DOCUMENTS BEARING ON TREATY OF 1783. 95 



treasures of our countrymen will suffer for it in a great degree. Firm- 

 ness! firmness and patience for a few months will carry us trium- 

 phantly to that point where it is the interest of our allies, of neutral 

 nations, nay, even of our enemies, that we should arrive. I mean a 

 sovereignty universally acknowledged by all the world. Whereas the 

 least oscillation will, in my opinion, leave us to dispute with the world 

 and with one another these fifty years. 



With great respect, &c., JOHN ADAMS 



No. 57. 1788, August 11 and 13: Extract from Mr. Oswald's 

 Minutes of a Conversation with Dr. Franklin. 



PARIS Sunday llth & 13th August 1782. 



I went out this forenoon to Dr. Franklin, to know whether he was 

 inclined to enter upon business. He told me he had carried 

 58 the copy of the commission I gave him, to Versailles, the day 

 before, and had some conversation on the subject with M. de 

 Vergennes; who was of opinion with him, that it would be better to 

 wait until a real commission arrived ; this being neither signed nor 

 sealed, and could be supposed as only a draft or order, in which 

 there might be alterations ; as in the preamble it said only " to the 

 effect following," &c. To this objection I had nothing to say, as I 

 did not incline to show them the instructions though signed and 

 sealed. 



Finding no alteration in the doctor's manner, from the usual good- 

 natured and friendly way in which he had formerly behaved to me 

 (as I had reason to apprehend from what had lately passed with his 

 colleague), and having a quiet and convenient opportunity, I was 

 anxious to learn whether the doctor entertained those ideas, which, 

 in the preceding papers, I suspected Mr. Jay had in view, regard- 

 ing the means of preventing future wars, by settling the peace in 

 such manner as it should not be the interest of the parties to break it. 



With that intent, I told the doctor I had had a long conversation 

 with Mr. Jay, of which no doubt he had been informed; and in 

 which he had not spared us in his reflections on what had passed in 

 the American war; and that I could not but be sorry he had such 

 just reason for the severity of some of them. At same time I was 

 pleased to find he was equally well disposed to peace, and to bring it 

 quickly to a conclusion as we were; and also that it should be a 

 lasting one, as he, the doctor, had always proposed. And that I was 

 only at a loss as to how that could be ascertained other ways than 

 by treaty; which Mr. Jay declared he paid no regard to; and said 

 it could be only depended upon as lasting by its being settled so as 

 it should not be the interest of any of the parties to break it. I 

 told the doctor this was certainly the best security, if one could tell 

 how to accommodate the terms so justly to the mutual interest of the 

 parties, as to obviate every temptation to encroachment or trespass. 



The doctor replied, the method was very plain and easy, which was 

 to settle the terms in the first projection on an equal, just, and reason- 

 able footing; and so as neither party should have cause to complain; 

 being the plan which M. de Vergennes had in view, and had always 

 recommended in his conversations with him on the subject of peace. 



