The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume IV Part 45

Sir,

I have received the letter, which you did me the honor to write to me on the 6th of October last.

I was well persuaded, that M. de Chavagne[55] would endeavor to procure for you everything in his power to render your pa.s.sage agreeable. This was conformable to the instructions I had given him respecting the intentions of the King.

I learn with pleasure, that, being again charged with an important mission by Congress, you will be able to profit by the frigate Sensible a second time in your voyage to France.

I have the honor to be, &c.

DE SARTINE.

FOOTNOTE:

[55] These instructions, and those for a treaty of commerce which follow were agreed to unanimously in Congress on the 14th of August, nearly six weeks before the Minister was chosen. They were drawn up by Gouverneur Morris.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Bilboa, January 16th, 1780.

Sir,

I have the honor to inform Congress, that last night, and not before, I arrived at this place.

At Ferrol and Corunna I was advised by all the friends of America, to undertake a journey by land. The consul of France and M. Lagoanere, a gentleman who has acted for some time as the American agent at Corunna, obligingly offered me all the a.s.sistance in their power, and accordingly used their utmost diligence to procure me the necessary mules and carriages, for the transportation of the small number of persons in company with me, and the small quant.i.ty of baggage we found it indispensably necessary to take with us, having left more than two thirds of what we had with us to take the chance of a pa.s.sage by sea to France. From the 8th of December, when we arrived at Ferrol, to the 26th of the same month, when we set off from Corunna, we were detained by the violent rains, and the impossibility of getting accommodations for travelling. All our beds and provisions we were obliged to carry with us. We travelled through the ancient kingdoms of Galicia, Leon, Old Castile, and Biscay, and although we made the best of our way without loss of time, we found it impossible to go more than eight leagues a day, and sometimes not more than four. The roads and inns are inconvenient to a degree that I should blush to describe, and the pain we suffered in a cold season of the year for want of fire, in a country where there are no chimnies, gave us all such violent colds, that I was under great apprehensions of our being seized with fevers.

As we were so near Madrid, within about forty leagues, I balanced some time in my own mind, whether to go to that fine city, but considering that this would lengthen our journey near a hundred leagues, the severe season of the year, and above all the political situation that I might be in, my country not being yet acknowledged as a sovereign State by any formal act of that Court, it being known, that another gentleman had a commission for that Court, and he being expected soon to arrive, I thought it upon the whole the least hazardous to the public interest to avoid that route.

It may be of some use to my countrymen to transmit a few observations upon the country I have pa.s.sed through, because it appears to me that a commerce extremely advantageous to both countries may be opened between us and Spain, as soon as our independence shall be acknowledged by that power, at least as soon as we shall obtain the great object of all our wishes, peace.

The province of Galicia is one of the largest in Spain, and said to be one of the best peopled. Corunna is in effect the princ.i.p.al city, although St Jago, in respect to its patron Saint, or more probably to the Archbishop who resides there, is in name the capital. This province, one of those whereof the ancient Crown of Castile was formed, is washed by the ocean for more than seventy leagues from Ribadeo, on the frontiers of Asturias, to the mouth of the river Minks, which separates it from Portugal. This coast, which is divided by Cape Finisterre, is provided on both sides of the Cape with ports equally safe and convenient, which nature seems to have prepared around this Cape, an object oftentimes so necessary to be made by navigators, both at their departure from Europe, and at their return, as so many asylums both from the apprehensions and the consequences of storms. The most known of these ports are Ribadeo, Ferrol, Corunna, and Camarinas, to the eastward of Cape Finisterre; Corubios, Muros, Pontevidia, and Vigo to the westward; all proper to receive vessels of the first rate, especially Ferrol and Vigo; the first, the most considerable department of the marine of Spain, is embellished with everything that art and the treasures, profusely spent upon it for thirty years past, could add to its happy situation. Vigo, represented to be one of the most beautiful ports in the world, is another department of the marine, more extensive and proper, for such an establishment than Ferrol itself. Besides these ports, there are a mult.i.tude of harbors and bays round Cape Finisterre, which afford a safe and convenient shelter to merchant vessels. With all these advantages for foreign commerce, this province has very little but what is pa.s.sive. It receives from abroad some objects of daily consumption, some of luxury, some of convenience, and some even of the first necessity. At present it offers little for exportation to foreign countries. The Sardine of its coast, the famous fish which it furnishes to all Spain, the cattle which it fattens for the provision of Madrid, and a few coa.r.s.e linens which are its only manufacture, and are well esteemed, are the objects of its active commerce, and form its balance with the other provinces. The wine and the grain, the chief productions of its lands, seldom suffice for its consumption, and never go beyond it.

