Madrid as yet. But I do hope Mr. Jay will succeed. England may possibly try to get Russia and Denmark to negotiate for Peace, but she will not sue merely because she will not consent to such Terms as every American holds indispensable. Holland is very angry, but does not resent. She has been very ill treated, but cannot avenge herself. I beg that every Word I say to you about Peace may be kept secret, because I shall write to Congress upon that subject all that is proper for me to say to any Body in America.

I have written you by the Alliance, which will sail soon. Landais is at Paris. Jones goes in the Alliance. Your son is on board, by this time inured to the [indecipherable] to War. We have not yet learned who are our delegates this year, nor how the Constitution goes on.

ABIGAIL ADAMS TO MERCY WARREN

Febry. 28, 1780

By Capt. Sampson there came two Letters, one from Mr. Lee, one from a Mr. Gellée,1 to Mr Adams; by Mr. Lee's I find that affairs go on in the old course at Passy, the Counsel there is composed of the same Honorable Members, says Mr. Lee, as when you left it, "with the reinforcement of Samll. Wharton,2 Samll. Petrie and the Alexanders,3 a match is concludd between one of the daughters and Jonathan Williams; this August and natural family compact will I hope promote the publick as well as private Interests."

There is a party in France of worthless ambitious intrigueing Americans, who are disposed to ruin the reputation of every Man whose views do not coinside with their selfish schemes. of this you will be satisfied when I tell you that mr. Gellée writes thus,

1 N. M. Gellée, secretary to Dr. Franklin.

2 Member of the firm of Baynton, Wharton and Morgan.

3 Robert, William and Alexander John Alexander, sons of William Alexander, Lord Provost of Edinburgh.

4 Mariamne Alexander.

After your departure reports were circulated here that you were gone to England and that during your Station here, you had entertaind an Illicit correspondence with the British Ministry. it was even published here that mr Samll. Adams had headed a conspiration and contrived to surrender Boston to the English. In vain did I endeavour to shew them the absurdity of the former opinion, by your embarking in the same ship with the Chevalier, but you know the people in this country are in general very Ignorant of American affairs which give designing Men an opportunity to shew their Malignity.

How happy, my dear Madam, would America have been, had it been her Lot, to have contended only with foreign Enemies, but the rancour of her internal foes have rendred the task of the patriot peculiarly difficult and Dangerous.

I some times contemplate the Situation of my absent Friend, honourd as he is at present with the confidence of his Country, as the most critical and hazardous Embassy to his reputation his honour, and I know not but I may add life, that could possibly have been entrusted to him. I view him beset with the machinations of envy, the snares of treachery, the malice of dissimulation and the clandestine stabs of calumny.

can the Innocence of the dove or the wisdom of a more subtle animal screne him from all these foes? can the strictest integrity and the most unwearied exertions for the benifit and happiness of Mankind secure to him more, than the approbation of his own Heart,

all other applause without that would be of small estimation, yet one would wish not to be considerd as a selfish designing Banefull foe, when they have worn out their lives in the Service of their country.

Those who envy him, his situation see not with my Eyes, nor feel with my Heart, perhaps I feel and fear too much.

1

I have heard this winter of a Letter from a Lady 1 to her son containing strictures upon Lord Chesterfields Letters. I have not been favourd with a sight of it, tho I have wished for it. a collection of his Lordships Letters came into my Hands this winter which I read, and tho they contain only a part of what he has

I Mrs. Warren.

written, I found enough to satisfy me, that his Lordship with all his elegance and graces, was a Hypocritical polished Libertine, a mere Lovelace, but with this difference, that Lovelace was the most generous Man of the two, since he had justice sufficient to acknowledge the merrit he was destroying, and died penitently warning others, whilst his Lordship not content, himself with practiseing; but is in an advanced age, inculcateing the most immoral pernicious and Libertine principals into the mind of a youth whose natural Guardian he was, and at the same time calling upon him to wear the outward garb of virtue knowing that if that was cast aside, he would not be so well able to succeed in his persuits.

I could prove to his Lordship were he living that there was one woman in the world who could act consequentially more than 24 hours, since I shall dispise to the end of my days that part of his character, yet I am not so blinded by his abuse upon our sex, as not to allow his Lordship the merrit of an elegant pen, a knowledge of Mankind and a compiler of many excellent maxims and rules for the conduct of youth, but they are so poisoned with a mixture of Libertinism that I believe they will do much more injury than benifit to Mankind. I wish, my dear Madam, you would favour me with a coppy of the Letter said to be in your power....

