_The Struggles of Diplomacy._
Anecdote of Gibbon--John Adams--Residence at
Passy--Lafayette introduced--Cruise of the Reprisal--Paul
Jones--Capture of Burgoyne--Alliance with France--Anecdote
of the Cake--Excitement in England--Franklin's introduction
to the king--Joy in America--Extraordinary letter of Count
Wissenstein--The reply--Injustice to Paul Jones--French
troops in America--Character of John Adams--Franklin's
mature views of human nature--Anecdote of the Angel--Capture
of Cornwallis--Its effect in England--Prejudices of Mr.
Jay--Testimony of Dr. Sparks--Jealousy of Franklin--Shrewd
diplomatic act--The treaty signed.
In the journey from Nantes to Paris, a curious incident occurred,
which is well worth recording. It so admirably illustrates the
character of two distinguished men, as to bear internal evidence of
its truthfulness. At one of the inns, at which Franklin stopped, he
was informed that Mr. Gibbon, the illustrious author of the "Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire," was also tarrying.
Mr. Gibbon was an Englishman. He was a deist, being in entire sympathy
with Franklin in his views of Christianity. He was also a man of
letters. Mr. Franklin addressed a very polite note to Mr. Gibbon,
sending his compliments, and soliciting the pleasure of spending the
evening with him. Mr. Gibbon, who was never renowned for amiability of
character, replied, in substance, we have not his exact words,
"Notwithstanding my regard for Dr. Franklin, as a man and a
philosopher, I cannot reconcile it with my duty to my king, to have
any conversation with a revolted subject."
Franklin responded to this by writing, "Though Mr. Gibbon's principles
have compelled him to withhold the pleasure of his conversation, Dr.
Franklin has still such a respect for the character of Mr. Gibbon, as
a gentleman and a historian, that when, in the course of his writing
the history of the 'Decline and Fall of Empires,' the decline and fall
of the British Empire shall come to be his subject, as will probably
soon be the case, Dr. Franklin would be happy to furnish him with
ample materials, which are in his possession."[28]
[Footnote 28: This anecdote has had a wide circulation in the
newspapers. Mr. William Cobbett inserts it in his "Works," with the
following comment, characteristic of the spirit of most of the higher
class of Englishmen, in those days:
"Whether this anecdote record a truth or not I shall not pretend to
say. But it must be confessed, that the expressions imputed to the two
personages were strictly in character. In Gibbon, we see the faithful
subject, and the man of candor and honor. In Franklin the treacherous
and malicious old Zanga, of Boston."--_Works of William Cobbett. Vol.
vii, p. 244._]
Gibbon was a Tory. He supported Lord North in all his measures. The
government rewarded him with a pension of eight hundred pounds a year.
This was equivalent to considerable more than four thousand dollars
at the present time. Franklin was received, in Paris, by the whole
population, court and _canaille_, with enthusiasm which that excitable
capital had rarely witnessed. The most humble of the population were
familiar with the pithy sayings of Poor Richard. The _savants_
admitted their obligations to him, for the solution of some of the
most difficult problems of philosophy. The fashionable world
were delighted with his urbanity; and in his society found rare
and unequalled pleasure. The republicans regarded him as the
personification of a free government; and even the nobles and the
ministry were cheered by the hope that, with his aid, haughty England
could be weakened and humbled, and that thus a new era of commercial
prosperity was about to dawn upon France.
John Adams was not popular in Paris. He was a man of great abilities,
of irreproachable character, and was animated by as pure principles of
patriotism as ever glowed in a human bosom. But he was a genuine
Puritan, inheriting the virtues and the foibles of the best of that
class. Though not wanting in magnanimity, he could not fail from being
disturbed, by the caresses with which Franklin was ever greeted,
contrasted with the cold and respectful courtesy with which he was
received. It was always the same, in the Court, in the saloons, and on
the Boulevards. In Mr. Adams' diary, written some years later, we find
the following insertion, which, in some degree, reveals his feelings.
He is recording a conversation with the French minister.
"All religions," said Marbois, "are tolerated in America.
The ambassadors have a right, in all the courts of Europe,
to a chapel in their own way. But Mr. Franklin never had
any."
"No," said I laughing, "because Mr. Franklin has no----"
I was going to say what I did not say, and will not say
here. I stopped short, and laughed.
"No," said M. Marbois. "Mr. Franklin adores only great
Nature; which has interested a great many people of both
sexes in his favor."
"Yes," said I laughing, "all the atheists, deists and
libertines, as well as the philosophers and ladies are in
his train."[29]
[Footnote 29: Works of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 220.]
