This business must all be settled with so much secrecy and caution, and I am under so many difficulties, not understanding the Dutch language, and the gentlemen I have to do with not being much more expert in French than I am myself, and not understanding English at all, that the business goes on slower than I could wish. Commodore Gillon, by his knowledge of Dutch and general acquaintance here, has been as useful to me as he has been friendly. I never saw the national benefit of a fine language generally read and spoken in so strong a light as since I have been here. The Dutch language is understood by nobody but themselves, the consequence of which has been, that this nation is not known. With as profound learning and ingenuity as any people in Europe, they have been overlooked, because they were situated among others more numerous and powerful than they. I hope that Congress will take warning by their example, and do everything in their power to make the language they speak, respectable throughout the world. Separated as we are from the Kingdom of Great Britain, we have not made war upon the English language any more than against the old English character. An academy instituted by the authority of Congress for correcting, improving, and fixing the English language, would strike Great Britain with envy, and all the rest of the world with admiration. The labors of such a society would unite all America in the same language, for thirty millions of Americans to speak to all the nations of the earth by the middle of the nineteenth century. I have the honor to be, &c. JOHN ADAMS. * * * * * TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Amsterdam, September 25th, 1780. Sir, There are some persons in this Republic who have been attentive to this war, and who know somewhat of the history of the rise and progress of the United States of America, but it is astonishing that the number should be so small. Even in the city of Amsterdam, which is the most attentive to our affairs, and the best inclined towards us, there are few persons who do not consider the American resistance as a desultory rage of a few enthusiasts, without order, discipline, law, or government. There are scarcely any that have an adequate idea of the numbers, the increasing population, or the growing commerce of America.