TO ARTHUR LEE.
L'Orient, June 9th, 1779
Dear Sir,
Your favors of June the 2d and 5th are now before me; that of the 29th of March I have answered, if I ever received it, for I have answered every one I have received from you, but not having my papers at hand cannot be particular. I thank you for the manuscript and the pamphlet.
I am happy to hear from you, and from all others, so agreeable a character of the Chevalier de la Luzerne, and M. Marbois, the last of whom I have had the pleasure to see.
I wish it was in my power to do more for Mr Ford, and to take him with me, but the frigate will be so crowded, I fear it will be impossible.
The declarations of the northern powers against the right of England to stop their merchant vessels, and arming to support their rights, are important events. The displacing of Mr Paine is a disagreeable and alarming one.
It is with no small astonishment, that I learn by your letter of the 5th, that by advices from America since your last to me, your enemies are determined to impeach your attachment to our country and her cause. Your request that I would give my opinion on that subject, from the knowledge I have had of your conduct, while we acted in commission together, can meet with no objection from me. But I hope I need not inform you, that my opinion upon this point is no secret at Versailles, Paris, Nantes, or elsewhere. Enclosed is a copy of a letter I did myself the honor to write to his Excellency the Count de Vergennes some time ago, which, for anything I know, is communicated to all the Court, but the answer shows that it was received. I had my reasons then for keeping it to myself, which exist now no more. I would transcribe the whole correspondence if it was in my power, but I have not time, and it is sufficient to say, that it was conducted by his Excellency with the most obliging politeness. It is my duty now to furnish you with a copy, lest any accident may befal me, which is by no means improbable. I thought then, and am confirmed in that opinion more and more, that it was my duty to communicate my sentiments at Court, upon that very extraordinary occasion, and from regard to my own reputation, I am very glad you have given me an opportunity of furnishing you with evidence, that I did this part of my duty so far forth. The letter was written, sent to Versailles, and received by his Excellency before the arrival of the Marquis de Lafayette, his Aid-de-Camp, or Dr Winship; that is, before the news reached Passy of the new arrangement.[45] But lest that letter should not be sufficient, I shall enclose another certificate, not without a heartfelt grief, that malice should have been so daring and so barbarous, as to make either such a letter or such a certificate from me either necessary or even pardonable.[46] Your hint, that I must correct some things that are amiss, extorts from me an involuntary sigh. I shall be in a situation critical and difficult without example, my own character at stake from various quarters, and without anything to support me but truth and innocence, and you need not be informed, that these are not always sufficient. I have little expectation of doing good; God grant I may do no harm. I shall not designedly. But I suppose Congress intend to examine me as a witness, and I must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as far as I know it. If the task should end here, I should not be much embarrassed, but if they should proceed to demand of me opinions and judgments of men and things, as there is reason to expect they will, although I hope they will not, what will be the consequences? Upon the whole, truth must be my shield, and if the shafts of interested malice can pierce through this, they shall pierce me.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.