The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume V Part 9

Mr Eden followed Lord Nugent in the debate, and indulged himself in sporting with the flowers of rhetoric, and pleasantries of wit, without many solid observations that deserve notice. It may not be improper to remark two or three things however. "In general," says he, "the object of the honorable member, General Conway, is extremely praiseworthy; but the present moment is not proper for the pursuit of it; it is not at present, that Parliament can say, we will grant this, or will refuse that, because they ask nothing of us. Every unsolicited offer will be regarded as a tacit confession of our weakness; a useless instrument in the hands of the well intentioned inhabitants, it will become an offensive and dangerous arm in the hands of Congress. It is important for the present, to leave the scales in the equilibrium where they are. The return of the Americans to the suggestions of duty and loyalty now divides the Continent, by diminishing the number of the supporters of rebellion, now shaken to its centre. In such circ.u.mstances a manly confidence, wisdom, and moderation may make the balance incline to our side. Precipitation in our councils, superfluous discussions, domestic divisions, premature and imprudent overtures, may draw it over to the other forever. I say superfluous discussions, this is the most dangerous of all those that I comprehend in the number, and consequently to put an end to it, I demand the order of the day."

Lord George Gordon seconded the motion of Mr Eden, not because he was of his opinion, for he ridiculed it with all the wit imaginable, but because the General's bill appeared to him to announce a commission as ridiculous as that of 1780,[2] since probably they would not begin by acknowledging the independence of America. Mr Cruger said, that if peace with America could not be obtained without acknowledging her independence, they ought not to hesitate a moment. Mr W. Pitt said, that neither conciliatory bills, nor peace making commissioners, would make peace with America. The Ministry must retire. The Americans will never listen to any propositions until the present Ministers resign their places to men, who have not lost the confidence of America by deceiving them, and the confidence of the nation by imposing upon Parliament.

[2] It is thus in the ma.n.u.script, but it should probably be 1778.

Here is another proof among many, that are given every day by the opposition themselves, of their hunger for the loaves and fishes, and that they do not mean with good faith to make peace, America would as readily make peace upon proper terms with the present Ministry as any other, and she would not make peace upon improper terms--with any other Ministry sooner than with the present.

Lord George Germain said, "If our reconciliation with America depended upon the resignation of the present Ministers, and they were convinced of the efficacy of this measure, I am persuaded they would take it unanimously forthwith. Most certainly all good men in the kingdom ought to wish, that peace may be made upon honorable and advantageous terms. This is the wish of my heart, and I flatter myself, that its accomplishment is not far off. This is not speculation, my opinion is founded upon fresh advices. I firmly believe, that the moment of reconciliation is not far distant. The state of profound distress, to which the Americans find themselves reduced, has brought them back, if not to duty in general, at least to reflection, and to a knowledge of their true interests; and I can a.s.sure the House, that the greatest number not only desire to return to their allegiance, but express the desire of it, and testify that they are ready to seize a favorable opportunity, and would not wait for any opportunity, if they were not held in by the tyranny of those, who have made themselves masters of power. I do not think, that the Congress will ever appear disposed to enter into treaty, but the misery of the people, but the depreciation of the paper money, but the burden of debt, under which the community staggers, but the repugnance, which all orders of the people testify for the alliance, which they have made them contract with France, the little utility, which this alliance has been of to America, all announce in time, that the different a.s.semblies of that Continent will not be long before they come to terms."

It is really difficult to say what epithets ought to be given to this speech. When a Minister of a great nation can rise in its great Council, and with so much cold blood, so much solemnity, and such appearance of reflection and deliberation affirm such things, what shall we say?

The absurdity of his distinctions is not less remarkable, than the grossness of his misinformation respecting facts, that Congress will not treat, but the several a.s.semblies will. Is not Congress the creature of the a.s.semblies? Do not the a.s.semblies create the members of Congress every year? Cannot they annihilate them every moment?

Cannot the a.s.semblies instruct their members of Congress? Cannot the people instruct their members of a.s.sembly? But it is endless to remark. The same system of fraud and misrepresentation, which first deceived Great Britain into this controversy and war with America, still deceives them into the continuance of it, and will deceive them to their ruin. This should be the less afflicting to America, as, since there is every reason to think, that Great Britain will be hereafter our natural and habitual enemy, disposed to war with us whenever she can, the more completely she is exhausted, humbled, and abased before the peace, the securer we shall be forever after.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

_P. S._ The Charge des Affaires of Denmark has notified to the Ministry at Stockholm, the 28th of April, that this Court had acceded to the armed neutrality, to which the Empress of Russia had invited it, and he has requested, in consequence, in the name of his sovereign, his Swedish Majesty, to enter into the same confederation.

Although no positive answer has as yet been given him, it is nevertheless not at all doubted, that Sweden will concur with the other neutral maritime powers, to restrain the excesses of the armed ships and cruisers of the belligerent powers; an excess of which the rencounter of the frigate Illerim, with a cruiser from Mahon, furnished a new example, as was remarked at the head of the relation, which the Court has published of it.

