As to the propositions themselves, it would be wasting time to consider them. Of all the malicious plans of the English against America, none has ever been more so than this. It is calculated only to make America the sport of Britain in future; to put it in her power to be forever fomenting quarrels and wars; and, I am well persuaded, that America would sooner vote for a hundred years' war. I may be thought again too sanguine. I have been too sanguine these twenty years, constantly too sanguine; yet eternally right. Adieu, JOHN ADAMS. _P. S._ I do not see Captain Waters's engagement yet in any of the papers. I would have sent it to England and Holland for publication, if I had known it could not be printed here. J. A. * * * * * TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Paris, May 9th, 1780. Sir, I have the honor to enclose to Congress proposals for a general pacification, by the Dean of Gloucester. "Proposals to the English, Americans, French, and Spaniards, now at war. "First. That Great Britain shall retain Newfoundland, with the desert coasts of Labradore; also Canada, Nova Scotia, and the country bordering on the Bay of Fundy, as far as the bay and river of Penobscot. "Secondly. That all the country from the Penobscot river to the river Connecticut, containing almost all the four populous Provinces of New England, shall be ceded to the Americans. "Thirdly. That all the country from the Connecticut to the river Delaware, containing the whole of New York, Long Island, and the Jerseys, with some parts of two other Provinces indenting with them, shall return to Great Britain. "Fourthly. That all the country from the Delaware to the northern boundary of South Carolina, containing the greatest part of Pennsylvania, all Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, shall be ceded to the Americans. "Fifthly. That all the country from the northern boundary of South Carolina to the extreme point of the eastern Florida, containing three whole Provinces, shall be retained by Great Britain. "Sixthly. That West Florida, chiefly barren sand, and the Fortress of Gibraltar (totally useless,) shall be ceded to Spain, in order to satisfy the punctilio of that nation, and that the Spaniards shall give Porto Rico in exchange, an island on which they seem to set no value and which indeed is of no use to them, though large in itself, stored with good ports, well situated, and capable (in the hands of the English) of great improvements. "Seventhly. Lastly, that the English shall give up the conquests they have made on the French in the East Indies, who shall do the like to the English in the West Indies." I shall make no remarks upon this plan, but there is no Englishman who thinks of a wiser, or at least who dares propose one. All, who talk of propositions, throw out something as absurd and idle as this, which will convince Congress that we shall have no peace for some time.