Ambassador to Britain John Adams Receives Clandestine Word of an Alliance Between King George III and the New German Confederation, and Writes America’s First International Spy, His Mind Alive to What Europe’s Changing Landscape Might Mean for America

Just a month after his famed official reception by King George III: “I long to Spend an Evening with you, in weighing all the Circumstances discovering the Views and Motives, and conjecturing into Futurity. I wish I dared trust to Paper my Solitary Lucubrations upon it, but it would be too dangerous.”

Few were more influential for the American cause abroad during the Revolutionary War and early independence years than John Adams. At the end of July 1780 Adams was named commissioner to the Netherlands and moved to Amsterdam. He sought to cultivate Dutch merchants so as to open trade with the United States and the bankers so as to negotiate a loan that would allow the U.S. to be more independent of France. The Dutch, and particularly the Stadtholder William V, were hesitant as they did not want to get drawn into the losing side of the war (and William V was the cousin of British King George III). But Adams’ tireless efforts and the news of the American victory at Yorktown, Virginia changed the Dutch position and Adams secured a two million dollar loan.

With the aid of the Dutch Patriot leader Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, a liberal foe of the Stadtholder, Adams secured the Dutch Republic’s recognition of the United States as an independent government on April 19, 1782. He also negotiated a loan of five million guilders financed by Nicolaas van Staphorst and Wilhelm Willink. In October 1782, he secured the plum – a Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the Netherlands, the first such treaty between the United States and a foreign power following the 1778 treaty with France. The house that Adams bought during this stay in the Netherlands became the first American-owned embassy on foreign soil.

In 1784 and 1785, Adams was one of the architects of extensive trade relations between the United States and Prussia. The latter year saw the negotiation of a Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the two nations, with Thomas Jefferson in Paris very much involved. The negotiations peaked in July of 1785, when the American officials in Europe, Adams, Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, gave their approvals to the terms of the Treaty. But it would not be signed until later, so in that sense it was incomplete.

One of the men who would be chosen to represent the Americans at the signing itself was Charles-Guillaume-Frédéric Dumas, who was born in Germany to French parents. He lived in Switzerland before emigrating to The Hague in 1756. Dumas befriended Benjamin Franklin when the latter visited the Low Countries in 1766. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Franklin recommended Dumas to act as a secret agent for the United States, and in that capacity, he developed the first cypher to be used in America’s clandestine diplomatic correspondence. Dumas succeeded in planting stories in Dutch papers that painted U.S. finances in a far more favorable light than they really were, aiding America’s ability to get credit. He was America’s first great international spy, and American figures protected his undercover status vigorously.

On June 1, 1785, King George formally received John Adams, representative of the fledgling nation that had dealt the British Empire a bitter defeat a few years before. The meeting, as Adams related in his official account, was marked by the pomp and ceremony required by the occasion of a royal audience. But beneath the pageantry, Adams described a strong undercurrent of emotion as the King and his former subject—who once reviled each other as bitter enemies—met face to face, as statesmen. The United States was a new diplomatic entity, and its agents were learning the ropes.

Also in 1785, the Austrian Emperor, Joseph II, entered into negotiations with the Prince of Bavaria, Charles Theodore [who was not Bavarian and had little interest in that territory], to swap Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands.  This alarmed the Prussians and other Germans, who feared the extension of power of the Austrians. In July of 1785, King Frederick II of Prussia and representatives of the Electors [heads of state] of Hanover and Saxony met in Berlin and signed the Furstenbund, or the League of Princes, to oppose Austria. Importantly, the Elector of Hanover was George III, King of Great Britain.  This meant that at the moment when the U.S. was to sign its first major post-war treaty in Europe with Prussia, Britain and Prussia had become allies via the Hanover connection. As for France, its treaty of 1778 with the U.S. was still in effect, though relations between the two nations were somewhat strained by the fact that the Americans had paid little heed to French interests when negotiating the peace treaty with the British to end the Revolutionary War in 1783. In 1785, France was allied to Austria, though it was sympathetic to the Furstenbund and did not want to support Austria’s acquisition of Bavaria.