The liberty of commerce with the Windward Islands, granted by the Court within a few years, and the particular establishment of ---- opened the ports of that part of the new world to this province; and although without manufactures herself, or any of those productions proper for America, she renders to foreign hands the product of those which she receives from them and carries thither. In this circulation of so many treasures, she enriches herself with parts that she detaches from the whole.

The civil government of this province is formed by a superior tribunal called the _Audience_, to which an appeal lies from all the subaltern jurisdictions, public and private. This Court hears and determines, as sovereign and without appeal, all civil affairs of a less value than a thousand ducats, or three thousand livres. Appeals in those which exceed that value are carried to the Chancery of Valladolid, or to the Council of Castile. Although justice is gratis on the part of the judges, who are paid by the government, it is said to be not less costly, tedious, and vexatious. It may not be useless to observe that the Criminal Chambers, whose decrees extend to the punishment of death, and are executed without any application to the King or any other authority, is composed only of three judges, and these three are the youngest of the whole tribunal, and this order is generally followed in Spain in the composition of the criminal tribunals, although no one pretends to conjecture the motive of so singular a reverse of the rational order of things. The administration of the royal police belongs also to the Audience, and forms the third chamber into which this tribunal is divided.

All the military authority, and the government of the troops in this department, are in the hands of the Captain General of the province.

There is not any one under him who has even the t.i.tle of commandant.

But in case of his death or absence, he is succeeded by the general officer, the most ancient in the province. To this t.i.tle of Captain General is added, commonly, that of President of the Audience, a prerogative which, by uniting in his hands the civil authority to all that of his place, gives a power the most absolute and unlimited.

The inspection general, and all the economy of the affairs of the King in the province, belong to the Intendant. The different branches of the public revenue are all administered by officers appointed by the King, as in the rest of the kingdom, and there are no Farmers-General as in France. Their product is about twentysix millions of reals, or six millions five hundred thousand livres, the expense of collection being deducted. The expenses of the administration, including the maintenance of three regiments of infantry scattered about in different places, do not exceed two millions five hundred thousand livres. The surplus goes into the dry docks, a.r.s.enals, and fund of fortifications, to the support of which this sum is far from being sufficient. Such is in general the government, military, political, and civil of this province, and nearly pf all the others, except Biscay, Guipuscoa, and Alaba.

There is not in this province any particular jurisdiction of commerce, but there is a tribunal, under the name of the Judge Considerator of Commerce, which takes cognizance of all their causes, civil and criminal, except the case of contraband. At this day, the Judge Considerator of Strangers is the governor of the province himself, and the appeals from his judgment are carried directly to the Council of War, which is said to be a precious privilege, by the form and brevity of procedure compared with the expensive and insupportable delays of the ordinary jurisdiction.

I cannot but think that if some measures could be taken to convince the Court, that it is their interest to take off the vast duties with which commerce is overloaded in this port, fifteen per cent being to be paid upon all commodities exported and upon all imported, and if the rigid prohibitions of tobacco could be relaxed or repealed, several of the productions of America would find a good market here, and a commerce be opened that would put a new face upon this province, and be profitable to America too. The conveniency of such a number of excellent ports would be a vast advantage, which Bilboa cannot have, as her harbor is neither safe nor convenient, besides its being so much further down the stormy, turbulent Gulf of Biscay; yet Biscay, which is commonly used to comprehend Biscay proper, the princ.i.p.al city of which is Bilboa, although Orduna is the capital; Guipuscoa, the capital of which is St Sebastian, and Alaba, the capital of which is Vittoria, three free provinces, whose laws the Kings of Spain have hitherto been sworn to observe inviolate, have attracted almost the whole of the American trade, because the King has no custom house or officers here, and there are no duties to be paid.

It may seem surprising to hear of free provinces in Spain, but such is the fact, that the high and independent spirit of the people, so essentially different from the other provinces, that a traveller perceives it even in their countenances, their dress, their air, and their ordinary manner of speech, has induced the Spanish nation and her kings to respect the ancient liberties of these people so far, that each monarch at his accession to the throne takes an oath to observe the laws of Biscay. The government here is therefore diametrically opposite to that of Galicia, and the other provinces.

The King of Spain has never a.s.sumed any higher t.i.tle than Lord of Biscay. He has no troops of any sort in the lordship, nor is there any standing array, instead of which every man is obliged to serve in the militia. The King has no custom house officers, nor other revenue officers, nor any other officers whatsoever in the lordship except a corregidor, and lately a commissary of marine. This last is considered as an encroachment and a grievance, and the authority of the corregidor is very small, as there lies an appeal from his judgment to another tribunal, that of the two deputy generals, who are biennially elected by the people. Few of the grandees of Spain have any considerable estates here. The Duke of Medina Coeli, and the Duke of Berwick, have some lands here of no great value. The lands, generally, belong to the inhabitants and possessors, who hold them of no lord but the King of Spain, who is Lord of Biscay.

