encouragement by bounties given by the Parliament of Britain, aided by
the influence of the King's Governors in the Colonies, we had never
adopted the cultivation of it in any degree worth consideration; that
we had continued to import it through Great Britain in very great
quantities; that scarce any vessel ever came from thence without
bringing more or less of it; that it had never become an article of
exportation, unless possibly in some instances for the purpose of
recovering bounties; that the people were averse to its cultivation,
as it not only required a good soil, which could be more profitably
imployed in raising grain, but impoverished it very fast; that grain
was one of our capital articles; that by means of it we kept up a
profitable commerce with all the West Indies, as well as with some of
the more southern parts of our continent; that further, it would be
the policy of America, whenever circumstances should turn her
attention to manufactures, to begin upon the coarse woollens in
preference to linens of any kind, and to that end to promote the
increase of wool, rather than of flax or hemp; that a system of this
sort coincided perfectly with the cultivation of grain, as it
contributed to fill the country with provisions, to render labor
cheaper, and to afford further supplies for the above foreign markets;
and that our lands instead of being injured, would be much meliorated
by such means.
By arguments of this kind, pursued into their details, and such as are
contained in those reflections, I have endeavored, I hope with some
good effect, to dissipate any apprehensions of the abovementioned
rivalry. This had become an object of consequence to us, as this
rivalry was maintained by both friends and foes, though with very
different views. I will explain myself hereafter upon this point.
Our latest intelligence from America, comes by the way of Iceland, and
in substance is, that the ship of war the Princess Caroline, had
arrived there last from Charleston; that she was at Savannah on the
30th of June; that the garrison had received orders to evacuate that
post; that on the 1st of July transports had arrived there from
Charleston to take them off; that she carried Governor Wright to
Charleston, where she arrived the 3d of July; that all was then quiet
there, but that General Carleton had determined to evacuate that place
also, and to keep possession of St Augustine. Thus it is generally
supposed here, that those two posts have been evacuated by the British
to reinforce New York and their Islands, and that New York is
besieged, as we learn further by the way of London, that Vaudreuille
had sailed with twenty ships of the line for our continent, supposed
with the design of covering the siege of that place. As to military
operations in Europe, Gibraltar now commands universal attention, and
it is believed that celebrated rock must soon change its masters, and
if so, that this will smooth the way to peace.
I have the honor to be, &c.
FRANCIS DANA.
_P. S._ I do not write to you in your cyphers, because, since your
last copy is missing, I think the reasons against doing it are
stronger than when I wrote my last.
* * * * *
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
St Petersburg, October 14th, 1782.
Sir,
I should have done myself the honor of writing to you before this day,
but I have been so much indisposed ever since the date of my last,
that I have been unable to do it. Notwithstanding the difficulties I
have had upon my mind, and have expressed in my letters of September
29th, and October 1st, I have hazarded writing to you in your cypher,
to communicate the matter contained in my last. It may be proper to
acquaint you, that the reasons urged in support of that project, were
in writing and annexed to it, that I read the whole carefully, and
immediately upon my return home reduced it to writing from my memory,
more at large than I have given it to you, having in my communication
expressed myself in as few words as possible, preserving the substance
only, to save unnecessary trouble in cyphering and decyphering. This
is what is alluded to where it is said "this rivalry was maintained by
both friends and foes, though with very different views."
As you have the matter now before you, if I did not feel myself under
any restraint, it would be needless for me to trouble you with any
particular observations of my own upon it, because you will at once
discern its effects upon our present interests here, as well as upon
our commerce and navigation in future, should the scheme be carried
into execution, of which I believe there is now no probability, the
plan mentioned in my letter of March 30th, particularly that part of
it contained in the clause beginning "perhaps solidly" and ending with
"protection" seems to be opening upon us. I have never entertained an
idea, that her Imperial Majesty, or any other of the neutral powers,
would take a part in the present war. The probability of her doing so
is, if possible, much weaker than before.
