The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume III Part 12

With the greatest respect, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

_P. S. October 28th._ I kept the packet in hopes of sending a more explicit account of what might be expected in regard to the supplies.

The express, which was daily expected from Spain, when I began this letter, arrived but a few days since. I am now informed, that Court is understood to be in treaty with the Congress in America, to furnish a sum of hard money there, and on that account excuses itself from sharing in the expense of furnishing these supplies. This has a little deranged the measures intended to be taken here, and I am now told, that the whole quant.i.ty of goods demanded can hardly be furnished, but that as soon as the Count returns from Marly, the Ministers will consult and do the best they can for us. The arms, I hear, are in hand at Charleville. I am unwilling to keep the packet any longer, lest she should arrive on our coasts too far in the winter, and be blown off. I therefore send away the despatches; but if I have the result of the Council in time to reach her by post, I will send it in a separate letter. The hearty good will of the ministry may be depended on; but it must be remembered, that their present expenses are enormous.

B. F.

TO JAMES LOVELL.

Pa.s.sy, October 17th, 1779.

Sir,

The foregoing is a copy of my last. I have now before me your several favors therein mentioned, viz. of June 13th, July 9th and 16th, and August 6th. I received the Journals of Congress from January 1st to June 12th, which you took care to send me; but the volumes 1 and 2, which you mention, are not yet come to hand. I hear they are at Madrid. I know not how they came there, nor well how to get them from thence. Perhaps you can easier send me another set.

As I hear of the arrival of the Chevalier de la Luzerne, by whom I wrote a long letter to your Committee, I presume you have received it, and that it is not necessary to send more copies. By this opportunity I write largely to the President. You ask, "will no one, under a commission from the United States," &c. Enclosed I send you a copy of the instructions I gave to Commodore Jones, when it was intended to send with him some transports and troops to make descents in England.[19] Had not the scheme been altered, by a general one of a grand invasion, I know he would have endeavored to put some considerable towns to a high ransom, or have burnt them. He sailed without the troops, but he nevertheless would have attempted Leith, and went into the Firth of Edinburgh with that intention, but a sudden hard gale of wind forced him out again. The late provocations, by the burning of Fairfield and other towns, added to the preceding, have at length demolished all my moderation, and were such another expedition to be concerted, I think so much of that disposition would not appear in the instructions. But I see so many inconveniences in mixing the two nations together, that I cannot encourage any further proposal of the kind. This has ended better than I expected, and yet a mortal difference has arisen between Captains Jones and Landais, that makes me very uneasy about the consequences. I send you the journal of the cruise.

[19] See p. 77, of the present volume.

I am glad to understand, that Congress will appoint some person here to audit our accounts. Mine will give but little trouble, and I wish much to have them settled. And for the future, I hope I shall have none to settle but what relate to my expenses.

The quarrel you mention, between Mr Deane and Mr Lee, I have never meddled with, and have no intention to take any part in it whatever. I had and have still a very good opinion of Mr Deane, for his zeal and activity in the service of his country; I also thought him a man of integrity. But if he has embezzled public money, or traded with it on his private account, or employed it in stockjobbing, all which I understand he is charged with, I give him up. As yet, I think him innocent. But he and his accusers are able to plead their own causes, and time will show what we ought to think of them.

I send you with this, a piece written by a learned friend of mine on the taxation of free States, which I imagine may give you some pleasure. Also a late royal edict, for abolishing the remains of slavery in this kingdom. Who would have thought, a few years since, that we should live to see a king of France giving freedom to slaves, while a king of England is endeavoring to make slaves of freemen.

There is much talk all over Europe of an approaching peace by the mediation of Russia and Holland. I have no information of it to be depended on, and believe we ought to lay our account on another campaign, for which I hope you will receive in time the supplies demanded. Nothing is wanting on my part to forward them; and I have the satisfaction to a.s.sure you, that I do not find the regard of this Court for the Congress and its servants in any respect diminished. We have just heard from Norway, that two of the most valuable prizes taken by the Alliance, Captain Landais, in the squadron of Commodore Jones, are safe arrived at Bergen, viz. the ship from London to Quebec, laden with naval stores, and that from Liverpool to New York and Jamaica. They were letters of marque, of twentytwo guns and eightyfour men each; I wish we may get them safe to America. The squadron itself is got into Holland, with the two prize men of war, where they are all refitting. Great damage has been done to the English coal trade, and four hundred prisoners have been taken, which will more than redeem the rest of our people from their captivity in England, if we can get them safe from Holland to France; but I suppose the English will endeavor to intercept us, and recover their ships, if possible.

With great esteem for yourself and the Committee, I have the honor to be, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

TO R. BERNSTORF, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN DENMARK.

Pa.s.sy, December 22d, 1779.

