punctuality with which America has discharged her public debts was
shown under the first head. And the general good disposition of the
people to such punctuality has been manifested in their faithful
payment of _private_ debts to England, since the commencement of this
war. There were not wanting some politicians (in America) who proposed
_stopping that payment_, until peace should be restored, alleging,
that in the usual course of commerce, and of the credit given, there
was always a debt existing equal to the trade of eighteen months; that
the trade amounting to five millions sterling per annum, the debt must
be seven millions and a half; that this sum paid to the British
merchants would operate to prevent that distress, intended to be
brought upon Britain, by our stoppage of commerce with her; for the
merchants receiving this money, and no orders with it for further
supplies, would either lay it out in public funds, or in employing
manufactures to accumulate goods for a future hungry market in America
upon an expected accommodation, by which means the funds would be kept
up and the manufacturers prevented from murmuring. But _against this
it was alleged_, that injuries from ministers should not be revenged
on merchants; that the credit was in consequence of private contracts
made in confidence of good faith; that these ought to be held sacred
and faithfully complied with; for that, whatever public utility might
be supposed to arise from a breach of private faith, it was unjust,
and would in the end be found unwise, honesty being in truth the best
policy. On this principle the proposition was universally rejected;
and though the English prosecuted the war with unexampled barbarity,
burning our defenceless towns in the midst of winter, and arming
savages against us; the debt was punctually paid, and the merchants of
London have testified to the Parliament, and will testify to all the
world, that from their experience in dealing with us they had, before
the war, no apprehension of our unfairness, and that since the war
they have been convinced that their good opinion of us was well
founded. England, on the contrary, an old, corrupt government,
extravagant and profligate nation, sees herself deep in debt, which
she is in no condition to pay, and yet is madly and dishonestly
running deeper, without any possibility of discharging her debt but by
a public bankruptcy.
It appears, therefore, from the general industry, frugality, ability,
prudence, and virtue of America, that she is a much safer debtor than
Britain; to say nothing of the satisfaction generous minds must have
in reflecting, that by loans to America they are opposing tyranny, and
aiding the cause of liberty, which is the cause of all mankind.
* * * * *
TO DAVID HARTLEY, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT.
Passy, October 14th, 1777.
Dear Sir,
I received duly your letter of May 2d, 1777, including a copy of one
you had sent me the year before, which never came to hand, and which
it seems has been the case with some I wrote to you from America.
Filled, though our letters have always been, with sentiments of good
will to both countries, and earnest desires of preventing their ruin
and promoting their mutual felicity, I have been apprehensive that if
it were known that a correspondence subsisted between us, it might be
attended with inconvenience to you. I have therefore been backward in
writing, not caring to trust the post, and not well knowing who else
to trust with my letters. But being now assured of a safe conveyance,
I venture to write to you, especially as I think the subject such a
one as you may receive a letter upon without censure.
Happy should I have been, if the honest warnings I gave, of the fatal
separation of interests as well as of affections, that must attend the
measures commenced while I was in England, had been attended to, and
the horrid mischief of this abominable war been thereby prevented. I
should still be happy in any successful endeavors for restoring peace,
consistent with the liberties, the safety, and the honor of America.
As to our submitting to the government of Great Britain, it is vain to
think of it. She has given us, by her numberless barbarities, (by her
malice in bribing slaves to murder their masters, and savages to
massacre the families of farmers, with her baseness in rewarding the
unfaithfulness of servants, and debauching the virtue of honest
seamen, intrusted with our property) in the prosecution of the war,
and in the treatment of the prisoners, so deep an impression of her
depravity, that we never again can trust her in the management of our
affairs and interests. It is now impossible to persuade our people, as
I long endeavored, that the war was merely ministerial, and that the
nation bore still a good will to us. The infinite number of addresses
printed in your gazettes, all approving the conduct of your government
towards us, and encouraging our destruction by every possible means,
the great majority in Parliament constantly manifesting the same
sentiments, and the popular public rejoicings on occasion of any news
of the slaughter of an innocent and virtuous people, fighting only in
defence of their just rights; these, together with the recommendations
of the same measures by even your celebrated moralists and divines, in
their writings and sermons, that are still approved and applauded in
your great national assemblies, all join in convincing us, that you
are no longer the magnanimous enlightened nation we once esteemed you,
and that you are unfit and unworthy to govern us, as not being able to
govern your own passions.