Her attention will be turned to another quarter, and we may see a war
break out against the Turks, in which the Emperor may be concerned
likewise. Many movements tend to this end. An army of a hundred and
sixty thousand Russians are ordered to assemble at Kersant, a new
fortified village in New Russia, situated on the western side of the
Dnieper or Borysthenes, at about fourteen leagues from Oczakow, a well
fortified town of the Turks, famous in the war of 1736, situated at
the mouth of the same river, and opposite to Kinburn, a port which
Russia obtained at the last peace, but which is exposed to the sudden
attacks of the Turks from Oczakow. Eighteen regiments, amounting to
about twentyfive thousand men, have already arrived at Kersant, and
the residue, or as great a part as can be collected, will be at that
rendezvous in March next. The restoration of the deposed Khan of the
Crimea is the declared object of this great force; but I am told that
revolution has been effected by the intrigues of the Court of St
Petersburg, to raise a pretext for this movement, and to cover the
real object in view, and that the campaign next year will open with
the siege of Oczakow. I pretend not to be certain about this
particular information, but I give it to you as what appears to me not
to be improbable.
The Russian Ministers are in general Ante-Gallicans, and have, since
the exit of Count Panin, sought to divide or lessen the enemies of
Great Britain. Hence the most extraordinary proceedings to bring or
rather to drive the United Provinces into a separate peace with Great
Britain, (which have not yet ceased,) and hence all the patient
acquiescence in her attempt to make a particular peace with the United
States, though repugnant to the propositions of the mediating Courts.
I believe they would have been well pleased, not only that their
partial mediation between Holland and Great Britain had succeeded, but
that the United States as an independent nation had made their own
peace with Great Britain, and left her to contend with the house of
Bourbon alone. From this general sketch of their system, you may be
enabled to account for many appearances.
I have the honor to be, &c.
FRANCIS DANA.
* * * * *
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
St Petersburg, November 1st, 1782.
Sir,
Conceiving that the most, if not the only profitable connexion, we can
form with this Empire, is of a commercial nature, I have, during my
residence here, turned much of my attention to learn in what manner we
can carry on a commerce with it, to our greatest benefit. In a former
letter I acquainted you, that rice and indigo were the principal of
our commodities adapted to this market; that it would be necessary,
therefore, for us, in order to maintain any considerable commerce with
this Empire, to do it by means of a circuitous navigation, and I
pointed out a course which I thought practicable. That, however, would
be absolutely annihilated, if the scheme, communicated in my letter of
October 1st, should be carried into execution.
It was not on that account alone that I was led to consider that
scheme in so serious a light. I found it a great obstacle in my way,
counteracting our immediate views, and aiming a blow at our interests,
in the only part where they were liable to, or might most easily be
injured and wounded. I was of course an obstacle in the way of that,
though at first without the least apprehension of its existence, and
it must necessarily have been supposed, that I should be so. How far
this may have influenced in certain matters, which I need not point
out for your information, I will not take upon me to say. I hope it
will not be thought I have already said too much upon it, or that I
have been unreasonably alarmed about it. There is not, I believe, the
least apprehension that I have come to the knowledge of it, or that I
have been in the way of obtaining the least information of it. While
things remain in this state, there will be no disagreeable
consequences from it. In my last, I have added some circumstances for
the explanation of this subject, as I thought it not advisable to say
anything upon it in my letter of October 1st, lest it might tend to
disclose it, if that letter should be intercepted at the office here.
One channel of my correspondence has been lately discovered, and a
letter written to me upon political subjects, was opened at the
office, and sent to me slightly sealed, that I might know it had been
opened there. Fortunately, it placed our affairs in a very favorable
light, and can do us no injury, but will serve to confirm the
representation I have constantly made of them.
