Part 15

"We, the Deputies of the States of Utrecht, make known, that as it is come to our knowledge, that, notwithstanding the strong and serious advertisements and publications against the composition, sale, and distribution of lampoons, scandalous pamphlets, or libels, and defamatory writings of whatever sort, or in whatever form they may be, to the prejudice of the high sovereignty of these Provinces, and of those who are placed in any administration or direction of public affairs already, heretofore, and lately promulgated, both by the Lords, the States of this Province, and by others, and the rigorous penalty therein decreed against transgressors; nevertheless, the spirit of discord, of wickedness, of calumny, and of sedition has burst forth, and spread itself in this State so far, that it has not been possible, hitherto to restrain it by such advertisements, but, on the contrary, it has arrived at such a height, that there has been printed and dispersed within a few days a most pernicious libel, under the title of Aan het Volkvan Nederland, (to the people of the Low Countries) containing a great number of wicked and slanderous imputations against the Most Serene Person of his Most Serene Highness, our Lord, the Prince of Orange and Nassau, Hereditary Stadtholder, Captain and Admiral-General of these Provinces, against his Most Serene father and mother of glorious memory, as also our Lords, the Princes of Orange, William the First, Maurice, Frederick, Henry, William the Second, and William the Third, illustrious predecessors of his Most Serene Highness, and interspersing efforts the most seditious, tending to overturn not only the present form of the Regency, but even to introduce, instead of the Regency in the State, which also is therein painted, in the most hateful manner, a democracy, or Regency of the people, and thus to cause the Republic to fall into an entire anarchy, which would increase and multiply still more extremely, the dangers to which the dear country is exposed at present by a foreign war, joined to an intestine division; and taking into consideration that such most detestable wickedness, if not restrained, can have no other consequences, than the total ruin and destruction of the dear country, if God by his grace does not prevent it, and that it is incumbent on us to employ all the means possible to hinder it, and to punish offences according to their demerit; for these causes, we renew that which has been heretofore and lately ordained in this respect by the publication of their Noble Mightinesses, of the 4th of July of the present year, 1781, and not only the punishments by fine, but also of discretionary correction, according to the exigence of the case against the transgressors there mentioned, to discover the author or the authors, and the distributor or the distributors of such a dangerous libel as that before mentioned, and to the end that they be punished, as examples to others, according to the magnitude of such a crime, tending to the ruin of the country; we have thought fit to promise, as we do by these presents, a premium of a hundred ryders (fourteen hundred guilders) in favor of those who may discover or make known, the author or authors, distributor or distributors, in such manner that they may be juridically convicted and punished, concealing the name of the informer if he requires it. And we ordain, moreover, to all the officers and judges in the city, cities, and countries of this Province, to make all possible search, and to endeavor, without any negligence, dissimulation, or connivance, to discover and arrest the aforesaid malefactor, or malefactors, and to proceed and to cause to be proceeded, as is convenient, against them, as seditious persons, and disturbers of the public repose, guilty of overturning the foundations of the government of these Provinces, and of the sovereignty of the Lords, the States of the Provinces respectively, and as the enemies the most dangerous of the country; and to the end, that no man may pretend ignorance, these presents shall be published and posted up in convenient places.

"Done at Utrecht, the 3d of October, 1781.

I. TACTS VAN AMERONGEN.

"By order of the said Lords Deputies,

C.A. VOS."

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

* * * * *

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Amsterdam, October 18th, 1781.

Sir,

The Committees of the Fisheries of Vlaardingen and Maaslleys have presented to their High Mightinesses a petition to give them to understand, "that they learned with the most lively sensibility that the gentlemen, the committees of the respective colleges of Admiralty had proposed to their High Mightinesses to permit the free navigation of the ports of the Republic, with or without convoy, excepting, nevertheless, until further order, the vessels destined to the greater and lesser fisheries. The petitioners represent the inevitable losses, with which they are more and more threatened, in case that all the fishery, without exception, remain longer suspended; that they might very well find a remedy in a certain manner by excepting from this prohibition the ships employed in taking fish for salting, and in the fishery of fresh cod. They solicit, that it may please their High Mightinesses to revoke in this regard the placard of the 26th of January, 1781, or at least to make in it such alteration as their High Mightinesses may find convenient."

This petition, accepted by the Province of Holland, has been rendered commissorial, and sent to the colleges of the Admiralty respectively.