But, as I have said, I should be nevertheless happy in seeing peace
restored. For though if my friends and the friends of liberty and
virtue, who still remain in England, could be drawn out of it, a
continuance of this war to the ruin of the rest would give me less
concern. I cannot, as that removal is impossible, but wish for peace
for their sakes, as well as for the sake of humanity, and preventing
further carnage.
This wish of mine, ineffective as it may be, induces me to mention to
you, that between nations long exasperated against each other in war,
some act of generosity and kindness towards prisoners on one side has
softened resentment, and abated animosity on the other, so as to bring
on an accommodation. You in England, if you wish for peace, have at
present the opportunity of trying this means with regard to the
prisoners now in your gaols. They complain of very severe treatment.
They are far from their friends and families, and winter is coming on,
in which they must suffer extremely, if continued in their present
situation; fed scantily on bad provisions, without warm lodging,
clothes, or fire, and not suffered to invite or receive visits from
their friends, or even from the humane and charitable of their
enemies.
I can assure you, from my own certain knowledge, that your people,
prisoners in America, have been treated with great kindness; they have
been served with the same rations of wholesome provisions with our own
troops, comfortable lodgings have been provided for them, and they
have been allowed large bounds of villages in the healthy air, to walk
and amuse themselves with on their parole. Where you have thought fit
to employ contractors to supply your people, these contractors have
been protected and aided in their operations. Some considerable act of
kindness towards our people would take off the reproach of inhumanity
in that respect from the nation, and leave it where it ought with more
certainty to lay on the conductors of your war in America. This I hint
to you, out of some remaining good will to a nation I once loved
sincerely. But as things are, and in my present temper of mind, not
being over fond of receiving obligations, I shall content myself with
proposing, that your government would allow us to send or employ a
commissary to take some care of those unfortunate people. Perhaps on
your representations this might speedily be obtained in England,
though it was refused most inhumanly at New York.
If you could have leisure to visit the gaols in which they are
confined, and should be desirous of knowing the truth relative to the
treatment they receive, I wish you would take the trouble of
distributing among the most necessitous according to their wants, five
or six hundred pounds, for which your drafts on me here shall be
punctually honored. You could then be able to speak with some
certainty to the point in Parliament, and this might be attended with
good effects.
If you cannot obtain for us permission to send a commissary, possibly
you may find a trusty, humane, discreet person at Plymouth, and
another at Portsmouth, who would undertake to communicate what relief
we may be able to afford those unfortunate men, martyrs to the cause
of liberty. Your king will not reward you for taking this trouble, but
God will. I shall not mention the gratitude of America; you will have
what is better, the applause of your own good conscience. Our captains
have set at liberty above two hundred of your people, made prisoners
by our armed vessels and brought into France, besides a great number
dismissed at sea on your coasts, to whom vessels were given to carry
them in. But you have not returned us a man in exchange. If we had
sold your people to the Moors at Sallee, as you have many of ours to
the African and East India Companies, could you have complained?
In revising 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 they 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_." This will certainly happen, unless your
conduct is speedily changed, and the national resentment falls, where
it ought to fall heavily, on your ministry, or perhaps rather on the
king, whose will they only execute.
With the greatest esteem and affection, and best wishes for your
prosperity, I have the honor to be, dear sir, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
* * * * *
TO JAMES LOVELL.
Paris, December 21st, 1777.
