CHAPTER XIV. Recall of Silas Deane-France prepares for War-Advances made to Franklin by the English Government-His Difficulties with Mr. LeeFranklin and Voltaire. To the President of Congress, dated 1778. My colleague, Mr. Deane, being recalled by Congress, and no reasons given that have yet Passy, 31 appeared here, it is apprehended to be the March, 1778. effect of some misrepresentations from an enemy or two at Paris and at Nantes. I have no doubt, that he will be able clearly to justify himself; but, having lived intimately with him now fifteen months, the greatest part of the time in the same house, and been a constant witness of his public conduct, I cannot omit giving this testimony, though unasked, in his behalf, that I esteem him a faithful, active, and able minister, who, to my knowledge, has done in various ways great and important services to his country, whose interests I wish may always, by every one in her employ, be as much and as effectually promoted. With my dutiful respects to the Congress, I have the honor to be, &c. Το Arthur Lee,* dated Passy, I There is a style in some of your letters, I observe it particularly in the last, whereby superior merit is assumed to yourself in point of care and attention to business, and blame is insinuated April, 1778. * The treaty of alliance between France and the insurgent colonies was concluded on the 6th February, 1778; on the 20th of the following month Franklin and his associate Commissioners were received at court as the representatives of an independent State. When the news of these events reached London, they were regarded of course as a declaration of war, and Lord Stormont was instructed immediately to quit France. In anticipation of this event, a French squadron was in readiness, and sailed from Toulon under the command of Count d'Estaing about the middle of April. It bore to the United States M. Gérard, the first minister from France to the now United States of America, and Silas Deane, one of the three American Commissioners, who had been recalled for a misuse of the public funds, and was destined to witness but not allowed to share in his country's triumph. Mr. Deane was replaced by John Adams. The English ministry began at last to comprehend the gravity of the task they had undertaken. They had now war with America and France, and every prospect of a war with Spain, then in close alliance with France. Every one in England was urging the ministry to negotiate a peace with America. Commissioners were sent to the Congress, and secret ministerial agents also to Franklin, instructed to draw from him proposals which could be used with advantage in America. Mr. Hutton, a Moravian, Mr. William Pulteney, and Mr. David Hartley, all three members of Parliament, were employed by turns, and sometimes all together, in trying to extract from the Doctor some basis of a peace short of recognizing the independence of the colonies, and, failing in that, his consent to negotiate separately from France. Franklin's brave and masterly deportment under all the temptations held out to him by the English government, his far-seeing faith in the ultimate success of the cause upon which he had embarked "his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor," and his inflexible loyalty to our ally, reflect perhaps as much credit upon the American name and lend as much dignity to our national origin as any event of the Revolution. The glory of his achievements was not a little increased by the trouble he had with some of his associate Commissioners, and notably with Arthur Lee and Ralph Izard. The jealousy, vanity, and ignorance with which Franklin had to contend, both at home and in Europe, during this crisis of our fate, and of which we have an average specimen in the letter to which this was a reply, were never permitted to irritate his temper, to provoke him to rash or indiscreet lan ÆT. 72.] REBUKE TO ARTHUR lee. 419 on your colleagues without making yourself accountable, by a direct charge of negligence or unfaithfulness, which has the appearance of being as artful as it is unkind. In the present case I think the insinuation groundless. I do not know that either Mr. Deane or myself ever showed any unwillingness to settle the public accounts. The banker's book always contained the whole. You could at any time as easily have obtained the account from them as either of us, and you had abundantly more leisure. If, on examining it, you had wanted explanation of any article, you might have called for it and had it. You never did either. As soon as I obtained the account, I put it into your hands, and desired you to look into it, and I have heard no more of it since till now, just as Mr. Deane was on the point of departing. Mr. Deane, however, left with me before the receipt of your letter both the public papers, and explications of the several articles in the account that came within his knowledge. With these materials, I suppose we can settle the account whenever you please. You have only to name the day and place, and I will attend to the business with you. To Arthur Lee, dated Passy, Mr. Deane communicated to me his intention of setting out for America immediately, April, 1778. as a secret, which he desired I would mention to nobody. I complied with his request. If he did not think fit to communicate it to you also, it is from him you should demand his reasons. * guage, to impair the coolness of his judgment, or to destroy a single bridge by which in any conceivable contingency