      0

      July
      1
      Paid for 12 Ells of Cambrick @ 10 Liv.
      120:
      0:
      0

      7
      Paid Mr. Borzachini for 2 Italian Grammars and 11 Lessons
      60:
      0:
      0

      Paid for a Piece of Cambrick 12 Ells & 1/2
      120:
      0:
      0

      8
      Paid Molini for Baretti’s Italien Dictionary
      48:
      0:
      0

      Dellitti e Pene
      3:

      Grammatica Del Buomattei
      9:
      0:
      0

      17
      Paid for Linen
      67:
      10:
      0

      Paid for 6 Bottles of Liqueur
      27:
      0:
      0

      In margin: Settled with Mr. Dana

      19
      Paid Porters Bill for Postage of Letters &c.
      112:
      7:
      0

      26
      Paid for a months Coach hire
      360:
      0:
      0

      27
      Paid Mr. Pechini one Quarter for my two Sons
      650:
      18:
      0

      28
      Paid Taylors Account
      170:
      18:
      6

      6
      Paid Joseph Stevens’s Account
      100:
      19:
      0


Title: 1780 July 27. Thursday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Setting off on a Journey, with my two Sons to Amsterdam. —Lodged at Compiegne. Fryday night, lodged at Valenciennes. Saturday arrived at Brussells.—This Road is through the finest Country, I have any where seen. The Wheat, Rye, Barley, Oats, Peas, Beans and several other Grains, the Hemp, Flax, Grass, Clover, Lucerne, St. Foin, &c., the Pavements and Roads are good. The Rows of Trees, on each side the Road, and around many Squares of Land.—The Vines, the Cattle, the Sheep, in short every Thing upon this Road is beautiful and plentifull. Such immense fields and heavy Crops of Wheat I never saw any where. The Soil is stronger and richer, than in other Parts.
       I lodged in Brussells at L’hotel de L’Imperatrice. The Cathedral Church, the Park, the Ramparts and Canals of this Town, are very well worth seeing.


Title: 1780. July 30. Sunday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Went to the Cathedral Church. A great Feast. An infinite Crowd. The Church more splendidly ornamented than any that I had seen. Hung with Tapestrie. The Church Music here is in the Italian style.
       A Picture in Tapestry was hung up, of a No. of Jews stabbing the Wafer, the bon Dieu, and blood gushing in streams, from the Bread. This insufferable Piece of pious Villany, shocked me beyond measure. But thousands were before it, on their Knees adoring. I could not help cursing the Knavery of the Priesthood and the brutal Ignorance of the People—yet perhaps, I was rash and unreasonable, and that it is as much Virtue and Wisdom in them to adore, as in me to detest and despise.—Spent the Afternoon, and drank Tea, with Mr. W. Lee, Mr. Jennings, and his Nephew, Mrs. Izard, her two Daughters and Son, and Miss Steed, Mrs. Lee and her Children &c. An agreable Circle of Americans.
       In the Evening Mr. Lee, Mr. Jennings and his Nephew, My two Sons, &c. took a Walk to see the Canals. Vessells of some Burthen come up here, in the Canal which reaches to the Sea. We afterwards walked upon the Ramparts.
       In this Town is a great Plenty of stone, which I think is the same with our Braintree North Common stone. It is equally hard, equally fine grain—capable of a fine Polish. I think the Colour is a little darker, than the Braintree stone. There is a new Building here, before which is the Statue of the late Prince Charles, in Front of which are six Pillars, wholly of this stone. Indeed the Steps, and the whole Front is of the same stone.
       This Town is the Capital of Brabant, in the Austrian Netherlands. The late Prince Charles was a Brother of the Empress Queen, L’lmperatrice Reine, Unkle of the Emperor and the Queen of France. He was extreamly beloved, by the People, and has left an excellent Character. The Emperor did not like him, it is said. In the late War, the Emperor called upon this Prince for Money. The Prince wrote to dissuade him from it. The Emperor sent again. The Prince wrote back, that he saw They were determined, and they must appoint another Governor of this Province, for he could not execute their orders. Upon this the Imperial Court desisted.
       We lodged one night at Antwerp, viewed the Cathedral and the Exchange &c. and went by Moerdyck to Rotterdam, where We arrived, the 4th. August.


Title: [July 1780]
From: Adams, John
To:

      1780 July 27. Thursday.

       Setting off on a Journey, with my two Sons to Amsterdam. —Lodged at Compiegne. Fryday night, lodged at Valenciennes. Saturday arrived at Brussells.—This Road is through the finest Country, I have any where seen. The Wheat, Rye, Barley, Oats, Peas, Beans and several other Grains, the Hemp, Flax, Grass, Clover, Lucerne, St. Foin, &c., the Pavements and Roads are good. The Rows of Trees, on each side the Road, and around many Squares of Land.—The Vines, the Cattle, the Sheep, in short every Thing upon this Road is beautiful and plentifull. Such immense fields and heavy Crops of Wheat I never saw any where. The Soil is stronger and richer, than in other Parts.
       I lodged in Brussells at L’hotel de L’Imperatrice. The Cathedral Church, the Park, the Ramparts and Canals of this Town, are very well worth seeing.

   Having met with absolute resistance at Versailles to discharging any part of his mission to negotiate treaties of peace and commerce with Great Britain, and having offended Vergennes by his importunity on this and unwelcome advice on other matters, JA determined to go to Amsterdam, “to try,” as Franklin reported to Congress, “whether something might not be done to render us less dependent on France” (Franklin to Huntington, 9 Aug. 1780, Writings, ed. SmythThe Writings of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Albert Henry Smyth, New York and London, 1905–1907; 10 vols., 8:128). JA went to the Netherlands as a private citizen, not knowing that on 20 June Congress had commissioned him its agent, until Henry Laurens should arrive, to procure a loan there (JCCWorthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols., 17:535–537); his commission, received on 16 Sept., was enclosed in a letter from Lovell and Houston, the Committee on Foreign Affairs (Adams Papers).

   Only the first two sentences of the present entry could have been written on 27 July. According to JQA’s Diary, which is much more detailed than his father’s during this journey, the party arrived in Brussels at 5:30 in the afternoon of the 29th, and JA had a long conversation with Edmund Jenings that evening.

      1780. July 30. Sunday.

       Went to the Cathedral Church. A great Feast. An infinite Crowd. The Church more splendidly ornamented than any that I had seen. Hung with Tapestrie. The Church Music here is in the Italian style.
       A Picture in Tapestry was hung up, of a No. of Jews stabbing the Wafer, the bon Dieu, and blood gushing in streams, from the Bread. This insufferable Piece of pious Villany, shocked me beyond measure. But thousands were before it, on their Knees adoring. I could not help cursing the Knavery of the Priesthood and the brutal Ignorance of the People—yet perhaps, I was rash and unreasonable, and that it is as much Virtue and Wisdom in them to adore, as in me to detest and despise.—Spent the Afternoon, and drank Tea, with Mr. W. Lee, Mr. Jennings, and his Nephew, Mrs. Izard, her two Daughters and Son, and Miss Steed, Mrs. Lee and her Children &c. An agreable Circle of Americans.
       In the Evening Mr. Lee, Mr. Jennings and his Nephew, My two Sons, &c. took a Walk to see the Canals. Vessells of some Burthen come up here, in the Canal which reaches to the Sea. We afterwards walked upon the Ramparts.
       In this Town is a great Plenty of stone, which I think is the same with our Braintree North Common stone. It is equally hard, equally fine grain—capable of a fine Polish. I think the Colour is a little darker, than the Braintree stone. There is a new Building here, before which is the Statue of the late Prince Charles, in Front of which are six Pillars, wholly of this stone. Indeed the Steps, and the whole Front is of the same stone.
       This Town is the Capital of Brabant, in the Austrian Netherlands. The late Prince Charles was a Brother of the Empress Queen, L’lmperatrice Reine, Unkle of the Emperor and the Queen of France. He was extreamly beloved, by the People, and has left an excellent Character. The Emperor did not like him, it is said. In the late War, the Emperor called upon this Prince for Money. The Prince wrote to dissuade him from it. The Emperor sent again. The Prince wrote back, that he saw They were determined, and they must appoint another Governor of this Province, for he could not execute their orders. Upon this the Imperial Court desisted.
       We lodged one night at Antwerp, viewed the Cathedral and the Exchange &c. and went by Moerdyck to Rotterdam, where We arrived, the 4th. August.

   MS: “Crown.”

   “Bordly” (i.e. Bordley), according to JQA’s Diary.

   Blank in MS; name supplied from JQA’s Diary.

   According to JQA’s Diary the Adamses spent the 31st, 1st, and 2d in sightseeing and in visiting with William Lee and Edmund Jenings in Brussels; on the 3d they traveled in their own carriage to Antwerp; and on the 4th continued in hired carriages to Rotterdam, leaving their carriage in Antwerp.


Title: [List of Persons and Firms to Be Consulted in the Netherlands, July–August 1780.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       Mr. John de Neufville, et Fils.
       Le Chr. de Luxembourg.
       Le Chr. de Launay. Cs.
       Van der Oudermeulen
       M. Grand.
       M. Fizeaux.
       G. H. Matthes.
       Henry du Bois. Hodshon
       Mr. Jean Luzac, Avocat, Leide.
       Nicholas and Jacob Van Staphorst.
       Mr. Vinman.
       Mr. John Gabriel Tegelaer, by the new Market.
       Mr. Daniel Crommelin and Sons.