Sir,
I see in a vote of Congress, shown me by Captain Franval, that Mr
Deane is disowned in some of his agreements with officers. I, who am
upon the spot, and know the infinite difficulty of resisting the
powerful solicitations of great men, who if disobliged might have it
in their power to obstruct the supplies he was then obtaining, do not
wonder, that being then a stranger to the people, and unacquainted
with the language, he was at first prevailed on to make some such
agreements, when all were recommended, as they always are, as
_officiers expérimentés, braves comme leurs epeés, pleins de courage,
des talents, et de zèle, pour notre cause_, &c. &c in short mere
Cesars, each of whom would have been an invaluable acquisition to
America. You can have no conception how we are still besieged, and
worried on this head, our time cut to pieces by personal applications,
besides those contained in dozens of letters by every post, which are
so generally refused, that scarce one in a hundred obtains from us a
simple recommendation to civilities.
I hope, therefore, that favorable allowance will be made to my worthy
colleague, on account of his situation at the time, as he has long
since corrected that mistake, and daily approves himself to my certain
knowledge an able, faithful, active, and extremely useful servant of
the public, a testimony I think it my duty to take this occasion of
giving to his merit, unasked, as, considering my great age, I may
probably not live to give it personally in Congress, and I perceive he
has enemies.
You will see the general news in the papers in particular, I can only
say at present, that our affairs go well here, and that
I am, with much respect, Sir, &c
B. FRANKLIN[5]
[5] A letter from Dr Franklin to the President of Congress respecting
Mr Deane, dated March 31st, 1778 will be found in Mr Deane's
Correspondence, Vol I p 120
* * * * *
TO JAMES HUTTON.[6]
[6] This gentleman was for many years Secretary to the Society of
Moravians, and sustained a very estimable character. He seems to have
gone to Paris on some private agency with reference to a peace. An
intimate friendship subsisted between him and Dr Franklin. He died in
England, on the 25th of April, 1795, in his 80th year.
Passy, February 1st, 1778.
My dear old Friend,
You desired, that if I had no proposition to make, I would at least
give my advice.
I think it is Ariosto who says, that all things lost on earth, are to
be found in the moon; on which somebody remarked, that there must be a
great deal of good advice in the moon. If so there is a good deal of
mine formerly given and lost in this business. I will, however, at
your request give a little more, but without the least expectation,
that it will be followed; for none but God can at the same time give
good counsel, and wisdom to make use of it.
You have lost by this mad war, and the barbarity with which it has
been carried on, not only the government and commerce of America, and
the public revenues and private wealth arising from that commerce, but
what is more, you have lost the esteem, respect, friendship, and
affection of all that great and growing people, who consider you at
present, and whose posterity will consider you, as the worst and
wickedest nation upon earth. A peace you may undoubtedly obtain, by
dropping all your pretensions to govern us; and by your superior skill
in huckstering negotiation, you may possibly make such an apparently
advantageous bargain, as shall be applauded in your Parliament; but
if you cannot, with the peace, recover the affections of that people,
it will not be a lasting nor a profitable one, nor will it afford you
any part of that strength, which you once had by your union with them,
and might (if you had been wise enough to take advice) have still
retained.
To recover their respect and affection, you must tread back the steps
you have taken.
Instead of honoring and rewarding the American advisers and promoters
of this war, you should disgrace them; with all those who have
inflamed the nation against America by their malicious writings; and
all the ministers and generals who have prosecuted the war with such
inhumanity. This would show a national change of disposition, and a
disapprobation of what had passed.
In proposing terms, you should not only grant such as the necessity of
your affairs may evidently oblige you to grant, but such additional
ones as may show your generosity, and thereby demonstrate your good
will. For instance, perhaps you might, by your treaty, retain all
Canada, Nova Scotia, and the Floridas. But if you would have a real
friendly as well as able ally in America, and avoid all occasion of
future discord, which will otherwise be continually arising on your
American frontiers, you should throw in those countries. And you may
call it, if you please, an indemnification for the burning of their
towns, which indemnification will otherwise be some time or other
demanded.
