Title: To John Adams from James Lloyd, 8 March 1815
From: Lloyd, James
To: Adams, John

Sir.—
Boston, March 8. 1815.

In a former note returning the letter with which you had obligingly favored me, I had the honor to offer you my congratulations on the termination of the war, without waiting to know what were the grounds of the Treaty which concluded it; because from the tenor of the previous correspondence, and my personal knowledge of nearly all the Commissioners, I felt a reliance, that the arrangement would not be a dishonorable , altho’ I acknowledge my rejoicing was mingled with fear lest it should be, at least in some points a disadvantageous one;—and this expression of feeling I volunteered with the more readiness, as the intelligence was received at a moment, when the National character had been splendidly illustrated by the recent atchievment at New Orleans.—
But I greeted the occurrence with smiles, principally, not because I expected it would bring, or restore to us all the benefits we possessed under former treaties; but because I saw no chance but from this source, of happier prospects for the future;—it was not however the storm that howled along the Lakes, or upon the seabord, that created the apprehensions of an instant, for the fate of the contest, but it was the hidden fire that was rumbling within our own bosoms, and which under a continuance of the war, would I believe have made our Country the theatre of domestic convulsions, as well as of foreign warfare, and perhaps from its effects, have offered up some parts of it, as no very difficult prey to the mercy of the enemy.—
On this head I know, Sir, you had better hopes, and thought differently from me, and I have now only to say I am glad the experiment has never come to issue.—
As the price of the purchase of an escape from evils portentous as these, I considered it as probable, that the English Government might claim from us, the contested Eastern Islands, & interdict all trade between us, and her colonial possessions; and possibly still further, that she would endeavor to extort from us the Coast fisheries around her own shores;—for on the magnanimity or friend ship of Great Britain, or of any other Nation in matters of interest, I confess I never had the ability, to lash my imagination into any sort of dependance; but I did also cherish the belief, that none of our essential or important rights or liberties would be diminished or surrendered.—of the latter, the one most important  of the greatest consequence in reference to its intrinsic value, and as derived from discovery & possession, and confirmed by a formal treaty stipulation, is unquestionably that to which you have referred, the Coast fisheries on the shores of the British possessions in North America.—
These fisheries, as most advantageously secured to the United States by the treaty of 1783.—and made at the time, as I have always understood, a sine-qua-non of that treaty, principally by one of our then ministers, offer an invaluable fund of wealth and power to our Country; one which has never been duly attended to, nor justly appreciated, but which if continued and improved, was destined to grow with our growth, and strengthen with our strength,—and at no very distant day to extract the cream of the trade as well as the fisheries, and to render in a great measure dependant upon, if not tributary to us, all the British Atlantick possessions in North America upon this Continent.—
In reviewing the recognition of this liberty, for the Inhabitants of the United States, to fish without limitation of time, on all the Coasts of Newfoundland which British fishermen shall use, and also on the Coasts, Bays, and Creeks, of all other, His Britannic Majestys Dominions in America, and with the exception of the Island of Newfoundland, to dry and cure fish, on the said shores, wherever unsettled, or where settled, with the approbation of the Proprietors or possessors of the soil; it is difficult to suppress a homage of respect, for the talents and prescience of the Negotiators on the one side, in obtaining the recognition of such a right or liberty, or of supprize at the heedlesness or obtuseness of those on the other, in acceding to it, except under the pressure of some great necessity.—
This liberty is in fact, looking at it in its naked state, and such in time of general peace it would have shortly proved itself to be, granting to a young, an increasing, a powerful and rival Nation, the ability to moor within a cables length of the shore, a cordon of foreign vessels around the seabord of the British Provinces,—of engrossing the better part of all the wealth they possessed, and setting at defiance the revenue laws, both of the Mother Country and the Colonies:—for that vastly the larger part of the fisheries, as well as the more valuable of the supplies of these provinces would have found their way through this line of circumvallation, was as certain to happen, as the regular appearance of the American fisher men on their Coasts.—
The prosecution of these Coast and Bay fisheries, altho’ it had already become extremely advantageous, had undoubtedly reached in a very small degree, the extension and importance it was capable of attaining.—The unsettled state of the commercial world for the past twenty years, and the more alluring objects of mercantile enterprize which such a state of things evolved, served in point of immediate consideration and attention, to throw these fisheries into the back ground; but still until first checked by the system of embargoes and restrictions, and finally stopped by a declaration of War, they were silently, but rapidly progressing, and reaching an importance, which altho’ generally unknown to our Country and its Statesmen, had become highly alarming to the Governments, and more wealthy Merchants of the Provinces, and was beginning to attract the attention and jealousy of the Cabinet of Great Britain towards them.—
The shores, the creeks, the inlets of the Bay of Fundy, the Bay of Chaleur,—the Gulf of St. Laurence,—the Straits of Bellisle, and the Coast of Labrador, appear to have been designed by the God of Nature, as the great Ovarium of fish; the inexhaustible repository of this species of food, not only for the supply of the American, but of the European Continent.—At the proper season,—to catch them in endless abundance, little more of effort is needed, than to bait the hook and pull the line, and occasionally even this is not necessary.—In clear weather near the shores myriads are visible, and the strand is at times almost literally paved with them.—
All this was gradually making itself known to the enterprise and vigilance of the New England fishermen, and for a few seasons prior to the year 1808, the resort to this employment had become an object of attention from the Thames at New London, to the Schoodic; and boats and vessels of a small, as well as larger size, were flocking to it from all the intermediate ports of the United States.—In the fishing season, at the best places for catching the Cod, the New England fishermen, I am told, on a Sunday swarmed like flies upon the shores; and that in some of these years, it Probably would not be an over-estimate, to rate the number of vessels employed in this fishery belonging to the United States, at from 1500 to two thousand sails, reckoning a vessel for each trip or voyage;and including the larger boat fishery; and this number if the fisheries were continued, would shortly be still further, and very greatly extended.—
The nursery for seamen—the consequent increase of power—the mine of wealth—the accumulation of Capital (for it has been justly observed that he who draws a Cod-fish from the sea gives a piece of silver to his Country,)—the controul over the British North-American Provinces—the effect upon the trade and customs of the parent country, and the corresponding advantages to the United States, of which the enlargement of such an intercourse was susceptible, (for the stock of fish appears inexhaustible) you are much better able to conceive than I am to describe;—but I with pleasure point them anew for your consideration, as on many accounts presenting one of the most interesting public objects, to which it can be devoted.—
Lucrative however, and imposing in its individual and national bearings as this fishery was, and was to become; it was little known to the leading men of our country, and little spoken of by others even in Massachusetts, and or among those who were actually engaged in it; and a knowledge of its existence, in any thing like its real extent, or future capability, was perhaps confined to not more than a dozen heads, (if so many) in the whole of the southern and western, and even middle divisions of the Union.—
The causes of its value and importance, not being a matter of greater notoriety here, are obvious.—it was an employment not only in the fishery, but in many instances undoubtedly in trade, and in an illicit trade with the British Inhabitants, in which independently of the dread of competition, one of the inherent attributes of Commerce, publicity was most carefully to be avoided;—those therefore who were engaged in it, made no unnecessary promulgation of their employment, while their Co-adjutors, the poorer Inhabitants of the Provinces, tasting equally its sweets and advantages, were alike Disposed to keep silence with regard to it.—but not so situated were the Provincial Governments, and the more wealthy of the Merchants of the sea-port Towns,—they had become highly alarmed at the expansion of this fishery, and trade; jealous of its progress and clamorous at its endurance.—The former saw their own con—sequence abridged—their Revenue intercepted,—their people alienated, envying the privileges and advantages of a neighboring nation, which their own systems would not permit them to enjoy,—and witnessing their famous navigation act, the sheet anchor of their Commercial supremacy, rendered in its local operation at least, a dead letter.—They therefore of late years have repeatedly memorialized the Government in England respecting the fisheries carried on by the Americans, while the whole body of Scottish adventurers, whose trade both in imports and exports, and controul over the Inhabitants it curtailed, have turned out in full cry, and joined the chorus of the Colonial Governments, in a crusade against the encroachments of the Infidels, the Dis-believers in the Divine Authority of Kings, on the rights of the Provinces.—and have pursued their object so assiduously, that at their own expense, as I am informed from a respectable source in the year 1807 or 8, they stationed a watchman in some favorable position near the Straits of Canso, to count the number of American vessels which passed those Straits on this employment,—who returned nine hundred & thirty-eight as the number actually ascertained by him to have passed, and doubtless many others during the night or in stormy or thick weather escaped his observation.—And some of these Addressors have distinctly looked forward with gratification to a state of War, as a desirable occurrence, which would by its existence annul existing treaty stipulations so injurious as they contend, to their interests, and those of the Nation.—with what degree of correctness this expectation has been entertained the future must determine, but unfortunately these murmurs and complaints reached England and were industriously circulated, about the time that our restrictive measures, inefficacious at best and rendered still more so from never having been fully executed, awakened an unusual and critical attention to the commercial connexion between the two Countries; and probably the value and importance of this branch of it, is now at least as fully understood, and appreciated, on the eastern as on the western side of the Atlantick.—
