The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume III Part 17

With this your Excellency will receive a copy of my last, dated May 31st, the original of which, with copies of preceding letters, went by the Alliance, Captain Landais, who sailed the beginning of last month, and who I wish may arrive safe in America, being apprehensive that by her long delay in port, from the mutiny of the people, who after she was ready to sail refused to weigh anchor till their wages were paid, she may fall in the way of the English fleet now out, or that her crew, who have ever been infected with disorder and mutiny, may carry her into England. She had, on her first coming out, a conspiracy for that purpose, besides which, her officers and Captain quarrelled with each other, the Captain with Commodore Jones, and there have been so many broils among them, that it was impossible to get the business forward while she staid, and she is at length gone, without taking the quant.i.ty of stores she was capable of taking, and was ordered to take.

I suppose the conduct of that Captain will be inquired into by a Court Martial. Captain Jones goes home in the Ariel, a ship we have borrowed of government here, and carries one hundred and fortysix chests of arms, and four hundred barrels of powder. To take the rest of the stores, I have been obliged to freight a ship, which being well armed and well manned will, I hope, get in safe. The clothes for ten thousand men are, I think, all made up; there are also arms for fifteen thousand, new and good, with two thousand barrels of powder.

Besides this, there is a great quant.i.ty of cloth I have bought, of which you will have the invoices sent by Mr Williams; another large quant.i.ty purchased by Mr Ross; all going in the same ship.

The little authority we have here to govern our armed ships, and the inconvenience of distance from the ports, occasion abundance of irregularities in the conduct of both men and officers. I hope, therefore, that no more of those vessels will be sent hither, till our code of laws is perfected respecting ships abroad, and proper persons appointed to manage such affairs in the sea ports. They give me infinite trouble; and though I endeavor to act for the best, it is without satisfaction to myself, being unacquainted with that kind of business. I have often mentioned the appointment of a consul or consuls. The Congress have, perhaps, not yet had time to consider that matter.

Having already sent you, by different conveyances, copies of my proceedings with the Court of Denmark, relative to the three prizes delivered up to the English, and requested the instructions of Congress, I hope soon to receive them. I mentioned a letter from the Congress to that Court, as what I thought might have a good effect. I have since had more reasons to be of that opinion.

The unexpected delay of Mr Deane's arrival has r.e.t.a.r.ded the settlement of the joint accounts of the commission, he having had the chief management of the commercial part, and being therefore best able to explain difficulties. I have just now the pleasure to hear that the Fier Rodrique, with the convoy from Virginia, arrived at Bordeaux all safe except one tobacco ship, that foundered at sea, the men saved, and I have a letter from Mr Deane that he is at Roch.e.l.le, proposes to stop a few days at Nantes, and then proceed to Paris, when I shall endeavor to see that business completed with all possible expedition.

Mr Adams has given offence to the Court here, by some sentiments and expressions contained in several of his letters written to the Count de Vergennes. I mention this with reluctance, though perhaps it would have been my duty to acquaint you with such a circ.u.mstance, even were it not required of me by the Minister himself. He has sent me copies of the correspondence, desiring I would communicate them to Congress; and I send them herewith.[23] Mr Adams did not show me his letters before he sent them. I have, in a former letter to Mr Lovell, mentioned some of the inconveniences that attend the having more than one Minister at the same Court, one of which inconveniences is, that they do not always hold the same language, and that the impressions made by one, and intended for the service of his const.i.tuents, may be effaced by the discourse of the other. It is true, that Mr Adams's proper business is elsewhere, but the time not being come for that business, and having nothing else here wherewith to employ himself, he seems to have endeavored supplying what he may suppose my negotiations defective in. He thinks, as he tells me himself, that America has been too free in expressions of grat.i.tude to France; for that she is more obliged to us than we to her; and that we should show spirit in our applications. I apprehend that he mistakes his ground, and that this Court is to be treated with decency and delicacy. The King, a young and virtuous Prince, has, I am persuaded, a pleasure in reflecting on the generous benevolence of the action in a.s.sisting an oppressed people, and proposes it as a part of the glory of his reign.