J. A.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Paris, May 20th, 1780.

Sir,

As my English papers, containing the debates on the 6th of this month on General Conway's motion, are lost in the sea, I shall give Congress the several accounts of them from the foreign gazettes. That of the Hague gives the following account of the General's discourse.

"Two powerful motives have induced me to undertake the formation of this bill; the indispensable necessity in which we find ourselves to make peace with America, and the favorable disposition in which I suppose America to be.

"To show the nature of the horrible war, which I propose to put an end to, it is necessary to go back to its origin. I find it in that committee of darkness, which met in this house fifteen years ago at midnight. This company of black conspirators, who plotted in their conventicle the destruction of the British empire, and sowed the seed of all the evils, of all the disgraces, and of all the insults under which England and America have groaned, from the fatal moment in which this senseless committee conceived the extravagant idea of drawing a revenue from the colonies, by taxing subjects in a house where they had no representatives. Thank heaven I have no reproach to make to myself. I opposed, in the time of it, this horrible measure, and predicted the fatal effects, and I have the chagrin to see all my predictions accomplished; from error to error, from one false measure to another, we are arrived to the brink of a precipice, down to the bottom of which we feel ourselves irresistibly hurried by the weight of our debts.

"From the time that the word independence, coming from America, resounded in this house, we have endeavored to evince that the Americans had originally this independence in view. Nevertheless, the events have demonstrated that nothing was further from their idea.

When I express myself thus, I speak of Americans in general. I pretend not to insinuate, that there were not among them some men of inferior rank, who have thought that they saw their present interest in the independence of their country. In so vast a country it is impossible, that there should not be found some such senseless men, and I should be more senseless, more absurd, than the absurdest of them all, if I could doubt of it a moment. But again, once more; the ma.s.s of the nation did not aim at independence; when we had forced this peaceable people to a just resistance, what happened here? Our lawyers opened the road of error; we never inquired how we could appease these rising troubles. Grave men, distinguished by the most eminent talents, and by the most influential offices, talked of conquest and submission; 'The Rubicon is pa.s.sed,' said they, 'the sword is drawn, it you do not kill them they will kill you.' The lawyers were powerfully seconded by the reverend ministers of a religion, which teaches peace and recommends brotherly love. The robe and the mitre, animating us in concert to ma.s.sacre, we plunged ourselves into rivers of blood, spreading terror, devastation, and death over the whole continent of America, exhausting ourselves at home both of men and money, dishonoring forever our annals, we became the objects of horror in the eyes of indignant Europe! It was our reverend prelates who led on this dance, which may be justly styled the dance of death! These reverend prelates have a terrible account to give to their country and to their consciences; they have opened upon them the eyes of the nation, who have justly styled them the rotten part of the const.i.tution.

"Such is the horrid war, which we have maintained for five years. What have been its horrible fruits! a ruinous war to sustain against the two branches of the House of Bourbon; we are crushed under the burden of an immense debt; at war with America; at war with France; at war with Spain, without having a single ally or a single power for our friend. On the contrary, seeing distinctly and without doubt, that all foreign powers act directly or indirectly, in a manner absolutely contrary to our interests, not to say in a hostile manner, there are none, even down to the little inhabitants of Lubeck, of Dantzic, and of Hamburg, who are not against us! This is not all. What is much worse still, we see Holland, our natural ally, opposed to our interests, and refusing us the slightest succor. We are precisely at this moment the deer marked out for the chase, detached by the blood hounds from the rest of the flock which abandons us! If our situation is terrible, we need not believe, that the Americans repose themselves upon beds of roses; far from it, and it is from the bosom of their distress that the ray of hope issues, which in my opinion shines upon us at this day. We have forced them to contract an alliance with France; this alliance was not natural; nature, habit, language, and religion, all conspire to raise a barrier between France and America; all tend to bind again, between England and America, the natural ties heretofore fortunate and happy. The Americans have not found in their great and good ally, the friend that they sought in him; they have a natural aversion even for the t.i.tle of a King. They prefer the republican inst.i.tutions to absolute monarchy; they are overloaded with an immense debt, the burden of which France has not appeared forward to lighten for them. Their paper money is fallen to such a degree of depreciation, that they have given forty dollars in paper for one dollar in silver, worth four shillings and sixpence. The greatest part among them, groan under the tyranny of those, who have made themselves masters of power, desiring ardently the restoration of the ancient form of government; their troops ill paid, and still worse clothed, have been reduced to such dreadful extremities, that the last summer, in the course of a fatiguing march, they saw themselves reduced to the ration of a handful of pease a day; as for the rest, their allies know as much upon this point as we. A Frenchman, distinguished by his talents, sent some years ago by his Court to America to observe the disposition of the people and the state of things, &c. in a letter, which he wrote from the place of his destination, serves himself of these remarkable expressions; 'one shall find in a coffee-house of Paris a great deal more enthusiasm for the cause of liberty, than in any part of America.'