Carried away by first impressions a large part of mankind become not unfrequently the dupes of misconception, and adhere to their opinions with a pertinacity proportioned to the time they have entertained them; from a source something like this, it has been, and is generally, I might almost say universally believed by the mass of our Countrymen, that the right of fishing on the Banks of Newfoundland, or as it is popularly called, the Grand Bank, was the great boon acquired, as it respected the fisheries, by the treaty of 1783.—While unquestionably the fisheries of the Banks of Newfoundland, no more belonged exclusively in possession, or the right of controul, either to Great Britain or the United States than the air of Heaven is the patent property of both, or either of them, with the power to dole out its use to such other Nations, as agree to conform to the stipulations they may please to prescribe for its enjoyment.—if any thing was gained or secured on this head, it undoubtedly was, the  Coast fisheries on the shores of the British Provinces,—This is the fishery which will now come under discussion at least, if not into contest between the two Countries—It is highly important that correct ideas of its value and extent should be entertained; and perhaps these could not be more perspicuously traced than by taking a relative view of it, compared with the mode of prosecuting, and the importance of the Bank fishery.—this I will now briefly attempt, confident if in doing it I should be reiterating to you the communication of facts, of a knowledge of which you are already in possession, the motive will bring along with it its own sufficient apology.—
The Bank fishery is carried on in vessels generally of from 70 to 90 tons, burthen, and manned with eight or ten men each—they commence their voyages early in March  and continue in this employment until the last of October, in which time they make two and sometimes three fares to the United States, bringing their fish home to be cured.—the produce of these trips if successful, after paying the shoresmen the expense of making or curing, generally furnishes a sufficient quantity of dried fish to load the vessel for Europe.—these vessels employed in fishing, require Cables of from 160 to 180 fathoms in length,—they must always keep their sails bent to the yards, so as to be ready in case of accident to the Cable, or to any of those adverse occurrences to which tempests, or the casualties incident to anchoring nearly in mid-ocean must expose them.—they purchase salted clams for bait, which they procure at considerable expense and take with them from the United States.—they fish night and day when the fish bite well, which is not always the case, and haul their Cod in a depth of water of from 45 to 55 fathoms.—after catching, they head and open the fish, and place them in the hold in an uncured, and consequently in some degree in a partially perishing state—and after having obtained a fair or freight, return with it to the United States to be cured or dried & prepared for exportation; but before this is done, or they can be landed, the fish is always more or less deteriorated becomes softer, and part of it makes an inferior quality of fish, called Jamaica fish, which is generally one third less in price than what is considered as merchantable fish.—and the proportion of this Jamaica fish is much greater than it would have been, had the fish been dried and cured shortly after having been taken, as is the case with the Coast and Bay fishery—in addition to which, these vessels employed in the Bank fishery have to make two and sometimes three voyages to the United States to procure fish enough ultimately to load them for Europe in addition to which  this and  are unavoidably obliged, to prosecute their business with a great comparative expense as to the wear and tear of their vessels, and loss of time, and with an increased degree of hazard, both as to safety and success.—
The Coast, and Labrador fisheries, are prosecuted in vessels of from 40 to 120 tons burthen, carrying a number of men, according to their respective sizes in about the same proportion as the vessels on the Bank fishery,—They commence their voyages in May, and get on the fishing ground about the 1st. of June, before which time, Bait cannot be obtained.—this Bait is furnished by a small species of fish called Capling, which strike in shore at that time, and are followed by immense shoals of Cod-fish which feed upon them.—each vessel selects its own fishing ground, along the coasts of the Bay of Chaleur,—the Gulf of St. Laurence,—the Straits of Bellisle—the Coast of Labrador, and even as far as Cumberland Island and the entrance of Hudsons Bay.—thus improving a fishing ground reaching in extent from the 45th. to the 68th. degree of North Latitude—
In choosing their situation, the fishermen generally seek some sheltered and safe harbour or cove, where they anchor in about 6 or 7 fathoms water—unbend their sails, stow them below—and literally making themselves at home, dismantle and convert their vessels into habitations at least as durable, as those of the Ancient Scythians.—they then cast a net over the stern of the vessel, in which a sufficient number of Capling are soon caught to supply them with bait from day to day.—Each vessel is furnished with four or five light boats according to her size, and number of men, each boat requiring two men;—they leave the vessel early in the morning, and seek the best or a sufficiently good spot for fishing, which is frequently found within a few rods of their vessel, and very rarely more than one or two miles distant from it, where they haul the fish as fast as they can pull their lines, and sometimes it is said, the fish have been so abundant as to be gaft, or scooped into the boats without even a hook or line; and the fishermen also say, that the Cod-fish have been known to pursue the Capling in such numbers quantities, and with such voracity, as to run in large numbers quite out of water, on to the shores.—
The boats return to the vessels about 9 o’Clock in the morning at breakfast.—put their fish on board and salt and split them, and after having fished several days, by which time the salt has been sufficiently struck in the fish first caught, they carry them on shore, and spread and dry them on the rocks or temporary flakes.—this routine is followed every day, with the addition of attending to such as have been spread, and carrying on board and stowing away those that have become sufficiently cured, until the vessel is filled with dried fish fit for an immediate market, which is generally the case by the middle or last of August, and with which she then proceeds immediately to Europe, or returns to the united States—and this fish thus caught, and cured, is esteemed the best that is brought to market, and for several years previous to that of 1808.—was computed to furnish three fourth parts of all the dried fish exported from the United States.—
This fishery was also about that time taking a new form, which would have had a double advantage both in point of profit and extension, for some of our merchants were beginning to send their large vessels to the Labrador Coast and its vicinity, to receive there, from small fishing boats they employed, or purchased from, cured fish, to load their vessels with immediately for Europe; thus saving so great an expense in getting the fish to market abroad, as would in a short time have given our merchants a command of the European markets, and would have also afforded an encouragement, to a small but very numerous boat-fishery, which from receiving the pay for their labor on the spot, could not fail to have been very greatly excited and increased;—and enabling the persons concerned in the exportation from the coast, to receive at home the proceeds of their adventures from abroad, about as early as the Bank fish could have been put into a state, fit to be exported from the United States.—in addition to which we were prosecuting a very productive salmon and mackarel fishery in the same vicinity, as most of the Pickled fish of this description, we have had received for some years prior to the war, were caught on those shores.—
This Coast fishery then, most highly important and invaluable as I think it must be admitted to be, even from the foregoing hasty and imperfect sketch of it, merits every possible degree of attention and effort for its preservation on the part of the Government of the United States.—the refusal of the British Commissioners to renew, or recognize the stipulation of the treaty of 1783 respecting it, and the notification, I hope not formally given, that it would not here after be permitted without an equivalent, are alarming indications in reference to the future peaceable prosecution of this fishery, and of the dispositions of the British Government with regard to it.—
The difference of expression used in the third article of the Treaty of Peace of 1783, as to the right of fishing on the Banks of Newfoundland, and the liberty of fishing on the Coasts of the British Provinces in North America, however it might have originated, affords a diversity of expression, which in the present instance will be seized upon, and be made to give to the Partizans of Great Britain, and of the Provinces, a popular colour of justice in support of their argument, when they contend, as I think they probably will do, that in so important a compact, this variance of language could not have been a matter of accident,—that if precision in the use of terms in their most literal sense, is any where to be expected, it is certainly to be looked for, in an instrument which is to form the paramount law between two nations whose clashing interests have brought them into collision, and which is generally framed by men of the most distinguished talents of each party, the acuteness of whose perception is always kept in full play, by the intending pretensions they have respectively to consult and sustain,—and that therefore a distinction was made, and was intended to be made, at the time of the Negotiation between a right derived from the God of Nature, and to be exercised on the common field of his bounty, the great high-way of Nations; and the liberty, permission, or indulgence, as they will phrase it, to continue the exercise of an employment on the Coasts, at the very doors, and within the peculiar and especial jurisdiction of another Nation.—the one, according to this doctrine, being a right inherent, and not to be drawn in question,—the other a sufferance open to modification, or denial altogether, subsequently to a war, according to the will or the interests of the party originally acceding to it.—
This liberty, for the expression of the Treaty, in the discussion between the two nations must be admitted, whether it operate adversely or favorably to us, rests for its continuance, either as we assert, on the ground of right, as an anterior possession and a perpetual franchise, or as the British will contend on the existence of the treaty of ’83.—the first ground is to be supported on the view taken of it in your own letter, and that which you had the goodness to communicate to me—and even on the second, admitting, pro forma, that a declaration of war, does ipso facto, abrogate all previous treaty stipulations brought into contest by it, unless tacitly or expressly renewed by a new treaty, to be an acknowledged principle of inter National law, still the right in question would I believe rest untouched and unaffected; altho’ I know not, with what degree of decision or determination, the negation of a future use of the Coast fisheries was brought forward in the negotiations at Ghent by the British Commissioners.
But while on the one hand, the coupling the offer to treat for a renewal of the liberty of the Coast fisheries for an equivalent, with a proposition, also to treat for a renewal of the right of the free navigation of the Mississippi also for an equivalent, unless as has been suspected, they were made with the insidious purpose of obtaining an admission that both had already ceased to exist, shews the confidence they would wish to appear to entertain, in the soundness of their position, that the war had extinguished both the right and the liberty; for the former, the free Navigation of the Mississippi, if force of language and repetition, are to have any weight could not well have been placed on a stronger basis,—it being very expressly and explicitly contracted for, in the treaty of 83.—recognized in that of 94, and again mentioned in a provisional article in 1796:——still the ôô, still on the other hand, the omission in the new treaty, to state that the treaty of 83 had expired, or been annulled, and a reference having been made to it in several instances, is a Yet stronger evidence that they did consider that treaty as remaining in existence, and of consequence entitled to respect and observance, in all such of its provisions as had not been specially contravened in the new treaty.—
