Beschreibung:

ADAMS, JOHN, President . Autograph letter signed ("J. Adams") to [Charles W.F.] Dumas, agent of Congress at the Hague, Paris, 24 December 1782, 1 page, 4to, neatly backed with a sheet of later paper. "I WISH THE DEFINITIVE TREATY WERE SIGNED OR THE NEGOTIATIONS BROKEN OFF... A very good letter, written at a key point in the prolonged negotiations for the Treaty of Paris, which had been in progress since September, involving Adams, Franklin, and Jay. Adams asks about his young son John Quincy and vents his frustration with the delays in concluding the treaty. "Will you be so good as to send me a Copy of the Pensees Sur la Revolution & extraicts from the Memorial of G. Pownal. If it is not to be had in any of the Booksellers shops at the Hague, our friend Mr. [Jean] Luzac, will let you know where to find one. A gentleman here is very desirous of one, and I have promised him one if I can get it. Send it by the Post if you don't soon find a private hand. Have you any news of my Son? "We cannot say whether we are to have Peace or not. I wish the definitive Treaty were signed or the Negotiations broken off that I may return to you. My Respects to your Family & to all our good Friends...." Adams had been designated as early as September 1779 to negotiate an eventual Peace Treaty, and in time Franklin, Jay and Henry Laurens had been assigned to the effort. In the meantime, as Minister to the Netherlands, Adams had successfully negotiated Dutch recognition of the U.S. (in April 1782), obtained a much-needed loan and a treaty of amity and commerce (in October 1782). In mid-September Great Britain authorized Richard Oswald to negotiate with the Americans and the delicate discussions began in Paris between him, Franklin and Jay. In early October a draft treaty was given to Oswald and Adams himself went to Paris from the Hague to join the negotiators, arriving on 26 October. It was at Adam's urging that France was excluded from the negotiations, even though this was contrary to the diplomats' instructions from Congress. A set of articles were tentatively agreed between the British and American representatives on 5 November, but it was not until 20 January 1783 that preliminary articles between France and Spain were agreed by Great Britain, and a cessions of hostilities proclaimed and it took until April for Congress to ratify the treaty, which was finally signed in Paris on 3 September 1783. Thomas Pownall (1722-1805), mentioned in Adams's letter, had been Royal Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1757 to 1759. Although he at first opposed American independence and favored vigorous prosecution of the war, by 1777 he had become fearful of France's influence and strongly urged the acceptance of independence and the negotiation of a peace treaty. He was the author of A Memorial most humbly addressed to the Sovereigns of Europe, on the Present State of Affairs, Between the Old and New World (London 1780), later republished in French. John Adams obtained a manuscript copy of the book and with the assistance of Edmund Jennings prepared a French translation and abridgement under the title Pensées sur la Révolution de L'Amerique-Unie, extraites de l'ouvrage anglais (Amsterdam, [1781?]). This is the volume Adams asks Dumas to obtain for him in Holland. Jean Luzac, whom he directs Dumas to, was one of the booksellers at whom copies were likely to be available in the Hague.