The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume X Part 18

London, June 20th, 1783.

Gentlemen,

Permit me to refer to what I had the honor of writing to you the 17th.

You will recollect my suggestions, as soon as we perceived the falling off from those warm a.s.surances, which had been pressed in March and April. They were not ill founded. I delayed a week in hopes of intelligence, and left you with reluctance; the temper of the times forbids even an essay.

What a happy country is this, where everything pertaining to the public is rendered to them in public newspapers. See the enclosed, containing nearly as accurate an account of certain recent occurrences, as if it had been penned by one of the parties. It might indeed have been made a little stronger. Modest men are sometimes restrained from attempting a public good, from a dread of the effects of envy, of being held up in an invidious light. It would be cruel to disturb them.

I have heard nothing from America, save what you may have read in the prints. Tomorrow I shall proceed to Bath, and be waiting for intelligence, as well from yourselves as from Congress. Some consolation arises from reflecting, that while I am endeavoring to mend my health, you suffer no inconvenience from my absence.

With sincere regard and respect,

HENRY LAURENS.

TO THE COUNT DE VERGENNES.

Pa.s.sy, June 28th, 1783.

Sir,

Mr Grand, banker to the Congress, having laid before us the annexed state of their affairs in his hands, we conceive ourselves indispensably obliged to communicate the same to your Excellency, as some important interests of both countries are concerned.[15]

Before the peace was known in America, and while Mr Morris had hopes of obtaining the five per cent duty and a larger loan from his Majesty, the immediate urgent necessities of the army obliged him to draw bills, and sell them to the merchants, to raise money for the purchase of provisions, to prevent their starving or disbanding.

The merchants have thereupon formed their plans of business, and remitted those bills to their correspondents here, to pay debts, and purchase goods in this kingdom, to be carried home in the ships, that are come, or coming to France, thus to open a larger commerce with this nation.

If those bills cannot be paid, the creditors of America will be disappointed and greatly hurt, and the commerce will be deranged and discouraged in its first operations, of which the numerous ill consequences are more easily imagined than described.

Our loan in Holland is going on, and with such prospect of success, that the bankers, who have the care of it, have lately sent by express to Mr Adams all the blank obligations, necessary to complete it, for him to sign, that they might have them ready to deliver, as demanded, his return thither being delayed.

This loan will, therefore, probably answer the bills Mr Morris has drawn on those bankers.

But the protesting any of his bills here would occasion such an alarm there, as must probably entirely stop any further progress of that loan, and thereby increase the mischief.

The government of the Congress would also be enfeebled by it.

We apprehend, too, that, in the present unsettled situation of our affairs with England, such a failure might have very ill effects, with respect to our negotiations.

We therefore request your counsel, hoping your wisdom, which has so often befriended our nation, may point out some way, by which we may be extricated from this distress.

And as the King has. .h.i.therto so generously a.s.sisted us, we hope that, if it is any way practicable, his Majesty will crown the glorious work, by affording us this help, at the different periods when it will be wanted, and which is absolutely the last that will be asked.

We are, with sincere and great respect, &c.

B. FRANKLIN, JOHN JAY.

FOOTNOTE:

[15] See Mr Grand's letter above, p. 139.

PROPOSITIONS MADE BY THE COMMISSIONERS TO DAVID HARTLEY FOR THE DEFINITIVE TREATY.

ARTICLE I. To omit in the definitive treaty the exception, at the end of the second Article of the provisional treaty, viz. these words, "excepting such islands as now are, or heretofore have been within the limits of the said Province of Nova Scotia."

ARTICLE II. The prisoners made respectively, by the arms of his Britannic Majesty, and the United States, by sea and by land, not already set at liberty, shall be restored reciprocally and _bona fide_, immediately after the ratification of the definitive treaty, without ransom, and on paying the debts they may have contracted during their captivity; and each party shall respectively reimburse the sums, which shall have been advanced, for the subsistence and maintenance of the prisoners, by the sovereign of the country where they shall have been detained, according to the receipts and attested accounts, and other authentic t.i.tles, which shall be produced on each side.

ARTICLE III. His Britannic Majesty shall employ his good offices and interposition with the King or Emperor of Morocco or Fez, the Regencies of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, or with any of them, and also with every other Prince, State or power of the coast of Barbary, in Africa, and the subjects of the said King, Emperor, States and powers and each of them, in order to provide as fully and efficaciously as possible for the benefit, conveniency and safety of the said United States and each of them, their subjects, people and inhabitants, and their vessels and effects, against all violence, insult, attacks or depredations on the part of the said Princes and States of Barbary, or their subjects.