A liberty was recognized by the treaty of 1783 for the Inhabitants of the United States to prosecute the fisheries on the coasts of British North America, with the exception of the Island of Newfoundland; not only where the parties had been accustomed to use them, but where British fishermen not only did, but might thereafter, (that is subsequently to the date of the Treaty,) prosecute them—and this right, for it had now become a right of liberty; or use, demanded by the one party, and admitted and acknowledged by the other, was wholly without limits as to its duration, and could then only cease, or the limitation take effect, on the happening of one of three events.—that is, by the surrender of the party possessing the right,—the annulment of the Treaty which confirmed it; or by an usurped, and an unjustifiable exercise of power on the one part, in defiance of the right, of the other, and in violation of those common principles of good faith which can alone regulate the intercourse between Nations.—but the surrender of this right has not been made, and will not be made by the United States—and the Treaty of 1783 has not been annihilated by the existence of the war, because the Parties have not only, not agreed to abrogate it, but have expressly referred to it, and in the Treaty of Ghent made a provision to carry the stipulations as to boundaries of the Treaty of ’83 more fully and completely into effect,—now it being an uncontroverted principle of the law of evidence, that the whole must be admitted, if a part is received, unless some reciprocal and mutual agreement exists to the contrary, and as no such stipulation does exist in the present case, the Treaty of 1783 is as I should contend, even by the shewing of the British Commissioners themselves, still in existence, with all the rights and liberties incident to it, and of consequence with the full, and free use, to the Inhabitants of the United States of the fisheries, as formally recognized, and secured, to the United States by that Treaty.—
This is the construction, whether to be supported on this ground, or any other, which I hope the Government of our Country will maintain.—it is a right most highly important to the eastern section, and indeed to the present and future naval, and commercial powers of the United States,—and should the British Ministry, or the Colonial Authorities attempt to interdict this fishery, as I think they now will, to the Inhabitants of the United States, The Government ought, And I trust will take, the most prompt and effectual measures, to obtain and enforce a renewal, or recognition of this right as it has heretofore existed.—It is a gem which should never be surrendered, nor can it ever be abandoned by any Statesmen alive to the interests of their Country.——Compared in its consequences with a free right of navigating the Mississippi—it is even a much more unequal stake, than would be “six french rapiers imponed against six Barbary horses.”—
The right of navigating the Mississippi since the acquisition of Louisiana, and the possession of both sides of the River by the United States; and when the difficulties of the ascending navigation are considered, and the jealousy and inconveniences which the subjects of Great Britain must experience from attempting to avail of it, can be of little value to her, except as in its higher branches, and on the Missouri, it may facilitate the prosecution of the fur trade.—this trade however altho’ it employs a large number of persons never has been very important to the nation, and must from the operation of unavoidable causes gradually lessen and in the course of a few years probably recede altogether from the great rivers.—She has therefore, notwithstanding the opinion of two of the American Commissioners, and her own probable pretensions of fairness, given up nothing in point of value compared with the fisheries, which upon the same ground she is undoubtedly desirous of fortifying herself in withholding.—
In compliance with the intimation you had given me, I have commented on this subjects at much greater length even than I had contemplated at the outset, especially perhaps too minutely, when I recollect, that a part of it at least must be so much better understood at Quincy than by myself; but the account of the recent state of these fisheries, and the mode in which they were prosecuted I thought might not be unacceptable to you.—my information With regard to them has in general been derived from respectable sources on which I can rely, never having had any direct interest or concern in the fisheries myself.—I have not attempted to apply the principles of public law to the questions respecting them, because the few books of this description which I possess are still at Washington, and since the rising of the Council I have not had time to make any research elsewhere; and because I presume this part of the business will be placed under the hands of those who will have both the means, and the ability to do it ample justice.—
I had intended also in reference to the Treaty of 1814 to have made some few remarks on the interdiction it may occasion of a trade between the United States and the British Ports in India, and on its operation upon the contested boundary on our north eastern frontier, so far as regards the right of possession, to the Islands of Dudley, Moose, and Frederick in the Bay of Passamaquoddy,—I have however already so unduly trespassed on your patience, that I will only not omit noticing them altogether.—
Both these objects attach to them some importance, but compared in point of value with the possession of the fisheries, perhaps in a ratio not much greater, than the bullion in the Mint at Philadelphia would bear to the ore in the mines of Peru.—
If it be true, as it undoubtedly is, that in the absence of treaty stipulations every nation has a right to controul, or interdict altogether to others a trade with its own Dominions; then this trade to British Ports in India, the agreement respecting it in 1794, having expired by its own terms, is perfectly within the regulation of the Government of Great Britain without any reference to our wishes, our profit, or advantage.—It has gone, by our omission to renew the treaty of 94, under which it was prosecuted with benefit, and was beginning to afford a new emolument to us, by our availing of The letter of the Treaty, which allowed a trade from British India, to “America,” to prosecute a trade between Bengal and the Spanish and Portuguese ports in South America.—this was a trade not contemplated at the time the Treaty was made, and the liberty to engage in it is not possessed by the English East India Company under its charter; but had Mr Jays treaty been continued or renewed, I know not how the British Government, or the Company could have got clear of the construction which permitted it to vessels of the United States.—
The direct trade to our own Ports, was advantageous to us, inasmuch altho’ principally carried on with specie, inasmuch as it gave employment to our large ships,—to the most respectable of our Navigators, and the best of our seamen,—as it consumed & took off considerable quantities of our provisions, & besides supplying us with cheap fabrics for domestic use, furnished us also with many important articles of export, which in small parcels, but in the aggregate to an important amount, eventually found their way to So. America, the West Indies, the Mediterranean and the North of Europe.—We were also gradually feeling our way, & becoming possessed of a knowledge of some articles of export from hence, which the loftiness or the laziness of the Companys servants had over-looked.—and although specie formed the principal part of the capital of these voyages, popular opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, this circumstance to my view, offered little or no objection to it; for I have no belief that such a trade in specie can be injurious to a country, until the drain of it becomes so excessive, as materially to advance the price of the precious metals in consequence of the abduction of them, and when this is the case the disease will bring its own remedy, the trade will immediately stop of itself, because the profits on it have not been so large as to allow of its prosecution at any great additional expense.—
But as this trade to the British Ports in India furnished revenue to the English Government,—money and animation to the Native manufacturers—as we generally received goods of a less valuable fabric than those prepared for the India Company; and as even in the opinion of some of the Governors General, I believe Lord Mornington; and Lord Cornwallis, this trade was profitable to the English as well as ourselves, it is not improbable, after the fit of ill-humour may have passed away, that it will again return to us, from a sense of their own advantage in renewing it; without discovering trop d’empressment for its attainment, any opening for securing it on a treaty basis, should be embraced, as nearly on the terms of the treaty of 94 as may be practicable; for the voyage is both too distant and expensive to be undertaken upon occasional licences, or to depend upon the will or caprice of the local authorities in India.—
The contested Islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy, are valuable to us, as now possessing a population of from 2000 to 2500 persons, and as affording greater facilities than the Main in prosecuting the trade in Gypsum, or Plaster of Paris; of which there were received from thence in some years in vessels of the United States about 30,000. Tons, being three quarters of the whole quantity taken from the Bay of Fundy where it is principally found.—The Islands are also valuable, from enabling us the better to carry on a boat fishery, principally in Pollock, a fish well adapted for the West India market, and which are caught in great quantities in the currents near those Islands.—But the points of this subject must be now well understood, as they have been under consideration in the Papers, and between the State and General Governments, and the British Government and its Provinces, nearly since the peace of 1783.—for the discussion respecting them began I believe with Governor Hancock in 1786, and has been continued under every administration of the General Government until the present.—
When at Washington I had made this Subject a topick of inquiry, supposing it might come within the scope of my official duty to attend to it,—but I will not now dilate on it—It is a question of right, not to be governed by the received principles of National Law, where Rivers form boundaries, but by the fair construction of the Article which refers to it in the Treaty of ’83, and lies I think in a nut-shell.—if the ancient charter of Nova Scotia granted, in 1621.—the jurisdiction exercised antecedently to the commencement of the Revolutionary War, and the old Maps of the Province can be brought in evidence in support of the British Claim, the question is I think decided at once.—if these things cannot be done, the Islands belong to us.
The English view of the subject has been more distinctly stated in a work of Nathl Atcheson printed at London in 1808, than in any other publication I have seen.—
Feeling persuaded that in avowing the hope that all these objects may be disposed of in such  manner, as best to confirm the rights, and secure the interests of the United States, I shall unite fully in sentiment with yourself—I have the honor to remain Sir / with great Consideration /  Your very Respectful & Obedt Servt.
James Lloyd.