Title: 1778 [i.e. 1780] Aug. 5.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Lodged at the Mareschall De Turenne. Dined with Mr. Dubblemets. Went to see the Statue of Erasmus, the Exchange, the Churches &c. Mr. Dubblemets sent his Coach in the Evening and one of his Clerks. We rode, round the Environs of the Town, then to his Country Seat, where We supped.—The Meadows are very fine, the Horses and Cattle large. The Intermixture of Houses, Trees, Ships, and Canals throughout this Town is very striking. The Neatness here is remarkable.


Title: 1778 [i.e. 1780] Aug. 6.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Went to the English Presbyterian Church, and heard a sensible sermon, the mode of Worship differs in nothing from ours but in the organ, whose Musick joins in the Singing.


Title: 1780 Aug. 28th. Monday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Heeren Graagt, by de Veisel Straagt. Burgomaster Hooft, D.Z.
       Mr. Hartzinck. Scheepen. Heeren Gragt.
       M. G. H. Matthes.—burgwal opposite the Lombard.
       J. Vandevelde. Agter zyds burgwal.

       Mr. Hartzinck is the Son in Law of Madam Chabanel, Mr. Le Roy’s Aunt.
       Keep us poor. Depress Us. Keep Us weak. Make Us feel our Obligations. Impress our Minds with a Sense of Gratitude. Let Europe see our dependance. Make Europe believe We are in great distress and danger, that other nations may be discouraged from taking our Part. Propagate bad news, to discourage the Merchants and Bankers of Holland from lending Us Money. Is there any Thing in these Jealousies and Insinuations?
       Dined with M. Jacob Van staphorst. A dutch minister from St. Eustatia there. A Lawyer, Mr. Calcoon, Mr. Cromellin, Mr. Le Roi, Gillon, Joiner and a Merchant from Hamborough. The Parson is a warm American. The Lawyer made one observation which I once? made to Dr. Franklin, that English would be the general Language in the next Century, and that America would make it so. Latin was in the last Century, French has been so in this, and English will be so, the next.
       It will be the Honour of Congress to form an Accademy for improving and ascertaining the English Language.


Title: 29 Aug.
From: Adams, John
To:

       30 Wednesday. Mr. Vanberckle
       31 Thursday. Mr. Crommelin opde Keyzers Gragt.
       Septr.
       1 Fryday. Mrs. Chabanels.
       3 Sunday. M. De Neuville, De Neuville
       6 Wednesday. Bicker
       7 Thursday.
       10 Sunday. Cromelin
       12 Tuesday. Grand
       13 Wednesday. Chabanell
       14 Thursday. De Neufville


Title: [30 August.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       School op de Cingel.
       30 of August, my Sons went to the Latin School.
       Dined at Mr. Vanberkles Pensionary of Amsterdam, with Mr. Bicker and an Officer of the Army.
       Mr. Calkoen Keyzers Gragt.


Title: [August 1780]
From: Adams, John
To:

      1778 i.e. 1780 Aug. 5.

       Lodged at the Mareschall De Turenne. Dined with Mr. Dubblemets. Went to see the Statue of Erasmus, the Exchange, the Churches &c. Mr. Dubblemets sent his Coach in the Evening and one of his Clerks. We rode, round the Environs of the Town, then to his Country Seat, where We supped.—The Meadows are very fine, the Horses and Cattle large. The Intermixture of Houses, Trees, Ships, and Canals throughout this Town is very striking. The Neatness here is remarkable.

   The mercantile firm of F. & A. Dubbeldemuts in Rotterdam had some tenuous American connections and was eager to improve them. Probably Franklin, to whom they had addressed various appeals, commended them to JA’s attention. They were later vigorous supporters of JA’s campaign to obtain Dutch recognition of American independence. See Cal. Franklin PapersI. Minis Hays, comp., Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1908; 5 vols., A.P.S., index, and JA-Dubbeldemuts correspondence in Adams Papers.

      1778 i.e. 1780 Aug. 6.

       Went to the English Presbyterian Church, and heard a sensible sermon, the mode of Worship differs in nothing from ours but in the organ, whose Musick joins in the Singing.

      1780 Aug. 28th. Monday.

       Heeren Graagt, by de Veisel Straagt. Burgomaster Hooft, D.Z.
       Mr. Hartzinck. Scheepen. Heeren Gragt.
       M. G. H. Matthes.—burgwal opposite the Lombard.
       J. Vandevelde. Agter zyds burgwal.

       Mr. Hartzinck is the Son in Law of Madam Chabanel, Mr. Le Roy’s Aunt.
       Keep us poor. Depress Us. Keep Us weak. Make Us feel our Obligations. Impress our Minds with a Sense of Gratitude. Let Europe see our dependance. Make Europe believe We are in great distress and danger, that other nations may be discouraged from taking our Part. Propagate bad news, to discourage the Merchants and Bankers of Holland from lending Us Money. Is there any Thing in these Jealousies and Insinuations?
       Dined with M. Jacob Van staphorst. A dutch minister from St. Eustatia there. A Lawyer, Mr. Calcoon, Mr. Cromellin, Mr. Le Roi, Gillon, Joiner and a Merchant from Hamborough. The Parson is a warm American. The Lawyer made one observation which I once? made to Dr. Franklin, that English would be the general Language in the next Century, and that America would make it so. Latin was in the last Century, French has been so in this, and English will be so, the next.
       It will be the Honour of Congress to form an Accademy for improving and ascertaining the English Language.

   First entry in D/JA/32, a pocket memorandum book with a cover of Dutch decorated paper over boards which have loops for a pencil at the fore-edge. Most of the entries are in pencil, and most of them are undated, but all belong to JA’s first months in the Netherlands. Inside the front cover is a notation, probably in the hand of Harriet Welsh, a relative who lived in Boston and who acted occasionally as JA’s amanuensis during his old age: “The Dutch book of Mr. John Adams when in Holland in the revolution. June 1823.” Among the leaves left blank by JA in the middle of the book are six scattered pages of accounts which are in a hand not even tentatively identified but unquestionably later than 1800. These have been disregarded in the present text. Since this is not a diary in the conventional sense, but a pocket engagement and address book containing occasional diary-like entries, CFA included nothing from it in his edition of JA’s Diary. Yet the contents, fragmentary and sometimes cryptic as they are, throw some light on the beginnings of JA’s mission to the Netherlands.

   From JQA’s Diary we learn that the Adamses left Rotterdam on 7 Aug. by canal boat for Delft and went on to The Hague, where JA consulted with the American agent, Charles William Frederic Dumas, and the French ambassador, the Due de La Vauguyon. They visited Leyden on the 9th, stopping there one night, and proceeded by canal boat via Haarlem to Amsterdam on the 10th, putting up at “l’Hotel des Armes d’Amsterdam.” In this city they found numerous Americans, including Alexander Gillon, who enjoyed the title of commodore of the South Carolina navy (Arthur Middleton to JA, 4 July 1778, Adams Papers). Gillon had Dutch relatives and found lodgings for the Adamses next door to his own (JA, Corr. in the Boston PatriotCorrespondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts., p. 345–346). JA at once set about establishing such commercial, political, and journalistic connections as he could.

   That is, Henrik Hooft, Danielszoon, a burgomaster of strongly republican (anti-Orangist) sentiments, who lived on the Heerengracht (Lords’ Canal) near Vyzelstraat (Johan E. Elias, De vroedschap van Amsterdam, Haarlem, 1903–1905, 2:726).

   Hendrik Calkoen (1742–1818), later described by JA as “the giant of the law in Amsterdam.” See Nieuw Ned. Biog. WoordenboekP. C. Molhuysen and others, eds., Nieuw Nederlandsche Biografisch Woordenboek, Leyden, 1911–1937; 10 vols., 3:195–197. Three days later Calkoen addressed a series of questions about the United States and its resources to JA in writing (Adams Papers), to which JA replied in a MS dated 4–27 Oct. 1780 (Adams Papers), afterward printed as Twenty-Six Letters, upon Interesting Subjects, respecting the Revolution of America ..., London, 1786; reprinted New York, 1789. JA included them among his letters to the Boston Patriot, preceded by an explanation of how they came to be written and the use Calkoen made of them to spread “just sentiments of American affairs” in the Netherlands (JA, Corr. in the Boston PatriotCorrespondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts., p. 194). CFA also included them, with the explanation, in JA’s WorksThe Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols., 7:265–312.

   Alexander Gillon, of Charleston, S.C., but probably of Dutch origin, had recently acquired a Dutch-built frigate for the use of South Carolina and had named it for that state. He was also attempting to negotiate a loan for his state in Amsterdam and had gone the rounds of the banking and brokerage houses. JA held a respectful opinion of Gillon until after the fiasco of the latter’s voyage of 1781, with CA on board. Gillon started from the Texel for America, but after six weeks put in at La Corufia, Spain, where his American passengers made haste to leave the South Carolina. See D. E. Huger Smith, “Commodore Alexander Gillon and the Frigate South Carolina,” So. Car. Hist. & Geneal. Mag., 9:189–219; John Trumbull, Autobiography, ed. Theodore Sizer, New Haven, 1953, p. 75–77.

   On 5 Sept. JA developed this idea in a letter to Pres. Huntington proposing the establishment of an “American Accademy, for refining, improving and ascertaining the English Language,” to be maintained by Congress in conjunction with “a Library consisting of a compleat Collection of all Writings concerning Languages of every Sort ancient and modern” (LbC, Adams Papers).