Sir,

I have received a letter from M. de Chezaulx, Consul of France at Bergen in Norway, acquainting me that two ships, viz. the Betsey and the Union, prizes taken from the English on their coasts by Captain Landais, Commander of the Alliance frigate, appertaining to the United States of North America, which prizes having met with bad weather at sea, that had damaged their rigging, and had occasioned leaks, and been weakly manned, had taken shelter in the supposed neutral port of Bergen, in order to repair their damages, procure an additional number of sailors, and the necessary refreshments; that they were in the said port enjoying, as they conceived, the common rights of hospitality, established and practised by civilized nations under the care of the above said Consul, when, on the 28th of October last, the said ships, with their cargoes and papers, were suddenly seized by officers of his Majesty, the King of Denmark, to whom the said port belongs; the American officers and seamen turned out of their possession, and the whole delivered to the English Consul.

M. de Chezaulx has also sent me the following as a translation of his Majesty's order, by which the above proceedings are said to be authorised, viz. "The English Minister having insisted on the rest.i.tution of two vessels, which had been taken by the American privateer called the Alliance, commanded by Captain Landais, and which were brought into Bergen, viz. the _Betsey_ of Liverpool, and the _Union_ of London, his Majesty has granted this demand on this account, because he has not as yet acknowledged the independence of the Colonies a.s.sociated against England, and because that these vessels for this reason cannot be considered as good and lawful prizes. Therefore, the said two ships shall be immediately liberated and allowed to depart with their cargoes." By a subsequent letter from the same Consul, I am informed, that a third prize belonging to the United States, viz. the _Charming Polly_, which arrived at Bergen after the others, has also been seized and delivered up in the same manner; and that all the people of the three vessels, after being thus stripped of their property, (for every one had an interest in the prizes) were turned on sh.o.r.e to shift for themselves, without money, in a strange place, no provision being made for their subsistence, or for sending them back to their country.

Permit me, Sir, to observe on this occasion, that the United States of America have no war but with the English; they have never done any injury to other nations, particularly none to the Danish nation; on the contrary, they are in some degree its benefactors, as they have opened a trade of which the English made a monopoly, and of which the Danes may now have their share, and by dividing the British Empire, have made it less dangerous to its neighbors. They conceived, that every nation whom they had not offended was by the rights of humanity their friend; they confided in the hospitality of Denmark, and thought themselves and their property safe when under the roof of his Danish Majesty. But they find themselves stripped of that property, and the same given up to their enemies, on this principle only, that no acknowledgment had yet been formally made by Denmark of the independence of the United States; which is to say, that there is no obligation of justice towards any nation with whom a treaty, promising the same, has not been previously made. This was indeed the doctrine of ancient barbarians, a doctrine long since exploded, and which it would not be for the honor of the present age to revive, and it is hoped, that Denmark will not, by supporting and persisting in this decision, obtained of his Majesty apparently by surprise, be the first modern nation, that shall attempt to revive it.[20]

[20] "The ancients," says Vattel, "did not conceive themselves bound under any obligation towards a people with whom they were not connected by a treaty of friendship. At length the voice of nature was heard by civilized nations; they acknowledged all mankind as brothers." An injustice of the same kind, done a century or two since by some English in the East Indies, Grotius tells us "was not without its partisans, who maintained, that by the ancient laws of England, no one was liable to punishment in that kingdom for outrages committed against foreigners, when no treaty of alliance had been contracted with them." But this principle he condemns in the strongest terms--_History of the Troubles in the Netherlands, Book 16th_.

The United States oppressed by, and at war with one of the most powerful nations of Europe, may well be supposed incapable in their present infant state of exacting justice from other nations not disposed to grant it; but it is in human nature, that injuries as well as benefits received in times of weakness and distress, national as well as personal, make deep and lasting impressions; and those Ministers are wise, who look into futurity and quench the first sparks of misunderstanding between two nations, which, neglected, may in time grow into a flame, all the consequences whereof, no human prudence can foresee, which may produce much mischief to both, and cannot possibly produce any good to either. I beg leave, through your Excellency, to submit these considerations to the wisdom and justice of his Danish Majesty, who I infinitely respect, and who, I hope, will reconsider and repeal the orders above recited, and that, if the prizes which I hereby reclaim in behalf of the United States of America, are not actually gone to England, they may be stopped and re-delivered to M.

de Chezaulx, the Consul of France at Bergen, in whose care they before were, with liberty to depart for America when the season shall permit.

But if they should be already gone to England, I must then claim from his Majesty's equity the value of the said prizes, which is estimated at fifty thousand pounds sterling, but which may be regulated by the best information that can by any means be obtained.

With the greatest respect, I am, Sir, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

TO DAVID HARTLEY.

Pa.s.sy, February 2d, 1780.

Dear Friend,

It is some time since I procured the discharge of your Captain Stephenson. He did not call here in his way home. I hope he arrived safely, and had a happy meeting with his friends and family.