The English lords were exasperated by the reception France had given
Franklin. They fully comprehended its significance. France was in
sympathy with the Americans, in their heroic endeavor to escape from
the despotism of the British crown. Thus the traffic which had
enriched England, would be transferred to France.
Even the Earl of Chatham said, in one of the most eloquent of his
speeches,
"France, my lords, has insulted you. She has encouraged and sustained
America. And whether America be wrong or right, the dignity of
this country ought to spurn at the officiousness of the French
interference. The ministers and ambassadors of those who are called
rebels, are in Paris. In Paris they transact the reciprocal business
of America and France. Can there be a more mortifying insult? Can even
our ministers sustain a more humiliating disgrace? Do they dare to
resent it?"
Franklin was assailed in England, in innumerable pamphlets of abuse.
The sin of his youth still pursued him. Many an envenomed arrow
pierced his heart.[30]
[Footnote 30: This is a delicate subject, but it must not be ignored.
Mr. Parton writes,--"One penny-a-liner informed the public that Dr.
Franklin had a son, who, though illegitimate, was a much more honest
man than his father. As to the mother of that son, nothing was known
of her, except that her seducer let her die in the streets."
There was no end to those attacks. They were attended by every
exaggeration of malignity which hatred could engender. It is certain
that Franklin would have been saved from these woes could he, as a
young man, have embraced the _faith_ of the religion of Jesus, and
developed that _faith_ in his _practice_.]
But it must not be forgotten that there were many of the noblest men
in England, who were the warm friends of Franklin, and who cordially
espoused the American cause. Among these were Fox, Burke, Rockingham,
Shelburne, Chatham, Priestley and Price.
Many beautiful villages surrounded Paris. One of the most lovely,
embowered in foliage, was Passy. It is now included within the city
walls. It was then but two miles from the centre of the city. A
munificent friend of America, M. de Chaumont, invited Franklin to the
hospitality of one of his sumptuous mansions in that place. Franklin
accepted the invitation, assuring him that at the close of the war,
Congress would insist upon granting him a tract of land, in
recognition of his kindness to America in the hour of need.
Early in the year 1777, Franklin took up his residence at Passy, and
there he continued to reside while he remained in France. He lived
liberally, had an ample retinue of servants, and entertained his
guests with elegance. His annual expenditures were about thirteen
thousand dollars. This sum would then purchase twice the amount of
conveniences and luxuries which could be purchased by the same sum at
the present day. He had his own servants, and commanded a handsome
carriage with two horses.
Mrs. Adams writes, "With seven servants, and hiring a charwoman upon
occasion of company, we may possibly keep house. With less we should
be hooted at as ridiculous, and could not entertain any company."
Though Franklin took every thing by the smooth handle, he did not, on
that account, intermit any intensity of labor to accomplish his
purposes. There were then three American envoys in Paris, Franklin,
Deane, and Lee. Five days after the arrival of Franklin, they, on the
28th of December, 1777, held their first interview with the French
Minister, Count de Vergennes. They were received with all that
cordiality and courtesy which are marked characteristics of the French
people. But still the commissioners were embarrassed. The prospects of
America were doubtful. General Burgoyne was on the eve of sailing for
America with a formidable fleet, and an army of eight or ten thousand
highly disciplined troops. In the course of the conversation, the
minister said that France was not yet ready to enter into open
collision with England, and to declare war.
"But," said he, "if a _couple of millions_ of francs, to be repaid
without interest after the war, will be of use to you, they are at
your service. Only do not say that you had it from _us_."
This was indeed, under the doubtful circumstances, a very generous
offer. It was at this dark hour that the noble Lafayette decided to
consecrate his fortune, and to peril his life, for the cause of
American freedom. It was proclaimed that Burgoyne's expedition was
fitted out to rouse the slaves to insurrection, and to lay the
mansions of the planters in ashes. Arthur Lee was very much alarmed.
These splendid estates were generally situated in romantic spots, upon
the banks of the navigable rivers, where the dwellings, often quite
magnificent, could easily be demolished by shot and shell thrown from
any frigate.
The Reprisal, Captain Wickes, was the first American vessel of war
which ventured into European waters. The channel swarmed with British
vessels. The Reprisal took prize after prize, and conveyed them into
Nantes. As France was not at war with England, Count de Vergennes was
compelled to order the Reprisal, with her prizes, to leave the harbor.
Captain Wickes took some of the Nantes merchants on board his vessel,
and, just outside the port, sold the prizes to them. The French
merchants then returned, with their property, into the harbor.
