The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution
Chapter 23 : Sir, This will be delivered to you by M. de Coudray, an officer of great reputation her

Sir,

This will be delivered to you by M. de Coudray, an officer of great reputation here, for his talents in general, and particularly for skill and abilities in his profession. Some accidental circ.u.mstance, we understand, prevented his going in the Amphitrite; but his zeal for our cause, and earnest desire of promoting it, have engaged him to overcome all obstacles, and render himself in America by the first possible opportunity. If he arrives there, you will, we are persuaded, find him of great service, not only in the operations of the next campaign, but in forming officers for those that may follow. We, therefore, recommend him warmly to the Congress, and to your countenance and protection.

Wis.h.i.+ng you every kind of felicity, we have the honor to be, with the highest esteem, &c.

B. FRANKLIN, SILAS DEANE.

AGREEMENT

_Between the Commissioners and certain French Officers._

1st. It is agreed that the Congress of the United States of America shall grant to the Chevalier du Portail, now Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Corps of Engineers of France, the rank of Colonel in their service.

2dly. The Congress of the United States of America will grant to Mons.

de Laumoy, now Major in the Royal Corps of Engineers of France, the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in their service.

3dly. The Congress of the United States of America, will grant to Mons. de Gouvion, now Captain in the Royal Corps of Engineers of France, the rank of Major in their service.

4thly. Messrs Le Chevalier du Portail, de Laumoy, and de Gouvion, shall be at liberty to quit the service of the United States, provided it is not during a campaign, or during any particular service, unless ordered so to do, by the king of France; and the Congress may dismiss them, or any of them, whenever they may judge it proper.

5thly. If all or either of these gentlemen should be made prisoners by the king of Great Britain, the Congress shall use all due means to obtain their liberty.

6thly. These gentlemen shall use all possible diligence in preparing for their embarkation, in order to reach Philadelphia, or wherever else the Congress of the United States may be, to obey their orders.

7thly. The pay of these gentlemen shall be such; as is given to officers of their rank in the service of the States of America, and shall commence from the date of this agreement.

8thly. These gentlemen shall procure and provide for their own pa.s.sages, in such s.h.i.+ps, and in such manner, as they shall think proper.

The above agreement is entered into and concluded by us, this 13th day of February, 1777.

B. FRANKLIN, SILAS DEANE, DU PORTAIL, GOUVION, LAUMOY.

COMMITTEE OF SECRET CORRESPONDENCE TO THE COMMISSIONERS.

Baltimore, 19th February, 1777.

Gentlemen,

The events of war have not since our last furnished anything decisive.

The enemy's army still remains encamped upon the hills near Brunswick, and our troops still continue to beat back their convoys, insomuch, that we understand their horses die in numbers, and we have reason to believe, that the difficulty of removing their stores, cannon, &c., will be insuperably great, until the opening of the Rariton furnishes a pa.s.sage by water for their return to New York. The American army is not numerous at present, but the new levies are collecting as fast as possible, and we hope to have a sufficient force early in the field.

We hear by the speech of the king of Great Britain to his Parliament, that much money will be called for, no doubt to prosecute the war with unrelenting vigor. That we shall oppose with all our power, will be certain, but the event must be doubtful, until France takes a decisive part in the war. When that happens our liberties will be secured, and the glory and greatness of France be placed on the most solid ground. What may be the consequence of her delay, must be a painful consideration to every friend of liberty and mankind. Thus viewing our situation, we are sure it will occasion your strongest exertions to procure an event of such momentous concern to your country. It is in vain for us to have on hand a great abundance of tobacco, rice, indigo, flour, and other valuable articles of merchandise, if prevented from exporting them by having the whole naval force of Great Britain to contend against. It is not only for the interest of these States, but clearly for the benefit of Europe in general, that we should not be hindered from freely transporting our products that abound here, and are much wanted there. Why should the avarice and ambition of Great Britain be gratified to the great injury of other nations?