ANOTHER PETITION,

_From divers Merchants, Bookkeepers, and Owners of Ships of Amsterdam, containing in substance_,

"That the petitioners having caused their vessels and cargoes, for the most part loaded beforehand, to sail under the escort of the convoy, there has resulted from it on the 5th of August, the famous rencounter between this convoy, commanded by the Vice Admiral Zoutman, and the British Vice Admiral Parker; a rencounter, which in truth had covered the naval forces of the Republic with immortal glory, but at the same time given to commerce a terrible blow, the merchant vessels having seen themselves obliged to return into the ports of the State. That the petitioners seeing themselves disappointed of their just and equitable expectation, of being able to obtain an escort sufficient and seasonably ready, found themselves forced to submit to necessity, and consequently to call back their ships, which without running the greatest danger, could not remain longer in their then station; that the petitioners could not refrain from representing to their High Mightinesses in the most pressing manner, the enormous prejudice which resulted from it to the petitioners and the freighters of vessels, who, after having for so many months held their vessels and crews ready, must now pay the expense of equipping them, the wages, the monthly pay and subsistence of their crews, as well as all the other charges that result from them.

"But as all these disbursements are lost, the petitioners for the causes alleged, and others particularised in the petition, pray that it may please their High Mightinesses to assign to the petitioners, and especially to the proprietors and freighters of vessels, a convenient indemnification and sufficient for the cost, damages, and interest borne and suffered, because the said convoy has not set sail; from whence it has resulted, that they have detained the vessels belonging to the petitioners, who, at the first requisition, are ready to produce the particulars to their High Mightinesses, that it may also please their High Mightinesses to give the necessary orders, to the end that the convoy destined for this purpose may be ready early enough to be able to set sail next spring, even by the month of March, to the end that by accelerating their departure, the loss of time suffered in the current year may be, at least in some degree, compensated, and that there may be an opportunity that the ships which are now in Norway and at Elsinore; supposing they should be obliged to pass the winter there, may then profit of this convoy for their return. Finally, that they would please to give, concerning all these objects, precise orders, and such as their High Mightinesses may judge the most proper to fulfil the wishes of the petitioners, and for the greatest utility of commerce."

This petition has been rendered commissorial for the respective Admiralties.

ANOTHER PETITION.

"The undersigned, merchants trading to the Levant, living at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, give respectfully to understand, that the petitioners acknowledge with the most lively gratitude the paternal care which your High Mightinesses have always manifested for the prosperity of the commerce of the Levant, and particularly the advantages procured to the Belgic navigation by the resolutions of your High Mightinesses of the 21st of May, 1770, and of the first of April, 1776; the first of which authorises the directors of the commerce of the Levant, and of the navigation of the Mediterranean, besides the accustomed imposition of six per cent of freight, to require of all foreign vessels coming from the Levant, five per cent of the value of the effects; and the second of which tends to raise considerably the tariff, after which they always tax the abovementioned effects; which has also fully answered to the salutary end of your High Mightinesses, to wit, to inspire a general aversion in foreign ships to suffer themselves to be employed in the transportation of productions from the Levant into the ports of these countries. But, the situation of the navigation of this country by the unfortunate and cruel war, which the King of England unjustly makes upon our dear country, is in fact entirely changed, and almost entirely interrupted and ruined, in such sort, that by the present impossibility to make use of those ships which have not been taken, business in general, and that of the Levant in particular, is in the deplorable condition, even for the account of neutral foreigners, (for that upon our own account is entirely stopped) either to be wholly abandoned, or to be carried on by the means of foreign vessels.

"The petitioners think it unnecessary to enumerate, particularly the disadvantages of the first points alleged, that is to say, the abandoning of this commerce, because in all times the considerable importance of the Levant trade has been universally acknowledged, and your High Mightinesses yourselves have always shown that you have been intimately persuaded of it. It is then manifest, that in the present situation of affairs there remains only the second means, which is to employ foreign ships; nevertheless, as the small quantity of these vessels joined to the inclination on all sides to employ them, has already occasioned an enormous rise of their freights, and since moreover they cannot be ensured, but by paying a premium three times larger than in past times, we encounter here obstacles the most discouraging and invincible, considering, that besides all this, the extraordinary imposition beforementioned of five per cent of the value of the merchandises calculated after the augmented tariff renders almost impracticable this manner of negotiating, and deprives it of all advantage; which in this critical situation of affairs, must ruin absolutely the commerce of the Levant; for since at this time it cannot be carried on, but for the account of neutral foreigners, it is incontestible that their enterprises being in all cases so much confined, they will find themselves in the indispensable necessity to suspend this commerce with us, and to transmit it to other places; besides this, there will be found many foreigners, who for these causes will excuse themselves from remitting to the petitioners what they justly owe because at present, by the enormous rise of bills of exchange this cannot be effected but by sending merchandises, which still augments and extends, in an aggravating manner, the risk of the petitioners.