There is another channel of commerce, which we may perhaps enter into
with equal or greater benefit to ourselves, and in which we shall have
great advantages, if I am not deceived, over all the nations of Europe
in this market; I mean through the West Indies, all the productions of
which (rum excepted) are brought here, after being carried into the
respective mother countries, where they are unloaded, deposited for a
considerable time, and loaded again before they are brought in here;
all which occasions a great increase of expense, and much enhances
their price. Now almost all our commodities find a ready market in the
islands. Would it not be practicable, therefore, for us to exchange
them there for the proper commodities of the islands, at proper
seasons of the year, and to proceed directly for this market? By such
means might we not be able to furnish them here at a much cheaper rate
than any of the Europeans can do it, and nearly as cheap as if they
were our own native productions--and might we not always be at this
market with them before they could be, or by the time they arrive in
their respective ports? Our want of proper commodities to carry on a
commerce with this country to any considerable extent, whose
productions we stand in great need of, should, and doubtless will,
make us look abroad for them. The Dutch have found it for their
advantage to take the commodities of the West Indies through France,
and to bring them on here, as well as the wines, brandies, &c. of that
country. I am sensible this is a matter of calculation, and that no
one but a thorough merchant, should pretend to decide upon it. I throw
out the matter therefore for consideration.
I have suggested this plan here, as one by means of which this Empire
might be furnished with all the productions of the West Indies, at a
much cheaper rate than the European nations can possibly supply them
through their respective European countries; and, besides this certain
advantage, they may obtain another as a consequence of that, of
infinite importance to this country, viz. that the Europeans seeing
their West India commodities undersold here by the Americans, may find
it necessary to set the commerce of these islands and countries free;
and to permit the productions of them to be exported directly to any
foreign ports in Europe, and that it is not improbable that such a
revolution in commerce will take place.
I have the honor to be, &c.
FRANCIS DANA.
* * * * *
ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO FRANCIS DANA.
Philadelphia, November 7th, 1782.
Dear Sir,
Since my last, a duplicate of which goes with this, I have been
favored with yours of March 5th and June 28th, by which I find some
of the inquiries made in my last answered. The reasons you have given
for not having taken any steps to display your public character are
judicious, and I hope will continue to influence your conduct till you
see the moment in which, with the advice of your correspondent, you
may do it to advantage.
You will continue to give us the politics of the Court you are at, and
of every other from which you can collect any authentic information,
which the enclosed resolution of the 17th of October makes more
peculiarly your duty.[25] I hope you have received the cypher I sent
to Mr Adams for you. Lest you should not, I enclose one. If you have
received either of the others, use the large printed one, which you
will find much safer than the other, as well as more easy in the
practice. The large one is also designed as a common cypher between Mr
Adams and you. So that you may communicate freely with each other,
from which you may find mutual advantages.
I also enclose several resolutions of Congress declaratory of their
determination in no event to conclude a peace without the concurrence
of their allies. As it is for the honor of the United States, that
their sentiments on this subject should be known, you will make such
communication of them as your prudence will direct. In my last, you
have a copy of Carleton and Digby's letter to General Washington, in
which they say, that they are authorised to declare that his
Britannic Majesty has proposed the unconditional independence of
America as preliminary to a peace. This change in the British system
places them in a truly contemptible light, since it is a direct
disavowal of their assertion. Carleton seems to feel this, if we may
judge by some expressions in the extracts I enclose you.
The campaign here is brought to a close, the army have gone into
winter quarters; the summer has passed in perfecting their discipline
and establishing a variety of arrangements, which rendered them, in
the opinion of well-informed foreign officers, equal in every point to
the best troops in Europe. The enemy are so perfectly conscious of
this, that they have never ventured beyond their lines, which they
have contracted considerably. We cannot yet hear that Charleston is
evacuated, though many arrangements had long since been made for that
purpose; it is improbable that the late change in the British system
has occasioned a change of sentiment upon this point, even after their
annunciation of such a design had driven out their partisans to take
protection from us and enlist under our banner, which was insisted
upon as a condition precedent to their being received into favor.
