JOHN ADAMS.
N. B. Sir George Saville moved on the same day a resolution, that the American war was unconstitutional, expensive, and ruinous, but this motion was rejected by nearly the same majority.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Paris, July 7th, 1780.
Sir,
On the 21st of last month, the merchants of the city of Amsterdam arrived at the Hague, and presented to their High Mightinesses a petition, conceived in these terms.
"To their High Mightinesses, our Lords, the States-General of the United Provinces.
"The subscribers, all merchants, trading to the West Indies, and established under the jurisdiction of this State, give respectfully to understand, that, to their great regret, the petitioners have learned, by the way of a ship, lately arrived from Curaçoa, the unheard of ill treatment exercised by the English in taking the barques belonging to the subjects of their High Mightinesses, which trade with the French possessions in the said countries, and which, loaded with the productions of the said countries, purchased or consigned, make sail to return to the islands or places which belong to the dominions of their High Mightinesses, without having even to this time, that your petitioners know of, returned either the barques or cargoes; but so far from it, that the cargoes of some of them have been already condemned, and the barques restored empty; a fate which the petitioners fear to see others undergo likewise. And as by these vexations and unparalleled ill treatment, the subjects of your High Mightinesses, contrary to all kinds of right, are deprived of their property and effects embarked, as well as of the liberty which is assured to them by the treaties subsisting between the Crown of England and this State, and by these means see themselves reduced to an impossibility of being able to procure for the ships sent from home to the West Indies, the cargoes necessary for their return, all expeditions and adventures of merchandises from our countries to these places must absolutely cease, and draw after it the inevitable ruin of this branch of commerce, so important as well as that of many of the subjects of your High Mightinesses, both in this country and in the West Indies."
"For these causes, the petitioners pray, in all humility, that your High Mightinesses would be pleased to take this navigation and commerce, forming an object so considerable, under your effectual protection, in the first place, by granting the necessary convoy to ships which go to the West Indies, or which return from thence, and in the next place, to order to cruise in those seas a sufficient number of vessels of war, or even to order them to escort the barques in question, and other trading ships, loaded with productions and effects permitted by the treaties, and making sail for the French Colonies, or returning from them, to the end to secure them from all further insult; which will preserve at the same time the petitioners, as well as many other subjects of the Republic from total ruin. That it may, moreover, please your High Mightinesses to charge the Count de Welderen, your Envoy Extraordinary to the British Court, to make the necessary representations touching the seizure of these barques, to seek to obtain of the English Ministry, that the requisite orders may be sent to the Colonies of his Britannic Majesty, for releasing the aforesaid barques with their cargoes, paying, at the same time, the expenses occasioned by their seizure; in fine, that by the good and efficacious offices of his Excellency, things may be directed in such a manner, that on the part of the Court of St James, they may write to Jamaica and elsewhere, and not interrupt for the future, the subjects of their High Mightinesses in the exercise of this lawful commerce, but to permit them to enjoy a free navigation and commerce, such as have been solemnly accorded and guaranteed to them by the treaty of 1674."