I know your people will not see the utility of such measures, and will
never follow them, and even call it insolence and impudence in me to
mention them. I have, however, complied with your desire, and am, as
ever, your affectionate friend,
B. FRANKLIN.
_P. S. February 12th, 1778._ I wrote the above some time before I
received yours, acquainting me with your speedy and safe return, which
gave me pleasure. I doubted after I had written it, whether it would
be well to send it; for as your proud nation despises us exceedingly,
and demands and expects absolute and humble submission, all talk of
treaty must appear imprudence, and tend to provoke rather than
conciliate. As you still press me by your last to say something, I
conclude to send what I had written, for I think the advice is good,
though it must be useless; and I cannot, as some amongst you desire,
make propositions, having none committed to me to make; but we can
treat if any are made to us; which however we do not expect. I
abominate with you all murder, and I may add, that the slaughter of
men in an unjust cause is nothing less than murder; I therefore never
think of your present ministers and their abettors, but with the image
strongly painted in my view, of their hands, red, wet, and dropping
with the blood of my countrymen, friends, and relations. No peace can
be signed by those hands.
Peace and friendship will, nevertheless, subsist for ever between Mr
Hutton and his affectionate friend,
B.F.
* * * * *
TO DAVID HARTLEY.
Passy, February 12th, 1778.
Dear Sir,
A thousand thanks for your so readily engaging in the means of
relieving our poor captives, and the pains you have taken, and the
advances you have made for that purpose. I received your kind letter
of the 3d instant, and send you enclosed a bill of one hundred pounds.
I much approve of Mr Wren's prudent, as well as benevolent conduct in
the disposition of the money, and wish him to continue doing what
shall appear to him and to you to be right, which I am persuaded will
appear the same to me and my colleagues here. I beg you will present
him, when you write, my respectful acknowledgments.
Your "earnest caution and request, that nothing may ever persuade
America to throw themselves into the arms of France, for that times
may mend, and that an American must always be a stranger in France,
but that Great Britain may for ages to come be their home," marks the
goodness of your heart, your regard for us, and love of your country.
But when your nation is hiring all the cut-throats it can collect, of
all countries and colors, to destroy us, it is hard to persuade us not
to ask or accept aid from any power, that may be prevailed with to
grant it; and this only from the hope, that though you now thirst for
our blood, and pursue us with fire and sword, you may in some future
time treat us kindly. This is too much patience to be expected of us;
indeed I think it is not in human nature.
The Americans are received and treated here in France with a
cordiality, a respect, and affection they never experienced in England
when they most deserved it; and which is now (after all the pains
taken to exasperate the English against them, and render them odious
as well as contemptible) less to be expected there than ever. And I
cannot see why we may not, upon an alliance, hope for a continuance of
it, at least as much as the Swiss enjoy, with whom France have
maintained a faithful friendship for two hundred years past, and whose
people appear to live here in as much esteem as the natives. America
has been _forced_ and _driven_ into the arms of France. She was a
dutiful and virtuous daughter. A cruel mother in law turned her out of
doors, defamed her, and sought her life. All the world knows her
innocence, and takes her part; and her friends hope soon to see her
honorably married. They can never persuade her return and submission
to so barbarous an enemy. In her future prosperity, if she forgets and
forgives, it is all that can be reasonably expected of her. I believe
she will make as good and useful a wife as she did a daughter, that
her husband will love and honor her, and that the family, from which
she was so wickedly expelled, will long regret the loss of her.
I know not whether a peace with us is desired in England; I rather
think it is not at present, unless on the old impossible terms of
submission and receiving pardon. Whenever you shall be disposed to
make peace upon equal and reasonable terms, you will find little
difficulty, if you get first an honest Ministry. The present have all
along acted so deceitfully and treacherously, as well as inhumanly,
towards the Americans, that I imagine, that the absolute want of all
confidence in them will make a treaty, at present, between them and
the Congress impracticable.
The subscription for the prisoners will have excellent effects in
favor of England and Englishmen. The Scotch subscriptions for raising
troops to destroy us, though amounting to much greater sums, will not
do their nation half so much good. If you have an opportunity, I wish
you would express our respectful acknowledgments and thanks to your
committee and contributors, whose benefactions will make our poor
people as comfortable as their situation can permit. Adieu, my dear
friend. Accept my thanks for the excellent papers you enclosed to me.
