A German Reflection on the American Revolution

Penned on June 16, 1800, Quincy Adams lavishes gratitude upon European diplomat and intellectual Friedrich von Gentz for his essay vindicating the American Revolution “from the imputation of [it] having originated, or been conducted upon the same principles as that of France.” Gentz’s essay is fittingly entitled, The Origin and Principles of the American Revolution Compared with the Origins and Principles of the French Revolution. Mere months after reading it in German, Adams, then Prussian ambassador, would translate and publish Gentz’s work into English for an American audience.