Title: To John Adams from Horatio Gates Spafford, 8 March 1815
From: Spafford, Horatio Gates
To: Adams, John

					Esteemed Friend—
					Albany, 3 Mo. 8, 1815.

				I enclose this a  Right to use this improvement described in this little pamphlet I lately sent thee. Should it not be thy wish to use it, please hand the Certificate to some friend who will do so, & advise  Mr Mr of the result. I am anxious to have the principles fully tested, & the best possible method is by actual demonstration. So far, this has succeeded to complete satisfaction.I was in hopes thy Son would return to America, after signing a Treaty with England, & for myself, regret that he is not. I wish his prosperity, however,  & perhaps he deems it best to remain in Europe. I can appreciate thy anxiety to see him, & that his stay must afflict thee, at thy period of life. I should esteem it a favor to learn from thee what thou hast heard from him; & to be remembered to him in thy next Letters. With  earnest wishes, I had anticipated your pleasure at meeting again. Permit me to present my congratulations on the return of peace,& to renew assurances of my high consideration.

					Horatio Gates Spafford


Title: To John Adams from James Lloyd, 14 March 1815
From: Lloyd, James
To: Adams, John

					Sir.—
					Boston March 14, 1815

				I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your respected and highly interesting letters of the 6th. & 9th. of the present month with their enclosures; the latter of which I now return.—While obliged by their communication I feel reluctant at trespassing so largely upon your time and retrospections, and beg leave again to reiterate the request, that you would not call them into exercise for my use at any other times than may be grateful to yourself.—You will also permit me to assure you, that the transmission of original papers can  in no case be necessary, except it may be for the purpose of avoiding the trouble of recapitulating their contents, a quotation or reference by you Sir, to any such documents would carry with it as entire a conviction of the authenticity of them, as if they had been signed in my presence.—Your description of the character, and talents and views of Miranda is I believe perfectly correct.—I saw him on his visit to the United States during the Revolutionary War but never met him afterwards, and altho’ I was at that time only a school-boy, the powerful impression he made on my mind is even now as vivid as if I had seen him within a twelve month.—I think were he living and to pass me in the street I should recognize him at this day.—He appeared to me as the most extraordinary, and wonderfully energetic man I had ever seen.—I happened to be alone with my Father in his parlour when Miranda called on him, where he rivetted me during his visit, and to this hour I recollect very distinctly the two topics of his conversation the one, doubtless his darling theme, was the prospect of revolutionising  the Spanish provinces of South-America;—the other, an expression of his disgust at the degree of liberty possessed by the People of this country, and the abuse of it which he had witnessed at some turbulent popular election in one of our southern Cities, I believe at Baltimore.—While commenting on these subjects with great vehemence of enthusiasm and severity of denunciation, and in a rapid impassioned and commanding eloquence, with his whole frame in motion, and pacing the room with giant strides, he presented to my juvenile imagination, a new and apparently more elevated sample of the human character, and seemed capable of leading a People impatient of their Government, and ripe for its Subversion to any deeds of daring to which his ambition might direct them.—from this strongly fixed remembrance, I followed for a time the account of his career with great interest.—When he entered the service of France in the command of one of the divisions of the army of Dumouriez, I pictured to myself the brilliant role he was about to play.—and when arrested I expected his course would have terminated on the scaffold, and knowing also his sentiments of Republican Governments, I had no great doubt but he might fully have deserved to do it,—both expectations were however erroneous, his army acquired nothing but disgrace, and he personally escaped from the guillotine.—before his last expedition from the United States he had sunk greatly in the public estimation, but if he at the time retained even the shadow of his former characteristics, the dastardly issue of it must have disappointed the coldest and least sanguine of his followers.—   For a perusal of his well-written letter, and the precise—and perspicuous translation which accompanied it, I am much obliged,—I regret the trouble which the latter occasioned, as I could have read the original with facility.— The mention of the projects of Miranda, as they respected Great Britain, the United States and South-America in Mr Bristeds hints on the bankruptcy of Britain, had escaped My notice or remembrance; at its publication, the Author who I personally know politely sent me a copy of his work, but I had not recently perused it, having indeed considered it useful, from it multifarious Mention, rather as a book of occasional reference, than as demonstrating the dogma it was intended to establish.—the source from which I think he devised his information, would corroborate, if any further confirmation were necessary, the existence of the projects which were contemplated by some leading american politicians of the period to which it refers; and those views to the mind of an enlightened Statesman I very readily admit, would independently of the obvious considerations of justice, very properly afford a Subject of mature deliberation to determine, how far it might be expedient even on the score of future policy, for the United States to co-operate in the aggrandizement of one of the great Belligerents, in shipping and plundering a third party, by entering into a war with its antagonist, and in some degree furthering the attainment, and in some degree diverting an opposition to the accomplishment of its objects; especially if the basis for the prosecution of the expedition promulgated by Bristed was the correct one, from which it would seem, little way to enure to the United States, but the honor of becoming one of the Dramatis Personæ of the Tragedy,—of keeping the Floridas if they could, after they had taken them; and of furnishing its contingent of military force in a war both of invasion and conquest, for the benefit of the finances, and the manufacturers of Great-Britain.—     The morality of the transaction would unquestionably have been pretty much the same in 98 as in 1810 or 12.—and the doctrine in both cases approximates a little too nearly to that which was attempted to be made the prop of the recent orders in Council to find an advocate in your present correspondent.—At the moment of concluding this letter your favor of the 12th: has reached me,—on the subject to which it relates, I have had for many years but one impression, without however possessing any particular knowledge of the circumstances connected with the negotiations which eventuated in the treaty of Peace of 1783.—And the narration of which I am obligingly furnished by your letter; that understanding was, and still continues to be, that we were wholly indebted to Mr Adams for the recognition and security of our right to the fisheries, a fact which is generally—I believe almost universally admitted in New-England, and which may I hope ever be held in honorable and grateful remembrance by his Countrymen.—this sentiment was in a former letter expressed in a less unqualified manner, because in a  prior one from yourself Mr Laurences name was coupled with the subject, and of the extent of his participation in it I was then ignorant,—He is certainly entitled to the credit of having been open to conviction, of possessing integrity and manliness enough to support his opinions, and of being a party to the Capitulation; but in the merit of having fought the battles which led to it, he can claim no share.—With continued and very great respect / I am Sir / Your Obliged & mo: Obed Serv

					James Lloyd.


Title: From John Adams to Richard Rush, 17 March 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Rush, Richard

					Dear Sir
					Quincy March 17th 1815

				The Sight of a well known hand, made my heart leap, before I opened your Letter of the  6th. the Contents compleated my delight. May your health be as permanent as I believe your understanding to be Sound and your heart pure.The Pamphlet inclosed to me, ought to be Sent to every foreign Minister and Consul, tho’ it Should be under the Restrictions you prescribe to meI inclose to you Papers equally confidential, to be returned to me, with good Faith, after you have Shewn them to Mr Monroe and after he has Shewn them to the President, and taken a Copy of it by one of his Clerks if The President and Secretary Shall think it of any Use.How the correspondence originated between Mr Lloyd and me, is a Mystery, which would require Sheets to unfold. But it is a friendly one.I am apprehensive of a Contest between the Missisippi and Labradore; which must end in the conquest of Nova Scotia and Canada and the Florida’s: or, oh horrible! The division of the States. But who can look into American Futurity with out Shuddering? I Shall rejoice and give thanks with the President, but not with out trembling. With my most respectful Compliments to Mrs Rush and Sincere congratulations with on the Recovery of Your /  Health, I am your real Friend

					John Adams


Title: To John Adams from James Lloyd, 17 March 1815
From: Lloyd, James
To: Adams, John

					Sir.—
					Boston March 17. 1815.

