Copenhagen, 4th of July. "The arrival of the fleet of fifteen Russian ships of the line in our port, is soon to be followed by the departure of the Danish fleet. The Justice, of seventyfour guns, the last of the vessels that we have armed to form it, will go tomorrow into the Road; and the day after, the Vice Admiral de Schindel will hoist his flag on board of her. We shall then have in service eight ships of the line, two of fifty guns, and six frigates, to wit, the Justice, and the Princess Sophia Frederick, commandant Krieger, of seventyfour; the Jutland, and the Prince Frederick, Commandants de Kaas and Lous, of seventy; the Droit d'Indigénat and the Wagrie, Captains Gormar and Bille, of sixtyfour; the Dannebrog and the Holstein, Captains Ellebracht and U. C. Kaas, of sixty; the Mars and the Greenland, Captains Lutken and Knudsen, of fifty; the Bornholm and the Riel, Captains Schaning and Tender, of thirtysix; the Moen, Captain Budde, of thirtyfour; the Cronberg, Captain Ziervogel, of thirtytwo; the Alsen, Captain Count de Reventlau, of twentyfour, and the Christian, Captain Stockflelk, of twenty guns. Of these, nevertheless, the Holstein sailed the 30th for Guinea; the Bornholm, the Moen, and the Christian, are in the islands of America, and the Greenland serves as a guard ship in the Road of Helsingore."
Whatever may be the part that either powers will take in regard to the project of an armed neutrality, the three Crowns of the North appear uniform in their measures for the protection of the commerce of their subjects, and these measures have already the effect, that their ships, particularly the Swedish and Danish, are already sought for freight in the Baltic, in preference to all others, while on the other side there arrives no neutral vessels from the North Sea, in the Sound, which does not make the most bitter complaints concerning the ill treatment received from English privateers. A Dutch ship has had nineteen of them on board of him since his departure from the coast of France, and a Russian ship has been robbed of all his victuals by these pirates, who had left him nothing but Gruau-Water, and eighteen pounds of bread, upon which eight men were to subsist during three weeks.
Hague, 17th of July. "Affairs between our Republic and the Court of London are still in the same state of indecision. We learn, that the latter has answered, by the Viscount Stormont to the different Memoirs presented during some weeks, by the Envoy, the Count de Welderen, in which, he insisted upon the stipulations of the treaty of 1674. 'That in answer to these Memorials, and to all those, which could be presented of the same nature, he, Lord Stormont, observed that the Count de Welderen insisted upon that, which at this time no longer existed; that it would be superfluous to repeat what had passed upon this subject, that he should confine himself, therefore, to remind him of the order, which the King had given in his Council, on the 17th of last April, and of which he had had the honor to give him official information.'"
I am thus particular in laying before Congress a state of the navies of Europe, because they show the unanimity and ardor, with which all the maritime powers are intent upon their commercial and naval interests, upon the freedom of commerce and navigation, and upon the rights of neutral nations, and to show, that America is universally considered by them as such a magazine of raw materials for manufactures, such a source of commerce, and such a nursery of seamen, and naval power, that they are determined, that no one power in Europe shall ever again monopolise it. We must, however, fight our own battles, and bear our own expenses; for the slow march of those powers, their maxims of dignity and systems of etiquette are such, that they must have their own way, and operate in their own time. England has hints and warnings enough, but she will not take them. These events, however, all show the wisdom of Congress, in planning the first treaty, which was first sent to the Court of Versailles, upon the principle of perfect equality and reciprocity, granting no exclusive privileges, and binding herself to no obligation not to admit any other, and all other nations to the same; principles from which it is to be presumed we shall not depart.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Paris, July 23d, 1780.