the 1st, the others of the 5th and 8th of March. I thank you for the copy of your letter to the Pensioner, and for your dialogue between York and Chatham. It is undoubtedly the duty of every commercial nation to make their flag respected in all the seas and by all the nations, not by insulting and injuring all others like Great Britain, but by doing justice to all others, and by insisting upon justice from them. But how is Holland to obtain justice from the English, who take a manifest pleasure and pride in showing her and all Europe that they despise her? Holland seems to be as corrupted and unprincipled. as Great Britain; but there is one great difference between them: Great Britain has a terrible naval force, Holland has next to none. Great Britain has courage and confidence in her power, Holland has none. I do not mean that the Dutch are destitute of personal courage, but national courage is a very different thing. The curious doctrine of a constitutional impossibility of acknowledging our independence is well exposed in your dialogue. I suppose the idea was taken from Lord Chatham's dying speech, when he conjured up the ghost of the Princess Sophia of Hanover, to whose posterity, being Protestants, the act of settlement had consecrated the succession of the Crown and its authority over all parts of the dominions. This was a masterly stroke of oratory, to be sure, and shows that my Lord Chatham, in his last moments, had not lost the knowledge of the prejudices in the character of the English nation, nor the arts of popularity. But a more manifest address to the passions and prejudices of the populace, without the least attention to the justice or policy of the principle, never fell from a popular orator, ancient or modern. Could my Lord Chatham contend that the heirs of the Princess Sophia of Hanover, provided they should be Protestants, had the throne and its prerogatives entailed upon them, to everlasting ages, over all parts of the British dominions, let them do what they would? Govern without Parliament, by laws without law, dismiss judges without fault, suspend laws, in short do every thing that the Stuarts did, and ten times more, yet so long as they were Protestants, could there be no resistance to their will, and no forfeiture of their right to govern? I said this was a figure of rhetoric, employed by his lordship ad captandum vulgus. I believe so still, but I believe he meant it also ad captandum regem, and that he thought by throwing out this idea, that he was not for acknowledging our independence, the King, who at that time was distressed for a Minister able in conducting a war, would call him into the Ministry. I ever lamented this black spot in a very bright character. I do not remember any thing in his lordship's conduct which seemed to me so suspicious to have proceeded from a perverted heart as this flight. Allowance, however, ought to be made; perhaps he was misunderstood, and would have explained himself fairly if he had lived. I have not seen the pamphlet entitled Facts, nor that by Lloyd, nor the Examen. I should be glad to see all of them. I find a difficulty in getting pamphlets from England; but I shall have a channel to obtain them by-and-by. I went to Mr. Grant's as soon as I received yours of the 8th. Mr. Grant the father was out, and no other in the house knew anything of your letter, or maps, or other things. I will speak to the father the first opportunity. Mr. Lee is gone to L'Orient. What think you of luck? Had any gambler ever so much as Rodney? One of our Tories in Boston, or half-way Whigs, told me once, God loves that little island of Old England, and the people that live upon it. I suppose he would say now, God loves Rodney. I do not draw the same conclusion from the successes that the island or the hero have had. Who can be persuaded to believe that he loves so degenerate and profligate a race? I think it more probable that Heaven has permitted this series of good fortune to attend the wicked that the righteous Americans may reflect in time, and place their confidence in their own patience, fortitude, perseverance, political wisdom, and military talents, under the protection and blessing of His providence. There are those who believe that if France and Spain had not interposed, America would have been crushed. There are in other parts of Europe, I am told, a greater number who believe that, if it had not been for the interposition of France and Spain, American independence would have been acknowledged by Great Britain a year or two ago. I believe neither the one nor the other. I know the deep roots of American independence on one side of the water, and I know the deep roots of the aversion to it on the other. If it was rational to suppose that the English should succeed in their design, and endeavor to destroy the fleets and naval power of France and Spain, (which they are determined to do if they can,) what would be the consequence? There are long lists of French and Spanish ships-of-the-line yet to be destroyed, which would cost the English several campaigns and a long roll of millions; and after this they may send sixty thousand men to America, if they can get them, and what then? Why, the glory of baffling, exhausting, beating, and taking them, will finally be that of the American yeomanry, whose numbers have increased every year since this war began, as I learned with certainty in my late visit home, and will increase every year, in spite of all the art, malice, skill, valor, and activity of the English and all their allies. I hope, however, that the capricious goddess will bestow some of her favors upon France and Spain, and a very few of them would do the work. If Rodney's fortune should convince Spain that she is attacking the bull by the horns, and France and Spain that the true system for conducting this war is by keeping just force enough