Produced by Bryan Ness, Susan Carr and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) A COLLECTION OF STATE-PAPERS. [Price Two Shillings.] A COLLECTION OF STATE-PAPERS, Relative to the First Acknowledgment of the SOVEREIGNTY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, And the Reception of their Minister Plenipotentiary, by their High Mightinesses the STATES GENERAL OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS To which is prefixed, the Political Character of JOHN ADAMS, Ambassador Plenipotentiary from the States of North America, to their High Mightinesses the States General of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. BY AN AMERICAN. LIKEWISE, AN ESSAY ON CANON AND FEUDAL LAW, BY JOHN ADAMS, ESQ; LONDON: Printed for JOHN FIELDING, No. 23, Pater-noster-row; JOHN DEBRETT, opposite Burlington-House, Piccadilly; and JOHN SEWELL, No. 32, Cornhill. 1782. [Entered at Stationers-Hall.] INTRODUCTION As the States General of the United Provinces have acknowledged the independency of the United States of North America, and made a treaty of commerce with them, it may not be improper to prefix a short account of John Adams, Esq; who, pursuing the interests of his country, hath brought about these important events. Mr. Adams is descended from one of the first families which founded the colony of the Massachusets Bay in 1630. He applied himself early to the study of the laws of his country; and no sooner entered upon the practice thereof, but he drew the attention, admiration, and esteem of his countrymen, on account of his eminent abilities and probity of character. Not satisfied with barely maintaining the rights of individuals, he soon signalized himself in the defence of his country, and mankind at large, by writing his admirable Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Laws; a work so well worth the attention of every man who is an enemy to ecclesiastical and civil tyranny, that it is here subjoined. It showed the author at an early period capable of seconding efficaciously the formation of republics on the principles of justice and virtue. Such a man became most naturally an object of Governor Barnard's seduction. The perversion of his abilities might be of use in a bad cause; the corruption of his principles might tarnish the best. But the arts of the Governor, which had succeeded with so many, were ineffectual with Mr. Adams, who openly declared he would not accept a favour, however flatteringly offered, which might in any manner connect him with the enemy of the rights of his country, or tend to embarrass him, as it had happened with too many others, in the discharge of his duty to the public. Seduction thus failing of its ends, calumny, menaces, and the height of power were made use of against him. They lost the effect proposed, but had that, which the show of baseness and violence ever produce on a mind truly virtuous.