Sir,
I have received your Excellency's letter of the 21st, and will send you the list of the bills, and of the times of their becoming due, according to your desire, as soon as I can make it out. I will examine M. de Neufville's bill, and if it is good accept it.
From the time I received from Congress their orders to borrow money here, I have constantly in my letters requested that no drafts might be made upon me, until there was news from me, that I had money to discharge them, and this request I shall repeat. But the cry of the army for clothes, induces Congress to venture upon measures, which appear hazardous to us. However, by the intelligence I have, they had grounds to expect that the drafts hitherto made would be honored.
I sometimes think, however, paradoxical as it may seem, that one set of bills protested, would immediately procure Congress a large loan. No bills are in better credit than these. There is an appetite here for American trade, as ravenous as that of a shark for his prey; and if they saw a prospect of having their trade broken up, they would do much to save it.
I have the honor to acquaint your Excellency, that I some time ago received from Congress, full powers to conclude with the States-General of the United Provinces of the Low Countries, concerning a Treaty of Amity and Commerce; and that I have very lately received a letter of credence, as Minister Plenipotentiary to their High Mightinesses, and another to his Most Serene Highness, the Prince of Orange. Being thus fixed to this country for the present, I have taken a house in Amsterdam, on the Keizersgragt, near the Spiegel street, for the convenience of our countrymen, who have occasion to visit me, and of the merchants, who have bills upon me, until their High Mightinesses shall have taken the necessary time to deliberate upon it, and determine to acknowledge the independence of the United States, enter into a treaty with them, and receive me at the Hague. If this should happen, I hope we shall obtain a credit here; but we never shall before.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE DUC DE LA VAUGUYON, AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE AT THE HAGUE.
Leyden, May 1st, 1781.