The King of Sweden 1 is the first Power in Europe who has invited Us to an alliance, the Commissioners are arrived here, and the Treaty will be soon made. The other neutral Powers may possibly acknowledge our Independence all together. it is possible, that England herself may advise it, but this is no more than Conjecture. The K. of Sweden has inserted in his Commission an handsome Compliment to Us, says that he had a great desire to form a Connection with a People who had so well established their Independence, and by their Wisdom and Bravery so well deserved it.

England has been wise to be the third Power in Europe to acknowledge Us. Is it my Vanity which makes me believe that the Dutch Negotiation has wrought this mighty Reverse, and carried Us tryumphantly to the End of all our Wishes? without this, the War would have continued for years, and the House of Bourbon so pressed for Peace and We so dependent on them that We should have lost the Western Country and the Fisheries and very probably been left in a Truce, in a state of Poverty and Weakness, which would have made Us long the miserable Satellites of some great European Planet.

It is the Providence of God, not the good Will of England of France, nor yet the Wisdom and Firmness of Congress that has done this. To that Providence let Us with humble Gratitude and Adoration ascribe it. Without making an Ostentation of Piety upon the Occasion however, let us turn our Thoughts to what is future.

The Union of the States, an affectionate Respect and Attachment among all their Members, the Education of the rising Generation, the Formation of a national System of Oeconomy Policy, and Manners are the great Concerns which still lye before us. We must guard as much as Prudence will permit against the Contagion of European Manners, and that excessive Influx of Commerce Luxury and Inhabitants from abroad, which will soon embarrass Us. with great Esteem, your Friend,

I Gustavus III.

[No signature.]

JOHN ADAMS TO MERCY WArren

PARIS, January 29, 1783

MADAM,-Your Favour of the 25 of October never reached me till to day, but it has given me great Pleasure as your Letters always do. I was disappointed however in finding no Line from Mr. Warren except the Superscription of yours.

if

I assure you, Madam, what I said about certain Annals was no Sarcasm. I have the utmost Veneration for them, although I never was honoured with a Sight of any of them. Let me intreat you not to reserve any Place in them for the Dutch Negotiation, you intend to celebrate my Patience. of all Virtues or Qualities I hate most to be praised for my Patience. I had rather you should immortalize my Impudence, for I rather think it was this quality, than the other which produced the Effect in Holland. I entered into the Seven United Provinces with as much Impudence, as I should have appeared in the 13 United States of America. As Johnny Morehead 1 said to Mr. Bollan," "Mr. Such an one used, Sir, to come into my House with as much Impudence, as you would come into your own." If the word shocks you, Madam, call it modest Assurance, or honest Boldness, or almost what you will except Patience.

1

The Times, Madam have made a Strange Being of me. I shall appear a Domestic Animal, never at home, a bashfull Creature, braving the Fronts of the greatest ones of the Earth, a timid Man, venturing on a long Series of the greatest dangers, an irritable fiery Mortal, enduring every Provocation and Disgust, a delicate Valetudinarian bearing the greatest Hardships, an humble Farmer, dispising Pomp Shew Power and Wealth, as profuse as a Prodigal and as proud as Caesar - But an honest Man in all and to the Death.

Alas! who would wish for such a Character! Who would wish to live in Times and Circumstances when to be an honest Man, one must be all the rest? Not I. it can never be the Duty of one Man

I Rev. John Morehead, a native of Belfast, Ireland, and pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Long Lane, now Federal Street, from 1730 to his death in 1773. He was of a quick temper.

2 William Bollan (1740-1774?).

to be concerned in more than one Revolution, and therefore I will never have any Thing to do with another.

But to be more to the Purpose. I sincerely hope my Friend Mr. Warren will go to Congress. I am astonished to learn that at a Time when a large Portion of the Massachusetts was at Stake and in question, and all their Fisheries there should be, but one Member attending the Great Wheel from that State.1

The Reflection, Mrs. Warren, that we are now at Peace after the Contests of one and twenty years, which you and I have been witnesses of, is sweet indeed. Those Qualities which through the Course of that Period have attracted the Attention and Confidence of the People, will now be little regarded. Content. They have answered their End, and may now be laid aside. Yet it is too soon for Mr. Warren or me to retire. Stability and Dignity must be given to the Laws, or our Labours have all been in vain and the old Hands must do this or it will not be done.

I hope to have the Pleasure of renewing old Acquaintances e'er long, and of being no stranger at the Blue Hills.