Mr Deane recommends sending frigates to France, to convoy our merchandise, but it should be considered, that we have an extensive coast to defend, that we are young in the business of fitting out s.h.i.+ps of war, that founderies for cannon are to be erected, that there is great difficulty of getting seamen quickly, when privateers abound as they do in the States, where sailors are chiefly to be met with, and lastly, that our frigates are much restrained by the heavy s.h.i.+ps of the enemy, which are placed at the entrance of our bays. In short, the attention of Great Britain, must be drawn in part from hence, before France can benefit largely by our commerce. We sensibly feel the disagreeable situation Mr Deane must have been in, between his receipt of the committee's letter in June, and the date of his own letter in October, but this was occasioned by accident, not neglect, since letters were sent to him in all the intervening months, which have either fallen into the enemy's hands, or have been destroyed.

From the time of Dr Franklin's sailing, until we arrived at this place, the s.h.i.+ps of war at the mouth of the Delaware, and the interruption given the post, added to the barrenness of events, prevented us from writing when we had no particular commands from Congress for you.

Mr Bingham informs us from Martinique, that he learned from a Spanish General there, on his way to South America, that the king of Spain was well disposed to do the United States offices of friends.h.i.+p, and that a loan of money might be obtained from that Court. As the power sent you for borrowing is not confined to place, we mention this intelligence, that you may avail yourselves of His Catholic Majesty's friendly designs. Perhaps a loan may be obtained there on better terms than elsewhere. We expect it will not be long before Congress will appoint commissioners to the Courts formerly mentioned, and in the mean time, you will serve the cause of your country in the best manner, with the ministers from those Courts to that of Versailles.

Earnestly wis.h.i.+ng for good news, and quickly from you, we remain, with friends.h.i.+p and esteem, gentlemen, &c.

B. HARRISON, R. H. LEE.

_P. S._ Congress adjourns this week back to Philadelphia.

TO THE COMMITTEE OF SECRET CORRESPONDENCE.

Paris, 4th March, 1777.

Gentlemen,

We send you herewith the draft of a frigate by a very ingenious officer in this service, which appears to us peculiarly suitable for our purpose, and we are in hopes of being able to s.h.i.+p cordage, sailcloth, and anchors, &c. sufficient for five or six such frigates, by the time you can have them built.

Deprived of any intelligence from you, since the first of last November, and without remittances, we are left in a situation easier to be conceived than described. The want of intelligence affects the cause of the United States in every department; such accounts of our affairs, as arrive in Europe at all, come through the hands of our enemies, and whether defeated or victorious we are the last, who are acquainted with events, which ought first to be announced by us. We are really unable to account for this silence, and, while we are affected with the unhappy consequences of it, we must entreat the honorable Congress to devise some method for giving us the earliest and most certain intelligence of what pa.s.ses in America.

The s.h.i.+p, by which this is sent, is loaded with clothing, cordage, and duck; not having a full cargo of the former, we ordered Mr Williams, who acts for us at Nantes, to complete it with the latter, for which we have obtained a short credit. Mr Williams will write you by this opportunity. He has been of great service to us at Nantes, and, it is but justice to say, that his knowledge of business, probity, activity, and zeal, for the interests of his country, with the good opinion justly entertained of him by gentlemen in business at Nantes, render him very serviceable in our affairs there, and proper to be employed in commercial transactions.

We apprehend that letters to Mons. Schweighauser have not had fair play, and therefore advise you to write to him, charging the captain, who carries your letters, to deliver them with his own hand, if he arrives at Nantes, and if at any other port, that he send them under cover to us. We are filling a packet, by which we shall write more particularly in a few days. Mr Lee wrote us last week from Bordeaux, on his way to Spain.

We present our most respectful compliments to the honorable Congress, and are, gentlemen,

Your most obedient and very humble servants,

B. FRANKLIN, SILAS DEANE.

TO THE COMMITTEE OF SECRET CORRESPONDENCE.

Paris, 12th March, 1777.

Gentlemen,

It is now more than four months since Mr Franklin's departure from Philadelphia, and not a line from thence written since that time has. .h.i.therto reached either of your commissioners in Europe. We have had no information of what pa.s.ses in America but through England, and the advices are, for the most part, such only as the ministry choose to publish. Our total ignorance of the truth or falsehood of facts, when questions are asked of us concerning them, makes us appear small in the eyes of the people here, and is prejudicial to our negotiations.

