als, he left for the Netherlands, where he secured Dutch recognition ofAmerican independence and a substantial loan as well. He returned to Paris in October1782 to insist on American rights (especially to fish on the Grand Banks ofNewfoundland) in the negotiations that led to Britain's recognition of the independenceof the United States in the Treaty of Paris of Sept. 3, 1783.For two more years Adams helped Franklin and Jefferson negotiate treaties offriendship and commerce with numerous foreign powers. Then, appointed thefirst American minister to Britain, Adams presented his credentials to George IIIin 1785, noting his pride in "having the distinguished honor to be the first{ex-colonial subject} to stand in your Majesty's royal presence in a diplomaticcharacter."The king, aware of the poignancy of the occasion, returned Adams's compliments andhoped that the "language, religion, and blood" shared by the two nations would "havetheir natural and full effect," but the British ministry obstructed Adams's efforts to restoreequitable commerce between the two nations.When he returned to the United States in 1788, Adams was greeted by his countrymen asone of the heroes of independence and was promptly elected vice-president under thenew Constitution. This post, regarded by Adams as "the most insignificant office thatever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived," left him time to workout his increasingly sober views of republican government.In Europe he had been impressed with both the unsuitability of self-government formasses of destitute, ignorant people, and the usefulness, in evoking patriotism and inmaintaining order, of the pomp and ceremony of monarchy. ritual, and authority in arepublic like the United States. He also supported the efforts of George Washington togive the presidency an almost regal quality and to extend executive power, and he agreedwith Alexander Hamilton on most of the latter's fiscal plans. He nev...