      29 Aug.

       30 Wednesday. Mr. Vanberckle
       31 Thursday. Mr. Crommelin opde Keyzers Gragt.
       Septr.
       1 Fryday. Mrs. Chabanels.
       3 Sunday. M. De Neuville, De Neuville
       6 Wednesday. Bicker
       7 Thursday.
       10 Sunday. Cromelin
       12 Tuesday. Grand
       13 Wednesday. Chabanell
       14 Thursday. De Neufville

   This list of engagements appears on the last page but one of D/JA/32. The entries may or may not have all been put down on 29 Aug.; space was left for insertions between those that do not fall on successive days.

   Engelbert Francois van Berckel (1726–1796), pensionary of Amsterdam, an early enthusiast in the American cause, and younger brother of Pieter Johan van Berckel, who became the first minister from the Netherlands to the United States, 1783 (Nieuw Ned. Biog. WoordenboekP. C. Molhuysen and others, eds., Nieuw Nederlandsche Biografisch Woordenboek, Leyden, 1911–1937; 10 vols., 4:109–111; 2:128–129).

   Henrick Bicker (1722–1783), an Amsterdam merchant who in the following month advised JA on his first steps to secure a Dutch loan to the United States and who proved to JA “a sincere friend and faithful counsellor, from first to last” (Johan E. Elias, De vroedschap van Amsterdam, Haarlem, 1903–1905, 1:361; JA, Corr. in the Boston PatriotCorrespondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts., p. 171).

       30 August.

       School op de Cingel.
       30 of August, my Sons went to the Latin School.
       Dined at Mr. Vanberkles Pensionary of Amsterdam, with Mr. Bicker and an Officer of the Army.
       Mr. Calkoen Keyzers Gragt.

   This was the well-known Latin school or academy on the Singel (a canal in the heart of Amsterdam) near the Muntplein (Mint Square). The building is now occupied by the Amsterdam police. There is a contemporary account of the school in Le guide, ou nouvelle description d’Amsterdam ..., Amsterdam, 1772, p. 220–222, an anonymous but excellent guidebook, of which JA’s copy survives among his books in the Boston Public Library. JQA translated and copied this account into his Diary, 31 Aug., and in later entries tells a little of life at the school. Things did not go well, however, for the precocious JQA under Dutch scholastic discipline. Since he did not know Dutch, he was kept in a lower form, and the Rector, H. Verheyk, found him disobedient and impertinent. As a result, on 10 Nov. JA instructed Verheyk to send both of his sons home (JA-Verheyk correspondence in Adams Papers).


Title: [Miscellaneous Memoranda in Amsterdam, August–September 1780.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       H. Grotius, de Jure Belli ac Pacis.
       C. van Bynkershoek
       G. Noodt Opera
       Apologeticus eorum qui Hollandiae praefuerunt ab H. Grotio Considerations sur 1’Etude de la Jurisprudence par M. Perrenot. Janiçon Republik der Vereenigde Nederlanden Ploos Van Amstel, the first Lawyer of Holland. Mr. Calkoen the next.
       Heerens Gragt, pres Vissel Straat. Burgomaester Hooft.
       Q. A Society or Academy for the dutch Language, in Germany, Russia, Sweeden, Denmark. The Italian Academy.
       2000 Plants and Trees, many Americans.
       38,000 florins for the Seat, 216 Acres of Land, between 30 and 40 thousand Vessells pass in a Year in Sight. Velserhooft.
       Muyden. Sluices
       Weesop. G in Hogs.
       De Geen. Fine? Seats

       Hofrust. Muyderberg. Mr. Crommelin.
       Mr. Crommelin Op de Keyzers Gragt, over de Groenlandse Pakhuyzen. On the Keyzers Gragt opposite the Greenland Warehouses.
       M. Van Berckel. Upon the Heerens Gragt, by de Konings Plein.
       M. Bicker. Opposite.
       M. Hooft—op de Heerens Gragt, by de Vyselstraat.
       M. Vanhasselt at M. Wm. Hoofts on the Keysers Gragt, near the Amstel.
       M. John Gabriel Tegelaar op de nieuwe Maart.
       M. Nicholas Vanstaphorst, op de Cingel, about 50 doors from Jacob.
       De La Lande & Fynje—op de Cingel.
       Questions. Is it necessary, or expedient to make any Representation, Communication, or Application to the Prince? or States General?
       2. Is it prudent to apply to the City of Amsterdam, their Regency or any Persons, concerned in the Government?
       3. To what Persons is it best to make the first Communication of my Commission? To Mr. Hooft, Mr. Vanberckel?
       4. What House would you advise me to choose? or Houses?
       5. Whether it is probable that any Number of Houses would unite in this Plan? and what Houses?
       6. Whether any Number of Houses, might be induced, to become responsable for the punctual Payment of the Interest?
       7. How much per Cent Interest must be given?
       8. How much per Cent Commission to the Banker, or Bankers, House or Houses?
       9. Whether it will be necessary to employ Brokers? What Brokers, and what Allowance must they have?
       Jan and Dirk van Vollenhoven. Sur le meme Canal avec M. Berckel.
       un Courtier. Maakalaar.
       Gulian Crommelin; at Mr. John Gasquet on the Rookin opposit the New Chapel.
       The Theatre of the War in N. America with the Roads and Tables of the superficial Contents, Distances &c. by an American. Annexed a compendious Account of the British Colonies in North America.
       Van Arp. Maakalaar. Next to Mr. Matthes, op de Verweelé Burgwal, over de Lombard

       What is the manner of doing Business with the Brokers?
       What must be given them?
       2100 Guilders, double Rect. to receive for one, 400 Ducats
       Monitier & Merckemaer. Brokers in Loans
       Mandrillon.
       Messrs. Curson & Gouvernieur Continental Agents at St. Eustatia
       Monitier & Merckemaer Brokers in Loans.
       In het Rondeel op de hoek van de doele Straat
       Demter dans le Pijlsteeg
       Daniel Jan Bouwens, op de Heeregragt, by de Reguliersgragt.
       Reguliers Gragt
       Verlam Printer. Verlem in de graave Straat. Printer of the North holland Gazette.
       Daniel Jan Bowens, op de Heeregragt, bij de reguliers Gragt over de hoofd Officier.

      In 1708

      La Gueldre
      4
      1/2

      La Hollande
      55
      1/2

      La Zelande
      13
      1/2

         Utrecht
      5
      3/4

      LaFrise
      11
      1/2

      L’Overyssell
      2
      3/4

      Groningue & les Ommelandes
      6
      1/2

       8 feet long.
       9 Inches diameter of the Mirour.
       L’Angle aggrandit 300 fois, the least.
       Jacobus van de Wall, over de laaste molen op de Overtoomseweg
       Mr. Ploos van Amstel Makelaar
       B te Amsterdam
       In de Kalverstraat bij Intema & Tiboel boekverkoper. Een Frans en Duits , van het werk door Ploos v. Amstel
       Agterburgwal by de Hoogstraat
       Mr. Wilmart Prince Gragt.
       Mr. McCreery lodges, a Pension
       Searle


Title: 12. Fryday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Mr. Mitchel, Mr. Luzac, Dr. Waterhouse, Mr. Thaxter and my two Sons supped with me at the Cour de Holland.


Title: 13 Saturday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Returned to Amsterdam, having dined at Haerlem, at the Golden Lion. Went in the Evening to see Ingraham and Sigourney and Commodore Gillon.
       Chez la Veuve Wynen, dans le premier Wezelstraat, à main gauche. Address of Cerisier.


Title: 1781. Sunday. Jan. 14.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Questions.—How many Ships of War, are determined to be equipped? How much Money have the States General granted for the Navy? Have the States General resolved to issue Letters of Marque? Are the Letters issued? Is there a Disposition to demand them? Will there be many Privateers? How many? Will the Manifesto be published? When? How many Troops are ordered to Zealand? Have the States General taken any Sweedish or Danish Men of War, into their Service? How many? On what Terms?
       When will the Decision of the Court of Holland, be made, upon the Conduct of Amsterdam? Will it be this month or next? Who knows what it will be? Why is the decision delayed? What are the Reasons, Causes, Motives, End and design? Is it not the Influence of the English Party, that still obstructs and retards?
       Has Zealand, proposed, or advised, to open a Negotiation, to make up the Quarrel? When. What measures does she propose?
       The B. V. Capellen came in. He fears that the Prince and the Proprietors of English Funds will unite, in endeavours to make it up, by a dishonourable Peace.—Mr. V. B. persists that there will be no war. Says it is a Rhodomontade, a Bombino of the English &c. That some Persons have underwritten upon Vessells, on the Faith of Mr. Van berkel, &c.
       This Evening call’d upon M. V. Berkel, who was alone, among a Multitude of Papers, obliged to go out at 5 upon Business, made many polite Excuses, and invited me to call the Day after tomorrow, at 4 o clock, being engaged tomorrow. I agreed. I asked him however, whether the States General had resolved to grant Letters of Mark, and he said Yes.—If they were distributed? and he hesitated, as if uncertain. I then excused myself from staying longer, and prayed him to keep his Chamber, but according to the Dutch Fashion he would accompany me to the Door, and make me all the Bows, which the Custom demands, which obliged me to return him, as many.
       Q. Is it certain that the Empress of Russia is well inclined towards America? Who has such Information? Has there been any deliberation or Consultation, between the maritime Powers in forming the armed Neutrality, concerning the American Question?


Title: 1781. Monday. Jan. 15.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Visited old Mr. Crommelin and Mr. De Neufville. There is a wonderful Consternation among the Merchants. Many Houses have great difficulty to support their Credit.