There is but one Case in which it is possible that I should stay in Europe another year, and that is that Congress should renew the Commission with which I came out to make a Treaty of Commerce with Great Britain. in that Case I should hope my Dr. Mrs. Adams would come to me. But there is not I think the least Probability of that, nor indeed do I desire it. The first and strongest Wish of my Heart is to go home to my Family. But in all Events The Mountain shall come to Mahomet or Mahomet shall go to the Mountain. My Family shall come to me or I will go to them. With the greatest Esteem and Respect, Madam, I have the Honour to be, your Frnd. and Sert.

JOHN ADAMS

I A paragraph has here been struck out, but in the Letter Book is left untouched. It read as follows: "I have never had an Opportunity, Madam, to see your Son since he has been in Europe, but once or twice at Amsterdam, and that before I had a House there. He has been travelling from Place to Place; and altho' I have often enquired after him, I have seldom been able to hear of him. I have heard nothing to his disadvantage, except a Shyness and Secrecy which, as it is uncommon in young Gentlemen of his Age and Education, is the more remarked, and a general Reputation which he brought with him from Boston of loving Play. But I have not been able to learn that he has indulged it improperly in Europe. But my Advice to him and every young American is and uniformly will be to stay in Europe but a little while."

ARTHUR LEE TO JAMES WARREN

IN CONGRESS, Feby. 19th, 1783

DEAR SIR, Since I wrote to request you to send me a Certifyd Copy of the Resolve of the Assembly for granting me 600 Acres of Land; Mr. Gorham tells me that it has expird, and he believes was renewd. Whether it has or not, I still beg that I may have a Copy of the first resolution, for it is that I want. If however it shoud have expird, you will permit me to beg your attention to having it renewd upon the best terms which your knowledge of the subject may suggest.

I cannot but hope that Peace is near, and yet it seems extraordinary that neither Congress, the french Minister, nor Genl. Carleton has any intelligence on the subject. As to the neglect with which Congress is treated, that is neither new nor undeservd; but that all other sources of official intelligence upon a matter so very interesting and important, shoud be equally dry, is astonishing.

The mode of settling the Quotas of the States, and of establishing funds for the payment of our debts are questions now before Congress. I wish we had your assistance in discussing them. The Confederation is a stumbling block to those who wish to introduce new, and I think arbitrary systems. The vanity of being wiser than others, and of being able to amend whatever is already done, enlists many under this banner, who do not mean any thing undue. But these Dispositions are often moulded to their measures by artful men, and others without intending it, are made to minister to their pernicious purposes....

ARTHUR LEE

Confidential.

JOHN ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN

PARIS, March 20th, 1783 SIR, -I was in hopes that the Peace would have put Us at ease, but it has not as yet much diminished our Anxiety. The long interval, in which we have not been able to obtain any Intelligence

from America, either by the way of Spain, France, Holland or England -the unsettled State of Parties and Councils in London, where there has been no responsible Minister this fortnight at least — the delay of the definitive Treaty, which it is now given out will not be signed for some time, as there is to be a Congress and a Mediation here and many other Causes, leave us in a painful state of Suspence and Solicitude.

The Revocation of the Commission to make a Treaty of Commerce with Great Britain,' without issuing another, appears in Experience to be one of the most unfortunate measures, which Congress ever adopted. My Lord Shelburne and his Colleagues had been convinced by various Arguments, that it was the Interest and best Policy of the British Nation to cultivate the Friendship of America, and to allow her the amplest advantages in Trade; and the Voice of the Nation was falling in with this Principle: so that if there had been a Commission in being we should have had a provisional Treaty of Commerce with Great Britain, signed at the same time with the provisional Articles of Peace. But now there is great danger, that a new Ministry will come in, tainted with Passions, Prejudices and Principles as unfriendly to Us, as they are contracted in their Nature. If any portion of foreign Influence contributed to the Revocation in question, the same will undoubtedly be employed in England; for it insinuates itself every where to embroil Affairs there, and to prevent if possible a friendly Disposition towards Us from prevailing. Can We blame this Influence? We ought only to blame ourselves for giving way to it. It is not founded in our Interests, nor in any Interests that We are under any Obligations to favor. We are under no Ties of Honor, Conscience or good Faith, nor of Policy, Gratitude or Politeness, to sacrifice any profits which We can obtain in Trade with Great Britain, merely to promote the Trade of France. It is of the last Importance to Us in a political Light, that our Commerce should be impartial in future, and be drawn to no Country by any other Attraction than the best Bargains. The Price and Quality of Goods should be our only Criterion. Let the Rivalry of our Trade

I Journals of the Continental Congress, xx. 746. See Adams to Livingston, February 5, 1783, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence (Wharton), vi. 242.