				I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your respected, and highly interesting letter of the 6th. & 9th. of the present month with their enclosures, the latter of which I now return.—While obliged by their communication I feel reluctant at trespassing so largely upon your time & retrospections, and beg leave again to reiterate the request, that you would not call them into exercise for my use at any other times than may be grateful to yourself.—You will also permit me to assure you, that the transmission of original papers can in no case be necessary, except it may be for the purpose of avoiding the trouble of recapitulating their contents.—a quotation or reference by you Sir, to any such documents would carry with it, as entire a conviction of the authenticity of them, as if they had been signed in my presence.—Your description of the character, and talents, and views of Miranda is I believe perfectly correct.—I saw him on his first visit to the United States during the Revolutionary War, but never met him afterwards, and altho’ I was at that time only a school Boy, the powerful impression He made on my mind, is even now, nearly as vivid, as if I had seen him within a twelve month.—I think were He living and to pass me in the Street I should recognize him at this day.—He appeared to me the most extraordinary and wonderfully energetic man I had ever seen.—I happened to be alone with my Father in his parlour when Miranda called on him, where He rivetted me during his visit; and to this hour I recollect very distinctly the two topics of his conversation; the one, doubtless his darling theme, was the prospect of revolutionizing the Spanish Provinces of South America; the other an expression of his disgust at the degree of liberty which the People of this Country enjoyed, and the abuse of it, which He had witnessed shortly after his landing, at some turbulent election in one of our Southern Cities, I believe at Baltimore.—While commenting on these subjects with great vehemence of enthusiasm, and severity of denunciation, and in a rapid, empassioned, and commanding eloquence, with his whole frame in motion, and pacing the room with giant strides, He presented to my juvenile imagination a new and apparently more elevated sample of the human character, and seemed capable of leading a People, impatient of their government, and ripe for its subversion to any deeds of daring, to which his ambition might direct them—from this strongly fixed remembrance, I followed for a time the course of his career with great interest.—When He entered into the service of France in the command of one of the armies of the North, I pictured to my imagination, the brilliant role He was about to play; and When arrested, I presumed his course would have been terminated on the Scaffold, and knowing also his sentiments of Republican Governments, I had no great doubt but He might deserve to do it.—both of these anticipations were however erroneous—his army acquired nothing but disgrace, and He escaped the guillotine.—Before his last quixotic expedition from the United States, He had sunk greatly in the public estimation, but if He at that time, retained even a shadow of his former characteristics, the dastardly issue of it must have disappointed even the coldest and least sanguine of his followers.—For the perusal of his well-written letter, and of the correct and very good translation which accompanied it I am much obliged, altho I regret the trouble which the latter occasioned, as I could read the original with facility.—The mention of the projects of Miranda as it respects Great Britain, the United States and South America had escaped my notice & recollection.—at its publication, the Author whom I personally knew, politely sent me a copy of his work, but I had not carefully perused it, having indeed considered it from its multifarious collection rather as useful for an occasional reference, than as establishing or demonstrating the dogma it was intended to support.—the source from which I think He derived his information would corroborate, if any further confirmation were necessary, the existence of the projects which were contemplated by some leading American Politicians of the period to which it refers, and those views to the mind of an enlightened Statesman I very readily admit, would independently of the obvious considerations of justice, very properly afford a subject calling for mature deliberation, how far it might be expedient for the United States to facilitate the aggrandizement of one of the great Belligerents in stripping and plundering  a third party, by entering into a war with its Antagonist, and in some degree diverting an opposition to the accomplishment of its objects, especially if the basis for the prosecution of the Expedition promulgated by Bristed was the correct one, from which it would seem little was to enure to the United States but the honor of becoming one of the Dramatis Personæ of the Tragedy—of keeping the Floridas if they could—and of furnishing its contingent of military Force in a War both of invasion and conquest for the benefit of the finances and manufacturers of Great Britain.—The morality of the transaction would have been pretty much the same in 98, as in 1812, and the doctrine in support of it, approximates a little too nearly to that which was attempted to be made the prop of the recent orders in Council, to find an advocate in your present Correspondent.—At the moment of concluding this letter, your favor of the 13th. has reached me;—On the subject to which it relates I have had for many years but one impression, without however possessing a very particular knowledge of the circumstances connected with the negotiations which eventuated in the Treaty of Peace of 1783, and with the narration of which I am obligingly favored by your letter; and that understanding has been, and still remains the same, that we are wholly indebted to Mr Adams for the recognition and security of our right to the fisheries—a fact which I hope may ever be held in grateful and honorable remembrance by his Country men.—this Sentiment was in a former letter expressed in a less unqualified manner, because in a prior one from yourself, Mr Lawrences name was connected with the subject, and of the extent of his participation in it I was then ignorant.—He is certainly entitled to the credit of having been open to conviction—of possessing integrity and manliness enough to support his opinions, and of being a party to the capitulation, but in the merit of having fought the battles which led to it, He can claim no share.—With very great respect / I am Sir / Your obliged &  mo: Obedt Servt

					J. Lloyd.—


Title: To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 20 March 1815
From: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan
To: Adams, John

Dear and respected Sir!
Olden barneveld 20 March 1815

Permit me, to congratulate you and your Lady, with the appointment of his Exc: John Quincy Adams to the Embassÿ at the Court of St James. He has now reached the Summit of his Diplomatic career—and will—I ardently hope—ere long bless his country with a treaty of amity and commerce. The Allmighty prolong your days, till you may See Him pressed once more at His Mothers bosom! Now I you may hear of Him everÿ month—and I shall not be Surprised—to hear—that He request his Parents—to favour Him with the grant of a visit of his dear Sons during his residence at that court.
I am with high and unabated respect / Dear & respected Sir! / your affectionate and obliged / frend!

Fr. Adr. van der kemp.


Title: To John Adams from William Plumer, 21 March 1815
From: Plumer, William
To: Adams, John

					My dear Sir,
					Epping (NH) March 21. 1815

				I have for sometime neglected writing to my friend your son at St. Petersburg, because I expected his return early the approaching summer; but I now perceive he is appointed minster plenipotentiary to the court of St. James’s. My object in this Address is to enquire whether he will accept that mission or return to his native country? If he accepts that appointment, the son may terminate his diplomatic character at the same court as his father; and I hope on his return like him be raised to the Presidency.I most sincerely congratulate you on the restoration of a peace honorable to our nation;  & in which  your son was an efficient agent. The late war has given us a character, & made an stronger impression on Europe, that will do more to secure our rights than the strongest engagements an parchments could effect. We have taught the world we have the resolution & ability to maintain our rights, and will not suffer them to be violated with impunity. Its beneficial results to ourselves,  I trust will not be lost. It has imparted life  & activity to our manufactures & other useful improvements, & makes us more independent of Europe. It has demonstrated not only the use but the necessity of our having a permanent encreasing naval establishment. It is preposterous in  us to expect protection to commence & defence of our sea board without a navy. It has taught us that to preserve peace we must be prepared for war.The peace has dissolved the Hartford Convention; and for the present, perhaps for ages, postponed the fateful project of dismemberment. And I trust the peace will reduce the violence of party Spirit nearer to moderate temperature. The benevolent heart wishes its total extinction, but the experience of the world teach us to expect its continuance so long as man is man. One faction, like one superstition, will be broken down to make room for another to occupy its place.The mail is closing—I have only time to add that my son, who was so much gratified with his visit to you the last autumn, presents his respects and thanks to you.I am with much respect & esteem / Sir, / Your most obedient / humble servant

					William Plumer


Title: From John Adams to James Madison, 23 March 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Madison, James

Sir,
Quincy March 23rd 1815

The enclosed letter supposes more importance, in my judgement, than it deserves. Whatever it is worth however, it is all in favour of the request in it. Waterhouse is another Rush; and for no other reason that I can conjecture, than his respect & able services, to the national Government, for the last 14 years, has been cruelly treated by the worst faction against it. I submit the subject, to the rightful authority & have the honour to remain Sir, your most obedient Servant
John Adams


Title: From John Adams to James Lloyd, 26 March 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Lloyd, James

