appointment, and communicated to him as usual, a copy of my credential
letter, on which a day was named for my reception. A fit of the gout
prevented my attendance at that time, and for some weeks after, but as
soon as I was able to go through the ceremony I went to Versailles,
and was presented to the King, and received in all the forms. I
delivered the letter of Congress into his Majesty's own hands, who in
the most gracious manner expressed his satisfaction. And I have since
constantly attended the levee every Tuesday, with the other Foreign
Ministers, and have taken every proper occasion of repeating the
assurances I am instructed to give, of the grateful sentiments of
Congress, and their determined resolution to fulfil religiously their
engagements. Much pains is constantly taken by the enemy to weaken the
confidence of this Court in their new allies, by representing our
people as weary of the war, and of the government of Congress; which
body, too, they represent as distracted by dissensions, &c. but all
this has very little effect; and when on some occasions it has seemed
to make a little impression, and create some apprehensions, I have not
found it difficult to remove them. And it is my firm opinion, that
notwithstanding the great losses suffered by the commerce of this
kingdom, since the commencement of the war, the disposition of the
Court to continue it (till its purpose of establishing our
independence is completed,) is not the least changed, nor their regard
for us diminished.
The end of that part of the instructions, which relates to American
seamen, taken by the French in English ships, had already been
obtained, Captain Jones having had for some time an order from Court,
directed to the keepers of the prisoners, requiring them to deliver to
him such Americans as should be found in their hands, that they might
be at liberty to serve under his command. Most of them have
accordingly been delivered to him, if not all. The Minister of the
Marine, having entertained a high opinion of him, from his conduct and
bravery in taking the Drake, was desirous of employing him in the
command of a particular enterprise, and to that end requested us to
spare him, which we did, and sent the Ranger home, under the command
of his Lieutenant. Various accidents have hitherto postponed his
equipment, but he now has the command of a fifty gun ship with some
frigates, all under American commissions and colors, fitted out at the
King's expense, and will sail, it is said, about the 1st of June.
The Marquis de Lafayette was, with some land troops, to have gone with
him, but I now understand the Marquis is not to go, the plan being a
little changed. The Alliance being weakly manned at first, and the
Captain judging it necessary to be freed from thirtyeight of his men,
who had been concerned in a conspiracy, and unwilling to take French
seamen, I thought it best to send him directly home, as his ship might
be of some protection to the vessels then about sailing to America,
and Mr Adams, who was desirous of returning soon, might be
accommodated with a passage in a swift sailing vessel. I accordingly
offered her as a convoy to the trade at Nantes, but the gentlemen
concerned did not think fit to wait for getting ready, as a French
convoy offered, for at least part of the voyage, and the Minister
requesting she might be added to Captain Jones's little squadron, and
offering to give a passage to Mr Adams in the frigate with the new
Ambassador, and to complete the Alliance's compliment of men, I
thought it best to continue her a little longer in Europe, hoping she
may, in the projected cruise, by her extraordinary swiftness, be a
means of taking prisoners enough to redeem the rest of our countrymen,
now in the English gaols. With this view, as well as to oblige the
Minister, I ordered her to join Captain Jones at L'Orient, and obey
his orders, where she is now accordingly. There have been great
misunderstandings between the officers of that ship and their Captain,
and great discontents among the men for want of clothes and money. I
have been obliged to make great advances to appease those discontents,
and I now hope the authority and prudence of Captain Jones will be
able to remove, or at least to prevent, the ill effects of those
misunderstandings. The conspirators are detained in prison, and will
remain there subject to such directions as Congress may think fit to
give concerning them. The courts here would not, because they properly
could not, undertake to try them; and we had not Captains enough to
make a Court martial for the purpose. The sending them to America,
with evidence to convict them, will be a great trouble and expense,
and perhaps their offence cannot be so clearly made out as to justify
a punishment sufficient to deter by its exemplary severity. Possibly,
the best use that can be made of them, is to give them in exchange for
as many Americans in the cartel now operating here. The perfidious
conduct of the English and Scotch sailors in our service, a good deal
discourages the idea of taking them out of those prisons in order to
employ them.