I have long postponed answering your letter of the 29th of June. A princ.i.p.al point in it, on which you seemed to desire my opinion, was, the conduct you thought America ought to hold, in case her allies should, from motives of ambition or resentment of former injuries, desire her to continue the war, beyond what should be reasonable and consistent with her particular interests. As often as I took up your letter in order to answer it, this suggestion displeased me, and I laid it down again. I saw no occasion for discussing such a question at present, nor any good end it could serve to discuss it before the case should happen; and I saw inconveniences in discussing it. I wish therefore you had not mentioned it. For the rest, I am as much for peace as ever I was, and as heartily desirous of seeing the war ended, as I was to prevent its beginning; of which your Ministers know I gave a strong proof before I left England, when, in order to an accommodation, I offered at my own risk, without orders for so doing, and without knowing whether I should be owned in doing it, to pay the whole damage of destroying the tea at Boston, provided the acts made against that Province were repealed. This offer was refused. I still think it would have been wise to have accepted it. If the Congress have therefore intrusted to others rather than to me, the negotiations for peace, when such shall be set on foot, as has been reported, it is perhaps because they may have heard of a very singular opinion of mine, that there hardly ever existed such a thing as a bad peace, or a good war, and that I might therefore easily be induced to make improper concessions. But at the same time they and you may be a.s.sured, that I should think the destruction of our whole country, and the extirpation of our whole people, preferable to the infamy of abandoning our allies.

As neither you nor I are at present authorised to treat of peace, it seems to little purpose to make or consider propositions relating to it. I have had so many such put into my hands, that I am tired of them. I will however give your proposal of a ten years' truce this answer, that, though I think a solid peace made at once a much better thing, yet, if the truce is practicable and the peace not, I should be for agreeing to it. At least I see at present no sufficient reasons for refusing it, provided our allies approve of it. But this is merely a private opinion of mine, which perhaps may be changed by reasons, that at present do not offer themselves. This, however, I am clear in, that withdrawing your troops will be best for you, if you wish a cordial reconciliation, and that the truce should produce a peace. To show that it was not done by compulsion, being required as a condition of the truce, they might be withdrawn beforehand, for various good reasons. But all this is idle chat, as I am persuaded, that there is no disposition for peace on your side, and that this war will yet last many years. I know nothing and believe nothing of any terms offered to Sir Henry Clinton.

The prisoners taken in the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough being all treated for in Holland, and exchanged there, I hope Mr Brown's son is now safe at home with his father. It grieved me, that the exchange there, which you may remember I immediately proposed, was so long delayed. Much human misery might have been prevented by a prompt compliance; and so might a great deal by the execution of parole promises taken at sea; but since I see no regard is paid to them in England, I must give orders to our armed ships that cruise in Europe to secure their prisoners as well as they can, and lodge them in French or Spanish prisons. I have written something on this affair to Mr Hodgson, and sent to him the second pa.s.sport for a cartel to Morlaix, supposing you to be out of town. The number of prisoners we now have in France is not easily ascertained. I suppose it exceeds one hundred; yet you may be a.s.sured, that the number which may be brought over by the two cartels shall be fully exchanged, by adding to those taken by us as many as will make up the compliment out of those taken by the French, with whom we have an account since the exchange in Holland of those we carried in there. I wish therefore you would, as was proposed, clear your prisons of the Americans, who have been so long confined there. The cartels, that may arrive at Morlaix, will not be detained.

You may have heard, that accounts upon oath have been taken in America, by order of Congress, of the British barbarities committed there. It is expected of me to make a school book of them, and to have thirtyfive prints designed here by good artists, and engraved, each expressing one or more of the different horrid facts, to be inserted in the book, in order to impress the minds of children and posterity with a deep sense of your b.l.o.o.d.y, and insatiable malice and wickedness. Every kindness I hear of, done by an Englishman to an American prisoner, makes me resolve not to proceed in the work, hoping a reconciliation may yet take place. But every fresh instance of your devilism weakens that resolution, and makes me abominate the thought of a reunion with such a people. You, my friend, have often persuaded me, and I believed it, that the war was not theirs, nor approved by them. But their suffering it so long to continue, and the wretched rulers to remain who carry it on, makes me think you have too good an opinion of them.

Adieu, my dear friend, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

JAMES LOVELL TO B. FRANKLIN.

Philadelphia, February 24th, 1780.

Sir,

I forward the gazettes to Boston for you, as usual, without knowing when they will find a pa.s.sage from thence. Your letters of September the 30th, and one from Arthur Lee, of December the 8th, came to hand two days ago, your prior being May the 26th, received August the 17th.

I hope you have got newspapers from me often, though I have written few letters. The Commercial Committee is impressed with your sentiments respecting drafts. They are a mere name at present. I hope that branch will, for a time, be conducted by the Admiralty Board, till a new arrangement can be formed, to be executed by persons not members of Congress. We are about calling on the States according to their staples, so that the prospect of suitable remittances is enlarged. This plan is consequent upon a resolve of December the 14th.

I am, with great respect, Sir, &c.

JAMES LOVELL.

_P. S._ The Chevalier de la Luzerne expressed to me anxiety because we do not correspond in cypher. I early communicated to you from Baltimore a very good one, though a little tedious, like that of M.

Dumas. I enclose you a sample at this time.