In 1785, the Netherlands was just coming off of a disastrous war with Britain, one that had taken place because the Dutch were trading with the U.S. during the Revolution. The Dutch were now claiming a portion of the Austrian Netherlands, which set them against Austria and thus placed them on the side of the Furstenbund (which had Britain as a member). France sought to mediate the dispute between the Dutch and Austria, which they would do, arranging a settlement in November 1785. This set of activities brought the Netherlands (enemies of Austria) and France (friends with Austria) together, and they would sign a treaty of alliance on Christmas Day 1785. With the Furstenbund as the fulcrum, now Britain, the German Federation, and the Netherlands could be seen as on the same side, and France was knocking at the door to join them.

This was a fascinating tangle of alliances, but fraught with uncertainty as to the real intentions of the nations involved. What could, or would, this mean for the U.S.? Were all these treaties focused on their own limited objects, or were there secret goals and deals? Would Prussia still proceed with its treaty with the U.S.? A Britain-Prussia-Netherlands axis could bode ill for American interests, as it might indicate that these trading powerhouses were cutting a deal that might squeeze the U.S. out of important markets. If France joined too, the U.S. could be really isolated. On the other hand, perhaps a new European alignment would be good for American interests, as it might indicate the intent to promote a widespread neutrality in Europe and the concept of free trade.

How did Adams learn of the momentous treaty that created the Furstenbund?  Clandestinely, through Dumas himself, the spy, who wrote to Congress in that capacity to inform them of the goings on. Adams received news and reacted with deep interest in the possibilities, mixed with some apprehension.

Letter Signed, as U.S. Ambassador to Britain, London, July 16, 1785, to Dumas, showing his mind was alive to the potentialities. “Sir, I have received your two last Letters to Congress and Mr. Van Berkel and have observed your Directions. The Contents have filled my Head with Speculations. I long to Spend an Evening with you, in weighing all the Circumstances discovering the Views and Motives, and conjecturing into Futurity. I wish I dared trust to Paper my Solitary Lucubrations upon it, but it would be too dangerous. Does it indicate a Change of System? a Determination to observe a Neutrality? or…” The Van Berkel mentioned in this letter was the Dutch representative to the U.S.

Just two days later, Adams would write to Thomas Jefferson, then in Paris, on this subject, in a coded letter.  “…There is another step which alarms my apprehensions, Hanover [George III] is joining Prussia against the views of two imperial courts at least in Bavaria. Keep this as secret as the grave but search it to the bottom where you are. Does this indicate a doubt whether our business with [Prussia] may be delayed? Does it indicate a design in the British court to be neutral in order to be more at leisure to deal with us? Can it be a secret understanding between England & France ruining if they can our carrying trade & annihilating all our navigation and sea men…”

The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Prussian and the United States did go forward, and was signed on September 10, 1785. It established a commercial alliance, and was the first one signed by a European power with the U.S. after the Revolution had ended. Thus Prussia became one of the first nations to officially recognize the young American Republic.

This letter is from the library of John Augustin Daly, one of the most important figures in nineteenth-century American theater, who worked as a critic, manager, playwright and stage director. At the time of his death, he owned two major theaters, one in New York and the other in London and is considered personally responsible for the careers of such acting greats as John Drew Jr. Maurice Barrymore, Fanny Davenport, Maude Adams, Sara Jewett, Isadora Duncan, Tyrone Power, Sr. and many others.  Daly was also an avid book lover and collector, amassing an enormous library over the course of his career. That collection was dispersed in an epic, two-week auction at the American Art Association in New York in March 1900. The present letter was part of an extra-illustrated volume, described in the catalog as a “Unique copy, with autograph letters of all the Presidents inserted…”  Walter Benjamin, writing in The Collector, described the sale as a “blaze of glory, due to the total having reached nearly $200,000.” The extra-illustrated volume fetched $850, nearly four times above the going rate for presidential sets at the time (Benjamin quipped that they normally realized around $250). The purchaser quickly resold the volume for $1,000. (The Collector, New York, May 1900, 1-2).