Congress, that we are not surprised at not receiving any intelligence
from them. We learn too, from Havre, that despatches for us have been
intercepted at sea, so that we remain totally uninformed by authority
relative to the state of things in America. We hope the best, and if
the powers of Europe are not so totally blind to their own interest as
to refuse maintaining that freedom and enjoyment of our commerce,
which our declaration of Independence offers them, their support will
save us much distress and blood. The liberties, however, and
redemption which we work out through labor and endurance will be more
precious.
By accounts from London, the press for seamen produces little, though
their merchant ships are stopped in their ports, and insurance from
Jamaica, with convoy, is risen to twentyfive per cent. During the last
war it never amounted to more than seven.
Our cruisers, therefore, appear to do their duty. Had we anything of a
fleet to assist them, England would soon repent of a war, they have so
unjustly engaged in, and from which they have not wisdom to retreat.
No nation seems more interested in opening our commerce, by abolishing
the British monopoly, than the Dutch. The carrying trade by which they
flourish must be greatly increased by the change. It would also very
infallibly reduce that natural power and superiority at sea, which the
English exercise with so much insolence, and the sinews of which are
derived from America by their usurpation and tyranny; and yet, such is
the pusillanimity of the times, the States are crouching to the
English, and in effect aiding them in confirming that tyranny and
those advantages. It is astonishing, that the smallest power in Europe
should fear Great Britain, at a time when she is set at defiance by
America alone, yet in its infancy, and laboring under so many
disadvantages.
I wish you every happiness, &c.
ARTHUR LEE.
FOOTNOTES:
[26] A journey to Spain.
* * * * *
B. FRANKLIN TO C. W. F. DUMAS.
Paris, January 29th, 1777.
My dear friend may be assured, that the omission of writing to him for
so long a time either by Mr Deane, or myself, was not in the least
owing to any want of respect, or change of sentiment towards him, but
merely from the extreme hurry we have been engaged in ever since my
arrival, which has prevented our writing to many other of our
correspondents. I now enclose several letters, one of which was
written by me when in Philadelphia, and sent via Martinique; Mr Deane
has but this day received it; another that I wrote soon after my
arrival, which has been mislaid.
I hope you and yours are in good health, and good spirits, as we are,
not doubting of the success of our affairs, with God's blessing. We
have nothing to complain of here.
I have taken a lodging at Passy, where I shall be in a few days, and
hope there to find a little leisure, free from the perpetual
interruption I suffer here, by the crowds continually coming in, some
offering goods, others soliciting offices in our army, &c. I shall
then be able to write you fully. Be of good cheer, and do not believe
half what you read in the English gazettes.
With great esteem, I am ever,
B. FRANKLIN.
* * * * *
WILLIAM LEE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.
London, March 21st, 1777.
Sir,
Government here has received within these ten days past, several
expresses from General Howe, at New York, in North America, as late as
the 19th of last February, which are, in every respect, very
disagreeable indeed. He writes in severe terms against General
Heister, whom he calls _an old woman_ in the field, and a stupid and
incorrigible blockhead in the cabinet; he also says, that the Hessians
and other Germans are the worst troops under his command, and are not
fit to be trusted in any business; he has, therefore, desired several
particular English officers to be sent to command them; some of them
that he has pointed out have refused to go on such a forlorn hope; but
General Burgoyne, much against his will, is, it seems, obliged to go,
and one Colonel Charles Gray, who was only a Lieutenant-Colonel upon
half pay, has agreed to go, being appointed to a regiment, with the
rank of a Major-General in America.
