The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume IV Part 14

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

Pa.s.sy, April 27th, 1783.

Sir,

The Count del Veome, an Italian n.o.bleman of great distinction, does me the honor to be the bearer of this. I have not the satisfaction to be personally acquainted with this gentleman, but am much solicited by some of my particular friends, to whom his merits and character are known, to afford him this introduction to you. He is, I understand, a great traveller, and his view in going to America is merely to see the country and its great men. I pray you will show him every civility, and afford him that counsel, which as a stranger he may stand in need of.

With great respect, I am, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

COUNT DE VERGENNES TO B. FRANKLIN.

Translation.

Versailles, May 5th, 1783.

Sir,

I have received the two letters of yesterday and today, which you have done me the honor to write to me, and a copy of the three articles discussed between the Commissioners of the United States and Mr Hartley. You are aware that I shall want a sufficient time to examine them, before submitting to you the observations, which may relate to our reciprocal interests. Receive, in the meantime, my sincere thanks for this communication.

I hope to have the honor of seeing you tomorrow at Versailles. I trust you will be able to be present with the foreign Ministers. It is observed, that the Commissioners from the United States rarely show themselves here, and inferences are drawn from it, which I am sure their const.i.tuents would disavow, if they had a knowledge of them.

I have the honor to be, &c.

DE VERGENNES.

TO COUNT DE VERGENNES.

Pa.s.sy, May 5th, 1783.

Sir,

It was my intention to pay my devoirs at Versailles tomorrow. I thank your Excellency, nevertheless, for your kind admonition. I omitted two of the last three days from a mistaken apprehension, that being holidays there would be no Court. Mr Laurens and Mr Jay are both invalids; and since my last severe fit of the gout, my legs have continued so weak, that I am hardly able to keep pace with the Ministers who walk fast, especially in going up and down stairs.

I beg you to be a.s.sured, that whatever deficiency there may be of strength, there is none of respect in, Sir, your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant,

B. FRANKLIN.

TO DAVID HARTLEY.

Pa.s.sy, May 8th, 1783.

Dear Friend,

I send you enclosed the copies you desired of the papers I read to you yesterday.[17] I should be happy if I could see, before I die, the proposed improvement of the law of nations established. The miseries of mankind would be diminished by it, and the happiness of millions secured and promoted. If the practice of privateering could be profitable to any civilized nation, it might be so to us Americans, since we are so situated on the globe, as that the rich commerce of Europe with the West Indies, consisting of manufactures, sugars, &c.

is obliged to pa.s.s before our doors, which enables us to make short and cheap cruises, while our own commerce is in such bulky, low priced articles as that ten of our ships taken by you are not equal in value to one of yours, and you must come far from home at a great expense to look for them. I hope therefore that this proposition, if made by us, will appear in its true light, as having humanity only for its motive.

I do not wish to see a new Barbary rising in America, and our long extended coast occupied by piratical States. I fear lest our privateering success in the two last wars, should already have given our people too strong a relish for that most mischievous kind of gaming, mixed blood; and if a stop is not now put to the practice, mankind may hereafter be more plagued with American corsairs, than they have been and are with the Turkish. Try, my friend, what you can do, in procuring for your nation the glory of being, though the greatest naval power, the first who voluntarily relinquished the advantage that power seems to give them, of plundering others, and thereby impeding the mutual communications among men of the gifts of G.o.d, and rendering miserable mult.i.tudes of merchants and their families, artizans, and cultivators of the earth, the most peaceable and innocent part of the human species.

With great esteem and affection, I am ever, my dear friend, yours most sincerely,

B. FRANKLIN.

FOOTNOTE:

[17] See the Proposition about privateering, p. 67 of this volume.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO B. FRANKLIN.

Philadelphia, May 9th, 1783.

Dear Sir,

We have yet had no information from you subsequent to the signature of preliminary articles by France, Spain, and Great Britain; though we have seen a declaration for the cessation of hostilities signed by you, Mr Adams, and Mr Jay.

We grow every day more anxious for the definitive treaty, since we have as yet discovered no inclination in the enemy to evacuate their ports; and in sending off the slaves, they have directly infringed the provisional treaty, though we on our part have paid the strictest regard to it. This will be more fully explained by the enclosed copy of a letter from General Washington, containing a relation of what pa.s.sed between him and General Carleton at a late interview. Let me again entreat, that no doubt may be left in the treaty relative to the time and manner of evacuating their ports here. Without more precision and accuracy in this than we find in the provisional articles, we shall soon be involved in new disputes with Great Britain.

Our finances are still greatly embarra.s.sed. You may in part see our distress, and the means Congress are using to relieve themselves, by the enclosed pamphlet, which I wish you and your colleagues to read, but not to publish.

The enclosed resolution imposes a new task upon you. I hope you will find no great difficulty in procuring the small augmentation to the loan which it requires. Be a.s.sured that it is extremely necessary to set us down in peace.

None of the States, though frequently called upon, have sent me the estimates of their losses by the ravages of the British, except Connecticut and Rhode Island, and their accounts are extremely imperfect. Such as they are I enclose them. For my own part, I have no great expectation that any compensation for these losses will be procured; however, if possible it should be attempted. Commissioners might be appointed to ascertain them here.

Great part of the prisoners are on their way to New York, and the whole will be sent in a few days. They will amount to about six thousand men.

Our ports begin to be crowded with vessels. There is reason to fear that a superabundance of foreign articles will, in the end, produce as much distress as the want of them has heretofore occasioned.

I have the honor to be, &c.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO B. FRANKLIN.

Philadelphia, May 31st, 1783.

Sir,

I informed you sometime since, that I had written to the Court of Appeals on the subject of the Nossa Senhora da Soledado San Miguel e Almas, and laid before them the papers you sent me. The cause has since been determined in such a way as will, I hope, be satisfactory to her Portuguese Majesty. I enclose the copy of a letter from the first Judge of the Court of Appeals on that subject.