					No. 9.Dear Sir
					Quincy March 26th 1815

				1 I now inclose to you, the original Spanish Letter to me, dated Falmouth 10 May 1798 from D. Pedro Joseph Caro apologizing for his not coming to me in Person.2 I next inclose a translation of Pedro’s Letter to Pickering dated Falmouth 10th. May 1798.Sir The annexed Letter of the honourable Mr King to you will serve as a Credential in my favour, in presenting myself to you with the important Mission it announces. An unforseen Accident has frustrated my Voyage hence to your Continent, in his Majesty’s Cutter, which sailed for New York on the 20th April last: and a combination of circumstances requiring my Arrival in South America, with as little delay as possible, I have received Instructions immediately to depart, by the shortest route of the leward Islands, and am ordered to communicate it to the Government, through the medium of you, by transmitting the Packet which I inclose, and which I should have conveyed personally. I pray you to be pleased to deliver it, into the hands of His Excellency the President; and as eventually some answer may be practicable in so interested a business, General Francis de Miranda, our compatriot and the Principal Agent of all Spanish America in Union, a Person extremely well known, and in particular to the honourable Mr King, whose Intervention is, as to both Parties safe and secret, will remain in London.I hope also, you will have the Goodness to receive the first tribute of my respects in the Spanish language and style, as I am unable to render it in English, and that you will not confide the secret to Interpreters that are not known: remaining with the greatest respect, Sir, Your Excellencys most humble ServantPedro Josef Caro.Falmouth 10 May 1798His Excellency Timothy Pickering Secretary of State &c.March 18th. Last night, I received your favour of the 14th. with the Inclosures. I have been and am still desirous that you should see the original Documents, in this great and profound political Intrigue for the pretended, ostensible Independence of South America. They throw some Light on the Policy of England and France, and the Dupery of Spain; at the same time, that in my conscience I believe, as I have always believed, that they prove to a demonstration, the Wisdom of my Missions to France.But before I proceed Mr Lloyd I must settle some Preliminaries, with you.1st. I have no insidious design of drawing from you any Opinion on any Facts Stated, or Inferences or conclusions drawn by me. You may reserve all your Judgments. I only wish to furnish you with Evidence which I believe you never could derive from any other source.2. I pray you to take your own time, to answer or aknowledge my Letters. I wish not to interfere with a moment of Business or Amusement. My Object is to convince convince you, that my Missions to France were not less dictated by deliberate prudence, than compelled by cogent Necessity.3. You can never “trespass on my time or retrospections.” both are at your service. Neither are of any value to me; but as they may possibly, at some times, be of some Use to the Publick or to Posterity. There is not a fact in my Memory that I will not reveal to you, if you ask it.4. I ask your pardon for translating Miranda’s Letter. I believed that you understood the Language; but was not certain; and thought it not amiss to furnish you, with the sense in which I understood it.
				I will now inclose to you Sir, the remainder of the South American Packett, with a request that you would return it to me, with the same punctuality that you have observed in all my former communications.1 A magnificent confederation, Association, Platform, or Conspiracy, call it which you will, of three great Personages, to seperate all South America from Spain, erect an independent Empire, over that vast Region under the form, of a federative Republick. And these three great Personages were, Don Josef del Pozo y Sucre, Don Manuel Josef de Salas, and Don Francisco de Miranda. This was certified to me by Miranda.2. The “Pouvoire” signed and sealed by Josef del Pozo y Sucre, Manuel Josef de Salas and Francisco de Miranda, certified to me by Miranda.I need not proceed farther, Mr Lloyd,! Here is enough to furnish a Volume of Reflections.! Nay, if you were to pursue all the Investigations and Speculations that these Papers suggest, you might write as many Folios as Priestley or Voltaire ever produced.I read all these Papers, over and over, with great and very serious attention: and the oftener I read them, the more my Astonishment was increased. After mature deliberation I knew not whether I ought to laugh or weep. In the sequel laugh I did, most heartily: weep I did not, for I too cordially despized the whole Business to cry over it. Give me leave to recapitulate the heads of some of my Speculations or Reveries upon that occasion.1. What was to be done with these Papers? What was the dictate of my Duty? We are at peace with Spain: We are engaged in a friendly demarcation of the Limits between their Territories and ours: negotiations are in train for compensation for Spoliations on our commerce, with a fair prospect of an amicable Termination. Is it my duty to communicate these documents to Yrujo the Spanish Minister? No. Surely not. I cannot be obliged to act the Part of a Spy a Sycophant or Informer to Spain or any other Nation or Government. Besides, what good can come of it? None, but to expose Miranda to the Guilotine in France, and his Associates, to the  Rack or the Stake in Spain or in Spanish America. Besides, what Feuel would these papers have thrown into the Flames, the Volcano of European Politicks and Wars, at that time?Should I communicate them to Mr Liston the British Minister? Surely not. If Mr Liston had received any Instructions from Mr Pitt, it was his duty to impart them to me.Should I transmit them to the Senate and House in Congress? No. This would give the greatest possible publicity. And what could Congress do with them?Should I summon the heads of Departments lay the Packett before them and ask their opinion and Advice? No. I wanted none of their Advice, in so plain a case. Who ever thought of summoning a board of Mathematicians to deliberate upon the question whether two and two are equal to four.So intuitively obvious and certain did the Answer to every question that I could imagine relative to the subject that my Judgment was made up as soon as I had read the Dispatch. If the British Minister should present a Memorial in the Name of his Master to the Secretary of State, proposing the tripartite Alliance; I should instantly dictate an Answer to the Secretary very civilly and respectfully apologizing for declining the Engagement on Account of the Juvenility of our Nation, the Infancy of our Government the Instability of our Financial Establishments the Aversion of our People to War, the difficulty of raising Men, the vastness, Difficulty and Uncertainty of the Enterprize, and the Want of Powers and Authority in the Agents for South America; and above all as it would be a departure from our established System of Policy a Neutrality in all the Wars of Europe as long as We could preserve it.My reflections did not stop here. What was I to think of Mr Pitt and the British Cabinet? Was it possible that Miranda should be such a Conjurer, as to bewitch Mr Pitt and his Colleagues into a serious belief that South America was to be revolutionised so easily by Miranda and his two Jesuits? Did they believe the South Americans capable of a free Government, or a combination of free federative Republicks according to Miranda’s plan? Or did Mr Pitt deliberately project an insidious Plan to dupe me into a rash declaration of War against France, and a submissive Alliance offensive and defensive with him? Does he think me as raw, awkward and ignorant a Boy, as I know him to be? If he does, he will find himself mistaken. Having dispatched the great and renowned Mr Pitt, in this laconic Style, my next Inquiry was Who, and What is Miranda? He is either an Achilles, hurt by some personal Injury real or imaginary, by being deprived of his Girl as likely as any thing else that We know, who has adopted the Maxim of So many other Heroes “Jura negat Sibi lata, nihil non arrogat Armis”: Or he is a Knight Errant, as delirious as his immortal Countryman, the antient Hero of La Mancha.In the next place, What could I think of Don Joseph del Pozo Y Sucre? And Don Manuel Josef de Salas? I knew nothing about them: but that they were Jesuits. And what were Jesuits? Ask Pascall in his provincial Letters. Spain had abolished the Order, and these might be taking Vengeance for their imaginary Wrongs. They might boil with Revenge against the Kings of Spain for abolishing their Order. They were certainly corrupted by British mercurean Policy. But what was I to think of Don Pablo de Olavide. Here was a fact, a history, a secret, unknown to Pitt, King, Miranda, and all their Jesuits. The Fact is, I personally knew Olavide, his History, his Character. I had been in Company with him, at festive, convivial  Dinners, with The Dukes Rochefaucault, the hereditary Representative of the famous Sully, the Bishop of Langres, a, brother of the great La Moinon, a Duke and Peer who had assisted at the Coronation of the King, at Rheims, where the holy Oil had been poured on the Royal head; that holy Oil which was brought down from heaven in the Bill or the Claws of a Pidgeon.Olavide was an Old Man, had been in Spain, a Great Man. A Member of the Counsell of Sevillle &c &c &c. A head stuffed with Learning; a Curiosity insatiable; touched with the contagious heresy of the holy Church Phylosophic of which Voltaire was the Sovereign Pontiff; he had suffered to escape him, sentiments which alarmed the Inquisition. He was obliged to fly as the Count Daranda had been to France, as an Assylum from the persecutions of the Court and the Inquisition in Spain. In Paris, he was tormented with Ennui; he knew not what to do with himself. He told me “mes Moments ne sont pas si courtes.” He went daily to the Mesmerical Experiments. I heard him say he saw there Miracles as inexplicable as those of the Abby Paris in a former Century.One of the highest Frolics I ever enjoyed was with this Olavide, at a dinner with the highest Characters in France, ecclesiastical and civil, in which the Question was discussed between Olavide and me of an alliance offensive and defensive between North and South America. The History of it would be as diverting as the Feast of Plato.You will see, with what eagerness, Miranda and his Associates courted Olavide to join them: and you will see the total neglect and contempt of them, shewn by Olavide. I was confident he had too much sense, to have any connection with them. They never could get them him to meet them or to answer their Invitations. This Olavide, afterwards hit upon the happy expedient of translating from the French into Spanish, a Work in favour of Christianity, which appeased the Wrath of the Inquisition and procured his Return to Spain.But, who were “The Junta” in Spain? Who were “the Junta” in South America? Whom did Miranda and his two Jesuits represent? Where were their Full Powers?I will not fatigue you with too much speculation at once, I beg you to read the inclosed Papers, and I will soon trespass on your Patience with a few more of my Lucubrations.
					John Adams


Title: From John Adams to James Lloyd, 27 March 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Lloyd, James

