The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume VIII Part 9

"The Minister has ordered the balance due (about twentysix thousand dollars,) on the one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to be paid to M. Cabarrus on my account, and has through him informed me that no more is to be expected.

"M. Cabarrus is exceedingly anxious about the money we owe him, and which the twentysix thousand dollars he is to receive will not pay.

"He declines making further advances. The Amba.s.sador of France can afford me no resources. M. Cabarrus is ready to supply what we may want, on the promise of either France or Spain to repay him in ten or twelve months.

"The Amba.s.sador will write (by a courier to France, who sets out tomorrow) on these subjects to the Court. All that remains in my power is to endeavor to keep the public creditors quiet until his or your final answer shall arrive. That this Court should permit our credit to be ruined for the want of about twentyfive thousand pounds sterling, does not greatly surprise me; but I should be astonished if the Minister of France should act the same part, for I have a high opinion of his wisdom.

"I am, &c.

JOHN JAY."

I forbear inserting my letter to the Marquis, because this and my former letters render it unnecessary. I solicited his immediate attention to the state of our bills, &c.

As there could be no doubt, but that the Minister mentioned to M.

Cabarrus the King's discontents, by way of apology for not granting further supplies, and with design that they should be represented to me in that light, I thought it prudent to write to the Minister on the subject, although in other circ.u.mstances it might have been more proper for me to have omitted taking notice of such an indirect communication. I wrote him as follows.

"Madrid, March 2d, 1782.

"Sir,

"M. Gardoqui informed me yesterday, that he had received an order to pay to M. Cabarrus on my account twentysix thousand dollars, being somewhat more than the balance due on the one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and for which be pleased to accept my thanks and acknowledgments.

"As the residue of the bills drawn upon me by Congress does not amount to a great sum, and as M. Cabarrus had generously offered to furnish it, provided your Excellency would give him a.s.surances of its being repaid in ten or twelve months, I had flattered myself, that his Majesty's friendship for my country would have induced him, by this further proof of his goodness, to save the necessity I shall otherwise be under to protest them, and thereby ruin the credit of Congress at so critical a period.

"It is with great pain I hear his Majesty is displeased with the silence of Congress respecting returns, on their part, to the friendship of Spain, and particularly in not having offered to comply with the propositions made by your Excellency, relative to the ships building in New England, &c. &c.

"Permit me to observe to your Excellency, that the long and constant expectation of M. Gardoqui's arrival in America, with full powers on these subjects, naturally induced Congress to postpone coming to any resolution on them, until they should have the pleasure of seeing him.

They were well apprised of my ignorance respecting such matters, and, therefore, could not with any propriety refer to my discretion the entering into engagements on subjects, with which I was wholly unacquainted. I am authorised to a.s.sure your Excellency of the readiness of Congress to make every return in their power to the kindness of his Majesty, and there is reason to hope, that by the end of the next campaign, their abilities may be more proportionate to their wishes than they have hitherto been.

"Your Excellency will also be pleased to recollect, that the propositions of Congress respecting the Mississippi evince a strong desire to oblige his Majesty, and that reason has been given me to hope, that their compliance in that instance would be followed by new proofs of his Majesty's good disposition towards us.

"I must candidly confess to your Excellency, that I now find myself entirely without resources.

"The Amba.s.sador of France can afford me no a.s.sistance, and my only remaining hope arises from that reliance on his Majesty's friendship and magnanimity, which your Excellency has so often encouraged me to entertain and confide in.

"I have the honor to be, &c. &c.

JOHN JAY."

This letter, if I may use the expression, might have been higher mounted, and the strange conduct of this Court would have justified my writing in a different style, but I feared that offence might have been taken, though, perhaps, for no other purpose than to cover a refusal to aid us with a plausible pretext.

Although I had little confidence in M. Del Campo's late professions of friendship, yet, as the present occasion afforded an opportunity of trying their sincerity, and as men ill-disposed towards us are sometimes pushed into acts of friendship, merely by an opinion of their being thought friendly, I enclosed the above letter in the following note to him.

"Madrid, March 2d, 1782.

"Mr Jay presents his compliments to M. Del Campo, and takes the liberty of enclosing a letter to his Excellency, the Count de Florida Blanca, which he requests the favor of him to deliver.

"M. Del Campo may not, perhaps, in future have an opportunity of rendering a more welcome and interesting proof of his friendship for America than at present; and Mr Jay will esteem his country and himself greatly obliged by M. Del Campo's friendly attention and interposition on this occasion."

A week elapsed without my receiving any answer either from the Minister or M. Del Campo. The time when our bills would be due was drawing very nigh. My expectations of aid from France were at best uncertain, and every consideration urged me not to leave anything in my power undone here, to avoid the catastrophe I had so much reason to apprehend. I therefore concluded to wait on the Minister, and in a plain and pointed manner enter into a detail of the reasons given us to expect supplies from this Court, and the impolicy of withholding them.

For this purpose I went to the Pardo on the 9th of March.

The Minister received me with great cordiality; he was in uncommon good spirits. He entered largely into the nature of his indisposition; the effect of the weather upon his nerves, and how much he found himself the better for the last three fine days; and after we had conversed awhile about the conquest of Minorca, and the importance of it, he said he supposed that I wished also to speak to him on the subject of our affairs.

I told him that was really the case, for that the bills, which remained to be paid, and the want of funds for the purpose, gave me great uneasiness. He interrupted me by remarking, that he had ordered the balance due on the one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be paid. That the public exigencies had even rendered this payment inconvenient, but that he was an honest man, a man of his word, and, therefore, as he had promised me that sum, he was determined that I should not be disappointed. That as to further aids he could promise nothing _positively_, that he would _do his best_, and shrugging his shoulders, intimated that he was not Minister of Finance.