Title: [January 1781]
From: Adams, John
To:

      1781 January 11. Thursday.

       Returned from the Hague to Leyden. Was present from 12. to one O Clock, when the Praeceptor gave his Lessons in Latin and Greek to my Sons. His Name is Wenshing. He is apparently a great Master of the two Languages, besides which he speaks French and Dutch very well, understands little English, but is desirous of learning it. He obliges his Pupills to be industrious, and they have both made a great Progress for the Time. He is pleased with them and they with him. John is transcribing a Greek Grammar of his Masters Composition and Charles a Latin one. John is also transcribing a Treatise on Roman Antiquities, of his masters writing. The Master gives his Lessons in French.
       This Day Dr. Waterhouse, Mr. Thaxter and my two Sons dined with me at the Cour de Hollande, and after Dinner, went to the Rector Magnificus, to be matriculated into the University. Charles was found to be too young, none under twelve Years of Age being admitted. John was admitted, after making a Declaration that he would do nothing against the Laws of the University, City or Land.
       I wish to be informed concerning the Constitution and Regulations of this University. The Number of Professors, their Characters. The Government of the Students both in Morals and Studies. Their Manner of Living—their Priviledges &c. &c.

   This and the following scattered entries in Jan.–Feb. 1781 are from Lb/JA/28 (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 116), which since it contains copies of a few of JA’s letters in 1793–1794 has long been classed as a letterbook though it was begun as a diary. It is a small quarto-sized gathering of leaves stitched into a cover of marbled paper.

   It is extremely unfortunate that JA kept no journal during the last months of 1780 when Anglo-Dutch relations came to a crisis that led to war between the two powers, vitally affected JA’s status in the Netherlands, and greatly benefited the American cause. However, JA’s long and frequent letters to Pres. Huntington and other correspondents constitute a more or less weekly and sometimes daily record of the events leading up to the rupture. Many of these letters were printed first in JA’s self-justifying communications to the Boston Patriot, 1809–1812 (partly gathered and reprinted in his Correspondence in the Boston Patriot); another selection from them was made by CFA in JA’s WorksThe Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols., vol. 7; and still another (though largely based on earlier printings) by Wharton in his edition of the Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence, vol. 4. Since relatively little use has been made, especially by European historians, of this mass of information and reflection by a lively observer, JA’s correspondence will be printed comprehensively in Series III of the present edition.

   The explosion in Anglo-Dutch relations was touched off by the capture at sea of Henry Laurens, when he was at last on his way to his post in the Netherlands, by a British ship in Sept. 1780. In a chest which he threw overboard but which was recovered were found papers which the British government considered evidence of unforgivable conduct on the part of Dutch citizens and especially of E. F. van Berckel, pensionary of Amsterdam and sponsor of the proposed treaty agreed upon at Aixla-Chapelle, Sept. 1778, by William Lee representing the United States and Jean de Neufville representing the Regency of Amsterdam. (See JA to Huntington, 27 Oct. 1780, LbC, Adams Papers; JA, WorksThe Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols., 7:320–321. See also Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols., 2:787–798.) The texts were dispatched at once to the British minister at The Hague, Sir Joseph Yorke, submitted by him to the Stadholder, and a disavowal of the conduct of the Amsterdam Regency demanded. In the Adams Papers, under date of 20 Oct. 1780, are printed texts, in English and Dutch, of the treaty draft and the other offending papers, and also a printed reply (with an English translation in MS) from the Burgomasters of Amsterdam. The latter defended their conduct against the British charges on the grounds, first, that the treaty was contingent on the United States’ gaining independence, and second, that a commercial treaty with the United States was in the ultimate interest of the whole Dutch trading community. These arguments were not likely to mollify Yorke, who memorialized the States General directly, 10 Nov., demanding that the Amsterdammers be punished for an attempt to violate the sovereignty of the nation and an abrogation of its treaties with England. JA observed that Yorke’s action was “outrageous,” that Van Berckel had been singled out “for the Fate of Barnevelt, Grotius or De Wit,” and that the British were treating a sovereign power as if it were a recalcitrant colony of their own—very much as they had treated America in fact (JA to Huntington, 16, 17 Nov., and to Franklin, 30 Nov.; all letterbook copies, Adams Papers; WorksThe Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols., 7:329–330, 331, 338). From this point affairs deteriorated rapidly, but since JA provided a chronology of the climactic events in a letter to Huntington of 5 Jan. 1781 (LbC, Adams Papers; WorksThe Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols., 7:352–353), it is unnecessary to say more than that Yorke left The Hague on Christmas or the day before, without taking leave. The question in January, when JA briefly resumed his Diary, was whether the British threats and attacks on there shipping and colonies would bring the Dutch to an abject surrender. Their own dissensions prevented this, and they drifted into war.

   Thaxter spells his name “Wensing” (to JA, 22 Dec. 1780, Adams Papers).

   On 13 Dec. Benjamin Waterhouse, who was studying for a medical degree at Leyden, responded to inquiries from JA about schools, tutors, and accommodations for the Adams boys in that city (Adams Papers; see also JA, Corr. in the Boston PatriotCorrespondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts., p. 572). Encouraged by Waterhouse’s reply, JA sent the boys off under Thaxter’s care on the 18th (JA to AA, 18 Dec. 1780, Adams Papers). They secured rooms in the house where Waterhouse was living, F. Weller’s (or Willer’s) on the Langebrug, not far from the Kloksteeg where John Robinson had ministered to his congregation of English Separatists before they sailed to Cape Cod in 1620 (Thaxter to JA, 19 Dec.; JQA to JA, 21 Dec. 1780; both in Adams Papers). As JA notes here, JQA was regularly enrolled as a student in the University early in January; CA was enrolled by special permission on the 29th (Thaxter to JA, 1 Feb. 1781, Adams Papers; Register of Students, MS, Leyden Univ. Libr.). Letters exchanged by JA and JQA in the following months record the older son’s progress in his studies, which he found congenial.

      12. Fryday.

       Mr. Mitchel, Mr. Luzac, Dr. Waterhouse, Mr. Thaxter and my two Sons supped with me at the Cour de Holland.

      13 Saturday.

       Returned to Amsterdam, having dined at Haerlem, at the Golden Lion. Went in the Evening to see Ingraham and Sigourney and Commodore Gillon.
       Chez la Veuve Wynen, dans le premier Wezelstraat, à main gauche. Address of Cerisier.

   “There are three Gentlemen, in the Mercantile Way, Mr. Sigourney, Mr. Ingraham and Mr. Bromfield, who are now in this City, and propose to reside here and establish a mercantile House. These Gentlemen are very well known in the Massachusetts, and therefore it is unnecessary for me to say any Thing about their Characters” (JA to the Massachusetts Board of War, 16 Jan. 1781, LbC, Adams Papers). The three established themselves promptly in business, for in a series of letters in April JA commissioned them to rent and furnish a house in Amsterdam suitable for his residence as minister plenipotentiary; see note on entry of 28 Feb., below.

   Antoine Marie Cerisier (1749–1828), a French publicist and historical writer who had resided for some time in the Netherlands and was active in the Patriot movement (Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. GénérateJ. C. F. Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours, Paris, 1852–1866; 46 vols.). Quite possibly his journalistic activities were subsidized by the French government. JA later said that after reading one of Cerisier’s works on Dutch history he traveled to Utrecht to meet the author and found him an agreeable and learned man, at home in French, Dutch, and English, and deeply interested in American affairs. Cerisier moved to Amsterdam, apparently at just this time (early in 1781), “and proposed to publish a periodical paper, with a view to serve our cause. I encouraged this very cordially, and he soon commenced the work, under the title of Le Politique Hollandais, or the Dutch Politician. In this he inserted every thing that he thought would do honor to America, or promote our reputation and interest. His paper was much read, and had a great effect. He was always ready to translate any thing for me into French or Dutch, or out of Dutch into French or English” (JA, Corr. in the Boston PatriotCorrespondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts., p. 256). In short, Cerisier became one of JA’s principal coadjutors in his press campaign to win support for America. In a letter to R. R. Livingston, 16 May 1782, JA commended Cerisier in the warmest terms to the generosity of Congress (LbC, Adams Papers; WorksThe Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols., 7:589–590). JA’s copies of Le politique hollandais survive in the Boston Public Library, and a number of contributions by JA to this journal have been identified. A study of Le politique hollandais by W. P. Sautyn Kluit is illuminating on Dutch journalism at this period but not adequate on Cerisier’s career (Handelingen en mededeelingen van de Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde te Leiden over het jaar 1882, p. 3–36). From documents in the Adams Papers it now appears that Cerisier was also the author of the principal statement of the Patriot party’s program, a learned and influential work in two volumes entitled Grondwettige herstelling van Nederlands staatswezen, Amsterdam, 1784–1786, though his authorship was a secret long and well kept in the Netherlands (Cerisier to JA, 10 Aug. 1786, laid in a presentation copy of the second volume of the Herstelling among JA’s books in the Boston Public Library; see also JA to John Jay, 3 Oct. 1786, LbC, Adams Papers, printed in Dipl. Corr., 1783–1789[William A. Weaver, ed.,] The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America, from ... 1783, to ... 1789, Washington, 1837 [actually 1855]; 3 vols., 2:676–677). When the Prussian army invaded the Netherlands in the fall of 1787 and crushed the Patriots’ hopes and efforts, Cerisier fled to Paris (letter to JA, 3 Nov. 1787, Adams Papers).