General Howe has with some difficulty and considerable loss got his
troops back to New York, that had attempted to make good their
situation at Brunswick, in the Jersies. He has recalled the greater
part of those troops that had been sent to Rhode Island. At New York
they were in the greatest distress for all kinds of fresh provisions
and vegetables; at the same time, a fever, similar to the plague,
prevailed there, that in all probability before the Spring will carry
off to the Elysian shades, at least one half of the troops that remain
there, and prepare an immediate grave for the Germans, and all the
other troops that are about to be sent to that infected place. At the
same time we learn that the American army under General Washington
increases in numbers every day, and being accustomed to the climate,
have kept the field in all the severe weather. Notwithstanding this
melancholy prospect of affairs, our papers talk of a foreign war, but
in my opinion we are in no condition to engage in one, for you may be
assured, that we have not in the kingdom sailors enough to man fifteen
ships of the line, though you may see thirty or forty ships put in
commission, as the public prints will tell you. And as to soldiers,
the draft for America has been so great, that we have not ten thousand
in the whole island, yet our Ministers have lately attempted to bully
the States of Holland by a high flying memorial relative to the
conduct of some of their governors in the West Indies. It might,
however, be attended with very serious consequences if the Hollanders
were to take their money out of the English funds.
WILLIAM LEE.
_P. S._ If you please, insert the foregoing in the Dutch, Brussels,
Francfort and Hamburg papers.
* * * * *
SILAS DEANE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.
Paris, April 2d, 1777.
Sir,
Mr Carmichael, who has regularly corresponded with you, has given you
the salutation from time to time for myself. I have really had no
leisure for several months to write a single letter, but what the
instant necessity of the time required, and am much obliged to you for
the regular information we have through him from you. Enclosed I send
you a bill for one thousand florins, which you will receive, and
credit the Congress for the same. As you have said nothing, at any
time, on the subject of your disbursements for the Congress, the
Commissioners are ignorant of your situation in that respect, and have
desired me to send you the enclosed bill, and to ask of you to favor
them with the general state of your disbursements, and to assure you
that they are too sensible of the services you are rendering their
country, to wish you to remain without an adequate reward. We have no
intelligence of any kind from America since the 1st of March last, and
you have been informed of the situation of our affairs at that time.
I am, &c.
SILAS DEANE.
* * * * *
TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
The Hague, April 12th, 1777.
Gentlemen,
The letter of the date of October 24th, 1776, with which you have
honored me, did not arrive till the 4th of February of this year.
Sensible, as I ought to be, Gentlemen, of the great honor you do me in
charging me to continue with you the correspondence, which Dr Franklin
commenced and maintained with me on the affairs of the United States,
I am only able to repeat, what I have written to him and to the
honorable Committee of Foreign Affairs, of which he was then a member,
that I will ever impose on myself a sacred law to answer your
confidence and expectation. You will have here annexed a copy of
letters, which have been written to me by the French Ministers at the
Hague, the Abbe Desnoyers and the Duc de la Vauguyon. You will easily
conjecture the contents of those, which I wrote to them, and which are
too long to recite here; moreover, a copy of the whole was not
preserved.
As to what you add, Gentlemen, that my expenses and labors shall be
reimbursed and compensated, I have the honor to say to you, that I
should esteem myself the most happy of men, in being able to make
without return all the advances and services of which you have need,
to sustain this memorable war. The Supreme Being, who sees the depth
of my heart, is witness to the truth of this sentiment in all its
extent. But to my great regret, although without shame, I avow myself
as poor in means as rich in good will. The draft remitted to me by Dr
Franklin, of one hundred pounds sterling, on London, has been paid. On
the other hand, since I received Dr Franklin's letter and the orders
of the Committee, I have not hesitated to sacrifice to a commission so
important, so honorable, and so agreeable to my principles and taste,
not only a small running pension of sixty pounds, which a bookseller
paid me for a part of my time, that was devoted to a work, an account
of which I communicated to Dr Franklin some years since, but also
about seventy pounds, which I have already received for part of the
work delivered, without which, considering my other actual duties, it
would have been impossible for me to have time to attend to the
execution of these orders. If I add to this at least fifty pounds,
that I have spent in postages, travelling charges, and other expenses,
I find myself at this time seventy pounds at least in advance. But I
should be very sorry, Gentlemen, that what I say here, should turn you
an instant from the important duties requiring your constant
attention. For the same reason, I have been unwilling to interrupt
with these details the occupations of our gentlemen at Paris. If
(which God forbid) America have not the success which my heart
desires, her misfortunes will afflict me infinitely more than my loss.
