Beschreibung:

ADAMS, John Quincy Letter signed ("John Quincy Adams") to Secretary of State JAMES MONROE, St. Petersburg, Russia, 17 April 1812. 1½ pages, 4to, numbered at top "No. 82," slight browning at extreme edges . WITH NAPOLEON THREATENING RUSSIA, AN AMERICAN DIPLOMAT IS BUFFETED BY FLUCTUATIONS IN CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATES. Adams--the first American minister to the court of the Czar Alexander--anticipates serious problems with his legation's finances, due to impending war. He tells Monroe of reports to the Secretary of the Treasury (Albert Gallatin , detailing "difficulties which the political situation of affairs" in Europe has created, making it impossible to draw funds from his continental accounts: "The first was a depression in the exchange [rate], which has occasioned a loss to me, of between 20 and 30 percent...Under the expectation that as the winter advanced the Exchange would find its balance again, I have foreborn drawing as much and as long as I could make it practicable. The Exchange has in fact partly recovered its natural level; but is still at an advance of about 20 At present...in all human probability, the Exchange between St. Petersburg and Amsterdam will very shortly be totally suspended, and I shall not have it in my power to draw upon that place at all." Therefore, he adds, "I have concluded to draw for the [entire] balance upon my account and for...the present quarter...In the course of the summer, if the war which everything now forebodes should take place...I shall find it necessary to draw directly upon you." He adds that "upon my own responsibility" he has paid the salary of his private secretary, Mr. Smith, "as I was then instructed from your department. For the balance due to him, I have not thought myself authorized to draw...." On June 24, as Adams anticipated, Napoleon's armies began their relentless but ultimately disastrous invasion of Russia.