Captain Wickes soon united with him the Lexington of fourteen guns,
and a cutter, the Dolphin, of ten guns. With this little fleet the
hero sailed completely around Ireland, capturing or destroying sixteen
prizes. The British were astounded at this audacity. Merchants and
under-writers were quite terror-stricken. They had never dreamed that
the despised Americans could strike _them_ any blows. And when, soon
after, Paul Jones, one of the noblest of all naval heroes, appeared in
their waters, it is not too much to say that _consternation_ pervaded
the coasts of both England and Ireland.[31]
[Footnote 31: The wonderful achievements of this patriot are fully
recorded in one of the volumes of this series.]
It requires many and aggravated wrongs to rouse a naturally amiable
man to the highest pitch of indignation. But when thus roused, he is
ready for any vigor of action. Franklin's blood was up. England was
bribing slaves to murder their masters; was rousing the savages to
massacre the families of poor, hard-working frontiersmen; was wantonly
bombarding defenceless seaports, and with inhumanity, rarely known in
civilized warfare, was laying villages in ashes, consigning women and
children to beggary and starvation. In the prison hulks of New York,
our most illustrious men were in the endurance, as prisoners of war,
of woes unsurpassed by Algerine barbarism. Many of our common
sailors, England was compelling, by the terrors of the lash, to man
her ships, and to fight their own countrymen. Maddened by these
atrocities, Mr. Franklin wrote to his English friend, David Hartley, a
member of Parliament, a letter, which all the few friends of America
in England, read with great satisfaction, and which must have produced
a very powerful moral impression in France. It is too long to be
inserted here. In conclusion he said to his friend,
"In reviewing what I have written, I found too much warmth in
it, and was about to strike out some parts. Yet I let them
go, as it will afford you this one reflection,
"'If a man naturally cool, and rendered still cooler by old
age, is so warmed by our treatment of his country, how much
must those people in general be exasperated against us. And
why are we making inveterate enemies, by our barbarity, not
only of the present inhabitants of a great country, but of
their infinitely more numerous posterity; who will, in
future ages, detest the name of Englishman, as much as the
children in Holland now do those of Alva and Spaniard.'"
William Temple Franklin inherited the attractions of person, and the
fascination of manners, so conspicuous in his grandfather. He was a
great favorite in the social circles of the gay metropolis. Dark days
came, with tidings of discomfiture. Franklin devoted twelve hours out
of the twenty-four, to the arduous duties of his mission. Philadelphia
fell.
"Well, Doctor," said an Englishman in Paris, with the customary
courtesy of his nation, "Howe has taken Philadelphia."
"I beg your pardon," Franklin replied, "Philadelphia has taken Howe."
The result proved that Franklin's joke was almost a reality.
Burgoyne surrendered. His whole army was taken captive. Massachusetts
immediately sent John Loring Austin to convey the rapturous tidings to
Franklin. This great success would doubtless encourage France to open
action. No tongue can tell the emotions excited in the bosoms of
Franklin, Lee and Deane, as Austin entered their presence at Passy,
with the announcement, "_General Burgoyne and his whole army are
prisoners of war._"
There were no shoutings, no rushing into each other's arms. But tears
filled their eyes. They felt assured that France would come openly to
their aid, and that the independence of their country was no longer
doubtful. Silently they returned to Franklin's spacious apartment,
where they spent the whole day in reading the enrapturing dispatches,
and in preparing for immediate alliance with France. France made no
attempt to conceal its joy. A treaty of alliance was soon formed.
Nobly the Count de Vergennes said,
"We wish to take no advantage of your situation. We desire no terms
which you may hereafter regret having made; but would enter into
arrangements of mutual interest, which may last as long as human
institutions endure."
England was now greatly alarmed from fear that the trade of the
colonies might be transferred to France. Envoys were sent to Passy to
offer the American ambassadors everything they had demanded at the
commencement of the conflict. But it was too late. America now
demanded _Independence_, and would accept nothing less.
A large cake was one day sent to the ambassador's apartment, at Passy,
with the inscription "Le Digne Franklin," the worthy Franklin. Mr. Lee
said, "Well, Doctor, we have to thank you for our accommodations, and
to appropriate your present to our use."
"Not at all," said Franklin. "This cake is for all the Commissioners.
The French, not being able to write good English, do not spell our
names correctly. The meaning doubtless is Lee, Deane, Franklin."
The memorable treaty was signed on the 5th of February, 1778. It was
stated that the object of the treaty was to establish the independence
of the United States, and that neither party should conclude either
truce or peace with England, without the consent of the other.