This cartel is at length brought about by the indefatigable endeavors
of an old friend of mine, and a long declared one to America, Mr
Hartley, member of Parliament for Hull. The ship employed has already
brought us one cargo from the prison at Plymouth. The number was
intended for a hundred, but proved ninetyseven, and she is returned
with as many in exchange, to bring us a second number from the prison
at Portsmouth. This is to continue till all are exchanged. The
Americans are chiefly engaged with Captains Jones and Landais. This
exchange is the more remarkable, as our people were all committed as
for high treason.
Agreeable to the seventh instruction, I have earnestly recommended the
reduction of Halifax and Quebec. The Marquis de Lafayette joined me
warmly in the application for this purpose, and I hope we shall in due
time see some good effects from it. I have also in various ways, and
through different channels, laid before the Ministry the distressed
state of our finances in America. There seems a great willingness in
all of them to help us, except in the Controller, Monsieur Necker, who
is said not to be well disposed towards us, and is supposed to
embarrass every measure proposed to relieve us by grants of money. It
is certain, that under the resolution, perhaps too hastily declared,
of the King's imposing no new taxes on his subjects for this year, the
Court has great difficulties in defraying present expense, the vast
exertions to put the navy in a condition to equal that of England
having cost immense sums.
There is also a prevailing opinion, that the most effectual service to
us is to be expected from rendering their marine superior to that of
England. The King has, however, to encourage our loan in Holland,
been so good as to engage under his hand, to be security for our
payment of the interest of three millions of livres, but that loan has
not yet amounted to more than about eighty thousand florins. Doctor
Price, whose assistance was requested by Congress, has declined that
service, as you will see by the copy of his letter enclosed. To me it
seems, that the measure recommended by the wisdom of Congress, for
diminishing the quantity of paper by taxes of large nominal sums, must
have very salutary effects.
As to your finances here, it is fit that you should know the state of
them. When the Commissioners of Congress made the proposition of
paying the interest at Paris of the money borrowed in America, they
understood the loan to be of five millions of dollars. They obtained
from government sums more than sufficient for the interest of such a
sum. That sum has been increased, and if they could otherwise have
provided for it, they have been from time to time drained by a number
of unforeseen expenses, of which the Congress had no knowledge, and of
others, occasioned by their orders and drafts; and the cargoes sent to
the Commissioners by the Committee have some of them been
treacherously run away with by the seamen, or taken by the enemy, or,
when arrived, have been hitherto applied toward the payment of debts,
the tobaccos to the Farmers-General according to contract, and the
rice and indigo to Messrs Hortalez & Co. from whom, by the way, we
have not yet been able to procure any account.
I have lately employed an accountant, the son of our banker, to form
complete books of our accounts, to be sent to Congress. They are not
yet ready. When they are, I shall send them by the first safe
opportunity. In the meantime, I may just mention some particulars of
our disbursements. Great quantities of clothing, arms, ammunition, and
naval stores, sent from time to time; payment of bills from Mr
Bingham, one hundred thousand livres; Congress bills in favor of
Haywood & Co. above two hundred thousand; advanced to Mr Ross, about
twenty thousand pounds sterling; paid Congress drafts in favor of
returned officers, ninetythree thousand and eighty livres; to our
prisoners in England, and after their escape to help them home, and to
other Americans here in distress, a great sum; I cannot at present say
how much; supplies to Mr Hodge for fitting out Captain Cunningham,
very considerable; for the freight of ships to carry over the
supplies, great sums; to Mr William Lee, and Mr Izard, five thousand
five hundred pounds sterling; and for fitting the frigates Raleigh,
Alfred, Boston, Providence, Alliance, Ranger, &c. I imagine not less
than sixty or seventy thousand livres each, taken one with another;
and for the maintenance of the English prisoners, I believe, when I
get in all the accounts, I shall find one hundred thousand livres not
sufficient, having already paid above sixtyfive thousand on that
article. And now the drafts of the Treasurer of the loans, coming very
fast upon me, the anxiety I have suffered, and the distress of mind
lest I should not be able to pay them, has for a long time been very
great indeed.