The enclosed resolution will inform you of the appointment of Mr
Boudinot to the rank of President in the room of Mr Hanson, whose year
had expired. The public prints which accompany this, will furnish you
with some articles of intelligence, which you may find interesting. I
informed you sometime ago, that the salaries of our Ministers would in
future be paid here, and I requested you to appoint an agent to
receive yours. The expense to which this would put you, would be amply
compensated by the profit on the purchase of bills and the regularity
of payment. I have taken upon me to act as your agent till I hear from
you; and my Secretary, Mr Morris, has hitherto transmitted bills to
you on Dr Franklin, on your account, bought at the rate of six
shillings and three pence this money for five livres, which makes a
saving to you of about twelve per cent. A letter from him containing a
state of your account and bills for the last quarter due, will be sent
with this.
I wish you to appoint an agent here, or direct me to appoint one for
you, as this is a troublesome business to me; particularly while I act
without knowing your sentiments on this subject. I have been induced
to undertake it, at the pressing instance of the Superintendent of the
Finances, and to render your payments more regular than I fear they
have hitherto been. No provision is made for your contingent expenses,
nor can there be, till you send me an account of them.
I have the honor to be, Sir, &c.
ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
FOOTNOTES:
[25] "Resolved, That the Secretary of Foreign Affairs inform the
several Ministers of the United States in Europe, that it is the
desire and the express direction of Congress, that they transmit full
and frequent communications as well of the proceedings of the Courts
at which they respectively reside, as those which relate to the
negotiations for peace, and also of all such other transactions and
events as may in any manner concern the United States."
* * * * *
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
St Petersburg, November 18th, 1782.
Sir,
When I was informed by Mr Adams, that Mr Jay had written to him from
Paris, that "the British Commissioner there had received full powers
to treat of a peace with the Commissioners of the United States," I
waited upon the French Minister to consult him on this special
occasion upon the expediency of communicating my powers to this
Court. It would be imprudent, through this channel, to go into the
reasons he assigned against it. It may be sufficient to say, I found
him strong in the opinion, that all attempts made prior to a peace
would be fruitless.
As his opinion is the rule by which I am to be governed in this case,
nothing can be attempted till the period arrives when we shall not
feel ourselves under strong obligations to any Sovereign in the world,
who should even make advances to form political connexions with us, or
acquire much eclat from any such connexions. I thought the opportunity
favorable when the only power, which had any pretence of right, to
contest our independence, had consented by so formal an act, to treat
with us upon the footing of a sovereign and independent State. The
consideration we should acquire by a political connexion with the
illustrious Sovereign of this empire during the war, and the
advantages we might reasonably expect to derive from it in our
negotiation for a peace, (for I have never considered independence as
our only object) have ever made me desirous, if possible, to effect it
during the war. Scarce any political measure of great importance can
be undertaken with "an absolute certainty of success." If, therefore,
upon mature deliberation, the state of things is found to be such,
that success is not improbable, and the benefits of it great and
permanent, while the disadvantages of a failure, comparatively
speaking, are small, and of a transient nature, in such a case it
should seem that the measure should be hazarded. Though I do not
believe this to be the very moment, in which her Imperial Majesty
would wish to form any political connexion with the United States, but
on the contrary, she would wish to postpone it till the conclusion of
the war, and be well pleased that no advances should be made on our
part till then; because this would afford her opportunity to claim
much merit of the Court of London, in having withheld any
encouragement to us, when at the same time not only any offence to the
United States would be avoided, but she might allege, without a
possibility of contradiction, that if an earlier application had been
made by them, she would have been happy to have had an occasion to
manifest her respect for them, and the early interests she took in
their concerns.
