By the help, however, of great skill, and all powerful bark, I am still alive; but this the first time I have felt the courage to attempt to write to Congress. Absence and sickness are my apologies to Congress for the few letters they will receive from me since June. Whether it was the uncommon heat of the summer, or whether it was the mass of pestilential exhalations from the stagnant waters of this country, that brought this disorder upon me, I know not; but I have every reason to apprehend, that I shall not be able to re-establish my health in this country. A constitution ever infirm, and almost half a hundred years old, cannot expect to fare very well amidst such cold damps and putrid steams as arise from the immense quantities of dead water, that surround it.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Amsterdam, October 15th, 1781.
Sir,
I wish it were possible to communicate to Congress the present state of every affair, which they have been pleased to confide in any measure to me. I have received the new commission for peace, and the revocation of my commission and instructions of the 29th of September, 1779.[4] To both of these measures of Congress, as to the commands of my sovereign, I shall pay the most exact attention. The present commission for peace, is a demonstration of greater respect to the powers of Europe, and must be more satisfactory to the people of America, than any former one; besides that it guards against accidents, which in my late sickness I had reason to think may well happen. I am, however, apprehensive that this commission will lie a long time neglected, and as useless as the former one.
I am myself seriously of opinion, that the English will not treat with the United States for many years. They will see all their dominions in the East and West Indies conquered by the French and Spaniards; they will see their government reduced to the limits of their own island before they will do it. The present Ministers must die off, and the King too, before there will be any treaty between Britain and America. The nation will stand by the King and Ministry through every loss, while they persevere; whereas both would sink into total contempt and ridicule, if they were to make peace. While they persevere, they are masters of the purses and commerce too of the whole nation. Make peace and they lose a great part of this influence. National pride, when it has become a habitual passion by long indulgence, is the most obstinate thing in the world; and this war has been made so completely, though so artfully the national act, as well as that of King and Ministers, that the pride of the nation was never committed more entirely to the support of anything. It is not to be supposed that the present Ministry will treat with America, and if there should be a change, and the leaders of opposition should come in, they will not treat with America in any character, that she can with honor or safety assume. They might propose a peace separate from France, or they might withdraw their troops from the United States, but they would not make a general peace. The Congress at Vienna will prove but a magnificent chimera, as the British Ministry ever intended it should be.
It has already answered their insidious ends, and now they are giving it a dismission, by insisting upon their two preliminaries; so that upon the whole, according to the best judgment I can form, it will not be worth while for Congress to be at the expense of continuing me in Europe, with a view to my assisting at any conferences for peace, especially as Dr Franklin has given me intimations, that I cannot depend upon him for my subsistence in future.
My commission for borrowing money has hitherto been equally useless. It would fill a small volume to give a history of my negotiations with people of various stations and characters, in order to obtain a loan, and it would astonish Congress to see the unanimity with which all have refused to engage in the business, most of them declaring they were afraid to undertake it. I am told that no new loan was ever undertaken here, without meeting at first with all sorts of contradiction and opposition for a long time; but my loan is considered not only as a new one, but as entering deep into the essence of all the present political systems of the world, and no man dares engage in it, until it is clearly determined what characters are to bear rule, and what system is to prevail in this country.