About this time Congress resolved on sending a Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, to negotiate, if possible, a treaty of peace.  John Adams and John Jay received each an equal number of votes.  The result was the appointment of M. Jay as Minster to Spain, and of John Adams as Minister to the Court of St. James.  He was instructed to insist on the independence of the United States.

The younger Adams again attended the Diplomatist.  They embarked in the French frigate La Sensible, on the 17th of November, 1779.

The frigate sprang a leak, and was obliged to put into the port nearest at hand, which proved to be Ferrol in Spain.  They disembarked on the 11th of December, and traversed the intervening distance to Paris over land, a journey of a thousand miles.  This journey was performed through the mountains on mules.  Spain, as well as France, was then in alliance with America, and the minister was everywhere received with respect and kindness.  The French officers at Ferrol wore cockades in honor of the Triple Alliance, combining a white ribbon for the French, a red one for the Spanish, and a black one for the Americans.

The United Powers proposed demands which were ominous of disappointment to the Minister.—­On the 12th of December he wrote:—­“It is said that England is as reluctant to acknowledge the independence of America, as to cede Gibraltar, the last of which is insisted upon, as well as the first.”

The travellers reached Paris about the middle of February, 1780.  John Adams mentioned a singular coincidence in his letter announcing their arrival.  “I have the honor to be lodged here with no less a personage than the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, who is here upon a visit.  We occupy different apartments in the same house, and have no intercourse with each other, to be sure; but some wags are of opinion, that if I were authorised to open a negotiation with him, I might obtain from him as many troops to fight on our side of the question, as he has already hired to the English against us!”

The American Revolution has wrought wonderful changes since that day.  No German Prince could now send a man, or a musket, to war against its principles.

John Adams soon discovered that there was no prospect of success for his mission to England.  He remained at Paris until August, 1780, and during the interval his son was kept at an academy in that city.

At the expiration of that period the Minister repaired to Holland, and there received instructions to negotiate a loan, and then a treaty of amity and commerce with the states of that country.  The younger Adams while in Holland was placed at school, first at Amsterdam, and afterwards in the University of Leyden.

A letter of the father, dated at Amsterdam, 18th December, 1780, gives us a glimpse of the system of instruction approved by him, and a pleasant view of the principles which he deemed it important to be inculcated.