I know not whether it will be insisted or expected, that we should join in the Congress, nor do I know what we have to do in it, unless it be to settle that point as far as it relates to us. There is nothing in difference between us and Great Britain, which we cannot adjust ourselves, without any mediation.
A spring passage to America is so great an object, that I should be very sorry to have the negotiations spun out to such a length as to oblige me to lose it, and I take it for granted, I shall now receive the acceptance of my resignation by the first ships.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO ROBERT MORRIS.
Paris, May 21st, 1783.
Sir,
I am just now honored with yours of the 19th of January, by the way of London. We have not yet had the happiness to receive, as we should be disposed to do with open arms, our excellent old friend Jefferson, and begin to fear that the news of peace has determined him not to come.
I thank you, Sir, for your polite congratulations; when the tide turned, it flowed with rapidity, and carried the vessel, as I hope, into a safe harbor.
As to the loan in Holland, I have never troubled you, nor any one else in America, with details of the vexations of various kinds, which I met with in the negotiation of it; indeed, I never thought it prudent or safe to do it. If I had told the whole truth, it could have done no good, and it might have done infinite mischief. In general, it is now sufficient to say, that private interest, party spirit, factions, cabals, and slanderers, have obstructed, perplexed, and tortured our loan in Holland, as well as all our other affairs, foreign and domestic. But as there has been a greater variety of clashing interests, English, French, Stadtholderian, Republican, and American, mixing in the affair of our loan in Holland, it has been more puzzled than anything else. If, in the bitterness of my soul, I had described the fermentation, and mentioned names, and drawn characters, I might have transmitted a curious tale, but it would have only served to inflame old animosities, and excite new ones.