To apply again to this Court for money for a particular purpose, which
they had already over and over again provided for and furnished us,
was extremely awkward; I therefore repeated the _general_
applications, which we had made when together, for aids of money, and
received the general answers, that the expense of government for the
navy was so great, that at present it was exceedingly difficult to
furnish the necessary supplies. That France, by sending a fleet to
America, obliged the enemy to divide their forces, and left them so
weak on the continent, as to aid us by lessening our expense, if it
could not by giving us money, &c. &c. and I was asked if we did not
receive money from Spain? I know indeed of some money received from
thence, and I have heard of more, but know not how much, Mr Arthur
Lee, as Minister for Spain, having taken to himself all the management
of that affair, and will account to Congress. I only understand, that
there is none of it left to assist in paying Congress bills. I at
length obtained, as abovementioned, the King's _bon_ for payment of
the interest of three millions, if I could borrow it in Holland, or
elsewhere, but though two eminent houses in Amsterdam have undertaken
it, and had hopes of success, they have both lately written to me,
that the great demands of money for Germany and for England had raised
interest above our limits, and that the successes of the English in
Georgia and St Lucia, and in destroying the French trade, with the
supposed divisions in Congress, all much magnified by the British
Minister, and the pressing application to borrow by several of our
States separately, had made the monied people doubtful of our
stability, as well as our ability to repay what might be lent us, and
that it was necessary to wait a more favorable moment for proceeding
with our loan.
In this situation, I have been applied to by Mr William Lee, and
lately through our banker, by Mr Izard, for more money for their
expenses, and I am told there is much anger against me for declining
to furnish them, and that I am charged with _disobeying an order of
Congress_,[14] and with cruelly attempting to distress gentlemen, who
are in the service of their country. They have indeed produced to me a
resolve of Congress, _empowering them to draw_ on the Commissioners in
France for their expenses at foreign Courts; and doubtless Congress,
when that resolve was made, intended to enable us to pay those drafts;
but as that has not been done, and the gentlemen (except Mr Lee for a
few weeks) have not incurred any expense at foreign Courts, and if
they had, the five thousand five hundred guineas, received by them in
about nine months, seemed an ample provision for it, and as both of
them might command money from England, I do not conceive that I
_disobeyed an order_ of Congress, and that if I did, the circumstances
will excuse it; and I could have no intention to distress them,
because I must know it is out of my power, as their private fortunes
and credit will enable them at all times to pay their own expenses.
[14] See Mr Izard's Correspondence, Vol. II. p. 446.
In short, the dreadful consequence of ruin to our public credit, both
in America and Europe, that must attend protesting a single Congress
draft for interest after our funds were out, would have weighed with
me against the payment of more money to those gentlemen, if the demand
had otherwise been well founded. I am, however, in the judgment of
Congress: and if I have done amiss, must submit dutifully to their
censure. Thanks to God, I have this last week got over the difficulty,
so far as relates to the bills, which will all be punctually paid; but
if the Navy Board sends more ships here to be fitted, or the Congress
continue to draw for the payment of other debts, the ships will be
disappointed, and I shall probably be made a bankrupt, unless funds
are at the same time sent over to discharge such demands.
With regard to the fitting out of ships, receiving and disposing of
cargoes, and purchasing of supplies, I beg leave to mention, that
besides my being wholly unacquainted with such business, the distance
I am from the ports renders my having anything to do with it extremely
inconvenient. Commercial agents have indeed been appointed by Mr
William Lee, but they and the captains are continually writing for my
opinion or orders, or leave to do this or that, by which much time is
lost to them, and much of mine taken up to little purpose, from my
ignorance. I see clearly, however, that many of the captains are
exorbitant in their demands, and in some cases I think those demands
are too easily complied with by the agents, perhaps because the
commissions are in proportion to the expense. I wish, therefore, the
Congress would appoint the consuls they have a right to appoint by the
treaty, and put into their hands all that sort of employment. I have
in my desk, I suppose, not less than fifty applications from different
ports, praying the appointment, and offering to serve gratis for the
honor of it, and the advantage it gives in trade; but I imagine that
if consuls are appointed, they will be of our own people from America,
who, if they should make fortunes abroad, might return with them to
their country.