      1781. Sunday. Jan. 14.

       Questions.—How many Ships of War, are determined to be equipped? How much Money have the States General granted for the Navy? Have the States General resolved to issue Letters of Marque? Are the Letters issued? Is there a Disposition to demand them? Will there be many Privateers? How many? Will the Manifesto be published? When? How many Troops are ordered to Zealand? Have the States General taken any Sweedish or Danish Men of War, into their Service? How many? On what Terms?
       When will the Decision of the Court of Holland, be made, upon the Conduct of Amsterdam? Will it be this month or next? Who knows what it will be? Why is the decision delayed? What are the Reasons, Causes, Motives, End and design? Is it not the Influence of the English Party, that still obstructs and retards?
       Has Zealand, proposed, or advised, to open a Negotiation, to make up the Quarrel? When. What measures does she propose?
       The B. V. Capellen came in. He fears that the Prince and the Proprietors of English Funds will unite, in endeavours to make it up, by a dishonourable Peace.—Mr. V. B. persists that there will be no war. Says it is a Rhodomontade, a Bombino of the English &c. That some Persons have underwritten upon Vessells, on the Faith of Mr. Van berkel, &c.
       This Evening call’d upon M. V. Berkel, who was alone, among a Multitude of Papers, obliged to go out at 5 upon Business, made many polite Excuses, and invited me to call the Day after tomorrow, at 4 o clock, being engaged tomorrow. I agreed. I asked him however, whether the States General had resolved to grant Letters of Mark, and he said Yes.—If they were distributed? and he hesitated, as if uncertain. I then excused myself from staying longer, and prayed him to keep his Chamber, but according to the Dutch Fashion he would accompany me to the Door, and make me all the Bows, which the Custom demands, which obliged me to return him, as many.
       Q. Is it certain that the Empress of Russia is well inclined towards America? Who has such Information? Has there been any deliberation or Consultation, between the maritime Powers in forming the armed Neutrality, concerning the American Question?

   The Province of Zeeland, where the Stadholder’s influence was stronger than anywhere else in the country, continued to hold out for pacification instead of war with England; see JA’s short treatise on Zeeland in a letter to Congress, 30 Dec. 1780, PCC, No. 84, II, printed in Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols., 4:214–218; also JA to Congress, 15 Jan. 1781, PCC, No. 84, III, printed in same, p. 232, and in JA, Papers, (vol. 11:50).

   Joan Derk, Baron van der Capellen tot den Pol (1741–1784), of Zwolle in Overyssel, philosophical leader of the Patriot party in the United Provinces, reformer, and friend of America (Nieuw Ned. Biog. WoordenboekP. C. Molhuysen and others, eds., Nieuw Nederlandsche Biografisch Woordenboek, Leyden, 1911–1937; 10 vols., 1:578–581). Van der Capellen had been in correspondence with Gov. Jonathan Trumbull for several years, had in 1779 proposed that an American minister be sent to The Hague, and proved an encouraging friend and faithful adviser to JA throughout his Dutch mission. Virtually all of their correspondence has been published in Van der Capellen’s Brieven, ed. W. H. de Beaufort, Utrecht, 1879.

      1781. Monday. Jan. 15.

       Visited old Mr. Crommelin and Mr. De Neufville. There is a wonderful Consternation among the Merchants. Many Houses have great difficulty to support their Credit.


Title: 1781. Feb 24 [i.e. 23]. Fryday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Went to the Hague, in the Trecht Schuit. At Leyden I have seen Mr. Vander Kemp, and Mr.  and Mr. I also visited two large Manufactures, one of Cloth, another of Camblet.


Title: 1781 Feb. 28. Wednesday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       At the Arms of Amsterdam.
       What can be the Ground of the Malice, of so many, against America?


Title: [February 1781]
From: Adams, John
To:

      1781. Feb 24 i.e. 23. Fryday.

       Went to the Hague, in the Trecht Schuit. At Leyden I have seen Mr. Vander Kemp, and Mr.  and Mr. I also visited two large Manufactures, one of Cloth, another of Camblet.

   Canal boat or tow-boat. “... partly by the Trech Schuits, that is the Barks which ply in this Country in the Canals” (JA to Huntington, 6 April 1781, LbC, Adams Papers). JA spells the word in a multitude of ways.

   Francois Adriaan van der Kemp (1752–1829), Mennonite clergyman, author, and political radical, was a disciple of J. D. van der Capellen’s. He suffered imprisonment for his anti-Orangist activities and after the collapse of the Patriot movement fled the Netherlands and emigrated to the United States, 1788. He settled in upper New York State and lived a scholarly life in bucolic surroundings for many years. See Nieuw Ned. Biog. WoordenboekP. C. Molhuysen and others, eds., Nieuw Nederlandsche Biografisch Woordenboek, Leyden, 1911–1937; 10 vols., 8:953–958, and Van der Kemp’s Autobiography, ed. Helen L. Fairchild, N.Y., 1903, a charming book containing selections from Van der Kemp’s extensive correspondence with JA and others, and much information on the Dutch Patriots, with numerous portraits.

      1781 Feb. 28. Wednesday.

       At the Arms of Amsterdam.
       What can be the Ground of the Malice, of so many, against America?

   This implies that JA had given up his lodgings at Madame Schorn’s in the Agterburgwal. During the early months of 1781 he was much on the move between Amsterdam, Leyden, and The Hague, but on 27 April he wrote Edmund Jenings: “I have taken an House on the Keysers Gragt near the Spiegel Straat, and am about becoming a Citizen of Amsterdam—unless their High mightinesses should pronounce me a Rebel, and expel me their Dominions, which I believe they will not be inclined to do” (Adams Papers). The arrangements were made by the new American firm in Amsterdam, Sigourney, Ingraham, & Bromfield, to whom JA wrote a succession of letters from Leyden commissioning them to rent a “large, roomly sic and handsome” house “fit for the Hotel des Etats Unis de L’Amerique,” with detailed directions about furniture, a carriage, servants, and much else (9, 11, 13 April, all letterbook copies, Adams Papers; partly printed in JA, Corr. in the Boston PatriotCorrespondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts., p. 426–428). His new house on the Emperor’s Canal near the Looking-Glass Street was in keeping with his new status; on 25 Feb. he had received a letter from Pres. Huntington of 1 Jan. enclosing a commission, with full powers and instructions voted by Congress on 29 Dec, as “Commissioner ... to confer, treat, agree and conclude” with the States General of the United Provinces “concerning a treaty of Amity and Commerce” (Adams Papers). His letter of credence, however, denominated him “minister plenipotentiary” (enclosure, dated 1 Jan., in Huntington to JA, 9 Jan. 1781, Adams Papers; see JCCWorthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols., 18:1204–1217; 19: 17–19) See illustrations of present Keizersgracht No. 529 in this volume.


Title: [Accounts, July 1781.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       Expences of a Journey from Amsterdam to Paris. Sat off the 2d of July from Amsterdam, passed by Utrecht, Gorcum, Breda, Antwerp, Brussells, Valenciennes &c. and arrived at the Hotel de Valois Rue de Richelieu, Paris the 6th of July, 1781.

      £
      s
      d

      July 6. 1781. Expences, on the Road, Fifty four Ducats

      1781. July 9. Reed, of Mr. F. Grand at Paris four Thousand Eight hundred Livres, for which I gave him a Rect.
      4800:
      0:
      0


Title: [July 1781]
From: Adams, John
To:

       Accounts, July 1781.

       Expences of a Journey from Amsterdam to Paris. Sat off the 2d of July from Amsterdam, passed by Utrecht, Gorcum, Breda, Antwerp, Brussells, Valenciennes &c. and arrived at the Hotel de Valois Rue de Richelieu, Paris the 6th of July, 1781.

      £
      s
      d

      July 6. 1781. Expences, on the Road, Fifty four Ducats

      1781. July 9. Reed, of Mr. F. Grand at Paris four Thousand Eight hundred Livres, for which I gave him a Rect.
      4800:
      0:
      0

   This fragment is the sole entry in an account book (M/JA/2; Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 181) apparently purchased for use during JA’s hurried visit to Paris in the summer of 1781. The volume is a small quarto bound in parchment; the leaves are ruled lengthwise for double-entry accounts, but all except the first two facing pages are blank. On the back cover is a notation in JA’s hand: “1781 / Peace.”

