I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Paris, March 10th, 1780.
Sir,
Enclosed are the Courrier de l'Europe, of the 3d, and the Gazette de France of this day. The House of Lords and the House of Commons are voting thanks to Admiral Rodney for his good fortune, for they all seem to confess, that his brilliant successes were not owing to more skill, valor, or vigilance than others have shown, but merely to his good luck, which, by a report that spreads and gains credit today, did not end with his advantage over Langara, and his safe departure from Gibraltar. It is said that two French ships of the line and several frigates with transports, bound to the Isle of France, in the East Indies, have been doomed to fall in his way, and be taken.
Whether this is true or not, he has done enough it seems to be in a fair way of paying his creditors some part of their demands for money, which he has gambled away, and which they had despaired of ever receiving. This run of good luck, however, could never have happened to the gambler, if the game had been played otherwise by the opposite party; if France and Spain, instead of keeping immense fleets in Europe with nothing to do, or employed in blocking up Gibraltar, which is a trifle, if taken in comparison of other objects in view, had but employed but a fourth part of them in the American seas, where they had, and still have, the enemies in their power, Rodney's creditors had still been in despair, together with the British government and nation.
I would not desire a better proof, that the English are in the power of their enemies in the American world, than the list of the prizes printed in the Courrier de l'Europe, as condemned by N. Cushing, Judge of Admiralty for the middle district of Massachusetts Bay. I am very glad to see this method taken of publishing to the world the success of our privateers, because it will in time show our allies where our strength lies, and the weakness of our enemies.
I have the honor to be, &c.