ARTICLE IV. If war should hereafter arise between Great Britain and the United States, which G.o.d forbid, the merchants of either country then residing in the other, shall be allowed to remain nine months to collect their debts and settle their affairs, and may depart freely, carrying off all their effects without molestation or hinderance. And all fishermen, all cultivators of the earth, and all artisans and manufacturers unarmed and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages or places, who labor for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind, and peaceably follow their respective employments, shall be allowed to continue the same, and shall not be molested by the armed force of the enemy in whose power, by the events of war, they may happen to fall; but if anything is necessary to be taken from them, for the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at a reasonable price.

And all merchants or traders with their unarmed vessels employed in commerce, exchanging the products of different places and thereby rendering the necessaries, conveniences and comforts of human life more easy to obtain, and more general, shall be allowed to pa.s.s freely unmolested. And neither of the powers, parties to this treaty, shall grant or issue any commission, to any private armed vessels, empowering them to take or destroy such trading ships, or interrupt such commerce.

ARTICLE V. And in case either of the contracting parties, shall happen to be engaged in war with any other nation, it is further agreed, in order to prevent all the difficulties and misunderstandings that usually arise respecting the merchandise heretofore called contraband, such as arms, ammunition, and military stores of all kinds, that no such articles carrying by the ships or subjects of one of the parties to the enemies of the other, shall on any account be deemed contraband, so as to induce confiscation and a loss of property to individuals. Nevertheless, it shall be lawful to stop such ships and detain them for such length of time as the captors may think necessary to prevent the inconveniences or damage that might ensue from their proceeding on their voyage, paying, however, a reasonable compensation for the loss such arrest shall occasion to the proprietors. And it shall further be allowed to use in the service of the captors, the whole or any part of the military stores so detained, paying to the owners the full value of the same.

ARTICLE VI. The citizens and inhabitants of the said United States, or any of them, may take and hold real estates in Great Britain, Ireland, or any other of his Majesty's dominions, and dispose by testaments, donations or otherwise of their property, real or personal, in favor of such person as to them shall seem fit; and their heirs, citizens of the said United States, or any of them residing in the British dominions or elsewhere, may succeed them _ab intestato_, without being obliged to obtain letters of naturalization. The subjects of his Britannic Majesty shall enjoy on their parts, in all the dominions of the said United States, an entire and perfect reciprocity, relative to the stipulations contained in the present Article.

ARTICLE VII. The ratifications of the definitive treaty shall be expedited in good and due form, and exchanged in the s.p.a.ce of five months, or sooner if it can be done, to be computed from the day of the signature.

ARTICLE VIII. Query. Whether the King of Great Britain will admit the citizens of the United States to cut logwood on the district allotted to his Majesty by Spain, and on what terms?

DAVID HARTLEY'S SIX PROPOSITIONS FOR A DEFINITIVE TREATY.

June, 1783.

1st. That lands belonging to persons of any description, which have not actually been sold, shall be restored to the old possessors without price.

2dly. That an equal and free partic.i.p.ation of the different carrying places, and the navigation of all the lakes and rivers of that country, through which the water line of division pa.s.ses between Canada and the United States, shall be enjoyed fully and uninterruptedly by both parties.

3dly. That in any such places, within the boundaries a.s.signed generally to the American States, as are adjoining to the water line of division, and which are not specifically under the dominion of any one State, all persons at present resident, or having possessions or occupations as merchants, or otherwise, may remain in peaceable enjoyment of all civil rights, and in pursuit of their respective occupations.

4thly. That in any such places adjoining to the water line of division, as may be under the specific dominion of any particular State, all persons at present resident, or having possessions or occupations as merchants, or otherwise, may remain in the peaceable enjoyment of all civil rights, and in pursuit of their occupations, until they shall receive notice of removal from the State to which any such place may appertain; and, upon any such notice of removal, a term of three years shall be allowed for selling, or withdrawing their valuable effects, and for settling their affairs.

5thly. That his Britannic Majesty's forces, not exceeding ---- in number, may continue in the posts now occupied by them contiguous to the water line, for the term of three years, for the purpose of securing the lives, property, and peace of any persons settled in that country, against the invasion or ravages of the neighboring Indian nations, who may be suspected of retaining resentments, in consequence of the late war.

6thly. That no tax or impost whatsoever, shall be laid on any articles of commerce pa.s.sing or repa.s.sing through the country, but that the trade may be left entirely open, for the benefit of all parties interested therein.

THE COMMISSIONERS' ANSWERS TO MR HARTLEY'S SIX PROPOSITIONS.

To the 1st. This matter has been already regulated in the 5th and 6th Articles of the Provisional Treaty, to the utmost extent of our powers. The rest must be left to the several States.

2dly. All the lakes, rivers, and waters, divided by the boundary line, or lines, between the United States and his Britannic Majesty's territories, shall be freely used and navigated by both parties, during the whole extent of such divisions. Regulations concerning roads, carrying places, and any land communications between said waters, whether within the line of the United States or that of his Majesty, together with the navigation of all waters and rivers in America, belonging to either party, may be made in a negotiation of a treaty of commerce.