Tidings of the treaty, which for a short time was kept secret, had
been whispered in England, causing intense excitement. On the 17th of
February, 1778, the House of Parliament was crowded. Lord North, amid
breathless silence, presented a "Conciliation Bill," granting
everything which Franklin had demanded. Fox, who was in the
Opposition, arose and announced the treaty. "The astonishment," writes
Walpole, "was totally indescribable."
Soon the fact of the treaty of alliance, was formally announced in
France. The American envoys were invited to an audience with the king.
Franklin was richly dressed. His hair was carefully arranged by a
French perruquier. He wore an admirably fitting suit of plain, black,
silk velvet. Ruffles of elaborate embroidery and snowy whiteness
adorned his wrists and bosom. White silk stockings aided in displaying
the perfect proportions of his frame. Large silver buckles were on his
shoes.
No one could accuse him of failing in due respect for the king, by
appearing in his presence in slatternly dress. His costume was superb,
and was such as was then worn, on important occasions, by American
gentlemen of the highest rank. The audience took place at Versailles,
on the morning of the 20th of March. Each of the American envoys rode
in his own carriage, attended by the usual retinue of servants. On the
way they were cheered with the utmost enthusiasm by the crowd. The
king, Louis XVI., received them with extreme courtesy, and the queen,
Marie Antoinette, was marked in her attentions to Franklin. The
British ambassador, Lord Stormont, was so enraged, that, regardless of
all the claims of courtesy, he immediately returned to England,
without even taking leave of the king.
Who can describe the exultation, the rapture, the tears, with which
these tidings were received by the patriots of America. On the 6th
of May, George Washington drew up his little band at Valley Forge,
to announce the great event, and to offer to God prayers and
thanksgivings. The tone of the English was immediately changed. They
abandoned threats and tried the effect of entreaties. Several
emissaries, from the government, approached Dr. Franklin, all bearing
in substance the same message. They said,
"We cannot endure the thought that our beloved colonists should enter
into alliance with our hereditary natural enemy, France. Can you, who
are Protestants, consent to unite with a nation of Roman Catholics? If
you will remain firm in your adhesion to England, we will grant you
all you ever wished for, and even more. But do not forsake your mother
country to swell the pride and power of perfidious France."
But all these efforts were unavailing. The colonists began to despise
England. They had no wish for war with their unnatural parent, and
they knew that their independence was assured; and that no efforts
which England could possibly make, could now prevent it. All alike
felt disposed to spurn the bribes which England so lavishly offered.
A very extraordinary letter was sent to Dr. Franklin, which was
signed, Charles de Wissenstein. Franklin, who was accustomed to
sifting evidence, became satisfied that the message came from king
George III. himself. The letter declared that the perfidious French
would certainly deceive the Americans with false promises, and defraud
them. After making the most liberal offers of popular rights, if the
Americans would continue to remain colonists under the British crown,
the document presented the following extraordinary promise to those
American patriots whom England had denounced as traitors, and doomed
to be hung. It was deemed a bribe which human virtue could not resist.
"As it is unreasonable that their (the American patriots)
services to their country should deprive them of those
advantages which their talents would otherwise have gained
them, the following persons shall have offices or pensions
for life, at their option, namely, Franklin, Washington,
Adams, Hancock, etc. In case his Majesty, or his successors,
should ever create American peers, then those persons, or
their descendants, shall be among the first created if they
choose it."
Franklin, after conference with his colleagues, replied to the letter.
His soul was all on fire with the insults our country had received,
and the wrongs she had endured. He wrote as if personally addressing
the king. We can only give the concluding paragraph. After stating
that the independence of America was secured, that all attempts of
England to prevent it would be impotent, and that consequently it was
quite a matter of indifference to the Americans whether England
acknowledged it or not, he wrote,[32]
"This proposition, of delivering ourselves bound and gagged,
ready for hanging, without even a right to complain, and
without a friend to be found afterward among all mankind,
you would have us embrace upon the faith of an Act of
Parliament. Good God! an act of your Parliament. This
demonstrates that you do not yet know us; and that you fancy
that we do not know you. But it is not merely this flimsy
faith that we are to act upon. You offer us hope, the hope
of PLACES, PENSIONS and PEERAGES.
"These, judging from yourselves, you think are motives
irresistible. This offer to corrupt us, sir, is with me,
your credential; and convinces me that you are not a private
volunteer in your application. It bears the stamp of British
Court character. It is even the signature of your king. But
think, for a moment, in what light it must be viewed in
America.