I observed, that the sum now wanted was not very considerable, and that M. Cabarrus' offer rendered the advancing of it very easy. He was in a very good humor; and after a few hesitations, he told me cheerfully and smilingly, that when I found myself very hard pressed, I should desire M. Cabarrus to wait upon him.

This I considered as an implied consent to comply with M. Cabarrus'

offer, in case such a step should become absolutely necessary to save our bills; and I imagined he chose to delay it as long as possible, in hopes that the French Amba.s.sador might in the meantime interpose his credit, as he had before done on a similar occasion. I was content that the matter should rest there, and would not hazard losing what I thought I had gained by requiring more at present.

I thanked him for this mark of favor, and then turned the conversation to Major Franks' arrival, and my anxiety to communicate some certain intelligence to Congress relative to the proposed treaty, and what they might expect on that head.

The Count went into a detail of excuses for the delays which had ensued since our leaving St Ildefonso. His indisposition and that of M. Del Campo, his forgetting to give M. Del Campo the papers, and M.

Del Campo's neglecting to ask for them, were the chief topics from which these excuses were drawn. He said the Amba.s.sador of France had talked to him about the matter eight days ago; and he promised me that the conferences should begin at Aranjues, to which place the Court would soon remove. He authorised me to communicate this to Congress, adding, that pressing business obliged him to postpone it till then, though I might now begin to speak on the subject to M. Del Campo if I pleased.

I remarked, that I had so often disappointed Congress by giving them reason soon to expect M. Gardoqui, that I wished to be enabled to give them accurate information on that point. He replied, that a variety of particular circ.u.mstances had intervened to prevent his departure, but that he _certainly_ should go unless he made personal objections to it, and that _I might tell Congress so_.

I rose to take my leave. _He repeated what he had before said respecting my sending M. Cabarrus to him_, and a.s.sured me of his disposition to do what he could for us. I again thanked him, and we parted in great good humor.

It is remarkable, that during the course of this conference, which was free and diffusive, the Minister did not mention a syllable of the King's discontents, nor hint the least dissatisfaction at the conduct of Congress towards this Court. I cautiously avoided making any harsh strictures on the delays I constantly met with, and though the Minister's excuses for them were frivolous and merely ostensible, yet it could have answered no good purpose to have declared that opinion of them, especially at so delicate a period of our affairs.

As many bills to a considerable amount would be payable on the 14th of March, I thought it high time that the Minister should declare his intentions at least a day or two before, and therefore I desired M.

Cabarrus to wait upon the Minister, and confer with him on the subject. M. Cabarrus accordingly went to the Pardo on the evening of the 11th of March. He saw the Minister, and mentioned the purpose of his visit. The Minister said, I must have misunderstood him; that it was not until the last extremity that I was to send him, and he desired M. Cabarrus to inform him when that should arrive. M. Cabarrus repeated to me his former offers, and a.s.sured me that nothing on his part should be wanting.

The Madrid Gazette of the 12th of March contained a paragraph, of which you ought not to be ignorant. I shall therefore copy it _verbatim_, and add a translation as literal as I can make it.

"By a letter from the Commandant General of the army of operations at the Havanna, and Governor of Louisiana, his Majesty has advices, that a detachment of sixtyfive militia men and sixty Indians of the nations Otaguos, Sotu, and Putuami, under the command of Don Eugenio Purre, a captain of militia, accompanied by Don Carlos Tayon, a sub-lieutenant of militia, by Don Luis Chevalier, a man well versed in the language of the Indians, and by their great chiefs Eleturno and Naquigen, who marched the 2d of January, 1781, from the town of St Luis of the Illinois, had possessed themselves of the Post of St Joseph, which the English occupied at two hundred and twenty leagues distance from that of the abovementioned St Luis, having suffered in so extensive a march, and so rigorous a season, the greatest inconveniences from cold and hunger, exposed to continual risks from the country being possessed by savage nations, and having to pa.s.s over parts covered with snow, and each one being obliged to carry provisions for his own subsistence, and various merchandises, which were necessary to content, in case of need, the barbarous nations through whom they were obliged to cross. The commander, by seasonable negotiations and precautions, prevented a considerable body of Indians, who were at the devotion of the English, from opposing this expedition; for it would otherwise have been difficult to have accomplished the taking of the said post. They made prisoners of the few English they found in it, the others having perhaps retired in consequence of some prior notice. Don Eugenio Purre took possession in the name of the King of that place and its dependencies, and of the river of the Illinois; in consequence whereof the standard of his Majesty was there displayed during the whole time. He took the English one, and delivered it on his arrival at St Luis to Don Francisco Cruyat, the commandant of that post.

"The destruction of the magazine of provisions and goods, which the English had there (the greater part of which was divided among our Indians and those who lived at St Joseph, as had been offered them in case they did not oppose our troops) was not the only advantage resulting from the success of this expedition, for thereby it became impossible for the English to execute their plan of attacking the fort of St Luis of the Illinois; and it also served to intimidate these savage nations, and oblige them to promise to remain neuter, which they do at present."

When you consider the ostensible object of this expedition, the distance of it, the formalities with which the place, the country, and the river were taken possession of in the name of his Catholic Majesty, I am persuaded it will not be necessary for me to swell this letter with remarks, that would occur to a reader of far less penetration than yourself.

I will therefore return to our bills.

The 14th of March arrived, the bills then due were presented, and I prevailed upon the holders of them to wait till the next day at noon for my answer. As the last extremity in the most literal sense had now arrived, I presumed that the Minister would not think me too hasty in requesting his determination. I wrote him the following letter, and sent it by the post, which pa.s.ses every evening between Madrid and the Court.

"Madrid, March 14th, 1782.

"Sir,