in the channel to protect their coasts and their trade, and by sending all the rest of their ships into the American seas, it will be the best fortune for the allies they ever had. I long to learn Mr. Jay's success at Madrid, and Mr. Laurens's arrival in Holland, where I will go to see him some time in the summer or autumn. I have the honor to be, &c., JOHN ADAMS. Sir, TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Paris, March 14th, 1780. By a letter from London of the 3d of this month, received since my former of this day's date, I learn that the friends of the Ministry were in hopes every hour to hear that Clinton, who embarked seven thousand effective men (though they are said to be ten) in the latter end of December, is in possession of Charleston. The detachment consisted of the light infantry and grenadiers of the seventh, twentythird, thirty-third, forty-second, sixty-third, and sixty-fourth British regiments, a legion of horse, yagers, four battalions of Hessian grenadiers; the New York volunteers, Ferguson's corps; one Hessian regiment, and a detachment of the seventy-first British regiment. Many are of opinion that a part of this army was intended for the Windward Islands, and that they embarked and sailed the 26th of December, and was much hurt by a storm after sailing. Two thousand, under Lord Cornwallis, were said to be intended for the Chesapeake, to burn two or three men-of-war in James river, and to serve as a division to the other five, going against Charleston. The friends of the Administration are not in spirits about the picture of affairs in America and the West Indies. They fear the French will have a superiority there, from whence some late accounts are arrived of vast sickness and disorder on board the English ships. The naval war will, to appearance, be removed for the next summer to that quarter. Rodney was to sail with four ships only to the West Indies; and Walsingham will not take more than that number as a convoy to about one hundred West Indiamen, which were to sail about the 20th of this month, and more ships-of-war would probably conduct this fleet off the land, and it was probable in the New York and Quebec trade about fifty vessels more would sail about the same time. That there was no talk of any troops or ships going to New York or Quebec. That there was a rumor that Wallace would have a small squadron, and carry four or five thousand men out; but this was not believed. That the Ministry had been hard pressed in several parliamentary questions lately; that their party was losing ground daily; that the county petitions for reformation were a heavy weight upon them; that it was likely there would be serious disturbances, if reforms do not take place; that the committees for each county have already appointed three deputies to meet and act for the whole, which is the beginning of a Congress, and will probably be soon called by that name; that it was hard to determine whether these movements at home, or the proceedings in Ireland, chagrin the Ministry most; that the sovereignty of England over Ireland will not be of many month's duration; that the armed associations in the latter amount to sixty-four thousand men, who seem determined to free themselves from every restriction that has been laid on them; that their Parliament is about putting an end to all appeals to England; to render the judges independent of the Crown, they at present holding their offices durante bene placito, and not quamdiu se bene gesserunt, as in England; to have a habeas corpus act; to repeal Poyning's law, which enacts that all bills shall originate in the Council, and not in the Commons; to confine the new supplies to the appointment of new duties only; to give bounties on their own manufactures, and to have a mutiny bill, which last goes immediately to the grand point of jurisdiction. That, however, notwithstanding all the present appearances against Great Britain, and the certainty of America's succeeding to her wish, there are not among even those who are called patriots in Parliament many who possess directly a wish for American independence; that Lords Camden, Effingham, Coventry, and the Bishop of St. Asaph are clearly and distinctly for it; Sir G. Saville, and but a few others in the House of Commons; that the rest of the patriots are for sovereignty; America to give up the French alliance, make up a federal alliance with England, by which, no doubt, they mean an alliance offensive and defensive, &c. It is surely unnecessary for me to make any observations upon the absurdity of these provisoes, so injurious to the honor of our country and so destructive of her most essential rights and interests. By a letter of the 7th, a vessel, with two hundred Hessians or Yagers on board, has arrived at St. Ives, in Cornwall. She sailed with the expedition from New York the 26th of December, and a few days after received much damage in a storm, which, it is thought, separated and dispersed the fleet. This gives us great spirits, and sanguine hopes for Charleston. I have the honor to enclose several newspapers, and, with much respect, to be, &c., JOHN ADAMS. TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Paris, March 14th, 1780. Sir, I have taken some pains to inform myself what number of regular troops the enemy have in the three Kingdoms, because we may form some judgment from this whether they will be able to send any, and what, reinforcements to North America or the West Indies. I am assured that they have not more than four thousand regular troops in Ireland, and these chiefly horse. It is not to be expected, then, I think, that they can spare any of these. There is too much danger even of popular commotions in England, Scotland, and Ireland, to spare many of these, if they were perfectly safe, or thought themselves so, from French and Spanish invasions. I have, however, |