There is a Board of Trade here, which is annually inst.i.tuted by the merchants of the place, partly by lot and partly by election, which decides all controversies arising in trade, and all the affairs of strangers. They have never admitted any foreign consul to reside here, although it has been solicited by Holland, England, and France.

It is not at all surprising, that a const.i.tution in its nature so favorable to commerce, should have succeeded.

In travelling through the provinces of Leon and Castile, and observing the numerous flocks of sheep, with the most beautiful fleeces of wool in the world, I could not but wish that some communication might be opened, by which the United States of America might be furnished with this necessary article from this country. There are few of our articles of exportation but might be sent to the Spanish market to advantage, rice, pitch, tar, turpentine, tobacco, wheat, flour, ship timber, masts, yards, bowsprits, and salt fish might be supplied to Spain, and at an advantage, and in return, she might furnish us wine, oil, fruits, some silks, some linens, perhaps, and with any quant.i.ty of wool, which is now exported to foreign countries for manufacture, and might as well be sent to us, but above all with silver and gold.

It must be the work of time and a free intercourse between the two nations, and a future negotiation to ripen these hints into a plan that may be beneficial to both. The system of revenue, which it is dangerous and difficult to alter in Spain, as well as in all other countries of Europe, will be the princ.i.p.al objection. I have collected together with some difficulty a few gazettes, which I have the honor to transmit to Congress, from which all the news may be collected that I have been able to learn. Congress will easily perceive the eagerness with which the belligerent powers are bent on war, without manifesting the least disposition for peace, and most of all, Great Britain, whose ostentatious display of trifling successes, and whose weak exultation shows, that nothing can divert her from her furious course. But she is exhausting and sinking her forces every day, without gaining any lasting or solid advantage, and she has reason to fear, from the combined fleets of France and Spain, under such enterprising, experienced, and approved officers, as d'Estaing and du Chaffault, the entire ruin of her commerce and navy in the course of a campaign or two more.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE COUNT DE VERGENNES.

Paris, February 12, 1780.

Sir,

Having obtained permission from your Excellency yesterday, when I did myself the honor to wait on you at Versailles, to write on the subject of my mission, I have now the honor to acquaint you, that on the 29th day of September last the Congress of the United States of America did me the honor to elect me their Plenipotentiary to negotiate a peace with Great Britain, and also to negotiate a treaty of commerce with that kingdom, and Mr Francis Dana, member of Congress, and of the Council of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Secretary to both commissions.

As I was not at Congress when this transaction took place, I am not able to inform your Excellency very particularly of the rise and progress of it. But from conversation with gentlemen at Boston, who were members of Congress, and from private letters, I learned in general, that it was not the result of any sudden deliberation, or the fruit of any particular event of the war, prosperous or adverse, but a measure that has been more than a year under consideration, and finally agreed to on this principle, that as it was uncertain at what time the belligerent powers might be disposed to treat of peace, which could not be concluded without a Minister from the United States, it would save a great deal of time for this power to have a Minister in Europe fully authorised to treat, and in concert with Ministers from the other powers at war, conclude a peace with great Britain, and a treaty of commerce consistent with that already made with His Most Christian Majesty, and such others as might be made with other powers.

I am persuaded it is the intention of my const.i.tuents and of all America, and I am sure it is my own determination, to take no steps of consequence in pursuance of my commissions, without consulting his Majesty's Ministers. And as various conjectures have been, and may be made concerning the nature of my appointment and powers, and as it may be expected by some, that I should take some measures for announcing these to the public, or at least to the Court of London, I beg the favor of your Excellency's opinion and advice upon these questions.

1. Whether, in the present state of things, it is prudent in me to acquaint the British Ministry that I am arrived here, and that I shall be ready to treat, whenever the belligerent powers shall be inclined to treat?

2. Whether it is prudent in me to publish in any manner, more than the journals of Congress may have already done, the nature of my mission?

3. Or whether to remain on the reserve, as I have hitherto done since my arrival in Europe?

If any propositions should be made to me directly or indirectly from the British Ministry, I shall not fail to communicate them without loss of time to your Excellency, and I beg the favor of your Excellency, as I am the only person in Europe who has authority to treat of peace, that if any propositions on the part of Great Britain should be made to his Majesty's Ministers, that they may be communicated to me, at least as far as they may relate to the interest of the United States.

Although I am not confined by commissions, nor instructions, nor by any intimations from Congress to reside in any one place in Europe more than another, yet my own inclinations as well as those of the public would be most gratified, and the public service most promoted, by my residing here. I must, therefore, request his Majesty's protection and permission to reside in this kingdom for some time, with or without a.s.suming any public character, as your Excellency may think most advisable.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

TO M. DE SARTINE.

Paris, February 13th, 1780.

Sir,

It was not until my arrival at Pa.s.sy, that I had the honor of your Excellency's letter of the 31st of December last.