I think it right to increase this pleasure by our thankful acknowledgments, and that such an expression of grat.i.tude is not only our duty, but our interest. A different conduct seems to me what is not only improper and unbecoming, but what may be hurtful to us. Mr Adams, on the other hand, who, at the same time means our welfare and interest as much as I, or any man can do, seems to think a little apparent stoutness, and a greater air of independence and boldness in our demands, will procure us more ample a.s.sistance. It is for the Congress to judge and regulate their affairs accordingly.

[23] These letters will be found in Mr Adams's Correspondence in the month of June, 1780.

M. de Vergennes, who appears much offended, told me yesterday that he would enter into no further discussions with Mr Adams, nor answer any more of his letters. He is gone to Holland to try, as he told me, whether something might not be done to render us less dependent on France. He says the ideas of this Court and those of the people in America are so totally different, that it is impossible for any Minister to please both. He ought to know America better than I do, having been there lately, and he may choose to do what he thinks will best please the people of America. But when I consider the expressions of Congress in many of their public acts, and particularly in their letter to the Chevalier de la Luzerne, of the 24th of May last, I cannot but imagine that he mistakes the sentiments of a few for a general opinion. It is my intention, while I stay here, to procure what advantages I can for our country, by endeavoring to please this Court; and I wish I could prevent anything being said by any of our countrymen here, that may have a contrary effect, and increase an opinion lately showing itself in Paris, that we seek a difference, and with a view of reconciling ourselves to England. Some of them have of late been very indiscreet in their conversations.

I have received, eight months after their date, the instructions of Congress relating to a new article for guarantying the fisheries. The expected negotiations for a peace appearing of late more remote, and being too much occupied with other affairs, I have not hitherto proposed that article. But I purpose doing it next week. It appears so reasonable and equitable, that I do not foresee any difficulty. In my next I shall give you an account of what pa.s.ses on the occasion.

The silver medal ordered for the Chevalier de Fleury, has been delivered to his order here, he being gone to America. The others for Brigadier General Wayne, and Colonel Stewart, I shall send by the next good opportunity.

The two thousand pounds I furnished to Messrs Adams and Jay, agreeable to an order of Congress, for themselves and Secretaries, being nearly expended, and no supplies to them arriving, I have thought it my duty to furnish them with further sums, hoping the supplies promised will soon arrive to reimburse me, and enable me to pay the bills drawn on Mr Laurens in Holland, which I have engaged for, to save the public credit, the holders of those bills threatening otherways to protest them. Messrs de Neufvilles of Amsterdam had accepted some of them. I have promised those gentlemen to provide for the payment before they become due, and to accept such others as shall be presented to me. I hear, and hope it is true, that the drawing of such bills is stopped, and that their number and value is not very great.

The bills drawn in favor of M. de Beaumarchais for the interest of his debt are paid.

The German Prince, who gave me a proposal some months since for furnishing troops to the Congress, has lately desired an answer. I gave no expectation that it was likely you would agree to such a proposal, but being pressed to send it to you, it went with some of my former letters.

M. Fouquet, who was employed by Congress to instruct people in making gunpowder, is arrived here, after a long pa.s.sage; he has requested me to transmit a memorial to Congress, which I do enclosed.

The great public event in Europe of this year, is the proposal by Russia of an armed neutrality for protecting the liberty of commerce.

The proposition is accepted now by most of the maritime powers. As it is likely to become the law of nations, _that free ships should make free goods_, I wish the Congress to consider, whether it may not be proper to give orders to their cruisers not to molest foreign ships, but conform to the spirit of that treaty of neutrality.

The English have been much elated with their success at Charleston.

The late news of the junction of the French and Spanish fleets, has a little abated their spirits; and I hope that junction, and the arrival of the French troops and ships in North America, will soon produce news, that may afford us also in our turn some satisfaction.

Application has been made to me here, requesting that I would solicit Congress to permit the exchange of William John Mawhood, a Lieutenant in the 17th regiment, taken prisoner at Stony Point, July 15th, 1779, and confined near Philadelphia, or if the exchange cannot conveniently be made, that he may be permitted to return to England on his parole.

By doing this at my request, the Congress will enable me to oblige several friends of ours, who are persons of merit and distinction in this country.