The commissions demanded by the agents seem to me in some cases very
high. For instance, Mr Schweighauser, in a late account, charges five
per cent on the simple delivery of the tobaccos to the officer of the
Farmers-General in the port, and by that means makes the commission
on the delivery of the two last cargoes amount to about six hundred
and thirty pounds sterling. As there was no sale in the case, he has,
in order to calculate the commission, valued the tobacco at ninety
livres the hundred weight, whereas it was, by our contract with the
Farmers, to be delivered at about forty livres. I got a friend, who
was going upon change, to inquire among the merchants what was the
custom in such cases of delivery. I send enclosed the result he has
given me of his inquiries. In consequence, I have refused to pay the
commission of five per cent on this article; and I know not why it
was, as is said, agreed with him at the time of his appointment, that
he should have five per cent on his transactions, if the custom is
only two per cent, as by my information.
I have mentioned above the applications of separate States to borrow
money in Europe, on which I beg leave to remark, that when the General
Congress are endeavoring to obtain a loan, these separate attempts
interfere, and are extremely inconvenient, especially where some of
the agents are empowered to offer a higher interest, and some have
powers in that respect unlimited. We have likewise lately had
applications from three several States to this Court, to be furnished
with great quantities of arms, ammunition, and clothing, or with money
upon credit to buy them; and from one State to be supplied with naval
stores and ships of war. These agents, finding that they had not
interest to obtain such grants, have severally applied to me, and seem
to think it my duty, as Minister for the United States, to support and
enforce their particular demands. I have endeavored to do so, but I
find the Ministers do not like these separate applications, and seem
to think that they should properly come only through Congress, to whom
the several States in such cases ought first to make known their
wants, and then the Congress could instruct their Minister
accordingly. This would save the King's Ministers a good deal of
trouble, and the several States the expense of these particular
agents; concerning whom I would add a little remark, that we have in
America, too readily, in various instances, given faith to the
pretensions of strangers from Europe, and who offer their services as
persons who have powerful friends, and great interest in their own
country, and by that means obtain contracts, orders, or commissions,
to procure what we want, and who, when they come here, are totally
unknown, and have no other credit but what such commissions give them,
or if known, the commissions do not add so much to their credit as
they diminish that of their employers.
I have received two letters from a Frenchman, settled in one of the
ports of Barbary, offering himself to act as our Minister with the
Emperor, with whom he pretended to be intimate, and acquainting me
that his Imperial Majesty wondered we had never sent to thank him for
being the first power on this side of the Atlantic that had
acknowledged our independence, and opened his ports to us; advising
that we should send the Emperor a present. On inquiry at the office in
whose department Africa is included, I learnt the character of this
man to be such, that it was not safe to have any correspondence with
him, and therefore I did not answer his letters. I suppose Congress
has received the memorial we presented to this Court respecting the
Barbary States, and requesting the King's good offices with them,
agreeable to the treaty; and also the answer, expressing the King's
readiness to perform those good offices whenever the Congress should
send us instructions, and make provision for the necessary
presents;[15] or if those papers have not yet got to hand, they will
be found among the copies carried over by Mr Adams, and therefore I
only mention them by way of remembrance. Whenever a treaty with the
Emperor is intended, I suppose some of our naval stores will be an
acceptable present, and the expectation of continued supplies of such
stores, a powerful motive for entering into and continuing a
friendship.
[15] Correspondence of the Commissioners at the Court of France. Vol.
I. pp. 431, 453, 462.
I should send you copies of several other memorials and public papers;
but as Mr Adams goes in the same ship, and has the whole of our
transactions during his time, it is not so necessary by this vessel.