"But finally to ward off this misfortune in season, if possible, the petitioners take the liberty respectfully to address themselves to your High Mightinesses, praying that you would please, during the course of this war, consequently as long as the Belgic vessels cannot be employed, to exempt the effects, loaded upon foreign ships and coming from the Levant to the ports of this country, from the said extraordinary imposition of five per cent of their value, and that you would also give the same advantages to the merchandises loaded on board the Pisano, a Venetian vessel, commanded by Captain Antonio Ragusin, from Smyrna, and lately arrived at the Texel; to the end that this branch of Commerce, so important, may not perish entirely, and that it may be preserved for the general well-being of the dear country.

"Divers freighters and part owners of vessels, fitted out for the Colony of Surinam, by the proprietors of plantations, merchants, and others interested in this commerce, as well as that of Curaçao, have addressed a petition to their High Mightinesses, and laid open the "deplorable condition of the two Colonies; that in consequence of the Resolution of the 14th of last June, in virtue of the petition, which they then presented, they equipped their vessels with despatch, and that in two months they had put in order a fleet of seventeen vessels, armed with four hundred guns, and manned with twelve hundred men, expecting a suitable convoy; but that several circumstances having without doubt hindered it from being ready, they pray first, their High Mightinesses, that they would prepare as soon as possible a convenient convoy, to go out with their ships, at a certain day, and conduct them to the West Indies; secondly, that their High Mightinesses, in case of delay, would be so good as to grant them an indemnification; thirdly, that their High Mightinesses, upon the exhibition of a certificate, as it was stipulated by their resolution of the 31st of July last, would be so good as to cause to be given to those who shall have made the armaments required, the bounties which they shall judge convenient, the petitioners being ready to give convenient sureties, and even to engage their vessels, in case they are not ready to sail at the time appointed."

At the requisition of his Highness, the request has been rendered commissorial in the respective Admiralties.

The representative and the directors of the East India Company have notified to their High Mightinesses, "that their finances are diminished, and that they are in the indispensable necessity of demanding of their High Mightinesses a succor of at least 550,000 florins; adding, that if some favorable change does not take place, they will soon be obliged to have again recourse to their High Mightinesses."

This petition has been rendered commissorial.

These papers will sufficiently show Congress how much the trade of this country is affected by the war, and what discontents must arise from it. Yet the British Ministry are amusing the government with their delusive ideas of mediation, armistices, Congresses, peace, and anything to lay them asleep.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

* * * * *

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO JOHN ADAMS.

Philadelphia, October 23d, 1781.

Dear Sir,

The enclosed resolution will inform you that Congress have thought it advisable to new model their department of foreign affairs, by the appointment of a Secretary, through whose hands the communications with their Ministers abroad are to pass. Though they did me the honor to elect me so long since as August last, I but lately determined to accept, and did not enter upon business till two days ago, so that you must not expect those minute communications, which I shall think it my duty to make to you when I have had leisure to arrange my department, and to acquaint myself more fully with the sentiments of Congress, which must upon the whole be my direction.

I can only say in general, that we consider your situation as extremely delicate, the state you are in, divided by powerful parties, and the bias that every man has to his own country, naturally gives him a predilection for that which most favors its interests. But this, though the child of virtue, is often the greatest obstacle to successful negotiations; it creates distrust and jealousies; it excites prejudices, which unfit us for conciliating the affections of those whose assistance we require, and induce too fond a reliance upon the information of those who wish to serve us. Aristocratic governments are, of all others, the most jealous of popular commotions; the rich and the powerful are equally engaged to resist them, and nothing will, in my opinion, so soon contribute to a peace between England and the United Provinces as the commotions which now clog the government of the latter.

You must, Sir, be infinitely better acquainted with the interior of the State you are in than I can pretend to be, and I rely much on your information for light, which I cannot attain here. If I venture to give you my sentiments, it is with the hope that you will correct my errors when I have discovered them by my freedom.