In ours of the 6th of February, of which a copy is enclosed, we acquainted you that we were about purchasing some cutters to be employed as packet boats. We have succeeded in getting one from Dover, in which we purpose to send our present despatches. Mr Hodge, who went to Dunkirk and Flus.h.i.+ng, where he thought another might be easily found, has not yet acquainted us with his success. We promised that when we had a conveyance, which, by its swiftness, is more likely to carry safely our letters, we would be more explicit in accounts of our proceedings here, which promise we shall now fulfil as follows.

In our first conversation with the minister, after the arrival of Mr Franklin, it was evident that this Court, while it treated us privately with all civility, was cautious of giving umbrage to England, and was therefore desirous of avoiding an open reception and acknowledgment of us, or entering into any formal negotiation with us, as ministers from the Congress. To make us easy, however, we were told that the ports of France were open to our s.h.i.+ps as friends, that our people might freely purchase and export, as merchandise, whatever our States had occasion for; vending, at the same time, our own commodities; that in doing this, we should experience all the facilities that a government disposed to favor us could, consistent with treaties, afford to the enemies of a friend. But though it was at that time no secret that two hundred field pieces of bra.s.s, and thirty thousand fusils, with other munitions of war, in great abundance, had been taken out of the king's magazines, for the purpose of exportation to America; the minister, in our presence, affected to know nothing of that operation, and claimed no merit to his Court on that account. But he intimated to us that it would be well taken, if we communicated with no other person about the Court, concerning our affairs but himself, who would be ready at all convenient times to confer with us.

We soon after presented several memorials, representing the state of the Colonies, the necessity of some naval aid, and the utility to France, that must result from our success in establis.h.i.+ng the independence of America, with the freedom of its commerce. In answer, we received a positive refusal of the s.h.i.+ps of the line, (which we had been instructed to ask,) on this principle, that if a war with England should take place, the whole fleet of France would be necessary at home for her defence; that if such a war did not take place, yet, while England apprehended a war, it was equally serviceable to our States, that the fleet of France should remain entire in her ports, since that must retain an equal force of English at home, who might otherwise go to America, and who certainly would follow thither any French squadron. During these conferences, every step was taken to gratify England publicly, by attending to the remonstrances of her amba.s.sador, forbidding the departure of s.h.i.+ps which had military stores on board,[29] recalling officers who had leave of absence, and were going to join us, and giving strict orders, that our prizes should not be sold in French ports; yet that we might not be discouraged, it was intimated to us by persons about the Court, that these measures were necessary at present, France not being yet quite ready for a war, and that we might be a.s.sured of her good will to us and our cause.

Means were proposed of our obtaining a large sum of money for present use, by an advance from the Farmers-General, to be repaid in tobacco, of which they wanted twenty thousand hogsheads. We entered accordingly into a treaty with that company, but, meeting with difficulty in settling the terms, we were informed that a grant was made us of two millions of livres from the crown, of which five hundred thousand was ready to be paid us down, and an equal sum should be paid at the beginning of April, July, and October; that such was the king's generosity, he exacted no conditions or promise of repayment, he only required that we should not speak to any one of our having received this aid. We have accordingly observed strictly this injunction, deviating only in this information to you, which we think necessary for your satisfaction, but earnestly requesting that you would not suffer it to be made public. This is the money, which, in our letter, we mentioned as raised for us by subscription.

One of the ablest sea officers of France, skilled in all the arts relating to the marine, having offered his services to the States, with the permission of the minister, we (enabled by the above grant) engaged him to superintend the building of two s.h.i.+ps of war, of a particular construction, which, though not of half the cost, shall be superior in force and utility to s.h.i.+ps of sixtyfour guns. He has built one here for the king, which, we are told, exceeds every thing in swift sailing. He has furnished us with drafts,[30] which we send you, that if the Congress thinks fit, others of the same construction may be set up in America, in which case we have given him expectations of being their Commodore. We have seen his large and curious collection of memoirs, containing every, the minutest particular relating to the construction and management of a fleet, with a variety of proposed improvements, and we are persuaded that he will be found a valuable acquisition to our country.