   On 12 March 1781 the States General of the United Provinces at last issued a counter-manifesto to the British denunciation (21 Dec. 1780) of the Anglo-Dutch alliance. JA embodied the counter-manifesto in his letter to Huntington of 18 March (PCC, No. 84, III; Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols., 4:306–313). Now that the long and intense debate over war or submission was finished, JA could consider the timing and method of announcing his powers to treat for an alliance between the United States and the Netherlands —which would require as an antecedent condition Dutch recognition of American sovereignty and would in itself be a necessary antecedent, it was now clear to JA, to raising a substantial loan among the Amsterdam bankers. In consequence he spent the last part of March and the early part of April quietly in Leyden drafting a memorial which emphasized the historical ties between the two nations and the advantages that would flow from close commercial relations between them. This paper, which was to become famous, went through successive drafts and was completed and signed on 19 April, the sixth anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. On this very day JA went to The Hague and began a series of interviews with La Vauguyon, the French ambassador, who, under instructions from Vergennes, did everything in his power to dissuade JA from his purpose but did not succeed. The account of his tussle with La Vauguyon in JA’s Correspondence in the Boston PatriotCorrespondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts. (p. 431–434) is, or at least deserves to be, a classic piece of diplomatic narrative; it is reprinted in a long note in JA, WorksThe Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols., 7:404–406. In the first days of May, after copies and translations had been prepared, JA first submitted his memorial to Van Bleiswyck, grand pensionary of Holland, which was by far the most powerful of the seven provinces and the one most inclined to be sympathetic to JA’s appeal; and next to Baron Lynden van Hemmen, president of the week of the States General. Neither dignitary would receive it officially, but the latter reported his interview with JA to the body over which he presided, and copies of the paper were called for by the deputies to refer to their provincial assemblies. During their interview JA had informed Lynden van Hemmen that he would feel it his duty to have the memorial printed; no objection was raised; and JA’s man-of-all-work in The Hague, C. W. F. Dumas, arranged for its publication and distribution in Dutch, French, and English throughout the Netherlands. It was also widely reprinted in Dutch and other newspapers. See JA to Huntington, 3, 7 May 1781, PCC, No. 84, III, printed in Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols., 4:398–399, 401–403; also Dumas to Huntington, 1 May–13 July 1781, same, p. 393–397. Contemporary printings of the memorial in Dutch, French, and English are listed in W. P. C. Knuttel, comp., Catalogus van de pamflettenverzameling berustende in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, 1889–1916, Nos. 19506, 19506a, 19507; English texts will be found in JA’s Corr. in the Boston PatriotCorrespondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts., p. 439–448; WorksThe Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols., 7:396–404; Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols., 4:370–376.

   In the spring of 1781 the proposals of the Russian and Austrian courts for a mediation between the warring powers took definite shape, and Vergennes, with some reluctance, was obliged to summon JA, the only American representative abroad empowered to discuss peace terms, to Paris for consultation upon them (Bérenger to JA, 5 June 1781, Adams Papers; JA, WorksThe Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols., 7:423–424). At Versailles on 11 July Vergennes laid before JA those terms of the proposed mediation which he chose to let him see and which JA, in a series of letters that followed and overwhelmed Vergennes, rejected on the part of the United States. JA later said that these letters “defeated the profound and magnificent project of a Congress at Vienna, for the purpose of chicaning the United States out of their independence” (Corr. in the Boston PatriotCorrespondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts., p. 133). The essential truth of this assertion has been confirmed by later historians, since it is clear that Vergennes was almost ready at this critical point in the war to compromise France’s pledge of independence and throw the United States on the mercy of Great Britain. See CFA in JA’s WorksThe Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols., 1:334–340; Bemis, Diplomacy of the Amer. RevolutionSamuel Flagg Bemis, The Diplomacy of the American Revolution: The Foundations of American Diplomacy, 1775–1823, New York and London, 1935., ch. 13, “The Imperial Mediators and France in 1781,” especially p. 184, 186–187. The articles of the imperial mediation proposed on 20 May 1781, with the answers of the belligerent powers in Europe, are printed in English in Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols., 4:860–867. JA’s record of his part in the abortive negotiation is in Lb/JA/17 (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 105), together with rejected and corrected drafts of his own papers and some important sequels. Nearly all of these documents were reprinted in his “second autobiography” (Corr. in the Boston PatriotCorrespondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts., p. 107–148).

   JA left Paris and returned to Amsterdam in the last days of July.


Title: [Memorandum of Visits Made and Received at The Hague Following Dutch Recognition of American Independence, April 1782.]
From: Adams, John
To:

        Liste des Visites faites le 22 May i.e. April 1782

         Chez Messrs.

          De Pallandt
         }
         Korte Houtstraet chez Scheuer

          Lohman

          De Schepper

          Hekeren De Brantsenbourg Heeregragt

          Grand Pensionaire Van Blyswijk Heeregragt

          Van Citters—Princesse gracht à coté de 1’Amte. d’Amst. l’Admiralité d’Amsterdam

          D’Aylva—ibid.

          Bigot—Kleine Voorhout, over York’t hoek

          Hardenbroek
         }
         Heere Logement

          Bransen

          De Clyver

          Hambroek

          Sloet tot de Haar Voorhout

          Snelle à coté de Patras au Voorhout

          Nordwyk Voorhout à coté de M. Varel

          Valkenburgh. Ibid à coté de Noordwyk

          Van der Goes Ibid. Maison de Rhoon

          Nagel Ibid à coté de Rosendaal

          Tork de Rosendaal Pere &
         }
         Le Coin du Voorhout & Kneuterdyk

          & le Fils

          Twent Noord Einde vis a vis la vieille cour

          Cau Ibid

          G. De Randwyk. Ibid la 2e. maison de la Vieille Cour

          Greffier Fagel. Ibid

          Boreel Ibid

          Comte de Welderen Oude Mol-Straet

          Tromer. Papestraet chez le Kamer bewaarder Mey

          Sandheuvel Groenmarkt.

          Linden de Hemmen Beeste markt

          De Schepper. Vlamingstraet, chez Villeneuve

          Van der Lely. Logement de Delft au Hoogstraet

          Bowens. Hoogstraet ibid.

          D’Escury. Sur la Place Verte.

          Changuyon

          Kuffeler

          Buitenhof.

          Alberda

          Rengers. Vyverberg, la 2d. maison de Du Tour

          Lynden de Swanenburg, près de Rengers Ibid.

          Ysselstein. chez Monsr. Champ Fleury, au Tournoy Veld.

          De Lynden
         }
         Tournoy-veld, au vieux Doelen

          De Brakel

          Hope—Plein, au Logement D’Amsterdam

          Wieling ibid, à coté de M. Stein

          Lynden de Blitterswyck. Ibid.

          De Beere chez D’Avans dans le L. Pooten.

          Van der Haar. Spuy aux 7. Eglises de Rome.

          Leenhof de L’Espierve, introuvable

     Visites faites aux Villes D’Hollande.

      Dordrecht

      Au long Vivier.
      8

      Haerlem

      Au court Vivier.
      9

      Delft

      Hoogstraet.
      3.

      Leyden

      Buitenhof.
      4.

      Amsterdam

      Plein
      1.

      Gouda

      Voorhout.
      7.

      Rotterdam

      Plein
      10

      Gornichem
      }
      Fluwele Burgwall
      11

      Schiedam

      Schoonhoven

      Brielle

      Spuystraet.
      2

      Alkmar
      }
      Hof Cingel
      5.

      Enkhuijsen

      Hoorn
      }
      Voorhout
      6

      Edam

      Monnikendam

      Medenblik

      Purmerende

       Visites Diplomatiques pour faire part de la Reception de Mr. Adams, come Minister des E.U. pres de L.H.P. faites le 24. May i.e. April 1782
       S.E. Monsr. Le Duc de la Vauguyon Ambassadeur de S.M.T.C. Cette Visite a été annoncee, et faite personellement et rendue de même, selon l’Etiquette.
       Monsr. De Liano, C. de Sanafé Min. Plenipo: D’Espne. Visite faite en Personne le Dimanche 21. & rendue le Lundi 22. de meme.
       Les Suivants ont eu des cartes seulment

      Messrs.
      Cornet Env. Extr. de l’Electeur de Cologne

      De St. Saphorin Env. Extr. du R. de Danmark

      B. De Reischach, Env. Extr. & Min. Plenipo. de L’Emp.

      D. Joas Theolonico de Almeida, Env. Extr. de Portug.

      B. De Thulemeyer Env. Extr. du R. de Pr.—Lorrestraet

      Prince de Gallitzin, Env. Extr. de L’Imp. de Russie. Voorhout

      Markow     do.     Mar. de Turenne.

      Le Cte. Montagnini de Mirabel, Min. Plen. du R. de Sard.

      Bn. D’Eeren Schwerd Env. Extr. de Swede. Westeinde

      Magis Min. du Prince. de Liège. Houtweg.

      Martens Min. Res. des Villes Hanseat.


Title: [April 1782]
From: Adams, John
To:

       Memorandum of Visits Made and Received at The Hague Following Dutch Recognition of American Independence, April 1782.

        Liste des Visites faites le 22 May i.e. April 1782

         Chez Messrs.

          De Pallandt
         }
         Korte Houtstraet chez Scheuer

          Lohman

          De Schepper

          Hekeren De Brantsenbourg Heeregragt

          Grand Pensionaire Van Blyswijk Heeregragt

          Van Citters—Princesse gracht à coté de 1’Amte. d’Amst. l’Admiralité d’Amsterdam

          D’Aylva—ibid.

          Bigot—Kleine Voorhout, over York’t hoek

          Hardenbroek
         }
         Heere Logement

          Bransen

          De Clyver

          Hambroek

          Sloet tot de Haar Voorhout

          Snelle à coté de Patras au Voorhout

          Nordwyk Voorhout à coté de M. Varel

          Valkenburgh. Ibid à coté de Noordwyk

          Van der Goes Ibid. Maison de Rhoon

          Nagel Ibid à coté de Rosendaal

          Tork de Rosendaal Pere &
         }
         Le Coin du Voorhout & Kneuterdyk

          & le Fils

          Twent Noord Einde vis a vis la vieille cour

          Cau Ibid

          G. De Randwyk. Ibid la 2e. maison de la Vieille Cour

          Greffier Fagel. Ibid

          Boreel Ibid

          Comte de Welderen Oude Mol-Straet

          Tromer. Papestraet chez le Kamer bewaarder Mey

          Sandheuvel Groenmarkt.

          Linden de Hemmen Beeste markt

          De Schepper. Vlamingstraet, chez Villeneuve

          Van der Lely. Logement de Delft au Hoogstraet

          Bowens. Hoogstraet ibid.

