no plan, and it was essential that something should be done, he should strike in with the other side. A letter from General Knox is in town, which, I understand, places the temper and affairs of the army in a less alarming view than some preceding accounts. The resignation of the Superintendent of Finance, with his motives, are contained in the paper enclosed. It is, as you may well suppose, a subject of general and anxious conversation. Its effect on public credit will be fully anticipated by your knowledge of our affairs. Yesterday's mail brought me no letter from you.106 TO EDMUND RANDOLPH. Philadelphia, March 11, 1783. DEAR SIR, Another week has passed without affording the least relief from our suspense as to the progress of peace. At New York they are so much in the dark that their curiosity has recourse to the gleanings of the Philadelphia gazettes. The length of the negotiation may be explained, but the delay of all parties to notify its progress is really astonishing. Our last official information is nearly five months old, and that derived from the Royal speech upwards of three months. The peremptory style and publication of Mr. Morris's letters have given offence to many without, and to some within, Congress. His enemies, of both de scriptions, are industrious in displaying their impropriety. I wish they had less handle for the purpose. The plan before Congress for the arrangement of our affairs, is to ask from the States a power to levy, for a term not exceeding twenty-five years, the five per cent. impost, with an additional impost on salt, wine, spirituous liquors, sugar and teas; to recommend to them to establish and appropriate permanent revenues for a like term for the deficiency; the proceeds to be carried to their credit; the whole to be collected by persons amenable to Congress, but appointed by the States; to complete the territorial cessions; to enable Congress to make abatements in favor of suffering States; Congress, on their part, declaring that all reasonable military expenses separately incurred by the States without their sanction, either by sea or land, shall be part of the common mass; and proposing to the States a substitution of numbers in place of a valuation of land; slaves to be equal to one freeman. The fate of this plan in Congress is uncertain, and still more so among the States. It makes a decent provision for the public debts, and seems to comprehend the most dangerous sources of future contests among ourselves. If the substance of it is rejected, and nothing better introduced in its place, I shall consider it as a melancholy proof, that narrow and local views prevail over that liberal policy and those mutual concessions, which our future tranquillity and present reputation call for. Mr. Jefferson is still here, agitated, as you may suppose, with the suspense in which he is kept. He is anxious as myself for your going into the Legislature. Let me know your final determination on this point. DEAR SIR, TO EDMUND RANDOLPH. Philadelphia, March 12, 1783. Captain Barney, commanding the American packet boat which has been long expected with official intelligence from our Ministers in Europe, arrived here this morning. He brings a supply of money, the sum of which I cannot as yet specify, and comes under a passport from the King of Great Britain. The despatches from our Ministers are dated the fifth, fourteenth, and twenty-fourth of December. Those of the fourteenth enclose a copy of the Preliminary Articles, provisionally signed between the American and British Plenipotentiaries. The tenor of them is, that the United States shall be acknowledged, and treated with as free, sovereign, and independent; that our boundaries shall begin at the mouth of the St. Croix, run thence to the ridge dividing the waters of the Atlantic from those of St. Lawrence; thence, to the head of Connecticut river; thence, down to forty-five degrees North latitude; thence, to Cadaraqui; thence, through the middle of Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Superior, to Long Lake, to the Lake of the Woods; and thence, due West to the Mississippi; thence, down the middle of the river to latitude thirty-one; thence, to Apalachicola, to Flint river, to St. Mary's, and down the same to the Atlantic; that the fisheries shall be exercised nearly as formerly; that Congress shall earnestly recommend to the States a restitution of confiscated property, a permission to the refugees to come and remain for one year within the States to solicit restitution; and that in the most obnoxious cases restitution may be demanded of purchasers on reimbursing them the price of the property; that debts contracted prior to 1775 shall be mutually paid according to sterling value; that all prisoners shall be mutually set at liberty, troops withdrawn, and all records and papers restored; that the navigation of the Mississippi, from the source to the mouth, shall be mutually free for the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of America. A proposition, comprehending the West Indies, was offered on the subject of commerce, but not admitted on the part of Great Britain. In the course of the negotiation, Great Britain contended for not only the limits marked out in the Quebec act, but all ungranted soil, for a contraction of the fisheries, and for absolute stipulations in favor of the loyalists. The despatches of the fourteenth speak also of the principal preliminaries between France and Great Britain being settled; but of little progress being made in those between Holland and Spain, and the latter; and of none between Spain and the United States. A letter, of the twenty-fourth of December, from Dr. Franklin, varies the scene somewhat. It says, that uncertainties were arising from the unsettled state of minds in England; and encloses a letter from the Count de Vergennes, observing, that difficulties had arisen from the very facilities yielded on the part of France; and concluding with these words, as well as I can recollect, "Je ne désespère pas; J'espère plutôt; mais tout est incertain." Franklin's correspondence on this occasion denotes a vigor of intellect, which is astonishing at his age. A letter to the British Minister, on the case of the Tories, in particular, is remarkable for strength of reasoning, of sentiment, and of expression. He concludes his letter to Congress with observing, that he is now entering on his seventy-eighth year, fifty of which have been spent in the public service; and that having lived to see, like Simeon of old, the salvation of his country, his prayer is that he may be permitted to retire from public life. Mr. Adams has also transmitted his resignation. The arrival of this intelligence will probably procure from Congress some final decision with respect to Mr. Jefferson. Having given you all the facts which hurry would admit, I leave you to your own conclusion as to the object of them.107 TO EDMUND RANDOLPH. Philadelphia, March 18, 1783. DEAR SIR, My letter, by express, communicated to you the outlines of the intelligence brought by Captain Barney from our Ministers in Europe. The tediousness of the cipher does not permit me now to enter into detail. I can only add, that, notwithstanding the flattering aspect of the Preliminary Articles, there are various circumstances which check our confidence in them, as there are some which will detract from our 66 VOL. I. |