As to the loan in Holland, I have never troubled you, nor any one else in America, with details of the vexations of various kinds, which I met with in the negotiation of it; indeed, I never thought it prudent or safe to do it. If I had told the whole truth, it could have done no good, and it might have done infinite mischief. In general, it is now sufficient to say, that private interest, party spirit, factions, cabals, and slanderers, have obstructed, perplexed, and tortured our loan in Holland, as well as all our other affairs, foreign and domestic. But as there has been a greater variety of clashing interests, English, French, Stadtholderian, Republican, and American, mixing in the affair of our loan in Holland, it has been more puzzled than anything else. If, in the bitterness of my soul, I had described the fermentation, and mentioned names, and drawn characters, I might have transmitted a curious tale, but it would have only served to inflame old animosities, and excite new ones. A great many things are said to me, on purpose that they may be represented to you or to Congress. Some of these I believe to be false, most of them I suspect, and some of them that are true would do no good. I think it necessary, therefore, to employ a little discretion in such cases. Messrs Willinks & Co. will write you from time to time, as they tell me they have done, the state of the loan. Mr Grand wants all the money, but they wait your orders. The loan has been and will be damped by transmitting the money to France, but your necessities were so urgent, that you could not avoid it. In my opinion, if you had a Minister at St James's, and he were authorised to borrow money generally, in England or elsewhere, it would serve you greatly, by causing an emulation even in Holland, besides the money you would procure in London, which would not be a trifling sum. I wish I were in Congress, that I might assist you in persuading our countrymen to pay taxes and build ships. With great esteem and respect, I have the honor to be, &c. JOHN ADAMS. * * * * * TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. Paris, May 24th, 1783. Sir, I have the honor to enclose copies, to be laid before Congress, of several papers. 1st. Mr Hartley's full powers of May 14th. 2dly. The order of the King of Great Britain in Council, for regulating the American trade, of May 14th. 3dly. Articles proposed by the American Ministers to Mr Hartley, April 29th. 4thly. Mr Hartley's observations left with us May 21st. And 5thly. Mr Hartley's proposition of the same day.[4]