The disposition of this nation in general continues friendly towards
us and our cause, and I do not see the least diminution of it, except
among the West India merchants and planters, whose losses have
rendered them a little discontented. Spain has been long acting as a
mediator, but arming all the time most vigorously. Her naval force is
now very great indeed, and as her last proposition of a long truce, in
which America should be included and treated as independent in fact,
though not expressly acknowledged as such, has been lately rejected by
England, it is now thought, that her open junction with France in the
war is not far distant.
The Commissioners here have a power in general terms to treat of
peace, friendship, and commerce with European States, but I apprehend
this is scarce explicit enough to authorise me to treat of such a
truce, if the proposition should again come upon the _tapis_. I
therefore wish the Congress to consider of it, and give such powers as
may be necessary to whom they may think proper, that, if a favorable
opportunity of making an advantageous treaty should offer, it may not
be missed.
Admiral Arbuthnot, who was going to America with a large convoy and
some troops, has been detained by a little attempt upon Jersey; and
contrary winds, since that affair was over, have detained him further,
till within these few days.
Since I began writing this letter, I have received a packet from the
Committee, by way of Eustatia and Holland, sent by Mr Lovell,
containing his letters of December the 8th, January the 29th, and
February the 8th, with one from the President, dated January the 3d.
Several papers are mentioned as sent with them, and by other
opportunities, but none are come to hand, except the resolution to
postpone the attempt on Canada, and these are the first despatches
received here since the date of those sent by the Marquis de
Lafayette. I have just received a letter from Mr Bingham, acquainting
me, that the ship Deane, and the General Gates, are just arrived at
Martinique, and apply to him to be careened, refitted, and procure a
fresh supply of provisions; and that though he has no orders, he must
draw upon me for the expense. I think it right to acquaint you thus
early, that I shall be obliged to protest his bills.
I have just obtained from his Majesty orders to the government of
Guadaloupe, to make reasonable reparation to Captain Giddens of
Newbury for the loss of his vessel, sunk in mistake by a battery of
that island. Great preparations are making here, with much activity
in all the sea ports, taking up transports, and building small vessels
proper for the landing of troops, &c. so that many think an invasion
of England or Ireland is intended. The intention, whatever it is, may
change, but the opinion of such an intention, which seems to prevail
in England, may tend to keep their troops and ships at home.
General and Lord Howe, Generals Cornwallis and Grey, Colonel
Montresor, and Captain Hammond, and others, have formally given it as
their opinion in Parliament, that the conquest of America is
impracticable. This week, as we hear, John Maxwell, Joseph Galloway,
Andrew Allen, John Patterson, Theophilus Morris, Enoch Story, and
Jabez Fisher are to be examined to prove the contrary. One would think
the first set were likely to be the best judges.
Be pleased to present my dutiful respects to the Congress, and assure
them of my most faithful services.
I have the honor to be, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
* * * * *
TO JAMES LOVELL.
Passy, June 2d, 1779.
Sir,
I received a few days since, via Eustatia and Holland, the triplicates
of your several favors, of December the 8th, January the 29th, and
February the 8th. The preceding copies of the same dates never came to
hand. I thank you very much for the newspapers, though the disputes I
see in them give me pain. You observe rightly, that the want of good
conveyances obstructs much the punctuality of your correspondence. The
number of long letters I have written to America has almost
discouraged me from writing, except by such an opportunity as this.
You may judge of the uncertainty of letters getting to hand, when I
tell you, that though you mention the having sent me quadruplicates of
my credentials, only those by the Marquis de Lafayette have yet
appeared.
I am glad to understand, that you are taking measures to restore the
value of your money, by taxing largely to reduce the quantity. I
believe no financier in the world can put you upon a more effectual
method. The English have had a little flow of spirits lately, from
their success against the trade of France, and the news of the
imagined conquest of Georgia, but the growing apprehension of a war
with Spain, also, begins to sober them, and, like people who have been
drunk with drams, they now seem to have both the head and heart ache.
The late letters from thence are in a more humble style, and some
printed papers by the last post, known to be ministerial, appear
intended to prepare the minds of the people for propositions of peace.
But these ebbs and flows are common with them, and the duration of
neither is to be relied on.