Nevertheless there is room to suppose, that if our propositions were
communicated while the British King is in fact treating with the
United States, as with an independent Sovereign power, that they would
not be rejected. And if they were received, this circumstance might be
productive of great benefit to our permanent interests. It would, in
all probability, bring on a declaration of our independence by some
other very considerable powers of Europe, particularly Sweden and
Russia. The neutral maritime powers would extend the protection of
their commerce and navigation to America, and no longer suffer their
flags to be insulted on our coasts. The Court of London would treat of
peace with more zeal and good faith. They would the more readily give
up certain claims and pretensions, which they will doubtless make upon
the United States, and would be exceedingly cautious how they broke
off any negotiations, which they had opened. In a word, we should
stand on a more advantageous and independent ground of treaty.
For the attainment of objects like these, had any discretionary power
been left me, I should have thought it clearly my duty to have made
the attempt here in this moment, as I now consider it to be my duty to
wait for the conclusion of the war, the period which is pointed out
to me as the only proper one, and when most certainly nothing will
remain to be hazarded.
If the present negotiations for a peace should happily succeed, I
shall have occasion for the money mentioned in my letter of September
5th, before I can expect an answer from Congress on that subject, and
I shall apply to Dr Franklin and Mr Adams to advance it between them.
It may not be amiss again to inform you, that by the express allowance
and order of her Majesty, there is to be paid by every power entering
into _any_ treaty with her, six thousand roubles to _each_ of her
Ministers signing the same; and it is now understood, that there shall
be four signatures on the part of her Majesty, viz. that of Count
Ostermann, the Vice Chancellor; Count Woronzow, the President of the
College of Commerce; M. Bakournin, Vice President of the College of
Finances, and M. Besborodko, Secretary of the Private Affairs, or
Particular Cabinet of her Majesty. Matters of this sort were formerly
secret and gratuitous. They have now changed, their nature become
public, and are demanded as of right, at least no treaty can be
otherwise obtained. And care is taken to make it the interest of most
powers, to form a commercial treaty with this Empire by declaring in
the new tariff, which is just published, that all nations not having
such a treaty shall pay the duties, one half in rix dollars, and the
other in the money of the country. This has heretofore, under the old
tariff, been the rule for all nations except the British, who by their
treaty obtained the right of paying _all_ the duties in the money of
the country. This privilege is extended to Denmark by their late
treaty, and will doubtless be made common to all nations, which shall
choose to enter into a commercial treaty with her Majesty, and thus
the British will lose the principal benefit of their treaty before it
expires, viz. 1786.
I have the honor to be, Sir, with great esteem, &c.
FRANCIS DANA.
* * * * *
ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO FRANCIS DANA.
Philadelphia, December 17th, 1782.
Sir,
Your distance, and the difficulty of conveying letters to you, make it
proper at times to take a retrospective view of what has passed, and
by that means of supplying in part such despatches as may have
miscarried.
The last year closed with important advantages gained over the
southern States. The winter was unproductive of any events in this
country that merit your attention.
The alteration in the British system of warfare in this country, in
consequence of their reduced strength, and in pursuance of the victory
obtained by the opposition in the House of Commons, has rendered the
campaign inactive on the part of the enemy, and the few posts they
possessed were so well fortified and garrisoned as to render an attack
by us, without the assistance of a fleet, very hazardous. The reasons
we had to hope for such assistance kept us from taking measures to act
offensively in proper time. But though the summer has passed off
without any brilliant military exploit, it has by no means been
unemployed. Such attention has been paid during these moments of
leisure to the discipline of the troops and recruiting the army, that
they are at this time more numerous than they have been at any period
during the war. So perfect are the officers and men in every military
manoeuvre, that we may, I believe, without vanity, boast to have an
army not inferior to any in Europe. We should not know how to give
this praise to our troops, but from the facility with which every
foreigner gives it, notwithstanding national prejudices.
Among the military events which mark this year, are the evacuation of
Savannah, and the measures taken for abandoning Charleston. The poor
wretches, whom fear or interest led to join the enemies of their
country, find themselves sufficiently punished to merit even our pity.
With blasted characters and ruined fortunes, they are seeking new
habitations under the line or near the pole. Numerous cargoes of them
are sent to the West Indies and Halifax, to St Augustine and
Penobscot.