Chapter 24

The Rockingham part of the opposition are determined upon seceding from Parliament, in which Lord Shelburne, Lord Camden, and the Duke of Grafton refuse to accompany them for two reasons; 1st, because the feelings of the public are not high enough for so decisive a measure; and, 2dly, because the others will not agree to make the great fundamental abuse of the constitution, as well as the temporary misconduct of government, the groundwork of that secession. In a word, because they will not declare, that the object of the measure is to obtain the abolition of corruption, and not merely the change of those who minister it. This schism will, however, reduce opposition so as to leave the Court at perfect ease from that quarter.

I thank you for the magnanimity of your sentiments towards our friends, on the supposition that the late occurrences are events of consequence. I am by no means of that opinion. After the affair of Long Island, the loss of New York was inevitable; but is not the successful army still faced and kept at bay, by that over which it is supposed to have obtained, these decisive advantages? Could any one expect more from a new raised army, than that it should face the disciplined invaders, almost equal in numbers, and much superior in equipments, to win its way by inches. Where, then, is the ground for despair, when our friends are looking the enemy in the face, and he does not dare to attack them? Of two things, Sir, you may be satisfied, that the advantage on Long Island was obtained neither by the superiority of the troops nor of the General, but by his having bribed the officer who commanded the first pass,[25] who giving up his post, without suffering a gun to be fired, enabled Clinton to march in the night and take the left wing of the Americans, so as to put them between two fires, from much superior numbers, with an immense train of artillery. The other fact is, that the officer who brought the last despatches declares, that the American lines upon New York island cannot be forced, but with a certainty of so much loss as cannot be hazarded. General Howe will therefore try his former art of treachery and corruption, from which alone I am satisfied we have anything to fear.

The talk of the Congress having sent Deputies to Staten Island, to negotiate with Lord Howe is not, that I know of, authenticated.

Adieu,

ARTHUR LEE.

FOOTNOTES:

[25] This wants proof before it can be adopted as a historical fact.

* * * * *

SILAS DEANE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.

Without date.

Dear Sir,

I am still indebted to you for your favors of the 29th ultimo, and the 15th instant, to which I should earlier have replied, but for a slight indisposition, and much chagrin at some unfavorable news. However, I am recovering in health, with which my spirits return, and I keep ever in my mind the motto _de republicâ nil desperandum_. I counted the cost when I entered the lists, and balanced private fortune, ease, leisure, the sweets of domestic society, and life itself in vain, against the liberties of my country; the latter instantly predominated, and I have nothing to complain of, though much to grieve at, occasioned by the miscarriage or delay of my full powers for open and public application. I sent you a memoir on American commerce, and wish to know your sentiments on that subject. The vessel detained at Bilboa has been dismissed, and the commissary reprimanded for her detention, and ordered to lend the Captain every assistance he needed. This is a great point gained. I must suspend saying anything on the proposals of officers for entering the service of the American States, as also anything further on the other artists I wrote about, until I receive intelligence, which I hourly have long expected, and which I think cannot possibly be far off, as I despatched a vessel early in September, express, with an account of my situation, and that of affairs here; besides, a war is evidently at hand here in Europe.

Mr Carmichael warmly described the kind reception you gave him, and your zeal for the interest of the United States, and friendship for me, which he might have spared, as every one of your letters demonstrates the sincerity and disinterestedness of your friendship, as well for my country as for myself; and as you value your being the first Plenipotentiary of the American States, I equally value myself on your friendship and correspondence in the part I have the honor of acting with you in this important scene, and am happy to think, that to the present or coming actors in, or spectators of, the foundation and rise of this State in a new world, our correspondence will show that our sentiments ever coincided. Be not discouraged, my dear friend, America must come off in the end triumphant, and under new and unprecedented laws, liberty, and commerce, be the happy asylum for the sons of men in future ages. Whatsoever disappointments I may meet with, I never will despair of my country, for which I shall count it my glory to suffer all things, if it receive any advantage therefrom, and if not, I shall at least enjoy the pleasure, the unalienable pleasure, resulting from a consciousness of having done all in my power for its happiness, and connectedly for the happiness of mankind in general.

The temper of the times is in favor of America, and it is now as fresh and striking an object to Europe as when first discovered and called the new world. It is among my principal mortifications, that I cannot have a few days at least personal conversation with you; but the situation of affairs here will not allow of a moment's absence, which Mr Carmichael, I doubt not, explained to you. With persons in public or private, who are friendly, yet equally apprehensive of consequences, willing to aid, yet timid, and at the same time not well acquainted and informed, the task you are sensible is as laborious as delicate, and at a time when events bear down arguments, one cannot be released a moment from the closest attention to everything rising real or imaginary. Your lady's kind preparations for me, Mr Carmichael most affectionately mentioned, and I will, life permitting, the moment I can quit Paris, in person acknowledge, as far as words are capable of expressing, how sensible I am of this more than hospitable kindness, since to provide for and receive the stranger on arrival is the duty of hospitality, but here is a work of supererogation, and though no Roman Catholic myself, yet so catholic as not the less to love and esteem generous actions on all occasions. My most respectful and affectionate regards, with my ardent wishes for your mutual felicity, attend you.

I am, &c.

SILAS DEANE.

_P. S._ Pray for what sum per annum can a young man be educated at Leyden, adhering to the strictest economy?

* * * * *

SILAS DEANE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.

Paris, December 13th, 1776.

Dear Sir,

I am indebted for two letters, and the same cause of my neglect, viz. a hurry of business still subsisting, I cannot make amends by a long letter in this, but the substance will be agreeable, which is, that Dr Franklin is arrived at Nantes, and I expect him at Paris tomorrow. He left Philadelphia the last of October, and everything was favorable in America. On his passage the ship he was in made two prizes on this coast. I received a letter from my venerable friend on his landing, who was in high spirits and good health. Here is the hero, and philosopher, and patriot, all united in this celebrated American, who, at the age of seventyfour, risks all dangers for his country. I know your heart rejoices with me on this occasion.

I am, with respect, &c.

SILAS DEANE.

* * * * *

WILLIAM CARMICHAEL TO C. W. F. DUMAS.

Havre, January 21st, 1777.

Dear Sir,

Were I to acknowledge the receipt of all the letters you mention having written, it would be necessary to apologise for my silence; this I fear would require a detail long enough to need still another apology, which would be making it a labor _ad infinitum_. I shall, therefore, only say, that from the heart of Germany, I am now on the borders of the Atlantic, and that I have been on the gallop ever since I parted with you at Leyden. No Saint in the calendar ever ran through countries with more zeal to gain inhabitants for heaven, than I have to do miracles on earth. But unfortunately it is not an age for miracles. I am at present here to botch up a piece of work, which was originally well imagined but badly executed.

You will no doubt have our Paris news from the prophet, who draws down fire from heaven. I shall, therefore, only give you my comment on the text, which is, that France has done too much and much too little. Too much, since she alarmed England, and made that country put itself in a better posture of defence than before; or at least, strengthened the hands of her Ministers for that purpose; much too little, because, depending even on that little, we looked not out elsewhere in time.

I am, &c.

WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

* * * * *

ARTHUR LEE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.

Paris, January 26th, 1777.

Dear Sir,

My having quitted London some time since to join my colleagues here, is the reason you did not hear from me, as you complain in your last letter to Mr Deane. As I am soon to leave this place for one very remote,[26] I am afraid this will be the last letter I shall have the honor of writing to you.

There are so many and more immediate calls for the attention of the 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.

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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 Abbé 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,