for him, and the French minister offered to detain the frigate La Sensible for his convenience, and to give him a passage in her to Europe. In that vessel he embarked accordingly, with Mr. Dana the secretary of legation, at Boston, in the month of October, 1779, and, after a long voyage, was landed at Ferrol in Spain, and was obliged to make a very uncomfortable journey from that port to Paris.

Mr. Adams quickly discovered that the British government were not, at this time, disposed to make peace; they were well aware of the financial embarrassments of America, and confidently expected to be able to bring back their colonies to dependence. He very soon began, therefore, to despair of being able to fulfil the objects of his mission, and thought the time far removed when a negotiation could be entered into with any hope of success. In the partial depression of spirits which this belief occasioned, he seems to have sighed for the moment of his return to a tranquil home. Soon after his arrival at Paris, he wrote to Mr. Richard H. Lee, in answer to a letter that he had received at the moment of his embarkation:

"You recommend to me to continue in public life, but you practise the reverse yourself. How is this? Are not the same obligations upon you that you think lie upon me? You and I have had experience enough of public life, to be very well convinced that there are great trials of our patience, very little pleasure, and no satisfaction at all, to be found in it. I was never very fond of public life myself, but, on the contrary, I avoided it, with the utmost care, for many years. But stepping into the midst of civil dissensions, when I first entered on the stage of life, it was impossible for me to avoid having an opinion of my own, and principles like those of the majority of my countrymen; these principles I frankly professed at all times, and in all circumstances, however critical VOL. I.-R

and dangerous, which involved me in an unavoidable necessity, when the times grew more tempestuous, to step on board the ship and take my fortune with the crew; it is, and will ever be, the sweetest reflection of my life, that I did so. But I have ever been thoroughly sensible of the instability of a public course, and have ever endeavoured to preserve my mind prepared to return to my rocks and forests, with tranquillity, which I am perfectly sure, at present, that I could do, and with pleasure too. Yet, I assure you, I begin to fear that habits will steal upon me, by length of time, which I shall find it hard to break, when the time shall come that I must retire. This time will certainly arrive with the first moment that I cannot serve the public with honour, and some prospect of advantage; and I have many reasons to suspect that the time is not very distant. The chevalier de la Luzerne, I have reason to think, from an agreeable acquaintance with him, in the course of a passage to America of forty-seven days, from some knowledge of him that I had before and after, is a candid and impartial man, possessed of no principles or views inconsistent with his public character, and very able to do service to his country and ours. The same of Mr. Marbois. I lament, most sincerely, the unhappy contests that preceded his arrival, and wish that they may be extinguished; but I know too well the circumstances to expect that they will. As to my negotiations, our sons, or grandsons, have a better chance of completing them than I have; there is, or at least there was, a system of policy and of military operations, that, if it had been pursued, might have given me something to do. It is not my fault, nor the fault of America, that it was not. The fishery and the navigation of the Mississippi are points of such importance, that your grandson, when he makes the peace, I hope will secure them. I am sure he will omit nothing in his power to do, for

that purpose. You will hear, before you read this, of a series of good fortune, which has happened to Rodney and his fleet; but the allies will be superior by sea, in America and the West Indies, so that we may hope that the tide will turn. England will remain without allies, although Denmark has done a foolish thing by restoring to the English some prizes sent into Norway by the Alliance; she seems to be sorry that she did it. It was upon the principle, that they had not acknowledged our independence; and that all powers were their enemies with whom they had no treaty, a principle long since exploded, and of which they are at present ashamed. Ireland and England are following our example; and if France and Spain act with sufficient vigour in America and in the West Indies, all is ours, with an ordinary success; otherwise all will be aback. But we must persevere; the more success Great Britain has, the more reason we have to dread her, and we ought to be the more determined to hold out for ever."

Mr. Adams had reached Paris in February, and communicated the objects of his mission to Dr. Franklin, the sole envoy of the United States at the court of France, and to the count de Vergennes, the French prime minister. This minister, who appears to have intended the employment of some degree of diplomatic artifice towards the Americans, was very pressing to be fully informed of his instructions, but they were not communicated to him. He advised also, or requested, that the commission to make a treaty of commerce should be kept secret.

Though Mr. Adams studiously avoided any interference with affairs that did not relate to the ends of his mission, except when his opinion was expressly called for by the count de Vergennes, yet he found opportunities of being useful, and received a vote of thanks from congress in the latter part of

this year, "for his industrious attention to the interest and honour of these United States abroad." The immediate occasion of his appointment had been an informal communication from a member of the British government to Dr. Franklin, importing that the ministry were disposed to put an end to the war. But, during the year 1780, the cause of peace made no progress in the parliament; and the French government, after the appointment of Mr. Adams, declared that the situation of the affairs of the alliance in Europe, announced the necessity of another campaign as indispensable, to bring England to an acknowledgment of the independence of the United States.

Mr. Adams hearing of the misfortune that had befallen Mr. Laurens, who had been taken prisoner while on his passage to Holland, where he was to have negotiated a loan for the United States, and not being limited by his instructions to a residence in any particular country, determined to repair immediately to Holland, and see if something could not be done there, to render his country less dependent on France, both for political consideration and for loans of money. He accordingly applied for his passports, without which he could not travel in France; but the French minister did not wish any success to the object of this change of residence, and under various pretexts detained him in Paris until midsum

mer.

In June of the same year, congress being informed of the captivity of Mr. Laurens, appointed Mr. Adams in his stead to negotiate for a loan in Holland. He received this commission accordingly in August, and by it an abundance of untried business was devolved upon him, of a nature exceedingly embarrassing and difficult, among capitalists, brokers and usurers, many of whom could speak as little of the French or English languages as he could of Dutch.

Very soon afterwards he received the new appointment of commissioner to conclude a treaty of amity and commerce with the States General of Holland; and at the same time congress sent to him their resolutions, adopting the principles of the "armed neutrality" proposed by the Russian government, and acceded to by other powers; with instructions to agree, in any treaty that he might conclude, to regulations on the subject of neutral rights, such as might be established at a congress of the European states, then in contemplation. This resolution he communicated to the Russian, Swedish and Danish envoys in Holland, and received civil answers from each of them; but the policy of their courts was not rendered more favourable to American rights by this attempt to conciliate them.

He subsequently received letters of credence from congress, as their minister plenipotentiary to their "high mightinesses," and also to his serene highness the prince of Orange, as stadtholder of the United Provinces. By this accumulation of trusts, he was minister plenipotentiary for making peace; minister plenipotentiary for making a treaty of commerce with Great Britain; minister plenipotentiary to their high mightinesses the States General; minister plenipotentiary to his serene highness the prince of Orange and stadtholder; minister plenipotentiary for pledging the faith of the United States to the armed neutrality; and what perhaps at that critical moment was of as much importance to the United States as any of those powers, he was commissioner for negotiating a loan of money to the amount of ten millions of dollars, upon which depended the support of our army at home and of our ambassadors abroad.

He had no instructions to make any proposition of peace; the offer was to come from the British government. But he thought, at one time, of making known his powers, in order