"By PLACES, you mean places among us; for you take care, by
a special article, to secure your own to yourselves. We must
then pay the salaries in order to enrich ourselves with
those places. But you will give us PENSIONS, probably to be
paid too out of your expected American revenue, and which
none of us can accept without deserving, and perhaps
obtaining, _suspension_.
"PEERAGES! Alas! in our long observation of the vast servile
majority of your peers, voting constantly for every measure
proposed by a minister, however weak or wicked, leaves us
small respect for that title. We consider it as a sort of
tar-and-feather honor, or a mixture of foulness and folly,
which every man among us, who should accept it from your
king, would be obliged to renounce, or exchange for that
confessed by the mobs of their own country, or wear it with
everlasting infamy."[33]
[Footnote 32: In reference to the promises contained in the letter,
Franklin referred to a book which it was said George III. had
carefully studied, called _Arcana Imperii_. A prince, to appease a
revolt, had promised indemnity to the revolters. The question was
submitted to the keepers of the king's conscience, whether he were
bound to keep his promises. The reply was,
"No! It was right to make the promises, because the revolt could not
otherwise be suppressed. It would be wrong to keep them, because
revolters ought to be punished."]
[Footnote 33: Sparks' Franklin, Vol. iii, p. 278.]
In the spring of 1778, Paul Jones entered upon his brilliant career,
bidding defiance, with his infant fleet, to all the naval power of
Great Britain, agitating entire England with the terror of his name.
Franklin was his affectionate friend, and, in all his many trials, he
leaned upon Franklin for sympathy. So tremendously was he maligned by
the English press, that American historians, unconsciously thus
influenced, have never done him justice. As a patriot, and a noble
man, he deserves to take rank with his friends, Washington and
Franklin.
In 1779, Lafayette, returning to France, from America, brought the
news that Franklin was appointed by Congress as sole plenipotentiary
of the new nation of the United States, to the generous kingdom, which
had acknowledged our independence, and whose fleets and armies were
now united with ours. All France rejoiced. With great eclat the new
ambassadors were presented to the king.
No man of force of character can escape having enemies. Franklin had
many and bitter ones. A cabal plotted the removal of his excellent
grandson, William Temple Franklin. It gives us an insight to the heart
of this venerable septuagenarian to read from his pen,
"It is enough that I have lost my son. Would they add my
_grandson_. An old man of seventy, I undertook a winter
voyage, at the command of Congress, with no other attendant
to take care of me. I am continued here, in a foreign
country, where, if I am sick, his filial attention comforts
me. And if I die, I have a child to close my eyes and take
care of my remains. His dutiful behavior toward me, and his
diligence and fidelity in business, are both pleasing and
useful to me. His conduct, as my private secretary, has been
unexceptionable; and I am confident the Congress will never
think of separating us."
Franklin's great endeavor now was to obtain money. Without it we
could have neither fleet nor army. The treasury of France was empty,
almost to bankruptcy. Never did he struggle against greater obstacles
than during the next three years. It has been truly said, that
Franklin, without intending it, helped to bleed the French monarchy to
death. In addition to the employment of both army and navy, the French
government conferred upon Congress, in gifts or loans, the sum of
twenty-six million francs.
The French troops were received in America with boundless enthusiasm.
Their discipline was admirable. Their respect for the rights of
property was such, that not a barn, orchard or hen-roost was robbed.
John Adams was sent to join Franklin, to aid him in framing terms of
peace, whenever England should be disposed to make such advances. He
was a man of great abilities, of irreproachable integrity, but he had
inherited, from his English ancestry, not only repulsive brusqueness,
but also a prejudice against the French, which nothing could remove.
His want of courtesy; his unconcealed assumption that France was
acting out of unmitigated selfishness, and that consequently the
Americans owed the French no debt of gratitude, often caused Franklin
much embarrassment. This blunt man, at one time wrote so uncourteous,
not to say insulting a letter, to M. de Vergennes, that the French
minister declined having any more correspondence with him. Both
Franklin and Congress condemned the incivility of Mr. Adams. He only
escaped a motion of censure from the full conviction of Congress of
the purity of his patriotism, and of his intentions.[34]
[Footnote 34: Mr. Jefferson, after an intimacy of seven months with
John Adams, in Paris, wrote of him: "He is vain, irritable, and a bad
calculator of the force and probable effect of the motives which
govern men. This is all the ill which can possibly be said of him. He
is as disinterested as the Being who made him."]
Franklin had been requested to forward the correspondence to Congress.
