The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume IV Part 6

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO B. FRANKLIN.

Philadelphia, November 27th, 1782.

Sir,

An opportunity offering from this port to write directly to you, I do not choose to hazard anything by the post, which carries this to Boston, particularly as I did not hear till just now, that a frigate was to sail from thence, and it is uncertain whether this will arrive in time to go by her. This then only accompanies the newspapers, which contain all the public information now in circulation.

The Memorials of Messrs la Marque and Fabru are transmitted to South Carolina, as it is a matter in which the United States are not concerned. It is to be hoped, that the State will do justice to the claimants, if, as a.s.serted, Gillon acted under authority from them. He has just left this with his ship, not in the most honorable manner, having, as I am informed, been arrested by order of the proprietor of the ship for his proportion of the prize money. The sheriff stands in the gap.

The Swiss officer mentioned in yours, I have sent to Edenton to get information about. You shall have the result of inquiries in my next.

As your grandson will probably choose to continue in the line he is in, I cannot but think he might find important advantages from opening a correspondence with this office. His diligence and accuracy in collecting and transmitting intelligence would procure him friends here. My attachment to you will render me desirous to place them in the best light.

I am, Sir, &c.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

TO COUNT DE VERGENNES.

Pa.s.sy, November 29th, 1782.

Sir,

I have the honor to acquaint your Excellency, that the Commissioners of the United States have agreed with Mr Oswald, on the preliminary articles of the peace between those States and Great Britain. Tomorrow I hope we shall be able to communicate to your Excellency a copy of them.[7]

With great respect, I have the honor to be, Sir, your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant,

B. FRANKLIN.

FOOTNOTE:

[7] These articles will be found in the Correspondence of the Commissioners.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO B. FRANKLIN.

Philadelphia, December 3d, 1782.

Sir,

I have just now received the certificates required by Mr Wallier. The vessel which carries my other despatches having been long detained, I embrace the opportunity to forward them. Nothing new since my last, except that, by a gentleman who left Charleston the 4th instant, we learn that the British had dismounted their cannon, and were certainly on the point of leaving it.

I am, Sir, &c.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON

Pa.s.sy, December 4th, 1782.

Sir,

We detain the Washington a little longer, expecting an English pa.s.sport for her in a few days, and as possibly some vessel bound for North America may sail before her, I write this line to inform you, that the French preliminaries with England are not yet signed, though we hope they may be very soon. Of ours I enclose a copy. The Dutch and Spain have yet made but little progress, and as no definitive treaty will be signed till all are agreed, there may be time for Congress to give us further instructions, if they think proper. We hope the terms we have obtained will be satisfactory, though, to secure our main points, we may have yielded too much in favor of the royalists. The quant.i.ty of aid to be afforded us remains undecided. I suppose something depends on the event of the treaty. By the Washington you will be fully informed of everything.

With great regard, I have the honor to be, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

Pa.s.sy, December 5th, 1782.

Sir,

I am honored by your several letters, Nos 16, 17, 18 and 19, dated September 5th, 13th, 15th, and 18th. I believe that the complaints you make in them of my not writing, may ere now have appeared less necessary, as many of my letters written before those complaints must have since come to hand. I will nevertheless mention some of the difficulties your Ministers meet with, in keeping up a regular and punctual correspondence. We are far from the seaports, and not well informed, and often misinformed about the sailing of vessels.

Frequently we are told they are to sail in a week or two, and often they lie in the ports for months after, with our letters on board, either waiting for convoy, or for other reasons. The post office here is an unsafe conveyance; many of the letters we received by it have evidently been opened, and doubtless the same happens to those we send; and at this time particularly, there is so violent a curiosity in all kinds of people to know something relating to the negotiations, and whether peace may be expected, or a continuance of the war, that there are few private hands or travellers, that we can trust with carrying our despatches to the seacoast; and I imagine that they may sometimes be opened and destroyed because they cannot be well sealed.

Again, the observation you make, that the Congress Ministers in Europe seem to form themselves into a privy council, transacting affairs without the privity or concurrence of the sovereign, may be in some respects just; but it should be considered, that if they do not write as frequently as other Ministers here do to their respective Courts, or if when they write, their letters are not regularly received, the greater distance of the seat of war, and the extreme irregularity of conveyances may be the causes, and not a desire of acting without the knowledge or orders of their const.i.tuents. There is no European Court, to which an express cannot be sent from Paris in ten or fifteen days, and from most of them answers may be obtained in that time. There is, I imagine, no Minister who would not think it safer to act by orders than from his own discretion; and yet, unless you leave more to the discretion of your Ministers in Europe than Courts usually do, your affairs may sometimes suffer extremely from the distance which, in the time of war especially, may make it five or six months before the answer to a letter shall be received. I suppose the Minister from this Court will acquaint Congress with the King's sentiments, respecting their very handsome present of a ship of the line. People in general here are much pleased with it.

