CHAPTER VIII—TRADE AND COMMERCE, 1783–1788

Observations on the Treaty of Peace (1783)

BY STATE SENATOR SAMUEL ADAMS

Boston, 4 November, 1783.

COLONEL JOHN TRUMBULL, the son of the worthy Governor of Connecticut, is the bearer of this letter. I give the Governor this epithet, because I think his faithful services to our country entitle him to it. Yet even he has undergone the suspicions of some, unsupported by any solid reasons that I have heard of. We live in an age of jealousy, and it is well enough. I was led to believe in early life that jealousy is a political virtue. It has long been an aphorism with me, that it is one of the greatest securities of public liberty. Let the people keep a watchful eye over the conduct of their rulers, for we are told that great men are not at all times wise. It would be indeed a wonder, if in any age or country they were always honest. There are, however, some men among us, who, under the guise of watchful patriots, are finding fault with every public measure, with a design to destroy that just confidence in government, which is necessary for the support of those liberties, which we have so dearly purchased. Many of your countrymen, besides myself, feel very grateful to you, and those of our negotiators who joined you, in preventing the tory refugees from being obtruded upon us. These would certainly have increased the number of such kind of patriots as I have mentioned, and, besides, their return would have been attended with other mischievous effects. Mutual hatred and revenge would have occasioned perpetual quarrels between them and the people, and perhaps frequent bloodshed. Some of them, by art and address, might gradually recover a characters and, in time, an influence, and so become the fittest instruments in forming factions either for one foreign nation or another. We may be in danger of such factions, and should prudently expect them. One might venture to predict that they will, sooner or later, happen. We should therefore guard against the evil effects of them. I deprecate the most favored nation predominating in the councils of America, for I do not believe there is a nation on earth that wishes we should be more free or more powerful than is consistent with their ideas of their own interest. Such a disinterested spirit is not to be found in national bodies; the world would be more happy if it prevailed more in individual persons. I will say it for my countrymen, they are, or seem to be, very grateful. All are ready freely to acknowledge our obligations to France, for the part she took in our late contest. There are a few who consider the advantage derived to her by a total separation of Britain and the colonies, which so sagacious a court doubtless foresaw and probably never lost sight of. This advantage was so glaring, in the first stages of our controversy, that those who then ran the risk of exciting even an appeal to Heaven rather than a submission to British tyranny, were well persuaded that the prospect of such a separation would induce France to interpose, and do more than she has done, if necessary. America, with the assistance of her faithful ally, has secured and established her liberty and independence. God be praised! And some would think it too bold to assert that France has thereby saved the being of her great importance. But if it be true, why may we not assert it? A punctual fulfilment of engagements solemnly entered into by treaty, is the justice, the honor, and policy of nations. If we, who have contracted debts, were influenced only by motives of sound policy, we should pay them as soon as possible, and provide sure and adequate funds for the payment of interest in the mean time. When we have done this, we shall have the sense of independence impressed on our minds, no longer feeling that state of inferiority which a wise king tells us the borrower stands in to the lender.

Your negotiation with Holland, as "my old friend" observed, is all your own. The faithful historian will do justice to your merits, perhaps not till you are dead. I would have you reconcile yourself to this thought. While you live, you will probably be the object of envy. The leading characters in this great revolution will not be fairly marked in the present age. It will be well if the leading principles are remembered long. You, I am sure, have not the vanity which Cicero betrayed, when he even urged his friend Licinius to publish the history of the detection of Catiline in his lifetime, that he might enjoy it. I am far from thinking that part of history redounds so much to the honor of the Roman consul, as the treaty of Holland does to its American negotiator.

John Adams, (edited by Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1854), IX, 519–520.