As in duty bound, he did so; accompanying it with a magnanimous
letter. Mr. Adams was very angry. Every impartial reader will admit
that, in this embarrassing affair, Franklin conducted with delicacy
and discretion. The British troops in America were still conducting
like savages. Congress requested Franklin to prepare a school-book,
with thirty-five prints, each depicting one or more of the acts of
English brutality. The object was to impress the minds of children
with a deep sense of the insatiable and bloody malice with which the
English had pursued the Americans. The plan was never executed.
In the year 1781, Franklin, then seventy-five years of age, and having
been engaged in public service for fifty years, wrote to Congress,
begging permission to retire from his responsible office. Congress
could not spare his services. They gave him an additional appointment.
He was commissioned to unite with Adams and Jay, in those negotiations
for peace which, it was evident, must soon take place.
Franklin loved the French, he could smile at their foibles, in
dressing their hair so that they could not wear a hat, but were
compelled to carry it under their arms; also in filling their noses
with tobacco. "These," said he, "are mere follies. There is nothing
wanting, in the character of a Frenchman, that belongs to that of an
agreeable and worthy man."
It may perhaps be mentioned, as a defect in the character of Franklin,
that when in France he could see nothing but the beautiful. His eye
was turned from every revolting spectacle. In the society of elegantly
dressed, highly educated, refined French ladies,--at dinner parties,
glittering with gold and silver plate,--in social intercourse with men
whose philosophical attainments were of the highest order, and whose
politeness of speech and bearing rendered them delightful companions,
Franklin found his time and thoughts engrossed. In all his voluminous
writings we find no allusion to those tremendous wrongs, which Louis
XIV. and Louis XV. had entailed upon the people,--wrongs which soon
convulsed society with the volcanic throes of the French revolution.
Jefferson, who succeeded Franklin, was cast in a different mould. He
saw and fully comprehended the misery under which the millions of the
French peasantry were groaning. And this led him to the conviction,
that no people could be safe, unless the government were placed in
their own hands.
Still Franklin, like his brother deists, Hume and Voltaire, seeing how
impotent were all the motives they could urge to make man virtuous,
became thoroughly disgusted with human nature. He even went beyond
Paul in his description of the hopeless depravity of man. The idea of
reclaiming him by his philosophy was abandoned entirely. And yet he
was not prepared to embrace that gospel, which the experience of ages
has proved to be the "wisdom of God and the power of God unto
salvation."
"He enlarges," writes Mr. Parton, "upon this theme, in his most
delightful manner, in another letter to Dr. Priestley." In this letter
he says in his usual jocular strain, that the more he studies the
moral part of nature the more he is disgusted; that he finds men very
badly constructed; that they are more prone to do evil than to do
good; that they take great pleasure in killing one another, and that
he doubts whether the species is worth preserving. He intimates that
every attempt to save their souls is "an idle amusement."
"As you grow older," he writes, "you may perhaps repent of having
murdered, in mephitic air, so many honest, harmless mice, and wish
that, to prevent mischief, you had used boys and girls instead of
them."
In this singular letter he represents a young angel having been sent
to this world, under the guidance of an old courier spirit. They
arrive over the seas of Martinico, in the midst of the horrible fight
between the fleets of Rodney and De Grasse.
"When," he writes, "through the clouds of smoke, he (the young angel)
saw the fire of the guns, the decks covered with mangled limbs and
bodies, dead or dying; the ships sinking, burning, or blown into the
air; and the quantity of pain, misery and destruction the crews, yet
alive, were with so much eagerness dealing round to one another, he
turned angrily to his guide and said,
"'You blundering blockhead; you are ignorant of your business. You
undertook to conduct me to the earth; and you have brought me into
hell.'
"'No sir,' said the guide, 'I have made no such mistake. This is
really the earth, and these are men. Devils never treat one another in
this cruel manner. They have more sense, and more of what men (vainly)
call humanity.'"
It was after the study of human nature, under the most favorable of
possible circumstances, for more than three-quarters of a century,
that this philosopher wrote these terrible comments upon our fallen
race.
The latter part of October, 1781, Lord Cornwallis surrendered his
whole army, of over seven thousand men, at Yorktown. The French fleet
cut off his escape by sea. Seven thousand French soldiers, united with
five thousand American troops, prevented any retreat by land. The
Americans had thus captured two British armies. It was in vain for
England to think of sending a third. The conflict was virtually
decided.
"The Prime Minister," Lord North, it is said, "received the tidings as
he would have taken a ball in his breast. He threw his arms apart. He
paced wildly up and down the room, exclaiming, from time to time, 'Oh
God! it is all over.'"
