24781Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
John Adams had long contemplated the manner in which the history of the American Revolution, and his role in it, should be presented to his own and succeeding generations. Adams’ care in preserving his papers and keeping Letterbooks attests to his concern that an accurate record be preserved for future historians. Since his return to Europe in late 1779, Adams frequently acted at least as a...
24782Editorial Note: The American Peace Commissioners to Robert R. Livingston (Adams Papers)
The drafting and dispatch of the commissioners’ 18 July letter to Robert R. Livingston has a curious history. What transpired and the consequences thereof reveal much about the relations between the commissioners, particularly John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. On 2 July, Capt. Joshua Barney delivered to Passy letters from Robert R. Livingston, most notably those of 25 March and 21 April (to...
24783Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
On 9 April 1784 John Adams drafted two letters to Samuel Osgood. They were replies to Osgood’s of 7 December 1783 and 14 January 1784 (vol. 15:398–414 , 452–455 ). Neither version was sent. Adams tried again on 30 June , below, but again did not send the letter. It was only on 13 December, after Adams had “burnt five or Six Answers,” that he finally replied to Osgood’s “excellent Letters.”...
24784Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
The draft Prussian-American commercial treaty that the Baron von Thulemeier submitted to John Adams with his letter of 9 April was the product of their meeting on 19 February, which Adams describes in his letter of the following day to Benjamin Franklin and John Jay , both above. Based on the Swedish-American treaty of 3 April 1783, the draft is interesting as the first effort by the two...
24785Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
The Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce was concluded on 10 September 1785. But negotiations began on 10 November 1784 when the American commissioners submitted a draft treaty to the Baron von Thulemeier, Prussian minister at The Hague, and were, for all intents and purposes, completed on 14 March 1785 when the commissioners sent their response to Prussian proposals for alterations...
24786Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce (Adams Papers)
The Hague, 10 September 1785. MS ( PCC , No. 135, I, f. 286–320). PRINTED : Miller, Treaties Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America , ed. Hunter Miller, Washington, D.C., 1931–1948; 8 vols. , 2:162–184. LbC ( Adams Papers ); APM Reel 111. The undated LbC was done by Charles Storer in early August from the copies brought to London by William Short on 3 Aug. for...
24787Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
In 1784 and 1785 the absence of any treaties between the United States and the Barbary States produced a crisis when Morocco and Algiers seized American ships. Congress’ decision in March 1785 to resolve that problem, at the behest of the commissioners and the emperor of Morocco, opened a new chapter in the nation’s diplomacy. The documents presented here indicate the basis upon which the...
24788Volume 1 of John Adams’ A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America: Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
In early September 1786, John Adams returned to No. 8 Grosvenor Square from a whirlwind summer trip to the Netherlands with wife Abigail ( John Adams Visits the Netherlands, 3 Aug. – 6 Sept. , above). Mulling over his political conversations with old friends in the Dutch Patriot Party, which seemed on the verge of victory over the pro-stadholder Orangist Party, Adams plunged into researching...
24789Volumes 2 and 3 of John Adams’ A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (Adams Papers)
[ ca. 25 August 1787 – ca. 23 January 1788 ] Wrapping up a decade of diplomatic service, John Adams spent his last summer in Europe traveling and drafting the second volume of his landmark work, A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America , which upheld a tripartite federal government for the new nation. Initially, Adams had not envisioned a sequel. As the...
24790Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
Congress reconvened for its second session on 4 January. Deadlocked over two entwined issues—the federal assumption of state debts and the site of the American capital—John Adams and his Senate colleagues passed waves of legislation defining naturalization, patents, and copyrights, and establishing national entities like the U.S. Coast Guard. Members of the House labored to craft an economic...