On the last day of December 1780 John Adams wrote that he had
just spent "the most anxious and mortifying Year of my whole Life."
He had resided first at Paris, then at Amsterdam, attempting,
without success, to open Anglo-American peace negotiations and to
raise a Dutch loan. In volumes 9 and 10 of the "Papers of John
Adams," over 600 letters and documents that Adams sent to and
received from numerous correspondents in Europe and America provide
an unparalleled view of Adams' diplomacy and a wealth of detail on
the world in which he lived.
These volumes chronicle Adams' efforts to convince the British
people and their leaders that Britain's economic survival demanded
an immediate peace; his "snarling growling" debate with the French
foreign minister, the Comte de Vergennes, over the proper
Franco-American relationship; and his struggle to obtain a loan in
the Netherlands, where policies were dictated by Mammon rather than
republican virtue. Adams' writings, diplomatic dispatches, and
personal correspondence all make clear the scope of his
intelligence gathering and his propaganda efforts in the British,
French, and Dutch press. The letters reflect his interest in
Bordeaux wines, the fate of Massachusetts' Constitution that he had
drafted in 1779, and political developments in Philadelphia,
Boston, London, and St. Petersburg. The volumes leave no doubt as
to John Adams' unwavering commitment to the American cause. Even in
this most difficult year, he believed the revolution in America to
be "the greatest that ever took Place among Men." He felt honored
to serve a new nation where "the Wisdom and not the Man is attended
to," whose citizens were fighting a "People's War" from which the
United States would inevitably emerge victorious to take its
rightful place on the world stage.
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