friends might cross from the enemy's camp. The following is Mr. Lee's extraordinary letter to which Franklin's is a reply: This court has an undoubted right to send as ministers whom it pleases, and where it pleases, without advising with us, or desiring our approbation. The measure of sending "SIR, "Chaillot, 2 April, 1778. "It was with the utmost surprise, that I learned yesterday that M. Gérard was to set out in the evening for America, in a public character, and that Mr. Deane was to accompany him, without either you or he having condescended to answer my letter of the preceding day. "That a measure of such moment, as M. Gérard's mission, should have been taken without any communication with the Commissioners is hardly credible. That, if it was communicated, you should do such violence to the authority that constituted us, together with so great an injury and injustice to me, is equally astonishing. If success to the mission, and unanimity on the subject in Congress, were your wish, with what propriety could you make it a party business, and not unite all the Commissioners in the advising and approving a measure, in which you desired their friends and constituents might be unanimous? "I do not live ten minutes' distance from you. The communication, therefore, could not be attended with delay or difficulty. Within these few days, I have seen you frequently, as usual. Particularly, on Monday I was with you at your house for some time. I asked you about the sailing of the ships at Nantes, expressing my desire to know when we should have an opportunity of writing. You said you did not know when they sailed. I asked if there were no letters, none but one from M. Dumas having been shown to me for some time. You answered, No. I had, at a former meeting, asked you whether it was not proper for us to send an express to give intelligence of such consequential events as our being acknowledged here, and the treaty avowed. You told me, it would be sufficient to write by the ship from Nantes, (for it was afterwards you mentioned there were two,) as the news being public would find its way fast enough. "Upon M. Amiel, who came from your house to mine, mentioning, on Tuesday, that Mr. Deane was to go away in a few days, I wrote to you and him to repeat what I have so often requested, that the public accounts might be settled, for which Mr. Deane had taken possession of all the vouchers, and that the public papers might be delivered to us before his departure. You made no answer. I sent my secretary again yesterday to desire an answer. You sent me a verbal one, that you would settle the accounts with me any day after to-morrow. Your reason for not doing it before was, that it was not your business. Now it seemed your business only, and Mr. Deane had no concern with it. The delivery of the public papers, which ÆT. 72.] REBUKE TO ARTHUR LEE. 421 M. Gérard as a minister to Congress was resolved on without consulting me; but I think it a wise one, and, if I did not, I do not conceive that I have any right to find fault are the property of all, not of any one of the Commissioners, though you and Mr. Deane have constantly taken them to yourselves, was too immaterial to answer. "During all this time, and with these circumstances, you have been totally silent to me about the present opportunity of writing to Congress, about the important public measure in agitation, and about Mr. Deane's departure. Nay, more, what you have said, and the manner in which you acted, tended to mislead me from imagining that you knew of any such thing. Had you studied to deceive the most distrusted and dangerous enemy of the public, you could not have done it more effectually. "I trust, Sir, that you will think with me, that I have a right to know your reasons for treating me thus. If you have anything to accuse me of, avow it, and I will answer you. If you have not, why do you act so inconsistently with your duty to the public, and injuriously to me? Is the present state of Europe of so little moment to our constituents, as not to require our joint consideration, and information to them? Is the character of the court here, and of the person sent to negotiate with our constituents, of no consequence for them to be apprized of? Is this the example, you in your superior wisdom think proper to set, of order, decorum, confidence, and justice? "I trust too, Sir, that you will not treat this letter, as you have done many others, with the indignity of not answering it. Though I have been silent, I have not felt the less the many affronts of this kind, which you have thought proper to offer me. I have the honor to be, with great respect, "ARTHUR LEE." Mr. Lee probably never knew, he certainly did not know when he addressed this letter to Franklin, nor did he learn from Franklin, the true reason for his being left in ignorance of Gérard's mission to the United States. On a previous occasion, Mr. Lee's secretary, for stock-jobbing purposes in England, revealed some important intelligence which had been confided to Lee, thus subjecting the French government to grave embarrassment. Apprehensive that the intelligence of M. Gérard's mission, which it was of vital importance to conceal for awhile, might share the same fate, Count de Vergennes enjoined Messrs. Franklin and Deane upon no consideration to share it with their colleague. Franklin, considerately for all parties and for the cause in which he was engaged, did not mention this circumstance in his reply.-Ed. VOL. II.--36 |