The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 05
History
The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 05
United States -- Foreign relations -- 1775-1783; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Sources
The proposals for a general pacification, by the Dean of Gloucester,
whether they were written by him, or by another, were probably
intended to feel the pulse of France, or Spain, or America. Nay, it is
not impossible, that they might be intended to sound even so
inconsiderable a portion of existence as Mr John Adams. But it must be
something rather more plausibly written; something a little more
consonant to reason, and to common sense, which will draw out of Mr
Adams his sentiments on the great work of pacification, if ever he
should enter into any detail upon this subject, before general
conferences take place, which he at present believes he shall not do.
Concealing, however, my name, you may take these few observations upon
these proposals.
1. England may be heartily sick of the imprudent part she has taken.
This point I shall not dispute with the Dean of Gloucester. Yet I wish
she would give some better proof of it, than she has done hitherto.
But of Americans I can speak with confidence and certainty; and so far
from being sick of the part they have taken, they look upon the past
madness of Great Britain, which has compelled them to overcome all the
prejudices and weak passions, which heretofore bound them to her, and
to become independent, as the greatest blessing which Providence ever
bestowed upon them, from the first plantation in the new world. They
look upon it, that a council of the wisest statesmen and legislators,
consulting together on the best means of rendering America happy,
free, and great, could not have discovered and digested a system so
perfectly adapted to that end, as this one, which the folly and
wickedness of Great Britain has contrived for them. They not only see,
and feel, and rejoice in the amelioration of their forms of
government, but in the improvement of their agriculture and their
manufactures, and in the discovery, that all the omnipotence of
British fleets has not been able to prevent their commerce, which is
opening and extending every year, as their population is increasing in
the midst of the war.
2. To suppose that France is sick of the part she has taken, is to
suppose her to be sick of that conduct, which has procured her more
respect and consideration in Europe, than any step she ever took. It
is to suppose her sick of that system, which enabled her to negotiate
the peace between Russia and the Ottoman Porte, as well as the peace
of Teschen; that system, which has enabled her to unite, in sentiment
and affection, all the maritime powers, even the United Provinces, in
her favor, and against England. It is to suppose her sick of that
system, which has broken off from her rival and natural enemy the most
solid part of his strength, a strength that had become so terrible to
France, and would have been so fatal to her. I do not mean to enlarge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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