136 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



subject contains our unanimous sentiments respecting it, we take the 

 liberty of referring you to the enclosed copy of that answer. 

 We have the honor to be. &c., 



JOHN ADAMS. 

 B. FRANKLIN, 

 JOHN JAY. 



No. 94. 1782, November 6: Extract from letter, Mr. Adams to Mr. 



Livingston. 



PARIS, November 6, 1782. 



SIR : Two days ago arrived by Captain Barney the letters you did 

 me the honor to write me on the 22d, 29th, 30th, triplicate of May, 

 4th of July, 29th of August, and 15th of September. 



I was unconditionally received in Holland and promised upon 

 record conferences and audiences whenever I should demand them, 

 before I entered into any treaty, and without this I should never 

 have entered into any ; and full powers were given to the Committee 

 of Foreign Affairs before I entered into any conferences with them. 

 I have ventured upon the same principle in the affair of peace, and 

 uniformly refused to come to Paris until our independence was 

 unconditionally acknowledged by the king of Great Britain. Mr. 

 Jay has acted on the same principle with Spain and with Great 

 Britain. The dignity of the United States, being thus supported, 

 has prevailed in Holland and Great Britain; not indeed as yet in 

 Spain, but we are in a better situation in relation to her than we 

 should have been if the principle had been departed from. . . . 

 * ****** 



The English have sent Mr. Oswald, who is a wise and good man 

 and if untrammeled would soon settle all, and Mr. Strachey, who 

 is a keen and subtle one, although not deeply versed in such 

 83 things, and a Mr. Roberts, who is a clerk in the board of trade, 

 and Mr. Whitehead, who is private secretary to Mr. Oswald. 

 These gentlemen are very profuse in their professions of national 

 friendship, of earnest desires to obliterate the remembrance of all 

 unkindnesses, and to restore peace, harmony, friendship, and make 

 them perpetual by removing ever seed of future discord. All this 

 on the part of Mr. Oswald, personally, is very sincere. On the part 

 of the nation it may be so in some sense at present; but I have my 

 doubts whether it is a national disposition, upon which we can have 

 much dependence, and, still more, whether it is the sincere intention 

 of the Earl of Shelburne. 



He has been compelled to acknowledge American independence 

 because the Rockingham administration had resolved upon it, and 

 Carleton and Digby's letter to General Washington had made 

 known that resolution to the world; because the nation demanded 

 that negotiations should be opened with the American ministers, 

 and they refused to speak or hear until their independence was 

 acknowledged unequivocally and without conditions; because Messrs. 

 Fox and Burke had resigned their offices, pointedly, on account of 

 the refusal of the king and my Lord Shelburne to make such an 

 acknowledgment; and these eloquent senators were waiting only for 



