I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Amsterdam, October 11th, 1780.
Sir,
It may serve to let Congress into the springs and motives which actuate this Republic, to be furnished with the following sketch of the Constitution, so far as it respects the authority of the Stadtholder.
"The seven Provinces of the Low Countries, formerly fiefs of the German Empire, but now for near two centuries so strictly united and confederated by the celebrated treaty of Utrecht, were before their union long governed by Dukes, Earls, Bishops, and other Lords, who with a limited power were the sovereigns of them. When this country fell to the house of Burgundy, and afterwards to that of Austria, these princes in their own absence, established here Stadtholders or Governors, to whom they were obliged to give ample powers. These Stadtholders or Lieutenants had the administration of government, and presided in the courts of justice, the department of which was not then confined to judge of the law-suits of the citizens, but extended itself to affairs of State, in which the States themselves had little to do under the last Earls, who did not consult them, but when there was a question concerning taxes, or the safety of navigation and the fishery, and when it was necessary for such purposes to raise money.
"The Stadtholders also took an oath to the States, by which they promised to maintain their fundamental laws and their privileges; at the inauguration of Princes, they received their oath at the same time with the States of the Provinces of which they were Stadtholders.
"It was upon this footing that William the First, Prince of Orange, was made Governor and Lieutenant-General of Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht, by Philip the Second, when he was upon his departure for Spain. This commission is dated the 9th of August, 1559. It contains among other things, 'We establish him in the state of Governor and Lieutenant-General of our counties of Holland, of Zealand, of the country of Utrecht, West Friesland, Voorne and the Brille, lands adjacent and annexed to our said Earldoms of Holland and Zealand.' The troubles arising soon after, he accomplished in 1576 a particular union between Holland and Zealand, the States of which conferred upon him as far as in them lay, the sovereign authority for all the time that these two Provinces should be at war and in arms, as the former had invested him with the same authority the year before.