拍品 2087
  • 2087

JOHN ADAMS. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, 30 JUNE 1784, TO GENERAL JAMES WARREN

估價
20,000 - 25,000 USD
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描述

  • Autograph letter signed ("John Adams") to General James Warren, on the importance of diplomacy for the infant republic
3 pages (8 3/4 x 7 3/8 in.; 222 x 187 mm) on a bifolium, (countermarked iv), The Hague, 30 June 1784, to General James Warren, reception docket on verso of second leaf; a couple of small, light stains, pinholes at intersecting fold.

來源

Sotheby's New York, 21 June 2007, lot 4 (undesignated consignor)

出版

The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, ed. Lint, Taylor, et al., 16:261–262

Condition

3 pages (8 3/4 x 7 3/8 in.; 222 x 187 mm) on a bifolium, (countermarked iv), The Hague, 30 June 1784, to General James Warren, reception docket on verso of second leaf; a couple of small, light stains, pinholes at intersecting fold.
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拍品資料及來源

In a private letter to a political friend, Adams laments his decision to remain in the diplomatic service in Europe, but reconciles himself to the importance of his efforts for the future security and character of the newly independent United States: "the Character of our Country has been entirely decided by our foreign affairs. …” June 1784 found Adams in the Netherlands attempting to secure crucial loans for the United States from Dutch bankers and awaiting the arrival of his wife and daughter in Europe. "I now repent having written for my Family, and that I had not gone home. Yet I ought not to repent because it was Bono publico, and induced me to resolve to stay in Europe, to try, if I could execute a Commission which Congress promised to me, F[ranklin] and J[ay] and have not performed 'une Perfidie tres permise dans un Grand Roi,' as Voltaire says of the King of Prussia.

"Jay is Minister of foreign affairs. This is a great Point gained in favour of our Country. Wisdom and Virtue have triumphed for once. And I hope and believe, he will give an entire new cast to the complexion of our foreign Affairs and you may depend upon it that for sometime to come as for a long time past, the Character of our Country has been entirely decided by our foreign affairs. … If I had not been very sensible of this, you would have seen me at Milton again or hear of me in a British Dungeon four years ago."

Nationalists such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay viewed American diplomatic failures as one symptom of the general weakness of the system of government established under the Articles of Confederation. Adams's agreement with this sentiment explains his strong approbation of John Jay’s appointment to the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs (forerunner of the office of Secretary of State). While the Treaty of Paris had been signed at this point, its provisions had yet to be implemented, and it remained to be seen how Great Britain and the other major powers of Europe would view the United States. The early diplomatic history of the United States was marked by threats to American sovereignty on the high seas and in the interior of North America. Adams himself would experience such treatment during his tenure as first American Minister to Britain, being largely ignored by George III's government, which did not send a regular minister to America and did not, as promised at Paris, abandon forts on American territory.

James Warren was President of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, paymaster general of the Continental Army and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.