				No 10
					Mr Lloyd,
					Quincy March 27. 1815

				Let me put a case, like a Lawyer, suppose, Samuel Adams John Dickinson, Patrick Henry and Christopher Gadsden, had been enterprising and romantic enough, in 1773 to go to France and propose to the Duke de Choiseul a triple Alliance between the Crowns of France and Spain, and the United, or to be united States of North America. What would the Duke have Said? “Gentlemen! Shew me, your Full Powers. Whom do you represent?” Oh! Say the American Patriots The People are uneasy, ardent to throw off the Yoke of G. Britain a few Ships of the Line and a few thousand Men from France and Spain, will unite all North America, they will instantly rise, renounce G. Britain, become independent and enter into an eternal Alliance offensive and defensive with France and Spain. What would the Duke have Said? “Gentlemen, this is a deep, dangerous, and difficult Subject. It interests the whole Globe. I, myself pretend not to fathom the depth of it? But you Shew me no Authority. You have no Powers. You represent no body. You appear to Us, only in the light of Rebells and Traitors to your lawfull Sovereign, Return then home to your Country with as little Ecclat and publicity as possible, and think yourselves very fortinate if I do not announce You at St. James’s as Traytors and Rebells to your King.”That this Supposition is no Exaggeration, would appear from the History of the Reception of Franklin, Deane and Lee by the Count de Virgennes in 1776. 1777 and till the 6th of Feb. 1778, An Epocha of great importance in the history of Mankind, of which my dearly beloved Fellow Citizens of the United States are as ignorant as they are of the Sanscrit Shasta, its origin and progress. Before Franklin, Deane and Lee appeared in France, the Royal Governments in America were all annihillated. Congress was Sovereign and Supream, De Facto and De Jure, and those Ambassadors had authentic Records to shew for every Step of the progress from 1761 to 1778. What had Miranda and his two obscure, unknown, unheard of Jesuits to Shew? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! but their ipsi dixerunt.But although they Shew, no Commission, no delegation, no Deputation from any original Power, any physical force, any Animal Strength; much less from any regular Assemblies of People any legitimate Authority of any kind: What is the probability of their Pretensions?The People of South America, are the most ignorant the most biggoted the most Superstitious of all the Roman Catholicks in Christendom. They believe Salvation to be confined to themselves and the Spaniards in Europe They can Scarcely allow it to The Pope and his Italians, certainly not to the French; and as to England, English America and all other Protestant Nations, nothing could be expected or hoped for any of them but a fearful Looking for of eternal and unquenchable flames of Fire and Brimstone. No Catholicks on Earth were So abjectly devoted to their Priests as blindly Superstitious as themselves and these Priests had the Powers and Apparatus of the Inquisition to Seize every Suspected Person and Suppress every rising Motion.Was it probable? Was it possible, that Such a Plan as Miranda’s of a free Government and a Confederation of Free Governments Should be introduced and established among Such a People, over that vast Continent or any part of it? It appeared to me more extravagant than the Schemes of Condorcet and Brissot to establish a Democracy in France; Schemes which had always appeared to me as absurd as Similar plans would be to establish Democracies among the Beasts Birds or Fishes.What Should I think of Mr King? My disposition was very good to make a plausable Apology for him. He might think it, and indeed it might be, his duty to transmit this information to me. I could not however avoid remarking a little enthusiastic leaning in favour of the Sublime Project, and more Symptoms of Credulity than became a cautious and wary Statesman. I did not however reflect with any Severity upon Mr King.Had Mirandas Powers been unexceptionable, his Associates known and Mr Pitt made an Official Proposal of Such a triple Alliance; could I for one moment have deliberated on the question whether I Should accept it or not? Certainly no. Britain had not then displayed all her Omnipotence in the Nile, at Copenhagen or Trafalgar. France Spain Holland Denmark and Russia had Naval Powers Forces; Some of them dangerous and powerfull. These would require all the Naval and military Forces of Britain to defend her own Island, and watch the hostile fleets of her Enemies who were all the maritime Powers of Europe. But had Mr Pitt, in complaisance to the great Miranda, Sent ten Ships of the Line to South America; Spain and France would have Sent twenty After them, and the Seat of the War would have been transferred to South America. And who would have had the Advantage? Most certainly the South Americans would have been in favour of Spain and France. And as certainly The North Americans too; even though Adams, Washington, Hamilton and Pickering had been ever So Strenuous and enthusiastic Advocates and Partizans and Allies of the great Miranda.If I looked at home, I was to Send four or Six thousand Infantry and two thousand Cavalry to South America. And for What? To make of Miranda, a King Theodore, or a Pascal Paoli. Where could I get 6000 Infantry? and 2000 Cavalry? We had them not; and in my opinion We could not obtain them. I had before had Sufficient Experience of the difficulty of recruiting regular Soldiers in the United States. Where Should We find Transports? What would be the Expence? What the Loans? What the Taxes? What the Interest of Money? Had We not had Rebellions enough against Taxes? And were We not threatened with more, and greater? and even with Division, Disunion, Dismemberment, a dissolution of the Constitution and a total Anarchy? Miranda’s Project is as visionary, though far less innocent, than that of his Countryman Gonzalez of an Excursion to the Moon in a Carr drawn by Geese, trained and disciplined for the Purpose. Such were my Reflections. In my next, you Shall have the insignificant Result of all these meditations from

					John Adams


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 3 April 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Waterhouse, Benjamin

Dear Waterhouse
Quincy April 3d 1815

I have written to the President on your Subject. I know not what Weight my opinion has or whether any at all. But this I know, that if such Scoundrels as Skinner, Bidwell Gannet: Such imbeciles as Dearborne, Hall Varnum Seaver are to be made Great men in New England: and such as Gerry Waterhouse Dexter and Grey to be neglected, Old Anarch will resume his Reign
Washington has indeed a dreadful Rival in Jackson. Jackson is a Man of Letters and Science. Washington was neither. Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi and Louisiana have rivalled New England in Military Glory with. “Without Flints” New England has some reason to respect them Aye! and to dread them—
So no more at present from
John Adams


Title: From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 3 April 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan

Quincy Ap. 3. 1815

I thank you, dear Sir for your favours of 7. and 20th. Ult. Messrs Everett and Mr Ticknor will have the benefit of your Introductions. Oh! that I had been So introduced when I entered Holland a forlorn Pilgrim in 1780, without a Single Line of Introduction to any body. What a Knighterrant I have been?
There has been too much Said about Franklins Plagiarism. If he was guilty, which I do not believe, the fault was a Trifle in comparison of his other faults, Vices and Crimes. He was a Successful Swindler of other Mens Laurells and So was Washington. But who, in this Country would wish to publish Nelsons Letters to Lady Hamilton
My Grandsons, George and John are to embark in a fortnight to visit their Parents and Brother in London. God bless them and grant them a happy Passage.
I cannot comprehend the Consequences of the Freedom, though I ardently wish it, of the Scheldte, Antwerp, Nieuporte, Ostende &c How English Eyes can behold it, without starting out of their heads, I know not. Poland too baffles all my Conjectures. Russia will not quit her hold though England Should roar still louder than She does in her Journals and Reviews as well as in Parliament. But why do I Speculate about European Affairs. If I were to write as many Essays, and in as dogmatical a tone and as flippant a Style, as Fisher Ames did, I might only demonstrate my Ignorance as grossly as he did.
your unalterable Friend
John Adams


Title: From John Adams to James Lloyd, 5 April 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Lloyd, James

N. 14
Dear Sir
Quincy April 5th 1815

The Halcyon Days of New England Prosperity, were the first six years of Mr Jeffersons Administration. Was this Felicity owing to the Wisdom, the Virtue or the Energy of Mr Jefferson? Or was it the natural necessary and unavoidable Effect of the universal peace and tranquility abroad and at home, and with Universal Nature, civilized and savage intailed upon him by his Predecessor, in Spight of Friends and Enemies?
Had Mr Hamilton and his Host, for he was “Commander in Chief,” been good Citizens, Submitted to the legitimate constituted Authorities, relaxed their rigid biggotted Monopolies and Exclusions, suffered the Executive to be independent, and moderate the Fury of Parties; the federal Administration might and would have been tryumphant, might have had a Navy, might have maintained their Neutrality. But alas! Hamilton would not endure it. “Othello’s occupation was gone”! And Jealousy and moorish Revenge, again stabbed and murdered Desdemona. And Deacon Phillips has called a noble Block of Brick Buildings “Hamilton Place” in lasting honor of Othello. Such is the honour, the Dignity, the Virtue, the Piety, the Religion, the Morality, the Patriotism the Phylanthropy of the head quarters of Principles, some times good and sometimes bad.
Such was the Fall of the house that Jack built. Such the overthrow of the lofty Palace; the Sublime and beautifull Building that he then thought, and Still thinks he had erected and finished; though he all along knew he was building on the Sand. He could only lament as he did that he could not find a Rock.
He was sometimes vain and foolish enough to please himself with Visions of Studies and Labours to promote the Felicity of the Nation, by encouraging Agriculture Commerce, certain Manufactures, national defence safety and security by Fortifications and wooden Walls, by Arts and Sciences by systems of Education & by Canals and Roads. But he soon saw that Such delights were forbidden to him and he submitted to the Decree. He thought he had answered the End of his Creation, as far as he could see any Use of his Existence upon Earth, and was content it Should come to an End physically and politically, if it was the pleasure of the Supreme Ruler.
But I cannot relieve you yet. You must read a little more curious history. There is extant a volume in print. Boston 1810. published by Edward Oliver. N. 70. state street, “The History of Don Francisco de Miranda’s Attempt to effect a Revolution in South America.” with a very apt Motto from Shakespeare
Thoughts tending to Ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders.
If ever more “unlikely wonders” were plotted in this World than those plotted by Pitt, Miranda and King, I have never read them in History or Romance. There is not an Arabian Tale more extravagant. This volume deserves your Perusal, and So do the Writings of Nimrod Hughes and Christopher Macpherson quite as much as those of Paine Callender and Hamilton, for without them you never can know the Character of your Country and its Government. I shall leave this Volume to your Perusal and proceed to Something, which has harrowed up my soul, and all its Feelings. I neither know nor suspect, nor have ever heard a Conjecture, who the Author of this History is. I know not whether I had heard a rumour, retired as I was, of the Arrival of Miranda in America, when I received a Letter from Dr Rush informing me, that General Miranda had been in Philadelphia had visited him and dined with him, and given him an Account of the Politicks of all the Courts of Europe, as familiarity as if he had been in the inside of all the Kings and Princes. Miranda was then upon his return from Washington, where he had conversed with Jefferson and Madison: and Rush assured me, that Miranda had assured him, that We should have no War with Spain. I thought little more of the Matter. I considered Miranda as a Vagrant a Vagabond, a Quixottick Adventurer, and cared no more about him, than about Abraham Brown or Parson Austin.
How can I proceed in the Narration? The next News I heard was that Miranda had sailed, a fortnight or three Weeks before, with military and Naval Armament, to sett South America free; and that my Grandson, William Steuben Smith, had been taken from Colledge, when senior sophister on the point of taking his Degree, and Sent with Miranda to liberate South America. What do you think were my Sensations and Reflections? I shudder to this moment at the recollection of them. I Saw the ruin of my only daughter and her good hearted enthusiastic Husband, and had no other hope or wish or prayer, than that the ship with my Grandson in it might be sunk in a storm in the Gulph stream, where I had myself been for three days in momentary danger and Expectation of perishing in 1778. Eight and twenty Years before.
I had never the most distant Intimation or Suspicion of this Expedition till I heard it had been at Sea for Weeks. I can truely Say that Information, that the Ship had gone to the Bottom, would at the Same moment have been an Alleviation of my Grief. I gave up my Grandson as lost forever. But what could I think of his Father? Was he more mad than Pitt and King?
In course of time, News came that my Grandson was in Prison at Caraccas with many of his Companions, waiting for Tryal and Execution. Yrujo, who had known me in Europe and America came forward with an Offer to interpose for a Pardon for my Grand Son. I took no notice of it. No! my blood should flow upon a spanish scaffold, before I would meanly ask or accept a distinction in favour of my Grandson. No! He should share the Fate of his Colleagues Comrades and Fellow Prisoners. Col. Smith answered Yrujo in a Style, that attoned in some measure for his previous Imprudence, in a language consistent with his professed principle, however erroneous, in the whole Enterprize: in short in the Tone of the elder Brutus when he sacrificed his sons for conspiring with Tarquin.
When Mr Breisted in his broad “Hints” announced John Adams as the Defeater of Mr Pitts and Mr Kings Projects for Seperating South America from Spain, I printed in the Patriot a Short Apology for my conduct, and some of the Documents I have sent you. In consequence of that publication, I Soon received the Letter and Paper which I will now inclose to you with my request that you will return them to me.
The Letter is dated “Baltimore June 7th. 1810 and signed B. Irvine. Edit. Whig.” The Object of the Letter was, “ as it professed to be to obtain farther Information on the Subject of Mirandas Project and the designs of the British Ministry, or rather the reason why the valuable information communicated by me to the Public relative to that project was so long withheld, to the Injury of Mr Jeffersons Character, and to the danger of the Commonwealth.” Inclosed with this Letter was the Newspaper called The Whig of June 7. 1810. in the 2d. Column of the 2d page of which you will find a Paragraph headed “An Explanation wanted.” in which I am called to an Account somewhat rudely and impertinately and by implication at least charged or suspected of cunning to “waft my son into Place, and restore myself to favour.”
I have never answered this Letter, nor acknowledged the receipt of it, nor taken any Notice of it, or its Whig. Who was this Mr Irvine? Who his honest Enquirers? What Authority had they to catechise me? Did they think that I had courted the Mission of my Son to Russia? I had infinitely rather he had remained at home in his private Station. I could have told them, that a general suspicion ran through the Continent, which indeed prevails to this day that he was Sent away, as a dangerous Rival too near the Throne. What favour had I to restore to myself to?  What have I restored myself to?  What favour have I ever asked of Government or People? Never one since I came out of my Mothers Womb. Mirandas Expedition from New York was infinitely better known to Jefferson and Madison than to me. I never had the least Intimation or Suspicion of it, till he had been three Weeks at Sea.
I will also enclose an Estimate in Spanish sent me by Mirada of the Spanish Dominions in South America, with a translation in English made by a Spanish Gentleman a Governor of Chili, who said the Estimate was very low. All those Regions however were to become Republicans under one Confederation!
John Adams