But if, on the contrary, I shall have the satisfaction to see liberty
established and her prosperity secured, I doubt not she will render me
an ample indemnity and reward.
I have the honor to be, &c.
DUMAS.
* * * * *
WILLIAM CARMICHAEL TO C. W. F. DUMAS.
Paris, April 28th, 1777.
Sir,
Although nothing new has happened to us here worthy of notice, I take
up my pen merely to assure you, that our want of punctuality is not
owing to want of friendship or respect. To entertain you with
continued complaints of the inactivity of the European powers, is a
subject which I wish to banish as much from my thoughts, as I do our
enemies from our country. We are now acting a play which pleases all
the spectators, but none seem inclined to pay the performers. All that
we seem likely to obtain from them is applause. When I say all, I mean
anything that will materially help our cause. This campaign will
decide the fate of the war, though it may not finish it. The want of
resolution in the House of Bourbon to assist us in the hour of
distress will be an argument with our people, if successful, to form
no binding connexions with them. If conquered, they will follow the
conduct of the unsupported Scots, in the war of 1745.
In the meantime, they, to secure the little assistance which other
Princes may be induced to give them, must offer a share of that
commerce to others, which France might have wholly to itself. England
is now offering to relinquish a share of a lucrative commerce to
France, on condition that the latter shuts its ports against us. But a
few weeks ago an English agent assured me, that the English
Administration saw through the designs of the House of Bourbon, saw
that they meant to weaken us both, and by that means command us, and
he offered every security America could wish, to preserve its
liberties as they stood in the year 1763, and a repeal of such acts as
bound their trade previous to that, only that they must so far comply
with the King's humor, as not to give up his sovereignty, which would
be of no use to him, were the privileges of the Americans extended to
the latitude mentioned.
To be the instrument of inducing my countrymen to accept these terms,
the possession of an affluent income was offered to be secured to me
in any part of the world I chose, whether successful or not in the
attempt. You may judge how our conference ended. One reason why I am
induced to stay in Europe is, that I should be obliged to give, in
America, a faithful account of the situation of their affairs in
Europe; as I am sure that the picture would be worth more to England,
than their subsidies to your hero, the Margrave of Hesse. We shall
never be the subjects of the British Crown, I believe, but unless
openly assisted by a power in Europe, we shall be an impoverished
people, unable to distress our enemies abroad, or to assist our
friends. I am so confident myself of the interior weakness of England,
that I would sacrifice my life on the issue, that if France, Spain,
and the Emperor, would only agree to acknowledge the independence of
the United States, there would not be occasion to strike a blow; from
that moment the credit of England would be no more inspirited by such
a resolution taken in our favor in Europe; we would drive her armies
from America, and soon her fleets from our coasts; but these generous
resolutions subsist not in European politics. I hoped to have soon
seen you, but your last letter, and one from Sir George Grand, have
altered my resolution on that head. I have been laboring here to put
you in such a situation as to enable you to follow the dictates of
your own generous hearts in serving us more effectually, but the
torpedo has struck us too.
Adieu,
WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.
* * * * *
THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO C. W. F. DUMAS.
Philadelphia, May 8th, 1777.
Sir,
We have received your several favors to the first of May,[27] and
shall always have a grateful memory of your sentiments and exertions
in our cause. But as we have new Commissioners settled in France, we
think it needless that you should be at the trouble of forwarding to
us from time to time, that collection of papers, which we formerly
mentioned to you. We shall inform our friends at Paris of our opinion
on this head, and leave it to them to point out the way in which your
zeal may be most useful to them and us, with the least degree of
trouble to yourself and injury to your domestic interests.
The humility of the Count de Welderen's Memorial seems to have been
followed by some positive orders to our disadvantage in the West
Indies. We doubt not you will continue to give our Commissioners at
Paris the fullest information on all such points, from whom we shall
consequently obtain it.
