The Nature of those Connections,
which ought to be formed between America and Europe, will never be better
understood than they were at that time. It was then said, there is a Ballance
of Power in Europe. Nature has formed it. Practice and Habit had confirmed it,
and it must exist forever. It may be disturbed for a time, by the accidental
Removal of a Weight from one Scale to the other, but there will be a continual
Effort to restore the Equilibrium.
In an earlier communication to Secretary Robert Livingston and congress
(Feb 5, 1783), Adams recurred to the the assumptions and objectives that
animated the debates over foreign policy in the first congress:
If there are in congress any of
those gentlemen, with whom I had the honor to serve in the years 1775 and 1776,
they may possibly remember, that in arguing in favor of sending ministers to
Versailles, to propose a connection with that Court, I laid it down as a first
principle, that we should calculate all our measures and foreign negotiations
in such a manner, as to avoid a too great dependence upon any one power of
Europe—to avoid all obligations and temptations to take any part in future
European wars; that the business of America with Europe was commerce, not
politics or war; and, above all, that it never could be our interest to ruin
Great Britain, or injure or weaken her any further than should be necessary to
support our independence, and our alliances, and that, as soon as Great Britain
should be brought to a temper to acknowledge our sovereignty and our alliances,
and consent that we should maintain the one, and fulfil the others, it would be
our interest and duty to be her friends, as well as the friends of all the
other powers of Europe, and enemies to none.
We are now happily arrived, through
many tremendous tempests, at that period. Great Britain respects us as
sovereign States, and respects all our political engagements with foreign
nations; and as long as she continues in this temper of wisdom, it is our duty
to respect her. We have accordingly made a treaty with her and mutually sworn
to be friends. Through the whole period of our warfare and negotiations, I
confess I have never lost sight of the principles and the system, with which I
set out, which appeared to me to be the sentiments of congress with great
unanimity; and I have no reason to believe that any change of opinion has taken
place. . . .
From the same letter, Adams gives his “idea of the
qualifications necessary for an American foreign minister in general, and
particularly and above all to the Court of St. James.”
In the first place, he should have
had an education in classical learning, and in the knowledge of general
history, ancient and modern, and particularly the history of France, England,
Holland, and America. He should be well versed in the principles of ethics, of
the law of nature and nations, of legislation and government, of the civil
Roman law, of the laws of England and the United States, of the public law of
Europe, and in the letters, memoirs, and histories of those great men, who have
heretofore shone in the diplomatic order, and conducted the affairs of nations,
and the world. He should be of an age to possess a maturity of judgment,
arising from experience in business. He should be active, attentive, and
industrious; and above all, he should possess an upright heart and an
independent spirit, and should be one who decidedly makes the interest of his country,
not the policy of any other nation, nor his own private ambition or interest,
or those of his family, friends, and connections, the rule of his conduct.
Adams is generally regarded as a realist, but he forecast improvement for humanity from the independence of America:
America will grow with astonishing Rapidity and England France and every other Nation in Europe will be the better for her prosperity. Peace which is her dear Delight will be her Wealth and Glory, for I cannot see the Seed of a War with any part of the World in future but with Great Britain, and such States as may be weak enough, if any such there should be, to become her Allies."
* * *
The first letter, John Adams to James Warren, March 20, 1783, is cited in James Hutson, John Adams and the Diplomacy of the American
Revolution (Lexington, 1980), pp. 28-29; the letter to Livingston is in
Volume 8 of The Works of John Adams,
available at the On-Line Library of Liberty. The final letter, making peace our dear delight, is in The Papers of John Adams, 6:348.