All England now was clamoring against the war. Thousands of persons
had perished in the campaigns, and financial embarrassments had come
to nearly all her institutions of industry. The English government
made vigorous endeavors, offering great bribes, to induce the American
envoys at Paris to abandon their French allies, and make a separate
peace. Franklin wrote to Mr. Hartley, through whom he received these
proposals,
"I believe there is not a man in America, a few _English
Tories_ excepted, that would not spurn the thought of
deserting a noble and generous friend, for the sake of a
truce with an unjust and cruel enemy."
British diplomacy tried all its arts of intrigue to separate America
from France in the negotiations for peace, but all in vain. The
British minister, Mr. Grenville, in an interview with Mr. Franklin,
ridiculed the idea that America owed France any gratitude, urging that
France sought only her own selfish interests.
"I told him," Franklin writes, "that I was so strongly
impressed with the kind assistance afforded us by France, in
our distress, and the generous and noble manner in which it
was granted, without exacting or stipulating for a single
privilege, or particular advantage to herself in our commerce
or otherwise, that I could never suffer myself to think of
such reasonings for lessening the obligation."
On the 28th of February, 1782, General Conway, one of the leaders of
the Opposition, the same who had moved the repeal of the stamp act,
seventeen years before, presented a resolution in the House of Commons
that,
"THE REDUCTION OF THE COLONIES BY FORCE OF ARMS IS
IMPRACTICABLE."
A violent, even fierce debate ensued, which was continued until one
o'clock in the morning. Then the cry of _question_ became general.
The vote was carried by a majority of nineteen. This terminated
the American war. The people of England had decided against it.
"Acclamations," writes Wraxall, "pierced the roof, and might have
been heard in Westminster Hall."
This great victory was followed by another resolve. It was an address
to George III. soliciting him to "Stop the prosecution of any further
hostilities against the revolted colonies, for the purpose of reducing
them to obedience by force."
Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, these votes were immediately
communicated to the king, who was in a pitiable condition, aged,
nearly blind, half crazed, and stubborn even to insanity, in his
determination to subjugate the Americans. The poor old man, in his
rage, threatened to abandon England, to renounce the crown, and to
cloister himself in his estate of Hanover. He was however compelled
to yield, to dismiss his Tory ministers and to accept a whig cabinet.
Edmund Burke wrote a warm, congratulatory letter to Franklin.[35]
[Footnote 35: Edmund Burke wrote to Dr. Franklin that "The motion was
the _declaration_ of two hundred and thirty four members; but it was
the _opinion_, he thought, of the whole house."]
And now the final struggle arose respecting the terms of peace. The
three great questions discussed, as diplomatic arrangements, were
gradually and very cautiously entered into, were: 1. What shall be the
boundaries of the United States. 2. Shall the Americans be allowed to
fish on the great banks. 3. What provision shall be made for the
Tories in America, whose estates have been confiscated?
There were many preliminary meetings, private, semi-official, and
official. There was a general impression that Franklin was the man
whose opinion would entirely control that of his countrymen. He was
approached in every way, and the utmost endeavors were made to induce
the American Commissioners to enter into a private treaty, without
consulting the French ministry.
A full account of the diplomatic conflict which ensued, would fill a
volume. On one occasion the British minister, Mr. Grenville, said,
"In case England grants America Independence."
The French minister, M. de Vergennes, smiled and said, "America has
already won her Independence. She does not ask it of you. There is Dr.
Franklin; he will answer you on that point."
"To be sure," Franklin said, "we do not consider it necessary to
bargain for that which is our own. We have bought our Independence at
the expense of much blood and treasure, and are in full possession of
it."
Many of these preliminary interviews took place in Paris. The amount
of money and blood which the pugnacious government of England had
expended in totally needless wars, can not be computed. The misery
with which those wars had deluged this unhappy globe, God only can
comprehend. Mr. Richard Oswald, a retired London merchant, of vast
wealth, was sent, by Lord Shelburne, prime minister, as a confidential
messenger, to sound Dr. Franklin. He was frank in the extreme.
"Peace," said he, "is absolutely necessary for England. The nation has
been foolishly involved in four wars, and can no longer raise money to
carry them on. If continued, it will be absolutely necessary to stop
the payment of interest money on the public debt."
Mr. Adams and Mr. Jay were soon associated with Dr. Franklin in these
negotiations. Mr. Jay was in entire sympathy with Mr. Adams in his
antipathy to the French. They both assumed that France was meanly
seeking only her own interests, making use of America simply as an
instrument for the accomplishment of her selfish purposes.[36]
[Footnote 36: Mr. Adams wrote, in his diary, November, 1782, "Mr. Jay
don't like any Frenchman. The Marquis de la Fayette is clever, but he
is a Frenchman."]
