A

THE

FRIEND OF PEACE.

Vol. II....No. XI.

INTERVIEW OF MR. ADAMS WITH GEORGE III.

IN 1819 a letter appeared in the Boston Daily Adver

tiser. dated June 2, 1785," from the Hon. John Adams, then Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at London, to the Hon. John Jay, Secretary of State. In this letter Mr. Adams gave an interesting account of his introduction to the King of Great Britain, with his own speech on the occasion, and the King's answer. These documents are worthy to be inserted in the Friend of Peace. They are of a conciliatory character, and open an extensive field for useful reflections.

Speech of Mr. Adams to the King.

"Sir, the United States of America have appointed me their Minister Plenipotentiary to your Majesty, and have directed me to deliver to your Majesty this letter, which contains the evidence of it. It is in obedience to their express commands, that I have the honor to assure your Majesty of their unanimous disposition and desire to cultivate the most liberal intercouse between your Majesty's subjects and their citizens, and of their best wishes for your Majes ty's health and happiness, and for that of your royal family.

"The appointment of a Minister from the United States to your Majesty will form an epoch in the history of England and America. I think myself more fortunate than all my fellow citizens in having the distinguished honor to be the rst to stand in your Majesty's royal presence in a diplomatic character; and I shall esteem myself the happiest of men, if I can be instrumental in recommending Vol. II, No. 11.

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my country to your Majesty's royal benevolence, and of restoring an entire esteem, confidence, and affection; or in better words, the 'old good nature, and the good old humor' between people, who, though separated by an ocean, and under different governments, have the same language, a similar religion, and kindred blood beg your Majesty's permission to add, that although I have sometimes before been entrusted by my country, it was never in my whole life in a manner so agreeable to myself."

The King's reply to Mr. Adams.

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"Sir, the circumstances of this audience are so extraordinary, the language you have now used so extremely proper, and the feelings you have discovered so justly adapted to the occasion, that I must say, that I not only receive with pleasure the assurances of the friendly dispositions of the United States, but that I am very glad the choice has fallen upon you to be their first Minister. I wish you, sir, to believe, and that it may be understood in America, that I have done nothing in the late contest but what I thought myself indispensably bound to do, by the duty which I owed to my people. I will be very frank with you. I was the last to conform to the separation but the separation having been made and having become inevitable, I have always said as I say now, that I would be the first meet the friendship of the United States as an independent power. The moment I see such sentiments and language as yours prevail, and a disposition to give this country the preference. that moment I shall say, let the cir cumstances of language, religion, and blood, have their natural and full effect."

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Great Britain and the United States had been more than seven years engaged in a sanguinary contest. On each side myriads of lives had been sacrificed, and innumerable injuries had been sustained. A subsequent treaty of peace had sheathed the sword; but something more was necessary to open the way for a friendly commerce between the two countries. The documents now exhibited present the august and pleasing spectacle of two illustrious personages, as the public representatives of two nations, holding their first interview. with mutual endeavours to conciliate esteem, abate prejudice, and restore the blessings of harmony and inter

course

Mr. Adams was known as one of the leaders of the American Revolution, as well as George III. was known as the

King of Great Britain. On this occasion the past occur rences were fresh in the memory of these distinguished men. They could not but recollect their recent hostility, the hard things which they had mutually said of each other, and the deadly enmities which had been displayed between the two nations in the course of the war

How then do these public men address each other in view of the past irritations? Do they indulge the spirit of rancor, crimination and abuse? Far from this. The speech of Mr. Adams is manly, concilatory, and magnanimous. The answer of the King is equally dignified, courteous, and suitable to the occasion.

On reading these amicable documents, a question instantly occurred:-Had these eminent men, prior to the Revolution, uniformly evinced the pacific dispositions, which were displayed in the subsequent interview, would not their influence in the two countries have been sufficient to preclude the crimes and miseries of the seven years' war? To this inquiry" my understanding and my heart" gave an affirmative answer. This answer, however, is not recorded to reproach either the King or the Minister; but to excite attention to the means by which war may be prevented, and to the awful responsibility which is attached to the conduct of men, who have an extensive influence over the destinies of nations. We do not question the veracity of the King, in saying to Mr. Adams, “I have done nothing in the late war but what I thought myself indispensably bound to do by the duty which I owed to my people." Mr. Adams might perhaps, with equal sincerity, have made a similar declaration. Yet great and good men are liable to err, through the influence of unfortunate prepossessions, hereditary principles, and exasperated passions.

It is very certain, that if, prior to the war, the leading men in both countries had been duly careful not to offend, but to display towards each other a beneficent and pacifictemper-such as afterwards appeared in the interview before

extended to all the wars between different countries or nations. Not one of them originated in a Christian spirit, or benevolent dispositions. Men of the most amiable characters may differ in judgment on political questions; but so long as they properly govern their passions, their pens, and their tongues, they will have no desire for an appeal to the sword. It is not till the understanding is bewildered by the passions, and a moral insanity is produced, that men think of a resort to arms.

The measure adopted by the British government, in sending over regular troops and ships of war, to awe the colonies into submission to offensive decrees, was as impolitic as it was antichristian. It evinced the reign of barbarous principles, and a bloody, vindictive spirit and it tended directly to the sanguinary results which ensued. But candor will admit, that such principles of government were then prevalent in other countries, as well as in Britain. Nay, even at this day, it is but partially understood, in any country, that rulers should be fathers, that men should be governed for their benefit, and not as the mere property of those in power.

When the British rulers found that the colonies were offended with certain acts of Parliament, how much more wise, humane, and magnanimous it would have been, to send over pacific commissioners to discuss the questions with deputies from the colonial governments, than to send regiments of soldiers, armed with weapons of death! Then, if the parties could not have agreed on terms for the continuance of their former relations, how much more reasonable and praiseworthy to have agreed on terms of separation, as friends and brethren, than, like savages, to resort to the uncertain and detestable game of mutual bavoc and destruction! Compare this sanguinary mode of separation with that which was adopted in the more recent separation of Maine from Massachusetts, and who can fail of preferring