          D’Escury. Sur la Place Verte.

          Changuyon

          Kuffeler

          Buitenhof.

          Alberda

          Rengers. Vyverberg, la 2d. maison de Du Tour

          Lynden de Swanenburg, près de Rengers Ibid.

          Ysselstein. chez Monsr. Champ Fleury, au Tournoy Veld.

          De Lynden
         }
         Tournoy-veld, au vieux Doelen

          De Brakel

          Hope—Plein, au Logement D’Amsterdam

          Wieling ibid, à coté de M. Stein

          Lynden de Blitterswyck. Ibid.

          De Beere chez D’Avans dans le L. Pooten.

          Van der Haar. Spuy aux 7. Eglises de Rome.

          Leenhof de L’Espierve, introuvable

     Visites faites aux Villes D’Hollande.

      Dordrecht

      Au long Vivier.
      8

      Haerlem

      Au court Vivier.
      9

      Delft

      Hoogstraet.
      3.

      Leyden

      Buitenhof.
      4.

      Amsterdam

      Plein
      1.

      Gouda

      Voorhout.
      7.

      Rotterdam

      Plein
      10

      Gornichem
      }
      Fluwele Burgwall
      11

      Schiedam

      Schoonhoven

      Brielle

      Spuystraet.
      2

      Alkmar
      }
      Hof Cingel
      5.

      Enkhuijsen

      Hoorn
      }
      Voorhout
      6

      Edam

      Monnikendam

      Medenblik

      Purmerende

       Visites Diplomatiques pour faire part de la Reception de Mr. Adams, come Minister des E.U. pres de L.H.P. faites le 24. May i.e. April 1782
       S.E. Monsr. Le Duc de la Vauguyon Ambassadeur de S.M.T.C. Cette Visite a été annoncee, et faite personellement et rendue de même, selon l’Etiquette.
       Monsr. De Liano, C. de Sanafé Min. Plenipo: D’Espne. Visite faite en Personne le Dimanche 21. & rendue le Lundi 22. de meme.
       Les Suivants ont eu des cartes seulment

      Messrs.
      Cornet Env. Extr. de l’Electeur de Cologne

      De St. Saphorin Env. Extr. du R. de Danmark

      B. De Reischach, Env. Extr. & Min. Plenipo. de L’Emp.

      D. Joas Theolonico de Almeida, Env. Extr. de Portug.

      B. De Thulemeyer Env. Extr. du R. de Pr.—Lorrestraet

      Prince de Gallitzin, Env. Extr. de L’Imp. de Russie. Voorhout

      Markow     do.     Mar. de Turenne.

      Le Cte. Montagnini de Mirabel, Min. Plen. du R. de Sard.

      Bn. D’Eeren Schwerd Env. Extr. de Swede. Westeinde

      Magis Min. du Prince. de Liège. Houtweg.

      Martens Min. Res. des Villes Hanseat.

   From Lb/JA/19 (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 107), a letterbook bound in parchment-covered boards, on the front cover of which JA wrote: “Holland France England / 1782.3.4.5.”

   Though JA dated two of the headings in the present document in May 1782, the whole memorandum unquestionably belongs to April in that year, immediately after the States General of the United Netherlands voted, 19 April, to receive his credentials as minister plenipotentiary from the United States. On 23 April JA wrote to R. R. Livingston: “The greatest Part of my Time for several Days has been taken up in receiving and Paying of Visits, from all the Members and officers of Government, and of the Court, to the Amount of 150 and more” (LbC, Adams Papers). It is impossible to suppose that these ceremonial visits were repeated a month later, and there is other evidence (see note 5) indicating that the memorandum applies to April rather than May.

   Soon after JA had left Amsterdam for Paris in July 1781, JQA had departed for St. Petersburg to serve as a companion, private secretary, and French interpreter for Francis Dana on his mission to the Russian court. See JA, Corr. in the Boston PatriotCorrespondence of the Late President Adams. Originally Published in the Boston Patriot. In a Series of Letters, Boston, 1809[–1810]; 10 pts., p. 570–571; JQA, Diary, July–Aug. 1781. Early in August CA, who was miserably homesick and had been otherwise ill, sailed in the South Carolina, Capt. Alexander Gillon, supposedly for the United States, though he did not arrive there until late in Jan. 1782, and then in the Cicero, a privateer owned by the Cabots of Beverly, from Bilbao (letters of William Jackson to JA, Aug.–Nov. 1781; JA to AA, 2 Dec. 1781; Isaac Smith to JA, 23 Jan.1782; all in Adams Papers). After his family broke up, JA himself fell ill with what he called “a nervous Fever,” and during September maintained his correspondence only through John Thaxter (JA to Franklin, 4 Oct. 1781, LbC, Adams Papers).

   In June 1781 Congress had revoked JA’s powers to treat for peace with Great  Britain by appointing him first among five joint commissioners—the others being Franklin, Jay, Laurens, and Jefferson— to act in that capacity. Their instructions, later famous—or notorious—for the stipulation that the Commissioners were “to undertake nothing in the negotiations for peace or truce without [the] knowledge and concurrence” of the ministers of their “generous ally, the King of France,” were dated the same day (JCCWorthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols., 20:651–654). JA received these papers on 24 August. On 16 Aug. Congress had added to his other commissions “further powers ... to form a treaty of alliance” among France, the United Provinces, and the United States, contingent on Dutch recognition of American independence (same, 21:876–880). These powers arrived late in November, together with news of Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown. This event put a different face on American affairs, and by steady insistence JA obtained from the French government at the end of the year a rather guarded permission to press for recognition at The Hague. On 9 Jan. he presented a verbal address to Van den Santheuvel, current president of the States General, requesting “a categorical Answer” to his Memorial which had been under ad referendum consideration since the preceding May, and the President assured him that he would “make Report to their high Mightinesses” (JA to Congress, 14 Jan. 1782, incorporating the text of the address, LbC, Adams Papers; Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols., 5:97–100). In the following days JA reinforced his appeal for action by calling at the headquarters in The Hague of the eighteen cities of Holland represented in that province’s assembly, and was cordially received (sameFrancis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols.; see also Dumas to Congress, 7, 15 Jan. 1782;  sameFrancis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols., 5:86, 102–103). In aid of his campaign JA’s friends got up petitions in Leyden, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and elsewhere, and compared with the way such affairs usually proceeded in the Netherlands, the results were surprisingly fast in coming in. On 26 Feb. the Provincial States of Friesland voted to instruct their deputies in the States General to recognize the United States. On 28 March the States of Holland voted likewise, and the other five provinces fell rapidly into line during the next two to three weeks. At last on 19 April, one year precisely after JA had finished and signed his Memorial of 1781, the States General of the United Netherlands resolved “that Mr. Adams shall be admitted and acknowledged in Quality of Envoy of the United States of North America to their High Mightinesses, as he is admitted and acknowledged by the present” (JA to Livingston, 19 April 1782, LbC, Adams Papers; Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols., 5:315–319). Many of the petitions, together with all the provincial resolves and the final act of accreditation, were gathered and soon afterward printed by JA, in English, in an anonymous publication entitled A Collection of State Papers, Relative to the First Acknowledgment of the Sovereignity [sic] of the United States of America, and the Reception of Their Minister Plenipotentiary, by Their High Mightinesses the States-General of the United Netherlands, The Hague, 1782. Three days after the States General’s action JA was granted an audience by Willem V, Prince of Orange and Stadholder of the United Netherlands (JA to Livingston, 22 April, LbC, Adams Papers; Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols., 5:319–320).

   In anticipation of these events JA purchased, through Dumas and on behalf of the United States, “an house at the Hague, fit for the Hotel des Etats Unis, or if you will L’hotel de nouveau Monde. It is in a fine Situation and there is a noble Spot of Ground” (JA to Francis Dana, 15 March 1782, MHi: Dana Papers). Its cost was 15,207 guilders; it was bought from the Comtesse de Quadt Wykeradt neé Baronne de Wyhe (according to her own signature, though the name is found in innumerable forms), and was situated on the Fluwelen Burgwal, on a site now occupied by the Netherlands Government Printing Office (Dumas to JA, 23 Feb., Adams Papers; JA to Livingston, 27 Feb., 7 Sept., both PCC, No. 84, IV; notarial record of agreement, 24 April, and bill of sale, 27 May, in The Hague Gemeente-Archief [photostats in Adams Papers Editorial Files]). JA moved in about mid-May. This, the first building acquired by the United States as a foreign legation, stood until sometime in the 1820’s; a print of about 1830 of the Fluwelen Burgwal and the canal that then traversed it shows only a one-story wall and doorway on the site.

   Hendrik Fagel (1706–1790), griffier (secretary, “graphiary”) of the States General from 1744 until his death (Nieuw Ned. Biog. WoordenboekP. C. Molhuysen and others, eds., Nieuw Nederlandsche Biografisch Woordenboek, Leyden, 1911–1937; 10 vols., 3:390–391). A strong supporter of the House of Orange and of what JA called the “Anglomane” party, Fagel nevertheless signed, as he was obliged to by his office, the States General’s resolution recognizing the United States.

   Willem Boreel (1744–1796), of Amsterdam and later of The Hague, a deputy to the States General from the Province of Holland and holder of numerous civil and military offices (Johan E. Elias, De vroedschap van Amsterdam, 1578–1795, Haarlem, 1903–1905, 2:945, 1188). As president of the week of the States General when the vote recognizing the United States was passed, Boreel signed, with Fagel, the text transmitted to JA (Collection of State Papers, 1782, p. 92). Boreel and his wife presided over a very hospitable household in The Hague; see numerous entries in JA’s Diary during Sept.–Oct., below.