We have the honor to be, &c.
BENJ. HARRISON,
ROBERT MORRIS,
JAMES LOVELL.
FOOTNOTES:
[27] Thus in the original, but probably an error in the month, as this
letter is dated on the eight of May.
* * * * *
WILLIAM CARMICHAEL TO C. W. F. DUMAS.
Paris, May 9th, 1777.
Sir,
At length we have an opportunity of discovering, what we have long
imagined, the arts which the English government has made use of to
circulate their various falsehoods through Europe, respecting their
affairs in America. Their packet from Hardwick to Helvoetsluys is
fallen into our hands, with every letter from the Ministry and others,
though I make no doubt, that they will give out, that their most
important letters are saved. Such a report will answer more ends than
one. It will set at peace the alarmed consciences, or rather
apprehensions of their correspondents. We have it under Lord Suffolk's
Secretary's hands, Mr Fraser, and Mr Eden, that government had no
advices from New York on the last of April, but that at this
particular period, when the eyes of all the world would be upon them,
viz. when opening the budget, it was necessary to toss out a tub to
the whale, for which reason it was thought necessary to ---- General
Washington, and to put Mr Dickenson at the head of five thousand men,
in the lower counties of Delaware. A very curious reason is given for
promulgating the latter lie, that the less probability there appears
to be in it, the more readily the world will believe it; for will they
imagine that Ministers dare circulate what no one will imagine true?
And they appeal to former untruths of similar absurdity, which had
their effect, and when found false were overlooked by the indulgent
public.
The line of Sir Joseph Yorke's conduct is marked and curious, as well
as that of their Minister at _another Court_; our plan did not wholly
take effect, or we should have had his despatches likewise.
The miserable Prince of Hesse affords his friends in England some
merriment, but he can make use of the old adage,--_let them laugh who
win_. He has the absurdity to be angry with your Gazetteer of Utrecht,
and the English news writers; and his Minister there is ordered to
complain on the subject. The reflections of the English Minister, Lord
Suffolk, on this complaint, are as curious as they are just, and merit
well reaching the Prince. If he bribes me with a part of his
slave-money, he shall have the letter at length, signed "Suffolk." I
always said, and have now proof positive before me, that in the height
of English arrogance and success, their Chatham-aping Minister, Lord
George Germain, meant to hold the same language to France, that they
unfortunately did to Holland, and were prepared, should this Court
show the least refractoriness, to begin the same game they played in
1756. An open war they have never feared from France, for they were
well assured that would not be the case, but the French preparation
gave them a good excuse for arming completely, and for drawing money
from the people, and the American Minister, Lord George Germain, was
too shrewd to let slip an opportunity. We paid so much respect to your
States, that we would not seize Sir Joseph Yorke's messenger in the
packet from Helvoetsluys, for we could have boarded her with as much
ease as the others.
I have not time to communicate the thousand little particulars, which
have lately been inspected by me, but hope to have a future
opportunity of doing it. Our captain, being in search of bank bills,
and bills of exchange, did not pay much attention to _personages_, for
which I am heartily vexed; however, good nature must make allowances.
This matter will occasion a little bustle, perhaps a great deal. I had
rather be sent home to fight manfully, or to make peace politically,
than to be in this miserable shilly-shally way here. I have the
pleasure to acquaint you that Hopkins's squadron, all but two, have
got to sea, so that Sir Peter Parker may write information to the
Ministry, and this will be giving a good account of them as he
promised. Our levies went on swimmingly, and had the Howes, sent out
from here, arrived there when it was intended they should, we should
have pushed Howe again to Halifax.
I am, &c.
WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.
* * * * *
B. FRANKLIN TO C. W. F. DUMAS.
Passy, near Paris, May 12th, 1777.
Sir,
Last night we received a packet from North America with some advices,
of which I send you the substance. I see your letters now and then to
Mr Deane and Mr Carmichael, and thank you for the kind mention made of
me in them. I am so bad a correspondent, that I do not desire a letter
from you directly.