Title: From John Adams to Richard Rush, 5 April 1815
From: Adams, John
To: Rush, Richard

Dear Rush
Quincy April 5. 1815

Your two Letters of the 27th Ult. have been recd. with the Enclosures, for all which I thank you.
You ask “Some Reflections of my own.” My dear Sir! It would require a Folio Volume, to give you the Histories, Dissertations and discussions, which you require. How can I, sans Eyes, sans hands, sans Memory, sans Clerks, sans Secretaries, sans Aids du Camp; sans Amanuensis, undertake to write Folios?
Let me ask you, Mr Rush, is the sovereignty of this Nation a Gift? A Grant? a Concession? a conveyance? or a Release? and Acquttance? from Great Britain? Pause here and think! No. The People in 1774, by the Right which Nature and Natures God had given them, confiding in original Right and original Power, in 1774 assumed Powers of Sovereignty. In 1775 they assumed greater Power, in July 4th. 1776 they assumed absolute, unlimited Sovereignty, in relation to other Nations in all Cases whatsoever: no longer acknowledging any Authority over them but that of God Almighty and his Laws of Nature and of Nations. The War, from 4th July 1776 to 30th November 1782 six years and some Months was only an Appeal to Heaven, in defence of our Sovereignty. Heaven decided in our favour: and Britain was forced not to give, grant, concede, or release our Independence: but to acknowledge it, in terms as clear and as our Language afforded, and under Seal and under Oath.
Now, Sir, they say, that the late War, has annihilated our Treaty of 1782 and its definitive in 1783. Let me ask, has it annihilated our Independence, and our Sovereignty? It has annihilated our Sovereignty as effectually as it has any one particle of our Rights and Liberties in the Fisheries. We asked not our Independence, as a Grant, a Gift, a concession from G. B. We demanded insisted upon it as our Right derived from God Nature and our own Swords. The Article in the Treaty ought to have been “The U.S. have been, for seven years, now are, and of right ought to be free sovereign and independent states. But it was not thought necessary to hurt the delicacy of Royal or popular feelings by language so emphatical, though so litterally true.
Now sir does not the Article relative to the Fisheries stand upon the same foundation, with that of our Independence?
We claim and demand the Fisheries, in their Utmost extend from God and Nature and our own Swords, as We did our Independence: And We will have them, God willing.
Neither Nature nor Art, has partitioned the Sea, into Empires Kingdoms, Republicks or States; there are no Dukedoms, Earldom, Baronies or Knights Fees; No Freeholds, Pleasure Grounds, ornamented or unornamented Farms, Gardens, Parks, Groves or Forrests there apropriated to Nations or Individuals as there are upon Land. Let Mahomet and the Pope and Great Britain say what they will, Mankind will act the Part of Slaves and Cowards, if they suffer any Nation to Usurp Dominion over the Ocean or any portion of it. Neither the Mediterranean the Baltic, the Four Seas or the North Sea, are the Peculium of any Nation. The Ocean and its Treasures are the common Property of all Men; and We have a natural Right to navigate the Ocean and to fish in it, whenever and wherever We please.
Upon this broad and deep and strong foundation do I build and with this cogent and irrestable Argument do I fortify, our Rights and Liberties in the Fisheries on the coasts as well as on the Banks, namely the Gift and Grant of God Almighty in his Creation of Man and his Land and Water: and with resignation only to the eternal Counsels of his Providence, they never will and never shall be surrender to any human Authority, or any thing but divine Power.
You will accuse me of the Bathos, if I descend from this height, to any inferiour Groud: but the same Rights from the same source may be deduced and illustrated through another Channel.
2. We have a Right, (I know not very well how to express it) but We have the Rights of British subjects; not that We are now British Subjects; not that We were British Subjects at the Treaty of 1783: but as having been Brtish Subjects and intitled to all the Rights, Liberties Priviledges and immunities of British Subjects, which We had possessed before the Revolution; which We never had surrendered, forfeited or relinquished and which We never would relinquish, any farther than in that Treaty is expressed. Our Right was clear and indubitable to fish, in all places in the Sea, where British Subjects had fished, or every had a right to fish.
3. We have Stronger and clear Right, to all these Fisheries in their largest Extent, than any Britons or Europeans, ever had or could have: for they were all indebted to Us and our Ancestors for all these Fisheries. We discovered them. We explored them: We settled the Country, at our own expence, Industry and labour, without assistance from Britain, or from Europe. We possessed occupied, exercised and practiced them from the Beginning. We have done more, towards exploring the best fishing Grounds and Station and all the Harbours Bays, Inletts, Creeks, Coasts and shores, where Fish were to be found; and had discovered by Experiments, the best means and methods of preserving, curing, drying and perfecting the Commodity, and done more towards perfecting the Commerce in it, than all the Britions and all the rest of Europe.
4. We conqueured Cape Breton and Nova Scotia; dispossessed The French both hostile and Neutral; and did more in proportion towards the Conquest of Canada, than any other portion of the British Empire; and would and could and should have done the whole, at an easier Expence to Ourselves both of Men and Money, if the British Government would have permitted that Union of the Colonies, which We projected, planned, earnestly desired and humbly petitioned. In short, We had done more in proportion towards defending all these Fisheries against the French, than any other part of the British Empire.
For all these Reasons, if there is a People under Heaven, who could advance a Claim or a colour of a Pretension to any exclusive Priviledges in the Fisheries, or any Rights in one Part of the Old British Empire more than Another, that People are the Inhabitants of the United States of America, and especially of New England. But We sett up no Claims but those asserted and acknowledged in the Treaty of 1783; These We do assert and these, We will have and maintain, annuente Deo.
As you ask my Opinion, it is, that stipulations in acknowledgement of antecedent Rights, in Affirmance of Maxims of Equity; and Principles of natural and publick Law, if they are suspended during War, are revived in full force, on the Restoration of Peace, Former Treaties, not formally repealed in a new Treaty, are presumed to be revived and acknowledged. The Fisheries are therefore Ours and the Navigation of the Mississippi theirs, ie the British as much as ever.
I will answer any question, you may ask
John Adams