Dr. Jared Sparks, after carefully examining, in the Office of Foreign
Affairs in London, the correspondence of the French ministers with the
American envoys, during the whole war, writes,
"After examining the subject, with all the care and accuracy
which these means of information have enabled me to give to
it, I am prepared to express my belief, most fully, that Mr.
Jay was mistaken, both in regard to the aims of the French
court and the plans pursued by them to gain their supposed
ends."[37]
[Footnote 37: Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, V.
viii, p. 209.]
Mr. Jay was so insanely suspicious of the French, that he was afraid
that the French ministry would send spies, to pick the locks in his
lodgings, and steal his important papers. He therefore always carried
them about his person. He also believed that Count de Vergennes had
actually proposed to the British minister, that they should unite
their armies, seize the United States, and divide America between
them.
Such were the colleagues united with Franklin, in the negotiations for
peace. It required all his consummate wisdom to be able to guide
affairs wisely under such difficult circumstances. It may be doubted
whether there was another man in America, who could have surmounted
the obstacles over which he triumphed. Both of Franklin's colleagues
regarded him with suspicion. They believed that he had been won over
to such sympathy with the French, that he would be willing to
sacrifice the interests of his own country to please them. They wrote
letters home severely denouncing him; and they seemed to stand more in
fear of France than of England.
"Dr. Franklin," wrote Mr. Adams, "is very staunch against the
Tories; more decided, a great deal, upon that point, than Mr.
Jay or myself."
The British ministers insisted that the confiscated estates of the
American Tories should be restored to them, and all their losses
reimbursed. Franklin silenced the demand by drawing from his pocket
the following articles, which he proposed should be added to the
treaty,
"It is agreed that his Britannic Majesty will earnestly
recommend it to his Parliament, to provide for and make a
compensation to the merchants and shop-keepers of Boston,
whose goods and merchandise were seized and taken out of
their stores, ware-houses and shops, by order of General
Gage, and others of his commanding officers there; and also
to the inhabitants of Philadelphia for the goods taken away
by his army there; and to make compensation also for the
tobacco, rice, indigo and negroes seized and carried off by
his armies, under Generals Arnold, Cornwallis and others,
from the States of Virginia, North and South Carolina and
Georgia, and for all the vessels and cargoes belonging to
the inhabitants of the said United States, which were
stopped, seized or taken, either in the ports or on the
seas, by his governors or by his ships of war, before the
declaration of war against the United States. And it is
further agreed that his Britannic Majesty will also
earnestly recommend it to his Parliament to make
compensation for all the towns, villages and farms, burnt
and destroyed by his troops, or adherents in these United
States."
The three British commissioners were confounded by these counter
demands, and said not another word about reimbursing the American
Tories. On the 30th of November, 1782, the preliminaries were signed,
subject to the assent of the French ministers, who were also to submit
their preliminaries to the American envoys. By these articles: 1. The
boundaries were established. 2. The Americans could fish on the banks
of Newfoundland, and cure their fish on the unsettled shores of Nova
Scotia and Labrador. 3. Congress was to recommend to the several
States, to restore the confiscated property of real British subjects.
4. Private debts were to be paid. 5. There were to be no more
confiscations or prosecutions, on either side, for acts during the
war. 6. The British troops were to be withdrawn. 7. The navigation of
the Mississippi was declared to be free. 8. And any place captured,
after the signing of these articles, was to be restored.
On the 13th of January, Count de Vergennes, and the British minister
Mr. Fitzherbert, signed their preliminaries in the presence of Dr.
Franklin and Mr. Adams. Not till then did the English order
hostilities to be suspended, and declare the senseless war to be at an
end.
There was universal satisfaction in America. With the exception of the
king and a few of his ministers, there was general satisfaction in
England. It is true that the national pride was sorely humiliated. But
after all these woes which England had inflicted upon America, her own
statesmen, with almost undivided voice, declared that the interests of
both nations were alike promoted, by having a few feeble colonies
elevated into the rich and flourishing republic of the United States.
Thus the war of the American revolution must be pronounced to have
been, on the part of England, which forced it, one of the most
disastrous and senseless of those blunders which have ever accompanied
the progress of our race.[38]
[Footnote 38: Contemplate the still greater blunder of our civil war.
It was forced upon the nation by the slave traders, that they might
_perpetuate slavery_. And now after the infliction of woes which no
finite imagination can gauge, these very slave-holders declare with
one voice, that nothing would induce them to _reinstate the execrable
institution_. How much misery would have been averted, and what a
comparative paradise would our southern country now have been, if
before, instead of after the war, the oppressed had been allowed to go
free!]