But I am nevertheless, with great esteem, dear Sir, your affectionate
friend,
B. FRANKLIN.
_P. S._ I suppose Mr Deane has sent you the bill.
* * * * *
TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
Amsterdam, May 16th, 1777.
Gentlemen,
I send you, with some gazettes, an extract of my last despatch, and a
piece entitled "_Advice to the Hessians_," which, having passed about
in manuscript through this country, was afterwards printed in a
handbill, and at length inserted in the periodicals. The day before
yesterday, the 14th, the bookseller Rey received from the Hague the
following note, which he immediately sent to me at a country house,
where I am residing, thinking I might know the person interested,
which I do not. "Mr Rey is desired to inform the author of '_Advice to
the Hessians_' to quit Holland immediately. Orders are despatched to
arrest him." I am not at present at the Hague, but as soon as I shall
be able to return thither I will inform myself of this affair. In the
meantime I think it is false that they have given such orders, and
that this letter was only written to intimidate, as was that written
from Cassel to one of our journalists.
I am sorry not to be able to devote all my time to your service. I
might contract many connexions and acquaintances, and make some
useful journeys, profiting by favorable circumstances and moments both
at the Hague and Amsterdam, which I am now obliged to let escape, not
being able to go and remain as long as is necessary in these cities.
I have the honor to be, &c.
DUMAS.
* * * * *
SILAS DEANE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.
Paris, June 7th, 1777.
Sir,
I understand that the British Minister's emissaries are very busy in
Holland propagating reports of an accommodation between the Congress
and Great Britain. They are playing the same game here. I have long
since been convinced that there is no action too atrocious for them to
attempt, nor any report too ridiculous and improbable for them to
propagate to serve their purposes. The last authentic intelligence
from Congress, or from New York, was about the 10th of April, when
there was not the least prospect of any accommodation. The sole
overture that had been made was a hint, I may say, from General Lee,
that Lord and General Howe wished to renew a conference with the
Congress, and to open a treaty, to which the Congress replied they
would neither confer nor treat till their independence should be
acknowledged. You will therefore see at once how very little ground
there is for such kind of assertions.
I have seen such strange and unexpected events, as well as been
witness to such extraordinary conduct, that I am almost beyond being
surprised at anything; yet should an accommodation take place between
those contending nations, whilst the Congress have the least prospect
of foreign succor and support, I confess I shall be greatly surprised.
But if the British Ministry, as they roundly assert, are assured that
no power in Europe will countenance the United States in their
independence, and if they can bring the Congress to believe the same,
who will be surprised if they make terms, and accommodate, rather than
hazard longer a contest with the most formidable power in Europe, and
its allies, without prospect on their part of aid or support? I say,
who will be surprised, or rather who will not be surprised, should
they still persist in continuing the war unsupported? However, I, who
know my countrymen perfectly, and the principles by which they are
actuated, do not believe they will ever accommodate on terms lower
than independence; yet in the same situation, and with the same offers
made them, I am certain any other people in the world would
accommodate.
You are not to impute what I say to vanity. I am not raising my
countrymen above every other nation in the world; far from it; but
they are a new people, and have certain notions, that are either new
in the world, or have been so long unpractised upon, and unheard of,
except in the speculations of philosophers, that it is difficult,
perhaps impossible, to compare them with any other nation.
Unprejudiced reason, and plain common sense, will enable the few to
judge; but the many, the ninetynine of one hundred at least, will
determine as usual by the event. I am not fond of bold assertions or
predictions, but I dare hazard my credit upon it, that either no
accommodation on any terms will take place, or, if it does, a war in
Europe will be the immediate consequence; and I submit it to the
consideration of those Ministers and politicians, who are afraid to
offend Great Britain now, whilst America alone employs more than her
whole natural force, how they will be able to contend with her when at
peace and on good terms, perhaps in alliance with America.