JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Paris, March 23d, 1780.
Sir,
I have the honor to enclose the English papers of the 11th, 13th, and 14th of March, the Courrier de l'Europe, and the Hague, Leyden, and Amsterdam Gazettes. We are in hourly expectation of great news from Holland, Ireland, England, Spain, and above all from America, and the West Indies. I have not had a letter from America since I left it, except one from my family of the 10th of December, and, indeed, although several vessels have arrived, I can hear of no letters or news.
By the English papers Congress will perceive the violent fermentation in England, which has arisen to such a height as to produce a Congress in fact, and it will soon be so in name. The proceedings in the House of Commons on the 14th, which were terminated by a resolution of the committee of the whole house, to abolish the Board of Trade and Plantations, carried against the Ministry after a very long and warm debate, by a majority of eight voices, is not only the most extraordinary vote, which has passed in the present reign, but it tends to very extensive consequences.
I believe it is very true, that this Board has been the true cause of the quarrel of Great Britain against the Colonies, and therefore may be considered as an object of national resentment, but a resentment of this kind alone would not probably have produced this effect.
Whether it is the near approach of an election, that has intimidated the members of the House of Commons, or whether committees, petitions, associations, and Congress have alarmed them, or whether the nation is convinced, that America is indeed lost forever, and consequently the Board of Trade would be useless, I do not know. Be this as it may, the English nation, and even the Irish and Scotch nations, and all parts of the world will draw this inference from it, that even in the opinion of the House of Commons America is lost. The free and virtuous citizens of America, and even the slavish and vicious, if there are any still remaining of this character, under the denomination of tories, must be convinced by this vote, passed in the hey-day of their joy for the successes of Admiral Rodney's fleet, that the House of Commons despaired of ever regaining America. The nations subject to the House of Bourbon cannot fail to put the same interpretation upon this transaction.