PORTIA

DEAR SIR,

JOHN ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN

PARIS, HOTEL de Valois,

RUE DE RICHELIEU, March 16th, 1780

Your Letter of the 13th of June last, is not answered, not received 'till my Arrival here. You will be so overloaded with News about the Time this will reach You, that I will not add to the Heap. We have none from America a long Time none since Christmas. You say I was envied — perhaps so: but they would not have envied me in the Gulph Stream, nor when chased forty eight Hours by three British Frigates, nor when sailing in a Ship, leaking seven Feet of Water in an Hour, in a

Gale of Wind that blowed the poor Courier de L'Europe, our fellow Voyager, to the Bottom with all her People, nor when devoured by Vermin in Company with Mules, Hogs, and Poultry, on the Mountains of Gallicia. They would not envy Mr. Jay in the dismasted Confederacy, etc. They would not envy Us here, at least they ought not, for it is not an enviable Situation: to see things go wrong for want of adopting the simplest and most obvious plans in the World. However, I have seen enough of Envy to know, that it will have its perfect Work. Let it. It is a Distemper, that I hope will never seize me. I had rather of the two have another, which is sometimes they say contracted here by an Acquaintance with the elegant Nymphs of the Boulevards. But enough of this.

The People of England have done me the Honor to talk lately a great deal about me. They have pleased themselves with the Tales that the Ministry propagated, that I was coming to London. Lord North said he wished I had come in the Cartel Ship. I believe him. But they have no Thoughts of Peace upon my Terms, i.e. upon American Terms. Ireland however will make herself independent before ours will be acknowledged: and England will have a Congress very soon. Ireland and England have learned our Policy, and are treading in our Steps. Holland is very angry, and will not always bear. Yet England cannot learn Wisdom. She will fall like the strong Man. I should be very glad She would come to her Reason: but she will not a long Time. Your's

JOHN ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN

JOHN ADAMS

ADAMS MSS.

PARIS, March 18th, 1780 MY DEAR SIR, Monsieur Jean Baptiste Petry, Secretary to the Comte de Chatelet, a Marshal of the Camps and Armies of the King of France, is, as he says, going to America, and as he is connected with some Gentlemen to whom I am much obliged, I cannot but comply with his Desire and give him a few Letters of Introduction. He is represented to be a worthy, sensible and agreeable Man.

The Marquis de la Fayette sailed about 10th March from Rochelle and will be in Boston, as we hope, by the 10th of April. He will explain to Congress and to General Washington what I cannot explain to you. The Bearer will give you further Commentaries. This Court will by little and little be convinced of the true System, after which I hope they will be less unfortunate; in all human Probability they must be, if they do not neglect it too long.

Rodney's Fleet seems to have been the favorite of Fortune, but you know she is a great changeling, and frowns upon one, sometimes in half an hour after having lavished upon him her Smiles and Favors. We are anxious to know the fate of Charlestown, which we hope was saved by a Storm.

Faucitte vapours in a Leiden Gazette that he has obtained 40,000 of the Langrave of Hesse. This Soul selling Langrave, as they call him in Germany, has hardly 40,000 Men in his Dominions. This is the Fruit of the Cracovie. Now I must write more or you wont understand me. Craquer signifies, in a kind of familiar banting stile, to lie, and Craqueur is a Lyar. There is a Tree in the grand Alley of the Palais Royal at Paris which they call the Tree of Cracovie, from the name of a City in Poland and its similitude to the Word Craque, l'Arbre de Cracovie. The News Mongers of Paris assemble commonly under this Tree, so that it is become proverbial to call false News Les Nouvelles de l'arbre de Cracovie - News from the Tree of Cracovie. I have spent a Multitude of Words in Explanation of this Trifle, which does not deserve them.

Pray introduce Mr. Petry to Madam Warren, the most accomplished Lady in America, next to one whom I will not mention, but whose Prerogative of being the first I can never give up. Affectionately yours.

I Sir William Fawcett - Faucitt in the Army Lists from 1756-1785 - (1728–1804). 2 Littré, Dictionnaire, 1. 879, sub verbo Cracovie.