JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE DUC DE LA VAUGUYON.
Amsterdam, March 1st, 1781.
Sir,
As Friesland has taken the Provincial Resolution to acknowledge the independence of America, it seems to be high time for me to prepare for the execution of my instructions from Congress of the 16th of August, which I had the honor to communicate to you on the 25th of November, and which had been previously communicated to the Minister of Foreign Affairs at Versailles.
From these instructions it appears, that His Most Christian Majesty had made, by his Minister, to Congress, a tender of his endeavors to accomplish a coalition between the United Provinces of the Netherlands and the United States, and that this tender was accepted by Congress as a fresh proof of his Majesty's solicitude for their interests.
By another Resolution, I am instructed to propose a Treaty of Alliance, between His Most Christian Majesty, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and the United States of America, having for its object and limited in its duration to the present war with Great Britain, and conformed to the treaties subsisting between His Most Christian Majesty and the United States.
The system of operations was thus settled at Philadelphia between the King, by his Minister, and the Congress, and for obvious and wise reasons, the Minister of Congress at the Hague was to make the proposition to their High Mightinesses, and the Ambassador of his Majesty was to countenance and support it either publicly or privately, as he should judge proper, until the States-General should listen to it, so far as to enter into the negotiation.
In pursuance of these propositions, it seems to be necessary for me to go to the President of their High Mightinesses, and without offering him anything in writing, to make him the proposition, in the words of the enclosed project, or others equivalent.