"Let us take advantage of these circ.u.mstances. Let us put an end to the war of America, to the end that we may unite more efficaciously all our efforts against the House of Bourbon. I believe we shall not find much hostility. France has not gained, Spain has considerably lost, let us strike both the one and the other more decisive blows. We cannot do this without making peace with America. We cannot obtain this peace but by offering reasonable terms of reconciliation. I have maturely examined all which has been proposed before me. I have come as near as possible to the plan of conciliation, drawn by the Earl of Chatham. I may say, indeed, that I have taken it for my model. But I have departed from it in the most essential point. The Earl of Chatham's bill had for its foundation this express condition, that America should acknowledge the sovereignty of Great Britain, and that each a.s.sembly should furnish to the ma.s.s of the public revenue a certain quota. Certainly, if we were to make at this day to America a similar proposition, they would laugh in our faces, and would treat those who should dare to make it, as smartly as they treated the Commissioners, who visited her in 1778. The great object of my bill is, that something certain should be done, which may be proper to convince America of the sincerity of those views, with which we invite her to enter into some conciliatory convention with his Majesty. In one word, the t.i.tle of my bill is an a.n.a.lysis of it;--_A Bill to appease the Troubles, which have sometime subsisted between Great Britain and America, and to authorise his Majesty to send Commissioners, clothed with full Powers to treat with America._"[3]

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

[3] See Mr Adam's remarks on this speech, in a letter to M. Genet, above, p. 101.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Paris, May 23d, 1780.

Sir,

The public papers announce, that all the maritime powers have acceded to the proposition of Russia respecting an armed neutrality.

The following article from Stockholm is of the 2d of May. "Our Court has accepted the plan of an armed neutrality, which the Empress of all the Russias has proposed to it; and in consequence has given orders to equip six more ships of the line; so that our naval force will consist, like that of Denmark, of six ships of the line and six frigates, whereof six vessels of war will remain in the port of Carlserona, equipped and ready to be employed, on the first order."

The article from Copenhagen is of the 9th of May. "The Court has acceded to the proposition of her Majesty the Empress of Russia, in regard to an armed neutrality, and in consequence, they are busy in taking measures for the armament. Besides the four vessels of the line and the two frigates, which they equipped, the Court have further put in commission two other ships of the line, the Jylland of ten guns, and the Mars of sixty, and they are taking all possible pains both here and in Norway, and in the other Provinces of this kingdom, to recruit the number of men necessary for this armament. Two of our ships of the line, the Wagrien and the Infods, pa.s.sed into the Road last Sat.u.r.day. The same day Captain Ziervogel, commanding a frigate, set sail with the officers and crews necessary to bring here the two frigates, which are at Fredericksham in Norway. The Russian ships of war, Captain Spendof, who has wintered here, and the frigate of the same nation, which was upon its return from Norway, set sail yesterday for Petersburg."

There is another article from Paris of the 12th of May. "The Court of Portugal," they say, "has given a.s.surance to ours of arming if necessary to maintain the neutrality, and by means of the accession of this Power to the system it appears, that there can remain little hope to England of finding an ally, who will make a common cause with her, and aid her to preserve the empire of the seas, of which she flattered herself she would never be dispossessed."

Another article from Hamburg of the 12th of May. "At a time, when there is an extraordinary dearth of news, our politicians occupy themselves about the declaration of the Court of Russia to the belligerent Powers, and the proposition of this same Court to the neutral Powers. Already, they say, it is no longer doubtful, that the Courts of Sweden, of Denmark, and the States-General of the United Provinces, have acceded to the proposition of the Empress of Russia, and that they arm themselves. It is now the problem, to know if the Court of Portugal will follow their example. In the meantime, our speculators appear in general very curious to know, what will be the measures, which the neutral Powers will take for the execution of their designs, and at what time the plan of this armed neutrality can have its effect."

Another is an article from London of the 12th of May. "The day before yesterday, the Court received despatches from its Ministers in the Northern Courts, which confirm the news of a plan of confederation formed by the Powers of that part of Europe, for the protection of their respective subjects against the attacks of the belligerent Powers. The despatches of Sir Joseph Yorke announce, they say, an approaching negotiation between the Court of London and the States-General, to the end to adjust amicably the difference arisen between the two nations, relative to the capture of some Dutch vessels, and the insult offered to the flag of the Republic, by Commodore Fielding. It is believed, that this affair will be terminated to the mutual satisfaction of the two parties, and that this negotiation may well serve to pave the way to a reconciliation among the Powers at war, to which there is no doubt England would sincerely agree, upon honorable conditions."

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

_P. S._ A second division is said to be preparing at Brest, of several ships of the line and several thousand men.

J. A.

COUNT DE VERGENNES TO JOHN ADAMS.

Translation.

Versailles, May 24th, 1780.

Sir,

I have received the two letters, which you have done me the honor to write to me on the 12th and 19th of the present month. I had no need of your apology to induce me to render justice to the patriotic sentiments with which you are animated. You understand the interests and engagements of your country, and I am persuaded you will never have any other object, than to consolidate both the one and the other.

You can judge by this, Sir, what confidence we place in your principles, and what security we feel beforehand, as to the conduct you will hold, in case the Court of London should propose to you overtures of conciliation.

I offer you many thanks for the American gazettes, which you have been so kind as to send me. I will take care that they shall all be returned.

I have the honor to be, &c.

DE VERGENNES.