   That is, the houses or hôtels where the deputies from the cities of Holland to the “States of Holland” (the provincial assembly, which met at The Hague) had their respective headquarters. As for the numbers in the last column, Dr. H. M. Mensonides, Director of the Gemeente-Archief, The Hague, has made the following plausible suggestion: “The figures ... probably indicate the order in which the visits had to be made: first Amsterdam at the Plein (now Ministry of Foreign Affairs) as the most important; then through the Spuistraat (2), Brielle; the Hoogstraat (3), Delft; the Buitenhof (4), Leyden; the Hofsingel (5), Alkmaar and Enkhuizen; the Voorhout (6), Hoorn-Edam-Monniken-dam-Medemblik-Purmerend; and (7), Gouda; the Lange Vijverberg (8), Dordrecht; the Korte Vijverberg (9), Haarlem; back to the Plein (10), Rotterdam (present War Ministry); and then to the outside of the town [and nearest his own establishment], the Fluwelen Burgwal (11), Gorinchem-Schiedam-Schoonhoven. If you will follow it on a modern map, you will see it is quite a logical itinerary” (letter to the editors, 29 Dec.1959).

   Since Sunday and Monday fell on the 21st and 22d of April (and not of May) in 1782, this entry confirms the supposition that JA erred in dating these lists of ceremonial visits in May. It was Llano, the Spanish minister at The Hague, who at this time paid JA a compliment which he reported to various correspondents in bad French but with much satisfaction:

            “Vous avez frappé, Monsieur, (said he to me) le plus grand Coup de tout L’Europe. C’est le plus grand Coup, qui a jamais été frappé dans la Cause Americain. . . . C’est Vous qui a rempli cette nation d’Enthousiasme. C’est Vous qui a tournée leurs Tetes” (JA to Edmund Jenings, 28 April 1782, Adams Papers).

   Le Maréchal de Turenne—an inn.


Title: 1782 September 14. Saturday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Supped last Night at Court in the Maison du Bois. M. Boreel told me he had been to Paris which he quitted 8 days ago. That M. Franklin had been sick. It was at first reported that he had been struck with an Apoplexity. Then it was said he had a billious Cholick, and afterwards a Retention of Urine. But that he had got well before he left Paris.
       Fell into Conversation naturally with Don Joas Theolonico de Almeida, Envoy Extraordinary of Portugal.... He said to me, the Peace is yet a good Way off. There will be no Peace this Winter. There will be another Campain, and no Peace untill the Winter following.... Spain will be the most difficult to satisfy, of all the Powers. Her Pretensions will be the hardest for England to agree to. As to the Independance of America, that is decided. I said to him, it is reported that Portugal is about to open her Ports to American Vessells.—I have not yet received says he any Intelligence of that.
       The Comte Montagnini de Mirabel, Min. Plen. of the King of Sardinia, asked what was the Principle of the Indecision of G. Britain? Why dont they acknowledge your Independance? They must have some Intelligence, that is not publick.—I answered I dont believe there is any Principle, or System in it. It is merely owing to their Confusion. My Lord Shelburne, in complyance with the Will of his Master, refuses to do what all the World sees to be necessary.—Perhaps says the Comte they mean to annex certain Conditions, to the Acknowledgment of your Independance.—But says I, what if We should annex Conditions too? What if We should insist on an Acknowledgement of our Independence as a Preliminary Condition to entering into any Treaty or Conference?—Ay, says he, in that Case you may have work enough.
       Mr. Magis said to me afterwards, I see you often in Conversation with Mr. de Mirabel. He is a great Politician. He is very well informed of all affairs in General, but particularly with the Affairs and political System of Germany.
       Mr. De Llano, the Spanish Plenipo., said to me afterwards, do you know that Man, you have been in Conversation with this Evening so much, Mr. De Mirabel?—Very well says I.—The Baron de Thulemeyer, who was by, said Yes I see Mirabel often Attacks him.—I am told says I, that he is a great Politician.—Ay says Llano I see you know him—but he knows nothing else.
       Mr. Boreel, The Baron de Linden de Hemmen, and the President of the grand Committee, all Members of the Assembly of their High Mightinesses, told me, that five Copies of the Treaties would be made out, according to my Desire, the English and Dutch Side by Side upon every Page, and the Treaty would be signed next Week.
       The Baron de Thulemeyer chatted with me about riding on Horseback. Says he rides always in the Morning, at any Hour between 9 and Dinner, but never after Dinner.
       They shewed me this Evening the Lady who holds at her House an Assembly every Evening, where the whole Corps Diplomatick assists. The Lady, who used to preside at Sir Joseph Yorks Table, and see that all was in order there.

       The Comte de Welderen came as usual and made his Compliment to me. The Rhin Grave de Salm, Colonel Bentink, M. Van der Duesn, and other Officers. In short I never spent so social an Evening at Court. My Party was stronger this Evening, Mirabel and Bentink never play, and there were several others in the same Case.
       The Comte Sarsefield went with me and returned in my Carriage. The Duke de la Vauguion was not there.
       Agreed with Lt. Gen. Van der Dussen to ride with him this Morning at 9.
       Chatted at Supper with one of the Ladies of Honour, Madamoiselle Starembourg, in English, French and Dutch.
       At 9 took my Ride with Mr. Vander Dussen Lt. General of Cavalry. He was mounted upon a noble English Horse, with an embroidered Housing and a white silk net, and with his sword. A servant behind him in Livery, upon another fine Horse with a white silk net. We made a long Ride, of three of four Leagues. In our Way We saw People digging Turfs out of Heaps of Sand. Upon observing more Attentively, I found that they dug away the sand hills to the Depth of 15 or 20 feet, and then came to bodies of Peat or Turf, which they cutt up to sell and to burn. The General says, at the Depth of 10, 15 or 20 feet, they find this layer of Turf which is also some times 10 or 15 feet deep and then come to a fine Soil, upon a Level nearly with the general surface of the Meadows. The Generals Hypothesis is this. —Before the Dykes were built, there were frequent Inundations in Consequence of storms which are still frequent. It is supposed that the whole Country was originally level and covered over with thick and heavy Forrests of Woods. In great Storms, the Waves of the Sea threw up vast Heaps of Sand, and carried them sometimes several Miles in upon the Land. By which means the Forrests of Trees were thrown down, or at least covered up, with Mountains of Sea Sand. That the Wood of these Trees in the Course of many hundreds perhaps some thousands of Years, has putrified and dissolved into Peat or Turfe. So that you have nothing to do, but to dig through the Sand Hills first, and the Turf Beds next to come to the original Surface of the Earth which is yet very fertile. Many fine Meadows have been made, in this Way.
       In passing over the Spot of Downs between the Hague and Leyden, We saw three or four Hunters, Gunners, in search of Hares and Rabits and other Game, this being the Season of the Chase. The General seemed very apprehensive of these Sportsmen that they would not keep a good Look out but might be so eager for their Game, as to  be inattentive to Travellers and fire upon our Bodies. This was a fear that never occurred to me, and I never felt it after it was mentioned.
       The General was inquisitive after the American Savages and a great Part of our Conversation consisted in his Questions and my Answers concerning them. The Roads, the Woods, the Forests in America also, occasioned many Questions.—The General is a Relation as he told me, of the Minister of the same name at the Conferences of Gertruydenbourg.
       Upon Inquiry to day I find that the Lady, who was so intimate at Sir Joseph Yorks, as to oversee his Entertainments, is named Madame de Boetzelaar. She holds an Assembly every Night, at her House, to which resort all the Corps diplomatique. There they Play. She paints but is horridly ugly.
       The Baron de Kruyningen holds an Office of Intelligence, where the Ministers or Secretaries meet of Mornings as at a Kind of Coffee house to exchange with each other the News, and compare Notes.
       Mr. Magis holds such another. What these People get by their Assemblys and Offices, is a Question. Perhaps nothing more than a Reputation, an Acquaintance with foreign Ministers, and now and then an Invitation to dinner.
       The Foreign Ministers here all herd together, and keep no other Company, but at Court and with a few in this Way.—It is not from Choice but necessity. There is no Family, but Mr. Boreel that ever invites any of them, to breakfast, dine or sup. Nor do any of the Members of the States General, the States of Holland, Bleiswick, Fagel, any of the Lords of the Admiralty, Gecommitteerde Raaden, Council of State, high Council of War, or any Body, ever invite Strangers or one Another.
       Hospitality and Sociability are no Characteristicks here.
       This Day Mr. Van Asp made me a Visit. This Gentleman is Charge d’Affairs of Sweeden since the Departure of The Baron D’Ehrenswerd for Prussia. He is a solid prudent Man. He very much admired my House, and its Situation. I said smiling it was very well for a Beginning, and that I hoped We should have an House at Stockholm e’er long. He smiled in return, but said nothing. His Visit was not long. There is not a more sensible, manly, happy, or prudent Countenance in the whole Diplomatick Body. He has desired Mr. Dumas to inform him as soon as the Treaty is signed, that he may write itt to his Court before it arrives in the News papers.


Title: 1782. Septr. 19.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Went to the Comedy. Saw the Sage dans sa Retrait, and Le Jugement du Midas—both well represented. The Mustek was good, and the Show upon the Stage splendid. The Princess and all her Children were there. The foreign Ministers chiefly.