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Passy, 15 December, 1782.
Sir:—
I have the honor to acquaint your Excellency that our courier is to set out to-morrow at ten o’clock, with the despatches we send to Congress, by the Washington, Captain Barney, for which ship we have got a passport from the king of England. If you would make any use of this conveyance, the courier shall wait upon you to-morrow at Versailles, and receive your orders.
I hoped I might have been able to send part of the aids we have asked by this safe vessel. I beg that your Excellency would at least inform me what expectations I may give in my letters. I fear the Congress will be reduced to despair when they find that nothing is yet obtained. With the greatest and most sincere respect, I am, sir, etc.,
B. Franklin.
MCXXXIV. FROM COUNT DE VERGENNES
Versailles, 15 December, 1782.
Sir:—
I cannot but be surprised that, after the explanation I have had with you, and the promise you gave that you would not press the application for an English passport for the sailing of the packet Washington, you now inform me that you have received the passport, and that at ten o’clock to-morrow morning your courier will set out to carry your despatches. I am at a loss, sir, to explain your conduct, and that of your colleagues on this occasion. You have concluded your preliminary articles without any communication between us, although the instructions from Congress prescribe that nothing shall be done without the participation of the king. You are about to hold out a certain hope of peace to America, without even informing yourself on the state of the negotiation on our part.
You are wise and discreet, sir; you perfectly understand what is due to propriety; you have all your life performed your duties. I pray you to consider how you fulfil those which are due to the king. I am not desirous of enlarging these reflections; I commit them to your own integrity. When you shall be pleased to relieve my uncertainty, I will entreat the king to enable me to answer your demands. I have the honor to be, sir, with sincere regard, etc.,
De Vergennes.
MCXXXV. TO COUNT DE VERGENNES
Passy, 17 December, 1782.
Sir:—
I received the letter your Excellency did me the honor of writing to me on the 15th instant. The proposal of having a passport from England was agreed to by me the more willingly as I at that time had hopes of obtaining some money to send in the Washington, and the passport would have made its transportation safer, with that of our despatches, and of yours also, if you had thought fit to make use of the occasion. Your Excellency objected, as I understood it, that the English ministers, by their letters sent in the same ship, might convey inconvenient expectations into America. It was therefore I proposed not to press for the passport, till your preliminaries were also agreed to. They have sent the passport without being pressed to do it, and they have sent no letters to go under it, and ours will prevent the inconvenience apprehended. In a subsequent conversation, your Excellency mentioned your intention of sending some of the king’s cutters, whence I imagined that detaining the Washington was no longer necessary; and it was certainly incumbent on us to give Congress as early an account as possible of our proceedings, who will think it extremely strange to hear of them by other means, without a line from us. I acquainted your Excellency, however, with our intention of despatching that ship, supposing you might possibly have something to send by her.
Nothing has been agreed in the preliminaries contrary to the interests of France; and no peace is to take place between us and England till you have concluded yours. Your observation is, however, apparently just, that, in not consulting you before they were signed, we have been guilty of neglecting a point of bienséance. But, as this was not from want of respect for the king, whom we all love and honor, we hope it will be excused, and that the great work, which has hitherto been so happily conducted, is so nearly brought to perfection, and is so glorious to his reign, will not be ruined by a single indiscretion of ours. And certainly the whole edifice sinks to the ground immediately if you refuse on that account to give us any further assistance.
We have not yet despatched the ship, and I beg leave to wait upon you on Friday for your answer.
It is not possible for any one to be more sensible than I am, of what I and every American owe to the king, for the many and great benefits and favors he has bestowed upon us. All my letters to America are proofs of this; all tending to make the same impressions on the minds of my countrymen that I felt in my own. And I believe that no prince was ever more beloved and respected by his own subjects than the king is by the people of the United States. The English, I just now learn, flatter themselves they have already divided us. I hope this little misunderstanding will therefore be kept a secret, and that they will find themselves totally mistaken. With great and sincere respect, I am, sir, etc.,
B. Franklin.
MCXXXVI. FROM COUNT DE VERGENNES TO M. DE LA LUZERNE Ref. 011
Versailles, 19 December, 1782.
Sir:—
With this letter I have the honor to send you a translation of the preliminary articles, which the American plenipotentiaries have agreed to and signed with those of Great Britain, to be made into a treaty when the terms of peace between France and England shall be settled.
You will surely be gratified, as well as myself, with the very extensive advantages which our allies, the Americans, are to receive from the peace; but you certainly will not be less surprised than I have been at the conduct of the commissioners. According to the instructions of Congress, they ought to have done nothing without our participation. I have informed you that the king did not seek to influence the negotiation any further than his offices might be necessary to his friends. The American commissioners will not say that I have interfered, and much less that I have wearied them with my curiosity. They have cautiously kept themselves at a distance from me. Mr. Adams, one of them, coming from Holland, where he had been received and served by our ambassador, had been in Paris nearly three weeks, without imagining that he owed me any mark of attention, and probably I should not have seen him till this time if I had not caused him to be reminded of it. Ref. 012 Whenever I have had occasion to see any one of them, and inquire of them briefly respecting the progress of the negotiation, they have constantly clothed their speech in generalities, giving me to understand that it did not go forward, and that they had no confidence in the sincerity of the British ministry.
Judge of my surprise when, on the 30th of November, Dr. Franklin informed me that the articles were signed. The reservation retained on our account does not save the infraction of the promise, which we have mutually made, not to sign except conjointly. I owe Dr. Franklin the justice to state, however, that on the next day he sent me a copy of the articles. He will hardly complain that I received them without demonstrations of sensibility. It was not till some days after that, when this minister had come to see me, I allowed myself to make him perceive that his proceeding in this abrupt signature of the articles had little in it which could be agreeable to the king. He appeared sensible of it, and excused, in the best manner he could, himself and his colleagues. Our conversation was amicable.
Dr. Franklin spoke to me of his desire to send these articles to the Congress, and said that for this purpose he and his colleagues had agreed to an exchange of passports with the English minister for the safety of the vessels which should be sent. I observed to him that this form appeared to me dangerous; that, the articles being only provisional and dependent on the fate of our negotiation, which was then very uncertain, I feared this appearance of an intelligence with England, in connection with the signature of the articles, might make the people of America think a peace was consummated, and embarrass Congress,