Your endeavors for peace, though unsuccessful, will always be a
comfort to you, and in time, when this mad war shall be universally
execrated, will be a solid addition to your reputation.
I am ever, with the highest esteem, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
_P. S._ An old friend of mine, Mr Hutton, a chief of the Moravians,
who is often at the Queen's palace, and is sometimes spoken to by the
King, was over here lately. He pretended to no commission, but urged
me much to propose some terms of peace, which I avoided. He has
written to me since his return, pressing the same thing, and
expressing with some confidence his opinion, that we might have
everything short of absolute independence, &c. Enclosed I send my
answers open, that you may read them, and if you please copy, before
you deliver or forward them. They will serve to show you more fully my
sentiments, though they serve no other purpose.
B. F.
* * * * *
TO DAVID HARTLEY.
Passy, February 26th, 1778.
Dear Sir,
I received yours of the 18th and 20th of this month, with Lord North's
proposed bills. The more I see of the ideas and projects of your
Ministry, and their little arts and schemes of amusing and dividing
us, the more I admire the prudent, manly, and magnanimous propositions
contained in your intended motion for an address to the King. What
reliance can we have on an act expressing itself to be only a
declaration of the _intention_ of Parliament, concerning the
_exercise_ of the right of imposing taxes in America, when in the bill
itself, as well as in the title, a right is supposed and claimed,
which never existed; and a _present intention_ only is declared not to
use it, which may be changed by another act next session, with a
preamble, that this _intention_ being found expedient, it is thought
proper to repeal this act, and resume the exercise of _the right_ in
its full extent. If any solid permanent benefit was intended by this,
why is it confined to the Colonies of North America, and not extended
to the loyal ones in the sugar islands? But it is now endless to
criticise, as all acts that suppose your future government of the
Colonies can be no longer significant.
In the act for appointing Commissioners, instead of full powers to
agree upon terms of peace and friendship, with a promise of ratifying
such treaty as they shall make in pursuance of those powers, it is
declared, that their agreements shall have no force nor effect, nor be
carried into execution till approved of by Parliament; so that every
thing of importance will be uncertain. But they are allowed to
proclaim a cessation of arms, and revoke their proclamation, as soon
as in consequence of it our militia have been allowed to go home; they
may suspend the operation of acts, prohibiting trade, and take off
that suspension when our merchants, in consequence of it, have been
induced to send their ships to sea; in short, they may do everything
that can have a tendency to divide and distract us, but nothing that
can afford us security. Indeed, Sir, your Ministers do not know us. We
may not be quite so cunning as they, but we have really more sense,
as well as more courage, than they have ever been willing to give us
credit for; and I am persuaded, these acts will rather obstruct peace
than promote it, and that they will not answer in America the
mischievous and malevolent ends for which they were intended. In
England they may indeed amuse the public creditors, give hopes and
expectations, that shall be of some present use, and continue the
mismanagers a little longer in their places. _Voila tout!_
In return for your repeated advice to us, not to conclude any treaty
with the House of Bourbon, permit me to give (through you) a little
advice to the whigs in England. Let nothing induce them to join with
the tories in supporting and continuing this wicked war against the
whigs of America, whose assistance they may hereafter want to secure
their own liberties; or whose country they may be glad to retire to
for the enjoyment of them.
If peace, by a treaty with America upon equal terms, were really
desired, your Commissioners need not go there for it; supposing, as by
the bill they are empowered "to treat with such person or persons, as
in their wisdom and discretion they shall think meet," they should
happen to conceive, that the Commissioners of the Congress at Paris
might be included in that description.
I am ever, dear Sir, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
_P. S._ Seriously, on further thoughts, I am of opinion, that if wise
and honest men, such as Sir George Saville, the Bishop of St Asaph,
and yourself, were to come over here immediately with powers to treat,
you might not only obtain peace with America, but prevent a war with
France.
* * * * *
TO JAMES HUTTON.