With regard to the future establishment of your children, which you say you want to consult me about, I am still of opinion, that America will afford you more chances of doing it well than England. All the means of good education

. are plenty there, the general manners are simple and pure, temptations to vice and folly fewer, the profits of industry in business as great and sure as in England; and there is one advantage more, which your command of money will give you there, I mean the laying out a part of

your

fortune in new land, now to be had extremely cheap; but which must be increased immensely in value, before your children come of age, by the rapid population of the country. If you should arrive there while I live, you know you may depend on every assistance in my power to afford you, and I think my children will have a pleasure too in serving their father's friend. I do not offer it as a motive, that you

will be much esteemed and respected there; for that you are, and must be, everywhere; but give me leave to flatter myself, that my being made happier in my last years by your neighbourhood and society may be some inducement to you.

I forwarded your letter to Mr. Williams. Temple is always with me, being my secretary. He presents his respects to you. I have been lately ill with a fit of the gout, if that may indeed be called a disease. I rather suspect it to be a remedy, since I always find my health and vigor of mind improved after the fit is over.

To John Jay,

I have received a letter from a very respectdated Passy, able person in America, containing the fol10 Sept., 1783.

lowing words, viz. “It is confidently reported, propagated, and believed by some among us, that the Court of France was at the bottom against our obtaining the fishery and territory in that great extent, in which both are secured to us by the treaty; that our minister at that court favored, or did not oppose, this design against us; and that it was entirely owing to the firmness, sagacity, and disinterestedness of Mr. Adams, with whom Mr. Jay united, that we have obtained these important advantages.”

It is not my purpose to dispute any share of the honor of that treaty, which the friends of my colleagues may be disposed to give them ; but, having now spent fifty years of my life in public offices and trusts, and having still one ambition left, that of carrying the character of fidelity at least to the grave with me, I cannot allow that I was behind any of them in zeal and faithfulness. I therefore think, that I ought not to suffer an accusation, which falls little short of treason to my country, to pass without notice, when the means of effectual vindication are at hand. You, Sir, were a witness of my conduct in that affair. To you and my other colleagues I appeal, by sending to each a similar letter with this, and I have no doubt of your readiness to do a brother Commissioner justice, by certificates that will entirely destroy the effect of that accusation.*

a

* The replies of Messrs. Jay and Adams were as follows:

Passy, 11 September, 1783. “SIR, “I have been favored with your letter of yesterday, and will answer it explicitly. I have no reason whatever to believe, that you were averse to our obtaining the full extent of boundary and fishery secured to us by the treaty. Your conduct respecting them throughout the negotiation indicated a strong, a steady attachment to both those objects, and, in my opinion, promoted the attainment of them.

“I remember, that, in a conversation, which M. de Rayneval, the first Secretary of Count de Vergennes, had with you and me, in the summer of

I lament with you the many mischiefs, the injustice, the corruption of manners, &c., that attended a depreciating currency. It is some

II

1782, you contended for our full right to the fishery, and argued it on various principles.

“Your letters to me, when in Spain, considered our territory as extending to the Mississippi, and expressed your opinion against ceding the navigation of that river, in very strong and pointed terms.

“In short, Sir, I do not recollect the least difference in sentiment between us respecting the boundaries or fisheries. On the contrary, we were unanimous and united in adhering to and insisting on them. Nor did I perceive the least disposition in either of us to recede from our claims, or be satisfied with less than we obtained. I have the honor to be, with great respect and esteem, &c.

“JOHN JAY."

FROM JOHN ADAMS TO B. FRANKLIN.

Paris, 13 September, 1783. SIR, I have received the letter, which you did me the honor to write to me on the roth of this month, in which you say you have received a letter from a very respectabie person in America, containing the following words, viz. " It is confidently reported, propagated, and believed by some among us, that the court of France was at the bottom against our obtaining the fishery and territory in that great extent, in which both are secured to us by the treaty; that our minister at that court favored, or did not oppose, this design against us, and that it was entirely owing to the firmness, sagacity, and disinterestedness of Mr. Adams, with whom Mr. Jay united, that we have obtained those important advantages."

It is unnecessary for me to say any thing upon this subject, more than to quote the words which I wrote in the evening of the 30th of November, 1782, and which have been received and read in Congress, viz. as I arrived in Paris, I waited on Mr. Jay, and learned from him the rise and progress of the negotiation. Nothing that has happened, since the beginning of the controversy in 1761, has ever struck me more forcibly or affected me more intimately than that entire coincidence of principles and opinion between him and me. In about three days I went out to Passy, and spent the evening with Dr. Franklin, and entered largely into conversation with him upon the course and present state of our foreign affairs. I told him my opinion without reserve of the policy of this court, and of the principles, wisdom, and firmness with which Mr. Jay had conducted the negotiation in his sickness and my absence, and that I was determined to

“ As soon

consolation to me, that I washed my hands of that evil by predicting it in Congress, and proposing means, that would have been effectual to prevent it if they had been adopted. Subsequent operations, that I have executed, demonstrate that my plan was practicable; but it was unfortunately rejected. Considering all our mistakes and mismanagements, it is wonderful we have finished our affairs so well, and so soon. Indeed, I am wrong in using that expression,

we have finished our affairs so well.” Our blunders have been many, and they serve to manifest the hand of Providence more clearly in our favor; so that we may much more properly say, “These are thy doings, O Lord, and they are marvellous in our eyes."

Mr. Storer, whom you recommended to me, is now in England. He needed none of the advice you desired me to give him. His behaviour here was unexceptionable, and he gained the esteem of all that knew him.

The epitaph on my dear and much esteemed young friend,* is too well written to be capable of improvement by any corrections of mine. Your moderation appears in it, since the natural affection of a parent has not induced you to exaggerate his virtues. I shall always mourn his loss with you, a loss not easily made up to his country.

How differently constituted was his noble and generous mind from that of the miserable calumniators you mention. Having plenty of merit in himself, he was not jealous of the appearance of merit in others, but did justice to their characters with as much pleasure as these people do injury. It is now near two years since your friendship induced you to acquaint me with some of their accusations. I guessed easily at the quarter from whence they came; but conscious of my innocence, and unwilling to disturb public operations by private resentment or contentions, I passed them over in silence; and I have not, till within these few days, taken the least step towards my vindication. Informed that the practice of abusing me continues, and that some heavy charges are lately made against me, respecting my conduct in the treaty, written from Paris and propagated among you, I have demanded of all my colleagues that they do me justice, and I have no doubt of receiving it from each of them. I did not think it necessary to justify myself to you, by answering the calumnies you mentioned. I knew you did not believe them.

It was improbable, that I should at this distance combine with anybody to urge the redemption of the paper on those unjust terms, having no interest in such redemption. It was impossible, that I should have traded with the public money, since I had not traded with any money, either separately or jointly with any other person, directly or indirectly, to the value of a shilling since my being in France. And the fishery, which it was said I had relinquished, had not then come in question, nor had I ever dropped a syllable to that purpose in word or writing; but was always firm in this principle, that, having had a common right with the English to the fisheries while connected with that nation,