I communicated, together with my memoir demanding a supply of money, copies of every paragraph in your late letters, which express so strongly the necessity of it. I have been constant in my solicitations both directly, and through the Marquis de Lafayette, who has employed himself diligently and warmly in the business. The negotiations for peace are, I imagine, one cause of the great delay and indecision on this occasion beyond what has been usual, as the quantum may be different if those negotiations do or do not succeed. We have not yet learnt what we may expect. We have been told that we shall be aided, but it cannot be to the extent demanded; six millions have been mentioned, but not as a sum fixed. The Minister tells me still, that he is working upon the subject, but cannot yet give a determinative answer. I know his good will to do the best for us that is possible.

It is in vain for me to repeat again what I have so often written, and what I find taken so little notice of, that there are bounds to everything, and that the faculties of this nation are limited like those of all other nations. Some of you seem to have established as maxims the suppositions, that France has money enough for all her occasions, and all ours besides; and that if she does not supply us, it is owing to her want of will, or to my negligence. As to the first, I am sure it is not true, and to the second, I can only say I should rejoice as much as any man in being able to obtain more; and I shall also rejoice in the greater success of those who may take my place.

You desire to be very particularly acquainted with "every step which tends to negotiation." I am, therefore, encouraged to send you the first part of the journal, which accidents, and a long severe illness interrupted; but which, from notes I have by me, may be continued if thought proper. In its present state, it is hardly fit for the inspection of Congress, certainly not for public view. I confide it therefore to your prudence.

The arrival of Mr Jay, Mr Adams, and Mr Laurens, has relieved me from much anxiety, which must have continued, if I had been left to finish the treaty alone; and it has given me the more satisfaction, as I am sure the business has profited by their a.s.sistance.

Much of the summer has been taken up in objecting against the powers given by Great Britain, and in removing those objections. The not using any expressions, that might imply an acknowledgment of our independence, seemed at first industriously to be avowed. But our refusing otherwise to treat, at length induced them to get over that difficulty, and then we came to the point of making propositions.

Those made by Mr Jay and me before the arrival of the other gentlemen, you will find in the paper A, which was sent by the British Plenipotentiary to London for the King's consideration. After some weeks, an under secretary, Mr Strachey, arrived, with whom we had much contestation about the boundaries and other articles which he proposed and we settled; some of which he carried to London, and returned with the propositions, some adopted, others omitted or altered, and new ones added, which you will see in paper B. We spent many days in disputing, and at length agreed on and signed the preliminaries, which you will see by this conveyance. The British Minister struggled hard for two points, that the favors granted to the royalists should be extended, and all our fishery contracted. We silenced them on the first, by threatening to produce an account of the mischief done by those people, and as to the second, when they told us they could not possibly agree to it as we requested it, and must refer it to the Ministry in London, we produced a new article to be referred at the same time, with a note of facts in support of it, which you have, C.[8] Apparently, it seemed, that to avoid the discussion of this, they suddenly changed their minds, dropped the design of recurring to London, and agreed to allow the fishery as demanded.

FOOTNOTE:

[8] The papers alluded to in this letter will be found in the Correspondence of the Commissioners for negotiating peace.

You will find in the preliminaries some inaccurate and ambiguous expressions, that want explanation, and which may be explained in the definitive treaty, and as the British Ministry excluded our proposition relating to commerce, and the American prohibition of that with England may not be understood to cease merely by our concluding a treaty of peace, perhaps we may then, if the Congress shall think fit to direct it, obtain some compensation for the injuries done us as a condition of our opening again the trade. Every one of the present British Ministry has, while in the Ministry, declared the war against us as unjust, and nothing is clearer in reason, than that those who injure others by an unjust war, should make full reparation. They have stipulated too, in these preliminaries, that in evacuating our towns, they shall carry off no plunder, which is a kind of acknowledgment that they ought not to have done it before.

The reason given us for dropping the article relating to commerce, was, that some statutes were in the way, which must be repealed before a treaty of that kind could be well formed, and that this was a matter to be considered in Parliament.

They wanted to bring their boundary down to the Ohio, and to settle their loyalists in the Illinois country. We did not choose such neighbors.

We communicated all the articles, as soon as they were signed, to Count de Vergennes, (except the separate one) who thinks we have managed well, and told me that we had settled what was most apprehended as a difficulty in the work of a general peace, by obtaining the declaration of our independency.

_December 14th._ I have this day learnt, that the princ.i.p.al preliminaries between France and England are agreed on, to wit.