I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Amsterdam, January 16th, 1782.
Sir,
The following verbal insinuation made by the Baron de Noleken, Envoy of Sweden at London, to my Lord Stormont, the 31st of August, 1781, is of importance to show the intentions of the maritime confederacy.
"The King has no occasion at this time to declare the principles, which have determined his conduct, from the time when he ascended the throne of his ancestors. He has been guided by the love of peace; and he would have wished to see all the powers of Europe enjoy the same happiness, equally constant and durable. These wishes dictated by the sentiments of humanity, which are natural to him, have not been satisfied. The flames of war, enkindled in another hemisphere, have communicated themselves to Europe, but the King still flattered himself that this conflagration, would not pass the bounds to which it was confined, and above all that a nation merely commercial, which had announced a neutrality as an invariable foundation of her conduct, would not be involved in it. Nevertheless, the contrary has happened almost at the very moment, when this power had contracted the most innocent engagements with the King and his two allies in the north.
"If a neutrality the most exact, which was ever observed has not been able to warrant the King from feeling at first the inconveniences of the war, by the considerable losses, which were sustained by his trading subjects; by a stronger reason he was able to foresee the vexatious consequences when these disorders should become more extensive, when an open war, between Great Britain and the Republic of Holland should multiply them; finally, when the commerce of neuters was about to suffer new shackles by the hostilities, which were to be committed between these two powers. Accordingly the King did not fail soon to perceive it, and sincerely to wish, that the measures taken by the Empress of Russia, for extinguishing in its beginning the flame of this new war, had been followed with a perfect success. But as this salutary work has not been carried to perfection, the King has resolved to join himself to his allies, the Empress of Russia and the King of Denmark, to endeavor to dispose his Britannic Majesty to adopt those pacific sentiments, which their High Mightinesses, the States-General, have already manifested by their consent, to open a negotiation of peace.
"If such were the dispositions of this monarch, as it ought not to be doubted, it seems that a suspension of hostilities should be a preliminary, by so much the more essential to their accomplishment, as military operations necessarily influencing a negotiation of this nature, would only serve to embarrass and to prolong it, while the allied Courts would not wish for anything so much, as to be able to accelerate it by all the means, which might serve for the satisfaction and advantage of the two belligerent parties. In the sincerity and the rectitude of the intentions, which animate his Majesty, as well as his allies, he cannot conceal the apprehension he is in, with regard to the continuation of the war, from whence may arise vexatious incidents, capable of exciting all sorts of wrangles and most disagreeable disputes.
"This motive, and still more, that of preventing a still greater effusion of blood, are proper to operate upon the heart of the King of Great Britain; and in the entire confidence, which his Majesty places in it, he would feel a real satisfaction, if by his good offices and by his mediation joined to that of his allies, he could succeed in terminating the differences, which have arisen between his Britannic Majesty and the States-General of the United Provinces."