The United Provinces appear to me one of those governments whose very constitution disposes them to peace; the ambition of making conquests, either is or ought to be unknown to them. A war for the extension of commerce is a solecism in politics, since the shocks that the established trade sustains, infinitely overbalance any new accession that may be made by it. War, then, while the true interest of the United Provinces is considered, will be the child of necessity. That necessity happily exists at present, and will exist till Great Britain ceases to be the tyrant of the ocean. We are greatly interested in its continuance; but let us always bear in mind that the moment Great Britain makes the sacrifices, which prudence and justice require, the United Provinces will be drawn by the interest of commerce and the love of peace to close with them. Their acknowledgment of our independence would be an important and a leading object. Success here, and the injustice and cruelty of the British may affect it, but do not let us appear to be dissatisfied if it is delayed. They have a right to judge for themselves; from the very nature of their government, they must be slow in determining. Every appearance of dissatisfaction on our part, gives room to the British to believe the United Provinces disinclined to us, and paves the way to negotiations, which may end in a peace, which we are so much interested in preventing.

Your first object, then, if I may venture my opinion, is to be well with the government; your second, to appear to be so, and to take no measures, which may bring upon you a public affront. You will naturally treat the friends we have with the politeness and attention that they justly merit, and even with that cordiality which your heart must feel for those who wish your country well, but your prudence will suggest to you to avoid giving offence to government, by the appearance of intrigue. I know nothing of the refinements of politics, nor do I wish to see them enter into our negotiations. Dignity of conduct, the resources of our country, and the value of our commerce, must render us respectable abroad. You will not fail to lay the foundation of your alliances in these, by displaying them in the strongest point of view. The spirit of injustice and cruelty, which characterise the English, must also afford you advantages, of which I dare say you avail yourself.

I make no apology for the length or freedom of this; it is of the last importance to you (and I am satisfied you will think it so,) to be intimately acquainted with the sentiments entertained on this side of the water. In return, Sir, you will let me know, minutely, everything that can in any way be of use to us, particularly if either of the belligerent powers takes measures that may tend to establish a partial or general peace. At your leisure, acquaint me with the interior of the government you are in, and everything else interesting, which you may learn relative to others. Remember that Ministers are yet to be formed in this country, and let them want no light, which your situation enables you to afford them.

I would submit it to you, whether it would not be most advisable to spend as much time as possible at the Hague, and to form connexions with the Ministers of the powers not interested in our affairs. They are frequently best informed, because least suspected, and while your public character is unacknowledged, and you can visit without the clog of ceremony, I should conceive it no difficult task to engage the friendship of some among them.

But it is time to let you breathe; this I shall do without closing my letter, reserving the remainder of it for the communication of the most agreeable intelligence you ever received from America. The enclosed prints will announce one important victory to you, and we are in hourly expectation of the particulars of another, which will enable you to open your negotiations this winter with the utmost advantage.

_October 24th._ I congratulate you, Sir, upon the pleasing intelligence which, agreeable to my hopes, I am enabled to convey to you; enclosed you have a letter from General Washington to Congress; the terms granted to Lord Cornwallis, his fleet and army, and the letters that passed previous to the surrender of both. I make no comments upon this event, but rely upon your judgment to improve it to the utmost; perhaps, this is the moment in which a loan may be opened with most advantage. The want of money is our weak side, and even in the high day of success we feel its pressure.

As you may not perhaps be fully acquainted with the steps that led to this important victory, I enclose also an extract of my last letter to Dr Franklin. The British fleet consisting of twentysix sail of the line, including three fifties as such, with five thousand land forces, and General Clinton himself on board, sailed the 19th for the relief of Cornwallis. Count de Grasse is also out with thirtyfour sail of the line. I shall keep this open as long as possible, from the hopes of communicating an interesting account of their meeting.

_November 1st._ I am under the necessity of closing this without being able to give you any other account of the fleets, than that the British have not yet returned to New York; nor are we certain that the Count de Grasse has yet left the Chesapeake. If anything in the nature of a Court calendar is published at the Hague, you will be pleased to send me one or two impressions of it, as it may be of use to us.

I am, Sir, &c.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

* * * * *

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Amsterdam, October 25th, 1781.

Sir,

I see in the London Courant, which arrived today, an advertisement of a translation into English of the address to the people of the Netherlands; so that this work is likely to be translated into all languages, and read by all the world, notwithstanding the placards against it. I have before sent that of Utrecht; that of Holland is as follows.