Be pleased, Sir, to present my duty to Congress, and believe me to be, with great respect, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

_P. S._ A similar application has been made to me in favor of Richard Croft, Lieutenant in the 20th regiment, a prisoner at Charlottesville.

I shall be much obliged by any kindness shown to that young gentleman, and so will some friends of ours in England, who respect his father.

B. F.

TO JAMES LOVELL.

Pa.s.sy, August 10th, 1780.

Sir,

I received on the 12th of June, 1780, copies of your several favors of April the 29th, 1779, June the 13th, 1779, July the 9th and 16th, August and September the 16th, 1779. You will see by this what delays our correspondence sometimes meets with. I have lately received two of fresher date, viz. February the 24th, and May the 4th. I thank you much for the newspapers and journals you have from time to time sent me; I endeavor to make full returns in the same way. I could furnish a mult.i.tude of despatches with confidential informations taken out of the papers I send you, if I chose to deal in that kind of manufacture; I know the whole art of it, for I have had several volunteer correspondents in England, who have in their letters for years together communicated to me secrets of state, extracted from the newspapers, which sometimes came to hand in those papers by the same post, and sometimes by the post before. You and I send the papers themselves. Our letters may appear the leaner, but what fat they have is their own.

I wrote to you the 17th of October, and the 16th of March, and have sent duplicates, some of which I hope got to hand. You mention receiving one of September the 30th, and one of December the 30th, but not that of October the 17th. The cypher you have communicated, either from some defect in your explanation, or in my comprehension, is not yet of use to me; for I cannot understand by it the little specimen you have written in it. If you have that of M. Dumas, which I left with Mr Morris, we may correspond by it when a few sentences are required only to be written in cypher, but it is too tedious for a whole letter.

I send herewith copies of the instruments annulling the 11th and 12th articles of the treaty.[24] The treaty printed here by the Court omitted them, and numbered the subsequent articles accordingly.

[24] For these instruments, see the Correspondence of the Commissioners in Paris, Vol. I. p. 432.

I write fully to the President. The frequent hinderances the Committee of Correspondence meet with in writing as a committee, which appear from the excuses in your particular letters, and the many parts of my letters, that have long been unanswered, incline me to think, that your foreign correspondence would be best managed by one secretary, who could write when he had an opportunity, without waiting for the concurrence or opinions of his brethren, who cannot always be got conveniently together. My chief letters will, therefore, for the future be addressed to the President, till further orders.

I send you enclosed some more of Mr Hartley's letters. He continues pa.s.sionately to desire peace with America, but wishes we could be separated from France.

With great esteem, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

JAMES LOVELL TO B. FRANKLIN.

Philadelphia, August 15th, 1780.

Sir,

Though I cannot procure the signatures of the Committee of Foreign Affairs at this moment, nor the resolve of Congress respecting bills to be drawn on you for one hundred thousand dollars, pa.s.sed two or three days ago, the bills payable at ninety days sight, yet I should be blameable if I did not thus far notify you. The breach upon our taxes at the southward by the possession, which the enemy have there, made this disagreeable step necessary for the express purpose of supporting General Gates in that department.

Notwithstanding the mention made in our journals long ago of giving you a Secretary, no vote has lately been taken for the purpose.

Mr Laurens will be able, on any questions from you in corresponding, to give you whatever the gazettes do not convey. I am, Sir, your most humble servant,

JAMES LOVELL, _For the Committee of Foreign Affairs_.

_P. S. August 27th, 1780._ I now add the resolves.

JAMES LOVELL TO B. FRANKLIN.

September 7th, 1780.

Sir,

With triplicate and duplicate of former dates I have to enclose to you some further proceedings of Congress, respecting bills of exchange drawn upon you, and to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of May the 31st. I think I can venture now to a.s.sure you, that not a single draft more will be made upon you, let the occasion be ever so pressing; but you must be entreated to work with all energy as to the past. You cannot conceive of the whole train of necessities, which led to such decisions, after what you had written. Congress have lately called for three millions more than formerly, estimating in silver, to be paid by the last of December. Nothing but the weight of taxes will put an end to the levity with which our currency is treated.